Confessions of a Home-based Business Entrepreneur

I recently read a fascinating article on hidden tracking dots made by certain color printers. These tiny yellow dots can hardly be seen by the naked eye.

Now anyone can tell what printer (make, model and serial #) you used to print your paper and exactly what time you printed it (date, hour and minutes). So, at work or at school, if you claim you finished your report days ago but forgot to turn it in until today, you may not have a leg to stand on. Imagine how private investigators and the FBI could use this information? How about your accountant or IRS agent?

The Electronic Frontier Foundation tells you exactly how they found and cracked the dots code at this link. They’ve also provided a current list of printers that automatically print the dots.

Is your printer on this list?

The day after Thanksgiving — today is known as the busiest brick and mortar shopping day of the year for shear numbers of shoppers. Now, with ‘Black Friday’ out of the way, shoppers will turn online. Are you ready?

Startup Journal

This coming Friday is one of the year’s biggest days for shoppers and retailers. But for many, the Web has made the following Monday just as crucial.

With the rapid expansion of the Internet, the Monday after Thanksgiving has grown to be the all-important kickoff of the online holiday shopping season. On that day, consumers head back to work — and their computers — ready to shop after the long holiday weekend.

What a slacker! Well, I suppose I’d better get at least one post in for October (squeeze it in on the very last day).

For Halloween, I thought I’d post one of the scariest emails we recently received. One of our sites is a site offering tax information. This was a reply to our welcome email after this woman signed up for our newsletter. Here’s the email:

Please help me;

I have received a notification notice form PAN AFRICAN LOTTERY International, having an address of ;

PAN AFRCIAN LOTTERY INTERNATIONAL
Suite 105C Lottery Complex
Garki, ABuja Nigeria

The bank involved who transacted me for bank transfer is;

STANDARD TRUST BANK, PLC
Office of the Director International Affairs
Standard Trust Plaza
UTFSC Plaza, #25 Adeniyi Jones Avenue
Garki- Abuja, Nigeria
TEl: 234-8043233650
International Affairs Department

That I was been selected as the starprize winner of this lottery draw as my email address attached to ticket number as drewn. And therefore been approved to claim a total sum of $1M USD in cash.

I hade followed all their instructions as instrustructed, and the last thing is that the bank holds the transfer of my fund to my bank account for they received a stop order from Federal Inland REvenue Commssion requiring me to pay my income tax in the total sum of US$850. They require me to pay via Western Union Money Transfer paying directly to;

MR. OKORO OKECHUKWU
Wing 5 Apt 12 Garki,
ABuja Nigeria

I understand that we have to pay our income tax, as I am working in a government office here in our country as the Senior Accoiunting Processor B, assigned at accounting section. And as i understand also that when paying taxes it must be directly paid to the Federal Inland Revenue Commission not to a person.

Please help me about this matter, i am so confused of what I have scanned in the website about “LOTTERY SCAM”.

I need your prompt response on this matter, I am

Sincerely Yours,

CARMENCITA DIAO CORONEL

Every time we receive emails like this my heart sinks. I mean, are there really people out there who fall for this kind of stuff?

The answer if “YES!”

Unfortunately, this is not the first, second, or even third email we have received asking for help after having been scammed by unscrupulous scammers. If truth be known, we regularly receive emails from people who have been scammed.

Now, that’s scary!

Heidi

You haven’t heard from me for a bit as we’ve been very busy helping Hurricane Katrina refugees here in Utah at Camp Williams. We’ve been working closely with two of our close friends who work directly with the refugees at the camp. They tell us what is needed, and we use our local network to gather donations and fill those needs. This has included immediate needs when they arrived to Camp Williams as well as ongoing needs as they get placed in society in apartments, etc.

The generosity of people has been overwhelming. I’m reminded of the loss of our son five years ago. The outpouring of love produced a similar feeling. It’s another one of life’s abundant lessons that people are inherently good — that they truly care and will give even beyond their own means.

Some of the refugees’ stories here in Utah are amazing — heartbreaking, actually. Stories of spouses losing their grip and watching the other float away to their death; of a mother having to let one of her children drown in order to save her others; of young children being separated from their mothers as they got on busses and at the convention center.

Slowly, but surely, many of these people have been able to locate their children and loved ones. It is a truly joyous moment when a mother and child are reunited. My heart goes out for those who are still suffering losses.

After all the intensity of the week, we needed to get away and re-charge our batteries. Bear Lake was our place of choice. It was also the same choice of getaway after our son died. There is something magical about the lake and its surroundings. We had a great time as a family and are ready to hit daily home and business life running again.

It is time to count our blessings.

Heidi

Now that I ‘ve been doing the blogging thing for a few weeks, I’ll let you know that there’s certainly more to blogging than, well, blogging. I mean, if you want people to actually read your blog, you’ve got to do a little work.

One of the things I’ve had to understand is pinging. If you’re unfamiliar, basically it’s just a term for letting blog sites (i.e. blog directories) know you’ve made another post. Once you ping them, they will come looking at your blog to see what’s new.

