Sport Science Wellness

How To Manage Time Off for the Holidays when you are Self-Employed

'Tis the season to be jolly…and busy! Here are six tips to help you enjoy the holidays. 

work at home

The holiday season is here – and hopefully, amid the big dinners, shopping, decorating and parties, is, somewhere in there, a break. But taking some time off is a bit different when you are self-employed. For one, there's often no one to pick up the slack when you take a vacation, and you probably have to plan ahead so there's no slack in the budget either.

Keep Family in the Loop

Before you plan your time off for the holidays, chat with your family. What days will your spouse have off from work? Does little Johnny's Christmas play fall during the hours you would normally be working? Will you go on any special family outings, perhaps to pick out the Christmas tree or visit Santa? Knowing all your families activities ahead of time will help you plan how much time you'll need off, and when.

Stay Organized

Organization is an essential quality for a work-at-home-mom, and it certainly comes in handy when you are preparing for time off. Create task lists that outline what you need to accomplish both before and after your break. Block out time on a calendar so you know what you need to be working on and when. Find a system that works best for you – just remember to stay organized.

Notify Consistent Clients

You probably don't need to notify clients when you are taking a national holiday off – but if you plan on taking the whole week off or a few extra days, be sure to let your consistent clients know ahead of time so you can make sure you'll both be prepared.

Set Up an Automated Email and Phone Message Response

Whenever you take a vacation, it's a good idea to set up an away message in your email so no one gets upset when you don't respond right away. And if you use a phone for business calls, change your voicemail as well if you don't plan on picking up for business calls during your time off.

Arrange Extra Work Time Before and After

Depending on the type of work you do, you may need to make up for the time you take off. Plan extra slots of time both before and after the holidays. Schedule when you'll take care of the extra work, so you're not stressing about when everything will be done. Ask for help with the kids and housework if you need.

Embrace Technology

Thanks to technology, there are a few ways to be present without actually being present. Schedule social media posts during your time off – try a social media management system such as Hootsuite if you haven't already. The scheduling feature makes it easy to ensure there isn't a big lapse in posts while you're away. If you use a blog to promote your business, most platforms will allow you to schedule entire posts as well.

Holidays should be spent enjoying time with family – not worrying about work. With some organization and planning ahead, you can take some time off without a drastic impact on your business. Chances are, you started working from home so you could spend more time with your family – don't let your work interfere with enjoying the season with your loved ones.

If you believe that my message is worth spreading, please use the share buttons if they are visible on this page.

Stephen Hodgkiss
Chief Engineer at MarketHive
markethive.com

The info shared here has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnose, cure or treat any illness or disease.

Sport Science Wellness

Video Marketing Tips, Trends, Strategy & Best Practices

Content Samurai is a tool that instantly generates hundreds of content related pages and thousands of relevant targeted in bound links. This utility also creates effortless high rankings with just four clicks of your mouse. Content Samurai allows you to quickly and easily dominate the search engines by giving you exactly what you are looking for – high quality content and targeted links.

Crank Out Traffic-Pumping Videos On-Demand!

Have you been struggling to get Google rankings lately?

What Is Content Samurai Software All About?

Content Samurai is a video creation software that allows you to create engaging videos within a few clicks of the mouse.

The software comes loaded with features designed to make the entire recording process as simple as possible, without dealing with Photoshop, crazy codecs or any of that video jargon.

How Does It Work?

Content Samurai can create videos from your content and scripts and it does it with a 5 step process.

Here's the steps to creating your very first video within minutes

Step 1 : Scripts – Paste in your content into the software starting with the headline then following with the content. The best part is that you can use pretty much ANY kind of content you want including articles, blog posts, advertisements, and sales letters.

Step 2 : Slides – The software will analyze your content and automatically break it up into bite sized chunks with visuals to make it pop. You can change the look and feel by adding images from the millions of stock photos included, or choose one of your own photos.

