!OK.  I am nowhere near retirement age myself but even if I was I would never consider “retiring” – EVER!

Want to know the quickest way to die?  Retire!!  I have watched two very vital, intelligent men slowly die over the past 10-12 years.  All because they bought into the “turn 62 and retire” thing.  While most men and women may look forward to their retirement years as a reward for their long years of service, if they don’t have some sort of occupation planned, they will wither.

Why retire?  Why not just take planned sabaticals or long vacations if your company allows it.  Perhaps your company “forces” retirement so in that case, plan to occupy yourself as a volunteer or as a consultant in your field of expertise.

All I know is that these men and many countless others like them, may start out enjoying their freedom.  But very quickly the doldrums hit them.  My dad and father-in-law both in their own way have shriveled in health and mind.  Even with constant RVing activity as in my dad’s case, he just is depressed much of the time.

Did you know that retirement is a relatively new phase of a person’s life?  FDR invented retirement back in the Great Depression to make way for younger breadwinners when times were tight.  He then had to invent Social Security and  pension funds to help tide these newly unemployed oldsters.

Before that people just worked until they couldn’t.  Retirement was not even thought of.  But now we think retirement is the expected thing for a 55 – 65 your old worker and many companies still force it.

Well, there is a new paradigm taking shape and that is to not retire but taper off or even take on a new employment.

Being self-employed is ideal: you never really retire you just shift management to someone else and keep your hand in it as you see fit.

For those who still love their job but plan to retire someday, think about how you will spend that time off.  Plan to take time to travel if that’s what you want but more importantly think about how you will spend the rest of the time.  There are some great books that come to mind and one is Why Retire? Rewire!

I am here to point the way to one of the best lists of List Building Ideas at Terry Dean’s Internet Marketing Coach.  Head on over for some inspiration:

http://www.terrydean.org/21-ways-to-add-more-subscribers/

There are only a handful of marketers that I keep subscribed to for solid, useful advice and Terry’s is one of them.

How many times have you bought and read an ebook and lo and behold it is just basic “flat” text on a few pages?  I don’t know about you but I have “tasted” what it is like to use an eBook that is somewhat dynamic.  You know the ones that have a table of contents that you can jump right to the text you want to see.  Slick.

Now as a writer of eBooks and short reports I wanted to learn this trick to make my own books more user friendly.  I thought maybe you could use the tips too.

To create a linked ToC in Word 2003 (sorry, I like it better for this feature than 2007),  you need to select the Outlining toolbar from View>Toolbars.

Then just go through your text and click your cursor on the line (it selects the whole line even if you just put the cursor on there).

Go up to the Outline Toolbar and select the Level 1 through 9 (i think).  This is where you use your outlining skills from school.    You know, chapters are level one;  major points – level two; sub point – level 3, etc.

When you are done outlining, place your cursor in the doc right where you want the table to appear (right after your title page),  go to Insert>Reference>Tables and Indexes and choose Table of Contents tab.

You can choose a style of table, so mess around with it.  Make sure to select the number of levels if it is more than the default of 3 and click ok.

Ta da!  Hopefully you did a nice clean job of outlining or you may have a lot of unwanted text.  If you see stuff you don’t want, jump to that text; make sure to label it “body text” if you don’t want it included in the toc.   Then go back to the Outling toolbar and click replace entire table.  Keep at it till it is clean.

I like a uniform looking ToC so I highlight the whole thing, choose the font style, size and weight to all be the same.  I mess with it a bit but hey.

I know I wished someone taught me how easy it is to make a “jump to” ToC for my ebooks.  Hope this helps!

Anyone who has been in Internet Marketing for long will have heard of Tiffany Dow – aka Ghostwriter to the gurus.  This amazing gal has managed a corporation and at the same time been there for her kids.  Her PLR is the best – bar none.  Take a look at her stuff at http://plrminimart.com I promise you, you won’t be disappointed with the quality and the price just can’t be beat!!  (She could charge $35 or more a page)

I just have to plug Tiffany because she generously let me dip my toe in the water in the ghost writing business.  It is thanks to her that I now have the confidence to do what I do!  She patiently guided my blundering first attempts, caught my boo-boos and didn’t “smack” me for it and still paid me for it!!

It has been a priviledge to work with you, Tiff.  If you read this, please know that you have made a huge impact on my life in more ways than one!  You are #1!

I have to brag on Sean Kelly with Data Genn, creator of the PDF Printer Pro.  You see, I have been editing docs I had first created in Word 2003 then recently opened and contiuned editing in Word 2007.   For the most part everything transitioned fine till time came to convert to PDF.  I use Adobe Acrobat 7, so I pushed the print to PDF button and waited.  OK, so far.

But that’s where the OK stopped.  Only some of the links were embedded.  Hmmm…  Tried it again and again.  No go.  So, I remembered in the back of my head that there was a pdf printer advertised with another program I own, Viral PDF Brander (the only PDF re-branding software of its kind for the price – also by Sean Kelly).

When I finally found Sean’s site, I couldn’t resist buying it at $10.  I installed it and proceeded as with the Adobe docs but still nada. 

So I requested a refund and just plan on editing and publishing my docs in the older Word 2003 (which works just fine – I just like the new layout of the 2007)

Anyway, it seems Sean was away getting married and so I didn’t hear of a refund or anything.  I am a patient sort so I gave a few days then resubmitted.

Long story short…he apologized.  Offered to analyze the problem but was willing to refund, no questions asked.  He even sent a fixed version of the PDF Printer Pro.  Still didn’t work for me.  So I took the refund.

