Before we get too late in the month, let's find out how my friends juggle it all. I asked them this.

“The holidays are such a busy time of year, so it got me thinking about balance.

Between shopping, decorating, business… family – how did you handle it all? Got tips for my readers?”

I think you'll find the answers this week interesting and helpful.

Jason Fladlien of Wishy Washy Guru (<-You know you gotta click that one) says:

For this busy time of the year… I actually get more done believe it or not. Because everyone else takes a break, they are not lined up to speak to me or need my time as much… plus with the family off of work they have more free time

I like to focus more on internal stuff and preparing for next year instead of going external marketing. But December is a great time to launch products because most people don't do it…

Jeanette S. Cates, PhD of Plan Your Online Business says:

Balance between business and personal lives is a challenge at any time of the year – but particularly during the holiday season. I've found that I prefer shopping late in the evening, after I've finished “work” for the day and had dinner with my husband. The stores are less crowded at that time of day and that's a high energy time for me. Other people are in bed at midnight as I'm closing down the stores!

I'm also doing most of my first round shopping online. As a family we “post” our Christmas lists on Thanksgiving day, so it makes it easy to pick out things you know people will like. Since we encourage everyone to be specific in what they want, they sometimes even include the store and catalog number! So right now my living room is piled with boxes of gifts to be wrapped (my husband's job – did I mention delegation?)

For my business, I preschedule blog posts and tweets. Plus my assistant tweets reminders on things several times per week. I also preschedule email broadcasts (to coincide with the blog posts and other announcements). I try to work a couple hours a day, generally in the morning, so I have the rest of the day “off” for personal fun. After all, we're working this business to have more personal freedom. NOW is the time that pays off!

Starting around the 20th of December, my assistant will only check the help desk once a day and go through email once a day. On Christmas we don't turn on a computer (except for video games with the grandkids!). Then the “quiet week” between Christmas and New Years I'll crank back up full-time. It's a GREAT time of year to get things done!

Kelly McCausey of Solo Smarts says:

I don't believe in balance in the sense that many people talk about it. Sure, you can forecast a perfect balanced schedule, but life doesn't usually fit into your expectations. Rather I believe in having well considered priorities and making choices based on them.

For this empty nest season of my life, I get to be my main concern quite a lot and I'm taking advantage of it. I focus a lot of time on my self care, going to the gym, eating right, etc.

My family is always a priority. I have a whole day every week set aside to be available to them. My calendar booking tool won't let you set up an appointment on that day. I have breakfast or lunch with my step-dad and I'm free to visit other older relatives.

These loved ones are precious and I've no guarantee that they'll be there for me to visit next year or the year after that – so they've got to be a priority now.

As far as the holidays go, I've played it very low key up to now. Not a lot of shopping, definitely not spending a lot of money. My gift to others this year is my time and undivided attention – and home made goodies of course. Future holiday seasons may not be so laid back so I'll take advantage of this one for sure!

Kevin Riley of  Blogpreneur Training says:

Fortunately, I live in Osaka, Japan, where we aren't affected by the whole Christmas madness. However, the commercial aspect of Christmas has been making inroads over here in the last few years.

Rieko and I only buy one present each for each other – just something small that we know the other person will enjoy. In this way, there's no pressure to get some big gift, just for the sake of giving a big gift. I'm very happy to be away from that whole gift exchanging thing, and just buying each other a little treat. It really frees up Christmas for just enjoying the season. BTW, this year, I bought Rieko a DVD of a season of Friends, which she loves (Shhh. Don't tell her.)

As for decorating, we only put up a tiny tree and a handful of decorations. When I say tiny, I mean tiny– about 18 inches tall. Next week, we'll make a gingerbread house, which rounds out our decorations and also gives us something to nibble on.

Tips for you? Keep it simple. Focus on just having an enjoyable time with your family. Take stress out of the equation and you can have so much more fun this Christmas. Rather than big presents, give your family your time.

Tiffany Lambert of  Work Life Balance says:

Balance is a tough one for me, but I handle everything so I must be doing something right!

For me, what works best is an all day work schedule. Some people prefer to have a set business time, but I feel less stressed if I have the luxury of starting and stopping work in between other tasks that need to get done.

Some days nothing much gets done. The Thursday before Christmas, I spent the first part of the day at my younger kids’ school participating in school events – and then brought them home for my oldest son to watch while I went and did more shopping for six hours.

How did I manage work that day?

My iPhone. I approved and responded to blog posts while standing in those long, grueling lines at the mall. I answered emails when I got back in my car between stores. If I don’t stay on top of things, then it gets out of control and becomes overwhelming to me.

Doing a blog reply here and an email reply there is easily doable.

Regardless, the key is not to beat yourself up if something doesn’t get done – whether that’s part of your home life or business world.

Guilt is debilitating, and you have to enjoy the fact that flexibility is what this career is all about. No one tells you what to do or WHEN to do it. If you need to push work aside until 8 PM because you’d like to enjoy decorating the Christmas tree, then do it! Those are precious family moments and no amount of work or productivity can replace that.

I will say that balance is much more achievable when you have residual income streams that work for you when you need time off for other things. If you're always working as a service provider, then every second you spend not working is a boulder of stress on your shoulders.

Nicole Dean of .. here! .. says:

This is the most wonderful time of the year… and the most stressful, too.

In addition to all of the craziness that I already have, my daughter is in the annual production of Christmas on the Coast, here in town. So, I'm in the dressing room under the stage by the pit – and my hubby is doing props for an entire week. But, she loves it – so it's worth it.

By the way, if you're in Pensacola, come see the show.

So here are some things that I do to try to keep myself mostly sane this week.

1. Cut me some slack, Jack.

I try really hard to cut myself  a break during the holiday season, and just flat out do what I can and not stress too much over what is left undone.

2. Take Advantage of Amazon Prime.

Amazon Prime is truly one of the best inventions on earth. I can order pretty much anything and get it shipped anywhere in the USA in 2 days for free. This means that even if I don't start my holiday shopping until mid month, I'll be fine.

