Over cocktails recently, I spoke with a reader of Wikipedia (one of the 300 million). We discussed the fact that, as a nonprofit, the Wikimedia Foundation runs on a very small budget. She asked me "why doesn't Wikipedia run ads? I know I wouldn't mind the ads and National Public Radio runs ads, so why not?" After all, wouldn't the money open up many new avenues for achieving the Wikimedia vision?

Shortly before this conversation, one of my Bridgespan team members interviewed a Chinese Internet entrepreneur. They discussed how to expand Wikipedia in China. To paraphrase, he basically argued that Wikipedia should not grow in China, but should license its content to one of the local competitors and let them grow. After all, won't a domestic Chinese organization do a better job of reaching the billion Chinese people than an offshore Wikimedia?

What's interesting about these two stories? They are from people who could be described as part of the "outer" Wikipedian circle. Not insiders, but still part of the community — with enough passion for Wikipedia to offer perspectives on strategic issues. They also offer answers that are unlikely to be recommended by the "insider" circle of Wikipedians. I make no judgment on the merits of these answers (for now, although we will need to have an answer for the sustainable revenue model and growth in China at some stage), but it gives me pause that the question of advertising is near-taboo among the inner Wikipedia community and that an internally generated decision to partner outside (or "fork") a Wikipedia language seems antithetical to a community that has spawned 200+ language sites.

Given Wikimedia's open community strategy process, it is interesting to me that "open" and "community" do not necessarily go hand-in-hand. Might communities face the same trouble as any strategy team to being truly open to more radical strategic options that might advance the vision, when those options conflict with deeply held community norms?

Since the hypothesis in the Wikimedia project is that deep, community involvement will get us to a better strategy than traditional approaches, it seems we need to figure out the "open" part — both how we're "open" to voices from the "outer" reaches of the community and how we're "open"-minded to revising norms that may limit impact potential.

We would love to hear your stories or examples of ways you have seen organizations or communities really "open" up their strategy work. Please let us know in the comments.

Barry Newstead is a partner at The Bridgespan Group currently supporting Wikimedia's open strategy process.

Picture this. You’re in a fancy night club, one of the best in Vegas. You're drinking free beer and watching 50 or 100 people party to heavy beats and exotic dance tunes. You should be enjoying the mood . . . maybe even letting a dance sneak out every now and then.

But instead, you're off in the corner talking business. Not just any business either. You're talking about the business of blogging.

I know . . . pretty lame right?

But hold that thought, because although on the surface it seems like you're missing the point of the "nightclub experience," the truth is that you are working feverishly to solve a problem that plagues the blogging world.

It might not be life or death, but the fact that most bloggers don't see it is cause for great concern. So what's the problem?

Bloggers make terrible businesspeople

I was at the Bank in the Bellagio hotel earlier this month, talking with my pal Rich Lazzara, and we started talking about something we noticed during the first two days of the Blogworld Expo.

Rich mentioned to me that bloggers were crappy business people (that's putting it nicely) and proposed that if people like you and I started treating our blog as a business, we'd actually start seeing better results. At first I was a bit surprised by the assumption, but after digesting it this weekend I realized that he was absolutely right.

Over the course of our conversation, we discussed a variety of examples, but I want to share the three “blog killers” that really stood out to me.

1. Business Bloggers Making Hobby Money: These guys (and gals) work like Gary Vaynerchuk, but they aren't making anything more than hobby money. They want to say that they are probloggers, but they allow the comfort of their job to lull them into a sense of security. Rather than live up to their inner desire to become a blogging powerhouse, they use "hobby blogging" as an excuse to stay exactly where they are.

2. The Dreamers: These bloggers dream all day about blogging success, but they never get around to actually doing the work required to make it happen. They simply won't take things seriously. To them, spending four hours on Twitter is just as productive as writing a blog post.

3. The Selfish: These bloggers just don't see the point in networking or in spreading goodwill. They certainly don't take the time to foster relationships that can help them reach the next level, including creating a solid relationship with their audience.

