Any kind of job or business requires tools to help you complete your work. Working from home is no exception to that. Over the years I have discovered a number of tools that are a must have for my business. I would love to share them with you.

Here are my best 6 tools for working from home:

1. Wunderlist. I have struggled for some time trying to find just the right to do list that works across my computer and my smartphone. Plus find one that I will actually use. I have a couple installed on my phone right now and this is definitely my favorite. I also love very much that it is free. And you can share your task list with your spouse or an employee/contractor if needed. I use this every day.
2. WordPress. Back in the day I used to code websites from scratch and with the help of Frontpage. My how things have changed. Now every single site I build is on the WordPress platform. While it does have its quirks, I love the simplicity of use in the backend and the ability to customize it with various plugins and custom themes like Thesis. And so many people are using it, that if there is something I don’t know how to do with it, I just Google it and there is most likely a tutorial.
3. Internet Connection. It is hard to remember back but there was a time when there wasn’t the internet. I remember computer modems in which you had to place a phone handset into. And I’m not really that old. Anyway having the internet available all the time has really been a key in allowing people to work from home. Whether I am at home using the wireless internet or on the road and using mobile broadband, allows me to work when I want to.
4. Backup Buddy. I used to use a free plugin to send a backup of my WordPress database to my email once a week, but I always worried about it being unreliable. Then it stopped working on one of my key sites. I had heard so many good things about this plugin but I was hesitant to pay for it when there was something free. Free is not so good when it doesn’t work though. I love this plugin because I can set it up to do an automatic backup of either the whole site or just the database and have it sent to Amazon S3, Dropbox, my email, FTP, or Rackspace Cloudfiles.
5. Namecheap. I used to register all of my domains with GoDaddy, but they just slowly chipped away at me until I was fed up. Now this is my domain registrar of choice. They really do cost less plus they have a whole lot less upsells during the checkout process. That’s a win in my book.
6. Hostgator. All of my websites need someplace to call home and this is the webhost for me. I love that they have an online chat feature for support issues, as well as phone and email support. While they are not perfect, the pros have outweighed the cons so far.

I would love to know what your must have tools are. Let me know in the comments below!

Hey Ladies, step away from the computer for a bit. Grab a cup of hot coffee, a book and take a moment for yourself. This post is for the men in your lives.

Guys Valentine’s Day is just a few weeks away (Tuesday February 14) and even if we say we don’t want anything, trust me, we do. So I’ve put together a little Valentine’s Gift Guide for the work at home Mom in your life to make shopping simple.

• Flowers are great, but a Rose Flower Pen is a whole lot more useful. I can never have too many pens actually and this flower pen would be a daily reminder of your love. At only $1.99 a dozen wouldn’t break the bank.
• Heart Shaped Cookies. These smiley faced cookies are perfect for Valentine’s Day. Plus I won’t want to eat all of them so the whole family can enjoy.
• Chocolate Covered Strawberries. I love just about chocolate anything (except bacon and bug varieties, ewww) and these are no exception. Plus they are made with real chocolate.
• Jewelry! Hands down you can’t go wrong with jewelry. I love this Aquamarine Sterling Silver ring for a couple of reasons. One it is my birthstone. It is also customizable with your choice of gems and metals. Plus it is a stackable ring so you could get one with the birthstone for each of your children and it makes a Mother’s Ring. Awwww.
• Tea. I am a huge fan of loose leaf tea and find great enjoyment out of my daily cup (or two or more) of tea. This Bento Box of Green Tea is not only beautiful, it is practical too. Work at home moms appreciate practical. They also offer many other tea gifts to choose from too.
• Clean the House. I think most work at home moms would agree that we work two full time jobs. One is our work at home job and the other is taking care of our family and household. Having someone else clean the house (or cook the food, take care of the kids for the day, etc.) would be a very welcome present.
• Personalized Picture Frame. It is always nice to decorate my work space with some pictures of my family and this personalized frame is perfect and thoughtful.
• Desktop Water Fountain. This would be perfect to bring some tranquility to my hectic days. The soothing sound of water and the soft light would be a nice addition to my desk.

