Everyone is familiar with their computer’s desktop. It’s what we stare at as we type, or surf the web, or do any work on our computer. It contains our menu, and our windows, and our icons, etc. Before long, windows stack up on top of windows, and icons litter the entire desktop, and it just becomes one great big mess. We’ve all probably learned to deal with it over time, and may not even notice how frustrating it can be since we’re so accustomed to it. But there can be a better way, and everyone has access to this for free.

What if you had more than one desktop? What if you could easily switch between 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 desktops? What if each desktop could hold its own set of icons and windows? Imagine having your browser open on one desktop, the document you’re typing open on another desktop, your Twitter client open on another, and so on. Imagine just jumping from one to another with just a click, or a flick of the mouse.

Linux users are used to having multiple desktops, and that’s where I first stumbled across it. The video below is a screencast I just took of my 6 desktops. (I could use more or less if I wanted, but 6 works great for me right now). Five of the desktops always have one or two main windows open that I use regularly. The sixth is always a clean slate with nothing open, so I can do whatever I want with it. Actually, I can do whatever I want with any of the desktops. I mean, it’s not like I can’t open and close new programs and windows on any of them at any time. But I personally like to keep them mostly the way you’ll see in the video below – nearly all the time. Play the video now, quickly, to see what I’m talking about. It’s less than 30 seconds long. (Sorry about the low quality of the video).

That’s my computer, and a quick glance at all six of my desktops. This ability to segment my work and keep a visually clean desktop at all times, keeps me much more productive – and much less frustrated – than I used to be.

You can have it too. It doesn’t matter if you run Windows or Linux or Mac. They all have free programs you can run to give you multiple desktops. I’m not very familiar with the various ones available for Windows and Mac, but I’ll list a few for you to investigate on your own. I just quickly searched for these, so there may be others that are better out there.

For Windows, you can get Microsoft’s own PowerToys virtual desktop manager that lets you have up to 4 desktops. And yes, it’s free, or you can try Dexpot, which lets you have up to 20 desktops.

As far as I know, Mac, like Linux, comes with multiple desktop capability built-in, but there are programs available to manage them more efficently and/or give extra functionality. One such program for Mac is Desktop Manager, and the one I use for Linux is Compiz, which also does a ton of other things besides handle multiple desktops.

I recommend trying out multiple desktops for a week or two and see if it makes your workday a little saner and a little more productive. I know it’s helped me a lot, and I would hate to have to return to the old days of using just one desktop. Hopefully, this is one little productivity tip I can pass along to you to make your work days a little smoother.

© DazzlinDonna for DazzlinDonna, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: desktop, Linux, Mac, Microsoft Windows, Virtual desktop, virtual desktop manager

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Liza!

Congratulations, Liza! You’ll hear from each of us shortly. All of us involved with Project Jump Start wishes you the best of luck, and we hope that your online endeavors and your ideas and dreams turn into something big!

Stay tuned. We’ll be jumpstarting someone every month this year – on the 25th of each month. Will you be next month’s recipient?

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Let’s begin with the definition of synergy. Synergy is defined as:

the interaction of two or more forces so that the combined effect is greater than the sum of the individual effects

If you succeed in achieving this synergy, you’ll very likely succeed at making a living online.

So what two things are needed in this synergistic equation? Great content and targeted traffic.

Allow me to repeat that:

Great content + lots of targeted traffic = enough income to make a living online.

Your efforts alone can produce both of those vital parts of the equation. Your knowledge – the information you’ll provide – creates the content. Your marketing efforts – the things you do to tell the world about your site – brings the traffic that is interested in your content.

Great content, without targeted traffic doesn’t guarantee success. Likewise, targeted traffic, without great content doesn’t guarantee success. If you have both of these forces working for you – great content and lots of targeted traffic – you have everything you need to produce a liveable income.

Nearly all revenue models produce increased levels of income as your traffic levels increase. For example: If you’re selling advertising spots on your site, the price you charge for those ad spots goes up as your traffic goes up. Just as circulation numbers influence newspaper ad prices, your unique visitor numbers influence online ad rates. In general, no matter what form of monetization your site employs, more traffic means more income.

