That is a hardship for anyone – but for me, someone who makes their living with their blog, it is a total devastation! All of those documents! All of the stuff I wrote. The ideas I had written down for future posts, ebooks, etc. Everything was gone.

But I did not freak out, cry, or throw a fit. And no, it is not because I took a lot of xanax.

I was calm and comfortable throughout this process because of Mozy!

Mozy is an online back-up service for your computer. You simply install it on your computer and it works ‘behind the scenes’ so to speak. It backs up all of your files, whether it’s a picture, a song, or something you wrote.

You don’t have to remember to back up your work. Mozy will do it for you. Anytime you create a new file or change an existing one, a back up is made.

If something horrible happens – as in your computer crashes, gets dropped out of a 10 story window, gets run over by a truck, etc, you can log in to Mozy online and request to restore your files. Mozy will create your back-up and post the download links in your account. You then download them onto a new computer.

In fact, you can request a restore at any time. Your current computer doesn’t have to die. You can simply buy a new one and download your files to it.

In my opinion, Mozy is a fantastic product. It saved me from worry, stress, and panic. Retrieving my files was super easy!

This wasn’t the first time I have had a computer crash on me. It happened in January of 2009 and I was manually backing up my files onto an external hard drive. While that does work – it is something you have to remember to do. And when my computer crashed, I hadn’t backed up in about 3 weeks, so I lost those 3 weeks of work.

But this time was much different! Mozy totally saved the day.

The best part? You can start using Mozy for free! They give you 2gb of storage space for free! If you need more space than that, their service starts out at just $4.95 per month.

Let me tell you – I pay the $4.95 per month fee, and knowing that my files are safe is totally worth it!

Click Here To Try Mozy Out For Yourself!

This one product contains several tools – a shopping cart, autoresponder, affiliate management system, and an ad tracker. Here is my WahmCart review- with some info on how each one can help your business:

Shopping Cart: Obviously, you need one of these to effectively sell your products and services. It’s true that you can create some ‘buy now’ buttons in Paypal and just stick those on your site, but that isn’t necessarily the best option.

When you use WahmCart, the shopping cart will literally do all the work for you. You enter in the product description, price, etc into WahmCart and then you’ll get a bit of HTML code that you can link the product to.

When someone purchases the product, WahmCart will take care of processing the payment, sending the receipt, and if it’s a digital product, WahmCart will even send them to the download page!

You will receive an email when the sale is made. If it’s a digital product, you won’t have to do anything, since WahmCart will take care of the delivery. If it’s a physical product, you will have to send it to your customer, of course.

All in all, setting up products couldn’t be easier! You basically just fill out the form. And there are step by step instructions in case you need them. You can control how the product page will look by uploading your own logo and changing the background color to match your site.

Autoresponder: Keeping in contact with your readers and customers is very important, and the WahmCart Autoresponder makes it very easy! You can create an unlimited amount of lists. You can have a general newsletter for your site, plus smaller lists for specific topics of interest.

For example, let’s say that you are a virtual assistant. You can have a general newsletter plus you can have various lists that give out tips on specific subjects, such as copywriting or press releases. If you ever have a special on one of those services, you can email that list specifically, since you know they are interested in that subject.

Another example would be to have a general newsletter and then a separate mailing list for people who are interested in advertising on your blog or website. You can send that list an email whenever you have open ad spots. That way, you can fill your ad spots quickly (and keep advertising dollars coming in).

Since the tools in WahmCart are fully integrated, you can also add and remove customers from specific lists. For example, let’s say that you created an ebook. You can create a list of tips to help you promote the ebook. When people sign up for the tips, they are placed in that mailing list. When you set up the ebook as a product, you can tell WahmCart to remove them from the tips list once they purchase the ebook.

That way, you can periodically send the people on the tips list emails to promote your ebook, and you won’t have to worry about  the customers who already bought the ebook receiving an email about an item they already own. As soon as they purchase the ebook, they’ll be removed from that list!

Affiliate Management System: Having affiliates promoting and selling your products and services for you is like having your own sales force! It is awesome! An affiliate will market your product for you. They will advertise the product on their blog or website, talk about it in their newsletter, etc. When they make a sale, you reward them by sending them a commission. Keeping track of this by yourself would pretty much be impossible.

But thanks to WahmCart, they will do the work for you. They will give each affiliate a unique URL to use for your product that will redirect to your main product page. WahmCart will keep track of each time the unique URL is clicked, as well as how many times a purchase is made from each affiliate’s links.

You can easily upload graphic ads for your affiliates to use on their blogs, as well as crate text links for them to use. You will just need to log in to the affiliate area once a month to pay your affiliates. Super simple!

