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A good internet marketing company can be your one-stop shop for all your marketing needs when you want to launch your business online. Their services will be even more helpful if you do not have a clear idea about how to make your business succeed on the Internet.

Domain and Hosting

The first thing you need for online success is to have your own domain and hosting plan, both of which will give you a permanent address on the Internet. Without private domain and hosting, you will be relegated to merely ‘renting’ web space from another site. You won’t have your own address either and people will know so at a glance.

Domain and hosting is something you can do on your own, but if you prefer professional help with it then a creative marketing firm can also help you with this. Just keep the tips below in mind when choosing a domain.

It has to be simple, short, and relevant to your business
It must be easy to spell and remember
Use a.com domain extension where possible.
As for web hosting, you should ask your creative marketing consultant to explain each feature or service offered. This way, you’ll know which service you should indeed pay for.

Web space – This determines how much data your website can contain
Bandwidth – This affects the number of visitors you can accommodate per month
File transfer protocol (FTP) – Different FTPs mean different ways of uploading, managing, and deleting website files
Security – Web hosting sites use a variety of security protocols to keep your data protected from hackers
There are other factors to consider, but whether or not they are essential, will depend on the kind of website you want.

Website Development

Now that you have a site to build a home for your business online, you need to start building the actual structure of your website. This is something a web developer does. If you’re not one, you need not worry as a major digital marketing agency can help you with that as well. Website development is quite technical in nature, though, so you should not feel shy to ask your consultant about anything that you find confusing. Use of a solid content management system (CMS) such as WordPress is your ideal choice.

Website Design

This is what most people consider as the fun part. With the structure set, you can now start with selecting the best color schemes as well as choosing the right background for your sites. You can also work with your marketing consultant about your preferences for formatting and other design elements of your site. If you are utilizing a CMS, there are multiple ready-to-go templates or themes available that provide a great start.

Keyword Research and Analysis

Keywords will always remain the main focus of any online marketing campaign. As such, you should definitely make sure you get professional help for choosing the right keywords for your business. Be aware as well that keywords have to be changed from time to time to reflect similarly changing trends in the market.

Search Engine Optimization

Once you have your list of keywords, they need to be applied to search engine optimization. Basically, this means making search engines notice your website and categorize it accurately with the use of specific keywords.

Website-based SEO alone may be enough to establish your online business. However, you also have the option of getting a creative design studio to provide you with creative marketing strategies if you want to drive more traffic to your page. Choosing the best internet marketing agency is certainly a great way to ensure success when you launch your business online.

The first and foremost element before any hotelier indulges in any kind of marketing is to understand and define its marketing goals, the target audience and its competition. This is so because every business is different or in this case every property is different with its own unique selling points. One could be choosing to do online hotel marketing for a small budget hotel located on the outskirts of a city, an exotic resort far flung from the outer world or simply could be a five star concern belonging to a large chain of hotels and resorts that are established in all the four corners of the world. Depending upon the business goals, one has to set the way or strategies for a complete online marketing mix for promoting the property.

This is a crucial step but once formulated, rest is not too tough as the base has been formed upon which the ideal plans can be carefully laid out. Hotel marketing in terms of online comprises of several elements such as search engine optimized website, pay-per click marketing campaigns, creating and leveraging communication through social media, managing the online reputation, sending direct messages through e-mail marketing and SMS marketing, having the rightly developed app on the property’s mobile website and so on and so forth.

Each element has to be rightly and highly focused, keeping in mind the marketing goals and the kind of communication that the hotelier wants to send out to its target audience to tap the prospective customers and create new ones as well. All in all, all the activities centered on one’s brand’s digital space should also reflect a positive return on his or her investment. Well, honestly it’s not easy and can be quite a taxing and intimidating task but not an impossible one. With the right set of objectives, careful planning, strategies which are updated at each phase, with the latest benefits of technology achievements and of course with the right experienced professionals, hotel marketing or hotel website promotion becomes an easy feat.

Singularly, if one wants to just focus on the hotel website promotion and not the other tools of online marketing then they too can be carried out effectively and efficiently. At the outset, if one has an existing website then it has to be analyzed meaning each page will be checked so that it can be found out that the hotel website in question is search and sales ready? Depending on the result of this analysis, the existing website will be revamped or a new one will be created as per the requirements so that the customers can search for your hotel and make reservations. The happy news is when a customer is able to search you on the World Wide Web and is convinced to book room nights.