We’re using WordPress as our blogging software. It comes with the ability to ping Ping-o-Matic already built into the admin area. If you use WordPress, you’ll see in the admin area by going to “Options,” “Writing,” and then scroll down to find “Update Services.”

Ping-o-Matic is a great service; however, I have found it is not complete. There are plenty of other places to ping. These pinging services may be included with or in place of Ping-o-Matic in the Update Services box.

Now, there are plenty of resources for submitting your blog to blog directories and search engines. However, it’s not as easy to find exhaustive lists of places to ping. So, for those of you who blog, I thought I’d share with you my list of places I’ve found to ping. If you use Ping-o-Matic (at the top of the list below), you won’t need to add any of the URI’s listed right below it in the first grouping as Ping-o-Matic already takes care of those. Here’s the list I’m currently using:

http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://services.newsgator.com/ngws/xmlrpcping.aspx
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/

http://1470.net/api/ping
http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b
http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php
http://bitacoras.net/ping
http://blogbot.dk/io/xml-rpc.php
http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc
http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
http://www.blogoole.com/ping/
http://www.blogoon.net/ping/
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1
http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://www.catapings.com/ping.php
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/
http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt
http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php
http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php
http://ping.amagle.com/
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/
http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc
http://ping.exblog.jp/xmlrpc
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php
http://ping.weblogs.se/
http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/
http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2
http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/
http://xmlrpc.blogg.de/
http://bblog.com/ping.php
http://effbot.org/rpc/ping.cgi
http://thingamablog.sourceforge.net/ping.php

Be forewarned, this long list slows down publishing a post to your blog substantially. Blog and Ping away!

Ever since Yahoo released their beta version of Google’s Adsense, YPN (Yahoo Publishers Network), I’ve been watching beta testers’ results with interest.

One such YPN beta tester, Jenstar, has provided one of the most complete Adsense vs YPN case studies, thus far, for her website Womens-Finance.com. Her report details comparisons from two different months’ worth of earnings, CTR, eCPM, and so forth. Obviously, she can’t give detailed statistics in order to stay within Google’s and Yahoo’s TOS, however, she does offer some very good information and comparisons.

Are any of you beta testers for YPN? What experiences can you share with the rest of us?

You may already know that our children have their own business. PrettyGreatFun.com is actually their business (with Mom’s and Dad’s help). The website needs some serious updating. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been a priority since the bulk of the kids’ business comes from entertaining at parties and events.

As such, summers are especially busy as they set up at fairs. This weekend they did a party for a young boy at his home. They launched rockets and made balloon animals for the kids. And, the rockets? Well, let’s just say that once they start launching our unique rockets, anything else at the party simply doesn’t exist!

Okay, okay, the real reason the website isn’t updated is that Mom and Dad don’t have the time nor energy to put into it. I mean, come on, these five children simply wear us out. They’re so darn entrepreneurial coming up with new ways to make money, I can’t keep up with them.

Oh, and they don’t just come up with small ideas, rather, they have to make big productions out of them. A lemonade stand isn’t just a lemonade stand. No, it has to be the Taj Mahal of lemonade stands.

I’m afraid our children have the entrepreneurial curse. Oh what, oh what have we done to them? Sigh.

Heidi

I haven’t blogged in some days. The reason has every bit to do with one of the advantages of having a home-based business…

Sick children.

Our 2-year old was sick for several days with the stomach flu. As such, Dave and I had no sleep for two days. We have been absolutely exhausted as our little one needed constant attention. She was literally attached at the hip for those days and nights.

As exhausting as those kinds of experiences are, it is such a blessing to not have to worry about making arrangements with work or child care. No scrambling around to figure out who can stay home with her. No if-you-can-be-home-by-this-hour-I’ll-take-off-the-morning deal-making with your spouse of family members. These kinds of things that come in a family are just a regular part of life… a home-based lifestyle.

Google hasn’t had the best of press lately. In fact, it seems people are downright frustrated with them, myself included.

You may have noticed that HomeBusinessOnline.com went “grey barred” some weeks ago. Yep, ousted, de-indexed, banned from Google’s searches.

What?

How in the world could a 10-year old website — with an impeccable track record of providing a free service and information to visitors from all over the world — get banned? And, how could this happen in one day’s time with no warning whatseover?

Beats me to death.

But, we’re not alone. Go to the search engine forums and read page after page, sometimes as many as 50 pages per thread, about frustrated website owners in our same boat. There are plenty of theories floating around, some being pounded into the ground. But, when all is said and done, the fact is we still don’t know exactly why it happened. What triggered the ban? Was it an automatic ban by something in Google’s algorithm that triggered it? Or did Google’s human team find something they didn’t like and decide to ban the whole site?

Oh, I’m sure we’ve made mistakes along the way… unknowingly. I mean our website does have thousands of pages. It’s going to have some errors, even duplicate content in the shuffle of changing pages from HTML to PHP, or in trying to simplify content management. For this we get banned?

Go figure.

So what are we doing about it?

