2008 – Apple CEO Steve Jobs holds up the new MacBook Air after giving the keynote address at the Apple MacWorld Conference in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

“Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives,” Apple’s board said in a statement. “The world is immeasurably better because of Steve” (via AP)

Steve Jobs, co-founder and former CEO of Apple Inc., passed away on Wednesday, October 5th, 2011 at the age of 56. He is survived by his biological mother; his sister Mona Simpson; Lisa Brennan-Jobs, his daughter with Brennan; wife Laurene, and their three children, Erin, Reed and Eve.

Steve was born  on February 24th, 1955 in San Francisco, California.  Adopted as an infant by Paul and Clara (née Hagopian) Jobs, Steven Paul Jobs attended Homestead High School in Cupertino, California.  He begain working  as a high-school student, at Hewlett-Packard where he met Steve Wozniak.

After graduating from high school in 1972, Jobs attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon, but dropped out after one semester, returning to California in 1974. There he became a member of the Homebrew Computer Club with his friend Steve Wozniak, and also worked at Atari, where he and Wozniak created a circuit board for the video game Breakout.

Brash and innovative, Jobs changed the world as we know it. Bringing us  fun films like  Toy Story (Pixar Entertainment)  and  most notably, the personal computer as we know it now,  the Mac,  ipod, the iphone, the ipad … and so much more.  He told us what we needed, before we knew we needed it.  His history and biography are  written in more places than I can count.

He was an icon, a hero to an awesome boy and geeks the world over. To me he was an awesome individual, well spoken, empathetic, compassionate, honest. I had the profound privledge of meeting Steve Jobs late in my grad school years.  A two hour  “interview”  in which we discussed adoption, life and ethics. You see we were both born the same year, a continent apart,  both adopted and been through many of the same experiences.  Rattled by being in the same room (yeah I was a groupie) it wasn’t much of a true interview. It was so much better, a true conversation with the man, who  had brought so much technology into my life, who’d changed my life  with that technolgy, but with whom I shared so much life experience.   The full  discussion we had exists now only on some digital tapes,  since lost, but the highpoints still exist in my heart and in my mind.

These words from Steve Jobs at Stanford’s Commencement in 2005  hold such meaning….

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything—all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure—these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma—which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.”

There are days I feel like Dorothy. Stuck in Oz with the Wicked Witch of the West having called out her flying howler monkeys on me.  Those are the days, I stop the insanity here, and go out on the interwebz and catch up on my reading. I did just that this week and I think you’re all going to love this!

Back a few years ago, I read a little pink blog by another ‘southern’ woman. It was witty. It was pink. She talked about Fantasy Football.  I could relate. A mom, who understood and liked and actually played fantasy football! How cool was that?

I read her struggles, how she tried to battle the manic highs, the awful lows. I cried with her, and laughed my self silly at her antics. I kept reading.  I wasn’t the only one who read, clearly. One day, from what seemed to me on the outside, clear out of the blue, she started talking about the Wii Fit. And she didn’t just talk about it, she used it. By now, you might have guessed, I’m talking about Julie Maloney @Momspective.  If you don’t know Julie,  you need to get to know her at her.  Her blog should have a warning label that reads:

May cause  watery eyes, urinary incontenence, mood changes, terminal smile, hot flashes,  unusual thirst,  extrordinary thinking, and impulsive electronic envy

If you ever think you’re alone. Feeling fat, unloved, under appreciated, strung out on stress, taking prescribed medications that aren’t seeming to help, dash over to Julie’s blog and start reading.  You’ll find there a woman who says what you’ve been thinking. Who, through her words, tells the world the truth of the matter and doesn’t look back.

From her stripped bare honest posts on being bi-polar and some pretty awful episodes with meds that did more harm than good, to her somewhat irreverent reviews, Julie is the epitome of Remarkable Blogger©. She told me recently that with portion control and the WiiFit and EA Sports Active for cardio and strength training she’s managed to lose 101 pounds! Yep, and she’s blogged every minute of the path from Wii Mommies and on YouTube and Momspective.

