First, I actually need to create a subtitle for this post, and I’m calling it:

“How to Earn Accreditation With Surprisingly Low Out of Pocket Expenses Using A Platform Trusted by Fortune 500 Companies to Live Your Dream or Boost Your Employment Standing”

Okay, NOW I can get started telling you about Learn.com.

Elearning has never been easier (or less expensive). Learn.com (personal version) offers a vast array of online Accredited courses in:

o Healthcare
o Finance
o Legal
o Insurance
o Ethics
o Compliance
o OSHA
o and more!

They also have a search-able catalog of more than 5,000 additional courses from IT topics to personal development… and more!

You’ll see below that I’m looking around the IT section, but the next one I’ll be investigating will be their courses on health care. Health care and teaching are two valuable employment opportunities no matter where you live or plan to move to… they are just “in demand” fields (so I’ve got to keep that in mind as I look around).

Another amazing feature to using Learn.com online is you can create your own “job profile.” This means you choose your career path and they help you develop the necessary skills to achieve your own dream!

Going yet another step further, if you’re the inventive type and have a course you’ve created, Learn.com will help you sell it. Of course, with such high standards, they do review and qualify you to become a “course author” beforehand which only makes sense.

I just registered – for free - and there are 10 courses immediately available for me – again for free (easy enough to find, after registering and logging in click on Free Courses).

The problem is choosing which one?! Actually you can pick class by class or bundle the whole thing together. For instance, I just clicked on the IT program.

I have 15 choices, and each of them is broken into subcategories. The IT Technology Cisco Certified Network Administrator (CCNA) is further broken down into 13 sub-sections.

I can choose to:

o Take one course at a time at just (hold onto your hats!) $3.99/month or

o Opt for 6 months (giving myself more time for studying the course for just $6.99/month OR

o Select all the sub-courses, take a year to complete them, and pay just $9.99/month.

Now keep in mind, I’ve over here investigating IT because that is my passion. However, there are numerous “passions” to choose from. You can search by:

o Free Courses
o Sub Category
o All Courses by Category
o Or, Create a Course.

What is intriguing to me is THIS just may be the stepping stone your newly graduated son or daughter needs if they are “in between” what to “do next.”

And be selfish! Heck, brush up and/or add more skills to your own personal resume to hang onto your job or find a new one!

Oh, and while I personally am roaming around the “personal account” (again created for free), they also have a “business” signup, too.

Decisions, decisions….

Okay, I think I’ve written enough because, frankly, I want to spend several hours going over my choices and picking the perfect course that applies to me (while keeping my eyes open for our son).

To read their current press release, just click here.

Whenever we run across a website that can help bring business owners and freelancers together, we love calling that web site to your attention.

Today we’ll be telling you a bit about Mavenlink online.

From the “how do I make money online” standpoint, if you’re a professional with a service to offer, this web site is right up your alley. Signing up is free, and from there the sky’s the limit.

As a freelancing “maven” you’ll be able to:

o Market your services
o Find challenging and rewarding projects
o Work online efficiently (all projects are completed online)
o Get compensated (make money!) in a reliable and secure way.

As a Maven, after creating your free account, you browse opportunities and select projects you are qualified, professionally, to complete. Mavenlink even goes a step further and lets you tell them what sort of projects you have a particular talent for… how cool is that!

Businesses also create their initial account for free. Then you can go hunting for the perfect person to complete the task you need to get done.

Client benefits include:

o Accessibility to qualified candidates for your project
o Affordability
o Efficiency
o Flexibility

From the business owner’s side of the equation, Mavenlink makes it easy for you to save time and money locating the perfect freelancer for your needs. Also, it’s a great way to keep your business overhead costs down – outsourcing helps eliminate “cumbersome administrative overhead,” freeing up your staff and/or yourself to handle the tasks you need to concentrate on.

Browsing their Projects section should give both sides the opportunity to see “how much to charge” and “how much will I make.” In fact, we are totally impressed that their value-for-value exchange is very apparent using the Mavenlink system. (You’ll have to visit Mavenlink’s projects page to fully appreciate this statement, it’s much more clear cut then their competitors – we like that!)

