Weddings Dresses online

1. How to Reach WordPress Store Owners?

So you want to reach the world of WordPress owners of stores. You can reach owners on WordPress fairly quickly by typing the words WordPress Store on the search engine within WordPress itself. You then get a drop-down list of all the stores available on WordPress.

Once you get the drop down list, you can then find your particular niche of stores that you want to target and attract and begin to build a system to become very attractive to these particular entrepreneurs.

2. Attract Store Owners

Becoming attractive to online shop owners on WordPress will require research. To connect with only those people that own stores will mean being able to provide store-owners with something they will need.

Knowing what the most important objective is to them will go a long way towards keeping you within their circle and attracting more like-minded clients. Posting news articles and the latest updates on pertinent topics for store-owners such as articles like Generate Online Sales Faster will go a long way.

3. The Main Objective

No matter what age, location or demographic they belong to, most owners have one thing in mind and that is to generate sales. Getting their products moving out the virtual door is the main goal. This is, after all, what will generate cash and keep business running with the passage of time.

Knowing that this is the objective of store owners will help you zero-in on what you can provide them.

Having a product or service that will get products of WordPress store owners moving out the virtual door is what will get you more clients.

4. Get The Word Out

To reach WordPress owners of stores, you can connect to your niche’s online influencers and begin to get the word out to store owners about a product, feature, app or service you plan to offer. It is not unlike reaching actual customers. The difference is that your customers or potential clients happens to be entrepreneurs on WordPress.

It helps to think of it as having a regular marketing strategy for normal customers except that the particular audience you have in mind happens to be people that own a WordPress store.

Building a relationship with these professional store owners can be done using the outreach possible by influencers. Subscribe to blogs, follow them on social media accounts and be specific about your target store-owner. You can also comment on blog posts, respond to updates on Facebook and even tweet back on Twitter.

The point is that you need to get into their circle of influence and within their radar to get noticed and build credibility as a service or product provider.

5. Blogging Helps

To attract the store-owning clientele on WordPress, it helps to have a blog. Posts like Top Ten Tips for WordPress Store Owners will be sure to catch their attention. You can even include tweets and posts you have done on other sites to gain credibility even further.

6. Build A Relationship

Most WordPress store owners are in it for the long run. For the most part, each store owner would have carefully put together a social media integrated strategy to advertise and promote their site and products. They will usually have more than a few traffic-generating techniques that they are putting into action.

As a way to attract entrepreneurss, you will need to put something similar into play. Plan a strategy of integrated marketing and traffic generation. The difference is that your particular traffic happens to be those people that own a store on WordPress.

Building a long term relationship will mean consistently keeping in touch, providing services and seller-products they are interested in and new methods of attracting customers that they will want to jump on. Being ahead of the game really is the key. Remember, their sole purpose of existence is to get products moving out of their store.

If you can prove that you can consistently help them generate sales with what you provide, you can be sure to build a long-term relationship with each store owner you connect with.

7. Welcome Feedback

In every area of virtual existence, improvement comes from being open to feedback and tweaking your services to suit the needs of your clients. This includes store owners on WordPress. Find out what they like and what they don’t.

Coupon codes are also known as coupon codes. They are alphanumeric strings that many online retailers use in order to spur on buyers to buy from them. Typically, they are used as a powerful marketing strategy. Aside from this, the discount offered by the code may apply to one or multiple products. In this article, we are going to find out how this marketing tool works. Read on.

How do Coupon Codes Work?

First of all, it’s important to note that coupon codes offer a discount to its user. It can be a fixed dollar amount or a percentage of the product price. Aside from this, this marketing medium offers buyers with gift-wrapping or free shipping. Basically, this strategy gives buyers a solid reason to consider buying a product.

If you ask Microsoft, this promotional tool consists of a combination of letters and numbers. Moreover, it has a specific purpose. For example, a marketer may offer a promo code in order to run a holiday campaign for specific products or services.

Why Coupon Codes Work

Once a code is issued by a store, it offers incentives for buyers to make purchases. And the good thing is that it is a win-win deal for both buyers and the seller or business. In other words, customer get their desired product at a discounted price and the store earns revenue.

