Nine Key Points of Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS) from www.blueoceanstrategy.com

Nine Key Points of Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS)

I am often asked what is Blue Ocean Strategy or what is a Blue Ocean Strategist. The most effective way to explain this is to take you directly to the source at www.blueoceanstrategy.com and offer the following nine key points of Blue Ocean Strategy. If you have not bought the book, do so. If you would like to understand how to create a blue ocean for your business contact me.

BOS is the result of a decade-long study of 150 strategic moves spanning more than 30 industries over 100 years (1880-2000).

BOS is the simultaneous pursuit of differentiation and low cost.

The aim of BOS is not to out-perform the competition in the existing industry, but to create new market space or a blue ocean, thereby making the competition irrelevant.

BOS offers a set of methodologies and tools to create new market space.

While innovation has been seen as a random/experimental process where entrepreneurs and spin-offs are the primary drivers - as argued by Schumpeter and his followers - BOS offers systematic and reproducible methodologies and processes in pursuit of innovation by both new and existing firms.

BOS frameworks and tools include: strategy canvas, value curve, four actions framework, six paths, buyer experience cycle, buyer utility map, and blue ocean idea index.

These frameworks and tools are designed to be visual in order to not only effectively build the collective wisdom of the company but also to effectively execute through easy communication.

BOS covers both strategy formulation and strategy execution.

The three key conceptual building blocks of BOS are: value innovation, tipping point leadership, and fair process.

PAUL J. LANGE - BLUE OCEAN STRATEGIST & RAINMAKER

E: plange.verify@gmail.com

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Productise Your Knowledge: Business Hell to Business Heaven - Free Networking Breakfast

This is a personal recommendation without any commercial interest beyond seeing more people gain the benefit of Leela's Skills and Experience.

Take this opportunity to find out how to productise your skills and create additional income for you and your family.

You have invested many years to become good at what you do. You help others every day by passing on what you know. Is it worth the investment of a few hours of your time next week Saturday 25th July to find out how Leela can help you take what you know and create a new stream of income by helping others to learn what you know?

If you are in Sydney on Saturday 25th July, invest a few hours and register for this amazing event. Breakfast is included compliments of Leela.

Places are limited! Book your seat NOW!

www.overyourbusinessbootcamp.com.au

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Over 3 days, the Over Your Business Bootcamp will show you how to use the twin skills of Productisation and Systemisation to create $100,000 income in your business over the next 12 months while working no more than 2 hours a day. This isn't MLM or network marketing - we will take the business you have NOW and reincarnate it into something that pays you while you do what you love!

Join us for a FREE networking breakfast and 3 hour preview, during which we will cover the 7 DEADLY BUSINESS SINS. Are you committing the sin of Business Lust? Of Business Sloth? Of Business Wrath? Do penance and break free from your sins! Hallelujah!

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About Leela Cosgrove & Business Writers Anonymous

Business Writers Anonymous is Australia's #1 Intellectual Property Development Company, built on a solid foundation of sales and marketing expertise, multi award winning creative writing and a unique understanding of the needs of the speaking, coaching and business development industry, BWA takes your fixer-upper Intellectual Property and renovates it into a luxury home, penthouse or mansion that will make you $$$'s while you sleep.

Business Writers Anonymous was formed in 2009 by Leela Cosgrove. After 5 years spent creating Information Products for some of the biggest names in the Personal and Professional Development industry in Australia, Leela realised that there was a hole in the market - it was one thing for those who had already 'made it' to be creating Information Products, but those starting out were struggling to understand and afford this crucial element of their business. She formed BWA to ensure that people at all stages of their business had access to the same ideas and product development skills that the Big Names use.

BWA works with a stable of 20 writers, many of whom have won awards for their creative writing skills and have now turned their hand to providing businesses with something that is sorely lacking - interesting, innovative, information that moves people to take action.

