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Small Business Blog Marketing: What Does It Entail?


Blog marketing can be quite complicated for anyone that has never even blogged before. If you are considering getting into small business blog marketing, you will want to first have a blog and see what that is like before you get into something more. Blogging requires dedication and patience. You have to update your blog on a regular basis in order to keep your readers happy. Doing so will keep them coming back for more and to see what you have new to say.

Small business blog marketing consists of blogging about your business. It definitely is a great tool that you should use to get your business out there and known by others. However, you will need to be patient because it is a long process that will require much of your attention. Just because you have a blog does not mean that someone is going to find it and read it. You are going to have to make it known. If you have a website for your business, you can link your blog to it and that will let the ones that know about your business and business website know about your blog as well.

Small business blog marketing is something that anyone can do. Having a blog and keeping it up to date with the latest information is not hard. All you need to have is a plan and you will be set to market any type of business from your blog. Whether you are selling a product or a service, it does not matter. A blog that is marketed the right way will be beneficial to any business whatever it might be.

So you are probably wondering how you are going to accomplish this small business blog marketing. When you are marketing a blog, you pretty much do it the same way that you would market a website. It is going to need keywords, and content. You can write the content yourself, or pay someone else to write it for you. That part is totally up to you. However you will want to be sure that the content is decent and something that your readers will want to read. This will keep them coming back. Make sure that the content is written from special keywords that you choose. You will also want to become familiar with SEO which is Search Engine Optimization. SEO will help you to optimize your blog to get a better ranking with the search engines.

Once you have chosen the keywords, and gotten some content published on your blog, you will be ready to get it out there some more. Link exchanges are wonderful for marketing your small business blog. You want to try and exchange links with sites that are relevant to yours, but not in direct competition. If you try to exchange links with sites in competition with yours, you are going to find that many of them will turn you down in fear of losing business to you.

Paid directories are a big part of small business blog marketing as well. You can pay some directories to list your blog URL in their directory under the specific category that it falls under. However, some of these even have specific qualifications that you must have to get in. Follow all of the application steps, and you should be ok. Just do not try to submit your blog to a directory that it does not qualify for, or fit in.

Another important thing to remember when you are into small business blog marketing is that if anyone leaves you a comment on your blog, you should acknowledge it and respond. You can also comment on other blogs that are relevant to yours, and leave a link to your blog as well. This will help bring in visitors to your blog, and you will begin to see more and more traffic.

Small business blog marketing is not rocket science, however someone that has never marketed a single thing before in their life may have problems. Just be persistent, and don’t give up.

A Great Idea For a Blogging Web Site is No Longer Enough


Whether you are starting up a new web site aimed at bloggers or whether you are looking to make your existing blogging site more distinctive, the key to building and maintaining a site that will capture the interest and attention of the blogging community is finding your niche. If you can fill a unique need in a way that no other web site does, you’ll be able to build a lasting readership among web surfers. Once you have discovered a niche, you will still have a lot to do, but finding your place in the blogosphere is the place to
begin.

Every great blogging web site starts with a great idea, and you can’t build a successful site that will last without one. There are many great sites aimed at today’s bloggers, and competition for the attention of this growing demographic is fierce. To make your blogging web site stand out from the pack, you will need to offer something that no other site is currently offering, or you will need to do the same thing that an already popular site does but in a more impressive or valuable way.

One way to discover an ideal model for your blogging web site is to look at the sites that have successfully captured a blogging audience already to determine if you can appropriate some of their strategies to help realize your vision. Of course, you will also need to add a unique flair to your project in order to stand apart from your competition. Many people agree that the web sites that do the best in today’s market are the sites that have the most personality. The fiercely individual surfers who are bloggers are a demographic that responds especially strongly to personality, so consider how you can give your site a unique and attractive feeling by lending your own voice and sensibility to your site’s design and content.

Once you have a great idea for your site, have pinpointed a special niche that you are well equipped to fill, and have infused the site with personality, the next step is figuring out how to get the word out to bloggers. In the long run, a great idea just isn’t enough to propel your blogging web site to success. You will need to draft a smart and realistic marketing plan in order to draw readers to your site. Once you hook a blogger, your great content will keep them coming back, but it is vital to get that first glance or your site won’t have a chance to shine.