Ad Tracker: Keeping tabs on your ads will definitely help your bottom line. This ad tracker will tell you how many clicks, how many orders came in, as well as your conversion rate from each ad. You can use this even if you are not paying for outside advertising. You can use it just to keep track of your own promotions through Twitter, Facebook, your blog, and your newsletter. You will see exactly where you get the most sales. This will help you decide where to spend your time promoting your items and help you see what method is a huge time waster.

As you can tell from this WahmCart Review, I think this is a great product. And it has a GREAT price. When you subscribe, you will pay under $40 per month for all of these tools. Similar products are priced at more than $100 per month!

I definitely encourage you to try WahmCart today!

SPECIAL OFFER! Click Here to receive a two week trial to WahmCart for only $1

From your WordPress dashboard, you simply click on Appearance, then Themes, and then Install Themes at the top.You can then browse themes or upload a theme’s file and WordPress will do all the installation work for you! (In the olden days of WordPress, you would have had to do the work by yourself – with the help of an FTP program…)

But anyway – back to the point! The new theme that I am using is the WP-Glide theme from Solostream. This theme is very versatile – and super easy to use. I would recommend this theme to both experienced users and those new to WordPress.

Here are some of the reasons why:

Lots of Layout Options: You can choose to have your posts arranged in a variety of ways from the box style that I am using to a more standard blog layout or even have the posts arranged by category instead of by date.

If you look at the demo site, you will see the option of having the home page feature a few boxes of basic information displayed, with a rotating gallery preview of posts, versus the way I have it set up on my site with no gallery and simply my latest posts.

There are also lots of built-in ad spots! You can choose to display them or hide them. If you display them, you can put your own ads in them or you can sell these ad spots to others and earn some extra income from your blog.

Like I said, there are lots of possibilities with this one!

No Coding Needed: You do not need to know how to change the theme’s code to change the theme’s appearance. Whether it’s the background color, the font, or layout, all of the options are found in the theme’s setting menu. To get to this menu, just click on Appearance and you’ll see it on the left hand side. Click on the link and you’ll be able to control everything about your theme’s appearance! (great for beginners!)

Lots Of Help Available: Solostream provides premium themes . This means you have to pay for them. This also means that you will have access to a support forum where you can ask questions and receive answers from other people using the same theme, as well as the theme’s developers. You will also have access to written tutorials and videos to help you with the set up and customization process.

Lots of Little Extras: There are lots of little extras – like suggested plugins to make using this theme super easy. For example, there is a plugin that automatically resizes  the photo you use in your post to display a smaller thumbnail version on the home page. You can also choose to not display a thumbnail at all. The related post plugin helps keep your content in front of your readers, rather than having it lost in the archives. Sure – you can find all of these plugins yourself and use them on any blog, but isn’t it nice to have a list of recommend plugins that will help make your theme run better?

All in all, this is a great theme! Solostream has many themes to choose from – I’m sure there is one that will fit your needs and taste. And they will all be as easy to use!

These sessions are done virtually, so you don’t need to worry about traveling anywhere. All you need to do is watch from your computer as Kelly shows you the following:

• How to navigate the WordPress dashboard
• What the difference between pages and posts are – and when to use each one
• How to create great looking blog posts
• The difference between categories and tags and the proper ways to use them
• What Plugins are, and how they help you customize the functionality your blog
• How to use widgets to customize the appearance of your blog
• How to change your blog’s theme
• How to back up your work, so you never have to worry about losing your work

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg! You will also be able to ask Kelly all of your WordPress questions – and get immediate answers!

Oh, and by the way, Kelly knows her stuff. She is host of WAHM Talk Radio, owns lots of websites and blogs, and also installs & customizes blogs professionally.

The upcoming sessions are Thursday, May 20th and  Monday, May 24th from  8:00 to 10:00pm Eastern. And it is only $29 to for this awesome class!

Learn more about WordPress Orientation and how to sign up by clicking here!

I understood her reaction. Many of you are probably thinking the same thing… But hear me out. Read this post! Let me explain why you should be writing for free, how it will benefit you, and how to start doing it for maximum results!

As you know, the internet is made of content. If the world wide web were a house, each word you write is a brick. The internet needs content in order to provide information, the website and blog owners need content in order to get traffic and the person using the internet needs content in order to have something to look at on their computer screen. Obviously, we are all in desperate need of content. Without it, there would be no internet.

