Mamas On the Web

Coolest Twitter Avatar

October 19th, 2009 — General

I’m pretty sure Jason Moffatt has the coolest Twitter avatar.

And that’s it for today.

2 Comments

Sidewiki can suck it

October 1st, 2009 — Rants

(I’m really mad, so if you can’t handle a few swear words, don’t read this.)

Google and their Sidewiki can go to hell.

If you don’t know what Sidewiki is, don’t worry. I didn’t either until recently. It’s a new “feature” that Google came out with that allows users to make comments about other websites. It’s a toolbar that you have to install on your browser so you can see the comments displayed next to the web site. Not only that, but you can ~~share~~ spread those comments through Blogger, Facebook, Twitter and Google profiles.

But I have a question…

What right does Google have to allow and encourage comments on MY web site?

Do they pay for my hosting? NO!

Do they pay for my domain name? NO!

Did they work hard to produce the content on my site? NO!

Have they spent hours and hours every week for years maintaining my site? NO!

So get the fuck off my site!! At the very least, give me the ability to turn your shitty sidewiki off.

Way to open even more doors for spammers and assholes Google! Good job!! You think people need a valid reason to be jerks? Think again. STOP MESSING WITH THINGS YOU SHOULDN’T MESS WITH!

I have enough things to occupy my day without adding “monitor sidewiki comments” to my already huge daily to-do list.

I’ll refrain from writing anything further at the moment since I’m a little irritable, but I implore you to read this in case you’re unsure of why I’m so upset about this.

If you think I’m overreacting, wait until you receive one of the comments mentioned in this post on your own website.

What about you? What do you think about Sidewiki?

Update: Apparently I’m not the only one who is fuming mad about SideWiki. Here are two more good reads. The first one is great if you don’t mind a bit of strong language.

The Sidewiki Abomination (I couldn’t have said it better myself!)

The Google Sidewiki Controversy (Sylvie Fortin – very smart lady and much more eloquent than I am.)

What pro-Sidewiki people have to remember is that there are insane amounts of scum-sucking wastes of flesh in this world who don’t give two shits about anyone but themselves and they will do what it takes to make you look bad. They don’t need a valid reason. Sidewiki just gives them an easy way to hurt other people who don’t deserve it. That sounds pretty evil to me.

13 Comments

Too Many Baskets and Eggs, Not Enough Time

September 30th, 2009 — Inspiration and Motivation, Working Efficiently

time-is-money You know how everyone is always saying “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”? While that may be true, it can actually prevent you from reaching your full potential if you have too many eggs in too many baskets.

Information overload is quite common in the online world. It’s also very common to get overwhelmed with all the tasks that come with working online. There are so many options! Which ones do you choose?

Time is money, right folks? No matter how good you are, Santa isn’t going to bring you more hours in the day for Christmas.

If this is you, here’s a little exercise you can try to help you determine which things you should focus on and which things you should drop.

You’ll need to think about everything you do that you consider part of your business building methods and compile them all into a list.

The items that may be on your list could include but are not limited to:

buying advertising
article marketing
social media marketing
affiliate marketing
selling your own products or services
blogging
posting in forums
recording podcasts, interviews, etc.
offline marketing
email marketing
building membership sites
setting up squeeze pages
cost per click advertising like Adsense, Chitika, etc.

For this to work, you’ll need to know how much money each task brings in. This may be hard to monitor in some cases so just do your best and “guestimate”.

Now, take everything that currently makes you money or will be bringing money in soon. Write each thing down on a piece of paper with plenty of space between each item. (Some things may overlap a bit since certain tasks will directly and indirectly affect other tasks, but that’s OK for now.)

Beside each one, write down how much money it makes per day, per month, per year. Then write down how much you think it can potentially make you per day/month/year.

Once that part is done, go back through each item and list how much time and effort each thing needs to keep bringing in that money. For example, blogging may take you 1 hour a day whereas buying advertising may only take a few hours a month.

Now rate each item on a scale of 1 to 10. 1 is “I’d rather stick a needle in my eye than do this.” and 10 is “This is so freaking fun!”

After you have everything written down, take some time to decide what your top 5 items are. If you didn’t have many to begin with, choose the top 3. Those are the money-making methods you should be focusing on.

That doesn’t mean you need to stop doing the other ones, just don’t spend a lot of time or effort on them right now. You can outsource those tasks to someone else, or wait until your top items are on auto-pilot and you have more time to spend on them.

If they really don’t help your business at all, cut ‘em loose.

Ultimately, you want to be focusing on things that not only help improve your business but are also things you can see yourself continuing to do without them becoming chores you despise doing.

The whole point of working at home is to have freedom. You want the freedom to be able to spend time with your family, and also financial freedom so you’re not always tied to your desk.

To get to that point, you need to periodically analyze your business plan as well as your daily routine and update it accordingly. This exercise will help you do that.

2 Comments

Must have manuals for Internet Marketers

September 30th, 2009 — Freebies, Inspiration and Motivation

I’ve been a long time subscriber of Paul Myers’ TalkBiz Newsletter for three reasons. He’s funny, he’s insanely good at what he does, and he has a knack for saying something profound in each one of his newsletters.

Every time I read one, I’m inspired and end up thinking about things in a completely different way which helps me continue to grow – both personally and in my business.

A few newsletters back, when talking about Internet Marketing “Gurus”, he said this:

These folks are not smarter than you, they’re not better than you, and they don’t have mystic Kung Fu powers. At most, they’re a few blocks further down the sidewalk.

So jog a little.

Think about that. Doesn’t that give you a surge of motivation and make you want to work hard? That’s one of the main reasons why I enjoy Paul’s newsletters so much.

You want to join the big leagues? Pick up the pace a little. Work a few extra hours. Go above and beyond. Kick some ass!

If you need a nudge in the right direction, read his report “Why Johnny Can’t Sell”. I read it as soon as he emailed his list about it and I’ve read it a few times since. It’s that good.

If you can read at least 10 pages of it and put any of the ideas you get from it into action today, you’re leaps and bounds ahead of the masses.

If you sign up for the free newsletter, you’ll also get “Need to Know” which is another great report I’ve read more than once. That puppy is stuffed to the nines with useful nuggets that any Internet Marketer can use.

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Freelancers – do you know about these tools?

August 30th, 2009 — Tools

dollar-squeeze 20 Tools For The Freelance Designer On A Shoestring Budget was a post that caught my eye since I’m a freelancer with a teeny weeny budget. (Freelancers with no money? That’s unheard of!)