As you may know, I’ve been following the 31-day challenge to Be a Better Blogger over at ClickNewz.com. Admittedly, I fell behind and hadn’t done much with it since Day 17, Brainstorm 20 Blog Post Ideas Today. But check out the end of this post…. it includes the Day 18 task, Show Your Readers Some Appreciation, and I’ve been playing catch up for the past few days.

Some of the latest tasks were easy. Day 19 and 20 are things I’ve always done so I just marked those complete, and I had already customized our blog design. Others took some doing… and day 27 will take some time by definition (spend 2 hours writing a post). I’m holding off on day 24, Advertise On StumbleUpon until I spend those 2 hours on a post so I can use that post for the ad. Other than that I’m still working on making new blog friends and just waiting to hear back from the guest blogger article I pitched as well as the guest blogger I invited to write something.

Even though I haven’t completed every BABB step, I have at least read and learned from each daily post. And the idea really was to start developing new habits that will make us better bloggers from now on, not just for the month. I think I’ve done that. I’ve learned a lot and hope that you’ve noticed some improvements to the Business Opportunity Connection.

Reader Appreciation
Thank you for taking the time to read the Business Opportunity Connection. I’m sure your life is very full and it can be hard to find the time. I hope we have provided useful information or a bit of entertainment for you.

As a token of my appreciation, and in the spirit of developing better [blogging] habits, please download a complimentary copy of The Guide to Good Habits.

And please leave a comment below if only to say “hi” and introduce yourself. I’d like to get to know more about you.

Of course your feedback about BABB, “The Good Habits Guide,” and our blog in general are always welcome and appreciated!

Many savvy business owners know a secret that allows them to spend less on advertising, yet still enjoy increased profits. They know that their existing customers are a great source of new leads.

In many cases, the business owner hasn’t even asked for referrals. Their customers just naturally tells other people about the company’s products and services. These referrals and “word of mouth advertising” are extremely powerful. And they’re free!
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In direct sales leverage is most often defined in terms of building a team to leverage additional commissions from their sales. It’s sometimes also used in reference to income from repeat orders. But a marketing leverage strategy can be built around many everyday activities and events.

In How to Kill Two Stones with One Bird, Part 2, Scott Ginsberg suggests that the first step in leveraging any event is to ask, “Now that I have this, what else does this make possible?”

In the post he gives several good examples of how to leverage things like a new website, your blog posts, or that award you won. And if you email him, he’ll send you a list of 61 leverage questions.

Are you using leverage as part of your marketing strategy? Leave a comment to tell us how.

When visitors arrive at your website you have just a few seconds to engage them and convince them to stay. The only way to do that is to let them know what’s in it for them. It may sound harsh, but they don’t really care all that much about you or your company. They’re looking for a solution to their own problem and they want to know if you can provide it.

Several years ago I posted an article on entitled “People are not interested in you or your company.” It’s still worth reading – find it here.

Need help with being more customer focused? I’m offering a free review of one page of your website for customer focus. It can be your home page, lead capture page, subscription page, sales page, or any web page really. I’ll offer my opinion on how well your site addresses your customers’ needs and offer suggestions for improving your customer focus.

To receive this free, no strings attached review, just put in a request before the end of this month by leaving a comment below. Be sure to include the URL of the page you want reviewed. Family friendly sites only please.

Guest blogger Danielle Chonody offers sound advice on starting a pet sitting business from home.

The popularity of pet sitting is growing at a rapidly. Four years ago when I started my pet sitting business in Dallas Fort Worth many people I spoke to had no idea that pet sitting was an option to boarding their pets when they traveled. Today pet sitting is regularly in the news and the largest pet sitting franchise in the United States opens 4-5 new locations every month.

A pet sitter is someone who visits a client’s home once or several times a day to feed, water, walk and play with pets while clients are at work or out of town. Often pet sitters also perform home services such as mail collection, garbage disposal, and plant watering. Pet sitting is an alternative to boarding and offers the benefit of keeping pets in a familiar environment and maintaining their regular routine. This means that pets are less stressed and avoid coming in contact with other animals from which they can pick up disease. Pet sitting also offers more convenience to owners as they do not have to drop and pick up pets from a boarding facility.

