Happy New Year to all out there.

It’s that time of the year again when we all set goals or resolutions to accomplish something new this year. If you find yourself setting the same goals year after year without seeing any changes to those specific areas, maybe it’s time to re-evaluate the way you are setting your goals.

I find it most effective when I set goals that follow a certain criteria.

First I always visualize what it is that I want in life. If you see your self there, for example fitting in those old pair of jeans or making that extra amount of cash it is more likely that you will achieve your goal. I do this and then I follow the S.M.A.R.T Method of goal setting. Which is a very effective way to set and achieve goals. S.M.A.R.T Stands for

S- Specific  - Goals that are targeted.

M- Measurable  - Always have a unit of measure (almost always numerical)

A- Action (Action oriented, and Attainable / Assertive)

R- Relevant  - To your Mission / values and Industry

T- Timed/Timely or in a specific time frame. Respond with in a time frame.

For Example  -  lose 10 pounds in a month by eating 1,000 calories less and exercising at least 30 minutes a day.

Third thing I do is I always am thankful for the progress that I have made.

I know that if you give this a try you will see the greatest results. I challenge you all to Make some SMART goals and see just how much you can achieve in life.

I would like to hear your progress and abot your successes in life especially if you are using this method. Please feel free to share any comments with the quitterbox community.

GOOD LUCK!!

I have been reading this book by Malcolm Gladwell called, Outliers the story of success. It is a very interesting and inspiring book. Many people want to be successful in life and kind of give up or get frustrated when they do not become successful or make as much money as they would like in life. Some of these people give up and then some people take that dissatisfaction and turn it into something more something that motivates them.

The concept that is put forth in this book, is that it takes someone 10,000 hours of practice or doing to become successful at a thing.

This is basically like the proverb or saying “the early bird catches the worm”.

We must first decide what success means to us, then we need to make a goal that we want to achieve this status and then we need to act upon or work towards achieving this goal. I know that if we keep trying and following our goals that we outline for ourselves we can truly become successful in every aspect of our life.

the magic is in the doing.

============================== 8 Mistakes that Internet Newbies Make ==============================

A lot of small and medium enterprises and entrepreneurs are going online – either to promote their offline businesses or to totally create a 100% online business. Most people are attracted to the freedom that the Internet offers in terms of time, mobility and income. In this Internet game, you can easily determine the Internet newbie because of the mistakes they make. The good news is, you can avoid most of these newbie mistakes.

#1 Not owning the domain (.com) of your online business

Here is the rule: He who owns the domain, owns your online business. You have to own and have full control of your domain, especially if you are the originator of the idea. Buy your domain from a respected domain registrar like Godaddy.com. You have to learn how to do it and set it up. There are some bloggers who buy their domain from Google’s blogger.com, but by the time they want to move their site to wordpress, they usually have a difficult time transferring it.

#2 Thinking that having a website is the most critical thing in the business

Yes, a website is important, but he who owns the big list wins. There are two lists that are critical for your online business — the buyers list and the merchants list. Anybody can develop the technology, but only a few can effectively develop their list. First job is to develop your targeted buyers list. Or you can join existing marketplaces like Ebay, Etsy or Sulit to promote your products. Second job is to develop your products and services. You can develop your own or you can establish your network of merchants or partners who would have their own products and services.

#3 Expecting to earn huge passive income through Google Adsense :

( You can’t develop a passive income stream just by earning from Adsense. Some people might tell you to create a blog with Adsense or an Amazon-affiliate site that earns you $100/month, and then repeat the process until you have 100 sites. In theory, it should work. But the thing is, it is easy to create 100 sites by sheer brute force. However, maintaining it and sustaining the income are totally different. It is not feasible in the long-term – unless you crowd source the content.

#4 Not installing Google Analytics It is a mortal sin not to install Google Analytics on your blog or website on Day 1.

A lot of people ask me how to improve their sites, and when I ask if they have Google Analytics installed, most of them say no. How can you improve something without proper diagnostics and performance data?

#5 Doing multiple internet projects all at once

Multitasking is not effective and produces sub-par results. Focus on your biggest idea. Work on it consistently until you get results. After you achieve your initial success, work on it even more and take it to a whole new level. Once you have reached that, seek a mentor who can help you take things even further.