Last week I received a letter in my post office box and quickly realized it was junk. I almost tossed it away. Then I realized I that I could do one better and turn this into a teaching opportunity. It was for a company wanting to submit my website to the search engines. And I know from talking to some people they ask: Should I be paying for search engine submission?

The letter and envelope looked official enough with a logo. It referenced a domain that I had recently registered. It says under description of services:

ANNUAL WEBSITE SEARCH ENGINE LISTINGS FROM JAN 12, 2012 THRU JAN 12, 2013 TOTAL $85.00

Hmm, okay. So what do you get for that $85?

SUBSCRIPTION INCLUDES DOMAIN NAME SUBMISSION TO 20 ESTABLISHED SEARCH ENGINES UP TO EIGHT KEYWORD/PHRASE LISTINGS MONTHLY SEARCH ENGINE POSITION AND RANKING REPORTS.

This “service” only takes checks and there is no where on the order form to list the eight keywords or phrases, so I guess the choice is up to them. You are supposed to enter an email so that you can receive a report from them.

I did visit their website in the name of research and found out that some of the search engines that they work with are Google, AOL, ExactSeek, Cipinet, Netscape Search, Scrub the Web and more.

I sure hope alarm bells are not going off in your mind.

Never ever pay to have your website submitted to the search engines. It is not necessary and a waste of money. Please if you get a letter like this (or email or tweet, etc) then just throw it away.

Instead do some simple things instead. Create an xml sitemap for your website with the help of the Google XML Sitemap plugin if you are running WordPress. Make sure your site is included in Google Webmaster Tools and that you submit your sitemap. Write some really great guest posts on other blogs. All of these ideas are free. The search engines will find your website and it will just cost you time.

I’ve had a few days to recover from Affiliate Summit West 2012 and have been thinking about what I learned this time around. I know for me, that my experience keeps getting better each time I go. I learn a little bit more each time about what I want to get out of the experience. Here are ten things that I learned at Affiliate Summit West 2012:

1. Strengthening Relationships – I don’t live close to many of my “internet friends” as I like to call them and traveling to conferences is usually my only chance of seeing them. While there are many ways to keep in touch (twitter, Facebook, Skype, etc) there is nothing quite like having a face to face conversation.
2. Meeting New People – While it is nice to see old friends, it is also good to make new ones. This time around I was happy to meet some people that I only knew through Twitter including a very funny and flattering one with someone (I don’t want to name names, but thank you for making my day).
3. Little Conversations Matter – While I think it is important to go to the Affiliate Summit Sessions, I also find great value in having even quick conversations with people. You never know what you might pick up.
4. Help Others Out – The first morning I was sitting down to breakfast with my roommate Kim Rowley when Eric Souza came by. We had a really nice conversation about his wife’s website and what he could do with it. We were able to share some ideas that I hope he was able to use and I got the chance to do some brainstorming. I also call these a “you know more than you think you do session” and I come away very inspired. Plus the website is in a related niche to one of my own and we may be able to work together in the future.
5. Vision vs. Sight – Everybody has sight but not everyone has a vision. I learned this from Eric Thomas in his keynote speech. Every day since then I have visualized where I want to be and what success means for me.
   

   Eric the Hip Hop Preacher Thomas

6. Keep a To-Done Book – I really enjoyed the Mastermind Groups Exposed session and one of the takeaways for me was the idea of keeping a list of all the things you accomplished in the day. I have many days where I don’t think I accomplished much but in reality many things were done. It will be nice to see that and have a record over time.
7. Schedule Some Things – Most of the time I attend a conference I don’t make too many plans in advance and try to go with the flow. Well this time around I didn’t get to have much time with one of my friends or our traditional martinis and I’m really disappointed it didn’t work out. Next time I will have more of a plan for this to happen.
8. The Blogger’s Lounge is Fun – Affiliate Summit East 2011 was the first time I covered the conference as a blogger, but my time was limited and I wasn’t able to spend as much time in the Blogger’s Lounge as I wanted to. This time I was there for the full conference and was able to visit multiple times each day. It was a great place to upload a blog post, do some writing, have a bit of downtime, play a game (Jenga anyone?) and connect with the others that were also covering the conference. Thank you to Heather Smith for taking care of all of us.
9. Have Some Fun – While it is a work conference it is also important to have fun. Whether it was hitting the über cool Shareasale party (can you say you have gotten to dance underneath the Eiffel Tower?) or taking in some sightseeing, make some time for fun. It helps to recharge your batteries and connect with people in a different way.
   

