A lot of people are making fun of this. They are saying that it was like the world stopped and it’s too bad that us Tweeters couldn’t tell everyone what we were having for lunch. Well, I say “screw that!”

The people who are making fun of the situation don’t use Twitter. They don’t get it. And I don’t know if any of us who do get it will ever be able to explain it to them…but I’ll try.

Twitter isn’t just a game for me. I am not some bored celebrity who is trying to look really cool because I got to 1 million followers before someone else. I am not sitting around, tweeting because I have nothing better to do. Twitter is NOT a toy.

For me, and many other people, Twitter is a communications tool. Imagine if your whole cell phone network went down. Yes. Imagine that. It went down for hours. You couldn’t send or receive phone calls. You’re probably not laughing now, are you?

And that’s really what it boils down to. I use Twitter to talk to my friends and make plans. I also use it to update my website readers about new articles, podcast episodes, giveaways, and more. When you communicate this way, you’re building relationships and trust – which is hard to do if you just had a website and no communication lines.

And yes – occasionally I tweet about what I am going to eat. It’s not like those jokesters never had a conversation about food. So, there!

I know that I usually come to you with information on growing your business, but I hope you will hear me out on something a little bit off topic.

As you know, I am a big supporter of indie businesses. I am not against “Corporate America,” but one of my biggest “pet peeves” happens to be the companies who make products found in the household cleaning section.

They put out commercials and ads that make people think their home has to be cleaned with bleach and other chemicals in order to be “clean.”

That’s a lie. Using bleach and other chemicals actually puts your health at risk.

The company that I choose to buy products from is an Indie Business. They’ve been routinely chased by big corporations and investors who want to buy them out, but they stand their ground.

The reason you’ve never heard of them is because they don’t believe in traditional advertising methods.

Their belief is “why should we pay for big ad campaigns when we can pass the savings to our customers?” For example, if you use Tide, you are paying around 19 cents per load of laundry. I pay only 4 cents per load. Big difference, huh?

As you know, I don’t have kids yet, but I am the “world’s greatest aunt.” My youngest nephew is 4 and that is the age where they want to help with everything.

We were cleaning the bathroom the other day, and I didn’t have to worry about him getting any cleaners on his skin as he was spraying away like a madman.

If you have kids, you know that there is nothing more frightening than a child making his or her way into your household cleaning supplies. Over five million household poisonings are reported each year! VERY SCARY.

I think it is important to find alternative ways to clean a home without jeopardizing our health or polluting our environment.

At a time when pollutants are contributing to the depletion of the ozone layer; while gas and oil fumes are literally killing our natural resources; it is time to take a hard look at what we can do as individuals to decrease the toxins from our air and water.

Perhaps if we begin to use alternative methods to using brand named household cleaners, we can send a clear and definitive message to these companies that toxins are no longer an acceptable form to be used in any capacity. It all begins with our taking a stand; it all begins at home.

To learn more about the company I buy all of my household cleaners, personal care products (shampoo, cosmetics, etc) and just about everything else from, visit: http://www.livetotalwellness.com/more_info

You’ll be saving money, your health, and the environment!

Okay, okay – I’ll get off my soapbox for now.

For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, that is a reference to my MySpace blog. My sister and I have a running count of all our adventures / misadventures in our various travels. Visit it at www.myspace.com/clever_crissy

Okay – so far, I accidentally sped backwards through a long and rambunctious water slide, flipped, and had worries about drowning in 3 foot of water, got lost twice in Pontiac, lived through several thunderstorms and near tornadoes, made it through weather that reached 98 degrees with 80% humidity (hey – I’ve been acclimated to Alaskan weather!), and watched my stepsister graduate high school. Oh yeah, and my sister’s car, my step-mom’s blazer, and my dad’s truck all broke down the same day.

Did I mention that you cannot get scripted comedy this good????

