photo credit: Kelly Sue

If you recall, back in June, I had WAHM rockstar Nicole Dean as guest blogger here. She gave us her precious tips and strategies for making a full-time income from home as an Internet marketer, while caring for her children and husband (and dogs, there’s dogs involved here).

Well, one of the resources Nicole recommended was Homepreneur Habits by her mentor, Jimmy D. Brown. I grabbed that very affordable report and have been meaning to write my review of it, but just haven’t been able to. So I’ve got something that’s probably even better.

I thought I would share an excerpt of Homepreneur Habits with you.

Jimmy D. Brown is so generous – he’s a genuinely nice, non-guru-type guy – and he agreed, so here it is.

Excerpt: Homepreneur Habits by Jimmy D. Brown

Hello, this is Jimmy D. Brown, author of the SR Zone Reports.

One of the questions that I get a lot from members of List And Traffic (as well as from my other customers and even subscribers) is this -

What does your home office look like?

There is a lot of interest in learning about the equipment I use, the setup of my office, my daily routine, etc. So, I’ve decided to create this report that I’m entitling, “Homepreneur Habits: How To Run A Successful Home Business”.

My goal for this series is to teach you some basic setup and operations for establishing and maintaining your own home business office. Which, ultimately, will translate into more efficiency, productivity and … profitability!

Whether you are a complete beginner or a seasoned pro, I think some of the insights that I’ll be giving you into how my own office and business is organized and operated will be beneficial to you in your own pursuits.

And, YES, just so you know, I really do work in my pajamas! In fact, as I’m writing this article I’m sitting here in my Ralph Lauren Polo pajamas and a white t-shirt. My wife snapped this picture just a couple of minutes ago…

(Warning: This is Jimmy in the morning in his pajamas … not for the faint at heart

Continue on at your own risk.

No lifeguards on duty.

Turn back, turn back, turn back.

Okay, you were warned…

(picture removed — only for customers)

You really can operate your own business in your pajamas. Or anything else for that matter. But, please, no file-sharing. I’ll take you at your word when you tell me you work in the same pair of holey underwear from college just to remind you of where you came from.

Okay, back to the point. I’ve got this series divided into three parts…

Homepreneur Habits: How To Run A Successful Home Business

Lesson #1: The PRINCIPLES Of A Successful Homepreneur

Lesson #2: The PARAPHERNALIA Of A Successful Homepreneur

Lesson #3: The PRACTICES Of A Successful Homepreneur

In our first lesson we’ll look at some guidelines or “rules” that I go by in organizing and operating my home office. Lesson two will cover specific equipment that I use in my daily operations. And in lesson three I’ll share how to organize your schedule for increased productivity and results.

I’ll be sharing lots of visuals as you’ll be given an “all access” tour of my own home office.

All of this begins in our next lesson.

—– End of Excerpt —-

To continue reading the entire 64 page report, just swing by Homepreneur Habits and grab it while it’s such a steal. Jimmy has written a lot of courses, but many of his loyal customers have said this is their absolute favorite. Check it out: Homepreneur Habits

I promise to post my review soon.

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If you’re thinking of working at home, or have recently started working from home, I’m about to tell you something you probably haven’t heard before. At least, I haven’t – until recently.

Here goes: working at home is dangerous to your health!

Lexi, Have You Lost Your Marbles?

I’m serious, and I’m not the only one who says so. Scott Tousignant of FatLossQuickie.com, says that most people gain 30 pounds their first year of working at home.

While I didn’t gain 30 pounds, I did notice some alarming things about my health in the last 18 months of being a work at home Mom:

• I’ve gained weight even though I don’t snack as much as I used to when I was working in an office
• My clothes were getting tighter
• I was getting flabby everywhere – my arms, stomach, butt, legs…
• I felt tired all the time
• I wasn’t getting enough sleep and having a hard time getting up in the morning
• Even though I had more time to exercise (than when I was employed), I wasn’t motivated to exercise

I’ve always been an exerciser. I’ve been a gym member. I own a dozen exercise videos. But this time, I just couldn’t stick to it somehow.