3. Presell a New and Exciting Course.

I'll be teaching a Passive Income Course in January with my friend Melissa Ingold. So, we started preselling it this month.

That gives four big benefits:

• I get to finish the year strong,
• My affiliates have a way to easily earn some quick money promoting something NEW that people will love,
• My students get the tax break of paying by the end of the year (and also a discount for buying during the launch), and
• We all get to start the next year with a fun and exciting project to look forward to.

4. Embrace Routine, but Call it Tradition.

I've read that some of the most successful people on earth have a very limited closet of clothes. Like they buy the same darned thing so they don't have to waste valuable brain power on such menial tasks as deciding which socks to wear.

I've realized that I do much better if I do the same.

For instance, this Christmas, I won't be searching Pinterest for a  new and fun way to make mashed potatoes. I'll use the same recipe that I've used every year for the last 10 years.

Now that's not to say I don't LOVE Pinterest and enjoy trying new things, but with everything else going on, now is not the time for me to be messing around with new stuff. You follow?

So, I'll be making my SAME spinach dip that I make every year, my same mashed potatoes, my same green bean casserole, and the same old can of wiggly cranberries out of the can.

Now, my husband and kiddos are totally free to come up with whatever dishes and desserts they want to eat.  But, as for me, the one who is responsible for all the holiday shopping, plus the business, plus the kids school and staying on top of everything? I have to just let myself have the “tradition” of knowing exactly what I have in front of me for Christmas dinner.

5. As for Business – Follow the Money.

I encourage my coaching clients to do this and I'll encourage you, too. KNOW where your money is coming from and focus on that, especially in times of added stress.

• If you make your money from publishing a new Kindle book – then do that.
• If you mail your lists daily and that's where the majority of your income comes from, then by golly, don't be messing with a webinar this month.
• However, if you know you can run one webinar with a trusted partner, make enough for the whole month and then be done with work – then do that.

Of course, the above also applies to where you're investing your outsourcing dollars. Put them where you'll get the highest ROI.

6. Planners Profit.

PLAN out the rest of the month now, if you haven't already. In writing. You know, with a paper and pen and a calendar of some sort – so you know what you've got to do and how much time you need to accomplish it.

7. Your VA has a Life.

Understand that your helpers have a life, too. Make sure you're setting them up so they have a happy holidays, too. Do this by planning ahead, posting your hours on your customer support site, and being extra careful of the timing of new promotions and coupons – so there isn't a glitch on the 24th of December that puts everyone in a panic.

8. Take Care of You!

The extra holiday stress can bring your immune system down. Take care of yourself so you're not spending Christmas morning with a thermometer in your mouth instead of a piece of pie.

9. Remember the Routine? Recycle, too.

I post the SAME blog posts this time every year with minor edits.

For instance, you'll see these posted here nearly ever year since 2008:

• Blogging Calendar
• Save on Taxes

Streamline and make your life easier – by hitting that ‘copy post' button on your blog and reworking your eagerly anticipated Annual Posts. (Remember Tradition is a good thing.) Or as my friend, Sean Platt said in a presentation that I heard him give. “Become a habit”. I hope and pray that my audience looks forward to these annual posts and anticipates them each year.

10. Don't forget to Spend.

Spend some extra money in your business by the end of the year for tax breaks, but I meant something different.

SPEND time with the ones who you love. Put down that blasted phone (unless you're taking pictures with it) – and experience the moments that you are blessed with. Work can wait and it will be there when you get home.

11. Have your Priorities Straight. 

I always tell my coaching clients this:

Remember, it's freaking ONLINE BUSINESS. We're not the ones flying the heart to the transplant. We are web publishers, social media managers, authors, coaches, and bloggers. The world CAN wait to hear back from us in 99% of the cases. But you only get one shot at Christmas 2013 – so enjoy it!

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

PS. This is a great opportunity to tell you about Tiffany's new product. Check out Work Life Balance to get a good butt-kicking about making sure you keep your priorities in line

This week I asked our panel of experts to name names…

What web host(s) do you use to run your business?
Yes, I want to know Who has the Host with the Most?!

The best way to know what to use is to ask successful people, right? So that's just what I did.

Before I share their responses, I feel I should clear up a few things.

1. What is a Server?
A web host like Host Gator is really nothing more than a building with a bunch of computers in it, just like the computer in your own home. Each of those computers is called a “server”. Each one of these servers runs many websites from it.

2. What is Unlimited Hosting?
Unlimited hosting means that for one account, you can have many of your websites hosted for one price. I was shocked when I went to NAMS one time and a lady told me she was buying a new hosting account every time she set up a new blog. eek! Nope. A simple upgrade and you can host all of your sites in one account – assuming that your sites aren't filled with tons of huge huge files. If that's the case, then you may have to upgrade to a bigger account.

3.  What is VPS?
VPS stands for Virtual Private Server. Several of my friends below talk about having a VPS. What that means is that you are the ONLY customer on that computer at the web hosting company. Instead of sharing the computer at say Host Gator or Mom Webs with 100 other people, you have it all to yourself. There are definitely big benefits to doing this, but there are higher costs,  as well. This is typically something that people grow up to, and don't buy a VPS right out of the gate. One BIG benefit is that you can block all IP addresses but yours from logging into the control panel (also known as the cpanel). This can help to keep you safer from hackers.

Now that, hopefully, that is cleared up, let's see what my friends are using to run their businesses.

Karon Thackston of Step-by-Step Copywriting Course says:

Several months ago I moved to a virtual private server (VPS) on Host Gator. It's much more secure than using off-the-shelf hosting where my sites would share a server with many others.

Because of a security scare with my Marketing Words Blog and Step-by-Step Copywriting Course sites, I decided to take whatever preventative measures I could.

Karon Uses:

Rachel Rofe of How To Get Every Book You Write Onto The First Page Of Kindle says:

I use HostGator. They're fast, cheap, and customer service is always excellent.

Rachel Uses:

Tiffany Dow of Gathering and Structuring Ideas says:

Hosting is something where I don’t risk my business by simply going with a slightly cheaper price. Hosting is cheap enough as it is –and I have used Host Gator since I started online with absolutely zero regrets.