Working exclusively with the speaking, coaching and business development industry, Business Writers Anonymous have a unique blend of business focused writing with a distinctively creative edge and a very strong sales and marketing background, allowing for explosive results for their clients.

Where most writers focus on ensuring your spelling, grammar and punctuation are correct, we focus on results, on the clients beating down your door, on the cash flowing into your bank account. Business Writers Anonymous will show you how to turn your information into dollars while leveraging your time so that you can STOP working for money and set money to work for you.

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Social Networking Websites: How to Find Them

Every day across the world hundreds of millions of people communicate with each other online. In addition to communicating with other people in their own country, many are communicating with those on the other side of the globe. This communication is due largely in part to the explosion of online social networking websites over the last 10 years and more. If you are interested in joining the growing number of Internet users who use social networking websites, you will have to find a network to join.

When it comes to finding the social networking websites that are right for you, you have a number of different options. Perhaps, the easiest way to find a social networking website is by performing a standard Internet search on Google, Yahoo, or one of the many hundred different search engines that exist on the Internet. You may want to search with the words social networking or social networking websites. Whichever search phrase you choose, there is a good chance that you will be presented with a long list of websites with both broad general focus and more specific focus. The latter can become annoying when the focus of page after page of search results returns only dating sites. So perhaps specify the type of networking site you are interested in. For example social business networking, social sports networking website, social scrap-booking networking website. I’m sure you get the idea.

You can also find and familiarize yourself with social networking websites by talking to those that you know. The Internet, as well as social networks, has rapidly increased in popularity. That popularity means that there is a good chance that one of your relatives, friends, co-workers, or neighbours has used a specific social networking website in the past, and indeed is probably still active. If they are not, find someone who is because the chances are the people who only dabbled and gave it up will not be in the best position to advise you accurately. Many of the people you know may have even used more than one networking website based on different specific interests that they have. If you know someone who has, you will want to ask them their recommendations. You will find that most social networking websites come highly rated, but there are some out there that may not even be worth your time.

In addition to speaking to those that you actually know, you can also seek recommendations from those that you do not personally know. You can do this online. Online, you should be able to find a number of websites that discuss social networking sites. Many of these websites have reviewed a collection of social networking sites. Warning….unless you are analytically inclined and love research, do this at your own peril as you could find yourself behind the computer clicking from one page to the next to find out more when the hearse comes to take you away. Basically keep it real and reasonable. In addition to reviews and other articles, you should also be able to speak with other Internet users on online message boards. Like speaking to one of your friends, many Internet users would be more than willing to let you know what social networking websites are worth the time and which ones are not. Again, beware of your time. Whilst online message boards and instant messaging programs (IM) are a great tool, they can suck the life out of your schedule like a black-hole.

Although it is nice to receive recommendations from those that you know or other Internet users, you should ultimately make your own decision. Whether or not a social networking website comes highly recommended, you should still to check it out first yourself. A large number of social networking websites are free to use; therefore, there are no risks associated with giving the site a try. Despite the fact that most online social networking sites are free to use, there are some that you must pay for. A large number of these websites offer free trials. Even if the trial period is only for a few days, you should easily be able to get a feel of the site’s environment and determine whether or not it is right for you.

In your search for a social networking website, whether you perform your own Internet search or rely on recommendations from others, you should be able to find a number of popular websites. Personally I find Ecademy the most effective for business, LinkedIn is a great Rolodex and others such as Xing & Internations are also very good indeed. You’ll find me on these and feel free to come on up and say “hi”. The good news about this is that if you are not satisfied with the social networking website you joined, you don’t have to worry; there are many more available for you to choose from.

I hope this was valuable

Until soon.

PJL

How to Create a Podcast

Podcasting is easy to do and become involved in. Anyone who wants to create a podcast should read this brief article. Please also see the blog on “How to Make a Podcast”.

The first thing necessary is access to a web server. The user needs to be able to upload files to the server itself, so podcasting can't be done from a simple blogging or journal site. It's probably best to register a domain and find a host for the site. There is more information on this in the blog: “How to Make a Podcast”.

