CW will be turning 8 very early next month.

I thought about this for awhile last night — and realized that he is old enough to learn how to play card games, like Uno, Skip-Bo, Spades… Well, we’lll settle for Uno and Skip-Bo for now.

So, after frantically searching the house, we found a deck of Uno cards (two, actually) and started playing. He caught on pretty quickly, but I still won.

That was last night.

He soundly roasted me tonight — 178 to 128. Ouch.

You know I’m proud.

Here he is, peering over his hand of cards…

Popularity: 58% [?]

I just had a potential client unsubscribe from my Presenting Your Products ecourse. Now, when you unsubscribe from my lists (which you can do using the link at the bottom of every list email I send out), you have the opportunity to give a reason.

This is the reason given by the person who unsubscribed:

I already get enough spam

Now, I know (and if you have a new mailing list, you need to learn) that the more people who subscribe to your list, the more unsubscribes you will have, even if you have an awesome list.

Now, before we get into a discussion of spam, I’d like to say that I send out exactly five messages on my PYP list — one each day. If the potential customer hasn’t purchased my product after that, I assume they aren’t interested and so I don’t send out anything else.

Additionally, my list requires that not only do you enter your name and email address in my website form, you must also click the verification link in the confirmation email that I send you — all before I ever send you the first issue of the ecourse.

So, this person who signed up obviously went to my site, was interested enough in my product to subscribe and confirm the subscription. Now, apparently she (I’m assuming she) had decided she no longer wishes to receive the emails.

The question is: Does this make the emails spam?

According to Spamhaus:

Spam is unsoliced bulk email.

“Unsolicited means that the recipient has not granted verifiable permission for the message to be sent. Bulk means that the message is sent as part of a larger collection of messages, all having substantively identical content,” according to Spamhaus.

The message must be unsolicited AND bulk. As Spamhaus points out, spam is about consent, not content.

So, the question remains: Is the email I sent out (or any email you send out to customers or potential customers) spam?

1. If the email is sent as part of a mailing list to recipients who have requested via verified opt-in to receive the message, it is not spam.

2 And if you have an existing business relationship with the email recipient, then the email is not spam.

According to the Federal Trade Commission:

A “transactional or relationship message” – email that facilitates an agreed-upon transaction or updates a customer in an existing business relationship – may not contain false or misleading routing information, but otherwise is exempt from most provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act.

So, in a nutshell, any email that I send to a verified subscriber of my mailing list, as long as it’s not misleading and meets the FTC guidlines (which they do) is NOT spam. Even if you don’t want it. And if that’s the case, just unsubscribe and delete the existing emails. But please don’t falsely accuse me of spam.

Now, for those of you who are considering setting up a mailing list, don’t let this scare you.

I recommend you use a professional service such as Aweber, which will help you setup your mailing list so that it follows the law, including putting in the unsubscribe link automatically, adding your address to the email and requiring double, or verified, option.

And if someone unsubscribes, claiming that you’re spamming them, you can rest assured that you’ve simply met someone who really has no idea what spam is. Just hope she doesn’t think that hitting the spam button in yahoo is the same as deleting email. Cause you know, if you don’t want the email, it must be spam. Right?

Popularity: 61% [?]

I have a confession to make.

I used to write really bad poetry in junior high and high school.

Now, don’t try to hide it — you have too, right? Right?

Furthermore, I am going to be a little nutty tonight and post some of mine. You’re welcome to share if you’d like.

Now, before I get started, I’d like to say that I’d love to write more poetry, but it seems that two rambunctious children, a successful business, two dogs and a cat have stifled my poetic creativity.

But perhaps that’s not such a bad thing after all. You be the judge. LOL!

Math… By Michelle Waters (Well, that’s who I am now…)

Some call math ridiculous;
I consider it rather hideous.
Through #, letter and hypotenuse/legs;
My mind must muddle through the dregs.

January 1989

Yes, I was sitting in math class writing this. Perhaps that would explain my mathematical ineptitude. *snicker*

Popularity: 50% [?]

Many people wonder if they are required to report the profits they earn online.  The short answer is “yes”.

If you do business online, whether it’s selling on eBay, affiliate marketing, selling a service, or direct selling, it’s taxable income.  This is true even if you think you just have a hobby.  

Generally, any income you receive from all sources is subject to U.S. income tax unless it is specifically exempt by law (hint: online profits are not exempt by law).  That means that a lot of activities that you might not think of as taxable, such as garage sale income, gambling winnings, and online businesses are taxable.

You must file a tax return if your net earnings from self employment are $400 or more.  You are self employed if you carry on a trade or business for profit.  If you are selling on eBay with the intent of making a profit, then you are self employed.

To report your earnings, you should file Form 1040, and attach Schedule C or C-EZ.  Schedule C is used to calculate your net profit or loss from your business, which is then reported on your Form 1040.

At this point, you may be thinking “I don’t run a business; I just have a hobby”.  Unfortunately, income from hobbies is taxable as well.  Even worse, you can only deduct expenses up to your hobby income, which means losses are not deductible. 

