Most home based business professionals who blog or otherwise have websites for their businesses are aware of the FTC Disclosure requirements passed earlier this year.

If you in any way, shape or form make money or have the potential to make money from content on your site, you have to disclose that to your readers.

This includes affiliate links or buttons and any kind of review you post on a product or service that you received compensation for.

Compensation could be receipt of a sample or actual payment for doing a review.

I found a terrific resource from CMP.ly that helps bloggers and website owners comply with the FTC Disclosure requirements.

Their four solutions programs are for Bloggers, Brands, Agencies, and Affiliate Marketing.

When you sign up for a free account with CMP.ly, register your site and then choose the type of disclosure you need.

The site has easy to understand explanations of which disclosure you need for which kind of activity you are doing.

• Post contains author’s own opinions and he has not been paid or has no material connection.  Author may receive unrelated payment.
• Post based upon a review copy or sample.  Author is not paid but did receive an item related to post.
• Post based on a sample or gift received that author was not paid for.
• Post based on an advertising relationship and author has been paid.
• Author is an employee or a shareholder.
• Author has included affiliate links on her site.
• Custom disclosure allows author to create a disclosure that is not covered in the previous 6 disclosures.

{information excerpted from CMP.ly Blogger Solutions.}  

They also give you tips on whether a disclosure can be in your sidebar or if it needs to be directly in the post.

It is well worth your time and effort to take advantage of this free service if you rely heavily on your blog or other website as a form of income.

Believe In Your Success, I Do!
Karen
mentor.karen.j.miller@gmail.com

Creating websites in today’s online home business environment has become the next greatest do-it-yourselfer project.

Anyone can make a website with minimal investment and practically no technical knowledge at all.

Owning your very own website goes far beyond simply creating a blog these days.

One of the factors to consider when choosing the design of your website is color.

The internet has accentuated how we respond to visual information. 

We are no longer bound to black and white text.  We now have a sensory menu of color, images, animation, and videos.

We have come to expect a website to be visually appealing and tantalizing…entertaining us with every click of the mouse.

The colors we choose for a website are far more important than picking our favorite colors.

There is a psychology of colors that should be considered when choosing your theme color palette.

Color Wheel Pro created a page on the meaning of colors on their site that is worth reviewing.

One of the things you define when planning your website is your target niche or audience.

Based on who they are you determine their characteristics, needs and desires.

Most people make their initial decisions based on emotion, not intellect.

You need to decide how you want to present the value in what you have to offer and who you are as a servant.

What emotions or impression do you want to inspire in the minds of your site visitors?

You have about 10 seconds to make your first impression.

You then have about 30 seconds to 2 minutes to make your point and convince your reader that YOU can help them solve their problems.

The color you use in your website will strike the first impression, even if your visitors are not consciously aware of it. 

This is particularly true of the header banner which is the first thing your visitors see.

Some color examples:

Black is formal or death.

Red is danger or sensual.

Yellow is warm, happy or intellectual.

What do you feel when you put black and red together like a man in a tuxedo with a red rose in his lapel?

What do you feel when you see black and yellow together like when you see a bee?

On the contrary, what do you feel when you see a sunflower?

The color blue often relates calm, cool, and confidence.  When the Mother Mary is painted as a Saint, she is often wearing a cloak in deep blue.

When blue is combined with red and yellow, we get Superman.

So, remember, put careful thought into your website color scheme when creating your online image.

Believe in Your Success, I Do!
Karen
mentor.karen.j.miller@gmail.com

Facebook is rolling out their new wave of changes to your profile.

As announced, all of your activities, interests, music, movies, and books you listed in your profile will now be connected to a corresponding fan page.

Soon, when you log into your account, a box will pop up prompting you to chose the pages you want to belong to.

If you only want to belong to a few pages, or none at all, any pages you do not select will automatically delete that topic from your profile!

I found this out the hard way.  Fortunately, it was on my personal profile and not the profile I use to network for business.