   Eiffel Tower

10. Follow Up – When someone tells you to email them, contact them on Skype or give them a phone call after the conference then do it. I know I really mean it when I tell someone to do that and other people probably do too.

Also of note: I need to remember to bring a real camera and take more pictures of myself and friends, I look good in a cowboy hat, and bringing a prepaid flat rate postage box would be a good idea to bring home extra stuff.

Thank you to Missy Ward and Shawn Collins for running a really great conference and being so accessible. I really value your friendship and the opportunity to attend.

I would love to know what you learned at Affiliate Summit in the comments below.

Day 3 of Affiliate Summit West began nice and early with the Early Morning Whiteboarding session with Eric Nagel. It was a bit subdued after a late night of karaoke and a bit of a delay in getting coffee, but it was very informative. It was well worth getting up early for.

Whiteboarding with Eric Nagel

After that it was time for a breakfast. I really enjoy the meals at Affiliate Summit (not so much for the quality of the food) but the chance to get to know some new people and reconnect with old friends. Plus you don’t have to miss out on the conference by trekking off to a restaurant somewhere else.

Then I headed over to the Pinnacle Awards and Keynote. Missy Ward and Shawn Collins were quite the dapper duo for presenting the awards to the winners. Shawn even had a top hat on for the event. There were many tears from the winners and I was very proud to say that I know many of the winners.

Eric ET the Hip Hop Preacher Thomas gave the keynote. He is an excellent motivational speaker and I really connected with his message of vision vs. sight and positioning vs. pouting. Plus he is from Detroit and went to Michigan State University, which just ratcheted up his cool factor.

After the keynote I spent some time in both the Exhibit Hall and the Bloggers Lounge. Affiliate Summit is a wonderfully productive conference to go to, but it creates its own special type of tired. So I made the decision to go to no more a sessions that day. The nice thing about getting a Platinum pass is knowing that I will be able to watch all the sessions I missed online in about a month.

After the conference ended, then I had one more night in Las Vegas. I spent it by going to dinner with Tricia Meyer, Ashleigh Ball, and Cindy Ballard. We headed over the Venetian and did a little sightseeing, especially when I found that Ashleigh had never been to Vegas before. I wanted her to see something really beautiful and I that is one of my favorite hotel/casinos there.

We then headed over to Toby Keith’s to wrap up the conference with some live music and dancing. It was so much fun and a great way to wrap everything up. I’m very glad that I didn’t have an early morning flight the next morning.

You can read about my Affiliate Summit West 2012 Day 1 Recap and Affiliate Summit West Day 2 Recap.

Now is the time to register for Affiliate Summit Central 2012 and Affiliate Summit East 2012.

Day 2 of Affiliate Summit West didn’t begin as early as I would have liked. I really wanted to attend the Early Morning Whiteboarding session with Eric Nagel, didn’t quite make it. It was a just a bit too early after the late night the evening before. I did begin the day with a decent breakfast provided by the conference and then headed over to the Opening Keynote.

It was given by Jon Spoelstra. I thought that he had some really great ideas of how to succeed in business, including his idea of “new as a way of life” but most of his examples were dated. Still I did enjoy hearing him speak.

Then it was off to the session I was most looking forward to: Mastermind Groups Exposed – Success in Affiliate Marketing. Full disclosure the speakers on this panel are people that I consider friends, but I really wanted to learn more about this topic. I think being in a Mastermind Group can be a wonderful and successful thing to be in when done right, so I was hoping to get some advice about this. I definitely came away with great ideas and I look forward to implementing them when I find the perfect group of 3 for myself.

After lunch it was time for Killer Email and Social List Building with Hunter Boyle from Aweber. I didn’t know what to expect from this session but I was really happy that I went. He had some very actionable steps backed up by data of what works. I’ve already started implementing some of them already and look forward to seeing what happens.

