With her bakeshop still in the works, Gia Magarelli decided to get hold of the 7-Day Word of Mouth Marketing Accelerator Kit so she would "hit the ground running," so to speak.

Gia paid special attention to one key area of improvement: referrals. Though she was certain that the quality of her pastries would speak for themselves and the customer reviews would certainly bring in traffic to the bakeshop, she wanted to be more proactive about marketing her baked treats. Thus, she has taken steps to enable her to generate incentivized referrals.

Guided by the principles of the 7-Day Word of Mouth Marketing Accelerator Kit, Gia did the following:

1. Present one look. Gia's bake shop had to have a unified look--from its interiors to the packaging, menus, flyers, and calling cards. "I've learned that total packaging is an important part of establishing the brand image," she shares.

2. Cross-promote. You must expand your word-of-mouth marketing network to like-minded businesses. As such, Gia got in touch with party organizers and wedding planners who would most likely be in need of her services for their clients.

3. Throw a party. When you open for business, you must do so with a bang. This doesn't mean you have to shell out a lot of money for a party, you can just have a simple get-together with your family, friends, neighbors, suppliers, and other contacts. In Gia's case, she is planning to hold a taste-test party, where the guests could sample her pastries. This way, she'll already get the word out about her baked treats.

"I could not have thought of these marketing ideas if it weren't for the7-Day Word of Mouth Marketing Accelerator Kit," says Gia. "I'm confident about my products--but I want to cover all my bases. The more customers, the better."

Come up with brilliant promotional strategies of your own with the 7-Day Word of Mouth Marketing Accelerator Kit.

Does your avatar draw in people or does it drive them away?

This is probably one of the questions you have to answer before you take the big social media plunge.

The Social Media Marketing Action Cashmap emphasizes the importance of brand identity. While avatars may be a minor component of this, they are, nevertheless, part of the package.

Arguably, the avatars used by people who are affiliated with certain companies should look presentable. For instance, I can't just use an avatar that has me doing a funny face because it would be detrimental to the company's image.

In this light, I've compiled some of useful tips for choosing the right avatars:

1. Look professional. In her article, "6 Tips for Better Branding Using Avatars," Aliza Sherman stipulates: "Once you've established clear brand attributes, you need to go through the images you have or are considering using for your avatar and pick those that most clearly represent those attributes. Without question, using a photograph of yourself will always establish more trust than using any other image, particularly any non-human image. A cartoon image of yourself can be a good second choice if the nature of the illustration is in keeping with your brand attributes."

2. Personalize it. Don't make the mistake of using an image from avatar-generating sites. You certainly don't want your avatar to look like anyone else's. Also, your target audience may be put off by the fact that you haven't made an effort to stand out with an avatar that's specially designed for you. In short, it makes you and your company look cheap.

3. Keep it clean and simple. Hivelogic author Dan Benjamin, in his article "Why Your Avatar Matters," cautions against distracting avatars that are either hard to make out or are too flashy. He writes, "Don't use those Flash-generated Japanimation style avatars." He goes on to state that the quality of the image should also be optimal. A blurry photo or illustration simply won't do.

Bottom line: Always remember that in a setting where people have never seen you before, your avatar could make or break you and the company you represent.

Learn all there is to know about managing brand identity in Social Media Marketing Action Cashmap.

My friend Zara made a big confession to me recently. "I have emails dating back to eight years ago," she revealed. "I can't seem to bring myself to delete them. These are emails announcing job openings and party invitations. There are also some alerts from mailing lists that I haven't had the chance to open. There's also some chain emails that I might use. I've even kept some angry emails from a person I had a misunderstanding with years ago."

When I asked her why she can't let go of the skeletons in her inbox, Zara replied, "I use them to remember what happened that year. I'm sure I'll get around to reading all of them."

At that, I was rendered speechless.

Now, I don't know if anybody else out there keeps ancient emails for posterity or future reading, but, upon consulting the Email Survival Strategy Cashmap, I've come up with rules that will help email hoarders deep-six their inbox junk:

1. If you haven't read it in a week's time, then you probably don't need to read it at all. Don't kid yourself. You are never going to get around to reading the unopened emails from years ago. Any unread email that's over a week old and isn't from someone you know personally should be trashed. Unless you've just come back from a long vacation, there's no reason why old emails should still be crowding your inbox.

