Sure, websites like LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace and various online forums have rapidly become serious assets for businesses and people – especially those who are trying to gain more recognition and reach a larger audience among groups they may not have had such access to in the traditional world of networking.

But you need to remember your page is your first impression and just about anyone using a search engine can stumble onto your page. Suppose you are on one of these sites to boost your professional/business image and gain useful contacts and clients. There are definitely a lot of things that tweens, teens, etc., include in their profiles that you should definitely not incorporate into yours.

Here are some suggestions creating a successful professional page:

 A picture is worth a thousand words. It’s the first thing people look at when they go to your website. Your page should be professional — keep it that way. Leave the pictures of you chugging beers at the family barbeque in the scrapbook and opt for a few professional photographs.

Make yourself accessible. On many of these sites, there are options that block people from seeing your profile unless you are “friends” with them. When promoting yourself, you don’t want people to have to wait until you accept them as a friend to see your page. The longer they wait, the quicker they will lose interest. Keep it public.

Background check. Let people know what you’re about. You can include some personal information that gives insight about you. Just don’t overdo it. Share personal information that will increase credibility in your field of expertise. Explain more about your business and include other contact information — in case a potential client/customer is interested in contacting you.

Comments are a great way to keep in touch with contacts. Don’t be fooled by the seemingly casual nature of “comment walls,” as they are called. Be friendly, but not too friendly, offensive or sloppy in your posts.

Take an “application” vacation. Many sites allow you to add cute, quirky little applications to your page. While some of these might be fun and useful in maintaining relationships with other users, don’t bog down your page with every single application request that comes your way. You are also notified when someone sends you something. You then have the option to accept it to your page or deny it. Use your better judgment when choosing to allow applications to post.

Feed me. Some of these sites have news feeds that tell you what your friends have been up to on the website and tell your friends what you have been up to. Err on the side of caution and don’t do something on the site that could potentially upset someone. If you don’t want your entire friend community to know something, send private messages to just a chosen few who need this information.

Keep in mind that not all of these sites may be right for you. There are networking sites that are completely professional and specialized for your industry, as well as generic ones that include a diverse community of people with different lifestyles. Research the ones interest you and could be the most beneficial for you and your business. Keep your accounts to a minimum though. It can be difficult to maintain relationships if you have too many profiles to keep up with.

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It’s great fun, until I realize,” Hmm… where will my office go?”

I know many people use their kitchen table as the starting point when creating their business, but for me, that just wouldn’t be possible for a couple of reasons:

1. I have too much ’stuff’ I need to use a table. I need my own space.
2. The kitchen would distract me, as ‘d be interrupted b thinking about food, and cooking, etc.

So I’m looking for a home with a space for my office. Now it doesn’t have to be a private little hole, but something where I can keep my papers and books, as well as space for me to work quietly.

I love my home office now (Here’s a photo of me with the girls in it), and am sad to see it go soon. But I look forward to the challenge of creating a new, more organized space.

What do you think about your home office space?  Do you love it? Send some photos and I’ll post them!

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And now with a weakened economy and high gas & food prices, it’s getting hard to keep any new business afloat.

Are you losing belief in yourself and in your startup? It just might be time to quit. But before you do, you need to take a step back and really think things through to make sure that you have done everything that you can.

But sometimes, it has to happen - even when you’ve tried your best.

And when you do, don’t just put up a closed sign. Think of developing an exit strategy.

This can include notifying your customers prior to closure and checking what financial obligations you have.

And realize here, you are not alone! If you have come to the decision that quitting is the only reasonable option, know that most successful entrepreneurs failed at something in their past.

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Check it out here.

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But it does.

This ‘leaked” due to social media. Bloggers were speculating that Bristol Palin, the17-year old daughter of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, with the real mother of Sarah’s infant son. But in order to quell the rumors, the Plain camp issued a statement denying the rumor, and announcing that Bristol was 5 months pregnant.

(I’m discussing what a PR fiasco this is over at The Be Heard Blog.)

But there’s more. The media used social media (MySpace, in  particular) to find pictures and derogatory statements from father of Bristol’s child.

So what does this mean to you, the entrepreneur?

1) The social media is becoming a powerful news source on it’s own. And you need to be more than aware of it. You need to monitor it and what it means to you and your brand. I use Google News Alerts to get information about me and topics related to me, as well as for all my clients. That way I know pretty quickly what’s being said.

2) Be careful on what you put on your own site as you never know who’s looking. Better left things unsaid rather than let the world know you are a ” f - - -in’ redneck” and you “don’t want kids.”

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It’s all part of this month’s focus on the social media.  Listen in and find out more.

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An effective lead makes a promise to the reader or viewer: I have something important, something interesting, to tell you. A good lead beckons and invites. It informs, attracts, and entices. And it must be mastered if you want a journalist to decide your story is worth covering.

Follow these guidelines and expect to grab the attention of more readers and expand your audience!

The lead sentence should include the most important information in less than 25 words. You want to make sure that your lead is merely a summary of what the article will include. If the lead is too long, it begins to resemble the beginning of a story instead of a short description of your article.

Don’t guess that your reader will know what you’re talking about from the headline. Although many readers may grasp the article’s content from the headline, there are still those who may need a more detailed explanation of what your piece is about.

There should be no advertising or propaganda in the lead. Any extra exaggeration in the lead just adds unnecessary length and you could lose your reader.

The lead paragraph should include the who, what, when, where and how of the story. Once you answer the main questions of who’s involved, what the event is, and when, where and how it will occur, you’ll have everything you need to write the rest of the article.

The lead needs to be bold so that it is communicated to your audience effectively. The importance in communicating your message in the lead boldly is to draw the interest of the reader and make them feel like they have enough information about the article even if they only read the lead. The key is to make them want to read the rest of your article by catching their attention early on.

When it comes to word usage, less is more. The best thing you can do to communicate effectively is cut down the jargon. If your message is hidden behind a lot of complicated terminology, you run the risk of losing your reader’s interest. Putting your information in simple terms is more successful in getting your message across than utilizing complex words, phrases and inner-circle jargon.

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But because I am doing other things, I used to forget them.

So just a few years ago, I created a special place to put these ideas down quickly.  It’s called my ’schemes and dreams’ notebook. And I have it everywhere I go.

Once a week, I book myself an hour on my schedule to review it and decide what ideas are still relevant and create a plan for each of them.

How about you?  What do you use to help you keep your ideas from escaping?

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And I have to say to all of you: STOP!

I understand why you think swapping links will help you in your quest to be number one on the search engines. (It doesn’t… just read Rebecca Murtagh’s info on what makes Google’s search engine tick.)

When link swaps started, websites exchanged links with other websites that were complimentary to provide a useful resource for their own visitors. Nowadays, many webmasters will swap links with any site that will agree, or any automated link swap page. These reciprocal links are easily detected by the search algorithms and discounted as such. Trading links doesn’t show the same vote for the quality of your site as a link that isn’t reciprocated.

Then there’s another question: But folks, what’s in it for me? You get featured on a highly-ranked blog and Startup Spark gets… what? If you really want me to consider linking -or better yet - writing about you: you need to earn it.

And that takes savvy PR - not page rank - but public relations.

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