#6 Earning from the internet is easy

Sorry to say, but this is not true. There is a lot of upfront work for you to do – build the product, build your website, build your list and market it online. Remember: If you build the right business foundation at the start, you can expect exponential results later on. Earning online will be easy after those first few years. Sometimes, having a first-mover advantage is also key to winning online.

#7 Working with the dark side of the internet

One essential skill you need to learn is how to distinguish the good from the bad on the internet. Be careful not to be associated with the bad side and be labeled as a: Spammer, Troll, Tag Spammer, Self-proclaimed Guru, member of the Contest Mafia, Black Hat Specialist, and Online Squatter. Here’s a tip: Find people who are aligned with your values and principles. Seek out those they learn from and their partners. Learn from them.

#8 Believing a Virtual Assistant is the same as being an Internet Entrepreneur

If you are working for somebody online, you are still considered a virtual employee. There is nothing wrong with that. Actually, it is a good starting point. Just make sure that you create your own internet business and projects that will earn passive income for you and not for your online boss. Your goal is to learn how to market online, and learn to apply it to your own business.

Content Via Anton Diaz

This guest post is by Kevin Cullis of MacStartup.com.

I don’t like writing. Or should I say, I used to not like writing. My reason? I found no reason to write other than writing a college paper or something for work; it was a requirement; I had to do it.

I was bored with my computer sales job and still had plenty of talent and motivation to do something—but nowhere to channel it.

copyright matttilda – Fotolia.com

One day at work I had an idea: use my talents to write about my experience. Initially I had no clue where this was going to lead me, much like spontaneously taking a late night drive on a country road and only seeing as far down the road as your headlights will shine: let’s just head out into the open road of writing and see where it leads!

My book idea

To start, I just began writing, and days turned into weeks. My idea was to combine both business processes and computer solutions into one content document, not separating these into one subject or another and then into finer and finer details like other writers have done.

This writing was different from my previous efforts: I now had an outlet for my pent-up boredom and an engaging interest in my subject matter because it combined both my talents and experience selling computers to businesses.  In addition, I had daily, ready-made access to content and a list of potential readers.

Whenever I came across something relevant in my work, I wrote it down—both the problem and solution. As my writing began to take shape, I organized the information into specific and logical sequential steps for my future potential business readers. My realtor wife even became a guinea pig in my endeavor. When I heard the familiar “Honey, I need some help,” I’d go in to help her, taking notes, and writing the solutions down when I was done.

Now for my blog

One day, a business customer recommended turning my writings into a book, and wondered when it would be done so she could buy one. Until then, it was just a writing idea, but now my idea took on a larger goal: to get a book published. I was now seeing farther down that lonely country road with larger and brighter lights of my writing journey.

In 2009, I started a blog because a fellow author said that during the one to two years it would take to write a book, my writing would improve and change. Talking with other bloggers, I was told that 250-750 words was an appropriate length for a blog post—and similar to having a goal of writing 1000 words a day for a book. Writing a blog would provide another outlet for increasing my monthly goal word output, and improve my writing skills. Later, I found out that blogging allows one to test out content ideas online and provides both personal and additional perspectives for the readers of the book. Also, an author’s blog almost always points to that author’s book.

In the spring of 2010 I attended the Colorado Independent Publishing Association conference and connected with other professionals in the publishing field. There, a local editor suggested that I use an initial (raised or drop) cap in my book design. I couldn’t afford Adobe’s InDesign or to pay someone to help me. I used Apple’s iWork Pages to write my book, and I had to eat my own dog food. But I did not know how to create a drop cap in Pages.

So I spent three hours finding the answer and, rather than lose this experience because of my infrequent use of it, I posted it on my blog. Within weeks it rose to near the top of my most-viewed articles, and still remains one of my most popular blog posts.

Not only were people hungry for my information, but I have personally referred to my site using my own blog to find long forgotten answers to problems. And if I hadn’t blogged about it, I’d have to revisit the process again. Oh, and when I showed my printed proof to the editor, she didn’t believe that I used a $79 office suite to produce what I did until I showed her the file on my laptop. Then she gave me a B+ for my results.