Right now, Julie’s in a contest, sponsored by Sony and hoping to get a shot at the Grand Prize trip to Africa for the2010 FIFA World Cup Soccer game. Yeah, how crazy is that.  But Julie is in the top ten finalists! Which means, she’s got a real shot at winning this thing. So, I’m going to ask you to do me a favor here.  Head over to this post and leave a comment for her. And then (this is the really important part ‘yall)

Head over to twitter  and paste this tweet :

Support Julie Maloney in the Sony Style X10 Blogger Contest! #SONY http://discover.sonystyle.com/x10 #Julie2FIFA http://bit.ly/dAXtwV

The contest is over next week and Julie needs and appreciates all the comments, tweets and support we can give her!  Lets tell Julie to “Go To Africa” !  She’s promised me a picture with a monkey if she wins and  ‘yall know I love monkeys!

Meanwhile, keeping up with her antics on twitter, facebook and her blog are something you must do, she keeps it real. And folks, she’s one of the finest people you’ll ever want to be associated with.  I’m honored and privleged to call her ‘friend’. And if there’s not a book in this blog, I’ll eat my hat!

It seems the issue of blogs, stats and traffic is on many people’s minds, particularly new bloggers. Though PR and companies might be starting to shy away from the review/giveaway model to some extent, most still require bloggers to give their traffic and follower information in the application process to participate in many campaigns. Stats are important, to a point. They reveal a piece of the puzzle that is influence and reach, but not enough to get an idea of the finished picture. Making stats the sole determining factor for working with a company is doing a disservice to the blogging community in more ways than one.

A blogger IS more than their stats

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it as many times as I need to until companies get it: blog traffic and followers are not the only way to measure influence! So many people wear multiple hats that make them more than qualified to work with a company or brand. We’re PTA presidents, scout/troop leaders, room parents, book club members and active within our local social media circles. What good is having thousands of followers if none of them are really listening, or, more importantly, are the type to take action on the message?

Stats aren’t always accurate

They can be inflated – Many bloggers who hold contests on their site make subscribing to their feed, following them on Facebook and/or Twitter, or becoming a Google Friend a requirement of entry. Those blogs typically have high numbers, but not always an engaged audience. “Drive by” traffic is great in the short term but I’d much rather have a smaller audience who actively converses with me than one who only check in when they want what I have.

They can be automated – How about people who follow anyone who follows them? Auto follows? I’m reluctant to give out my Twitter follower numbers because they’re too high. I can honestly say I don’t converse with half of them despite my asking repeatedly for new followers to introduce themselves so we can properly get to know one another.

They can be manipulated – With so many different monitoring services (Google Analytics, Sitemeter, Get Clicky); it’s really easy for a blogger to choose the numbers that show their site in its most flattering light.  There are even how to articles on purposely inflating blog stats and subscriber numbers! (links provided to illustrate, do not use these methods to manipulate your stats or numbers, like all unethical tactics it’ll bite you in the backside!)

Segments of the blogging community are overlooked

There are many great blogs whose authors have clear voices, great writing and content and an actively engaged audience but low blog numbers. Dad bloggers, grandparents, gay/lesbian and even non-parents bloggers have just as valuable a voice as moms, but they are often overlooked because “mommy-bloggers” are the marketing group du jour. Savvy Auntie is a site specifically for people who are influential in the lives of children but who aren’t parents themselves. At last year’s BlogHer conference, Heather said (I’m paraphrasing), “just because I’m not a mom doesn’t mean I don’t Swiffer too.” Heather has her own blog and has written 200 posts for the BlogHer network. How is Heather not influential?

