This is a question I’d love to get answers to in the comments below. What is holding you back? What is preventing you from getting your online business off the ground?

Fear of the unknown?
Worried that you aren’t capable?
Not sure how to get it going?
Don’t have time?
Think you need more money?
Think you need more knowledge?
Something else?

I’ll always be grateful that one day I decided to jump into the online business bandwagon. I was just having a conversation today about the fact that it’s going to be raining all weekend. Back in the day, when I was still working in a cubicle “out there”, the weekends mattered…a lot! So a rainy weekend would have been a huge disappointment… Continue reading

Posted on July 2nd, 2008 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Motivation | 2 Comments »

A new site has just emerged, called Twellow (Twitter Yellow Pages), and it’s a nice little directory of Twitter users. At the moment, it contains 332,261 Twitterers, with that number growing at all times, I assume. You can search for people in two ways: either a search across the entire directory, or just within a specific category.

The first thing I noticed was that I was included in the directory, but I wasn’t categorized, so I contacted them to ask how I could rectify that. Here’s an excerpt of the answer I received:

We are working to add a feature which will allow people to verify their identity and add/edit themselves within categories. This is one of the biggest requests… Continue reading

Posted on June 25th, 2008 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Forming Connections | 5 Comments »

We all face the extra-long to-do list now and then. Because many of us wear lots of hats in our one-person businesses, and we don’t always have a team of people to help us out, our to-do lists can become unwieldy - sometimes to the point of outrageousness. Once a task list reach that stage, we can often become completely incapable of getting any of it done! It’s as though the big, bad, scary to-do monster has paralyzed us with indecision and overwhelmed us into inaction.

Here’s what I do when I’m faced with the monster of all monster task lists. I divide it up into 3’s: Must-Do’s, Should Do’s, and Everything Else. Each item on my to-do… Continue reading

Posted on June 19th, 2008 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: GTD | 5 Comments »

Since today is Friday the 13th, it seemed like the perfect time to talk about interacting with your readers at a really deep level - so deep in fact that it’s almost spooky. I’m talking about superstitions here. We humans are a superstitious lot, and I’d be willing to bet that even the sanest, most practical amongst us still have some superstitions lurking deep within them. (Just don’t expect them to ever admit to it!)

So here’s what I’m suggesting. Make use of the various superstitions and related “holidays” to serve interesting content to your users. You don’t want to make fun of your users beliefs or cause them to feel judged for having… Continue reading

Posted on June 13th, 2008 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Forming Connections | 5 Comments »

You’ve created a web site or blog. You’ve sweated and worked hard to make it just “perfect”. But your expected goals are not being met. Why?

More than likely, you aren’t able to look at your site objectively. You’re so wrapped up in it that all you see is this:

But everyone else sees this:

When I say “sees”, I’m really not talking about the visual design of your site, although that may be a part of the problem. There may be many, many problems with your site that cause it to be an “ugly turkey of a site” that have… Continue reading

Posted on May 29th, 2008 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Site Ideas | 2 Comments »

A few days ago, a friend of mine had web hosting issues (and boy, oh boy, over the years, I’ve had plenty of those!). Because she’s an enlightened sort of gal, she decided to investigate using green hosting services. Since she brought it to my mind, I couldn’t help but go out and start doing a little investigating of my own.

There are a few nice choices in green web hosting, but the one I ended up choosing as the best “all ’round” choice for me or most people I know would be ThinkHost. Reasons I chose them as my green web host of choice:

1. Their services are powered by 100% renewable energy (solar/wind)
2. Plants a tree for every client
3. Good plan pricing with all the right plan features
4. Fast

Posted on May 20th, 2008 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Good Deals | 1 Comment »

I recently ran a series of posts in which we established that you are an authority (or expert) in something, and that you can share your expert knowledge with others. We then discussed ways in which you could be recognized as an authority by others, including Influencers. One point we didn’t discuss in detail was the aspect of establishing credibility as an expert, so let’s delve into that a bit now.

Anyone can slap up a web page that says, “I am an expert in …”, but saying it doesn’t make it so. And even if it is the truth, the mere fact of stating it won’t make others believe it. Belief is the key component of credibility. Let’s take a look at… Continue reading

Posted on May 16th, 2008 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Branding | 7 Comments »

Several months ago, over on my SEO Scoop blog, I wrote about a cool site, Ideablob, that gives away $10,000 every month to someone who has an idea that others like. Ideablob is like a social network for people with ideas. And like any good social network, people vote on those ideas. Sounds familiar, right? Think Digg for ideas. But the kicker is that the person with most popular idea each month wins $10,000 to help implement that idea! Woot!

The monthly giveaway was only supposed to last a few months if I remember correctly, but it looks as though they’ve extended it through at least the end of September. (Who knows, maybe it… Continue reading

Posted on May 11th, 2008 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Site Ideas | 3 Comments »

Over the last few days, the topic of the week has been all about being an authority. No, not the kind that enforces laws, but the kind that is an expert. I’ve shown you that you are an authority in something and you should recognize that. I’ve talked about how to make others see you as an authority as well, including Influencers. That included tackling several tasks, ranking in the top search results for “your niche expert”, as well as getting the attention of journalists and bloggers. I also mentioned that there was final step you needed to take to complete your journey towards becoming an authority. Here’s that final step.

You need a press kit.

In the “old days”, that meant spending… Continue reading

Posted on May 10th, 2008 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Branding | 2 Comments »

You know by now that you are an authority and you know that you need others to recognize your authority. Now we need to give just a little nudge to the influencers (those people who hold a lot of influence over the masses in your field), so that they will not only recognize your expertise, but begin to associate your field with your name.

Let’s say you are an expert in mountain biking. No, you didn’t take courses in biking, and you never owned a bicycle factory. You simply have been an avid mountain biker over the last 10 years, and that experience has led you to an understanding of the sport that enables you to be considered an expert. You know much about… Continue reading

Posted on May 9th, 2008 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Branding | 1 Comment »