Step 3 : Audio – Next is recording your audio, and this is where Content Samurai really shines. The software breaks software into easily recordable chunks. Simply hit record and record each part of your content section by section. Adding music is a great way to spice up your video and you can choose from the audio pre-loaded into the software.

Step 4 : Preview – Now, hit the play button to preview your masterpiece. You can make changes and adjust where each slide starts and ends to perfect your video.

Step 5 : Download – Click the download button and now you're ready to upload your content on all of the top websites on the planet including Youtube, Facebook, Vimeo, and the list goes on and on. Start driving MORE traffic from the content you already created once.

If you believe that my message is worth spreading, please use the share buttons if they are visible on this page.

Stephen Hodgkiss
Chief Engineer at MarketHive
markethive.com

The info shared here has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnose, cure or treat any illness or disease.

Sport Science Wellness

It has been a long road for Markethive .. what is next?

The road has been long, with many obstacles. It has been an emotional journey for many of us involved in Markethive. After becoming involved with Veretekk about 4-5 years ago, I knew that the concept and vision of Markethive was a sure fired winner.

There is no argument that it has taken time and had various delays brought on by certain things that I will not go into now .. why? … because I need to concentrate my energy into building Markethive and not worry about the issues. 

Until just 3 months ago, I was just one of the Founders of Markethive, having invested hard cash into its conception and my own time being a pro-active member. I then took on the role of Chief Engineer, to see Markethive not just to its completion, but to make sure that the systems are built on sound foundations. Many issues have been fixed during these 3 months, many enhancements have been made and I am very close to moving the whole system that is running on servers hosted by one company to Amazon Web Services. The latter is a huge task, mainly due to the way it was configured and how the code was written. For example there are 4000 files containing code, which equates to around 2 million lines of code.

I have recruited server admins, PHP coders etc… only to waste time with them and for them to disappear. Frustrating to say the least, but this is the process we must go through. To sift through the dirt and dust to find the nuggets of gold .. which I am sure I will.

What's next?

The next big enhancement will be the Affiliate Programme. This will be a game changer … now how many times have i heard those claims from companies? .. well I can tell you .. far too many. We are different in so many ways, mainly due to the people involved and their passion .. in helping the little guy and gal to succeed and prosper… not just financially but also as a person.

Well I am working on a new way of sharing blog posts (along with RSS Cocktails of blog posts) with members Social Media accounts. Once configured within Markethive, blog posts will seamlessly be shared across their networks, creating far more exposure than ever seen.

I am also working on a Newsletter Subscription system. We know that every blog needs to deliver its message to subscribers. That's why I am creating HivesFeed RSS-to-Email (and eventually integrated with the above enhancement), the reliable solution for bloggers with BIG ambitions.

There are two important things all bloggers need to do…

1. Write great content.
2. Share that content.

HivesFeed helps you to share your content easily, effortlessly and continuously.

We take your RSS feed and enable its distribution.

So there you have it .. that is my own perspective on what we have to look forward to. Here's to a great a future.

If you believe that my message is worth spreading, please use the share buttons if they are visible on this page.

Stephen Hodgkiss
Chief Engineer at MarketHive
markethive.com

The info shared here has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnose, cure or treat any illness or disease.

Sport Science Wellness

Holiday Immune Support

The fall is here and the winter flu season is almost among us. I honestly believe that in some cases after a busy summer the fall season is primed to take advantaged of people weakend immune system. So many people are wearing themselves down from taking their kids to sporting events, baseball practices, grocery shopping right from work without a break. Many people understand that when they get physically and or emotionally tired, they just put stress and tension on their body. Sometimes all of the running around and or even attending these games in the hot sun can cause us to loose nutrients, causing us a little dehydration too.

