Donna's Business Tips

Top Home Based Business: Tips to Boost Your Internet Marketing Success Rate

2010-01-08T10:47:00.000-08:00

In order to develop your internet marketing skills, you
need to become really proficient at promoting your products
online. Whether you sell a products or services there are
millions of potential customers looking for information on
the Internet at any one time and you need to find ways of
attracting their attention.

Online advertising is far more cost effective than the
traditional methods of print, radio, direct mail, and
television. However to become really slick at Internet
marketing you must still master the basic techniques, and
the following are amongst some of the most effective
marketing methods you can use:

Setting up as many backlinks as possible is one of the
vital fundamentals to put in place for long term Internet
success. You create a backlink by placing your own website
address on another web page. Although the process of
setting up backlinks is slow and time consuming, you can
build up your links using a variety of methods.

The most commonly used methods of doing this are by
reciprocal linking, blogging and social bookmarking.
Participating in forum marketing is also becoming an
increasingly effective method of building links, but it is
important to ensure that your posts include your online
signature containing those all important links to your
site. You can also build backlinks by posting comments on
other people's blogs, again remembering to include your
online signature.

You can begin branding yourself as a professional internet
marketer, by regular participation in discussion forums. By
participating in these discussions you establish your own
credibility as an expert in your own particular business
area. It will take time to master the skills required to
become a professional forum marketer, but once you master
these, you will be amazed at the revenues this can bring to
your Internet business.

Internet marketing professionals focus heavily on building
opt-in email marketing lists. An email list of qualified
subscribers is worth thousands of dollars to you in
revenues over time. You should try to build your e-mail
list in as many ways as possible. Some ideas to achieve
this are by promoting splash pages and by giving away free
reports and ebooks in exchange for each visitor's name and
email address.

To take your online business to even greater heights you
will also need to utilise some paid advertising methods.You
can do this by instituting a pay per click advertising
campaign with with one of the major search engines. You may
also purchase text-link and banner ads, along with ezine
advertising.

Truly professional Internet marketing is a constant process
of growth and improvement in all aspects of Internet
business. This takes a good deal of time, effort and
dedication but the monetary rewards will be well worth the
effort in the long run.

About the Author:

About the Author: Mike Muir writes informative articles
aimed at assisting new home business owners. For more
useful information please visit his Blog at:
http://www.mikeshomebiz.com/blog
Want more information about genuine online business
opportunities?
Please go to http://www.mikeshomebiz.com

Setting Effective Goals

2010-01-01T07:41:00.000-08:00

This is an article someone in one of my business groups sent me. It is an excellent article on Effective Goals. I don’t know who wrote the article, but it sure is a good one.

Donna

How can you achieve your goals without a plan? Most people know what they want but have no plan to achieve it except by sheer hard work. Your yearly plan should be reviewed daily and reset as your achievements are met. Successful people make lists constantly. It enables them to stay on top of priorities and remain flexible to changing priorities. This should be done for both personal and business goals.

Problems will sometimes occur. A good plan anticipates potential problems and seeks out solutions. Good time management enables you to measure progress towards your goals because that which you can measure, you can control.

Effective Goals Are:

WRITTEN

a. Increases conscious and subconscious awareness.

b. You'll notice more people, resources, information and opportunities that are available to achieve your goal. (Don't reinvent the wheel, use the help available to you.)

c. Only written goals tend to be met. Keep track of the steps in your plan with To Do lists, vision statements, etc.

Stated in the PRESENT TENSE

a. Enables brain to visualize goal and start seeing it as real.

b. Rather than "I will," state goals in the present tense so they pull you forward.

c. What's more powerful? "I will work toward increasing profits" or "I operate with an X% profit"

STATED POSITIVELY

a. We think in pictures.

b. The mind focuses on what you think about.

Using a sports analogy such as golf, if you think "I'm not going to hit the ball in the water," guess where the ball goes? In the water! It's best to picture that hole in one!

KEY: Focus on where you want to go or what you want to do. (Outcome Based Thinking)

SPECIFIC & QUANTIFIABLE

a. Clarity attracts. Ambiguous goals produce diluted results.

b. There must be a compelling reason for this goal.

c. Don't say, "I want to be happy or have more money." (If you find a dollar on the ground you suddenly have more money – is that what you really want?) d. Get specific… what does more money or happiness look like for you?

