Greetings and Salutations!

The mess in my house finally made my head explode :). OK, not really, but it reached some sort of a tipping point. So I disconnected from my computer and sat down in the piles and started sorting. I do not exaggerate when I say that it was hard to walk through any room because of the piles of things. I sat down and made piles of things by where they should go, and labelled each pile. Bit by bit the rooms got cleaner!

It might seem like we can "live with the mess" - but our brain keeps being distracted by it. It's how brains are made. The more you can make your environment clear of mess, the better it is for your brain. I feel so much better now that my office is clear of a lot of that stuff.

I listed various items in the editor forums - from books to DVDs to other things - that I want to get out of the house. Please take a look and see if there's anything you want!

Also, please post in the barter forum if there are tasks you can do or if you're looking for work. Many editors are desperate for help with a variety of tasks - writing content, working with graphics, social networking and more. Please post if you're willing to help out and how much you'd charge. That way they know to contact you to discuss an arrangement.

Together we can all help each other thrive!

If you're facing a mess at home, take on just one tiny corner. I know messes can seem overwhelming. Mine certainly did. But if you start with just one corner, and work from there, it becomes much more manageable. And while I was digging through the mess I found a $50 barnes & noble card, two $50 restaurant cards, and much more. I found lots of books I'd reviewed which I can either sell on Amazon or paperbackbookswap.com to get books for Bob that he wants. So you never know what might be around the house that will be helpful to you.


TWITTER COOLNESS

One of the books I'm reading on social networking had an interesting idea. We all know about sending out tweets to entertain and inform your public. Things like questions, quotes, and conversations appeal greatly to the Twitterverse. But they suggested something even niftier.

Think about who your target audience is. Let's take my origami sales site for example. My target audience is people who will buy origami. But they're probably not out there posting "Oh I really need some #origami - where could I buy some?" - that would be too easy :) What they're probably posting is "My first anniversary is coming up - what should I buy?" And, as it turns out, the first anniversary is the paper anniversary. So **that** is my perfect target audience.

So what I do instead is watch for people who are posting about first anniversaries, and I follow them. They're intrigued and check me out, and maybe even follow me back. Now they know about me, and know I sell paper things, and voila!

The key with Twitter is NOT to market to them. Don't write them and say "Here are my cool origami items! You should take a look!" - people resist that strongly in twitter. Don't send them messages saying "Look at my cool origami videos!" That feels like a marketing message to them. Instead, Twitter is all about conversation and connections. Simply be their friend, and then talk about how much YOU like origami and ask people what their favorite shape or color is. Draw them into the conversation. It's about talking and connections.

My low carb site would be a little more straightforward. People who are doing low carb do in fact talk about "low carb" in their feeds". So absolutely I could search for people talking about "low carb" and follow them. And in my feed I aim for conversational. I talk about what I'm eating and ask what they are eating. I talk about my struggles if I eat something less than healthy. It's not a stream of "go read this article" or "go look at this link". It's about *them* which is what draws them in. And yes occasionally I add in a link, but that is not the focus.

Post in our social networking forum with your ideas for what to look for in twitter, to gain new readers. What words would be a great match for your site topic? You only have to do a few a day before it snowballs to have twitter followers the like even Jeanne hasn't seen :) LOL :)

(Jeanne, our resources manager, is the one with the phenomenal nearly 70,000 followers on Twitter - https://twitter.com/AfricanProverbs ) She is the Mistress of Twitter :)

As always, feel free to write me personally with questions. I highly encourage you to post in the social networking forum so we can all help each other with our ideas and brainstorming!


Lisa Shea, owner
BellaOnline.com

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