Am delighted and thrilled to see that I’ve been included in 50 Netsetters You Should Know About over at TheNetsetter.com

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It’s a photo/blogging project that popped up a few years ago. Basically you take one picture per day for 365 days – effectively documenting your year in photos. You can read more about it here and here.

Looking back over a year in pictures sounds absolutely delightful so I decided to take part in the project this year.

I decided to create a set in my Flickr account to log the photos and am using my iPhone and the Flickr app to upload them daily. I know a few people who are dedicating their Posterous to the project which would also work really well.

Are you taking part in Project 365? Would love to follow it if you are – leave a link to your site or Flickr set in the comments below!

Image credit: Meshel

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Welcome to 2010. It’s The Future! Otherwise known as the year of wealth, health and happiness for one Ms Clare Lancaster.

You know what I love? A blog that stumbles and then, after a few makeovers, finally finds its way. Ok, I don’t love that BUT that’s what I’m hoping will happen to this little place this year.

I tried to go tutorial based, I tried a bit of news and a bit of personal – and what I’ve decided on is something for me. Writing about my life for me. Ta da! No – really. Now that I’ve got this fun place to offload my best online business finds, tips and tutorials I’ve decided to use my blog for something a little more personal.

I’ve been planning this year, in one way or another, for the past 10 years. If things go as planned, this year will be pretty exciting and rewarding. I’d love it if you share it with me.

Image credit: Anitacanita

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If you are – you might have noticed that I’ve been missing in action. The thing is though – I haven’t been missing. I’ve been spending time with my other love.

I don’t know how I’m going to juggle them both just yet but I thought I better pop in and say Hi.

It’s been heads down, shoulders hunched for the past two weeks while I’ve been working on Women in Business.

I’ve been quietly adding content to the site while I’m making it beautiful inside and out (whatever that means) getting it ready for it’s spectaular launch coming up next week.

So while I’ve been working away I found out yesterday that I’ve been included in Forbes.com list of 30 female entrepreuers to follow on Twitter.

Wow. What a great surprise and I have the fabulous Natalie MacNeil of She Takes on the World to thank for it. So – Natalie – thank you!

Now there are a several great things about this but as one clever Twitter friend pointed out. I can now put “As featured in Forbes Magazine” in my bio. I’m so down with that.

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Image credit: SarahR89

I’ve just updated my blog with a new header – in the process I decided to pick three words to describe myself, what this blog is about and what I can offer you as a reader.

Online business owner

Self explanitory – I’m writing about my experience as an online business owner – the objectives, strategies and marketing techniques that I’m using and want to share along the way.

Teacher

I own an online business consultancy and spend a lot of my time explaining online business and marketing concepts so that other people can use the internet to grow their business.

Dream hunter

This was a tricky one – I wanted to sum up my philosophy of business and life in one sexy little statement.

I’ve started my online businesses for a few reasons.

1. I love the internet and I love the game of business
2. I believe that online business will help me achieve what I want to financially, personally and as a member of my community (local and global).
3. I want to inspire other people to take the time to think about their values and skills and design a life that brings out the best in them, to make their world and the world around them a better place.

Not sure if it’s an über wanky term but I feel like it sums up what I’m about at the moment. I have big dreams and I’m going to act big to make them happen and nothing is going to stop me.

Update: Decided it was a bit wanky. My third one is now Writer – which is also very fun.

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Here’s why:

1. It was a story about two very different women who took a leap of faith and put themselves Out There. They were rewarded with satisfaction, direction, happiness and financial independence.

2. Many of you know that I’m busy setting up a couple of online businesses right now. womeninbusiness.com.au is one and the second is an alternative way to work with me – in a DIY fashion.

I’ve come across so many passionate business owners who want solid advice but haven’t got the budget for consulting. I want to take my 9 years of experience and shape it into practical information products to help you market your business online the right way – yourself.

While I’m absolutely loving it there have been some self doubt and meltdowns (ok, tantrums) and my wonderful husband has been so incredibly supportive throughout it all. Just like the partners in the film were.

3. It has a happy ending – just like the one I’m imagining for myself right now.

If you haven’t seen it yet – go see it, you’ll love it. Especially if you’ve ever written a blog!