Another great thing about a promo code is that it can work great for both old and new customers. The reason is that the incentives have a great impact on the shopping experience of buyers, according to the research reports released by the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies at Claremont Graduate University.

According to the research, people feel more happiness when they get coupon than when they get a gift. Apart from this, the study shows that the receivers of these codes experience an increased level of oxytocin. This hormone is behind your feelings of happiness.

Monitoring Marketing Efforts

If you want to track the results of your marketing efforts, coupon codes can be one of the most effective ways. With this tool, you can identify the platforms that generate tons of traffic or results in higher levels of conversions, says Inc. magazine. Let’s get a deeper insight into this marketing strategy.

It’s easy for marketers to find out the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns. All they need to do is add a specific promo code to their advertisements or campaign. Here it’s important to keep in mind that you don’t have to go for a different discount offer for different campaigns.

All you need to do is get a new code for each campaign. For instance, you can create codes that are a little bit different. The idea is to create a platform-specific code so that each code is fit for Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms. After all, the right thing should be used for the right purpose or platform.

Why should you assign specific letters or numbers to a specific ad? You can enjoy a lot of benefits if you do so. Actually, these codes encourage a buyer to click on the ad in their email or social media feed. And this will increase their likelihood of clicking on the link. In other words, it will increase the click through rate significantly.

Also, it will allow you to analyze and capture the return on investment of your advertisement on different platforms. Aside from this, if a customer enters the coupon code, it will tell that they found your ad in their email or social media feed. And they will keep checking out your promotional emails for similar offers in the future.

How can you use Coupon Codes?

Once you enter a promo code while you are checking out, you confirm that you accept and follow the terms and conditions of the product promotion. Therefore, if the code offers, say, 20% off the product price, know that it won’t work if you don’t meet the minimal threshold. Also, you can customize the requirements in order to exclude specific products or brands.

The use of Multiple Codes

Based on your website, you can use more than one coupon codes. It all boils down to your preferences. If you are going to decide as to how many you offer for your customers, make sure you know that the deal will be profitable for you regardless of the number of them you are going to offer. After all, you are doing all this in order to earn profits.

Different types of Coupon Codes

Today, you can find different types of codes offered by different sellers. Although there are many codes to choose from, you will find that three are the most common. Let’s find out more about them.

Public Codes: As the name suggests, these codes are open to common people. This means that whoever finds them can use them to buy their desired products at a lower rate. Typically, companies use them to entice fresh customers or spur on existing buyers to get back for more.

Private Codes: Usually, stores make use of private codes in order to target certain type of people. Typically, they are offered to loyal customers to avail specific shopping opportunities like first-time buyers. And the good thing is that this strategy brings in a lot of new buyers.

Restricted Codes: as the name suggests, they are aimed at one user and can’t be used more than once. Typically, they are sent to a specific customer as an apology when they are unhappy because of a delayed delivery. They are also sent as a thank-you. For instance, when a buyer makes their 100th purchase on their store, a restricted promotional code is sent to them by the store.

High Quality Backlinks (Get Better Results)
Some of you might be thinking what is the difference between link building and building backlinks? Well, do not get confused because they are the same thing. Backlinks are incoming hyperlink from one web page to another. Hence, they are same as link-building.

As backlinks are a major element of Search Engine optimization success, it is very important to learn how to build high quality backlinks. Building high quality backlinks are necessary because they decide the rank of your website. Proper and high quality backlinks also increase the authentication and reliability of your website. For example:- if your site is about the Royal Bengal Tigers, but you are creating links from other niche sites about Amazon Anaconda then those links will be irrelevant. You should always aim to attach proper and relevant links to your website. Backlinks also help in sending referral traffic, which in return makes your website more and more visible to public.

Building Backlinks is a complex process, but it is not impossible. Listed below are the ways through which you can build high quality backlinks -:

Write remarkable articles
If you write great and high quality articles, people will indeed link to your articles. Before writing articles, do proper research and avoid plagiarism. This is one of the best and simplest ways of getting backlinks for your website. Give examples, use rhetorical devices, and have references. Through these tactics, you can write well-researched articles and attract people to link your websites.

