Over the past week or two, I’ve been making some major changes to my original website, Mom’s Market. A little redesigning and reformatting, and basically resurrecting it to what it was before… a directory. Now, though, instead of loads of links on a page, each store has their own listings with details on the business, products, and pictures. Basically search engine food, and better promotion for those listed.

Since I wanted to build the directory back up a little before I started charging for listings, I did offer free listings for the first 5 category. Some of the submission I got were a little disappointing. Not because they weren’t great products (all were FANTASTIC, actually), but because some spent so little time crafting their description and reading over the guidelines.

I really wasn’t surprised at the lack of reading the guidelines. As irritating as it is, I’ve come to expect it and just reject those that don’t read rules. Not too big of a deal. What did bother me was the lack of descriptions. Right on the form it says “Description of Site (history, products, etc – 200 words MINIMUM – required)”. The “200 words MINIMUM” part was added after the first few with little description, in hopes that would solve the problem. Sadly, it didn’t.

I realize this was a “free” opportunity, and maybe others just don’t take the same amount of time on a free resource instead of paid ones. But still. If YOU don’t care about your business enough to spend that little extra time promoting it or talking about it, who will? Those that didn’t enter a very long description are only hurting themselves. Less words means less random terms that page will pop up in the search engines for, which of course means lost customers.

What scares me a bit is this issue probably won’t go away, even on paid submissions. I know we tend to be use to shortening our description to a limit of 250 characters or words or whatever the limit is, but if there IS no limit, why not take advantage of it?

On a side note, you can see the details for submitting your website to the Mom’s Market Directory here: http://www.momsmarketonline.com/submit-your-site/ (Handmade products only for the time being – Etsy shops welcome!)

I may have briefly mentioned I went back to school. I decided online was the ONLY way to go, and went with University of Phoenix like a good chunk of other adult learners going back. For those curious, I’m majoring in English because I plan to put my writing experience to good use (I took a look at my resume – I’ve been writing for EIGHT YEARS! Can you believe it?! I sure couldn’t!) .

Part of the “online learning experience” is a “discussion forum”. This week the subject of researching online was brought up. Oh boy…some passing off information as fact in the online business world was a little scary. There were two main things I felt the need to correct them on, and they are as follows…

1. Domain extension meanings
I spotted one giving us the “meaning” of .com, .net, .org, and .edu. They were correct saying .edu would be school of some type. They were NOT correct about the rest having specific meanings and purposes. Apparently the average Joe doesn’t know that the rest can be purchased by ANYONE and used for WHATEVER they want.

2. Search results are paid for
WRONG. Yes someone actually said this. I was floored, and yes, I had to correct them. My own knowledge of search engines would just not let that one slide. I explained that “sponsored links” in search results on Google are in fact paid, but the “organic” results are not. Granted SOME may have had SEO professionals help with ranking, but saying “they paid for that spot” is very, very wrong. Search engine results are based on a lot of things, but money isn’t one of them!

I do realize that these things aren’t exactly common knowledge. Why would you know if you aren’t involved with websites? However, it does scare me a little that this information was being pushed as fact. Keep this in mind overall when your marketing your site to the average person – they don’t always know what’s true and what’s false!

I’ve been online quite a few years,and do believe I’ve used just about all the versions of Office at some point in time.  97, 2003, 2007…all pretty useful for no more than I used them for. While I’ve had to use all the programs in the package for various college classes over the years, for the most part I only use Excel, Outlook, and sometimes Word.

When 2010 came out, I really didn’t think much of it. Another update…alright. No big deal. Maybe a few new functions or tool I’ll never, ever use. But oh, how wrong I proved to be!

Without diving too much into my personal life, I will let it drop that I’ve been seeing someone over the last few months. I often call him my “sexy techy” to family and friends. While he may not be savvy with building websites or SEO, he’s a pro with all things hardware and basic computer tech stuff (you know, like getting rid of viruses and setting up routers).  He’s also an avid web surfer and supporter of the “latest updates” of all the big name programs online.

