Last month I celebrated (very quietly - in fact blink and it passed) 18 years of marriage!

One of the things that we all receive as a wonderful gift when getting married is the gift of parents in law and brothers and sisters in law. But how often have you thought that you chose your loved one but not their family.

So how would it be if your mother in law were your friend? In fact your mother in law may already be your friend. But if you are not enjoying the best of relatonships, I’ve got the answer for you.

Today is the book launch of  ‘The Daughter-in-Law Rules:101 Surefire Ways to Manage (and Make Friends with) Your Mother-in-Law!’.

Talented Jazz Musician and Composer Sally Shields is author of a new book called ‘The Daughter In Law Rules’.

To celebrate the book launch today, 6 May 2008, if you purchase the book at Amazon you can also access a number of gifts at no cost from friends of Sally. 101 to be exact - the same number of tips as are in her book.

And for my male readers - this is NOT the book to buy your wife as a present for Mothers Day in the US next week - you have been warned. I am not saying it’s not a great book, just that the mother to your children may not appreciate it in the spirit it was given! A wonderful bunch of flowers, a dinner in fancy restaurant or a day without the kids bickering would be much more welcome (just in case my husband is reading this).

Purchase your copy of ‘The Daughter in Law Rules’ TODAY ONLY (6 May 2008) and you can have access to the 101 gifts from relationship advice experts and success coaches from around the world, as well as 1-800-Flowers.com with a unique promotional code created specifically for this book.

In addition, 15% of the proceeds of this book go to the charity ‘Much Love’.

I definitely recommend you visit Sally’s website - it’s a very engaging design. And take a look here  at how she is using the social media platform of YouTube.com to share her video with tips from The DIL Rules book - and yes she composed and plays the background music herself - how’s that for talent!

And don’t forget that if you would like to know more about how you can create, promote and market your book online with social media, you can join me at the forthcoming workshop in Dublin for authors - check details here for how you can avail of a special discount as a reader of Biz Growth News.

UPDATE AS AT 11 MAY 2008

Please note that the comments on this post are closed due to some disputes relating to this book and I do not plan to engage in any email or online conversation about the publishing of this book or it’s contents.

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A couple of days ago you might recall I invited you to read the interviews for the book launch of ‘Personality Not Included’ by Rohit Bhargarva.

Well Rohit has created a short list of the top 12 interviews and you can vote on your favourites - and by doing so are in with a chance of winning a copy of the book yourself.

Do go over to read his article as Rohit also shares his learnings about doing a social media book launch. 

You see Rohit is going to present the 5 interviews with the most votes with a copy of the book - and as I wrote about earlier, if you vote for my interview with him, I’ll gift you my copy AND there will be a donation to charity too.

For all the details, mouse on over to the shortlist, of course take the time to read the other interviews Rohit did with the other bloggers about ‘Personality Not Included’ and if you think my interview is worthy of a vote, scroll to the bottom of his post and vote on the poll for ‘Krishna De’.

And for details of how you can then let me know you voted and to put your hat into the ring for a free copy of ‘Personality Not Included’ go here to my previous article and scroll to the bottom for the inside track.

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Friday Fun: Calling all fans of Ireland and calling on Irish bloggers to unite in the name of one cause!

If you are getting a little tired of voting in the world of politics, here is an alternative place that you can make YOUR vote count…

Can you remember playing Monopoly with your family when growing up? Perhaps you still get out the board game with your children?

Well I just heard that Monopoly have launched a competition online to determine the countries to be included on the first ever World Monopoly board game.

Global games company Hasbro is launching the worldwide vote to find the 22 greatest cities in the world that should be included on the new Monopoly Here & Now: World Edition board – and Dublin has been nominated to represent Ireland.

Now before you start complaining that there are other cities in Ireland that should be on the list, we have to work with what we have been given - and you can nominate another city for the “wildcard” vote - two spaces are bing alloted on the board for countries/cities not in the designated list we can vote from.

Monopoly fans around the world can visit www.monopoly.com to cast their votes and help create the first-ever worldwide edition of the game.  Voters are allowed to cast their ballots for up to ten cities each day of the vote, which will be open until 28 February 2008.

To be honest, the voting site takes some navigating - Monopoly brand managers should have spoken to some people I know in the areas of usability.