We had an unexpected – but very awesome – adventure last night. My sister’s boss gave her 4 VIP passes to what he said was “the B-52′s.” I looked it up online and it turns out that it was The True Colors Tour. I had watched Cyndi Lauper on some talk shows in the past and knew she had done this type of tour in the past, but I wasn’t exactly lining up to buy tickets.

We were a bit late getting to the venue, so we missed a couple acts, but we got there in time to see Rosie O’Donnell, who I love, the aforementioned B-52′s and, of course, Cyndi Lauper.

According to the tour’s website, ” The goal of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) equality is at the heart of True Colors.”

Well, my sister and I are both straight and white, so we’re in the “groups” that have faced the least amount of discrimination – ever. So I’m not even going to theorize on what it feels like to be discriminated against based on your orientation.

All I can say is that it was a pretty good show. It was great to see so many people just having a good time and getting along.

And who knew Rosie O’Donnell could play the drums like that??

Today was the Indie Biz Chicks Conference in Flint, MI. We had a really good turn out and it was awesome to meet some of my readers & MySpace Friends face to face. I’m so used to doing stuff online – I really hope to do more in person events with people soon! Don’t get me wrong – I do enjoy the flexibility the internet provides and hope to always be internet based.  It was just really neat to have someone who reads your blog posts look you in the face and say “thanks for doing what you do.”

And then I was also featured in an interview on Sparkplugging.com – a very cool site for work at home moms. If you’ve been turned off by the work at home sites of the past, you’ll love this one. It’s very fresh & modern! (just click the Sparkplugging link to read the interview and check out the site!)

For those of you who don’t know what winter solstice is (and don’t want to read the referenced post), it is the shortest day of the year. During that time of year, the part of Alaska that I live in gets about 6 1/2 hours of daylight. Well, in the post, I had mentioned that starting the next day, we would be gaining a little bit of light each day, and before long, it would be light out almost 24 hours a day (some parts of Alaska do have 24 hour daylight in the summer, but not the part I live in).

So – I ended up relating this story to the fact that your business works the same way. There’s going to be high points and there’s going to be some low points, too. When you are having a low point, you just have to keep working through it and know that things will get better.

And when you are experiencing the high points, try to remember that the pendulum will swing back around. You may want to rest on those proverbial laurels, but taking a walk on Easy Street may not be the best decision.

A lot can change in just a few months. For example, it now gets light out well before 6am here (I don’t really want to get up before that just to see what time the sun actually rises) and it is still light out past 10pm.

If your business is not performing the way you want it to, commit to working hard for the next four months. That’s only 120 days. You can do this. And then in September you can tell me how much your profits have increased.

Remember – no one is going to hand you the life you want on a silver platter. If you want something to change, you have to do it yourself!

If you are looking for a job, such as a telecommuting position, where you work from home for an employer, then no, you should NOT have to pay for it. Sometimes a scam company will say you need to pay for an application fee or some other bogus excuse.

Keep in mind that many companies are hiring people as independent contractors and therefore, when you work for a company in this situation you are not an employee. You will be required to pay for your own phone, internet, etc. But keep in mind that there are costs to working a typical job, such as transportation (and gas isn’t getting any cheaper), the cost of business clothes, dry cleaning, etc.

However, if you want to start your own business, then you may have to spend some money in order to make some money. For example, if you were going to join a direct sales business or something like that, you’ll need to pay an upfront fee for your kit.  Remember – you are not an employee in this function. You are paying to start your own business. And paying $100 to start your own business as a consultant with an established company is a lot less than forking over a couple hundred thousand to start your own franchise of an existing business. And in some cases, these companies will give you a free website and lots of free business resources to get you started.

If you want to create your own online business there will be other fees, such as your domain registration (under $10), web hosting (under $10 / mo), among others. If you are great with graphics, you may be able to create your own logo, ads, etc. But if you are horrible with them, you’ll need to spend money on having them created for you, etc.

