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Important Skill in Life: Saying NO
Do you ever find yourself going in a million directions at once?
Do you ever find yourself being tempted into some new opportunity when you’ve already got plenty of stuff going on?
Do you ever find yourself being really busy, but ultimately not living the life that you want?
Perhaps you need to learn this skill of saying NO.
This thought has occurred to me many times, however just recently I was reminded of it.
See, several months ago, I was actually a regular weekly contributor on a technology radio show. Every Saturday morning, I was on this radio show which was broadcast from 820AM WWBA here in the Tampa Bay area, but reached much of south Florida, all the way down to the Florida Keys. There is admittedly a bit of bragging rights to say you’re on the radio.
But, I quit. And just recently, I was offered another gig doing a Friday morning tech radio show here in Tampa. Once again, I turned it down.
Why?
Why would I stop doing something that others would think is so cool? Why would I stop being involved on a radio show, even though I could pimp my own website on the air every show?
I quit the show because it didn’t line up with my long-range plans. I might run a tech site, but ultimately my goal these days is helping bloggers make a living through their craft. So, becoming known as a computer geek on the radio just doesn’t fit my goals. Not only that, I was committing myself to a schedule. I had to create and prepare content for the radio each week. Guess what that reminds me of? Another J-O-B.
So, I said “NO”. Both to the show I was already on, as well as this latest opportunity which hit me this last week.
I don’t live to work. I work to live.
My efforts these days are primarily to help bloggers. I learned my craft by being a tech blogger. I am and always will be interested in computers and tech. I love that stuff and will continue to write on the subject for my PCMech.com readers. However, my professional emphasis has moved on. And my goals, for now, do not include growing my reputation as a technology guy.
The lesson here is learning to pick and choose your battles. Say YES to those things which further your goals. Say NO to those things which would take you away from your goals, even if that opportunity it enticing.
The ability to say NO without feeling self-doubt is crucial to your ultimate success in whatever you do, because there will always be shiny objects looking to distract you.
Sponsored Tweets: Polluting The Party?
The idea of sponsored tweets usually triggers a pretty emotional reaction. Most people when asked how they would react to a person tweeting an ad respond by saying they would immediately unfollow them.
Then my friend Ted Murphy launched Sponsored Tweets, the latest venture from his company Izea. It got me thinking about it. After all, I really like Ted and I have a lot of respect for him as an entrepreneur.
So, is this Sponsored Tweets thing a huge pile of crap? Or a natural progression of the medium?
Dicey Territory
You can clearly see how this is a dicey subject by looking at their own top menu bar:
An “Ethics” tab, right there plain as day. On that page, it clearly states that Izea requires people to disclose their relationship with marketers.
When an ad is set up in the system, one of the provided phrases must be selected to identify the tweet as an ad. The phrase uses various versions of the word “sponsored” or “advertisement”. The shortest possible version is the #ad hashtag.
As a tweeter, you will sign up, set your price, your ad category, keywords, etc. So, they give you control over the kinds of ads which appear in your tweet stream.
Also, Izea will not auto-inject ads into your Twitter stream. You have to manually approve it first.
In looking over their setup, it seems Izea has done everything to make this an honest platform. I really have no problem with their set up.
However, this doesn’t answer the question of whether it is a smart move for you to actually use it. How about that?
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Top 10 Signs You ARE Worth Following On Twitter
It was suggested by a few of my readers that I do a counterpart to my post on the Top 10 Signs You’re Not Worth Following on Twitter. It seems it is only fair. After all, I’ve done enough complaining. 
So, without further ado, why would I follow you on Twitter?
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Blogging Income Report: Last 3 Months
My blogging income reports were popular, and I was expressly asked to keep doing it. However, it looks like I’ve forgotten to do it since April. I’ve been so busy with other things (including creating content for my students in the Blog Masters Club) that it has slipped my mind.
So, let’s play catch-up. How has my blogging income been in May, June and July?
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Stupidest DMs From The Last Month on Twitter
As you can probably tell if you follow me on Twitter, I’m on a rampage about Twitter spam. Right now, I’m rather fed up with it.
Today, I thought I would highlight some of the lamest DMs I have gotten in the last 30 days on Twitter. I have removed the links so as not to give them any free promotion on my blog.
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Top 10 Signs You’re Not Worth Following on Twitter
Since I stopped auto-following people on Twitter, I’ve really been trying to weed out all the spammers from my follow list.
I’m still pondering whether I should do a big mass-unfollow and then re-build my list. I still might do so. I was ready to do it on Friday, but then Twitter got hit with that big DDOS attack and I couldn’t pull it off.
As I (at this point) gradually remove people from my follow list, I am beginning to arrive at common traits that I personally find either annoying or classic signs of a spammer. I thought I’d share.
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Disqus: Not So Stupid Anymore
Disqus is a leading third-party comment option for bloggers. In the past, my opinions about Disqus have been mixed. I started out by calling it stupid. Then, about a year ago Disqus fixed some of my concerns, yet I ended up still not using it on my blog.
As you might be able to tell, I am currently using Disqus on this blog. What drove me over the edge?
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Why Throwing Money Away Can Make You Richer
We’ve all heard the phrase: “It Takes Money To Make Money”. Do you agree with it?
Usually, it is thought that this means you have to invest money to ultimately make money back. In almost all cases, this is true to some degree.
However, I think there is a matter of attitude about this. And I think this attitude goes right to the heart of your ability to HAVE money in the first place.
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Affiliate Marketing 101 For Bloggers
Selling products as an affiliate via your blog is an excellent way to make a buck. In fact, you can often do a lot better with affiliate marketing than you can with banner ads. Most banner networks (like Adsense) require that you have a LOT of traffic before you’re going to see any decent income. On the other hand, with affiliate marketing, you do not need thousands of page views per day to make it worth your while.
In this post, I wanted to cover some of the absolute basics of affiliate marketing for bloggers.
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Bloggers, Don’t Lose Your Soul
A couple of posts I’ve seen in the last week or so have raised a little bit of alarm. Both posts are shedding light on what appears to be a growing attitude of “gimme gimme” among the blogosphere.
Is it all about getting free stuff?
I'm David Risley. I've been making my living as a blogger for over a decade. Blogging is my business and how I support my family. With this blog, I'm just gettin' REAL and telling you how this business works. 
