I don’t usually write about my personal life but it’s a new year with new changes so there’s no time like the present to do something different.

In writing my post about cutting back on business expenses it hit me that I haven’t traveled for business since April 2006. WOW, just wow! Where did the time go?! Somehow I just didn’t realize that is has been that MANY years since I’ve traveled for business… quite honestly, that stinks.

As mentioned in my post below, last year was tough, personally, which of course affected my business and income; more than I care to admit. But rather than stew on the past I am looking forward to refocusing this year and getting my business back on track.

In evaluating everything I’ve come to realize one of the biggest things I am missing is my network of friends. They are still there and have always been it was me that went through some major changes and pulled back on everything and everyone. With a new perspective and finally realizing what I am missing, I’ve decided I need to make a true effort to make it to Affiliate Summit East in May. And, if I can pull it off, Pubcon Vegas in October.  I miss my friends, I miss networking and I miss loving my work. My creative streak has been on pause for far too long. When you are miserable on the inside it tends to carry over into your work and affects every aspect in your life in one way or another. Life’s too short to be miserable every day. Being a single mom to three kids and having custody of my 4-year-old nephew is hard work but I’m not miserable. Maybe stressed some days (ha!) but definitely not miserable like I was.

Last night I started looking at cheap tickets and it’s totally doable to do both conferences. The conferences are worth ten times more than the cost of going when you reconnect with old friends, meet new contacts and come home energized and ready to start or continue a new project.  The biggest obstacle is coercing my mom to come babysit the kids but thankfully she’s always been very supportive of my business.

Taking a hard look at yourself is never an easy task that much I can tell you. But I’m better for it. I can see clearly now where I made mistakes and where I want to go. It often takes something huge in life to make you take a step back and re-evaluate your life. I’m only sorry that it had to take so much to get my attention. So, if you are on the fence about some big changes take control before they take control for you. Now, on a positive note, below are the friends I miss the most!

The people I miss & want to see:

I’ve had the pleasure of rooming with Lynn a few times and it was fabulous! Work talk, girl talk and everything in between. I’m determined to room with her again at some point in the near future. It’s scary how alike we are in some ways.

Shannon has been a dear friend for years (and also a roomie). We may not talk everyday but she’s always been there. In fact, I call her my Zen friend. She’s always calm, cool and collected and I love that about her.

Rae, there’s just too much to say. We go back years and years. The things we know about each other… Well, let’s just leave it there. Seriously though, she hates praise but she’s amazing in all that she does and I’m glad (and thankful) to know her.

This by far is not everyone but they are my top three. I can’t even list all the people that I hope to meet in the future, there are many.

Here’s to knocking the crap out of 2012.

We are racing upon that dreadful time of year – TAX TIME. Thankfully I have been better about keeping track of my business expenses this year, so I don’t expect it to be as bad as it has in years past.

Anyway, as I was going over my papers and receipts to get ready for tax time I realized there are more than a few things I could live without. Last year was a hard one personally with many changes which ultimately affected my business. One of those changes is a divorce, which in my case does happen to be a good thing. But as you might expect it meant crunch time. I had to take a hard look at my expenses and see which ones I could live without and which ones were a must.

What to Toss & What to Keep

I am a BlackBerry addict. My life is in my phone. Giving up my T-Mobile Broadband was not an option. And, besides, I have a grandfathered rate that is cheaper than someone signing up today. While looking at my expenses, I finally got smart and added insurance for my BlackBerry which costs around $8 a month. You might be wondering, how is that saving but trust me it is. I’ve been known to get my BB wet and I’ve also been known to pay over $400 for a replacement. With insurance, the replacement is $90. It was less than a week after I signed up for the extra insurance that I dropped my phone in the bathtub < /true story>. See? Totally worth it.

That said, in some instances, jumping the gun may not be a good thing. Before you get cancel happy to save a buck make sure you won’t be screwing yourself up later if you ultimately realize you need that item or service but now you won’t get the pricing you had before canceling.

These items will vary depending on your line of business of course but I took a look at the services I was signed up for but wasn’t using. For instance I have an account with Aweber but I hadn’t used it in a while. They had an option to put my service on hold for a minimal fee until I was ready to use it. The best part is I get to keep my discounted pricing when I am ready to use the service again (which happens to be now).

