Every business must have their own web presence to compete in todays economy.

A website is simply an electronic brochure that helps your customers do their homework on you before they buy from you. All of your details, hours of operation, products, services and more are listed on this online brochure. As a result, well informed customers trust more and therefore they buy more.

SiteBuilderAvenue.com recognizes this and has launched a program to help small businesses gain access to affordable web design with first class support to get their website launched.  Starting at $50 for set up and hands on live help, any new or growing company can get their website launched in a matter of days. If you simply want to do it yourself, you can take advantage of the 10 day free trial, $0 cost set up and build your own website with free email and phone support.

With every website built by the SiteBuilderAvenue.com team, they give you access to a growing marketing library of  videos, audios, free eBooks and more in their Discovery Center. You can learn about local marketing, facebook marketing, twitter, Link wheeling, local search submission, Pay Per Click tips and so much more.

In addition, they offer you a free wordpress blog site hosted on their server as part of the monthly cost. It’s like getting two websites for the price of one. You can use the blog to link to and drive traffic back to your primary business or use it as a secondary site for another business. Either way, the benefits of having a blog on the system means you get the biggest bang for your web design bucks.

In order to get the word out, SiteBuilderAvenue.com has launched an affiliate and reseller program that pays commission to the marketers that join their FREE program and send new clients!

Join Their Free Affiliate Program

This is a program that anyone can do part time from the comfort of their own home or office.

Working at home is the goal of many people in today’s economy.  Part time of full time income is need to help fight against the rising cost of inflation. “I want to help change as many lives financially as I can”.. Said creator Gene Culver. “I live to put money in other marketers pockets and I will do anything I can to help them succeed”. He adds… “Success is a team sport”.

The perfect partners for this program are business consultants, graphic designers and high traffic sites that are interesting in putting links on their site that return real recognizable revenue on a weekly basis. This program pays weekly!

The goal is to offer affordable web design and provide a respectable commission to affiliates that refer new clients.

They also have a reseller program:

The reseller program is more of a partnership and it allows the marketing reps to use SiteBuilderAvenue.com as the upstream provider for their front-line business. The reseller sets the price and becomes the primary contact for the design clients. SiteBuilderAvenue.com supports the sale as part of the resellers team to assure that everything is quoted properly,  designed to specifications and installed on time and on budget!

This win/win solution works for the customer, marketer and SiteBuilderAvenue.com.

Take a look around and add it to your list of great products today! SiteBuilderAvenue.com.

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When you set up and run your account incorrectly, you actually pay a “TAX”. No, it’s not paid to the government! It’s paid to Google. The phrases has been coined by the PPC experts as “Stupidity Tax”. What you don’t know will cost you extra  money when it comes to running your own Pay Per Click campaign. View this video below as I demonstrate the results of one my clients and then register for the free Google Pay Per Click training to help you market your website. Limited seating available so sign up quickly.  Register Here

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If you can show someone how to turn $50 into $100… you become valuable. Once the word get’s out that you can do this, you will become hunted! You won’t have to hunt anymore! Stop chasing them and let them chase you.

Get ready to run for your life as we teach you the process in this 7 part free video series on how to become the hunted.

Watch the video below and then click the Magnetic Sponsoring link to get your free videos

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EVERY Wednesday at 9:00 PM ET!

Conference Call Number: 1-218-548-0955 Passcode: 410619#
Every Wednesday 9 PM ET! 6 PM PT

Who is Gene Culver?

What would you like to talk about?

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Being a successful life coach or business coach is within your grasp. Read on!

So what is it exactly that separates you from the life coaches or business coaches you see being more successful than you?

While you may think that successful coaches are such because they have some advantage over you – think again. Sure, it happens sometimes that a business coach has the right connections and almost falls into success. Or that a life coach just finds the perfect niche market that’s been waiting to be lead.

But most of the time their success came because of a few simple principles that they practice in their business every day. None of these are difficult to learn. None of them are difficult to do. Yet each of the five steps I list below are essential to having success as a coach. Follow them and you’ll find that you’ll accomplish more than you probably thought was possible!

