A Facebook fan page is more than just another way to connect with prospects and customers online. Your Facebook fan page can:

• Drive more traffic to your website.
• Help build your email list.
• Sell more products/services.
• Announce special offers and promotions.
• Announce events.
• Share news.
• Provide value to your prospects and customers.
• Share photos and videos.
• Get feedback from clients and prospects.
• Improve your relationships with your prospects and customers.
• Improve Search Engine Optimization because it is open to the search engines, unlike your personal profile.

Additionally:

• You can communicate directly with your “fans”.
• When a person joins your fan page, it’s published in their News feed – this gives a viral quality to your fan page.
• You have access to more than 500 million active users who log onto Facebook regularly and spend an average of 55 minutes per day on the site.
• Facebook is now the 2nd most visited site in the world after Google
• And Facebook fan (business) pages are free!

Plain and simple, Facebook offers a huge potential to profit and grow your business. This post assumes that you already have a Facebook account. If you do not, you’ll need to register – it’s free and quite simple to build. But with the recent advent of the new Facebook Timeline covers, you will want to create one that competently and professionally conveys to your visitor your value proposition because it is the very first them they will see. And it doesn’t have to be a scary or expensive thing to do. For instance you can have custom FB graphics created for $27 that will enhance your branding (Website, Twitter, YouTube, etc.)

If you have yet to brand yourself online you can have it done professionally for $118 – $188!

Head on over to LogoNerds.com and take a look at their FB graphic package.

For $27 you can have them customize one cover image 851×315 and your logo will be correctly sized to fit the square graphic section in the timeline page to 180×180.

While you are there, be sure to look at their logo packages which range from $27 to $97. Twitter backgrounds cost $47.

And if you still need a great WordPress header design for your website/blog, they do a great job of these for $17.

You can also find other services for online and print collateral at very affordable prices.

Click here or on image to watch video. For PDF click here.

Congratulations on earning your degree. But the truth is that the degree alone isn’t going to be enough to assure your success in the real world.

In the real world employers don’t care much about your degree, your happiness, your income or really much of anything that has to do with you. They care about what you can do for them. And from this point on, that’s how you have to think. Businesses exist to be profitable. It is your job to help make them profitable. If you know how to do that, how to be worth more than you cost, then you have value in the workplace. If you don’t know how to be worth more than you cost, then employers will pass you over and find someone else.

Look at what it really takes to be successful in the real world.

You have to take RESPONSIBILITY. Your life, your results, your success, happiness, health and prosperity are up to you. When it turns out well, you get the credit and when it doesn’t work out the way you wanted it to, you get the blame. It isn’t up to anyone else to make sure you are successful, it’s always up to you, so be responsible.

RESPECT OTHERS. Respect your employer enough to be on time and give them your personal best every day because that is what they are paying for. Respect your boss, even when you think he is an idiot because he is still your boss and deserves your respect. Respect your coworkers so they will respect you and your customers because they pay you.

CLEAR PRIORITIES. Your time, your energy and your money will always go to what is important to you. If looking cute is important to you then you will spend all of your money at the mall. If being financially secure is important to you then you will make sure that you save, invest and live on less than you earn.

It’s about WORK AND EXCELLENCE. Regardless of what others may tell you, it’s not about your passion — as I know people who are passionately incompetent. It’s not loving what you do or being happy every day. You aren’t paid to be happy on the job, you are paid to do your job. Success always comes down to hard work and excellence. And it takes both. Hard work alone won’t cut it. I know people who work really hard yet aren’t any good at what they do so it doesn’t matter. And I know people who are excellent at what they do but they don’t work hard enough at it to make any difference.

So work hard and be excellent at what you do. And remember, if any one can do it then anyone can do it.

===

Larry Winget

The New York Times/Wall Street Journal best selling author and internationally known speaker. Larry is considered a self-help/business/financial guru to hundreds of thousands of people!

A Year of Success

People aren’t as successful as they want to be, rich as they could be or happy as they think they should be. That’s the truth. That’s why Larry Winget teamed up with 3 of the world’s leading success experts to create this new program, A Year Of Success.

People get hooked into systems that are too complicated, don’t work, over-promise and under-deliver and that flat out cost too much darn money. That’s why he is so proud of A Year Of Success. If you aren’t a part of this yet, you should be. If I wasn’t in it, I would not be recommendng it to you. And that is the truth.

