I’ve never considered myself a ‘pack-rat’ but I must admit I have a challenge with throwing things away – ‘just in case I’m going to need it.’ We are shaped, in part, by our childhood and I often wonder if I hold on to things because of my mother’s painful experience when I was a child. I grew up hearing about the unfortunate day she cleaned out drawers and destroyed some very important documents that were irreplaceable and were closely tied in to her family history. That may have created my reluctance to throw out papers.

Are you a hoarder or is your philosophy like my husband’s, “If you haven’t used it in six months, you don’t need it?”  What does this have to do with our business?  A lot!

What is your work environment like?  Is it cluttered? Even if there is a resemblance of order, are you surrounded by outdated and irrelevant materials that take up space but have no real value?   As I look at the shelves in my home office they are weighed down with three-ring binders of different sizes and colors, neatly arranged but packed with lots of files. I’ve finally come to grips with the reality that I need to go through those binders and get rid of files that are no longer relevant.  I have to make office decluttering a goal!

When I started my online business at the end of 2008 I basically stopped buying shoes and started buying programs, packages, and training manuals  of all kinds that I hoped would guide me on the path to  success with my online business.  I printed everything!

Unfortunately, with the passage of time and changes in technology, etc. some of these are no longer relevant. For example, there is a binder filled with an entire training series – free and paid – on Facebook.  Facebook has undergone so many changes in just the past year alone that there is very little value in those files anymore.  There are other binders that contain information I can refer to that can help with research, but will I ever take the time to do so?

In addition, before starting my online journey, I had offline businesses, and there again are several binders with information on prospects and customers, training materials, etc. Those will be on their way out!

Of course, my shelves are also filled with valuable eBooks and training like Dennis Becker’s $5 Bucks a Day Report, Willie Crawford’s 20 Ways to Make $100 and Denise Wakeman’s Online Visibility Secrets.

My paperback collection of business books include Connie Ragen Green’s Huge Profits With Affiliate Marketing, Michele Scism’s Makeover Your Business in 6 Weeks or Less and Bob Jenkins’ Take Action Revise Later among many others.

This decluttering project is one of my projects for the first quarter of this year. How about you?  What is your working environment like?  If you work from home, does it motivate you to produce your best or does it sap you of your energy.  Make decluttering a goal rather than  a ‘New Year’s resolution!’ Set a goal with a completion date. You will be glad you did.

Is decluttering a challenge for you? If not, what suggestions do you have to keep this recurring? Please share your experiences with us and leave your comments below.  We can support each other

“Success is just around the next corner…

You may have heard that statement many times, and if you’re a new online business owner you may have doubts about ever seeing that success because there seems to be so much to do.  And yes, it can be confusing and daunting unless you have someone to guide you.

I remember when I first started online, in one of the first classes I took we were told we could model the trainer’s optin page, which was great as it would have reduced a lot of planning and designing.  However, I had no idea how to get that site from my computer to the Internet.  I’d never heard of FTP and wouldn’t have known what to do with it. Have you faced any situation like that in your business to date?

It’s important to believe that you can experience success in your online business.  Adopting the following five “attitudes” for success can play a significant role in  finding your success around the corner regardless of how deep the corner is:

Have a Positive Attitude:  It’s important to cultivate a positive attitude in how you approach your online business and in your life in general.  ‘Cultivate’ means that this attitude may not come naturally; you may have to work very hard to achieve it.  You may have to change your mindset and learn positive thinking, then nourish it as it grows.

Develop a Business Mentality:  While there are some internet marketers who had successful offline business and are now transferring those skills Read the rest of this entry →

Every person who has an online business wants to get traffic to their website. There are many ways to do this using effective SEO strategies – some are paid while others are low cost SEO or even no-cost SEO.  It follows that the foundation for getting traffic to your website rests on a well-optimized website so that it can be found by the search engines and receive high rankings.

Whether you’re just starting out, or if you’re on a shoestring budget, following are 3 effective SEO strategies that you can apply to your website to improve results.

1. Link exchanges

Link exchanges or linking to and from other web sites is a no-cost way to improve your website rankings. This can be done in various ways:

i) Contact the author or owner of the web site you want to have a link exchange with.

ii) Get high-ranking links from Article Directories like ezinearticles.com by submitting well-written articles that meet their Read the rest of this entry →

My Internet Marketing Mentor has often recommended the value of viral marketing with ebooks or reports and so far I started but have not completed my first viral report.  She highly recommends this as a means of getting your information into the hands of many more persons that you normally would.

I’ve been focused on building my new niche, but this is one of my goals for October. Would you like to join me?  Ok, you may not be familiar with viral marketing or need a little more information in order to start, so I’ll discuss the topic in two three posts.

