I’ve been on vacation since 12/18.

We haven’t gone anywhere - I’ve been basically resting and recharging (and fiddling with my new camera, a Nikon D80… thanks Maryellen!! One of my first pics is at the end of this post.) 

I have to say, this is one of the best vacations I have ever taken. That’s because I promised myself “NO WORK AT ALL”. And I largely stuck to it, this blog being the only “work” I have done. Good for me.

In all honesty, that’s quite an accomplishment. For me, anyway. I’m not a workaholic or anything, but I do get stuff done, and there’s always a lot to do. For example, I took a two week vacation this summer - we spent the first week with my family at a beach house in NC’s Outer Banks. But I took my laptop, and in that beach house, banged out 5,000 words of Do the Web Write in between fun and sun (I have to confess, though - I’m not a big beach person. Neither is Maryellen.) Then, the next week at home, I banged out another 30,000.

In November, Maryellen and I took a week and a half. We spent half a week at Salem, MA, and I spent the next week editing (and writing three new chapters for) the second edition of Start and Run a Real Home Based Business.   

So while I took two vacations totaling 3.5 weeks up until December (throw in two or three long weekends too… hey, a home based business does have its perks), none of it was a “real” vacation. Such is life - trust me, I’m not complaining or anything. It’s just what I do. No biggie.

But this time was different. I had a very busy year client-wise, and also managed to write a book and a half as well.  Know what? I’m tired. Just mentally wiped. So I shut down for two weeks plus. No books, no client stuff, no nothing. Just X-Mas, movies, X-Box, good meals, some working out at the gym, and learning to use this camera (not easy, but very interesting.) Basically, I posted here twice (including this one). Other than that, the closest thing to work is choosing the right camera bag (harder than it sounds )

Anyway, here’s a neat shot of a plastic snowman decoration in the front yard. This was taken about 20′ away with the 70-300mm zoom lens (I also have a 18-200mm VR I bought to use as a general walking around lens.) Of course, I hope to take some nice shots I can use in business and on the web, too (IRS, please take note of this obvious tax deduction.)

I like the colors in the pic, and the whole blurred background thing (called “Bokeh”). Yes, you pro’s out there are laughing, but this was taken in the first hour - gimme some time to learn the thing, ok?

Ok, have a nice (and safe) New Year, everyone.

I put (Classical Music) in the title to this, as home based business tips and the like will definitely be an ongoing thing here, and I should differentiate them.

Ok, today’s home business tip has to do with music (classical music, obviously).

About four or five years ago, I got an XM radio for my house. At first, being a fan of “classic rock” I tuned it to the “Deep Tracks” station, which played some of the more obscure and forgotten songs in rock. And while it was a good station (I still listen to it in my truck from time to time), I found it very hard to work to.

In fact, I found almost any music distracting.

This was odd to me, because in every job I ever had, I always had a radio going with no problem. Maybe on my own I care a lot more about the “work”? I don’t know, but I do know the radio was distracting. It made me a little sad, as I bought this XM radio (and prepaid a three year subscription) for work.

But this is XM (now Sirius/XM) - there are over 100 channels of music… there must be something that suits.

And there was - classical. Classical music fit perfectly into the background.

So I started having the classical channel on everyday… and you know what happened? My workday, in an overall sense, got a little better. Not like I’m singing from the rafters or anything (now there’s a site!), but yes, I noticed my overall mood and demeanor improved with classical music.

With that in mind, I experimented some - my setup is the XM receiver, hooked to a wireless speaker system. I have two speakers in my office, and I keep the volume at a nice “background” level. But I can add speakers to the wireless setup, so I bought two more, and put them upstairs… so essentially, we have classical music as a background to our home-life as well.

This will sound a little silly, but Maryellen and I both feel this enhances our lives. Again, I’m not talking profoundly, but it’s definitely noticeable. Bottom line: our lives are a little bit better better with classical music as a backing track to our day to day stuff. And it’s so non-intrusive that you can just leave it on if you are watching TV, talking on the phone, etc. 

Now, I want to stress that we’re not big fans or anything - I wouldn’t know Chopin’s Eternal Sonata #9 from “Chopin’s Afternoon Snack and Nap” . That’s somewhat the beauty of the satellite radio - you need not be a fan or anything. Just set it to the station and let it play.

I have found in the last year that I can change it up some - Jazz makes a pretty nice background too, and I actually prefer Jazz when I am writing books. But for day to day work (and life), it’s classical.

I heartily recommend it, both in buisness, and in life. It will make your life better - I promise you.

Obviously, due to my profession, I’m interested in the words people use. And this interest covers not just the written word, but the spoken word as well.

Plus, besides being a writer, I’m also very into personal success, self-improvement, business motivation, and that sort of thing. It’s evident in my business beliefs, practices, and even in my writing (a full third of Start and Run a Real Home Based Business was devoted to the business mindset.) In short, give me something by Tony Robbins (etc) and I eat it up.

So combining these two things (words, and personal development), I am of the definite opinion that the words you use to describe yourself and such play a huge role in how your life plays out.

Let me give you an example:

I was talking with someone (whom I’ll leave unidentified) the other day. He has a “professional trades” type business, and he’s marginally busy during the building season, and starves in the winter. Essentially, he barely eeeks out a living. Part of the reason he starves is because he does almost *nothing* to market himself, etc. He just doesn’t see the correlation between marketing and the phone ringing.    