Thank you for stopping by this article today. What I would like to do is to let you in on a secret. You should not promote any website without tracking your promotions. Tracking is a general term, in this article the definition is to be able to better target your traffic by using the data provided by your ad tracking program.

Being able to track your ads is one of the most important aspects of marketing on the Internet. How are you going to be able to tell what your target demographic is if you’re not able to tell where your visitors come from? This is a common problem today and many people just quit because can’t figure it out. When in actuality it is quite simple to track your ads. All you need to do is have an ad tracking resource where you can type in your promotional links and then the tracking device will give you data.

The data comes in different forms such as:

Date and time – it is important to know when your visitors are using your site so that you can tell if they are all coming in either a very short period of time or sustained throughout the day. Your web traffic should be predictable if promoted in the right way.

IP address – it is important to know where in the world your visitors are coming from because then you can block out certain countries where you don’t want your website promotional efforts going.

Referring websites – it is very important to know where your visitors are coming from on the Internet because it will tell you if your visitors are coming from website content that has nothing in common with your own website.

Your promotional links – it is important to know which one of your links are being clicked. Some of your links will be clicked on more than others. This allows you to know which campaign(s) needs more attention. You also get a running total of how many times your site has been clicked on.

These are just some of the reasons it is suggested that you shouldn’t do online promotions without ad tracking. Newcomers and even experts are using ad trackers as part of the website promotion portfolios and it comes highly recommended. Remember promoting your site without an ad tracker is easy to do but it is hard to block out your unqualified traffic which costs you money.

Image optimization is all about image SEO or getting your images to rank on Google and other search engines, it’s also about reducing your images to the smallest possible size without reducing their quality to allow your web pages to load quickly. This is important because everyone on the web expects websites to load quickly, in less than 2 seconds. The speed of loading has a direct correlation to the number of bounces you get and your overall revenue, 30 seconds, either way, can markedly impact your sales. Search engines take into account your site’s web speed and the number of bounces you are getting when ranking your site

There is a lot you can do regarding optimizing your site, your images and your website speed and this is becoming increasingly important as more and more people are using smartphones, approximately 60% of the 1 million new internet users each day are doing so on smartphones. Working your way to the top of search engine results can be hard work, but very rewarding in terms of sales and increased organic traffic.

The twelve most important tips for Image Optimisation are:

1: Carefully Select Images that are Relevant to the message you want to convey

Be aware that internet users are more likely to react to the images on your page before they read any text. A good image should capture attention and inspire readers to investigate and want to share your information. People often react to emotional stimuli and an appealing image that really connects with your topic is more likely to leave an impression. Usually, it is better to take the time and create your own high quality photos rather than using royalty free images from the internet that many others also use. By using images that show humor or drama with your product you are connecting on an emotional level, which is more effective than glossy sterile commercial photos that are technically perfect but cold. Your own original photos are far better for SEO purposes.

2: Always Use The Highest Quality Format That Is Possible In Any Situation.

Search engines are designed to prefer high quality content and high resolution images. Web pages that contain images that are of poor resolution or incorrectly formatted often appear distorted on a mobile screen or a tablet so you are doing yourself a disservice utilizing low-quality images.

Usually, JPEG file formats are best as they provide the smallest file size and best quality.

GIF files should be used only for thumbnails and decorative images never for large product images as the file size is very large and they do not reduce nicely.

When you are only able to get PNG files, they can be used for both JPEG files and GIF files and then, because of their extremely small file size excellent for simple decorative images.

3: Name All Your Images In Plain Language and Descriptively

To succeed with Good image optimization and a webpage that ranks highly on search engines, it is imperative you do everything possible to assist the search engines.

Search engines crawl everything on your web page including your file names so these also must be relevant, descriptive keyword rich file names.

Good image descriptions help to raise your profile and enrich the relevance of your content by helping web crawlers better understand your images.

Alternative text is similar to captions as they both provide an opportunity to boost your content for user experience and search optimization.