If you have set up your business profile correctly, the topics in the activities, interests, movies, music, and books give a snapshot of who you are.

You need a little bit about personal interests so others have something to relate to you with.

You also need some things about you as a business professional, but not so much that you are a flashing neon billboard.

I would “select all” when asked which pages to join.  Once we see the effect of these changes, it will be easier to decide what to delete and what to keep.

Believe In Success, I Do!
Karen
mentor.karen.j.miller@gmail.com

I read an article today from Monster.com How To Clean Up Your Online Reputation.

With the way Network Marketers use the internet to create a high profile presence for themselves, the information may be of use to some of us.

There is always a chance that people we network with us will post something that would shed a negative light on us.

Or maybe there are family or friends that have posted something about us that would be seen as unsavory in the business world.

Since most Network Marketers are building their businesses part-time around a job, or a spouse’s job, negative material created form our MLM lives could be damaging to our professional 9 to 5 lives.

Check out the article and keep the information in the back of your mind if the occasion ever arises to need to use it.

Believe In Your Success, I Do!
Karen
mentor.karen.j.miller@gmail.com

One of the activities Network Marketers engage in on Facebook is joining groups.

When your purpose is to network with other people involved in MLM who you may want to attract to your business, you want to join groups relating to network marketing and MLM.

You can also join groups whose interest is a particular company or specific lead generation system.

With these groups, the hope is to connect with others who may be struggling to make money in the company they are with.

Groups focused on more general topics like self development, internet marketing, or women in business, will have more members who are not involved in MLM.

While valuable for personal growth and learning, these groups are not as appropriate for finding potential business partners. 

You want to join groups that are active.  Those should end up at the top of your search list.

Look for number of members and see if people have joined recently.

Look on the group’s site and see if the group owner posts events and discussions on a fairly regular basis.

Once you join a group, pay attention to the messages the group sends you.

About once a week is enough, otherwise it gets too time consuming and annoying. 

Are they sending valuable content to help you solve your problems or are they spamming you for their opportunity?

If groups annoy you with their messages or event invitations, or don’t do anything at all (messaging encourages activity from other members) then leave the group.

Periodically go through your groups and leave the ones you are not active in or ones that are not growing or offering content.

Remember, your time is money. 

As an entrepreneur building a business from home…probably part time along with all of your other life’s demands…you cannot afford to waste time.

Believe in Your Success, I Do!
Karen
Email: mentor.karen.j.miller@gmail.com

“The Future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their Dreams.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

http://www.complete-network-marketers-desk-reference.com

One of the marketing platforms we often use in promoting our network marketing businesses online is social networks.

Facebook and MySpace are likely the most popular…and free…social networking sites on the web.

There are other sites, and although they have a more targeted membership, they aren’t as globally large and well known.

Sometimes when making friend connections on Facebook and MySpace, we may blunder and connect with people who are not the best business contacts.

The most effective way to friend people who have the same interests in network marketing is to join groups focused on network marketing, MLM, generating leads, and online marketing.

From the groups’ membership, we make connections with others who probably share our interests in building a home based business.

Most of the time, friendship requests are approved without hardly getting to know the other person.

We make initial cordial thank you-s for the friend connection, then move on to other activities.

After making thousands of connections, it is easy to overlook people in your network who are not appropriate business associates.

As I have written before, when building your business on Facebook, or other social network sites, you need to keep your profile focused for business building.

All other activities need to be kept on your personal profile.

It’s too easy to waste time on social network sites.  To effectively build a home based business part time, you must be disciplined with your time management.

As you go through your Newsfeed, Messages, Event & Group Invitations, and “Other” Requests, it will become easy to find friend blunders.

These will be people who actually are not as interested in building their network marketing business on the same professional level as you are.

With a 5,000 friend limit on Facebook, it is wise to perform a Friend Cleanse every so often.

Follow the clues.

No Comprendo. 

