Candle Business

Often, I feel very privileged to have such wonderful relationships with all of my friends.  In times of trouble and sadness they never abandon me or say things like, “I have to go.  I’ll talk to you later”, or anything of that nature.  My friends are there for me, always listening to my rants and complaints.  When I’m suffering in ANY way, crying because situations seem too tough to go through, they offer their love, strength, and support when none was asked for.  They’ve helped me to realize that a friend isn’t just someone to gather with socially, but is really someone who knows when to step in and help you no matter what it takes, no questions asked and expecting nothing in return.  That’s what a friend does.  Friendship can often be an amazing thing.  It brings to my mind the great words of Edgar Watson Howe, who said, “If a friend is in trouble, don’t annoy him by asking if there is anything you can do.  Think up something appropriate and do it”.   So, that’s exactly what I did.  While speaking to a dear friend of mine, I discovered that his computer is quite old and that he is saving his money for a new one.  This particular friend has been vital to my business, always helping me to succeed.  Even before doing such things, he was a wonderful friend and after explaining to him my reasoning behind the actions I chose to take, I bought him a new laptop.  It wasn’t asked for and he needed it so as a friend, I did what I personally believe I had to do.  Even through his declination and all of his “Don’t do that’s” and “You don’t need to’s”, I could feel his smile and gratitude pulsating through the phone.  I just want to say thank you to all of my friends who are now, and will always be there.  Not only for the good times, but also for the bad.  When you feel your worst, don’t worry.  Rely on the friends who are by your side when you need them.  And if you truly don’t have a friend?  Click the contact tab at the top of the page and send me a message.   Thanks for reading and have a great day.

I am so excited!  Why?  I have a customer who recently stated that, “We only use the Cleansing Bars now”.  Of course I had to ask, “Why is that?”.  What was their reply?  “Our skin is so soft after our showers.  I want you to know that my husband only uses the Slate & Stone and absolutely loves it.”  This particular scent is a “manly” scent.  This is the same person that I mentioned in my very first blog.  My friends continue to use these products.  In fact, it turns out that this is my friend’s husband’s favorite scent.  I have also received a few comments from other friends who love the scent.  The cleansing bars come in 6 different scents. Each bar contains a moisture barrier with  unique and natural ingredients such as;  lavender oil, olive oil, fruit extract,  and soy proteins. We just don’t carry natural clean burning candles, we also have natural cleansing bars.  And let’s not fail to mention that now, we also have a natural makeup line.  Follow this link to learn more about my products.  Click  Here

Hello everyone,
To begin, I would like to thank everyone who has agreed to be my friend on Netlog. I enjoy making friends and talking about my candle business.  I want to update everyone on my tooth. I am happy to report that I still have my tooth, the sensitivity is there but not as bad. I can see my gum line is getting better. How do I know? Pictures tell the story. No I haven’t seen my dentist yet, you can be assured, she is going to be pleased. Yes I am still taking my cod liver oil. Now….to all of you who is still waiting to try one of these wonderful candles, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? I am waiting for you to try one and let me know what you think. For those of you,(yes you know who you are), have tried one, please leave a comment so that others know just how GREAT these candles are. If you are unhappy with your candle, I want to know that as well. Until the next time, take a moment and smell your candle scent.

Recently, a friend of mine invited me to an online community called Netlog.  I was apprehensive to join at first, not knowing what to expect from people, but after weighing the pros and cons of joining a social network, I didn’t give in to my fears and joined. Now, I am so glad that I did, having made some great friends already!  I also now realize that belonging to an online community is a GREAT way to expand my business opportunity to others.  Of course, if one is not interested in starting a business of their own, but is interested in burning the best, cleanest burning candle on the market, you still came to the right person for information. I am looking forward to making a LOT of new friends and chatting about the wonderful company that I am a part of. Tonight I am burning a French Vanilla candle and I just love the fragrance. I have yet to burn a candle that I do not enjoy the fragrance of.

It has been over a month now and my tooth pain has NOT gotten to the point where I have to have the root canal done. Has anyone checked out the website I told you about?  I want to tell you, I am thrilled in my results. In a little over a month the visible changes that I see are wonderful.  My gums are no longer receding.  In fact, the opposite is happening….yippy. My dentist is going to be thrilled when I go for my check up and she sees the improvements my teeth have undergone. Of course she is going to ask me, “What have you been doing?”.  I am not a vegetarian, but I do eat a lot more vegetables and fruits and yes, I take cod liver oil. You have to read the book to know why I take cod liver oil. It’s called Cure Tooth Decay by Ramiel Nagel.
My other news of the day…I bought a Dell Studio laptop. I really like it, and I’m looking forward to checking out all of the neat features it has.  I’ll let you in on the details in my next post.

