August 31, 2008
New Business Ideas: PR, Pets, Fitness, Entertainment & More
A bunch of new ideas have been added to Business Idea Library and here they are:
We’ll be back with more ideas soon.
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Mission Accomplished - Or Is It?
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How many years have you been in business?
Just starting out?
How focused are you? Really.
You may plan your days.
Even have a feeling of accomplishment as you hit your targets.
But maybe something is missing.
Someday. Soon. When.
Words you seem to use too often.
Why?
Why not now?
Ask yourself.
Think about it.
What are you waiting for?
What are you trying to achieve?
And there it is…
WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO ACHIEVE?
Do you know?
Sigh. Of course I know I can hear you thinking.
It’s inside of me. Driving me to get up at dawn, sneak time when I should be doing other things, working when any sane person would be sleeping. Getting up and doing the same thing again tomorrow. And the next day.
So what is it?
Spit it out right now in 3 sentences or less.
This minute.
If you can do that because you have already thought it out… pinpointed it exactly… because you know the words by heart or because you have written it out so many times, or posted it beside your desk and maybe in a few other places where you can view it often, you are probably already well on your way to success.
If not, you need to stop what you’re doing and get clear.
Create you mission statement - one for personal and one for business.
Keep it short and simple. Easy to remember. Easy to reference.
Refer to it daily.
Refer to it morning, noon and night, it’s that important.
YOUR MISSION STATEMENT IS YOUR BUSINESS
If you don’t know what that is, no one else will.
Before you do any task, line it up.
Is it in keeping with your prime objective, your mission statement?
Decision making becomes instant…focus sharp.
Paths open and the fog clears. A weight is lifted.
Just like that.
So, what was it again?
What is your mission statement?
Where will you focus your efforts today?
August 31, 2008
I Miss Silly Sunday - Your Opportunity for Exposure!
I love funny stuff and started Silly Sunday hoping that I could find all kinds of funny business-related stuff each week. But you know what? I can’t always find anything, so the Silly Sunday posts are few and far in between. 
Sooo…I was wondering if you might like a little extra exposure for your business. If you can find or create the funny stuff (must be related to Internet marketing, working from home, business, etc.), we might just write about it in a future Silly Sunday and include a link to your website!
If you’re interested in a link and some exposure, click here to submit your suggestion.
How We Pulled It Off: Internet Marketing Sweetie Redesign
Those of you who know Alice well know that she really loves her FrontPage. So I was a little surprised yet exhilarated when she said she wanted to move the whole Internet Marketing Sweetie site over to WordPress. When I asked her why, she said, “Because WordPress is my favorite CMS I’ve used and I was already using it for the blog. I like the scheduling feature, comments, guest authors and all that good stuff“. I couldn’t agree more.
Well, I won’t bore you with the nitty gritty technical details but will say, this is among the more challenging WordPress as a CMS tasks I’ve been given - Love it! Alice of course made a very good decision to start off with a solid theme. But if you take a peek behind this theme it’s almost nothing like it was originally.
There are tons of things we did in the back ground. Many are way too technical to be brought out here. But I thought it’ll be good to point out the possibilities when it comes to using WordPress, in case you’ve been wanting to do something similar too.
Page Template
Inside WordPress Pages (not posts) there is an option called ‘Page Templates’. This allows you to specify a different template for each page. If you do not set it, WordPress uses the default template from your theme. What this means: You can make each Page a little different - including having different sidebars, or no sidebars at all - see the Internet Marketing Sweetie course as an example.
Here’s another thing nice about Page templates. By default, most themes will use the Title as the name of the URL and links too. Sometimes your title is pretty long and descriptive which is not good when that Page is also to appear in your navigation. Using Page templates, we circumvent that.
Example, see the Coaching page (or the screen shot here). The link on the navigation is “Coaching” but the Title on the Page is “Hands-On Coaching Programs”.
Categories
WordPress’ category feature is pretty developed. Categories are really flexible when organizing frequently updating content. On this site, the blog isn’t really a blog but rather a category with child categories under it. Guest articles and other areas are also organized with categories. Using categories this way gives the reader the illusion that the blog and articles are different sections, and yet carry the uniform look and feel.
Also, you can make each category have different sidebars. This allows you to customize messages, sign up boxes, navigation, product and affiliate promotions for each category. Categories also allowed us to create author specific sidebars and tweak the post pages slightly for each author.
The bottom line: Categories, strategic use of Pages and Page templates are the bulk of what made this possible. There is very little that’s not possible when it comes to WordPress. There’s always some way to work around it or some plugin to fill your needs. When you are doing up your site using WordPress as a CMS, find a designer who can fully grasp Categories and Pages and you’ll get great results.
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August 30, 2008
40% PLR Coupon - This Weekend Only
Love PLR (private label content)? Grab some at a Sweetie Saturday great price this weekend. For 2 days only, you can use the following coupon code to get 40% off your purchase. 
- Where to Buy: Click here to choose your PLR
- Expiry Date: Sunday, August 31, 2008
- Coupon Code: 8AEEF8
A Note about Memberships: The coupon code can be used on NEW memberships only and will give you 40% off your first month.
Enjoy your discount and feel free to share the code with your friends.
Want to Give Away Your Product or Offer a Sweetie Saturday Discount: If you’d like your product featured on the Sweetie Blog, consider offering your product for giveaway or discount. To offer your product for giveaway, click here or to offer a discount, click here.
Why Thinking Big Is Critical To Your Success
Warning! I’m about to make a statement that will probably offend you or contradicts everything you learned about internet businesses.
Most internet entrepreneurs are small thinkers.
Just visit a few internet business-related forums and you’ll notice that most entrepreneurs are satisfied with a financial goal of $50,000 to $100,000 a year.
