WordPress + Headway 1.5 = eternal website owner bliss.

Let me explain.

WordPress is a fantastic platform upon which you can build any website – even a professional website. You probably already know this – Sparkplugging itself runs on WordPress, after all.

And Headway 1.5 is a new theme for WordPress that makes updating the design of your website easier than anything you’ve ever seen before.

Hence the line about everlasting bliss.

An Offer You Almost Can’t Refuse

If you’ve been thinking about getting WordPress and/or buying Headway (which sells now for $87) to use on your business website, here’s an offer you might find practically un-refuse-able.

Website Habitat is offering to create a complete, business-ready WordPress website running the Headway 1.5 theme, plus a ton of expert support, starting at just $375. Since Headway 1.5 is currently only available for $164 (the developer license is the only way to get it at the moment), this deal is really smokin’.

Website Habitat is run by Easton Ellsworth (that’s me – hey) and Dawud Miracle, who is also a co-owner here at Sparkplugging.

In addition – the next 20 people to order this package from Website Habitat by Monday, November 9 will also get a $495-value SEO consulting package from me for free as part of their purchase.

Click here to learn more about all this stuff.

And even if you don’t get this offer now, at least try Headway – you will seriously love it.

Have you used Headway? Did you pee your pants (metaphorically speaking – or perhaps literally?) the first time you saw what it can do, as I did?

Could your home based business use some help? A little jolt to make you jump for joy?

We thought so.

Here it is, all free and all organized. Start clicking!

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How to Start a Home Based Business

10 Signs that You are Ready to Start a Home Based Business – How to know if it’s truly time to hang up those shiny work shoes and trade them for your favorite flip flops.

Top 10 Internet Home Business Ideas You Can Start and Run in Your Underwear – Our all-time most popular article here at Sparkplugging, and with good reason. It’s a starter list of ideas anyone can use to get up and running in a home biz.

10 More Work at Home Internet Business Ideas You Can Do in Your Fuzzy Bunny Slippers – In case you prefer the mental imagery of cute rabbit feet over scratchy long johns (or whatever usually snuggles your undercarriage).

The Truth about Starting a Home Based Business – And the truth shall set you free!

Find the Right Home-Based Business to Start – With so many ideas floating around in your noggin, how will you know which one is the best? This guide will get you started on the right track.

How to Quit Your Job to Run a Home Based Business

10 Signs that You Should Quit Your Job to Work at Home – Wondering whether you should stick it to your boss? This article will help you decide.

How to Leave Your Job & Take the Freelance Plunge in 6 Months – A great mid- to long-term strategy to get you out of the cubicle and onto your living room couch.

How to Achieve Home Based Business Success

Top Ten Key Success Ingredients for Home Based Businesses – What really goes into making up a successful business for work at home folks.

10 Free Resources to Start or Grow a Home Based Business – Because this list can’t possibly hold them all. Hop on over to that post for even more helpful links.

A Productive and Organized Home Office – How to create a work space that actually helps you work.

Why do Entrepreneurs Need Inspiration? – Thoughts on the power of inspiration in determining your level of professional success.

The Virtual Assistant A Team: The Helpers to Business Success – How and where to assemble an awe-inspiring team of VAs to help you automate as much of your own business processes as possible.

Marketing Your Home Based Business

Free Market Research for Your Home Based Business – How to conduct research and find out what people truly want that matches what you can offer.

Free Market Research, Part II: Demographics – How to discover more about your prospective customers.

How to Save Money in Your Home Based Business

Energy Efficiency Saves Home Business Owners Valuable Dollars – How to take advantage of special rules that reward energy-efficient home businesses.

5 Strategic Ways to Lower Your Business Taxes – And keep more cash in your wallet.

How to Overcome Stress and Failure in Home Based Business

10 Questions to Ask Yourself When You Feel Your Home Based Business is Failing – We all struggle with feelings of failure at some point. Here are 10 great questions to ask yourself to help you respond to and overcome those feelings.

Work From Home? Don’t Sweat It – How to not go crazy while working from home.

Top Ten Working from Home Mistakes – Do you make any of these errors in your work at home business?

More Tips for Home Based Businesses

18 Amazing Articles to Help You Work at Home – Yes, even more articles to help you out! We’re pulling out all the stops with this article.

How to Show Up in the Google Local Business Directory – This can be a great way to strengthen your brand, increase traffic to your business website, and grow your business.

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

After paying a visit to Pointy Haired Dilbert’s blog. WHOA! Now this guy can chart! From cool management dashboards to project management to creating a Twitter client with Excel? Now that is something interesting.