Once the site has been set up and the user has access to the host server, a small program called dircaster.php should be customized for your site, and can be used to automatically generate the RSS feed that the subscribers will download.

The mp3 files should be uploaded to the proper directory after all the information about the file has been attached. The information you would configure would be the title, the genre, the author/speaker and such similar tags that will allow people interested in your topic to find you online and subscribe to your podcast feed. After the files are uploaded to the directory, the address of dircaster.php, as long as it is in the same directory as the mp3 files, will generate an RSS file that will tell your subscribers where to download the latest podcasts from.

To update the podcast and upload a new episode, create and upload the new mp3 file to the same directory. When dircaster.php is accessed, it will recognize the new file and relay the information on to your visitors.

With these steps, it is easy for anyone to create a podcast with a small expenditure of time and effort. The site is easy to set up; domains and hosting are now cheap enough almost anyone to have a small site, and the programs necessary are all easy to find and use.

I hope this was valuable.

PJL

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Facebook: A Popular Social Networking Website for Former Classmates and Study Buddies

Have you ever wondered whatever happened to your high school sweetheart? Or the buff surfer dude who melted your heart? How about your best friend who you lost contact with over the years?

If you have there is a good chance that you have tried to contact them. Unfortunately, many individuals marry or move away. This can make it difficult to contact those that you once to know. That is unless you join one of the most popular online social networking websites for finding old friends and flames. That website is known as Facebook. Okay, these days a lot of people are trying to do business on it as well but it is more often seen as the grown up social interaction version of the pre-pubescent MySpace.

Although Facebook is considered a social networking website, it is, in a way, unique from most of the others. This is because Facebook has a strong leaning toward recreating connections that were made in school, whether it be elementary school, high school, or college. Although it is encouraged that you contact those that you know from school, you are able to contact just about anyone on the website. That is one of the many features of Facebook that makes the social networking site worth joining.

The only problem that many Internet users have with other sites that try to do the same thing (like Classmates is the fact that they often require a paid membership. Facebook is free and although there are free membership plans available on a lot ot the others, you are generally limited with what you can do on those sites. In some cases, despite the fact that you have to become a paid member to enjoy what sites like Classmates has to offer, it can be worth it, and the membership fee is usually easy to afford.

If you are interested in seeing what Facebookhas to offer, you can easily do so by visiting their online website at www.Facebook.com. Once at their main page, you will have to go through the process creating a profile and selecting your schools. This is part of what will be displayed on the website; however, once you officially become a member you can add more information to your profile.

On Facebook you can post your own profile, pictures, comments, status updates, join clubs, attend events (online and off-line) and view profiles from other members. Viewing the profiles of other members, especially those that you went to school with, is easy. Facebook makes it possible to search for people based on the schools that they went to, and the years that they attended. This means that whether you graduated in 1970 or 2000, you should easily be able to obtain information on your former classmates, lovers and friends, and contact them to re-kindle what you once had.

By joining Facebook, you will not only be able to make contact with your old classmates and friends, but you may also even be able to renew old friendships or make new ones. Reconnecting with your old friends and making new ones, what could be better than that?

More soon.

PJL

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How to Make a Podcast

A podcast is an easy way of distributing media files over the Internet. This article will tell how to make a podcast.

The first thing you need is a hosting service on which to store the media files for the podcast, ideally with our own domain name. Buying a domain name is simple and easy. There are many domain registrars that can register a domain for someone for a small fee. The same goes for hosting. There are loads of hosting service providers out there.

Some of the domain registrars are Intaserve, HostMonster, GoDaddy.com, Dotster, or Network Solutions. Personally if you need a domain and hosting, I recommend you go with HostMonster. Their service is extremely reliable and fast, the price is amazingly low for everything you receive (a lot of things are unlimited), AND they provide you with a FREE .com domain of your choice, provided of course that it is not already taken. I have been using HostMonster for many years and am totally satisfied.