2. Chain emails should go ASAP--no questions asked. We've all gotten chain emails. There are creepy ones threatening doom if we don't forward the message to 10 people. There are those containing jokes. There are some featuring videos or pictures. We don't need these emails. Keeping them won't boost productivity. If you want to laugh, got to humor sites or search for funny videos on YouTube.

3. If you can't understand it, then don't open it. If there are emails whose subject headings seem Greek to you, then don't open them. Trash them right away. Chances are, these are scam emails. Even if the sender appears to be somebody you know or an organization that you've been in contact with, don't click on it if the subject heading strikes you as strange. That's often a red flag for a scam. Besides, if it's really that important, the person or the organization will give you a call.

Sure, there are emails you can keep for posterity. But, it's rather curious if the emails you consider worthy of keeping include outdated announcements that you haven't opened yet. Why hold on to spam? Speaking of which, I'm wondering about the state of Zara's work email. I sure hope that particular inbox isn't full of skeletons, too. She has enough to deal with as it is.

Get a grip on the junk in your inbox with the Email Survival Strategy Cashmap.

Margie Langshur, a mother of two who champions eco-friendly solutions, was pleasantly surprised that the Recession-Proof Your Home Action Cashmap also tackled making money from household clutter. "I'm not really into making money off my white elephants," she clarifies. "I'm more concerned about disposing of them without doing harm to the environment. But, of course, I am delighted by the fact that this Cashmap teaches me how to convert them into cash."

In keeping with her green efforts and the systematic de-cluttering guide from the Recession-Proof Your Home Action Cashmap, Margie shares green ways to get rid of your clutter:

1. Great Giveaway. In addition to donating the stuff you don't need to thrift shops run by charity groups or non-profit organizations, you can also pass them on to people who want them. You can log on to Freecycle.org, where people around the world sign up for locally based mailing lists indexed on the site. Plus, you can also request for things you need like, say, a lava lamp. Who knows? Somebody out there may be itching to part with one.

2. Repurpose Rave. It makes no sense for you to buy new furnishings when you can just give them a makeover or transform them into something else. You can spruce up an old sofa with a cute fabric or you can turn a mug into a pen holder.

3. Retro Cellphone Donation. Has your old cellphone become obsolete for you? Many groups collect old cellphone models, which they refurbish and redistribute to people who need them. Visit the Wireless Recycling website to find out where you can drop off your old cellphones.

"For me, being able to ditch my white elephants without doing harm to the environment, is already a benefit that the Recession-Proof Your Home Action Cashmap helped me attain. If I get tax deductions or any sort of monetary reward from doing good, then that's really priceless," says Margie.

Use the Recession-Proof Your Home Action Cashmap to locate the hidden moneymakers in your home and do your part in saving the planet.

If there's anything that Wesley Rice has learned from the Recession-Proof Your Home Strategy Cashmap, it's the fact that little things can add up to a whole lot of savings. He lists his energy saving tricks:

1. Shower Settings. It's best to install a water-saving shower head to reduce the amount of water you are using and energy to heat it.

2. Vampire Stripper. You should take care of "energy vampires" such as televisions, DVD players, and stereos. As long as they're plugged in, these devices use electricity even when you've turned them off. As such, they should be plugged into a smart power strip that will cut the power when they're not in use. These "energy vampires" are said to cost as much as $80 billion of the country's collective yearly domestic energy use.

3. Stove Cooler. If you're using an electric stove, you can turn it off in the last few minutes of your cooking time. The remaining heat will be enough to finish off the dish that you're preparing.

Like Wesley, we can all come up with simple tricks to keep our power bills down. Running a home efficiently includes pinching the pennies in such a way that you or your family hardly feels it.

Manage your home wisely with the Recession-Proof Your Home Strategy Cashmap.

All too often, we overspend when we don't have a clear idea of what we have and what we don't. It all boils down to disorganized financial records and our being unable to account for every cent we spend.

