Business and Performance in Sport

Risk Taking for Sports Performance: Leave your Comfort Zone Behind

Rob Robson — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:34:08 GMT

Think of the football team that is at the bottom of the league, and desperately needs a win, but puts in a lackluster, tame performance. Likewise, the golfer that needs shots but seems to play it safe; or the tennis player that has to get to the net to win but hangs back on the service line. Why is risk-taking so difficult under pressure and how can we take the risks that we need to get the best out of ourselves? This is a question that Reversal Theory (Apter) provides an answer to. Rationally, we can all relate to the idea that the greater the risk, the greater the potential for success (but also for failure). Under pressure to perform, however, we are inherently more concerned than we might be about consequences, so the potential for failure can weigh heavily upon us and cause anxiety, poor performance or complete retreat! Apter talks about 4 'zones' that are important to understanding risk-taking and performance. 1. Detachment Zone: In sports, this means being a spectator. There's no risk here - which is what allows fans to believe they could do better than the pros! 2. Safety Zone: A place of minimal risk that you might also know as your 'comfort zone'. This is where you play it safe, hold something back. The key is to know whether you are appropriately here (e.g. protecting a lead) or not. 3. Danger Zone: Optimal performance lies somewhere in the danger zone, and going further into it opens up the greatest potential for success (and, of course, failure). People might refer to 'treading a fine line' or being 'right on the edge', the closer you get to the next zone.. 4. Trauma Zone: At this point failure becomes inevitable. Being here means taking unsustainable risks that in sport not only means failure but potentially injury, or worse. It might be here that you cheat or take drugs - or do something else that can't reasonably be sustained. Getting out of your comfort zone and into the danger zone There are two key mechanisms, called 'protective frames' that allow us to exist in the danger zone, and even to thrive and enjoy it. These are perceptions of safety and confidence. Having a strong safety frame means believing that although something could go wrong, you will cope with it. Safety equipment and procedures allow us to do extreme sports such as skydiving. The design of Formula 1 cars and the fire and rescue support on site helps drivers push their cars to the limit. Safety is also psychological, and the greatest safety net may be perspective. We create our fear of failure by blowing up our perceptions of its consequences, but we can reframe (change our perspective). The next time that you feel pressure, ask yourself, "what's the worst thing that can happen", and each time you answer it, ask "then what". In most cases, you'll end up wondering what you were worrying about. The confidence frame is about knowing that you ultimately have what it takes to succeed - the skills, the fitness, the preparation required. Bandura's concept of self-efficacy is a helpful framework for understanding confidence, that tells us that the most important factors for building confidence are: 1. Experience : Basically, success breeds confidence. (Duh). In my experience, if you're not winning, the best thing that you can do to build confidence is to use process goals - in training and competition, and build up lots of 'success experiences'. 2. Modeling, or 'Vicarious Experience': We've all seen someone else do something and think, "I can do that". That's what this refers to. No point using Usain Bolt as a model if you've never tried sprinting. 3. Social Persuasion: If credible others give you encouragement, it can help - but not as much as the first two factors. 4. Physiological Factors: We all get nerves, but if you are low in confidence you might interpret them as a sign that you are going to do badly, creating a negative cycle. Best just accept them as part of the deal! So what should you take away from this? First, try to get a realistic view of the level of risk that you are taking versus what you could take. If you don't trust yourself, talk to your coach or someone else that you trust. In order to take more risks, reframing can help you to get a sense of perspective, but there may also be real safety checks and balances that you can put in place. Use process goals and watch others (or your own past performances to gain confidence). Lastly, a point of caution. We've all heard of false confidence, right? Just as we can underestimate ourselves and develop unrealistically low confidence, we can also be lulled into believing that we are have more ability than we really have or that a situation is safer than it is. Try to take impassioned views on board and retain perspective. Reference Apter, M.J. (2007). Danger: our quest for excitement. Oneworld -- Rob Robson Co-founder, iStadia.com

