Thank you for ALL things which are truly worthy of your praise, Thank you today for the beautiful sunshine, calm breeze, happy children and devoted husband. Thank you for the opportunity to be at home with them and enjoy every precious moment of their lives as they grow and develop through their journey.

Of all the things I struggle with – I think the hardest is poor mental condition and WRONG thinking.

To have a physical illness that reduces your quality of life would be devastating and difficult to cope with – however, suffering mental illness that reduces your quality of life (I believe) is much harder to recover from. Physical stuff can be treated. Mental stuff needs to be resolved. It is a painful destructive struggle to be a victim of your own mind. Unless you come to Christ.

{This is my journey}

The Bible says, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5)

Father, help me to resolve my issues and transform my mind through the power of your Holy Spirit. Help me to consume my mind with your truth and revelation that I can have such a hunger for it nothing will stop me searching and seeking and drowning in your love.

It’s such a wonderful revelation to know “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13)

{Food was my enemy. I’ve had a long battle with Bulimia that I repeatedly tried to overcome in my own strength}

When I am eating, binge eating, I am caught up in the desires of the flesh and completely block out the spirit of God. I know in my heart what is the wise and righteous thing to do – however, I fail to do that when I choose to ignore my spirit. Making decisions that deliberately stop me from tuning into my heart and soul is like saying you don’t want to get wet – but standing out in the rain unprotected.

I repent of this sin Father, and thank you for your forgiveness through the powerful blood of Jesus. Thank you for sacrificing your one and only Son to save me from my old ways.

I get scared so easily and crumble and shut down immediately. Help me to see your help and have stronger faith that all things are working for my good. Please don’t let me doubt. Don’t let me worry. Open my eyes and my heart to see you working in the depths of my life. Give me a constant drawing for your power and convict me immediately when I am diverting off track.

Help me to carry out all that you want me to carry out. That I may glorify you and live to my full purpose.

Please make clear to me, the things I should be doing, the times I should be doing them and the opportunities that are way too good to pass up.

I WANT CLARITY

I WANT FOCUS

I WANT VISION

I WANT YOU!

I want to surrender everything back to you Father, that I may open the door for your blessings and fulfil the one true purpose you have for me.

This is all I ask Father – that you keep my mind simple, my heart pure and focused and my energy high enough to accomplish everything for you.

I pray that I may have a set plan to go about my daily habits and line up the supernatural powers you have waiting for me.

I pray you do the same for everyone reading this article.

Let’s hear an AMEN in the comments below and praise his wonderful Name.

Love and Blessings xox

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Advertising is one of the most traditional – and most used – ways of spreading the word about your business. However, in today’s world there are so many options for advertising that it can be hard to know not only where to advertise, but how to make your ad stand out from all the rest. Here are some ideas to help you determine what will work best for your business and your budget.

Knowing Your Options

In this day and age there are so many advertising options available that it almost makes your head spin. You can advertise online, on TV, on the radio and in print. When you advertise online, you can pay a flat rate, per online click or even per impression.  TV, radio and print ad pricing will vary depending on the geographical location, time of day and size of the ad.

Choosing What’s Best

In order to determine what type of advertising will be right for your business, you first need to establish where your target market is. If your target market is made up of stay-at-home moms, think about where they might spend time – the grocery store, the park, in front of the TV, and online places like Facebook and possibly Twitter, depending on what type of mom you’re gearing towards (which is why it’s so important to be as specific as possible when deciding who your target market truly is).

Once you’ve come up with a list of places – both online and offline – where your target market is likely to be, it’s time to figure out how to reach them where they are. Decide on what where you want to place your ads and then think through what words or phrases might catch their attention. Also, look up keywords (using Google’s Keyword Tool) to see how people are searching online for your type of product or service and use the highest ranking keywords in your ad copy.

Budgeting For Your Business

Now it’s time to decide how much you can spend each month on your advertising campaign. Typically, a start-up will spend around  –5% of it’s revenue on advertising. However, experts like those on SBA.gov recommend that you begin by spending closer to 7-8% of revenue on advertising, splitting this between “1) brand development costs (which includes all the channels you use to promote your brand such as your website, blogs, sales collateral, etc.), and 2) the costs of promoting your business (campaigns, advertising, events, etc.).”