Step One: Successful coaches keep their eye on the goal

You know how it goes. Let’s say you develop and market a new coaching program for your clients. When you start, you’re filled with enthusiasm. But time passes and while you’re still happy about the project, but you start noticing the difficult things. More time passes and you’re no longer enthusiastic at all. However, you keep going because you know it has potential. Finally, you start to question why the heck you are doing this in the first place. Then it happens. A new coaching project pops up. You feel excitement start to build again, but for this new project instead of your current one. You decide this one will be MUCH better, and jump ship to pursue this new, exciting opportunity. Sound familiar?

Fortunately, there is an easy remedy for this. Commitment!

I know, that seems too simple, but it’s true. Setting clear, realistic goals is essential to your coaching success. As is being committed to completing the journey whatever it takes. If you continually bail out on your goals, you are training yourself to believe that your goals are not important. And as your goals seem less important, you will be tempted to quit before you even start. Instead, set daily reminders about your goals so they stay fresh in your mind and you will stay encouraged to achieve them. Make the resolve to finish what you start – no matter what – and you will be shocked at how much you can accomplish!

Step Two: Successful coaches manage their work efficiently and rarely procrastinate

If I could only tell you one thing about how to manage your coaching workload, it would be to make a plan and stick to it as much as possible! Proper planning is the key to saving time and getting things done. Without a plan you’ll find that days and weeks go by without you accomplishing much of your goals. Usually your work will suffer. And I guarantee you without good planning your coaching practice will suffer. So prepare ahead of time, ideally the night before. Make a prioritized list of things that need to be done on a day to day basis and resolve to finish those tasks no matter what!

For some people, completing all the tasks on their prioritized list will be easy. However, others may run into procrastination issues. Why do people procrastinate? Often times, they are trying to avoid a difficult task. It’s no secret that tasks that take longer are less desirable than those that can be completed quickly.

Many people decide to do desirable tasks first, regardless of how important these tasks are. The problem with this is that people sometimes fall into the trap of unconsciously allowing themselves to be consumed by enjoyable “busywork” instead of more important tasks.

Making a resolve to finish the biggest, most important tasks first (enjoyable or not!) will give you a sense of accomplishment that will make the other tasks on your list seem like a breeze. Do this, and you will keep procrastination at bay!

However, others procrastinate for deeper reasons. Sometimes procrastination is due to fear of failure. No one wants to be embarrassed by a lack of knowledge or skills, so it’s easy to try to avoid doing those tasks that make you afraid or uncomfortable. However, it’s important to realize that motivation comes from within. Coming to grips with personal issues is the first step in realizing why you procrastinate. Once you do so, you can start taking steps to chance.

Step Three: Successful coaches learn from criticism

Let’s face it, it can be hard to hear someone tells us our faults as a coach. But criticism can be much more useful than you may think. If you take the time to listen and evaluate various criticisms, you’ll often find the keys to reaching your full potential as a life coach.

It really is in your best interest to accept the criticism, apply the suggestions, and grow throughout the process instead of allowing yourself to become defensive or upset. I’m not suggesting it’s always easy to do. I struggle with certain types of criticism myself. And none of us like to hear what’s ‘wrong’ with us or our coaching practices. But if you can wade through the difficulty and adapt to the feedback, you will find jewels hidden in the mix.

By learning to accept criticism, you will see yourself grow in ways you never thought possible.

Step Four: Successful Coaches keep a positive outlook

In order to achieve success as a coach, a holistic practitioner or any other sort of service provider, you need to think positively about yourself and your chances for success. Many coaches mistakenly believe that being positive and thinking optimistically is just part of someone’s personality – either you’re born an optimist or you’re not! But this isn’t true at all. Optimism is an acquired habit. It’s a skill that can be learned and developed – and then used to motivate your and your coaching practice forward.

In order to become optimistic and motivated, you need to become conscious of ’that little voice inside.’ I’m not being smug here. You know the voice. You even could tell me what it says to you sometimes. And I know you’ve pushed it away whenever it made you feel weak or small.

But now it’s time to listen to what it says in situations. Catch yourself saying something about what’s going on. If it’s negative, immediately stop and put a positive spin on it. So a negative thought like “I don’t know how to market my coaching practice” could be changed into “I can learn how to market my coaching practice.” Try doing this for a month, and I think you will be absolutely amazed at how energized you are about not only your work, but your life in general!

