The virus writers certainly are active right now. I’ve been getting lots in my inbox.

They’re getting sneaky too. Most of them have a fake notice from Symantec saying the attachment does not have a virus, and uses the Symantec logo. Of course, I see this after my antivirus has already deleted said file for having a virus.

It’s one of those things you have to be careful about online. Know what a message from your antivirus system looks like. Mine doesn’t say a thing about files unless there is a virus.

Wow, Google’s certainly playing with the algorithm right now. Lots of my keywords just went all over the place. I’m used to a bit of movement every day - that’s perfectly normal, but I’ve had lots of established keywords fall and new ones climb. Going to have to take a solid look at my traffic over the next few days and see if there are any new keywords to focus on.

On another note for those of you who have businesses with a physical location and local customers, take a look at Yahoo! Local. There’s a free and a paid version, and it looks like a great way to get some local attention. If nothing else, the basic version is free, so why not try it?

Finally today, you may know by now that I really do love Digital Point’s Ad Network Co-op. I’ve been getting great results in terms of new backlinks and improved positions in the search engines (yes, even with today’s mess). Well, there’s a new version of it, basically the same thing, but run by someone else. No, I haven’t joined it yet, but it makes me wonder how many copycats there will be out there soon. Great ideas don’t remain uncopied for long online…

Bit by bit it’s looking good. My jewelry website is getting some sales. It feels nice having something start to work.

I don’t expect to make a fortune off that site this Christmas. But I have many marketing ideas for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Days and other times when people tend to buy jewelry. It’s hard using the biggest shopping season of the year for learning, but hopefully that means next year I’ll be ready to go.

Let me tell you, for those thinking about getting into affiliate marketing, selling products through a store strikes me at this moment as far easier than selling through pure content. I do still strongly recommend content to keep your site unique and help customers find you, but if you can think of an idea where you can affiliate with a store, it’s amazing the difference that can be made.

Are you ready for Christmas?

I don’t mean your business - if you sell products, you’d better be ready by now and enjoying the rush. But what about personally?

One thing a lot of people do this time of year, whether the work at home or outside the home, is procrastinate and get stressed about getting their shopping done. In my family we’ve managed to do a lot to avoid that.

The number one thing we do is draw names. This cuts down on the number of people you need to shop for, which is always a help. We also agreed on price ranges so no one feels like they overspent or underspent.

Now, this won’t work for all families. Obviously small children can’t do name drawings, and others prefer to get a pile of gifts, even if the individual gifts are smaller that way. But for us it is wonderful.

Another thing we do is not worry about when exactly we celebrate. With marriages and inlaws to deal with, it’s nice to have people you can exchange gifts with any day, even after New Year’s if it comes down to that. Besides, then you can get those great after-Christmas deals so many stores have.

The other problem many home businesspeople have is knowing when to slow down at this time of year. Your ability to do this will depend on your business, of course; if you’re shipping gifts to your customers there is no way to slow down until the job is done. But when the time comes that you can slow down and enjoy the season with your family, do so!

Now, we’ll see how well I can take my own advice. It’s so hard to not check my email many, many times a day, look for fresh advice on the discussion boards or get to work on some project. This stuff can be addicting, after all. But I just have to look at my daughter asking me to play to remember that there are more important things out there.

Breakfast anyone?

This one’s kind of a neat idea - get local internet marketers together for breakfast. I’ve signed up, although with a toddler I have no idea how often I’d actually be able to attend. Still looks like an interesting and fun idea. It’s free to sign up, and your only cost is the cost of your meal when you go. Just one more way to network locally.

Offline networking is definitely my weakness. I don’t belong to any social groups. I do, however, mention my sites given half a chance when talking with people I meet. This site in particular is easy that way; lots of moms want to be at home with their kids, so the topic can be brought up very naturally.