Gone are the days when people had to travel long distances to be able to reach their work place. These days most of the people are able to make use of the technological advancements and are able to work from the vicinity and comfort of their homes. If you’ve been wondering as to what’s so special about being able to work from home, here are some of the obvious benefits for you to consider.

• The very fact that you are able to avoid the travel time, saves a lot of money and energy which can be utilized in increasing the productivity of your home business.
• Those who have home businesses are able to save a lot of money from being deducted by the IRS because the IRS offers rebates for the internet, the office space and other utilities that are needed for the home business to be operated.
• Needless to mention you have flexible working hours because you are the boss.
• You get to spend more time with your friends and family and are always available in case of any urgent requirements or emergency.
• Last but not the least you save a lot of money because you cut down the fuel expenses, the bills of eating out, the cost of purchasing formal wear etc.

Hello faithful blog readers! Surprised that I’m still breathing? Me too, because I have felt absolutely horrible lately. Usually I refuse to rant about the negative aspects of my life since the positive seems to out weigh it anyway, but you all deserve to know why I haven’t taken the time to update my blog in a while. You see, I have recently fallen victim to the tooth problem so many people dread. Yes…that’s right. I, TJ Driggers, have fallen victim to a tooth abscess. Unfortunately it’s affecting the way I eat. The plus side is that I have been meaning to drop a few pounds. The down side is that this is NOT how I wanted to accomplish it. After a quick trip to my wonderful (always there when they’re needed right?) dentist, he recommended that I have a root canal done. Of course the first thing I think is, “Heck yeah TJ! Get that tooth fixed!”, but after talking to a friend and doing some dental research, I discovered that an average of nine out of ten people who go through the procedure end up losing the tooth anyway! I was blown away! If I’m going to spend $900.00 on a root canal, I want my darn tooth to stay where it’s at!

It was time for me to look into other options. After hours of scouring this massive mess of information that we call the internet, I came across a very interesting site called curetoothdecay.com .

While reading various bits of information on the site, I discovered that eating certain types of food could actually help and/or improve the condition of my teeth. To be straight with you, I have always thought eating certain foods could help improve just about anything that had to do with personal health, but I was definitely shocked with that one. Starting now, I’m going to follow the advice available on the website and try to save my tooth. I’ll keep you all up to date on the progress, so cross your fingers for me!

Also, I spoke to my dad a couple of weeks ago, and during our discussion he mentioned that he was out of Pralines and Cream ice cream.  Well, I surprised him with a Pralines and Cream candle that I sent to him. I talked to him a few days ago and he said, “I love the candle!”.  My dad is a very picky person, so I was delighted when he told me how much he loves the candle and when he burns it he thinks of me.

WordPress has more functionality than most CMS’ (content management systems) that are out there.  Before I get into the broad functionality of wordpress however, let me give you just a bit of it’s history.  WordPress is actually a started off as a blogging platform (think…an online diary, or personal log online), but with it’s quickly gained fan base it quickly grew into much more.  Now people like you and me can script (if you know how) modules called “plugins” that give WordPress a wider range of functionality.  Basically it started off as a simple blogging platform, but grew into a CMS powerhouse.  And guess what?  It’s FREE!

Now..let’s go over two key areas of functionality.

WordPress Plugins

WordPress has an almost endless supply of plugins that can be downloaded, installed and used absolutely free. Installing these plugins is easy, and involves uploading the plugin to your blog space and simply activating it through the admin section in your WordPress site. Whatever need in terms of functionality, there is more than likely a number of plugins that can be downloaded and installed to improve the capability of your blog/website.

WordPress Themes

WordPress has thousands of themes available.  A WordPress theme is the “look” of your website.  If you’re not like me and don’t want to waste your time customizing the look and feel of your website, there are many free themes available for downloading.  Just google “Free WordPress Themes” and have fun looking at all of the possibilities.  You’ll see thousands of completely different themes out there, offering one column, two columns or three columns, graphics, color combinations and a variety of other details which allow for complete customization of your blog to suit your needs, the theme of your blog and the needs of your readers.

Almost daily  someone asks, “What’s the best content management system for my website?”, and almost daily I give the same answer.  There are numerous content management system out there, some better than other for certain tasks.  Personally, WordPress, available at http://www.wordpress.org.  The reasons I prefer wordpress over other content management systems is it’s easy installation, broad functionality, it’s SEO capabilities, and  it’s simpleness to use.  I’m going to write four separate blog posts, so I can explain each in detail without causing a massive amount of confusion.  So let’s start with…..

