“The RoseBouquet”

They say a messy desk is a sign of a busy and productive mind, but that’s hard to explain to those who don’t have such a mind. Last week I had a growing sense that I should organize my desk - seriously. So that was my main agenda item on Saturday.

Resourcefulness is one of those things I’ve inherited from my Dad. As I was doing some of these things I realized that others might not come up with these ideas by themselves, so here’s a few tips.

1. Pack up all the old notes, and files in a box and find a place under the desk or nearby to park it, so if you need to get at these archives, you can still pull them out.

2. Tidy up inside some drawers and create space to drop work-in-progress on short notice when cleaning up for company.

3. This means it would be smart to have a container for each project. If it involves full-sized sheets, a folder or a big brown envelope will do. Find a home place that is out of sight for each one, so you can put it away or pull it out fast when you need it.

4. I scribble notes on small pieces of paper or card-stock. Some need to be weeded into the waste-paper basket from time to time, but for the ones I want to save, I cut some used large envelopes in half with a scalloping scissor (straight will do too), and I file a bunch of them in a white vegetable oil jug with a rectangular shape. (I’ve cut off the top and wrapped wallpaper around it). This keeps my notes and ideas in a semi-organized way, and when I have to clear the desk off in a hurry, I set the whole cannister/jug into a drawer.

5. Every desk needs some catch-all containers so that you can spot your pens, and markers, and paper clips quickly when your eyes dart around for them. Rather than scattering them over my desk, I cut up empty tissue boxes like this;

pull away the cellophane in the oval
cut from the middle of the long side of that oval around through the sides of the box, up to but not through the bottom

fold the box along the center of the bottom so the two halves face and touch each other.

tape the ends together so they now become the bottom of your caddy with two compartments.

Depending on the design pattern on the box, you now have a pretty caddy for your odds and ends.

The other day I was listening online (in the background) to an interview with Marnie Pehrson of ideamarketers.com (she has 19 sites altogether!) and she was explaining the value of writing articles to post online in various places, and how it can greatly increase your publicity and image as someone who knows what she’s talking about - an expert in your field.

I’ve read this before and have in the past started to write and spread my articles with that intent. I believe there is something to it, but good intentions don’t get it done. I’m going to try to schedule in specific times to write articles and I hope after a while to become quite practiced at dashing them off.

If you love to write or are willing to learn I suggest this is a good method of getting good quality promotion for nothing - but your time and the experiences and knowledge you have garnered over the years. It is a skill you can learn. Just do a search online for articles about writing articles and then buckle down and try it.

You have nothing to lose and all kinds of benefits to gain.

(Now, watch me try my own advice).

Psst…! I have an idea…. I don’t know how soon I can pull it off, but I think it will bless the socks off of anyone in my downline at MyPowerMall. I would suggest you join up for a free mall, commit to shopping for at last one item each month, and giving away your link to your mall so your friends and relatives can join up under you. You will benefit from your frugal and usual shopping there, and later, if I can pull off my “bright idea” I can enlarge your downline for you in a unique way.

Last week I ordered some vitamins again from Puritans.com through MyPowerMall, and took advantage of their 2-for-1 sale. A little money goes a long way at some of those mall stores! I’d like you to get such advantages too. MyPowerMall

Have you been cringing or turning away from SiteBuildIt! (SBI) because you are not a do-it-yourselfer? You don’t want another learning curve, and you would just as soon focus on doing the part of your business you know best, and hire this part out? Well, guess what - SBI now has a Services Dept that will Do-it-FOR-you!

DIFM (do-it-for-me) gives you….

1) the unmatched track record of SBI! success

2) to skip the learning curve and focus on business

3) a Specialist who thinks more like a business partner than a Webmaster. The focus is on building the business!

Find out more here; Services - SiteSell

P.S. I’ll be training my students/interns to DIY, but once I have hired some VAs, we’ll offer to serve DIFM people too!

Yesterday I discovered a catchall default email was plugged with over 4400 bounced emails! Yikkes. It took a while to delete them all. In the midst of a slough full of bounced emails from an address I haven’t used in many months (meaning someone has hijacked it to use for spam), I found a bunch of bounced emails from my RoseBouquet subscribers to the Ezine edition. Whoa! What happened?

I copied down a number of them to discover any pattern, and it seems the most common error message was; “temporarily deferred due to user complaints.”

