So you may be thinking that you are OK because you aren’t going to use Facebook Places to let everyone know where you are….

Think again. The default settings allow your friends to check you in at places where you might not even be! That could be disastrous to your reputation!

Watch this video below to see how to adjust your privacy settings so your “friends” will not be able to check you in at places where you would rather not be seen ….

Before you go, share this post with your friends on Facebook and Twitter by clicking on the buttons at the bottom of this post.

Leave me a comment about how you are going to use Facebook Places for personal and business use. Does this privacy issue concern you?

Finally, if you are serious about succeeding in your own business, please consider joining my team. Click here to learn more.

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Is Social Media a Fad?

On July 30, 2010, in Home Business, by admin

Are you ready? Do you have the skills needed to take your small business or home business online and compete?

Sign up for my FREE Home Business Marketing Bootcamp in the box on the right side of this blog. Don’t get left behind….

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Some advertisers make promises so huge that you shake your head and click away or turn the page. Sometimes our kids do that too! (I promise I’ll take care of this puppy, Mom!) Luckily for our kids we give them the benefit of good intentions and usually go along with the plan.

But we don’t give the advertisers that benefit of the doubt. When the promise is ridiculous, most of us will ignore it.

While over done promises send you running the other way, there has to be some kind of promise, either stated or implied, or you still aren’t going to buy.

Promises are important. Without them, no one is interested. You don’t buy something or support a cause or a candidate just because they’re there. You have to have a reason, and the big promise conveys the reason.

If you promise me great taste, and something specific that will benefit the kids, I’ll buy your Girl Scout Cookies.

If you promise I’ll have fun, or get to meet a celebrity, or learn something I really want to know – I’ll come to your event.

If you promise to change the world in ways that I think it should be changed, I’ll vote for your candidate.

If you promise to solve a social ill – one that matters to ME – I’ll donate to your cause.

If you promise to make my life happier or easier in some way, I’ll use the service you offer.

Do you see how that works? None of us are just going to say “Yes” to something without a great promise first. We all need reasons.

We all need the answer to that age-old question “What’s in it for me?” before we’ll consider buying your product, using your service, or donating to your cause. Your promise has to offer the answer to that question.

You can use promises in your personal life, too. For instance, if you’re selling a couch and you promise to deliver it, that’s a great selling point. If the kids want to go to the mall, but promise to mow the lawn if you’ll take them, you might say yes.

Whatever you’re selling, decide on the biggest (true) promise you can make. Then put it in the headline or the first sentence of your ad.

And in your daily life… when you want something from someone else, first decide what you can give in return and promise it.

I promise you’ll get better results than you would by merely asking.

Marte Cliff is a Freelance Copywriter who specializes in making people feel good about buying your products or services.

She has extensive experience in writing search engine optimized web copy, e-mail campaigns, direct sales letters, postcards, newsletters, press releases, and more. She is also available for marketing plan creation and editing services.

You can visit her at http://www.marte-cliff.com. While you’re there, sign up for one of her marketing ezines. She promises to gently nag you about ways to make your own marketing efforts more productive – whether you’re selling a product or providing a service.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Marte_Cliff

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A decorated birthday cake
Image via Wikipedia

I was reading Tim Ferriss‘s blog today and was surprised to see the way he is celebrating his birthday this year.  He is giving away up to $50,000 to help public school children go on field trips.    That’s right he is giving away money to celebrate his birthday.

As a former school teacher, I can attest to the importance of field trips to open the minds of our school children.  Many children will never have the chance to leave their small towns and experience the world around them without field trips.  My own community has cut funds for field trips due to necessary budget cuts.  It is sad to watch, but we have hope when we give out of our abundance to causes such as this.

Please visit his blog post and make a donation for his birthday gift.  (Tim Ferriss is the author of the book, The Four Hour Workweek.

My Unusual $100,000 Birthday Present (Plus: Free Round-Trip Anywhere in the World)

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no spam!
Image via Wikipedia

Don’t make these blogging mistakes!