Whoever you chose, the domain registrar will, for a small fee, enter the chosen domain, provided it is not being used, into the computers that form the backbone of the Internet. These computers will be told where the domain is located on the Internet, that is to say, which host holds the domain's information.

In order to publish and distribute that information across the Internet, the name servers that are held by the host need to be associated with the domain. They need to be identifiable as the authority on the Internet for information pertaining to the domain.

Once the domain is in place, a good hosting service should be found. The hosting service that is chosen should offer a large amount of both disk space and a much larger amount bandwidth (really data traffic allowance). Disk space is necessary because the site that holds the podcast will be storing large media files; audio or video files that take up a lot of space. These files are typically difficult to compress and so the storage requirements of your hosting service will need to accommodate this.

The large bandwidth is necessary because transferring these large files many times to many different (potentially thousands of) people will use up a small quota very quickly. A good amount of disk space would be at least 50 (fifty) GigaBytes (GB), and bandwidth should be in the several hundreds of Gigabytes or tens of TeraBytes (TB – a TeraByte is equal to 1,000 GigaBytes). Ideally you should be looking for a service with unlimited disk space/storage and unlimited bandwidth/data traffic allowance.

Once the hosting service is set up, it should offer you a couple of addresses called nameservers. Inputting these server addresses into the site where the domain was registered will complete the domain setup and allow your site to be found on the Internet.

Again, because of all of the above, I recommend HostMonster. The disk storage is unlimited, the data traffic allowance (bandwidth) is unlimited, AND they register a .com domain name for you for FREE with their hosting package. The HostMonster hosting package costs (the last time I checked) about US$5.95 a month.

The next step for people who want to know how to make a podcast is installing the software necessary to maintain the podcast. A small piece of coding called dircaster.php can be used to set up a basic level of podcast. Dircaster.php can be found easily by searching for it in any search engine.

Once it is located, it should be edited to reflect the particulars of the domain and uploaded to the site. You may want to ask a web programmer to do this for you but with a little effort you can most likely figure it out yourself. Dircaster.php will generate an RSS file, or feed, that tells the subscriber about the new files available for downloading.

To begin podcasting, create the audio files that should be podcast, fill in the information about the file such as date, author, etc, and upload them to the same directory that contains dircaster.php. You now have a podcast, and all that is needed is to publicise the address of the file dircaster.php. To update the podcast with new information, just upload the new files. Other things to make the podcast better might be a site that contains information about the podcast, such as a marketing site, but it may not be necessary depending upon the purpose of the podcast and/or possibly your business model.

I hope this has been helpful.

PJL

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Using Social Networking Websites to Promote Your Online Presence

Do you own or operate your own website? With the popularity of the Internet constantly growing across all demographics there is a good chance that you do. A large number of Internet users run their own personal websites, but others run their websites as a way to make money. Of course, any website owner wishes to promote their online presence, but those who rely on their websites for income are more willing for obvious reasons. Irrespective of the type of website you have, did you know that you can help to promote it with online social networking websites, and through social media optimisation. More on the latter in another article.

If you are wondering how and why you should use social networking websites and the more recently emerging web 3.0 technologies to promote your online presence, you are not alone. A fairly large numbers of Internet users aren’t even sure what social networking sites are or how they work, let alone the web 3.0 technologies, including activities such as micro-blogging on sites like Twitter.

Online social networking websites are like online communities. They give internet users an easy and fairly safe way to come together. Many social networking websites are designed to make it easier for you to search for and make contact with other Internet users, especially those with whom you have something in common.

With a fairly large number of social networking websites, including Ecademy, Xing, LinkedIn, and Facebook, all with several millions users each, there is a good chance that you could not only make new friends, but find Internet users that would be interested in visiting your website or other online presence, especially if that website is your personal website. When joining an online networking community, you are normally given your own profile page with a unique or personalised URL for people to find you on the social network. On this page you can describe yourself, your business (if applicable) and your other online presences including your website. By mentioning what your personal online webpage(s) is/are all about and providing a link, you increase the chance for new visitors to seek you out and read what you have to say, sell, or promote.