Start Commenting
Commenting just not only helps you to gain more traffic and improve search engine visibility, it also helps you in solidifying your way of getting backlinks. It is an easy, quick, and free method of getting backlinks. You should start following online forums and start commenting. But your comments should be of good quality. Try not to spam the person. Commenting can benefit you through link juice that is when another website links article from your website. When you write comments, you give your original ideas. People can refer to your comments when they write a post.

Submission to Web Directories
A web directory is a directory on the World Wide Web that lists websites by categories and subcategories. Submitting your website to Web Directories will help in getting your website indexed. If you launch a new website and you want that website to be visible on search engines, then submission to web directories would be an easier way of doing that. Submitting your websites to web directories will also help you to build backlinks. Directory submissions will generate high quality and reliable backlinks for you and will also increase the ranking of your website.

Using Social Networking Sites
People do not really use this method because they underestimate the power of social networking sites. Rather social networking sites can generate high quality backlinks for you. As you know, many social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. are highly used among the public. You may have noticed that you can add many links (links of your own website) when you write your bio on these social networking sites. You should use these methods to connect links to your website.

Using Press Release Websites
Press release sites mainly supply published contents that could be easily picked up news sites. Hence, you can use press sites to get more high quality backlinks. It can give more exposure and high quality backlinks to you. When you try to get backlinks through press release websites, make sure you have relevant connect and an attractive title. Use eye catchy headlines to snatch people’s attention. Also, make sure that you have a link attached to your website so that people can go back to your original website. This will also protect your content from copyright issues.

Submit your articles to Document Sharing sites
By submitting your articles to document sharing sites, you can easily create backlinks. Convert your content into PDF files and upload them to file sharing websites that will leave a backlink to your website.

Guest Blogging
Guest Blogging makes high quality and genuine backlinks for your website. It is because guest posting is followed by Google and they do not post duplicate content. Also, some of the blogs have higher ranking and therefor if you post your blogs, your content can stay there for a while. Write good blogs and attract people to link to your articles.

Link Exchange
Link Exchange is basically placing your links on other websites and asking people to check them out. When people click on your links, it will bring them to your original website. You also have to place other links on your website. Through this method you can easily create high quality backlinks.

Building high quality backlinks can improve your search engine optimization (SEO) campaign. Having an improved and better Search Engine Optimization can create more traffic and build a good reputation of your brand. Try to implement above listed tactics to build high quality backlinks and improve your SEO rankings.

Through these ways, you can benefit from a link building strategy that in return will help your business to prosper through increased brand visibility, greater brand reputation and recognition, more traffic, and a competitive edge. So do not waste time and start working on building relevant links for your own website.

HAS Technosys Pvt. Ltd. provides a range of digital marketing and web development services like, SEO, PPC, mobile app development, ecommerce & other website development. We have in house experts with 24/7 support via email and phone.

Regarding Any Query-

In today’s flooded internet market, it is very difficult to stand out and get noticed. Organic search results are some of the hardest areas to establish your name and standing in. This is why we hear so much about 1) Search Engine Optimization (SEO); so the search engines know what you specialize in and 2) building credible links to our websites from other more established web properties; to establish credibility as a quality source of content.

How is a new web entrepreneur to go about doing this when there is so much misguided information offered on the internet and an overwhelming number of marketers or even scammers trying to find ways to grab every little penny you have when you are first trying to get started. They seem more than willing to risk your business with Gray or Dark Hat methods and advise. But be forewarned that people selling advanced ranking are likely to get you an initial boost followed by a delisting from search engines.

Business Directories are great places to start.

LinkedIn.com – You can build a company profile, as well as individual profiles for key employees and founders. Select “Other” when setting your first web site link to create custom anchor text. Also take advantage of the two additional links available, but no custom anchor text is allowed.

Digg – Digg is great for traffic generation, and while not the bigtime it once was, it is still a large community. Plus, you can submit articles you want to promote, and links to those articles are followed by search engines.

Foursquare – Even if you’re not a check-in fool, you should set up Foursquare profiles, as the link you associate with your account is followed.

