So, did you manage to watch Piers Morgan interview Simon Cowell over the weekend? I must admit I’m a sucker for this type of entertainment and love reading and watching how people became successful.

One of the things that caught my attention was one of the questions Piers asked Simon. “Would he would ever give up and when? How would he know?” etc.

Simon answered and it really hit home with me. When he was at school (which he hated) every Sunday night he would get a sickly feeling in his tummy as he would simply dread getting up the next day. He hated Sundays because of this too.

So my point is, (and luckily I haven’t reached this yet!) do you dread Sunday’s? or do you look forward to them? Do you get a sickly tummy at the thought of going to work? Or excited?

I really liked his statement – Simon clearly doesn’t need to work. He continues with it as its fun and he enjoys it. As he said, he’ll stop when he gets that Sunday feeling again.

I know I often talk about we only have one life and should live it free from regret and sometimes it takes something upsetting to make us realize this.

Life is for living, about fun, family and enjoyment. Work is such a big part of that. What I do isn’t for everyone, I know that. I respect that. For me I love it. I’m sitting at home as we speak, looking out of my window. I can see my garden and my cat wondering around the bushes. In a couple of hours it will be time to pick up my daughter. She has swimming tonight after school so will be a mad rush to get there for 4pm but whilst she’s having her lesson I can swim some laps and then go in the steam room (bliss!).

I chose my lifestyle. I chose to work from home. I chose to be able to pick her up from school every day and have play dates, activities etc.

Is it easy? No. I’m not going to lie. I work hard. Please don’t believe the hype about making $60,000 each and every month. It doesn’t work like that. Very few people earn that kind of money and those that do, rarely have time to spend with their teams as they are too busy playing golf etc.!

But, I love what I do. I am passionate about it. Yes I work hard, but at the same time I feel very privileged to be able to pick my daughter up from school, work from home and have a good lifestyle.

I believe it takes a certain type of person to succeed in this business. As not everyone will. There – I said it. Why don’t more people say this who are trying to sell you a money making opportunity? I’m telling you now, my lovely fellow subscriber. The only way you will make it in this business is by having the right mindset, hard worker, driven, disciplined with you time and of course having the right mentor who can help you.

I’ve been undecided about what to write today. As most of you know I always write about what’s been going on in my life. I’m a great believer in people buy from those they like and trust and try to build relationships with my lovely subscribers.

I also always say never write about negative or sad things.

But today I’m breaking my rules! Sadly my wonderful aunt died last Friday. Sunday we had the funeral and last night we had a beautiful memorial service for her.

My aunt bless her was a good age; she was 89 and had a wonderful life. We were very close; she was like a grandmother to me as mine died when I was very young.

Often when we are faced with death or sad things it makes us reflect on our lives. We are only given one life and it’s so important to live it free from regret.

My aunt’s carer came up to me yesterday and told me how proud my aunt was of me, all my achievements both in business and personal. I do feel proud of what I have achieved and often forget how far I’ve come. When I went to Downing Street for Best Mumpreneur of the Year my aunt and all my family were so proud of me.

Remember your dreams, your aspirations. Dreams CAN come true. Sometimes they just need a bit of work:)

What are your dreams? What do you hope to aspire to?

I feel very privileged to be able to be in a position where I can choose the hours I work, how much time I want to work, be able to pick up Emily every day from school and of course earn a good income.

But it wasn’t always like that. I chose to have my working life like that. I’ve chosen a path where I can spend more time at home and be with my family. Yes, it can still be stressful, but I have “procedures” in place to help reduce the stress. We all get stressed, its natural, it’s how we deal and cope with it.

Today I’m back at work so please do give me a call on 07590 554292 if you would like to have a chat about how I can help you with your business or if you have questions about Yournetbiz.

Blogging – What’s it All About? 

Everyone has heard about blogs and bloggers, but how much do you really know about blogging? Are you blogging at all? Do you know how to write an effective blog? Do you know the benefits blogs can bring to your marketing? Do you know the best places to post your blogs, or how often? There is so little known about such a common topic that could really benefit your business.

 Why Should You Blog?

