Joan Stewart, author of the Publicity Hound newsletter, writes:

Attention restaurants, chefs, foodies and anyone who wants to promote a fund-raising event that ties in with food.

Take a lesson from the Dairy Queen in Elgin, Illinois, which was featured last week on the news on WLS Channel 7, ABC's station in the Chicago market.

Owner Steve Gordon and son Greg did an in-studio demonstration of how to make DQ's new treat, the Waffle Bowl Sundae, at home. The segment showed Greg pouring batter on the waffle iron, as Steve provided step-by-step narration.

Sometimes I'm such an intolerant b*tch. I wanted to title this article "Dealing with Idiot Customers" but thought better of it.

I got this email from a customer who ordered a bio template from my how to write a bio service.

Barbra: I am afraid that this is simply not acceptable. In our previous communication I specifically pointed out what I needed in the bio and I expected you to provide the complete bio, not a template. Please send me the completed bio as we agreed upon or return the money back if you are not going to do this.

Of course, the first thing I did was refund her payment. No problem there. Then I considered what to write back. That's when Mean Intolerant Barbra popped up. She wanted to write:

I have issued your refund. And you are an idiot.

But fortunately Customer Service Barbra prevailed. She advised me to write:

Dear ________,

I have issued your refund. I'm sorry for the misunderstanding, but if you read the order page you will see that it is very clear that you are purchasing a template, not a custom written bio.

Best of luck to you,

Barbra

Because it's business, right? It doesn't hurt me to be nice about it. And hey, if I'm really honest about it...I've been in that customer's place too. I've misread things and made assumptions about what I'm getting for my money. So I got over myself and did my bit for peace (and customer service) today.

Cartoon by Dave Walker.

In an Adbusters magazine article called "my space" (pun intended) Eric Rumble quotes Sherry Turkle, director of MIT's Technology and Self program and author of Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet

"Our society tends toward a breathless techno-enthusiasm...The self that grows up with multitasking and rapid response measures success by calls made, emails answered, messages responded to."

Rumble asks if we are now focussing on "quantity over quality" and points out that the communication patterns we are increasingly getting used to online are oddly reminiscent of the way that advertisers target audiences.

"In essence, networking netizens are getting better and better at producing what amounts to 30-second spots about our states of mind, our ambitions, our whereabouts, our passions and obsessions."

He asks "is there a purpose to this new breed of online social network beyond data mining its membership?" (If you're not familiar with the term "data mining", here's a definition: Data mining is searching large volumes of data looking for patterns that accurately predict behavior in customers and prospects.)

Recently I discovered a nice little money maker that requires almost no work on my part. Sound too good to be true? Keep reading and I'll tell you about it.

I have a website called Become A Certifed Coach. As the name implies, it's a website providing information to people wanting to become a certified business or life coach. If you click over to the site, you'll see that the main focus is training courses and other tools for coach training.

Here's the hidden money part

According to my website statistics, of the 7000 or so unique visitors that the site gets each month, 5000 of those enter and exit on one particular page. And get this: that page has nothing to do with my coach training services.

Ever wondered if you could get Paypal to "talk" to Aweber... so when someone pays you in Paypal they get an automatic response through the Aweber autoresponder service?

Yes, you can do that. Here are step-by-step instructions on how to integrate Paypal with Aweber

Some ideas for using this feature include:

- Send post purchase email to customers
- Send out purchased information products automatically
- Semd customers email newsletters, etc

And if you're just getting started with Aweber, this article will help you the first time you attempt to set up an autoresponder in Aweber.

I picked up a copy of Adbusters magazine yesterday, and opened it to a page that asked in big bold letters:

Before chosing a brand, more and more consumers are asking critical questions.

"What are the politics behind this brand? How does it promote the values that I believe in? What does this brand really stand for?"

The answer, more often than not, is "Nothing...this brand stands for nothing!"

That got me thinking about the HomeBusinessWiz brand. I wrote about my intentions for HomeBusinessWiz way back when I started this site. Here's a summary:

Sometimes all it takes is a little twist to turn a pretty good story into a really great story with fabulous visuals and real media appeal.

When Dr. Ronald Henderson, owner of Healthy Smiles dental office in Dover, New Hampshire, planned a medical mission to Peru, his publicist came up with the perfect twist.

"We appealed to the community's heart and asked for donations in the form of toothbrushes, toothpaste, dental floss and mouthwash," publicist Traci Bisson of Bisson Barcelona said.

Local residents donated more than 1,300 toothbrushes and other dental supplies. That made a great photo and story. Healthy Smiles was featured on the front page of the Dover Community News and Fosters Daily Democrat and on two local radio stations.

On January 1, 2007 I wrote five "New Year's Intentions". Since today we are officially half-way through the year, I thought it would be interesting to check in on my progress (yikes!)

#1: Higher standards regarding work-life balance.

Goal: When I tell my husband how long I'll be up in the office, I will honor that time.

Progress: Good start, but still room for improvement.

#2: Change all my passwords and write them down.

Progress: Not done. Keep waiting for a quiet afternoon to do it (HA!)

#3: Streamline the things I am subscribed to.

Goal: Pare it down to about 25%.

Progress: Achieved and then some! I now subscribe to only 2 newsletters (used to be dozens) and have also unsubscribed from a multitude of other services. It feels great.

#4: Start several new blogs.

Progress: Achieved. And more importantly, I am posting regularly in those blogs as well.

#5: Devote more time to social justice initiatives.

Goal: Expand my reach to help others who don't have the economic advantages that western business people do.

Progress: Minimal. I did add the Kiva.org banner to all my websites.

Interesting that this is certainly the most important goal, but the one I did the least on. Hmmm.... what does that say about my priorities in relation to my values? To be fair, this is also a much larger goal than the others.

Revised goal: break original goal down into smaller, more manageable steps.

What about you?

Would checking in on your New Year's goals / intentions / resolutions mid-way through the year be a useful exercise for you? If so, please post a comment below. I'm interested to hear about your progress. And if you have any ideas about how to achieve my revised #5 goal, I welcome your suggestions.