Blog Design


It is great that the phrase blog floats around the net day in and day out, but what if you have no idea what a blog really is? Is this going to be helpful to your web site? No, not really. Here we will offer the skinny on the phrase blog, and you can decide for yourself if it may or may not be useful in your web pages. This way you will not be wasting your time on something you may not need, and the energy can be put to something you find more useful for yourself.

The term blog refers to weblog and it is is useful to understanding the difference between blogging for shear pleasure or what blogging means for marketing your business. Generally the most recent information on a blog is kept at the top of the page, as blog’s are dated log formats. Often they will have commentary of other sites or links directing you to them. Many times the site is dictated by group links and the log is updated frequently. The opinion is this is the very first weblog was back in 1993 it was the Mosaic. This was generally a compiling of links that where kind of disregarded. It took until 1998 for there to be a mere handful of these so called blog?s in existence. The blogger all knew each other and were swapping the links between each other.

By the year 1999 this term blog was starting to pick up pace, and as a result became a phenomenon. Once it became free to the public, it really took off and was a pastime that was enjoyed by many. Web logs were hand coded by developers on the web before the software became available. The use of html was the main coding for this program, and the web designers at the time were pretty much the only ones that knew it. Now that this new software is available to the general public, anyone is capable of making a blog. The moment blogger was released in 1999 it became a huge success with the public. Now people are not restricted on what kind of weblog they make, fast-forward to the year 2000 and people are making as many as 300-350 new blogs daily. There is actually a directory for all these blogs, and it contains as many as 5,500 entries. This is now a craze with over 750,000 blog users; this was not merely a passing trend obviously.

There are multiple tools these days for the people that are truly interested in blogging, this software  for developing a blog design can be found online and has become extremely popular. Check out the craze for yourself, and see what you think of it you may just enjoy it yourself.
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Handy-Dandy Guide To Automatically Reading Blogs


I keep coming across people who are not familiar with RSS and how it can simplify your life if you’d like to keep current with a range of blogs.

When you open a morning newspaper you read stories from around the world assembled by editors from hundreds of sources (wire services, reporters). The paper prints the same news for every reader -- you choose which stories to read. Instead of relying on a editor to choose the news, how would you like to have a morning newspaper delivered each and every day with stories on topics “you” choose? With a free Blog Reader or news aggregator you can create a personal page on your web browser loaded with the freshest news about the things you love.

The way you set up your personal newspaper involves a few steps and can seem a little tricky. Follow my step-by-guide below and you’ll be reading information about your topic from all over the Internet on one web page.  A little investment of your time will pay off.

You’ll need about 30 minutes to follow the steps below. Ready? Let’s go!

Introduction -- What is a Blog?

Basically, a blog (WeB LOG) is an online diary. There are millions and millions out there! The trick is finding the ones that have information you need and flagging them when they post updates. Advantage: you get the inside scoop before most people in your industry. The good news about blogs is that are probably dozens you will find interesting, the bad news is that means there are dozens of bookmarks you must keep, and since bloggers don’t post on a regular schedule you never know when you need to check back to read updates. That’s why you need a blog reader. Technically it’s known as an RSS Reader.

So Why Read Blogs?

There are as many reasons to read blogs as there are people. Each person’s reasons are different. Here are a few reasons I read blogs:

1. I get a direct line into the thinking of important people in the field. In technology this could be Jonathan Schwartz (Sun) or Irving Wladawsky-Berger (IBM). In the media it might be Dan Gillmor (San Jose Mercury News). Or perhaps it’s people with their finger on the culture like Craig Newmark (craigslist). It’s unfiltered and in their own words.

2. Reading from a news aggregator is a much quicker way of reading news. For example, when I log in in the morning and hop over to Bloglines, in one interface I can see what many people are commenting on, along with news outlets like the NY Times, Washington Post, and Boston Globe. This beats visiting the websites individually to see if they might have some updated content to read.

3. You get a much better picture of the individuals involved; what they’re working on, what their concerns are, sometimes even what their favorite restaurant is. Most bloggers like to read Comments you can leave. This is a great way to build relationships. It’s not a replacement for personal interaction, of course, but one that has its place and has a lot more scale to it.

4. Announcements are often made first in blogs.

What is an RSS Reader?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Just like your morning paper relies on syndicated news from AP, Reuters etc, so your blog reader will rely on the fact that most blogs syndicate their news -- they can feed it to your blog reader for you to review.

A news reader or aggregator checks a list of feeds on your behalf and displays any updated articles that it finds. It is common to find web feeds on nearly all blogs as well as many websites such CNN.com. RSS programs are available for various operating systems.