Advertising is a necessity to grow your business. Take the time to lay out exactly where your target market can be found and then come up with a plan to reach them where they are. Budget a portion of your monthly revenue to go towards your advertising expenses and then be sure to do your best to create ads that will get your message across and attract buyers.

** Interested in advertising on CWAHM? As a thank you for being a part of our 40 Days To a Better Business Series, we would like to offer your $20 off any advertising order of $50 or more. Visit us at CWAHM.com/cart and use code 40days.

Miss any posts from 40 Days To a Better Business? Read the entire series here.

Learn more about starting your own business HERE!

Is the grass really greener on the other side of the fence?

How many direct sales companies have you signed up with?  This blog post is for those of you who have been a consultant with five or more companies.  I want you to know that I am in this category.  I have sold jewelry, scrapbooking items, kitchen utensils, skin care and now health and wellness.  I was dedicated to jewelry but I kept looking for items to ‘add-on’ to my parties/events.  I thought if I could add more items to my parties, then I would make more cash.  If I could be a ‘one stop shop’ for my clients, it would be AWESOME.  I could target more clients and also cross-sell my products.

Here’s what happened….  I signed up for more companies, and I got distracted.  I became a jack-of-all trades, and a master of NONE.  More direct sales companies means more paperwork to tote around, more prices to keep in my mind, more product to carry and more monthly specials and quotas to keep.  I felt overwhelmed.  I felt out of control.  I felt like I was doing so much work!  And truth be told, I wasn’t making that much more money.

Have you ever been tempted to sign up for another company?  Maybe their product looks awesome.  Perhaps the consultant does a great job of explaining just how much ‘BIG MONEY’ you can make on her side of the fence.  The more she talks about her products, the more your side of the fence looks awfully brown.  Yep. Brown grass.  And you don’t want brown grass.  You want GREEN grass.

The problem is, the grass is not always greener.  I have studied a lot of direct sales companies.  So how do you truly KNOW if the grass is greener, if it’s going to be worth a change, or adding on a product?

Before you sign up for another company, here’s a few things to ask yourself, or research:

- How much will I make on cash and carry items?

- How much will I make in residual income?

- How much space does the product take up?

-What is the initial investment?

-What is the monthly maintenance cost?

-What kind of support/leadership/training is available?

I would strongly suggest you getting a copy of the compensation plan if possible.  I learned early to pay attention to what I was making.  I actually recruited a team member by this.  She wanted me to sign up for her company, and when I jokingly told her that I couldn’t take a ‘pay cut,’ well, then she was interested in what I was doing.

You have to be able to sit down and calculate what you are making NOW versus what you might make with another company.  Will it take more work? More hours?  I did a dual party one time, with jewelry and kitchen utensils.  I made 50% commission on jewelry and 25% commission on kitchen utensils.  You can imagine my frustration when I did a 2 hour party, with an hour of that spent cooking and sold $350 in product for each company… well, do the math… you’ll understand.

My goal with this blog post is to get you thinking about how green your grass really is.  If you consistently sign up for new companies—and give up on the ones you JUST signed with—you are not ever going to see success. This is mainly because you can’t stick with one thing long enough to know if it actually COULD succeed.

Maybe your grass just needs a little attention.  A little TLC….

Give me your thoughts…

Until next time!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ashley Pratt resides in Northwest Missouri, with her husband and two children. Encouragement is her passion, and direct sales is the vehicle she uses to help others and share her faith. Ashley has several years experience in direct sales. Visit her website at http://workitgirls.myitworks.com.

A backlink is simply a link to your site from another site.  Backlinks are also referred to as inbound links, incoming links and inward links.  Having a good amount of backlinks leading to your site can do a lot for your search engine ranking.  Your goal is to have numerous backlinks from authoritative sites and sites that are relevant to your site.

One way backlinks are much more effective in improving your search engine rankings than the traditional reciprocal links.  A reciprocal link is when two websites trade links but this method has been somewhat abused over the years so backlinks are much more impressive.  Reciprocal linking will still help your ranking if done properly but you want to work on getting powerful backlinks.