Based on Simpleology 102: The Simple Science of Money and Real Simple magazine, Frances Rumsen has come up with one-time chores for organizing and staying on top of your financial records:

Once a day. Take note of how much cash you have on hand and see how much you're left with at the end of the day. Keep track of this so you'll be mindful of every penny. This way, you can actually account for every last cent you spent.

Once a week. Organize your receipts, billing statements, invoice, and other money-related paperwork. It helps if you have an existing system such as a ledger or a computer program where you can consolidate all this data.

Once a month. Pay your bills on time and follow up on debts you're owed. Create a checklist for this monthly assessment.

Once a quarter. Consult your organized documents and filing systems so you can get an accurate picture of your progress towards meeting your personal financial goals. Make the necessary adjustments to spending, savings, or investments.

Once a year. Do some spring cleaning. Update your files and discard outdated items.

Aside from helping prevent overspending, these one-time steps will clue you in on how much money you can spend, as well as how much money you have to earn and save. It's a simple system that ensures you of a sound financial state.

Take control of your finances with Simpleology 102: The Simple Science of Money.

I always say that being spread thin should be considered a sin. But, for a long time, being spread thin was Simpleology user Lucy Hanson's way of life. She confesses, "I wanted to do it all," she states simply. She wanted to be the perfect, mom, wife, and employee.

However, the pressure to do it all began to bog down Lucy. She would literally get sick from her self-imposed pressure to get everything done. "When that happened, I realized that I was not doing anyone any good at all--not my family, my office, or myself," she says.

In the hopes of curing herself from her addiction to mad multitasking, Lucy got hold of the Productivity Strategy Cashmap. Lucy discovered that she could apply its principles to all aspects of her life.

She lists the top three things she learned from it:

1. Don't let your plate overflow. You're only human. You've got one brain and two hands. You should come to terms with the fact that you can only do so much in a day. So, learn to pace yourself by targeting a realistic number of goals each day. You also have to know the flow of each task from start to finish. This way, you can easily determine if you can get it done right with the time you have.

2. Do one thing at a time. Don't let your judgment get clouded. If you make a habit of churning out mediocre work just so you could finish as many tasks as possible, you're setting yourself up for failure.

3. Take a breather to keep your focus. It's great to be focused, but this doesn't mean you can't take time out. If you're tackling a labor-intensive or mentally-draining project, you can give yourself an energy boost by taking a five-minute breather. Be conscious of the time, but don't let it the ticking of the clock intimidate you.

Just as Lucy discovered, we would all be a lot happier when learn to come up with to-do lists that won't make us break down in any way.

Remember to do things right instead of doing too much. Let the Productivity Strategy Cashmap show you how.

Like most moms, Simpleology user Cathy Quinlan knows that being clueless as the grocery store will really cost you. "The store is like a retail wonderland," she says. "You can easily get overwhelmed by the colorful displays--so much so that you forget to stick to your list and mess up your budget."

With the help of the Financial Survival Action Cashmap, Cathy has come up with three shopping tactics that will help anyone stick to their budget despite the come-ons in "wonderland:"

1. If you can't get it, don't buy it. People often let their curiosity ruin their budget. There's always a steady stream of new products on the shelves and people are convinced into trying out "new" things, even if they don't really know what they are. Cathy observes: "You might, for instance, get tempted to try a new organic salad dressing. You have to ask yourself, 'Why should I?' There are many new products out there with misleading labels. Unless there's proof that they're actually what they say they are, then you probably shouldn't be getting them."

2. Don't get distracted. "You have to know exactly what you want," says Cathy. "If you don't have a definite list of items you need, you're sure to be bombarded with the pitches of overenthusiastic salespersons and signs announcing good bargains."

3. Use big bills. Citing a study done by the University of Iowa, Cathy reveals, "They found out that you're less likely to part with your cash if you're carrying $100 bills instead of smaller bills. This way, you immediately get a bigger picture of what you're spending, so you're less likely to go bonkers on those so-called bargains."

Cathy points out: "It's not rocket science. You just have to know how to navigate the grocery store so you don't lose sight of your budget."

Shop wisely with tips from the Financial Survival Action Cashmap.