There have been times when people would say, “Well this other hosting company is $2 a month cheaper,” but $2 is worth my peace of mind.

I love so many things about Hostgator. They’re affordable. You can get a little hatchling plan, move up to a baby plan or go with a business plan as your online efforts grow. They’re a household name, not some company poised to go out of business any day.

But more than anything I appreciate their customer service. Hosting is technical, and therefore it’s intimidating to me. Anytime I have what is probably a really stupid question, I just log into cpanel, click on Live Chat and someone’s there 24/7/365 to walk me through whatever it is that I need.

I’ve seen so many people freak out if their website is hacked with malware or something. With Hostgator, you just get on Live Chat, let them know, and they fix it and email you when it’s right again – which is really fast.

Tiffany Uses:

Alice Seba of Step-by-Step PLR Guides says:

Next month, it will be 9 years since I’ve been with Servint. I have used a number of other hosts over the years (and still do use one other currently) for small projects, but my core business is on Servint.

They offers VPS (virtual private server) and dedicated server services, rather than regular shared hosting. In 2004, I chose them for a few reasons:

* When my business partner at the time, Linda Stacy helped me research, we found they had a stellar reputation above other options we investigated.

* I owned a very busy website that was already starting to tax my current web host and I just didn’t want to deal with those issues anymore.

* I was also concerned about SEO issues and not wanting to be associated with any bad sites I was sharing hosting with.

It was a move I’m definitely glad I made and have no intention of moving anywhere anytime soon. I can host as many sites as I’d like, there’s tons of bandwidth, the support is 24/7 and they are very security conscious. That last one has become very important to me in the last year, especially with hacking issues.

It turned out to be a very good choice to use the VPS because I’ve run a lot of sites over the years and many at the same time, so the server always made it easy for me to manage that. Add to that, the support is fantastic (although there have been some changes over the years and I’ll get into that in a second) and they often go above and beyond the call of duty.

A VPS has other benefits including:

* It’s more powerful than shared hosting, but you get much more support and help than you would with a dedicated server

* A VPS has more power and can handle unusual strains on your resources including spam and DDOS attacks…you aren’t sharing resources with other hosting clients

* You get root level access to your server, which gives you much more opportunity to adjust settings, manage permissions and install software to your server

* You can host a mail server, FTP server or other similar services

When I first signed up with Servint, their support was lightening fast and everyone was extremely knowledgeable and they always seemed to know how to help me when I had no idea what I was talking about. These days, there is no longer the 5 minute response time (amazing, hey?), but if you ever need to phone them, they answer right away. I also find that the front line of support isn’t always as knowledgeable and so I have to be more specific than I used to be…but things work out well too. And no, I don’t mean I have to be super technical because I have limited knowledge when it comes to technical issues…I can’t tell you how many tickets opened that have the phrase, “I don’t know what that means, but can you help me?” or “I have no idea how to do this. Can you help me?” I also find have to be a little more persistent than I used to be. I’ve had a few tickets where I felt I was being brushed off when I detected a potential issue, but if I persist and then ask them to escalate the ticket, I do get the help I need without any further issues.

I wanted to mention that because about a year ago, I was starting to feel a bit frustrated with them because the relationship was different than what I had with them in 2004, so I needed to learn how to communicate with them. After all, a company that has grown over the years like Servint has will experience a change in the type of service they provide, so as a client I had to adjust a little too. So if anyone reading is using Servint or is thinking about it, I wanted to provide some pointers on how to approach communication with support. Don’t ever feel like you’re on your own because if you ask the right questions or simply ask for escalated help, they will provide it to you. They continue to go above and beyond…all you have to do is ask and I think this sets them apart from other VPS providers.

I am actually up to hosting two VPS’s with Servint now…and it’s possible we’ll have a third later in the year. The uptime is great. I only remember any noticeable downtime in about 2005 when a fibre optic cable was cut somewhere, but everything has been shipshape since. Definitely not going anywhere.

Alice Uses:

Susanne Myers of  Daily Affiliate Tasks says:

I first started out online after my husband and I came across an ad in a magazine that offered 2 years of free hosting if you registered a domain with them. From there we’ve grown our online business to include some shared hosting with a few different hosting companies including Host Gator, BlueHost, and MomWebs, a virtual dedicated server with Reliable Webs and 2 different dedicated servers.

From a logistical standpoint, it’s a bit of a nightmare keeping up with what’s hosted where and what’s billed on Paypal and what by Credit Card. But there’s reason behind the madness. I like to keep our various web properties spread out. One reason is SEO. I’m sure you’ve heard that it helps to have sites on different c-classes when you are linking from one to the other.

The main reason though is that no matter what things are going to go wrong. A server can go down and sometimes even the best backup plans fail. When (not if… but when) that happens, I don’t want it to take down my entire online business at once. That’s my main reason for spreading things out across a variety of different web hosts.

I also like to check out different hosting companies that I come across by purchasing a small shared hosting plan, putting a site or two on there and just see how things go for a little while. It gives me a chance to check out their uptime and support before considering moving a larger site over to them.

Susanne Uses:

Kelly McCausey of Solo Smarts Podcast says:

All of my sites are hosted with MomWebs.com and full transparancy here – this is the hosting company I own together with Nicole Dean.

Way back in 2002 when I first set up my first site, I ended up being left in a lurch by the person I trusted for my hosting.  I had no idea at the time that there were such a thing as a ‘reseller' host but that's what he was.  When he let his hosting bill go late, all of his client sites went down.  It was pretty disturbing to say the least!

I was rescued by a smart gal who ran her own (non-reseller) hosting company and later she sold her business to someone else.  I was nervous about trusting the ‘new guy' but soon discovered I was in very good hands.  I so often referred others to him that I asked him if he'd consider setting up an affiliate program.

