Every week on Devlounge we feature inspiring designs and ideas, give you tips on what works and what doesn’t, and share useful resources to improve your site. Don’t you wish the efforts you’ve done towards building your site would be recognized? If you want a critique of your own blog while gaining a valuable promotional link back to your site, you might be interested in submitting your URL to one of the top blog directories, Blog Search Engine, which just got relaunched this week.

How to Get Featured

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Win a Platinum Package Worth $99.99!

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Also, people often associate getting free hardware and various electronic devices with individual consumers who are using the internet. But businesses, loaded with other costs such as web design, marketing, and production, can benefit from these strategies too. They can put someone on the task of finding these offers and if that person works diligently, save hundreds of dollars equipping offices with free laptops, cell phones, web cams, and many other handy devices for the workplace. In these troubled economic times, it makes sense for businesses to save money wherever possible. Consider trying to outfit your office with some free items so you can concentrate on some of the more important expenses involved in your business.

The following are some tips on getting free devices on the internet:

Free Trial Offers

One of the main ways that people can get free gifts on the web, including electronic items like cell phone and computers, is by taking part in free trial offers. The way the process works is basically as follows:

Certain websites want traffic, subscriptions, or customers. These companies may offer any number of different goods and services. The first step to getting people on board is to have them try out the product or service for a limited time. A good way to entice people to do this is to offer them a free gift if they try out a service.

Another party in this sales interchange is a company that is willing to donate some free item as part of some deal they have with the website or company giving the trial offer. The first company may purchase many of the devices cheaply and then offer them free as part of its marketing, or the maker of the gift (in this case and electronic device) may be willing to give things away because they get valuable marketing data and exposure for their products. Either way the free gift comes into play simply as a way of attracting customers. In some cases these are fairly expensive mass produced items like IPods or cellular phones.

Free Gift Cards

Another way these offers work is through gift cards. Sometimes the companies running trial offers promise the customer a free gift card if they subscribe, refer customers, or make some other purchase. These gift cards are often non specific and can be used to purchase any item of your choice. That could be an Xbox or an iPhone

Sweepstakes

This is a longer shot, but you can participate in sweepstakes. With some sweepstakes you have more of a chance of winning than with others. In some you win money of you win, and in others you may win a free gift or trip. You can try to select a number of different sweepstakes to increase your chances of winning some gadget you’re looking for, or win money to purchase it.

Free Offer Websites

There are dedicated websites that list hundreds of offers like this. You can consult these websites to find a plethora of these sorts of deals. You can perform searches on the type of electronic device you’re looking for and see if you can even find several free trial offers or chances to win it and line them up, increasing your chances.

Caution

There is a big cautionary note that has to go along with all this. There are a great many scams or misleading offers in the world of free items online as well. A large part of your task is simply sorting out which offers are genuine and which are not. And in almost all cases you need to be conscientious and cancel some subscription of membership on a website after some period of time or it will automatically bill your credit card. The idea scenario is to subscribe to an offer, stay on top of how long you have to cancel it before being charged, and then cancel it early, keeping the free gadget.

You can read user review sites, check with the Better Business Bureau, and ask questions on forums to check if a site is genuine.

The final word here is that you need to be fairly vigilant and responsible and do your homework in order to get free items on the internet. If a single employee or a team concentrates on this in the office, they are bound to find a wealth of free items useful to a business. There is a gigantic sea of electronic gadgetry out there and some of it is indeed free. Someone will get it, so why not your business?

Guest post by:

Daniel Minou is an engineer with expertise in area of of VOIP. He has written various articles and researched work on business voip and telephone solutions. If you have any questions regarding small business voip he is the person to reach out.

Website traffic analysis, keyword research and content optimization are the three main criteria of SEO. When we talk about the content optimization, we are taking about the editing of web content, link building and HMTL coding. Good and well optimized content and good web development increases the chance of getting good place in search engine rankings. Keep on reading to know more about the SEO tips that you need to keep in mind if you want to see your website on top ranks.

1.Proper Use of Flash

People often use Flash to perk up the look of their website but the problem appears when it is not used properly. It is not recommended to use the Flash where it is not necessary. I never understand why people use Flash where HTML/CSS has to be used. However, Flash is a wonderful component to be used in a website if you want to add an audio, 3D animation or a video in your website. Flash cannot be used to power the entire site but is only served as a component of HTML/CSS site. Flash though is web accessible and SEO friendly but when we compare it to HTML, JavaScript and CSS it is a bit difficult.