The first thing some people think is “Well, great, I’ll just buy lots of traffic”. You’ve probably seen ads all over the Internet that say:

We’ll send you one hundred thousand visitors for just one hundred dollars, or whatever the pitch might be. Don’t fall for these ads. Don’t waste your money. That’s not real traffic; most of the time it’s not even real people going to your site. But even the ones that are real people aren’t real traffic. They’re not interested in your site, they’re not interested in your content, and they won’t increase your income at all. Fake traffic is worse than no traffic.

You need real traffic; targeted traffic – and that requires great content.

This synergistic equation does have a starting point. You must have the content first. There’s absolutely no point in bringing targeted traffic to a site without good content. So you’ll need to focus on that first. One you have high quality content available however, you can begin marketing the site. At that stage, you’ll be working on content creation and marketing (acquiring traffic) simultaneously and continuously. You’ll stay in a cycle of continuously creating good content and continuously marketing your site, so that the two pieces of the equation can work together to create the end result: income.

Each time you read one of my blog posts that focuses on making a living online, you should think about how the post fits into the synergy of efforts equation. Everything you learn should help with:

1. creating good content, or
2. attracting targeted traffic, or
3. learning how to make those two pieces work together to create more income

So if you want to succeed, keep the synergy of efforts equation in mind:

Great content + lots of targeted traffic = enough income to make a living online.

At some point, you may find yourself ready for private, one-on-one coaching. When that happens, consider hiring me as your eBusiness coach and consultant. You can get more information about how that works, at my site, www.eBuzzCoach.com.

© DazzlinDonna for DazzlinDonna, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Marketing, success, Synergy

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Working from home isn’t for everyone, so first you need to consider your own personality traits and expectations. Now, I’m referring to realistic expectations. Realistic expectations will bring real income for real people.

Begin by considering three different expectations.

Work Expectations

The first involves work expectations. Working from home has many benefits but there is real work involved. In fact, working from home can often mean working longer hours than your ordinary forty-hour work week at the office. In addition, there’s no boss available to keep you on track. Okay, “no boss” is a good thing, but you have to rely upon your own work ethic to keep you productive. If you’re the slacker type, you may end up doing very little work at home and that means little to no chance of success.

Income Expectations

Now consider income expectations. I don’t deal with the typical work-from-home scam that promises you’ll be rich and jetting around in your private plane. No, I do work designed to create real incomes for real people.

Can you make a fortune? Sure, but you’ll be working towards making a living before making a fortune. When some people hear that, they wonder, “What’s the point, then”? The point is that you can earn a living from home. For those of us that are just completely fed up with waking to an obnoxious alarm clock, getting all dressed up, and going to a J-O-B every day of our lives, we would gladly trade all of that in order to make the same living from home.

Because I now work from home:

• I wake up when I want to
• I work when I want to
• I take breaks when I want to
• I run errands when I want to
• And most, importantly I nap when I want to. (Hey, a girl needs her nap).

Do I work a lot? Yes I do, but I do it when I want and not when I’m told.

One question I often see is this: “Will I immediately be able to make a living by working from home?” More than likely, the answer is a solid NO, not immediately. This isn’t the same as quitting your job, and getting a new one the next day. There won’t be an automatic paycheck waiting for you 2 weeks later.

I highly recommend that if you need your current employment income to survive, DO NOT QUIT. Try the whole ‘work from home’ thing part time for a while. You may only make enough money for a cup of coffee the first month. You need to understand that and be prepared for that. Of course, if you aren’t currently making any money, or the money you make is not needed to pay bills and survive, then by all means go ahead and try working from home as a full time job. But again, don’t expect much right away. This takes time; in fact, it may even take one full year or more before you can say you are making enough money to make a living from working online. A year? Am I kidding? No, I’m not kidding, and while a year might seem like an eternity, it really isn’t. If you knew you could quit your job, and a year from now, you’d never have to go through the monotonous office routine ever again, would you get all excited in anticipation of that time? Sure you would! Just because it might take a while is no reason to completely avoid the process.