Mental Skills for Sports Performance

Rob Robson — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 12:43:02 GMT

Mental skills are, in some respects, the 'bread and butter' of sports psychology. Traditionally sport psychologists have been employed to teach mental skills (or psychological skills) to competitive athletes. However, this is not the only role of the sport psychologist, and indeed others may teach mental skills such as one's coach. Indeed, the main difference between a sport psychologist and a coach, it can be argued, is that while a coach can teach some mental skills as techniques a sport psychologist would be expected to develop a tailored intervention for an athlete with a clear rationale based on theory and research. What are the Essential Mental Skills? Not all sport psychologists would give you the same answer here, but many will refer to a core list that includes: - Finding the right motivation - Developing confidence - Staying focused - Managing arousal levels - Mentally rehearsing or preparing for performance Finding the right motivation Note that I didn't say, "being more motivated". Let's be honest, who competes in sport but doesn't want to succeed? In sport, we do, however, get motivated in ways that aren't necessarily helpful, like pleasing our parents; and we can quite easily forget what we once loved about playing our sport. Finding your passion is important in life and in sport. Renowned sport psychology consultant Dan Gould emphasises passion in the clip below, from his DVD, Five Essential Mental Skills for Sport, and helps to develop strategies to tap into it. Developing confidence Dan Gould also emphasises developing confidence as a mental skill, and suggests using positive body language. This connects your mind and body. Confidence can be gained in many other ways - by setting and achieving 'process' goals, using mental imagery, or using self-talk for example but Dan's simple example - think about "walking tall" is something that many athletes will easily connect with. Staying focused Our minds can wander at the most inappropriate times. This can be simply because it is hard work to stay focused for long periods of time; or perhaps because something specific - perhaps something we're thinking about - can cause a distraction. Dr. Ken Ravizza is also an acclaimed sport psychology consultant, and (in Mental Skills for Competitive Athletes) introduces exercises to "get me where I need to be, when I need to be there" and gives particular attention to focusing on the next play - the simple things that make up the process and "being here now". Managing arousal levels Any competitive sports person can relate to nerves or 'butterflies'. Sometimes this is only a little unpleasant. Sometimes it feels exciting - a sign that you are ready to perform. Unfortunately sometimes nerves - or 'arousal' can be experienced as gut-wrenching anxiety and really affect performance. We all perform best at different levels of arousal or energy. Dan Gould gives tips that help both to reduce and increase arousal, including 'centering' which is a breathing technique that helps us slow down a bit and relax. Mentally rehearsing or preparing for performance Finally, we have mental preparation. In many ways this could encompass all of the other mental skills. Mental rehearsal involves actively imagining ourselves performing at our best. You can use mental rehearsal as part of a routine. Ken Ravizza talks about mentally preparing using a routine, which is a mental form of warming up. Hopefully these short introductions to mental skills have been of some use to you, and will help you better understand what people mean when they talk about mental skills. If you would like to improve your own mental skills, why not spend a little more time with Dan Gould and Ken Ravizza and have your own virtual coaching session with these practical DVDs (delivered worldwide)? Five Essential Mental Skills for Sport - Dan Gould Mental Skills for Competitive Athletes - Ken Ravizza -- Rob Robson Co-founder, iStadia.com

Making Money Using iStadia #4: Using Your Signature

Rob Robson — Sat, 09 May 2009 00:07:17 GMT

Your signature is added to any posts that you make, anywhere on the site, including blogs, articles, news and forum posts. It gives people a chance to see what you do and search engines a relevant link to your own site or profile. Think of your signature as a trail of breadcrumbs leading back to where you want visitors to go. Whether that is your profile or your own site, include it. A well placed signature will be more effective than 'stuffing' your content with links. Here's an example of a good signature, continuing our example of the sports marketing company in London that chose 'sports marketing london' as a key phrase: Joe Bloggs Myco Sports Marketing, London, United Kingdom +44 207 123 4567 Why is this good? It gives basic information: who you are, what you do and how to find out more. For search engines, you are using your keywords as the link's 'anchor text'. There's little point in putting the link on 'Myco'. If your brand is good enough that people will search for it, your site will already rank well for its own name if your site is at all well set up (we call searching for your own name or company name a 'vanity search'and it doesn't serve a great purpose). Shouldy ou include an email? If you don't mind spam. Many people advise never to put your email address on a web page. As a Premium Plus member a visitor can send you an email from your profile without logging in - your own private contact form. Have you set up your signature yet? http://www.istadia.com/membersignature.php ---------- Over a series of articles will be exploring all of the steps outlined in the downloadable document Using iStadia to Make Money: Networking and Marketing your Business. #1: Social Media is a Business Tool #2: Goals, Target Market and Keywords #3: Optimizing Your Profile ------------ -- Rob Robson Co-founder, iStadia.com