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It wasn’t a case of procrastination, it was just that I didn’t know what to write about. Then inspiration hit while I was browsing through my Twitter feed one day and admiring all the great business that was going on.

So every Friday afternoon you can get a weekly wrap up of all the goodness I’ve seen during the week – take inspiration from it and learn from it.

My first edition debuted last week – click here to see the full copy of what went out.

I’m compiling the next one right now.

If you like what you see please signup in that big orange box to the right. I look forward to writing to you every Friday!

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Nett Magazine Columnist

I’ve just become a columnist for Nett Magazine. Yes, just like Carrie Bradshaw – sort of.

Definitely the most exciting, life changing, reputation enhancing,  fabulous thing that’s happened in the past couple of months.

I’ve been a fan of Nett Magazine since it launched and it’s Australia’s only online business focused magazine – a great resource for any business owner or Marketing Manager looking to move online.

The September issue is out now and features my second column – “Boost your care factor”.

I love writing these columns and have free range when it comes to topics – am so thankful for this opportunity. Do me yourself a favour go buy a copy from your local newsagent!

—-

Panel Speaker for Networx Event – Working the Real & Virtual Room

I had the pleasure of being asked to speak about Using Twitter for Business at a Brisbane Networking event for the Marketing industry along side Darryl King from iReckon (@ireckon) and Greg Lexiphanic (@lexiphanic).

It was a fun night – if you’ve never been to a Networx Event I can now highly recommend them!

—-

Location Independent & My New Business

The fabulous Lea Woodward (@leawoodward) invited me to be featured in the Location Independent community news update for July.

I’ve been working hard on my business plan and have started content development for Quick Guides – I’m not sure if I’ve told you guys about Quick Guides yet?! How can this be!!

Quick Guides is my ticket to location independence and your ticket to growing your business online.

I’ve cut down on my consulting clients for a period to work on getting this latest venture up and running.

Basically, it’s another way to work with me by following my advice in do-it-yourself, easy to read and action guides.

The great feedback that I received from my “Using Twitter for Business” guide has prompted me to turn my 8 years of online business experience into information products.

I’m working on all sorts of topics from the basics of marketing your business online, through to personal branding, using SEO for business growth and how to use Social Media for business.

If this sounds useful to you – you can sign up to be notified of its launch here.

—-

Koshie & Online Business

I was interviewed earlier this week by the Author of a new business book co-written by David Kosh (Koshie!)

The topic was online business models and how small businesses can profit from the internet. It looks great but Quick Guides will be better!

—-

That’s it I think! Ciao for now!

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A couple of months ago on a whim I registered the domain (shut your eyes if you are offended easily) stopwatchingfuckinglost.com after talking about Gary Vaynerchuk to some of my friends.

The domain was taken from a quote in the first video I ever saw of Gary – his Web 2.0 keynote speech in 2008.

At the time I was working day and night to get my consultancy up and running, had just started this blog and what he said resonated with me – the idea of really knowing your subject before you try to make a living from it, working hard, knowing who you are and embracing the ‘hustle’ involved with business creation and growth.

When I bought the domain I had no idea what I would do with it. I’ve thought briefly about it every so often and while I was browsing garyvaynerchuk.com I watched this video about his new book being available for pre-order.

I’d signed up to be an Amazon affiliate with intentions of selling books from another domain that is in development so I thought – here we go – there’s my business goal for the site.

I sketched out a design, had a think about the content and social media aspects of the site and settled on creating a simple one page site with rich media and network sharing tools via Twitter and Email.

I got about creating the site – using Tweetmeme button for the Twitter sharing tool and FreeTellaFriend for the email a friend tool.

I embedded the keynote speech with the magic words in it, into the page and wrote a diddy about how inspiring Gary Vaynerchuk is and with his lessons anyone can make a living doing something they love with a picture of the new book and an affiliate link.

Got the go ahead from Gary (yes an actual email, HOW EXCITING!) and launched the site.

Within 20 minutes I’d taken the site down.

Why?