He’s also got a bunch of downloadable templates you can grab and utilize for your business. Kinda want to make me finally break down and get a copy of Excel. Well… maybe I’ll just go make a dashboard. That’s something I’ve found that I need to keep me on track lately.

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

Would you like to get more done in less time with your work-at-home business so you can spend more time with your family doing the things that you enjoy most in life? Do you often dream of a balanced lifestyle that brings you success in wealth, health, and your relationships?

It’s time to make those dreams a reality so you can get on living the life that you deserve. The best part… it’s easier than you may think.

The key to increased productivity is to optimize your brain function. The more focused, alert, and efficient your brain operates, the quicker you will be able to get through your daily tasks.

The most effective tool that you can use to optimize your brain is exercise. But you don’t need to spend hours in the gym in order to boost your brain-power and increase your productivity. You only need 10 minutes.

Let’s put it to the test. I challenge you to take a 10-minute quickie break from the computer. Come on now… I know that you’ve got 10-minutes. Trust me, it’ll be worth it.

Here’s a fast and fun home office cardio workout that you can do right now. No excuses! It doesn’t require any equipment, it doesn’t require much space, and it doesn’t require much time.

OK, so how did it feel? Were your legs burning? Was your heart racing? Awesome!

Now it’s time to get back to work, feeling more energized and focused. You needed that break didn’t you? You feel pretty darn good about yourself to… right?

Please do me a favor and take mental notes on how this quickie 10-minute cardio session impacts the rest of your day. How it improves your productivity, quality of work, and time management.

Aside from your home business, I would love for you to share how the quickie home office cardio impacts your family. Did you have more energy to play with your kids or grandchildren?

The benefits of incorporating home office fitness into your workday are nearly limitless. This is a balanced lifestyle approach. You are using quick fitness to improve your business and quality time with your family. You really can have it all, and you deserve it! Begin today and experience a transformation in your business, fitness, and life.

You ROCK! Enjoy the experience!

Scott Tousignant, BHK has been helping busy work-at-home-moms and dads improve their #1 asset (HEALTH) for over a decade. Scott’s balanced and practical approach to fitness helps busy homepreneurs get more done in less time so you can spend more time doing what you enjoy most in life.

Backed by years of experience and the application of his education in human kinetics, Scott created Fat Loss Quickie, the fast fun home office fitness experience that will quickly transform you into the super-focused, highly productive, beautiful person you really are!

Now it doesn’t matter how busy you are… You’ll never have to neglect your health again!

If get these type of files often, you might want to have the OpenIT plugin for Firefox or Internet Explorer. It helps you open and edit documents without installing the software.

Give Zamzar a go. This is one of my favorites. Converts a boat load of file types. The list is huge. It’s also super easy to use, Upload the file, choose the output format, they’ll email you the converted document. It is free and they also have premium options that allow you to store the files and also use secure connection.

I’ve also discovered YouConvertIt. The converting online video option is cool.

Ever lost the original Word document to your PDF file? Or maybe a client wants to update a very old PDF and do not have access to the Word document anymore? Try PDFtoWord.

Hope they help and you can finally uninstall that pesky software you hardly use but ‘keep around’ just so you can open certain files.

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

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.

Before I proceed, the caveat here is that if youre considering starting a direct sales business or are already in DS, please consultant with individual company policies and procedures to determine what methods are permissible for you.

I represent Scentsy and my private website is Thriving Candle Business. Our company is extremely forward thinking when it comes to innovation and ingenuity.  I know there are other direct selling companies who also embrace this philosophy.

My claim to fame (one of them, anyway) is that I have never done a home party or a book party since I started with Scentsy in 2006.  Thusly I know of what I speak when I say that there are plenty of home party alternatives that direct sellers can employ and still be very successful.

Whether you cant seem to get home party bookings or you simply dont have the desire for them, here are some suggestions on other ways you may be able to succeed in your direct sales business.

1. Internet Marketing. If you’re an Internet Marketer, you know of all the various techniques you can use.  The same holds true for direct sales.  If you’re not terribly experienced with Internet marketing but would love to learn, I highly recommend The Complete Internet Marketing Moms Start Up Guide!
2. Vendor Events. Vendor events could consist of a $10 table at a three-hour event or it could be a multiple-day event that could come with a financial investment of hundreds of dollars for a booth.
3. Displays. Set up a small display at a salon, apartment complex, office building, or other location that gets a great deal of foot traffic. We are not permitted to retail out of said locations but are allowed to set up a candle warmer, candle bar, room spray, car candle, scent samples and business cards.  The business owner may want to act as the hostess and collect orders or perhaps customers will just enjoy your products, take a business card and order online.
4. Fundraisers. Ensure it is a win/win situation.  If you can also make enough profit (not just break even) to cover your time and expenses, fundraisers can be a great way to gain additional exposure.  Too often though I see consultants give away the farm to a point where it actually is costing her money to put on a fundraiser with her company  – all in the name of acquiring new potential customers.
5. Advertising and PR. The former comes with a financial investment and the latter is generally free but requires something newsworthy to get noticed.  Both can provide a wonderful boost to your business if targeted properly.
6. One at a time. Most direct sellers will agree that home parties still afford you the opportunity to sell to many in a short amount of time.  If, however, that doesn’t work for you, remember how to eat an elephant  – one bite at a time!