That’s where you come in. You are a content building machine. Your mission is to create a lot of content on numerous sites with each piece of content containing links that point back to your own site. This will create the following benefits:

• You will be viewed as an expert in your field. When someone Googles you, they’ll see that you have written a lot of information and that it’s been published in many places.
• You will get better search engine rankings. Google pays attention to incoming links; and when they see how many links are coming into your site, they’ll push up your site’s search engine rankings. The higher up you are listed on search results, the more free traffic you’ll receive from Google.
• You will be introducing your site to a whole slew of new people who otherwise may have never found your site.

Okay, that may sound great in theory, but let me explain this in a practical way…

Let’s say that you are a virtual assistant and you want to find more clients. If I were you, I would research some popular business blogs and I would ask the owner if I could write a post for them. The post would be somehow related to what I did… Some possible topics would be why a business owner should outsource, what can a VA help a business owner with, why hiring a VA will bring in more profits, etc. I would also end the article / post with a link to my own site with a call to action such as “To hire your own Virtual Assistant, click here….”

In addition to blogs, you can also submit to article directories, such as Ezine Articles and Lady Pens. These are places site owners go to find free articles to put on their blogs. Google indexes these articles, so your article will come up in search engine results even if no one puts it on their site. And remember, the more incoming links you have, the better! This is known as “article marketing,” by the way… (Note: The articles you write for article directories should not be given to a blog owner directly… A blog owner will want original content that is not published elsewhere.)

This works for all kinds of businesses. Let me give you some more examples: If you make and sell plush animals, research some popular Mommy Blogs and write posts on subjects such as why a handmade plush is a gift their child can cherish, how colorful plush animals can stimulate a toddler’s recognition of colors, how to use plush animals to stimulate creativity by making up stories about the animal, etc.

If you yourself are a blogger and want more content to your site, find some complementary blogs on your own blog’s topic. For example, let’s say you are a food blogger who writes about quick and easy cooking. Find blogs targeted to busy women, college students who may not have a lot of space to cook, or men who simply don’t have much cooking experience. Once you locate the blogs you would be most interested in writing for, create some blog posts that would appeal to that blog’s readers, and always incorporate your own blog at the end.

Okay, so now that you understand why you should be writing for free and the basic idea of how to go about it, let’s talk about how to do it in a way that will be most productive!

Use Keywords: You will greatly enhance your search engine results if you use keywords that people are looking for. Let’s go back to the example of the virtual assistant for a minute. Let’s say she specialized in working with real estate agents. By doing some research, she may find that “real estate VA,” “virtual assistants who help real estate agents,” and “real estate agents who use VAs” might be popular search phrases. (I did not research those – those are just examples!) For instructions on how to find and use keywords, read this post.

Target Your Audience: Find blogs that are targeted to who you want to do business with. Using the example of the plush animal maker… That person shoudn’t write articles for a blog devoted to mechanics. It doesn’t make sense! If the VA lives in Denver and wants to work exclusively with local clients, she should write for blogs based on that locale.

Be Choosey! There are a lot of blogs out there. But that doesn’t mean you should write for every one of them! Your goal is to have your article be read and to introduce your business to a new group of people. Focus on blogs that have an established audience. Do a Google search on the blog and the blog owner. How many listings come up? Look at the blog you’re thinnking of writing for… Is the content updated? Do readers leave a lot of comments? Also, you can check the site with Alexa, but keep in mind, not all people agree with Alexa’s data.

For More Information: My friend Nicole Dean went on a “blog world tour” last summer. She guest wrote for 15 blogs (one week at each blog), and the results were AMAZING. Her traffic increased A LOT and she didn’t pay a dime in advertising!

She put together a “how-to” manual of what she did, and that includes how to find blogs to write for, sample emails of how to approach the blog owners, tips for getting topic ideas, planning sheets, and more! You get all of that for only $17. I bought a copy and I was really impressed with how much info Nicole packed in to it, how easy it was to understand and simple to put the knowledge into action.

To purchase Nicole’s  How To Blog World Tour, click here.

Photo courtesy of Provo Craft

If you are a paper crafter, I’m sure you already know what a Cricut is. If not, let me explain. A Cricut is a personal cutting machine. There are different sizes and models available to fit your needs. Provo Craft, the maker of the Cricut, recently sent me the Expression model to try out.

You put in different cartridges, which contain different fonts and shapes. Each image can be cut in different sizes for a completely customizable look.

If you are thinking this is just something to use for making cards or scrapbook pages, you’re wrong. You can also use it for business. You can use the Cricut to create some very creative signs and display items, which can be used to attract customers at craft fairs. It doesn’t matter if your business  has nothing to do with paper crafting, the point is to simply attract customers, and a creative display will do that!