Reddit – An article submission site in the Digg line. Very active with highly engaged users. The links you submit will not deal with the no – follow attribute.

Squidoo – Create as many Squidoo “lenses” as you desire, about related business topics. A lens typically consists of a blog post type article, with links to other recommended sources.

StumbleUpon – An article discovery site that’s exceedingly busy and popular. Drives significant views all around the Web. Submitted links are followed.

Yelp – Even if you don’t know a mountain oyster from a sea oyster, create a profile on Yelp. The link in your profile is followed. Links in comments, however, are no-follow.

listings.local.yahoo.com – This local business portal allows you to create a profile for your business and is devoid of the no – follow attribute. Use target keywords in the profile and description fields, and anchor text if possible.
One of the more practical methods is to leverage free directory Article Publishing services. Really the big key is finding those that provide DoFollow enabled so that once the article is indexed, the back-links are included and your sites reputation is increased.

Sadly, many sites do not provided DoFollow links. Especially in regard to comments and other generally posted information. If you are not aware of the websites policies and they use NoFollow, the ‘no-follow’ breaks the connection you are trying to make between one website and the next, defeating the purpose of a link from the perspective of Google optimization (people can of course still click the link and visit your site directly).

Having an opportunity to publish an article about your company and include some back-links to your business that will be indexed by the various search engine companies is a great low cost method to getting your busine

Our businesses also differ in terms of interface with clients. If you do “business to business” transactions, the number of people you interact with on a daily basis may differ from someone whose business relies on interacting with consumers. Appointments may be more practical in some instances than others. You have to tailor-make how you manage access to your particular situation if you are to eliminate distractions. Having said that it is important to note that some people do not mind spending the whole day at the office entertaining friends, visitors, and casual acquaintances dropping into the office whenever they feel like it. Do not be that kind of person. It sets the wrong kind of example to junior staff and can harm one’s productivity because these people take up time that you do not have and besides you want to cultivate a professional environment.

The demands of the day are enough to fill the eight working hours available unless if you tend to stay back and play catch up. How do you stay competitive in the market if there is no separation between work and play? Anybody serious about success and achieving effective results will put boundaries that are clear so that there is no confusion. Entrepreneurs are more susceptible to this especially when the workplace is easily accessible. The fact that you are your own boss even puts more responsibility on you to maintain self-discipline and self – management. I have written a whole book called, “Achieve More through Self – Leadership. In it I walk you through the practicalities of how you can get better results through managing self.

Appointments are an important way of not only managing time but managing life. They help you become more structured and productive. Some people seem not to be able to honour their appointments. I once attended a job interview that was supposed to start at 10:30am. By 11:30am there had been no communication about what was happening or when the supposed job interview was going to take place. I decided at the point that this company was probably not good enough for me to join because if you don’t respect people’s time you probably do not respect them.

You may be saying appointments are just not for me yet you never rock up at the doctor, dentist, lawyer or hairstylist without an appointment. Why is that the case? Because you simply won’t see the dentist without an appointment. They have given you conditions acceptable to them. We tell the world around us how to treat us by what we allow.

Some people are always available when you want to see them. If you are always free to see people at short notice, you are probably not that organized. The one who owns a diary will manage the one who doesn’t own one. Why? Because the one without the diary is always available, even though he is very likely to forget important meetings, dates and engagements because of a lack of organization. I used to have a boss who kept a diary and whatever you promised to do in the line of work, he would write down, including the day and time you said he would have it by. You would of-course forget because you didn’t record it like he did and when the time to deliver comes, guess who would be found wanting. It was then that I decided that I do not commit to an action that I am not willing to write down because, what’s written gets done!

You may be saying, “what if my business feeds off the “walk-ins? The fact that your business relies on walk – in customers should not be an excuse for disorder. Sometimes those who drop in unannounced may indeed be potential customers, suppliers, cold-calling salespeople, and even worthwhile business contacts. There is nothing wrong if the call is beneficial to you and your business but I believe there must be a structure and way of doing things that follows certain pre-set principles. I remember seeing a poster in an office that said “if you don’t have anything to do please don’t do it here”. It’s humorous yes, but true. Appointments help to structure your day and helps you allocate time to what’s important. This means you can focus on your most important asset: the paying customer. There is nothing as bad as walking into a place wanting to do business and staff are inattentive because there is just a demand on their time. I am more understanding if the personnel are not busy entertaining social visits at work.

