<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:blogger='http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005" xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617686</id><updated>2024-10-12T06:28:45.488-05:00</updated><category term="business advice"/><category term="newsletters"/><category term="bad neighborhoods"/><category term="big sale"/><category term="blogrush"/><category term="business email address"/><category term="changing list subject"/><category term="check your outgoing links"/><category term="free pdf"/><category term="grow up"/><category term="limiting access to information about yoru company"/><category term="links"/><category term="lists"/><category term="primopdf"/><category term="professional web site"/><category term="spelling errors"/><category term="street address"/><category term="thank you"/><category term="updating web sites"/><category term="website"/><title type='text'>Free and Low Cost Business Resources!</title><subtitle type='html'>Free and Low Cost Business Resources offers free and low cost business help for small businesses, home based businesses, direct sales consultants, website owners, and more. We&#39;ll share and review websites, radio shows, free classes, tools, and online tutorials that will help you build and increase the bottom line of your business.</subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default?alt=atom'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><link rel='next' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default?alt=atom&amp;start-index=26&amp;max-results=25'/><author><name>Sarah</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11463871616566522163</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>80</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617686.post-7984271428344055494</id><published>2008-06-24T09:42:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2008-06-24T09:55:12.410-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="newsletters"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="website"/><title type='text'>Put Your Web Address In Your Newsletter!!!!</title><content type='html'>Seriously!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Why do you write newsletters?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To tell people about your business, right?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If that&#39;s why you write newsletters then you should probably include a link to your website in the newsletter.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As I&#39;ve said before - I subscribe to a lot of newsletters.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;At least three times during the past week I&#39;ve recieved newsletters from people who haven&#39;t even mentioned the name of their website at all.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One company didn&#39;t even mention the name of their business!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;How does that help you draw traffic to your site, or make sales?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The company that didn&#39;t mention the name of the business was advertising a sale - which I would have posted about on the forums, but I have no idea which company it was, because the name wasn&#39;t mentioned on the site.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I could reply to the sender, and figure it out, but I have other things to do - like writing this post :-)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I did reply to one person to ask what the site address was and guess what - the next time he sent out a letter - which was actually a letter saying &quot;Post on my forum or you&#39;ll be deleted&quot; he didn&#39;t even send a link to the website.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;How many people do you think will post on the forum if they don&#39;t remember where it is?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One of the companies which didn&#39;t include an web address did use a professional email address to send from. Since the url was in the email address - bob at northernlightsreptiles.com for example, I was able to actually find the website, but if it hadn&#39;t been there I wouldn&#39;t have gone looking for it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The other two newsletters were from gmail accounts and contained the senders name as the &quot;from&quot; name - and there&#39;s really no way to tell what the website was from that.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;At least if it&#39;s from &quot;Northern Lights Reptiles&quot; I&#39;ll have a better idea of how to find the website the newsletter is mentioning, if I want to go through all that trouble.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So - if you write a newsletter make sure you clearly mention which business you are talking about, and include at least one link to your website.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you don&#39;t your just wasting people&#39;s time, and inbox space.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sarah&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/tagname&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/feeds/7984271428344055494/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/15617686/7984271428344055494' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/7984271428344055494'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/7984271428344055494'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/2008/06/put-your-web-address-in-your-newsletter.html' title='Put Your Web Address In Your Newsletter!!!!'/><author><name>Sarah</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11463871616566522163</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617686.post-4485599168861966856</id><published>2008-04-22T16:07:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2008-04-22T16:14:45.154-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="business email address"/><title type='text'>What&#39;s your business email address?</title><content type='html'>Come on people, if you have a business you need to have a way for people to contact you.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The fact that people are already on the internet when they are looking at your website means that you should have an email address listed in the contact information for your business.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I can&#39;t believe how many times I&#39;ve been unable to find email adresses or contact information when I&#39;m looking for items to feature on &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.etailersmall.com/blog&quot;&gt;Sarah&#39;s Surprises&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Just today I was planning to do a feature on Can-Do-Candles, and when I clicked on their contact us page Outlook Express tried to open up - but since I don&#39;t use Outlook Express I couldn&#39;t see their email address, or any other contact information.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Because I had already written the post, and I was just emailing them to ask permission to use one of their pictures on my blog, I tried to sign up for their newsletter to see if I could get an email address from their - but the newsletter link went to the front page of another website.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I don&#39;t want to send my readers to a shoddy site like that, and as a customer I&#39;m definitely not willing to buy from someone I know nothing about, who doesn&#39;t have contact information listed on their website.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Is your email address or other contact information easily accessible on your website?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Can people who don&#39;t have Outlook email you, or even see your address?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Do you buy from other websites who don&#39;t have any contact information listed?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Leave a comment and let me know.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sarah&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/tagname&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/feeds/4485599168861966856/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/15617686/4485599168861966856' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/4485599168861966856'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/4485599168861966856'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/2008/04/whats-your-business-email-address.html' title='What&#39;s your business email address?'/><author><name>Sarah</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11463871616566522163</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617686.post-8278042377760548190</id><published>2008-01-16T15:36:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2008-01-16T15:41:56.003-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="updating web sites"/><title type='text'>Updating web sites for the new year</title><content type='html'>I just finished going through one of my websites, and updating it for the new year.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Although it&#39;s a pain, I&#39;m sure that removing extra code, dead links, updating the copyright notice, and refreshing some of my content will pay off in the long run.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Is there anything that you need to do to update your web site for the new year?