4: Name and Optimize Your Alternative Attributes With Care

Alternative attributes are an alternative when a browser cannot correctly render images it uses alternative attributes to images, in the text and for web accessibility. They are important for adding SEO value to a website so should include relevant keywords for the images. This is one of the best ways to have your e-commerce products show up on web searches

Always describe images in plain language

Add all model and serial numbers to your alternative attributes

5: Use Your Alternative Attributes With Care

Do not use over optimize by packing in too many keywords and do not use Alternative Attributes for decorative images as you may be penalized for over optimization

Always check your work carefully as mistakes may be heavily penalized and remember that misleading captions will drive your webpage bounce rate rapidly higher, this sends a signal to Google’s search engine that your site is unreliable dropping your rating

6: Always have a Concise and Precise Captions with your Image

Uses read captions under images on average, 300% more than the body copy itself according to Kiss Metrics. So if you leave captions blank you are missing a good opportunity for SEO and Optimisation

The important factor is to ensure both image relevance and page relevance.

7: Using Multiple images for Better coverage and Optimum Viewing

Always arrange your images in sequence and in context so they flow easily, but be aware of the amount you are loading your downloading time. Check the result and try and balance the right number of images with the quickest loading times. More images may mean more conversions, but too many can mean longer downloading time and more bounces.

When selling a product include multiple angles to show your product at its best, but do not overdo the number of images as they all take up file space and all need to be optimised.

8: Optimising Thumbnails

Using thumbnails is a great option, but they also need to be optimized, but they need to be used with care and as small a possible as they can have an accumulative impact and could affect your page loading times. When placing alternative attribute text to thumbnails be sure to use a very different text to those of the main images or they could all become confused.

9: Sitemaps

If your images are not listed specifically in your webpage source code the web crawlers will not be able to find them. So to enable crawlers to find the images they need their location listed in an image sitemap. When using Javascript or image popups to enhance the viewability or the shopping experience of your webpage, using Google image sitemaps will make it easier for Google to notice you and place you higher in the ratings.

10: Decorative Images

Things that are considered decorative images such as background colors, images, buttons fancy borders or anything else added that is not product related, although they can add a certain amount of appeal to a website they also use a lot of file space and therefore slow down your page loading time and as stated before anything that is not necessary that slows down your loading time is detrimental to your webpage and site because people will not wait more than 2 seconds on average and the quicker the better.

11: Content Delivery Networks

Content delivery networks are becoming a very popular place to store content, both imagery and text for your website. This can have the advantage of solving any band with issues you may have and help to speed up your page loading times, but they can also remove your backlinks and placing them on the domain of the content delivery network instead of your site. As we have stated and this is very important to emphasize backlinks are critical for SEO, so it is important to consider whether using CNDs is really in your best interests or not

12: Test Your Webpages and Websites

Testing everything is important and any mistakes will make all your efforts in vain as web crawlers will not be able to find you easily. Always check all webpages and alternative attributes. Also check for double-ups and over optimization as both are often detrimental to your rating standing.

Digital marketing is a term for the marketing of products or services using digital technologies, mainly on the Internet, but also including mobile phones, display advertising, and any other digital medium.

At a high level, digital marketing refers to advertising delivered through digital channels such as search engines, websites, social media, email, and mobile apps.

Digital marketing, the promotion of products or brands via one or more forms of electronic media, differs from traditional marketing. It uses channels and methods that enable an organisation to analyse marketing campaigns and understand what is working and what isn’t typically in real time.

Why is digital marketing important?

Digital media is so pervasive that consumers have access to information any time and any place they want it. Gone are the days when the news people got about your products or services came from your ‘internal office cabin’ and consisted of only what you wanted the public to learn. Digital media is an ever-growing source of visual content, entertainment, news, shopping and social interaction. Consumers are now exposed not just to what you speak about your brand, but what the media, friends, relatives, peers, etc., are saying as well, and more importantly, the consumers are more likely to believe their peers, than you. People want brands they can trust, companies that understand them, communications that are personalised and relevant, and offers to their needs and preferences, and this is exactly what Digital Marketing can enable for you.

How does digital marketing help a brand grow?

It levels the online playing field.

It enables online discovery of your brand.

It facilitates interaction with targeted audiences.

It builds brand reputation.

More cost-effective than traditional marketing.

It helps generate better revenues.

It helps provide better ROI (return on investment) on your marketing investments.

By this we can target exact audiences or customers as per user requirement.

We can know data of customers performances.

we can target as per user requirement.

By this we can do lead generation also.

The major difference between tradional marketing and digital marketing is we find how many customers are coming and what they are doing in that particular phase.

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.