Answer: 70% !! Have Faith, Work Hard, It'll Happen!!!

Business owners in the “real world” don’t start a business without doing their market research.

You wouldn’t buy a franchise, or open a store front without first doing a business plan, doing your market research, creating a SWOT analysis, understanding the costs, creating a five year plan, knowing exactly when the business will be in profit, etc.

So why the heck do people start online businesses on a whim?

Why do people just dump their hard earned money into a business based on one sales video, or the fact that they think the Guru marketing the business seems cool, etc.

Because most people don’t actually expect online  businesses to do much of anything.  They treat it as a hobby, as something that might, with a bit of luck, get them something someday.

They limit their investment so that it doesn’t feel risky (thus dropping their chances of success down to basically nil as their business is underfunded.)

They limit their time spent on it because they don’t want it to interfere with their “real life”, and they want to have wasted too much time on something that is probably going to fail.

They typically quit after about 30 days if they haven’t started to make money.

Is it just me, or is that completely CRAZY?

Could you imagine someone starting a brick and mortar business and expecting it to be in profit in 30 days?

That’s nuts.

There’s so many advantages to a home business, the entry costs are achievable, you don’t have to find a premises, you probably don’t need to go into debt to get it started, and the risk is minimal.

But if you start with the expectation of “dipping your toe in the water” you should know that it’s not going to work out for you.

To have a successful home business you need:

1. To fund it (figure out in advance what it will take to be successful, and plan to cut that money out from other areas of your budget).

2. To work it (plan on investing at least an hour or two a day…. if you want to be making big money fast you’ll need to spend more time)

The great thing about online businesses is that they work on momentum.  Why can you sing the jingle to multiple ads on tv? How come you know the slogan of many popular brands? Because advertisers know that buyers make decisions based on exposure.  The more times a day they show their ad, the more they expose you, the more likely that you will think of THEIR product when you need an insurer, or cereal, or whatever.

Online marketing works much the same.  When someone sees your name and your picture everywhere, when they see that you are active and serious they are many more times likely to think of you when they decide to buy, and to trust what you have to say!  This comes from time investment.

The result is the more time you put in the more exponential your success can be.

3. To Treat it Like a Business

Give it time, and don’t quit.  You will need to find a way to become consistent in your work (to help with the momentum) and actually work the business as though this will be your only source of income.

Expect to spend at least 3 months getting your business really off the ground.  If you aren’t willing to spend 3 months to change the rest of your life then I’d like you to go to the top of this screen and click that red close button…. because I can’t help you.

Treating this like a business means taking it seriously from the start.  Create an “Evidence Report” for your prospective business before you join to understand if it’s actually a good opportunity or just hype.  Here’s an example Evidence Report I did for the business I decided to join.  You can borrow the format for your own Evidence Reports.

Stay strong, stay focused, and never give up the drive to change your life and follow your dreams.  If you take the time to treat this like a business from the start, to look at EVIDENCE not hype you are far more likely to take a logical, methodical and consistent approach to your business.  If you make decisions based only on emotion, you aren’t likely to ever treat the business seriously.

Go find out what it means to join a serious business and understand EXACTLY what you will need to do to succeed by checking out my example Evidence Report here.

As an internet marketer myself it may shock you to know that my general opinion on Internet Marketing is that…

It totally SUCKS!

Yup, most internet marketing is about manipulation, stretching the truth (or flat out lying), and trying to get each other’s money on the pretense of “being there to help”.

Look at it this way….

This is the “relationship” between a prospective customer and most internet marketers:

1. Prospect signs up on list to learn more from the “Guru”
2. Guru attempts to sell Prospect information
3. Prospect buys information and then get’s moved to the Guru’s “Buyer List” as the Guru knows that someone who’s already bought from the is much more likely to buy again (people like to make decisions that support earlier decisions they’ve made…. also those who buy from one Guru is more likely to buy from other Gurus).
4. Prospect now gets hit by even more sales emails, each one marketing a NEW info product as the way for the Prospect to FINALLY make some money.
5. Each product gives just enough GOOD info to keep the Prospect feeling like the Guru knows what they are talking about, yet has just enough GAPS in info to keep the Prospect from succeeding.

This about this from the point of view of the Guru for a moment:

If the Prospect starts making good money using one of the info products they no longer need to buy from the Guru.

If the Prospect does EXACTLY what the Guru does, then they will become competition, thus making it harder for the Guru to succeed.