Book, blog, and business working together

As both my book and blog posts progressed, my blogging experience awakened me to how a blog could be more useful for me. Over time I began noticing trends in my blog statistics. An affinity surfaced when I looked at monthly, quarterly, and even yearly post view counts. Using this information, coupled with my day-to-day interaction with business customers needing computers, I was able to get a much clearer vision of my content for both my book and blog.

When I first blogged, I considered it to be like shooting in the dark in terms of working out what to write about, but over time this multi-sourced feedback helped provide me with content direction. Writing my blog also helped change my book’s content to today’s third version. It’s one thing to scratch your own itch, but it’s even more motivating to get actual, statistical feedback from others who have the same itch that needs scratching.

Going forward from today with my blog, I’ll be using Google Analytics and keyword research to help determine what people are looking for, so that I can provide immediate answers to my ideal blog audience. Using this approach will help narrow down my potential content and solve a customer’s points of pain in the short term, but I have also found that it may not provide a good focus for all of my content. Here’s why. Answers people are searching for comes in two forms and everything in between: I know what I want to know (my drop cap example), and, I don’t know what I want to know (I have no clue what to look for).

The first search is easy. The second one is more important, but it’s solved by awareness and education.

So my future content will take on many forms. While some of my blog posts might be the “thrill of the road hot rod” looking for an adventuresome driving experience of immediate answers, be sure that I’ll also provide “slow, steady, reliable transportation” posts to educate my blog readers to find the right answers to their many different journeys and destinations.

AJ Michalka’s song title states it right—It’s Who You Are—so I write my blog posts about my subjects because it’s who I am. And watch out for the occasional spontaneous “road trip” breakout blog post occurring before a long weekend that just might shake things up a bit.

Can you see potential in your work, interests, and life to combine blog, book, and business? I’d love to hear your experiences in the comments.

Kevin Cullis is a former US Air Force officer and considers himself an Entrepreneur, Mac
Evangelist, Business Geek, Husband, published author of a Mac business book, readaholic,
analytical, balding. He is the founder of MacStartup.com.

content comes to us by way of,

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2011/06/20/a-blog-a-book-and-a-business-one-author%E2%80%99s-journey/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ProbloggerHelpingBloggersEarnMoney+%28ProBlogger%3A+Helping+Bloggers+Earn+Money%29&utm_content=Twitter

So a few weeks ago a family friend passed away and left a wife and three children to take care of themselves. The wife who was a stay at home mom and hasn’t worked for over 10 years, now has to deal with not only the tragic loss of her Husband but also, the father of her beautiful children and the income that her Husband received.
So the question I was left pondering was….Am I prepared to leave my family? Of course no one is prepared at the time of death and of course your family would not be prepared to handle such huge loss. But there are things you can do in order to help ease your passing.

First tip – Save at least 10 percent of your income: If you have savings your family will at least have some Money in the bank so they can continue to pay the bills, a Mortgage, Car payments, food and any other payments you might have.

Second tip – Make sure your family has all your info on hand: This might seem trivial however does your wife or husband have the password to your bank account, If you have businesses info, like who you are partnered with, funds and dividends that should come to you if you were still alive? Wouldn’t you want your wife to receive these? Or at least know about them once you are gone? you might be wondering how do I do this? well I found a great service online that allows you to keep all these kind of documents on digital record. zubaloc.com https://www.zubaloc.com/. It is a safe and secure place for all types of information that your spouse will need. Please check it out. They have a free service and a premium service as well.

Third Tip – Get some sort of Life insurance: Do you know how much it costs for a casket? a plot? a funeral? it can be pretty costly. It is pretty hard to replace a spouse and their income but what could be worse is paying for that plus funeral expenses. What would be ideal is if we could all take care of that while we are still alive, but in reality not too many people take care of these types of matters.

Fourth Tip – Get Healthy: This could prolong your life and maybe you wouldn’t have to deal with this type of tragedy. I have lost 65 pounds in the last two years and hope to lose an additional 75 pounds. By doing this I hope to become healthy so I can live a long time, so my wife and kids don’t have to experience my loss either.