The response to this program has already been terrific. People are loving the mix of success experts and the value and very reasonable investment.

PLEASE – just do this: go to A Year of Success.

Watch Larry talk about the program – it will only take a minute. If you are intrigued, then look through the rest of the site, watch some of the other videos and make your decision. At $2.82 per week, you won’t be taken advantage of financially. But you will get 52 video lessons along with an action plan for each one that will allow you create a better year this year than you had last year. Along the way, you will get 4 bonuses that I know you will really enjoy. No upsells, no tricks; just simple, actionable ideas that you can implement to make a real difference in your life.

The Adapt theme caught my eye because it was crafted to work for sites where the focus of your work and recent news is the primary purpose. Additionally, it is 100 percent GPL (General Public License) and free. In short, it looks to me like a great theme for people who need to get a website up quickly and don’t have a big budget to work with. It is very minimal and very easy to setup. It comes with built-in post types for your portfolio, homepage highlights and homepage slider, so adding your content is a breeze. There are page templates for your blog, filterable portfolio, full-width pages and even a landing page template.

The Adapt theme also features:

• Fully responsive layout
• Homepage slider with unlimited heights. (Love this!)
• Portfolio slider
• Filterable portfolio template (This makes it a great choice for freelancers who need a quick way to showcase a portfolio. Adapt’s filterable portfolio page template allows you to easily sort and display portfolio items by category.)
• Full-width and landing page templates
•  Blog page template
• Threaded comments
• Widgetized sidebar and footer.

You already know that I do not bombard you with a ton of “buy now” stuff and I only recommend products that I actually use and benefit from myself. What I want to share with you today is A Year of Success.

If you connect with me on Facebook. LinkedIn or Twitter, you already know that Larry Winget and Bob Burg are friends of mine, and people who I have a VERY high professional and personal opinion of. Larry Winget is known as “The Pitbull of Personal Development” and is a 5 time New York Times / Wall Street Journal bestselling author and somebody you see on TV a lot. Larry is a regular contributor on Cavuto, Fox News, and other news networks. Bob Burg is one of my favorite authors and if you haven’t already done so, you really should read the Go Giver or Go-Giver’s Sell More and his latest book, It’s Not About You: A Little Story About What Matters Most In Business.

Larry and Bob have partnered with Chief Fascination Officer of Fascinate, Inc., Sally Hogshead and leadership development speaker & consultant Mark Sanborn. Mark is the president of Sanborn & Associates, Inc., an idea lab for leadership development. Leadershipgurus.net lists Mark as one of the top 30 leadership experts in the world. Mark is the author of You Don’t Need a Title to Be a Leader which speaks to leaders at every level, both those with and without titles. The book focuses on six things that all leaders do to make a positive difference. If you want to learn how to lead, or you are a leader looking for ways to lead better or teach others to lead, this book is for you.

Fascination is an intense emotional focus. When customers are fascinated by you and your message, they’re more likely to trust, believe, and respect you. As the only keynote speaker and author on this topic, Sally Hogshead has developed a scientifically-based system of influence, based on the brain’s hardwired patterns. For any goal that requires strong communication— from selling insurance to motivating top talent— the Fascinate system outlines the shortcut to persuasion. Sally has taught over 100,000 people how to use their natural strengths to become more persuasive.

I tell you all of this so you know who will be working with you and what they collectively bring to the table. In fact, the four of them have reached over a million people with their messages, all over the globe. In A Year of Success, they will teach you, challenge you, provoke you, (Larry!) and push you outside your comfort zone to the point that you gain with bigger, faster, and smarter results, no matter what you are doing.

Amazon Associates Central has finally made it a bit easier for the layman to create links and I am quite glad to see it.

Here is how to create links in just a few easy steps.

1. Login to your Amazon Associates Central account.
2. Type the product, book title or author that you are searching for in the search box.

Choose your product and then click on the orange “Get Link” button. When the HTML code appears click on the “Shorten URL with amzn.to hyperlink.

That will give you a tiny hyperlink that you can use on your website, in mailings, on FB, Twitter, etc.

By looking back on previous to-do lists, you can learn a lot about yourself, your goals, and your habits – good and bad. But when you are finished with a list, don’t toss it. Instead, file it away and when you’ve got a month or two worth of lists stored up, pull them out and go on a backwards journey. And actually, I do things a little bit different with my “to-do” list by tying my working lists to to my digital journal.

