In December, it is traditionally a slow time for us as PrinterBees. It seems the normal online printing business we usually enjoy, appreciate and are so thankful for comes to an abrupt halt during the holiday season.  It’s a trend we now recognize, but what to do, what to do, what to do.

 

I still have people, vendors and expenses that need to be paid and I don’t like not being profitable. I am not a big risk taker when it comes to finances and a small dip in the red FREAKS ME OUT! Okay..I said it!

 

Now, I need to figure out what to do to compensate for our lack of steady business printing during what is the busy season for most, the holiday season. With a big duh! I realized that we need to print more holiday cards, after all that’s what people are printing in December. We need to beef up our designs to appeal to the “consumer side” of our B2B customers, with the thousands is clients we have, there has to be a portion of them that print holiday cards! These clients already use us for printing, they know the quality is awesome, but they think of PrinterBees as a business printer, not a holiday card printing site where you print holiday cards that are sent out to family.

 

We are a bit late to the party, but I’d rather be late than not show up at all. After looking at the collection of holiday cards available on Vista Print, that have been there for years, I have determined that we will be able  we will be able to use the collection of holiday cards for years to come as well.  We are adding about 50 new holiday card designs to the site today. It was a design frenzy, which will happen when so late to to the “Holiday Card Printing” party. I feel really good about the new designs we have and only hope we aren’t so late to the party that it doesn’t help.

 

Time for lots of praying and I hope you will stop by the PrinterBees site tomorrow when the new cards are launched. They really are very nice and our prices are better than most. Wish us luck!!!

P.S. Thank you for taking your time to visit and hope you find the information useful. I hope to help you learn everything you want and need to know about blogging. I welcome your questions (site specific is good) and definitely your suggestions. I hope to answer your questions before they come up or when you find that you have one. By clicking on the Orange RSS Feed button on the left side of the screen, you will be automatically updated of new information available without having to "check in" to see what's new. It's the easiest way to keep up to date. Thanks again for stopping in, I value your time!

You know you’ve had a rough day when the pain of having your muscles stretched as far as they can possibly be stretched feels better than just sitting with the constant muscle pain. I have been stretching my shoulders, back and arms all day and it does little to help. It’s like a muscle spasm that won’t go away, it burns, its painful and It’s super aggravating, I try really hard not to be a whiner and more than anything, not to allow this stupid jacked up “syndrome” have one more moment of my life.

I’m so tired and sore by the end of every day and it is a constant interruption of the things I need to get done and frankly, it pisses me off the. I don’t have time to not feel well! Probably wouldn’t bother me too much if I was the type to be able to sit still. But, I’m not and this is making me crazy.

 

When I feel like this, I really just want to lay in bed all day, but won’t allow it for myself to do that as an option. I so afraid to cross that line, the line in my own mind that would allow me to go to back bed or allow myself to be unproductive for a day. I feel scared that I might like it too much. I’m afraid that if I break my own routine and give in to my pain, my constant discomfort, I will end up stuck there. To allow myself to have a “new normal” that includes ALOT of resting or too much downtime is frightening, it isn’t remotely close to what I see for myself at the young age of 45. I really wish I had a better understanding of how to find and KNOW what the right balance is between being productive and getting stuff done or that of listening to my body and the rest I know I need because I ache everywhere.

 

I recently started seeing a massage therapist to see if it will help. They have admitted to me that I am the worst patient they have. I know it sounds horrible, but it was a relief to hear, it offers additional validity to my aches and pains. At least I know I’m not crazy. I’m continuing to see the Massage Therapist (MT) weekly to see if it improves my situation. I have my fingers crossed.

 

I feel the MT is making a difference, but not quickly enough for me. If you suffer with Fibromyalgia, first of all, I really do feel for you. I really do! It’s simply exhausting to be in pain all the time and know that you still need to get your stuff done. It’s difficult to know how you will feel by the end of the day…like crap! It’s also difficult because the people who are closest don’t necessarily understand. There is no blood, no stitches, no vomiting or fever, even doctors have a hard time defining it. There isn’t one symptom that can be “seen”, so how can it be real? I deal with this all the time, but have found a little relief with Flexiril. If you have Fibromyalgia, and haven’t tried Flexiril yet, you may want to. I had taken the other medications like Elivil and it didn’t work like this does. They are in the same family as I understand it (I am no specialist though) and it really is helping with my muscles loosening up a bit. It the ONLY relief I have found in the 11 years I have been suffering.

 

I would love to hear from you if you have any tricks up your sleeve on how to feel better. I will not be anyone’s lab rat and take the new medication on the market. That just scares me too much. I will stick with medicines that have been around for awhile and tested.

 

Well, I guess I got that off my chest and should get some sleep now. Right, sleep…what’s that? With Fibromyalgia, sleep is always disturbed by pain. I’m on my way to getting the best possible sleep I can. Wish me luck! Thanks for listening to me vent.