If you have any of your own tips please feel free to leave some comments.

Hi Everyone that is actually reading my blog. First off I would like to apologize for not doing a better Job with quitterbox.com. I have been very busy with a few projects and School which I will talk about more in a minute. Sometimes I feel like quitting my J.O.B to start my own business was a mistake. But actually when you look at everything that I have done over the past few years I would not trade for any type of Stability that cold come from a steady J.O.B. I have a lot of time on my hands, I spend about 20 hours a day with my wife and kids. When my oldest son starts kindergarten in the fall I will spend a little less time with him. So i opted to go back to school to get a Masters degree, because I would like to maybe teach on a collegiate level someday. I am taking the Masters of Science in Internet Marketing. it is awesome. I am learning a lot of cool things, That I felt I was lacking, also just networking and meeting cool new people is always a plus.

We have moved back from the Philippines to the US and been able to take the kids around. It has been Really Fun. It is nice to be able to do this type of stuff. We are thinking about settling down soon. We are debating where we will go and where we want to raise the kids. But we get to choose since working on the Internet let’s you be flexible.

I have one more book to add to my list of favorites and it is REWORK from 37signals. The company that has brought you great products like Basecamp, Backpack, Highrise, Campfire and RUBY ON RAILS. I am not getting any money to say this, but just thankful for all the inspiration and knowledge I have received from following these guys! I have started studying web development more closely and find ruby on rails the way to go as my choice of language and framework.

They have inspired me to work smarter. when Starting  some new projects.

So this is my pledge. I will be better at blogging on quitterbox.com and share relevant information. I am working on an e-book, that is not just crap. Hopefully I really help and inspire people to be their own boss and live life to it’s fullest. When My new product launches I will let you all know about it also.

Thanks and Sincerely,

Aaron

This guest post is by Tricia Lawrence of Realbrilliant.com

I’m not one of those people who relies solely on search engine optimization to get me to the top of the heap. I am paid to write blogs for clients every week, and they focus on their SEO enough for the both of us.

Positioning has another meaning to me. It’s content-focused and deals only with how my content and expertise is positioned in my audience’s head.

You can’t get those results from a Google or Bing search. You can only get that from positioning yourself, either weakly or strongly. Either way, you’ll learn quickly.

Learning about this “mental positioning” may seem like it has no place in social media strategy. After all, it’s not exactly a social media tool per se. But there’s more to blog marketing than just loading content onto your Facebook and Twitter profiles. If you’re using social media to talk without giving any thought to who is listening, you’re not positioning yourself whatsoever.
What’s your story?

This is what you feel compelled to share, to write a blog about, to speak about, to share with others. What is the best way to communicate that story? Is it social media? (I always suggest yes, it is.) But what about other channels: public speaking, webinars, or teaching what you know to an entire company? Social media works well when you’re presenting ideas and links as teasers to your platform. Social media should point the way to you and your story.
What’s your audience?

Who you’re speaking to has a lot to do with how you will present your message. A lot of the younger generation may not use email, but if you speak to any other generation, you’ll want to use email. If you’re teaching people how to be Luddites and to stick to typewriters out of protest to the wasting of bandwidth whenever someone tweets about Britney Spears, then yes, you can stay off of social media quite easily. How does your audience use social media? What do they look at online? What kind of solutions are they looking for when they come looking for your story?
What’s your influence?

When you are positioned in your audience’s mind, your influence can reach quite far. How far? Your core audience shares you with their core audience, who in turn share you with theirs. Sometimes it’s who you know, but sometimes it’s not. Your goal is to be visible to many, but to attract a chosen few. Sure, we’d all love everyone to pay attention to us, but that’s just not going to happen. Let’s be realistic and focus on the audience we can influence toward our solution and our expertise.
What’s your engagement?

Positioning yourself online is mistakenly viewed as just about Twitter followers and just about retweeting what you find interesting. Successful positioning includes much more. As your story is communicated over and over and over, you’ll learn how to say it differently; you’ll also learn your audience’s lingo. As they interact with you, you’ll learn more from them. Engaging is not getting something or giving something more than the other: it’s about the even exchange, the leverage both parties give to make the other successful. As you learn what your audience wants from you, they learn more about your story and what you can give to them. Both parties benefit.