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Is there anything that you do on a regular basis to keep your sites up to date?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Have you been Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sarah&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/tagname&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/feeds/8278042377760548190/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/15617686/8278042377760548190' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/8278042377760548190'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/8278042377760548190'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/2008/01/updating-web-sites-for-new-year.html' title='Updating web sites for the new year'/><author><name>Sarah</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11463871616566522163</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617686.post-4053310401989795925</id><published>2007-11-30T09:20:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2007-11-30T09:30:52.930-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Can I find your business website from your blog?</title><content type='html'>Many businesses these days have blogs that are supposed to help promote their business, yet I&#39;ve come across way to many business blogs that don&#39;t have a link back to the business website.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If I visit your blog now, can I figure out where to buy your products?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;How long will it take me (or anyone unfamiliar with your blog) to find the link back to your business?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you haven&#39;t checked yourself recently then go check - and if you have, and aren&#39;t sure how easy it is get someone else to check.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Leave a comment with your and I&#39;ll check for you, if you&#39;d like.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sarah&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/tagname&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/feeds/4053310401989795925/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/15617686/4053310401989795925' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/4053310401989795925'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/4053310401989795925'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/2007/11/can-i-find-your-business-website-from.html' title='Can I find your business website from your blog?'/><author><name>Sarah</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11463871616566522163</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617686.post-4179939412373169809</id><published>2007-11-30T09:11:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2007-11-30T09:16:39.604-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Free VA Course Giveaway</title><content type='html'>If you&#39;re interested in becoming a Virtual Assistant, Nell Taliercio, the Telecommuting Answer Lady is having a &lt;a href=&quot;http://telecommutinganswerlady.com/freebie-friday-va-course.htm&quot;&gt;Freebie Friday: VA Course&lt;/a&gt; giveaway today. Just leave a comment and blog about it - or email 3 friends and you&#39;re entered to win.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Good luck!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sarah&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/tagname&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/feeds/4179939412373169809/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/15617686/4179939412373169809' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/4179939412373169809'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/4179939412373169809'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/2007/11/free-va-course-giveaway.html' title='Free VA Course Giveaway'/><author><name>Sarah</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11463871616566522163</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617686.post-1738390918021198961</id><published>2007-11-05T15:32:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2007-11-05T15:45:42.716-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="limiting access to information about yoru company"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="newsletters"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="street address"/><title type='text'>How much work do your customers have to do to get information about you?</title><content type='html'>I&#39;m paranoid.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I don&#39;t like giving my complete name to strangers, much less my street address and phone number, yet I&#39;m running accross an increasing number of etailers who require people to sign up with their first and last name, and complete street address before they can get to their newsletter.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Your newsletter is a tool to keep reminding people about your business...what you offer, how much it is, what&#39;s going on with your company.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Why would you limit access to it?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You want people to know about you, and you want to keep your company in their minds - that&#39;s the point of a newsletter.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When I see a newsletter that requires my street address, I don&#39;t sign up for the newsletter.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If I don&#39;t sign up for the newsletter, I&#39;m not reminded about the company, so I&#39;m not going to remember the site, and I&#39;m not going to think about it next time I&#39;m looking for the product they sale.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Of course this means I also &lt;strong&gt;won&#39;t purchase from them&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Don&#39;t limit access to your newsletter unless you have too.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;After all if people sign up for it, they&#39;re interested in you.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Why not let them learn as much about you as they can?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sarah&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/tagname&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/feeds/1738390918021198961/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/15617686/1738390918021198961' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/1738390918021198961'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/1738390918021198961'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/2007/11/how-much-work-do-your-customers-have-to.html' title='How much work do your customers have to do to get information about you?'/><author><name>Sarah</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11463871616566522163</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617686.post-1072170342871322488</id><published>2007-11-02T10:53:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2007-11-02T11:29:58.670-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="business advice"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="links"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="professional web site"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="spelling errors"/><title type='text'>Are you professional?</title><content type='html'>I&#39;m sure you&#39;ve heard the saying &quot;First impressions last the longest.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What type of first impression does your web site make?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you&#39;re in business, your web site needs to have a professional appearance.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;After all, who wants to spend their hard earned money with someone who can&#39;t be bothered to have a professional looking appearance.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Would you spend your money with someone who had more links to other sites than they have to their own products?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I wouldn&#39;t.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Link exchanges, web rings, and other member badges and buttons might help bring links to your site, but if they&#39;re on your front page they make the web site look unprofessional, and they change the way consumers view your site.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you have ads on your page - whether it&#39;s ads that you&#39;ve chosen, or ads that appear because you have free hosting (another no no for a business web site - people will think that if you can&#39;t afford $8 a year for a domain name, and $4 a month for hosting you must not be serious about your business) the ads you show may be inappropriate.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I remember a couple of years ago screenshots were taken, and a review was written of a child friendly company hosted on &lt;span class=&quot;blsp-spelling-error&quot; id=&quot;SPELLING_ERROR_0&quot;&gt;geocities&lt;/span&gt; with porn ads at the top. Do you think that web site owner enjoyed that type of attention?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Just last month people with affiliate ad banners for an online shopping site had &quot;adult&quot; toys show up on their blogs. That definitely wasn&#39;t the kind of material they were pushing, and their only option to prevent that type of material from showing again was to take down the affiliate banners.