Normally when you write an ebook or report you’ll place a copyright on it and expressly state that it should not be copied or forwarded without your permission.  In the case of your viral report, you want people to forward your report to others and you give permission in your report to do so.

I did additional research on viral reports and found some interesting information which indicate that there are many ways to accomplish the objective of Read the rest of this entry →

Do you ever feel like the hamster? Your business isn’t growing at the pace you’d like and you seem to be just spinning your wheels?  I’ve felt that way from time to time.  In order to take your business to the next level, there are five areas of focus you should not neglect.

1.  Content: This is the only way people will get to know what you do and what you have to offer.  Your blog should be your home for your content, and should allow you readers to get to know you through informative topics where you share your knowledge.

2.  Traffic:  Traffic or readers are essential to our business.  We want to invite and encourage visitors to our website to read and comment on our posts.  At the same time we want to return the compliment by commenting on the blogs of fellow bloggers.

In the interest of growing our knowledge a strategy that was recommended to me quite some time ago, and which I’ve found beneficial is to take time to Read the rest of this entry →

In order to successfully move forward in your goals for your business, you have to stay in constant learning mode. You can never stop learning.  This does not mean that you have to go back to school and take formal courses, but you can seek ways to increase your knowledge and take steps to sharpen your skills on a regular basis.

• Make use of your waiting time:  Always have material with you so that you make good use of time you spend waiting – for meetings to start, for a doctor’s appointment, at the beauty salon, at the barber’s, to pick up your children from school, waiting at the airport, to name a few.

• Turn travel time into productive time:  Use your car as your mobile university.  This is one of the reasons I don’t mind traveling long distances alone.  I can listen to whatever I want freely without having to be concerned about imposing on other persons in the car.  I keep CDs with motivational and Read the rest of this entry →

The headline reads, “Smiles Can Ease Stress at the Office.” The article was written by syndicated columnist, Michelle Singletary, and in it she mentioned the number of businesses that were laying off staff and closing locations leaving those employees who kept their jobs to shoulder more responsibility.  She noted that this added more stress to the employees who remained.

In the article Michelle also reviewed a book that focused on the the need for levity in the workplace. The book highlighted the need for employers to create a fun and light atmosphere on the job and incorporate these in emails, memos, voice mails, meetings, and training sessions.

As I read the article I thought of how this article could be applied to entrepreneurs and small business owners. Do you work from home full-time? Are you alone in your home office day after day? Do you take time to smile or even laugh? If you are a small business owner with a brick and mortar store, like a boutique, do you find ways to inject humor into your interactions with your clients and prospects?

There are many types of small businesses where there is a lot of interaction with the public. For example, hair salons, spas, auto supply stores, hardware stores, fabric stores, etc. Because of this interaction there is no shortage of communication and opportunities to inject humor into your day; but taking or making opportunities to smile or laugh when you’re alone may not be something many of us think Read the rest of this entry →

Is traditional marketing dead?  Despite the fact that social media provide tremendous opportunities to reach a wider audience in your target market, there is still a place in the life of the small business owners or entrepreneur for  traditional marketing strategies like business networking.

Attending networking events by the  Chamber of Commerce, Kiwanis, Business Network International (BNI) and other events put on by local groups  provide opportunities to meet people and get to know people in your area of expertise.  Like any other successful marketing strategy, there is an art to networking.

In the book, Make Your Contacts Count: Networking Know-How for Business and Career Success, Anne Baber and Lynn Waymon note: Read the rest of this entry →

Did you ever dream of being a well-recognized writer?  How about becoming a published author?  Have you realized your dream, or is it still on hold?

From as early as nine years old I discovered my love of writing and my parents encouraged this by giving me lots of books to read that I could learn from.  My professor also encouraged me many years ago to start writing on a regular basis, and start with short stories.  Life happens and I did nothing with it.

Has that happened to you?  You’ve put your dreams you had as a boy or girl on hold and focus on daily living instead?

Then we got to the Internet, started our business online .  One of the first things we were told to do to give us greater credibility and to let people get to know like and trust us is to start a blog.  As we write our own blog posts and become part of the blogosphere, we get to read other Read the rest of this entry →

I love sales!!! Did I always feel that way? I’m not sure, but it seemed to fit my entrepreneurial spirit, which started as a little bud in my early 20’s and blossomed later on.

I continue to hear people speak of sales in a negative way and many online marketers literally cringe at the mention of sales. I’ve seen the comment where someone said she started her online business so she would not have to go into sales. Hmmm…

As an online marketer, are you in sales? If you say no, because you do not sell a product, then the question begs to be asked: What is you business? To experience success online Read the rest of this entry →