TIMEBOUND

a. It's human nature to put things off… we get comfortable or busy or let fear seep in.

b. Most people work best with a deadline.

c. Give yourself a reasonable timeline.
d. Consider tying it to some external even
t (i.e.: launch website by industry conference).

Proper balance of CHALLENGE & REASONABLE

a. Needs to cause you to stretch, grow and get out of your comfort zone.

b. Must also have some degree of believability. (Don't expect to lost 40 lbs in a week.)

WELL PLANNED

Plan your day each morning or the night before and set daily priorities.
Review your progress at the end of the day.

Look ahead in your day/month/year to anticipate what is going to happen so you can better schedule your time.

Source: Unknown
If you are the author of this article please let me know and provide me with the address where you article is listed so I can add it to this page.

The Role of a Manager

2009-12-22T02:27:00.000-08:00

The primary role of management is to make it possible for teams to work together and to provide guidance and direction to workers. This role is purely a functional one. It is not a role that is more prestigious than other roles in an organization. It is similar to the difference between office personnel and shipping personnel. The main difference in management is likely to be accountability and responsibility. When things don't go well shareholders and company founders are likely to scrutinize management rather than non-management personnel.

Function of Management

It is a manager's responsibility to:

Establish a plan that workers can follow to accomplish company goals

Resolve disputes that arise when workers attempt to work together.

Ensure that work projects are be completed with efficiency

Track resources and report costs to higher levels of management, shareholders, and company founders.

Track progress and make revisions or adjustments where needed.

Handle problem situations so that workers can concentrate on the job at hand.

One important thing to remember when making decisions as a manager is that these decisions affect workers either in a positive or negative way.

Skills of a Good Manager

A good manager is a good communicator. He or she must learn to listen and observe.

A good manager usually has a broad area of experience similar to those he or she is managing.

A good manager must be a good leader. Such a leader is willing to do the same work as other employees and get their hands dirty when required.

A good manager must be willing to delegate certain tasks. This means they must develop trust in their staff.

A good manager must be able to organize teams and projects. This doesn't mean a manager is expected to have a clean desk. (If it did I would be in serious trouble), but it does mean that we are able to organize our teams and projects in a manner that will benefit both our company and our staff.

If you don't have each of these skills that does not necessarily mean you are not manager material. It simply means that these are some areas you may want to work on as you work through the educational aspect of management. Keep in mind that not every manager has every skill in abundance. There are, however, two things that every successful manager must be able to do and that is communicate with others and get along with others.

Donna Loudon
College Professor
Management, Business, and Computer Technology

Selecting Keywords for Internet Strategy

2009-07-30T02:02:00.000-07:00

Copyright (c) 2009 Ajay Prasad

If you are starting your site from scratch, selecting
keywords at this stage is a time and money saver. If you
are redesigning your website, this is the time to outdo
your previous mistakes.

Zeroing On the Right Keywords

If you are wondering what keyword has to do with website
design think again. It determines whether your website
architecture will have a folder or linear structure. If it
is a folder structure then how many levels?

Let's take a hypothetical example. Suppose you are a
company selling confections. You are designing an
e-commerce website. You may have two or more options for
website architecture.

Option 1: confectionary company displaying products by type
e.g. cakes, candies, cookies, chocolates etc.
Option 2: confectionary company displaying products by
occasions e.g. birthdays, weddings, thanksgiving, baby
showers etc.
Option 3: This option is a tad expensive because it
involves more complex programming at the database level.
You can let the visitor decide how he or she wants to view
the website product wise or occasion wise.

Which structure will be more appropriate?
Before deciding we need to find the online search behavior
of our future customers. Using a keyword tool we find out
that the search phrases customers use to find the - cakes'
are for specific types of cakes like wedding cakes,
birthday cakes, diaper cakes and so on. Same stand true for
candy.

Naturally the second option is a better website
architecture structure. It can grow both laterally and
longitudinally. It's more suitable for search patterns
hence later it will be easier to optimize.