Even though this stress is something that we can feel what we may not know is how much that this stress may have impared our immune system. Also dehydration is also a quick way to impair our immune system too. While many of us can feel the signs of dehydration, many times we replenish our sweat loss with not enough of the sweated out nutrients. Many people don't know the importance, relevance of these essential nutrients and the role they play in supporting a healthy immune system. So what are the essential nutrients (91 to be exact) that many ND's, Chiropratic and other doctors are telling us about you may ask. That's a different topic and conversation for another time, but if you just need to know now – Click Here .

Now comes many professionals favorite time of the year. This is the time of the year when issues such as post nasual drip, coughing, wheezing, sneezing and other issues can lead to other issues if gone without some type of managing, treatment and or support. For the most part over the years we are taught to manage our improperly functioning immune system with drugs. Many of us know that the fall season (or change of seasons) can be the start of allergies while many of us hear about the flu season around winter time. Why people choose to manage thier health with drugs is a choice. I personally would rather support my health with the natural  medicine that God has placed and also embedded in this earth.

I think even Benjamin Franklin (whom I've never met) was onto something when he quoted "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." (whatever that means). We all know what the word prevention means but don't know how to apply that word towards our health.  I really believe that prevention is key in some of the health challenges that we face today. You may be surprised in how a little healthy prevention might be able to save us so much in the long run for sure. Doctors tell us all the time things like "eat the foods from the main four foods groups, get plenty of sunshine, get your exercise, drink plenty of water, get proper rest and so on. One thing for sure is that doctors know if you don't do these basic things that you may run risk of seeing them back in their office again.

We stress our immune system in so many ways such as (but not limited to) physical and mental rundown, improper nutrient intake, germs we breathe  and touch to the point that it weakens our immune system, we then get sick, spend co-pays at the doctor to take the meds all in hope of getting better quicker. Actually I think many of us are doing this "Getting Better" stuff backwards. I wonder what would happen if we started out getting the right amount of sleep, exercise, sunshine, water along with the correct nutrients from the right foods? As we know not every food item is 100% completely healthy for us at our supermarket. many of these foods are missing vitamins and minerals while they add on the chemicals, preservatives and who knows what else. People who also supplement diet with the correct 91 essential nutrients are having some unbelievable healthy living testimonies everyday.

Not saying that some of the items below are going cure or treat any health conditions but these items can help support your immune system. Theres never a good time to feel unhealthy under the weather, especially during the holiday season. These are some of my favorites below:

1.    Zradical
2.    FucoidZ 
3.    Immune Support Pak
4.    Supralife D-Stress
5.    Flu Buster 
6.    RVB300
7.    BREATHEese
8.    Y-23 Immune
9.    Bio Immune

Let us all try to strengthen and support our immune system for the holidays this year. Start with a little immune preventative measure. Save time, save money and stay healthy and have a happy and healthy holiday season this year

Bruce Jacobs

www.im90ForLife.org

 

 

The info shared here has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnose, cure or treat any illness or disease.

Sport Science Wellness

Email Abuse and how to be blacklisted

Just a bit of advice to readers here. In the old days, it was a clever trick to set up an auto-responder trying to push an "opportunity" on your email address account. These are also referred to as "out of office replies". Do not confuse what I am referring to here with real auto-responders, when someone has actually signed-up to receive information from them.

This is not liked by most ESP's (Email Service Providers).  Times have changed. Now it is just seen as abuse and will not do any good for your on-line reputation.

This will get your email address blacklisted at Amazon who we at Markethive use as our Email Provider and because we have to follow by strict rules and procedures, we then put your email address in our own blacklist, so no further correspondence is sent to it.

So, be sensible .. remove those pesky blighters from your account settings and add a personal touch when contacting prospective clients or customers.

If you believe that my message is worth spreading, please use the share buttons if they are visible on this page.

Stephen Hodgkiss
Chief Engineer at MarketHive
markethive.com

The info shared here has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnose, cure or treat any illness or disease.

Sport Science Wellness

Five Ways to Wow Your Clients Every Time

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When it comes to dealing with customers, keep these things in mind for repeat business: stay in touch, ask questions, choose "can do" terminology, deliver the goods, and follow up. We share the details of the how and why below.

