The resolution is to figure out what’s wrong with my new computer – it won’t allow me to view any of my own domains, including this one. That means I have to go to this old computer to post.

And the reason I got a new one is because this one is slowly fading away… it takes about 10 minutes now just to open up and get here.

So – no matter how many places I have to call or how many hours I need to spend – I WILL solve this problem.

To date, I’ve spent about 40 hours on it – and all I know so far is that there’s some kind of incompatibility with GoDaddy, Wild Blue, HP, Firefox, and/or Netgear. It may have something to do with an IP address – or maybe not.

Since I’m no techie, I keep trying to find someone who is and who will say “Oh, I know what causes that. Here’s what to do.”

Wish me luck.

More resolutions:

Since New Year’s Day is likely to be slow in terms of communicating with my clients, I’m going to spend it getting organized. Cleaning out useless old emails, making a clean list of user names and passwords (in place of notes written every which way) and getting rid of the clutter that surrounds my desk.

I know I’ll feel better.

Now, what are YOU going to do?

It’s fun to get surprises in my mailbox, and it’s fun to try new products. So if I see a free sample offer and I have a little time, I follow up.

Recently, however, I’ve started clicking away instead of clicking through.

Why? Because the sites offering free samples are asking me for permission to post to Facebook – as me.

Today I realized that I must not have noticed one of those, because I went to a friend’s Facebook page and saw a post with my name on it… and I hadn’t put it there.

I wrote and apologized to her, but how many other people should I be writing?

So… be careful. Stop and read before you say OK.

Offer a free download – promising 30 pages of information they can use. Then deliver 30 pages of 24 point type that tells them why they want your information – and offers to sell it to them.

SELL them a product - one that tells them they need another product in order to realize their dreams.

The gist of the article was that real estate agents needed to be thinking about mobile marketing. And although all I want from a phone is the ability to send or receive a phone call, I suppose that’s true. I’m not typical.

That wasn’t shocking. It was the statistics they shared that shocked me.

According to this report, 1.4 billion mobile phones have been sold during the past 12 months, and 78% of the world’s population has a mobile phone.

Really? All those millions of starving people we see on TV are carrying mobile phones? I already knew that our government would provide one for you for free if you’re on welfare, but didn’t know that went on world-wide.

Maybe it’s just that there are a whole lot of people who carry 2 or 3 different cell phones. One for business, one for family, one for everything else.

I don’t know…

But that wasn’t the real shocker…

It went on to say that there are 750 million vehicles in the world today, 1 billion landlines, and 2+ billion television sets.

That isn’t the shocker either. Do you need a cell phone or a toothbrush more?

Here it is:

4.2 billion toothbrushes are used daily and
5.3 billion mobile phones

1.1 billion more people carry a cell phone than use a toothbrush.

So all I can say is that it’s a good thing those folks are on the phone. You wouldn’t want to talk to them in person with their stinky breath!

What’s the difference? We’ll have to assume that those who don’t blog have either

• Built a strong referral base
• Use other methods, such as pay-per-click to drive traffic to their web sites, or
• Advertise heavily in more traditional ways.

No matter how you look at it, you have to do something to make yourself visible to future clients.

I happen to think blogging is a good way to do that for a couple of reasons.

First, if you blog on a platform such as Active Rain, you get the benefit of their “authority” position with the search engines. The links you send back to your site with every post help make your site more popular and thus it ranks higher in search.

Second, your blog is an extension of your agent bio, or profile.

As such, it allows your future clients an insight into who you are and how you do business.

I read blog posts on Active Rain in order to stay up to date with the real estate market across the country – and in the months I’ve been doing so, I’ve formed some strong impressions of various agents.

Some are self-centered and arrogant – I wouldn’t choose to do business with them.

Some quite obviously do whatever is necessary to help their clients – I would choose them.

In other words, your blog gives you the opportunity to show the world your attitude, your work ethic, and even your empathy toward the rest of the human race.

In a time when trust is such an important component of our various businesses, I think blogging is more necessary than merely nice.

It’s good that there’s a day to call attention to how much we affect the world and people around us, but it would be even better if we’d remember every day.

So today, give it some thought. If you’re going out and about, remember to give a “free smile” to everyone you meet. Stop and hold the door for someone. Pay a compliment. Let someone get in line ahead of you.

If you’re staying home, think about re-using or recycling something you’d normally toss. Take time to make a quick phone call to someone who might be lonely. Cook a special treat for your spouse, kids, parents, siblings, or a friend.

Wherever you are today, there’s something you can do to make a difference. So be creative, have fun with it… and then do it again tomorrow!

So if you’re working in a niche that causes you to emotionally react in a negative way, you’re bringing misery upon yourself.

