Self-discovery, self-mastery, initiative, responsibility, team-building, prioritization, and open-mindedness are just some of the characteristics that Covey suggests are necessary for success. And even after acquiring his designated habits, entrepreneurs should strive to continually improve them, the author said.

Universal Good Habits

An example of Covey’s continued relevance: In August 2011, Time listed “Seven Habits” as one of the 25 most influential business management books. And even though norms have changed over the last quarter century, Covey’s “habits” remain universal and timeless, continuing to guide acolytes even after the author’s death in 2012; plus, they have prompted other businesspeople to identify their own habits for success. They always seem to come in sevens.

For example, Entrepreneur magazine has advocated its own set of seven habits necessary for success. They are more practical when compared to Covey’s more philosophical instruction. Entrepreneur recommends:

■ Establish a detailed plan before starting your business.

■ Organize your resources thoroughly before beginning business operations.

■ Surround yourself with the right people who will help you reach your goals.

■ Apply the art of delegating the right task to the right person.

■ Monitor performance of others with an efficient reporting system.

■ Measure your progress to be sure your business is on the right track.

■ Make employees feel like part of the company by keeping them informed of developments and progress.

“When you become competent and capable in each of these areas, you’ll be able to accomplish extraordinary results, far faster and easier than your competitors,” according to “Million Dollar Habits” from Entrepreneur Press.

Lessons for Life

And Covey continues to be an inspiration for a new generation of writers who have pinpointed their own successful habits, many of which can be applied as life lessons that go beyond the business world. Darrell Zahorsky is one such small business expert, author and consultant who espouses his own ideas about success. Remember the old shampoo commercial about the advantages of telling two friends about the benefit of using the product? Then they will tell two friends, who in turn will tell two friends, and so on, and so on…

Zahorsky borrows that idea by being a proponent of building an inner network of five successful colleagues, mentors and advisers who can introduce you to another five successful businesspeople, and so on, and so on…

It’s just one of the writer’s suggestions for success. He also reminds people to remain adaptable to changing situations and vigilant about new opportunities that might emerge in times of trouble. Moreover, Zahorsky offers a lesson in humility to those with Type A personalities.

“Business success requires the ability to know your strengths and weaknesses. Being open and honest about yourself and your business creates growth as an individual and as a company,” he says. “In the book, ‘Now, Discover Your Strengths,’ Gallup Organization reveals that building our strengths instead of fixing our weakness is the path to mastery and success.”

Finding balance in all aspects of your life, is another key to success, he suggests.

Add ‘Lean In’ to the List

But it may be time to add a new habit to Covey’s list that wasn’t really talked about when he published his book in 1989. It has become a recent buzz term and applies primarily to women executives and entrepreneurs. Of course, I’m talking about “leaning in,” the advice dispensed by Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg in her recently published first book, “Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead.”

Sandberg encourages women to “lean into” their ambitions in order to achieve professional and personal goals, break down societal and personal barriers, and achieve positions of leadership. The book has inspired a movement. With more female voices in positions of power, Sandberg asserts, more equitable opportunities will be created for everyone.

If that can be achieved, leaning in could become as good a habit as anything put forth by Covey.

With a bitterly divided Congress, constant reminders of differences between red and blue states and never-ending attacks on our country’s leaders, negativity has become the norm in the United States. And while it is endemic to politics, negativity can also permeate the business world.

Entrepreneurs, particularly those pioneering a new product or service, are perhaps most susceptible to negative comments from family, friends, even peers. Their disparaging comments about your ideas can range from shooting them down to mocking them and citing statistics about how slim your chances are of succeeding.

Listen to the Voices of Experience

Luckily there are others out there who have been through the experience of building a business and their words can inspire confidence. I consider myself among this group. Accentuating the positive is one of the guiding principles of this website as I try to share information that will assist others with personal growth as well as business development. If I had listened to naysayers, I might never have founded my company Breakaway Solutions.

I can relate to the words of Steve Chou, founder of the website My Wife Quit Her Job.

“Anytime you start your own business or take any risks for that matter, you’ll inevitably meet people who will doubt you. These people often mean well, but their negative comments can be a devastating blow to your self-esteem and your entrepreneurial spirit if you are not careful.

“The most important thing when dealing with the doubters is to take everything they say with a grain of salt. There are too many variables for anyone to accurately predict the success or failure probability of your small business.”