2. Proper use of JavaScript

If you want to use content in your website with both hiding and showing flair you must use the JavaScript. This tact is not only used to attract the web robots and search engines but also loved by the screen readers. If you want to check whether JavaScript is hidden in the web page or not, you need to disable the JavaScript temporarily and then check if you can read the content or not. These settings can easily be changed from the browser settings.

3. File naming

If you want your images to be Search Engine Optimized make sure that you name the image files correctly. For example if you are uploading an image of pink flower, name it as pinkflower.jpg and not anything random like img3hia.jpg. Naming the file correctly gives an extra asset to your site. Keep the image name of ten words or less and use the similar key terms as used in the content.

4. Do not stuff your home page with links

Though the hyperlinks on the home page pointing to the other pages is important but make sure that there are not more than 150 links. Allowing too many internal links makes the page overcrowded and this may result in slow processing of the page.

5. Don’t Use Redundant Links

Linking any one page redundantly with some other particular page is not sensible at all. Search engines will count only the first link of the page and all other are sheer waste, it may in-fact confuse the readers.

6. Deep Linking

The links which point the internal pages instead of the home page are called deep links. Using the deep links is a fantastic way to send power to the website.

Guest Blogger:

Alicia, internet geek and a wildlife photographer. You will mostly find her capturing images in deep forests and she enjoy searching for temp staffing services, photography tips, design tips and free apps for her iPhone.

I run a few online services where I’m the sales guy, the marketing guy, tech support and even customer service rep. The great thing about being all these is that the buck stops with me. With most customer service calls, you get passed to and fro. If your inquiry can’t be addressed by the frontliners, you get passed on to tech support. If it’s about your money, you get passed to billing. If you want a new service or an upgrade, you get passed to sales. I’ve experienced a call in which I was passed around and around. I ended up just listening to the what are probably scripted statements uttered by people who don’t really understand their products and services.

In the event that you get an angry email or telephone call complaining about your service, what do you do?

Understand user expectations. Many of my complaints about my mobile service are better addressed by getting online and searching through forums. Most of the time, when I call my cellphone provider’s customer service number, the staff can only regurgitate scripted information that is most of the time irrelevant and even useless, because they really cannot understand the context of my call. But, if you really use your own product and service, you get to understand it from deep within. You know how to work it, and you know how to hack it, if need be. Put yourself in the shoes of your customer, so you know where he’s coming from. Be your own customer yourself, and see if you appreciate your own product offering.

Get additional information. Sometimes, customers in their anger would just blurt out generic statements like “My email is not working. Please fix it,” or “Your service sucks. I want my money back.” The best thing to do in these cases is to ask for specifics. If you suspect it’s a system-related issue, ask for the operating system, browser, and even the version they use, which could have an incompatibility or known issue. Or you can ask for the exact date and time that their issue had occurred. Or if you run several services from under one brand, you might want to ask for specifics like which product it is they’re complaining about.

You might get additional information from your own records, and this might also be helpful in diagnosing the problem and in your eventual resolution. Whatever the case may be, don’t just take the complaint at face value. Dig deeper. Try to see it from different perspectives. The solution might just be there somewhere.

Act quickly. Most big companies make you go through red tape before you get your complaint acted upon. In some cases, it’s really logistical issues that cause the delay, such as when there are physical repairs needed. But when you’re a small business, you have the flexibility to act quickly. If all it takes to make your complaining customer happy are a few clicks of the mouse, then it would be worth it.

Offer a refund or discount. If you suspect that your customer isn’t really the right match with your service, then be gracious enough to offer a refund. Of course, if it’s a physical product that’s being contested, you would want it returned. But if it’s an online service, a membership, a subscription, or any online material, then it’s probably best to offer a refund without much fuss. Goodwill goes a long way, and you develop good business relationships based on goodwill. Your irate customer might end up purchasing from you again if you treat him well.

If a refund is too drastic, you can offer a discount. The same goodwill concept applies. If a customer sees you’re gracious enough to offer some of his money back for the trouble, then chances are he will stick it with you.

Follow up. After acting on a complaint, check with your customer if the resolution is to his satisfaction. You might want to follow up a few weeks after, just to check on things. Your customer might be able to give you a few insights on how to make your service better.