For selfish bloggers, everything is about them . . . what they can do, how good their products are, and how much you should want to be like them. They step on everyone else in order to get onto the shoulders of giants.

It’s time to get serious

In my opinion, each of these three maladies hinge on what Chris Brogan said during his Blogworld keynote on Thursday, which is that as bloggers we all need to elevate our game.

If you are serious about blogging, you need to treat your blog like a business. You are the CEO of You Inc., and you've got to weigh every single decision as if there were millions of dollars on the line. Yeah, it would be great to blog in your underwear and sleep in every morning, but the reality is that most of us can't afford to do that.

Measure the day's work in results, not in hours spent typing on Facebook or Twitter. Absolutely, fostering relationships is important, but every action needs to be treated as an investment of your time.

This is especially important if you are a solo blogger, as there is only so much work that you can get done in a day. You've got to be efficient with your time. This means measured action and measured results -- not just going with the flow.

Be honest with yourself

If you really don't care whether or not you make any money as a blogger, then that's fine. But don't lie to yourself just so you can feel better about being broke.

Bust your tail

Copyblogger took about four years to get where it is today. Gary V busted his ass for two years before he got the book deal. And Chris Brogan spent 11 years on his “overnight success.”

You've got to work hard to become successful. End of story.

Be strategic

Develop a short-, mid-, and long-term plan for your business and follow it to the best of your ability. You can adapt it as you gain knowledge and expertise, but if you go without a plan you're toast.

Learn how to network

As someone who spends time in sales and marketing, I'm used to shaking hands and saying hello.

It's important to get out there and meet people, but please don't be “that guy.” Treat relationships as an investment in your business.

Provide value

Quit worrying about what your customer can do for you and instead worry about what you can do for your customer.

Don't think about how you can shove a new product down a customer's throat. Instead, spend your time worrying about whether you can solve a problem or improve their experience. If providing value to your audience isn't a priority, you’re in for trouble.

There's no secret to becoming a full-time blogger aside from hard work and adopting the right mentality. Sure, there are nuances that you'll need to master, but the plan is already laid out there for you. Find your passion, develop a plan, and work your tail off by creating awesome content.

But heck, isn't that what they've been saying here all along?

About the Author: Nathan Hangen writes about web entrepreneurship at NathanHangen.com, and about how to use social media to fuel your brand at Making It Social. Follow him on Twitter @nhangen.

There’s a new version of Thesis out that has our customers excited, thanks to some really cool new features. And it occurred to me that there are a lot of new Copyblogger subscribers who might use WordPress, and yet not really “get” what this Thesis thing is all about.

So in this post I’ll tell you what’s brand new in Thesis 1.6, and also bring everyone up to speed on why Thesis makes WordPress way better.

What is the Thesis Theme for WordPress?

Thesis is the flagship product of DIY Themes, a partnership between Chris Pearson and I. It’s the theme framework that powers Copyblogger and many other high-traffic sites.

In a nutshell, Thesis is software that delivers rock-solid SEO website code, plus unprecedented design flexibility for WordPress -- without requiring the novice user to code anything.

For sophisticated users, Thesis is a search-optimized development framework that allows designers and web developers to build sites better and faster than ever before.

* SEO

Search legend Danny Sullivan, Google’s Matt Cutts, and Microsoft search engineer Jeremiah Andrick all use Thesis for their sites. So does search and affiliate marketing entrepreneur Rae Hoffman, SEO guru Michael Gray, top bloggers Darren Rowse and Robert Scoble, web-hosting entrepreneur Scott Beale, social media darling Chris Brogan, and thousands of others.

To find out why the Thesis approach to site code results in maximum search engine crawlibility, watch this quick video I put together.

* Design Flexibility

With most WordPress themes, you’re stuck with the basic look and feel that the theme designer decided on. With Thesis, you can choose between one, two, or three column layouts (and the size of each column), change font types and sizes, create a magazine-style layout, and lots more. Again, watch this video for an overview, and then dive into the three demo videos listed below the general video to see what Thesis can do.