So a couple of weeks ago, I decided I would do short 10-15 minute workouts whenever I was taking a break between the chunks of time that I did work. So when I saw Scott’s Home Office Workout, I thought it was just perfect.

But Does It Work?

Scott and his wife both work at home, so they know what work at home parents need: quick but effective workouts you can do at home. This is what I like about the Home Office Workout:

• Each workout – one strength training and one cardio per day – is only 10 minutes long, which means you’re done for the day after only 20 minutes
• There’s a lot of variety. You do a different set of workouts every day for a week, and then cycle through the weekly workouts for a month.
• You don’t need a lot of space. Scott says you only need a 6 x 4 feet of space to do the workouts. In fact, I ‘ve done them in even smaller spaces (but then I’m only 5’1″).
• You don’t need expensive equipment. You’ll need dumbells, a stability ball, and a jump rope. I’ve been doing the workouts with only a stability ball, using two cans of beans as weights and an “invisible” jump rope. I will go out and get everything eventually, and it won’t cost me more than $35 for all of them.
• It works. After 3 days of doing the workouts, I could comfortably wear one of my form-fitting shirts again. About 5 days into the workouts, hubby said I was feeling firmer (but because he’s my number 1 fan, I dismissed it). A week into the workouts, my 8-year-old daughter, who’s also my harshest critic, said “Mom, you’re getting unflabby.” That’s when I knew the workouts were really working.

I’ve also noticed that I’m much more motivated to exercise than I was before. I’m not sure why, but it must be the combination of the short workouts, the variety and of course, seeing the results that’s keeping me motivated.

Another thing: the workouts are strong but challenging. The first couple of days, I was whining and cursing Scott (via Twitter) about the workouts. But then one day, something happened. A thought popped into my head as my muscles ached and wobbled: “I can do this. I CAN do this!”

For somebody who always just wanted to get exercise over and done with, this is a real breakthrough.

I’ve noticed other things, too: I’m able to get up early in the morning (6 am), and I mean jump out of bed instead of dragging my “computer butt” out of bed. My moods have also improved. I’m more cheerful throughout the day. And – now I’m not sure if this is just my imagination – but I have been more productive lately, even though my girls are back in school and I’ve lost the best babysitters and mother’s helpers ever.

There are a couple of other benefits I’ve observed, but these are of the private nature and I’d rather not mention them here (wink).

The only disadvantage I see with the Fat Loss Quickie workouts is the lack of warm-ups and cool-downs. I know enough about exercise to do these myself. In fact, this is the reason I do the cardio right after the strength training workout – since my body is all warmed up already, I might as well do the cardio exercises as well.

UPDATE: Scott recommends marching in place for a couple of minutes for your warm up and cool down. But if you’re like me and want to stretch before and/or after you exercise, you’ll want to find some warm-up exercises, such as the ones here. You can do the same stretches for your cool down (but note, I’m not a personal trainer, so don’t take my word for it). I’ve asked Scott about this, and will update this post when I receive his reply.

If you’re interested in getting more fit, more energized and more productive, check out Scott’s Fat Loss Quickie Home Office Workouts here:

=> Fat Loss Quickie

PS: I forgot to mention that the Fat Loss Quickie workouts are videos you can watch online and/or download to your computer. Scott also gives nutrition tips, motivational videos, and blog with more useful tips. Plus, you can always reach Scott through Twitter when you have questions (or just to say, “My muscles hurt, I hate you Scott.” He doesn’t mind!). Click the link below to find out more:

=> Fat Loss Quickie

photo credit: Miss Gong & The Flickers

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Have you ever thought about how important Twitter was in your life?

I had a chance to ponder that question when I found out my Twitter account had been suspended last Sunday, “for suspicious activities.”