Another thing I was forced to look at was the domain names I owned. There were so many that I never used and so many that made me wonder what the heck I was thinking about when I bought them in the first place. I said goodbye to several of them and I can’t tell you the relief I feel. For me, 2012 is all about making money and focus.

This one was most painful for me, being a book hoarder and all, but I stopped buying business books. If it isn’t a book I need right now, for something specific than I don’t buy it. The library is right by my house – in walking distance – so if I need a book that badly I can borrow it. I’m not going to touch on returning them on time, that’s another story. I didn’t say I got organized overnight.

This is a total aside but goes in hand in hand because I find I work better with a cup of coffee. Another huge money saver for me is buying a bag of coffee from Dunkin Donuts rather than buying a cup of coffee every day. My butt is as thankful as my bank account.

So there you have it – in some instances you can add a service that will save you money later, some things you can put on hold or cancel altogether and even some things that you can find an alternative to such as the coffee I mentioned above. I was resistant at first because no one wants to give up things they like but when you really start taking a close look you aren’t giving up as much as you may have thought.

Chrissie Cole is a freelance writer for various blogs, including Speedy Incorporation, which helps new small business owners incorporate online as well as offering advice and information about running their business successfully via their small business blog.

**Update at the bottom**

Dell has got to be the worst company I have ever had the pleasure of dealing with. I have never been so frustrated in all my life.

The nightmare started about four weeks ago when a good friend tried to buy me a Dell laptop. It didn’t arrive on the first delivery date so she called and re-ordered it. On the second delivery date, still no laptop. I told her to cancel the order and save her money. I wasted two whole days waiting for a package that never arrived.

But, the thing is… as mad as I am, I need the damn thing at the same time. I make my living online. And well, life is incredibly shitty at the moment. So to have a friend try to buy you a laptop, well, that just doesn’t happen very often.

After hearing of the #Dell hell I was going through, my mom kindly decides she will order me the laptop using her Dell credit line. Rather than having me pay for it with two of my own credit cards. The order went through fine. Only they put her through hell to verify that she is who she says she is. Okay, fine. But during the process they tell her she didn’t properly confirm her own information – AND THEY CANCELED THE ORDER. Are you kidding me? Someone can steal your identity easier than you can prove you are you. So my mom felt horrible, kept apologizing and none of it was her fault. She tried.

After my cousin (who is also my best friend) hears about the madness she declares it ridiculous and she orders the laptop. Seriously, who has three people willing to help them get a laptop? To that note, I’m lucky. But you have to know the order didn’t go through. After 15 phone calls, which included a so-called supervisor we got nowhere. Although she jumped through every hoop that was asked of her – DELL CANCELED THE DAMN ORDER. She had to go through another TEN phone calls to make sure it would stay canceled and that her bank account wouldn’t be charged.

While this is happening, my mom calls back excited to say Dell called her and confirmed her information and the laptop is on the way. The three of us had a hard time being happy at this point – it should NOT BE THIS HARD TO BUY SOMETHING.

The very next day my cousin notices that her bank account has been charged and the fucking laptop was being processed for shipping. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? After we were promised the charge WOULD NOT go through. She was mad, I was mad and here we were again.

In the meantime, the order my mom placed is on hold yet AGAIN. And now I want it canceled. Dell can go straight to hell. I have never dealt with such bad company service in all of my life. Nor have I put my friends through this kind of hell to help me with something I couldn’t do for myself at the moment.

So now, my cousin has her laptop arriving today; a laptop that wasn’t supposed to be charged. And I am canceling my order. I don’t want a Dell laptop and they can go die. My measly cancellation will not faze them I know. If Dell cared about their customers it wouldn’t be this hard to purchase something in the first place. The best part is I condensed this nightmare. It was way more detailed than I have the time or care to write about. I’ve wasted enough time and those of my friends and family with Dell.

Moral of the story – Dell sucks. Their customer service is shitty and the offshore support they have is a JOKE. I usually don’t write about my personal problems in detail and don’t plan to start today… But the last few months of my life have been horrific . And here I am with three people trying to help me make one part of that better and even that has to turn into a colossal mess because Dell can’t handle their shit. So thank you Dell for royally screwing me.