And that means?

I realize not everyone checks for emails regularly, so their inboxes can get very full. They may also have set spam filters, and forgotten to whitelist my RoseBouquet address, so since it has links in it and may use some words on their no-no list these friends just don’t see my RoseBouquet any more.

I’m going to delete today those addresses that have shown up the most often. If that is yours, or if a friend of yours complains that my RoseBouquet is not coming any more, tell them to check their filters, and see about re-subscribing, or -

Another option is to see if you don’t already have an RSS reader on your computer (if not, install such a program), and then insert in your list of sites you want to read this link; http://ruthes-secretroses.com/RoseBouquet.xml You will of course, need to develop the habit of checking the RSS reader regularly, but then what you will see instead of the email, is titles and short blurbs for each section showing up - you can click on them, and go to the blog to read the full piece.

The reason RSS is getting so popular is that it bypasses this whole messy matter of filters and missed emails. When I get caught up on my email/ezines, I want to switch over to RSS too.

Perhaps you’ve had your look at SiteBuildIt! (I’ve referred to it often enough, right?) But you weigh your own busy schedule and recognize that there would be a learning curve in doing that, and you simply can’t see yourself fitting that in. Maybe you already have a successful offline business running, and you agree that a website would sure be an advantage, but you’d rather pay someone else to do it for you.

Well, I’ve got good news for you! Ken Evoy, the founder/owner of SiteSell and all those products has announced that now they are offering a new service. They will be your webmaster and build your site for you if you subscribe to this service.

Many small-business people lump “Web sites” in with telephone, business cards and signage. But more and more offline businesses of all kinds are realizing that a Web site should be much more than “just another signpost” for your real-world, brick-and-mortar enterprise. Your Web site must be a powerful business-driver. And it must do that before your competitor’s does.

Let’s get you a Web site that works now.

You have worked hard to grow your own offline business. Now you need a Web site, one that takes your business to a whole new level. Building a site is easy, but building a high-traffic site requires special online business-building expertise that your local Webmaster doesn’t have.

In many cases, local businesses have paid $10-$20,000+ to local webmasters. Sooner or later, these business people start to look for a Return On Investment (”ROI”). And sites without visitors have no business-building ROI. What if instead, you could have a website that builds your business, for under $2000? One where everything is done for you? Do yourself a favour and check it out; http://services.sitesell.com/provision.html

HOT Tip: There’s Plain Tutorials in PEOPLE-SPEAK! available.

March 21 is spring in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s a time of growth and renewal. (If you’re on the other side of the Equator, just pretend it’s September. )

Most people who build a site for you (at least in my area) charge $85/hr and up to $999 to $5000 for a site. If you don’t want to learn HTML coding to do it yourself, (and even if you already know), with an SBI site you get so many quality features like high quality help with keywords and brainstorming, and automated submission to the search engines, etc., that if you can bring your brains and some motivation, you can have a site that is the creme de la creme of all sites world-wide and be assured of success. Your site becomes a web business!

Know anyone who’s looking to get a new business in bloom? Friends and family? Well, good news… Take advantage of this $100 Spring Special. The regular price is $299/year; for $100 more, you can get a second site right now. Make a deal with a friend or family member to split the cost evenly. Then your start up cost will be only $199 + taxes.

For details, please see any one of the following…

SiteSell
Buildit.Sitesell
WAHM.Sitesell
Networking.SiteSell

Last week my student was asking about how to order ink cartridges online. I showed him how to find sites that sell such things, and then how much cheaper they are when you have a PowerMall and can shop at one of the ink stores there. We did some major comparison shopping and in the end, he signed up and was able to order a package of four at InkGrabber for $200 less (about 50%) than if he bought them here locally for his business printers. On top of that, there is the 17.5% rebate coming yet.

He sent out 30 emails to friends and already had a great-niece signed up under him.

Stories like this are multiplying every day. You will be doing yourself a huge favour if you check it out, and “accept” your free mall too; MyPowerMall

P.S. I think I’ve won some free airline tickets for recruiting him…!

Do you know that you could join all kinds of mailing lists (often known as groups) for no charge? As you read the emails of others, and correspond with them, you can learn many new things. However, in that sub-culture there are some rules of etiquette so that you gain friends and don’t get people “flaming” you. (That’’s telling you off in ugly language). A site that has a number of useful tutorials on this topic is - Netiquette