In the world of Internet marketing it’s tricky to stay balanced.  Sometimes we procrastinate and need to give ourselves a kick in the butt but more often than not, we don’t stop and smell the roses often enough because we’re so passionate about our business.

The holidays are a great time for spending time with family and reflecting on what’s most important.  How do you keep your business running during this time without alienating those around you who don’t understand that there isn’t a lot of time off for entrepreneurs? It can be tricky to simply go on holidays when you have a business to run and want to keep income streams flowing.

Holiday Time Management Ideas

• Work really hard the few weeks before the holidays and then take time off entirely
• Take time off and spend just 1 hour a day managing the ‘must do’s’ each day
• Hire a virtual assistant and offer them extra incentive to work over the holidays for you. They might not want to work Christmas day but could help you throughout the rest of the week between Christmas and the New Year.
• Set your ‘out of office assistant’ on your e-mail and autoresponders so that clients / customers / colleagues will understand the delays
• Put cash aside throughout the year to take care of holiday down time so the time off won’t attack your bank account

Regardless of whether you take a day off or a week off it is important to take time for yourself and your family.  After all, isn’t being an entrepreneur about freedom and flexibility?

Have a most outstanding day.

Dana Prince
Internet Marketing Blog
www.SeanSEO.com © 2009

An internet citizen can help become well known by their good deeds and it can pay them back multi-fold. Are you a good internet citizen?  Not only can you spread the laws of attraction by being a good online citizen but you can improve your online profile so that like-minded people and potential customers gravitate to you.

What Can You Do To Be A Good Netizen?

-Give away something to your mailing list. It might be a free report or a free tip or something of value

-Donate to an online charity. This might even be as simple as running a WSO (warrior’s special offer) on the Warrior Forum and giving all or part of your proceeds to a needy cause.

-Volunteer. Do something like give a free coaching session to a selected winner, spend an hour social bookmarking for your customers, etc. Be creative and provide something of value and encourage others to do the same.

Not only will you feel good by giving back to the online community that supports you but you’ll develop a reputation as the sort of online marketer that is worth aligning with. Some people say that internet marketers are akin with used car salesmen.  Prove them wrong and you’ll improve every area of your life as well as create positive energy in the universe.

Have a most outstanding day.

Dana Prince
Internet Marketing Blog
www.SeanSEO.com © 2009

Most people who want to make a lot of money online will find that there’s an awful lot of fierce competition out there already.  How do you capitalise on the ability to earn money through the internet? You need to set yourself apart from the rest. You need a USP (unique selling proposition). Sure, you could go ahead and sell something that’s already selling like hot cakes but you might only make mediocre earnings because businesses like yours are a dime a dozen.  Things that are unique can take a bit more work to launch but the results could be that you could make a huge difference in your own success levels.

USP - Unique Selling Proposition

Whether it’s the product that you sell, the type of business you have or the customer experience that’s unique, finding a unique selling proposition can make your online business the next great thing.  How do you set yourself apart?

• Research.  Figure out what people want.

• Solve a problem. Figure out how to make someone’s life better.

• Provide value.  Give people something valuable.  The perceived value has to be greater than the cost.

Great businesses aren’t built over night so even if you do hop on some other band wagon to get your feet wet and learn,  if you take the time to find or create a great solution for your customers, you can definitely stand apart in the crowd of competitors in your niche.

Have a most outstanding day.

Dana Prince
Internet Marketing Blog
www.SeanSEO.com © 2009

Deciding to blog is a tough decision isn’t it? What subject should it be about? What kind of posts should you write? Should you go it alone or get it hosted for free at a blogging site?

Blogging isn’t the easy job some people think it is. It can certainly be rewarding, enlightening and enjoyable, but the hardest part is definitely getting it going in the first place.

Equally as Hard

For some reason creating a blog isn’t generally seen to be as hard as getting a website up and running. But in reality it can be equally as hard. You might not be selling anything directly from your blog – you certainly haven’t got lots of product pages to worry about – but you do have to think about all the same design aspects when you are creating a blog, and you still have to think about updating it regularly and optimising it for the search engines and so on.

When you think about all that, it’s small wonder that it’s easy to put off creating a blog for quite a while before you actually get around to taking the plunge. It’s also very important to make sure that you do get it set up exactly as you want it before you publish it for the whole world (hopefully) to see.

Creating a Blog

You might find it easier to plan what you aim to achieve from creating a blog before you actually do it if you really are hesitant about making the leap. Do you want to build up a big readership and then funnel them across to your website to sell various items to them? Do you want to monetize the blog itself? Do you simply want to provide good value by creating a blog that imparts good value to its readers?

Once you have the basics in place, you might find that creating a blog becomes a much easier process.

Have a most outstanding day.

Sean Rasmussen
Internet Marketing Blog
www.SeanSEO.com © 2009

Page rank can be something of an obsession with internet marketers of all shapes and sizes. It’s easy to understand why, because the search engine ranking of your site will strongly influence how well you do in the results whenever someone looks up a keyword or phrase which links to your website.

How Important is my PR?

While it is important to keep an eye on it to see how well your site is performing, it shouldn’t turn into something you end up checking twice a day every day. Your search engine ranking changes over time (hopefully for the better) and it does so as a result of what you do to change and develop your site – not as a result of you watching it like you would watch a plant that is starting to grow.

It’s good to develop routines when you start any new internet business, as routines help you to develop good habits and ensure that nothing important gets missed as part of your day-to- day progress. You can check various parts of your business and see how they are doing, and where some extra effort is required you can then look into how best to do that.

Website Development - An Ongoing Effort

As you develop your business and learn more about keywords and SEO and how to make sure that people (and the robots and spiders that Google, Yahoo and others use) find your site, you should find that your website naturally starts to perform better. You’ll also learn tips and tricks along this journey. It takes time for any website to start figuring in the search engine rankings at all, let alone to perform well. No website gets to the coveted number one spot overnight, so be sure you don’t ask for too much when it comes to monitoring the progress of your site. It’s important to realise as well that once you’ve achieved the results you’re hoping for, you’ll have to work to keep yourself from being dethroned.

They say the best things in life are worth working for, and achieving a higher search engine ranking is a learning process that will bear plenty of fruit.

Have a most outstanding day.

Sean Rasmussen
Internet Marketing Blog
www.SeanSEO.com © 2009