The best way to do a keyword search is to write down the
phrases that describe your website's purpose. Start with:
5 one-word phrases
10 two-word phrases
5 three-word phrases

Run them in a keyword tool. You will be amazed at the
results.
Save them in a spreadsheet.

Selecting the Right Keywords

Your spreadsheet probably has a thousand keywords. It's
best to have a base keyword in mind around which your site
will evolve. Keep these in mind before you start selection.
- One word phrases are the hardest to rank for because they
require a high number of backlinks which is difficult for a
new site.
- Their conversions are also the worst because people are
not searching for that product or information. They realize
it as soon as they type it and see 44 million websites for
'cakes'.
- Two phrase keywords are good to optimize for as they have
more searches and hence more conversions. But they are
difficult to do so especially for a new website.
- Three phrase keywords may be few but are relatively easy
to optimize for. It's best to start with three word
keywords.

Select the 3 word phrases most suitable for your site. Make
them top priority for now...But do not ignore the 2 phrase
or single word keywords. With time you will be able to
drive traffic to your website using these keywords too and
they most probably will have more search traffic.

The other factors that matter are
- The number of competing sites
- The strength of those competing sites

Select a long string for 3 word phrases whose searches rank
more than 5 per day. This is the starting list for keywords
for your site. Repeat the same procedure for two word
phrases.

At this stage it may be suitable for you to leave out 1
word phrases not in the website design but in the
optimization process..

Integrating the Keywords in your Website Design

All efforts at selection are useless if keywords are not
properly integrated in design.

2 tips before starting:
Do not optimize for more than 3 keywords on one page
Preferably optimize for related keywords
Example:
Virtual Offices in Irvine Orange County (keyword)
-Virtual Offices
-Virtual Offices Irvine
-Virtual Offices Orange County

Get your website designer to use these search phrases in
the page in Title tags, Keyword tags, Header tags and Alt
tags. While writing the content for the page make sure you
use the phrase at least twice in 350 words of content. Use
synonyms of the keywords.

About the Author:

Ajay Prasad is founder of Global Marketing Resources LLC
that runs a number of ecommerce websites under it's
umbrella. Ajay's functional expertise includes website
strategy, marketing management, business development,
consumer research, market analysis and strategic planning.
GMRWebTeam is an company that
aims to develop an overall strategy for your site.

Leadership: Five Steps to Success

2009-07-16T11:35:00.000-07:00

What makes a successful leader? That is a difficult question to answer since we all have our own degrees of success. In this article I approach success as the achievement of a dream. What can a leader do to ensure that their team is actually part of that dream’s achievement?

Set the Example

It is often said that actions speak louder than words. This is so true. A leader earns the right to lead by being involved, setting the example, and showing a willingness to do everything that he or she asks their team to do.

Make Your Vision Their Vision

As leaders we cannot demand commitment to our vision and dream. We need to paint a picture of our vision or dream. Let them see what that vision is. It may be hard for them to visualize what we have visualized. Remember, we cannot demand commitment from anyone. However, we can inspire it.

Always Look For Ways to Improve

There is always a way to improve for no leader is perfect. A good leader learns from their mistakes and failures. Don’t be afraid to try. If we succeed; awesome. If we fail, we can learn from that failure. Hence, the only true failure is to never try at all.

Give Others the Change to Bloom

A leader cannot achieve a vision or dream alone. He or she must give their team the tools they need to succeed and give them room to grow and learn. Teams are more effective when everyone on the team feels like they are part of the team. There are no barriers in a true team. While there must be a leader, a truly successful team is one of equals.

Lead From the Heart

Show appreciation for even the smallest of acts. A simple Thank You note can go a long way in encouraging team members to work towards your vision or dream. It lets every team member know that they are valued and they are important for the team to achieve its long term goals. Sometimes it can take a long time to achieve a vision or dream. By leading from the heart, a leader gets their team to buy into their vision or dream. Once the team has done that, they are more willing to stick with it for the long haul.

Conclusion

It has always been my belief that leaders are not born, but they are made. A leader is a leader because they choose to lead. A follower is a follower because they choose to follow. Why does one choose to follow us? We tend to follow those who have enthusiasm; who motivate and inspire us.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: "Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be."