Because the content of the site was all about me and what I wanted to get out of it. It was all about why it’s a great idea to buy this book and it was all about getting the visitor to click on that affiliate link and purchase the book.

It didn’t offer anything new or exciting or useful to the visitor – why would they pass it on? I wouldn’t.

I had a think about my audience – people who know about Gary Vee like to talk about him – his charm is the inspiration he offers and his direct way of delivering that inspiration.

The answer was in the domain – a page with inspirational business/web 2.0/doing-what-you-love-to-make-a-living quotes – that’s something I’d pass on while still being inspired to pre order the book – reaching my business goal for the site.

So that’s what’s up there now. It’s a work in progress. If you haven’t heard of Gary please watch the video it’s WELL worth the time. If you have – I’d love to hear what your favorite Gary Vee quote is!

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In the spirit of “putting it out there” I’m going to share a secret with you that I’ve held for 14 years.

I want to explore the world while working for myself and running a profitable business.

I’ve dreamt about it since the first time I logged on to the Internet in 1995 and visited the website of the the Musee d’Orsay (which I visited in Paris for the first time in Jan ’09 and it was INCREDIBLE).

Inspired by the fact that I had found a way to feed my thirst for knowledge about the world – at 14 I decided to take IT and Art as electives at High School so that I could work in the Internet/Design industry.

My dream was one of the reasons that I choose my university degree – Communication Design in 1998. It was only the second round of this new degree focusing on communicating through new media – Multimedia and the Internet.

I imagined living my dream would be like being a nomad or a gypsy – but with money. It turns out I wasn’t the only one with that dream and there are people everyday living this work/life mesh while exploring the world. They call themselves digital nomads or location independent.

Back then I figured there were a couple of ways to do this:

• Get a good job with a successful business and get sent around the world on business trips.
• Get a good job, save up every cent, go away for a while, come back – repeat.
• Move somewhere  more central – e.g. London, get a good job there, save up, go on shorter more frequent trips.

I soon realised there were a couple of problems with these solutions.

I left Brisbane and went travelling the day after my final Uni exhibition – to the usual suspects – Europe and the U.K. I had a brilliant time but returned with – you guessed it – zero money.

I did get a good job after Uni and within 6 months of working I was on a plane to Boston to attend a Search Engine Strategies conference (in 2001). Again, I had a great time – a 21 year old girl travelling alone to Boston working in online gaming – I met some interesting characters and fell in love with the city.

However, the trip was short and yes – I got paid when I was over there but one essential element was missing – freedom.

I had decided I didn’t want to move to London after seeing it after Uni and not loving it (although it was mid-winter).

I decided I was happy just working away in a full time job – I was still employed in the Internet industry and deep down I knew that I always wanted my own business one day so I was happy with my 5 day a week job.

I held on to the dream by spending that time observing what worked in these businesses and what didn’t and getting as much experience in as many facets of online business and marketing as possible.

After 7 years I’d had enough of working for “The Man” (literally).

It was time to go for it.

I left my job and started working for the family business as their Marketing Manager. I never thought I’d work for the family business – being quite determined to “do it all” on my own – however the opportunity to work four days a week while I was setting up my business was too good to pass up.

It turns out to be the best thing I could have done – I got to see the real behind the scenes of how business works and be involved with it. That experience has been priceless.

So here I am now.

My consultancy is up and running and doing well – so well I’ve had to pass on new inquiries and/or refer jobs to other people but what’s got me really excited is two projects I’m working on – and when* they succeed I can start living out my dream.

Ever since I’ve had the consultancy I’ve also had internal projects to test out different online business models – the results are in and I’m placing my bets on two new ventures.

The first (which will be released very soon) is a business model that is not location dependent and draws on my 9 years of commercial online experience – tick.

The second (still very much in dev) again, is not a business model that requires me to stay in Brisbane and is based on an issue I’m passionate about – tick.

Exciting times here – exciting times indeedy!

What’s your dream?

*If you don’t believe you can do it, you won’t.

P.S. If this type of thing interests you – I thought I’d share this practical and inspirational website that I’m loving at the moment – The Art of Non Conformity - Unconventional Strategies for Life, Work and Travel.

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