As previously mentioned, social networking websites can benefit all website owners, but especially those who are looking to make a profit with their websites. This can be done one of two ways, by selling a product or service, and/or by relying on revenue from advertising. If you have a website that sells products or services, you may find it a little bit easier to use social networking sites to your advantage. This is because, if you wish, you can do product or service spotlights. Each day, week, or month, you can showcase one of the products or services that your website sells. This can either be done right on your profile page or on a blog page. In addition to some of the more popular blogging sites such as blogger.com, most social networking websites provide a blog capability for you to post information.

If you are using your online website to make money with advertising programs, such as affiliate programs or Google Adsense, you will most likely need to approach social networking websites in a different matter. Since you will not necessarily have a particular product or service to focus on, you will need to approach these websites as if they were personal websites. If your website discusses being a dog owner, it may be a good idea to state your love for dogs in your profile. After doing so, it would be acceptable and not necessarily considered spam to add a link to your online website. As with all other types of online websites, social networking websites should help to increase the number of page views your website receives. In most cases, more page views mean more clicks which means money for you. However this advertising focused approach to social networking is not the recommended way of interacting with others online. It is quite often frowned upon and once you have a reputation for it, it will be hard to break free from the perception that has been created of you.

As you can easily see, there are a number of different ways that you can promote your online website, no matter what type of website you have or what you use it for. By keeping the above mentioned points in mind, you should be able to see an increase in your page views, in no time at all.

This however only starts to scratch at the surface of what is possible with promotion of your online presence and website through social networking websites. It also does not even begin to address the benefits of implementing social media optimisation as a part of your (digital/online) marketing strategy. These will be topics for future posts so come back soon and read further.

The writer is recognised internationally as an expert in the field of online and viral marketing, and continues to support the strategic efforts of several small to medium businesses, large corporations, and private individuals to enhance their online image and increase sales.

I hope this was helpful.

PJL

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Hello World - Plotting a Course to New Blue Oceans

The purpose of this blog and the associated Blue Oceans Newsletter is to assist others who seek to become leaders of their life, family, business, or their company, or to improve their existing leadership skills in any or all of these same areas.

This blog represents a journey I embarked on some 42 years ago. It is a journey that has lead me from one corner of the globe to another and back again several times. Along the way I have met some truly ‘great ‘ people; I have also met my fair share of scoundrels, and continue to do so; both the good and bad that is. From each I have learnt something, and through that have gained some invaluable knowledge to be able to pass on to and help educate others. I consider this to be one of the intended purposes of my life.

Some people embark on a journey with a clear sense of direction and an understanding of how to navigate to their destination in the fastest possible time. I admire these people for their clarity, focus, and achievements. At the same time I am grateful for the experiences I have gained through taking the more scenic route to success. On occasion through the slums and ghettos of the business world, and at other times through levels of Babylonian luxury that the story belongs on the silver screen.

The content of Blue Oceans will be varied and offer a broad range of information and insights. Very similar to my own journey thus far. The key difference though is that this blog has a clear focus on leadership, and on creating massive new opportunities in untapped areas for you and those within your circle of influence. Opportunities on which to build a better life, and to build wealth through contribution and service.

I will not spell strategies out for you, these you must come up with yourself, otherwise you would simply be executing what I think and what I do. Apart from the obvious, the risk is that we would start to create a bloodied red ocean of competition, well before its time. Instead you should be creating unique opportunities that match your skills, talents, and experience to uncover new blue oceans of untapped wealth that underscore your purpose on this earth.

If you find value in this blog I am happy, and hope you will return often, and bring your friends. If you feel you have something valuable to add for the entire readership, I encourage you to contribute. If you have any comments, compliments, or criticisms, I would be grateful to hear from you.

Until soon.

PJL

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