But I think the larger reason he’s not successful is his overall self-image. Two things he said the other day really stand out in my mind in this regard.

The first thing he said was mentioned when we were talking about the economy. He said, in a somewhat disgusted manner, that “things are set up so the little guy can’t make it” (he was obviously referring to himself and others like him.)

This struck me as somewhat profound. Because personally, I would NEVER see myself as “a little guy” to be influenced by how “things are set up”. First of all, I’m not a “little guy” in any area of my life (so you “male enhancement” magic pill people can stop e-mailing me), but this goes double for how I see myself in a business / social standing sense. Not only am I relevant, I see myself as a shining star.

Whether my self-image view is shared by others is not important to me - I think I am, and I conduct myself and my business that way. And to me, it pays off.

The second thing my friend said was in response to my views on the middle class. Essentially, I feel the “huge” middle class in the US was artificially created by WW2, the GI Bill, the Baby Boom, and the fact that the US was the only real manufacturer left standing after the war (I’ll expand on this in another post in the upcoming weeks).

Basically, I said  that before WW2, people were (in general terms) either rich or poor, and it will be that way again. So my friend says “well, I know which side of that equation I’ll be on” (meaning poor).

Again, it interested me. He sees himself as being poor. Hence the self-fulfilling prophecy we learned in Psych 101 comes into play - he sees himself as being poor, so he will be (and is.)

I find this stuff fascinating, because the older I get, the more I see it come into play - people with healthy outlooks and positive self images typically do well in life. Those with poor images almost always do poorly.

So, how do you see yourself?

One thing I’ve learned over the years is people like things that are perceived as “easy”. They do not like “hard”.

This goes for almost anything - they shop at places with easy parking. They want an easy time finding things they want to buy. They want an easy time checking out. And they want an easy website - easy to navigate, easy to understand - just plain easy. They want to know right away what you offer, and where to go to get it. If you make it hard in any way, you will lose them.

Let me use two “offline” examples that demonstrate how people like easy (even if it’s actually harder in practice):

Example 1

For some reason, my wife (thankfully) likes really “cheap” jewelry. Show her a huge display of $20 silver earrings, and she’s in heaven.

My wife also has a thing for unpleasant, crowded little stores that sell this stuff. She LOVES these types of places. I have a thing for avoiding these places like the plague, so on our last shopping trip, I wandered around and people watched while she perused the jewelry counter… and I made an interesting observation. 

This store’s entrance had several doors - a row of “normal” doors that you had to open yourself, and one automatic door all the way to one side. Would you know that roughly 8 out of 10 people used the automatic door? Even people coming from the opposite side where the automatic door was would walk PAST the “normal” door and use the automatic door.  And these weren’t people with packages - they largely had two free hands which to open the door. But a huge majority would actually rather walk further than to open the door themselves.

I find that interesting.

Example 2

Later that same day, I went to McDonalds to pick up dinner, as Maryellen didn’t feel like cooking (yes, yes, I know… but have you TRIED their Angus Burger? I love a great cheeseburger, and let me tell you, this one is sublime.) Anyway, I never use the drive-thru at these places (in the immortal words of Joe Pesci ”They @#$% you at the drive thru”), so I parked my truck and went inside to get our food.

It was then I noticed something very odd - the drive thru had a line of about six cars. But the counter inside was completely empty. There was a little red car at position number six when I went inside (just one driver, no kids, etc). I came out with our food 5 minutes later - little red was now in position 3, next in line to order. I went in and completed my entire transaction, got my food, and this guy didn’t even order yet.

So it would seem that given the choice, most people would rather wait two to three times longer at the drive-thru than just walk inside. I find that odd, for sure, but it says something about how most people like “easy”.

Just remember this in your marketing and web design. If you make it “hard” (and hard can mean something as silly as a stupid flash “intro” page that plays music), you will lose a TON of business.

People like easy. Never forget that.

I mentioned in my post yesterday that many consultants feel every business should have a blog on their website. In fact, you probably won’t find many that disagree with that sentiment.

Well, you found one - I disagree. In fact, I think most business websites should NOT have a blog. 

Here’s why:

The basic premise of the thought “all websites should have a blog” is soft and pretentious. First of all, not every industry out there lends itself to ongoing written interaction with clients. I may be way off, but how much interactive discussion about brake line hoses could there possibly be? Apologies in advance to Captain BrakePad, the “wild and crazy maven of all things brakes”, but I’m not sure how interesting that blog would be.

Secondly, the thought that “every website should have a blog” assumes the website owners can write well. I dunno - I’m in the business of writing, and I can tell you, most people view writing as a serious chore, and thus, don’t really put the effort required into it (psst: that’s a nice way of saying most people don’t write very well… it’s ok, we all know it’s true. It’s the reason I can make a living at this.)

Lastly, a blog is a serious commitment. If you have a blog, and your last entry was two months ago, well, that hurts you a little - it essentially says “I do not care enough to keep this current” (of course, you may have a good reason, like that Dan Furman guy did when his new blog was being worked on. But at least he said so ). And if the last entry was six months ago?? That flat-out says “I’m lazy, and do not finish what I start”. Do you really want people thinking that?

Now that might be unfair of me, but it’s true - when I see “dated” things on a website, and the dates are old, that’s a problem.     

So three things need to be in place before you have a blog:

1. You have things to say.
2. You can say them in an interesting manner.
3. You will keep saying these things. Consistently.

If any of the three are missing, you’re probably better off not having a blog at all.