In conclusion, you know your business situation better than any of us. All we can do is make recommendations that will enable efficiency that leads to growth. Some of you may actually need a personal assistant who will put order in your office and focus on the things you are not willing to do that will enable to focus on the highly value things you ought to do such as running a business.

Do you think successful people are just plain lucky?

Successful people did not become successful because they were lucky.

They did not achieve success by accident. Being at the right place at the right time, meeting relevant people, reading the appropriate book, did not come about accidentally or by luck.

Luck is brought about by Labour Under Correct Knowledge.

Successful people prepared themselves. Instead of giving up on anything they started and wanted to achieve they got stronger by learning more.

Success is a methodical, orderly and deliberate process of deciding what you want to do with your life, what are the steps that you need to undertake to get you there, and lastly what you will do once you get there.

One of the most important aspects, if not the most important aspect to success, is the ability to visualise your successful outcome and stay focused on it until you achieve it.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge, knowledge is limited.” – Albert Einstein

Successful people understood the potential power behind knowledge, yet they also understood that, for them to close the gap between where they are and where they wanted to be, they would have to piece together the enigma that is most often referred to as “life”.

They had to build a picture, a vision, of success in their mind, and then go about taking action on creating that envisioned life.

In much the same way, you have to be serious about your present and future, you need to have the knowledge that is required so you, too, may close the gap: you need to be and remain determined to devote yourself to taking massive action to build your business of succeeding in life.

You, too, will need to see the end, your dream and destiny that you desire in your mind’s eye. It is up to you to take the necessary and relevant action to make it all happen. It’s just like going to the doctor with a particular health problem.

The doctor may prescribe a medication for you to take four times a day, yet he cannot be there with you to ensure that you are taking the medication.

It comes back to deciding to be responsible for your life.

Have you noticed how it all stems from that one attitude? Being responsible for your own life.

Your success, your being responsible 100% for you to live your dream life starts here.

When you accept 100% responsibility for yourself and your current life situation, you will have the power to move towards those things you truly desire in life: which is success in all areas of your life.

This life-changing article is about possibilities and opportunities, knowledge and tools. It will help expose your unique course in life.

It will inspire, support and motivate you to excel, to do what successful people do, to have all that successful people have, and to become a shining example of a successful person.

Here, you’re not being told what you couldn’t do, instead you are being told to shoot for the stars. And above all, you are being shown how to shoot for those stars.

“A person is what he thinks about all day long.” – Emerson

Interesting thought, wouldn’t you think? So much so, it’s worth repeating: “A person is what he thinks about all day long.”

Success and happiness cannot happen if you possess the same old thoughts and beliefs.

If you do not change your mind, if you do not get rid of the unsupportive thoughts and beliefs, you will inevitably remain stuck in your old ways. Not much, if anything, will change.

Let’s give you a quick overview on how change comes about:

Your BEHAVIOUR, how you act (or perhaps do not act), controls your success or failure. Your ability to attain high levels of success is dependent upon your actions and behaviours. Your results are the outcome of your behaviour. Now let’s consider where your behaviours come from and what controls them?

Your FEELINGS command your behaviour. Every action that you take is first filtered through your feelings that reside in your subconscious mind. How you feel about something determines what you do and how well you do it. So where do your feelings come from?

Your ATTITUDES create and influence your feelings. Your attitude is your perspective from which you view life. Whatever attitude you have about anything will affect how you feel, which, in turn, affects how you act. Where do your attitudes come from?

Your BELIEFS create, control and influence your attitudes. What you believe about anything will determine your attitude about it, which will create your feelings, and then which will direct your behaviour and action. Belief patterns are so powerful that two people who are in the same situation could perceive things completely differently. It only requires us to believe what we see and how we see it. We all have thousands of beliefs – big and small. And where do your beliefs come from?