A river of emotions ran through me:

1. Indignation: “What suspicious activities? I’m hardly ever on Twitter!”

It’s true, I haven’t been on Twitter as much as I used to . And I hadn’t even participated in Follow Friday for several weeks already. So I was upset that Twitter accused me of doing something “suspicious.” I read the Terms of Use (ok, I admit it, I never read it before) and then felt…

2. Guilt: “Well, I did promote my product pretty aggressively last week…”

Just last week, I used Tweetlater to schedule Tweets to go out to my followers, offering a 50% Twitter-only discount on my special report. I scheduled the same Tweet to be posted about 3-4 times a day, from June 29 to July 4. I guess some people would consider that spamming.

I see tons of people doing the same thing on Twitter – including people who sell infoproducts about how to make money on Twitter – and wondered why their accounts were still active.

3. Sadness: “I really wish I could Tweet about something. Wonder what I’m missing on Twitter right now.”

I missed the interaction on Twitter. A couple of times that night, I would have wanted to put out a couple of Tweets but then realized I couldn’t. Or I’d feel the compulsion to look at my Twitter stream and see what people were up to – but then it would dawn on me that I couldn’t. I had been cut off from my online community. I couldn’t communicate with them, and they couldn’t reach me, either.

4. Relief. “There’s always Facebook.”

I was aching to connect with my Twitter friends and let them know my predicament. Then I remembered that a lot of them were also my friends on Facebook. So I logged in and posted an update about my Twitter account being suspended.

That’s when I discovered that the social media maven @MariSmith’s Twitter account had been suspended as well. I was part of a mass suspension of Twitter accounts. Ah, at least I could go to bed knowing that it wasn’t personal. It was probably not something I had done but rather some bug or error that the Twitter technies had done.

I read about people panicking because a significant percentage of their profits were coming from Twitter. Poor unfortunate souls! Glad I wasn’t relying on Twitter to find clients, sell stuff or get people to read my blog. I just wanted my Tweeps back.

I went to bed that night knowing that everything would be all right. If necessary, I would create a new Twitter account, follow the people whose Twitter names I could remember, and let them know what had happened to me. I would Email @MariaAndros because her Twitter account was suspended a few months ago and she got it reactivated. This time, I would have a clearer Twitter strategy and maybe even have separate accounts for my different online interests. You know, actually use Twitter as a marketing tool.

But as it turned out, I didn’t have to do any of those things. When I woke up Monday morning, I was back on Twitter.

I still have only one account, with followers and followees being a mish-mash of all my passions, interests, business goals and everything else that’s important in my life. No, I won’t be creating a Twitter course any time soon.

How about you? How important is Twitter to you? Is it a significant source of traffic, leads and profits for you?

What would you do if Twitter suddenly died?

photo credit: helloyiying

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So, did you win? Check it out:

The winner of any PLR pack from EasyPLR.com or YummyPLR.com is…

… Corrie from virtualfreedom4you.com!

The winner of a copy of List P.R.O.F.I.T. System is…

… Cathy from doggybloggies.com!

And the winner of any report from SRZone.com is…

… Teresa Hall!

Cathy, please send your email address to me at lexi at natural-moms dot com.

Corrie and Teresa, please email tracy@getawayvirtualservices.com to let her know how she can get your prizes to you.

Congratulations everybody. It’s been fun having Nik on the blog, hasn’t it?

I think everybody who stopped by the blog last week was a winner, because Nicole gave us such valuable productivity tips. So these giveaways are just icing on the cake. She could charge for that information (God knows a lot of Internet marketers do). But remember, all that information helps only if you put it into practice.

So, which of Nik’s work at home productivity tips have YOU been applying? And what results have you seen? Do share in the comments below

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Doing everything the SLOW way.

Let me give you an example from your day to day life.

Do you scrub all of your clothes in a stream on a washboard and then carry them back home in a basket and then hang them out to dry on the clothesline?

While I am a big fan of the clothesline part, since I love the smell of fresh clothes dried in the sun… I would certainly not drag my laundry down to a stream and scrub it by hand if I didn’t have to.