Freelancers, whether they're working as virtual assistants, writers, or transcribers for local law offices, are under constant pressure to please clients each and every time.

You know all too well how hungry the competition is. It’s one of the reasons you always try to go above and beyond with each client. The good news is that there are five ways you can wow your clients every time so they’ll never need to consider anyone but you.

Stay in Touch

You’d be surprised by just how much this means to clients. Not to mention how few competitors take this advice to heart. It’s easy to lose touch over the duration of long projects. A simple email note about the status of the project goes a long way towards helping your clients feel appreciated and preventing them from worrying about whether you’ll be able to deliver on time.

Ask Questions

More importantly, listen to the answers and use them in your work. Clients love it when you give them exactly what they want. Sometimes, that requires asking questions, refining, and narrowing.

Choose “Can Do” Terminology

When working with clients, there are many times when it’s not what you say that makes the difference, but how you say it. Learning to communicate effectively is a must when dealing with clients. However, learning to effectively communicate positively adds that extra little wow factor that keeps clients coming back for more. For instance, instead of telling your client that you can’t have a project finished until after 3 p.m. on Friday, try telling your clients that "I can have that project finished by 3 p.m. on Friday. Does that work for you?” That subtle change has a significant impact on the way clients view you. When you use words like can’t, they view you as someone who can’t get things done. When you change them to can, they see you as someone with a can-do attitude who will make things happen.

Deliver the Goods

In many cases, this is all it takes. However, you don’t want to merely deliver what the client asked for. You want to exceed your client’s expectations and you want to make sure that the client leaves the transaction believing he got more than his money’s worth.

Follow Up

The fortune is in the follow-up. You’ll hear this in almost any business you enter into. It’s not the one-time sell that becomes your bread and butter. It’s the people who keep coming back, month after month, to make use of the services you provide or the goods you sell. Follow up.

Make sure they’re happy with the product, service, etc. and double-check to ensure nothing is wrong, missing, or lost in translation. Then, ask if they need other products or services you offer and invite them to call on you again. This gives them the perfect opportunity to hire you again.

You don’t have to move mountains, make hard sells, or walk on burning coals to make customers happy. These five steps are relatively simple and yet they deliver happy customers time and time again. Try them out and see what a difference they make for your business.

If you believe that my message is worth spreading, please use the share buttons if they show at the top of the page.

Stephen Hodgkiss
Chief Engineer at MarketHive
markethive.com

The info shared here has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnose, cure or treat any illness or disease.

Sport Science Wellness

Coming up With a Niche for a Blog

In a sea of endless posts, how will you differentiate yourself? Keep these factors in mind when starting a blog. 

With over 150 million blogs on the internet, starting one that stands out enough to gain followers and earn an income certainly isn't an easy task. Before the big blogging boom, it was much simpler to gain a readership, but with so many blogs out there, the first step to starting a blog is to find a unique niche – a topic that you can comfortably write about, that a lot of people want to read about.

One reader took to the forums to gauge interest and get some insight on choosing a niche for her blog, potentially on the topic of frugal living in a high cost area. But the feedback that came back could help out anyone looking to start their own blog – so counting the feedback and adding a few more tips, here's what to consider when coming up with a niche for your own blog.

Is there a big enough interest for the topic?

Blogs that earn an income have a very high number of daily visitors. Are there enough people interested in that topic to generate that kind of traffic? The trick is to make your topic broad enough to interest a wide range of people, but narrow enough that you're "not just another blog."

Do you have enough experience to write on the topic?

What information can you offer readers? If you are researching the information yourself and simply regurgitating what you read elsewhere, it's probably not a good topic for you. On the other hand, if you have quite a bit of experience in the area or are living through it as in a frugal living blog, then you may have found the right topic for you.

Can you write a lot of different articles on that topic?