How do I find an RSS Reader?

Simple -- Google RSS Reader. The most popular are Newsgator, Google Reader, Rocket. I use Bloglines. The rest of this guide is customized for Bloglines, but the same principals will work for all of them.

Step-by-step Guide:

[1] You’ll need to open two browser windows.

[2] In the first browser window, link to my blog: http://www.imbloggerite.com/blogging -- I’ll use this as an example blog to add to your feeder -- hey! it’s a great blog!

[3] In the second browser window, go to http://www.bloglines.com and choose Subscribe -- it’s free.

The next bit is tricky, but stay with me:

[4] In browser where you have Bloglines, Under “My Feeds” choose “Add” find where it says “Blog or feed URL”

[5] Go back to my blog in the other window, look at the top of  the right column until you see where it says “Subscribe me”. Now, RIGHT CLICK on RSS and choose “Copy Shortcut” and then go to the bloglines window and Paste this into the space where it says “Blog feed or URL”. If you’ve done it right, this should go into the window:

http://www.imbloggersite.com/blogging/?feed=rss2

[6] Hit “Subscribe” and then again “Subscribe” on the bottom of the next screen (which allows various options such as folders for multiple blogs -- don’t worry about it for now.)

[7] Result -- You now have a “feed” to my blog and whenever I post an update it’ll show up in Bloglines and you’ll see it. OK?

[8] Now you can look at some other blogs you might like to add in Bloglines. This is how you keep your eyes on multiple sources of blog info without having to go fetch it from each website in turn. You just have to find the RSS or XML (same thing) button on each blog. Usually you’ll find this button on the left or right column. It might have a graphic that says “XML” or “RSS”. You just bookmark Bloglines.com. It’s your one stop shop on the internet for dozens of sources of information on your topic. How cool is that!

How to find Blogs that interest you:

[9] Start by searching in Bloglines where it says “Search all Blogs” at the top of the page. Once the blog shows in Bloglines click on the title to go to the actual blog and find the RSS button. Then repeat steps [4] -- [7] above to add it to Bloglines. If you have different topic areas then I suggest you use the option [Create Folders] to organize the blogs under different headings. You don’t need to just read blogs on your speaking topic, there’s blogs on every topic out there.

[10] Other places to find blogs:

- Google -> More -> Blog Search
- http://www.technorati.com -> Search

[11] The single best place to find quality blogs is to check out the sidebar on any blog that interests you for blogs that author recommends. It’s usually listed as a “Blogroll”. Look down the right side of my blog and you’ll see a half-dozen on speechwriting and PR. Cilick and check out any that interest.

[12] Final tip. You can search Google News on your Topic. Guess what’ You can grab this as a feed as well! Look to the right side and do the right-click thing where it says “RSS” and add it as a feed to Bloglines. Hint: If you are searching for all the news on the topic “National Speakers Association” be sure to put it in quotes before you Google, or you’ll get separate news on each word, not the phrase. This also works if you search on Blogs using Google.

That’s all folks! Happy blog reading.

Business Blog Web Design Mistakes


With more companies adopting blogs, we’re starting to see what works and what doesn’t work from a design perspective. As a cue from Jakob Nielsen’s article on the topic, here are thing problems I often find.

Bad headlines. They’re frustrating. Some bloggers like to get creative… but creativity can affect search engine keyword opportunities. The important thing is that readers have a hint of what the post is about.

Links. Readers like to know where links take them and most of us rely on the status bar, but sometimes that doesn’t help. Some experts say to use “click here” to help those who are newer to the Web and others say that’s wrong, wrong, wrong. It just depends on the content. When linking, try to pick the best words that give readers an idea of what to expect.

Calendars as the only way to navigate a blog and impossible to find archives or older entries are big problems. I almost always resort to search when I want to find postings no longer on the home page. Unfortunately, some blogs don’t have search. That’s why I put “archive” links in my sidebar in both meryl’s notes and meryl’s notes features. As my site goes through redesign, I’m making sure the archives are accessible especially in the features section. I found some old entries from 2001 that are still relevant today.

Bloggers must be regular. No bathroom jokes here, please. :) When a blog looks abandoned for a month… your audience is gone. They’ll take you off their feed reader and blogroll. If you plan not to do it again or take a long sabbatical… prepare to start over again when you return.