Successful Failures

Budding entrepreneurs surrounded by detractors might also take comfort in a rather long list of captains of industry who were not deterred by negativity, even after some of their initial enterprises or concepts failed. Michael Michalko, author of the best sellers “Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques,” ThinkPak: A Brainstorming Card Deck” and Cracking Creativity: The Secrets Of Creative Genius,” offered such a list last year on The Creativity Post.

■ A newspaper editor once fired Walt Disney because “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.”

■ The famous “secret recipe” that eventually made Harland David Sanders a household name as Colonel Sanders of KFC was rejected more than 1,000 times before a restaurant accepted it.

■ A Harvard dropout, Bill Gates failed with his first business Traf-O-Data before he founded Microsoft.

■ Henry Ford was discouraged from getting into the automobile business because, people said, he lacked the required capital and the expertise.

■ An early employer rejected F. W. Woolworth’s ideas for marketing dry goods—the same ideas that later made Woolworth one of the most successful retailers in the United States.

■ Akio Morita was ridiculed for his first product, a rice cooker that burned more than it cooked rice. Morita persevered with his company, Sony, which went on to become the multibillion-dollar company it is today.

Turn a Negative Into a Positive

The best thing an entrepreneur can do is learn how to deal with negativity in a positive way. Some would say to just ignore critics so as not to be discouraged. Author Peter Bregman, who wrote “18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction and Get the Right Things Done” offered a very interesting take on how to respond to negativity in a blog post he created last year for Harvard Business Review. Bregman suggests responding negatively and positively with detractors rather than against them. He explained his strategy in three easy steps:

1. Understand how they feel and validate it. This might be hard because it could feel like you’re reinforcing their negative feelings. But you’re not. You’re not agreeing with them or justifying their negativity. You’re simply showing them that you understand how they feel.

2. Find a place to agree with them. You don’t have to agree with everything they’ve said, but, if you can, agree with some of what they’re feeling. If you share some of their frustrations, let them know which.

3. Find out what they are positive about and reinforce it. This doesn’t mean trying to convince them to be positive. It means giving attention to whatever positive feelings they do show—and chances are they will have shown some because it’s unusual to find people who are purely negative.

Perhaps the bottom line, however, is to persevere no matter what sort of obstacles you encounter. Who knows, you might just become the next Bill Gates.

1. Game Sharing

So you enjoy playing Facebook games. There’s no shame in that. Own it! However, under no circumstances should you post your stats on a daily or even weekly basis. Your friends really don’t care how great you are at Scrabble or how many zombies your plants may have zapped. Trust me on that. Otherwise, prepared to be known as the person with way too much time on his hands who is a little proud of that fact.

2. Posting Overly Inspirational Memes

Enough already with the inspirational quotes! Yes, when used sparingly and chosen carefully, wise words from a respected leader can inspire true inner change. Chances are, no single Facebook post is really that well-researched. Lay off the inspirational memes and quotes. Flooding your feed with them will just get people hitting “hide all posts” from you.

3. Being a Cryptic Drama Queen or King

You know what I mean. There are some people who thrive on posting a clearly unfinished thought in the apparent hopes of people asking for more. Never post things like: “Wow, that was the most amazing news ever!” or “I’ve never been this disappointed in someone.” When you leave out the most important part of the story you’re sharing, that is just asking for attention, and it’s sure to annoy people left and right. Also, it will probably just prompt a lot of questions you probably shouldn’t answer in a public forum.

4. Overdoing It With the Selfies

Taking self-portraits on a daily basis is bad enough, but updating your Facebook profile photo to a new selfie every day is going off the deep end of social media etiquette. Kick that self-portrait timer on your camera to the curb. Don’t look back. Nobody really needs 500 pictures on Facebook, so take it easy and update your photo sparingly. Your friends will thank you.

5. Liking Your Own Posts

You are welcome to love yourself, but if you are on Facebook try not to ‘like’ yourself!  Think about it. When you “socially network with yourself” by clicking “like” on your own posts, that’s akin to laughing loudly at your own jokes at a party. People are sure to take notice of it, and they’ll go away from the experience with the impression that you are conceited or, at best, a bit lacking in tact.  If you are posting it, we can all assume that you like what you’re saying.  There’s no need to drive that point home.  After all, you don’t want to be seen high fiving yourself in public…!