1) I’ve gone over our site with a fine-tooth comb and have removed ANYTHING that even LOOKED like it could be suspicious in any way to Google’s bots. We have never practiced ANY kind of questionable SEO tactics like hiding text or trying to trick the search engines. We’ve simply provided what our visitors wanted — solid information and resources for the small business entrepreneur who works out of his home.

2) After doing a site clean-up, I emailed Google and asked them to re-evaluate our website (about two weeks ago). Haven’t heard a word from them yet. I plan on emailing them again this evening. And, if I don’t hear from them within the next 48 hours, I’m going to email them again. I’ll keep doing this until I get a response. I’m disgusted with this horrible game we’re having to play with them.

3) I’ve been using my absolute favorite SEO software (see my forum post) to beef up our site and linking strategies. In fact, I’ve been using it almost daily for the past few weeks. Couldn’t do without it. If Google won’t let us into the dance, we can certainly position our website for plenty of other parties.

Meanwhile, Yahoo and other search engines (along with other inbound links and word of mouth) are still bringing us decent traffic. In fact, ironically, since Google abandonded us, our Adsense CTR’s have actually increased.

Hmmm, could it be that Yahoo, MSN and other search engines actually provide more targeted traffic than Google? You can bet I’ll be keeping a close eye. I’m all over this one.

I’d love nothing more than to have Google re-index us and give us back our rankings, and it might still happen. But, if they do, I’m certainly not going to waste useless time pining over how to remain indexed. I’ve learned too much in this process, one being that Google has competitors that can provide good traffic. Competition is a healthy thing.

No matter where this fiasco goes from here, one thing is for sure — No more benevolent Google. They’re making too many costly mistakes and are getting a big slap on the hands lately by the media and angry website owners.

No, No Google!

Some years ago, Dave was reading a book that quoted Bill Gates as saying that he saves up all the books he wants to read and then reads them all at once. He’s so busy that it’s difficult for him to find the time to do all the reading he wants to do. So, when he finds a book he wants to read, he sets it aside with his other to-read books and then spends an entire week at his cabin getaway ALONE at least once a year. He becomes a reading maniac. That’s all he does for the entire week is read, catching up on all the reading he missed in past months.

Can you relate?

Sometimes, family and other responsibilities get in the way of your all-important education. If you’re going to be very successful in your small business, you’ve got to treat it like a business. Part of that process is taking your business and marketing education seriously. Not only do you need to fork out the money for books, courses and seminars, but you’ve got to spend the time mapping out a plan from what you learn. Then, put it into action. Stay focused.

Why am I bringing this up now?

A little over a week ago, Dave and I received a well-anticipated package in the mail — The Underground Secrets Seminar Videos from Yanik Silver’s Underground Seminar a few months ago.

Yes, the videos (DVD’s) and audios were expensive… $800. But, we knew they would be well worth it. We had been looking for some fresh ideas to take our business to the next level. We forked out the money and waited with great anticipation.

Back to the story…

With five little distractions running around our own home, we certainly felt the need to get away. Try as we might, Dave and I simply couldn’t dive into the videos without one distraction after another. It didn’t seem to matter how early we got up or how late we went to bed, the distractions kept coming.

This seminar was not for beginners. It required some serious listening. You had to put on your thinking caps to catch the passing (almost buried) comments, process them and then take them to a different level. Each time we had a distraction, that thinking process came to a screeching halt and we were never able to get to the level we wanted.

There was some really good stuff in those videos. It became very apparent they would help us reach our goals.

Solution…

So, we put all the videos and audios back into the Secret Underground briefcase in which they came and put it aside — out of site. Then, Dave called a hotel in a neighboring city. He asked for a good-sized room with a good lounging area and TV where we could spread everything out and do nothing but study and learn for an entire weekend.

Ahhh…

It worked! We packed a small bag, Dave arranged for his mother to stay with the children, and we left the following weekend.

The room was perfect. We sat in our pajamas all weekend long and watched the videos, one after another, rewinding to parts again and again. We left the room only to go to dinner nearby, then returned to lock ourselves up in our studying cacoon. It was intense. It was exhilarating. We had headaches by the time the weekend was over.

But…

It was immensely worthwhile. At lunch on the way home from our weekend retreat, we sat in the corner of the restaurant mapping out a plan that will improve our bottom line by many hundreds of thousands of dollars. Six “aha” ideas we got from the speakers fit into our business model like a glove.

It took Yanik’s seminar tapes and a solitary weekend to achieve a plan and the focus we needed to take our business to the next level.

By the way, if you are not a marketing beginner and can afford the price tag, these videos are well worth getting. Problem is Yanik is taking them off the market in two days (August 19th). We’re not resellers of this product, but I can give you Yanik’s own link. This is the link we received directly from Yanik in one of his emails (the link we used to purchase the product ourselves)… http://www.undergroundinternetsecrets.com/doubleagent/

If you’re lucky enough to get your hands on this package, you’ll need to set aside a good amount of quality time to listen and absorb the information.

Of course, I highly recommend renting a hotel room for the weekend!

Heidi