As you see, Direct Sales doesn’t always have to mean One of Those Home Party Deals. Hopefully that will give you a little food for thought and perhaps cause you to take a second look at one of the fastest growing industries today!

First, I do have an iMac on my desk – used mostly for media consumption.  I watch internet television and web video as well as listen to hours and hours of podcasts each week.  The iMac wins it’s space because it doesn’t take up much and it runs like a horse, never giving me a moments trouble.

I’ve always used a Microsoft keyboard with the Mac because I hate hate hate the Apple keyboard and mouse that came with it.  But today, Apple won a little more desktop space with this awesome little bluetooth keyboard:

Look at how little space it takes up!  Since I don’t need to use a keyboard on the Mac often – it is easy to slip out of the way and pull out when I need it.

And come on – it is seriously a sexy little thing

Next up – I’ve just become a giddy new iPhone user.

I honestly didn’t plan to use an iPhone.  I’ve been happy with my BlackBerry Curve over the last two years – but then my son introduced me to surfing on his iPod Touch and I had what he calls a ‘nerd-gasm’.  It’s truly amazing.

I’ll miss the ‘real’ qwerty keyboard that the BlackBerry offers.  Thumbing the iPhone’s touch screen is taking some getting used to – but I have already fallen in love with it and the ever enticing AppStore.

Look at how the big screened iPhone in a pink wave case mocks the little BB…

Poor little BB.

What can I say?  I’ve being tempted by the Apple.

This weekend also seems to sum up 2009 for me. I’ve severed business relationships that were taking more than they were giving. I’ve spun off several blogs from Sparkplugging that just didn’t fit the small business niche. I’ve dumped toxic people out of my life. I’ve stopped pursuing PR opportunities. I’m turning down speaking gigs. And I’ve stopped doing anything for my business that doesn’t have a tangible ROI (Return on Investment).

Like I said last week, I’ve never been happier, or more profitable.

A Silver Lining in Almost Losing it All

If there was a silver lining in my health scare this spring, it was that it forced me to cut the dead weight in my business & life and focus only on things that matter: my family, my happiness and my financial security. And I will be the first to admit that it probably took facing a potentially deadly diagnosis for me to be willing to let go of so much.

It’s not a path I recommend, truthfully.

But I do recommend getting rid of crap in your business and your life that isn’t directly making you happier, healthier, or richer. I might have more dead weight to cut – but I’m flying higher than ever now that I’m not carrying around so much baggage that was holding me back. And that includes a dumpster full of junk that is now out of my house!

So This Week is all About the UN-To-Do List!

Do you have anything you do that you’ve realized isn’t really worth the time and effort you’re putting into it? Do you have clients you should have fired months ago? Do you go to events that produce no good leads? Do you spend time socializing networking online instead of getting work done?

At this point, I’m kind of hard pressed to come up with another thing I need to get rid of – but I can think of one conversation I’ve been putting off that I MUST have this week. And it will determine the future of one of the bigger projects on my plate.

So this week, I promise I will have that conversation, or Kiva gets $100.

So what are you NOT going to do this week?

Remember to check out the stories, conversations and $5,000 sweeps at You.Propelled on DivineCaroline, as they have sponsored this series of posts that has been getting my butt into gear this fall!

• Flickr – to search for Creative Commons Licensed images to use on blog posts
• WordPress.org Codex – to search for code snippets, functions and template tags
• WordPress forum – to look up solutions to problems
• Youtube – to find videos that I can blog about or add to my site/resources etc
• Internet marketing forums – to see what people are saying about a topic I want to write about and question they are asking

Each one of those web sites have their very own search feature so what is the problem? No problem. I just like to cut out a few steps and clicks if possible because some of these sites especially WordPress, I search several times a day. Bookmarking and navigating to these sites take time.

So, I installed this cool little Firefox plugin called Add to Search Bar. This lets me add the search function for any web site to my Firefox Search Bar. Which means less looking up for a web site in the overloaded bookmarks folder and less clicking to get to the right page to search.