Your THOUGHTS create, control and influence your beliefs. Your thoughts are real and are immensely powerful. Everything you accept from the outside world and everything you feed yourself from within is a product of your thoughts. Everything starts as a thought.

So, it goes without saying you need to learn to control your thoughts. And when you do, you will automatically control your beliefs, your attitudes, your feelings and, consequently, your behaviour and actions.

The big secret to success:

Learn to control your thoughts and you will influence your behaviours and actions. It’s all a mind-set. That’s what we’ve been saying all along.

Success is predictable and is not achieved by accident.

Have the mind-set of the successful people and you will achieve success. Believe and it is yours!

“There is a great future in front of you, you can leave your past behind.” – Joel Osteen

Science of success experts have concluded that the brain is a goal-setting organism.

That is fantastic news for us: for whatever goal we give to our subconscious mind, it will work for us day and night, 24/7, to achieve it for us; to make it a reality.

The principal breakthrough that scientists made was that we do not need to waste our precious time and effort trying to change old thoughts and behaviours: we just simply create new ones.

And the other discovery they made was that we can continue to create new thoughts, new memories, new behaviours, new skills, and learn new things for as long as we are alive on this earth.

Now, with the new discoveries in recent years, it has been scientifically proven that our capacity to achieve and succeed literally has no limits.

Our brain has the capacity to continually learn during our entire lifetime.

Our brain can form new thoughts, can have new memories, and can learn new things by the millions, no matter what your age is. By the millions.

That’s how many new things we can learn, that’s how many new skills we can learn, that’s how many new thoughts we can have, that’s how many new behaviours we can adopt.

This is encouraging because there is no limit on your capacity to achieve new things.

No limits whatsoever for the human brain to learn, memorise, develop, achieve and perform at higher levels than ever imagined. It makes no difference what your age is: you are capable of learning anything new that you want to learn.

That adds to what we spoke of earlier: no more excuses.

“The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.” – Malcolm X

Your brain has the capacity to achieve way beyond what was ever thought possible. So now is the time to break out of your limited thinking and start dreaming big and imagining unlimited possibilities.

Becoming successful is not impossible.

It is a choice you make through a decision. Every day, step-by-step, you may climb the mountain of success if you’ve decided to do so, if you’re committed to accomplish what the others think impossible.

Design your future now.

Prepare to receive what you desire.

Thanks to the phenomenal advances made in cognitive science and the development of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), personal change, personal transformation, has come a very long way.

In fact, personal growth is no longer a mystery.

NLP has brought to light that change, transformation and growth can be fast, reliable, and even fun. It has shown us that we do not need to spend thousands of hours slaving away to increase our creative-thinking abilities.

By practicing a few simple exercises and applications, you can start your creative juices flowing, and you may even amaze yourself at the quality and quantity of good ideas that you can come up with to expedite your success.

It can allow you to achieve something you seek within days and months as opposed to years and decades. That’s the power of the progress science has made on how the brain works, and also how you can have your mind to be your best ally in achieving anything you want.

Learn to live as you like by no longer living as you dislike.

Are you ready to get on the road to success and fulfilment?

Bear in mind, much like everything else in life, success requires practice and massive, consistent action.

“Success doesn’t mean the absence of failures; it means the attainment of ultimate objectives. It means winning the war, not every battle.” – Edwin C Bliss

Do you feel as if you’ve outgrown your circle of friends? Perhaps you do not feel safe or understood any longer. There may be fewer and fewer things you can share with people in your habitual circle, and it leaves you feeling lonely or isolated. If so, you are not alone. Welcome to one of the core dynamics of continuous growth!

As we continue to evolve, many of us struggle with a sense of not quite fitting in with our traditional community or tribe: we may have expanded or changed beyond the borders of tribal norms, and no longer find the same sense of belonging there. Other members may have tightened the tribal rules to foster a sense of security. As a result, we may feel a sense of disconnection or alienation.

In truth, each one of us belongs to many tribes simultaneously: there is your original tribe – the family you were born into – and then there are all the communities of choice you have joined: your work tribe, your social circles, your faith-based community, your neighborhood, and more. These communities are not static; they are in continuous flux because they consist of individuals who are in continuous states of change. When there is a lot of change happening in either the individual or the community, a sense of dissonance results.