In the end, when you don’t get to see your customers face to face, there is always the temptation to slack off. But rather than brush aside these calls for help, why not seize the opportunity to prove your worth as a business person. Fix things. Talk to people. Connect. Improve. This is what complaint resolution is all about.

It’s not such an easy task incubating and execute ideas if all you have are bullet points on a piece of paper, or on a .TXT file, though. While it’s not an elegant solution, it helps me remember. But being loose files and lines of text, the difficulty is connecting these pieces of information with each other, which would probably result in even better ideas.

Mind mapping. I’ve recently tried exploring mindmapping software, which are basically electronic equivalents of writing down your ideas and plans in text bubbles on paper, interconnected with lines, and represented by different symbols. I haven’t gotten the hang of it, but I plan to plot all my ideas, business plans, and strategies on mindmaps. Hopefully, this will help me become more organized.

And because I usually work on different desktops, notebooks and netbooks, I save my mindmaps on a folder commonly accessble via Dropbox, so I can work on it regardless of the computer, platform or even location, as long as I have an Internet connection.

Execution and follow through. Oftentimes, I am able to start with great ideas for a blog or web application. I buy a domain, write copy, and partner with designer and developer colleagues. We start out hyped, excited and energized. But then somewhere along the way the energy fizzles out. Real world concerns like servicing clients, catching deadlines and even cooking dinner might be distracting for one’s focus on executing an idea.

One solution I saw to address this is by not closing any important application windows or browser tabs on my computer. I just close the lid and put it to sleep at the end of the workday. But then with the multitude of tasks I consider important and essential, my workspace becomes too cluttered, and I am left with half-baked plans, half-executed projects, and deadlines still ominously looming over, seemingly waiting to bite me without notice.

Start with a bang. Of the many ideas I’ve incubated in my head and seen the light of day, the ones that succeed, or at least are sustained, are the ones that I’ve sat upon and continuously worked on until launch. Whether it’s building a blog from scratch, finishing a proposal for a client, or writing marketing copy for a new web app or service, I find it best if I get to finish it in one sitting. In find that if it takes too many emails back and forth to confirm designs, edit the text, and other negotiations, energy that could’ve been put towards actually executing an idea might get wasted. Not only that–if you dilly dally too much, you might find yourself having doubts and second thoughts, and therefore the idea fizzles out.

There are so-called serial entrepreneurs who are fond of jumping from one great execution of an idea to another. And more often than not, they gain much experience–and money–in the process. They probably have a tried and tested formula for doing this. Or perhaps they have a lucky streak. Or maybe it just boils down to good habits, good contacts, and a great mindset for developing and executing a good business idea.

Different things might work for different people. What are your “magic formulas” for success?

Or perhaps you might be designing the best WordPress theme, but you have no idea how to market it. Will it gain traction just for its inherent qualities? Maybe. Maybe not. If you were an expert at social media marketing, too, then maybe you stand a chance at competing with the already-established premium themes out there.

If you’re working alone, then chances are you might not always be able to take care of all aspects of development. I know some crack developers who, time and again, have sourced out part of their projects to other developers and designers. Some would assign projects on a per-module basis, and then assemble these into a bigger project once complete. And since I opened my own outsourcing business with a few partners, I’ve handled a few inquiries for various jobs, like back-end development, theme design, marketing or content. It’s a matter of filling in for expertise that other people might need.

In some cases, it would cost you a lot of money to have experts do the work for you. I know designers who charge thousands of dollars just for a WordPress theme. But then again, I know some who would be happy to do a theme for $500 or less. The lower end of the pricing scheme is usually a result of being situated in places with lower costs of living. I know this for a fact, because I enjoy this situation myself. Compare Tokyo, New York and Manila. $500 goes a long way in Manila, but would only get you a few lattes and sandwiches in New York, and probably an order of sushi and sake in Tokyo. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating here, but my point is that cost of living is relatively cheaper in some places.

Sometimes it’s a question of quality. Would you entrust programming and design work to people overseas? More importantly, would you entrust these to people who are complete strangers? And sometimes there are quirks and nuances that you have to consider. Is someone living in Mumbai familiar with the colloquialisms used by someone living in the west coast USA? This might not be an issue when you’re paying someone to convert your PSD graphic into CSS. But if you’re ordering articles, blog posts or other content, this would play a big part, especially if you’re building content meant to be read by humans (rather than, say, search engines).