I think it would be horrendous if Ireland were not featured on the world edition - we may be small but we have a lot to say for ourselves!

I just registered to vote and here is brief summary of the steps you need to take:

• Log onto www.monopoly.com
• Go to “Vote”
• Then log in and create your account
• You will then receive a validation email you need to click to authenticate your email address - do this or your votes will not be counted
• Go back to the www.monopoly.com site after authenticating your email address
• Sort by cities - select Dublin - add to “my cities” - then vote!
• Remember to vote each day so that we have a chance of being in the top 20 cities/countries.

Now I hope all that process does not put you off - remember Ireland needs your vote as we are not currently on the top 20 list. So perhaps the Irish blogosphere can share this story with their readers to see if we can get onto that top 20 list.

And of course you can vote for Ireland even if you are not based here. In fact you can vote for up to 10 cities a day - so please don’t email me to say that I am not living up to my personal brand of being a child of the universe and supporting cultural diversity!

So if you are looking for some fun this Friday, be sure to register your vote for Ireland on the first world edition of Monopoly.

Fun Facts About Monopoly:

• More than 750 million people have played Monopoly since it was first introduced nearly 75 years ago
• Since 1935, more than 250 million copies of Monopoly have been sold in 103 countries and 37 languages
• More than 200 different editions of the game have been published
• The new Monopoly Here & Now: World Edition will be produced in Hasbro’s plant in Waterford, Ireland.

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Have you noticed the trend in business that saying thank you has just gone out of fashion in fact it’s positively ‘de rigueur’ not to acknowledge people and can be damaging to your personal brand.

Here are four examples:

1. I’ve noticed a trait in some of my clients that often when they email me asking questions between meetings requesting information and advice and I reply with detailed answers by email,  don’t get an acknowldegement that they received the email nor a thank you.
2. Then there is the authors and business coaches who I don’t personally know but who contact me to tell me about their great services and perhaps I could help them find a speaking gig in Ireland and promote their programme in my newsletter and blog.  So I duly reply with some suggestions, but again no thank you or achnowledgement of my email.
3. Or how about my ex-colleague who I send information to connect them with a great business opportunity - you’ve guessed right, no acknowledgement or email.
4. And finally there is the entrepreneur who has been a guest on one of my programmes or the radio show but fails to promote the workshop or podcast to their own clients and community throught their newsletter or blog.

There is obviously a new book or teachings on business etiquette that has been written that I just haven’t come across that advises that saying thank you is no longer good business sense. 

I really must do a search in Google and on Amazon to make sure I get access to these new strategies so that I can update my clients, friends and colleagues that this is the case including:

Sheri who shared with her community that she is to be a guest expert on Biz Growth Live with me and how they can join us for the no-cost telseminar

Michael who sent me a lovely personalised Christmas card to thank me for all the support I’ve provided as a leader on his programmes and as a guest expert for his clients

Chris who always thanks me for any observations and insights that I provide and when he shares them with his clients always gives me or other contributors and colleagues clear attribution

Erin who posts regularly on my blog to thank me for the tips and ideas.

It clearly makes bad business sense to:

• give all your clients on your programme a copy of your business book or information product as a welcome package to joining your programme - after all why shouldn’t they pay for a copy themselves like everyone else?
• thank your business partners and affiliates with a small gift or a simple email - why on earth would you want to say thank you if they helped you attract more clients to your programmes, consumers of your book or clients for your products?
• offering attendees of your programme the opportunity to come back time and again at no cost - you don’t want them to become brand ambassadors and raving fans referring you to others, great case studies and showcases for your work and be successful in implementing the strategies you teach after all do you?
• make attribution in an article, do a track back from your blog or make a link to another persons website when you reference them in your post - after all you can’t be considered an expert if you didn’t originate all your ideas yourself can you?

If you’ve learnings on this area of business etiquette that you are happy to share with me and the readers of Biz Growth News, it would be great if you could post your comments here - of course I’ll have to remember not to thank you for the post and the time you took to add your comments.

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The date for the Irish Blog Awards has been set so put the 3 March 2007 in your diary.

There is still plenty time to get your blog in great shape and even if you are new to blogging, I’d recommend attending - it will be a greeat opportunity to forge new friendships, build relationships and get to know the people behind some of the best blogs in Ireland.

You can find out more about the awards here.  Hope to see you there.

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