1.  Don’t expect to be an overnight wonder.
Becoming known as a blogger and attracting prospects takes TIME and persistence.
2.  Avoid too much self promotion.
Blogging should be about sharing valuable information that will help others.  You are branding yourself as an expert in order to attract prospects.  This is not the place to try to make a quick sale.
3.  Avoid spamming your readers.
Mention your product or service only once for every 3 posts you make on your blog.
4.  Avoid giving out too much personal information.
While you want to be personable, you don’t want to endanger yourself or your family with too much information (like home address, phone numbers, etc.)   Also, be mindful if you are gainfully employed and want to stay that way, be careful about the image you are portraying online.  Nothing is private online.  Your boss may read it.  Your mom may read it.  Keep that in mind.
If you are a blogger and can think of other warnings for our new bloggers, please post it in the comment section below.
Just getting started blogging,  then click here for Ty Tribble’s FREE “Blogging for Prospects” videos.
These videos have personally helped me create a blog, content, or more traffic in the shortest time.
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Seven Reasons to Start a Blog

On July 19, 2010, in Blogging for Profits, by admin

There are over 50 million blogs online now. Why should you have a blog?

1. To Establish Yourself as an Expert–Personal Branding
If you have a topic you know a lot about, you can write articles about your topic and over time establish yourself as an expert. People will turn to you and your blog as an authority in that subject area.

2. To Market or Promote Your Product or Service
If you have a product to promote, once you establish yourself as an expert in that area, people will be more likely to turn to you for product recommendations or to use your services.

3. To Connect With Like Minded People
As you write about your topic, you will attract readers with common interests. You can build a community this way. Commenting on blogs and joining online communities will help you connect with people and build relationships.

4. To Build a Readership
If your content is valuable, fresh and updated regularly, you will develop a readership of people who subscribe to your RSS feeds and mailing lists. Your readers will be a targeted market for your marketing campaigns.

5. To Help People
Blogs can be used to help people solve problems. Finding out those needs and writing articles that provide solutions can help people.

6. To Make Money
When you build a readership, you will be able to promote your products and services to your readers. You can also monetize your blog with advertisements with Google Adsense, Amazon, and other affiliate programs.

7. To Have Fun and Be Creative
A blog is a writer’s platform for having fun and being about to express creativity. Being able to share that creativity with others can bring a sense of joy and satisfaction for the blogger.

Carla Clayton is a home based business consultant.
http://www.internetmarketingforblondes.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Carla_Clayton

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Starting a home based business can be one of the most rewarding ventures a person can make in life, but it can also drain you emotionally and physically. Moreover, if you head full-sprint into a new business opportunity without first having a solid plan, you may find yourself making some big mistakes early on that can take years to correct.

As you start to think about a new home business, here are some big mistakes that you should take care to avoid.

1.Think Big, But Not Too Big
Thinking big is essential to starting a new business. You need to have a large goal to aim for when starting your business, both to motivate you to succeed, but also to have something to measure your progress against. If your goal is to eventually make $10,000/month working from home, you can easily see that after a year, if you’re making $2,000/month, you’ve made it to 20% of your goal. Setting your sights too high, however, can have the opposite effect of discouraging you and stopping your business in it’s tracks. Hitting that $10,000/month figure can be a huge achievement, but if you’ve set your goal to make a million per month, that $10,000 will feel like a drop in the bucket.

2.Good Is Good Enough.
French author Voltaire famously said “the perfect is the enemy of the good” and striving for perfection can stop any business in it’s tracks. Along the same lines of thinking big, but not too big, learning to be okay with good is the only way to launch a business and not beat yourself up when you meet small snags. Only a minute percentage of businesses will ever reach the multi-billion dollar status, but when your metric for success is a modest and achievable goal, you set yourself up for success in the long run.

3.Fast Eats Slow
For so long, big business has had the power and girth to annihilate any small business that stood in it’s way. While in many industries this may still be true, the prevailing mantra for small businesses is that fast beats slow, not big beats small. Use your size to your advantage when you’re starting out. Think of the time and energy it would cost just to switch over to a new, more efficient, piece of software at a company of 100,000 employees, but at a company of 5 or 10 people, the cost is negligible, but the benefits can still be huge.