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Why not avoid the affiliate banners in the first place, and avoid the negative fall out?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You also need to know how your web site works.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If your sale codes don&#39;t work as promised, links on your web site go to error pages, or links just don&#39;t work - most people aren&#39;t going to waste their time figuring out what&#39;s wrong.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;They are going to visit another site that works, and buy from them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Congratulations, you just lost a sale.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you use other hosting services for your photos, know what happens when your users click on those photos - I recently visited a web site, and when I clicked on a link I was presented with a tiny little picture - and a full page of ads trying to convince me to join the hosting service.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That annoyed me, and I wouldn&#39;t make a point of clicking on links at that web site again - if I could remember what site it was.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You also need to consider how you present material if you aim to have a professional looking web site.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Are their spelling errors? Do the links work? Are your items, prices, and descriptions correct and easy to find?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I know some people aren&#39;t good at spelling - but I have to admit, I think less of web sites with lots of spelling errors. I recently was looking at a web site to review for &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.etailersmall.com/blog&quot;&gt;&lt;span class=&quot;blsp-spelling-error&quot; id=&quot;SPELLING_ERROR_1&quot;&gt;Etailers&lt;/span&gt; Mall - The Blog&lt;/a&gt;, and there were so many spelling errors I couldn&#39;t believe it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;They even misspelled their company name!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you don&#39;t care enough to make sure that the face you present to the world is the best it can be, how can I be sure that the products you make for me will be the best they can be?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I can&#39;t.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So I probably won&#39;t buy from you.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What else do you think you need to have a professional web site?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Leave a comment and let me know.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sarah&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/tagname&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/feeds/1072170342871322488/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/15617686/1072170342871322488' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/1072170342871322488'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/1072170342871322488'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/2007/11/are-you-professional.html' title='Are you professional?'/><author><name>Sarah</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11463871616566522163</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617686.post-168364538956885907</id><published>2007-10-25T10:58:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2007-10-25T11:00:03.555-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="free pdf"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="primopdf"/><title type='text'>Free PDF converter</title><content type='html'>I just found out about PrimoPDF, which is a free tool that makes PDF&#39;s.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I haven&#39;t tried it yet, so I&#39;d love to hear what you think about it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sarah&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/tagname&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/feeds/168364538956885907/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/15617686/168364538956885907' title='4 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/168364538956885907'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/168364538956885907'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/2007/10/free-pdf-converter.html' title='Free PDF converter'/><author><name>Sarah</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11463871616566522163</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>4</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617686.post-2152048994357713099</id><published>2007-10-24T10:44:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2007-10-24T10:59:16.725-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Is your business accessible?</title><content type='html'>Is your business &lt;span class=&quot;blsp-spelling-corrected&quot; id=&quot;SPELLING_ERROR_0&quot;&gt;accessible&lt;/span&gt;?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Do your customers and potential customers know where to find your business?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If people can&#39;t find you, they can&#39;t purchase from you, so it&#39;s very important to make sure that people can find your website and your products when they search for them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Unfortunately even if people go to a search engine and type in your business name, they might not be able to find your web site, so you need to make sure that you have several links to your business showing up in the search engines.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;After all, you don&#39;t want people looking for you to go to your competitors site.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You can make sure that people find your business by having a blog for your business, or by posting a profile on another website such as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.squidoo.com/&quot;&gt;Squidoo&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That way, even if your web site doesn&#39;t show up, something that you wrote will - and that will point them to your web site.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You also need to consider how easy it will be for people to find your website when you are chosing your company name, and your domain name.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I know of a business that recently changed changed their name and domain because their customers were typing in the wrong web address and were going to another site.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I also know of occassions where I was trying to visit one company, and repeatedly visited another company on the web.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;These companies were selling two different things - but I was interested in both of their products, and I could have easily spent the money that I&#39;d alloted for the first company at the second company.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Do you really want that to happen to you?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sarah&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/tagname&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/feeds/2152048994357713099/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/15617686/2152048994357713099' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/2152048994357713099'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/2152048994357713099'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/2007/10/is-your-business-accessible.html' title='Is your business accessible?'/><author><name>Sarah</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11463871616566522163</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617686.post-486528215212263536</id><published>2007-10-19T13:01:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2007-10-19T13:11:10.310-05:00</updated><title type='text'>New Series - Are you?</title><content type='html'>Hi, I hope you and your business are doing well.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&#39;ve got a new serious of &quot;Are you?&quot; articles that will be coming out on a weekly basis.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here are a few questions to get you started thinking about how your business is doing.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;Are you professional?&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Are you user friendly?&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Are you accessible?&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Are you legal?&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;p&gt;Think about your business for a few minutes.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Do you present a professsional image to the world?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Is it easy for your users to find what they are looking for, and order the products, or ask questions if they want to know more about something?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Are your web site and products accessible - can people easily find them?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is your business in compliance with federal and local laws, especially when they relate to mailing lists?