Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about spam:

Spam is the use of electronic messaging systems (including most broadcast media, digital delivery systems) to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately. While the most widely recognized form of spam is e-mail spam, the term is applied to similar abuses in other media: instant messaging spam, Usenet newsgroup spam, Web search engine spam, spam in blogs, wiki spam, online classified ads spam, mobile phone messaging spam, Internet forum spam, junk fax transmissions, social networking spam, television advertising and file sharing network spam….

When I accept someone’s friend request it’s usually because we have several friends in common, they are a work at home mom or I ‘know’ them somehow via the online world. Of course there are those friend requests that I accept from people I used to go to school with, etc.

But let’s get back to the point of this post – Facebook spam.

As I already stated, I’ve been accepting lots of friend requests lately and just as quick as I’m accepting them I’m turning around having to ‘de-friend’ people because they send me SPAM!

Let me give you an F.Y.I people – just because someone accepts your friend request, it does NOT give you permission to email them along with 100 other people on Facebook pushing your product! If someone does NOT give you permission to contact them you are being spammy and that’s a big no no.

So I’ll continue to accept friend requests just as I’ll continue de-friending those that are pushing their products on me when I didn’t ask them to!

I perceive this as Facebook spam but maybe I’m wrong!

What do you think – am I over reacting or do you feel the same way about people contacting you via Facebook email when you didn’t give them permission to?

Unfortunately I’m just not going to be able to swing the finances to attend the upcoming workshop in August. And to be honest, I haven’t felt any peace about attending the upcoming workshop for several weeks now.

I’m hoping that I’ll be able to attend another one of David’s workshops in the future.

When it comes to blogging one thing I love is how different and unique everyone can be. There’s so many themes to choose from and you can tweak and modify them to fit your brand, business and even your personality.

Now, with that being said let me mention what I believe to be a couple blogging sins.

Sin #1 – black background with white text

I’m talking any type of dark background with light colored text not just black with white lettering. I can pretty much sum that up in one word – OUCH! Folks, that’s really hard on the eyes.

I was interested to see if this was just a personal preference of mine or if others felt the same way. I went to Facebook and asked.

Am I the only person that isn’t real fond of white lettering on black background for websites/blogs?

I had several people respond and ‘back up’ my theory on not liking it and thinking it’s a big no no! Here’s a screen capture of my Facebook profile with comments from others. (It’s kind of hard to see but if you click on it, it will open in a new window and you can see it better)

Sin #2 – too many categories

Ok I don’t have any ‘evidence’ (a.k.a facebook poll) to back me up on this one. But after a lengthy conversation with a very smart and savvy internet marketing mom I realized the truth behind too many categories!

Think about it, often times when you go to someone’s blog and see a whole right (or left) sidebar full of categories have you ever clicked on a couple different ones and found the same posts in different categories?

Instead of using a gazillion different categories why not use less and create tags to make ’sub-categories’?  Now, obviously you’ll have to be careful if you go the tags route because other wise you’ll find yourself in the same boat – a gazillion different tags.

I plan on doing a quick Facebook poll to see what others think about this and will post results in a future post.

I know there’s more blogging sins out there so come on share with me what you see people doing that they shouldn’t be doing!

You’re probably thinking Tishia, who cares! Or maybe you’re just simply wondering why I’m sharing this on my business site. There’s a reason. I promise

After reading all that you probably think my desk and work area are neat as can be. Right?

Wrong! I’m embarrassed to admit it but quite the contrary actually. Just last Monday a client and I were having our weekly meeting and we ended up giggling about the fact that she couldn’t find the note she had wrote (about things she wanted to discuss during our phone call) because her desk was such a mess.

There I was sitting and giggling about it while at the same exact time I couldn’t find something I had wrote on a sticky note for that same reason as her – my desk was a mess!

Take a look at my messy work area

If you look closely you can see books piled up on the right, a stack of mail in front of my keyboard next to Seth Godin’s book The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick) (great read by the way!). Just all sorts of messiness in every little crook and nanny. Not exactly the greatest way to try and work.

I couldn’t stand it any longer and figured if I’m showing you a messy desk picture then by goly I better just clean things up so I could show a picture of a clean work area!

Clean Desk

I still need to do something with the sticky notes all over everywhere cause those drive me nuts every day! The polka dot folder holder thing on the top of my desk has been sitting in it’s package in my closet for months now – ever since I saw it at the Dollar Store and picked it up because I just knew that for a buck one day I would find some way to use it!

What about you – is your work area clean and neat or dirty and messy? Leave your comments below I would love to hear about your work area.

