The last couple years I have thrown New Year’s Resolutions out the window. Instead, I’ve been choosing a word(s) for the year thanks to this post I read a few years ago.

Some people have said only choose one word, a few others have said to choose up to three words but no more than that. I go with whatever pops out at me, tugs at my heart and just sort of ‘calls’ to me.

2014 Theme (Words)

Last year my three words were:

• Change
• Confidence
• Self-Love

They didn’t really have a lot to do with business but when those three things were focused on all year, I did a lot of growing (in my personal life) and when I went through all the changes I did, it was hard for that to not roll over into my biz life too. So in a way they did affect my biz life too – in a good way.

My 2015 Theme

I knew that I wanted to focus on a theme for this year too. I didn’t want to go back to resolutions that I never follow through on anyway. And I’m really happy with the way choose the theme (words) went last year. All in all it was a success – I’m pleased with the growth I made.

Anyways, this year I went through the same process. Looking at the list of words I went with the ones that ‘called out to me’ and I’m looking forward to seeing how these play out in my life.

• Adventure
• Choice
• Freedom

This is going to be a big year for me. Next month I hit the big 4-0! Yep, I’m turning 40…and I’ve heard that the 40s have been the best years of a lot of people’s lives so I’m excited to hit this milestone. And I’m looking forward to my theme (words) this year!

Happy 2015!

What about you – did you set a resolution or pick a word? I’d love to hear about it. Leave a comment below! 

 

Things that make you go hmm…

Still scratching my head after watching this one. First part was pretty boring but the last half of it, last fourth of it was what interested me and really got my attention.

Can’t say I ever thought I’d be saying jelly beans taught me something , but they did – check out this video:

So, what will you do with the time you have left? Leave a comment below – I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I find it ironic that the day I release my brand new report Aweber Basics: Setting Up A List (which is the first in a series of small reports I’ll be releasing all about basic Aweber stuff)  they are under a DDoS attack and have been down all day.  From what I have been able to find out on their status update page and on Twitter, it sounds like they had this same issue yesterday. Needless to say, there are a lot of unhappy customers right now – myself included. But unfortunately the reality of the matter is that there is nothing I can do about it other than patiently wait for them to get the site back up and running.

I was not aware of them being under the DDoS attack because I was able to access my account for a few minutes today – long enough to go in and send an email. Although I did notice my account was a little on the finicky side – slow to load, and a few other little glitches. But it worked and I was able to send an email.

I almost wish my account wouldn’t have worked so that I wouldn’t have sent an email only to have none of the links in it work and have several people on my list email me about it. That’s when I started researching and found out about the outage due to another DDoS attack similar to the one they had to deal with yesterday.  In my research of what was going on, I came across their status update page where they are consistently adding updates.  Unfortunately none of the updates are what thousands of customers are waiting to see – issue resolved.

Another issue the attack has been causing for some Aweber customers is that if they have opt-in pages on their websites, the sites are loading slowly. While I thank Aweber for letting us know about a way to fix it, I’m really disappointed they didn’t give further instructions on how to actually fix it! I tried doing what they said but it didn’t work, my site was still loading slowly.

See below – this is directly from the Aweber update page:

Update – If your website is loading slowly because of the JavaScript from your AWeber form, simply add the word “defer” to the script. This will resolve the site loading issue. Example: “…script defer type…”

So, there you go that’s what’s going on with Aweber if you’ve been wondering. It’s causing a bit of chaos across the internet but hopefully they’ll have things resolved quickly!

 

 

 

This post has been a long time coming. It’s been almost 3 full months now since I’ve moved into my new place. The reason I’m writing this is because I wouldn’t have been able to make this happen without the help of a lot internet marketers or the fact that I work from home and make a good income – working from home really does give you so many opportunities!

My Son Moved In With His Dad

Let me back up for a minute. A couple years ago my son made the decision he wanted to live with his dad full-time. I’ve always told him if he ever decided he wanted to do this I would support his decision and let him go…but honestly, I never thought he would make the decision. But he did and at the time when the move happened I was living 45 minutes away from his dad. In Northern Michigan, 45 minutes in the winter wasn’t an option for me (winters are really bad here and I don’t do well with winter driving – kind of ironic seems how I’ve lived here my entire life lol).

The Stinky Smokey Apartment

So, I made the decision to move to the town where my son was so I wasn’t so far away. It’s ‘easy’ to pack up and move when you work from home 🙂 While a one bedroom apartment wasn’t the greatest option because it meant no bedroom for my son, that was what worked for me at the time.  After almost two years of living in this apartment I couldn’t take it anymore. The person below me was a smoker. And the smoke came up through my vents and was so strong, it was like they were in my apartment smoking! (the picture above is me plugging my nose one day because it was so stinky) I was sick all the time and I know the second hand smoke played a huge role in that.  Plus, my son needed a bedroom so he could have his own space. I knew it was time to get out of there.

The end of December I started scouring the local papers plus Craigslist in search of the “perfect” new place. And I found it – a charming 3 bedroom, 1 1/2 bathrooms, full basement and view of the lake! The problem was coming up with a lot of money all at once (security deposit & first month’s rent). It was right after Christmas and a huge ($1,100.00) car repair bill. My savings account was pretty much depleted. So, I pushed it to the back of mind and didn’t think much more about it…until a week later when the landlord called and gave me the news that out of the other people that looked at it, he wanted me as a renter. I was stoked but the problem still was coming up with so much money all at once.

The Smoked Out Fire Sale

That’s where Kelly McCausey of Solo Smarts and so many other internet marketers came into play. Kelly came up with the idea of doing a fire sale which we called “I’ve Been Smoked Out Fire Sale” because I literally was being smoked out of my apartment! I only had a few short weeks to generate a lot of income and this was my first experience with a fire sale so I wasn’t sure how it was all going to play out. At first, I didn’t think many people would want to donate their products for the sale. I mean honestly, that’s asking a lot of someone – to just give their product away for free to be included in a sale where none of the money made goes to them!

But I was soon reminded of how generous, thoughtful, helpful and kind the internet marketing and work at home community is – I couldn’t believe all the people that were donating products! The package that came together to be sold for the sale was AMAZING! I don’t remember off the top of my head what the total price was if you had purchased the products individually, but it was a lot and this package was selling for only $14!  With such awesome products available and such a low price, people were picking it up left and right. I was amazed at how much money ended up coming in from the sale. It was enough to pay security deposit, first month’s rent and have a little left over!

Moving Into The New House!

And by the end of January I was moving into my adorable new house. The first weekend my son stayed with me he was pacing through the house and when I asked him what he was doing he said, “mom I just like having the space to walk around.” I guess I didn’t even realize how much the small space of the one bedroom apartment was getting to him.

I wake up every day and smile as I walk through the house. I love how bright it is with all the windows. I love the big deck (even though it’s been too cold to put it to use). I giggle sometimes when I get to choose from 2 bathrooms! I just got a washer and dryer (thanks to my mom & step dad) and no longer have to go to the laundromat – I now love doing laundry. My son has a bedroom and his own space. I have room for my son to have friends over. I don’t inhale second hand smoke every single day, all day long. I absolutely LOVE my house and am so blessed to be in it.

And all this couldn’t have happened without Kelly and the work at home community or the fact that working from home gives me the ability to have the income I need to afford the new place.

Video Tour Of The New House 🙂

And now, I invite you to take a video tour of the house you helped me get into! (The video doesn’t do the house justice – it’s so cute and perfect for my son and I and it’s hard to show all the space in a video. Not to mention the video quality isn’t the greatest!).   Here’s the video:

Tishia