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

Eric Stein has always had an entrepreneurial mind, and when the economic downturn hit he turned to the internet to seek an additional means of income. It was the lack of information available in one source that lead Eric to create with his business partner Home Business Bug.

Home Business Bug is an up-and-coming home business web site where individuals can find legit home based business opportunities. Read informative and resourceful work from home articles at Home Business Bug.

Home Business Bug also offers FREE advertisement to business owners that have a work from home or home based business opportunity. Do you have a home based business or work from home opportunity? Advertise with HomeBusinessBug for FREE.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Eric_J_Stein

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The 7 Links Challenge

On July 17, 2010, in Blogging for Profits, by admin

While I was visiting blogs today, I stumbled upon “The 7 Link Challenge” by Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.com. The idea is to publish a post that is a list of 7 links to posts that you and others have written that respond to the following 7 categories.  (Thanks Terry Tiesson)

Since I love a challenge, here goes….

* My first post

I know I need to market online, but where do I start?

Now this isn’t exactly my first blog post, because when I first started blogging, I didn’t have a clue!  Those first blogs I built in 2004 don’t even exist anymore.  I used to use FREE sites like blogger and wordpress.com and I learned they can take down your content in a minute.  I’ve abandoned some of my early works and I’ve had some of my blogs shut down.  But, this link is to my first post that is still standing on one of my blogs called Internet Marketing for Blondes. It exists because I wised up and bought my own domain and hosting accounts.


* A post I enjoyed writing the most

How to Make “Kickin” Pimento Cheese in 5 Minutes

I enjoyed writing this post because I had a good time filming this cooking demonstration and doing something to help promote one of my favorite local farmers and our farmer’s market.   What I like most in the video is the sound of the cheese sizzling after it comes out of the microwave.  It’s down home fun and what we do in small towns in America on Saturdays.  It’s from my blog, The Wellness Lady.

* A post which had a great discussion

The Wellness Lady is going it TRI again, Day 1

I wrote this post when I decided to train for an indoor triathlon at my gym.  It seemed like it would be easy to do when I saw the training schedule…   Anyway, getting great discussions on my blog is something I can see I need to work on.  One of the strategies I have just started to become more disciplined in is commenting on other blogs.

* A post on someone else’s blog that I wish I’d written

It’s not so simple to narrow it down to one post that I wish I’d written, but I would like to say that I wish I had created the blog, The Social Media Examiner.  I love all the posts and find the design and graphics to be fun and entertaining.
* My most helpful post

How to Set Up a Facebook Fan Page to Promote Your Home Based Business or Personal Brand

This post has received the most visits and revisits.  I continue to share it with business owners who are just getting started with Facebook marketing and don’t know the difference between a profile page and a fan page.

* A post with a title I am proud of

Where Can I Find a Cute Twitter Button for My Blog?

Need I say more?

* A post that I wish more people had read

Breakthrough Your Fears and Begin Video Marketing

I just made this video today and published it on my new website at CarlaClayton.com

The top internet marketers are now recommending a personally branded blog as a hub for all of your internet marketing activities.  So, I’ve just started this blog and would like to develop readers here.

Comments on the 7 link challenge:

This exercise has taken me over an hour to complete, but I believe it has been valuable from the standpoint of evaluating my work, celebrating success and determining future goals for improvement.

If you are serious about blogging, take the challenge.  Then,  leave a comment here so I can read your posts too!

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Get over your fears and get busy marketing.  That’s what I had to tell myself.

Is fear holding you back?    The only way to get over fear is to take ACTION.  So today’s challenge….

Make a 30 second video and post it on your blog.  No excuses….  It’s time to breakthrough your fears and start video marketing.

If this video has encouraged you to get over your fears, then leave me a comment below.  And go ahead and share it on Twitter and Facebook.

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Is your Twitter feed getting so large that it is hard to keep up?  Once you start following a lot of people, it can be hard to keep up.  Suppose you want to spend a few minutes on Twitter reading about a specific topic of interest.   Creating lists around topics makes this easier. Watch this 4 minute video showing you how to create Twitter lists.

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