PR Reps For Brands Are Creating Eliteism and Unnecessary Jealousy

Smaller blogs are often left out of PR and marketing opportunities. Without numbers to back them up, they are caught in a cycle where they can’t participate in a good, high profile campaign but being part of that campaign could be just the thing that helps their blog grow. Such campaigns are great for a blogger’s resume and can open doors to sponsorships, brand advocacy, advertising or other paid opportunities. Those who do get to participate are often elevated to an elite status. It creates a sense of “haves and have not’s” which breeds animosity in a community that prides itself on being inclusive and helping one another succeed. If the same circle of people is continually presented with the same opportunities, the message will, gasp! Sound the same. Fresh voices and new perspectives should be important to a brand but seems to get overlooked in favor of how many eyeballs will be exposed to the message.

Blog stats are important, but they shouldn’t be the only metrics used to create marketing campaigns. I’m not suggesting an appliance manufacturer give a brand new blogger an entire kitchen suite, but, for instance, there could be someone who going through a remodel who would provide just as accurate a review as another blogger. Companies, marketers and brands have so many ways to see who is talking about them. Twitter Search, Social Mention, Google Alerts and Who’s Talkin are great (and free!) tools that can help find people who are already talking about their product and service.

My best (unsolicited) advice to those in the PR sphere is this:

-Listen to the conversations, participate and get bloggers involved in campaigns at their inception, not just at the pitch stage.

-If you’ve worked with a blogger successfully before, ask for referrals.

-Think outside the box: can your campaign be multi-layered? The 2008 model of sample as reward is far from viable in and of itself . Make your Campaign work. For you, the blogger and your BRAND.

I wish I had the answer as to how reach and influence can be measured in other ways besides only using stats. Every blog has to start somewhere. Today’s relatively unknown can quickly become tomorrow’s insert-alpha-blog-list-here power player. Wouldn’t it be nice to know you helped that person get there?

Holly Homer (@Texas Holly) Shauna Callaghan and Jay have stayed up late and collaborated to bring some sanity to the blogging world through Business 2 Blogger.

The thought behind this is sort of ‘leveling’ the field, as I see it anyway. They’re a free service to bloggers, and businesses alike. They provide access to paid writing opportunities, that most of you didn’t know were available until they were gone.  But the key feature is that you DON’T HAVE TO BE  AN A-LISTER TO GET AN OPPORTUNITY. You do need to keep up with your emails from them, because the opps go fast! If you accept an opp and follow through properly, do honest and forthright  reviews, your chances at future opportunites should grow!

Now all this sounds easy enough right? After all, you’ve signed up everywhere else and felt left out because you’re not “hot” enough in the blogging world. Well Holly, Shauna and Jay have solved your problem. Solved it IF AND ONLY IF YOU follow through. (From personal experience with bloggers I can tell you most of you don’t follow through.) So you’re being offered a chance, a grand chance..Get over there and sign up. Watch your email for notices from Jay (I dare you not to giggle at least when you read them, he’s very funny!)

Now you’re not left hanging when you sign up. First don’t worry about being spammed a thousand times a day. There are specific Terms of Service for both bloggers and businesses to follow.  They even include the FTC disclosure policy for all bloggers to use on all campaigns and even provide a video and some examples of how to write a disclosure policy. This is all too easy folks. The rules are straightforward and easy to follow.  The only thing standing in the way of your success with this program is YOU.

Now, are you going to make a fortune by using this service? Probably not. But being in touch and getting to know advertisers and pr folks is vital and YOU will need to grow the relationship. It is a two way street.  Remember …It’s about the conversation!