Why not? Because I use the right tool for the job. A washing machine and a dryer.

We usually use the right tools in our “real lives”. If there’s a way to make work get done faster and easier, we normally choose that option.

When my grass gets too long, I don’t grab the scissors or the tweezers. I get the lawn mower. Or I hire the neighbor kid, but that’s another story. I’m also a big fan of outsourcing.

So, why in our businesses do we do everything the hard way?

I have a theory about this. I think there are three reasons why people struggle and work too hard in the first place.

1. Not following ONE mentor who has done what you want to do and is where you want to be.

2. Not having a mastermind group to go to where you can ask questions and get solid actionable advice.

3. Not knowing the right questions to ask in the first place.

I’m a serious techno-phobe. I also really struggle with mechanical stuff, so I’m not one of those who’ll tell you to install some scripts to make your life better. (Ooh, that gave me a cold chill just saying that.) I’ve never installed a script. I have a hard time changing the printer ink cartridges in my laser printer. I’m a serious struggle-bunny when it comes to learning new things.

However, I’m also not stupid. I’m not going to waste my precious time every day doing things the hard way if there is a tool for the job that can save me hours each and every year by automating the process.

Which sounds the best to you?

Option 1: Spending time doing tedious stuff.

vs.

Option 2: Paying someone else to do tedious stuff.

vs.

Option 3: Having a computer do tedious stuff for free every day so that you can focus on making money and living your life.

I choose Option #3 (and I hope that’s the one you picked, too!)

Here are some examples where you might be cutting the grass with scissors instead of using a lawn mower when working in your business.

Blog Spam.

If you are manually deleting your blog spam, we need to have a chat. There are plugins that will screen your comments for you. My favorite at the moment is Aksimet. It seems to be more accurate than my old favorite which was Spam Karma.

Now that’s not rocket science. That’s common sense, but only if you know the right questions to ask in the first place and/or have mentors who are telling you these things when you’re starting out.

Twitter.

Now, before I get hate mail, no, I’m not suggesting that you take the “YOU” out of Twitter and have a computer tweeting for you. Twitter is about relationships. However, the auto DMs can be a pain in the bottom. Do you get tons of those? I used to, too. There is a free tool called TweetLater.com that will help you eliminate most of your DM’s.

Here’s what I use: Tweet Later

This service will also automatically follow people when they follow you so that you no longer have to click on new people and decide whether to follow them or not. I know that it’s fun to poke around and find new people, and you can still do that, but this keeps things running day in and day out so that you don’t have to.

Or you can choose to “Vet” followers using Tweetlater. That’s what I do now. I used to autofollow people and I may do it again, but there was a stretch where some gross people were slipping into Twitter and I was autofollowing them, which I wasn’t crazy about. So, the Vetting program is the next best thing for me. Every morning or every few days, I log in and TweetLater lists all of the people who have followed me in the last 24 hours, and they’re pre-marked “Follow”, “Ignore”, “Block”, or “Spam” based upon some settings that I chose. Actually they’ve pretty much nailed it. I change the ones that they mismarked. Then, I click “submit” and I can follow/ignore/block/spam 25 people at a time. That saves me time, and, more importantly, keeps me from feeling rude when I take a week’s vacation without internet and leave people waiting for me to follow them back.

There are countless examples. Nowadays a tool can be found that can pretty much do everything but go to the bathroom for you.

It’s about finding a Mastermind Group, a Mentor, and asking questions to get the right answers.

That’s it for my week here. But before I go, I’d like to invite you to learn more with me.

I have a free tutorial at www.WebTrafficBasics.com that is great for beginners that I recommend you check out.

I recommend you grab this free ecourse at List PROFIT System (from Jimmy D. Brown).

Follow my blog tour and listen to my podcast at my blog here: Nicole Dean’s Blog & Podcast

And, of course, follow me on Twitter: Nicole Dean on Twitter

I thank you again, Lexi, for inviting me. And, I thank all of my readers for following my Blog World Tour.

Warmly,
Nicole

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