* Support

Even with everything that Thesis makes easier, we know that people don’t want to be hung out to dry. Our support forums have evolved into a truly supportive community of over 10,000 of your fellow webmasters and bloggers. You’ll have help from DIY Themes support professionals, Thesis Certified Designers, and tons of your peers who simply enjoy lending a helping hand.

What’s New in Thesis 1.6?

Now, here’s the new goodness. Thesis 1.6 offers a lot of improvements throughout, plus two major innovative capabilities – you can now change colors throughout the theme without getting into the CSS markup, and you can create drop-down interactive navigation menus right from the control panel in the WordPress dashboard.

* Change Colors Throughout the Theme Without Code

This is huge for someone like me, who would never mess with CSS in order to change background colors, column colors, etc. I only know enough code to be dangerous, but now if I want to throw up a new site with a varied color scheme, I can do it without bugging Chris or Tony.

Watch this video to see how to build a site with Thesis 1.6.

* Create Killer Navigation Menus

This is another awesome feature for people who don’t code. Now you can create interactive navigation menus with drop-down subpages for each choice, all point-and-click from the Thesis design panel. It was cool the other day when Mark McGuiness proudly emailed me to check out his new interactive navigation menu (Mark’s a poet and a creativity consultant, not a coder).

Watch this quick video that shows how to work the navigation options.

What About Thesis 2.0?

The buzz is already building about the highly-anticipated Thesis 2.0 – a complete next generation approach to an already innovative theme. From what I’ve seen so far, it’s hard to believe this is the natural evolution from what we started with a year-and-a-half ago.

But don’t think you have to wait. Our current model and pricing provides all Thesis customers with every future update and unlimited access to support… so you can get started with Thesis today and never miss out on what’s coming next.

(And if you caught the hint by my use of the word “current,” you understand that this will change in the near future. Come join the Thesis community today).

About the Author: Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and co-founder of DIY Themes, creator of the innovative Thesis Theme for WordPress. Get more from Brian on Twitter.

Most of the small business owners I work with start our Mastery coaching programs aptly referring to themselves as the owner of the business and “Chief Hat Wearer.” For solopreneurs, 3-person operations, and mid-size companies, the story is much the same:

I’m the President/CEO, the CFO, the Sales Manager… and occasionally the Receptionist. I fill the roles in the company that need to be filled. I wear all the hats. I do it all!

Most business owners will inevitably wear multiple hats and fill different roles within the business at one time or another. Even if a business has many employees, the business owner may have to fill in at some point in the event of an employee’s absence or dismissal. And for those business owners who have no employees, for the solopreneurs out there, all the work of the business rests on your shoulders.

With these business owner clients, the first thing we work on is an understanding – a 360-degree view of how the business ideally should work. The most successful business owners are those who understand these two important factors:

1. All the work that will need to be done for the business to thrive and grow.
2. All the positions that will need to be filled in the business to accomplish that work

Understanding these factors opens the door to an efficient and organized business. You recognize that either you have to get clear about which “hat” you’ll be wearing at any given time, or you have to create the positions and find the right people to fill the positions of the business so that they can do the work for you.

But few business owners actually understand their business enough to work this out on their own. This is when having an E-Myth Business Coach can really have an impact on your business. It's our job to help you take that critical step back to understand all the work that needs to be done for the business to thrive and grow. And for those people that aren’t able to bring on employees, you have to fill different positions, have to wear all the hats that need to be worn and you have to learn how to effectively switch from one hat to another. It’s not always easy to do without some guidance.

And this is why most business owners live with disorganization, discontent and dissatisfaction… because the work of the business is confused and unstructured. Are they the company President/CEO, the VP of Marketing, the Receptionist, or all of the above? Moreover, does their business need a VP of Marketing or simply a Sales Rep? How can they manage others while trying to run the business? How can they even manage themselves? They find themselves working on 10 different things at once, their results are inconsistent, they often overlook important things, and they rarely accomplish all of their priorities. Perhaps worst of all, they end up working way too hard to simply get through the day and are not able to actually move the business forward.

So, what can be done about this? How can you, the business owner, ensure that all the work of the business is done right, and how can you fill several different positions within the business (wear several different hats) effectively?