 

I’ll keep this short and sweet. I have had hard drives crash before, I have lost data like family photos and baby pictures. It’s like missing chapters of my life. I have learned my lesson the hard way and had to let go of those memories because I wasn’t about to spend what could have been thousands of dollars to restore my data. Even if I was willing to, I likely couldn’t have afforded it, I felt defeated, upset and super pissed off at myself. There was a time in my career that I sold “back-up” solutions, believe me, I knew how important it was.

Not having important data backed up is simply stupid in this day and age. I don’t mean to be rude, but I do mean to get your attention. Don’t become a statistic. Backing up your data is way easier than you think. Now days, it’s totally automated once you set it up.

If your the “statistics type” (like myself), I located some stats from a data recover company. My Managed Back-Up

• A hard drive crashes every 15 seconds
• 2,000 laptops are stolen or lost every day
• 32% of data loss is caused by human error
• 31% of PC users have lost all of their PC files to events beyond their control
• 25% of lost data is due to the failure of a portable drive
• 44% of data loss caused by mechanical failures
• 15% or more of laptops are stolen or suffer hard drive failures
• 1 in 5 computers suffer a fatal hard drive crash during their lifetime

Are you at risk of losing your files? Onsite backup is not enough. Choose the MyPC Backup Online Backup Service!

It’s super affordable to protect your data, which is your greatest asset as a business owner. To protect it costs less than $10 a month, to restore it if have a hard drive failure without a back up…THOUSANDS!

This should not be on your “to do” list…this should be on your “completed” tasks list because there really isn’t anything more important in your business than protecting the data that makes up your business. Not to mention all the personal items you keep on your computer, which can’t be replaced. Just do it, you’ll feel so much better once you do. Trust me!

This article originally appeared on Real Estate Marketing Guru

 

If you have been kind enough to be reading my blog or find it useful at all, I am thankful. It’s important to keep things consistent and to keep blogging regularly about a subject I feel passionate about. If you’ve read the blog, you know this blog has been dedicated to helping people learn how to blog.

As I try to decide what exactly it is I will write about (every bloggers biggest challenge), I realized that I am leaving out so much content that really matters to me personally and I hope will helpful to you. I love blogging and I love teaching people how to do it, that part won’t change…but you can expect to see changes moving forward.

This blog will not only provide great content to help with your blogging efforts, it will now also include everything about running a small business, tips on marketing your business and the struggles and HIGHLIGHTS of being a mother of five children who works from home.

I got to thinking that I am a real person, with real challenges that are likely part of your daily life too. Maybe, just maybe if I am a little more open about exactly who I am, what I do and how I do it, it may be helpful to someone else.

I have a pretty complex life and schedule, it really is completely insane! I’m not sure why I couldn’t share how I do what I do….answer your questions and possibly get some great advice from readers when it comes to my challenges as a business owner/wife/mother/daughter/sister/friend.

I am a student of life and look forward to sharing more of “myself“, but also look forward to hearing your thoughts, comments and advice on the things that come up.

• The best way to engage anyone is to ask them questions about themselves. Most people have one favorite subject in common and that subject matter is “me…me…me…me…me…me”. Isn’t that your favorite subject?

• I was fortunate to have one of the companies I worked for early in my career force me to go to what I thought was one of the most lame sales training courses called “Dale Carnegie”.  After all, I was 20 something and I knew all I needed to know…right?  Wrong!  I think you find that out when you hit 30 something…you know, not knowing as much as you thought you knew.  Though I was forced to go to this training class I thoroughly hated, I chose to make the best of it and take away as much information as possible.  After all, I was there….they were there and I didn’t have a choice.  So, when life hands you lemons, make lemonade.

• One of the greatest gifts I took away from that sales training coarse was reading the book “How to win friends and influence people” By Dale Carnegie.  I highly recommend this book to any person who will take the short amount of time it takes to read it, it will change you and your relationships.  It will help you understand that people simply want someone to take interest in “their stories”, what is going on in “their lives” and that taking an interest in other people really is the number one way to build better relationships.

• On that note, I would like to encourage you to add questions to your blog posts to better interact with your readers.  There are many simple questions you can ask as you close out your blog posts, here are a few ideas:

1. How will this information help you?
2. How do you plan to use this information?
3. How else might I be of assistance to you with the information I have provided above?
4. What experiences have you had that may add to the discussion?
5. After reading what you read, what is your commitment to implementing in your own blog or website?

• I will close by having you think back to the last social gathering you were at and recall if most of your conversations were about you or the person/people you were conversing with.  Which of those conversations were most interesting to you?  How often were you engaged in “interesting” conversation where you were learning about someone else, what they do, etc.  If you are the type of person who finds yourself learning about others during conversations, I bet those people think you are a GREAT conservationist!  I love the old saying “you have two ears and one mouth….remember to use them accordingly”.

• I really am interested in your thoughts and opinions and truly wish to know how you plan to use this in your next blog post, networking event or sales call.