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I hope you can confidently say &quot;Yes!&quot; to all of these questions!&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sarah&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/tagname&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/feeds/486528215212263536/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/15617686/486528215212263536' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/486528215212263536'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/486528215212263536'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/2007/10/new-series-are-you.html' title='New Series - Are you?'/><author><name>Sarah</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11463871616566522163</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617686.post-2752753037270217319</id><published>2007-09-18T08:58:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2007-09-18T09:12:17.043-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="grow up"/><title type='text'>Grow Up!</title><content type='html'>In business, you have to be the grown up.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I think it&#39;s a shame that I have to tell you this, but recent events compel me me to.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Grow up!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you&#39;re not grown up, at least pretend you are.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I recently have seen a situation where a manager for a company and a director for another part of the company are basically having a verbal war on the company message group.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;How is that productive?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;How do those messages help the rest of the people on that group?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It isn&#39;t, and they don&#39;t.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&#39;ve been working as an independent contractor with this company for over a year, and I have had no problems with them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;However, the manager involved just happens to be my manager, so I am concerned about my position in the company, and I&#39;m more that a little concerned about the bad behavior of upper management.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I was also hoping to try some new things with the company, and now I&#39;m afraid too.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I don&#39;t want to be associated with a company that will allow it&#39;s top people to treat other people like that.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are some situations where it&#39;s good to discuss business problems out in the open, but it is never &lt;span class=&quot;blsp-spelling-error&quot; id=&quot;SPELLING_ERROR_0&quot;&gt;ok&lt;/span&gt; to &lt;span class=&quot;blsp-spelling-corrected&quot; id=&quot;SPELLING_ERROR_1&quot;&gt;publicly&lt;/span&gt; humiliate and degrade someone.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Even if the person who is being attacked doesn&#39;t mind, there are always other people looking, and do you really think that they would want to do business with a company that acts like a spoiled two year old throwing a tantrum in public?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I know I wouldn&#39;t.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sarah&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/tagname&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/feeds/2752753037270217319/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/15617686/2752753037270217319' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/2752753037270217319'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/2752753037270217319'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/2007/09/grow-up.html' title='Grow Up!'/><author><name>Sarah</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11463871616566522163</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617686.post-9042906407275007074</id><published>2007-09-17T10:29:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2007-09-17T10:35:03.381-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="blogrush"/><title type='text'>Drive Traffic To Your Site With Blogrush</title><content type='html'>I&#39;ve just signed up with &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.blogrush.com/r18696649&quot;&gt;Blogrush&lt;/a&gt; - you can see it at the bottom of the sidebar.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Pretty much, every time the Blogrush Widget loads on your page, you get a credit, and one of your posts is shown in another Blogrush Widget.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You also get credit for referrals as well.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;They don&#39;t have quiet as many categories as I&#39;d like - I&#39;d love to tell the Beauty Blog Network about it, but they don&#39;t have a beauty category yet, and I can&#39;t figure out how to email them to ask them to add one. I&#39;ve got it up on my other blogs as well, and I&#39;ll see how it works out.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sarah&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/tagname&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/feeds/9042906407275007074/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/15617686/9042906407275007074' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/9042906407275007074'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/9042906407275007074'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/2007/09/drive-traffic-to-your-site-with.html' title='Drive Traffic To Your Site With Blogrush'/><author><name>Sarah</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11463871616566522163</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617686.post-4884435234926703623</id><published>2007-09-12T08:34:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2007-09-12T08:53:46.011-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="changing list subject"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="lists"/><title type='text'>Don&#39;t change your list midstream</title><content type='html'>People signed up for your list because they were interested in what you are promoting.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you suddenly decide that instead of internet marketing you want to focus on a direct sales program get a new list for the direct sales program, or at least announce what you are doing on the list so the uninterested people can unsubscribe.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&#39;ve been on two mailing lists where the focus changed after several years.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When I signed up for one list I was interested in internet marketing, and all of a sudden I started getting 2-3 messages a week about telling me why I should use the products from the list owners new direct sales adventure.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That obviously wasn&#39;t what I was interested in, and it made me lose respect for the list owner.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It also made me think that if she was so desperate to make a few dollars that she would take her list that she worked so hard to grow for several years and turn it into a permanent direct sales list, then she wasn&#39;t doing very well at what she was teaching, so I probably shouldn&#39;t listen to her anymore.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;People sign up for your list to listen to what you have to say about a particular subject.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you change the focus of that subject they may be interested, or they may not be, but it will definitely change their view of you, and that won&#39;t be good.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sarah&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/tagname&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/feeds/4884435234926703623/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/15617686/4884435234926703623' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/4884435234926703623'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/4884435234926703623'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/2007/09/dont-change-your-list-midstream.html' title='Don&#39;t change your list midstream'/><author><name>Sarah</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11463871616566522163</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617686.post-4845116994268974024</id><published>2007-09-07T15:06:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2007-09-07T15:11:35.142-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="check your outgoing links"/><title type='text'>Check your outgoing links!</title><content type='html'>Check your outgoing links.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I know it&#39;s a pain, but it has to be done.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;People routinely don&#39;t renew domain names, and you never know what will go up after they give up their site...but your still linking to it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I just got a trojan horse when I checked the link to the website of the person who designed Etailers Mall.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Can you imagine what would happen if that happened to your customers?