I don’t know about you, but getting back to school was crazy. Of course, we had some changes this year and lots to get used too. But now that we are starting to get used to the change, I still need to be aware of the needs of everyone in my family.

In today’s society, we as people have to be jack-of-all-trades. Gone are the days where the man of the house worked while the woman tended to the children and the household. While this may still be the case in a few households, it is not typically the norm anymore.

Most households need a double income to survive, which may not leave much time for leisurely family activities. The end of the day can be tiring and weekends are generally reserved for chores that are not done during the week. Despite these conditions, it is not impossible to manage a marriage, family and your business effectively.

Family life relies heavily on the strength of a marriage. Working in your business and juggling family duties may put a strain on a marriage if a couple do not spend quality time together alone. While it is important to spend time as a family, it is equally, if not more, important to spend time as a couple. Small budgets should not be a deterrent to spending time together. There are several ways to bond without breaking the family budget.

Some ideas for spending quality time together include renting and watching movies together, spending an extra hour in bed in the morning and having a monthly or even weekly date night. Simple activities that allow for communication and quality time will usually strengthen a marriage. It is important to remember that without effective communication and bonding time, a family can fall apart at the seams.

Family activities are important too. Taking a picnic is a wonderful way to bond as a family and to catch up on the new events in each family member’s lives. Spending time together as a family helps to strengthen the bond between parents and children as well as the bond between the parents themselves. Taking family strolls or even sitting down to eat dinner together to discuss the day’s events all help to increase the strength of a family.

Juggling a marriage, a family and a career can be a tedious and downright challenging task. At the end of the week, most people want to rest or catch up on chores that were left unfinished during the week. Here’s a better idea: take that free time and spend it with your spouse and with your children.

Chores will always be a part of life, but family time is so important and it tends to be put on the back burner or taken for granted. The tip to leading a successful career, family and marriage is to set your priorities straight; after all, happiness does come from the heart.

There are many ways to track your website statistics. Of course, there are paid ones as well.  I like to use Google Analytics for my website statistics. Google Analytics offers insight to your website traffic and marketing effectiveness. It offers many easy to use features  to analyze your traffic data.

What exactly does Google Analytics track?

Your visitors

• where are your visitors coming from
• what browser and connection speed your visitors use
• how much time spent on site
• and more…

Traffic Analysis

• whether your visitor found you via a search engine, directly or referred from another site
• what keywords they used to find you
• what pages were viewed the most often
• and more…

Here are a few reasons why you should be using it too.

1. It’s free!  Gotta love an awesome tool that offers so much and for no out of pocket expense.  Plus you can monitor more than one website if you want.  Have a partner?  They can access it easily as well.
2. Packed with features including the ability to set goals.
3. You can link to your adsense account and track how well the ads perform.
4. The site overlay map lets you know at a glance what section of your site is getting the most clicks.

Google Analytics is a great tool for your scrapbook business. Perhaps you are not sure how to implement or get the most out of Google Analytics. If this is the case, I invite you to join my friend Courtney at her Google Analytics workshop.  I plan on attending to make sure I’m maximizing mine. This workshop is only $10, a great value to learn more about your website statistics and how to use them to better your business.  The workshop is August 30 at 9pm central. Can’t make it? That’s ok, you will be provided with the transcripts, audio recording and even worksheets.

Learn more about the Google Analytics workshop…

Learn How You Can Use The Power of ‘Word of Mouth’ To Boost Your Profits

Have you ever visited YouTube? Do you have a Facebook account? Ever received an email from a friend telling you to visit a cool site they found?

Chances are you can answer ‘yes’ to at least one of those questions. Most of us can. And what do each of those three things have in common?

They’re all examples of viral traffic in action. Any time you go to a site or buy a product that is recommended to you by somebody else, you’re experiencing the power of viral marketing.

YouTube got so big because people would email their friends and family with a link to a video they liked so much that they wanted to share it.

Facebook became the giant it is because of word of mouth – people started signing up, finding old friends, and spreading the word on how cool it is.

Wouldn’t you like it if you could tap into that same huge traffic funnel and send it to your site instead? What if I told you that not only could you, but I’m going to show you 21 proven techniques to send a flood of viral traffic to your site! You can learn all this for only $5 if you buy it today.

There are plenty of online communities for mompreneurs (mom entrepreneurs). They are springing up all over the internet. Some of them are free, whereas others are not.

So why should you join them? There are a number of benefits they offer. Here are three of the most important:

#1) Meeting like-minded people

It’s no secret that mompreneurs often feel isolated from the rest of the world, since they are often working from home alone. A lot of people take for granted the social camaraderie that a job can provide.

When you get out of that environment, it’s easy to feel like you are a lone ranger. Therefore, the human interaction is one of the biggest benefits these communities provide. You are instantly a part of like-minded people.

Think about sports teams. Great players can’t win championships by themselves, because they need a strong supporting cast. That’s what communities provide.

#2) Accountability

One of the most important things about internet communities is that they keep you on track with your goals. Lack of accountability is often one of the biggest reasons people fail to achieve success.