The idea of running an affiliate program was not appealing to him so ultimately I decided to pursue the creation of a new hosting brand where I could offer a residual commission affiliate program (http://www.momwebs.com/affiliate-program/) and he would run the tech side of things for me.  That is where MomWebs.com came to be and it has been a successful project ever since.  We have around ten servers servicing several hundred clients at this time. I have SoloSmarts hosted on our VPS hosting and my other sites are on a semi-dedicated server.

Kelly Uses:

Nicole Dean of .. here! .. says:

Over the years, I've been through a few different hosts.

The things that are most important to me at this stage are:

1. Reliability. 
The host can't be going down for no reason – as it costs me money.

2. Customer support.
If I have an issue, I need it fixed and explained to me in little words.

3. Security.
Make sure backups are being done and that the hosting is locked up and safe.

Because I'm not one to take risks with my business, I do spread out my business between two different hosts.

I use:

I use HostGator for a bunch of my niche sites.

I also use MomWebs.com which I started using years ago. MomWebs.com specializes in helping moms and the non-techie to get their sites running.

They also help people who are currently using Blogger.com to move their blogs to a self-managed WordPress site to build an ongoing business.

What about you?

What's your experience been with web hosting?

Are you happy with your current web host?

Do you have any questions about web hosting that we can answer for you?

Thanks for reading – as always.

Warmly,
Nicole

Welcome to another episode of the Online Business Success Cast.

I'll be bringing back the usual format of the Success Cast, but will be interspersing some quickies like the one below.

My friend, Kelly McCausey, is passionate about helping entrepreneurs to be more successful by helping them to FOCUS.

I grabbed her on Skype today and asked her the following questions:

1. Why is focus important?
2. How do you know what to focus on?
3. What do you do to regain your focus when you wander off on side projects?

The audio recording of our interview is below. Just look for the “play” button and listen. It’s free!

If you're not familiar with Kelly yet, here's more about her and why I wanted her on the show.

About Kelly McCausey of Solo Smarts Podcast:

Kelly McCausey has been making money online doing the things she loves since 2002. Kelly is blogging and podcasting over at SoloSmarts.com where she's proving that Solopreneurs are Smarter.

Step 1: Check out the resources mentioned in this call.

Head over here to learn more from Kelly:

Click here to learn how to focus more.

Other Resources:

• Coaching with Kelly
• Focal Point –a book by Brian Tracy

Step 2: Listen to the Interview.

Be sure to listen to the entire interview.

Step 3: Get a free link on my blog.

Please post your comments below after you listen to the interview. Show Kelly the love so I can continue to get great guests like her.

Plus, of course, you can include your URL and your Twitter ID in the appropriate fields when you comment, as always.

Step 4: Share the Love.

If you liked this interview, don't keep it to yourself. Share the link with some friends. (Pretty please.)

Step 5: Make Sure you Don't Miss a Thing.

Either sign up for my blog updates over there –>

Or grab my feed on iTunes so you can get lots more free interviews just like this one. (Please leave a glowing review while you're at it.)

Step 6:  Give Yourself a Hug.

You deserve it.

Thanks again for sharing my day. I'm looking forward to hearing what you learned and will apply from this interview.

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

PS. Would you Like to Start a Podcast like Mine and Have Cool People Like Kelly on your Show? If you can make a telephone call, you can have a podcast, too:  Click here -> How to Start a Podcast

This week, I asked my friends a question about partnerships.

“My friends, if you are a contributor on Expert Briefs, it is assumed you have reached a certain level of success in your businesses.

So, my question is ‘What can someone possibly do or offer that would entice you into a business partnership at this stage?”

I think you'll enjoy the responses.

Kevin Riley of  Blogpreneur Training says:

I rarely partner with anyone, but have on a few small projects. Those projects were done with someone I fully trusted to pull their own weight – and that's a super important point. Most partnerships I've seen fail, do so because one partner was not doing their fair share of the work.

For a partner project to work well, all the responsibilities need to be well defined at the beginning, and each partner must be fully accountable for their tasks. If I were to partner with someone on a project, I need to know first of all that they can be relied upon to complete their assigned tasks within a specified time period.

So, would I partner with someone now? And what would it take to partner with me?

As I'm busily embarking on a new business, the openings in my schedule for another project are few; however, if an interesting project presented itself (and as a partner I'd only need to dedicate half as much time to the project) I could be tempted – if the project would fit into my present business model and focus at Kevin Riley Publishing (since the new business is all in Japanese, I doubt anyone would want to partner on a project for it).

In a potential partnership, there are a few things that would need to be met. First off, I need to know that the potential partner is reliable – has a good track record for completion, has a good reputation online, etc. And, since my main interest in a project is the creation of the product, I would be more interested in partnering with someone who would want to take on the marketing, while I create the product. If someone is ready to meet these parameters and wants to partner with me on a project, the best approach would be to send me a clear, well-written (but brief) proposal.

Lain Ehmann of Crafting Your Business, Step-by-Step says:

The biggest thing someone could do is to demonstrate an understanding of my market and my business. If they present a partnership opportunity to me that doesn't match what my audience needs, or overlaps something that I already offer, then it's a non-starter.

Also, if they make it as easy as possible for me to promote (with access to the material, promo information, etc.) then I'll be more likely to jump on it!

Kelly McCausey of Solo Smarts Podcast says:

The smart people I've partnered with in the past have pulled me into projects and profits I'd never dreamed of on my own. They changed the way I see myself. Does that make sense? Over the years I've had seasons where everything I do is on my own and that's fine, but I find myself craving partnerships again. There's something energizing about working with someone else with equal motivation and different gifts.

So what would entice me?

A person with a fire in their belly to grow their income would be very appealing to me. Someone who shares my target market but brings a different set of skills to the table.

Speaking of partnerships and enticements… just this week I announced a new partnership for my Solo Masterminds membership. I'm welcoming the awesome Melissa Ingold (Special Report Club) as my partner and co-coach and I couldn't be more thrilled.

Solo Masterminds has been around since 2004, we launched as a membership for work at home moms and enjoyed many years of success. As I've rebranded myself over the last two years, the membership is about to go through another change. We'll be welcoming men into the membership for the first time, in just a few weeks.