I’ve been working from home for several years now. But before that, I worked office jobs for thirty years. Thirty years of ‘day in, day out’, slogging through the hassle of working in an office even when I was so sick I should have been in bed. The one year that it took to be able to replace all of that with the joy of working from home is nothing compared to those thirty years of office grind.

So now you’ve considered both the work expectations and the income expectations. What’s the third expectation you should consider?

Friends and Family Expectations

You need to be prepared for friends and family expectations. If you intend to work from home, be prepared for the onslaught of criticism you’re going to receive from friends and family. Although they may be well-meaning, these people will chip away at your self confidence as they attempt to dissuade you from what they believe will be a mistake. Of course, in some cases, they may be right. But if you truly believe that you can make a living from home, then you’ll need to have the willpower to resist the negative attacks that will likely come from your friends and family. Listen to their advice, acknowledge their good intentions, but understand that they aren’t the ones who have the drive and determination to make this work – you do!

If you can deal with all three of those realistic expectations: work, income, and friends and family, then you’re ready to take the first steps. You may want to begin by reading my How To Make A Living In Your Pajamas series or pick topics that interest you from my archives. And of course, if you’re ready for private, one-on-one coaching, consider hiring me as your eBusiness coach and consultant. You can get more information about how that works, at my site, www.eBuzzCoach.com.

© DazzlinDonna for DazzlinDonna, 2009. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: eBusiness coach and consultant, work from home, working online

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I’d like to transition to working for myself, but I’m not sure how to do it!

Now, this anonymous friend of mine has a lot of technical online knowhow, so I didn’t even bother pointing her to my series, How To Make A Living In Your Pajamas. If you need the technical steps, be sure to read those posts. But even though my friend said she didn’t know “how to do it”, she didn’t really mean the actual technical aspects of it. No, she needed the higher-level aspects.

She needed confirmation that she should start part time, while working at her day job. She needed reassurance that the ideas she had were solid ones. And most importantly, I believe, was she needed to get past the fear.

We all live in fear of the unknown. Can we do it? Are we good enough? Do we know enough? What if we do the wrong things? What if we make mistakes?

Let me answer those questions right now for each of you.

Can I do it? YES
Am I good enough? YES
Do I know enough? YES
What if I do the wrong thing? NO BIG DEAL
What if I make mistakes? YOU WILL. SO WHAT?

Yes, you can do it, and yes you will make mistakes. But the mistakes can be overcome. The only mistake that cannot be overcome is the mistake of never trying.

So, of the things I told my friend, the most important piece of advice that I gave her, in my opinion, was this:

Really, it’s more a matter of just putting one foot in front of the other and start doing.

You can and should learn the technical how-to’s, but don’t put off actually taking the first step until you know everything…because that day will never come.

© DazzlinDonna for DazzlinDonna, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: fear of the unknown, online friend, online knowhow, taking the first step

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What is the SEO Dojo? It is a closed door, gated community which gives search professionals and those wanting to learn more about search engines a safe haven to study and collaborate.

There’s some serious educational material within the walls of the community (really, I kid you not, there’s lots of stuff there to fill your mind with). And of course, there’s a strong community of Seriously Obsessed Search Geeks (SOSG) discussing search issues.

The SEO Dojo is ideal for:

• Individuals who want to increase their SEO knowledge
• Professional SEOs looking for a quality community
• Webmasters and site owners seeking advice from top professionals
• Finding cross-site (and vertical) promotions and opportunities
• SEOs who want to learn more about how search engines work
• Anyone that needs to learn MORE about the world of search marketing
• Search geeks looking to interact with other SEO addicts

I recommend reading more about it here. It not only outlines more about the community itself, but it also tells you about all the extras you get – including free access to awesome tools (like Raven SEO tools, for example, plus tons more).

Another cool thing is that I’ve been given a special code that you can use to get 25% off of the price of membership (which is already reasonable) for the first 25 DD readers who choose to use it. Dave (the dojo leader) assigned my code to be “DonnaRocks”, so just use that coupon code to get your 25% discount. (Dave likes to embarrass me, I think).

