Two posts in one day….  now there’s an unusual occurence!

Had to get this post out to you quickly (and it’s being sent to the VIP list as well).

Last night I was sent a link to Wordpress Blog Defender (all links in this post are affiliate links) by John Hoff and had to check it out.  I’ve looked at securing my site previously, and recently I’ve had two friends have their sites hacked – so it’s become more urgent all of a sudden.

I’d always assumed it couldn’t happen to me, who’d want to hack  my site?  But then these friends were hacked, by autobots, and I realised that it’s not about the site itself, it’s simply because the site is out there and it COULD happen to me.

I’d actually looked at Wordpress Blog Defender previously and been impressed, but that was before I was serious about doing something about it.  So when Michael Martine at Remarkablogger recommended it again, and mentioned that he uses it himself, I was even more interested.

So I bought it last night and downloaded it.  This is SO EASY to use.  I’m not a coder and securing your blog is definatly using code.  John gives you every bit of code, a 150 page book  with 30 ways to protect your site, and 14 step by step video’s.

Better still, it’s on sale for the next two days.  50% off, only $19.99 until 3 March (US time) then it’s back up the normal price of double that.  I’m loving it so far – simple to use and feeling so much better about my site.

John’s story of how his wife’s jewelery business was hacked is a real eye-opener – it’s not just about getting your site back up, he talks about the loss of income and the effect on his family, the destruction of their business reputation and the heartache caused by it all.

Check out Wordpress Blog Defender, you’ll be glad you did.

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Used under Creative Commons Attribution licence, from RankedHard SEO

Hehehehe, found this online and loved it.  How true!

(If you’re looking for an easily understandable SEO book, check out IttyBiz SEO School – fantastic ebook!)

Meet SuperWAHM

Finally, our rebranding is complete.  We’ve got the whole new website and new logo to go with the new SuperWAHM name.

It is with great pleasure that I introduce you to SuperWAHM….

Isn’t she awesome?  Created by the amazing Bree of Image Effect, as was the site header.

Our VIP List is changing

Because, you know, it’s not enough just to change the website, and the logo, and the branding, and the website copy…  We have to change everything else as well.

The VIP list is no longer just to announce discounts, subscriber specials etc.  It’s now become a monthly newsletter as well, PLUS when you sign up you receive a free ebook – “What I Wish I’d Known…”  A collection of wisdom from 33 WAHMs and Entrepreneurs on what they wish they’d known before they started their business.

SuperWAHM VIPs receive:
VIP exclusive articles NOT published to the blog
Tips and techniques you can apply to your business immediately
Subscriber only discounts
Advance notice of sales
Free copy of “What I Wish I’d Known…”

Click here to check it out, sign up (if you haven’t already) and become a SuperWAHM VIP.  We’d love to have you join us.

Download the WAHM Manifesto

We’re now offering a free, no strings, no signup, send it around as much as you want, WAHM Manifesto for download from the website.

This manifesto came about from the hundreds of emails and conversations I’ve had, both face to face and online, with WAHMs who want to grow their business and are smacking up against a brick wall.  That wall could be from their own beliefs, lack of money, lack of planning and/or ideas, other people’s attitudes, non-supportive partners, family and friends.  It could be all of these or none.

The final push for me was when Melissa from Business Mums Network emailed me one day to say she was tempted to start a FaceBook group called “Just because I’m a WAHM doesn’t mean I’m not in business to make money…”.  From that conversation, the WAHM Manifesto was written.

Come and check it out, download it, send it to your friends.

Let me know what you think. 

A few days ago I was reading a post of Jonathon Fields on ‘The Four Delusions of Entrepreneurs’. It’s very interesting reading and relates well to us as Work at Home Moms.

In his post Jonathon discusses the four reasons why most entrepreneurs leave the security of ‘working for the man’. Those reasons are:
- Freedom
- Control
- Money
- Passion

Not so different from being a WAHM is it? Only we can usually add that we want to be at home for our kids, yes?

Jonathon goes on to discuss:

They dream of working their own hours, not having to report to “the Man,” skipping though fields of money, loving what they do every moment of every day and changing the world. All great aspirations.
Question is -
How much is real, and how much is outright fantasy?