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sarah&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/tagname&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/feeds/4845116994268974024/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/15617686/4845116994268974024' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/4845116994268974024'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/4845116994268974024'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/2007/09/check-your-outgoing-links.html' title='Check your outgoing links!'/><author><name>Sarah</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11463871616566522163</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617686.post-6640572152541405660</id><published>2007-09-04T09:09:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2007-09-04T09:22:21.710-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="thank you"/><title type='text'>Thank you and other niceties</title><content type='html'>What two words will leave a lot of good feelings in the hearts of your customers, friends, family...pretty much anyone on earth as long as you say them sincerely?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Why is it so hard for people to say &lt;strong&gt;thank you&lt;/strong&gt;?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you&#39;re in business, your job is to make your customers happy.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You don&#39;t have to make your customers happy at the expense of your happiness, but you need to keep basic manners in mind when you are dealing with customers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As a blogger and product reviewer, I deal with a lot of different etailers, and I have to say that the small business owners that include a personal note with their shipment to me make me feel all warm in fuzzy inside.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It doesn&#39;t even matter if it&#39;s a preprinted card with a handwritten signature, saying thank you, the fact that someone I don&#39;t know is &lt;strong&gt;doing something they don&#39;t have to&lt;/strong&gt; to say how important I am to them means something to me.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If someone does something special for you, say thank you - even if you don&#39;t think it&#39;s all that special.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If someone mentions you on their blog, don&#39;t just say thank you in email, say thank you on their blog too.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That gets more exposure for you, and it makes people think that you are nice.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;People are more likely to buy from you if they like you, and they&#39;re more likely to like you if they think you are nice.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Be nice.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Say thank you.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sarah&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/tagname&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/feeds/6640572152541405660/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/15617686/6640572152541405660' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/6640572152541405660'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/6640572152541405660'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/2007/09/thank-you-and-other-niceties.html' title='Thank you and other niceties'/><author><name>Sarah</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11463871616566522163</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617686.post-4630708844437784305</id><published>2007-08-20T11:52:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2007-08-20T11:57:46.919-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="bad neighborhoods"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="business advice"/><title type='text'>Keep Away From Bad Neighborhoods</title><content type='html'>Did your parents ever tell you to keep away from bad neighborhoods when you were little?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&#39;m sure they did - after all, if you are in a bad neighborhood chances are that you are a lot more likely to get hurt than you would be if you were in good neighborhood.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The same thing applies online!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;If you promote products that aren&#39;t trustworthy, then you lose your creditbility.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sure you may make a few dollars...but that&#39;s it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The people who bought bad items based on your recommendation will probably never trust you again, so even though you made money from them once, that&#39;s the end of the line.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you promote products that you honestly believe in, and you make sure that you promote useful, credible products, that deliver what they promise, then the your subscribers will continue to have faith in you, and will listen to your recommendations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You also don&#39;t have to worry about the them telling other people not to listen to you because you promote horrible products.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You also need to keep yourself out of bad neighborhoods, by making sure that you deliver what you promise on your website.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&#39;m currently in a situation where I joined a membership community, admittedly, for a lark, because while I thought the community was a good idea, I knew that I don&#39;t meet the requirements for the community.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I filled out the application anyways, to see what would happen, and I was approved, and paid my money.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It&#39;s been months now, and we haven&#39;t begun to get half the things that were promoted on the sign up letter.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What&#39;s worse, is that the things we are getting are being phased out, because the owner of the group thinks it will be easier to do things differently.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;It is definitely a smart decision to take stock of your business, and even your life, and weed out things that aren&#39;t working for you&lt;/em&gt;, but if you have dozens of members who have signed up for a year long group, you can&#39;t just take their money and run, and phase out the group because it isn&#39;t convenient for you.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you don&#39;t live up to your promises then you are going to wind up in a &quot;bad neighborhood&quot; and people are going to steer clear of you, and avoid doing business with you.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And it&#39;s not just going to be you that is hurting.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;People who are partnering with you will also be affected by this.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;After all, they are actively promoting your product, and they see first hand whether you overdeliver, or under deliver on your promises.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you are interested in making money for the long haul, then when you make a commitment to your customers, newsletter subscribers, blog readers, forum members, or even to other members of communities that you are a part of, you need to be able to deliver on your promises for the length of your promise.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If that&#39;s just for the length of time it takes someone to read a blog entry, or download an ebook thats fine, but if you promise them forum access to you and your trusted advisors, plus monthly exclusive content for a year, then you need to be able to deliver that.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When you start out that first month without the promised content, then you know it&#39;s going to be harder for you to get caught up, and you know your customers have already lost some of the faith they had in you - even if they aren&#39;t willing to admit it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Life does happen, and sometimes that will get in the way.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Some people will be understanding if something happens and you can&#39;t keep ongoing commitments for a certain amount of time, if you let them know what&#39;s going on.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You don&#39;t have to go into detail if you&#39;re not comfortable with that, usually a simple &quot;I&#39;m having some personal problems right now, and I&#39;m going to be unable to ...., but things should be back on track next month,&quot; should suffice.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you have someone who can answer questions or perform some of the duties while you are unavailable that&#39;s even better, just point everyone towards them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Things change, and you may decide that you can&#39;t continue to commit to long term promised you&#39;ve made.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Then you simply must explain what&#39;s going on, try to do something that will help your customers, and above all &lt;strong&gt;respond to them when they ask you questions or express their concerns.