Sam Carrara's Marketing Education » time

Enjoying the Weekend with Family

Sam — Mon, 26 May 2008 01:13:15 +0000

Did gas prices put a dent in your weekend travels? I figured we have the time let’s take a short trip and have fun as a family.

Before I get into what we did, here’s how to save a little money on your trip:

Traveling by Car- Use the more fuel efficient one for longer trips. Our Dodge Grand Caravan gets about 18 miles to the gallon and the Honda Civic gets around 34 to 35 miles to the gallon. The trunk space on the Civic is huge.
Hotel costs- You should get a AAA (Automobile Association of America) membership, or your local equivalent. Many hotels have special rates for AAA members that save you 10-15%. You can also get special rates as military, government (state and federal) and check the hotel websites for other online only specials
Museum and Zoo fees- Ask for a military or student discount if it applies to you. If you plan to go to the same place alot, some places have annual memberships which will also save you money.

Here’s what we did:
Friday night I looked at flying to Orlando for a short Disney trip. Just flights would be $317 per person each, let’s see what else. Busch Gardens Williamsburg looks good, but it is about five hours away, too long in the car for this short of a trip.

How about about a two day trip to Columbia, SC? It’s only one and a half hours away, sounds good. We slept in a little on Saturday and headed down to Columbia. We ate lunch and spent the afternoon at the Edventure Museum. (http://www.edventure.org)

Some of the exhibits at the Edventure Museum include:

A three story boy named Eddie, you can crawl inside him and see his spine, stomach with food inside, his brain, etc.
World of work- Be a farmer and milk a cow or pick peaches, put on a fireman’s jacket and ride in their truck, build at a construction site and more.
BodyWorks- Brush Eddie’s teeth, find out what food is good for you, play a large game of Operation, and see how your joints work.

There’s more, look at their website to see what else they have. On Sunday we went to the Riverbanks Zoo. (http://www.riverbanks.org/) It was a good Zoo for kids and had lots of animals. We were there about four hours and then headed for home. It was a good short trip and we have Monday to just relax around the house and at the community pool.

Take time with Family,
Sam Carrara

SC Marketing Education

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Save Time with LeechBlock

Sam — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:49:50 +0000

I found another good way to reclaim your time in the form of a FireFox extension/plugin. LeechBlock lets you set times and domains to block to help you get more accomplished.

Really it helps you to avoid looking at the newest Anime episode when you should be working.

To read the whole review see it at LifeHacker-
http://lifehacker.com/374812/save-yourself-from-time-sinks-online-with-leechblock

Save Time,
Sam Carrara

SC Marketing Education

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Cold and Raining

Sam — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:19:17 +0000

Two days ago I told you about the nice weather in Charleston, South Carolina. Well, now it’s cold and raining. You have to make sure to bundle up.

This reminds me that not everyday will be sunshine, both with weather and mental state. Sometimes I am up and ready to take on the world. Other times I feel like doing nothing. What can you learn from this? When you are energized, get alot done.

Many areas in the Southeast need rain and still have water use restrictions. The water is needed for these areas. When you feel down, recharge. You don’t have to be moving every single second.

Recharge,
Sam Carrara

SC Marketing Education

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Microsoft is Buying Yahoo?

Sam — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 06:39:18 +0000

I’m either late to the party, or it really doesn’t matter. Are you a news junkie? If you are accustomed to getting your daily 5,000 forms of e-mail, fax, RSS, telephone, television and other forms of news; then you know what the title of this post means.

So you say, Sam… You’re late to the party, Yahoo said yes, no or too low… It doesn’t really matter either way. “Resistance is Futile.” (Sorry I harken back to my days of Star Trek and the Borg/Microsoft.)

Does that news really affect you? Probably not. If this doesn’t affect you, then other news probably won’t affect you either. We all have 1,440 minutes in everyday (that’s also 86,400 seconds in the day). Don’t waste them. Focus on the activities that will give you the most future value.

Will Microsoft prevail? Will some other newsgroup buy Yahoo? We shall see.

Don’t waste time,
Sam Carrara

SC Marketing Education

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Blog Now or Blog Later?

Sam — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 12:15:27 +0000

That is the question, Dear Shakespeare. Whether ’tis nobler to write the post now or would it be better to do it later. The slings and arrows of other commitments, like spending time with family.

It case the above is unfamiliar to you, its a very paraphrased quote from Hamlet. Here’s the question in plain English:
Should I write this post and then put it on the web while I have time,
Or fear that I will not have time to do it?