Wow. That question hit me right between the eyes. Like every one of you I had good reasons for working at home – my biggest reason turned 12 just last month.

Yet the four reasons stated by Jonathon were there right behind her. And as I, and most likely you, have found those four things don’t come easily – if at all.

What do you think? Have you been able to fulfil your reasons for starting/running a work at home business?

We all have expectations before beginning something, how have your expectations been met, exceeded or dropped as you’ve progressed with your work at home business?

Knowing what you know now, would you do it all again?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for last several years you will have heard how FaceBook is such a great medium for promoting your business, you can set up a fan page or a group, run competitions, connect with like-minded businesses etc etc etc.

I agree. FaceBook is great for business promotion. What scares me though is the number of people who are risking having their business and themselves banned from FaceBook.

Google search ‘Fail’ and how to use FaceBook for Business

I went searching on Google for “how to use FaceBook for business”. That was a mistake. If I hated PLR (Private Label Rights) before, I hate it even more now. I had to skim through what felt like thousands of almost identical articles to find a couple of originals that actually sounded like they knew what they were talking about. So of those articles that were more than ‘set up a fan page, invite people to join, talk to them’ (seriously, that’s what all the PLR articles were saying. Sigh…) there were two things that were suggested often enough to be noteworthy:

1. Set up two accounts on FaceBook, one personal and one for business; and

2. Run competitions to get fans.

Big problem here folks. Both of these are against FaceBook’s Terms of Service (TOS). Let’s have a look at these two separately.

Two accounts
It makes sense doesn’t it. Separate your business from your personal account. Sounds logical. Unfortunately for a lot of business owners, FaceBook very clearly states that a person can have only one account. If it is discovered that someone has two accounts, even just for the purpose of business, then both accounts will be terminated. There go all your loving fans, people.

The FAQ relating to multiple accounts is here.  It’s also in the TOS but you have to dig through a few pages as it’s buried.  *rolls eyes*

The solution
Have one account, and a business Fan page on the same account. Fans won’t see your personal posts and status updates. You can brand a Fan Page much better than a normal FaceBook account and it keeps your personal and business life separate.

There’s nothing that says you have to accept fans as friends on your personal profile (I don’t), you can if you want to, however you need to be careful of what you post in your status. I personally don’t want my fans reading my vent about the idiot who took my vegie box garden instead of a bag of root cuttings (true story). That’s up to you however.

FaceBook competitions
You ARE allowed to run competitions on FaceBook. However, it must be approved in writing and conducted using an Application. There are also a lot of restrictions on what you can and can’t do in a competition.

I’m sure you’ve all seen the ‘Become our 1,000,000th fan and win…’ type competition. Sorry, not allowed. The TOS very clearly state “You cannot: Administer a promotion that users automatically enter by becoming a fan of your Page.”

The “upload your photo/video here and win” competitions? Again, not allowed. And yet we’ve all seen countless examples of these and many other similar competitions.

Have a look at the full TOS relating to promotions and competitions here.

The solution
Apply to FaceBook to run a competition and run it via an application as per the TOS. At this point I don’t know how to get or find an application to run a competition (sorry, I know that’s not much help). I’m still researching it and when I find an answer – assuming I do find one – I’ll let you know.

If anyone has any suggestions, or has seen an application for running competitions, let us know in the comments. I’m sure everyone would be most grateful for help with this one, I know I will be.

I found these TOS by accident

A couple of weeks ago I was searching through the TOS looking for something totally unrelated to business (the minimum age requirement, actually) and stumbled across both these restrictions. Surprised doesn’t cover how I felt.

I’ve done a lot of reading on using social media and FaceBook for business. These two suggestions are rampant throughout everything I’ve seen.

I feel misled, and I’ve lost a lot of respect for some people

Do these people selling “How to use FaceBook for your Business” type courses and ebooks not read the TOS before making their recommendations? So many ‘experts’ are recommending business owners do these two things, and they’ve obviously not read up on the legal requirements and restrictions.

