Wow! A Money-Making Tool to Add to Your Blog!

I was hunting around the web today (I won't call it procrastination since it was actually productive) and came across a really neat tool. The funny thing is that I was looking for a personal finance type widget that would offer money-saving tips to add to a new blog I'm working on. Instead, I find this great widget that you can place on your blog or website to collect tips from people!

Why do I find this exciting? Well first of all, I get a lot of requests from people asking about creating partnerships to my primary site at http://www.niquenyafulbright.com. I am very wary of those because often their sites are not relevant to my own and the content is usually really poor. Linking back to these sites would be to my own detriment as search engine spiders really don't like that type of thing. Secondly, these partnership requests are always from someone requesting a spot on my home page. That is a huge no-no to have your home page littered with unsightly ads. This new tool allows me to fix both of these problems and get paid!

ScratchBack allows you to place a widget anywhere on your website or blog that can accept monetary tips from your site's visitors. Your visitors "tip" you for providing them with useful, quality content and, in return, they get to place a text or image ad in your "topspot." You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours, hence the name, ScratchBack.

The topspot is just a nifty name for a position in a links list. What happens is that every time a visitor tips you ($5 minimum), they then get to place their ad in the top link in your ScratchBack widget. When a new visitor makes a tip, their ad pushes the last tipper's ad further down the list. This happens with each new tipper until the original tipper's ad eventually is removed. You can have from 5 to 20 spots and designate any price $5 and up for each. For instance you might limit topspots to 5 on your home page and charge $100 each but decrease the price and increase the number of spots on pages further into your site. You could also choose another time increment from 1 to 30 days for ad display rather than have the ads automatically roll off. You can create as many ScracthBack widgets as you like but you can't use more than one on the same page or else it won't work.

Now here's the even cooler part! There are absolutely no refunds. Your visitor is simply "tipping" you for the great information you are already providing on your blog or website. This is a much better concept than those goofy "donate" buttons on everyone's blogs that have somehow always seemed misleading to me. Furthermore, if someone places an ad that I don't like, I have complete and total control as well as the right to remove it. Since there are no refunds, no harm done. I still get paid via PayPal. That means no worrying about Adult content or really bogus and shady ads that my readers wouldn't be interested in. Of course the developers of ScratchBack have to get something in return for their ingenious creation so they take a very slight commission (at the time of this blog posting the payout to publishers is 90%).

I am giving this tool a try starting today. You can see my ScratchBack widget on the top left of this blog. I am only charging the minimum of $5 for my topspots here so if you want to reward me for informing you about this tool, by all means tip me and advertise yourself as well. As an added incentive, if you are a great affiliate marketer and have affiliate links that would be of interest to my readers you can further monetize your efforts. There is even a directory of ScratchBack users that you can use to locate sites that cater to your target audience. I would love to hear about any other ideas you might have in using this great tool so leave me a comment.

A Neat Goal Setting Tool

I was searching the web looking for additional time management tools that might come in handy and came across GoalMaker. This is a great piece of software that downloads right to your pc. It walks you through creating a database that you use to set up SMART goals including deadlines, constraints and resources needed to complete the goal. You can then track your progress. What's more, the software can work in conjunction with MS Access and Outlook making a streamlined system of accountability. Using this in conjunction with RescueTime can be a great benefit.

As an even added bonus, you can download a free trial right now. For coaches who can really use this tool to add value to their client's sessions, you can upgrade to the "Consulting" edition which will allow you to duplicate the databases and either include this goal-setting tool as part of your standard coaching practice or add it as an upsell. Click the banner below for additional information.

Flash Searchable By Search Engines!

Since I have been going to the gym every day, I have finally found a way to get all of my trade magazine reading done. I now read them while sweating away on the cross-trainer elliptical machine and recumbent bike. It's amazing how productive this has been. I am already on my third trade mag this week.

In any case, today I ran across an article in eWeek called "Uncovering Dynamic Web Content" written by Darryl K. Taft. The article discusses how Adobe, Google and Yahoo have teamed up to make Flash SWF format easier to find online. This is a huge relief for SWF users as, historically, it has been a cumbersome task to code in a workaround that would be more search engine friendly in order to have their site's most relevant content spidered and indexed. As a matter-of-fact, in my own article, "7 Tips to Save Money on Quality Web Design", tip number 7 strongly cautions against using Flash technologies for this very reason, aside from it also being rather expensive.

The article goes on to say that existing users of Flash SWF format will not have to do anything extra to get the technology indexed. As Adobe, Google and Yahoo add these capabilities, your Flash files will get their turn in line. That being said, I think it will be important to continue to maintain periodic search engine submission as a safeguard.

Birthday Follow-Up

So I know you are dying to know what I did for my birthday, right?