Need to advertise your skills and make money? Mavenlink is for you!

Need to find a professional? Again, the best of both worlds can be found at Mavenlink – bringing skilled freelancing individuals and businesses together.

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During the past week, we’ve been super busy!

A great addition to our Whole Hog Blog family is the not-for-profit website and blog for ALS of Nevada. The entire state of Nevada coverage for ALS patients and their caregivers is provided by just three individuals (and an outstanding Board of Directors). Two people cover the state, with another fine individual up in the Reno area providing assistance to those in need suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease.

We’d like to ask you to please visit the site, comment on the blog, and help get their traffic and alexa rankings rolling.

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We’ve also added a blog to My Wizard Ads, an ezine advertising information blog. “Diane’s” first true business online after a several year stint as a publisher herself (weird talking about myself in the third, or would that be fourth (?) person). Day in and day out I field questions for not just the new but veteran internet marketer. Ezine advertising gives people the freedom to use other people’s lists as contact points to announce and promote the businesses and programs they join online.

Again, a visit to that new blog and your comments would be greatly appreciated, too.

Both of these new additions have do-follow linking, so your trip gains you that valued backlink in the process.

Enjoy!

I’ve been meaning to write this post for several days now, ever since I read an article in our Las Vegas Review Journal dated Monday, February 16th. In fact, it’s been sitting on my desk just waiting for the right moment to go from paper pile to post.

What really caught my attention was the headline, “Cultural differences: Economic values may explain why businesses owned by Chinese-Americans are faring well in the recession.”

We see all too often people pulling away from the very thing they should be doing during down times or slow times or tough times – especially online. The energy exerted to build a business is tamped down (or shut down) in the hopes that somehow, magically, sales will continue – in spite of no advertising or marketing.

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Here’s something that very well may (and should) change your perspective on “should I or shouldn’t I be advertising and marketing or even blogging?”

“The fortunes of a newspaper published out of a second-floor Chinatown Plaza office may give us insight into differing attitudes about money and ways of surviving tough economic times.

In a time when a 162-year-old national news chain such as the Tribune Co. file for bankruptcy protection, the Las Vegas Chinese Daily News is actually growing, fueled by an increase in advertising. The paper has gone from 16 to as many as 36 pages since printing its first copy five years ago.”

The article goes into further details by defining how different cultures view our current times; “…many Chinese business owners consider a time of economic stress a time to spend money on advertising.”

This advertising “outlook” is considered to be a definite separation of U.S. and Chinese cultures. Where the former sees nothing but doom and gloom when it comes to doing business, the latter are taking advantage of great rates and exceptional deals. These factors also attribute to the fact that over 20,000 valley residents of Chinese heritage are surviving the highest unemployment rates in a generation.

“Chinese attitudes about money include the notion of saving profits and growing slowly, instead of leveraging long lines of credit and expanding rapidly, several business owners said.”

Now here’s the best part, and what I’d really like you to come away with (having read this post… thank you):

“The Chinese rely more on what is known as a relational economy, compared to Americans, who function more in a “me economy.” The Chinese system is based more on, “I do something for you, you do something for me,” with everyone being on the same level.”

Sounds a lot like the Golden Rule applied with a fine paint brush to the art of keeping customers coming back by treating them right.

So if you’re asking yourself, “Is now a good time to slow down with my marketing and advertising?” we think it best to tell you the answer is no.

Recovering lost ground is costly.

Instead, plan and budget for an amount comfortable (and affordable) for you in today’s economy. Be it $10 or $1000, keep your business plans afloat and keep them growing.

We’ve said it before and we’ll keep on saying it. The internet waits for no man, woman, or child. Let up for even a tiny bit of time and your competitors are going to sweep right over you.

Your wise move is again budgeting. Keep your ads out there, continue investing your time and energy, too.

These rough times will not last forever, even if (in the moment) the light at the end of the tunnel doesn’t shine very brightly.

Stay on top of what you’ve been doing, and when the sunshine hits, you’ll be well positioned – ahead of your competition – in the months and years to come.