Now this post has nothing to do with Personal Development or creating success in a home based business, but it sure gave me a good laugh. It’s always good to know what the search engines think of your site…..but I don’t think we really ever wonder what search engines think of you, personally.

Go to http://google.com. Type in “(YourName) is a”. Here’s a picture of what Google thinks of me…and you know what, don’t get offended. It’s just a computer giving you suggestions of what other people have searched for. Blame the people, not the Google machine!

The unwritten law of success has always included, and begins with, thanksgiving. Gratitude is the act of showing appreciation. It is always said that, unless you are grateful for what you currently have, you will never be blessed with more. As I show that I can appreciate and manage all that I do have, it merits the fact that I deserve more.

Success Begins with Thanksgiving

I actually take time every single day, not just on Thanksgiving day, to think of all that I have in my life right now that I am grateful for. I think of my children, my home based business, the roof over my head, my vehicles, my family, friends, my church and yes, at times, I even think of my Sony LCD TV (Which is bigger than anything else in my house)! No matter what stage I am at in my life or whatever my circumstance, the day will ALWAYS go smoother if I simply spend some time to reflect on the things that are most important to me. As I think of my children, I have a little more temperance. As I think of my business, I become more passionate about changing peoples lives. As I think of my faith, my testimony is strengthened. As I reflect, I become stronger in every area that crosses my mind.

I once read a quote that stated something along the lines of, “Gratitude is pointless when kept quiet.” The best form of gratitude is the kind shared with those you are grateful for. It not only strengthens you, but the other person as well. So take some time to tell those who are closest to you how grateful you are for them and how much they mean to you. Chances are, they really needed to hear it, and may not hear that sort of thing very often.

Take the approach this holiday season to see who’s life you can effect in a positive way instead of who can effect you. Be the proactive blessing in other people’s lives. You deserve it and so do they!

Happy Turkey Day to everyone here in the US! Any holiday that involves a ton of food and family, I’m in!

I can see you! No really. I can see when, how and for what you are here on my site right now, as you read this post. I know, old news right. Tracking software is old news. Well, for a lot of people I know, it’s a brand new concept, or at least something they haven’t seen the value in as of yet. For those of you who pay special attention to what you are being found for on the world wide web, then tracking software is a vital and important part to your marketing campaign.

Allow me to introduce you to the tracking software I currently use to monitor visits to my site. It’s called Mint at haveamint.com. It’s a simple, self-hosted tracking software integrated into your blog or website that shows you real time statistics for your site. Here are a few things it gives you:

• Your most Recent visits. Including the key phrase they searched for to reach your site. This includes a link to click on to see the search engine they used or referring site.
• Keywords of Key Phrases you are most commonly found for.
• Images your were found for.
• An hourly record of unique visits and page views along with an archive of your weekly, monthly and past years traffic results including easy to read graphs.
• A list of up to the past 72 hours of the most visited pages on your site.

Mint is a software designed to give you useful information about your site at a single glance. And sure, there are things it doesn’t do and services it doesn’t compare to, but by a simple click on an icon in my bookmarks Toolbar, you have access to how your site is being seen and found on the net.

I have had Mint installed for over a year now and I believe it was $35 US but has now been reduced to $30 US. It is a one time fee. There are no recurring monthly fees, which is nice.

I can tell you that I have been found for some pretty interesting key phrases recently. I get found for:

• David Allred
• Home based business
• Inspirational Transformers quotes
• How old is Amy Allred
• How to become a millionaire
• Employee of the Month
• Funny Cubicle Signs
• Time Freedom

The list goes on and on and on. And there you have it. Have fun with it. I know you will find it useful, however, I need to attach a bit of advice.

Question: The following statements are true of false:  The longer you stare at your stats, the better they get. The more often you look at your stats the more they improve.

Answer: False! Simply looking at your stats will not improve your stats. You must not get addicted at always checking. Do the work and know that mint will do its part and tell you your results!

I am a basketball fanatic. If I were to choose between all sports, basketball would be at the top of the list. Not that I don’t enjoy any of the others, I just know the sport of basketball and like to consider myself pretty good at it as well. Well, I guess that directly depends on the physical shape I am currently in. I have recently noticed that it really does make a huge difference in your game if you can barely run up and down the court once before collapsing. Heaven forbid you might have to jump during the whole process!

Recently I came across some old high school basketball footage. Talk about awesome! These tapes were used to critique ourselves and our performance during our past games and to get a little insight as to how the other team plays. Although we had these videos, I don’t recall ever having access to those tapes. During my entire High School basketball career, we didn’t spend any time critiquing ourselves. We just moved forward to the next game. I guess our coach didn’t see the importance of it.

Now let me ask you all a question, and tell me if you think this would be beneficial to you. If you had a recording of your games, would it benefit you to review yourself in action? Do you think it would give a difference perspective on how you perform?