And don’t forget about spending money on LEARNING new things. As a new business owner, there are lots of things to learn. And yes, you can go about learning these things through the hard knock route, but that doesn’t make a lot of sense when you can learn from those who are more experienced. I routinely buy ebooks, audios, coaching and other business resources to help me learn new things, and it’s made a huge difference in my business. (and they’re tax write-offs)

If you’re ready to learn something new, I highly suggest you take a look at The IndieBizChicks.com Members Center! You’ll get two new reports each month that will teach you new things about your business for only $9.95 per month. Learn more or sign up by visiting http://www.indiebizchicks.com/mc.html

Turns out the guy had gotten back together with his ex and was just using my sister – and me – for a free trip to Alaska. Nice, huh? I spent several hundreds of dollars on gas money driving him to every town around, plus I fed him, and let him stay in my home.

My sister can come for free any time – but liars who are just using us are not welcome. I emailed him a bill, but I’m sure he won’t be paying it. Can I put his name up on a debtor’s site somewhere??? (ha ha)

We found out the day before their trip ended that he was using us, so we threw him out of my house in the middle of the night and told him to find his own way back to the Anchorage airport. (It’s really not that bad – there’s a small airport in my town and he can pay $89 for a 10 minute ride on a small plane to the Anchorage airport).

After that drama ended, I had to get my wisdom teeth out and the next few days were spent in a pain pill induced sleep fest. But I got sick of the semi-coma yesterday and stopped taking them.

My voice is terrible – so I haven’t updated the podcast yet. (Sorry!)

I’ve been working on some new ecourses today and will announce them soon (stay tuned – they’re awesome and you don’t want to miss ‘em!!)

Back in the 90′s, my sister and I put an ad in the paper when he turned 40 (complete with a photo of him in 2nd grade and a poem declaring how old he was).

Now that technology has grown, I can put his birthday message on the net (this time, I’ll leave out the picture and the age description).  Now I just need to teach him how to Google his name so he can find this message…

Anyway, here it is:

Happy Birthday, James Herron… (from your computer-whiz kid).

I had a lot of response to that video, so I made some more. See the original, plus the two new ones at:  http://www.indiebizchicks.com/videos/ak.html

Now, to be honest, I am somewhat known for having the weirdest dreams ever. In fact, my other dreams last night involved helping my grandparents with a radio fundraiser ( my grandpa passed away in 1991), meeting my current dog’s reincarnation 20 years into the future, and trying to drive a bus between two mountains, in a raging storm, over a very weak looking bridge. And there were others – those are just a few of the dreams I had last night. For me, going to sleep is never boring – it is like watching movies all night long….

So anyhow, I had this assignment in my dream, and I actually planned out my speech during this dream and remember what I was going to say. I figured I may as well put the work I did in the dream to good use and blog about it.

How To Apply Oprah’s Marketing Strategies Into Your Business

• Do What You Love- I don’t think it’s a big secret – Oprah likes to help people, she likes to teach people, she likes to talk to people, and she has a definite fondness for the written word. I mean, she probably has the world’s largest book club. So what did she do? She became a news anchor centered on interviewing people and reporting the news. And she wasn’t happy. So, she spawned that into a career where she still gets to interview people – but she actually gets to talk to them. She teaches people about new things by talking to various experts (oh, and building that school helps, too), and we all know where the love of the written word led…

• Create Multiple Streams Of Income – Oprah’s got a TV show, a production company which produces other television shows, movies & Broadway plays; two magazines; several books; a radio network, a tv network in the works, and well… lots more stuff that I am not going to bother listing. Take a lesson from the Big O and create several corresponding products. You’ll have more to offer your market and therefore, make more sales and earn more profits.

• It’s OK To Promote Your Own Products – When Oprah’s involved in something, she’s going to talk about it on the show, she’s going to write about it in the magazine, she’ll air commercials for it during the show and print ads for it in the magazine. This woman is not afraid to give herself a shameless plug. And you shouldn’t be either. If you are working on something, start telling people about it, in any way you can. From blogging about it to posting MySpace bulletins, do whatever you can to get the word out.

See what fun and interesting dreams I have??? And we’re only half way through! I’ll post Part 2 tomorrow…..