Below are ten ways to help you get more successful backlinks to help improve your search engine ranking.

1. RSS Directories – If you have an RSS feed you will want to consider submitting it to some of the top RSS Directories.  Submitting to RSS directories will get your updates indexed and back linked quickly.  Some of the top RSS Directories are Feedburner,  Blogarama, RSS Network and Golden RSS Feed.  Do a search to find many more.

2. Social Media – What list would be complete without social media?  Get involved with your social sites and post relevant content.  Respond to people.  Comment on other posts.  The more relevant content you post and the more you get involved, the more chances you have of people reposting your content resulting in a backlink to your site.

3. Forum Marketing – Get involved on message boards, discussion groups and community sites.  Become a valued member.  Do not just post thank you and I agree with that type posts.  Be sure to offer information and resources that are really helpful to people.  With every post you will have a backlink to your site included in your signature.

4. Freebies – Write an information filled report or ebook.  Offer it free to all your visitors.  Add a page to your site highlighting this freebie and offer people permission to post it on their site as well for their visitors. People love good freebies so this strategy could give you a considerable amount of backlinks.

5. Commenting on Blogs – Some blogs will allow you to add your link for posting comments on their content.  Make these comments count so the blogger will allow them to be posted.  Bloggers want good solid content and comments on their blog to attract more interaction so don’t just attempt to post one-liners.

6. Article Marketing – Write information-packed quality articles and start submitting them to authority article directories such as Ezine Articles.  Watch for article banks loaded with spam articles.  You want your backlinks to mean something to the search engines.  Write an effective resource box and add your link for a backlink people will click on.

7. Web Directory Submissions – Search for and find some of the top website directories.  Be sure to read their guidelines so your submission is accepted.  Some examples of quality website directories are: Web World Index, So Much, Search Sight and Direct My Link.   There are countless more to which you can submit your site.

8. Link Baiting – Link baiting is a marketing strategy by which a person adds content to their site which is designed to gain attention and to get people to link to the content.  A lot of the time, hype and controversy are used for this purpose such as celebrity gossip, news stories, human interest stories, etc.   Using innovative or cutting edge content can gain a lot of backlinks as well.

9. Guest Posting on Blogs – This is similar to article marketing.  Write relevant content for numerous different blogs and submit them for acceptance.  Getting your posts with your link on quality blogs is a great way to add to your backlink arsenal.

10. Blog Carnivals – Blog carnivals are online magazines that accept article submissions from other bloggers.   They are basically periodic collections of links to blog posts and articles.  You can read more about blog carnivals and how to use them for more backlinks at Blog Carnival or Blogger Carnivals

Years ago when linking was first implemented in internet marketing, people went for quantity.  Get as many links as you can but now the search engines are looking for relevant links to high ranking sites with quality content.  Do not just plaster your link anywhere.  The search engines believe in the guilty by association rule.  If your link is placed on a spam, porn, gambling or other poor quality site, it will definitely affect your rating in a not-so-good way.  So, let’s be careful out there and link to the best sites we can!

©Terri Seymour

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Don’t be one of the 95% of people who fail at their online business.  Terri Seymour can help you make money online.  Find out how to increase your traffic and sales with her popular “How to Build Your Online Business” ebook for FREE at:  ==>http://www.SeymourProducts.com.

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One great thing about being in business today is that there are so many options available for your marketing use. There are websites, blogs, social media channels as well as the old standbys of print, tv, and radio ads. Within the last couple of years, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in online marketing. The online advertising realm is continually growing and now the future looks like it rests in learning to connect with your visitors in a meaningful way in every aspect – in person and online. A great way to truly build that connection online is using audio and video.

While blogging has been the go-to source for connecting with your audience online, we’re now seeing more and more websites using audio and video. It used to be that only large corporations had the money to record and process video, but with the advent of YouTube and the price drop in HD webcams, video is now accessible to everyone.

So, how can we best use these tools to reach our audience?

* Audio – A great way to use audio on your website is to conduct interview over the phone or through Skype. Record them and then use a free tool like Audacity (by SourceForge) to edit if needed. Then you can use a plugin such as PodPress to post the audio on your WordPress blog. There are many other tools out there to help you both edit and post your audio online. Simply search for them online to learn about all of your options.