Don’t be caught out

One argument I heard when discussing this was “FaceBook will never catch me, they don’t really care”. This might well be true. They may never catch you. Are you prepared to risk that? Are you prepared to take the chance that they don’t monitor competitions and user accounts?

Or are you better off doing the right thing and playing it safe?

I’m usually highly organised. This is, after all, what I do – I help work at home moms with planning and organising. But last week I lost the plot. Last week came and went in a haze of disorganisation and fire-fighting. Not real fires, I mean the stuff that happens and has to be dealt with IMMEDIATELY! RIGHT NOW! because the deadline was actually a week ago and somewhere along the line several tasks had dropped off my to-do list.

I was debating writing this post, and finally decided that hey, everyone gets disorganised sometimes. I’m not some fantastically perfect, 100% organised, never lose the plot person. Except when it comes to housework, in which case I never had the plot. Housework got dropped years ago, except for keeping the house liveable (no, we don’t have a cleaner).

Last week I finally managed to get my organisational mojo back at 4.30 Friday afternoon, while sitting waiting for my daughter’s Irish Dance class to finish. I think the fact that I didn’t have a computer in front of me actually helped with that. I couldn’t do any work because it was all on the computer, so I had just a small notebook in which to plan and review the week that sucked.

How did it happen? How did I go from being organised to chasing my own tail for a whole week? Here’s what all contributed a little bit, and added up to a lot:
• Hubby went back to work after six weeks at home
• The kiddo started High School
• My studying (two evenings a week) started back
• I spent much of my days tracking down ‘stuff’ that was needed for the Kiddo’s school and was “I HAVE to have it tomorrow” items
• I skipped breakfast every day (this might sound small, but it had a huge effect on everything else I did or tried to do. No breakfast = no brain power and more stress)
• I didn’t plan meals for the week, let alone for the evenings I was at school
• I started a Deaf Bible Study in our home
• My desk was cluttered
• I was telling myself how disorganised I was and how I wasn’t getting anything done  (Negative self-talk – bad mistake!)

Ugh. Any one of these would be enough to get off track temporarily. All of them in one week? I was a basket case by Friday. And I was so caught up in the stress of trying to catch up with myself that I couldn’t see it, not until I sat down and gave myself time to think – even though it was accidental as I’d intended to take my laptop with me to dancing.

So now it’s Monday of a brand new week. Last week was a timely reminder that no organisation process is perfect; it’s still easy to get knocked for six. This morning is being spent getting back into being organised. Reviewing structures and processes that didn’t work last week, so they won’t happen again. Checking on what I didn’t get done that should have been. And telling myself it was just a hiccup, because the negative self-talk I had going on was stopping me from seeing the problem in time to catch it early.

If you’ve ever had a week like this – and I don’t know anyone who hasn’t – let yourself move on.  It’s only a temporary state.  Learn from the lessons, tell yourself you’re better than that, and get over it.

Oh, and the new ‘Dream Setter’ program that’s supposed to be released tomorrow? That’s going to be a few more days until it’s ready… If you’re on the VIP list you’ll be notified first with a discount code, if you just read the RSS or on the blog you’ll have to wait a couple more days. (or you can go sign up for the VIP list now).

I’m giving away one copy of this fantastic book by Michael Port “Book Yourself Solid”. This is a great book with tons of useful and easily applied information.

You can win it simply by leaving a comment below.

Front of the book states:

The fastest, easiest and most reliable system for getting more clients than you can handle even if you hate marketing and sellling.

How to enter the giveaway

Simply leave a comment below (and make sure you click subscribe to comments so you’re notified of the winner). I’m leaving it open for five days. On Monday 1st Feb (Australian time) I’ll use Random.org to select the winner.

I’m more than happy to post the book anywhere in the world, so leave a comment and Good luck!

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Update: The winner is #5, Sue Bruce.  Congratulations Sue!

Today’s post is reprinted with permission from Psychotactics by Sean D’Souza.  This particular article is one I keep coming back to, otherwise I’d be rewriting, re-recording and editing for ever.  Enjoy!

