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Back in December, as I was watching everyone and their brother announce their Christmas giveaway event, I was struck by how enticing these events are! I mean, everyone likes to get something for free, right? But there were three things that bothered me. First, unfortunately too many of these giveaways were for the same old freebies that are given away all the time. Second, many required signup — I just don’t have time for that and don’t want to clutter my inbox further. And third, they were all happening at the same time.

And so, the Solo-E Post-Resolution Hangover Remedy giveaway event was born! (ends Friday, February 5th, at noon ET)

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What to write in Twitter? Lots of new tweeps and even veterans ask this question. Should I tell people I had chicken salad for lunch? Should I only write about business? etc.

The answer to that depends on how you want to use Twitter. If you prefer to connect with people only professionally, then only tweet about business stuff. If you’d like to connect on a more personal level occasionally, then tweet about personal stuff and respond to other’s personal tweets. The more you do whatever you are comfortable with, the more your tweeps will respond in kind.

Ho hum. So what’s the real secret? Read the rest of this post »

Today I read an article about a local man whose business recently went bankrupt, in good part because he gave a lot of breaks to folks who were in economic trouble. It reminded me of a lesson I learned 19 years ago as an engineering manager — an important piece of business wisdom.

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When I started my business in 2001, it was a given that I would need a website. Just as I’d need business cards, a telephone, and a computer, I’d also need a presence on the web to truly be in business.

Times have changed — yes, your business still needs to be on the web, but increasingly, that presence is a blog, not a website (and sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference!) Here are 10 reasons why: Read the rest of this post »

Congratulations to Marnie Pehrson, creator of IdeaMarketers.com, for ten wonderful years serving article writers! You can read more about the IdeaMarketers history on Marnie’s blog. Drop by and offer Marnie your congratulations!

IdeaMarketers is one of the biggest, and one of my favorite, article posting sites, providing great visibility for authors and their articles online. Marnie is also one of my favorite people online — knowledgeable, generous, and with six kids and a dozen online businesses, she’s an inspiration!

IdeaMarketers.com also has a special Expert program that offers additional features including events posting, several topic-specific blogs, monthly training and mastermind calls. For more information, visit the IdeaMarketers Expert Program description page.

Here’s a nice list of potential New Year’s resolutions for 2009, from the Toilet Paper Entrepreneur blog, “Are These 31 Deadly Time-Wasting Mistakes Killing Your Company?“,

(Includes an excerpt from Solo-E’s free ebook, 25 Surefire Ways to Capture More Clients, Get More Done in Less Time, and Increase Your Income – in 90 Days or Less!)

As business owners we quickly learn that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. False promises on get-rich quick and home-based business opportunity sites come to mind as an example. So we become wary consumers, looking for the truth behind the spin. So when we were contacted recently by George Ajazi offering “free SEO advice“, we were understandably skeptical.

But every so often, someone comes along who is, honest to goodness, giving something really valuable away. George turned out to be one of those people! Read the rest of this post »

Linda Dessau tagged me in her blog post! She shared seven unusual things about herself and then challenged me (and six others) to do the same! And although this blog is usually all about building your solo business, what good is it being a solo entrepreneur if you can’t have some fun, too!? Read the rest of this post »

Warren Whitlock’s recent blog post, Do You Want the Life of An Author?, really cracked me up! Aside from the humor, it’s also a commentary on how a mindset of gratitude can affect the choices we make as solo business owners — and how we feel about our lives and businesses at the end of the day.

His story could be a day in the life of just about any solo entrepreneur who works from home…and I’m sure there are lots more fun stories like this out there (please do share below!)

Andy Wibbels explores this concept and more in his blog post, Everything Is A Lifestyle. If you’ve been struggling to define your niche or figure out how to market to it, this article may be a catalyst to looking at your niche in a whole different way!