If your goal is to turn your blog into an income, it will take many, many hours of work. Don't pick a topic you are not passionate about – you"ll end up burnt out months down the road. If, on the other hand you can't stop talking about your topic and love anything related, that passion will come in handy managing a blog.

What kind of competition is out there?

Small blogs don't have much chance ranking in the search results behind large companies that have entire teams devoted to search engine optimization. What other blogs cover the same topic? Are there many, or just a few? Do they cover it in a similar manner, or is there something to set your blog apart? Once you've scoped out the other competing sites, take a look at the Google AdWords Keyword Tool and type in a few potential topics you might write about, click the keyword ideas tab, then click the competition tab twice to arrange the ideas from low to high. Are there related keywords that rank low? If all the keywords you come up with are ranking high, it will be extremely tough for your blog to show up in the first few pages of the search results.

Can you pinpoint an audience?

Writing a blog involves reaching out to an audience – do you know who that audience is? Sure, your blog can have one main audience and a few smaller audiences, but you should be able to pinpoint who you are writing to. Are you reaching out to moms? Dads? Businessmen? Teenagers? A frugal living in a high cost area blog would have a very defined audience, yet that group of people is probably big enough to work with.

Is it easy to monetize?

There's more than one way to make money from a blog. How would your blog make money? Selling ads with a program like AdWords is a popular option – you"ll just need to ensure your topic reaches to an audience businesses also want to advertise to. Blogs can also make money by selling ebooks or products, or through affiliate links. It's a good idea to build an audience before monetizing, but you should still consider just how your topic can be monetized before you get started.

Blogs can be an excellent home-based businesses, if you have the passion, knowledge, writing skills and time. But every successful blog also needs a niche – consider elements like competition, interest and audience before venturing out into the world of blogging.

If you believe that my message is worth spreading, please use the share buttons if they show at the top of the page.

Stephen Hodgkiss
Chief Engineer at MarketHive
markethive.com

The info shared here has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnose, cure or treat any illness or disease.

Sport Science Wellness

5 Reasons Why You are Not Being Hired

Make your resume stand out by being specific with your qualifications and following all directions in the job posting.

find a job

Finding legitimate home-based jobs is not difficult. The challenge is getting hired, and it’s not uncommon to apply for a job, but never even get a response back. There are many reasons why you may not get a response from an employer, but most of them stem from the quality of resume you submit. Most job seekers view the resume as a laundry list of skills and experience, when in fact it’s a marketing brochure. Here are five reasons your resume might be ignored by potential employers.

Your resume is boring and generic. For every job opening, there are at least 75 applicants, according to George Washington University Office of Career Services. To compete with all those applicants, your resume needs to wow the employer. You can do that by tailoring each resume to the needs of the employer, stressing your value, and using active verbs to highlight your skills. Don’t just list typing as a skill. Instead say, “I type 80 words per minute.”

Your resume focuses on duties instead of results. Employers want to know you have the skills to do the job, but you can impress them by listing how your talents will help them. Translate your skills into results oriented benefits. For example, being able to type 80 words per minute means greater productivity.

Your resume sounds desperate. While employers might care that you’re in dire financial straits, they’re not going to hire you because of it. They don’t need to know your marital or parental status, or hobbies and skills that don’t relate to the job you’re applying for. You don’t need to explain any gaps in your work history. If the employer wants to know any of those things, they will ask during the interview. Remember, the goal of a resume is to focus on the skills and experiences you have to do the job the employer needs. Any other information is irrelevant and only wastes the employer's time.

You didn’t follow directions. More and more employers are vetting applicants by having them follow specific instructions for applying, such as using an exact subject line when emailing the resume. Some even state in the job listing that they don't want a standard, generic resume. Others don’t want a resume at all, but instead a statement about why you’re the best candidate for the job. All these instructions are important because if you don’t follow them, you’re showing the employer that you can't follow directions. Read every job announcement carefully, and make sure you send what it asks for, how it asks for it.