In this situation, timing was so right. Melissa was interested in building up a membership and since she got her early start from within the Solo Masterminds membership she really liked the idea of helping take it to greater heights. At the same time, here I am with a big old fire in my belly, HUNGRY to grow my business and do great new things.

Partnership is so much about making a great connection, coming together at the right time and having a united goal. Working with Melissa is going to be great. I know it!

Nicole Dean of .. here! .. says:

I have had a lot of partnerships over the years. Just counting quickly I can think of 10 different people who I've partnered with over the years.

• Some of my partnerships have been AWESOME.
• Most have been positive.
• A few have not. (I have several grey hairs from one particularly terrible partnership.)

Anyway, I find this topic interesting as my answer to this question has definitely changed over the years.

A few years ago, I was much more open to partnerships.

While I am still open to a win-win (or I'd be silly not to be), I'm definitely more hesitant to get into a partnership now than I have been in the past. If I have an idea for a project, I'd rather create it myself, use my own team, and/or get an intern to help. That way it's part of my core business.

So what would someone need to bring to the table at this point to really interest me?

The biggest things someone can do to entice me into a partnership would be to bring in all of the following:

• a ton of sweat equity or an existing project that is profitable
• a hard work ethic
• a great reputation
• unbreakable integrity when dealing with money
• a positive mindset
• an attitude of FUN

Those are all must-haves.

Also on my wish list would be:

• Skills (preferably different than my own)
• Experience, preferably in marketing and in taking at least one past project to success
• A Network or Community of People (connections)
• A Team of at Least a Few Helpers in place (so that we're not burdening my staff)
• A Vision for the project

Of course, I wouldn't expect someone to have all things in place, but the more, the better.

Basically my rule of thumb for partnering is the same as my rule for getting JV partners.

“If I feel like a moron saying ‘no', I won't.”

Make the offer so irresistible that your potential partner will lose sleep thinking about passing on the opportunity.

That's how you get them.

Speaking of partnerships, just yesterday, I teamed up with my good friend, and business partner, Melissa Ingold on this fun new project:

We are releasing Business Transformation Packs to help Coaches to have a more profitable business.

We just announced our first one and you can check it out here:
Business Transformation Pack: Coaching Business Start Up to Step Up

What about You?

Please share your thoughts about partnerships, your experiences, and your questions below.

I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

Warmly,
Nicole

This week I asked our panel of experts the same thing I asked last year and the year before …

“What's something cool in your business that is working really
well for you – right now?”

I greatly enjoyed reading the responses. I hope you enjoy them, as well.

Tiffany Dow of Squidoo Quick Commissions Guide says:

In 2013, part of my plan was to get re-involved with Squidoo and tangible affiliate earnings. I had been there since 2006, but sold off all of my profitable lenses and I wanted to get back to what it was all about for me when I first started – sharing.

But like everyone else, I wanted to spend time doing something that would launch some residual earnings. I like things I can set up once and basically never touch again. What Squidoo does for me aside from that is it also lets me break away from my usual topics – it helps prevent boredom.

I’m a flitter online. I like to jump around and do different things. I used to buy domain after domain and waste TONS of money setting up sites to promote a myriad of things (household good, sushi supplies, etc) when there’s no way I wanted to blog about that daily. Lenses help feed my craving for variety – and they’re FREE. (Love that).

So at the end of 2012, I challenged myself to test some new strategies out. I used Erica Stone’s Squid Pro Quo research tactics, but then I FrankenTiffed the lens creation with my own content strategies. I also left out the design tips (pure laziness on my part).

While the original guide had some fantastic methods on how to research products, I knew I wanted to share more personalized information. For instance, if I write about the Kinect video game – I don’t want to just write about technical aspects and price.

I get personal satisfaction sharing my story about it – how I use Dance Central and the kids and I have contests to see who can score better (and would you believe I score better every single time? I’ve got moves apparently).

When I started seeing the lenses start to perform (set up a page, leave it, and let it earn up to $30 a month), it led to me whipping up a little report on how I was doing it called the Squidoo Quick Commission Guide.

I love checking in each day to see which lenses are performing (not all do). Sometimes there’s a surprising niche that I discover. I decided to openly track my 2013 earnings and I know it’ll be slow re-growing all of my content since I was basically starting from scratch.

The earnings are a little topping on my Internet income (for now), but that’s the kind of stuff that makes me smile – the unexpected income that you forget about until a deposit that grows the more you put into it. And because it feeds my personal satisfaction, it has double the benefits.

You can learn more about my Squidoo methods in my course:
Squidoo Quick Commissions Guide

Susanne Myers of  Daily Affiliate Tasks says:

I’ve been publishing Kindle Cookbooks for a while now and came across a neat little trick. One of my hurdles in my niche was to get my readers used to consuming kindle products (and realizing that they don’t necessarily need a kindle device to read them). To get them in the habit of downloading and reading kindle cookbooks, I started sharing a few free downloads each day on my blog. These were usually books that were on a free KDP promotion and would go back to paid versions within a few days.

Susanne Myers as Hillbilly Housewife – Books on Kindle

My readers are downloading these books and are also buying my own kindle books. Something interesting started happening. All of a sudden MY kindle books started showing up in the “Customers who bought this book also bought…” section of quite a few popular kindle cookbooks. Take a look. This is a book that I mentioned on my blog a few days ago (it was a free download at the time).

Four of the first six recommended ebooks are mine. Of course this doesn’t happen all the time and I picked the best example I could find, but having even just one of your kindle books show up in there for a different kindle books each week can generate quite a few sales for you.

Here’s the basic strategy step by step:

1) Write and publish your kindle book.

2) Get your readers to buy it.

3) Share other free related kindle books with them.

4) Rinse and repeat.

There are lots of smart kindle marketers out there who are leveraging KDP to catapult their books to the top of categories on Amazon. Leverage their work by getting Amazon to promote your own book along with theirs.