• 

  upgrade to 2.8.6

  It is that time again. Word Press has come out with a new upgrade. You can upgrade your Word Press automatically by clicking at the top of your screen when you first log in to your blog.

• It is important to make sure you keep up to date on your upgrades to keep your blog from getting hacked.  Many times, these upgrades are done to not only add more functions and features to your blog, but to update potential security issues that have surfaced.

• Always make sure to keep your word press blog updated and current as a first defense to keep from getting hacked.

• To help give some ideas on the structure of a blog, I have a couple to point out that may not look like blogs, even though they are. A blog can be set up to look like a blog or to have the look and feel of a website. These websites are actually blogs, built in Joomla, which you can learn how to use by visiting www.onlinebusinessacademy.net.

• When you register at Online Business Academy, you have access to all of the video tutorials that teach you how to build in Joomla. Though this blog is in Word Press, I really do prefer Joomla as a platform and find I more flexibility with it.

• Another site that was built using Joomla as a platform is “San Ramon Homes”, address http://www.mysanramonhomes.com.  Because PrinterBees really does specialize in working with the real estate community, this is an example of one of the sites we have put up to help one of our “San Ramon Realtor” clients.

• The website/blog for Livermore Martial Arts was also built in Joomla, which again you can learn more about by visiting Online Business Academy.

• Happy Blogging and Web Site building.  It isn’t too difficult to get your own sites up with some great how to blog tutorials like the ones mentioned above or on this blog on “how to blog”.

• If you have a Word Press blog, which is the platform for this particular blog, you may be excluding your blog from the Google Index without even realizing it.  Two of my clients were being excluded and I was left puzzled and questioning what I KNEW to be true.  Goes to show that you learn something new every day…and today I learned something new about Word Press.

• One of my clients has a Word Press blog, which he built himself using the free guide “blogging for buyers“.  He hired me to help him find a domain name and I felt really good about the domain we chose.  Based on all the research I did, it seemed as though the domain name alone would help him to yield good search results once he added some good content to the site.   Not So Much!  (learn more about how to chose a good domain name here.)

• No matter what we did and how I coached him, we couldn’t get Google to index his blog.  We have all of the SEO tools installed, had hand submitted the site to the Google Index and NOTHING! I hope this will all change with what I discovered today.  I wanted to bring it to your attention as well to make sure you have your Word Press blog set up properly to be indexed and crawled by Google, Technorati, etc.

• Follow these steps to make sure you are in good shape:

• On the left side of your Word Press screen, you will see “settings”, click on it.  A list of options will drop down, and one of those options is “privacy”, click on it. This is what you will see:
  

• Make sure that your site is set TO BE CRAWLED, and not set to block the search engines.  I am 100% sure that both of my clients who had their settings set to “block the search engines” did not choose that setting, which leads me to believe that it is the default setting.   I can’t think of any other way that it would have ended up “blocking” the search engines and I am very hopeful that now that it is fixed, Google will begin to crawl the site and we will see some activity.

• There is much more information regarding getting found on Google in the Getting Found On Google Section.  Good luck to you on finding your place in the Google Index.

• I recently came across a situation where one of my clients was told by his business consultant that his  blog was for one purpose only.  To educate people  and share good information.  My client was told that his blog should not be used for “marketing purposes” and I tend to disagree.

• If your blog isn’t to be used for “marketing”, then what is the purpose in having it?  Now don’t get me wrong, educating people and offering your visitors valuable information is crucial to the success of your blog, but factoring self promotion and marketing is also important.  You have to find good balance in your blog to make sure you are educating your readers, after all that is what most people are looking for when they read blogs, they want information and providing valuable information will keep them coming back for more.

• My recommendation to you when creating a blog post is to educate FIRST and market second.  If you approach your posts by marketing first, you will most likely loose the interest of your readers within a few moments.

• The best way to use your blog as a marketing tool is to provide valuable information with hyperlinks directly to your product pages where people can take action with the product or service you are offering.  It serves three purposes:

1. Blogs create fresh content which is what “Googlers” want and what Google wants to provide.
2. Leads potential clients to the place to take action
3. Create links throughout your site or from your blog to your site, which helps with your quest to work with Google.

• To learn everything you need to know about how to blog along with what to blog about read “profitable blogging”

• It’s that time again!  Log in to your Word Press Blog and make sure to upgrade it by clicking on the “upgrade now”.

• It is important to make sure you are always on the latest version of WordPress to make sure your blog does not get hacked by some jerk who has nothing better to do than mess with your blog for no apparent reason.   The one big downside to having a blog vs. a traditional HTML website is that they are much easier to hack because when there is a security issue.  Issues are typically posted on the websites where hackers can easily read how hack your site.

• Make sure you back up your site and upgrade it ASAP!!!

• This is what you will see at the top of your Word Press Dashboard showing you that it is time to upgrade.  Click on Please Update Now

• Once you have click “Re-install Automatically”, you will be taken to this screen to upgrade.  Make sure to back up your blog before you upgrade.  Once you have backed up, click on Upgrade Automatically.