You sent your resume as an email attachment or it is illegible. In most cases, employers will ask that you email your resume in the body of an email. If it doesn’t specify how to send the resume, send it in the body of the email to avoid getting lost in the spam or antivirus filter. To ensure your resume is readable when it reaches the employer, don’t paste it from your word processing program into the email. Not all email programs are able to retain rich text or formatting such as indents and apostrophes. Instead, paste the resume into Notepad or another text editor, justify everything left, and then paste into your email. Use these instructions when pasting your resume into an online form as well.

The resume is the first chance you have to make an employer take notice. If it fails to impress, you don’t get an interview. Don’t let your resume end up in the deleted file. Make your resume stand out and follow the employers directions to improve your chances of getting a work-at-home job. Originally written by By LeslieTruex

If you believe that my message is worth spreading, please use the share buttons if they show at the top of the page.

Stephen Hodgkiss
Chief Engineer at MarketHive
markethive.com

The info shared here has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnose, cure or treat any illness or disease.

Sport Science Wellness

We are like this child when it comes to building a Social Network. Appreciation of others is the Key

2 Comments
 

We are like this child when it comes to building a Social Network. Appreciation of others is the Key

 
A young man went to seek an important position at a large printing company. He passed the initial interview and was going to meet the director for the final interview. The director saw his resume, it was excellent. And asked, '

Have you received a scholarship for school?' The boy replied, " No '.
' It was your father who paid for your studies? '
' Yes.'- He replied.
' Where does your father work? '
' My father is a Blacksmith'

The Director asked the young to show him his hands.

The young man showed a pair of hands soft and perfect.

' Have you ever helped your parents at their job? '
' Never, my parents always wanted me to study and read more books. Besides, he can do the job better than me.'

The director said:

' I have got a request: When you go home today, go and wash the hands of your father and then come see me tomorrow morning.'

The young man felt his chance to get the job was high.

When he returned to his house he asked his father if he would allow him to wash his hands.

His father felt strange, happy, but with mixed feelings and showed his hands to his son. The young man washed his hands, little by little. It was the first time that he noticed his father's hands were wrinkled and they had so many scars. Some bruises were so painful that his skin shuddered when he touched them.

This was the first time that the young man recognized what it meant for this pair of hands to work every day to be able to pay for his study. The bruises on the hands were the price that he paid for his education, his school activities and his future.

After cleaning his father's hands the young man stood in silence and began to tidy and clean up the workshop. That night, father and son talked for a long time.

The next morning, the young man went to the office of the director.

The Director noticed the tears in the eyes of the young when He asked him: -' Can you tell me what you did and what you learned yesterday at your house?'

The boy replied: -' I washed my father's hands and when I finished I stayed and cleaned his workshop '

' Now I know what it is to appreciate and recognize that without my parents , I would not be who I am today . By helping my father I now realize how difficult and hard it is to do something on my own. I have come to appreciate the importance and the value in helping the family.

The director said, "This is what I look for in my people. I want to hire someone who can appreciate the help of others , a person who knows the hardship of others to do things, and a person who does not put money as his only goal in life". ' You are hired '.

A child that has been coddled, Protected and usually given him what he wants, develops a mentality of " I have the right ' and will always put himself first, ignoring the efforts of their parents. If we are this type of protective parent are we really showing love or are we destroying our children?

You can give your child a big house , good food , computer classes , watch on a big screen TV . But when you're washing the floor or painting a wall , please let him experience that too.

After eating have them wash the dishes with their brothers and sisters. It is not because you have no money to hire someone to do this it's because you want to love them the right way . No matter how rich you are, you want them to understand. One day your hair will have gray hair, like the father of this young man.

The most important thing is that your child learns to appreciate the effort and to experience the difficulties and learn the ability to work with others to get things done. "
 

If you believe that my message is worth spreading, please use the share buttons if they show at the top of the page.

Stephen Hodgkiss
Chief Engineer at MarketHive
markethive.com

The info shared here has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnose, cure or treat any illness or disease.