Making Money Using iStadia #3: Optimising your Profile

Rob Robson — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:03:11 GMT

First of all, if you haven't seen the first two articles, I suggest that you review them first. #1: Social Media is a Business Tool #2: Goals, Target Market and Keywords At this point, you have identified your keywords or phrases. The next step is to ensure that they are in your profile title*, profile text, and tags. Setting up your profile Think of these as making up the golden thread that tells search engines that your profile (and the same is true of blogs, articles and news) is a relevant page to show someone searching for those keywords. You also have a profile summary*. This is like an elevator pitch and should scream "click me" (metaphorically, that is) as it will appear on searched for you on search engines. Profile Settings Tips: - Staying with the example of the sports marketing consultant in London we used in article 2, you might simply make your title "MyCo Sport Marketing, London". - Don't 'stuff' your tags box with keywords that might dilute the relevance of your page. Links Edit Profile Title: http://www.istadia.com/memberprofilepageedit.php Edit Tags: http://www.istadia.com/memberprofileedit.php#tagsbox Write your profile copy It is really hard to overemphasize the importance of your profile. Used well, it may be more important to your business than your own website. Of course, this depends on how big your business and web budget is. You can get a free website, or throw one up on the cheap, but what are the chances that it is really doing anything for your business? Does anyone that doesn't already know you ever see it? Does it create leads? iStadia has been designed so that (especially if you have signed up to your Premium or Premium Plus membership) you have access to a suite of tools that are there to make you more visible. Once visible most important thing about your profile copy is that it states clearly to visitors that you have something to offer. Profile Copy Tips: - Write for people first. Yes, you need to get your keywords in for search engines, but your copy has got to read well to the human eye. - Focus on the benefits of what you are selling - what can you do for the visitor? What's their pain, and how can you take it away? People don't want to see your qualifications first. You might be (rightly) proud of your certification or accreditation, and some clients might want the comfort of knowing that you have credentials, but these are irrelevant unless you can convince someone that you have something they need. Focus first on the target customer and their needs - not yours! - You can embed links in your profile. If you want visitors to ultimately proceed to your own website, use this! Don't just stick in a link like "http://www.myco.com" or "click here". Neither is doing much for you. Again, the link should use your keywords, or a variation on them, as 'anchor text'. To do this highlight the text, then click on the link icon in the editor, then add the full url (e.g. http://www.myco.com) when prompted. Edit your profile: http://www.istadia.com/memberprofileedit.php * Require Premium or Premium Plus membership ---------- Over a series of articles will be exploring all of the steps outlined in the downloadable document Using iStadia to Make Money: Networking and Marketing your Business. #1: Social Media is a Business Tool #2: Goals, Target Market and Keywords ------------ -- Rob Robson Co-founder, iStadia.com