So the temptation is for the Guru to leave out vital little bits of information that would help the Prospect actually succeed (i.e. telling them to run Solo Ads, but not telling them about their awesome source of Solo Ad providers! Hint: For Solo Ads I only use Safe-swaps… go look it up on Google, because I’m serious that it’s good and I’m not after a commission!)

Ok, so why does the Prospect KEEP buying stuff from the Guru when it Doesn’t Really Work!

The Guru has an incredibly compelling Rags to Riches story that makes the prospect think “If this lame-o can do it so can I!” (ok, that’s a bit of a joke, but they typically relate to a strong story!)

The information is usually really good, but most Guru’s don’t manage to give the complete story, thus holding the Prospect back… but the Prospect doesn’t know there are gaps!

Most people tend to blame themselves.

So Propects think it didn’t work because they weren’t good enough, they didn’t try hard enough, or they just aren’t SMART ENOUGH to figure this whole thing out!

Can Internet Marketing Be Fixed?

YES! Although most internet marketing sucks and keeps the majority of people stuck, there are ways forward.

One is in WHAT is being marketed.

If you want to market to people and make money online without becoming “Guru bait” and without becoming a Guru and shattering people’s dreams and keeping other’s poor (cause face it, most people don’t have the stomache to hold others down to get to the top), follow a few simple rules.

The Internet Marketing Revolution

1. Market tools with information that supplements the USE of the Tool

If you earn commissions off of tools rather than JUST info, you will actually be providing the Prospect with something they can use to apply information and that will benefit them.

Make sure it’s something you actually use and KNOW has value, otherwise you will simply kill your relationship with prospects.  It has to be something that is easy to use for people at all levels of internet marketing (i.e. not too complex).

2. Market continuity products so that it’s in your best interest for your Prospects to actually SUCCEED!

If you make a sale once on an info product it wont really matter to you if the prospect is successful or not.  But if you are marketing something that pays monthly (again a real TOOL) then you will get a monthly commission.

People will only continue to pay a monthly commission if they are actually making money or having some sort of success with the tool.  This means that it is actually in your best interest for the Prospect to be successful so they will continue to pay.

Instead of the traditional internet marketin model (wanting the Prospect to fail with the info so they will need to buy MORE info from you), you now want the Prospect to succeed with the tool so they will continue to pay for it and you will continue to make commissions.

Make sense?

3. Use leveraged income to encourage genuine HELP and create a TEAM relationship.

Instead of having a Guru to Prospect relationship you want to encourage a Leader to Team Member relationship.  It’s simple to create, but again starts out in WHAT you are marketing.

If you have a stake in the success of your team members, you will be motivated to actually help them, even when they struggle to continue on.  A leveraged income means that if you help someone to succeed you will also Earn something from the Team Member’s success.

This is most famously understood through network marketing, however these days many affiliate programs also allow for a leveraged income (via earning a percent of your team members sales, or where the product is 100% commission earning pass-up sales for helping the team succeed).

This will also help you to create a residual income as your Team Members begin to learn and create their own success and you begin to earn money without having to work for it!

4. Get Specific and offer Toolkit Items for your Team.

The WORST thing about most internet marketing training is that it is vague.  It gives the reader a sense of “rightness”, a sense that this would work, if only you could grasp exactly what the heck you are supposed to do about it!

For example, it’s all very good for someone to tell you to blog because blogging is CLEARLY where big incomes are being made online, but what the heck are you supposed to blog about.  You sit down to work on the blog, and haven’t a clue what to write.

To counteract this effect you NEED to make sure your team members have something tangible to work with while they are learning.  They need to know the business will move forward for them while they learn the neccessary skills.

There are a few ways to do this, but I find that what works best for new people is only requiring them to be able to copy and paste! Many people start at totally different technical abilities… but the majority of people can handle copy and paste.

For example, this blog is fairly generic… it doesn’t have any personal stories in it, so I will make it available for my team to use on their blogs without having to pay royalties or personalize it. (Learn how to get a team blog going here.)

It goes further than blog posts as well, you will want your team members to have copy and paste email messages to send to their prospects, etc.

Remember, the easier you can make it for your team members to have success the more likely they are to stay in the continuity program (earning you money), to make sales (earning you pass-ups), and to get through the difficult “newby” stage.

The most important part of this method is:

It doesn’t SUCK!

This involves people being motivated to help each other and to work as a team, instead of working as competition!  We can change the face of internet marketing.  We can help people become successful and earn money through genuinely helping others!

