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Don’t Do What Everyone Thinks Is Best For You

By Cheval John

Photo courtesy of Stuart Miles

Photo courtesy of Stuart Miles

When I first started blogging four years ago, I would not have imagined that I would fall in love with it.

I saw this as an opportunity to showcase my thoughts on what was happening in the world and being able to tell stories of people who are achieving success the right way.

Let just say that I did not had a direction of what niche I wanted to get into.

All I knew was the fact that this was an amazing platform.

One thing I did not do was remain consistent in the blogging schedule because it was like the spur of the moment if a particular event happened.

In that first year, I learned that you had to keep on blogging every week because if you did not, you would lose some readers and it would take a while to gain them back.

Even to this day, I still struggle with writing long form content because I will admit, I get bored if the content is very long winded and it does not get straight to the point.

However, it has been a fun challenge to write longer form content because I am a contributing blogger for Millennial CEO and I want to give their audience the best information possible that will make them feel better and give them actionable advice.

Since founding this website three years ago, the blog posts has been a mixture of sports, some travel and university affairs.

Also, the site has been growing slowly with viewership from around the world whether they stumbled on the site by accident or had meant to visit it.

I will be honest of the fact that I wished I could have bigger viewership.

At the same time, I rather this type of slow growth because I want to see what works and what does not work.

I also want to achieve what is called the “5 to 10 year overnight success” because I want people to see that there is no such thing as an overnight success.

I want them to see that they have to put in the effort and work to achieve their goals and not think that someone was lucky when they achieved their goals of writing a great book, running their own company, etc.

When they say that someone is lucky, all they are doing is cheapening the success of the person and validating their excuse that they cannot achieve their goals.

Also, I want this site to be as close as the Huffington Post as possible.

Is this a lofty goal?

Yes, it is a lofty goal.

At the same time, I believe it can be achievable and I am willing to work extremely hard to achieve the goal of being a close to the Huffington Post.

The only thing is that I will not use any short cuts to get there because I rather achieve the fruits of my labor.

Another thing I want to address is the fact that there have been so many blogs, podcasts webinars, etc. that talks about choosing a niche.

While I am totally in agreement with the people who mentioned about choosing a niche, I have to disagree with them to a small degree.

The reason is that I love sports, travel, business and social media and I feel that it is very difficult to choose one out of the other.

I believe that these things above is who I am and I want to express myself here by writing about sporting events, travel and interesting things that is going on in social media.

Maybe I am not the only one who think this.

If I am the only one who think it is o.k. to write about different subjects like sports, travel or other things that interest them and not just one particular subject, then I will not apologize for it.

All I care about is making the reader feel better about themselves and solving their problems.

This is the reason why I am blogging.

I hope that you will do what you love and not worry about what other people think about you.

Six Twitter Chats That Will Improve Your Social Media Knowledge

By Cheval John

Photo courtesy of stock images

Photo courtesy of stock images

When I first started using Twitter in 2011, I had went in with the wrong mindset of only sharing my work on the social media platform.

I knew that the platform was a great way for anyone to grow their blogs, businesses and personal brands.

I thought that if I followed people, I would get back a follow.

However, I did not get back a follow from the masses.

The only ones who had followed me were the people I had knew personally during my time as an undergraduate student.

I had continued to operate with the mentality of a taker for over a year on Twitter until October of 2012.

At that time, I had moved my website from the WordPress.com to a self-hosted site using the WordPress.org software.

In that moment, it hit me that if I wanted to gain new followers, I had to engage with the people.

So I started engaging with people on Twitter and sharing quality content that I believed would make people’s lives better.

Then last year, I heard about Twitter chats and decided to check them out.

Since then, I have been participating in so many Twitter chats and learning new concepts regarding social media, job hunting, the best blogs, etc.

Also, you will see the same people in so many of the chats that you will establish strong friendships that can allow you to be more successful at the next level.

This is something that many businesses are missing out on because “it is a focus group” that will cost them nothing.

Now that you know about Twitter chats, the question is, “Which of the chats are the right fit for me?

Though there are many Twitter chats out there, here are six chats that will be worth your time:

1. #BlogChat
Hosted by Mack Collier, this chat showcases the different trends that is going on in the blogosphere. Occassionally, they will be guest who share their blogging expertise.
The chat happens every Sunday night at 9 p.m. eastern, 8 p.m. central.

2. #BizHeroes
Hosted by Kelly Hungerford (ambassador) and Magda A. Torres of Paper.Li, the chat discusses topics about connecting with your audience and the different trends in social media. It is on Tuesday afternoons at 2 p.m. eastern, 1 p.m. central.

3. #MillennialTalk
Hosted by Chelsea Krost, Millennial Talk highlights topics that has an impact on the Millennial generation. Chelsea has guests on the chat and it happens every Tuesday night at 8 p.m. eastern, 7 p.m. central.

4. #sbizhour
Hosted by Brian Fanzo and Rachel Miller, #sbizhour chats about how brands can build a loyal following through authenticity and trust. They have guests ranging from CEOs to community managers who have succeeded in building their audience. The unique thing is people can watch the chat live on Google Hangout. The chat is every Monday at 4 p.m. eastern, 3 p.m. central.

5. #cmgr
The #cmgr chat is in the same category as #sbizhour because it is a Google Hangout in addition to be a Twitter chat. It is hosted by “MY Community Manager Team.” and every week, they have a different panel of guests who are community managers themselves. The chat is on Fridays at 2 p.m. eastern, 1 p.m. central.

6. #jobhuntchat
If you are looking for a job because you were laid off or a recent college graduate, you should participate in #jobhuntchat. The chat talks about different ways to stand out from your “competition.” The best part is that you can build friendships with people who are human resource professionals because they are in the chat. The chat is every Monday night at 10 p.m. eastern, 9 p.m. central.

What are your favorite Twitter chats and did I leave out any chats from this list? You can leave your comment below.