Step Five: Successful Coaches leave time each day for reflection

This is way more important than it sounds. Self evaluation and self reflection is something every coach, every healer and every business owner should be doing on a daily basis. How else can you know whether your day was efficient and successful?

And since it’s so easy to get caught up in the motions of ‘go to work, see clients, come home,’ you want to do something to breakdown the monotony on it. You need to break the patterns of ineffectiveness to create more effectiveness – lack of success to create more success. Truly successful life coaches and business coaches know that reflection is one of the best ways to keep yourself on the fast track to success.

Try this exercise:

At the end of the day, try to reflect back on the hardest part of the day, then ask yourself the following questions:

• What did I learn from that experience that will help me in the future?
• How can I that experience to help improve myself or my future?
• How can I do better next time around?

And really be honest with yourself. If you’ve been screwing off, then admit it to yourself. Then go back through each step and take something you can do from each. Just remember that there is always room to learn and to grow into greater and greater levels of success. Your self reflection time will pay huge dividends in your coaching and your personal life. Not bad when one thing can reach many aspects of your life. Just remember to do it daily – even if only 5 minutes.

To sum up, being a success coach is really not a mystery – not at all. These 5 steps are a beginning. And, they’re a powerful beginning. There’s enough in these 5 steps to double your business in the next 12 months. I’m not kidding about that. You just have to do the steps, use them – apply them to the best of your ability. If you miss a day, then miss the day and start again the next. But don’t leave them behind.

Here’s to all the success you could ever want.

I’d love to hear what you’re doing now as a coach to create the success you want. Something? Nothing? You have no idea?

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Here are a few example ideas I came up with that you can use a shared Google Calendar to help promote your web site or business.

• If you are a speaker, publish a speaking schedule. You are probably already doing that through Google Calendar already. Maybe you are publishing the calendar to your website. If you are, people can also subscribe to the calendar via Google Calendars or iCal. Promote and publish those links too.
• Is your site or blog all about soccer? Create a calendar around the different soccer matches either around the world or the locality that your readers are most interested in. Let them know how they can subscribe to that calendar.
• Maybe your visitors are mostly business people or marketers. How about creating a calendar that shows when quarterly taxes are due, a reminder when to start their holiday marketing planning and when to start promoting? Enter the dates and weeks of holidays and observances they can use for promotions.
• Similarly, if your visitors are moms, how about a calendar with suggestions of places to visit, things to do, seasonal reminders or shopping and menu plans.
• If you are a coach. Create a calendar around a program let’s say, a 60 day organizing program that users can subscribe to and they be reminded or things they need to do each day or each week to help them move along.

Use your imagination. Think of the calendar as a free reminder tool for your visitors. Remember that you can enter a link in Google Calendar entries. This can encourage subscribed users to click through to visit your site, an offer or simply lead people to read old but timely posts.

Don’t think it would work? This is the third year I am creating a calendar for bloggers of the many blogging opportunities throughout the year. It is very popular and I get people asking when it will be updated each year. Great tool to keep you in front of your audience at all times through the year as well. You can get a PDF copy of this calendar as an example for your own project. This year, I will be creating both PDF and a online ‘live’ version using Google Calendar.

Image courtesy of yalcin Eren

Lynette enjoys discovering new ways to use technology or new technologies to use in a business and in turn help her clients apply them. You can find also Lynette at her blog, Twitter and Facebook

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The program is my 42 Day Launch Incubator.  I created the curriculum last year, led my first group to great success and then made the whole thing available as a self study course.  The group coaching option is only available two or three times a year and I would love to have you join me for this session.

I know that there are literally hundreds of you reading this who have been thinking hard about creating an info product.  I don’t normally put a lot of pressure on you – but I want to apply some right now – fall is a great time to create a new product.

Maybe you want to create something like…

• A Beginner’s Guide to a Frugal Holiday Season
• Ten Simple Steps to Total Computer Security
• Sixteen Homeschool Science Projects Under $10 Each
• Top Blogging Secrets: How The Pros Get More Readers
• Five Videos You Should Star In This Fall And How It Will Help You Promote Your ________.
• Common Social Media Blunders And How To Come Back From Them
• Web Time Wasters: Tips for Getting More Done Online
• Turning a Wipeout into a Win!
• Top Guest Blogging Strategies For Traffic & Profits

Whatever it is that you’ve been thinking about sharing with others, I can help you chunk up the process and get it done at last.

