Time management is a weak point for many “artsy” types; yet the more quality work we can produce in a streamlined manner, the better chance we have of making a decent living, with enough left over to buy insurance and pay the tax man (and take an occasional vacation)!  Here are some tips that assist me in my daily creating (I produce five scarves in a typical day of knitting; creating and designing is my fulltime career).

• Set up work stations: I maintain a designated area for packaging up orders with all necessary supplies and information within reach, for example. Each work station has the tools necessary to complete the task(s) from start to finish without leaving the area.

• Multiple tool sets: For essential tools, I find it helpful to have one in each work station as well as back ups on hand to avoid, “Oh no, I can’t get anything done, I lost my whatzit!” For example, I have a pair of sharp scissors for the car as well as each work station. I also keep a pair of cheap-o scissors in the bathroom and kitchen for the rest of the family to use instead of my nice scissors.

• Be flexible: Since my main craft is knitting with yarn, I have a few pairs of each size of needle. That way, if I’m working on a blanket and an order for a scarf comes in, I can just leave the blanket on its needles and start right away on the scarf with another needle set.

• Organize supply and finished product inventory: If we have and properly use containers, shelving or another keep-it-neat system, we avoid having to hunt for ‘that one bead’ or ‘that journal I know I made months ago’

• Prioritize: If a task can only be performed at a particular workstation or time window (for example, my friend Erin Krug of http://www.etsy.com/shop/krugsecologic only brings out her soap making supplies when her small children are sleeping), then we must focus and work at maximum efficiency during that production opportunity (that includes  ignoring facebook!).

• Take good care of yourself: I work best when I’ve had enough (and not too much) nutritious food and have had a good night’s rest the night before. I drink water throughout the day because I find staying fully hydrated allows me to think clearly. It also seems to prevent stiff joints and aching muscles, which is so important for those of us whose craft involves repetitive motion.

• Take a break: I stretch, do a different task, move around (and walk down the hall to the bathroom after all that water, tee hee) for about 10 minutes of every production hour.

• Find a balance: Studies have found that we are at our most productive when we work “assembly line” style and concentrate on a specific task or set of tasks for a few hours, and then it’s best if we switch roles to alleviate fatigue and maintain speed.

I hope these tips help all my fellow worker bees as they hum along in their hives!:)

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Article contributed by Celeste (Crickets) of CricketsCreations

You may have heard of domain forwarding, but do you know what it really means or how to use it?

Unless you’ve been under a rock…for a while, I’m sure you know what a domain name is. Simply put, forwarding a domain name is like the signs you see at the end of streets, pointing to the house that’s for sale.  In this case, it’s the sign that tells the internet where to go to find your site.  So, instead of saying, “visit my site: http://sallyurbans.crossfirelite.com”, you can say, “visit my site: http://sallyurbans.com”.  When people type in http://sallyurbans.com, the internet will see the directions and take the visitor to your site!

Why this is such a good thing.  Basically, what is easier to remember: sallyurbans.com or sallyurbans.crossfirelite.com?    That’s why domain forwarding is a good thing.

Don’t have a domain?  Get one now!  GoDaddy is offering some specials on domain names!  Click here!

Well, we’ve joined the world of Twitter and will be tweeting our new posts!  Be sure to follow us!

eWiro’s Twitter: Click here!

Have a great day!

This is your chance to get a FREE Gold Package Ad for 3 months on our site!  Simply comment to this article with your Business Question and you are entered to win!

A winner will be selected from this post on July 1st!

So, let’s hear your business questions!

So you want to figure how to price your item?  First, you must look at ALL the expenses involved.  From the 2 drops of candle scent you need for one candle to the boxes you’ll be putting your chocolates in, every little detail is important when figuring your prices.  This may seem tedious, but it is very important.

Below is a sheet that will help you figure both your wholesale and retail prices.  Now, you don’t have to go with 2 times your wholesale to get your retail….you can use 1 or 4!  Just be sure that your items will sell at that price…and that you are getting PAID enough for your time that your business isn’t just a hobby.

Pricing One Item

• Cost of Your Materials (EVERYTHING it took to make one)     __________
• Time it takes you to make one item                                                      __________
• Time x Your Hourly Rate = Labor Cost                                              __________
• Overhead                                                                                                         __________
• Materials + Labor + Overhead = WHOLESALE PRICE          _________
• Wholesale X 2 = RETAIL PRICE                                                       _________

Now that you’ve figured out your prices, how do you feel?  Are you pleased?  Are you upset?  Have you compared “your prices” with that of a competitor to see where you stand? Can you add a little more to your “hourly rate”?  Or can you find more affordable materials to use?  Pricing will always require a little tweeking!

If your business is JUST going to be your hobby…your prices simply covering your expenses work.  If you are doing this for more than just a hobby, make sure that you are getting paid enough for your time!

If you have a business related question, please ask!  We are always looking for new topics for our articles!

If you are reading this, I’m sure that you know the potential value of your facbook page.  But why does it have to be so darn hard to get new fans?

Here are some awesome tips for doing just that!  Put these to use right now and you could have more fans by tonight!