Making Money Using iStadia #2: Goals, Target Market and Keywords

Rob Robson — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:57:01 GMT

Set your goals So if you haven't done so, think hard about what you want to achieve with your business. Think about how your online presence will fit into that. What do you want to convey? To whom? What is special about what you have to offer? What can you offer them that will bring them closer to buying from you? If you don't ask yourself these kinds of questions, and know what you want to achieve, then your marketing activity, whether on iStadia or elsewhere, is likely to be unfocused and at best "hit or miss". Identify your target market Hopefully this is really obvious to you, but often people say to us "I'm not sure iStadia hits my target market". Let's bust that myth right now. Your content - and the keywords (next step) that it contains, will define the people that your content reaches - whether your profile or other content (later). In other words, we provide a platform that lets you reach your target market. If you're not in sport or exercise in some way, I'd recommend using other sites, but other than that iStadia does not limit the type of person that you can reach. This is because the majority of our visitors come from search engines, where they find your content. That's what's so important about content. It really is the engine that drives the internet. Sure, you may have something to sell to your fellow professionals, but you most certainly don't have to for iStadia to work for you. Choose the keywords for which you want to be found (by your target market) This is a really important step, and not to be skipped. Think about what people might actually search for, not clever or fancy terms that people don't know. There are some great articles on iStadia that haven't been read much because the titles were too ambiguous - clever even. On the web you have to give people signposts. For example: "Sports Marketing" is a generic and very competitive search term. It attracts 9,900 searches a month on Google, but the competition for rankings means that your chances of getting onto page 1, and getting a share of those searches, is slim. "Sports Marketing London", however, gets somewhere in the region of 600 searches a month, but advertiser competition is low and you can be confident that if you are a sports marketing company in London the searcher is looking for what you have to offer, and not general information about the field. Likewise, when I was working as a sport psychologist I changed my keyword strategy from focusing on "sport psychology" to "sport psychologist". I got fewer hits, but more enquiries. Think about that for a moment.... The Google keyword research tool can help you by seeing how many searches a term gets, and how much competition there is for it. ----------- Over a series of articles will be exploring all of the steps outlined in the downloadable document Using iStadia to Make Money: Networking and Marketing your Business. #1: Social Media is a Business Tool #3: Optimising Your Profile ------------ -- Rob Robson Co-founder, iStadia.com

Making Money Using iStadia #1: Social Media is a Business Tool

Rob Robson — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 02:58:40 GMT

Does the title surprise you? Well, it shouldn't. We've created the site to help sport & exercise businesses and professionals win more business and ultimately make more money. If your 'business' isn't about making money, for example in the non-profit or educational sector, you can substitute 'making money' for another goal. But money isn't and shouldn't be a dirty word. We all, with the exception of a lucky few, have to work. If you are a sport & exercise professional, the chances are that you love what you do, but the reality still is that you have to make money doing it. Think about what making more money might mean for you. It might secure the future of your business. It might mean that you can give up the day job. It might mean that you go on holiday this year when otherwise you might not. Or it might mean expanding into a new office; bringing more staff on board; or creating new capital to invest. Whatever your reasons for being in business (yes, that's what you are if you are 'only' self-employed), we want to help you to make more money using iStadia. You see, iStadia isn't a 'social networking' website, but about professional networking and marketing. We hope that you meet nice people along the way, but that's not why we set it up. This series of articles, or our downloadable guide to making money on iStadia will help you to do just this. Step by step. You don't have to do every step, but the more you do, the more likely you are to see results. Results such as: - More views to your profile and website - Greater credibility and trust - a stronger 'brand' - A more productive network of contacts - More opportunities to explore - More qualified (warm) leads to exploit - Ultimately, more sales (but we can't go to sales meetings for you!) Don't expect instant results. It can take a good few months but keep at it and you will see the benefits. How does it work? Ultimately, by taking part in, and sharing with, the community on iStadia you will create bridges with other members of the community and members of the public. What can you share? Share opinions, advice, knowledge and opportunities (after all, you will know about opportunities that you are either not interested in or equipped to exploit). Sharing starts by creating content. This is your way of reaching out. Why is content - or high quality content - so important? Quality content - People view it, search engines crawl it- builds trust in your ability to meet their needs - makes you a credible source of knowledge of advice - creates the first steps to building new business relationships This is what online marketing is all about. Why Network? You've heard of the six degrees of separation, haven't you? The chances are that you know someone that knows someone that can help you achieve your business goals. If they don't, they'll know someone who knows someone who can! The more new - and genuine - connections that you make, the closer you are bringing the resources, tools and people that you need to make your business a success to you. Quality and quantity in networking Many people consider real relationships to take place offline - in the "real" world. We'd tend to agree that the ultimate aim is to build offline relationships and business, although we are actively working with and for people that we predominantly deal with online. Genuine relationships, however, wherever they take place, require time and effort. Having a huge network gives you a large audience to put your ideas, services or products in front of, but having a smaller network gives you a great deal more in terms of really putting it to work. BNI International, the highly successful breakfast networking organization, has the motto "Givers Gain". That's not a bad starting point. ----------- Over a series of articles will be exploring all of the steps outlined in the downloadable document Using iStadia to Make Money: Networking and Marketing your Business. #2: Goals, Target Market and Keywords #3: Optimising Your Profile ------------ -- Rob Robson Co-founder, iStadia.com