It is very important to me to journal as this is how I keep track of where I have been, what my thoughts and dreams were and are, what was happening on any particular day or period of my life and what my business gains and goals are.

However, keeping a traditional journal has never really worked well for me as I think and type at a lightening speed, but actually writing it all down means I can’t really keep up with my own thoughts on paper. Very frustrating for somebody like me who is a logical, linear thinker and just wants to get things done in the most efficient manner possible.

Happily, some years ago I found a fabulous digital journal that I have referenced on several of my recent radio broadcasts on Your Partner In Success Radio and am getting a lot of people sending me notes to say thank you for the great idea. I use and HIGHLY recommend The Journal by DavidRM Software. He offers a 45 day free trial and  if you want to upgrade to the paid version it is a one time fee of $49.95.

I recently had a massive computer crash and to be perfectly honest, the thing I worried about most was losing my years worth of journal entries. Fortunately for my sanity, I had backed everything up (it prompts you do do so on a regular basis) and was able to restore my journal. Whew!

The Journal can store anything in an entry: digital photographs, spreadsheets, word processor documents, and more. I use the meta keyword search tool to find out what was going on with my “do-do” lists going back several years. It is an enlightening journey, I promise you! These are some of the features that I love the most:

• Powerful word-processing features
• Store anything. (text, digital photographs, videos, files…)
• Find what you’re looking for with the powerful search features
• Print your entries for binding or sharing
• Set reminders for appointments, events, tasks & special days
• Import entries from other journaling software quickly
• Post your entries (including entries with images) to your web log (blog).
• Security – password protection

So when making your “to-do” lists and goal lists be sure to ask yourself the following questions and then check out The Journal to see if it will aid you in keeping track of yourself. And by the way, I am not an affiliate because David doesn’t currently have an affiliate program but if he ever does create one, I will be first in line. This is a tool that I simply can’t praise enough! I also need to mention here that David is tremendously helpful if you have a problem with your journal and will immediately return your email.

• What items have changed on my list? Did they go away because you accomplished a big project, or because you gave up?
• What has stayed the same? Are these repeats still there because they indicate an ongoing habit (exercise, for example) or because you still haven’t finished what you set out to accomplish some time ago?
• What continually falls to the bottom of your list? Are there items that were carried over from day to day, or even week to week? What were they, and why did you keep procrastinating? Did you finally finish the task, or did it just go away?
• What patterns do you see? Are there seasonal or other patterns you recognize, such as you always start revving up to capture new business in the fall and work on product creation in the spring? Are these the best times for those tasks?
• How many items do you typically write down, and how many do you typically accomplish, each day? Use this information as you move forward to make your current lists more effective.
• How do you feel when you look back over your lists? Are you struck with how much you’ve accomplished, or are you depressed by how much you never did? How can you use those feelings to motivate you now?
• In retrospect, were the items you thought were the most important turn out to really be the most important? If you had to do it over, would you place your emphasis, time, and resources elsewhere?

Your past lists are valuable clues as to your working style, preferences, and personality. Just as an archaeologist would review pieces of pottery and ancient artifacts for clues about that ancient civilization, you can review your own clues to make your present-day effectiveness the highest it can be.

To block and reduce spam on your self-hosted WordPress blog, I use and recommend Akismet.

Akismet comes pre-installed on new WordPress installations so all you need to do is activate the plugin.  Do this by navigating to WP Dashboard > Plugins. You will find Akismet Plugin in Installed Plugins. Click the “Activate” button.

Now you will see a yellow highlighted message at the top of your WP dashboard asking you to enter your Akismet API key.

Go to Akismet and register for your key.

The default setting will look like they want you to pay $36 for the key. Grab the slide and shift it left until it registers $0 and then proceed with your registration. Be sure to use an email address that you have access to as they will email the key to you.

Return to your WP dashboard, click on the “Enter yoru Akismet API key” highlighted message and copy and paste your emailed key there. Click the update options button and your key will be verified. If the key is valid you will see this screenshot:

Recently companies like Google, Twitter and the New York Times found themselves being exploited by hackers as part of a massive attack on consumers. The Better Business Bureau is offering advice on how to protect computers and personal information from scareware which can appear on even the most trusted websites.

Scareware Popup

There are steps you can take to protect your personal information and your computer.  By staying wary and never letting your guard down, you can avoid a lot of heartache and angst.