Learn how to become part of the movement by entering your details at the right side of this page… you’ll get free access to the video that absolutely changed my life and the way I look at internet marketing! (It also helped reaffirm my faith in people!)

To a truly helpful, profitable, and fulfilling internet marketing business!

My Little Monsters!

Pretty bold statement coming up:

I’ve uncovered the key to happiness!

Yep, exciting stuff.

Ok, little bit tongue in cheek there, but truly, happiness is something that is attainable in your life right now today.  It’s all about embracing the things that naturally make us happy.  This will be different for different people, but the principles are still the same.

Why does this matter?

People don’t want to work with someone who is miserable and unhappy all the time.  They want to work with people who ooze happiness, vitality, and growth.

If you really want to have your home business grow, or make big changes in your life, it all starts by finding the little ways to get happy so that you can move forward and achieve everything you’ve ever wanted.

My Story

First off, let me tell you a little story about me.

I’m a worrier.  I’m a skeptic.  And until recently, I’ve always found ways to be unhappy in my situation, or when I do find happiness I’ve worried so much about losing it that I don’t ever get to really enjoy it.

When I started my online business years ago I always had one mantra in my head “Gotta get out of my job, gotta get out of my job, gotta get out of my job…” I never got very far.  I was so focused on the idea that my job was completely miserable and that if I could just escape it life would be blissful, that I couldn’t really motivate myself to work hard on my business.

I would blame the job.

The job had made me too tired, the job had “taken my soul”, the job was soooo bad that there was no room to move forward.  So I would give in to tiredness at the end of the day, and on my days off I would be so desperate to not feel bad that I would rather spend the day distracting myself from life with the tv that I never really managed to get my business off the ground.

Then I decided to take some drastic action.

It was time for what I call a “life interrupt“.

When you get into those cycles of worry, fear, and feeling sorry for yourself you often have to interrupt the pattern to make a change.

There are several ways to do this. A holiday, temporary assignment (change in work), a sickness (usually this is a FORCED life interrupt when your body tells you, you need it!)  For me my interrupt was a baby.

Seriously, I decided to have a second baby so my little girl could have a sibling, but also to enforce a change in my life.  And boy, did it work!

I began to focus on what was important.

Instead of thinking “Gotta get out of my job…” I started thinking “Gotta be with my kids… gotta be with my kids…”  From that mentality I found myself working harder, working smarter, and finally making breakthroughs in my online business.

And guess what? Now I’m getting to stay home with not just the kids, but their Daddy as well.  The biggest problem looming is that my brother is arriving at the airport at 7.30pm next Tuesday and that conflicts with my Fashion Design class

Here’s the secret…. and it’s not some mystical mindset thing (like success will be attracted to your good mindset)…. it’s pure FACT.

If you are happy, you are more likely to be optimistic about the possibility of your success, which means you’re more likely to do the work needed to get to that success, which means you’re more likely to feel good about yourself, which means you’re more likely to be appealing to others as someone to follow.

Make sense?

So if you get happy now…. you stand a VERY GOOD chance of achieving your dreams.

The Principles of Embracing Happiness NOW

1. Do Things That Make You Happy

Seems a bit obvious, but you’d be shocked at how many people, want to do something someday.  Just do whatever part of it you can do now!

I want to someday be able to design and make my own clothes.  So I joined a design class, I asked for a sewing machine from Santa, and I started to sew things.  I’ve made some mistakes, I’ve been frustrated, but it’s been SO much fun!

I also want to write novels, so I’ve started reading novels every day, learning about the topics I like to write about, and next I’m going to start writing creatively daily (at the moment I blog daily…  but not sure that that counts.)

I also LOVE my kids… so I spend every bit of time I can playing with them.

2. Get Rid of Distractions

If you’re wondering how I have time to do all that and spend 3 hours a day working my business…. well, it was tough at first.  But it was a matter of choice.

I decided to quit watching so much tv.  After about three missed episodes of any serial show, I found that I didn’t miss it that much anymore. Now I’m down to about two shows (both of which are about fashion design)…  although, I have to admit, I don’t think I can miss Survivor, lol.

I also stopped spending much time on the computer apart from my three hours of work.  It turned out that I didn’t need to respond instantly to any email, and only checking Facebook once a day didn’t make me miss crucial happenings.  And it was so, so freeing! I had no idea how much time I was wasting on that thing.