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sarah</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/feeds/4630708844437784305/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/15617686/4630708844437784305' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/4630708844437784305'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/4630708844437784305'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/2007/08/keep-away-from-bad-neighborhoods.html' title='Keep Away From Bad Neighborhoods'/><author><name>Sarah</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11463871616566522163</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617686.post-5719482822579183615</id><published>2007-08-09T09:48:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2007-08-09T09:54:19.315-05:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="big sale"/><title type='text'>Are you ready for your big sale?</title><content type='html'>It&#39;s your big sale day.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You&#39;ve announced it to your mailing list, changed the code on the website so the discounts would be applied, and you&#39;re off to a great start?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Or are you?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Have you checked to make sure the promised discounts have been applied, or will be applied at the right time?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Are you sure that everyone who goes to your site will be able to tell what they need to do to get the discount?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If despite all of your planning a customer has a problem, will they be able to figure out how to contact you on the day of the sale?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Even if you are sure, you better double check.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You definitely don&#39;t want what happened to me to happen to your customers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It&#39;s the big sale day.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I got the news in a newsletter several days ago, and I was so excited that I even wrote it on my calendar!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I wake up, and before I even start working I know that I must visit your site to make my purchases.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I find the newsletter that announced the sale, make sure today is the day, then I visit your site.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I read the note on the homepage that says everything is 25% off...all I have to do is add it to my cart and the discount will be applied.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I start adding stuff to my shopping cart, and, then look at the contents of the cart.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Hmm, one thing that I added isn&#39;t in the cart, and the other stuff is regular price!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That&#39;s odd.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I go and add the stuff that&#39;s missing - fortunately it&#39;s easy to find. If it wasn&#39;t, I&#39;m definitely not going to go look through your whole website again to find it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&#39;m a busy woman.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Look at cart again.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Nope, still no discount.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Reread instructions, then check for an email to see if anything has changed, or if there&#39;s a code for the sale that I don&#39;t know about.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Oh well, it&#39;s only 8 am, maybe the site owner is still asleep and doesn&#39;t realize that the discount isn&#39;t going through.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I decide to wait a while and see if maybe the discount will show up later.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I get bored of waiting, or I need to close the computer down, or (insert excuse here) so I check my cart.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Nope, still no discount.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Refresh cart, look around some more.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Still no discount.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Reread instructions again.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There&#39;s no code, and everything is supposed to be discounted when it goes in the cart.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I decide to see how far I can get with the check out process, without entering my personal data.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Hmm, still no discount, and if I do any more, I&#39;ll end up purchasing the items at full price, which I&#39;m not going to do.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;After all, everything is supposed to be on sale, I&#39;m not paying full price.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So I close up the computer, and you lose a customer.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sarah&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/tagname&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/feeds/5719482822579183615/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/15617686/5719482822579183615' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/5719482822579183615'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/5719482822579183615'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/2007/08/are-you-ready-for-your-big-sale.html' title='Are you ready for your big sale?'/><author><name>Sarah</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11463871616566522163</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617686.post-955123502392983493</id><published>2007-06-04T18:53:00.001-05:00</published><updated>2007-06-04T18:53:48.301-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Comments4aCure June 4-6</title><content type='html'>Just a reminder, it’s time for Comments4aCure.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Leave a comment at  &lt;a title=&quot;Mystical Beauty&#39;s Musings&quot; href=&quot;http://blog.mystical-beauty.com/&quot;&gt;Mystical Beauty’s Musings&lt;/a&gt; from now until Wednesday, and I’ll donate $1 to the Susan G Komen Foundation, up to $50.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For other participating blogs, or for more information visit &lt;a title=&quot;The Beauty Blog Network&#39;s Comments4aCure&quot; href=&quot;http://www.beautyblognetwork.com/comments4acure/&quot;&gt;The Beauty Blog Network’s Comments4aCure&lt;/a&gt; page.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sarah</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/feeds/955123502392983493/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/15617686/955123502392983493' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/955123502392983493'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/955123502392983493'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/2007/06/comments4acure-june-4-6.html' title='Comments4aCure June 4-6'/><author><name>Sarah</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11463871616566522163</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617686.post-3772285563942563768</id><published>2007-02-09T13:33:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2007-02-09T13:41:42.101-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Stand Up to Your Commitments</title><content type='html'>Stand up to your commitments!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As a business owner - or in life in general, things can get hectic, and crazy.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sometimes you might feel like  a chicken running around with your head cut off, and even though you are human, as a business owner you have a responsibility to your clients.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you wish to maintain good relationships with your clients, you have to be organized, and you have to keep your commitments.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you make a mistake you should definitely own up to it as soon as possible!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Although there may be repercussions even if you admit a mistake and try to fix the problem immediately, chances are that they will be less than they would be if you didn&#39;t admit the mistake - or worse denied that a mistake had happened in the first place.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I recently scheduled a phone consultation with someone who didn&#39;t call me at the time we scheduled for our appointment.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Trust me, I thought that I must have misunderstood, I reread the email several times, and I&#39;d even confirmed with the date and time with the consultant since there were different time zones involved.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;After waiting for 3 hours after the scheduled time (it was supposed to be a skype conference) I decided to look to make sure that the meeting was supposed to be at 11AM, and not 11 PM.  Sure enough, she had written &quot;tomorrow at 9 AM MST&quot; in the confirmation email.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Whew, I wasn&#39;t going crazy.