To let you know I am writing this post on Sunday (a little while before the Super Bowl) and it will appear on the site Monday morning. Why would I do this? There are a multitude of reasons:

The search engines like content regularly.
I don’t want to be writing this while I should be working.
What if I was on vacation for a week and want to keep giving out gems of info. Do I cry and complain until I get to a cyber cafe? No!
I’m sometimes not in the mood to write.
Making money on the web is supposed to being freeing, I’m not creating another job. I make this on my schedule and post it when I want.
It saves time to batch activities.
There’s more, but that’s enough for now…

So how do I do this trick?

First go into your Wordpress Admin and start to write a new post ( Write –> Posts ). You do have a blog right? I suggest you get one.

Now look on the right hand column… There is a box with the words Post Timestamp, make it viewable (if closed click the +). An image of this box is below:

Notice I clicked the “Edit timestamp” and made the date when I want this to show on the site. Keynote: 1) This post will not show until after 7:15 am. 2) If no one goes to your website until 9 am, that post won’t show up on the site until 9 am. This means it won’t ping update services until someone visits the site after 7:15 am. Also if you go to the site and the post doesn’t show, refresh the page. Your first visit sets the updating in progress.

So if you are planning a vacation, big project or anything else that will prevent you from updating your website/blog, Set It & Forget It.

This post will save you some time, money or headache; please consider bookmarking this post with your favorite Web 2.0 site (Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, etc.) and then making a comment here.

Blog Now,
Sam Carrara

SC Marketing Education

Upgrade your grill- Grill to the Max at:GrillAce.com

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Creating A Job?

Sam — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 02:41:40 +0000

Are you building a business or creating a job?

Recently I went to a Quiznos Sandwich shop near me for a quick lunch. Interestingly the owner was operating the cash register while he had four other employees putting the sandwiches together. Whose business was he building? I’ve seen him do this for the last two years, he probably started this way and will continue to work his Job. (He’s building Quiznos’ business.) Simple facts from Quiznos:

What is the initial investment?
On average our stores range between $190,000 and $250,000 nationally.

And other sources report that first year income is around $30,000 – $40,000. How long would it take to just break even??

Was that the best use of his money? Did he own his business or did he own his job? Interesting! So how do build a business instead of creating a job? You need to put processes in place in order to allow others to do that job for you.

Let’s assume you make $100 per hour as a business owner. You can hire someone for $10-15 an hour to do tasks to keep the business running like operating the cash register, cleaning tables, food prep, etc. This will allow you to focus on the higher paying thought processes of your business. OR if you have enough people running your business- relax, vacation, spend the time with your kids.

So what are business processes? As an example, you want to get an article written to promote your product, service or business. Let’s break the tasks up into simple steps.

Come up with a topic
Find the top keywords to include in the article
Make an outline of the article
Write the article
Create a resource box (who you are and how to get more information)
Submit the article to article directories
And more steps if wanted…

You would want to make the process a little more detailed than that, but this is a good starting point. When finished you can give the procedure to your employees, interns or outsourced help. Then all they need is the general topic or direction to make articles about. A great idea would be to create a list of 20-50 article ideas. This would allow them to remain productive, even while you are on vacation or otherwise unavailable.

What else can you set business processes up for besides article writing? Getting friends for your MySpace account, social bookmark linking, commenting on other blogs and other tasks that will allow you to focus on the big picture.

Using the 80/20 rule, you should focus on the tasks that will bring you the highest return for your efforts. Then you can re-invest a portion of your income to continue to grow your business, including more outsourced tasks. This compounding of success and efficiency continues to build your business just like compound interest of money. Further growth could allow for a manager to take your place by having them looking over the day to day tasks and it would free up more of your time.

How else could this be used? If you have a website that has loads of traffic and profits, but you see that about to change. You could sell the website off and include the business processes along with the sale. These business processes will increase the value of the sale and show that there is real value in the transaction.

Do you want to create a job or build a business? I choose to build a business.

Build a Business,
Sam Carrara

SC Marketing Education

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Why I Lose Time

Sam — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 22:20:28 +0000

Do you feel like you are reading emails, blog posts, articles and ebooks all the time? Oh I forgot about watching videos and listening to MP3s. I sometimes do!

I have realized that being successful isn’t about having and learning the most information. You could go broke by buying all the over hyped “Must Have Info.” I’ll add another name to the list of Hypesters, sounds like F M. He’s a butterfly guy. I know, I’ve suggested it before. Its one ok product and the rest of his products are rehashed info with slight variations.