Keep the boss in mind even if your the head honcho. Always blog with a boss in mind. Will your boss (current and future) be offended by your posting? Not only do people get fired for their blogs, but also they could cost job offers. It wouldn’t surprise me if managers are Googling applicants while going through the interview process.

Junky URLs. Nielsen says having a typepad.com or blogspot.com equates to having a yahoo.com or aol.com email address. Some of the bigwigs use Blogspot or Typepad URLs. Guess what? I never remember their URLs. I have to rely on Google. So this makes sense, BUT I wouldn’t call it unprofessional.

Business blogging has many benefits and problems. Companies tread carefully when entering this new world. It’s wise to have policies on the approval process and what can and can’t be said. Like anything else in a business, blogs need to be evaluated to determine whether or not they fit the business’ model.

Blog Marketing and Scams


Blog marketing is something that has really peaked an interest in the online world. Many people across the interent are blogging, and have blogs. A blog is also known as a web log. But you will hear the term blog more often than the term web log. It basically is just an online journal that you can use and publish for the world to read. Whether you choose to write about personal things, or business. Maybe you want to use it to promote products or services. The way you use your blog is totally up to you. However, you should be aware of the scams that are out there, and what to avoid while you are trying to market your blog.

Blog marketing or really any kind of marketing has scams. Just like everything else you are going to come around. There is always someone that is wanting to scam someone else and take money from the ones that do not know better. So what can you do to protect yourself? The best way to protect yourself from blog marketing scams is to become familiar with them, and know what they are. While this can also be hard to do because the scams change as much as you change your clothes, just stay on top of them, and know what to be looking out for.

Many times when a blog marketing scam surfaces, you will find that someone is going to write about it. They are going to try and warn others before they can fall into it. So, just make sure that you read and know what you are getting into. Do your research when you are marketing your blog. Ask others if they have heard about something that you are interested in doing. Chances are, if you are wanting to pay for some marketing of your blog, that you will find someone else that has used every company out there. Get feedback from your fellow marketers for the best results. Ask them if they have recommendations, or know of places that are legitimate.

If you have been scammed, chances are there is not much that you can do other than get the word out about it. However, just remember, if you have paid someone through something like paypal that protects you, then you have a time limit to get your money back and freeze the scammers account. But, that does not always work. Most of the time the scammers are all ready aware of things like that, and they work fast to move to not be caught. If that is the case, you really can not do much else about it other than alert the proper authorities and count your losses.

While there are many that will scam you with blog marketing, there are also many that will not. There are just so many legitimate resources that you are going to find that you can use and trust. The best thing to do if you are new to the blog marketing world is to ask around and find out who is the best for the marketing that you are trying to do. Doing so will often keep you from falling into a scam, and throwing your hard earned money away.

Unfortunately, you are going to come across those that have no regrets what so ever about scamming others. The only thing that you can do is your research at times to make sure that you are using a service or person that you can trust. Ask for references, and make sure that you will be getting the best that you can afford. You will not regret it in the long run, and it will pay off to check someone or a service out before you go and invest your hard earned cash. Actually contact the services or person?s references to make sure that they are who they say, and that they can deliver what it is that you are looking for. It only takes time.

So You Want To Setup A Blog!!


So, you have been out on the Internet and hear people talking about blogs. Weblogs (Blogs for short) are web-based publications consisting of information of all sorts. Some people have personal blogs. Others are using blogs to market a product or service. I use one of my blog as a complimentary informational site to my home based business. It allows me to easily and quickly publish information about my home-based business. It is also a portal for my team to keep abreast of business related information.

The first thing you need to decide what type of blog you want. Having decided, go to www.blogger.com (there are other, but for the purpose of this article, I will discuss www.blogger.com.) to setup an account.

Once your account is setup, you will want to login into the dashboard. At this point, I would spend some time reading the tutorials and looking at some of the other blogs. By looking at other’s blogs, you can get an idea of how you want your to look and function. Blogger provides a help group (forum) where you can communicate with other members.

First, you will want to create your blog. You do this by using the “Create A Blog” button. This will bring you to page asking you a few questions. At this point, you have two options: simple setup or advanced setup. If you are new and have no knowledge of setting up a website and ftping, stay with the simple setup. But if you are familiar with setting up website and ftping, I suggest the advance setup. The advance setup would allow you more flexibility, but requires more of a learning curve. For our discussion, we will stick with the simple setup.