The final session of the day was Digital Curation – What it Means to Affiliates with Scott Jangro. I am familiar with his new project Shareist and Pinterest, both curation tools, but had no idea about any of others. So it was good to learn more about this topic, as I am sure it is going to be of great interest moving forward.

In between sessions I hit the massive Exhibit Hall with their many booths (and free pens!) and spoke to some people. Mostly I took it all in and filed away where I wanted to focus on the next day when hopefully it would be less crowded. After that I took in some quiet time in the before dinner. I also got the hang of the multiple floors, with their mezzanine levels by this time.

For dinner I went to Magaritaville (totally cheesy, but decent food and margaritas) with my roommate Kim Rowley, the great people of GTO Management: Karen Garcia, Joel Garcia, siblings and the really funny Daniel Feinberg (I wonder if there is a video from Karaoke…).

After dinner it was back to Caesar’s Palace for Affiliate Karaoke. That was an absolute blast, after some initial hiccups with the equipment. I know there are some videos floating around from that, but I will leave you to find them on your own. I was a spectator and not a participant for this one.

You can read my Affiliate Summit West 2012 Day 1 Recap here.

Affiliate Summit West 2012 was held once again in Las Vegas. This year it was hosted at Caesar’s Palace in their convention center. I had a room in the Palace Tower which was closely located to the convention center. I missed Affiliate Summit West last year when it was at the Wynn, but did attend in 2010 when it was held at the Rio.

One of my biggest complaints about that hotel was how far the way from my room to the convention center was. Plus the Rio is not on the strip, so it was a cab or shuttle ride away from everything. Caesar’s Palace is centrally located on the strip. I arrived on Saturday (the conference started on Sunday morning) to make the most of my time and get settled in before the start.

The first day began with sessions in the morning. My first session was 25 Ways to Improve Your Website with Vinny O’ Hare. It was a great session with actionable steps that you can take. This session was geared towards beginners, but even I picked up a thing or two.

I then hit the Meet Market. This is a smaller version of the Exhibit Hall with merchants and networks set up at tables in a large room. I have mixed feeling about the Meet Market. It tends to get very crowded early in the day, which can make it difficult to talk to people. Some vendors also tend to leave before the closing time so if you wait you may not get a chance to to talk to them at all. Plus it is getting more and more filled with questionable networks and they are squeezing out smaller merchants. It would be nice to see more of a blend but I am sure it is all based on the timing of registration. I know that the Meet Market tends to sell out pretty early.

I then grabbed a quick snack during the snack break (loved this idea, but would have loved a vegetarian slider option) and then snuck into the very packed Link Building session. It was a comparison of white hat/grey hat/black hat link building. The summary of the presenter Robert Adler was a link is a link. You be the judge.

The final session of the day for me was the SEO Clinic. This is always a great one. You can submit your own site for an on the spot review by some of the best SEO experts out there. Even if you do not submit your website it is a great way to learn ways to improve your own.

After that it was onto dinner and then the Shareasale Under the Stars Party. This year it was held at the Chateau nightclub at the Paris Hotel and Casino. It was hands down the best one that I have been to. The location was fabulous and the DJ was really great. Once the dancing started, the dance floor was crowded the whole night. If you came in and never made it up the elevator to the roof, then you missed out. The outdoor space was right under the Eiffel Tower and appropriately enough the starry night. Thanks to Shareasale for hosting a great event!

Then it was off to bed to rest for the next day.

You can register for Affiliate Summit Central and Affiliate Summit East right now.

I just got back yesterday from Affiliate Summit West and I am exhausted but in a good way. I am refreshed and full of new ideas. I had the great opportunity to cover the conference as a blogger and did some live blogging from the sessions and keynotes.

There were sessions for everyone from affiliates, merchants, affiliate managers, and more. My focus were on sessions of interest to affiliates. Below I have added links to all of the sessions that I attended.

• Pinnacle Awards and Keynote with Eric ET the Hip Preacher Thomas
• Digital Curations – What it Means to Affiliates
• Killer Email and Social List Building
• Mastermind Groups Exposed – Success in Affiliate Marketing
• Opening Keynote with Jon Spoelstra
• SEO Clinic
• Link Building – the Reality in Practice
• 25 Ways to Improve Your Website

Look for my recap posts soon. Registration for both Affiliate Summit East 2012 and Affiliate Summit Central are open.