At Breakaway Solutions, my award-winning website development company, building a high-traffic website is the ultimate objective of the entrepreneurs and corporations that use our services. But how to get there?

You can always turn to experts like myself when you want more eyes landing on your home page. Some of our advice is practical, some of it philosophical. Yes, page layout plays a part, search engine optimization is a key consideration; and creating links, utilizing social media and optimizing your database are all crucial. But over and above those essential elements, it’s universally agreed that content is still king in creating return traffic to your website.

Some simple rules

Content is generally considered to be the text on your site and it has its own set of rules. You should ask yourself some questions before creating content: Who are your readers? What information can you provide that will give them value, a reason to return to your site and, optimally, incentive to share it with others. For example, this is my personal website, separate from the website for Breakaway Solutions, yet inherently intertwined with my business. My goal here is to impart advice from my experience to help others reach their entrepreneurial goals. By it’s also a personal site, so I try to convey some of my own inspirations for success in a way that’s both educational and motivational.

Above all, know your audience! Your content should be tailored to those you want to reach while being original, engaging and an incentive for further exploration of your site. Depending on your purpose, strive for timeless information with a long shelf life.

How much is enough?

How much content should there be? It’s true, copious and continually changing content stacked with the right keywords is important. For keywords, think of yourself as a typical Google or Bing user and incorporate search words they might use to find the sort of information you are providing. Length can also be a consideration. Some of my peers would discourage lengthy pages and might recommend posts of anywhere from 500 to 1,000 words.

Personally, I think length should be determined by the amount of space necessary to convey good, usable information, with some links to a few outside sources that you would also deem valuable, or which share a similar message. Links are also important for SEO purposes.

Other reputable sources

For example, if you want to know more about some of the tools and tacks of building a website, I might recommend other like-minded bloggers such as Tim Ferriss, whose content is always eclectic, insightful and, maybe most importantly, shared. He sets a good example and I feel confident that my audience would benefit from many of his topics, including How to Build a High-Traffic Blog Without Killing Yourself.

I mentioned Steve Pavlina in my previous post and his name bears repeating here. Steve writes some excellent content on personal development, so we have kindred interests. His thoughts on building a high-traffic website are definitely worth a read and, as he points out, sometimes differ from what some other experts might recommend. But he has some definite ideas about content. He sums up his philosophy in a way that I would agree with: Even if you forget all his tips, he says, “just focus on genuinely helping people, and the rest will take care of itself.

I could not have said it better myself.

Those can be just some of the mundane perks of having an online business; you can start work in the morning wearing pajamas if you feel like it. But there are more substantial rewards: the freedom to set your own work schedule, the self-satisfaction of starting a successful venture, the power to choose your own projects and not have to answer to a boss; and if you do it right, you can own a very lucrative company.

As a partner in Breakaway Solutions, a full-service web development company I launched in 2001, I consult with many entrepreneurs who want to grow their online business. I also operate several ecommerce sites myself, and my background has provided me the background to guide others in everything from marketing approaches to email collection.

Building a Successful Website

I believe there has never been a more opportune time to be an entrepreneur due to advancing technologies, especially for young people who are computer savvy. Building a website these days is relatively easy, but it’s what you do after it’s up and running that takes additional know-how. Don’t be fooled by the adage from that Kevin Costner baseball movie: “If you build it they will come.”

That’s where marketing comes in; and if you can drive people to your site in enough numbers, your chances of monetizing the site to your benefit can increase exponentially.

And marketing a website is intrinsically linked (pun intended) to technology. There is somewhat of a science to running a successful website that includes such things as enabling permalinks, using keywords that improve SEO, optimizing ads in your layout and making contact information prominent. Of course, having highly readable and interesting content is also part of the equation.

One of my peers, Steve Pavlina, has done a good job explaining optimal content with his post How to Build a High-Traffic Web Site (or Blog) and other articles on his site, StevePavlina.com. I like Steve’s approach because, like me, he intertwines business and personal development.

Knowing Your Technology

Understanding your readers and creating engaging content for them is crucial, but that doesn’t excuse the site operator from understanding permalinks, RSS feeds, pinging and other technologies. If you’re a beginner, you might turn to books such as “Building a Web Site for Dummies” or one of the many books available about WordPress, such as the recently published “WordPress Revealed: How to Build a Website, Get Visitors and Make Money (Even for Beginners.”