We often friend people from different countries and cultures.  However, if their only language they use on Facebook is their native dialect, and you don’t speak it, what’s the point?

It is wise to suggest them as a friend to one of your teammates who does speak their language and then un-friend them.

Wanna Play?

There are people who do business networking and want to engage their contacts in games, like Mafia Wars or Farmville.

These games are fun and very addicting.  Hours are easily wasted every day on these games.

Serious business builders simply do not have the time to play these games frivolously.  The invitations to play are clutter and time consuming.

Contacts spending more time on games than they spend on effective networking activities may not be interested in building and may not be interested in what you have to offer.

Dodge Ball!

You will find some of your contacts are so busy promoting their groups and events that they show up several times a week or even daily.

You end up getting hit with their promotions so much you feel like you’re in a game of Dodge Ball.

These people are so busy doing their thing that they are probably not paying attention to what you are doing or what anyone else is doing.

You have to decide whether it is worth putting up with their activity stream to  keep them in your contacts hoping they will eventually get worn out and take advantage of what you have to offer.

Or they may never stop playing their Dodge Ball game to notice that you unfriended them.

The Big Dogs.

There are many Network Marketers we connect with who are already successful in their businesses.

They are there to build and will never join a small part-timer whose main goal is to make about $1000 a month.

So why network with these Big Dogs?

If they actually are offering valuable training and inspiration that benefits you, then keep the connection.

If you’re not gaining any knowledge from their friendship, then unfriend them to make room for someone you can have a mutually beneficial relationship with.

Just Not There.

Sometimes we connect with someone from an MLM or similar interest group and we later find out that they are not really interested in the business at all.

We may not have looked at their profile closely enough and not realized that they have nothing on their profile to indicate any business activities.

There are those who you may tag in a note or video and they leave very negative comments behind.

They are not just disagreeing with your point of view, they are bashing you and MLM.

Unfriend them immediately before they do damage to your image.

The Soapbox.

The last group of people to closely evaluate are the ones who voice their personal opinions about religion, politics, or current events to the point of being obnoxious.

Business is business.  There is no place in a professional business setting to heavily declare personal views.

People who use their profiles to promote their personal agendas are not likely going to make good business contacts.

Unfriend them from your business profile.  If you share their opinions, then invite them to be friends on your personal profile.

It’s Business.

Keep in mind that your decisions on who you keep as a contact on your Facebook business profile are entirely based on good business.

There is nothing personal about it.

If others unfriend you, they may not share your interest or find value in what you are offering.

That is OK.  You cannot please everyone.  Your goal has to be to appeal to the majority of people in your target niche.

Constantly revise your friend’s list and your activities on Facebook to polish your business presence.

This is how you will attract success focused people to you.

Believe in Your Success, I Do!
Karen
mentor.karen.j.miller@gmail.com

Evidently, Twitter has a “bug”.

Somewhere in the Twitter programming there was a glitch…or bug…that allowed a user to force another user to follow them.

How rude!

Be my friend or else?!?

The programming geniuses over at the Twitter HQ Nest are working to exterminate the bug.

Unfortunately, all numbers for “followers” and “following” are at 0!

Hopefully, once they get the problem resolved, user databases will be restored and we will get back our followers and followees.

All the Twitter addicts will have to smooth their ruffled feathers and get ready to Tweet again.

Believe In Your Success, I Do!
Karen
mentor.karen.j.miller@gmail.com
http://www.complete-network-marketers-desk-reference.com

Ezine Articles is giving us another opportunity to challenge our literary and marketing skills with the 4th Hundred Articles in a Hundred Days Challenge.

Participating in this challenge is a valuable chance to increase your web presence while polishing your writing and keyword skills.

Why is it important to write?

When you are using the internet to market your home based business, you will need to have a web presence that shows your value as a leader.

These days, when most people want to know something, they turn to the internet search engines.

Writing blogs and articles is a great way to get search engines like Google to recognize you.

So, it is in our best interest to court the search engines when marketing our businesses.