One last word: Even if you’ve been positioned or have positioned yourself weakly (notice I use the words weak and strong versus right and wrong; I hate for people to view this as being black and white, because the Internet is much more a gray area), it’s never too late to reposition. You can always strengthen your position by going back to these four questions. They are at the core of a strong position.

Let Google change algorithms every hour if they want to! Let Bing see the traffic coming to your site every day! You just keep right on strengthening your position. Have you positioned your blog strongly on social media?

Tricia Lawrence is an author, teacher, and speaker, helping the publishing industry, specifically authors, position their blogs and books to sell. Tricia’s book, The Social Network(s): A Field Guide for Writers will be out on Kindle in March and she’ll appear at several tech and writing conferences in 2011. Sign up for Tricia’s biweekly eZine, Please Write Like You Talk at http://www.realbrilliant.com. Tricia is on Twitter @realbrilliant.

CONTENT COMES FROM http://www.problogger.net/archives/2011/03/15/between-google-and-bing-positioning-a-blog-using-social-media/

Making money online used to pretty much require you to have your own Web site, products to sell and some marketing savvy. But a new generation of dot-coms have arisen that will pay you for what you know and who you know without you having to be a web designer or a marketing genius.

But it’s hard to tell hype from the real deal. I did a search on “make money online” and “making money online”, and much of the information out there is just promoting various infoproducts, mostly about Internet marketing. I see why people sometimes ask, “Is anyone making money online besides Internet marketing experts?”

So I put together a list of business opportunities with legitimate companies that:

* Pay cash, not just points towards rewards or a chance to win money
* Don’t require you to have your own Web domain or your own products
* Don’t involve any hard-selling
* Aren’t just promoting more Internet marketing
* Give a good return on your time investment

In the interest of objectivity, none of the links below are affiliate links, and none of them have paid or provided any other consideration for their presence here. These are legitimate companies with business models that allow you to get paid for a wide range of activities.

Help friends find better jobs.

Sites like ReferEarns, Zyoin, Who Do You Know For Dough?, Bohire and WiseStepp connect employers with prospective employees, many of whom are already employed and not actively job-hunting, via networking – the people who know these qualified candidates. Rewards for referring a candidate who gets hired range from $50 on up to several thousand dollars – not chump change. If you know a lot of job-seekers (and who doesn’t these days?), this is a great way to break into the recruiting business with no overhead.

Connect suppliers with buyers.

Referral fees are a common practice in business, but they haven’t been used much in online networking sites because there was no way to track them. Sites like Salesconx, InnerSell and uRefer now provide that. Vendors set the referral fees they’re willing to pay (and for what), and when the transaction happens, you get paid. uRefer also allows merchants to set up referral programs for introductions and meetings, as well as transactions.

Write.

A growing number of sites will pay for your articles or blog posts. Associated Content and Helium will “pay for performance” based on page views for just about anything you want to write about. Articles on specific topics they’re looking for can earn direct payments up to about $200. The rates are probably low for established writers, but if you’re trying to break into the field and have time on your hands, they’re a great way to start. Also, a lot of companies are looking for part-time bloggers. They may pay per post or on a steady contract. Our Weblogs Guide posts blogging jobs weekly in the forum.

Start your own blog.

You don’t have to have your own Web site, or install blogging software, or even figure out how to set up the advertising. At Blogger you can set up a blog for free in less than five minutes without knowing a thing about web design, and Blogger even automates setting up Google AdSense so you can make money off your blog by displaying ads and getting paid when people click on the ads. To make even more money from it, set up an affiliate program (see below) for books, music, etc., and insert your affiliate links whenever you refer to those items. You’ll have to get a lot of traffic to become a six-figure blogger, but pick an interesting topic, write well, tell all your friends, and you’re off to a good start.

Related: Monetizing Your Blog

Create topical resource hubs.

Are you an expert on a particular niche topic? Can you put together an overview of the topic and assemble some of the best resources on the topic from around the web? Then you can create topical hubs and get paid through sites like Squidoo, HugPages and Google Knol. Payments are based on a combination of ad revenue and affiliate fees. You’ll get higher rates doing it on your own, but these sites have a built-in supply of traffic and tools to make content creation easier.