How are we to deal with this? First, it is important to recognize that tribal allegiances were historically forged for survival. They were adapted over the course of centuries to ensure the safety and survival of the group. Survival required that individuation be sacrificed for the trade-off of security.

In modern society, the tables are flipped. Whether we enjoy it or not, change is essential for survival at every level of being. The pace of change is driven by technological advances and happens with increasing rapidity: sociologists estimate that more change has taken place in society over the course of the past 100 years, than in the totality of the previous 6,000 years. Individual adaptation now is a requirement for survival, and the pace of individual change does not always match the pace at which our various tribal communities evolve. The resulting dissonance can cause intense friction and pain.

Dissonance also results from confusion between the concepts of ‘connection’ and ‘community.’ We tend to equate one with the other, when they really relate to different qualities. Connection relates to connectivity: the objective physical technology or media that enables us to build community, but which does not represent the quality of that community. Connectivity simply offers the opportunity to connect with others through internet, texting, phone calls, or any other social networking options.

Community is the result of building relationship through meaningful interaction over time. There is no shortcut; it is a process that develops when bonds of trust and intimacy are nurtured and honored.

And here lies a caveat: When we confuse connectivity with community, we depersonalize the sacred nature of true community and start relating to people as objects. Instead of developing intimacy over time, we collect friends on social network sites or try to buy people’s allegiance. Yet friending is simply an act of connecting; it does not create intimacy.

In fact, social experiments indicate that technologically dominated connectivity results in alienation and social collapse over time. In a groundbreaking social experiment conducted by Josh Harris, one of the founders of social networking on the internet, he found that the more people’s private lives were exposed by 24/7 technology, the more their sense of intimacy and relationship deteriorated until the community collapsed in violence and self-destructive behavior.

It is time to revisit our concepts of community so we can create tribes that offer a true sense of intimacy and belonging.

In his 1987 book, The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace, psychologist M. Scott Peck described several core characteristics of true community. Beyond the obvious components of inclusivity, commitment and participatory consensus, Peck pointed out the quality of embracing diversity through realism. When each member contributes their unique viewpoint from a place of humility and goodwill, the community benefits from a broader perspective in which to better grasp the full context of a situation. In other words, mutual tolerance helps members to embrace one another’s different viewpoints as an integral part of the whole, instead of imposing a forced compliance to groupthink or cohesion.

In an environment like this, members experience and express compassion and respect for one another. They allow others to share their vulnerability, to learn and grow, and to express who they truly are. When conflict arises, they learn to resolve it with wisdom and grace. Members listen to and respect each others’ gifts, accept each others’ limitations, celebrate their differences, and commit to find solutions together rather than to fight against each other. Indeed, the true spirit of community is the spirit of peace, love, wisdom and power. The source of this spirit may be seen as an outgrowth of the collective self or as the manifestation of a Higher Will.

Does this description of community sound spiritual to you? It is indeed, because Spirit is the common denominator among all of us, regardless of how separate we feel from others.

As human beings, we often experience a socio-economic sense of separation from others because of different opinions, beliefs, expectations, language, culture, or interests, since each one of us expresses these in a way uniquely different from anyone else. And still, we continue to differentiate! In this ongoing process, we continue to evolve or devolve in response to life. A community that felt like a good fit last year may no longer work today; the places where we felt embraced, now may suffocate us. Over the course of a lifetime, we can expect to outgrow and change allegiances to many of the tribal communities we once belonged to.

And yet, when we transcend the layers of physical appearance, mental beliefs and socio-economic conditioning, we find in the presence of Spirit a common denominator in everyone around us. Perhaps it is time to expand our tribal definitions to embrace a spiritual community that includes all of mankind as children of God.

Mother Teresa admonished her nuns to see Jesus in every leper they encountered, to find His presence as they looked into the eyes of the homeless. When we can look past the issues that divide us to find omnipresent Divinity in each other, we will uncover the foundations of true community.

Spiritual community transcends all socio-economic borders, beliefs and backgrounds. It is inclusive because it operates on voluntary self-responsibility and mutual compassion, and its doors are open to everyone.