That being said, there are some ways and gadgets that I, for one, depend on to stay focused and complete projects so my business stays afloat (which is always a good thing).  Allow me to share some with you:

1) Most important item to me is my planner and I don’t mean digital, I mean my Franklin with real paper! I find that the act of physically writing something down helps me remember that it exists. For some reason, if it’s digital it doesn’t seem real to me.
2) My iPod helps me tune out distractions. With kids running about, it’s extremely difficult to stay focused on writing and or work and not being able to hear the nonsense helps immensely.
3) Keep lists, goals, and vision boards clearly within view. It’s all too easy to forget what’s important and what you’re working toward. Reminders that each day you need to take action and move toward that goal are of utmost importance in staying focused.
4) If you need to use a timer like you would for a child and work in set amounts of time (Remember? I have the attention span of rodent). Setting timers, especially helps with the jobs that are most tedious and nightmarish (like filing).
5) Likely the most effective habit is also nearly impossible for some of us to pull off…  Work OFFLINE! There are just FAR too many distractions to that wonderful world that is the Internet. Fall back on that timer if need be to control this. Good luck, I’ve yet to accomplish this one.

These seem like simple concepts and something common sense would tell you to do, but it’s often easier said than done, at least for the attentionally challenged. We’re not wired like other people and struggle with some of these simple concepts, but using these little strategies can make a huge difference in our work and our success.

To me the only difference was the office would be attached to my home.  I set up the extra bedroom with all the necessary equipment, you know – the fax machine, telephone, computer, printer, file cabinet, and playpen.

The first day I woke early, popped out of bed, put on the coffee, threw some quiche in the oven and took a quick shower.  Then I dressed in my favorite suit, threw on the make-up and dashed back to the kitchen before the buzzer went off on the oven and woke my toddler.

I walked into my office with high hopes that the ads I had placed would pay off and I would be flooded with in-coming calls.  The phone sat dormant on the desk while I filed paperwork and straightened my desk a dozen times. I figured I could get a lot done before Kiersten woke up. That lasted until I dropped a paperweight on my foot and I let out a blood-curdling scream.

So, I moved on to plan B.  I hopped on one foot down the hall, retrieved the baby, did the mommy thing and rushed back to the office with her bouncing on my hip.  I wasn’t concerned.  After all, I had a reputation for being on top of things.  I could handle anything.  I put Kiersten in the playpen, loaded her down with toys and finally plunked down in the swivel chair to begin my day.  That’s when the phone rang.  I smiled as I snatched the phone up.

“Hello?”

“Tammy?  This is Tom Hutchins.  I saw your ad and…”

Ha!  A potential client.  This was going to be easier than I’d hoped.  I leaned back in my chair and woosh…back I flew, landing head first into the playpen.  I had forgotten to put the rest of the bolts in the backrest.  My head smacked hard into the frame.  I yelped and Kiersten began to wale in fear.

“Is that a baby?”  Tom asked as if he just took a big swig of dill pickle juice.

I lurched to my feet and ran, blood dripping out into the hall.

“A baby?”  I said as I thought wildly for a plausible explanation for a wailing sound in a professional setting.  “That…uh…oh no. Ummm.”  Fake laugh here.  “No, that’s just a police siren.”  The phone went dead.

For the rest of the day I entertained Kiersten with silly songs  to keep her content while I held an ice pack on my head and typed with my feet.  I let the voice mail pick up the phone calls, all two of them.  I figured I could call them back when she took a nap.  Of course, she refused to lie down.

The next day I woke up, stumbled to the kitchen, micro-waved the left over coffee, gulped it down with 2 ibuprofen, ran a washcloth over my face and eased my black and blue butt into the office chair that was now bolted to the floor.  While staring glassy eyed at the phone and willing it to ring, the dog chewed a hole in the mesh of the play pen to retrieve his chew toy that Kiersten was chewing and they both escaped to destroy what I had once called the living room.

The third day I woke up, marched into the kitchen, slammed some coffee down my throat and called a baby sitter to come and play with Kiersten and the dog while I went into my office and continued to stare at the phone.  No one called.

The forth day I woke up, made instant coffee and threw the phone out the window.

I learned a few things that first week in business at home.  First, I am not super-human.  I get to call for help when I want or need it.  Second, check your chair before sitting down.  Third, only place Ads where your target market will see them.