Somehow he got me to upgrade to Microsoft Office 2010, and I can’t believe how much I’m in LOVE with the updates. Here’s just a few things I’ve been doing with this version that I couldn’t do before:

- Share Files between Computers
I recently bought a netbook that goes with me almost everywhere. Since I like to write fiction when the mood strikes me, I want to be able to have all files on both my main computer and my netbook. Office let me set up a share file that’s automatically updated whenever both computers are on and on the same network (which is often, actually). I can change or add anything in this file, and it always shows me the updated version on both computers. LOVE this option, and the best part is it’s AUTOMATIC. Windows 7 didn’t even have an easier version.

- Blog posts via Word
This I just discovered today, and I’m already in love. So many neat options with pictures, and so easy to upload! Remember I mentioned I got a netbook, and of course those don’t have a whole lot of memory. So should I want to post something to a blog and I’m away from home, I don’t have to pull up my browser. Word takes up a LOT less memory than FireFox, so that’s a huge deal to me. Plus the various border options for images is just beyond cool lol.

- RSS feeds in Outlook
Love love love my feeds in Outlook! SO much easier to scan them right there in my email instead of stuffing them somewhere else. Saves a whole lot of time, and it has the same format as emails – I can see what I have or haven’t read, and plus there’s the ability to delete.

- Outlook Tasks
Also a very cool feature, and something I’ve been using quite a bit. Its like a calendar that sits right in my email where everything else important is too! Granted I still use my regular wall calendar for everything personal (it’s just my habit I’ve had for years), but all thing related to online deadlines and reminders go in the tasks. Keeps me just that much more organized. Trust me, I need all the help I can get.

I’m sure there’s a slew of other things I’m using, but those are the top I can think of. It takes a little bit to get use to since the interface of it all has changed, but once you do, look out! It’s been a HUGE help to me and I’m sure it would you too

Okay, maybe famous is pushing it a little … how about … let me show you and your biz off a bit!

I’m in the process of writing an ebook about creating Membership Sites for my upcoming website launch.  While working on it the other evening I got to the idea section.  This section is basically a list of membership site ideas as well as an explanation of some of the things you could include in that particular membership site.  I was also thinking - and if you don’t know this already – one thing you can do to jazz up an ebook is to include pictures.  So yeah – gotta get some pics too.

One of the ideas is to create a personal training membership website.  Immediately I thought of one of my best friend’s online … @busymommaval  Val is a personal training as well as she does a lot of business coaching online.  (Hence the nickname I gave her at MommysHelperCommunity.com - Coach Val).

Then I began thinking of a few others I know who are in professional fields such as @LynnTerry & @AureliaW.  After a few Twitter DMs they’re all for it!  The three of them are gonna hook me up with a picture of them “providing their services”.

So, in keeping with the theme here, I thought I’d try to find a few more people.  I’m needing people who are involved in the following fields:

• Freelancer/Telecommuter – Looking for a picture of you working at your computer.
• Frugal Living/Budgeting/Investing Website - Looking for a site logo/ad button.
• Dating/Relationship Website – Looking for a site logo/ad button.
• Travel Website – Looking for a site logo/ad button … or maybe even just a picture of someone boarding a plane or a bus … or any other ideas … just as long as it’s something to do with traveling of course.
• Medical Advice Website – Looking for a site logo/ad button.
• Writer/Author  – Looking for someone who has a website about them being an author/writer.  I could use a site logo/ad button … or maybe even a picture of you with a pen/pencil in hand.

If you’re involved with any of these fields and have a picture already of something that it’s easy to read into “this is what I do” … I am open to any other suggestions.

The only catch is I need these pictures as soon as possible.  Oh and I’m a big stickler to giving credit where credit is due so I will most certainly include your name, business name and website address in the ebook as well.  (Actually, it will be in two ebooks.)

So if you’re interested, feel free to post a comment here or send me a DM at twitter.  My Twitter ID is @anitadefrank  Looking forward to hearing from you soon!

Okay before I even go on here, I have to say … NO! I do not need another social network! I especially don’t need another social network that seriously resembles Twitter.

Here’s the deal for me. At times social networking can so get in the way of my biz work. Sometimes I have to force myself to turn off Twitter and force myself to KEEP it off.