Now if I sit down with some spare time I don’t find myself reaching for the laptop, I find myself picking up a book or getting out my sewing project (trying desperately to get a challenging dress done in time to be worn for a wedding in less than two weeks!!)

3. Build Something

For most people, if you’re not growing you’re dying.

Nothing feels better, or can make you feel better about yourself than building something over time and watching it grow to something huge.  You rarely will feel like this about your job, because you aren’t usually seeing the overall results of the daily actions.

Building an online business is about the most exciting thing I can think of.  Seriously, imagine that first email coming in saying you’ve just earned $25 commission! OMG, it feels awesome!

Even though that is a tiny commission, it’s the little steps that are just so unbelievably exciting. Something no one tells you is that this business is adictive! It’s not about arriving at a six figure income with as little work as possible…

It’s about creating money out of thin air.

It makes my spine tingle even thinking about the people who will read this, who will get it, and who will have breakthroughs in their online business.

And when you arrive at that goal, you will probably set another goal, reach further and further.  Because there is always room to grow!

My next goal (now that we both get to stay home with the kids) is to have a big enough monthly income to move my family to California… I’m on my way, and it’s unbelievably exciting and fulfilling

You can start your online journey with me by learning about what my team does here.  Or you can do something else, but just DO SOMETHING!

Stop moaning about your circumstances, or how miserable life is, and just GET HAPPY NOW! I promise it’s the only way to get on the path to your dreams.

Ok, I like to speak the truth, the WHOLE truth, and nothing but the truth on my blog.

I hate manipulative marketers, who hide the downsides of their business, who don’t tell you how much actual WORK is involved in making a real online income, and who try to sell you on something different every single week.

It’s annoying, it’s unethical, and in my humble opinion…. it’s morally WRONG!

Well, in the spirit of total honesty I have to confess something.

Not all Guru’s are evil.

I tend to rant about how the Guru’s just want your money, want to manipulate you, and want to keep you struggling so that they can suck yet more money out of you through more product sales.

But this isn’t always the case.

You see, many, many people in life want to use their influence for GOOD.  And sometimes the “gurus” are just ordinary people, who’ve achieved extraordinary things, and genuinely want to be a force for good in the world.

What made me come to this realization?

A big metaphorical slap in the face.

First, let me tell you about Empower Network.

Empower Network is my primary source of online income.  It’s what I sell over and over because it’s what I use myself, it’s w0rked for me, and I TRULY believe it is the only way forward for people who want to make an honest and stable online income.

Why do I market Empower Network?

-Because I made back all my money and MORE within a few hours of buying it (yep, this WAS through marketing to a list of a bout 400 people)

-Because after the initial money I made more sales from new people who had never been on my list before! (so I knew it worked even for people starting from scratch!)

-Because it isn’t just marketing INFO, it includes the TOOLS to effectively apply the knowledge. (i.e. it teaches people HOW to make money online, and also provides real tools to actually APPLY the knowledge!)

The Downside of Empower Network

-It was so popular that it had MANY technical problems in the first few months.  This didn’t stop me from making money, but it did get a little frustrating and certainly put strain on the massive (and quickly growing) community of users.

-It was run by Gurus.

So my problem with Gurus has always been that they seem to care more about making money than actually helping people, and in their RUSH to make money the little people can get crushed.

So I just assumed that David Wood and David Sharpe, who founded Empower, were your typical Gurus.  I loved their product, used it, and marketed it, but I still felt that they were probably money grabbing “gurus”.

See Guru’s hide the truth, they manipulate, and they keep people down to squeeze more money out of them.

But David Wood just wrote the most heartfelt, genuine, and open email about his story of struggle in starting Empower, and I have to put my hands up and admit….

I Was Wrong.

Dave really is (as he calls himself) the “guru slayer”!

Here’s the email he sent me, great story, and I know that I too will ALWAYS get back up to fight:

AKA How I Stopped Making Calls and Started Making More Money…

Phone calls suck.

Back when I was doing a traditional network marketing business I had to do two things I absolutely HATED….

1. Call Leads

2. 3 way calls (wish there was a puking emoticon on my blog to put here to explain just how much I HATED it).

Now, at the time I was in what is called a “top-tier” business, which was probably pretty much the worst choice for me.  I would have to get people to invest $1500 to just get started, pretty tall order for a slightly shy phone-phobic young lady.

I had all the scripts in the world, I had all the training in the world, but I still felt like I was going to vomit any time I picked up the phone.

So I would work very hard and put money into getting leads and then come up with ANY excuse not to call them….