Installing WordPress Is Very Easy!

There are two ways to install wordpress to your website.  I’ll talk about both, but the first needs no explanation at all.

Automatic Installation:

When you order your website hosting, more than likely your hosting control panel includes a “script installation program”.  This gives you the option to automatically install some of the more common content management systems available to the public.  This is the route most of you will probably take, so here are the official instructions for automatically installing wordpress to your website.  It’s not going to be as detailed as a manual installation, so the instruction format is plain, as it’s just a short list.

1.Login into your control panel

2.Click on “Fantastico” or “Fantastico De Luxe” button

3.Select “WordPress” from navigation menu on the left

4.Choose “New Installation”

5.Select domain name from list of your domain

6.Enter necessary data: Admin login and password, Admin nickname, Admin e-mail (your email address), site name and description

7.Click Install WordPress

8.Click “Finish installation” when you get message like this:

———–

Install WordPress (2/3)

The MySQL database and MySQL user “blah_blah” will be created and used for this installation.

- You chose to install in the domain blahblahblah.com, in a subdirectory called blah_wp. – The access URL will be: http://blahblah.com/?wordpress

Click on Finish installation to continue.

————

9.Install WordPress final step – you will see message like this:

You need a username and a password to enter the admin area. Your username is admin. Your password is password The full URL to the admin area (Bookmark this!): http://blahblahblah.com/?micfo/wp-admin/

10.Congratulations! Login into your WordPress and Start Blogging!
And that’s it.  Five to ten minutes tops and it’s installed.

Note: When using wordpress as a content management system, you’ll want to install it into the root directory.  In other words, when it asks where you want to install wordpress, leave the field blank.  ::winks::

Manual Installation:

This is the harder of the two for sure, but it’s what I recommend, since it involves learning.  When manually installing wordpress, you get a general idea of how content management systems are laid out.  The more you work with websites (and if you build one site, you’ll probably one day build another as it can be fun and addictive), the more understanding you’ll crave, so why not get a head start?  Here are the official instructions for manually installing wordpress to your website.

Step 1: Download and Extract

Download and unzip the WordPress package from http://wordpress.org/download/.

• If you will be uploading WordPress to a remote web server, download the WordPress package to your computer with your favorite web browser and unzip the package.
• If you will be using FTP, skip to the next step – uploading files is covered later.
• If you have shell access to your web server, and are comfortable using console-based tools, you may wish to download WordPress directly to your web server using wget (or lynx or another console-based web browser) if you want to avoid FTPing:
  • wget http://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
  • Then unzip the package using:tar -xzvf latest.tar.gz The WordPress package will extract into a folder called wordpress in the same directory that you downloaded latest.tar.gz.

• If you do not have shell access to your web server, or you are not comfortable using console-based tools, you may wish to deploy WordPress directly to your web server using ZipDeploy.

Step 2: Create the Database and a User

If you are using a hosting provider, you may already have a WordPress database set up for you, or there may be an automated setup solution to do so. Check your hosting provider’s support pages or your control panel for clues about whether or not you’ll need to create one manually.

If you determine that you’ll need to create one manually, follow the instructions for accessing phpMyAdmin on various servers, or follow the instructions for Using cPanel or Using phpMyAdmin below.

If you are installing WordPress on your own web server, follow the Using phpMyAdmin or Using the MySQL Client instructions below to create your WordPress username and database.

If you have only one database and it is already in use, you can install WordPress in it – just make sure to have a distinctive prefix for your tables, to avoid over-writing any existing database table.

Using cPanel

Main article: Using cPanel

If your hosting provider uses cPanel, you may follow these instructions to create your WordPress username and database.

1. Log in to your cPanel.
2. Click MySQL Databases.
3. If a user relating to WordPress does not already exist under the Users section, create one:
   1. Chose a username for WordPress (‘wordpress‘ is good) and enter it in the UserName field.
   2. Choose a difficult-to-guess password (ideally containing a combination of upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols), and enter it in the Password field.
   3. Write down the username and password you chose.
   4. Click Add User.
4. If a database relating to WordPress does not already exist under the Databases section, create one:
   1. Choose a name for your WordPress database (‘wordpress‘ or ‘blog‘ are good), enter it in the Db field, and click Add Db.
5. Under Databases, select your WordPress username from the User dropdown, then select your WordPress database from the Db dropdown. Make sure All is checked under Privileges, then click Add User to Db.
6. When you return to the main MySQL Account Maintenance screen, cPanel will list information about the database you just created. You should see the username you just added to the database (with ALL PRIVILEGES), as well as a few sample Connection Strings for you to use in Perl or PHP scripts to connect to the database. The PHP code will have the following format:

$dbh = mysql_connect("hostname", "username", "<PASSWORD HERE>") or die ("message");
mysql_select_db("databasename");

Write down the values of hostname, username, databasename, and the password you chose. (Note that hostname will usually be localhost.)