The 7 Deadly Sins Of SEO

Rob Robson — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 01:50:26 GMT

Back in March 2008, the Vatican issued a set of seven new Deadly Sins to update and augment the original established list of seven. Within the Catholic Church, these are considered terrible ways that a person can offend God. In the world of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) there are also a set of 7 heinous deadly sins. Whilst, these sins are unlikely to offend anyone's God, they will certainly offend the Internet's all-powerful deity known as Google and its lesser deities the other Search Engines such as Yahoo and MSN. These sins can be roughly divided into three separate categories: Spamming, Style over Substance and Beginner's Errors or Mistakes. SIN 1 - SAME TITLE TAG - Webmasters and Website owners make one consistent deadly SEO sin. They use the same Title Tag on every page throughout the entire site. The Title Tag can make or break your ranking, why be stupid enough to risk your ranking for a lack of imagination? The Title Tag is your best opportunity to have your keywords or keyphrases read by Search Engines. Calling them all the same thing is a Beginner's Error that could cost you dearly. SIN 2 - SAME META DESCRIPTION - A close relation to SIN 1, this is a Beginner's Error that is made very frequently. Rushing to get the site up with SEO friendly content, the beginner simply fills in the Meta Description with the same details on every page. Even so-called SEO gurus can make the same mistake sometimes. But unique content includes the Meta Descriptions; so don't fall foul of this sin. SIN 3 - ABSENT KEYPHRASES - If you optimise a website for keyphrases that don't appear in your online copy, you won't get the SEO value out of them. The optimised keyphrases must match the content. Keyphrases and keywords must originate from within the content. That's why the content needs to be keyphrase rich. Write content that includes the keyphrases that you want to be found for. However, take care not to alienate real human visitors by creating content that's difficult to read because it's all about SIN 7. SIN 4 - FLASH ONLY SITE - Flash websites can now be read and indexed by Google. However, it's still very much early days and has not been fully and properly tested. A site that's made entirely from flash components is still a major No-No. This is a Style over Substance sin and it's patently stupid. If most search engines cannot read flash, and only Google can index it at all, if not particularly well, a site made of flash will be practically invisible to search engines looking for text. SIN 5 - BUYING LINKS - If one of the real 7 Deadly Sins were Stupidity, this would be covered under that sin. In order to help alongside optimisation, it's important to create backlinks. Google likes to think that the sites with the best rankings are sites that are regularly visited and sites that other people support enough to make links from their site to your site. These are called backlinks. When you have high quality backlinks, you look good to search engines. Of course, some bright spark came up with the idea of selling backlinks to those who need quick fix SEO. These enterprises are called Link Farms or Backlink Farms and are going to get you in trouble with the Search Engines. Google severely punishes those who commit this sin and considers this practice spamming. Of course, it won't be just the link farm that gets banned; it will be your website. Don't spam, you can't afford the consequences. SIN 6 - DOORWAY PAGES - It's become common practice on the Internet to create lots of SEO pages with just a few of the keywords or keyphrases changed. For example, you get the same page of content but where Recruitment Manchester was on one page, Recruitment London is on the next, or Recruitment Glasgow or Recruitment Reading. This type of page is considered spamming and could cause Google and the other Search Engines to ban your site completely. Is it worth getting your site banned for this? SIN 7 - KEYWORD STUFFING - There are lots of ways that you can over-stuff your content. Since some people believe (wrongly) that up to 25% of your content density can be keywords, keyphrases or keyphrase related. But that would mean that your sentences would look something like this nonsense: Whenever a keyphrase is used with another keyphrase, the keyphrase is employed as a keyphrase that can help another keyphrase. It makes no sense whatsoever, it's impossible to understand, it's offensive to both search engines and human readers. But wait! There's plenty more keyword stuffing idiocy that goes on. Using white text on a white background so that only the search engine can see it is a common sin. If this sin is revealed, the search engines will systematically ban you and no one will find you by using a web search engine. Using tiny font to create pages of tiny unseen text, stuffed full of keywords will result in the same punishment. Stuffing loads of keywords in at the end of the page, out of sight of the normal surfer is also an offence that search engines such as Google will ban the site for. It's simple, you've been warned, confession will not save you from this sin of stuffing your website with keyphrases, repent now and change your ways! These are the Seven Deadly Sins of SEO and they will lead your website straight to Google Hell. However, don't panic! It's still possible to save your SEO soul, legitimately gain the SEO advantage that you seek and end up in SEO website heaven. If you need to take the steps to get there, choose an SEO company that can keep you on the straight and narrow. For more information on how you can avoid the punishment for committing the Seven Deadly Sins of Search Engine Optimisation and achieve the rankings that you and your business need, contact Nikki at Nikki@NikkiPilkington.com or visit the Internet Marketing Expert. -- Rob Robson Co-founder, iStadia.com

