Here in Canada, we don’t know a whole lot about this whole war thing you’ve got going on in the States. We have some troops in Kandahar and there was a big hullabaloo when our esteemed Prime Minister decided he wasn’t going to fly the Ottawa flags at half mast EVERY DAMN TIME a soldier died. Other than that, we tend to ignore it and discuss more urgent and pressing matters, such as the rising cost of gasoline.

(To give you an idea how seriously Canada takes the war on terror: Canada’s military was recently renamed. It used to be the Canadian Armed Forces. It is now the Canadian Forces. Jamie believes this is because we no longer provide them with guns.)

By Naomi Dunford - Feb 29, 2008 in Moral of the Story - 26 Comments
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IttyBiz has been sidelined by morning sickness. (And, uh, “morning” sickness? What the hell happened to truth in advertising?) In the meantime, I offer you this vital piece of information on developing inventions. Even if you have no intention of developing an invention, it is also of interest to cat owners. Courtesy of Bill.

How To Develop An Invention

***

Want a small business marketing coach of your very own? Click here to get started.

By Naomi Dunford - Feb 28, 2008 in Home Based Business - 5 Comments
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Michael, nearly nine, has discovered that school is for suckers and that the only conversation worth having is had in italics. This conversation took place while Michael was at his grandparents, on the phone with his father.

Michael: Daddy, you know how to write, right?
Bart: Not as well as your mother does, but go on.
M: And I’m guessing you never need to know anything about grammar, right?
B: [doing a pretty piss poor job of stifling laughter, if you ask me] Buddy, if I were you I wouldn’t say that in front of your mother.
M: Why?
B: Because Mummy’s an editor. That’s her home business.
M: What’s an editor?
B: Someone whose job it is to fix people’s writing.
M: So Mummy can do my grammar for me?
B: No, Buddy. People pay her to do that.

By Naomi Dunford - Feb 26, 2008 in Home Based Business - 28 Comments
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Hey people,

A caring family member called to tell me that I was a bitch for not responding to her email, and it would seem that she is getting caught in spam. Heading over to my trusty spam folder, I see the rest of you are too. If I haven’t gotten back to you, sorry dudes. If it makes you feel any better, you’re in good company. It looks like I didn’t respond to Darren Rowse either.

I’m slogging my way through it now. In the meantime, happy Monday.

By Naomi Dunford - Feb 25, 2008 in Personal - 16 Comments
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Hello, peeps. Happy Friday. Or Saturday, if you’re in Australia, lucky bastards.

Since you’re all pimping your home business in my comments anyway, I thought I’d give you the opportunity to do it in a more public fashion. So:

Peach and her homies are writing a book about blogging and they want your submissions. Proceeds go to Warchild, and here are the details:

“We would like you to submit a written piece about something you’ve been through from any aspect of your life that you want to share. It can literally be about anything: your relationships, your past, a road not taken, being a parent, an illness or your regrets etc. We’ve called it “You’re Not The Only One” to reflect the camaraderie of blogging.”

Considering the recent strip blogging extravaganza, I thought some of you guys might be into this.

By Naomi Dunford - Feb 22, 2008 in Home Based Business - 17 Comments
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Dave Conrey and his mom Michele Morgan of The Right Color have this question.

“My mom and I are wrestling with an issue regarding her home business. I know that you have your startup package for a set price, but what do you tell people once they sign up if they decide to go further? She’s got a complicated price breakdown and I’m trying to simplify it a bit. Figured you might have some insight.”

Ahh, pricing. Strikes fear in the hearts of entrepreneurs and freelancers everywhere. In other parts of the internet, abortion, politics, and religion are controversial topics. With work-from-home blogs, the babykillers hug it out with Dubya, we don’t care. Just don’t talk price.

By Naomi Dunford - Feb 21, 2008 in Ask IttyBiz - 50 Comments
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My mom tipped me off to this one. I’d link to her but, tragically, she doesn’t have a blog. (Maybe not so tragic, actually. She’d probably just talk about cleaning as a recreational activity and how much she hearts the color beige. She’d say “hearts”, too, because she’s hip like that.)

Anyway, today we pick on Microsoft. (Put it back in your pants, Mac fans. Not that kind of picking on Microsoft.) Matt Farrington-Smith, someone with a tremendously long title who hangs out at MSN UK, put out a list of seven deadly sins of blogging. (Is it just me who can only remember 6 of the 7 real sins at a time? There’s always one I forget. Different one each time, too. Weird.)

So, if you want to go check it out, by all means. In the mean time, I’ll give you the synopsis.

1. Not blogging.

By Naomi Dunford - Feb 20, 2008 in Home Based Business - 72 Comments
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First, before we get to my A-list status. Um, what the hell happened to my Technorati ranking? I was going along, happily nearing 25K and then BAM! Back up to 36K. What the shit is this? Is this like the conspiracy theory thing? Has this happened to anybody else?

OK, on to more serious matters. I have discovered that I’m on the on-ramp to becoming an A-lister. I know this for two reasons:

On the Penelope Trunk/What Generation Are You? post, Stephen wrote “First!” in my comments. For those of you who are not blogging nerds like Stephen and I, this is what you say when you comment on high traffic blogs, thinking you are the first one and have therefore attained a level of prestige. Generally, a heated argument ensues about who was actually first. We all know that this is a sure sign of future a-lister status. Only on cool blogs does this happen.

By Naomi Dunford - Feb 19, 2008 in Home Business Blogging - 28 Comments
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WHOOPS!

This page seems to have gone missing. If you’re looking for something in particular, you can use the search bar at the top right of your screen. If you just want to hang around and browse, you can check out the recommended posts in the right side bar. If you want to go back to the home business home page, click the big ol’ IttyBiz at the top of the screen.

By Naomi Dunford - Feb 18, 2008 in Home Business Blogging - 121 Comments
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I used to read a lot of personal finance blogs but I’ve stopped because they mostly just make me feel like shit about myself. However, I think what Mrs. Micah is doing is really cool, so I stop by there every now and again. (She does a good job of differentiating herself from many PF bloggers by not being a psycho. Mrs. Micah and I can be friends.)

Anyway, she wrote a post called When Generics Bite Back — Razor of Death, the title of which is good enough that I wish I’d written it. In the post, she basically discusses how a generic razor ate her husband’s face and they’ve struck men’s razors off the list of things that are cool to buy generic.

By Naomi Dunford - Feb 17, 2008 in Home Business Money - 53 Comments
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