Well, I did go ahead and use some of those great coupons on my bday. I visited Baskin Robbins for a free icecream, went to Noodles & Company for a free entree and a few other locations. It was great! I took my daughter and her boyfriend with me. It was a lot of fun.

That Friday I went out to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, The Indian Cafe, located on Bryn Mawr. It's a fairly new establishment. I ordered the Chicken Tikka Combo which was delightful. I absolutely loooovvveee naan. This flatbread is so delicious and a great compliment to the chicken and rice. I capped off the celebrations with a birthday networking event hosted by Chicago Black Professionals Meet-up group. It was held at Nacional 27 which is a great cerviche bar and salsa club. The mojitos were to die for and the music was top notch.

All in all, I must say that I had a wonderful time and can't wait to do it all over again next year. Now that I belong to so many birthday e-clubs, I should be able to plan well in advance so I can take advantage of more freebies. This was a great way to save money and still have lots of fun. If you don't take away anything else from my weekly ramblings, please know that fun does not have to break the bank. You can enjoy yourself in anything as long as you have the right mindset and positive people to accompany you.

Remember, my birthday coaching special is still running until August 22nd. Hourly coaching is just $31 until then to celebrate my 31 years of life. You must send an email to me with "Happy Birthday" in the subject line in order to take advantage of this offer.

Until next time!

It's My Birthday! Feeling Blessed & Generous!

What a beautiful summer day to turn 31 in Chicago!

So my birthday has finally arrived and I am ready to celebrate. I have decided to spend the day taking it easy, relaxing and getting in some me-time. I have already had my morning workout which was exhilirating and now it's time for lunch. I am armed with a whole stack of birthday freebie coupons so I'm ready. This evening I plan to attend my church's prayer and bible study services. I don't always get to go since Wednesday nights tend to be a popular time for networking events.

Friends will be taking me out tomorrow and Friday. Friday evening may be spent at the Improv Comedy Club in Woodfield Mall. I love comedy shows! All-in-all, I think this is promising to be a wonderful week.

In honor of my 31st birthday I have decided to extend a special offer: From now until August 22nd, my hourly coaching fee will be just $31 for new clients. You can find more details by visiting http://www.niquenyafulbright.com/blog.

Now I'm off to grab some lunch!

Radio Hosts on Ning

View my page on Radio Hosts

My Birthday's Coming!

Okay, so my birthday is two days away and I have absolutely no idea what I want to do for it. I would love to celebrate by actually going out for a change but since it's been so long since I've been anywhere but lunch, dinner or a networking event, I have absolutely no idea where to go. I also don't really like big parties or the club scene. Furthermore, my prospects look kind of slim in terms of a date as well. I could just wait until the weekend and celebrate then but I still would like to do something for my actual birthday. What is there to do on a Wednesday in the middle of the week?

One thing I thought of doing was signing up for a bunch of different restaurants so I can get on their birthday email list. That's a great way to save money but enjoy a special treat on my special day. I could have lunch at Noodles and Company or grab a free ice cream at Ben & Jerry's or better yet, why not just do both? Then there's other freebies that I could use for dinner. That still doesn't help with who I will spend it with though.

Most of my friends work "real" jobs and don't have the free time like I do on weekdays. I know I can count on the girls for fun on the weekend but what I really want to do is have a nice, intimate movie date. It has been ages since I've seen anything that hadn't arrived in my mailbox via Netflix. There are three movies at the top of my list: The Dark Knight (mainly because I might be in it), Iron Man (so in love with Terrance Howard), and Hancock (I just love superheroes in general). I really want to see these on the big screen rather than wait for them to come out on DVD.

Maybe what I'll do is just take myself to the movies. Afterall, this is 2008 and I am an independent woman. I have given a solo movie date as homework to some of my coaching clients so why not? So, it's settled then. Unless a better alternative comes along I am taking myself out for lunch, dinner and the movies. I'll let you know how it went.

A Few Blog Posts I Enjoyed Reading

The Modern Business World: Training and Development: Employee Personality Issues
The Modern Business World: Managing Organizational Conflicts

Weird Week! But...I'm Surviving.

Things have been really helter-skelter this week. It seems almost as if everything that could go wrong did go wrong but I haven't let it get to me. There is always light at the end of my tunnel.

First, my cell phone was stolen. I tried to use Sprint Family Locator service to find it and it kept coming up as being on the beach. The satellite is only accurate within a .8 mile radius so I eventually gave up looking and let the police finish filing the report. Then when I arrived at the Sprint store to report the theft, of course the customer service rep informs me that somehow my insurance was dropped off my account when I upgraded to their new Simply Everything plan a few months ago. This added another 20 minutes to my service time while I awaited the insurance to be added back onto the account. I was then provided with a business card to call the claims department to request a new phone be shipped to me. I'm still waiting for the new phone.