Blogging is a brilliant tool that should definitely be used as part of your online marketing strategy. Not only is it a great avenue for getting people connected to you, it’s also a simple and effective way to direct them to your website. By posting frequently you also raise your online profile, which is great for public awareness of your company and your SEO. One of the most immediately enjoyable things about blogging, though, is getting people to comment and seeing discussions start. This again draws attention to the blog and back to your company, especially if you do it well and consistently.

 What Should You Write About?

There are several elements involved in writing blogs, everywhere from topic and content to tone and style. Blogs are an excellent place to connect with people, so I always keep my causal and personable. I like to cover current events as well as professional and personal topics. By varying what you write about, you are virtually unrestricted with new topics. It also presents a well rounded blog site, and keeps your readers interested. If you only ever blogged about politics, only die hard political fans will remain interested in your posts. And don’t shy away from controversial topics – they are great for starting conversation!

 What Should a Blog Include?

You blog should always include some thoughts by yourself, and usually that involves an opinion or a story – or both. It’s good to get people involved and get comments and discussions going. One of the best ways to do this is to have questions at the end which either invite people to share or provoke them to action in some other way (like asking for advice). Keep a positive or humorous tone about it – nobody wants a downer. So if you have a negative story to share, like a horrible experience, be sure to put a twist on it so people can sympathise without getting depressed!

How Often Should You Post?

Some people only post once a week, other people post several times a day. The once a week people generally tend to be conservative business people who are afraid of flooding their site. The multiple times a day bloggers tend to be social bloggers. I prefer to be more in the middle of the road and post once a day. This keeps SEO up, gives my readers something to look forward to each day, and increases my online profile. You can post as often or as rarely as you like, but I would say a minimum of two to three times per week, and preferably every day. Every once in a while you could do two blogs in a day.

The most important thing you can remember when writing a newsletter is that most people aren’t going to read it. There are some things you can do to increase the number of actual readers out of subscribers, but always keep in mind that maybe one out of five subscribers will actually read your newsletter. In this article, we’ll go over some things you can do to increase the number of readers for your newsletter, not just the number of subscribers.

Something that people often forget and the thing that absolutely should be done first, is to make sure your subscribers know exactly what they’re getting. Clearly state your newsletter’s contents and theme and clearly title it and summarize its contents in a short paragraph so that readers don’t have to figure out what it’s about by actually reading it. You won’t do yourself any favours by getting subscribers for something they don’t know about, and most people will cancel once they realize that your newsletter doesn’t have anything that interests them.

A good way to break up the research for yourself is to figure out a variety of topics to write about. Finding three or four major topics and then breaking those up into sub-sections and then those sub-sections into articles and newsletters. Breaking up topics like this will allow you to generate fairly detailed material on a number of different subjects, while still being original and useful with your newsletter. If you’re having a hard time writing about a given topic, go a little broader, which will help you use more information in a single newsletter to provide more material.

In the end, even if you follow all of these steps, even if you’ve got the best newsletter available, very few of the subscribers will read every one. Don’t be afraid to promote your newsletter on related blogs, websites and even through other newsletters on similar subjects. All you want to do is make sure that your content is relevant, readable, and accessible. If you can write content that is actually useful for readers, easy for them to understand, and interesting enough that they want to read it in the first place, then your reader base will be that much more likely to read what you send them. The more people that actually read your newsletter, of course, the more people will continue to read and subscribe to what you write.

Stress seems to be a permanent part of our lives. And to be honest, I’m not entirely sure that it has to be, but I’m also not entirely sure how to avoid it. But in an effort to work more effectively I’ve discovered that getting things done and feeling good about my work day has helped reduced that nagging feeling that hits at 4:00 when you suddenly think, “Where has the day gone?!”

How many times do we look at the clock and wonder where the day has gone? Or how many times do we do that and think, “What have I done today?” Often the feeling of stress is synonymous with being overwhelmed. It’s very easy to get overwhelmed with work, let alone life and all that goes with it. But one thing at a time – let’s look at ways to take out some of the weight at work and maybe, just maybe, we’ll feel better, work better and look back and say “Wow, look at everything I got done today!