Or check out the numerous products sold to internet entrepreneurs. Most of them appeal to people who want a 6-figure income.
Now to most people, maybe even you, that may seem like a lot of money.
But here’s the problem…
It’s very difficult to build a long-term sustainable business in any competitive market when you set your financial goals so low.
In other words, it’s hard to remain competitive by staying small. A business must continue to grow to remain competitive.
So when you say you’re happy with $50,000 to $100,000 a year, you’re putting an artificial ceiling to your business and this will impede your growth.
Here are two reasons why staying small makes no business sense:
1. Inflation
Most entrepreneurs ignore the fact that they are part of a macroeconomic environment. The cost of goods and services increases annually. The increase in expenses (e.g. advertising, freelancers’ fees, employee salaries, rent, etc) affects your business.
Depending on where you live, the inflation rate could be 3% to over 10%. So, if your income stays at $100,000 per annum, you’re losing money every year to inflation.
$100,000 today may be worth only $80,000 in 10 years time!
2. Competition
Nowadays, internet businesses are so cheap and easy to start that every Tom, Dick and Harry are getting into the act. So, whatever profitable niche you’re in right now will become highly crowded and competitive.
You’ll face more difficulty in getting high rankings in search engines, keeping pay-per-click ad costs low and recruiting affiliates to promote your products. You’ll also have to compete for star employees and freelancers.
Time To Adjust Your Mindset
Now that you know staying small doesn’t make any business sense, what can you do about it?
Well, the first thing you’ve got to do is to change your mindset. From now on, you’ve got to think big.
You must set at least 7-figure goals. You must think international and not just local or national. You must develop and implement big ideas.
And here are four reasons why thinking big will pay off for you:
1. You already have all the resources required to build a million dollar business.
The amount of time and money required to build a 6-figure business is exactly the same as a 7-figure business.
For example, Michael Dell started his computer business which is now worth billions of dollars for only $1000. And Michael, just like you, has only 24 hours a day.
So, if you have $1000 and 24 hours a day just like Michael Dell, why not build a multi-million dollar business?
2. It’s more profitable.
Whether your income goal is $100,000 or $1 million a year, the odds are really against you in achieving them. You may only hit 50% of your target.
Here’s how thinking big helps…
If you achieve 50% of a $100,000 a year goal, it’s $50,000. But if you achieve only 10% of a $1 million a year goal, it’s $100,000.
Therefore, even if you only achieve 10% of your big goal, it’s better than 50% of your small goal. Thinking big is simply more profitable.
3. It’s easier to secure capital.
Your business may need capital injection in the future to stay afloat or to grow. Guess what? It’s easier to secure a $1 million investment than a $10,000 bank loan.
I know it sounds completely counterintuitive but it’s true. Investors are attracted to big ideas and businesses that can grow big very quickly. A 6-figure business just doesn’t appeal to them.
4. It’s easier to attract star employees.
Star employees, like investors, are attracted to big ideas. That’s why companies like Google and Facebook attract highly talented and experienced professionals.
A business that wants to stay small doesn’t appeal to them. Stars want challenges. They want a career, not a job. They want growth, not stagnation.
So, if you want to build a long-term sustainable business, start thinking big and stop thinking small. And you’ll see the impact it has on your business once you change your mindset.
August 29, 2008
Who Do You Rely On?
You know, there’s one thing that I’ve learned over the years and that’s when you find good help for your business, hang onto them TIGHTLY.
No, I don’t mean hold them hostage and threaten them to keep them from leaving. Of course not! 
I mean: Treat them well, give them ongoing work and make sure the relationship continues to be mutually beneficial.
A loyal person on your team is absolutely priceless and I can certainly attest to that as I’ve had a lot of great people helping me out as I take a little more time away from working these days.
UNFORTUNATELY, we are booked up for September, but expect to take a handful of people for October, so keep your eyes peeled for a notice in about a month from now.
HOWEVER, that doesn’t mean you can’t start your outsourcing plan NOW. If you’re looking for outsourcing strategies, tools to make training and working with your contractors a whole lot easier, the Outsourcing Sweetie Gold Membership has what you need to get started.
Grab yours here. Quit running yourself ragged and get the help you deserve now.
August 28, 2008
Making Fast Work of Blogging
A little while back, I was feverishly working on scheduling my blog posts so I’d have plenty of content before the birth of baby #3. I had managed to schedule 20 posts in about 2 1/2 hours and some of my Twitter friends were dumbfounded. They said 1 blog post could take them up to that much time - how could I do 20?
If you’re interested in making fast work of blogging, here are my 3 thoughts on getting more (GOOD) posts done in a short time:
Plan your topics and make notes ahead of time. I regularly get my notebook out (no, not my laptop…an actual paper notebook) and write down my ideas ahead of time. I keep the notebook with me at all times and I plan posts a few weeks (or in my recent case, a couple months) in advance.
If you prefer to use your PDA, go for it, but I do recommend getting away from the distractions of the computer to start your brainstorming. If you need to do research, that’s fine…but do your final planning away from that computer.
Novels are not required. There is no length requirement for blog posts. In fact, some of my shortest ones ar the most popular with my readers (ex. the whole Tough Question Tuesday category). Sure, sometimes you have a lot to say on a subject, but overall - keep it short, sweet and to the point. Your readers will likely appreciate and you don’t have to be chained to your computer for just 1 blog post.
Use the scheduling feature of your blog. You probably do use your scheduling to some degree, but really take advantage of it. If you plan a few weeks in advance and realized you don’t need novels, you can load up your blog with plenty of fresh content to roll out over the next few weeks. Just doing everything in chunks (a bunch of planning and then a bunch of writing), makes it a whole lot easier.
Time to write this post: 8 minutes.
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