Photo by Elaine Tan

I joined Twitter a while back, but I didn’t really “get” it until recently. I just got a new job (the PERFECT job, I think), that will use my multi talents. I’ll be doing business writing, Tweets, Facebook, blogging, and more!

Being the diligent new employee, I quickly did a crash course on Twitter this weekend, and boy! There’s a lot to learn!

What’s amazing is how involved Twitter can get. I’ve subscribed to a great blog about it (ProBlogger’s TwiTips), and I’ve started following some of the top Twitterers.There’s so much to learn and read, and it’s all shared by fellow Twitterers.

So have you joined Twitter yet? Follow me @crayonwriter and be sure to let me know in the comments below that you’ve started following me. Twitter will be my microblog, so enjoy and join in the conversation(s)!

You’ve taken the plunge and decided to join the growing number of men and women who work at home. You’ve redesigned your work-space, updated your computer system, and put in a new phone line, and maybe a fax as well.

These are all important steps, but whether you’re a consultant, a freelancer, a student engaged in online education, or a contract worker doing something like medical billing, there are certain patterns you’ll need to set in order to remain productive when your commute is only a few feet, or a flight of stairs.

Here are some tips for staying in “work mode” during the work day, and maintaining your focus as well:

Keep Regular Hours: “Regular” in this case does not necessarily mean 8:00 - 5:00, unless you have a spouse or child who needs to follow that sort of schedule, in which case doing so may be easier for you. It does mean keep your hours consistent. You can work from 6:00 AM - 3:00 PM or 10:30 AM - 7:30 PM, or any other set of hours that works for you, but you’ll be most productive if you figure out a schedule that works for you, and stick to it.

Get Dressed: There’s no doubt that one of the more attractive elements of working from home is the ability to work in your pajamas, but you’ll be far better off if you actually get dressed every morning. Unless you’re meeting with clients or colleagues, you don’t have to dress in corporate drag, but you should make the effort to put on real clothing - it puts you in a “working” state of mind.

Make Lists: Whether you keep a simple list of goals for the month, week and/or day, or plan each hour of your day, keeping a list will help you stay on task, and account for your time, which is especially necessary if you bill per hour. If you forget to make a list in the morning, do it before you stop work for the day, and include things you already accomplished, then cross them off. It will help keep you feeling productive.

Close the Door: Even if you live alone, closing your office door when you’re working can help reinforce that “work mode” mind set, by preventing you from seeing the living room rug that needs to be vacuumed, or the big screen television that is calling you name. If you do have a spouse or children hovering, it reminds them - and you - that you mustn’t be disturbed. At the end of the day, closing your office door behind you also helps signal that you are “leaving” work, and reinforces the necessary separation we must all learn to make.

Turn Off the Phone and Instant Messaging: Text, Twitter, IM, and even normal phone calls are all time-eaters. If you routinely have calls to return, designate “call back” hours, during which you return messages, and list those hours on your outgoing voicemail messages, so you’re not constantly answering the phone. Keeping the text and internet messaging/social messaging tools turned off also keeps you focused on work. Give yourself a limited amount of time to interact online during the work day, rather than having things open all the time.

Music Helps: When you’re working without the buzz of water cooler chatter and other people’s conversations in your ear, the quiet can feel oppressive at times. Pop a CD in, or fire up iTunes and set it to shuffle, or even just turn on a radio. It will help you stay motivated, and also help make you feel less isolated. If music doesn’t do it for you, consider listening to podcasts, or talk radio.

Keep things Tidy: We may joke that clean desk is the sign of a sick mind, but the reality is that tidying your workspace at the end of the day, makes things seem much less overwhelming the next morning. Coming into your office to a clear desk allows you to get right into your work each day. Make end-of-day clean-up a habit. You’ll thank yourself later.

Exercise: A little bit of physical activity during the day helps boost energy. Whether you go to the gym before you begin working, or take your dog for a walk around the block during lunch, be sure to get some exercise in every day. This will also help you feel less antsy about being inside the rest of the time.