One of the most important keys to your outcome is your outlook. Your attitude will affect so many areas of your working day that it’s very important for you to check whether you are being optimistic and positive in various aspects. Choose to “look on the bright side” in the genuine sense, not the tragically ironic sense. But having a good outlook will affect how you see things, how you interpret situations, how your clients perceive you and how well you perform your job. And as you can imagine, constantly having a negative attitude will raise your stress levels – if nothing is ever right, how can anything be pleasant?

Another key to getting through the day and feeling good about work is setting realistic goals. Setting goals helps you take things one step at a time. It causes you to pace yourself and plan out your time, and allows you to track your progress. Instead of having loads of things to do and this ambiguous cloud of confusion looming over you head, you have a defined set of tasks which progress you toward your end goal for the day. At the end of the day (and even throughout the day!) seeing a list all ticked gives a great sense of accomplishment and also shows you exactly what you did get done that day. And if there are items that you didn’t finish, they are still clearly defined for you so that you’re not constantly bombarded or surprised by new items.

One final and very important aspect of being productive but not overwhelmed is to not lose momentum or enthusiasm. The two keys listed above – attitude and goals – will help keep you going strong throughout the day.

Social networking is all the latest rage in marketing today. And for a good reason, too. It’s an extremely effective tool which, if you use it well, can really help your business. If you aren’t familiar with the term “social networking,” it refers to online communities and groups such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Ecademy, MySpace and so on. It’s a place where people share business and social news, incite discussions, increase their contacts and raise their online presence.

By virtue of being online you are able to make thousands of connections in a fraction of the time it would take to meet that many people in person. You are more likely to make contacts across the country and around the world that you could without an online presence. This gives you an even larger network, which means more people are forwarding your details to people who could use your services, etc. This also means that you have a wealth of information at your fingertips for other business services that you could utilise for your company (or your life!).

Another brilliant aspect of social networking is the multiplication of your information. So for example, if I post information about my online business services on Twitter, I have just over 30,000 people following me who will see it. And if even 1% of those people ReTweet me (re-post that information), then I have another 3000 postings about my business for the one I put up. And those 3000 postings are going out to all the people following the person who ReTweeted me. This means that one little post about my business is now reaching 100,000-200,000+ people. This is the power and the magic of social networking. And to answer your suspicions, yes I have gotten not only great contacts but also new business from sites like Twitter and Facebook.

A final and hugely important element of social networking is that it builds your online presence. This is very important to any business as the world today is online. People are more likely to go to the Internet before to look for businesses than they are to go out driving around. Since social networking includes various posts, blogs and listings, it vastly increases your SEO margin and makes you more likely to get noticed out of the sea of businesses. Also, each site can be used to point contacts back to your website to promote your business.

Being in a network marketing business and in particular, making money online there is a lot of hype in this business.

Do you believe in the hype? Are you sucked in?

Should I as a mentor and someone who is clearly trying to get you to sign up with my opportunity, Yournetbiz be using it?

What is hype anyway? Who is attracted to it?  Does it sell?

Well clearly it does sell but it only attracts a certain type of person.

Personally I avoid the hype like the plague!  Websites with fancy cars, fancy houses, just don’t do it for me.  Should they when I’m trying to make money?

Does seeing a picture of a nice car and lovely big house make me want to buy from you?  Does it automatically mean I’m going to have a piece of that too?

Well sadly it doesn’t.

Hype is old school.

Sex and money have always sold well.  They are appealing to others.  They are news worthy stories in magazines, papers and TV.  People are naturally drawn to them looking for get rich quick schemes.

But do they work?

How many of us have been sucked into buying a product because of an eye-catching  advert and then been  thoroughly disappointed that it didn’t live up to our expectations.  Is it clever marketing or hype?  Is there a difference?

Ok, so you’re looking to make money online.  By showing that one has got lots of fancy cars, a huge house and go on holiday 4 times a year to 5* accommodation is showing that they have made lots of money.  But does that necessarily mean that you will?