Come check it out.

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A timer – it truly is super weird. For someone who works hard not to be ruled by a punch clock, the timer often helps me focus the most. Not only that, it also helps me track billable hours. Yeah I’m old school like that. While I do have a physical timer – preferred for offline work, I also use a digital and tiny timer on my computer. The best in my humble opinion is a simple, dirt cheap but very functional timer, Egg Timer Plus from Sardine software (love the name). Only $5

Evernote – *sigh* I could write a book about Evernote. It is a web clipper (clip text, images etc from the web), a note taker, a task planner, a recipe organizer – you name it, you can probably find a way to use it for that. To me it’s a huge virtual inbox but that’s nothing new. What I love best about this is, you can capture almost any kind of data from anywhere. From your desktop and directly from your cell phone this is a huge selling point for me. The only thing it doesn’t have is a calendar but it is definitely a 2nd brain.

Filebox eXtender – got tired of clicking and clicking and clicking through folders to find the file I want. If you make a concious effort to notice it, you usually revisit a couple of folders pretty regularly throughout the day, week and month. I wanted a way to quickly jump to these folders which are also contained within many parent folders. Filebox eXtender does that. Love it. Sadly, it is no longer being actively support. There have been some reported issues for some people but they do have a Windows Vista and Windows 7 version. It is free.

QTTabBar – lets you have tabs in Windows Explorer. I have not installed it yet, will definitely install it shortly. Going by my love of tabs on Firefox, QTTabBar may quickly be a must have.

Gmail Labels, Filter and auto Archive feature – The sky will not fall on your head if you don’t read every single email that comes through your inbox. A big volume of our emails are probably not supposed to be acted upon anyhow so just – stuff them. You don’t have to see them but you may need them at some point in the future. Create a label and make sure you check the “Skip inbox” checkbox, mark as read and assign it a label – e.g. Receipts. Then filter all PayPal emails or even emails you get from the ‘Gurus’ or subscription list this way. Let Gmail to that petty work for you.

GridMove - this is one killer app – at least for me. I used to call GridMove the poor (wo)man’s 2nd monitor. Now that I have a 2nd monitor, I find I need it more! It separates your monitor into grids – you can even create your own layouts or download the many contributed by users. When you click on the middle mouse button and drag a window, it will show you the many grids you can drag the window to. It will ’snap’ into place. Eliminating the need to manually resize windows. This is great for working with code and web sites – see the effect of your changes on one side and the code on another. It’s also come in real handy during household budgeting day. I can see my own spreadsheet on one side and the checking account on the other.

A Macro – Feels like Deja Vu. I’ve mentioned this one before Oh yeah! Right here. See, they all tie in together. A Macro does repetitive tasks for you so you don’t have to remember or do it manually. Saving you tons of time. It can launch applications for you, perform certain functions on a schedule and even type for you. Get it. Use it. DirectAccess has saved me 17 hours of typing. How do I know? Because it gives me a neat little chart estimate. It’ probably more than than though because I use it launch programs and open folders, I save the time required to search for the program from a programs list – or the time to find that elusive folder.

A Workflow or system if you prefer to call it that – Some people respond better to mindmaps, some people prefer lists – whichever you decide, using tools like wikis and Bubbl.us and Gliffy help you create a workflow faster and also edit them easier so if there are changes in your workflow, everyone else on your team won’t be stuck with archaic versions.

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Yeah, you heard me right.  I’m working hard through the holiday break.  (I’m HUNGRY remember?)

Don’t worry, I’ve got my vacation planned for the following weekend.  I’ll be settling into my lake house with lots of relaxation on the calendar.  (My trusty VA is guarding my calendar to keep it clear.)

I was visiting with my friend and life coach, Aurelia Williams earlier today and shared something pretty exciting.  I’ve already met my goal of earning an extra $1000!  Actually, I made an extra $1200 in just nine days.   That took all of the pressure off of my budget this month and puts me well on the path to my long term goal of doubling my income in nine months.

Some new pressure came to light right on the heels of that as I realized how much I’ll need to put aside for my trip to NAMS in January.  I see that as a good thing – I need to feel the burn to keep my motivated.