Pinnacle Awards

Keynote and Pinnacle Awards

Got started right away with the Pinnacle Awards. The winners are:

Affiliate of the Year – Coupon Cabin

Affiliate Manager of the Year – Kim Salvino

Exceptional Merchant of the Year – Tiny Prints

Affiliate Advocate of the Year – Tim Storm

Best Blogger of the Year – Tricia Meyer

Affiliate Marketing Legend of the Year – Kim Rowley

Eric (ET the Hip Hop Preacher) Thomas – author the Secret to Success

@ericthomasbtc

Eric the Hip Hop Preacher Thomas

read any books by Malcolm Gladwell the Outliers – talks about coming from different environments

We all have the opportunity to get where we want

Wants to talk about the idea of success. It is not about how you start but how you finish.

He is not a kid who grew up with a silver spoon. You can start from the bottom and you can literally get to the top. He is just a dissertation away from completing his PhD. Took him 12 years to get his 4 year degree. It may not happen in the time you want it to happen, but if you quit it will not happen.

He doesn’t know what success means for you. It can mean a lot of things. Success is based on individuality. It starts with a vision.

He is from Detroit, he can tell you who from his block went to college, but more are in prison or dead.

Family is important for him. His father was not in his life. His greatest accomplishment is that he has been married 21 years, being there for his children. He was so proud of his daughter making the B basketball team. Cute anecdote about taking his daughter shoe shopping.

His faith is always important.

His pastor told him what he saw for him. It was a change for him. His pastor believed in him before he could believe in himself.

Every day he wakes up with a mental picture of where he wants to be, what he wants. Even though his circumstance was homelessness, his vision was owning a home.

You are going to get where you want to get to.

A seed is going to become a tree. It is the beginning stages, but you are not going to stay there.

His wife wanted him to get a real job to take care of his family. His mother too. She got the seed confused with the tree. He didn’t see the seed, he saw the tree.

What do you need to know that you don’t know?

He knew growing up in Detroit that there was not the information he needed, he needed to go elsewhere.

He did get discouraged. But someone told him that he needed the right information.

Dr. Bing Carlson was the first book that he was given, it was true to his life.

He wears a Detroit Tiger’s hat on the cover of his book so that other kids growing up in Detroit can see that someone that was in the same position could succeed.

Use what you got to get what you need.

He had to branch out at college to get help. He went to the smartest kid in class who was from Kansas City. He went to Michigan State.

He gave him advice to dress differently, sit in front, give the teacher eye contact, smile. He asked him to read all three of the teacher’s books. Ask questions of the teacher in class. He got a 3.5 class and the teacher told him that he was the most improved.

He had to humble himself and go to the person with the information. He mastered the art of body language!

Failure is not an option!

You have to continue to do this until you are successful. You need the show-up room.

Failure – when your best is just not good enough.

I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 things that do not work. Thomas Edison

Vision vs. Sight

-everyone has sight but very few have vision

he has a vision for 2012, it is written down and he sees it every day. He spends 5 minutes every day to have a dream session. He has to see himself doing it. This one is important. Need to devote 5-10 minutes every day seeing yourself as successful.

If you spend 30 minutes having a pity party, then you need to spend an hour having a dream session to offset it.

Work vs. Wishing

Took him 10 years to write his book, he stopped writing the story years ago. But he spent all this time wishing that it would get done. Instead of working on it.

Positioning v. pouting

-when you position yourself properly than opportunities happen. There are certain things that do not happen from your living room.

Change vs. Chatting

-he made the changes that he had to make at Michigan State, it was a different culture. Different writing style. There was a whole lot of talking at weekly meetings but there were no changes in results.

Earn vs. Want

-what ever we are willing to earn we can get it

www.etthehiphoppreacher.com

Facebook: Et the Hip Hop Preacher

Twitter: @ericthomasbtc

Scott Jangro

Digital Curation: What it Means to Affiliates

Scott Jangro

President MechMedia, Inc.