Have you considered outsourcing development? It might be a good business move, but only if you can do it right. Outsourcing does not mean you can just pass on a task to someone else in its entirety, without much monitoring and interaction. Similarly, micromanaging outsourced work would be too much work for you, that you would probably be better off doing it yourself. Strike a balance. Build trust and keep communication lines open.

Have you outsourced development work before? Share your experiences.

How important is the role that a brand name plays in the success of an online venture?

And if brand is so important, is it also very important to consider the domain name early on in the planning stages? All of the brands I’ve cited above have their own .com names. But what if you have an excellent brand idea, but realize later on that the domain name is no longer available–at least on the popular .com and .net TLDs?

I’m in the process of planning and launching several new online ventures. And among the first considerations I’m working on are the brands and domain names. For this reason, I’ve already purchased several domains that I’ll possibly use. I’m also thinking of using existing domains I own, which I could just turn into a brand, like what I did with WorkSmartr.com, which I turned from a productivity blog into a site for outsourcing online work.

Here are a few things I think are important when choosing a brand.

A name that sticks. As I see it, brand is an essential aspect of business building. People are better able to remember something that they recognize easily. People are more likely to use a product with a cool sounding name. If your brand has made it into pop culture, then even better. See how you can “google” a word or “tweet” an update.

A name that’s descriptive. Another consideration is whether your brand is descriptive. This makes it easier for people to search for you. If you want a blogging platform, maybe the first thing you see on searches is “blogger.” Or how about Twitter Buttons? The domain name is usually one of the things that can help search optimization, so why not get one which already has the keywords you need?

A play on words. Web 2.0-ish names have been popular and everyone had been jumping on the bandwagon. Flickr started it, and a host of others followed (I must admit I do have my own domains that use a similar variation).

A name that’s flexible. Sometimes, getting the exact domain name may not necessarily be an absolute requirement. Think Dropbox. It’s a popular application, but they’ve had to be content with getdropbox.com. How about Backpack, which uses backpackit.com? It’s not the end of the world if you don’t get the domain name you want. For instance, I realize a business called “Racoma” owns the domain racoma.com, which incidentally stands for my surname. So I have had to use racoma.net and racoma.com.ph instead. What’s great is that because I’m more active online, my sites running on the .net and other domain extensions are more searchable than those that don’t belong to me.

Remember that a brand should stick in your target audience’s mind. If it doesn’t, and if your venture doesn’t succeed as planned, then it’s probably time to move on to the next one. I’ve seen it happen before. It’s not so difficult to rebrand, relaunch and redesign in today’s online environment.

No matter what, just make sure your name doesn’t fall under that “stupidly thought of” brand or domain, just like these “unintentionally worst” company URLs. That would be a laugh.

Now, of course, I can’t imagine not working without my multiple monitor setup. Here’s why:

Different spaces for different things. Forget OS X’s spaces- having multiple monitors gives you the real thing, baby! Design apps over there, games over here, social networking apps there… particularly good if, like me, you’re a little bit OC.

Faster testing. Testing new websites and designs on various browsers has always been my least favorite part of my work process. Being able to have Safari open in one monitor, Firefox in another, Chrome in another, etc. really speeds things up.

Better overall productivity. Ultimately, if you’re a multi-tasker, you’ll adore the possibilities that a multiple monitor setup will give you. All that switching from window to window, and dragging from here to there, on a single monitor setup really does add up- and I’ve found that I get more work done in less time with a multiple monitor setup.

Do you use multiple monitors? Are you considering adding another monitor to your setup?

In my last post, I talked about how deliberate practice is the key to improving your skills. Today we’ll look at the characteristics of this type of practice and how to apply it to web work.

Like my last post, this is based on the book Talent is Overrated. If you want to learn more, I recommend picking up your own copy.

After compiling and analyzing the research on exceptional performance, the book found these five qualities of deliberate practice.

1. It’s designed to specifically improve performance. When most people think of practice,they think of someone doing an activity over and over again.  However, deliberate practice means creating an activity that actually improves your skills.  For example, you shouldn’t choose an activity you’re already good at.

I think about some of the aspiring web designers that I met back in college.  They definitely had skill and I knew they spent a lot of time creating designs on Photoshop, but they didn’t seem to improve much over the years.  When they were seniors, their designs looked similar to their freshmen designs.  As I look back on how they spent their “practice time”, I remember that time was spent on techniques they were already good at.