If you want to download some great cookbooks on the Kindle, be sure to check out:
Susanne Myers as HillBilly Housewife – Books on Kindle

PS. If you want to find free Kindle books to recommend to your list – to use Susanne's methods, click here: Free Kindle Books

Tony Shepherd of Sales Funnel Cheat Sheet says:

Hi Guys,

When Nicole posed the question ‘what's working for you in your business right now' I couldn't resist writing this guest post because at the moment my business is going through possibly the biggest (and most profitable) change it ever has.

To cut the story short, I got hit by the last two Google updates and sites that had been pretty consistent money earners vanished into the depths of page 298 of Google or thereabouts.

Traffic dried up.

Sales did too.

Luckily my business is an Octopus and made up of many parts so it was nowhere as serious as it could have been.

But it really pissed me off nonetheless.

I took a step back and applied some common sense and quite a few bottles of wine to the issue and came to the conclusion that…

…it's bloody DAFT to let a big chunk of your business rely on a third-party site, even if it IS Google.

In fact ESPECIALLY if it's Google because the buggers move the goalposts without warning and your whole traffic flow can vanich down the toilet.

The sad but true news is that Google WILL continue to update their algorithms and if the last update or the one before that didn't hit you, then the next one or the one after that WILL

So I started buying traffic and running it through a funnel system that I devised.

These ‘engines' or optimized sales funnels allow me to buy traffic for free or for pennies on the dollar because they're optimized well enough (via tracking and testing) to pay for pretty much all the traffic I buy in the form of paid solo ads.

They're self-financing if you will, which means I build profits and my list essentially for free.

Once my funnel is optimized all I need to do is keep an eye on it, and buy more solo ads (which are paid for by the upsells in the funnels)

It's working INCREDIBLY well for me and has been for quite a while now.

I'll never put my business – the business I worked hard to build – into the hands of someone who can just switch off my sales without a second thought.

So that's what's working with me.

If you'd like to get a closer look at my sales ‘engines' you can grab a copy of ‘Sales Funnel Cheat Sheet' by clicking the link below.
-> Sales Funnel Cheat Sheet

Cheers

Jeanette S. Cates, PhD of Plan Your Online Business says:

I've just launched a site I've had on the books for over two years. It's a simple Q&A site which is something anyone can add to their business. Since I love to learn and to teach, it's a perfect way for me to keep in touch with what my readers want to know, while expanding my own horizons.

Having a great time with this!

You can check out my new Q&A site to see how I set it up here
->  Ask Jeanette Cates

Kelly McCausey of Solo Smarts Podcast says:

I'm going to say that Curation is working for me as a traffic, content and relationship building strategy. I've fallen in love with curating content and not just from one angle. There are three distinct approaches to taking full advantage of the idea of curating content and I've been devoting some time every week to learning more and experimenting with it.

First, there's curating the best of the best content on your own site. Pulling in snips and linking out to what you believe your market is going to be interested in has been a real traffic booster for me. You can see my curation category on Solo Smarts here: http://www.solosmarts.com/category/solopreneurs-quickies/.

Second, there's doing what you can to encourage others to curate your best content. At a basic level, it's about getting people to click like and share. At a deeper level, it's about giving people lots of ways to republish your content. See how I've shifted my About page to encourage curation: http://www.solosmarts.com/about/. In our world, as information marketers, we welcome them doing so with an affiliate link of course.

(Special Note: If you find that people rarely ‘curate' you by liking your posts and sharing them – maybe you're not nailing great topics for your market. I've got a great little membership program that teaches you how to do just that: identify great topics that speak to your people and win reactions. It's called Topics on Target.)

Third, there's curating our favorite niche content on other sites, like BizSugar.com and InternetBillboards.net. These sites have driven traffic back to me but also helped me to make some fresh new connections, reaching into new neighborhoods in the marketing world. This has brought me some great new guests for my podcasts and invites to guest blog on sites I've never had reach with before.

There are endless opportunities to explore for this kind of curation when you think about all of the different formats you can redistribute your content in via sites like Scribd & Slideshare. Nicole, you've curated via Listly and that's a site I'd like to spend some more time on myself.

Curation takes time and I'll tell you now that you can't focus on all three areas at once and do it well. Choose one and give it your best attention for at least six weeks and measure the results through your stats. Do more of what works and drop what doesn't – then move on to tackle another side of curation

Learn how to identify great topics that speak to your people and win reactions.
Click Here to Learn How.

Lou Bortone of Video in a Day says:

Something that's been working really well lately is posting quotes or “expert tips” on Facebook and Pinterest. However, posting text doesn't really cut it anymore, so I've been using a few handy-dandy web tools to make the text more visual and share-able.

If you put your quotes into visual tools such as Quozio.com or ReciteThis.com, they look great and are much more Facebook-friendly.

I created a bunch of quick marketing tips and turned them into “photos” with Quozio and other tools, and they tend to get shared and re-pinned a lot more than text alone. Give it a try!

(click on the image to see it full size)

Want to learn to create Video? Check out Lou's
Video in a Day course

Nicole Dean of .. here! .. says:

Speaking of Sales Funnels (as Tony mentioned) one thing that's working well for me lately has been revamping my existing sales funnels and creating new funnels, as well.

For instance, my friend, Melissa Ingold, and I set up an ongoing free membership site at FreeBusinessPLR.com with an upsell into our cool new Monthly PLR Toolkits program.

It's a super simple page and I know we could totally improve it with just a bit of testing. (As always, right?) Here it is:

Why does it work so well?

The combination of a free ongoing offer with a recurring income is always a great thing in my book.   Plus, our free members WANT to open our emails to get their monthly free PLR content. So that helps, too.

If you want to see how this profit funnel flows, just click on the image above or go to FreeBusinessPLR.com, then sign up.

We are sending traffic to this offer through social media, our own lists, affiliates and solo ads, too. I'm hoping this turns into another nice income generator for us both.

How about you? What's been working really well for you these days?

I can't wait to hear your thoughts.

Warmly,
Nicole

If you've missed past Expert Briefs, you can click on the undies to see them all –>

So, on that note, this week I asked our panel of experts …

It's nearly the end of the year, so I'm personally looking
back over the last year. My question this week is

“Where does your money come from?” 