I have got a LOT done this past week.  I finished up all of the lessons for my Blog Internship course and got a new group coaching program ready to launch, that’s the 42 Day Launch Incubator.  I’m super geeked about the Incubator.  I’m going to be working with other hungry internet marketers as they create their first (or next) information product in just 42 days.

I interviewed 25+ and selected 12 new interns for the Mom’s Talk Network blogs.  This new group will be getting started after my vacation and I can hardly wait!

It’s been a great week and I plan to make this weekend even more productive.

So you go enjoy your weekend!  I’ll be here if you need me

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I’m thrilled to come back and report that I went for it!

I paid a deposit and signed a lease for this great three bedroom house on Otsego Lake.  It’s way cute and sits right on the east shore where it will enjoy all the afternoon sunshine.

The lake house will add significant financial pressure on my monthly budget – so now is where I get ‘Hungry’!

I’m Not The Only Hungry One

On Monday mornings I meet with Mom Masterminds members and other internet marketing women (our meeting is open to the public) for a regular ‘Breakthrough’ session.  This week I declared the theme to be ‘Double the Trouble’ and we talked about wanting to double our incomes.

In Friday’s post I said:

“I know I can make everything I want happen if I want it bad enough. With the right projects and focused attention, anything really is possible.”

After a season of bring pretty laid back about things, I’m working up a sense of urgency and tackling all of my projects with renewed passion.  I’m determined to make every dollar I can, ensuring that I’ll get to enjoy the lake house as much as possible.

In the breakthrough session it became clear that I’m not alone in dreaming bigger dreams and feeling increased levels of pressure about earning a more substantial income.   Again and again, participating members voiced their agreement and excitement about reaching for higher levels.

Our new goals make us remember what it felt like to be new and hungry for success, sparking the idea to claim the title:  ‘The Hungry Women of Internet Marketing‘.  We’re going to be holding each other accountable to our new goals and taking regular action on them over on the Mom Masterminds forum of course.

Several of us have joined Jimmy’s Affiliatenaire course to ramp up our efforts in affiliate marketing and we’re starting up an MMer accountability group right after Labor Day.  We’ll be meeting in my conference room one evening a week to talk over our lessons and brainstorm ways to apply the information.  I’m so excited about that!

You Work Harder When You’re Hungry And When Someone Else Is Watching!

When Mom Masterminds launched back in 2004, we noticed right away that sharing goals and being held accountable for them helped many members to take more action.  That and being able to mastermind with other smart marketers helps you take smarter action

If you’re hungry like we’re hungry, I invite you to join us there!

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Maybe many of us are tired of free PDF’s that are just gathering cyberdust on our hard drives not because the information isn’t good, not because it is free but because it’s no longer as ’sexy’ anymore. Maybe we have all ‘grown up’ in the manner we consume and share information online. I’m not saying that PDF’s aren’t good or effective and that we must rush to multi-media delivery. Not at all. What I am saying is, maybe the days of black and white text only PDF’s is going if not already gone. That we need to work harder to present our information with professional design and layouts whether they are in written format or multimedia.

I’m not sure. But I know this.

One of the biggest reasons I love my work is because I see lots of potential in utilizing technology for marketing purposes. It is true that everyone of us reading and contributing to this blog already are doing so to a certain extent. After all, for most of us, our business wouldn’t exist without technology – the Internet. But what I’m talking about is leveraging technology beyond the obvious.

It is my believe, that if you can deliver your freebie in the form of a tool – yes, I am talking about software, games, quizzes, plugins, themes, even Stock photo that people can actually use, interact and experience, free is still very much welcomed and works very, very well.

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I can’t imagine commuting such distances for work.   It’s not that I hate driving, it’s more that I resent the time spent doing nothing else.

I’m a late bird and that’s putting it mildly.  Lately I’ve been keeping very odd hours.  I’m incredibly alert and productive in the middle of the night so I’ve been staying up several days a week until dawn. It’s quiet.  Distractions are few and far between.  Temperatures are cooler.

I often make late night munchie runs.  A girl needs brain food, right? Most of the time I’m the only car on the road between my place and the all night gas station – or McDonalds

Tonight though, (this morning) I made my trip right at 5:00am and I was definitely not the only car on the road.  Apparently, five o’clock in the morning is beginning of our community’s commuter rush.

