Take 2 Steps Toward Success – Learning And Taking Action

A willingness to learn new things is the first step to success. The second step  is to turn what you have learned into actions. 

Finding information and the willingness to learn new information is important, even if it can be overwhelming. Thanks to the internet, and instantly available ebooks, there are not many true excuses anyone can have for not finding the answers to a problem you have. There are facebook groups, forums, and networks on just about every subject. Peer support is a click away, courses on every subject are available, in many instances those are free. Gathering information is time-consuming, yet easy and possible.

Taking action, however, even if they are laid out in front of you, in workbooks, course assignments, daily assignment threads, or action prompts are often ignored, or “postponed” until a later time. I have heard so many excuses, real or imagined why someone could not follow through upon what they learned – from, lack of time to kids, to other responsibilities. Yet, we find time to talk about our favorite television shows, follow our favorite sports team, or leave comments on funny youtube videos.

If you want success you have to take both steps. 

There are no short-cuts around that fact – no one will learn what you need to learn for you, and no one will turn off that television or gaming console that distracts you from taking action. YOU have to make that commitment, YOU have to make that choice, between continued stagnant existence or success. Those two steps are the prize you have to pay, in order to become the person, I know you want to be.

Take those two steps and you will find, that the harder you work for your success, the less competition you will come in contact with. You see, too many choose the couch, the video game, the excuses, leaving a lot of opportunities open for those who are willing to work for it. They choose convenience over success.

Which one will you choose?

Blessings!

Claudia

P.S. If you are interested in growing now, and taking action now, join me at Wealthy Affiliate Network for free. Taking the first step to creating a first-rate online presence takes knowledge which can be sometimes elusive and confusing. Wealthy Affiliate has created free step-by-step lessons on how to build a website, how to find your niche, how to create great content and more. With incredible peer support, you can ask for as much or as little help as you need. What are you waiting for? Join now! 

 

 

Enter to Win Your Dream Classroom – The Educents Teacher Appreciation Giveaway

To celebrate Teacher Appreciation month, Educents, FreshGrade, S&S Worldwide, and the Sellers of Educents have partnered to give educators funding for their dream classrooms. The 7 educators with the most votes will win a combined $10,000! Any educator is eligible to win – teachers, homeschoolers, parents, and school administrators.

How to Win

Educators get pretty creative when it comes to raising money to cover expenses for classroom supplies. Many host bake sales, ask the community for second-hand supplies, or pay out of their own pockets. However, there’s a new way to get money for your classroom… and it doesn’t include raiding the aisles of your local dollar store.

It’s easy to enter to win the Educents Teacher Appreciation Giveaway, and it still requires a little creativity (see Step 3).

Step 1: Save up to $5,000 in products for your dream classroom in your Educents wishlist.

Step 2: Click “Enter to Win” on your wishlist page and create your voting profile.

Step 3: Share with your friends, family and community and ask them to vote for you every day until May 6. This is your opportunity to get creative – how will you share your wishlist, and how will you involve your community to vote for you??

Any educator is eligible to win – teachers, homeschoolers, and school administrators. Ready to get started?

 

Here are a few other entries I love – vote for your favorite!

“Vote for me because I LOVE teaching. I have a wonderful class that is full of spirit and who loves to learn. I will be putting all my dream items to the end of the year lessons and summer school lessons.” -Diana R.

“I am a homeschooling mom of 4 children, and one baby on the way! We live on only my husband salary. I would love to create a dream classroom for them.” – Gina H.

3 Reasons Why You Should Become A Creative Live Affiliate Right Now!

 

While it is a lot of fun to create a blog, monetizing it can give you the incentive and drive to keep on putting in the hard
work that it takes to create a beautiful and informational site. Affiliate marketing is one of those ways, where you can turn
your creative work into extra cash. And it is even more fun, when you are working with high quality merchants like Creative Live!

But first, a quick intro to Creative Live for those of you who  are not already familiar with their services.

Become A Working Artist Course

Creative Live offers free streaming online lessons via their website, about a variety of topics throughout any given day, for example, blogging, creating your crafting business, photography and more! Fresh content is constantly brought on their channels, but if you miss any of their programs, you can purchase them rather inexpensively to watch at your leisure, often including bonus content, worksheets and teaching materials that are not available when you watch it live stream. This is where you – as their affiliate come in. Any purchases your readers make, after a click through will provide you with a percentage of their sales.

How to Write A Blog Post that Creates Traffic – Course

And here are three reasons why you should become a Creative Live Affiliate:
1. They offer high-quality content you can be proud to represent.
I am very picky about the products and companies I work with. Just like they want to see high-quality work from me,
I am expecting the highest quality of services and information offered to my readers. Creative Live’s classes, both free as well as for purchase  and are something I can offer my readers with confidence, that they will receive valuable information for their time and money.
And so can you.