For the simple setup, chose a title and address (URL) for your blog. Select a title that reflection your intention for the site. Selecting a good title is an important consideration, especially if you are using it to market a product or providing information to your audience. Put in the word verification number and hit ?Continue?.

Secondly, you will want to select a template from the ones provided on this page. Make your selection based on how it will coordinate with product or service. Also, the template should have an aesthetic affect on your targeted traffic. In other words, if you are using this to promote a home-based business, use a color scheme that is not loud and boisterous.

Lastly, hit the “Continue” button. Your blog has been setup. You will now want to start publishing to your blog. You are back at the dashboard, so select your blog link.

Under the ?Publish? tab, select the “Create” tab. You will have a blank editor box to enter your new information to be published. If you are familiar with HTML tags, you can add it into your text. (i.e.: This is my new text will produce This is my new text.). There are some edit buttons within the editor that you can use also. Once finished entering your new information, hit the ?Publish Post? button.

As a side note, once you have published to your site, you will want to draw traffic to your new blog. You can use two sites that will send out your post so others can see them. They are www.pingoat.com and www.pingomatic.com. Every time you make a new post, use these two sites.

Whether you are just wanting expound your personal views, market a product or service, or provide a portal for additional information about your home based business, blogs are great. They can be setup easily and quickly be published. You do not have to worry about web hosting and programming if you are a newbie. Just start typing in your thoughts on a daily basis to keep your content fresh.

The Benefits of Blogging For Business


It goes without saying that maintaining a blog is a good idea for the health of your business. Have you ever asked yourself Why? Being familiar with how blogs work and how to effectively utilize them for the health and wealth of your business will pay you back substantially for your efforts. Ineffective Blogging will simply waste your time, efforts, and this tremendous marketing tool.

Why does your business need a Blog? Credibility would be a good answer. Posting about news in your industry, links you’d recommend to topics related to your industry or post valuable information from the inside or your personal experiences, your readers will see you not only as a valuable information source but as a community minded business.

Building traffic and list building are two more reasons why your business needs a blog. These tools are Solid, Effective, and Proven Tools for marketing your Goods and Services Online.

Blogs are great for your customers.They’re not seen the same as your basic website or sales page. Postings are usually informal. At times entertaining yet informative. Their accuracy and effectiveness will peak the interest of your readers, establish you as an Expert, and build trust between you and your readers.

Having the ability to offer subscriptions to your blog through sources loike bloglet.com, your readers can simply opt to recieve notices of your most recent postings, delivered directly to their inboxes. Provided your postings remain relevant to your readers wants and needs, they’ll continually come to you first.

If you set up your blog to accept comments, this will give your readers the ability to post feedback on your posts. This will give you valuable insight and ideas regarding your next product or project.

How to build traffic with your blog. Your blog provider may provide potential readers the option of a search box. This tool gives the reader the ability to search for a particular blog using a word or phrase. By using those particular words or phrases in your title you’ll boost your chances for acquiring some targeted traffic.

Don’t forget to submit your blog to the search engines. Also remember, this is “The Information Super Highway”. Blogging is information and the Search Engines Love them. After every post, Simply ‘ping’ your blog, (this announces
your update. I use http://www.pingoat.com/) and the search engines will pick it up.

So jump on the blogging bandwagon take advantage of one of the cheapest and smartest marketing tools available. It’s easy and profitable – so build yours today!

Blogging- Developing a Readership


1) Quality Content ? Interesting content will keep your readership returning. Update your blog regularly. Googlebot, which is Google’s web-crawling robot loves content. The more you update your blog, the more frequent the search engine spiders will return to it.

2) Take part in blog exchange communities, like BlogExplosion and BlogClicker. Ask other bloggers for their opinion on your blog and take their suggestions to heart.

3) Publish an RSS/Atom/XML feed. If you’re using Blogger, you can turn on RSS feed by clicking on settings in your dashboard and then clicking on site feed and make sure that your settings are set to yes.

4) Carefully choose your subject titles, taking into consideration what other internet users may be searching for. Use keywords in your title. I suggest subscribing to Word Tracker. Their report of the most popular searches is published each Tuesday and distributed to over 30,000 subscribers. Technorati.com , is a blog search engine that also lists the top search words. The more targeted your keywords are, the greater your return in search engines will be.

5) Involve yourself in commenting on other blogs. You can gain a loyal readership just by offering feedback to your fellow bloggers. The comment feature allows you to add a link back to your blog as well.

6) Be sure to include your blog address in forum signatures and in your email signature.