“But they’ve only just come in, calling now would look desperate”

“But they’ve been there too long, they wouldn’t know who I was if I called now.”

It didn’t help that being located in Ireland I couldn’t just lift the phone to call, for most of them I had to set up the computer for Skype, put on a big headset and try to get my tummy to behave long enough to call.

I can’t tell you how much I loved answering machines.

I used to believe this meant that I was perpetually screwed.

That I’d never be good as an entrepreneur because I didn’t like talking to people on the phone.  And THAT made me feel like a failure.

So then I tried to set up systems that would do the sales-pitches for me…. I tried to make a video funnel that would sell my products without me picking up the phone.

But you know what, almost no one pays $1500 to someone they haven’t even talked to on the phone.

AND, I’m not a salesperson…

So even my funnels didn’t really convert much of anything.  I’d tell you how many hours I’ve spent setting up “systems” to do things for me… and then they just didn’t… but it’s too depressing, lol.

Now when I DID get someone “on the hook” and got them to the point where they had a few questions…. then came the three way call.

I luckily enough never got enough team members to need to be the question answerer on a three way… BUT I did bring a lot of three ways to people.

And what about when you have someone waiting on a call, you tell them you’re calling back in 30 minutes… and then you can’t get ahold of your sponsor!!!! Eeeeeeek!!

That’s not a nervous tummy feeling… that’s breaking out in a cold sweat!

I could go on and on but honestly, you get the point… phone calls and me don’t mix.

It’s no wonder that I could never get a business that was based on phone calls to work!

So I gave into that feeling.  I said FINE, I’m not going to suddenly hypnotize myself into liking phone calls…

I GIVE UP!!

Not on business…. but on calling leads and prospects, or doing 3 ways.

I was going to find a product that I could make a lot of money on, that didn’t require a phone call.

And…. I started to make REAL money!!!!

Why???

What Your Phone Call Does to Your Prospect

Whatever you do to get a person into your business is what they know they will have to do to recruit others.

And until you understand this, you will never be attractive as a leader to others.

If they see you making phone calls, no matter how much you “posture” they are going to assume they will have to make phone calls.

And do you know what?

I’m not the minority!!!

Most people HATE calling strangers and would bash through a brick wall to not have to do it! Why do you think cold-callers are paid well?  Because it’s a crappy job!

When you get them on a three way call they start to envision their entire life being taken over by doing sales over the phone!

Why?

Because if they are successful, they are going to be at the mercy of desperate team members begging them to get on the phone and “handle objections”…. YUCK!

Is that something you would sign up for? Heck No!!!

No matter how much people tell me something is three easy steps, when step one is call a lead, and step three is close…. I’m RUNNING in the opposite direction.

How I Earn More Money Without The Phone

I stopped doing stuff I hated.

I found ways to leverage my time and efforts, so that the signups would happen naturally as long as I was doing what I do best;

Creating true relationships, writing from the heart, and being social.

Now I don’t solicit business from my friends, but I create friendships and then allow every possibility for my friends to see what it is I do, without shoving it down their throats or picking up a phone to “Qualify” them.

I do it by writing this blog.

I have a blend between pieces that are written about whatever is on my mind that day and pieces that help people understand blogging.

Because I LOVE blogging!

I use leverage by letting other people take over the sales, funnels, and most follow-up.  And that is only because I use the blogging platform that has all that stuff built in.  All I do is write, and share my pieces.

I get to focus on being AUTHENTIC … and I allow people to come to me.

When people have questions they might send me a message and I reply with a blog post or prewritten response.

When people ask can they get me on the phone to talk about it, I say NO.

I tell them I’m sorry, but my phone schedule if for paid members only so I can best help my team.

Quite often they will join and pay the nominal blog fee because they respect my answer!

And it does mean that instead of spending hours on the phone with people who may or may not join me… I’m spending one hour per day with team members.

These are people I already have a relationship with, so I can simply tell them about how to use their blog to get the quickest results…. I’m talking about HOW not WHY… and that is the difference.

My team already knows WHY they should have a blog, that’s why they got the system.  I just help them understand how to make the blog work for their product, their target market, and how to create blog posts.

And do you know what’s weird?

I enjoy those calls!

I don’t get random calls because I use a group setting to create ongoing training for the team, no one wants me to do threeways or help them convince someone they should buy a dirt cheap blog!

The system does it for them!

Sometimes the best thing to do is to take the part of your business that you hate, and be willing to let it go!