* Video – Video blogging is becoming more and more popular. It is such a great way to interact with your audience and allow them to get to know you a bit. And nowadays you can even stream live video and allow others to join you using Google Hangouts. You can choose to record video interviews, open up for a time of Question and Answer live on the air, or simply record a clip of you sharing about your business. The opportunities are endless!

There are so many great ways to use audio and video to bring new life to your website. Depending on what type of business you run, brainstorm ideas on how you can use these tools to connect with your target market. Here are a few to get you started:

* Interview professionals in your field or even executives from  your businesses’ corporate office.

* Record short clips of yourself showing your products or giving demonstrations.

* Choose a favorite verse in the Bible and record a video sharing what God has taught you through it.

* Give a glimpse into your day with short clips of you in your office or with your family.

Miss any posts from 40 Days To a Better Business? Read the entire series here.

Learn more about starting your own business HERE!

Dana Susan Beasley—Stepping Up to a Bigger Game and Believing God for BIG Things!

Welcome to this new blog feature for CWAHM.com! I am very excited to be part of this dynamic team bringing Christians knowledge on how to run successful home businesses through branding.

I am the owner of AngelArts, a Creative arts agency and publishing house and the creator of an online training program called Brand Identity Quest. I help families create dazzling futures for themselves by showing them how to create business brands that sizzle!

In the first installment of this “Branding for Success” blog, let me share a little bit about who I am and why I do what I do.

As a graphic artist, musician, writer, and homeschooling mother, I am a person who is always reaching for new heights in my life, reaching toward new challenges. Everything I do I feel must have some higher meaning, some higher value and purpose.

That’s why I started my business over six years ago, because I wanted to become the person God made me to be. I wanted to make my dream come true of having a 30-second commute and put my knowledge and passion in graphic arts and literature into sellable products and services that could help a hurting world.

But there was a big problem. I treated my business like a hobby. My business always took last priority and I lived in crisis mode perpetually.

It wasn’t until our rental property foreclosed and my husband’s job became questionable after the recession of 2008 did I realize that I needed to step up to a bigger game. Knowing that going out and getting a job was not an option because I homeschool my son who has Aspergers, I began to shift my thinking. I began to really own the goal of becoming a wildly successful entrepreneur. Because I realized that my dreams mattered to God, that He had placed them in me. Indeed, I mattered to God. And I had something to share that could help people in the same situation that I was in.

That’s when I was given this idea: to create an extensive course on branding for those seeking to have successful home businesses.

As a graphic designer of over 17 years, I knew that I had valuable knowledge to share with those who had a desperate need—to create economic freedom despite the recession, indeed because of the recession. I saw that not many businesses even knew what a brand was, let alone what made for a dynamic logo that gets attention.

Thus started my entrepreneurial journey in earnest, which really became a journey of faith. I had to face my inner fears as I discovered that God cares more about what’s in my heart then about what’s in my pocketbook.

Branding is far and away one of my biggest passions. I had a vision for creating my course way back in 1998! My favorite part of designing is creating logos and unified looks for businesses and ministries. I had many opportunities to do just that when I worked for The Navigators as a graphic designer in their internal communications agency. And I have done the same as a freelance designer.

So over these last several years, I have developed my program and I continue to improve it. God is always giving me more product ideas to work on, enough to keep me very busy for a long time! I became an avid student of Internet marketing and began to see things happen for me, like podcast interviews, expanding my network, garnering local speaking engagements, and much more.

What I’ve discovered even more than my passion for branding is this: that I am passionate about helping Christian families create wildly successful home businesses so they can experience economic freedom. So they can achieve their dreams of staying at home with their children.

While I was building my business, my family was brought to the brink in our financial situation and I continually relied on God for wisdom. He became my CEO. We would have regular meetings and He gave me what I call a divine download: specific steps to follow that would result in God bringing an abundant harvest to us as I sowed the crop He had given me (Psalm 126 The Message).

And here I am! Guest blogging was part of that plan, so I sought out opportunities. Having been in the CWAHM community ever since I started my business, returning here seemed like a natural fit.

In this blog, I plan on giving you gold nuggets of information to help you achieve an effective brand that brings you results. That means more clients attracted to you and your business and in turn, more revenue.

