What's Twitter?

Twitter is one of the fastest growing FREE social networking and microblogging services on the internet

What's microblogging?

Micro-blogging is a form of multimedia blogging that allows users to send brief text updates similar to IM's.

Once you have created an account, Twitter allows you to answer the question, "What are you doing?"

You answer the question by entering a short text message (less than 140 characters in length) in a small text box. The messages are called "tweets".

The "tweets" allow for quick information sharing amongst your friends, followers, and business contacts. You can exchange informative "tweets" with people that you wouldn't normally exchange email or IM messages with. This opens up your circle of contacts to an ever-growing community of like-minded people such as home business builders or potential customers for your products.

Your "tweets" are displayed on your profile page. They are also posted on the home page of each of your followers and in the Twitter public timeline. (You have the option of disabling this feature in your account settings if you want to.)

Steps to Take to Get "Tweeting".

1. Set up an account at http://www.twitter.com

2. Type in linnymarie in "Find People" search box. Once my profile comes up, click on follow. That will allow you to start seeing my "tweets".

3. You can search for people you know by their first/last name as well.

4. You'll start building up a following once people see your profile online and you start following others.

5. To locate specific Twitter groups or categories, go to http://www.twellow.com and create an account with them.

6. Add yourself to specific categories such as: small business, health, family etc.

7. Check out some of the people who belong to the "niche groups" related to your home based business and start following them.

8. Soon you'll be giving and receiving "tweets" and starting to make some good quality contacts.

9. It's a another FREE way to network, so take advantage of it.

10. If you have any problems getting started, email, phone, or skype me at linnymarie

Would you be willing to spend a "one time" fee of ONLY $59 to help the needy and poor and along the way have a chance to earn a full time income without ever recruiting, selling, or dishing out monthly fees?

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Feeling a little stressed these days? If you're in learning mode for hours on end or panicking at the state of the economy, your apprehension and anxiety is probably weighing you down and negatively impacting the growth of your businesses. Carrying heavy emotional, mental, and financial burdens day after day will render you powerless in your home business building efforts until you take active measures to reduce the stress.

Here Are Six Tips in Coping with Home Business Burnout:

1. Exercise

Of course we all know that exercise is a stress reliever but I have a little secret for you... "You have to put it into practice!" Whether you walk, swim, jog, or skip, you'll feel energized and more mentally alert. Physical activity builds your body’s immune system which helps you ward off illness. Exercise flushes toxins via sweat glands and pours. It's a natural relaxant that will alleviate stress.

2. Time Out

It’s important that you find a passion, hobby, or interest to which you can dedicate a little down time. Choose something totally unrelated to your business or computer. While home business building may be your passion, you should search for a non income generating activity like gardening, scrap booking, home decorating, or woodworking. It will prove to be a healthy distraction if it's something quite different than what you normally spend time doing.

3. Meditate and Pray

Meditate on God's promises. I don't mean reading page after page of your Bible. I'm talking about picking out a scripture that promises God's protection and care. Spend at least 15 minutes a day and quietly think on and truly believe and accept what God says to you in the scripture verse. You'll be more "in the moment" and feel closer to Him.

Pray for others in the Holy Spirit's power. It's one of the best ways to feel energized and refreshed after you're done. Do something unconditionally loving for someone else each day whether it's a simple prayer, phone call, or smile. The positive feelings that come from helping someone else will change your gloomy mood and make you think more positive. Your outlook and ability to cope with your business burnout will be so much more improved.

4. Laugh

Laughter truly is the best medicine. Reflect on fun times you had in the past with family and friends. Challenge yourself to make someone laugh today. Start a joke collection or subscribe to "daily" jokes that will come to your email inbox each day and tell the joke to someone else. It's all about getting the focus off yourself.

...These should give you a chuckle or two.

Translation and Advertising Blunders

- Clairol introduced the "Mist Stick," (a curling iron), into Germany only to find out that "mist" is slang for manure. Not too many people had use for the "Manure Stick."

- The Dairy Association's huge success with the campaign "Got Milk?" prompted them to expand advertising to Mexico. It was soon brought to their attention the Spanish translation read "Are you lactating?"

- An American T-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market which promoted the Pope's visit. Instead of "I Saw the Pope" (el Papa), the shirts read "I Saw the Potato" (la papa).

- Pepsi's "Come Alive With the Pepsi Generation" translated into "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back From the Grave" in Chinese.

- Frank Perdue's chicken slogan, "It takes a strong man to make a tender chicken" was translated into Spanish as "It takes an aroused man to make a chicken affectionate."

- The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as "Kekoukela", meaning "Bite the wax tadpole" or "Female horse stuffed with wax", depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 characters to find a phonetic equivalent "kokou kole", translating into "happiness in the mouth."

- When Parker Pen marketed a ball-point pen in Mexico, its ads were supposed to have read, "It won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you." The company thought that the word "embarazar" (to impregnate) meant to embarrass, so the ad read: "It won't leak in your pocket and make you pregnant"

~Courtesy of ArcaMax Jokes~

- And on a more personal note...When I was dating my husband (who is French), I asked him what endearment he'd like me to use when I was sweat talking to him. I kinda liked "Honey" so I asked him what it meant in the French language. "Sticky"was his answer... so we had a laugh over that! lol

5. Write

Writing is a huge stress reliever. I believe that if God wrote to us in the Bible, then he surely expects and accepts our writing back to Him. Write down every single thing that is draining you, stressing you, or worrying you. Be very honest and tell Him how you are feeling about each concern. Now cross off all the things you cannot do anything about today and ask God to handle the "tomorrow" burdens.

Now prioritize the ones left and work on the most urgent one first and then the next urgent and so forth until all your "to do's for today are checked off. You will be much more productive and feel very good about what you've accomplished.

6. Sing and Count Your Blessings

The Bible commands us to sing and be thankful in Ephesians 5:19-20 "Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord."... "Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Forget about worldly love songs on the radio. The Bible is talking about singing your heart out to the Lord in "spiritual" songs lifting your heart up to Him. One of my favourite songs is, "Count Your Blessings"... name them one by one and it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Listen to good, clean, uplifting gospel songs on your CD or cassette player each time you feel like you're taking a "nose dive".

You'll never realistically eliminate stress from your life forever but there are definite ways to manage it. Whether you meditate, pray, exercise, or sing, you must take action to alleviate some of the stress you may be experiencing right now or you'll never climb out of business burnout mode. It takes discipline but it's worth it.