@jangro

Has been a publisher for years. He has built a lot of websites.

You get a great idea, buy a domain, install wordpress, and then you stop. Why?

Creating content is hard, it is not for everybody. Even if you are a writer coming up with stuff on a regular basis is tough.

The other is you put up your best stuff and nobody is listening. You can only do that for so long.

If you keep it up long enough you can gain an audience, but hard to get there.

Why are you starting this website? Because you want to write about an awesome topic is not enough. Your website or blog should serve a purpose. It should have a topic that is sizeable enough to build an audience.

It should solve a problem or fulfill a need.

You can not rely on chance.

Curation solves a few of those problems. It makes coming up with content a little easier and solves the problem of why you are doing it.

What is digital curation?

Curation traditionally means someone who collects information or things that go into a collection in a museum or zoo.

Digital curation is the same thing but online. You have a topic and you are going to go out the find the best stuff out on the internet.

It is human nature to share.

Steven Rosenbaum – Magnify.net is a video curation platform. Also wrote Curation Nation.

Example is someone built a collection of Susan Boyle videos.

Robert Scoble – Works for Rackspace – Scobleizer is his blog. He is into real time stuff.

Robin Good – MasterNewMedia.org – he is from Italy and is passionate about online curating.

All these sites and services started cropping up.

-Qrait, Pinterest, Posterous Spaces, Storify, Quora, Kurat, Curata, delicious (evolved to this), Scoop.it, pearltrees, Bo.lt, magnify.net

As much as curation is about pulling things together, it is also about organizing information.

If you want to try it out then Scoop.it is probably the best one to try right now.

He also plugs his own Shareist.com

Why is Curation Critical?

If we just leave it to google then we are missing out on a lot of stuff.

Information Discovery Spectrum

Random to Specific

Aggregation is not Curation

-something to keep in mind – it is tempting to automate, find an RSS site and not filter it manually – diminishing the value of what you do though. Resist the temptation.

Choose a Topic

-pick one that solves a problem, that you are fulfilling a need to an audience out there.

Create a Profile of Your Ideal Fan

-picture who they are, think very specifically about who they are. How old are they, what kind of car do they drive, how much money do they make? Give them a name. Everything that you do for that site, you should act like you are talking to them. It is more personal.

Discover Great Content and Organize It

-it is not necessarily going to be one topic, you can organize them separately. You do not want to be too vague.

Publish and Distribute

-the biggest mistake the affiliate make is that they act on the single focus of getting people coming in, click the link and set the cookie. You are missing out on the opportunity for them to become a customer of yours, become your fan. The next time they are looking for something they are going to go to Google again. Getting them to become your customer should be your first goal.

-there are many tools out there to curate, but make sure you publish to something that you own as a hub. You want to use the service to drive traffic to something that you own. Do distribute to your social networks and emails.

Engage With Your Audience

-this should be part of your overall strategy

-write content in a way that gets them to engage with you, ask them for feedback. Send out emails and ask them to reply to you. That trains your audience to respond to you.

What audience can you build?

He is known as the tv repair guy. He bought a samsung dlp television and 4 years later it broke. He took it apart and fixed it. His affiliate mind decided to blog about the repair, step by step. The post took over the blog. It dwarfed all traffic on his blog. Thousands of comments. He was making a lot of money with an affiliate link to this part. Now the traffic is dying out because the tv doesn’t really exist. He didn’t do anything to capture those users as a fan. He should have put a newsletter together. He should have put an image of the customer together.

Is curation a viable SEO strategy?

-if you are adding value and solving a problem, and people like it, then Google will pick it up and you will rank – the goal is to always create something unique. Everything that you curate, you should add your own perspective to it. Plus the way you organize it is unique.

Where is the line between curation and new content?

He thinks there is a spectrum. It is a publishing model. We all get content from elsewhere.

Example of Digital Curators who do an excellent job?

-he thinks this is a personal thing, so hard to answer. His favorite is his business partner.

Is curation the same thing as blogging?

-you can curate on a blog. It is the type of publishing that you are doing. When you are writing about stuff that you come up with that is creation. Talking about things that you find elsewhere is curation.