Protect your computer.  Install updates to your operating system and purchase antivirus software from a name you recognize and trust and be sure to keep that software up to date.  Some of the leading anti-virus software providers are Norton (Symantec), McAfee, and AVG.

Make sure that all security patches and updates are installed for your web browser and programs such as Adobe Flash Player.

Take immediate action if you believe that you are the victim of a scareware attack.  If you receive a scareware popup window (see images below), force the window to close through your task manager. To do this on a PC, hold down the ctrl, alt and delete keys simultaneously, open your task manager, find the browser in the list of running programs and click “end task.” Once you have closed the window, run your anti-virus scan to make sure that nothing awful happened.

Stay alert and err on the side of caution when you are unsure of anything.

Guidance: You are the only one who can find your passion – It’s inside you and just has to be uncovered. Use the below to explore what lights you on fire. Don’t rush through these. Go somewhere quiet, with no internet and dedicate at least 2-3 hours to developing your answers. Some may apply more than others. That’s fine. Allow your mind to run wild. These questions will only be useful if you allow them to.

It’s time to start living with passion!

1. What makes you happiest in your life? What excites you?

2. What do you do that makes you feel invincible?

3. What do people thank you for?

4. What are you ridiculously good at? What are your precious gifts?

5. Who do you look up to? Who are your mentors? Who inspires you? Why?

6. When was the last time you massively over-delivered on something? What was it and why did you work so damn hard?

7. When was the last time you were in a state of flow, in the zone and totally lost track of time? What were you doing?

8. Imagine you won $158 million in the lottery. It’s now three months later. How will you spend tomorrow?

9. What would you do if you knew you could not fail?

10. If you could have or do anything, what would it be?

11. What topics do you find yourself continuously arguing or defending with others? What beliefs does your stance represent?

12. What makes you most angry about the state of the world? With unlimited resources how could you fix it?

13. What are you most afraid of for the next generation, whether you have kids or not?

14. What do you love helping people with? How do you most commonly help others?

15. What’s your favorite section in the bookstore? What’s the first magazine you’d pick up at the grocery store?

16. When was the last time you couldn’t sleep because you were so excited about what you had to work on? What was it?

17. If you trusted that your art (your creativity) would support your life, How would you live?

18. Out of all your current work roles, what would you gladly do for free?

19. If you were able to be a member of the audience at your own funeral (in 100 years or so) what would you want to hear people say?

20. What do you want to be remembered for – what dent do you want to have put in the world?

21. What do your friends always tell you you’d be good at, that you should do for a living (i.e. “he’d make a great…)? If you don’t remember, then go ask five of them.

22. What are you naturally curious about?

23. If you had a free hour to surf the internet, what would you explore?

24. Think back to when you were 5 or10 years old. What did you want to be when you grew up? Anything goes. What skills and metaphors do these represent (i.e. pilot may be a symbol for freedom)?

25. If you could write a book to help the world, that is guaranteed to be a best seller, what would the title be? What’s it about?

26. What careers do you find yourself dreaming of? What jobs do others have that you wish were yours?

27. What 3-5 dream jobs or businesses can you imagine that would firmly embody your core beliefs about the world. Sky’s the limit.

And a bonus…

28. What revolution do you want to lead?

Scott Dinsmore has created a FREE 2012 Goal Setting and Action Workbook that you can download here. I have!

The WishList team is doing just that for all their WishList Member customers.

Anyone who buys WishList Member before Dec. 31st, 2011 will get a whole bunch of extra gifts (valued at $400+) at no extra charge.

This gift package includes:

1) 1000+ Custom Drawn Icons
2) Custom Membership Site Graphics
3) Our Top 3 Kick-Butt Plugins
4) 3-Module Membership Site Basics Course

It’s an awesome package and people are loving it. And who doesn’t love getting what we call in the Deep South, “lagniappe”. (A lagniappe is a small gift given to a customer by a merchant at the time of a purchase (such as a 13th doughnut when buying a dozen). This is some serious lagniappe!

…BUT…

This gift package is only available for those who purchase BEFORE December 31st, 2011 @ 11pm PST.
I run multiple membership sites for my clients and for myself and ALL of them are build using Wishlist Member.

We wish you a safe, happy, healthy and PROSPEROUS New Year!

Your Partner In Success,

Denise Griffitts