Let’s look at the maths.  The people who have made their money and are living this amazing lifestyle that we are seeking don’t have time to help you achieve it.  They are too busy going on holiday, playing golf and having lunch.

Now I’m not for one minute suggesting you go with someone who is a pauper and hasn’t achieved financial success.

Let’s think about the scenario above for a moment.  If you’re looking for an opportunity to make money online are you going to be attracted to all the hype that goes with it?  OR be attracted to a new approach.

I’m talking about attraction marketing.  People buy from those they like and trust.  Can we sell “make money online opportunities” without the hype?  And if so, how?

Firstly hype and marketing are two different things.  Every business needs marketing in order for it to survive.  It’s how you brand yourself and your business.

By becoming a leader and an expert in your field people will naturally be drawn to you so they can learn and duplicate what you have done to achieve success.  Do we really need to show people our income so they believe us?  Is this business that sceptical? Or are we just showing off?

Whether you believe in the hype or don’t is a huge debate and I look forward to receiving your comments.

I’ve just realised today is Thursday.  Ok, nothing shocking about that, but I just can’t believe where this week has gone – it’s flown by!

It got me thinking, we always seem to be moaning about there isn’t enough time in the day and I admit I’m one of them!

I’m always reading celebrity gossip (my guilty pleasure!) and I was reading an article about Cheryl Cole and how she has so much to do in one day that her day starts at 5:30am and doesn’t finish until past 12am.  Her day has to start so incredibly early as not only does she have to fit in “work” but also her hair and make up, gym etc.

So, would I sacrifice getting up at the crack of dawn in order to get everything done (even to look like her!) – would I heck!!!

We all seem to want the same thing, quality lifestyle, more time to spend with our family, less time working, commuting and the list can go on and on.

Do you ever look at business entrepreneurs like Sir Alan Sugar and Duncan Bannatyne and think how an earth do they do it all?  Well apart from them being able to pay people to do a lot for them, I’m sure they still have a lot to do themselves!

What I’m trying to get at is that we all have exactly the same amount of time.  Regardless of where we live, what we do, how much money we earn – we all have 24 hours in the day.  How do you use your time?

Are you someone who procrastinates or a doer and gets things completed off their lists?

So, who said marketing was expensive?  Who said paid marketing was the best way?  Below are 50 of my favourite FREE methods to market my business.  I try and use them all and have had very successful results with each and every one of them.  Which methods will you use?  Don’t forget to let me know how you get on and which results work well for you.

1. Networking
2. www.youtube.com
3. www.viddler.com
4. www.facebook.com
5. www.ecademy.com
6. www.linkedn.com
7. www.trafficswarm.com
8. www.craigslist.org
9. Forums
10. http://www.bttradespace.com/
11. www.twitter.com
12. http://hubpages.com/
13. http://www.squidoo.com/
14. www.myspace.com
15. Ezines
16. www.bebo.com
17. http://www.ezinearticles.com/
18. www.wordpress.com
19. www.blogger.com
20. http://www.thearticledirectory.org/
21. www.digg.com
22. http://www.jumptags.com/
23. www.vivastreet.co.uk
24. www.ebay.com
25. http://www.usenet.org/
26. www.problogger.com
27. http://www.affiliateshowcase.com/
28. http://www.prweb.com/
29. http://www.prleap.com/
30. www.clickbank.com
31. http://www.trafficexchangelist.com/
32. http://www.hitvortex.com/
33. Postcards
34. Flyers
35. Back of Car Bumper
36. Testimonials
37. Article Submission Sites
38. Free Classified Ads
39. http://www.socialmarker.com/
40. http://www.uniquearticlewizard.com/
41. http://www.weebly.com/
42. http://www.mybloglog.com/
43. www.ping.fm
44. www.businessscene.com
45. http://www.business-scene.com/
46. http://betternetworking.co.uk/
47. http://technorati.com/
48. www.gumtree.com
49. http://www.onlinemarketingtoday.com/software/link-management-assistant/
50. Network with your family, friends, colleagues and wider circle

I hope the above tips help you.  There are many more free places to promote your business, but these are just a few to get you started!  It’s important to remember that effective marketing doesn’t always equal big budget.