The first plug-in, I found at Remarkablogger. Michael always posts the BEST tips and this time he had Ari Herzog guest post about a wonderful plug in from Joost deValk. I get the newsletter from Yoast.com, but apparently this little goodie slid right past me!  Its called Comment Redirect Plug-in and this perfectly named plug in is available through WordPress.org.   As you would imagine, comments are what keeps a blog going, as Ari says “its the lifeblood”.  I love comments, myself. And I try my darnest to reply to each of them, sometimes though, my reply is delayed because I’m out of the office, away from the computer or enjoying a day off (those are rare).  What this little plug-in does is thank your commenter for adding value to your blog. Immediately.  I’ll point you to my own little thank you, that I derived from looking at some others pages. (Hat tip to Ari for the inspiration) If for example you had never left a comment on this site before and you selected any post to leave a comment, you’d arrive at the thank you page.  Nifty eh?  Yes, you have to do a little work,besides downloading and installing the plug-in. You’ll need to write that thank you page, eliminate it from your navigation and post it. But its truly a very simple way to thank your readers from the minute they leave a comment!  You can always update the information on the page just like any other page, it’s your blog after all! A great big thanks to Michael @remarkablogger,  Ari, and of course to Joost, for making my crazy life a little easier!

Next I had written last year, about adding numbers to your wordpress comments and so many things within WordPress have changed, that the instructions were some what antiquated and just didn’t work any more.Enter, Gregs Threaded Comment Numbering. This plug-in works straight out of the shoot for ease of operation, or you can tweak it a bit (if you’re a code junkie) and get your comments numbered easily three levels deep!  It’s also available at WordPress.org for free download.  Greg has several linked articles about the plug in and its development and use. Though there’s no ‘formal’  free support. You’re likely to find your answer within the comments and questions about the plug-in.

The last plug-in I found was again a development of Joost deValk. And honestly came after I futtzed enough with my robots.txt, that I wanted to pull my hair out. Easily enough, the plug-in that Joost developed for handling  your robots.txt from within WordPress, Meta Robots WordPress plugin has its own settings page, where you can select recommended changes to your robots.txt file that will prevent indexing of your search result pages, while still allowing the search engines to follow the links on them, by adding noindex,follow robots meta tags.  It adds in a radio button selection to each post/page so as you write you can decide and use the appropriate choice for your own blog.

Within the options, you can edit your robots.txt and .htaccess from within your WordPress installation.  Important to remember “The Meta Robots plugin got it’s name because it adds robots meta tags to the <head> section of your HTML, the function to edit the .htaccess file and the robots.txt files were added later, but none of the settings will make changes to these files.” Joost has a handy video to explain how the plug in works on his site as well!

So there you have it three great time savers! Little admin tasks that you can easily handle in an afternoon, really no more than 30 minutes!  And an added treat for each of these is that they are free! Have you come across a great time saving plug in? Tell us about it!

The main topics that present themselves to every home officer are: Location and size, Organization, planning / budget, furnishings and equipment.   Although it would be easy to list these one by one and describe what each one requires lets look at it as a story since life is rarely so cut and dried as a list.

An office space could be anywhere in your home and any size. Some artists of the past had large elaborate studios while painter‘s such as Magritte painted in a small space in the corner of his bedroom. What works for you? Need privacy, a quiet place or access to power and internet. Think about the office and how it will be used at all times of the day and night. Do you have lots of equipment and supplies or is it just a laptop? Immerse yourself in what you do and how you do it and the concept for your office will come alive. Don’t worry if their are conflicts, this thinking process will help define which things are the most important to you.

When your office has found a home in your home begin to think about organization. Some of us are naturally neat and others are just fine with a mess. In either case here is how to look at organization; organization means productivity. If you can find it and access it chances are you will spend less time with your tools and more time doing what it is you do. You might need an elaborate filing system or a simple wall of shelves, the key is find-ability and usability.

