Are You Doing It Right? Or Just Doing It? Sickening Competitor Stuff and More!
Published: Sat, 03/17/18
Yesterday, we had a spa day for Scarlett's Spring Break treat. It was great. I plan to have more. It's not as scary as I thought it was initially. And I had this tiny little lady and I looked at her size versus mine and thought, "oh man, she won't make a dent in my muscles." I was wrong! She was small, but mighty. LOL! I felt great afterwards. I'm doing massage for physical pain relief and stress relief. (More about that at the end of this message).
#1 - Are You Doing It Right? Or Just Doing It?
If there's one thing MOST of us are guilty of, it's the fact that we shortcut whatever we can, whenever we can because who wants to do MORE tasks? I sure don't.
The problem with that is, sometimes taking time to ensure certain things, like quality writing or good SEO, will benefit you so much and if you shortcut it, it becomes a monster to try to remedy at a later date.
Y'all know through my teachings that I don't immerse myself in SEO tools. They drag you down. They are time sucks. BUT... there is some minimal stuff I like to do, and Jennifer Ledbetter (potpiegirl) released a blogger's short course to help you improve the ranking of your OLDER blog posts and help them get found for new keyword phrases.
I loved it.
I went through it this morning, and did each step. It didn't take much time at all, and I felt like my blog post I tried it on is SO much better now and will be found for so many other phrases.
When you get a course like this and learn the steps, this is the kind of thing you do over time. Like pick 1 blog post a day to freshen up with her SEO tips. Don't try to update every one of your 28 blogs and 1,500 posts in a day - it's not going to happen if you do it right.
I printed out her cheatsheet inside so I can tackle this. I know for a FACT I tend to write quality content and then ignore most SEO. But HER version of SEO is what I consider organic and quick, not cheesy tools that cost too much and bog you down and don't speak to the HUMAN factor involved in search engine optimization.
Now she titled this for Pinterest bloggers, but FORGET about the word Pinterest - the whole thing is about blogging, and if you happen to pin stuff, more power to you. It's for NON Pinterest bloggers, too.
It's on a weekend sale only:
https://jvz1.com/c/5810/295025
#2 - Sickening Competitor Stuff
Ugh. I want to just vomit on people like this. I got an email from one of you anonymously (thanks, btw) who informed me of a Secret group on FB where someone is paying people to disparage vendors to affiliates so that the affiliates will abandon the vendor they don't want to compete against.
So for instance, let's say I'm an affiliate for Casey Anders or Susie O'Dea or JR Lang. I promote one of them and somebody out there (who doesn't want competition) pays someone to buy through my link and email me with a complaint about Casey, Susie or JR's products. (I'm just using them as an example). I then get concerned about promoting that seller because I got a complaint. So I quit promoting their products.
Can you believe the scumbag tactics these people come up with?
WHY can't they spend more time coming up with quality stuff than just trying to falsely wreck other peoples' thriving businesses? It's so pathetic.
I'm glad I've been made aware of it. So draining. I hate the competitive launch crap going on - it's part of the reason I've decided to simply release new PLR on my store directly rather than have "launches" that I have to spend equal time fending off scumbags like this for it to succeed.
#3 - Health and Stress (personal so skip if it you don't care to know)
Well now might be a good time for me to get into the stress niche, because I'll be doing a TON of stress relief stuff.
I know many people only share work stuff. That's fine. But I share work AND life. Because all of you out there are humans, you have relationships, you have health issues - you're not sterile worker bees. And PART of this career, to me, is our whole life satisfaction - not just how much money came in that day.
For years y'all have heard me talk about how driven I was...am? I work 6 AM to 11 PM most days. I don't take bulk time off ever - I take a few minutes here and there. I work 7 days a week. I don't know how to relax, literally. I can't sit on my couch and watch TV without eyeballing my desk and thinking of tasks I need to do next.
Well that drive combined with 17 years of abuse has taken its toll. I started feeling like I was slowly being dragged down. I have constant pain (knee joint pain and inflammation in my legs - you can't see it, it just aches 24/7). I got weepy. I HATE being weepy. It pisses me off. I started seeing signs of my hairline thinning. ACK! Bad enough for men, but as a woman, I think it's even worse. I was doing the whole "fluff the bangs" out deal and noticed I started doing fewer videos. I gained weight. I had morning headaches. I felt lethargic...
BLECH!
It sounds like a myriad of random symptoms that could be related to a gazillion health issues, right?
So I went to a hormone doctor. I kept thinking the stress would eventually get under control. And if you saw me all day, you wouldn't even be able to tell I'm stressed. I laugh. I look relaxed. It's inside my head that the nervousness and stress resides from memories - and a lot has come up lately. Paying off marriage debt, replacing doors that had been kicked in when I was chased down, spring cleaning and discarding old journals filled with horror, and working on emotional eating issues that stemmed from those years felt like a tsunami of ick.
I just got my labs back - estradiol, DHEA-sulfate, AST (sgot) and progesterone are all low. Everything else is great! My cholesterol, triglycerides, thyroid T3 one) etc are all normal. Just not the hormones.
She also ran a cortisol (stress) saliva test - haven't gotten that back yet. But she told me the thinning hair, inflammation, etc are most likely ALL stress related.
So I'm fighting back. Aside from the medical treatment (bio identical), she has me on a much increased B12 vitamin, and a specific kind. She put me on a lower dose of D3. She wants me doing stress relief - so massages and ETT (not eFt but eTt - it's light box therapy for PTSD, so I use it to overcome the abuse memories) are what I'm doing. I'm working with a great intuitive eating coach in Washington via video. Technology is SO great! I can get help without even leaving my house.
All of THIS affects my business choices, too. I don't have it in me to get mired in poo and fight the scummy tactics of those guys in the second issue above. I don't feel like it. I want enjoyment. I want to focus on quality and helping people (makes me feel good). I want to cut back my work hours and I'm having to FORCE myself to sit there at 6 PM watching TV and reading and not working. It's HARD for me.
And I have to do it all hoping my income doesn't fall off into the abyss in the process. Because I've never NOT worked such long hours. It's what I do.
But it's the choice I'm making.
I think more people need to know that we're all going through stuff - behind the scenes - and sometimes yes, it's hard to run a business while dealing with chronic pain, abuse, whatever. We do it - but it's not easy.
Just know that if you're going through stuff, I'm here for you. Doesn't have to be about work. I know some of you have no one. Well now you do.
Just reach out if you need me.
Tiff ;)
P.S. Prefer a weekly digest?
http://www.tiffanylambert.com/weeklytiff.html