Cathy Stucker - The Idea Lady

Attract Customers and Make Yourself Famous

How to Make a Decision

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Do you struggle with making decisions? Many people do, and they rely on all kinds of tricks to come to what they hope will be the right choice. Some people talk to everyone they know to get their advice. Then they make lists of the pros and cons of each choice. They sleep on it. They stay up all night, unable to sleep. They change their minds a dozen times.

After all of that, they may choose not to make a decision at all—which effectively locks them into the status quo. Not making a decision is a decision, and it may well be the wrong one.

When you are faced with an important decision, the best choice is often to follow your heart. But what if you aren’t sure what your heart wants? Here is a simple, fast and easy way to choose:

Call heads or tails, then flip a coin. What?!? Trust a decision that could affect the rest of your life to the flip of a coin? Am I out of my mind? Not really. Here is the trick:
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Keep Your Blog Running Smoothly

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Image by Wikiuser100000 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
By Wikiuser100000 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Your car will run for a while if you don’t change the oil, never get a tune-up and ignore a glowing “check engine” light. But if you go too long without performing at least basic maintenance, your car will eventually stop performing and let you down. The same goes for your blog.

Much like a car, a blog is a complex system. To maintain it, you need to keep the software up to date, regularly add content, interact with your readers and more.

Here are some of the most important things you need to do to keep your blog running smoothly. [Read more…]

Use Google Analytics to Grow Your Business

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Do you know who visits your website and how they find you? If you aren’t monitoring your website traffic, you are missing out on information you need to grow your business.  There are tools and reports available, many of them free, which provide valuable insight as to who is visiting your website and why. Your webhosting company may have reports available, but I like to use Google Analytics.
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Marketing with Summer Holidays

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Looking for a fun way to generate some business this summer? Holidays and observances are a great way to tap into what is on your customers’ minds or just have an excuse for an event or promotion. Some holidays are well-known and widely observed while others are a bit more…quirky. Either way, they can provide great ideas for blog posts, product sales, customer events and more.

You don’t have to rely only on holidays in your own country. Why not recognize an international holiday or a day celebrated in a far-away country?

Here is a list of some of the holidays and observances that are in the summer months. While some of these may have already passed for this year, print this post out or bookmark it, so you can reference it and plan ahead for next year.
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How to Take Good Photos

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There are many sources, both free and paid, for images you can use on your website, in your ebooks and for other projects. However, sometimes to get the perfect picture there is no better option than doing it yourself.

Taking your own photographs allows you to get the exact angle, lighting and image that you’re looking for. Not only that, it eliminates any possibility that you will be sued for infringing on someone’s copyright with that image you grabbed from Google Images.

Think you don’t have the skill to take good photos? Here are a few tips to help you get the right shot.
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