I love all my friends and business collegues to death – love ya all! (I also LOVE Twitter!)

But I remember a while back …

You HAVE to get a MySpace account! You just have to! I want to friend request you!

… so, I got a MySpace account …
Luckily with the MySpace account I did not waste too much time. I did waste some but not too much.

It also needs to be made special note here that in between MySpace & Twitter, there were a TON of requests that I had gotten every single day for every new social network on the face of the Earth. And if you remember correctly, there were new ones popping up literally every single day. I got extremely tired of them to be quite blunt here.

Twitter! You must Tweet! You have to Twitter so I can follow you!

… so, I sign up to Twitter …
And again, I *love* my Twitter! And I love how I’ve finally taught myself that I can leave Twitter and still keep up with the important things I want to.

Facebook! Facebook! I love Facebook! This from the people who were begging me to get on MySpace!

I will more than likely get on Facebook but right now I have a site I have to launch and then I’ll be there if I want to.

Am I going to be bombarded soon with Buzz requests? Or whatever they’re called? I have a sneaking feeling I am.

Listen, I’m all about social networking. I think done properly it definitely has it’s pluses on a business-side. Done properly and used within reason. If you’re focusing all your business efforts on social networking only. Buck up cause you’re gonna wish you hadn’t put all your eggs in one basket some day. Don’t believe me now? That’s fine cause if you don’t … that simply means I’m not going to change your mind and I personally don’t have the time to try.

But … that’s a WHOLE other ballpark all together.

Back to Google Buzz …

Now wait, just a second … BUZZ?
Looks like Twitter, Sounds like Yahoo! … Smells like Google??
(Yahoo! Buzz that is.)

Things that make ya go hmm …

Okay, now we’re really back to Google Buzz Are they murdering Twitter? That’s certainly more than I can ever predict. But some of my (own personal) thoughts are …

- Twitter is just fine as is and I’m happy with it.

- Hmmm … nice updgrades from Twitter. But that comes with a but … one of the the main things I like most about Twitter is that it is so quick and easy. Sure, more functions might be nice for some but for me, that’s just more time.

- I do NOT want to start all over in another “Twitter-like” platform or any new social network for that matter.

- And I’m sorry but … Google, get your own idea! Did you really feel that threatened by Twitter? Were they in that much direct competition that you needed to create something just like it but “so-called better”?

And did you really feel the need to rub it in Twitter’s face by saying: “Go Beyond Status Messages”? Sorry but yeah, me personally, I took offense to that.

I could go on and on and on here … but I won’t. I’m sure the big plus many are going to like is the fact that it’s so compatible with Gmail. Works right with your Gmail account. Guess what? I don’t HAVE a Gmail account. wait – back up – that’s wrong. I do have a Gmail account but I don’t use it.

So, am I going to have my Yahoo email account open and my Gmail account open all the time so I can keep up with Buzz. Uh, probably not.

Researching a bit, I also found out about a big boo boo Google did …

According to BusinessInsider.com:
“In other words, before you change any settings in Google Buzz, someone could go into your profile and see the people you email and chat with most.”

Oops! I’m sorry, a Google spokesperson asked them to rephrase their complaint … er, I mean their claim differently. In response, BusinessInsider.com chose this wording instead:
“In other words, after you create your profile in Buzz, if you don’t edit any of the default settings, someone could visit your profile and see the people you email and chat with most (provided you didn’t edit this list during profile creation).”

Don’t panic too badly just yet though, BusinessInsider.com also provides you with instructions on how to immediately make these lists private and then edit them.

I, like Nicolas Carlson of BusinessInsider.com am shocked that Google sees nothing wrong with this. Simply put, Google wanted to make things easier on us so we can “immediately see content from the people they {we} chat with most”.

Thanks but no thanks Google, when it comes to my privacy, I’m fine with clicking a couple more checkboxes.

The fact that I have to sign a Privacy Act everywhere I go – well, almost everywhere. I’m sure the day will come when I have to sign a Privacy Act at my favorite local drive-thru promising me none of their employees will ever share my favorite drive-thru goody. Exaggerating? Maybe, but what do you think? And Google seems to think this is okay?