Another important aspect of attracting customers has to do with your packaging. You can use the Cricut to create personalized gift bags, which you can then use to  package smaller items.

That being said, the Cricut does take some getting used to. I had several people try the machine out and they all needed some practice time before they figured everything thing.  While it isn’t difficult to use, it is electronic and there are lots of options. Anytime you play with a new electronic device, it can take a while to get to know all of the features. If you are going to use this to make something for a craft fair, don’t wait until the last minute.  Start in advance and give yourself plenty of time to get all of your cutting done.

Once considered primarily a man’s territory, the Internet has become a popular destination for women.  Today, over half of Internet users are female.  But women are doing more than browsing websites and shopping.  They are making their presence known.

The nature of the Internet has made it possible for women to overcome hurdles they faced in the past.  Women who pursued stereotypically male hobbies such as technology, for example, had few opportunities to be heard before the Internet came about.  But now they can purchase a domain and hosting account and publish their findings and opinions for all the world to see.

Women and Blogging

Blogging is one of the areas online where women have been making great strides.  Some figures indicate that nearly half of all bloggers today are female.  That’s up from less than twenty percent just a few short years ago.

While “mommy bloggers” have taken the Internet by storm, there’s a lot more to women’s blogs than the details of their kids’ soccer games.  Women are blogging about every subject imaginable, from crafting to politics.  There are even entire online communities dedicated to female bloggers, such as BlogHer.com.  Many female bloggers make money by selling advertising and promoting affiliate programs on their blogs, and for some it’s a full-time job.

Women and Internet Marketing and Media

Internet marketing is a lucrative field, and it has become increasingly woman-dominated.  This field is particularly popular among moms, because it provides the opportunity for them to make money while staying home with their children.  And since the Internet is open 24/7, they can automate product delivery to create a great deal of flexibility in their schedules.

Women have proven their ability to master such online marketing tasks as website building, search engine optimization and email marketing.  Some have taken formal courses on these subjects, while others have taken advantage of the wealth of information the Internet has to offer to learn about them.  Combined with a passion for their selected niche and a willingness to adapt to and adopt new technology, these skills can propel women into the limelight and help them build a successful business.

A growing number of women are podcasting and creating online videos.  This may be undertaken as a hobby or as part of online marketing efforts.  Either way, it gives them an unprecedented opportunity to be heard.

Women have become a force to be reckoned with online.  They are sharing their knowledge and opinions and building successful businesses, and they are doing so on their own terms.  The World Wide Web has leveled the playing field for women and made it possible for them to be seen and heard like never before.

Then you wake up one morning to find out someone else has come up with a username two letters or one word off of yours, their site incorporates the same colors, and you’re getting calls from your contacts saying, “Whoa! I thought that was you going off on Twitter the other day, but it was really ________(Insert usurped name here). Uh-oh. What’s a sister to do?

First step: When drafting your own brand, do as much research as possible to insure that YOU’RE not being an accidental copycat. After all, if you’re going to all this trouble, you want to be unique, not a watered down version of an established brand.  If your .url or username is close to a competitor, rethink it.

Second step: OK. So you have a brand. Now, lock it down. Get all the URLs that are close to it, and use them to re-direct traffic to your main site. If possible, get as many Twitter names as possible that are close to it, by using a Gmail address formatted like this: (random word).youremailaddress@gmail.com It should work for up to 10 usernames, which should be all you need. After all, you don’t want to be a squatter, just protect your brand. Make sure to tweet from the others every 6 months, or they will be released.

What about all the other social networking sites? Let’s face it, there’s so many we’ll never use them all: BUT, you sure don’t want someone else out there operating with your user name. I’m a big fan of Knowem, which has a free search function across 300 plus sites. For a premium, they’ll secure your usernames for you, and for a higher one, they’ll build out your profiles. The value of that is determined by the individual user, but I would think hard about it.

If your brand is being used for business purposes instead of pure networking, consider copyrighting and trademarking your brand as early in the process as possible. You want to show a timeline that makes it difficult for usurpers to claim they were actually using it for business first. (That’s right- you can be using a word or phrase, but if someone else can show they were using it FOR BUSINESS earlier, you lose. So don’t wait.)

Use whatever means possible to own your category for search. In some cases, this should be incorporated from the getgo. A classic example is Shoemoney. By having a brand name that he invented, he guaranteed search dominance in that category. Is there a unique phrase that you can coin, trademark as early as possible, and just rock in the search traffic? Probably.