I will be sharing with you the principles I share in my course, so hang onto your hats! It’s going to be quite the journey!

Until next time!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dana Susan Beasley, the creator of an online training program called Brand Identity Quest, helps Christian families create sizzling brands so they can build dazzling futures. A graphic artist, writer, and homeschooling mom to a special needs son, she is the owner of AngelArts, an arts agency and publishing house. It’s purpose is to inspire audiences to reach for new heights in their lives and beyond through excellently-designed publications and products using original art and literature. To take her free mini-course, 5 Steps to a Wildly Successful Home Business, click here to start now.

As yet another epidemic of hacked WordPress blogs is happening around the web, my inbox is filled with panicked emails with questions like, “Help! What can I do to make sure my blog is safe?!”

Here are two important steps you need to take right now to keep your WordPress blog secure:

If you can’t see the video above, click here to watch it on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iASnK8uObKg

Michelle Shaeffer is a trainer and consultant, showing online business owners step by step to harness the power of technology and internet marketing to build successful businesses. She teaches her clients how to save hours and hours of frustration and shows them how to make their online presence work quickly to attract traffic, generate leads, and build authority. Ready to discover step by step how to attract more traffic to your blog? Get access to a free video training right now at http://michelleshaeffer.com/driveblogtraffictraining

by Diana Ennen

So what is article marketing?  It’s writing quality articles and sending them out.  It’s allowing you to show your expertise by providing some of the knowledge you have with others.  It’s truly one of the best ways to get exposure for your business because thanks to Google and the Internet, your articles stay out there forever and you can get results even months later. It’s what you should be doing to get more business!

Let’s break it down.  It’s important to start with a great keyword-driven title, a title that contains the keyword phrases that your customers would be typing in when searching for your topic using a search engine.  It’s also important to keep those keywords flowing throughout the article, making sure your content is keyword rich as well.

Then you get right into the article.  Article content is important.  Be sure to provide information that your targeted audience needs. Your content needs to be interesting, it needs to be full of information, and it needs to have some take away value. Remember this is not an ad for your business.  You want to be really careful that your article is worthy of being read.

Choose your topic and then list four or five tips that support that topic, such as “5 Ways To Work With a Virtual Assistant” or “5 Best Holiday Gifts This Season,”  etc.

See how easy it is?  You open with an introductory paragraph, add in those 5 bullet points with tips, and then close with a paragraph summarizing your article.  Finish it off with your bio and bingo you’ve written an article.

But let’s give some additional tips:

TIPS TO UNDERSTANDING ARTICLE MARKETING BETTER

• Be informative – you are an expert and people value your information.   Give it to them.
• When writing an article, solve a problem, answer a question, tell others how to run their business better or provide tips for achieving a better lifestyle.
• People love to read the top 10 tips, or the best tips for doing something. What area of your expertise can you create a top 10 tips article on?
• Now go a step further, what other top ten articles can you write? It’s easy to follow up with MORE articles.  For example, start a series of articles on the top 10 ways to do something.  For me it would be top 10 ways to write a press release.  Top 10 ways to write an article.  Top 10 ways to distribute an article. Top 10 ways to write a press release.  Top 10 ways to get PR, etc.  See how easy it can be.
• Do a keyword search BEFORE you submit article. Get those words that generate the most traffic as well as those unique keywords that will bring targeted customers to your site.
• Add keywords to title (first few words). Add keywords to first sentence of article & then sparingly throughout.  Use anchor text where allowed.
• BIO — Your bio is what sells you.  Use it wisely and really compel people to hit that link and go to your site.
• You don’t want web links in the article itself, however you want to add them in the bio.  Use them wisely.
• When submitting articles online make sure that you check your article stats. Many of the article submission places have this. Check to see if the articles have been accepted recently? How many hits?  If you discover that the last 5 articles haven’t been accepted, then wait to submit more then.  However, don’t totally disregard that site.  Go back after a short time and see if perhaps things have changed.  If the articles still haven’t been accepted, say good-bye to the site.
• Make sure when submitting the article that you put it in the best topic or category.  For example, don’t just list it in Business.  What area of business best suits this particular article?  For example, business, entrepreneurs.
• You can get great information on writing and distributing articles on the article submission sites themselves. See if they have information on what they accept and how they want it.