Click here to have a looksee at their full response …
(Bottom of post)

And FYI – Twitter offers basically the same thing w/ my Yahoo account but guess what? I get to pick and choose who I want!

It’s following the simple steps of:
1. Click Find People
2. Click Find Friends
3. Entering my email and password (over a secure server) and tada!
There’s my email contacts that may or may not be on Twitter that I may or MAY NOT want to connect with and again … I get to pick and choose who I want.

I don’t want everyone knowing everyone I deal with on a regular basis – especially in a business sense.

Do you want everyone to know where you buy all those super-hard-to-find purple polka-dotted widgets – the ones that took you months of research to find at a deeply discounted wholesale price?

Do you want everyone to know you outsource some of your client work? (You know, the work you pay $5 to have done but your client pays you $20.)

Do you want everyone to know you found this great new PLR website that has extremely well-written content about that super hot new niche?

I could go on and on again and of course some of these things in particular don’t apply to me personally but I know a ton of people who these do apply to and in a very big way.

How about the fact that you and your husband are having … uh, shall I say intimacy problems? You ordered a great new “item” online to “spice up your marriage” and you also decided to subscribe to their “52 Weeks of Spectacular Tricks Sure to Make You Feel Like Newlyweds Again” ecourse. Or maybe this ecourse came “free” with your purchase. Not that any company would do something like this to get you on a list – we’d never do this, right? Hello!?!?

What does almost every online newsletter subscription, ezine or ecourse confirmation email request you do? How about something along the lines of …

“To be sure you get your tips every week, please add: business@businessname.com to your contacts list.”

Look familiar? And just what happens when that particular company decides to add social networking to their marketing plans (that is if they don’t already do so – and who doesn’t?)

Maybe your spouse has … uh, shall I say a problem raising the flag to full mast (to be as polite as possible here) …
Maybe you’re losing your hair …

… Or it could go beyond simple embarrassment …

Maybe you suspect your child is abusing drugs …
Maybe you need help with an alcoholic family member, or you’re a victim of domestic violence or abuse??

And with each of these topics, you’re subscribed to online newsletters.

So maybe I’m exaggerating a bit … but really … am I? These are real life scenerios that could easily happen! I’m not completely making things up here!

And what about children? It’s only a matter of time before this COULD BE the next Twitter. How many teen children are using Twitter? MySpace? Facebook?

Remember my complaint above about “You have to join this new social network!” above? Same thing is happening with our children. Do you want your child’s contact list out public like this? Do you want YOUR child listed on someone else’s contact list?

What happens if a child misses the whole “opt-out” process? Most adults will miss it, gosh knows our kids are probably going to miss it more quickly.

I’m no lawyer here but when you’re involving children here, I do believe this goes way above embarrassment, way above public huimiliation … yeah, above and BEYOND …

Here’s a little tip Google … let me OPT-IN … not OPT-OUT

Of course, this is just my two cents. I’ll step off my soapbox now.

I’m looking for blog owners who are accepting guest bloggers. More specifically I’m looking for the following types of blogs:

Internet Marketing:
All forms, article marketing, affiliate marketing, viral marketing, list marketing, etc. etc. etc.

WAHM:
Anything WAHM related – preferably ones that an internet marketing blog post will fit.

I will be able to provide a copy of the blog post ahead of time for your approval. I will also be giving away free reports to your readers

If you’re interested, please do either of the following:
leave a comment … 
email me at mommyshelperonline @ yahoo.com (without the spaces) with Guest Blogger in the subject line …

Please also include a link to your blog in your message.  

I will be accepting guest bloggers on my blogs in the near future.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Plugin that is … you’re only allowed one. 

If you had to choose one plugin for your WP blog/site … one that you simply could not do without …

What would it be?

Alrighty, it’s time to get real serious!  Actually, I have been serious for quite some time now but this week … this week I plan on kicking some major butt and slimming down that to do list! 