Advertise other people’s products.

If you already have a Web site or a blog, look for vendors that offer related but non-competing products and see if they have an affiliate program. Stick to familiar products and brands – they’re easier to sell. To promote those products:

* Place simple text or graphical ads in appropriate places on your site
* Include links to purchase products you review or recommend in a blog, discussion forum or mailing list you control
* Create a dedicated sales page or Web site to promote a particular product

They all work – it just depends on how much time you have to spend on it and your level of expertise with Web design and marketing.

Related: How to Really Make Money on the Internet With an Amazon.com Affiliate Site

Microstock photography.

You don’t have to be a professional photographer to sell your photos for money. People are constantly in need of stock photography for websites, presentations, brochures and so on, and are willing to pay for the right image. People generally search for images on stock photography sites by keywords, not by photographer, so you have the same chance as anyone else of having your image picked. Just be careful that you don’t have images of trademarked brands, copyrighted art or people’s faces that are readily identifiable (unless you have a model release), but just about anything else is fair game, and I promise – you’d be amazed what people need pictures of, so don’t make any assumptions. If it’s a decent photo, upload it. Some sites to get you started include Fotolia, ShutterStock, Dreamstime and iStockphoto. The great thing about this is that it’s truly “set it and forget it”.

The above list is by no means comprehensive, but it highlights some of the new and interesting ways to make money online without investing any money, without having a product of your own, and without having expert sales and marketing skills. Most of all, unlike taking surveys or getting paid to read e-mail, the potential return on your time investment is substantial.

http://entrepreneurs.about.com/od/homebasedbusiness/a/makemoneyonline.htm

Purchase file hosting: Go to GoDaddy or Hostgator and get yourself some hosting. $25 a month at first will do.

Create a webpage to upload it to your server. On this webpage feature some affiliate offers and you will make commissions with them.

Log into your domain registrar and point the nameservers at your files. (Ask your file hosting company what your nameservers are.) Once your nameservers propagate, your website will appear when you go to your domain name in a browser.

Go to one of the many article directories like EzineArticles, and write articles that give visitors knowledge in your field. They will come to your site from the articles. Once you create enough articles, your site will rank higher in the search engines and you will get more traffic.

You will be making affiliate sales and you will be a happy camper. Once you get cracking, you can open up an autoresponder at aweber.com and post the code into your website. People will opt in and submit their email addresses and then you can log into your aweber account and send your list of emails a message at the same time selling them more stuff.

You can also make a review page and compare different products to one another. This is a great selling point as well.

It’s that simple. Create a webpage that sells digital products, promote that page with articles and it will rank higher in the search engines for even more traffic.

The great thing about this business is that it does not require much upkeep in the end and you do not need to ever send anything in the mail or talk to anyone on the phone. You simply set up a website and promote it a little bit. In reality, you are basically “launching” your website to success.

A good “launch” requires enough traffic to help it get a good rank in the search engines and directories. Make sure to also bookmark your site with social bookmark sites and promote your site in forums that are related to your niche.

It is very important to keep the traffic targeted to the products you are selling. One website should be dedicated to one area.

For instance, have one website that is just for paid photos, then another one for dating girls. Do not have more than one niche on one website, it will not work.

When you go out and get traffic for your website, this traffic also needs to be extremely targeted. For your paid photos website, you should only promote it at photographer forums and artist websites. Make sure that the traffic will stay at your website. People who are looking for something then find another, will not buy and will click out of your website faster than you can say “detour.”

Remember to keep it targeted, fresh and easy to understand. it should look good and give away some great information and have a good call to action. You need to sell something on your page to make money, so what you do is sign up at an affiliate program and promote one of the products on each one of the websites you start up. To find high converting digital products to sell, I recommend bigbillions to start your home based business today. It is that easy and is very profitable.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Worth

If any of you have not got a Linkedin.com account. I strongly urge you to get one. I have made a lot of great contacts threw there. It is a really great way to do business too. I came across this article here that shows you how to use linked in effectively when it comes to making Sales please check it out!! Click Here.