Using phpMyAdmin

If your web server has phpMyAdmin installed, you may follow these instructions to create your WordPress username and database.

Note: These instructions are written for phpMyAdmin 2.6.0; the phpMyAdmin user interface can vary slightly between versions.

1. If a database relating to WordPress does not already exist in the Database dropdown on the left, create one:
   1. Choose a name for your WordPress database (‘wordpress‘ or ‘blog‘ are good), enter it in the Create new database field, and click Create.
2. Click the Home icon in the upper left to return to the main page, then click Privileges. If a user relating to WordPress does not already exist in the list of users, create one:
   1. Click Add a new User.
   2. Chose a username for WordPress (‘wordpress‘ is good) and enter it in the User name field. (Be sure Use text field: is selected from the dropdown.)
   3. Choose a difficult-to-guess password (ideally containing a combination of upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols), and enter it in the Password field. (Be sure Use text field: is selected from the dropdown.) Re-enter the password in the Re-type field.
   4. Write down the username and password you chose.
   5. Leave all options under Global privileges at their defaults.
   6. Click Go.
3. Return to the Privileges screen and click the Check privileges icon on the user you’ve just created for WordPress. In the Database-specific privileges section, select the database you’ve just created for WordPress under the Add privileges to the following database dropdown. The page will refresh with privileges for that database. Click Check All to select all privileges, and click Go.
4. On the resulting page, make note of the host name listed after Server: at the top of the page. (This will usually be localhost.)

Using the MySQL Client

You can create MySQL users and databases quickly and easily by running mysql from the shell. The syntax is shown below and the dollar sign is the command prompt:

$ mysql -u adminusername -p
Enter password:
Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 5340 to server version: 3.23.54

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer.

mysql> CREATE DATABASE databasename;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON databasename.* TO "wordpressusername"@"hostname"
    -> IDENTIFIED BY "password";
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)

mysql> EXIT
Bye
$

The example shows:

• that root is also the adminusername. It is a safer practice to choose a so-called “mortal” account as your mysql admin, so that you are not entering the command “mysql” as the root user on your system. (Any time you can avoid doing work as root you decrease your chance of being exploited). The name you use depends on the name you assigned as the database administrator using mysqladmin.
• wordpress or blog are good values for databasename.
• wordpress is a good value for wordpressusername but you should realize that, since it is used here, the entire world will know it too.
• hostname will usually be localhost. If you don’t know what this value should be, check with your system administrator if you are not the admin for your WordPress host. If you are the system admin, consider using a non-root account to administer your database.
• password should be a difficult-to-guess password, ideally containing a combination of upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols. One good way of avoiding the use of a word found in a dictionary, uses the first letter of each word in a phrase that you find easy to remember.

If you need to write these values somewhere, avoid writing them in the system that contains the things protected by them. You need to remember the value used for databasename, wordpressusername, hostname, and password. Of course, since they are already in ) or will be, shortly) your wp-config.php file, there is no need to put them somewhere else, too.

Using Plesk Control Panel

See: Plesk 7 at tamba2.org

Step 3: Set up wp-config.php

You can either create and edit the wp-config.php file yourself, or you can skip this step and let WordPress try to do this itself when you run the installation script (step 5) (you’ll still need to tell WordPress your database information).

(For more extensive details, and step by step instructions for creating the configuration file and your secret key for password security, please see Editing wp-config.php.)

Return to where you extracted the WordPress package in Step 1, rename the file wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php, and open it in a text editor.

Enter your database information under the section labeled

 // ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** //

DB_NAME

The name of the database you created for WordPress in Step 2 .

DB_USER

The username you created for WordPress in Step 2.

DB_PASSWORD

The password you chose for the WordPress username in Step 2.

DB_HOST

The hostname you determined in Step 2 (usually localhost, but not always; see some possible DB_HOST values).

DB_CHARSET

The database character set, normally should not be changed (see Editing wp-config.php).

DB_COLLATE

The database collation should normally be left blank (see Editing wp-config.php).

Enter your secret key values under the section labeled

  * Authentication Unique Keys.

Save the wp-config.php file.

For information on enabling SSL in WordPress 2.6, see SSL and Cookies in WordPress 2.6.