I recently unsubscribed to his hypester emails because there was little to no content or value. They were all marketing messages. There were a few others that got the ax also, to include JC (Adsense). I won’t promote him either. Their junk mail is enough to make anyone go crazy.

Here are some great headline ideas from “Gurus”:

The Ultimate Product You Don’t Have
Why I’m Rich and You Make Me More Rich
Why I Am Successful
Give Me More Money
You Are Getting Sleepy, Now Open Your Wallet
These are all in jest, but funny none the less!

So what am I promoting?….. Read less, but take action with what you are reading! Find one or two techniques (articles, links, blog, comments, etc.) get really good at it and let it grow your business, then you can venture out and try one more thing.

Here’s a short list of started projects that never went anywhere (for now):

Want more? Check out what Keith Goodrum has to say about “Gurus” and Unsubscribing:
http://www.keithgoodrum.com/unsubscribe-run-away-run-away/

Get Your Time Back,
Sam Carrara

SC Marketing Education

Upgrade your grill- Grill to the Max at:GrillAce.com

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Whose Business Are You Building?

Sam — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 14:31:28 +0000

In your quest to get out of debt, are you thinking longterm?

How are you driving traffic to your website? By PPC, articles, some other ways… If you stopped any of these methods right now, would you still get traffic?

PPC- No $ to search engines means traffic stops. This also means that continuing PPC builds G,M,Y businesses more than yours.
Articles- You put them out there. They drive traffic, but it will decrease over time. Want to know what else you can do with a written article??

Look at what you’re doing right now… Is it growing your business or just wasting time? If it’s wasting time, STOP IT! If it is building your business, do MORE of it AND write down the process. This process can be used for outsourcers to multiply what you are doing.

(If you are working for someone else and they pay you, do your best for them. BUT, when the whistle blows get working on your business.)

Build Your Business,
Sam Carrara

SC Marketing Education

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Do Your Kids Know Your Name?

Sam — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 05:07:04 +0000

Do you have kids? Even if you don’t, take what I say and apply it to your family (Spouse, pet, etc.).

Last post I talked about not having time. If you made all the money in the world and lost your kids would it be worth it? Are you spending any time with them? Is this the face you see?

Do your kids know your name? Not necessarily your first name like mine (Sam), but do they know who you are? Are you a stranger? (I know I have lots of questions.)

Spending time- Quantity versus Quality

Quality Time- Especially if you are limited on time, make the time count. Let them know you care about them and will protect them. Teach them something. At an early age read books to them. Fathers with girls- take the on dates even at an early age so they know the proper conduct expected. Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6 Invest time in them. I am not saying be their buddy and be slack on discipline.
Quantity Time- When you can spend the extra time with them. Before you know it they will be out of the house at school and later with their own family. If you feel like you are getting bored, change up the activity. Something new can be exciting to both you and them. It doesn’t have to cost money either. Go to a public park and take a walk, have a picnic or play on the playground. Above all else… Have Fun!

My Name Is Daddy,
Sam Carrara

SC Marketing Education

Upgrade your grill- Grill to the Max at:GrillAce.com

I Don’t Have Enough Time

Sam — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:48:37 +0000

Most people don’t like what they do for work! We all want to get ahead… or really slow down and enjoy life. A common comment is, “I Don’t Have Enough Time.”

Everyone has 24 hours in the day (unless its a 23 or 25 hour day when adjusting the clocks). How do you spend it? Typically it is spent:

Sleep- 8 hours
Shower & get ready for the day- 0.5 hours
Commute to work- 1.5 hours
Work- 8-9 hours
Meals- 1.5-2 hours

That is a total of 19.5 to 21 hours per day, leaving only 3 to 4.5 hours. That’s only the main tasks. Add in tasks like playing with kids, meal preparation, cleaning, extra long rush hour, clubs, workout, the list goes on and on; there is no time left.

So great, I’m depressed now that there is no hope… what was the point of this post?
During my commute I listen to recorded classes that teach me about marketing, language, mindset, etc. This way I take better advantage of my time- 1. Commuting and 2. Learning. Right now I’m working on learning Spanish (I’ll tell you more about that soon).

Here’s what you do:

Buy the MP3 player I talked about that I gave my wife in the post: New Years Trial- Exercise More (Part 2) OR one like it.
Then load it with information you want to learn. Watch these posts for suggestions.
Listen to it!

Successful People Take Action

Use your time wisely,
Sam Carrara

p.s. Was I too hard? Should I have sugarcoated this? I feel we need to just get real with ourselves!

SC Marketing Education

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