You know, it is said that we are our own worst critics. And if that saying is true, as long as you are being constructive about it, wouldn’t it benefit you to watch yourself in action? I say absolutely yes! As I watched myself in these old recordings of my past High School games, I saw the areas of my game I was slacking in. Most areas I was slacking in have changed since then, but some I can still see myself doing and I am now conscious of those areas. Because of my awareness, I can now correct those bad habits. These tapes would have been so valuable to me when I was in the during, instead of the after stages of that time in my life. Yet, would I have noticed my faults then? Would I have been critical enough?

The best way to help someone recognize their faults, and then to change them,is not to tell them or show them, but to allow them to see them for themselves. That is the most effective way. Me telling you that your actions of having a job that barely pays your bills, is a waste of your talents, time and in general, your life, won’t inspire much change. But for you to tell yourself, that’s power. It’s all about awareness. Once you are aware, you can then decide to change or not. But that awareness is and will always be there to remind you. From that point, it’s up to you on whether or not you would like to take the easier path of not changing, or you can take the more difficult yet most rewarding path of change. At least you are aware of your options.

Now obviously it is much easier to simply film your basketball game than it is to film your entire life, so here are a few ways to keep “footage” of yourself:

• Keep a Journal!
• Start a Blog.
• Spend time with people you respect and ask for feedback or constructive criticism!

If you think that keeping a journal is solely for your ancestors to find out about their great, great, great great grandpa well after you die, think again. That’s one reason. It’s for you, to track your progress, to record wins, to look into as a reminder of how good or how bad you have been doing. It’s a source for you to critique your performance in life. A blog can do the same thing without as much personal details. I have noticed how much I have progressed in my mindset and writing skills since the beginning of this blog. And always be willing to ask and then receive constructive feedback from people you respect.

Don’t ever let your pride get in the way of you becoming better than you were or currently are. There is ALWAYS room for more……YOU!

Email Marketing is a great tool that can increase many areas of your business including residual income, repeat purchases from current customers, lead generation, education to your current customer base and if your into network marketing like me, find future distributors and business partners.

For those of you who are brand new to the term, “email marketing,” it’s a way to create a following, or a list of people that have opted in to receiving emails from you or your company. In a sense, you are building a list of emails from people who might be interested in what you have to share. Now, you can probably agree that most don’t sign up for your email campaign to receive daily sales pitches to their inbox. That is the less effective way to email marketing. Just as it is with blogging, the way to promote your product or service is to offer something for free that is of value to your readers. They get something out of the deal first. They you can subtly offer your product or service.

Most people in your list will simply enjoy the “Free Value” of your efforts while others will take further action. And example offering a free newsletter with tips about making money from home. As you can see, I have an “Empowering Quotes” opt-in form to the right. There are many things you can do to offer something free and something of value.

Recommended email marketing software

But I’m not here to teach you how to do an email marketing campaign, there are tutorials all over the internet that can do that for you. I simply wanted to give you three different options, all with at least a 30 day trial period, to start your email marketing with. Each is unique in design and functionality.

1. AWeber – AWeber is the easiest one to use in my opinion. From creating emails to contact forms, the ease of use is second to none. They have tutorials guiding you step by step along the way. The first month is $1 and depending on your email list, the price starts at $20 per month.
2. Constant Contact – I just signed up for the trial. Most email marketing sites have a standard “enter your email” form that leads to a separate subscribe page where the subscriber can enter more details about themselves. This is one of them. I was referred to this one through my web hosting company, Ipower.com and has a free 60 day trial period.
3. Rate Point – This one is very similar to Constant Contact with a free 30 day trial.

In the income opportunity I am involved in, I use a tool called NorthStar to manage my email marketing campaign. It is only available to those who are part of my business. If I had to choose between the three listed here, Aweber is my choice over the other two and there are probably more options on the net. Do your research, get started on building your list of contacts and watch your business grow in ways it wasn’t before! Have fun with it and be creative in your marketing approach.

Alright everyone, if you have noticed in the right hand sidebar of this blog, I have a way for you all to subscribe to a daily dose of empowerment delivered to your inbox. These quotes are all hand selected by yours truly. They come from various locations around the web and all have provided an added level of inspiration to my life. Thus, I am sharing them with all of you.

If you are a quotes junkie, like me, here are a few more places in addition to mine….let me reemphasize, in addition to mine! I’ll give you two of my favorite sites to visit and subscribe to. One is a site based on true values and can be found at Values.com. The other is a site devoted to personal growth and is found at MorningCoach.com.

To subscribe to Daily Empowering Quotes, you can either fill out the form in the right hand sidebar or click on “Daily Empowering Quotes.

More quotes lists coming in the future. One of which will be Inspirational Movie Quotes!