The bane of my existence is dog hair. To be specific, Sheltie dog hair. have two Sheltie dogs. Shelties are “doubled coated,” meaning they have long flowing hair (that requires a pro to wash, trim and fluff on a regular basis) and a short undercoat. Shelties shed. Constantly. In the spring, they shed their undercoat. It’s called “blowing coat.” ” My dog, Sasha, getting final touch ups after his fluff and buff. As a consequence, I don’t just have dog hair all over my house. have tumbleweeds of dog hair. Everywhere. Her house is spotless. Just buy it. MORE >>

Four years ago, I moved out of my home office and rented a commercial space. The reasons were varied but the main one was: I had been working at home for 10 years while raising my son. felt like I had been housebound all that time — and was going crazy! Plus, my son, who was 11 at the time, was growing out of his small bedroom and really wanted my office as it was double in size. Renting office space has had many unexpected benefits. love it. And, it is quiet — no barking dogs (I have two) and no neighbor mowing the lawn. By 2:00 PM, I’m usually fried. Leave your comments. MORE >>

Interesting infographic from Attwood Digital regarding Google Plus and Authorship. Three things to note: 1. Only 9% of tech blogs have Authorship implemented (a stat I found astounding — only 9%?). With so low a number, this means that people who have implemented it will get more clicks because. Google Authorship increases clickthroughs by up to 150%. Yes, your smiling face next to a search result listing can make a HUGE difference in how many people click the listing. Google may have the means to measure “People Rank.” Relative authority on other social platforms. MORE >>

One of the criticisms to Sheryl Sandberg’s new book, Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead , is that her success is due in part to extraordinary opportunities that many of us simply do not have, including wealth, an Ivy education, and a A-list network. Sandberg, for example, went to work for Larry Summers, when he was Secretary of the Treasury, right out of college, an opportunity and relationship that has served her quite well throughout her career. Last summer, while speaking at the AWAI’s B2B Copywriting Intensive, I had a number of women ask me how I got started in B2B. MORE >>

SEO (search engine optimization) used to be a B2B marketer’s dream come true. One, it was relatively cheap and easy, compared to something more difficult and costly, such as  ads in trade publications , two, you could see results (sometimes fairly quickly), and three, you could measure ROI. Using a keyword tool, you selected the best keywords that people looking for products and services like yours were using, you used these keywords to optimize your site using specific rules, and then bingo, your page/s would begin to rank in the search engines and traffic would come to your site. MORE >>