Written by Donna Loudon
Tupperware Director
Visit her Websites: Tupperware, Information Portal for Women

Article Resources

James M. Kouzes, B. Z. (2009). The Leadership Challenge. Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

Email Netiquette: Principle Eleven

2009-07-06T10:39:00.000-07:00

In March I wrote an article with my list of the ten Principle of Netiquette. To read the March article in full click here.

In this article I cover my 11th principle.

Principle Eleven

When sending an email to a group make sure to use the BCC option rather than the CC option.

Why? When you use the CC option, all receivers can see the email addresses of everyone you sent the email to. This can cause some serious problems for you because emails are private and many individuals don't want their
emails moving about freely. This could cause them to reply to you a little upset or even cause them to ask to be removed from your list.

I am sure most of us are aware that spam is a big issue with email. People fear that if the wrong person gets a hold of their email address, they will start sending spam. Hence, they have reason to be upset when they see that your entire list is seeing their address.

Solution: Use the BCC option. The "B" in BCC means blind. That means that everyone who receives your email will see only your email address and their own email address.

****************************

Author: Donna Rivera-Loudon

Bio: Donna is an online college professor. She teaches courses in Business, Management, and Computers. Donna is also a Tupperware Director.

Donna grants permission for you to reprint this article on your blogs and ezines. However, all links and the author bio must be left as it is in the article. If anything, including the links, are removed form this article or changed, permission to reuse is withdrawn.

The Leaders Persona

2009-07-01T02:00:00.000-07:00

Recently I encountered a situation where I felt my team was being treated unfairly and made it a point to let others know that I did not appreciate it. I was criticized by other team leaders because they felt a good leader should always be bubbly and cheerful in front of their team.

While it is important that we show a good face to others, it is naive to think that one will always be able to be bubbly and perky. Leaders who portray that public image may not be reaping the results they are hoping for. Let me explain.

Leaders live stressful lives. Often a true leader is at work an average of ten hours a day. Then they must go home and deal with other issues. (We all have them) It is not realistic that a leader would be bubbly and perky all the time. I like to think that those whom I lead are smart enough to know that the 'bubbly all the time' persona is not realistic. To the contrary it can cause others to think we are fake, and it is difficult to trust someone that we think is putting on a false front.

It is also important for leaders to stand up for their team. We can tell our team we are standing up for them, but nothing is quite as effective as them seeing it for themselves. It is much easier to follow someone who you know will stand up for you and back you when you are being treated unfairly.

This is not meant to be an excuse for always being in a bad mood. Certainly a strong leader portrays a positive image most of the time. If one does, then those who follow will understand when we are having a 'bad day'. But certainly let's not make that a habit.

Now, having an argument among leaders in front of our teams is a totally different situation. As leaders we must set an example for our teams and an example of cooperation and getting along is a prime characteristic for a team to be successful.

So my conclusions are:

Being a leader doesn't mean being Miss Bubbly Perky all the time

A good caring leader must allow their team to see them standing up for their rights and what they deserve

A good leader cannot use stress and problems as an excuse to be in a bad mood all the time, but that doesn't mean a bad mood is never allowed.

My final analysis: No leader is perfect. I read an article recently at

http://www.academicleadership.org/ideas_worth_merit/A_Follower_s_View_of_Leadership.shtml

It stated, and I quote

"Leadership is mostly learned, and it is a life-long learning and teaching endeavor. We should all accept that we will never be the fully actualized leader. There will always be requirements for change, which means there will always be opportunities to learn."

Article written by Donna Loudon
Tupperware Director
Tupperware Website

Permission is granted to reuse this article as long as the author's name, position, and website link are kept in tact. If the links are removed, permission to reprint is withdraw.

Thirty Creative Ways to Use Business Cards

2009-06-13T14:51:00.000-07:00

©2002 Linda Elizabeth Alexander

On the Back

1. Print a team's sports schedule on the back. Fans will keep them handy and keep your name in front of them

2. Print a special discount offer or coupon on the back. People will keep it because they intend to use the coupon.

3. If you do seminars, print key principals on the back. Your attendees will refer to them later and think of you.

4. Hand write on the back your "unlisted" 800 number. This adds value to your card, making people keep it longer because they don't want to lose the special number.