If you’re dealing with short sales, divorce, or death, give this some thought.

Are you able to feel good about the service you provide to people in pain – and then go home and feel gratitude for your own life?

Or, are you thinking too much about the pain your clients are experiencing? Are you “taking on their pain” and putting your own happiness in peril?

Think about this.

Mental stress can cause physical illness as well as it can turn you into a sour, negative person. That’s not good for you or for the people who love you.

If your niche is making you sick, there are only two solutions:

• Learn to detach your own emotions from those of your clients
• Choose a more upbeat niche

You do owe it to yourself to enjoy your work. And you owe it to your friends and family.

So think about it…

And yet…

Let me share three examples from my own mailbox this week.(Because I think it’s fun to get unexpected things in the mail, and because I’m not a fan of television, I do spend a couple of hours every week looking at offers and sending for samples.)

1. First to arrive was a sample of bulbs – some kind of lily. And included in the package was a little brown envelope labeled “zucchini.” I haven’t opened it, but it feels like it contains seeds for next spring’s garden.

There’s no brand label on either the little plastic bag with the bulbs or the seeds. There’s no advertisement telling me where I can buy more. There’s no web address included with the return address on the padded envelope.

2. Next is a nice “Mouse rug” from mouserug.com. They sent it as a thank you gift for liking them on Facebook. The letter enclosed is a thank you and an explanation of their eco-friendly manufacturing method.

The contact information is all there, along with a request to mention them to my friends.

3. A coupon for Open Nature Ice Cream from Safeway. The full color flier tells me that this ice cream is 100% natural, made from milk from cows not treated with rBST.

In order to claim this free sample, I have to go into their store and present the coupon.

Which of these promotions will actually cause the giver to gain more business?

My guess is only the Safeway promotion.

The folks who sent the bulbs haven’t even told me who they are or what else they have to offer.

The mouse pad people sent a wonderful gift, but how many mouse pads does a person need? Yes, I might tell my friends, but…

But… when I walk into a Safeway store to claim my free ice cream, chances are I’ll buy more things. AND… if the ice cream is good, chances are I’ll buy more of it in the future.

So, before you decide to give a free sample, think about your return on investment. It’s nice to have people like you, but that doesn’t pay the mortgage!

P.S. I don’t know if that offer is still going on, but check Safeway’s Facebook page to see!

And of course we all know about Bernie Madoff.

The interesting thing about all of them is that the perpetrators preyed on people in their own section of the community. Madoff preyed on Jews, in Idaho Falls the victims and the crook were Mormons, in Spokane it’s the Jehova Witnesses.

But still, why did people fall for this? If someone came to me, especially in this economy, and promised a 40-60% annual return on my investment, I’d laugh before I walked away.

You HAVE to know that’s a scam.

Meanwhile, on a smaller scale, people world-wide are falling for an equally implausible scheme.

Again today I got an email telling me that some company would set up a money-making website for me. It would start right in and make money while I sleep. Shoot, by the time a couple of months was out, I’d have every debt I owe paid off – including my home mortgage.

Yeah sure. If that website would actually make money, they wouldn’t be offering to sell it to me – not even if the price was $5,000. They sure wouldn’t sell it for a hundred or two.

We all have hope, and we probably all have a bit of greed. On top of that, we’d all love some passive income rolling in day after day.

But before we jump into anything at all, we have to stop and ask ourselves if the claim is reasonable.

In my experience, anything that says “no work involved” is not reasonable. It’s a scam.

Since I don’t turn on the TV in the morning nor listen to the radio when I drive, I heard when I walked into my office that morning.

We had no TV in the office, so all were gathered around the radio, and soon agents were leaving for home to stay glued to the television.

Did you know who Osama Bin Laden was before that? I didn’t. I was like so many others who paid no attention to what went on in other parts of the world. And… I assumed that our military and our intelligence agencies would keep us safe.

We had airline tickets for September 14 – we were going to Colorado to see our son on his birthday. Instead we drove, and I remember how eerie it seemed because the skies were quiet.

Before then, I had never noticed the sound from airplanes. But when it was absent, I noticed.

Driving through towns, we saw flags everywhere – and young people standing along streets holding flags and signs supporting America. For that moment in time, we were all in agreement.

Hopefully, we are still in agreement when we pay tribute to those who died – and special tribute to those first responders who risked everything to try to save survivors.

I feel ashamed of our government for not honoring those first responders on this day, and I feel sure that I join with the majority of American citizens as I pay tribute to them.

But they aren’t the only ones. My respect and thanks also goes out to those who worked tirelessly for days on end – hoping against hope to find just one more survivor.

We have a multitude of problems to solve in our country, but we can do it. We’ve done it before and we’ll do it again – because Americans don’t give up.

God Bless America.