But, now that I am done feeling sorry for myself I will just buy a Toshiba or HP laptop. Rot in Hell Dell.

Update: A big thank you to John @ Dell. After a couple emails back and forth I feel better about the situation. I still find it ridiculous that it got so out of hand, but he helped to make it better and I appreciate that. One of the issues was a price discrepancy that has been fixed and credited. All of Dell does not suck :)

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

I am going to get right to the point. Have you heard of the WP Affiliate Guide? If so, you know its a fabulous must have product for all bloggers. If you have not, I suggest you get it as soon as you can. It’s only $34.95. The cost of a few Starbucks ;)

Why am I so fond of the WP Affiliate Guide? A few reasons. The creator, Teli Adlam, is brilliant. The guide itself is easy to read, easy to understand and lacks fluff. I happen to hate fluff. Tell me what I need to know and let me get down to business, this guide does just that.

And it is comes with many *awesome* and helpful bonuses. A rundown of the bonuses are below:

* WordPress Mini Site Report and Theme: This is a short report explaining how to build a lazy affiliate style mini site using WordPress and the included theme.

* Simplified Silos with WordPress: In this report, I focus on creating a silo site using WordPress’ pages feature.

* Super Social Directory: A directory of social networking, bookmarking, and video sharing websites including their PageRank and Alexa rankings.

* Affiliate Sandbox Theme: Bare bones theme which mimics the style of a
catalog style website–all that’s required is your own personal styling and graphics.

* Simple Link Manager Plugin Lite: A light version of the SLM plugin. It still has the basic functionality, however, it doesn’t include referrer tracking or data export which is available in the full commercial version of the plugin.

* WordPress Datafeed Import Lite: A light version of the WPDFI script. It allows you to import datafeed content; each product in the datafeed will be imported as a WordPress post. Post scheduling and content customization are not available in the light version.

The WP Mini Site Report and Theme is offered as a bonus, but I would have easily bought it without a moments hesitation. If you have always wanted your affiliate blog to look more like a “website” but without all the hassle, this is the report/theme you need. If you are technology challenged such as myself, you will be super pleased to see how easy it is.

The SLM Plugin, how I love thee. And the WordPress Datafeed Script – while they are liter versions, still get the job done and they are tremendous help.

In case I am not being clear or you missed my message… GO BUY the WP Affiliate Guide right now, it will be the best thing you have done for your business in a long time. I promise. And with that, I am going to work on more mini-sites ;)

Niche Content Packages, my very favorite private label content site is celebrating its 3rd birthday today and offering a limited time 33% discount coupon code and doubling the credits of any credit purchase!! Use the coupon code ncp3years to receive the discount.

Note: the couponcode is valid for the next 3 days only. The double credit offer is valid for entire month. Hurry and order, this is an incredible offer, they have incredible article packs AND graphics.

Where does the time go, I last updated in March? Was it really that long ago? More than half the year is gone already.

A short recap of the past few months: the full time contract position I wrote about in my last post ended a few weeks ago now. While the steady checks were nice, it ended up a good thing for me. I now have one freelance gig, that has expanded considerably in pay and responsibility and my sites to work on, which is plenty to keep up with on top of life itself.

My husband is commuting to work again (we sold 95% of the lawn/landscaping business, yea!) making me a single parent a good majority of the time, but it’s okay because it’s what needed to be done. However, my three children just may succeed in driving me crazy by the end of summer…

I have been keeping busy redesigning sites, reading books and blogging. Lots and lots of blogging – more freelance than on my own, need to do more of the latter. Funny enough, a few of my oldie sites are the ones that are doing well and showing some promise.

I have put all new projects on hold as I work on all my existing sites to refocus and regroup. That is definitely the smarter move for me. The money is in the aged domains, I just need to figure out what I want and what I am doing with them. As I figure it out I will be updating more on here. No, really.

Outsourcing is still a great thing. While I haven’t been outsourcing as much as I would like at the moment, I am hoping to change that next month.

I have tons of book reviews to get online one of these days… and a nifty plugin I want to use – Now Reading – when I have some free time.

Follow me on Twitter if you want to know more about my crazy life ;)