As we adjust to this economic downturn, many of us will be working from home, either to form our own niches, or to add secondary income streams to our existing jobs. Remembering that it’s still a job, even if the boss is you, and setting schedules and limits, will help you maximize your work hours, and minimize any stress.

Just imagine…

You’ve heard about the blogging phenomena making the rounds lately.

And you’ve even though about setting up your own blog.

But perhaps the biggest question you’ve had so far is:

“What on earth shall I blog about?”

But don’t worry, you’re not alone.

And there’s some good news for you as well…

Not many people know what they want to blog about when they’re just getting started.

And that’s why Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick have just created a special X-Factor Strategy video that shows you how….

If you’re in any doubt as to what you should be blogging about, this X-Factor strategy video will get you off to a great start.

The video is an elaboration of one of the X-Factor strategies inside Yaro and Gideon’s report - The

Roadmap To Become A Blogger, which has already been downloaded 8,789 times in the last week!

It looks at a little-known feature of the social media giant Facebook, and shows you how to use it to your advantage and uncover multiple exploitable niche areas.

You can watch the whole video, without paying a cent or even giving away your details, over here:

X-Factor Facebook Video

Just go ahead and watch the video…

It really won’t cost you a thing, and it even comes with a full transcript that you can print out and follow along while you watch the video.

It’s a no-brainer - just go and watch it now:

X-Factor Facebook Video

If nothing else, you’ll get to know how to make friends with people from all over the world at the click of a button. And that could be very handy when you’re doing research for your new blog project.

I’ve watched it myself, and it’s really very straight forward and easy to understand. Let me know what you think.

Subscribing to others’ blogs is a great way to keep up with your interests, make new online friends, and learn new things. I’m subscribed to several, but hadn’t made the time (until today) to read through them.

As I peruse my feeds, I’ll let you know when I find some interesting articles.

There’s a wonderful list of resources, for any type of entrepreneur, over at Cath Lawson’s Tips for Success in Business & Life. I’ll be regularly checking her blog, since I seem to need lots of motivation to get my business(es) off the ground.

Stay tuned for more!

“I’m Barack Obama. I’m the President!” said my three-year-old daughter yesterday. Isn’t it wonderful that we can finally say that one day she actually could be president?

I was born in the early 70’s, and didn’t experience as much of the blatant racism my parents and others have, but I’ve seen my share.

My mother remembers traveling down south from Michigan when she was a teen, and having to eat unrefrigerated food because restaurants didn’t serve Blacks.

My grandmother, who looked white, was able to eat in a restaurant once, while her husband had to wait outside. I’m guessing he felt it more important that his wife be able to eat even if he couldn’t.

My mother also remembers not knowing the rules in the south, and having strangers (Black) pull her off the sidewalk when a white person approached. She and her sisters also had to use disgustingly dirty restrooms because, of course, they couldn’t use the white restrooms on their trip down south.

And for me, I remember being spit on by a white man when my parents pulled up next to his truck at a stoplight. That was in the 80s, in Michigan, when I was just a kid.

Just 2 years ago a stranger, a white man, asked me if my daughter’s father was Black too. When I told him Yes, he was so happy! He said something like, “Good! Too many people try to mix the races.” A complete stranger!

I say all this to say that I’m still in awe that this country will have a Black president in a very short time. It’s finally sinking in that this is real. That people were tortured and killed for this to happen. And amazed and humbled that my daughter will grow up in this (hopefully) new age.

I know that racism isn’t gone. Far from it. I live in a pretty racist town, which is part of the reason I believe I haven’t been able to find a decent job (along with this being a bad economy…it’s not all about race, I know). We still have work to do, and hopefully people won’t think this wipes the slate clean.

But for now I’m just so humbled and almost speechless at what his election has accomplished. I just wish Dr. King and others were here to witness this miracle. What a great time to be an American!

Wearing glasses runs in my family, so I’m sure it won’t be long before I need new ones, and before my daughter needs to start wearing them.

Unfortunately, buying glasses at the regular stores, even the so-called discount stores, isn’t always affordable. But luckily there are online bargains. I just found an online store with a lot of nice selections for frames. The store, called Zenni Optical, sells its own brand of stylish frames, and their prices are low, starting at only $8.00.