As I am without a cell phone, I could only service my clients via my home phone or online using instant messenging through Skype or Yahoo. This invited further frustration as Comcast service is always being interrupted for one reason or another. Today it was due to the thunderstorms assaulting Chicago skies. Futhermore, my home phone service is provided by Vonage which means it has to travel over the cable connection. Arrggghhh!!! It took over an hour for me to connect with my 3:15PM appointment today. Thankfully, I was able to put on a happy face and, like a good life coach, set my agenda and issues aside to be fully present for my client. Needless to say, she loved me and I just increased my conversion rate from intro session to paying client.

Also, I just realized that I am completely out of printer ink. I am not sure how that happened since I am always at Sam's Club purchasing in bulk. It must have been my overzealous printing of Toastmaster's fliers a couple of weeks ago. That reminds me...I have a meeting in the morning and I haven't printed the agenda. I had better make some member calls to find out who plans to present a workbook speech tomorrow.

On another note, I am hosting the first event for Chitown Buppies. It is going to be an after-hours potluck networking social. I have already received good response from interested parties so prayerfully the event will be a great success. I have also been invited to present to a group of "upscale" women business owners at the Chicago Park Hyatt in September. I found it interesting that the event planner used the word "upscale" in the description but I guess I'll soon find out what that is supposed to mean.

So that's my week in not quite a nutshell. Maybe more of a watermelon rind.

Am I Lazy?

After much brow-beating followed by a good swift kick in the butt, I am finally back to posting to my blogs. It's really quite shameful that I, a certified life coach, could be such a great example of procrastination at its finest. Everday I talk about "the plan" and what I "should" do and yet things just haven't been getting done. At times like this, I know it is my cue to do some deep soul-searching to reassess what truly is important. What is the big picture and what am I doing to achieve it? Are there roadblocks standing in my way or am I just being lazy?

I work hard so it can't be that I am lazy. I am always involved in some activity or another. But I think herein lies the problem: too much focus on pointless activity and not a lot of movement in the intended direction. This means that it is really time to make a fundamental shift to get my butt into gear. Over half of 2008, my year to be great, is gone and I can not truly say that I am effectively working toward my goals. I haven't touched my manuscript, I haven't been updating my blogs, I haven't been consistently airing a radio show and I haven't been hosting too many events. Basically I am doing a whole lot of stopping and starting which realistically isn't getting me anywhere. So what's the solution; regroup and regain focus of the big picture.

So what is the big picture? My true goal is to be financially comfortable (notice I didn't say "stable") and to consistently support at least 10 people per month. So I know the "what" but it lacks a "why". If you know anything about me by now then you know that I am big on purpose. Purpose is crucial to direction and motivation. Your "what", or in my case, activity, doesn't matter if you have no purpose, or direction. So why is it important that I support 10 people each month? 10 is a great number that offers me great flexibility. It means that I can support 10 individuals or a group of 10 people. I can coach, mediate or consult on a one-on-one basis or put on a big event that helps many. In any case, 10 people, based on my known fees, will definitely assist in my first goal which is that of being financially comfortable. 10 will pay the bills and allow me something to work into savings. 10 also does not take up so much of my time that I become overwhelmed or forget to relax and play.

So I covered "what" and "why" leaving the next step as "how". I know that most of my clients come from the internet. People type in "chicago life coach" into Google or AOL or Yahoo and, lo and behold, there I am in the number one spot. I worked really hard to get there and now it's up to me to keep myself there so I can continue to be found by those who desire my services. That number 1 spot is all abot quality content and relative links. I didn't pay some overrated SEO specialist hundreds of thousands to put me there. I did it for free. The key is simply to find sites with related quality content and to request reciprocal links. That means that I only trade links with sites about business, coaching, management, personal and professional development or any of my other "keywords". You will never find my info on a site about dog grooming as that topic has no correlation with my own. Secondly, I have to write good quality content that includes my links. My articles and blogs play an important part in keeping my links fresh on the spiderbots' lists of sites to crawl. Those crawlers absolutely love new content so if I want to keep my number one spot, I have to give it to them.

The last step in this process is to establish the "when". Sounds simple enough but I haven't been doing it. The answer to when seems to always be tomorrow or something like it; i.e. later. That just doesn't cut it. New Rule: When is always NOW. The established time will be everyday after my workout (around 11:30 AM CST); however, if throughout the day something crosses my mind that will move me closer to my goals then I will drop everything and add it to my planner right then and there.

Now I have a plan. I will be looking to my readers to help me stay accountable to this plan. If you stop by and don't see a new post at least once per week then by all means send me an email or post a comment. I treasure your constructive feedback.

Finally, since I never like to leave a post on the negative side, I have been doing a good job of getting one thing accomplished: my workout. I have been going to the gym pretty much five times per week. I have already lost a few pounds and inches and even put on a little muscle mass. I will post pics after I feel there is a significant visible difference. Big victory for me!