… and yes … I’m talking about slam dunk – nothing but net …

I have a brand new site I am just dying to launch.  I am so excited about this new site for so many reasons. 

• One, it really hits home what I *love* to do online. 
• Two, I’m still going to be doing one of my favorite things to do – which is helping fellow WAHMs rise to the top of the success ladder – and will be doing more of it.  (Actually, not just wahms in general but more like anyone who sells online.)
• Three, I’m finally going to be getting all my “business stuff” online linked together.  Well, this site is only step one of that happening.

Oh I could go on and on here but if I do then I will be just spinning around the ring of the net …

So what’s in store this week? 

• Finally putting the finishing touches on all those reports/ebooks that are so very close to being finished and getting them uploaded.
• Getting them out to my review team for obvious reasons.
• Getting up my squeeze pages (for the giveaway stuff) and my sales pages (for, well I think you know what that’s for, lol!)
• Getting in touch with some blog owners about me doing some guest blogging.

Then if I’m lucky enough to get all that done … it’s time to move onto …

• Getting my affiliate program set up.
• Starting an affiliate center.

I think I better stop there.  If I keep going then I’ll be certain to set myself up for failure.  I’ll start with that and if I get that done … then I can move on.  (And that would be fantastic!!)

So back to work for me … not touching those sides!

Excited yet?  Yeah, me too!  Can’t wait!

What’s in store for you this week?

If you’ve spent any time at all on this blog, you’ll know Anita and I are big fans of of the big players in the business world. GoDaddy for domain names, HostGator for hosting, WordPress for websites, and Aweber for newsletters. But my “side note” of things I had down to do today ended up in a discovery that made a HUGE difference.

I’ve never been a big fan of popups, popunders, or anything that annoys the crap out of me. Although I’ve been seeing some “less intrusive” means of pop ups that I don’t think are too bad. For some reason being able to click the box off the page itself is less annoying that a new window. Don’t ask me why I really don’t know.

So I went in search of a script or something to use to make one of those nifty subscription box page pop ups. Come to find out Aweber provides this, already built in and highly customizable. *Happy dance* All I needed to do was set it up there and use one itty bitty snippit of code that worked flawlessly on my WordPress template (speaking of, have you SEEN the new redesigned Idea Queen? I’m still working off some static pages but I may be moving it all over to blog-only format eventually).

Now for the Numbers….

I’ve always been pretty darn good about putting my subscription boxes all over the place. Every single page in the MIDDLE or TOP of the content. Not tucked away on the side. The conversion rate of visitors to subscribers was about 1-2%. Absolutely pathetic really. 1-2 subscribers a day, 3 if I was lucky, and sometimes ZERO…. for 700-1000 new visitors every single day. Yuck.

As soon as I changed it so a box would pop up (and yes of course I left the old ones in place, I’d be stupid if I didn’t), I had instant subscribers. It was added sometime this afternoon (still early evening now), and I have 4 confirmed subscribers (5 more still unconfirmed, but won’t add those in the total just yet). Now it may seem small but if you figure there’s probably more to come (and I’m taking into account it’s Thursday – not exactly my best traffic day). Averaging just 8 a day is 250 per month, which is a HUGE leap from the 25 I was averaging.

I’ll be sure to post more results later, but I just wanted to share this awesome feature Aweber has (and probably has for quite some time, I’m just now noticing it HA!). Oh, and it’s under “Web Forms”.

While organizing a “real” cookie swap for some friends and family … I started thinking it’d be cool to do something like this online too.  From there it simply exploded!
 
To try and make a long story short, I need your favorite cookie recipe.  With these recipes I’m going to compile a WAHM Virtual Cookie Swap eCookbook.
 
Included in this ebook will be the name and website address of each submission.  (Think – Exposure!)  eCookbooks will be set up so anyone can give it out to whomever they want.  (Think – Viral Marketing!)
 
And … If you submit a recipe, I will create a personalized copy just for you!  There’s so many things you can do with these.  You’ll find a list of things on our details page.
 
Want more exposure?  Submit as many recipes as you’d like!  The more the better!
 
Grab all the details here:
http://www.mommyshelpercommunity.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=14530