Here are their responses they so graciously shared.

Tiffany Dow of The Guide to Shiny Object Syndrome says:

I get my Internet income from a variety of sources. I’ve always loved having many different sources because of the panic I would feel (and uncertainty) if I relied on just one stream. So my income is divided up into 5 parts:

1. My own eCourses
2. My PLR store
3. Digital affiliate income
4. Affiliate marketing on Amazon
5. Ghostwriting

When it comes to the lion’s share, it would have to be my own ecourses – because not only do I make money directly, but I worked to recruit an army of affiliates to promote for me. This provides approximately 40% of my online income. The best tip I can give you on this is to forget who else has already done what. Do it your way and you will have fans!

Next on the list is my PLR store. I’ve been building this for years and now have almost 500 products in my marketplace. It runs on autopilot and I have affiliates promoting it, earning 50% of the cart sales. Most PLR sellers create about 5-10 packs and quit, but volume is key to waking up and seeing $200 cart sales. PLR accounts for about 30% of my sales.

Digital affiliate income is what I consider my reviews to be. Here’s a tip on earning from digital reviews: whenever I buy any product, I implement and review it right away. It pays off because people trust me when they see my results unfold. The profits are twofold: once from the sales you make reviewing it as an affiliate, and again because you’re taking action and implementing! I make approximately 25% of my income from reviews.

The last two items on my list – affiliate income on Amazon and ghostwriting are very small players in my income, but not because I’ve failed at them. Combined, they only add up to about 5% of my income. I rarely ever ghostwrite anymore (just primarily to keep my skills sharp) and I’ve sold off (flipped) most of my Amazon sites and Squidoo lenses, so I’m just now building them back up. Best advice? KEEP the money makers. Build a portfolio, instead of flipping for fast cash.

-> Want more from Tiffany? Check out her The Guide to Shiny Object Syndrome

Bob Jenkins of How to Use Mindmaps to Organize Your Business says:

Hey Nicole – I love having a diversified set of revenue sources to balance out the ebbs and flows of having a business.

Here's my breakdown from October 2011 – October 2012:

• 40% – Personal Coaching Clients
• 16% – Mindmap My Business 3-Day Virtual Training
• 15% – Affiliate Income (Affiliate Marketing)
• 13% – Information Products
• 12% – Hotseat Holiday Workshops/Retreats
• 1.4% – Domain Sales
• 1.4% – Welcome To The Call
• 1.2% – Beef Jerky

A few things are interesting from this list for me (and from reviewing these kinds of numbers).

First, if I was like most coaches, I would be missing out on a ton of revenue without the additional revenue sources like information products and information products.

The 3 private label sources (Domains – GoDadady, WelcomeToTheCall – Instant Teleseminar, and Beef Jerky – Jerky Direct) that make up a combined 4% are both neglected and rarely advertised. I consider spending more energy on them, but then I remember how much more fun I have coaching and teaching virtual workshops.

Some of these sources are also inter-related, in that they provide the same customers multiple levels of access and intensity. If I sold in a bunch of different niches, it would be harder for me to improve my revenue/customer numbers.

For example, the Hotseat Holidays both lead to and stem from personal coaching clients.

As for affiliate income, my top generating recommendations over the past year have been for Lon Naylor (Learn Camtasia), Clay Collins (TheMarketingProgram), Digital Access Pass membership software, and Aweber autoresponders.

-> Want to learn more from Bob (and get uber-organized)? Check out How to Use Mindmaps to Organize Your Business

Connie Ragen Green of Affiliate Marketing Case Studies says:

The end of the year always means that I will be reviewing and thinking about my online business to see what worked, what I loved doing, and what I need to completely revamp and update in my business.

2012 has been a year of great growth for me. I am now speaking internationally, which was a goal I set for myself at this time last year. This is my sixth full year online, so I am now more comfortable in every area of my business. You may have heard about the ‘10,000 Hours Rule', a concept based on a study by Anders Ericsson and discussed throughout the book ‘Outliers: The Story of Success‘ by Malcolm Gladwell. The premise is that one needs to accrue ten thousand hours of experience in an area before being able to move to the next level of competence and understanding. I am now at the point in my business where major changes are more likely to occur.

• 50% – Affiliate marketing continues to account for about fifty percent of my income. I enjoy the responsibility that comes along with only recommending the people and products I love, in the exact areas that are relevant to building a successful online business.
• 25% – My own products and courses account for another twenty-five percent of my income, and I now stay tightly focused on what I create and sell under my brand.
• 25% – The rest of my income is derived from my high level Mentor programs, my Weekend Retreats, and from speaking at live events around the world.

My recommendation is to write down everything you are doing to generate income in your business to see which things are working best for you. The ultimate goal is to have a profitable business that allows you to engage in activities that you enjoy while serving the needs of your target audience.

-> Want to learn how Connie wins so many Affiliate Contests? Check out her Affiliate Success Case Studies.

Kelly McCausey of Solo Smarts Podcast says:

Where does my money come from? Had an interesting situation come up this week on Facebook. Lynn Terry and I have a big 1200+ member group working through a 90 Day Low Carb Challenge and someone got it in their head that we are some sort of Ninja Marketing Geniuses who make money every time someone clicks a link or likes anything. Lynn said ‘If only that were so!' LOL!

Affiliate marketing does represent a nice chunk of my income and it is one of my favorite sources since it tends to be the income that keeps on coming long after I did whatever I did to initiate it. It comes naturally as I recommend the tools, people and resources I have found most useful in my own online business.

Information product sales is another valued source of income for me. I have six different courses/workshops for sale right now plus a membership program. Sales come through my own list and via my amazing affiliates.

As we discussed not long ago, a surprising source of income for me is the check I get from an advertising network for displaying their ads on my small mom and family focused blog network. Sponsored posts, paid promotions and the like are all nice extras for my budget from month to month.

Occasionally I go back to my roots and generate cash with my graphic and web design skills. In fact, I put the word out last night that I'm accepting a couple of new clients. (I'm raising cash for something important!) I don't want to service clients on a regular basis, having a skill others are willing to pay to tap is a powerful thing.