Places I recommend you submit your articles to online:

• Ezine Articles
• Self Growth
• Sooper Articles
• Article Alley
• Article Rich
• Go Articles
• Amazines
• Virtual Word Publishing
• CWAHM

It truly is doable, even if you don’t’ consider yourself a writer.  You too can master article marketing.  The most important thing to remember is that you need to rinse and repeat.  Make article marketing a big part of your marketing efforts and you’ll be amazed at the results.

About Diana
Diana Ennen is the President of Virtual Word Publishing, http://www.virtualwordpublishing.com and co-author of So You Want To Be a Work-At-Home Mom: A Christian’s Guide to Starting a Home-Based Business with Jill Hart and also VA the Series: Become a Highly Successful Sought After VA.  Follow her on Twitter @dianaennen

Miss any posts from 40 Days To a Better Business? Read the entire series here.

Learn more about starting your own business HERE!

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I have a terrible confession to get off my chest. It is a secret I have tried to hide from family and friends for years. Up to this point, I have been fairly successful in hiding this but I believe the time has come to clear the air.

Having a secret is a terrible burden to bear especially around people who know you. You always run the risk that somebody is going to find out and then tell everybody and then the whole world knows your secret. The purpose of a secret is so that nobody knows. If it gets out, it is no longer a secret.

I even tried to keep this from the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage, which comes as close to walking on water as I have ever come. Several times, she has come close to finding out this deep seated secret of mine.

Even though this is risky business, I need to make a full confession. Someone has said that confession is good for the soul, but I am not quite sure.

My confession is this, and please do not hate me because of it, I love to take afternoon naps.

There, I said it. I am not sure what it did for my soul but I do not feel any happier about making this confession.

I am a firm believer in what some people refer to as the “power nap.” The problem is I live amongst a people that believe if you take a nap in the afternoon you are either very young are getting very old. The former is not the issue, and I will take issue with the latter.

I must admit that there was a time in my life when I did not take time out for naps. In fact, I had a hard time going to bed before midnight. I hated going to bed and could not wait until morning came so I could jump out of bed and get back to work. Do not get me wrong, I was not a workaholic. I just liked what I was doing.

I am not sure when it started but I noticed a few years ago I was not resisting going to bed like before. I did not fight it is much as I used to. If the truth were known, hopefully it won’t be, as soon as my head hit the pillow the Sandman started doing his thing.

It was not long before I started sneaking 40 winks in the afternoon.

I distinctly remember one afternoon when my wife came in and said, “You’re not taking a nap, are you?”

I know lying is not a good thing, especially to your spouse. Sometimes when you are in a fixed such as I was in at that moment, the truth scampers in the opposite direction.

“No,” I stuttered as she looked at me. “I was just meditating.”

“I guess everybody snores when they’re meditating,” she said with a smirk on her face.

From then on, it was a game trying to get in a nap without getting into trouble. I did find out that after one of my “power naps” I was able to do a lot more work. However, I kept that bit of information to myself.

Then my whole world changed.

Don’t you like it when something happens proving you are right? It does not happen very often to me, when it does, I relish it like a freshly baked Apple Fritter.

I happened to be watching some television news program. I confess I was half dozing and watching at the same time, but suddenly they said something that got my full salute attention.

According to the news story, and they can’t put it on TV unless it’s true, right? But according to this story, research showed that there was a great deal of benefits associated with afternoon naps.

That was enough for me and I, like the gentleman I am, called for my wife to come and watch this news story with me. Some things in life should be shared and this was one of them.

Afternoon naps drastically reduce the danger of heart attack and improve a person’s memory.

“So,” I said to my wife after the story, “what do you think of that?”

She smiled and looked at me and said, “Well, it must work because you never forget to take a nap.”

I will forgive her for the hilarious laughter following her remark. Just so you know, the laughter did not come from me. I may have been smiling on the outside but I was snorting on the inside.

For years, I thought taking an afternoon nap was rather beneficial. Now I have the proof and I can indulge in a daily “power nap” without feeling any sense of guilt at all. I love it when I have been proven right.

