I feel like I am finally getting a lot of things accomplished this week. I’m going to tell you why.

I stopped multi-tasking. I’ve been reading Tim Ferris’ The Four Hour Workweek and while I do not believe that I could ever just work 4 hours a week–some of the principles that he teaches have saved me hours of work AND given me more time to finish more tasks.

One of the things he teaches is to make a list the night before of the things you absolutely must complete the next day–I used to do that sporadically–now I do it everyday before I shut down my computer–a WRITTEN list–not an electronic list. And I circle the two most important tasks that MUST be accomplished the next day.

Those are the two tasks that I work on FIRST–I look at my list and I ask myself: “What two tasks can I complete tomorrow that will get me a check?”

And I do them before I do anything else the next day…I get more tasks finished in a few hours than I used to all day.

Another thing he teaches is to NOT open your email first thing in the morning–why? Because instead of working on the two tasks that you need to work on you end up answering all the emails, etc. and never get to the two tasks that were the most important.

O.K. I have to admit–I haven’t broken that habit yet–but I am working on it.

I used to keep my email open all day–and I know I checked it 100 times a day–now once I read the emails, respond, etc. I shut down my email, my skype, my facebook, my twitter and I go to work…

Try it tomorrow–write down the tasks that you absolutely must finish tomorrow–your list can be longer–just circle the two more important ones–and tomorrow work on those FIRST. Don’t open up facebook, don’t open up tweetdeck, NOTHING until those tasks are complete.

So try this for a few days and let me know your experience–just leave a comment–I guarantee you’ll get more done tomorrow…

One last thing before I go:

My freebie site of the week: JotThisDown a very cool site…check it out.

I tested and it passed. The other day one of my FB friends posted a link–and I checked it out–I liked what I saw–but I wanted to test it before I sent this out to all of you.

If you like viral list builders–then you’ll enjoy this tool. Not all the tools I use earn placement on my Resources page; but this one did.

After I signed up for the software–I sent out a message (broadcast) about joining my Facebook Fan page–from the one broadcast I got 20+ more fans. So I think this one is a keeper.

Check it out and watch the video–if you are like me and are looking for more ways to build your list–I think you’ll like this tool.

Those of you who know me know that I love computers, marketing,
internet, social media. I consider myself a student always.

I’ve started a simple how to site that soon will be a membership
site. All of the videos will be shorter than 5 minutes and some are even less than a minute.

I’d love it if you’d visit SimpleHowToVideos and let me know what you think.

I’m not sure if this will always stay a free site…but for now it is. So hop on over and let me know what types of how to videos you’d like to see.

Currently I’ve only got about 7 videos–but trust me I have 100′s more to add.

I have been meaning to share this cool website with you. For those of us in social media we know the importance of “owning your own name”. We know the value of our virtual real estate (VRE).

How many sites do you own your name on? Check out NameChk just enter your name–and you’ll see if your name is already taken. I did mine and phew do I have my work cut out for me!

A real quick note today before I grab some more coffee and hunker down to some work.

I got off track today and wandered in the internet “surfing” jungle. Man, now 2 1/2 hours later…anyway I was in one of my social sites and my mind was wandering as I was making connections and reading profiles…

So three mistakes…

I so often see newbies–make some BIG mistakes when reaching out online for the first time–now believe me when I say I made the same dumb mistakes.

Being online for the past 5 1/2 years I have met some of the most incredible marketers; however, its just recent that small/business owners are realizing the power of the “social media” craze.

There are some mistakes that I see “newbs” make when they first come online.

Mistakes–big no, no’s!

#1 Promote, Promote, Promote
While in the offline world this is the expected way to do business; it’s a big no-no in the online social world

#2 Selfishly Reaching Out
In other words reaching out to others online with the ONLY intent of “making the sale”. Don’t do this; trust me us online socialites can small ya a mile away.

#3 Not sharing
Thinking that by sharing you are going to give all your secrets away–come on people there are 300,000,000 plus people in the US alone. There is room to share.

So what can you do instead?

#1 Promote, Promote, Promote
I know I said that is big mistake; but in the online world you promote OTHERS! Tweet out others valuable content, share others articles, knowledge, and expertise. Trust me when I say this will come back and give you more credibility than going out and promoting YOU all the time.

#2 Selfishly Reach Out
AND ask for help…in the online world don’t be afraid to reach out and ask for help. Look for JV (joint-venture opportunities) they are right in front of your nose sometimes…open your eyes. Play dumb and let somebody else be the expert for a change.

#3 Share
Share your expertise! Don’t promote it. Give it willingly and unselfishly. Don’t be afraid to refer to another business owner as the expert. When someone asks a question–answer it freely.

Told ya it was short and sweet.

Video Marketing is one of the easiest ways to “get the word” out about your business. If you’re not using it you absolutely must do whatever it takes to get over your fear. I remember my first video. It’s on youtube and I was a nervous wreck. It took me 44 videos and 12 weeks to generate my first lead.

Most folks quit after 10 or so. How sad is that! When I started providing value in my videos and realized that it was NOT about me–it was about getting my message out and touching as many lives as I possibly could.

Once you get over your fear it’s time to really take massive action and use the tools that most of the internet marketers use to get their videos out to as many sites as possible.

Traffic Geyser is a must have tool. Yes, there is a monthly fee but the return on your investment is ten-fold. I uploaded a video last night to our traffic geyser account and yes I put a weird title, “”video are not that hard”…go ahead and google that keyword in quotes. You’ll see at this writing I had 10 results for my video. I daresay by not using that tool you would not have those results for any title if you’re just using one video channel site.

So if you’re still a scaredy cat I say “Get Over It Already!”

After a previous post about list building I received the following questions:

What is a ‘self-hosted’ blog? Why is this different from a blogspot or freebie blog? Why is ‘self-hosted’ better?

Question: What Is A Self Hosted Blog?

WhoIsHollyPowell is hosted on our own server using the wordpress free software. We have a host server account using hostgator where we have loaded wordpress. WordPress is a very powerful open-source blogging platform. Some folks use wordpress for their websites because of the ease of use.

Question: Why is ‘self-hosted’ better?

As opposed to a blogger account or wordpress.com account you have control over adsense, content, EVERYTHING. Without your own hosted wordpress blog you lose control. I have heard of many horror stories where folks have blogged away and created beautiful websites using the free options ONLY to have them deleted for whatever reason; and guess what you almost have no alternative but to start over.

Now I’m not the blogging expert there are several resources on the web. Check out Michael Martine’s blog. He has incredible information about blogging tools and more.

Question: What is the difference in blogspot or a freebie account?

Nothing, if you use a freebie blogger account you run the risk of having your blog deleted on any given day without notice.

Again, I’m not the blog expert. These are just the basics.