I've dabbled with a few other things this year but unfortunately most of that didn't turn out to be the turn on I'd expected and I've let those projects go dormant. I think it's important for everything to know that every project and idea is not going to be profitable. I learn from these disappointments and use those lessons to be smarter about everything else I do.

Finally, I earn money by coaching clients one on one. What might interest everyone is the fact that this is not my primary income. Several people have told me that that is what they assume – that I'm getting RICH by coaching others. I'm not THAT coach who only makes money from coaching. I actually make money from real life projects that have nothing to do with telling someone else what to do as you can see here.

Flexibility, variety, having these choices is a dream come true for this solopreneur. I wish you all the same!

-> Want to learn more from Kel? One of the ways she earns money is through Podcasting. Check out her Smart Podcasting Course.

Jeanette S. Cates, PhD of Plan Your Online Business says:

What a great question! I generally know my numbers, but I was curious about how they have changed over the years. In fact, I pulled a spreadsheet for 2000 – 2012 and here's what I found:

• In 2000, my revenue was half consulting and half products (which includes teaching classes). That was fairly early in my Internet Marketing career, so that makes sense.
• By 2005, revenue was 25% affiliate programs, 15% adsense (the heyday!), 20% consulting, and the rest in product sales.
• By 2010,revenue was at 20% affiliate programs, only 8% consulting (who had time?), 20% member sites (the hot thing that year!), and the rest in product sales, including partner products.
• This year, it's steady at 30% affiliate sales, 22% consulting, 22% member sites, and the rest in product sales.

It's so important to have a mix of revenue sources. As some things come and go, other items remain steady. You may have years when you create a bunch of products and others when you want to work more closely with your clients in smaller sites and consulting. Remember – it's YOUR business and you get to choose how you make your living!

-> Want to peek inside Jeanette's head and get ready for next year? Check out Plan Your Online Business

Dr. Mani of How to Set Goals says:

Interesting question, Nicole.

Here are my answers, as they apply to online infopreneur income alone:

• Affiliate marketing – 25%
• Freelance writing – 20%
• Adsense – 5%
• Infoproduct Sales – 30%
• Books on Amazon – 5%
• Membership sites – 10%
• Other – 5%

It helps that I periodically review this set of numbers, and see how well they match my overall goals for the year. That way, I'm able to tweak and focus on what matters for the month or quarter.

-> Want to learn more from Dr. Mani? Check out his report about How to Set Goals

Nicole Dean of .. here! .. says:

Well this has been interesting to me to read the responses. 

My income is similar to my friends above.

1. My Own Product Sales
2. My PLR Sites
3. Affiliate Marketing
4. Personal Coaching
5. Google Adsense (Niche Sites)
6. Web Hosting
7. Amazon Kindle
8. Consulting

I'll get into a bit more detail on each.

1. My Own Product Sales.

I have several training products that I sell to intermediate and advanced level online business owners.

My most recent one that I'm super proud of is ContentDrafts.com – how to keep your blog fresh.

I also have some courses at the beginner level, including the ones at MomsTalkBiz.com

2. My PLR Sites

I have three PLR sites.  Each is slightly different in focus.

EasyPLR.com
I opened EasyPLR in 2006. At that site, I mainly sell packs of articles, reports, and ecourses. There is no membership component involved. The goal with the site is to get people to make an impulse buy as it's a low priced item and then find out they love me and my stuff and trust me. Then they become repeat customers.

YummyPLR.com
Yummy PLR was opened after EasyPLR (I believe in 2007). We sell food PLR there, including PLR recipes. This site is a membership model and many of our members stay for years.

CoachingPLRContent.com
I opened Coaching PLR content with Melissa Ingold in 2010. At that site, we want to arm our customers with resources, tools and presentations they can use to expand their expert status even further. We have worksheets and PowerPoints slides and scripts and all kinds of stuff with PLR rights. A lot of our customers use our presentations to create video training and to do live webinars, as well.

3. Affiliate Marketing

I don't have exact numbers in front of me, but I would say that I earn approximately 50% of my income through affiliate marketing.

This varies from promoting things like Hillbilly Housewife ebooks on a niche site – to promoting exercise videos from Amazon on another niche site, to promoting services like Aweber here, on my blog and to my lists.

4. Personal Coaching

I take on a handful of personal coaching clients at a time. I spend a lot of time one-on-one with them which is why I only work with a few. I find it extremely rewarding and I love it.

I focus on Infoproduct marketers who have at least one product, who already know who their customers are, and they have their product up for sale (or nearly there). Once they get to that point, I have a blast helping them to multiply their income.

5. Google Adsense on Niche Sites

I still have some niche sites with Adsense on them. For four years, Google paid my mortgage. But, now? Not as much. It's just a nice little deposit every month. The good thing is that I don't have to do anything to earn it.

6. Web Hosting.

I am a partner in a web hosting company – MomWebs.com (with Kelly McCausey).

We focus on helping newbies who are skeeeered of technology to get their WordPress sites up and running. (Many of them switch from Blogger to WordPress with our help.) So that project brings in some monthly cashola, as well.

7. Amazon Kindle

My Kindle earnings are small, but they will be growing next year.

You can see a few of my Kindle books here:

8. Consulting

On occasion, I will do hourly consulting for online or offline businesses. I don't do this too often, simply because I don't like to have a schedule where I have to be somewhere (even on the phone) at a certain time – yeah I'm weird like that. But am always open to having someone buy an hour of access to my brain.

Well that's an overview. I hope it was interesting to you.

Talk to me.

Is this what you expected to hear?

Is it similar to your income streams? Or different?

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

PS. If you like this post – share it and check out my friends’ sites. That’ll make me happy! Appreciate you!

Here are the folks who contributed today…

• Tiffany: The Guide to Shiny Object Syndrome
• Bob: How to Use Mindmaps to Organize Your Business
• Connie: Affiliate Success Case Studies.
• Kelly:  Smart Podcasting Course.
• Jeanette: Plan Your Online Business
• Dr. Mani: How to Set Goals