The challenge begins today, May 1st, and ends at 11:59 PM CST on August 8, 2010.

Ezine Articles has made signing up for the challenge a breeze by logging into your member interface.  They’ve written a blog post to guide you through the process.

If you read my previous post about how I did not the make the challenge…how I even fell far short of the goal at 28 articles submitted…you may wonder why I am even trying it again.

Because it is a challenge.

It is challenging me to rise above my current marketing performance and strive to reach a new goal.

This is what growth is all about.

This is what leadership is about.

Step out and enter the race to better yourself.  You are guaranteed to learn something and gain new skills.

You will also be braving new territory that your business associates will want to follow you into.

Believe In your Success, I Do!
Karen
mentor.karen.j.miller@gmail.net

Well, Facebook is at it again!

In an effort to enhance user experience, Facebook has implemented changes that will make a lot of our information and activities public.

I don’t particularly like Facebook making decisions about what I put in my profile public.

But it is their sandbox, and they let me play there for free.

I have written before about guarding your personal information on Facebook and other similar sites.

Too often, people new to Network Marketing, or other types of home based businesses, start marketing their business using an already existing profile where they have been keeping up with family and friends.

Or if they’re like me, their first profile was for their business.  They were having fun and started adding family and friends along with business contacts.

If you are seriously building a business network on a social site, you will quickly have over 1,000 contacts.  After that, this number will grow and take on a life of its own.

Most of your family and friends are not interested in your business activities.

Your business contacts are not very interested in your personal pursuits.  They simply do not have the time.

So if you don’t already have two profiles…one personal and one business…get busy and create another profile.

I would create one for your personal contacts and ask them to friend you on your new profile. 

People who know you personally are more likely to friend you again than are business contacts.  There again…not enough time.

Once you have your personal contacts on your new profile, delete them from your old profile…the one you are going to use strictly for business.

You have to remember that once you start building a large business network, you don’t want people who you know only casually having a glimpse into your private life and the lives of your family and friends.

The other important task is to clean up your profile.

You really have to be careful of the information you put on your profile.

You are on social networking sites to build your business network…your contacts don’t need to know all of your personal information.

Share just enough about yourself to make you a real person others can identify with….but not enough an identity thief can use to make your life miserable.

One of the changes Facebook is making is to automatically place you in groups or fan pages based on your interests.

We generally list only a few key interests in that section in order to relate to each other as real people.

Someone is more likely to do business with you when they share common ground.

However, being automatically connected to random groups of people based on your gardening or bowling interests can wreck havoc.

Your personal information is shared with people you would not normally connect with.

Then you have to deal with all of the extra messages and posts in your Newsfeed from these groups.

I personally like to keep my Newsfeed clear to keep up on what my contacts are sharing.

If you happen to be put in particularly active groups, just imagine how cluttered your inbox can get!

So just be aware of what is in your profile and how you may have to clear out some information.

Time is at a premium for our marketing time.  It is easy to spend too much time on social networks.

Don’t get caught up in all the extra activity Facebook may be sending your way.

Believe in Your Success, I Do!
Karen
mentor.karen.j.miller@gmail.com

Cruel fact #1:

If you want to build a big income online, you
need to be able to do some writing.

Cruel fact #2:

Most people can’t write.

Cruel fact #3:

Those who can write … often still struggle at it.

On Saturday night, April 10th, at 8:55 pm Eastern time, Richard Dennis, author of the book, “Evil Medicine”, will demonstrate the two simple life-changing tricks.

As a bonus, there will be  several examples that will have you writing magnetic stories within minutes.

You’ll also get the URL for a very useful file you can download.

This training could be worth a lot of money to you.

To take advantage of this training and many more like it that are designed to explode your business success, download my free ebook

Success In 10 Steps

The ebook, and all of our training and personal mentoring are free. 

Believe In Your Success, I Do!
Karen
mentor.karen.j.miller@gmail.com