• Point a domain to your FB page.  That’s right…if your business is Sally’s Urban Designs, you can purchase www.sallysurbandesigns.com and have it pointed to your FB page!  What this means is, if someone were to type in your domain name, they’d be directed to your facebook account!  GoDaddy.com is offereing some great prices on domains right now so the time has never been better to do this.  Click here!
• Create content JUST for fans.  Add content to your page that your fans won’t find anywhere else.  This will make others want to be part of the exclusive club!
• Create a hide and seek.  This is a really fun one…hide something on your page, (an image, a word, something) and have your fans seek it out.  When someone finds it, offer them a prize.   Even better, have them tweet about their winnings!
• Have some kind of regular drawing or contest.  Who doesn’t love to win something!
• Interact with your followers.  Don’t neglect your fans!  When someone writes on your wall, be sure to write back…on THEIR wall!

Have some facebook tips you’d like to share?  Comment and leave them here for others!

By Rob Matthew

Are you getting fed up with all the financial side of life, worrying about that next bill that’s due out? Have you ever wondered how some people can make such easy money online, and begged the question “can I do it too?” Well the answer is a resounding yes, and I can show you how.

These internet has grown and these days its much bigger, with even more opportunities to make money. Many people though believe you need your own website, or own products to sell to make it work…well that’s certainly not the case.

Imagine waking up in the morning, and not to the alarm. You get up when you want, ease yourself into the day, and then when your good and ready you decide to do your days work. When I say your days work, I mean just a few hours, then the day is yours to enjoy and do what you wish, the other great thing is no one telling you what to do, when to do it or watching over you.

I won’t lie to you though, there is no get rich quick fix for anyone. It does take a lot of work, or at least in the beginning with setting up and everything, but it gets easier the longer you do it, until it can run on pretty much auto pilot, and just take that few hours of your day. When you reach that stage then you still earn even while your away on holiday enjoying yourself.

So I hear you asking the question, where do I start? This is one of the biggest questions and decisions you will face when setting out to make money online is which route to take. There are in fact so many to choose from. But fear not, I am going to share with you what I consider the 3 best ways.

One thing I will ad, is that no matter which method you choose, the most important part is getting traffic, without that you will not make any money. There are number of ways for that, some free and some costing. The free way’s normally take longer to generate money, but is a great way to start as you are making money without it costing you a penny.

Anyway, back to the 3 methods I consider the best…..

Here is the first:

Write.
There are a lot of sites out there that will pay you to write articles or post blogs. It can be about anything your interested in and they will pay you regarding how many clicks, or views it gets. This varies a lot but if you were to write about specific topics that they are after, it could be around $200, not bad for about an hour’s work hey?

So that’s writing.

Here is the second:

Create your own blog.
Some people mistake this for needing your own web site, that is not the case. There is a site called “blogger” where you can go and register (it’s free) and create your own blog about pretty much anything. Now I hear you asking “how does that make me money.” Well there is a gadget called Google AdSense which you just add to your blog, and with that you will have ads from Google appear all down the side of your blog, and whenever someone clicks on them……you guessed it, you make money. To add to your income you can set up affiliate links on your blog, which brings me on to my last, and by far my favourite way to make money.

Here is the third:

Affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing if you haven’t heard of it, is where you promote other peoples products. The beauty of this is that you don’t need to spend time writing articles or making blog sites, you just find a product that you feel passionate about, or if you are stuck for ideas then just go to Google trends to see what’s hot at that time, and there is a place called ClickBank that has pretty much every product under the sun that you could promote, and then just start promoting it.

By David Hale

This is a very easy and efficient strategy to draw in an avalanche of highly targeted traffic and readers to your blog. I will notify you in the beginning, that it does require a bit of time in order to realize the gain in traffic. Although, after you are completed, you will agree that it was all worth it due to the increase in subscribers and traffic to your blog.

Here we go:

1. To start, you want to find who your competitors are that have blogs with high readership and ranking. These bloggers must be directly related to your niche. Your mission – if you wish to accept it – is to draw all of those readers to your blog.

To find out who they are, use the free tools our friends at Google share and input your main keywords. After the list of blogs come up, check out those on the first three pages that directly relate to your niche and assess the content quality. The key information you want to obtain is how many RSS readers (if available), traffic

regularity and content quality.

Use these tools to help you out:

Alexa.com Traffic Details

Blog Juice Calculator (compare and contrast the result with those of your blog. You want to ensure the other blog is equal to or higher in ranking than yours):

Xinureturns.com (one of the best tools for a blog overview):

You want to develop a list of the top 5-7 blogs as a minimum. You may know who some of the movers and shakers are in your niche. If you do not, you need to real quick. Just make sure the other blogs are authority blogs with high Alexa and Google page rankings.

2. Next, you want to bookmark the blogs and check them out every day for updates. If they have an RSS feed, subscribe to it so you will know when it is updated. Your next mission is to run to that blog as fast as possible to read the update and make a top notch comment. Don’t write a comment for the sake of writing, but make it meaningful. Remember, your mission is to make yourself out to be a mover and shaker too. Make your posting relevant and valuable. Strive to be one of the first 10 comments to get the greatest benefits.

3. Lastly, keep doing this every day and you will eventually see a dramatic growth in your traffic, readership, and hopefully sales. When you see that happening, you know that you have diverted the traffic to your own site. Just make sure that every one of your comments has your name and blog URL. People will not only get to your site this way, but it will also build backlinks to your site.

I routinely do this on 10-15 blogs per day. Make it part of your schedule and you will stick to it. Just keep think of how many backlinks you will have in the end, not to mention the increased traffic.

If you are out to attract prospective customers and develop your online presence and exposure, you owe it to yourself and the financial future of your business to learn everything you can about Internet marketing.