I was being held back by a “phone allergy” and instead of pushing through and forcing myself to do it, I found a simple way around it… I became much more attractive to work with, and I started to make a ton of money through the 100% commission structure incorporated in my blog!

I won’t even be doing personalized game plan calls past August or September as my team is growing FAST… so if you want to do what I’ve done, have a look at the (somewhat cheesy) video that will shows you how to market a business without the phone!

To your “phone free” success!

Niamh Arthur

P.S. You can learn more about how I retired my partner and became the Stay at Home Family using just this little low-tech blog, by reading our story here.

People always say “First Impressions Count”… but sometimes we forget what a first impression is, AND how little control we have over it!

I went out shopping in Singapore the other day.

I was ridiculously excited because I’d heard that Arab Street was covered in fabric shops, and I’m a fabric junky.

Before hitting Arab Street we decided to check out Takashimaya, pretty much the MOST expensive department store in a very expensive shopping city.

We went to Takashimaya for the fun, to check out consumerism in the extreme.  I’m not really big into brand labels, etc…but it was crazy to see the obsession with branding taken to extreme.

I did however pick up a super cute Stitch (from Disney’s Lilo and Stitch) stuffed animal to bring back to my two year old.

Not thinking about what I was doing I then headed down to Arab Street for the anticipated fabric shopping.

Every shop I went into the prices I was quoted seemed much higher than expected.  Sales people followed me around the shops trying to tell me about this and that fabric when I really wanted piece and quiet to browse (like the other customers were getting!)

I found the whole experience a little disappointing.

It wasn’t until I got home and put down my bags that I realized I had carried a big “Takashimaya” bag everywhere I went in Arab Street.  That I had dressed well for my visit to the big department store.

That the sight of me made big dollar signs pop up in the eyes of the salespeople on Arab Street!

I completely forgot that first impressions permeate nearly everything you do in life.  How you hold yourself, how you dress, what you are carrying, how you do your hair, etc; all contribute more to the first impression than anything that comes out of your mouth.

What does this have to do with marketing?

Everything!

Whether or not someone decides to do business with you is largely based on their FIRST IMPRESSION of you and your sales technique.

If your site seems incredibly amateurish, they immediately decide you don’t know what you’re doing.

If your site seems to stuffy and corporate, they immediately feel like it’s run by a corporation not someone based out of their home.

If your site is hosted on a free platform, they decide you’re not making money which makes them afraid to give you theirs!

If your site isn’t personalized they think there’s no one behind it.

There’s many things you can do to make a good first impression.

First you want to know who your target market is, and look at the types of sites they ALREADY like to spend money on.  Think about how to take aspects of those sites, but personalize it.

Remember, people like to do business with people, not corporations, so make sure YOU shine through on your website.  This is through pictures as well as words.

Top Tips for a Great First Impression

1. Have a Personalized Header

Seeing a smiling yet not overly “photoshopped” face at the top of a website does a lot to make people feel comfortable with you.  This works well when it’s clearly not a professional picture, but a happy candid shot.  This will allow people to make some swift judgements about you that can help them like you or at least see you as a real person.

2. Avoid Complication on Your Page

Many people plaster ads all over their websites in order to make small commissions if someone clicks on the ads.  This gives the impression that you want their money in any way you can get it.

This makes people associate you with ADVERTISING.  It will make them more mistrusting of what you have to say, and will immediately put them on their guard.  They assume that any advice you give is secretly an ad for them to give you money.

People associate advertisers with corporations out to get their money.  Immediately you are no longer just a work from home nice person they might want to support, but a SALESPERSON!

3. Keep the Content Light

Stuffy blog posts and content on your page suck.  They make people think you are too professional, trying to manipulate them, or BORING.  They don’t come back to read boring stuff even if they got good information from you.

4. Inject Yourself into Your Website

The Offending "Stitch" Doll For My Daughter

Tell your story, share your pictures.  Let people know who you are.  I started this post with a little story about my trip to Arab Street because other people can imagine it, relate to it, and might have been in similar situations! (and it gave me the idea for this post!)

The more fun you have with your website the more fun people will have on your website!

So have fun, make it YOU…and never forget that first impressions are EVERYTHING.  So put a bit of “you” into everything you do!

And think about how first impressions affect EVERYTHING in life!! When I go back to Arab St I’ll definitely be wearing drab clothes and can hopefully spend hours quietly rifling through fabrics….ahhh, this is the life!