This week has been really tough for me. Between an influx of new clients, launching my AffiloJetpack Review ( and setting up my promotion for that), having an abscessed tooth, and trying to fulfill other secret agreements that have been made (to benefit me both financially, and with building a better relationship with some really great people that I know), time management has been crucial to keeping me out of the loony bin.

So, how did I manage to keep from drowning?  Well, I dove into several things, and I want to share them with you so that you can manage your time better.

Take Care of YOU First

First of all, I took care of the medical problem. One thing that frustrates me is seeing people who are hurt, or having a problem, and ignoring it because their business comes first.

My grandpa taught me ” If you don’t take care of yourself, you won’t be able to take care of anyone else. It is not being selfish. Rather, it is a matter of keeping yourself fit mentally emotionally and physically so that you will be available to help others when they need it.”

The reason I love this business is the ability to spend more time taking care of myself, rather than working myself into the ground for nothing ( like I did working for someone else.)

Organize Yourself

Personally, I keep a white board where I lay out my plan for the week. I write out what  I need to accomplish, arrange the priorities of importance, and write out how much time I will spend on each one.  As I complete a task, I erase it off the board, allowing me to see what all I have left to do.

I use the white board because it is flexible. For example, over this week, I have gotten several new clients on the board. Going through my whiteboard, I am able to see where I can fit time to research and work on their projects, without others suffering too much.

Don’t be a Loner

You don’t have to do everything alone. You can outsource some things, or hire a helper. Don’t be stingy. By reinvesting into your business, you will stand a better chance at making things last for a long term business.

For example, once I set up a few videos, and my AffiloJetpack review, I turned to my friend who is a master link builder. He is great at getting high quality traffic quickly, so I sent him a few articles to syndicate for me.  This frees me up to spend my time working on my clients, and the link building still gets done.

I also have a friend of mine who helps me from time to time, and I have him running my social bookmarks. He can log into my bookmarking poster, bookmark my new offer, and run some of the bookmarks for my clients. this frees my time up for what I need to do the most. Writing for my clients.

That reminds me, I need to wrap this up, so that I can go read some more e-books, and slide out a few more product reviews for a client today.

These are just a few things that I am doing to manage my time better. What are you doing? how do you manage things when a potential crisis comes up? Share your comments with me.

When you work online, creating customer connections is the key to finding your success.  I am surprised by how many people online don’t care, and don’t think that customer service applies to them. The fact is, every client you work for, every visitor that sees your site, and every person who signs up to your list is a customer, whether they buy from you today or not. You never know who they will refer to you, or how much they might spend in the future.

So, that leaves the question,  How do you connect with your customers? You should use every means possible to get people interested in your site.

Using Chats
One thing I like to do is chat with people in my market. I connect with people on instant messenger. Always make sure that you save your chat logs, if you want to do this. That way, you can go back and copy your conversation. Now, unless you have permission from the person that you are chatting with, I don’t recommend using the chat directly.
However, you can use the conversation as a launch pad to create some awesome content. Take the questions that they ask you. Use those for your subheadings. Then fill in with your answers.

When they ask you questions that you do not know the answer to, use it to do some research. This way, you help your readers, and increase your own knowledge and expertise.

How do you get people chatting?

One way I use to get people chatting is to offer it as a consultation. When you promote a product, offer a one hour consultation as a bonus. You can do this via chat, email, phone, or however you want to do it.

I do recommend that you make it a valuable consultation. I have received consultations before which did nothing to help me. All they did was pitch a membership program or paid consultation.

Now, if you want to do a consultation service, go for it. However, spend more time during your consultation assisting people. Don’t just use it as a way to promote products to people. You will lose more trust than you will gain this way.

Social Networking Sites
More and more, online marketing is a social game. Whether you use Facebook, Twitter, or other social sites you need to spend time connecting with people.  One thing that I find helpful is to post a daily tip, or motivational quote. This can build up interest, and will be noticed.

I did  this on one of my fan pages on Facebook. I wasn’t seeing comments or anything, so I stopped doing it. All of a sudden my fans started asking where the daily tips went. I never realized people noticed, since they wern’t saying anything. Just because you aren’t getting feedback doesn’t mean it goes unnoticed.
How do you connect with your customers? Let me know your experiences, good and bad. Tell me how you keep people coming back to see you again and again.