Ad Specialties

5. Make the business card the ad specialty: Print your company information on letter openers, CD openers, magnets, pens, highlighters, keychains, mousepads, mugs,
luggage tags, and other items that people will keep because they are useful.

6. Attach a business card to an ad specialty: For example, give business card holders as a thank you gift and place your business card in as the first one. Or, have your card designed as a Rolodex card

7. If you routinely give out seasonal gifts or specialties, attach your business card. Examples: candy canes at Christmas, heart shaped containers filled with candy for Valentine's Day, or even a sandwich bag of candy with a card stapled to it.

Unique Places to Put Them

8. Tuck them into the product before delivery: If you are a florist, cut a hole in it and tie a ribbon around the flowers and through the business card. If you sell gift baskets, Tuck one inside the basket before delivering it to your customer. The same goes for Mary Kay or Avon Cosmetics - place your card in the bag. You've seen how some restaurants staple a menu to their bags for takeout; if you use bags, staple your card to the outside of the bag.

9. Send a business card in every piece of correspondence - letters, invoices, even your electric bill. Sooner or later, those cards will be used.

10. If you are crafty, incorporate them into your designs: embellish them with rubber stamps, or blend them with other art projects. You can also mount them to greeting cards you create and send to customers and prospects.

11.When mailing out information: Take a number 10 envelope, facing you and upside down. Fold the envelope in thirds. When you turn it around, there is a little pocket to tuck your card in. Include it in the mailing. Using a colored envelope makes the presentation even more dramatic.

12. Scan your card in and use it as a graphic for when you exchange links with other websites. The other site can use your graphic as the link.

13. Place them in library books as if you used them as bookmarks. Visit bookstores place them in books related to your business.

Keeping Them Handy:

14. Use them as bookmarks so you'll always have some readily available if you meet someone at school, in the library, on the bus, or at the park where you like to read.

15. Have your spouse, family, and friends carry some of your cards with them in case they meet someone who might be interested in your product or service.

16. Wear them! Use them as nametags at meetings and conferences instead of the "Hello, my name is ..." type of tags.

17. Keep a stack of cards everywhere you might need them - in your car, your jacket pocket, your briefcase, your purse or wallet, in your planner, at home, anywhere you can think of. Then you'll always have some on hand when you meet a prospect.

When to Use Them:

18. Give them out during your personal meetings when you meet someone new: at your church, your children's soccer games, at lunch with your friends when someone brings a guest. To be more polite, you could have a personal "calling card" printed up with your information to use in these situations.

19. If you do seminars, have your participants exchange cards with each other. Have them write a compliment about the person on the back before they hand them out. Everyone will have a wealth of contacts; they will remember each other and it will also give participants a boost of confidence.

20. Ask neighborhood businesses if you may display your cards near their registers.

21. Tack them to bulletin boards at supermarkets, restaurants, retail stores and the library - anyplace that has a bulletin board.

22. Give out two cards at a time - one for your prospect or client, and one for her/him to give away.

23. Place some on the table when you leave a restaurant.

24. Agree to mail the cards of other businesspeople in the mailings you do, if they will do the same for you. Your networking circle will grow as your cards are passed around.

How Not to Use Business Cards:

25. Don't give them to a member of the opposite sex in the hopes that s/he will call you. I have a friend who was told this wouldn't work. He did an experiment for six months to prove it, and his friend was right! Sadly, not one woman called him. Although he does have a girlfriend now!

26. Some people don't give out business cards when they meet a prospective client. Instead, they send a follow-up note later with their card enclosed.

Other Types of Business Cards to Have

27. Business card CD-ROM. If you haven't seen these yet, they are a mini-sized CD that plays in any CD player and has your contact information on it, as well as an introduction to your business.

28. Email Signature. Put your contact information into a signature file for email, along with a link to your website (be sure to include the "http" in order to make it "clickable.")

29. Vcard. These are electronic business cards that recipients can click on and automatically add to their address books. Do a web search for "vcard" to find software that supports this technology. Then use it in all your emails!