The people look tired, almost like they’re still switched off for the night.

After picking out my power snacks, I paid and drove back to my apartment, kicked of my sandals and un-paused the episode of KyleXY I was watching on Hulu when the urge to snack struck – and felt sort of sorry for all those hitting the highway instead.

Working at home really rocks sometimes, you know?

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Coming up with ideas is great, but not all ideas are all that they seem cracked up to be.

Some business ideas are Good.

They involve a specific target market and a much needed product, service or resouce that the market is willing to pay for (or someone else is willing to pay to support – ie: advertise on.)

Some business ideas are Bad.

These ideas are usually too fuzzy on the issue of target market or involve a product that fails to inspire interest.

Some business ideas are Just Plain Ugly.

I’ve come to realize over the last year that there are business ideas that can be made to work by sheer force of will, but that doesn’t mean that they should. Some business projects are just too labor intensive for so little net profit that you end up working for peanuts. I call that Ugly.

Which is Which?

It can be hard to say which ideas are good and which bad. It depends a great deal on who has the idea.

Someone can have a really good idea but lack the skills and experience to make it work. And on the flip side, I’ve seen someone with skills and experience take what looks like a bad idea, sell the heck out of it and make a lot of money.

What about the Ugly ideas? Couldn’t a skilled entrepreneur make anything work? Maybe they could. But they likely won’t since they know there will never be enough profit to be worth their effort.

How do I decide if my idea is good?

You could just run with it and see what happens. There is a lot to be said for learning in the trenches, still – I’m in favor of skipping hard knocks when possible so I’m going to recommend that you seek out other more experienced marketers to bounce your ideas off of before you invest too much time and resources.

I know from experience that I can develop what I think is a brilliant idea on paper. We want our ideas to work and look for ways to make them work. An outsider can usually see the holes in our theories and that’s a good thing. Be open to their constructive criticism. (They’re critiquing the idea – not you.)

Do some quick market research. Hit up Google to see if there are other people doing what you’re thinking about. Don’t be put off by the existence of competition. That should be a positive sign that there is a market for your ideas. If there is a LOT of competition, check out the top sites and ask yourself, “Can I do this at least 10% better than these guys?”

What if I just realized I have a Bad/Ugly Business?

Pat yourself on the back. You’re in good company. I’ve had more than my fair share of ideas gone bad. Some of the richest, most esteemed entrepreneurs in the world have had ideas that crashed and burned. Having a bad idea isn’t the end of the world and having acted on one isn’t the end of your WAH dreams.

Take your bad ideas (or business) back to the drawing board and see how they can be improved. Drop kick any truly ugly ideas to the curb and move on.

It’s called Failing Forward and it works for me

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Free samples.  Free teleseminars.  Free newsletters.  Free eBooks.  Free Videos. Free Previews.  Free Tips.  Free Consultations.  Free! Free! Free!

Frankly, it’s all been too much.

I’m sure there’s something good in all of these offers, but I don’t have time to sort through all of them.

Yes, our economy is tough and money is tight.  But has the free line been moved too far?

I don’t have a message in all this.  I’m just asking questions – of myself and of our community.  Do we offer too much for free?

Does the word ‘Free’ have the impact that it used to?

Would love your thoughts.

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Learn all about it at the Lemonade Movie.

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There’s an old saying that goes “The only certainty is change”; however well you think you’re prepared for something, there’s always a surprise waiting for you.

Take the latest addition to my family – the birth of my 2nd daughter, Elissa, about a month ago.

Since I’d been through this before, you’d think that I’d be prepared for the nights with activities like disrupted sleep, half-groggy feedings (the baby, not me!) and feelings of fatigue midway through the day (a cosy 2-hour afternoon nap helps a great deal).

Add to the mix, fun activities like planning for my kids’ college fund (Never too early to start these days…), registering their respective domains (I own both BiancaWee.com and ElissaWee.com – no content up yet though!) and running the day-to-day operations of an online business.

While I’m no “Jon & Kate Plus 8″, I have been a little busy. Which is why this guest post is coming about 4 months after Kelly invited me to contribute a piece.

Dealing with Organized Chaos

Since I’m a “respectable family man”, the days of pulling all-nighters to complete a product, or staying awake for 48 hours to deal with product launch hiccups should be a thing of the past…or are they?