You should have some rudimentary understanding of the technology required to run a successful website, but if you “just don’t get it,” that shouldn’t be a reason for abandoning your dream. There are also services available that will do the work for you. One of the best is called Site Build It! – a one-stop-shop for creating and building an online business. For an annual fee, Site Build It! will give you all the tools you need to build a site with the potential to generate income. The fee covers the cost of hosting the site, registering a domain name, integrated tools that provide ease for adding content, including a built-in blog, as well as offering RSS feeds. So if you are not a technophile, you can turn those things over to people who are.

Site Build It! is just one company that offers such services and it may be worthwhile checking out several to find which one is best for you.

Of course, no service is going to relieve you of your duties completely. Establishing a money-making website still takes plenty of time and energy; you have to work hard at it just as you would at any other type of business. But isn’t it nice to know there’s help out there if you need it?

“I don’t know what to do. Who will marry him?” the mother cries in Agarwal’s book “How I Braved Anu Aunty & Co-Founded a Million Dollar Company.”

What’s so terribly wrong with Agarwal that causes so much consternation for his mother?

He decided to pursue a path of entrepreneurship rather than the more socially acceptable trajectory of working for a short time after college before getting an MBA and accepting a salaried position with a good company.

I should point out that Agarwal lives in India, where entrepreneurship is discouraged by the older generation because it tends to interfere with the custom of arranged marriage.

“Parents of prospective brides strike me off the list when they find I am a start-up guy,” the author/entrepreneur told writer Saritha Rai in a blog that appeared last fall in the global edition of The New York Times. “They want a safety net for their daughters. They feel I could not provide her a nice house or a luxury car as I don’t have a job and banks will not give me credit.”

Something tells me Agarwal is having the last laugh. In his mid-20s, he’s the founder of a successful company, Alma Mater, which sells logo-adorned merchandise for colleges and schools across India. And his book, masquerading as fiction, chronicles the resistance he faced in fulfilling his dream, has sold more than 30,000 copies and is in a third reprint.

His story, however, makes me feel fortunate to be an American where entrepreneurship is encouraged and arranged marriages are hardly the norm.

As an entrepreneur and husband, I understand the demands of starting a business and how it has the potential to put stress on a marriage. Starting a company requires copious amounts of time, money and energy. But being a successful entrepreneur is not the antithesis of being a good husband, wife or parent, as some might have you believe. I have read many articles and blogs that characterize marriage to an entrepreneur as being a “roller coaster ride,” for spouses who have to deal with exorbitant egos, cash-strapped households and neglect by a partner who is preoccupied with building an empire.

I rather like writer Chris Dannen’s take on the subject. The editor of Co.Labs at FastCompany observes:

“The phenomenon of the entrepreneur with the MBA is a relatively recent one; entrepreneurship programs are sprouting up at universities all over the country, but most of the folks that start businesses don’t have the knowledge or inclination to be ‘empire builders.’ What they do have, however, is creativity, drive, self-confidence and dynamism.”

And there is plenty of advice out there for spouses who might be married to an entrepreneur, whether they are wives or husbands.

Nicole Bailey, wife of Petra Coach founder and CEO Andy Bailey, offered several tips in a story for BusinessNewsDaily. She suggests that couples keep to schedules that allow them to spend time together and get away from it all when they can. She also suggests that the non-entrepreneur in the relationship develop his or her own outside interests.

“Understand how your dreamer thinks,” suggests another writer for wikiHow. “Dreamers are ideas people. They always have a new one. It doesn’t mean that they are going to sell everything and go start that bed and breakfast out in the wilderness. They are just expressing a thought. It’s like exercising a muscle. They work out that muscle every day. So don’t freak out. You never know when that one idea is the one that brings success.”

The blog marriedtoanentrepreneur.com offers similar advice: “As spouses of entrepreneurs, we don’t want to kill the dream (or the dreamer for that matter). We don’t want to be the reason that someone, aka our entrepreneur, doesn’t achieve their potential. We don’t want to thwart their passion or creativity or talent, BUT we would like some piece of mind when it comes to being able to afford groceries next week, let alone college in 5 years.”