2. It’s free and easy to sign up
If you are a part of the ShareASale affiliate network already, it is as simple as following the instructions provided with this link. Should you not be a part of the ShareASale network (something I also highly recommend if you want to monetize your blog), don’t worry. Their sign on process is also simple and straightforward. Just add your information, and you are good to go in no time to work with Creative Live, and other great companies, such as Aloha, Lulu, and more.

The Science Of Happiness – Course

3. Their responsive banners and affiliate tools are easy to use.
Not a tech wizard? Neither am I, and I still manage to work with all of the easy to use tools that make being a Creative Live
affiliate. Creating custom links or placing responsive widgets on site bars, is more about copying and pasting, then knowing any special set up, and with the help of ShareASale, you can easily keep track of the traffic and payouts you generated.

Bonus:

Creative Live keeps you as their affiliate updated on all of their sales, specials and promotions via email, usually including links to those offers, with your affiliate tracking code already placed in for you. Simply add these promo codes and offers to
your site, and you are ready to go.

What are you waiting for?

Good luck and blessings!

Claudia

 

Disclaimer: The above post contained affiliate links, see Disclose Page for details

The Most Detailed Book On The Subject, I Have Read: Elevator Speeches That Get Results

Disclaimer: I have received this book for free from the publisher in return for an honest review. The following post contains affiliate links, see Disclosure page for details. Don’t miss their special coupon and discount deals below!

Book Title: Elevator Speeches That Get Results

Author: Dorothy Tannahill-Moran

Publisher: Introvert Whisperer

Genre: Non-Fiction/Business/Self-help

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Written in a delightful conversational tone, Elevator Speeches That Get Results, is a very detailed an informative book on the art of creating effective elevator speeches. This is not a book for someone who is looking to master the short sales pitch, rather a book that allows the reader to learn how to introduce themselves and their brand effectively and quickly, making a great conversation starter, as well as getting people’s interest in your expertise/niche. It is longer than most books in this price range, which surprised me positively.
With the Author’s straightforward style, there is little fluff in the book, so you do not have to navigate through a ton of personal anecdotes that take away from the actual subject matter.
Overall a great book on elevator speeches.

———

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Making Money On Zazzle – Are You A Part Of A Blogging Community

I can not overstate the importance of having a well-designed, creative blog to promote your products, and as a part of doing so, joining blogging communities is a must.

Blogging communities allows you to interact with fellow bloggers, as well as potential customers – and yes, your fellow bloggers are your potential customers – increase traffic, build readership and connections, and potential opportunities such as guest blogging. Because of these benefits, I compiled a list of 15 blogging communities you should check out and connect with.

Top 13 Blogging Communities:

1. BlogEngaged
2. Kingged
3. BizSugar
4. DoSplash
5. Blokube
6. Inbound
7. ManageWP
8. Indiblogger
9. BlogCatalog
10. Blogher
11. Blogster
12. FuelMyBlog
13. SocialBuzzClub
Happy Blogging!

 

Check this out: 

Romantic Pink Teal Watercolor Chic Floral Pattern iPhone 6s Cases – $22.91
from: Redbubble

If You Were Here With Me In Las Vegas – A Weekend Coffee Share Post

Hey there, glad to have you here again for coffee. Do you like this cup? It is one of my own designs, and yes, you can take it home with you.
I hope you do not mind that I will use your visit as an excuse to stop organizing my Zazzle stores for a moment. I did not bake anything this week, too busy, but I bought us some streusel cake.
So this week had been another busy one. I am trying to get ready for a few things, first the above-mentioned stores have to be ready for the upcoming holiday season. I have given them and myself a week to make them just the way I want to. By next Saturday, they better are that way.
Also, NaNoWriMo is only a month away. I want to have the first draft of a book finished by then and use that month to edit the mess I wrote. I say mess because the first draft is always a vomit draft – just a bunch of stuff written on paper – it is the subsequential stages that carve out a true story. Apparently this story will the intro to the town most of my Paranormal fantasy series will be centered in. So the details have to be right at the end. And they will be – hopefully.
Amazon is launching an Etsy-like business section for homemade products, and I am trying to find out as much info as I can. I really love the idea, and will be writing about it on the blog, whenever I get info about it. This will be interesting. (P.S. saw some of the pre-launch selection of some stores and darn they look good – impressive stuff)
If you were here  with me, I would tell you all of the reasons I do not like living in Las Vegas – the gambling in the grocery stores, the groves of homeless people in the parks, just a little bit away from tourist section, the dirtiness of the city, the personal stories of loss and addiction I have been listening to. It is a hard, dangerous city that takes so much out of so many people. On one hand, I see tourists and people with money (as obvious by their clothing, and expensive cars), walking around and partially stepping over people with no place to live. Poverty is everywhere in the US, but I have never seen it so much in your face and seen so many people act as if it is okay. It is not okay. But for me, a temporary resident only here to work for a few months, there is not much I can do. And that is what is killing me. I do what I can, donate where I can, listen to people’s stories and give a kind word or two. As I worry about the content of my next blog post, they are worried about what to feed their children or themselves. It took me a while to learn that I can not rescue everyone – an affliction my husband and I seem to share – so we do what we can to help. I just don’t feel like it is ever enough.