Stress? What stress?

Even if my “To Do” list contains 10 items for the day and only half of them get done, I don’t get insomnia or stress over it like I used to.

In the sometimes hectic pace of the 24-7-365 internet, it’s sometimes easy to forget the main reason why we’ve chosen the “work from home” route, compared to slogging it out in the corporate trenches.

The thing is, “Personal freedom” and “financial indepedence” are just buzzwords, unless you’re walking the talk, and not just talking the talk.

The key to finding fulfilment in online marketing is finding your personal comfort zone and accepting what you can reasonably do in the time you have each day (which might ultimately be 2-3 hours of solid, productive work – waaaay before everyone gets up, or after everyone has gone to bed).

Here’re some tips to Getting what you want and getting what you need to get done.

#1 Identifying the difference between “optional tasks”, “good to have tasks” and “need to complete tasks”

“Optional Tasks”

An optional task is something you can cut out of your schedule and not miss greatly (or possibly scheduling it for “Veg Out” time). This could be watching a re-run of a 5 DVD boxed set of “Sex and the City” or “Gossip Girl”.

It might also include meeting up or chatting with online/offline casual contacts who would like to “get to know you better”.

Having and using the power to say “No” can be a life saver here. Also, if you’ve scheduled your time in a planner, you’ll have a clear idea of what needs to be done, vs letting others take your time away. (a little harsh, but if someone’s using what little time you may have left, they ARE taking your time away).

#2 Identifying good to have tasks

These are tasks which would be useful to you personally, or professionally. It could involve watching clips on YouTube, reading relevant blogs and forums, and attending conferences, workshops, webinars, teleseminars, etc.

These can almost be as enjoyable as optional tasks, although they can do you or your business good too.

Prioritizing these tasks and deciding which ones to take up can again free up time for other more important activities.

#3 Need to complete tasks

Unfortunately, if you’re new to managing your time effectively, these tasks might be the ones that get shoved to the end of the day when you’re running on fumes and down to your last legs.

A comfy bed looks positively appealing compared to the humdrum review of sales reports, or planning out and implementing tweaks to your business to improve traffic and sales conversions.

These are the tasks that feel the most “work” like and can be repetitive, monotonous and yes, boring.

However, if you look at the reasons why you’ve made the choice to work from home or out of a small office, you’ll also realize that a solid 1-2 hour block of time at the start of the day (I like the 6am timeslot, right after I’ve given my daughter her feed), or at the end of the day, can give your business (whether fledgling or established) a huge boost.

It’s not all work though. “Need to complete” tasks should also include activities that are personally meaninful to you (and sometimes, your sanity!) I’d also include setting aside time to spend with my wife and older daughter each day.

Putting it all together

While some may have a moment of self-realization and attempt to shift ALL their time to “need to complete” activities and experience a burst in productivity, this boost might be short-lived.

If it’s a radical change to your lifestyle over the past couple of years, it could send quite a shock to your system and lead to burnout.

Instead, what’s worked for me is making gradual changes to my schedule that I know I can follow on a long-term basis.

If I fall off the wagon when it comes to following my schedule, I take note of it and keep chugging along.

One of the maxims that’s helped me succeed is Vince Lombardi’s quote “It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get back up.”

There’s certainly no reason to get lost in transition.

Andrew Wee blogs at WhoIsAndrewWee.com and is co-founder of the internet marketing resource, InternetMarketingCookbook.com.

If you liked this article, you might also enjoy:

1. Invaders of the Lost Week :: A Productivity Challenge
2. You Almost Lost Me Last Night
3. Surviving Business Transition – Goals vs. Adaptability

When the economy is down and your target market seems to be holding their dollars tighter than usual, what can solopreneurs do to keep business flowing?

Status Check Your Marketing Funnel.

Make sure that you’re doing all that you can to reach as much of your target market as possible.  I’ve actually seen some entreprenuers pulling back from their usual marketing activities becuase they perceive that their market is cash poor and unlikely to respond.   That’s a mistake.

Yes, your market may be cash poor today – but that can change in a heart beat and who will they spend their dollars with but the person who has remained on their radar most consistently?

When there are fewer fish, the answer is not to cast a smaller net.

