Steve Mills - Online Entrepreuership with the SPOKE system

Large organisations are not rational entities

One of the major paradox’s of the modern world is that we are supposed to live in an age of rationality, yet the very things that control our modern society are completely irrational.

A modern western government may look like a coherent structure, will clear aims and goals (at least at some level), yet inside  the belly of the beast it is ruled by people’s emotions, hidden agendas, factions and also a deep need to appeal to un-rational people who will get them re-elected.

They make reactive and not pre-emptive decisions; they do a lot of things that are not in the interest of the people, or even the government of the time.

The same can be said of corporations. They have corporate charters and directives, but they function like a hive mind, with thousands of employees each having competing sub agendas. The sum total of these sub agendas is the direction of the organisation. The only “rational” thing that an entity like a corporation can do it is to look after its shareholders and get profits, which it will do at the expense of everything around it and within it.

We really have a troubling history on this planet, of whenever a large group of people come together, and form any kind of organisation unit larger than a few hundred people.
The interests and characteristics of each individual member, including their compassion, common sense, and love for each other are all lost inside the crazed irrational direction of the organisation. It has happened time and time again, from religions to ideologies, scientific movements to empires. Things that start of with the best intentions by a few are quickly subsumed and become the antithesis of the original intention when the many become involved.

The current world financial crisis is just one example of allowing non rational entities (corporations and governments) to set the agenda that the rest of us need to live by.

Online Business is more than just blogs

Just a quick post today to make sure that everyone knows that I am still around and kicking. I have had a busy last month, consolidating a couple of exciting new opportunities that have presented themselves, and getting my teeth into some challenging new internet marketing campaigns.

I just wanted to put the idea out there today to all of the bloggers out there that are wondering how to make money online with their blogs. The short answer is that you have a very small chance of making a decent income with just your blog alone. A blog that just has posts, a few adsense ads and some affiliate programs (like this one is at the moment) may turn some dollars, but not enough to get the bank manager excited every time you walk in.

You should not be considering yourself just a blogger, but taking the next step, treating this area seriously and start thinking about starting an online BUSINESS. Sure, a blog may be an integral part to it, but at the end of the day you need to know how to attract peoples attention and move some kind of product. The internet is full of bad information about “How To Make Money Online”, in fact there seems to be more of this around today then ever before. But in-between all of this there are some sound strategies of people that have gone before and made Sustainable Online Enterprises.

Like the byline of this site says, I am all about helping people become Sustainable Personal (as in personally branded) Online Connected Entrepreneurs. Its a simple phrase, a small acronym that can be easily remembered and applied to everything you do online. It is a system that outlines how to gain traffic, and then monetize that traffic so that your audience becomes your customers, and yes, even your fans in the year to come.

By utilizing the wide variety of ways to promote your business, develop content and target customers the SPOKE system deals with social media, google adwords, SEO strategy, blog optimization, marketing and advertising theory, personal branding and sound business knowledge to provide a comprehensive system to at the very least give a good online business idea a head start.

Sustainable Personal Online Connected Entrepreneur

So Steve you may be thinking, what is this Spoke system you keep talking about here? SPOKE is a system that I have been developing over the last two years to give people a systematic approach to becoming an online entrepreneur. It takes the best of social media theory, internet marketing secrets and online business strategy and combines them into a mindset that can guide you towards success online.

SPOKE is an acronym with two meanings. The letters stand for Sustainable Personal Online Connected Entrepreneur.

Sustainable

Everyone wants an internet business with longevity, one that will continue to pay off long after the initial hours of developing and setting up an online marketing system. I personally can not see the point of setting up a business that will be obsolete or struggling to find customers In three months time. Online businesspeople that follow the SPOKE system will be building long term digital assets, businesses online that will continue to provide revenue for years to come. This is not just about landing pages and Adsense, SPOKE shows you how to productise your knowledge, keep customers coming back and retain customers for longer by developing a sales funnel.

Personal

In this modern world, the main thing that separates you from the next business person online is YOU, your unique personality. SPOKE is all about you building your personal brand, and allowing your unique voice to shine through and be the thing that keeps people coming back to your online assets. It is about finding an online business model that allows all of your personality to express itself, and there is a definite emphasis on having fun. By building a personal brand, you make it easier for customers to find you as you begin to roll out your Internet Marketing Empire, and also raising your profile greatly increases your chances of connecting with other SPOKES of already successful online businesspeople.

Online

SPOKE recognises the immense advantages in becoming an online entrepreneur rather then setting up a traditional “bricks and mortar” style business. With low overheads, very small barriers to entry and new tools and software being released every day, there really has been no better time to start an internet business.  The SPOKE system shows you how use these online tools to their maximum efficiency to save hours each day, market your products more effectively and gather intelligence on the competition quickly and easily.