30. One consulting company, which works with designers of products for people with disabilities, prints their cards in Braille. It reminds their clients how they can help them comply with disability laws. It also gets people asking for information.

==============================
Linda Elizabeth Alexander is a business writer and marketing consultant specializing in web and sales copy. Contact her today to get your free consultation! www.write2thepointcom.com
==============================

Setting Goals

2009-06-05T20:11:00.001-07:00

Each one of us has what it takes to live our life to its full potential. Today is your starting point. You choose the direction you want to go. Once you have determined the direction you want to take then set some goals to get you there

Is it really that simple? Actually, it is.

Once you set your goals, the next step is to follow thru on those goals.

Goals are nice but they mean nothing if you don't follow thru

Setting Goals is an important component to motivation and success.

While it is possible to be successful when someone else is providing the motivation for you, frankly motivation is best when it comes from within.

So be honest with yourself. Are you geniunely interested in being successful in your business? If so, set realistic goals for yourself. And remember, setting the goals is only the beginning. You must take steps to reach those goals.

Try it this week. Set a couple small goals that you would like to achieve this week. Take the necessary steps to achieve those goals. You may be surprised at the results.

Then you will see what goals can do for you. Before you know it, setting goals will be a regularly part of your weekly routine.

3 Steps to Getting Organized in Your Online Home Business

2009-05-29T09:40:00.000-07:00

by Andrew Jones
No matter what size your online home business is, whether part-time or full-time, it’s essential to operate it just like any other business (online or offline). You must ensure that certain systems and routines are in-place, otherwise it all becomes disorganized, hard work and possibly destined to fail.

When I first started out in my online home business, I joined up for a lot of different programs, subscriptions, memberships and products and before I knew it I had emails galore in my inbox, receipt numbers, passwords, usernames, and account numbers. I quickly become overwhelmed and in total disarray, so right then and there I decided to systematize everything.

The first thing I did was to create a simple database that I called “Account Manager”. Here I listed all the company names, dates joined, invoice numbers, usernames, passwords, website, email, whether a once-off or monthly fee, and any relevant comments. What a HUGE difference this made… freeing up much of my time and energy. It certainly made life a lot easier and more disciplined.

Second thing that I set up was a spreadsheet to track income and expenses. Obviously this is very important for tax purposes. But just as important I think, is to constantly monitor your profit and loss situation at any given time… to keep measuring your progress. If you don’t monitor the performance of your business, how will you know if it’s getting off-track? How will you know what is working and what needs changing? You need to see if you are getting a return on all the time and money you are investing in your business. The spreadsheet that I have set-up is pretty basic and straightforward but I might find later on as the business expands, that an accounting software program is more appropriate… such as Quicken, Quick Books or MYOB (Mind Your Own Business).

The last system that I put into place was a spreadsheet that summarized my entire ad tracking results for advertising campaigns. Now ad tracking, I believe, is extremely important to the overall success of your business. Without the ability to test and measure all of your advertising, you might as well just wear a blindfold. You absolutely MUST KNOW what is working and what is not working so that you can dump the useless ads and keep running the ones that bring you profits. Otherwise you are flushing your hard-earned cash down the drain.

This spreadsheet includes ad cost, number of subscribers (in an ezine), number of clicks, number of sales, cost per sale and ROI (return on investment). This is so simple and yet so effective (and so profitable). At a glance I can see which are my most effective ads and the most effective advertising medium as well. Well worth the effort I feel.

These things take a little bit of effort to set up initially and to get into the routine, but once done it’s easy to keep going. The benefits are certainly worth it. I just wish I had set all of this up BEFORE I started. Ah well, hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Andrew Jones has been a business owner for the past 10 years, and is now an Internet Marketer and Plug-In Profit Site owner.

Is Direct Sales Difficult?

2009-05-17T17:08:00.000-07:00

The following article is an excerpt from a speech given by a direct seller at a local meeting. We are told she was asked to speak on how direct sales compares to working a "regular" job. It was submitted to us, and although the original author is unknown, we wish to thank her for her thoughts and insights. We have edited it to share with you as you embark on a brand new year, with new opportunities to count the many blessings we have in this business.