Okay, I’ll stop with the depressing talk, turning back toward my usual more upbeat self, hoping that you enjoyed your coffee, and I will bid you farewell with a blessing of prosperity and happiness, hoping that you and your loved ones will always have what you need, and wishing that you would share with those who do not.

Blessings!

P.S. Please check out all of the other wonderful people who write as a part of the “Weekend Coffee Share”. Give them some love!

Do What Works – 5 Essentials For Successful Print On Demand Artists

1. Make what you love
So your art does not fit exactly into the current trend. You have a choice to make, create something that you think will fit in, or showcase your unique voice. Please, dear artists, remember that people love your uniqueness and recognize a truth within the representation of your vision, that you created. A well-designed piece of art can become more popular than the one fitting into the masses

2. Pay attention to details
Of course, you pay attention to details when it comes to creating your unique piece of art, but are you also paying attention to how each individual application fits with your art? Some art pieces are just not made for cell phone cases while others will showcase their entire beauty on any application. Choose where you put your creative piece as thoroughly as you do during your creative process.

3. Connect with other artists
When I first started out on RedBubble, I thought of it as a lonely place, until I began connecting with other artists, by commenting on each others projects, or participating in the forums. The exchange of energy with like-minded individuals is very inspiring, as well as a learning experience. Take also advantage of the groups and forums out there outside of your platform, with Facebook groups being one example.

4. Connect with your audience
Reach out to your potential audience by learning how to maneuver throughout the various social media outlets. Learn proper etiquette, by not spamming your followers, and really engage. With the right techniques, you can gather a substantial amount of attention if you learn the tricks of the individual platforms. Marketing your products is just as important as creating them.

5. Be specific in your listings and product description
Write the description as if the customer would have no picture available and you would have to describe your creation to them. Use keywords that are related to your products (watch out for spamming keywords – only use those actually related to what you have done. Platforms like Zazzle frown upon the overuse of misguided keywords), and be specific about mentioning your targeted audience.

Please share your favorite tips and tricks in the comment section. We can all learn from each other!

Blessings

Claudia

P.S. Check out the free Aloha Snack Box Trial – who does not love free!

Juniper Berries – An A to Z Blogging Challenge Post

I am a little behind on the challenge this week, so I will post two times today, once more in the afternoon to get caught up. My daughter is getting ready for an out-of-state prom, and I am sending her half way across the US today. Lots of stuff had to be done. (Who thought it could be so tough to find matching shoes, to fit her designer dress?)

But let’s get back to herbs and spices:

J is for Juniper Berries

Juniper Berries are actually not berries but part of a specific pine cone, that take up to two years to mature. Used widely in cooking, this spice has to be removed from the finished meal, similar to the Bay Leaf.

An essential ingredient in the creation of gin.

Matches well with: game, rabbit and hare. Use sparingly

Healing Properties: One compound of the spice contains terpinen-4-ol which stimulates kidneys and works as a diuretic. Because of its antiseptic properties, juniper aids in healing urinary tract infections, and bladders tones. It also lowers blood sugar.

Magical Properties: burn for magical protection. Juniper oil works well in workings that supposed to increase money and prosperity

Enjoy!

True Passion

Does a sudden windfall change what you have been thinking about working on, and set as your personal goal? If it has, then I doubt that whatever your goal is, is your real passion.

For example, as asked at the Daily Prompt, what would you do, if you would inherit 1 million dollars today, would you change what you are doing, and what would it be? (Yes it is an adapted version of the question, but it more important then “what would you buy?”)

I would (honestly) not change what I would be doing. I would be writing on a better computer, in my own office out of my bigger home, at the location I want (LA here I come!), but I would write. It would not matter if you handed me 1 million or 1 billion, I would write. I would still write about stuff I like, and I would still make up stories.

So now I have a question for you:

Would you change your dreams and goals (I am not talking about your current job, I am talking about your passion, such as music, being a painter, teaching, whatever), if you had all of a sudden a lot of money?

If the answer is no – you are all good, keep on working on it. Good for you!

If the answer is yes – ask yourself what your real dreams are, if there would be no limitations, and everything was possible. Whatever your answer, expecially if you have a reason behind why you want what you want to do, then you found your real, authentic and true passion. Start working on that. Even if it is something as small as declaring your passion to the world, or reading about it, or play a game of what if in your head.

Time to start dreaming big!