Building this type of community takes time: time to listen, to hear, to respond and to participate. Take a few moments to read the description of spiritual community again. Then, make time in your life to foster that type of connection with people who matter to you. You are one of the architects of community in your life, and you can participate in building a tribe where you belong.

What would happen to you if your home life was more organized than it is right now? Can work-life balance be achieved? What are the tools at our disposal? Could scheduling appointments and keeping them at home help us save time and prioritize?

What is the challenge we face? I sometimes find that time spent at home can be the busiest time, especially in the times we live in. Imagine someone working from home, home-schooling children, and sometimes even doing a side hustle. Imagine also the full-time home-based entrepreneur. How do they manage to do all they need to do in a day?. We are living in a time when many entrepreneurs and even company employees have adopted work- at – home culture. This comes with its challenges as the lines become blurred between home and work. These blurred lines and constraints on the limited resource called time result in over-worked, under-rested, burnt-out individuals. Whilst good time management has been encouraged and indeed, embraced in the workplace, I believe more needs to be done in changing the mindset for the elusive work-life balance to be achieved.

What are the tools at our disposal? To manage time effectively at home, there are many interventions one can employ including setting goals for the day, prioritizing wisely, setting a time limit for every task, organizing oneself, and instituting the discipline of appointments. Yes, an appointment at home! We can spend time pontificating on the pros and cons of each intervention, however, I believe we need to focus on appointments and see how this can powerfully change the course of one’s day regardless of whether it’s a workday or weekend. Life is busy as it is without any intrusions. The question is how do you handle the one who announces that they are at the gate. These can be friends, neighbors, a salesman of some product you do not even need. I am not promoting regimentation here but rather a culture of filling your day with what’s important. Everything that we succeed at is because we carefully plan and execute it. I am a firm believer that you cannot manage time if you do not manage yourself thus I implore you to incorporate planning and appointments into your repertoire. I am not talking about something I do not do. I have to achieve many things in a day therefore I set appointments with my work, others, and myself.

Could scheduling appointments and keeping them on the home front help us save time and prioritize? Whereas we have established that it is a normal business practice to set appointments and keep them, we need to abandon the liberal open-door policy of allowing all and sundry to have access to us as and when they please on the home front. Please understand where I am coming from. We each have greatness within us but for us to achieve it we need to culture great habits. Employing the use of appointments at home and seeing only those people you had agreed to see removes non-essential encounters especially during the most productive hours. I know this will vary with culture, geographical region, or even level of affluence, whether you live in a low density or high-density residential area, but doesn’t negate the need to be organized and effective. Controlling access determines how organized you are and how well you will work and rest when the time for scheduled rest comes.

What do we need to do differently? We need to be disciplined and diligent, learn to say no, now is not a good time, let’s make an appointment for next week. What are the benefits of this approach? You are not always fire-fighting to meet deadlines, You are not always tired because you have not taken time out to rest. You have set aside enough time to spend with your loved ones or a loved one. If you are a busy person, I am sure you appreciate what I am saying. Whether it’s time to work uninterrupted, family time, or “me-time”, it takes some kind of order to enjoy it.

I am not saying that those that come unannounced are bad people. No, not at all, they probably are people you enjoy spending time with. Nevertheless, there must be prior communication so that you can attend to your visitor(s) when it is convenient for both you and them. It can be quite disrupting and a whole day can just pass by without achieving anything that you had planned to do.

As we grow older we begin to appreciate that rest and recovery need to be scheduled. The fact that I am relaxing doesn’t mean that I don’t have anything to do. One therefore cannot assume that just because you are at home you are available. Maybe you have scheduled that time to rest. That is important. You need to make an appointment with yourself, spouses need to also set aside time for each other. Parents need to schedule a time to spend with their children. When you have some sort of order in your life you determine who sees you and who you see. It also means that your relationships will be healthy and that makes you a happier person.

In conclusion, I believe that the work-life balance can be achieved. There are many tools at our disposal just like it is in the workplace.I believe we could do more and be happier if we are disciplined enough to make only the commitments we can keep.I am certain that setting appointments and keeping them at home help us save time and prioritize.