Lately, I have heard so many people say how difficult direct sales is. "It's hard." "I can't get bookings." "This just isn't for me." "I didn't know how difficult it would be."

Well, I am a single mom of three who, before joining the direct sales family, held down two jobs. I would get up at 4:00 in the morning and not get to bed until midnight most nights, after returning from my part-time retail job, packing lunches, checking homework and relieving my mother, who helped out with the kids.
That, my friends, is difficult.

It is difficult always having to lower your dreams to meet your means. It is difficult to miss your son's football game because you have to work. It is difficult knowing the rust bucket you call a car is eating you alive in maintenance, but you can't afford a new one. It is difficult to realize that someone else is going to watch your daughter take her first step or have your son say mama to the preschool teacher.

It is difficult knowing that you have spent 40 years of your life working for someone else, only to realize that you will be retiring on one-third of what you can live on today. Or, worse yet, it is difficult knowing that you have diligently worked all your life, only to be given an early retirement and replaced by someone younger, more capable. I will tell you what is difficult. It is difficult waking up one morning and realizing that your children, the most precious things imaginable, no longer need bottles, diapers, have tea parties, or are shorter than the baseball bat they are trying to swing. It is difficult realizing it is too late and that the time frittered away can never be retrieved. It slips through our fingers one second at a time.

It is also difficult watching the spark in your partner's eyes fade because both of you realize the house you have been wanting is just a Dream because someone else is controlling your finances.

We have nasty habits about rationalizing, procrastination and skirting important things, rather than facing the issues. Too often we allow others who do not pay our bills, who do not share our dreams, to direct our futures.

As children we have absolutely no freedom; we rebel in our teens and scream for freedom. We reach adulthood and are finally free, only to relinquish that freedom because we think it is too difficult. We do not want to take responsibility. We do not want to make a wrong decision, so we obligingly give that awesome power to someone else. We wake up too late. We hear ourselves uttering phrases like: "I wish I had only . " And "If I could do it over again."

You have no one but yourself to blame. You had the chance. Perhaps the Opportunity was presented many times and each time you elevated the trivial to a higher priority than yourself.

Let me ask you: Is direct sales really difficult?

Is it so traumatic to show someone an exciting product or idea? Is it so difficult to understand that if you work this marketing idea for three to five years, you just might finally be able to send your children to a college chosen by excellence, rather than one chosen by price? That you could finally put your family in the home of their dreams? Would you work really hard for eight to ten years, so you could mold a lifestyle of your choosing, so your family could live a lifestyle of their Dreams, rather than trying to live how someone else thinks you should live?

How difficult is it to pick up the phone and call your hostess? How difficult is it to pack up your kit and meet some new friends? How difficult is it, really, to share what you love with others? Think about it. Realize the awesome power you have in your hands with direct sales. There are people out there working three jobs. There are people drowning in debt; or agonizing through bankruptcy, realizing they only needed a couple hundred more dollars per month. That is difficult!

This business you have chosen has the ability to change lives. Direct sales cannot do anything. But YOU can change lives with it. You are the one with the life-changing ability. What are you waiting for?

There is difficulty and pain in success, and there is difficulty and pain in failure. Difficulty and pain in success will last a short period of time; but pain in failure lasts a lifetime. Which one is really more difficult?

You will pay a price for your actions, and your choices.

Which choice will you make?

Ten Rules of Email Netiquette

2009-03-14T12:21:00.000-07:00

As our society becomes more and more fascinated with social networking, I have begun to see even more abuses of Netiquette. Just as in our everyday lives we try to life by proper etiquette, we must also learn proper etiquette for the computer world. This type of etiquette is known by computer savvy people at “Netiquette”. There have been entire books written on this subject and most individuals who use computers for fun and business aren’t going to take the time to read a book on this subject. Hence, my reason for developing a list of Netiquette Principles that I feel most people using the internet should be aware of. If we can follow these basic principles of netiquette we can avoid offending someone without even realizing we have done so.

Principle One:

Do not type in all CAPS. This conveys the idea of shouting. If you want to emphasize a point put your words in between *asterisks*.