Professional Networking and Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

Rob Robson — Thu, 22 May 2008 12:53:45 GMT

There are many reasons to engage in professional networking, particularly using online communities such as iStadia.com, but one of the most compelling of these may be the contribution that it can make to Continuing Professional Development (CPD). What is CPD? Professional development is something that should be of interest to most of our members - whether students going through an intensive period of learning; professionals in training; or experienced, qualified professionals. CPD as a term applies specifically to the latter of these groups, and refers to the process of managing one's own development and growth as a professional, but the content of this article is pertinent to anyone who is interested in developing their knowledge, skills and competencies in any field. What is professional networking? Professional networking (as opposed to the purely 'social' networking that is offered by websites such as facebook) is the process of creating trusting, mutually beneficial relationships that will ultimately help you in some way to access new skills, knowledge or opportunities. Professional networking is not, despite the availability of social networking websites, purely an online activity. Indeed, it's history is as long as any profession's! It happens through training courses, conferences, informal conversations, and many other acitivites. However, technology has provided the opportunity to greatly accelerate professional networking, given access to much larger, global professional communities, and made it easier to keep in touch with one's contacts. How can iStadia support the Development of Sport and Exercise Professionals? As has been alluded to earlier, by actively networking you can gain access to new sources of knowledge, learn new skills and develop competencies. The word 'actively' is important here. Think about this: If everyone in a community gives something of themselves to that community, the result is a rich body of knowledge and experience, that can easily be found, and contact made. With iStadia we are moving, perhaps slower than we would like, in that direction - but it is happening both online and offline. I've personally talked through client issues, shared ideas, and started collaborating with people that I didn't know before iStadia. I also regularly share referrals. James Beale recently blogged about his experience of solving a novel client problem by asking a question on a club forum. He got the answer he was looking for, and developed new relationships at the same time. But networking isn't just about asking for help. It's no coincidence that the motto and philosophy of Business Network International (BNI) is "Givers' Gain". Networking is about sharing, too. Sharing knowledge, sharing contacts, even sharing business opportunities. But let's focus on sharing knowledge for now. Within this community, there is a tremendous amount of knowledge. Imagine if we could completely unlock that knowledge and make it available to each other. How powerful would that be? iStadia is designed, essentially, to allow you to share knowledge. This can be done through blogging, writing articles, and through clubs and forums. By sharing your knowledge, whatever that might be, you open yourself up to new and potentially fruitful relationships. Sharing with the community allows people to get an idea of what you can contribute in terms of knowledge, skills and competencies, and helps them to decide whether to network with you. But it also, of course, adds to the overall knowledge of the community. Case Study: Blogging Teachers You might still be wondering what you might gain from sharing. You might be sceptical that by giving, you will also receive. I came across a really interesting blog that gave me an insight into the possibilities for blogging (or writing articles) and professional development. It referred to a programme for teachers that gave them the opportunity to blog their views and reflections on teaching. Blogging brought a number of benefits to the teachers. First of all, it was a reflective activity in itself, and therefore supports reflective practice. That's where you benefit from writing the blog. Then, the rest of the community of teachers benefited from the insights and thoughts of the other teachers. Then, and here's where it gets interesting, because the blogs are shared, there is further benefit to the blogger, from the critical insight of others shared through comments. Further still, this process helps people to feel more 'connected' with each other (in the human rather than technical sense), facilitating further discussion and relationship building. Imagine how powerful a tool that could be - a community of professionals sharing in a reflective process, sharing each other's lessons and insights, challenging and supporting each other. Wouldn't that be great? Well, the good news that the potential is right here at your fingertips. All you need to do is exploit it. You don't need to write a thesis. A good blog can be a few sentences long. Anything longer than about 500 and you are probably writing an artice. But blogs and articles are also living documents. You can post your initial thoughts, then go back, edit and develop them as your ideas develop further. They are not set in stone, therefore they don't have to be perfect? Here are a few different examples, from Amanda Owens, Mark Helme and David Harrison. What's stopping you? Time? Dedicating a little time each week to sharing your thoughts with the community might even save you time through the connections you make... Confidence? Just ask for help, and it's yours. Start now and you'll get the hang of it - whether "it" is using the technology or finding the words... Anxiety? Of course you might feel nervous about opening up. But you are in control of what you share... I don't know anything special? I'm sure that every member has something to contribute, whether a professional, a business owner, a student (you are probably never more 'up-to-date' than you are as a student), an athlete or an exerciser. Isn't it about time you started to share? If you aren't currently a member, professional development is just one benefit of joining iStadia.