The 70% Principle

Have you got eleven seconds to learn a simple principle? A principle that will radically change the way you do things?

You do, don’t you?
Ok, tick, tick, tick….here’s the principle.

It’s called..um…the 70% Principle

So what’s the 70% Principle?

If a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing 70% right.
You can always come back to do the 20% later.

Yes, read it again, and no, the math isn’t wrong.

If you’re going to build a website, a 70% effort is fine.
If you’re going to do a presentation a 70% effort is fine.
If you’re going to bake a cake, for that matter…do you need all the ingredients?

The perfect cake? With all the perfecto ingredients? Or the cake with ‘70%’ of the ingredients?

The ‘perfect’ wording on a website? Or the ‘70% perfect’ wording on the website?

And nope this isn’t a case for mediocrity

No one is telling you to do crappy stuff. No one’s saying that you need to keep your project unfinished. But in the quest for perfection, most of us never start.

The 70% principle is about getting your best effort out and into the hands of your clients. That you don’t need to start off with a 100%-kaboom-wow-start.

So let’s tell you about our ‘who pushed me?’ start in 2002

We started Psychotactics,in the year 2002, with a 16 page booklet. We called it the ‘Brain Audit.’ And indeedy-doo, it started with just 16 pages. Those 16 pages, we cheekily sold for $20 or thereabouts.

And you know what?

We weren’t trying to keep the pages down to 16 pages, but we certainly weren’t trying to pad up the contents of the book either.

The 16 pages of information were all we knew at the time. And yes, we could have made it 100% perfect, but decided to put our 70% effort out anyyay.

Did I say, put it out? I meant, I got ‘pushed’

You see, I wasn’t keen to sell the Brain Audit. I wanted to get the e-book just right. But I was forced into putting it on the market.

I was forced to putting it on a sales page, by another marketer who promised to promote the book to his audience.

And he never did promote the book

I reminded him. Gently. Then became a bit of a nag. But that promotion never, ever happened. What did happen was that the ‘Brain Audit’ began to sell.

And as it turned out, I was able to add the next 20%,
and the next 20%, and the next 20%.

And yes, the math still adds up

Because all along, that ’so-called incomplete’ product was selling. And when you think about it, which product or service of yours is ever complete?

As your knowledge grows; as your customers ask more questions; as you apply the concepts in different ways, your product or service gets better all the time.

And today, the Brain Audit is a comprehensive document that not only helps you understand how the customer thinks, but is also the basis for being a member of 5000bc; for doing any of our courses like the copywriting course, product-creation course.

What started out as a ‘who pushed me?’ product, now helps us get thousands of customers. And helps us grow our business considerably from year to year.

Kinda like the iPod, you see

When the iPod came out at first, it was just 10GB (yeah, pathetic ten gigs).

Then it went up to 30GB. And hey, we got video too. Then whoopsy-doo, it was 60GB. And uppity up it keeps going, both in size, features and ease of use.

Where’s the market for the perfect iPod?

There’s no market for the perfect product or service. The product or service that your customers want, is the product or service you have now.

That 70%-perfect product/service, will do fine for your customer.

How can I be so sure?

Could this article have been at least 30% better?
Couldn’t I have found more examples? More case-studies? Put in more details, perhaps? Tweaked my words just so to make it richer, more vibrant?

Sure I could. But you’ve got the point, right?

If a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing 70% right. You can always fix the 20% later.

©2001-2010 Psychotactics Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Article written by Sean D’Souza.
Wouldn’t you love to stumble upon a secret library of small business ideas. Find simple, yet electrifying ideas,on website strategy, marketing strategies, copywriting, public speaking, article marketing, sales conversion, psychological tactics and branding. Head down to http://www.psychotactics.com today and judge for yourself.

Our first new product release for 2010. Announcing SuperWAHM’s EZ-Notes!

The 2 for 1 sale referred to below is now finished.  Click here to buy the Ebooks.

What are EZ-Notes?

A series of quick and easy to read ebooks, in pdf format, that each deal with a problem common to work at home mums. Priced at US$6.95 each they’re the cheapest, fastest and easiest solution you’ll find anywhere on the net.