Widen the top of your marketing funnel.  Seek more ways to share your knowledge and expertise.  Step up your blogging activities, do more guest blogging, seek out podcast interviews and let folks know that you are open to creative joint ventures.

Do You Have To Lower Prices?

My experience with pricing over the last year has been interesting.  I tripled my rates for blog design and continued to book new clients on a regular basis even as other talented designers complained that they have had to drop prices to keep busy.

If I could ask marketing experts I bet I would get a wide range of answers to price question.  Lower prices can motivate someone on a tight budget but you’ll work harder for every dollar.  (And that just might be the way it is for awhile…)  Before you decide to lower prices, you could invest some time into sharpening your sales message to better convince your customer of their need for your products and services in the first place.

And Wait, There’s More!

One great idea is to add something to your package rather than reduce the price of your package.   Think about all of those great ‘free gift with purchase’ offers that have grabbed your attention in the past.   You could create a special time limited ‘bundle pack’ or offer a ‘buy one, get one’ deal.

I’ve been influenced by dozens of special deals over the years.  I’ve bought products so0ner than planned and hired service providers without a lot of advance planning – all because they presented me with a no brainer situation.

I know there are lots of other great strategies… what tips do you have for overcoming tough times?

If you liked this article, you might also enjoy:

1. When the Solopreneur gets Swamped…
2. Discussion about promotional strategies, websites and customer service
3. Uncle Sam can help you Find Opportunity in Today’s Economy

So how is Business Blogging like dating?

Let’s start at the beginning.

So you and I established the first reason you’ll want to use a business blog as a marketing tool is to get your business found.

So what’s next…what happens once your business gets found?

Let’s get back to the dating analogy.

So, let’s say you’re SINGLE and you’re at a bar or restaurant enjoying a night out.( Had to put the “single” thing in there but each to their own, right?)

Suddenly, across the room you notice a person who really captures your attention and you’re thinking, “Boy, I’d really like to get to know this person.”

So now you’ve “found” the person…what’s your next move?

Well if you’re like most websites online you’ll walk right up to them and ask he/she to Marry you!

You see, this is exactly what most websites do and it’s absolutely the wrong thing to do by far.

Your prospect finds your business online and when they land on your website you ask them to buy from you right away!

Here’s the thing…nothing gets sold until you first build trust…especially online where everyone is afraid of getting ripped off or scammed!

This is why traditional style websites don’t work and why you’re not making as much money as you should be.

It’s almost impossible to build trust and rapport with your prospects using a traditional style 5 page HTML website.

But with a business blog it’s very easy to do!

In no time at all you can have hundreds if not thousands of web pages published online all acting like little sales people working for your business, positioning you as a leader and expert in your market or niche.

How cool is that?

With a business blog you’re able to write about your business.

You share stories, tips and tricks on how to use your products or services so your prospects get the most out of them.

You also become the expert in your prospects eyes and an authority in your market or niche.

You see selling stuff online is very similar to dating…you find the person and then you build trust and rapport on a few dates.  You get the know the person and find out if they are interesting or if what they have to say is meaningful to you.

I’m thinking when you met your significant other you didn’t walk up to this person and ask them to marry you right?

Probably not….so why are you trying to do this with your website?

Look writing at least two to three blog post a week, each only 300-500 words will do wonders for your business.

Not only will it help your website get found but it will build trust and rapport with your prospects.

Blogging makes you the recognized expert in your industry or niche ESPECIALLY if no one else is doing it!

And in this day and age where folks just love to belly ache about the economy yet do nothing to improve their situation you’ll get the opportunity to be the bright ray of sunshine in YOUR prospects life!

So I’ve laid out the second reason why you MUST use business blogs in your business.

In my next post I’ll talk about what to do with your prospects once they find your website and you start building relationships with them.

You got them there and they are listing…what do you do next?

Check back to find out!

Now get busy, Bill Parlaman

P.S. So let’s hear what you have to say about the second reason why you MUST use business blogs in your business?    I would love to hear from you!

Just post your comments below and I’ll do my best to answer each one!

If you liked this article, you might also enjoy:

1. How Blogs Get Your Business Found!
2. Blogging a Dead Horse :: What’s Next for Business Bloggers?
3. How to Choose the Perfect Blogging Topic

(The survey is over)

We’ll publish results tomorrow

If you liked this article, you might also enjoy:

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