Now I take great delight in one of my favorite Bible passages.

“Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”

Matthew 11:28-29

A friend of mine often says, “Come apart and rest a while or you’ll just come apart.” An afternoon nap has unashamedly become part of my daily activity.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Dr. James L. Snyder is pastor of the Family of God Fellowship and an award winning author whose writings have appeared in more than eighty periodicals, including GUIDEPOSTS. “In Pursuit of God: The Life of A. W. Tozer,” Snyder’s first book, won the Reader’s Choice Award in 1992 by Christianity Today. Snyder has authored 35 books altogether. He lives with his wife, Martha, in Silver Springs Shores, Florida. Dr. Snyder can be reached at 352-687-4240 or jamessnyder2@att.net.

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One of the first things that you should do when starting a business is to begin a mailing list. If you’ve been in business for a while and haven’t done this yet, now is the time to get started. Not only does a mailing list gain you the contact information of your customers, it can also serve to help you make sales.

When I started out, I sent an email newsletter once a month. I would feature articles that appeared on CWAHM, interviews with other entrepreneurs and other tidbits of information that I thought my audience would find interesting. I found that it was a great way to remind subscribers that CWAHM existed J and to draw them to the website to see what was new.

As my business grew, I continued to work towards growing my mailing list, too. Once I reached several thousand subscribers I decided to begin sending my newsletter out weekly. I was worried at first that this would backfire and cause people to unsubscribe, but thankfully it had the response that I was hoping for and helped my website traffic grow steadily.

I’ve tried many things over the years trying to make people aware of the CWAHM newsletter and to make it easy for them to subscribe. Here are the things that I’ve found work the best.

Stand Out Sign-Up Box

You want your newsletter signup form to stand out from the rest of your website. Use a bright color that clashes, or at least doesn’t blend in easily to the rest of your site. This will help draw the eye and get it noticed.

Freebie

Once you have their attention, offer a freebie that will get them excited about subscribing. You’ll want to change this out every so often, so that you can promote your new download or whatever it is that you’re offering for free.

Discount

Another great way to reward the people who subscribe to your mailing list is to offer them a discount. I offer a $10 advertising credit to every person who subscribes to the CWAHM Newsletter. It’s an easy way to gain not only a subscriber, but a new customer as well.

Pop Up

Many website owners and bloggers hate the pop-up, but I’ve found it to be effective. I have the pop up on my site set so that people only see it the first two times that they visit the site. This way, if they are frequent visitors, it won’t greet them every single time. I will mention here, though, that when I went to using the pop up, my subscription rate nearly doubled.

Be sure that you’re using your mailing list to offer meaningful content. As your business grows, your customers will learn to count on your emails to keep them informed of new products, special happenings as well as sales and discounts. Use your mailing list wisely and it can be an inexpensive way to drive traffic to your website and gain sales.

Miss any posts from 40 Days To a Better Business? Read the entire series here.

Learn more about starting your own business HERE!

This week we’ve covered:

*Goal Setting

* Building visibility for your business

* Branding

* Why your business needs a marketing plan

* The basics of creating your marketing plan

Next week we’ll discuss some specific strategies we can use to market our business.  What have you learned this week? What do you need to put into action?

Your homework over the weekend (next 2 days) is:

1. Assess your goals, business branding and marketing plan.

2. Begin setting goals for the next several months/years including, if necessary, creating or re-vamping your branding and marketing plans.

3. Set a deadline for when you will complete each task.

Get to work! 

Miss any posts from 40 Days To a Better Business? Read the entire series here.

Learn more about starting your own business HERE!

It’s a beautiful day, don’t let it get away. – U2

Whether or not you’re a fan of the Dublin-based rock band U2, if you’ve heard their song “Beautiful Day” on your iPod or over the airwaves, you might automatically recall the melody line. For others, maybe we needed the sticky nine words above to conjure up the melody line, and now we’re in another world, singing the entire song.

Melody lines wield that type of power and that type of potential.

As we might expect, Bono, humanitarian and main vocalist of U2, is often associated with the term melody line. He’s a singer, after all, and for one of the biggest rock bands of all time.

But what might surprise you is how Bono himself uses that term.