The first step is to get clear on the work that needs to be done for the business to succeed.

The Work of a Business that Works

All businesses that thrive and grow to maturity must take into consideration both the tactical and strategic work that will be required. The tactical work is what happens in the business day-to-day and involves, for example, the actual delivery of products and services to customers, or the actual performance of administrative duties, etc. But the strategic work is what shapes the tactical work; it is the work that is done ON the business and involves things like planning, forecasting, and working out the most effective ways to do the necessary work of the business. The strategic work shapes the business processes and provides the purpose behind every action that is taken, and it is the kind of work that is most often overlooked and neglected in small business.

Every business will need to have positions that are accountable for doing either the strategic work ON the business, the tactical work IN the business, or a combination of the two.

Organize the Work of Your Business

In order to be successful, business owners must find a way to put the work of their business into context so that they truly understand the business and all the things that need to happen in order for it to work the way it is supposed to. At E-Myth Worldwide, we help our clients do this by leading them through the process of developing an Organizational Strategy. If you are a business owner who has struggled with trying to figure out what hats to wear or how to wear several different hats in your business effectively, there is a proven path that can lead you to greater clarity, organization and effectiveness:

• Get in touch with your Primary Aim in life, what you want your life to look and feel like on a daily basis. This will help you envision a business that can truly serve your life instead of a business that will dominate it!

• Affirm your Strategic Objective for your business, and be sure you have a clear picture of what your business has to become and how it has to operate to serve you and everyone else it touches. This will help define the work that will need to be done.

• Create an Organizational Chart for your business that reflects all the positions that will be needed to accomplish the necessary work of the business if it is to achieve the Strategic Objective. Think of your business as a corporation, regardless of whether it is actually a corporation or is a partnership or sole-proprietorship, because that allows you to be more objective and design the chart around the necessary positions rather than personalities. Be sure to account for the positions that will be accountable for the strategic work as well as the tactical work. This should clarify all the different hats that need to be worn in the business.

• Create Position Agreements for each position in your business. Be sure to specify the results, the work, and the standards each person who occupies that position will be held accountable for. These documents indicate not only the strategic purpose of each position but also the specific systems that will need to be documented and placed in that position’s operations manual. This should clarify exactly what needs to be done when this “hat” is being worn.

• Create Operations Manuals for each position in the business, so that all the most important work accountabilities for each position have a documented system that describes precisely what to do and how to do it. This helps clarify how to actually do the work no matter what different hat you may be wearing.

An example of how developing an organizational strategy can benefit you and your business is illustrated in the tremendous transformation that took place in the business of a client who recently graduated from our Mastery Impact!® program. Jack is a commercial contractor whose business was in serious trouble when he decided to come to E-Myth for business coaching. He was struggling to be the leader of his business, manage the finances, and manage his employees. On top of those accountabilities he was constantly being pulled into the business to fight fires such as complications on the job sites, problems with scheduling jobs, employee absenteeism, etc.

Here's how Jack described this transformative process:

I was running around like a madman trying to do everything at once. I was acting like a technician too much of the time and not really being the strategic leader of the business. I realized that I needed to start from scratch with the way I was going to organize the business to achieve my strategic objective, and by following the E-Myth processes I literally created order out of chaos.

What helped the most was just getting clear about and simplifying what needed to be done each day in the business, what positions were responsible for doing the work, managing the work, and creating the work. I still have to wear many hats, but now I’m clear about the work I should be doing and have systems to guide me no matter what hat I’m wearing.

The best part is that I know if my business keeps growing I have a blueprint for working myself out of the business, or at least to the point where I can focus 99% of my time on the strategic work as company President. My managers manage, and my technicians perform, and life is good.

What Jack did, anyone can do. E-Myth can show you how.

Further Reading

Your Organization Chart
A Business That Serves Your Life
The Habits of Entrepreneurial Work

Share Your Story

Do you feel like you're wearing "too many hats"? Or maybe you found a way to work through that dilemma? Post a comment and tell us about it. We love to hear your stories.