7) Submit your blog to directories. Submit your blog’s url to Technorati, Daypop, Blogdex and Popdex.

8) Write articles. Include a resource box in your article and submit it to article directories such as iSnare.com

9) If you’re using blogging software such as Blogger, there is an option to notify the central blog update services (such as weblogs.com) whenever you’ve made a new entry to your blog. Make sure that this option is turned on! In blogger, click on publish in your dashboard and make sure that your settings are set to yes under notify weblogs. Alternatively, you can go to ping-o-matic.com and send out a ping each time you update your blog. This lets everyone know that you’ve just updated your blog.

10) Link to other blogs. Use services like blogrolling, which is similar to linking. Blogrolling allows you to maintain an updated list of your favorite blogs. But, don’t build a long blog roll of sites that you have no intention of returning to. There is nothing more annoying then visiting a blog that has a humongous blogroll.

Be patient, traffic doesn’t happen overnight. The best way that I’ve found to increase traffic is by getting to know people. Spend what free time that you have, reading blogs, leaving feedback and building friendships. Try to leave comments on the blogs that you visit as often as you can. While you are waiting for the traffic to come, just enjoy blogging. You’ll be improving your writing in the process. Eventually you’ll build a network of not just readers, but friends and loyal supporters. Blogging is not just about marketing; it’s about creating lasting relationships.

Create Blogging Time – It’s Essential


What’s the perfect job? How about a job where you are your own boss, you set your own hours, work right from home, never have to deal with unreasonable deadlines and get to do something you love doing? Sound good? Well that’s the job description of a blogger. That, however, is the not the whole story! There are very, very few bloggers who have nothing else to do but work on their blog and even fewer who have a blog that provides a decent source of income so blogging is, for most, a second or even a third job.?

There are two basic types of bloggers, the casual blogger and the serious blogger.

The casual blogger may have a basically well balanced life and a blog that is primarily a hobby. The casual blogger will start writing a post, work at it for awhile and then stop to get some other things done until he or she feels like writing again. If a finished post doesn’t get many comments, that’s OK; the post expressed just what the casual blogger wanted to say and its out there if anyone is interested.

The serious blogger’s situation is quite different from the casual blogger’s. The serious blogger has a blog that he or she considers to be a job — a job that may be competing with other important elements of life such as a primary job, a family, a social life and adequate rest. The serious blogger is committed (almost to the point of an obsession) to maintaining his or her blog and feels it is an essential element of daily life. The serious blogger feels dejected if any post sits on the blog for twenty-four hours or so without generating a comment or if the blog’s hit counter? does not register a certain number of visitors every day. That kind of commitment to blogging may take a big hunk of time out of the day and can easily create some serious conflicts between blogging and the rest of life — to avoid this, the serious blogger needs to be organized and efficient.

Time management for the serious blogger! Anyone who feels that the day is too short needs to understand and implement the basic principle of time management: setting priorities. Some things are obviously more important than other things but some important things may be left undone unless you are controlling your schedule and not having random events control you. You need to set priorities and live by them.

Make a priority list! To begin setting priorities, make a list of everything you need to get done — everything including things you’ve committed to doing, things you want to do, things you know you should do and things that you really don’t want to do but are on your mind. Be honest and put everything on the list — take a couple hours or more to put it together if you need that much time, it will be time well spent because you are about to get organized.

Important: You will be using and modifying this list every day so create the list using some program that will allow you to move list items around, add items, remove items and save the list. Just notepad or your word processing program will do nicely but there are other more specialized programs available — they may even be free, check out: Tucows at tucows. com.

Categorize! Now carefully consider each item on the list and put each one into one of the following five categories.

Must get it done today
Must get it done this week
Nice to do and might be beneficial
Nice to do but not really necessary
Unnecessary

Now you have a decent priority list. Start every day with this list and every time you become aware of a new task add it in a proper place to the proper category. As the “must do” items are accomplished and moved off the list, some of the nice-to-do items may be moved up, but only if their priorities can honestly be changed.

Too many must-do things! If the list of items in the two ?Must get it done . . . ? categories is overwhelming, reconsider each item’s importance and re-prioritize if you can, if not select the items that you really don’t have to do yourself, things like fix-it projects, business phone calls, business letters, editing and proofreading jobs, etc. — some of these things may be able to be done just as well by someone else. Find a friend, family member, co-worker or a freelancer to do it for you.