Oh boy, I have been tagged. I have to write 25 things about myself. My sister has tagged me many times on Facebook, but I have always shied away.

Well, now I have been tagged by Glenn Windh. Visit Glenn’s Blog to read his 25 things. The GazzMan, Gary Simpson, started this for a fun way to build traffic among the Alex Jeffrey’s students, and it’s a great way for us to get to know each other a little more. Visit the Gazzman’s blog to view his 25 things and learn to learn the rules.

Some of these things have been shared with very few people and I am quite embarrassed by a couple of them, but I wanted you all to have something interesting to read. Please comment at the end, whether you can relate, give feedback, or to just plain laugh at me, please do. All comments welcome.

Well, here goes:

1. I was really active in different things growing up. I can play the piano, clarinet and bass guitar. I still have my clarinet and guitar, but I’m sad to say that they have been collecting dust for about 10 years. I also did ballet, tap, jazz, basketball, soccer, T-ball, gymnastics and track as a kid.

2. I am 1/2 German. My Mom moved to US when she was 14. When I was little she tried teaching me German, but unfortunately she didn’t keep it up. I’ve taken some German in school, but pretty much all I know now are a few words.

3. I have traveled to Germany, Austria, France, Switzerland, Spain, UK (for about 4 hours), Canada, Hawaii and a handful of states.

4. I love animals. My pets are my kids (at least for now). Right now we have 2 dogs, Dixie our pitbull, Rachal our terrior mix, Roxie and Mia our two cats. Oh ya, we also have an outdoor cat that we feed. She has lived under our porch since we moved in. We never gave her a name because my boyfriend thought that if we did, then she would get run over. So, she has been “kitty” for the last 3 years.

5. I enjoy playing darts. I have helped run a dart tournement at a local bar for the last 4 years. Wish I could also say that I am really good, but I have my occasional lucky nights.

6. I have a mild case of road rage. I can’t stand people that don’t use their blinker and people that think they need to come to a complete stop before making their right turn into a parking lot or onto another street. I rarely use my horn, but boy, if they could hear what I’m saying ….

7. I took a home study course in grooming dogs. I would love to work with animals. I wouldn’t be good in a vets office because I can’t handle blood well and it would be too hard for me when pets didn’t make it. I think I would be balling along with the owner’s every time. I couldn’t work in a shelter because I would want to bring them all home with me. Grooming was the perfect solution! Now that I have completed the course, the only problem that I really need hands on experience to get going. You can only learn so much reading about something. There’s no way I could live on a starting out wage for someone learning the business.

8. I absolutely hate needles. One time the doctor told me she had to prick my finger for a test and I think I almost past out. My whole body went hot in an instant and I probably turned completely white. Therefore … I do not have any tattoos, just in case any of you were wondering, which I’m sure you probably weren’t.

9. I can’t cook. Not anything fancy anyhow. I struggle with my eggs every time and the thought of cooking bacon frightens me. LOL, ok, maybe that’s a bit of an exageration. I can cook somethings, just not a whole lot. People always say cooking is so easy, you just need to experiment with it. I think that “experimental” gene was left out when I was born. Anyhow, I would be lost without my microwave.

10. Did Jenny Craig when I was 12. I wasn’t extremely overweight, but enough that I wasn’t happy with it. I think my Mom thought Jenny Craig would help me to learn to eat better. I have done it twice since then. Really it is the ideal diet for me because I get to eat all kinds of fancy food, but I don’t have to cook it. My meals are conveniently planned and ready to nuke in the microwave when I’m ready.

11. I am currently a part of Alex Jeffrey’s mentoring program. I have learn a lot about internet marketing over the last year, but not how to really create an online business for myself. Alex Jeffrey’s is teaching me that and I am really excited about what the future holds.

12. I worshipped the New Kids On The Block when I was 10. I used to sing to my poster of Joey McIntyre on my wall. You actually couldn’t see any of my walls at the time because they were covered in NKOTB posters. My sister and I slept outside to get tickets on year and then after the concert we went and stood outside their hotel after the concert. Yup! Stalkers. I had NKOTB slippers, alarm clock, sleeping bag, watch and a million pins. … I still have the sleeping bag, watch and alarm clock and one poster! My mom kept much of my stuff after I moved out. Shh, don’t tell anyone.