That was two days ago.  Just now I get an email again apologizing for the problem and sent along a newer fixed version – free! 

Here is a guy who knows what service is all about and it there for his customer even if it was only over a $10 product.  So, you can guess what I am going to tell you to do.  When you need a great PDF printer get PDF Printer Pro from Sean.

Over the years, my husband and I have dabbled in many kinds of business, including Network Marketing or MLMs.Unfortunately, MLM has been given a bad name and frankly, for the most part, it wasn’t the Parent company at fault but the distributor organizations or more precisely individual distributors that have been the source of trouble.

Oh, sure there are those few pyramid schemes that were the black hat version of their legal cousin.  They never last and, yes, they have sullied the name of Network Marketing as a whole.

But the main issue with the legitimate MLM is that distributor training was not treated as seriously as it should have been. 

You see, MLMs have been accurately portrayed as the “average man’s business opportunity”.  But that is where it stops.  Simply because the average guy has no idea how to market, much less sell, anything.  The old way to sell in MLMs is sell to everyone who will listen to you.  Uncle Joe gets all excited about some new elixir bound to cure all ills and make tons of $$, too.  So he tells his neighbor, his doctor, his pastor, his brother, the guy at the gas station, the waitress at Denney’s, etc. etc. etc! 

No doubt that the elixir will do what it says, too.  But Uncle Joe’s zeal overrides his sensibility and spreads the good news all over creation.  And soon everyone learns to run to the other side of the street when they see old Joe coming.  Most of us have seen this all too often. 

MLMs get a bad name due to these over zealous, under trained salesmen and women.  We have come to suspect every MLM when really what needs to happen is EDUCATION of the sales force.
But some of us see the virtue of Network Marketing and really believe there is something there worth keeping alive.  Promoted properly, MLMs are still the perfect vehicle to get the word out about a superior product.  And also offer to the few who do see the opportunity to sell the products as their ticket to financial freedom.

So what does the new model look like?  Simply this.  No more hitting up strangers in malls.  No more boring sales talks masquerading as a potluck.  The new, old way is to make your product available through sales, like any sales (door to door used to work just fine).  Send out post cards, fliers, ads in the paper.  Giving samples  or trial periods.  With the advent of the Internet, ads on Google or Craigs list.  The key is to establish a kind of positive rapport or relationship.  Not clubbing someone but more like courting them.

Doesn’t it make sense to offer the opportunity to folks who are looking for it?  Perhaps write articles to educate others on the virtue of a secure second income.  Not pie-in-the-sky millions (although this is possible, realistically most folks will do the average several hundred dollars – and be content with it).   Put the idea of a home business in front of the group that is looking for it – not Cousin Sue who is happily working for $15 an hour as a bookkeeper.  Why waste her time and yours?

MLMs will have to adapt to this more sensible way of securing leads or the whole MLM model will die - tarred and feathered!! 

The average guy still has a chance to do it and make his fortune but with the ideal model he will have the respect of his neighbors and family.  He will go to his computer or mailbox and pick up his new leads who are “ready” to hear about his product or business opportunity.  He’ll head to the telephone, talk for a few minutes with the new contact, get an appointment to call again and everyone is positive.  NO pressure. No gimmicks. No hype.  Just educating and then asking permission to call again.

This will be the way of the new MLM salesperson or they will go the way of the tin peddler and sandwich boards.  It will be a sad day, too.  For the true average man’s opportunity will have gone with the wind.

One thing about having your own business is the aspect of keeping on, keeping on.  I am the first to admit how long the days get and the tedium of the mundane tasks associated with business.  I like to create.  I love to invent.  I get all excited when I come up with an idea that has potential to help others and maybe make a little money, too!

But the everydayishness of business is rather like answering an alarm clock.  It’s something you have to do and get on through it.  Sorting out receipts, filing, inventorying, etc.  It is all part of the package.  It is that part that I get weary of.  It is that part that can drive me to distraction and I will be tempted to quit or give up.

But I never do actually quit.  I do two things, though.  First I step back and pray and clear my mind.  Then, I ask myself how important this task is at this time.  Can I let it go?  Can I delegate the job?  Can it wait?

Being in your own busness is a very responsible thing.  You may be tempted to think when you look at others who have some or a lot of success to say how lucky they are. 

Nonsense!  I can tell you, anyone who has their own business and tries to make a living outside of a regular paycheck EARNS every dollar they get!  Whether they sell granola bars or sell ebooks or buy and sell real estate or whatever.

 Sometimes I am envious of the 9 to 5er who just has to show up, give 8 hours and then collect a small paycheck every two weeks or so.  But then I remember the trade offs.  They tell you when to eat lunch, when to vacation, when to go potty(!) or go home, when you can retire, decide to fire you or lay-off, etc.
 
No, it is hard to be your own boss but then this boss tells me I can take vacation whenever I want, eat when I want, vacation when I want, etc.  This boss decides how much I get paid. 
So, it may be a drudge to file, to sort receipts for taxes, to call vendors,…but I remember I like my boss ; ) and want to treat her right.  So, I keep on, keeping on…

Internet Marketing.  Entreprenuership.  Self-employment.

I got it bad!  Hi, this is Cheryl Hines and I love to create.  Internet Marketing combines my creativity with being an entreprenuer and a work at home mom.

I am not the first and I certainly won’t be the last work at home mom to find Internet marketing so perfect.  I intend to make this site a useful resource for others who like me see the charm of earning a living from home using a PC and an Internet connection.