Good example: *Do not type in all caps when sending a message via any electronic means.*

Bad example: DO NOT TYPE IN ALL CAPS WHEN SENDING A MESSAGE VIA ANY ELECTRONIC MEANS.

Principle Two:

Do not type in Red letters. This also conveys the idea of shouting.

Principle Three:

Always include a subject line and make sure it is appropriate to your message.

Good example: Meeting Tonight on Proper Email Netiquette

Bad example: Important message from Donna

Principle Four:

Always include your name. Not including it is like making a phone call and never identifying who you.

Principle Five:

Check your spelling before you send your message. Bad spelling and grammar causes your message to be lost by the reader.

Principle Six:

Acknowledge you have received an email even if you cannot answer it right away. A simple “I will get back to you on your question before the end of the day” will work wonders for someone waiting on an answer to a question they have emailed you.

Principle Seven:

Don’t wander off the subject or *over talk* your message. Messages should be short and to the point. If you want to write a story, then write one and post it on a blog, not in an email or networking group.

Principle Eight:

Remember the difference between Reply to Sender and Reply to All. The only thing more annoying then spam is to have someone reply to the sender of a message and everyone in the group gets it.

If you want to reply to the group select “Reply to All”.

If you just want to reply to the sender select “Reply to Sender”.

Principle Nine:

Once you click the send button you cannot take your message back. Don’t send emotional messages until you have had time to think about the subject.

Principle Ten:

Don’t forward chain letters and hoaxes. This is a good way to get your email banned by the receiver. People today, especially in the business world don’t want to have their time wasted by these types of messages.

I hope this helps everyone understand proper netiquette a little better. The next time you post a message on a board, social group, or send an email I hope you will keep these principles in mind.

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Donna is an online instructor for two colleges and she received both her B.S. and M.B.A. via online classes. Donna also owns her own business as a Tupperware Director.

Getting Traffic To Your Site

2009-03-12T12:26:00.000-07:00

Have you had a site up for months maybe even years? Are you getting discouraged because you get so little traffic or the traffic you get doesn't purchase? There is no miracle remedy to this situation. However, here are a few suggestions I can think of to help you get more traffic. I hope some of these suggestions help.

1. Try running a contest and give something away. You can make a list of different things to do to get entries into the contest. One of those entries could be for a critique of your website. Would you buy. what would prevent you from buying. those could be some of your questions. Have as many sites as possible run an ad on your contest. This should not cost you. The best way I have found to run a contest is using a blog. I have one running right now if you want to check it and see how I have done it. Also, on one of my websites I list contests for free. That would be a way to start but you will need to find as many people to list your contest as possible.

2. Offer a free gift with purchase. It can be something small that doesn't count too much money for you. Incentives to buy are always nice.

3. Try starting a newsletter. Create one that consists of information you are good at. Then start building a mailing list. There are some free services you can use to help with this. Of course, the free ones aren't usually as good as the ones you pay for.

4. Check the meta tags on your website. Make sure they are relevant to what you are selling. Google has a free Keyword Tool you can use that helps at this. You put in what you consider a key word and then it will show you the number of searches relevant to that word and other similar phrases. Pick keywords from that list that have a high search rate and are relevant to your store.

5. Make sure your site is easy to navigate. If someone is frustrated trying to find what they want, they will leave your site and are not likely to return.

6. The number one reason why people cancel their order before completing it: The cost of shipping. While we may not have control over the shipping costs, I have found there are several things I can do to minimize this problem.

a. If I know how much it will cost to ship something, I will add that to the cost of the item and then list it as free shipping or Shipping included. This works because people want to know that when they are ready to check out there wouldn't be any surprises.

b. If you don't know what cost of shipping will be, are you willing to offer free shipping for a certain amount of order, say $50 or $75. If someone is about to order and their total is $45 and they learn they will get free shipping for a $50 order, they are likely to add another item to get the free shipping. To help offset the cost to you, add $1 or $2 to the cost of your item.

It can be challenging to get that much wanted traffic but the rewards are well worth it once it gets going.

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Donna is an online instructor for two colleges and she received both her B.S. and M.B.A. via online classes. Donna also owns her own business as a Tupperware Director.