How are you held accountable? There are a few ways. One, you can just post your income goals on the main forum, and report on them regularly. This is a great way to use embarrassment to help you succeed. This is because you know that if you don’t achieve your goals, everyone will know about it.

And another method to be held accountable is through mastermind groups. Often times these forums have mastermind groups you can join. This helps each other report on their progress and exchange ideas at the same time.

This is similar to an online community, but mastermind groups take it one step further. They involve more regular meet-ups, and are often done over the phone or in person.

It’s simply a more intense form of accountability. Many successful business owners have reported their income going up dramatically from being a part of these groups.

And finally, sometimes you can find a coach in one of these communities. This is another great way to stay accountable.

#3) Learning from others’ mistakes

One of the biggest advantages online communities provide is acquiring knowledge from other members. For instance, if you want to start a pay-per-click campaign, chances are that somebody in the community is making money from that.

Therefore, learning what they are doing to make it happen will help you achieve success much faster. This will dramatically speed up the process, because you can avoid making the same mistakes they did.

Which communities are the best?

Generally, the paid ones are better. The free ones tend to have a lot of tire kickers, whereas the paid communities usually have people that are more serious about making money.

So the bottom line is, online communities are excellent methods to achieve your goals. They might require a small initial investment, but the end result will be worth it.

My favorite membership for moms is giving away a 9 Day eCourse that gets right to the nitty-gritty of creating a thriving online business.

Network – Passion is contagious. Simply getting involved in your community and meeting other like minded individuals will help you keep your passion going. When you’re surrounded by others who are inspiring and who are inspired by you and your topic or passion, the energy seems to build and flow naturally.

There are two approaches you can take with networking. You can make it part of your everyday business life, networking offline and on, to help build your business and maintain your passion. Or you can get involved when you feel your passion waning. The simple act of communicating and networking with others who are also passionate can renew your love for your business.

Learn – Learning has tremendous power to reignite passion. Often we become stuck in a rut with our own ideas and ways of doing things limiting us. When you take a course, read a book or attend a workshop you’re exposed to new ideas, tactics and strategies. These can be the fresh outlook you need to help keep your passion for your business burning bright.
Like networking there are two approaches you can take. You can create a plan for continual learning and personal development or you can take a course or read a book when you feel your passion slipping away.

Focus on your strengths – Your business can become tedious if you have to spend a lot of time tending to tasks that don’t suit you. Focus on your strengths and hire or find others to manage the other responsibilities. When you’re able to do the things you’re good at and enjoy doing, your passion for your business will be much easier to hold onto.

Take breaks – Everyone needs a break. Even if you’re doing something you enjoy 100% of the time, it’s important to take breaks. Breaks help prevent burnout. They also help your mind stay fresh and your energy stays high. Take daily breaks and most certainly take frequent long breaks from your business. Vacations are a must.

Innovate – Innovation helps you stay creative and creativity fosters passion. Innovate new and better ways to run your business. Innovate new and better ways to solve your customer’s problems and innovate new business building tactics and strategies. Innovation is inspiring!

Expect that your passion for your business will ebb and flow. Like most things in life it’s not realistic to expect a constant state of passion. Accepting this, anticipating it, and working with it will help you actually maintain passion for your business for as long as you own it.

If you’ve been trying to create a Scrapbook Business Plan but keep putting it off because you are afraid to get started, today is your day: this guide simplifies the process and you’ll have your scrapbook business plan written in no time!

You know you need a business plan if you want a successful scrapbook business.

Take this opportunity to create your business plan and get your business on the right track. We sell this report every day for $9 here, but don’t buy it there. You can have it today for only $5 by clicking here: Scrapbook Business Plan for $5 Only

4. Pay attention to your readership. When people comment they would like for you to answer them back. Some ask questions and some just want to let you know that they agree or disagree with what you’ve said. Take the time to talk to them. After all, they took the time to visit and post a comment. Their comments can drive the direction your blog takes in the future if you want to keep them as readers and increase your traffic.

5. Keep your ads to a minimum. Ads are a way for bloggers to make money with their sites. That’s all well and good and a few ads are great and will attract attention. If you post too many, however, visitors might be turned off. You want your content to be the main attraction. If the ads coordinate with your blog niche, that’s good but only a few and at the top of the page if you want them to be clicked regularly by visitors.

Blogging is an art. Creating interesting content and keeping readers coming back is a job. If you already blog, use these five tips to enhance your value to the blogosphere.

