It's Friday, the weather has cooled down, and I'm heading out for a cruise ship inspection.  A cruise ship inspection, you say?  Stay tuned for more details on that next week...

• Amber at Brown Bug Project tells us how to dazzle our website visitors (and it doesn't include shiny stuff).
• Chris Brogan brings us 50 Online Applications and Sites to Consider.
• Judy Dunn at Marketing for Solo Entrepreneurs explains why every customer is not the same and what you should do about it.
• Looking for a better help page on your website?  Check out this great example.

Register now and:

• Turn your expertise into a 24/7 sales team
• Shorten your sales cycle
• Gain a reputation as an expert in your industry

Registration is $99 and includes a 39-page workbook.  We meet on Wednesdays for 8 weeks via telephone and webcast, and if you miss a meeting you can have access to the recorded call at no extra charge.  How's that for convenient?

We have a wide variety of people in attendance so far - writers, coaches, retail store owners, real estate professionals.  They will all learn how blogging can help their businesses, and you can, too.

Registration is here:  http://bloggingseminar.eventbrite.com.

"See" you in class!

Wednesday I am leaving for the eWomen Conference in Dallas.  Before I became a corporate refugee, I spent a lot of time in airports and hotels.  Every spare moment was spent returning phone calls, answering email, and working.  For someone else.

Boy, did I have it wrong.

For this trip I have a blank sketchpad for freeform thinking, a few articles printed that I wanted to read, and an iPod full of great music.  Thanks to my Treo, I don't even need to bring my laptop. For 4 days I can concentrate on making great connections, thinking big about my business, and getting recharged by other successful entrepreneurs.

Life on the entrepreneurial side of the fence does have its challenges, but being in a position to think long-term instead of what my boss might need is incredibly freeing.  Almost like flying. 

I am now free to move about the country.  I hope you feel that way, too. 

Remember back when you were an employee and not a business owner?   You had someone to tell you what to do, how to do it, and when it was due.  Same thing in school - you learned because someone instructed you to do so.

Now that you are out in the Entrepreneurial World, things are different.

No one will tell you to keep up with the news in your industry, learn ways to improve your business, or even to keep your desk clean enough to be productive. 

You are the motivator for everything that needs to get done, and it is hard enough to stay focused on what has to be done - sales and taxes - much less something less immediately pressing like business reading.

There are ways to make this part of your routine, though. 

• Joel Falconer at Stepcase Lifehack shows you how to optimize your business reading by employing a few speed reading and time management tricks for both books and online reading.
• Brian Armstrong advocates audio books and podcasts as a way to keep up with your business reading.
• And Dustin Wax tells us why we need more information but less input.

I love to read, but the demands of a rapidly expanding business and active social life sometimes make it hard to keep up with both my continuing education and leisure reading.  I've taken to using Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings as my main business reading time.

How do you keep up with what is going on in your industry and the world of small business?