13. I have a complete workout video library. Jane Fonda, Susan Powder, Billy Banks, Hip Hop Abs, Slim and Six, Richard Simmons, ….. unfortunately about 90% of them are all on VHS. I remember getting up before school each morning and doing Sweat’n to the Oldies with my Mom everyday before school. “You Got To Shout” ….. I can still remember some of the moves and how silly we looked.

14. HATE earwigs. This year they have been especially bad and started coming into the house. I was working at my computer the other morning and felt something on my chest. One was in my clothes! Let’s just say I was quite upset over it. They are nasty little creatures.

15. I missed two finals my senior year of highschool because I went out dancing the night before and ended up so sick I couldn’t get out of bed the next day. The first final, journalism, my teacher just gave me a B because that was my average grade throughout the semester and I was her TA for during another period. (there is no way I would have gotten a b, her tests were tough. Mrs. Smith, if you are reading this, I’m really sorry!) and the other final I got to complete in a room with 3 other people so we helped each other.

16. I have 6 screws in my jaw. I had jaw surgery when I was 14 or 15 to keep my teeth straight. (Painful, painful recovery, at least for a 14 year old anyhow) I never knew what they looked like either until recently. My last dentist gave a copy of my X-ray and you can totally see the screws in my jaw. They are a lot bigger than I thought. LOL

17. In 3th grade during recess I used to make faces at a 5th grade boy selling milk in the lunch room, up until he ran out and chased me across the playground throwing rocks.

18. I love scary movies even though I cover my eyes through all the really scary and gory parts.

19. I really want a motorcycle someday. That is secretly one of my personal goals for my online business.

20. I am the worst person in the world at sending cards. I have several birthday and wedding cards in my desk at work that I filled out, but never mailed.

21. I am not allowed in Fred Meyers. I was 16 at the time and my friends and I went through a really stupid phase. Before I go on, keep in mind that most of us have all done some dumb things when they were young and this was 14-15 years ago. Ok, on with the story. We would go into stores and pocket as much stuff as we could. Up our shirt sleeves, in our pockets, where ever we could put it. Of course, it wasn’t anything that we really needed. Then we’d get out to the car and see what we all got. I was an addictive habit. I did it once by myself and I got caught! I pocketed some makeup and noticed that someone was following me around the store. Anyhow, they rushed me to the exit and lucky, lucky, lucky for me they did not call the cops. They just said never to come back. I can’t even express how guilty I felt over that. I eneded up throwing away anything I had ever stole. The good thing that came from it is that all of my friends stopped after that too. It just took one of us to get caught to stop the whole charade. And yes, I have been back to Fred Meyers since then. =) You learn from your mistakes right?

22. My favorite actor is Johnny Depp. Ever since I saw him in Cry Baby, oooh!. I was in 4th grade then. My best friend and I watched the move 4 times in a row. Awesome underwear scene by the way.

23. I don’t like fishing, but I like to eat fish. I can’t stand the thought of catching a fish with a hook.

24. My mom always thought I should have been in commercials as a baby. All because of this picture to the right.

25. My current day job has been so stressful that I am literally in tears daily. I’ve been with the company for over 5 years and things have gotten busier and busier. I took a new position a little over a year ago and it’s one of those jobs where absolutely nothing goes right. These past few weeks it has escalated too. I have been so stressed at work at I find it hard to breath. I am so exhausted by the time I get home. This is why it is so important to me to build my online business. Either I will do this full time, or I’ll have enough income that I can take a part time job getting that hands grooming experience I talked about in number 7.

Ok, so that’s my 25. If you made it this far I appreciate you taking the time to learn a little bit more about me. I have to admit that I’m a bit embarrassed to admit a couple of the above items, but this is all for fun, right?

Who should I tag, with all of us tagging 5 other people, I’m not sure how we avoid tagging the same people?

Ok, let’s go with:

Jose Perez, Brad Burnie, Rich Darby, Roger Edwards and David Chamberlain

The All In One SEO plugin will help optimize your blog for the search engines.

To start log into your dashboard.

Then hold your mouse over the plug in icon and a drop down menu will appear.

Then you want to click on Add New.

In the Search box type in All-In-One SEO and click Search Plugins.

It should be the first plugin on the list. You now want to click on Install on the right.

A pop up box will appear where you need to click on install again. I have already installed it so mine is worded a little differently. Where mine says Latest Version Installed it will actually say Install Now.

Next you want to click on Activate Plugin.