If you are at all interested in search marketing, you should check it out. Dave’s done a bangup job of making a great community.

© DazzlinDonna for DazzlinDonna, 2009. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Internet Marketing, Search engine marketing, Search engine optimization, search engines, search marketing, search professionals, SEOs

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I routinely make backups of both my web sites (and their associated databases) and my home computer files. By “routinely”, I mean every single day. I not only have one backup of each important file, however; I have three!

I keep one complete backup on an external hard drive that simply plugs into any computer via a USB cable. Since it’s portable, I can take it and run with it anytime I need to.

I keep one complete backup “in the cloud” by backing up everything to an off-site, web-based system.

And I keep one non-complete backup on a tiny USB flash drive. I can’t fit everything on that little flash drive, so I put just my very, very, very most important documents there. Since it’s only about the size of my thumb (which I assume is where the nickname of “thumb drive” came from), I can easily transport it at any time.

So, why be so diligent with backups? Let’s consider just the following scenario.

If your home were destroyed by lighting, or fire, or other natural disaster tomorrow, would you be able to put your life back together? In a week? In a month? Never?

Just in the U. S. alone more than 50,000 homes are completely wiped out each year leaving families without their precious photos, insurance documents, passports, wills, legal papers, tax records, birth certificates and other essential files.

These documents and files are the essential paperwork you need to put your life back together quickly to recover from an unforeseen disaster. Where are you storing your own vital documents? Are they accessible to you anywhere you happen to be?

What happens if your computer is destroyed? While I always have my portable backup options available to me, they could be destroyed as well. Then what? Well, that’s where the “in the clouds” online backup service comes in handy. There are several choices, and I’ve covered some of them in the past. There’s one that’s fairly new to me, however, and I wanted to mention it here today, mainly because it has features I’ve never seen before.

My-personal-files.com is an online safe deposit box service. This service allows you to access your stored files anywhere in the world you happen to be, from any computer or mobile device with an internet connection. That’s not so different than many of its competitors, but one thing does set it apart from the others. It has options that enable you to backup important documents that you don’t have digitized, and can’t easily convert to digital format.

I lived through Hurricane Katrina, so I’ll use a hurricane as a good example of how this might be useful. Let’s say you were one of the unfortunate hurricane victims. Your home is gone. You are forbidden from going anywhere near your neighborhood, let alone your city. The photos of your house and household possessions (that the insurance company will need to process your claim quickly) are gone. Your children’s baby photos are gone. Your passports are gone as are copies of your insurance policies. If all those files backed up to an online account, you would be able to print out copies of them from wherever you were. Imagine being able to show your insurance agent a copy of your homeowner’s policy and pictures of your home and its contents within minutes – even without access to your own computer. Think about how secure and confident you would feel when the world around you is in chaos.

When was the last time you felt that secure? Knowing that you could recover all your vital documents in a matter of minutes gives you peace of mind and control. You feel confident that you can recover from disasters and thefts easily and quickly. That kind of power should be in everyone’s digital arsenal. But not everyone who lives through a hurricane or other natural disaster has their important documents in a digital format. Not everyone even has a computer or online access!

As an example, when Katrina was on its way to our area, we did our best to pack up my elderly in-laws, and send them to safety. There was no time, however, to find and pack up their important documents, and they didn’t have a computer. So, how could we have gotten those documents backed up to an online service? That’s where my-personal-files.com differs. They have special plans that enable you to fax or mail document copies to them. Once received, they will digitize the documents, and send the digital copy back to you via email. Once you confirm that you’ve received it, they will destroy your papers in their secure document destruction facility. Obviously, you’ll need access to a computer to receive the email, and to access the files online. In our case, we could have had our in-laws prepare well in advance of any pending disasters, and we could have asked them to get their documents digitized and emailed to us. We could have then backed them up safely for them.

They weren’t as prepared then, but they can be now. It’s nice to know there are options out there for backing up important documents, even when those documents aren’t yet in digital format.