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It&#39;s been a day since our scheduled appointment, and I still haven&#39;t heard from her.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If this situation happened to you, would it affect your view of the consultant?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Would you want to give her your hard earned money to let her teach you if she wasn&#39;t able to keep your first appointment, or would you search for another consultant who had better time management skills?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I know that I&#39;m pretty busy, and I don&#39;t have time to make appointments with people that aren&#39;t going to keep them.  Now there may be some circumstances that would cause me to reconsider, and continue to do business with a person who had stood me up, if things were explained in a timely manner, but I can&#39;t think of too many.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now this is situation where I probably never would have named names, unless someone specifically asked me about my experiences with this consultant, but It just so happened that I had guests call and ask if they could come over shortly before our scheduled appointment time.  I told them that they could come over, but I had an appointment for a consultation that was to be held over the computer, so they could come, but they had to be quiet so the consultant wouldn&#39;t hear their conversation.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Of course when my guests arrived, the first thing they did was ask about the consultation, and if the person had called yet, and how it went - of course I had to tell them what was going on - and that was the first time my guests had ever heard of this person. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Chances are they won&#39;t be using the consultant&#39;s services because she didn&#39;t call me at our scheduled appointment time.  I wasn&#39;t trying to give her negative publicity, but based on the circumstances, I did just the same.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On another occasion I won a door price at an online conference.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I was told to email the people who were running the conference with my contact information, and they would pass it along to the person who donated the prize.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I never heard back from them, or from the person who donated the prize that I won.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;How would that make you feel about the company, or the person who donated the prize?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I have to tell you I&#39;ll definitely look at the people who were involved in that conference with a more skeptical eye than I would have before I attended the conference.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Unfortunately, the way your business is viewed is based on the perceptions of other people, and you can&#39;t control all of those perceptions. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You can only do your best to influence those perceptions so that they will be positive ones.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When you do something, think about how it will affect your business, and other people&#39;s perceptions of your business.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Do your best to provide the best quality products and/or services possible, and keep your promises, and hopefully everyone that comes in contact you will have a positive perception of you and your business!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Good luck!Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sarah&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/business&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/commitments&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/mistakes&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/perceptions&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/feeds/3772285563942563768/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/15617686/3772285563942563768' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/3772285563942563768'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/3772285563942563768'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/2007/02/stand-up-to-your-commitments.html' title='Stand Up to Your Commitments'/><author><name>Sarah</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11463871616566522163</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617686.post-116949007123593072</id><published>2007-01-22T13:19:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2007-01-22T13:21:12.026-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Alexandria Brown&#39;s Blowing Up Her Castle!</title><content type='html'>The Queen&#39;s blowing up her castle!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What do I mean?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Alexandria Brown, a.k.a. &quot;The Ezine Queen&quot; is blowing up her &lt;br /&gt;website on January 31 in order to make room for a better, more &lt;br /&gt;streamlined network of sites.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You see, the site&#39;s grown out of control, so she figured out it &lt;br /&gt;would be less work to simply demolish the entire thing and start &lt;br /&gt;over. (Even though last year her business brought in over &lt;br /&gt;$1 million alone - so it obviously wasn&#39;t doing too badly! ; ))&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What a great example of &quot;creative destruction&quot; in order to grow.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Anyway, in the process, she&#39;ll be DISCONTINUING 8 products that &lt;br /&gt;will NOT be sold on the new website. (They&#39;re fine programs, but &lt;br /&gt;she said she just wants to focus on bigger fish.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Topics include emails that sell, websites that sell, hosting &lt;br /&gt;teleseminars, marketing plans, hiring an assistant, and more.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So Ali&#39;s having a special CLOSE-OUT EVENT right now, which is &lt;br /&gt;only good through Wednesday, January 31, 2007.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That means you only have a few days left to grab these products &lt;br /&gt;at 50% OFF -- before they disappear forever!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I already picked up a few products myself, and I highly advise &lt;br /&gt;you do so as well. You can see the quick list &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mcssl.com/app/aftrack.asp?afid=415409&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sarah&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;PS -- Please forward this email to any other colleagues you think &lt;br /&gt;would be interested in these business-building topics! I&#39;d hate &lt;br /&gt;to see anyone miss out on this ONE-TIME event.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/feeds/116949007123593072/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/15617686/116949007123593072' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/116949007123593072'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/116949007123593072'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/2007/01/alexandria-browns-blowing-up-her.html' title='Alexandria Brown&#39;s Blowing Up Her Castle!'/><author><name>Sarah</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11463871616566522163</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617686.post-116604957381006367</id><published>2006-12-13T17:34:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2007-01-17T00:53:56.043-05:00</updated><title type='text'>AIM Phoneline</title><content type='html'>If you&#39;re like me, and you&#39;re a little worried about giving your cell phone or home number out to strangers, try AIM phoneline.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I haven&#39;t had a ton of calls on the line, but those that I have had have been clear, although it can take a while to answer the call.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Callers are able to leave voice messages, and you do get missed call notices, and a list of the callers numbers, which is helpful if they don&#39;t leave a message.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The call seems to be better quality then &lt;a href=&quot;http://skype.com/&quot;&gt;Skype&lt;/a&gt;, which I also use to make outgoing calls, and which I use to listen to conference calls.  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It&#39;s so much better to have it coming through the computer than it is to be tied to a phone for an hour or so.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Of course, you do need to know how to mute the phone if you&#39;re listening to a conference call.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Right now I&#39;m using the free versions of both sites, while I try to decide if we&#39;re going to get a house phone.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Even if we do get a home phone I am plannning on giving the aim number out to all the advertising people that I think will harass me with annoying phone calls.