One of the things that scares most people about venturing into this “make a living online” business is that they don’t know what they can contribute. I have no doubt whatsoever that everyone has knowledge to share, and that knowledge can translate into making a living. We’ll cover this particular topic many times in the future, but today I’m going to focus on just one small aspect.

Who are you? You first need to understand that before you can see what it is you have to contribute to the world’s knowledge base. This little exercise is going to help you find answers to that question. You can then use the results of the exercise later on when we discuss other related aspects.

By now, you’ve probably seen many of the Web 2.0 type sites that encourage users to tag things. Tagging is merely the act of assigning words and phrases to something. For example, a youtube video of a cat falling into an aquarium might be tagged with the words “cat, falls, aquarium, fish, funny, video” and so on. Tagging is a common practice on the Internet these days, and today’s exercise is all about tagging.

Grab a notebook and pen, or open up Notepad or Word on your computer and get ready to write.

Ready? Ok, tag yourself.

That’s right. List as many words or short phrases that describe you, and any aspect of you. Personality traits, business ethics, and everything in between should be considered. Tags such as “funny, goofy, serious, hard-working, lazy, fun, intelligent, witty,…” are just a few examples. While everyone will have a different amount of tags they can think of, I’d say we could all probably come up with at least 50. Some can probably think of 100 - 200! The number doesn’t matter. Just tag yourself with as many as you can.

Next, create a separate list of tags that describe everything you know. Ok, not everything! Let’s say you are an administrative assistant at your job. That means you know…”how to type, how to file, how to …”. See where this is going? This doesn’t include just job duties, however. If you are an expert at flying kites, then you know…”how to assemble a kite, how much string to let out…”, etc. Know how to cook? Good at solving math problems? Great at tweaking computers? The list can go on and on. Try to come up with as many tags that explain what you “know” as you can.

When you’ve finished this exercise, you’ll have a really good, representative list of how you see yourself. You’ll be able to glance at the list and immediately pinpoint what YOU believe are your strengths and your weaknesses. Of course, others may have an entirely different list of tags for you, and there’s a good chance they’d show more of your strengths than you did! If you can convince your friends or family to add to your list, that’s fine, but just knowing what you think of yourself is immensely useful in going forward with your self-employment plans.

In later posts, we’ll look at ways to cull down the lists of your strengths and knowledge bases into areas that you can turn into viable businesses online. For now, though, just concentrate on tagging yourself. Keep those tags handy so that you can refer back to them as needed.

(from Smash Mouth. "AllStar" Astro Lounge. Interscope Records, 1999.)

Posted on September 21st, 2007 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Business Development