Pricing for pet sitting varies from $14-25 per 30 minute visit depending on region. Some pet sitters charge extra for administering medications to pets, and charge extra for each additional pet. The price that you charge will have to cover your transportation costs to and from visits. You should do some research about the rates of other pet sitters in your area to see what you can expect to earn per visit.

The Pros

I love pet sitting as I get to interact with many different pets and they always greet me with happy faces and wagging tails. I also get to meet owners and share stories about their pets. At a pet sitting visit you are paid to play and spend time cuddling with the pets, what could seem less like work?
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Many direct sales consultants start out with little or no training and experience in marketing and sales. One aspect of direct sales that attracted many new recruits is the promise of company and sponsor-provided training. And indeed, many companies have excellent training resources available and many experienced team leaders will teach you their duplicatable success system.

However, there may come a time when you need more help to take your business to the next, more profitable level. Here are some training resources specifically designed for the direct selling industry:
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Sometimes the hardest lesson is learning how little you know. That’s been the case for me with this latest blog theme customization.

I didn’t think it would be all that difficult to make a few changes to the theme. The font color changes were easy enough; no surprises there. The header graphic presented a few small surprises, but it wasn’t too difficult.

However, that darn background is another story all together! It’s still not right.

And then there was the big surprise. After a good number of hours tweaking and redoing and tweaking again, it occurred to me that I hadn’t even looked at the changes an alternate browser. And what a disappointment when I did! What looked pretty darn good in Firefox was a huge mess in Internet Explorer. Thankfully it was a minor coding error that I quickly located and fixed.

In the process I’ve learned a lot more about CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), relying on the tutorials at W3 Schools. But I still only know just enough to be dangerous.

Oh yes…. the background…. it looks great in some screen resolutions and completely wrong in others. One fix for wide screens caused narrow screens issues. Maybe that custom color isn’t so important to me after all…..

In the midst of participating in “Be a Better Blogger” over at ClickNewz.com, I decided I just had to have a new blog theme. While I was customizing the theme I tried to incorporate the daily tasks and all of that has kept me very busy for days.

The BABB tasks I worked on over the past few days are:

BABB Day 4 – Sidebar Makeover – The goal of this task was to de-clutter the sidebar. I’m not sure if I’ve succeeded. It certainly is different than it was before and I’ve incorporated some new elements that have to do with the next couple of BABB tasks. There’s definitely more information in my sidebar now than there was before, but I think it’s all readable and worthwhile.

BABB Day 5 – Highlight Posts – This assignment was to feature some popular posts to give direction to new visitors. I chose to highlight some that I think are good starting points for visitors.

BABB Day 6 – Become More Social – Continue Reading

Many marketers are reluctant to offer a money back guarantee for fear of the financially damage of returns and requests for refunds. But there is plenty you can do to significantly reduce refunds and requests. In fact, using what I’m about to show you, you can nearly eliminate them entirely. The best part is that it’s relatively simple and painless to do!

In order to understand what really causes excessive requests for refunds and returns, first you have to recognize what doesn’t cause them.

Refunds and returns are not caused by faulty merchandise or poor services rendered. Because just a little care and concern can guarantee the quality of the products and services you deliver.

Refunds and returns not caused by dishonest customers. While you may encounter an occasional deadbeat or outright crook, the vast majority of customers are people who are more than satisfied with an honest value for their dollar.

Refunds and returns are not caused by customers finding a better price somewhere else. While price can be a factor in determining sales, it’s rarely the underlying factor in a customer’s refund or return decision.

If it isn’t any of the above factors, just what is the one single factor that’s responsible for nearly every refund request and return? It is:
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Thankfully, the day 2 task is much easier – all I have to do is make a post that includes an image.

Here ya’ go! I’m ready for day 3

But it turned out to be not as easy as I thought. I tend to get lost looking for photos. I find one or two and then think, “maybe there’s a better one,” and I continue searching. One photo leads to another and then an idea for modifying them to better suit my purpose. I end up spending way too much time! I need to work on a solution for that.

Do you want to Be a Better Blogger (BABB)? There’s still time to catch up. Join us at ClickNewz.