So please…backup. Backup often. Backup regularly. Backup everything that’s important to you. Don’t let anything get in the way, not even the fact that some things aren’t already digitized. There are ways to backup everything these days. My-personal-files.com is one way to ensure a little peace of mind, no matter what happens.

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Post tags: Backup, Computer storage, Data security, insurance documents, online safe deposit box service, Remote backup service, usb flash drive

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But try remembering even those two things when you write posts for several blogs. If you’re anything like me, you never remember and you end up digging through old notes or View Source on blog posts to see what the format is. Don’t you wish you could just jot down a note on the WordPress admin dashboard to remind you of those little things? Guess what?

There’s a plugin for that!

Actually, there may be several, but the one I use is Dashboard Post-It. Here’s how it’s described:

Adds a simple ‘Post-it’ widget to the Dashboard that allows you to leave yourself or other authors a note. The plugin can be configured and moved around as any other Dashboard widget. It will accept plain text or (sanitized) HTML.

If you own a multi-author blog, this is a great way to make sure everyone remembers all the little rules you have. If you’re a blogger who posts for someone else, let them know about this little plugin. It can make things easier for everyone.

Sometimes it’s the tiniest things that increase productivity and keep us from tearing our hair out in frustration.

© DazzlinDonna for DazzlinDonna, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dashboard, HTML, plugin, WordPress

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James C!

Congratulations, James! You’ll hear from each of us shortly. All of us involved with Project Jump Start wishes you the best of luck, and we hope that your online endeavors and your ideas and dreams turn into something big!

Stay tuned. We’ll be jumpstarting someone every month this year – on the 25th of each month. Will you be next month’s recipient? Have you asked for a jump start?

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Who are you? You first need to understand that before you can see what it is you have to contribute to the world’s knowledge base. This little exercise is going to help you find answers to that question. You can then use the results of the exercise later on when we discuss other related aspects.

By now, you’ve probably seen many of the Web 2.0 type sites that encourage users to tag things. Tagging is merely the act of assigning words and phrases to something. For example, a youtube video of a cat falling into an aquarium might be tagged with the words “cat, falls, aquarium, fish, funny, video” and so on. Tagging is a common practice on the Internet these days, and today’s exercise is all about tagging.

Grab a notebook and pen, or open up Notepad or Word on your computer and get ready to write.

Ready? Ok, tag yourself.

That’s right. List as many words or short phrases that describe you, and any aspect of you. Personality traits, business ethics, and everything in between should be considered. Tags such as “funny, goofy, serious, hard-working, lazy, fun, intelligent, witty,…” are just a few examples. While everyone will have a different amount of tags they can think of, I’d say we could all probably come up with at least 50. Some can probably think of 100 – 200! The number doesn’t matter. Just tag yourself with as many as you can.

Next, create a separate list of tags that describe everything you know. Ok, not everything! Let’s say you are an administrative assistant at your job. That means you know…”how to type, how to file, how to …”. See where this is going? This doesn’t include just job duties, however. If you are an expert at flying kites, then you know…”how to assemble a kite, how much string to let out…”, etc. Know how to cook? Good at solving math problems? Great at tweaking computers? The list can go on and on. Try to come up with as many tags that explain what you “know” as you can.

When you’ve finished this exercise, you’ll have a really good, representative list of how you see yourself. You’ll be able to glance at the list and immediately pinpoint what YOU believe are your strengths and your weaknesses. Of course, others may have an entirely different list of tags for you, and there’s a good chance they’d show more of your strengths than you did! If you can convince your friends or family to add to your list, that’s fine, but just knowing what you think of yourself is immensely useful in going forward with your self-employment plans.

In later posts, we’ll look at ways to cull down the lists of your strengths and knowledge bases into areas that you can turn into viable businesses online. For now, though, just concentrate on tagging yourself. Keep those tags handy so that you can refer back to them as needed.

© DazzlinDonna for DazzlinDonna, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: administrative assistant, administrative assistant at your job, describe yourself, strengths, tag yourself, weaknesses

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