Next is the “plan”. Your NHO is comprised of two things, 1) a truly functional space and 2) style.Function is obvious but what role does style play? In one sense it’s the decor, colors etc. but there is also a functional aspect to style. If you are easily distracted then a minimalist space might be in order but if you thrive on Victorian clutter and want little mementos that remind you of what and why you are doing your thing, that’s your style. What works for you? That’s the one you should choose. Here is where you should begin to think about budget. How much can you spend or will you spend. Sometimes this is where people get stuck but I recommend the rinse and repeat method till you get it fine-tuned and on budget. ( I recommend you never start with budget, because you will lose the vision in the numbers. )

Once you know your budget it will much easier to select those pieces of furniture and equipment that are necessary to your success. If you’re not sure what all of your needs are, then get started and add items as you go just remember to allocate space for it now if you think you will need it later.

Take a look at these office styles for inspiration:

• On the extreme end: http://www.biscade.com/office/
• The minimalist approach: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2010/02/a-showcase-of-minimalist-workstations/
• How “some” of the famous do it: http://lifehacker.com/5367129/nine-workspaces-where-famous-folks-get-stuff-done

If you google “home office ideas” or “home office pictures” you will get quite an array.
The real challenge is how to narrow the focus down to what defines and works for you.
The biggest mistake people make when it comes to designing physical spaces is trying to pick something “off the shelf” that has worked for someone else. They do this because something about the way it looks is attractive but the key is to know “why” it looks that way. Trying to embrace ideas that aren’t yours will always throw you off and force values on you that aren’t yours.

The online world offers so many distractions these days. From social sites to blogs we love to read and games we could play all night, we’re bombarded with things to do. For me, email is a big one. At any given time I can have from five to thirty unread emails in my inbox, alongside another ten or fifteen I’ve starred for future attention. It eats at me.

Knowing there is unread email waiting for me is like a kid knowing there’s a package from grandma in the mailbox. It’s simply torture not to check it.

And so, I’ve had to set up some rules for myself.

I check email first thing in the morning, from my phone. Replying to email from my phone takes a while, and isn’t all that convenient. So, I’m less likely to attempt it. Instead I quickly scan the message, delete the junk, and flag the important ones as items that need my attention. By the time I log-on to my computer, after breakfast, my email has been sorted and I don’t feel the pressure to open my email then get lost in it.

As soon as my son goes down for a nap I try to take a chunk of time to go back and respond to the important items I marked earlier in the morning, and quickly sort anything new that has come in. When the already marked items are taken care of I make myself do nothing more than scan the new ones, saving the things that can wait for the next day. And, I try to do this from my phone instead of my computer. By only allowing myself to scan quickly, and put off for a later, scheduled time, I avoid spending ten minutes here or half an hour there (which starts adding up quickly!) responding to email.

Keeping my email accounts separate also helps me with the scanning and prioritizing. I know with clients like gmail offering to keep track of everything in one place it’s tempting to pull it all in. However, I have set up separate accounts for a reason… I don’t want the grocery store‘s newsletter cluttering my company email inbox, nor do I want the general chit-chat emails from friends in the same account that holds my accounting emails.

I use Thunderbird‘s desktop client to download and sort all of my email into corresponding accounts and folders. If I see that I have one unread message in account A (personal) it’s much easier to ignore that than if I see one in account C which is business, and could be time sensitive. Also, finding emails I’ve accidentally deleted, or looking up something I sent is easier if I know which account it was sent to or from.

By managing the time wasters we free up our time to work on things that are important to us. Whether it’s the instant messenger, the Twitter application, or email, I challenge you to set times for using these tools… used correctly they can be powerful tools for productivity. Without check, they’ll quickly suck the time out of our day.

What’s your biggest time waster and how do you manage it?

Erica Mueller is a work from home entrepreneur. She loves being able to help people with their websites, do some graphic design, blog, and network while spending valuable time with her three year old son. You can find her talking tech at EricaSays.com, on Twitter @EricaMueller or staring out the window, hoping for sunshine in north east Texas.