——————

(this post is continued from a previous post)

Excerpt taken from The Deeper Path by Kary Oberbrunner, published by Baker Books, available here via Amazon. More info www.DeeperPathBook.com

Wow, cool news! My daughters and I were contracted to write another book together! How cool is that? This particular book is the follow-up to Girl Talk, which released almost two years ago. This one is a lot like the first in that readers write in with their questions, and my daughters and I answer them. Questions about peer pressure, temptations, popularity, struggles, and anything else a teenager might deal with. But this edition has more of a journal-type feel to it than the first did. We’re really excited!

I love these opportunities because I get to take my passion and my work-at-home focus and marry that with my parenting. Plus, it’s an awesome opportunity to teach my daughters about commitment, work ethics, and priorities. Even better, it gives us an opportunity to talk about issues that are important to teenage girls and work together on something important that can help other girls.

This all came about because of the Girl Talk advice column we’ve been writing together on my website for many years. My publisher took notice of the column and asked us to write the first book patterned after that column. Then they approached me about this second one. Now that we’ve worked together and I’ve seen the awesome benefits that have come from the process, I’ve been dedicated to finding other ways to blend my work-at-home commitments together with my parenting.

I’ve involved my girls in some of my speaking engagements and some of the conferences I’ve gone to. I’ve let them express their individual creativity in the writing of the columns and the books, I’ve sought their opinions and asked for their advice. Not only does it give them ownership into the ministry, but it has provided opportunities for us to spend time together.

Moving forward I’m definitely looking for some other projects we can do together after this one because I want to instill in them a self-motivated, driven commitment to working. I believe the future will be more and more entrepreneurial, and I want him to have an entrepreneurial spirit that matches up with the calling God is raising up in their lives. By working with them and talking with them as we pursue project, I’m able to help them find nuggets of that calling, proof of it in their hearts in their lives. It’s invaluable to me as I seek guidance from the Holy Spirit on how to steer and nurture my kids.

I’ve talked before here about hiring your kids to do work for you over the summer or as you consider outsourcing some of the things you do, I’ve encouraged you to consider hiring your kids to do it. That’s wonderful, but there is an even deeper level of involvement you could go ti if you’re willing. I promise you if you look for some of those avenues and work to involve your kids, even when it costs you time or even money, it will pay off in great rewards.

Some examples might be:

·         Writing

·         Graphic design

·         Making phone calls

·         Managing social media

·         Brainstorming ideas

·         Blogging

·         Launching a special

·         Canvassing an area with flyers

Of course, only you know what your business is and what your needs are. Still my recommendation is you step back and let down the walls that tell you what your limits are and with your teenagers limits are. Open your heart and mind to see the opportunities you might be able to provide for your kids now and how God might use those opportunities to bring you closer together. In my case I’m so happy to say that two of my kids will be able to list two traditionally published books on their college applications. As a mom, that makes me very proud. But I do have three other kids coming up behind them. So I have to pray for opportunities for them as well.

My advice is that you start there. Pray that God would show you what you can do, how you can blend your business and your parenting in a way that makes sense, and how you can use the opportunities you’ve been give to give your kids an opportunity of their own.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Nicole O’Dell, founder of Choose NOW Ministries and host of Choose NOW Radio: Parent Talk and Teen Talk, is a youth culture expert who writes and speaks to preteens, teenagers, and parents about how to prepare for life’s tough choices. She’s author of YA fiction, including the popular Scenarios for Girls interactive fiction series and the Diamond Estates Series (with the 4/1/12 release of The Embittered Ruby), and non-fiction for teens including Girl Talk, 2/1/12, which she wrote with her two daughters based on their popular advice column. Hot Buttons, O’Dell’s non-fiction series for parents (6/1/12, Kregel) helps pre-empt peer pressure by tackling tough issues. Visit www.nicoleodell.com for more info.

Jason Lethcoe has worked as a director, animator, and storyboard artist for the past 22 years.  He is currently employed at Sony Pictures Animation.  His work has been included in such features as The Little Mermaid and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.  He is the recipient of several awards including the Chesley Award for Best Cover Illustration – Paperback Book for his most recent series,The Mysterious Mr. Spines.