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you&#39;ve had success with either of these plans, I&#39;d love to hear about it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sarah&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/aim+phoneline&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/skype&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/phone&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/phone+call&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/feeds/116604957381006367/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/15617686/116604957381006367' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/116604957381006367'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/116604957381006367'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/2006/12/aim-phoneline.html' title='AIM Phoneline'/><author><name>Sarah</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11463871616566522163</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617686.post-116300633248700065</id><published>2006-11-08T12:09:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2006-11-08T12:18:53.033-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Got 10 minutes to spare for SEO?</title><content type='html'>Alice Seba has a 10 minute SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tutorial!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Run check it out, and implement the strategies she&#39;s got, and you should find more traffic...which should lead to more money.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sarah&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/seo&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/quick+seo&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/feeds/116300633248700065/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/15617686/116300633248700065' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/116300633248700065'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/116300633248700065'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/2006/11/got-10-minutes-to-spare-for-seo.html' title='Got 10 minutes to spare for SEO?'/><author><name>Sarah</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11463871616566522163</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617686.post-116282855870758426</id><published>2006-11-06T10:50:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2006-11-06T10:55:59.433-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Business and Learning Expo going on now</title><content type='html'>The business and learning expo is going on now.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There will be vendors, and guest speakers and prizes!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Go check them out now!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Feature Speakers Include :&lt;br /&gt;Kelly McCausey of Wahm Talk Radio &lt;br /&gt;Alice Seba of Internet Based Moms &lt;br /&gt;Nicole Dean of Easy Article Marketing&lt;br /&gt;Kristie Tamsevicius of WebMomz.com&lt;br /&gt;Kai Wilson of The Blogging Coach&lt;br /&gt;Kim Emerson of Secret of Prosperity&lt;br /&gt;Tonya Ramsey of Life By Design&lt;br /&gt;JoJo Tabares of The Art of Eloquence&lt;br /&gt;Shannon Cherry of Cherry Communications&lt;br /&gt;Lisa Braithwaite of Coach Lisa B &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sarah&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/tagname&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/feeds/116282855870758426/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/15617686/116282855870758426' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/116282855870758426'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/116282855870758426'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/2006/11/business-and-learning-expo-going-on.html' title='Business and Learning Expo going on now'/><author><name>Sarah</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11463871616566522163</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617686.post-116225228516589656</id><published>2006-10-30T18:46:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2006-10-30T19:04:06.860-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Are you a hot mama?  Do you want to be one?</title><content type='html'>I know that this isn&#39;t typically what you would expect from a business resource site, however, in order to have a successful business, it is important to make time to take care of yourself, and to take care of your family.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you&#39;re a hot mama (even if you don&#39;t have kids yet - I don&#39;t, and I&#39;m still reading the article) or if you want to be one, visit the site below to get your Hot Mama Makeover!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.quicksales.com/app/aftrack.asp?afid=511807&amp;u=www.hotmamamakeover.com&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;          &lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; src=&quot;http://www.hotmamamakeover.com/46860.JPG&quot; width=&quot;468&quot; height=&quot;60&quot; ALT=&quot;Hot Mama Makeover&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/tagname&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;PS The guide is geared towards couples, but it does have information that is useful even if you aren&#39;t married or in a relationship.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/hot+mama&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/hot+mama+makeover&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/makeovers&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/relationships&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/mom&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/feeds/116225228516589656/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/15617686/116225228516589656' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/116225228516589656'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/116225228516589656'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/2006/10/are-you-hot-mama-do-you-want-to-be-one.html' title='Are you a hot mama?  Do you want to be one?'/><author><name>Sarah</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11463871616566522163</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15617686.post-115991372376597424</id><published>2006-10-03T17:13:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2006-10-03T17:22:14.420-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Blueprint to Online Success</title><content type='html'>If you&#39;re like me you are always trying to find new ways to build your business.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here&#39;s my newest find, I hope you enjoy.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;table width=&quot;525&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; cellpadding=&quot;8&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; style=&quot;BORDER-RIGHT: #cc0000 3px dashed; BORDER-TOP: #cc0000 3px dashed; BORDER-LEFT: #cc0000 3px dashed; BORDER-BOTTOM: #cc0000 3px dashed;&quot; bgcolor=&quot;#FFFFFF&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;font face=&quot;Tahoma&quot; color=&quot;#CC0000&quot; size=&quot;4&quot;&gt;Fast Action Bonus #1:&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td bgcolor=&quot;#FFFFFF&quot; width=&quot;214&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.allyourprofits.com/images/boxandecoverweb25.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;td bgcolor=&quot;#FFFFFF&quot; width=&quot;311&quot; align=&quot;left&quot; valign=&quot;top&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Get your hands on &lt;b&gt;Shane Dolby&#39;s &quot;Your BluePrint to Online Success&quot;&lt;/b&gt; absolutely free!! &lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;This awesome package includes 12 step-by-step modules where Shane walks you through everything you need to know to setup your very own money making websites.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;NOTE: Shane has also included several bonuses, worth hundreds of dollars by themselves.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;font color=&quot;#CC0000&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Value: $97.00&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.allyourprofits.com/?thankyou=465&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;+1&quot; style=&quot;background-color:#FFFF00&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Click Here To Claim Your FREE Course!&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/free&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/free+business+resource&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/Shane+Dolby&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/blueprint+to+online+success&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/free+blueprint=+to+online+success&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sarah&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://technorati.com/tag/tagname&quot; rel=&quot;tag&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/feeds/115991372376597424/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment/fullpage/post/15617686/115991372376597424' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/115991372376597424'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/15617686/posts/default/115991372376597424'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://businesshelp.blogspot.com/2006/10/blueprint-to-online-success.html' title='Blueprint to Online Success'/><author><name>Sarah</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/11463871616566522163</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry></feed>