If your brand is hijacked, you can attempt to contact the other user,  explain the situation, and hope they’re amenable to modifying their brand: but don’t bank on it. Chances are they’re as committed to theirs as you are to yours, even if they’re much newer to the scene. If you initiate a civil discussion and explain your reasons without casting blame, who knows? Maybe they’ll see your point. But I wouldn’t put all my eggs in that basket.

And, first and foremost, be an active and vocal community member. If people know you, who you are and what you’re about, a usurper won’t gain traction. And if you need to issue a public call to action, it will be heard. It could be the person didn’t realize they were so close to your brand. But once they found out, they should re-position themselves- after all, copycatting doesn’t benefit anyone in the long run.

Have you dealt with this in your business before, and how did it turn out for you? I’d love to hear your experiences.

Lindsay

(AKA RockandRollMama)

This is an exciting and fantastic opportunity for business owners who know how to make the most of this powerful sales engine.

Here are a few tips to help you create a website that really sells:

#1 – Keep it simple. A great website doesn’t have to include tons of graphics or flash images; in fact, this can work against you. A website with clean lines that’s easy to read and navigate will usually have a better conversion rate. Your visitors aren’t really interested in all the bells and whistles – what really matters most to them are the answers you have to their problems. You can achieve this by offering genuine great information.

Avoid music, flashing images and too many graphics. A few well thought out graphics can enhance the look of your website but anything else may be confusing and look too “busy” to your visitor. If in doubt keep it simple, and let your words shine.

#2 – Content is king. Great content solves problems and offers solutions. When people search on the internet they’re looking for information first and foremost. If your website offers solid information, people are more likely to visit you again and trust your product recommendations too. Quality content will also attract the search engines and you’ll stand a better chance at achieving that all-important top ten ranking for your keyword phrases.

Always concentrate on creating value through quality content, and you’ll build a business that will pay you back for years to come. You really can’t go wrong with providing good content.

#3 – Get their information. Even with a great website it’s likely that your visitors won’t buy from you the first time around. It takes time to build confidence and trust on the internet. This is why it’s important that you have a method of collecting their name and contact information when they first land on your site. You can then communicate with them through emails and start to build a relationship which will bring them back to your website.

To get the highest number of subscribers, place an opt-in box in a prominent position on the home page of your website. But don’t stop there; make sure the opt-in box is prevalent throughout the site so that visitors can access it from any page. Include a catchy headline to draw their attention to the area.

And don’t forget to give your visitors an incentive for signing up. People really don’t give their names and email addresses out as freely as they once did due to the high levels of spam on the internet. Give them an incentive to sign up by offering a free report or other great offer.

Building a great website is not difficult. Always think about your visitors first and help them by providing a website that’s clean and easy to navigate. Then add great content as a solution to their problems, and finally get their information so that you can keep helping them further in the future. Concentrate on these three basics and you’ll design a website that truly is a 24-hour sales engine.

Here are a few reasons why maintaining your website is important:

# Attracting the search engines – Search engines are important to the livelihood of your online business, but they don’t like “dead” websites. Websites which have been left static without updates or fresh content are a no-no in the online world. Another thing search engines don’t like is broken links.

As you build your web pages it’s easy to miss broken links. A good strategy is to double check every link you add to your website. Inevitably you may miss some or some may become broken with time (as web addresses change and so on). Regular maintenance and “check-ups” for your website will help you spot these broken links and keep your customers and search engines happy in the process.

# Updating information may increase your sales – Regularly looking over your website will also help you make changes and adjustments as necessary. For example, you may have started promoting what was a great product two years ago but now that product may be outdated and not so great anymore. By updating your website you may find products and promotions which are a better match for your visitors. This means more money in your pocket and more satisfied visitors.

Look through your old web pages to see if there are any promotions which can be updated or given a little extra “oomph.” Times change and on the internet time moves at a faster speed – keeping up with the times is important and you can do this by simply looking over your pages and tweaking as you go along.

# Keeping track of your stats is important – Another part of your basic web maintenance is keeping on top of all your visitor statistics. It makes sense to regularly go through your website and check how many visitors you have on a monthly basis, where they’re coming from, how they’re finding you, what pages they’re accessing and so on.

A running log of these statistics will help you quickly identify any potential problems such as loss of traffic or reduced income from sources such as Google AdSense and so on.

Regular web maintenance for your website is important. It can help you keep up with changing times, help to attract more visitors and ultimately make you more sales. If you find this task difficult to squeeze in, try scheduling it in for a set time each month or every few weeks. It shouldn’t take long and the time investment may make all the difference to your business. And finally, if you don’t have time to do the web maintenance yourself you can always think about hiring an assistant to help you with this task.