Now that you have installed the All In One SEO plugin you need to configure it by filling out a few boxes.

Hold your mouse over the setting icon and click on All In One SEO.

Be sure that you have Enabled checked at the top.

Your Home Title is what will show in the search engines as the name of your site. If you want to add an additional description you can put it here. See how mine is below. The name of my blog is HeidiPassey.com, but when you find it in the search engine it actually says “HeidiPassey.com – Learning Internet Marking”.

The second box to fill in is your Home Description. This is what will show up when someone comes across your website  in a search engine. This is the text listed underneath your website. You want this description to catch peoples attention and draw them in. The more interesting your description the more people that will click on your website over other search results.

As you can see above my description text really isn’t too catchy, so that is something I need to work on.

The last box that you should fill in is the Home Keywords. This doesn’t carry as much push as it used to, but it will help with some search engines. You want to list all the keywords you feel your site is about. These are words that you would want your site to show up when someone searches for them.

You can leave the rest of the boxes as they are. Scroll to the bottom and click on Update Options and you are done.

If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment.

A large part of Alex Jeffrey’s first module is about planning. One of my first posts talked a lot about setting your goals and creating your plans. What you want to have done in 90 days, a year, a month, etc.

The next step to that is your daily plans and beyond your daily plans, what is holding you back and keeping you from getting your daily tasks done each day. What are your constraints? You can write lists all day, but if you never accomplish the important things it is worthless.

Everyone has different constraints that are keeping them from building a successful online business. You know what you want to get done, but do you actually do it? Are you making progress? Are you spending your time on the right things?

Alex recommends doing a daily did sheet for 2 weeks. Write down everything that you do during the time you have planned to work on your online business. Not what you want to do, what you actually did.

After two weeks you should be able to see what your biggest constraints are. For some it may be checking email constantly, reading about all the new internet marketing offers, checking your affiliate stats, getting on facebook, spending too much time on twitter or even just surfing the web.

Are you actually doing productive work that will make a difference in your online business?

Once you know what is holding you back you can start working to eliminate those constraints.

What are my constraints? Where do I start…

Day Job Stress

This isn’t actually something I “do” during the time I plan to work on my online business, but it effects the amount of time I put into it. My day time job has been so stressful that I am mentally exhausted when I get home. No matter how much I want to work on my online business in the evenings I have had a really hard time mustering up the brainpower to get anything truly productive done. Some days I leave work so stressed that all I want to do is crash.

As far as eliminating this constraint I’m not 100% sure. I know I need to try to leave work at work and some how rejuvenate myself. If anyone has some advice in this area I would love to hear it! Please leave a comment and let me know. Ultimately, building my online business to the point where I can leave the day job would be the best solution. Of course, most of us don’t have that option at first. It’s something you have to work towards. I need the energy now work on my business after my day job so that someday I can work at home full time.

Facebook, or to be more specific Farmville … and Farm Town

Ok, I know, I’m a nerd, but I like building my farm on Facebook and slightly embarrassed to admit it. I don’t know what it is, but I like planting, harvesting, building my money up and then spending it on fancy benches, haystacks and windmills. And it isn’t just one farm, I have two. Yes, two. You would think one would be enough. It’s a daily commitment too because if you don’t harvest your fields in time they wilt! I know that I waste way too much time on this. The farming madness has got to stop. If anything, I need to commit to not opening it up until I have completed all my online work.

Dixie

Yes, my dog Dixie. This is Dixie on the right. We have a few pets at home, but Dixie, well, she’s pretty high maintenance. I love her to death, but she can be a hand full.

When I get home from work all attention has to be on her. The second I sit down at the computer she starts growling, barking, woofing or any other sound she can think of to get my attention. She’ll bring me her toys for me to throw and then woof until I literally stop what I’m doing and only play with her. I have tried just throwing it while working, but she’s on to me. She doesn’t stop growling until I actually leave the computer. I feel bad because I know she just wants to play, but I can’t “play” all night long, like she seems to think! It’s hard to keep my focus when she’s constantly bringing me her toys.

What I plan to do about it? Well, I think when I get home I need to spend a good chunk of time playing and wear her out before I get on the computer.

I could list more, but I’ll stop there.

So what are your constraints? Make yourself a commitment to write a daily did sheet for two weeks, or one week even. You may not even realize what you spend most of your time on.

Find out what they are, eliminate them and start spending your time on the tasks that will make the most impact on your online business.