We’ll be releasing 1-2 new titles every month, all at the same low price.

What titles do you have?

Our first two titles are due to be released on Monday 25th January.  And here they are:

The No-Plan-Preneur

Are you a Work at Home Mum whose business grew from an interesting hobby into a business? Didn’t plan on it being a business at the start but you’re happy it is now? This ebook is for you.

Talking about how you got where you are, and how to see where you’re going, this ebook covers the most common issues that hobbyists-turned-entrepreneurs deal with, and how to avoid getting stuck in them yourself.

Avoid the usual pitfalls and get your business rockin’ ahead with the EZ-Notes No-Plan-Preneur!

The Non-Planner’s Quick’n’Dirty Business Plan

Don’t have a business plan and feeling stuck? This EZ-Notes ebook is for you. Draft out a quickie business plan to get you past that hurdle and moving again, all in the time it takes to do a load of laundry. If the thought of writing a full business plan gives you hives, this ebook will be the soothing calamine that eases the hurt and soothes the pain.

No, it’s not a replacement for a comprehensive plan that takes you years into the future. It focuses on the next 2-3 months, in a format that is simple and easy to use, and quick to put together.

Yes, you can keep on simply writing a Quick’n’Dirty plan every few months as the previous one is finished.

Yes, it’s designed to be quick and simple to use. Generally, a Quick’n’dirty plan should take about thirty minutes to an hour – just enough time when the kids are down for a nap, waiting for a ballet class or football game to finish, or even just while the washing machine is running.

No huge brain pain, just a simple step by step guide to plan your next few months for great business growth with the EZ-Notes Quick’n’Dirty Business Plan.

Special offer and a giveaway for our readers

From now until Thursday January 21 you can by both these EZ-Notes ebooks for our special pre-release price of $6.95 – that’s two for the price of one.

Simply click here to buy both EZ-Notes, valued at $13.90, for just $6.95. That’s both ebooks for the low, low price of one EZ-Notes after next week. Buy now at the special pre-release price and on Monday 25th Jan you’ll automatically be sent a link to download your purchases.

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Leave a comment and win both EZ-Notes Ebooks

Leave a comment and tell us why you became a Work at Home Mom. What inspired your decision? What were the most important factors in deciding to work from home?

On Friday, I’ll pick one lucky commenter – using Random.org – to win both ebooks. If you’ve purchased them already I’ll refund your purchase price, if you haven’t purchased then I’ll send you a download link on Monday 25th.  The winner will be announced in the comments on this post, so make sure you click ‘Subscribe to Comments’.

Do you have friends and other work at home mums who you think would benefit from EZ-Notes? Please send them a link, email them, forward on the RSS feed and invite them to come and take a look.

What a year! 2009 was the year I made the switch from generalist life coaching to working exclusively with Work At Home Mums. It was a decision I made with a lot of trepidation and concerns, and thankfully it proved to be the right choice. It’s a year down the track, and now we’re looking back at the year that was.

104 posts over the 12 months – I remember back at the start looking at about my third or fourth post and thinking 50 was a huge number of posts!

The top 10.2 favourite posts from 2009

1. Do You Have Permission to Market?

2. How to Make Lots of Money Online Fast

3. The Clean Shower Guide to Marketing

4.1. The Basics of a Good Blogsite – Pt 1

4.2. The Basics of a Good Blogsite – Pt 2

5. A Rant on Ethics in Business, or rather, The Lack Thereof

6. Managing Work Time Around Kids – Myth or Reality?

7. Email Goof-Up, or Don’t Diss Your Customers

8.1. Business Practices That Make You Look Bad Pt 1

8.2. Business Practices That Make You Look Bad Pt 2

9. Build It and They Will (Maybe) Come

10. Is Your Business Real or Are You Just Playing?

There are two free recordings on the site as well, both well-worth downloading and listening to:

Set Yourself Apart with planning – free audio download

Marketing Biz Brainstorm Teleseminar Recording

Have a read through, see what other people thought of the posts.  Onward to 2010, our best year yet!