Step 4: Upload the files

Now you will need to decide where on your web site you’d like your blog to appear:

• In the root directory of your web site. (For example, http://example.com/)
• In a subdirectory of your web site. (For example, http://example.com/blog/)

Note: The location of your root web directory in the filesystem on your web server will vary across hosting providers and operating systems. Check with your hosting provider or system administrator if you do not know where this is.

In the Root Directory

• If you need to upload your files to your web server, use your favorite FTP client to upload all the contents of the wordpress directory (but not the directory itself) into the root directory of your web site.
• If your files are already on your web server, and you are using shell access to install WordPress, move all of the contents of the wordpress directory (but not the directory itself) into the root directory of your web site.

In a Subdirectory

• If you need to upload your files to your web server, rename the wordpress directory to your desired name, then use your favorite FTP client to upload the directory to your desired location within the root directory of your web site.
• If your files are already on your web server, and you are using shell access to install WordPress, move the wordpress directory to your desired location within the root directory of your web site, and rename the directory to your desired name.

Step 5: Run the Install Script

Point your favorite web browser to start the installation script.

• If you placed the WordPress files in the root directory, you should visit: http://example.com/wp-admin/install.php
• If you placed the WordPress files in a subdirectory called blog, for example, you should visit: http://example.com/blog/wp-admin/install.php

Setup configuration file

If WordPress can’t find the wp-config.php file, it will tell you and offer to try to create and edit the file itself. (You can do also do this directly by loading wp-admin/setup-config.php in your web browser.) WordPress will ask you the database details and write them to a new wp-config.php file. If this works, you can go ahead with the installation; otherwise, go back and create, edit, and upload the wp-config.php file yourself (step 3).

Finishing installation

Entering the details, you enter your Weblog title and your e-mail address. Also displayed is a check-box asking if you would like your blog to appear in search engines like Google and Technorati. Leave the box checked if you would like your blog to be visible to everyone, including search engines, and uncheck the box if you want to block search engines, but allow normal visitors. Note all this information can be changed later in your Administration Panels.

And those the two ways to install wordpress.  On my next blog post, we’ll discuss the broad functionality that wordpress provides, how that functionality can improve the look and performance of your website, and how to implement it in your site.  Thanks again everyone!

As I woke up this morning, a grand idea entered my thoughts.  Why not give my visitors some home based business tips?  After laying out the basic list of tips for running your own scented candle business, I realized that they apply to pretty much all home based business niches.  So here they are, from my mind to your computer screen, a few valuable (I hope) tips for running your own business from home.

Set A Schedule and DON’T Stray Off Course

I’m sure you’ve heard it before, that starting a home based business is exciting.  It gives you the chance to stay at home, set your own work hours, and spend more time with your family.  And while this might be true (to a point), it’s critical to your business to set a schedule to get things done.  Sit down at the very beginning of your business planning and write down what needs to be done.  Ask yourself questions like, “Is there a certain time this should be completed?” or “Is it better for me to do this before that?  What task more important right now?”.  Freedom is one thing, but if your schedule doesn’t have even a BIT of structure, you’re business plan isn’t going far.

Create A Dedicated Work Space

If you can’t afford to create a home office, fine…..use the kitchen table.  But make sure you have room for a computer, a printer, a telephone, maybe a pen and paper for hand written notes, etc.  See my point?  Good luck setting all that on a table or counter top.  When you have your own dedicated workspace, you get more done.  It’s not a great idea to walk across the house every time you get a call, or need to take an order, or print a document.  Having a nice, clean work area will improve your work flow, and you know what that means.  More profit!

Advertise Your Business

This is a big one.  The problem is, advertising comes in many shapes and forms.  Do you have to spend an arm and a leg on expensive advertising?  Heck No!!  There are many ways to make sure your business is seen from potential customers.  I could sit here here all day and list many of them in great detail, but I’m not.  Send me an email (located on the right hand side of your screen) and I’ll be more than happy to give you some tips on marketing your business without paying a cent.

Taxes

You’ve joined a whole new ballgame with this one friends.  There’s a massive difference in “personal taxes” and “business taxes”.  I suggest talking to your accountant, but if you send me an email letting me know where you’re from, I’ll see what I can find out for you.  The way I figure it, we home base business people need to stick together and help each other out.

Zoning Laws

Every town/city is different, but a lot of them have rules regarding running a business out of your home.  Again, send me an email and I’ll see what I can find out for you.

That’s all the tips I’m giving today.  My work day starts soon and I need coffee.  Be sure to check back for more tips (I’ll add more in a day or two) and if you have any questions, send me an email! (Can’t you tell I love to communicate? HaHa!)