1. Not publishing often enough or not publishing regularly – If you want to build a community around your blog, the key is to create content on a regular basis. People like to subscribe to their favorite blogs and make reading them part of their daily or weekly habit. If you’re not providing enough content to satisfy their habit, meaning at least one new post a week, then you’re likely going to lose readers.Additionally, more posts boosts search engine results. Whether you post frequently or rarely is not as important as whether you publish regularly. You need to set your readers’ expectations, so find a rhythm that suits you and maintain it. If you are going to be away, write posts in advance and set them up to be posted automatically at your usual time. You need to maintain momentum.
2. Not connecting with your readers - One of the biggest differences between a blog and a website are the visitor expectations. People expect a blog post to be more personal than an article. Your readers will want to know something about you. You can accomplish this by posting in first person, “I”. You can also share personal stories in your posts and always be sure to include an author biography, and preferably a photo to help you create a relationship with your customers.
3. Not having an option to subscribe - There’s nothing worse than finding a blog with great content and not being able to subscribe to it. Make sure you offer your readers an RSS option. In fact, the more subscribe options they have, the better. Some people like to read posts in a reader, some like them emailed to them and some use iGoogle type pages and want a list of all new posts for easy reading and access. And not having subscribe options does your blog a disservice because you’re losing potential readers. No one wants to have to remember to go read your blog. Make it easy for them and let them subscribe!
4. Not tagging or using some sort of SEO plug-in to optimize your blog for the search engines - With all the technology available today it’s a shame to miss out on search engine traffic when all you have to do is install a search engine plug-in to your blog. These plug-ins make it easy to optimize each post for keywords and to drive traffic to your site.
5. Not collecting data - Do you know what types of posts your audience enjoys the most? Do you know what posts they don’t finish reading? Do you know how long people stay on your site? If you use an analytics program or plug-in like Google Analytics, then you know the answers to these questions and can customize your information accordingly. If you don’t know what your visitors are doing on your site, then you’re blogging in the dark.
6. Not using your data – It isn’t enough to simply install an analytics program: you have to analyze the data and put it to use. For example, many bloggers have found that list-type posts are the most popular posts on their blog and have thus altered their content strategy to include at least one list post weekly. This helps you meet your readers’ needs and helps you retain readers and drive traffic.
7. Promoting too much – Some blogs resemble a series of sales messages. People don’t want to read sales letter after sales letter; they want to read content. It’s okay to promote on your blog. However, it’s important to remember the 80/20 rule: 80% valuable and informative content and 20% promotion.

Blogging mistakes happen. The important thing is to learn from your mistakes and make corrections. The best way to blog is to create a strategy, test and track your tactics and readjust your strategy as needed. Blogging, like many other website endeavors, is a learning process and a business.

#1  Ask a question. Many people don’t comment on blogs because there’s not much to say. The old, “Thanks for the information” becomes tired and feels unproductive most of the time, unless you can actually contribute feedback or answer a question. So ask your readers to get involved, ask them a question.

#2  When people comment, ALWAYS respond to their comment and…ask a question. When subsequent reader see a dialogue going on they’re more likely to chime in and participate. This really works!  Engage your commenter’s, they’ll become more active on your blog and you’ll draw others into the conversation.

#3  Leave something out. Depending on your readers, many times if you leave something out of your post, someone is going to feel compelled to let you know or to share the information. Of course once they do, go back to #2 and acknowledge their input and ask a question – get a dialogue going.

#4 Make it easy to comment. Generally, this requires skipping many of the hoops people have to jump through to comment, like logging in. This is a personal decision for you as a business owner because of SPAM issues, there are other ways to manage your comments.

#5 Some bloggers have found great success by letting people edit their comments. This has its benefits and drawbacks. You certainly don’t want someone to go in and later delete their comment however, it may motivate others to comment if they know they can edit themselves.

#6 Check out a few blogging widgets and plug-ins. There are many plug-ins that enhance the user experience like CommentLuv and the ability to subscribe to a blog post’s comments so you can actively participate in a conversation without having to stay on the page.

#7 Let readers create a profile that links back to their website. Yes, this is a double edged sword because you’ll undoubtedly get the comments saying “thank you for the post” simply so they can generate a link to their site but it does promote commenting and you can always block the folks who abuse the system.

#8 Pay attention to the posts people comment on. You may notice your audience has a preference for a certain topic or type of post. Tracking this information can help you generate a more active, and potentially useful, blog.

Remember that it takes some time to cultivate a following on any website or blog. Continue the strategies and tactics you’re using that are effectively driving traffic to your blog and try to utilize some of these points for getting more blog comments. As always, pay attention to what works for your audience and make the most of it!

Every Friday, I’ll bring you a tool, a report, something that will help you grow your business for just five dollars. Today’s $5 will get you 4 videos that will help you start your business on the right foot. It’s called IM Quick Start Strategy.

Here is what you’ll get:

• Video 1: The Best Internet Marketing Business Models For A Beginner
• Video 2: What To Do When Starting From Ground Zero
• Video 3: Jason’s three biggest newbie mistakes
• Bonus Video: Robert’s Newbie Mistakes

Not only will you get the video,l you’ll also get a PDf with the video transcribed, and an audio file so you can listen to this info any time you want.

And just because this is my first day here, I decided to give you one more thing, this time for free!

If you have a website (and you should), this little tool will help you get your site indexed in no time. It’s called Quick Site Indexer.

If you don’t have a website yet, check out this post: Starting Your Scrapbook Website or Blog.

Have a great weekend.