There are several tax advantages to doing business online.  Personal expenses, such as the use of your car, home or computer may become partially deductible, retirement savings plans can shelter part of your eBay income from taxes, and you may be able to hire your family to help shift income to members in a lower tax bracket.  So even if you only earn a little money online, not only are you required to report your earnings, it may even help you reduce your income taxes by taking advantage of tax opportunities available only to small business owners.

Finally, there is a common misconception that if you did not receive a 1099 or W-2, you are not required to report your income.  This is not true.  All income is reportable, regardless of whether you receive a form or not. 

To learn more about how your online income is taxable, and what expenses you can deduct, please check out for the “Your Top Tax Questions Answered” teleseminar and ebook.

Popularity: 71% [?]

I did a podcast episode in May 2007 about owning a domain name in which I mentioned that you should make sure that your domain name is in your name. My goal was to help you make sure that someone else does not have control of your domain name — which means that they ultimately have control of your website as well.

A recent post at Mom Masterminds though reminded me that there are several other ways in which dishonest or greedy web designers and hosts might hold your website hostage.

Apparently, some web designers want to ensure that you can’t go elsewhere for any of your web services, so they use tactics in their contracts that give them control of your website, that someone who is brand new to the Internet and web design would never spot. Other designers and host are ignorant of proper procedures themselves and end up doing things to your site that can jeopardize your business.

Here are some things to look out for:

1. Make sure your domain is registered in your name. Do not allow your designer or host to register the site in their name. If the host or or designer disappears or decides to hold your domain hostage, you may not have any recourse.
2. If you want your domain registration information private (as in, your name and address aren’t listed in the WHOIS registry), don’t post bogus information in the contact fields of your domain name. This is against ICANN regulations and could result in having your domain name revoked. Make sure you use a domain privacy service to mask your information, instead. These services can be purchased for a small additional fee at your registrar.
3. Make sure you have all usernames and passwords needed to login to your website. I am amazed every time a client comes to me and has no idea how to access their website — and apparently never received the login information. If the host or designer decides to without that information, you’re out of luck.
4. Always make sure you can backup your website via a web-based control panel and download the backup to your computer. Even if you have the best web host and designer in the world, servers have been known to crash — and you don’t want your site to go with it.
5. Consider whether or not it is worthwhile to pay more to be able to take your website with you. Some companies provide content management or ecommerce systems that can only be hosted with them. If you decide to move elsewhere, you’ll need to rebuild your site. (Of course, if you’re not wanting to use their software any more, you’d need to rebuild anyway.) At the very least, make sure you’ll be able to download all of your files for safe keeping and that you keep copies of your textual content in files on your computer.
6. Be very careful when telling your current web host that you’re moving elsewhere. I recommend doing this in writing and giving the host a specific date on which you’ll have all of your stuff removed. Some hosts take cancellations personally and respond in a none-to-pleasant manner, by cancelling your website immediately. Always make sure you have your site backed up and downloaded, at least, before you cancel. Even better, make sure your new site is ready to go and your domain name has been pointed at the new server before you cancel.
7. Review your contract to see what copyright provisions have been made. Are you the owner of your graphics and site design, or have you just been given the right to use them?

I strongly recommend you closely review any contract you sign or TOS that you agree to, to ensure that you are not giving up the rights to your website. Also, make sure you closely read the payment requirements in the terms of service, and closely follow the company’s payment rules.

This will ensure that your site is in your control, not someone else’s.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Popularity: 59% [?]

One of my clients asked if she should purchase a directory submitter, which is software that will submit her site link to hundreds of online directories. Some submitters even claim to submit to thousands of directories.

Claims like this are dubious at best.

So, before you drop any money or time on software that claims to handle your directory submissions for you, you need to ask yourself these questions:

Which directories is this software submitting to? If you can’t find that answer, then you need to run far, far away from it. You can have thousands of backlinks from thousands of directories, but if they are low quality sites — they are worthless.

Do the members of my target market use this directory? If you’re a jewelry seller and you want to submit your site to dozens of popular jewelry directories, you’ll get the SEO benefits AND the traffic sent your way by the directory itself. But if you’re submitting your site to thousands of unknown directories that no one, much less your target market, uses, you’re wasting your time.

Will submitting my site to this directory have any benefit at all? Submitting to an obscure directory is not going to help you. If your target market uses it and you will get traffic from it directly, then it is worth it. One of my clients has listed her site in a directory of natural products and she receives hundreds of visitors per month from it. Definitely worth the submission!

However, if the directory isn’t going to send anyone your way, you’re better off, in my opinion writing articles and submitting them to niche and popular article directories, like Lady Pens. Not only will people go to your site from the article directory, website owners will reprint your article, sending their website traffic to you. Mutually beneficial!

Not sure how article marketing works? Take a peek at Easy Article Marketing.

Note: Am I saying that you shouldn’t submit your site to directories? No! I’m just saying that you should be very careful where you submit. Finding the specific directories that your target market uses to find your products is an excellent idea. Submitting blindly to thousands of directories? Not so much.

Popularity: 87% [?]