Your practice rituals should be designed to shore up your weaknesses.  The book gave the great example of Benjamin Franklin, one of the most skilled prose writers in American history.  He learned his craft with an interesting practice ritual.  First, he would find quality essays that were written with more skill than he had.  Next, after some time, he would try to rewrite the essay.  Then, he would check his work to the original work to see how similar they were.

Following Franklin’s example, what if those designers from my college found some designs they wanted to emulate from designers with higher skill?  Next, they could wait a few days and then try to recreate the design from memory.  This activity is much more effective than creating the designs they were already comfortable with.

2. It can be repeated a lot. If you create an activity that’s designed to improve performance, you’ll be failing a lot.  This is because the activity will target an area of improvement, or a weakness.  And no matter how talented you are, research shows that it takes a lot of repetition to shore up a weakness.

Malcolm Gladwell’s bestselling book, Outliers, popularized the term “10,000-Hour Rule”.  This rule states that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to achieve world class success.  10,000 hours is a lot of repetition.  If you practiced 20 hours a week, it would take you 10 years to fulfill all those hours.

3. Feedback on results is continuously available. Many budding writers are advised to write every day to improve their skill.  So, they set a goal to write a certain amount of words every day, but how many of them seek feedback on their work?

Feedback is necessary because you need to know if you’re improving or not.

Franklin had an ingenious method of getting immediate feedback since he would just refer to the existing essay.  Franklin’s practice ritual is a timeless example for any writer.

We can apply this quality of getting feedback to web work.  For example, let’s pretend you’re a web designer and you want to improve your header creation skills.  First, find several quality tutorials for creating headers.  Next, go through the tutorials.  Then, wait a day or two and try to create the headers based on the tutorials.   Finally, seek feedback by checking the steps you took to create the header with the steps in the tutorial.

Programmers can do something similar by finding programming tutorials.  Or you can find quality open source software that uses unfamiliar coding technques and then try to recreate it from memory.  Also, you don’t have to recreate the whole piece of software.  A small but tricky section of code in the software can be useful as a feedback tool.

I can’t leave this point about feedback without talking about mentors.  Mentors are invaluable in feedback process.  If you dig deep enough at the life of any exceptional performer, more than likely you’ll find a mentor that provided helpful feedback to the performer for many years.

The book notes Tiger Woods’ father, Earl Woods.  A lover of golf, Earl mentored and taught Tiger how to play golf starting when Tiger was only two years old.  In the foreword to his father’s book, Woods said: “In retrospect, golf for me was an apparent attempt to emulate the person I looked up to more than anyone: my father. He was instrumental in helping me develop the drive to achieve, but his role — as well as my mother’s — was one of support and guidance, not interference.”

While you may not be as lucky to have a mentor in your field in your family, there are people online that would like to help.  It will take some effort but you should find someone who’s more skilled than you and see if they’ll mentor you.  You’ll probably have to offer something in return since they’ll be spending their valuable time to mentor you.  Yes, this might include cash but if you find a quality mentor, it’s worth spending money for their time, advice, and feedback.

Jonathan Morrow writes how he failed as a blogger until he paid Chris Garrett, a blogging expert, to mentor him.  If you’re a search marketer,  I recommend Aaron Wall’s SEO Training Program.  I’m not a web designer or a coder, so I don’t know of any designers or coders that offer mentoring services.  However, if you have any recommendations, feel free to leave a comment.

Finally, when seeking feedback, it’s important to set aside your ego.  As web workers, we’re often hesitant to ask for feedback on our work, but feedback is critical to improving our skills.  And the best feedback can come from a fellow web worker who’s more ahead of the game than you are.

4. It’s highly demanding mentally. By now you may realize that deliberate practice puts quite a strain on the mental faculties.   It takes a great deal of concentration and mental focus to continually repeat activities that are out of your comfort zone. In fact, the book notes that the mental demands are actually what keep top performers from practicing more.  Top performers understand the benefits of practice but even they can’t practice more than a couple hours a day.  The brain can only sustain so much mental strain before it needs a break.

5. It isn’t much fun. For the vast majority of us, deliberate practice is not going to be enjoyable.  When you’re doing something out of your comfort zone, you will fail a lot and failure is not fun.

I’ve already talked about the mental cost, but there’s also the psychological cost of being honest with yourself and identifying your weaknesses.  The psychological cost continues as you craft practice rituals to shore up those weaknesses.  After you practice, you’ll get feedback, which can be a blow to a weak ego.  Let face it, most people would not consider these things fun activities.