Connected

The SPOKE system recognises the power of social media to drive targeted traffic to your online business. It is my aim with this blog and the associated tools and books that you will get to understand and develop a social media marketing strategy that is easy to set up, but most importantly easy to maintain.
SPOKE is also about connecting to other entrepreneurs and offering products and services that combine your skills, knowledge and customer base to the mutual benefit of both partiers. SPOKE is also about connecting with outsourced providers so that you a free to grow your business and plan for its future expansion.

Entrepreneur

The aim of SPOKE is the development of  an Entrepreneurial business for yourself, one that has an end goal of removing you from the day to day running of the business, and allows you to choose the hours and place where you work. By developing an entrepreneur’s mindset you will learn to see opportunities as they arise and continue on your path to online business success.

The second meaning of the SPOKE acronym is that it refers to the Spokes of a wheel.
Each business can be thought of as a HUB, and it can be connected to other SPOKE business by coming to an arrangement to provide products and services to each other.

Your SPOKE business might be to develop website templates, and you might develop a relationship with another SPOKE business that sells website hosting packages. By complimenting each others services in a mutually beneficial arrangement you automatically increase your base of potential customers and sales.

So That is SPOKE in a very broad stokes and abstract nutshell. If you are interested in more information please subscribe via RSS, or sign up for my email newsletter to get hot tasty tips served straight to your inbox.

SPOKE - A New Model For Online Business

Been a bit quiet on here of late, but I assure you it is not without good reason.

I have been working on a new model of business, one that I am sure you can benefit from. It is a model that some people have been following with great success for decades, but is only coming into mainstream view now as everyone becomes super connected, has instant access to unimaginable resources of knowledge and skill for creating websites and knowledge products online become easier to learn and more widespread.

Hey, and it even has an acronym. SPOKE

The SPOKE system is going to present people with a way of developing sustainable online businesses, that provide long
lasting income (some of it passive) and creating meaningful work. It is about utilizing the skills that you currently have to start to
break the cycle of trading dollars for hours, and which skills that you should be developing to be successful in an ever changing world.
It is about  making the most of this connected, fast paced world that we live in, and using it  to support rather then overwhelm you.

A NEW VIEWPOINT

Over the last few years I have studied and worked closely with many bloggers, entrepreneurs, business managers and internet marketers. I have also lately been doing a lot of work with social media marketing and consulting, as well as studying a lot of material about social networks, the future of the internet and business, entrepreneurship and work.

While doing a review of my business plan last month a number of these pieces started to click together, and a picture began to form out of the confusing puzzle that we call our modern working life. I saw how it was possible to have meaningful work, escape the 9-5 office based - always the same drudgery and also make a decent living. It is like freelancing, contracting or even “making money online” but more then that. I will develop and share the SPOKE system with you over the next few months

REDESIGN TIME

Also I think I need to modernise this blog (once again) and develop it into a world class resource of information. Design for this site is a continual process with me, but inspiration has come in short bursts. While design isn’t everything, it is important that you quickly convey what the site is about and your level of professionalism as soon as people hit the page.

Stress Of Connection Culture

I just saw an article today on the news.com.au website about the effect of email on productivity

The main thrust of the article is shown below.

“THE average employee is productive at work for just four hours a day due to a flood of disruptive emails and phone calls, according to a new study.
And the biggest culprit, say workers, is the constant interruption from internal emails.
The lost productivity is costing business billions of dollars a year and also taking a toll on workers’ health, with three quarters complaining of stress from too many distractions in the office, the Daily Mail reports. “

Now this is not a new phenomenon, there have been reports coming out like this very frequently for the last 10 years. As soon as business started to give their staff email and internet access the phenomena of continuous partial attention was born. There are so many things that you need to do, so many different streams of information that need to be monitored, and so many interruptions that you never get into a “flow” state. This leads with difficulty concentrating on complex tasks and working on large projects.

The thing is though, that as we move into an information economy this way of working is the norm. My job actually requires me to be monitoring and reacting to many different information streams, to be writing email, to be answering social media messages. The ability to be able to gather, synthesize and output large and diverse streams of information is going to be the skill to have for the next decade. The trick is to be able to do this, and then be able to “switch off” at some stage and manage your stress levels, interact with your “offline community” family and look after your mental and physical health.

There are a number of both subtle and large psychological changes that seem to occur in the always connected mind, from a mild nagging feeling that you are missing out on something if you are not online, to stress attacks from the overwhelming information. It can be as addicting as it can be empowering.

There is a current that is flowing through the blogging community at the moment as to whether social networking and microblogging on twitter is a distraction or if it is a vital piece of work to be integrated into the day. I think we need to explore what are the costs and benefits to connecting technologies, in the short term to our stress levels, ability to concentrate and ability to switch of, but also in the long term to beneficial results on career, connection, community and learning.

It is very early days for this technology, and we are just seeing the first glimpses of our future as a connected world.