Writing for Forbes magazine earlier this year, Anson Sowby owner of an advertising agency called Rocket XL, takes the advice to a whole other level by pointing out the advantages of two entrepreneurs marring one another, based on his experience with wife Ro Cysne, co-founder of JilRo clothing.

Sowby writes that he and his wife benefit from such things as networking together, mutual motivation, short commutes and being each other’s sounding board.

Two entrepreneurs under the same roof: I kinda like that. Of course, my wife might have a different opinion…

The thing about a million dollar idea is you have to put it into action.

I’m lucky to have had great success with my business, Breakaway Solutions, by having the knowledge, skills and experience to help other businesses with their needs in web design, development and Internet marketing. Since we are an award-winning company that is thriving, I like to think about this as my own “million dollar idea.”

But the success I have achieved is something anyone can attain. I was ruminating on this recently after reading an article about Tony Robbins, probably the most influential motivational speaker and life coach in the world. As an entrepreneur, I really relate to what Robbins has to say about everyone’s potential and I believe his words should resonate with anyone who might be thinking of starting their own business.

Here’s just one of the things Robbins has to say:

“The truth of the matter is that there’s nothing you can’t accomplish if: (1) You clearly decide what it is that you’re absolutely committed to achieving, (2) You’re willing to take massive action, (3) You notice what’s working or not, and (4) You continue to change your approach until you achieve what you want, using whatever life gives you along the way.”

Oprah Winfrey has expressed the same philosophy more succinctly:

“Every time you state what you want or believe, you’re the first to hear it. It’s a message to both you and others about what you think is possible. Don’t put a ceiling on yourself.”

Those are words worth remembering whether you’re considering opening your own business, or you have some other goal in mind.

I read about another “million dollar idea” recently that I found remarkable and it relates to the words of Robbins and Winfrey. If you’re like me, you can remember running with a couple of quarters in your hand as a kid every time you heard the sound of an ice cream truck. That carnival-style music would set your mouth watering for a Fudgsicle or Rocket Popsicle.

Tony Lamb sure remembered it. When he heard the sound of one of those trucks in his neighborhood one summer afternoon, he went running along with his 3-year-old daughter and the rest of his family. But this was not the kind of truck he remembered as a boy. It was a barely running 1970 Chevy van spitting blue smoke. The music was blaring. The driver was bare-chested, tattooed and pierced. And while his daughter was intrigued, she was also hesitant to embrace an experience that should have been fun for a child. This wasn’t exactly the Good Humor man.

Lamb remembers looking at his wife and saying, “They’ve completely destroyed that business model.”

He set about reinventing an American icon — the ice cream truck — and his business, Kona Ice, was named the No. 1 new franchise for this year by Entrepreneur magazine.

The company not only entered Entrepreneur magazine’s Franchise 500 list, but was also No. 27 among the fastest growing in the country. The first truck hit the road in 2007 and today there are more than 300 Kona Ice trucks in communities across the country in more than 40 states.

But what I really like about Lamb’s story is a fundraising component he built into his business model that allows his franchise partners to not only make a profit, but also raise money for charities and worthy groups by giving back to their community while they do business. The company has raised more than $10 million since its start for various organizations, particularly schools.

To me, that is a “a billion dollar idea” that might even prompt Robbins to amend his advice that when you’re motivated to do something that’s helping others as well as yourself, your impetus to succeed is that much stronger.

I draw that conclusion from an article that appeared in an education blog of The New York Times that ran shortly after Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs died. Reporter Shannon Doyne asked students “Who is Your Role Model?” and offered Jobs as well as pop singer Kelly Clarkson as examples of people worth emulating.

But when the students were asked to comment, the majority of respondents listed their role models as mom, dad, grandma, grandfather, sister, brother and teachers.

There’s something heartening about that. As a father of two boys, 6 and 4, I certainly hope I am a role model for them and I take that responsibility very seriously. But even though parents can be role models in your formative years and might even continue to be throughout your life, as you get older the people you admire can change. Certainly media can be a big influence as new leaders, artists, entrepreneurs, scholars and professionals come to the fore.

What qualities are important in a role model? And what makes them worthy of the designation? Lots of celebrities are idolized, but how many really deserve the adulation?

And nobody’s perfect. We all can’t be a Gandhi or Mother Teresa. So, perhaps in choosing a role model it’s better to look up to various people who excel at different things. A role model shouldn’t be just someone you hold in high esteem, but a person after whom you would want to pattern your life.