I’ll close with a video from the author of the book and my favorite example from the book.  It’s one of a world class ice skater.  A world class skater looks flawless in the Winter Olympics.  She makes difficult jumps look easy.  However, if you were at her countless practices, you would see the hundreds of falls she experienced before she was able to nail those jumps perfectly.

The same principle applies in any field including web work. You may be envious of other web workers who are more skilled than you. Instead of bemoaning your lack of talent and wishing you had their talent, realize that they achieved their success from hundreds of hours of practice, learning their craft and improving their skills. If you’re willing to practice hard, you too can achieve success.

Here’s the video.

Feedback

What practice activities can you think of that could help you improve your skills?

What finally worked for my writing productivity was discovering WriteRoom, a full-screen environment that takes away everything else on your screen- so it’s just “you and your text”. (WriteRoom is for the Macintosh; Windows users should check out DarkRoom).

When I’m designing or coding, I’ve found that Isolator (Mac OSX) helps my concentration tremendously, allowing me to automatically hide everything but the current window I’m working in- including the Dock and the MenuBar. An even simpler application is Backdrop, which gives you a giant blank window against which you can take screenshots and focus your attention on whatever you like (it’s free, too). For something similar on Windows, check out DropCloth or the wonderfully named Jedi Concentrate.

How do you beat your concentration killers?

This is an example of a WordPress page, you could edit this to put information about yourself or your site so readers know where you are coming from. You can create as many pages like this one or sub-pages as you like and manage all of your content inside of WordPress.

Think about it: the about page is so important it’s coded into every new WordPress installation- and yet so many of us neglect to edit it.

So what makes a good About page?

• It’s usually where you introduce yourself (or your company)- although you should definitely have a short introductory blurb on your main page anyway.
• It helps to put a photo of yourself up, too- people like to see a real human being is behind a site.
• Contact information is good to have here, even if you have a separate Contact page.
• More “random” personal stuff belongs here too. If you’re the type who likes to answer those “25 things about me” quizzes, go ahead and post it here.

Here are some excellent About pages I’ve found online:

SitePoint’s About Page They’ve really gone all-out here, with statistics, a historical timeline, a newsfeed, and a short list of who’s who.

Twitter’s About Page not only features avatar links to their employees’ twitter accounts, they answer questions such as “Where did the idea for Twitter come from?” and my favorite “Isn’t Twitter just too much information?”.

Jason Kottke calls his The exciting About page- tongue in cheek, yes, but he definitely gets it right. His About page features a reverse chronology of his life, some answers to frequently asked questions, and details on how to best contact him.

Shaun Andrews’ About Page is an example of a simple but still interesting one. A wonderful designer (we interviewed him here at Devlounge a few years ago), he provides a bulleted list with short bits about himself.

Do you read About pages? Are there any About pages you love?

I used to believe the common myth that talent has a lot to do with success and achievement. However, the book gives a lot of evidence including in-depth research studies and real world examples that talent may not have much to do with exceptional achievement at all.

Geoff Colvin, the author of the book, argues that deliberate practice is the key.  And not just a couple months of deliberate practice but years.  In fact, it usually takes at least 10 years of deliberate practice before an individual proves his greatness.  He goes over the lives of exceptional performers like The Beatles, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and Jerry Rice and shows that each of them had habits of deliberate practice for many, many years before making it big.

Even the child prodigies like Tiger Woods and Mozart that we often think of as supremely talented reached their success early in life because they started practicing very early.  Colvin credits Tiger’s and Mozart’s fathers. Tiger’s dad had him practicing golf when he was only two years old while Mozart’s father had Mozart learn about composing when he was only three years old.

So, what does all this have to do with development, design, and other forms of web work?

Well, if talent is not the answer and practice is, then most of us have to rethink things.

If you consider yourself more talented than your competitors, then you”ll be tempted to coast, rely on our talent, and neglect practice. This leaves you vulnerable to competitors that practice very hard and therefore, will out-achieve you in the future.

If you don’t consider yourself very talented, you can have hope of huge success by practicing hard and well.  You don’t have to be limited by your own perceived talent.

And most importantly, we need to figure out what deliberate practice is and how to create the types of practice activities that actually lead to improved performance.  Fortunately, Colvin gives us a clear definition of deliberate practice.

Next week we’ll look at this definition and see how we can apply it to web work.