I made a decision while at NAMS 3 that I would attend every NAMS event from then on because it was good for my business – not just the networking with other business owners and getting to meet so many people that I’ve known online but because of all the information I learned from the great lineup of awesome, knowledgeable, informative speakers (like Bob Jenkins – that’s a pic of me with him above) that David always seems to have. And I also made the decision because with the information I learned during the 3 day workshop I also made several affiliate sales – the first time doing that and it was so exciting!

The problem with that decision?

If you’ve ever attended a live event you know the cost involved. There’s the price you pay for the event itself, travel costs, hotel costs, food costs and any other expenses you may incur while there. I sat down and figured out the amount that I’ll need to cover everything and it’s $600.00. As a single mom let me just say that I don’t have that kind of money just ‘laying around’.

In January I ran a NAMS special on my VA services and it was a huge hit. The only problem was that I didn’t decide to offer the special until about one week before I left for the event. While I only took on 4 clients for the special that was still a lot of work to try to fit into one week. Last years special was 5 hours of my time for $100.00 – a savings of $25.00.

This time around I decided to offer the special again but to do things differently.

1. Offer the special several weeks in advance
2. Offer more hours as a few of the special takers last year asked for more time

My NAMS 4 special:

• 10 hours of VA time for $150.00 (that’s a discount of $50.00!)
  

What are the benefits to you of this offer?

1. Because it’s 10 hours which is classified as a retainer package you have 30 days to use the time up
2. Because it’s a retainer package your work will have priority over any other projects

I will once again only take on 4 clients so you’ll have to act fast to take me up on this special offer! Be sure to purchase now and secure one of those four spots and help send me to NAMS 4

I have been a member of Mom Masterminds since I first started my business back in 2006 and I can’t even begin to express what it has done for me. I’ve created friendships, business relationships and learned so many things from being a part of Mom Masterminds!

Recently I learned some very heartbreaking news – Melissa Ingold (you might know her as Internet Marketing Sweetie) lost her little boy in his sleep. The pain her and her family must be going through is something that no parent should ever have to go through. The work at home community pulled together to help Kelly McCausey with a fundraiser she was doing to help Melissa’s family cover the astronomical costs of the funeral. That’s how the awesome crazy deal of being able to join Mom Masterminds for only $100 came about.

The fundraiser is officially over because the community raised enough to cover the cost Melissa’s family needed but Kelly McCausey has kept the special price of being able to join Mom Masterminds for just $100.00 open through today July 15th. Starting tomorrow July 16th the price goes upt o $250.00.

Hurry! Join Mom Masterminds now for just $100.00

I love Canada and wish we could have stayed longer but I’m blessed to be able to have said that we spent 1 1/2 days up there. I love the in person experience. It’s so different than just connecting with them all online. There’s always so many laughs, lots of food but most of all the love the business conversation that always comes up

Here’s a dorky little video of our road trip:

Now I’m looking forward to our next road trip -- NAMS 4 in Atlanta, Georgia in August!

This summer I decided I was going to devote a couple hours a week to learning opportunities and not let myself ’slack’ in the gaining new knowledge department.

So if you’re looking for some summer biz learning opportunities here are a few things you should check out:

• Crissy Herron of Indie Biz Chicks Summer Biz Sessions – These sessions have already started but it’s NOT too late to join Crissy and a guest expert on Tuesday nights at 9pm EST!
• Kelly McCausey’s Hot Seminar Series kicks off this Wednesday night (June 16th) at 9pm EST. This summer it’s all about Wordpress blogging.

Both of these are great business learning opportunities for the summer!

So the last post I wrote was back in May (on the 20th to be exact!) and it was titled Will I Win? That post was in regards to waiting to find out if on the 21st of May at the OIVAC (Online International Virtual Assistants Convention) who was going to announced the 2010 Janet Jordan Virtual Assistant Achievement Award Winner.

Quite a bit of time has passed since Friday May 21st when they announced that I was the winner of the 2010 Janet Jordan Virtual Assistant Achievement Award.

It was pretty surreal, and to actually stop and think about it, it still seems surreal to me. Never in a million years did I ever think that I would be chosen as an award nominee let alone chosen as the winner! It’s a huge honor and one that I won’t take lightly or ever forget!

It’s free to attend this portion of the conference & they will be giving out door prizes too!

Would you please join me and we can find out together if I’m this year’s winner of the award!

To get to the conference room:

• Follow the link above (please join me)
• Click on the welcome mat
• Click on big red button on right that says seminar schedule
• Scroll all the way down to the middle of the page where it shows 5:15 (under Friday) and you’ll see the link to the conference room. You’ll enter your name but no password is required for this portion of the conference