Besides regular eyeglasses, Zenni Optical also offers rimless frames, bifocals, goggles, and children’s frames. You can choose from Monel steel alloy, stainless steel, memory or pure titanium, plastic, aluminum, and memory aluminum frames. The lenses are made from a polycarbonate composite, with UV protection built-in, and you can add a tint or anti-glare coating for a little extra cost.

The site gives clear instructions about how to place an order correctly, and they seem upfront about their refund policy and guarantee. You have to provide your own prescription, obtained from a licensed eye doctor, of course.

Have you bought glasses online before? How did it work out for you? With the economy like it is, I’m definitely going to give it some serious thought.

One of the blogging trends I’d like to implement is treating my blog like a newspaper or magazine. Both have regular features, which helps keep the publication current, and helps the publisher think of what to write next.

I’ll be featuring websites or links that I find during my internet travels, and hopefully you’ll check them out and let us know what you think.

This week I found out about the Japanese American Citizens League. This non-profit civil rights organization is based out of Los Angeles, California, and began before World War II. I particularly like that the group honors a Woman of the Year, pays homage to its elders, and even offers a scholarships to at-risk youth.

The JACL is dedicated to promoting and preserving the values and culture of Japanese Americans, and they do so much for the community as a whole.

Even more impressive, the Downtown Los Angeles JACL fought for, and won, compensation for Japanese Americans that were wrongfully put in U.S. concentration camps during WWII. At the same time, tens of thousands of Japanese Americans volunteered their services as soldiers during the war. The JACL is hoping to get the U.S. Postal Service to honor these brave men with a commemorative stamp.

Take a look at the Downtown Los Angeles Japanese American Citizens League site to learn more. The history of this group of Americans is rich, and as I always say, you can never learn too much. My thanks to George for telling me about this amazing organization.

Stay tuned for next week’s website or link of the week. Please let us know what you enjoyed about this one.

Interested in some good reading about web hosting?

When looking for hosting for a new or even current blog, doing your homework also includes reading what others think. Not just what others think about your potential host, but also what people think of web hosting in general. There’s so much to learn, and I’m fan of research. That’s probably why I’m addicted to the Internet.

I just found a new blog with lots of web hosting articles.

From my understanding, the rest of the website isn’t launched yet, so don’t be turned off by the articles. There’s more to come, including tutorials and more specific web host information.

If you check out the site, let us know what you think about it.

Bloggers know that having a reliable hosting service is key to running a successful blog. Constant outages and limited domains are some of the worst issues you can run into.

I’ve been pretty satisfied with my current provider, but I’m always on the lookout for others. Shopping around just makes sense, and it might be a good idea to use more than one provider to protect against outages.

I found a new company called Concentric Business Solutions. They are a shared hosting provider that caters to small businesses (and if you’re a blogger with any monetization, you are a small business). Besides the usual suspects, including email, web hosting, and domain registration, they also offer free virus protection and spam filters.

If you’re in the market for a new provider, check out Concentric. They might be just what you need.

Is your blog a business? Would you like it to be?

If you answered “Yes” to either question, then you’ve probably heard about Yaro Starak’s Blog Mastermind program.

I haven’t joined it yet, but I did read his free Blog Profits Blueprint (chock full of lots of useful, practical information–a must read).

What is Blog Mastermind, and how does it work?

See for yourself. The Blog Mastermind program is focused on marketing. What I like most about Yaro’s style is that he’s not just writing to fill up space. He isn’t just saying, “Marketing is great. It’s important. You’ve really got to do it. Yep. Marketing. I love marketing.”

Yaro’s program actually gives an action plan, and includes specific steps to take (homework), gives real life examples, and even tells you what he doesn’t have much experience with.

I’ve bought an ebook or two that filled up pages with useless, obvious information that was clearly hypothetical. The free Blog Profits Blueprint is more than just theory and ideas.

If you’re serious about making good money from your blog, read the Blog Profits Blueprint. If it resonates with you, then the Blog Mastermind program may be just what you’re looking for too.