You can start off by simply purchasing a secure thumb drive. Drives like Ironkey comes built in with military grade encryption key. The data will self-destruct if a brute-force attempt is detected and even comes with a backup service. Starts at $79. Sandisk and Kingston also offer secured USB drives that start at a lower price. Ironkey however looks like they are top of the grade.

Another way is to install encryption software onto your existing drive. Truecrypt and DiskCryptor are two free ones you can use. These allow you to encrypt folders, the whole drive or part of the drive and save some cash. There are drawbacks to these software based options. For example, you may need to have administrator rights for any computer you plan to use the drive on. You may also be required to install the software on any computer you wish to use the drive with. For some this may defeat the purpose, but if you’re simply traveling from one place to another e.g. office to home where you have full control of both computers. This will definitely work.

Lately I’ve been giving a ton of thought to the whole internet fame thing – and the last 6 months have completely changed my attitude about PR for PR’s sake. I used to think that any publicity is good publicity. But after experiencing it, I can honestly say it ain’t all that. Sure, it’s a huge ego boost, and sure, it opens doors, and sure, I could be leveraging all of my big PR moments into book deals, big name clients, more speaking gigs, and more television appearances.

But that is not the business I want to be in.

When I started Sparkplugging, I wanted to create an advertising and affiliate based website that would generate passive income even when I was helping my kids with their homework or out boating with the family. The business of internet fame is the exact opposite of that – not only did I have to work to become ‘famous’, I had to work even harder to maintain it. The impact on my work schedule was gruesome – and the impact on my bottom line was similarly pitiful.

This summer I completely backed away from all of my PR and social media promotion, and focused solely on creating content and search engine optimization. And by the end of August, I earned more in 30 days than I had all last year.

The reason I say this is because I had no idea how much time I was wasting on something I thought was important to my business – only to find that simple hard work is what really pays the bills.

It’s not glorious work.

I won’t be getting on TV any time soon for it.

Nobody has asked to interview me about it.

I’m not getting any speaking gigs because of it.

And I’ve never been happier with my business.

So, my Monday Motivation question for our readers today is this:

If you are struggling with your business, are you doing anything that isn’t giving you a return on your investment of time or money?

And if you just buckled down and did the unsexy, boring, and tedious work that needs to be done, how much better off do you think you would be?

In the spirit of decidedly unsexy, my Monday Motivation to do list is:

• Finish my YTD balance sheet by noon on Wednesday
• Clear out 200 emails from my inbox by end of day Wednesday, and
• Pay two bills before I go to sleep tonight

If I don’t have all of this done by the end of the day tomorrow, I’ll throw down another $250 loan to Kiva entrepreneurs.

I’m grateful to RGN and the You.Propelled community, as it’s because of their sponsorship that I am getting so much done lately. You can thank them for my reappearance on this blog, because otherwise I would still be search engine optimizing and creating content for my kids network. I’d encourage you to get something done and enter a proclamation on their site, because it’s even more satisfying than crossing something off your to-do list (because I’m so unsexy like that).

So what are you going to get done today?

This post is sponsored by Propel® for the You.Propelled Program.

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.

I’ve got a line up of really interesting moms who are all doing something to earn an income online.  You’ll get to meet them and you’ll have access to a bundle of really terrific freebies.

Welcome the the WAH World

All the details are here: Totally Free Tuesday

Bartering your valuable skills is a fantastic way to get the products and services you need to move forward with your business goals.  It’s especially attractive with your business budget is tight!

Get What You Need!

Since this is Labor Day Weekend, and since last year’s swap meet was so successful, I think this is a perfect time to revive the fun and open up the comments for you to share what you have to offer and what you’re looking for in return.

Are you a skilled writer in need of a new blog header graphic?  Offer to write a couple of killer articles for a graphic designer in need of content.  Are you a virtual assistant in need of a gift for your best friend’s birthday?  Offer to provide your services in exchange for personal care products.

The options are endless – just make your pitch and see what happens!

Let’s Swap!

Leave a comment below that shares what you have to offer for barter in enough detail that someone can make a decision about it.  If you know exactly what you’d like to barter for, lay that out to.  If you’re not sure, you can say that you’re open to creative offers.

Be sure to include contact information!  Your Twitter user name would be good.

Who knows what sort of swap connections we’ll make this weekend   Let’s go for it!

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

This week’s Spark an Idea Thursday is About Something You Want So Bad You Can Taste It.

I’ve got a big list myself right now… I want a new laptop, an iphone, a new car and twice the income   (Easy peasie, right?!)

