Leadership: The Wind In Your Hair And People at Your Back

Posted on by rodneyb

I have always led. Not because I’m a control freak and not because I’m always the best at everything I do. I just seem to be the one that people look to. As I get older and try grow in my leadership the more difficult leading becomes.

My current leadership reflections. You can’t lead from the back. You’ve got to lead from the front. Leaders stick out. Not because we are weird or want all the attention (sometimes I do..) We stick out because that’s what leaders have to do. We have to stick out neck out. Recently I’ve wanted to play it safe. I’ve wanted to be the guy in the back drafting off the guy in the front. I know that is not me. I think I lead and want to lead because it is who I am.

Second leadership reflection – Leading is not a comfortable and safe place. If you want to be comfortable then don’t lead. Man I want comfortable sometimes, but I also want to lead. Guess I can’t have both. With God’s help I will strive to keep leading and deal with the lack of comfort.

Three Components of Google Adwords Advertising

Posted on by rodneyb

There are three basic components of Google Adwords Advertising.

  1. The Impression
  2. The Click
  3. The Conversion

I know that sounds simple but if you keep your mind focused on those three things when you are advertising online you will not be distracted with other miscellaneous issues and you will have a better chance at getting good return for your advertising dollars.

The Impression – This component deals with what it takes to get your add to show. Will your ad show on the search network? Will it show on the content network? or both? If it shows on the search network, what keywords will you use and how will you use different keyword matching types? With the ad impression you are basically determining what will it take to get my ad to show and will I be showing my ad to the right audience. Keyword selection and bidding is crucial in this step.

The Click – With this component the advertiser is answering the question, “What will it take to get my customer to click my add?” Or put differently, what is the hook that will get them to click. The click is mostly concerned with the ad content whether it is image, text or video. It is important for an advertiser to be careful in this step. You don’t want “click happy” clicking away and spending your money

The Conversion – Now you’ve shown the customer your ad, they have clicked, and now they are on your website. The conversion deals mostly with your website. What do you want your customer to do once they get to your site. Are they doing what you want them to do? Of course in the conversion stage you can test different pages to work to improve your conversion results.

Advertising with Adwords can be very complicated but if you can keep you focus on three basic things you will not be overwhelmed with complicated world of Google Adwords.

Drop your comments below if you have questions about online pay-per-click advertising. I’m a little out of practice with online advertising, but I will work at answering your questions.

A Cure for Entitlement

Posted on by rodneyb

I’ve have been thinking about this question some. Is there a cure for the entitlement mentality that seems to rule in our society? When I ask this question I’m not just talking about welfare issues, but also people that believe they are entitled to a certain way of being treated or certain privileges. I am definitely thinking of welfare issues as well but I’m not leaving it to just welfare.

What do you think? Is there a solution to the sense of entitlement that pervades our society? Do you think there is such a thing?

Relaunching RodneyBartlett.com

Posted on by rodneyb

It does feel a little self centered and a bit self absorbed to be writing a blog post about the relaunching of a site about yourself. I have to step back and think… what am I doing? I have a website/blog dedicated to one thing – the self promotion of ME! – weird.

My goal is that this space would be more than “about me” but about what I’m doing, my family, my work and the direction I’m headed. If no one reads it, I don’t care. This is more of a “public journal” and a place for me to chronicle my thoughts. I plan to share what I’m learning, successes I’m having and things I’m trying in work and other areas of my life.

With regards to work, I currently work at Youth Horizons as the mentoring director. I’ve also worked recently doing some consulting in regards to web marketing. I’ve given up the web marketing goals, but I do still like to tinker a bit and I might take up that interest again.

If you read this I’m glad you took the time to listen to me, promote myself and explain a website… all about me (it’s still weird to say!)