What makes for a good blog post - when blogging to get noticed?

Rob Robson — Fri, 02 May 2008 14:05:28 GMT

My April fool's blog, New Research Suggests Cheese Diet Improves Performance by up to 60%, in the space of 4 weeks, became iStadia's most read blog post. Of course, the blog itself was complete rubbish. But is was viewed a lot of times in a short space, so what can we learn from it? I don't know what the secret is. Perhaps there is a very popular set of keywords in there, such as "cheese diet" that I stumbled upon. What I do know is this: - It has a descriptive title that uses words that are also contained in the text of the post, such as "cheese" and "performance". Google seems to like that. It likes that more than it likes clever titles. - It has all of the potential keywords from the body text repeated in the tags list. So, there's more repetition. Title - text - tags. Get your keywords in all three. - Some of the keywords are pretty irrelevant, but probably help - such as "Saint Nectair". So, if you are blogging about some aspect of sports performance, for example, why not try to incorporate names of sports people, brands or other words that are likely to be popular search terms? - I've used a picture. If you include pictures - even from other sources, and include your keywords in the alt text and description you may suddenly find that you get a lot of hits through Google image search. - It isn't long - and it doesn't have to be. 500 words is about the most you should have in a blog post. - I "dugg" my own post, and tagged it on del.icio.us and stumbleupon and probably some other social bookmarking sites. I also posted a link on twitter. This is all very easy , as we have put a button saying "addthis" at the bottom of every blog and article post for you. - I put my signature in it, with a link to my own site, embedded in a key phrase "sport psychologist". Even if no-one like the blog itself, it is a valuable link that helps my own site gain rankings. - The blog itself, as I've already acknowledged, is nonsense, as it was intended to be. You don't have to blog about serious things, but the more you blog, taking the lessons above into account, the more you can attract traffic to your profile or your own website. There's a basic rule on the web. The more "stuff" you put out there, the more people you will reach. Don't wait until you think you have something desperately important to say. Just get on there and share.