• Susan wants a new Nikon.
• Laurie wants a laptop.
• Traci wants to get published.
• Jenn wants to come home full time again.

And elsewhere on the web:

• Tiffany wants the freedom to travel!

If you’d like to chime in on next week’s Spark an Idea topic – “Spark an Idea About Purging” , we’d love to have you join in.

Do you ever just feel the urge to purge?  Feel free to take this topic anywhere you like!

Grab our image and make your post by 9am EST on Thursday the 10th of September, then tweet me to let me know and I’ll include you in the round up post here on Sparkplug CEO.

Small business owner, entrepreneur, freelancer, or solopreneur. Regardless of what you call yourself, you’re busy managing your business and you don’t have time to maintain your online presence.  You need qualified, experienced professionals to help you with your Internet marketing. When you have a question, or need advice, you need knowledgeable people whom you can trust to guide you in the right direction.

As a side note, I’m a big fan of Sparkplugging. Wendy, Kelly, and the rest of the team provide immense value to the small business community and I’ve learned a lot from watching them and working with them as a Sparkplugging Intern.

Since our inception, our Internet Marketing Specialists have helped thousands of small business owners and we’re confident that you, Sparkplugging readers, know what it takes to make a business successful.  You’re dedicated, resourceful and motivated, and we want to help you expand your business.  I’m excited to announce this giveaway to the Sparkplugging readers.

Have a question about Internet marketing?  Ask NetBiz.com. We’ll work hard to give you the best answer possible, as fast as possible.

What Can You Ask NetBiz.com?

We have over 200 employees with experience in Search Engine Placement (SEP, also called Pay Per Click or PPC), Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Web Design, and other forms of Internet marketing. We have extensive experience dealing with industries as diverse as real estate, construction, publishing, consumer goods, consulting, and more.  What’s more, if we don’t know the answer right away, we will find it for you and show you the way.

Where Can You Ask NetBiz.com Your Questions?

• Twitter – Follow us @Ask_NetBiz, then send us an @ or DM and we’ll respond as quickly as possible.
• Facebook -  Become a fan of Ask NetBiz on Facebook and submit questions related to your small business.
• The NetBiz.com Blog – Visit Blog.NetBiz.com to get news and tons of useful information on Internet marketing, search engine news, and get in-depth answers to your most pressing questions.  You can ask questions via the comments section.

Why Is NetBiz.com Doing This?

We want to give back to the small business community.  In business since 2002, we currently have over 15,000 small business owners that we are happy to call our clients.  We recognize the great potential that is small business and we want to do what we can to help it grow.  This question-and-answer service is totally free and is something we plan to implement as an integral part of our business.

How Do I Get The Free Advertising?

All you have to do to win the free Search Engine Placement is follow us on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook and then submit a question about Internet marketing.  It’s that simple.  If you want additional chances at winning, ask multiple questions, or share our Twitter & Facebook pages with others.  Every retweet and Facebook share counts as an additional entry.

The free advertising consists of two months, $500 per month, of Search Engine Placement on Google or Yahoo, customized and targeted to your business and clients.

Deadline to enter: Midnight,  September 20th

If you have any questions, feel free to email us! Ask [at] NetBiz.com

Cory Huff is the Social Media and Blogging Specialist at NetBiz.com, a search engine marketing company based in Portland, OR.  Cory was also one of the original group of Sparkplugging interns.

Many new entrepreneurs make the mistake of choosing based on price alone.  I was guilty of this and it burned me bad in my first year of business.  Fortunately a fellow work at home mom rescued me from ‘closed down web host’ hell and helped me get set up on more reliable web server.  That was the year I met Scott.

Scott, who would from then on forever be known as ‘the awesome Scott‘ for his unending patience and reliable, skillful support to me and my friends.

I trusted Scott so much that I eventually went into business with him, launching Mom Webs as an affordable, mom friendly, web hosting option.  That went so well, we went on to launch Reliable Webs in 2008.  Reliable Webs is branded for small business owners and entreprenuers and has enjoyed quite steady growth so far – something I’d like to boost to be up front about it!

I’d like to know what you look for in a web host.  If you’ll leave a comment below telling us what you care about most when it comes to choosing a quality web host and you’ll be entered for 12 months of free multi-domain web hosting from Reliable Webs.

You can transfer an existing website over or use it as an opportunity to launch something new!  This prize is worth $300 – a nice chunk of savings for you if you win.  A winner will be chosen at random on the morning of Tuesday, September 8th, 2009.  You can comment anytime between now and then to be entered.

I look forward to reading your comments!