I have always been inspired by very successful people within specific categories. If I wanted to improve on a particular section of my life I would read a book on someone that was successful in that area, whether it would be in business, family, health & fitness, entrepreneurship, or life’s other endeavors.

Qualities such as intelligence, leadership, philanthropy, courage, humility and grace are certainly traits one might want to look for in a role model. Brad Pitt isn’t just a good-looking actor, he’s also interested in helping humanity, as he did by providing new housing for New Orleans residents after Hurricane Katrina. Hillary Clinton showed leadership as a First Lady and went on to become a U.S. Senator and inspired girls and women all over the world as Secretary of State. Muhammad Ali, a beloved athlete once considered to be the most famous person in the world, has used his fame to help other people with Parkinson’s disease by founding the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center.

So it’s not just being a celebrity that makes a person role model-worthy, but what they do with their celebrity to teach, contribute and improve the human condition. They should inspire greatness in others, but earn their admiration.

And even though it’s nice to know, as a parent, that children still honor their mothers and their fathers, we can’t forget that peers can be role models as well; and it’s important to talk with kids about specific traits they like in the heroes they respect and want to imitate.

A few years ago, Forbes took a look at role models under the age of 18; and along with the names of actors, singers and athletes was Hunter Stewart, then 8 years old. He was a regular little kid with one extraordinary exception: When his mom was diagnosed in 2007 with cancer he did what he knew best — racing trophy karts, off-road trucks that usually run on motocross tracks — to raise awareness for the disease, donate money to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation, and inspire thousands of others to do the same.

I certainly wouldn’t mind if one of my boys said to me, “When I grow up, I want to be just like him.”

 
My company Breakaway Solutions has helped hundreds of companies and organizations harness the power of the Internet for various reasons. It’s a powerful tool for communication, commerce, education and hundreds of other uses.

But the relative anonymity it can provide to a user means the Internet can be manipulated for devious purposes by users who live on the dark side of the web. And just as a computer has become a modern-age tool for instruction, used by children from a very young age, it can also be used as a tool for destruction by predators looking to connect with vulnerable and innocent children.

Startling Statistics

To illustrate the dangers, let me share some of the statistics I found while writing my book:

■ 48 percent of K-1st graders reported viewing online content that made them feel uncomfortable.

■ 71 percent of teens receive messages from strangers online and 30 percent contemplate meeting them face-to-face.

■ About half of young people have experienced some form of online harassment; one in five children regularly experience cyberbullying.

■ 39 percent of teenagers send or post sexually suggestive messages and 48 percent say they have received such messages.

■ 20 percent of teens have engaged in cyberbullying behaviors.

Learn How to Safeguard

After hearing many horrible stories about children falling victim to online predators, I decided to write a simple book to provide parents with solutions that they can use to empower their children. You don’t have to be a computer expert to safeguard your child against unwanted advances by strangers on the Internet or from peers using social media as a forum for bullying.

I share practical tips, many of which include talking to your children about using the computer responsibly and being aware of risks. Communicating with your child is really the key to making most of these online safeguards work. On the technical side, I recommend installing software that provides parental controls that block certain websites and content, such as pornography. Establish a family email address, rather than allowing your child to have his or her own address. Create strong passwords and change them regularly.

In some cases, the tips I dispense will help protect your computer as well as your child. For example, blocking viruses can keep your computer working properly and by securing your Wi-Fi connection with a password and firewall, you can block unwanted users.

Sites Specifically for Children

I have tried to introduce information that can make computer usage easier and more fun for your child—more kid-friendly, if you will. Several companies have created browsers specifically for younger users. Such browsers use filtering to protect young eyes from unwanted and explicit material. Try using browsers such as Glubble and Buddy Browser, which disable external chat and encourage media sharing and social interaction with family and other people the child already knows.

Facebook has become so pervasive in our society, but leave that to the grownups and introduce your child to social networking sites specifically designed for kids, such as Webkinz or Club Penguin. They offer gaming and a social atmosphere in a kids-only environment with built-in privacy features, like use of an avatar instead of a photo.

These are just a few of the 100 tips that comprise “100 Ways to Keep Your Children Safe Online: The Guide for Parenting in a Digital World.”

Purchase Helps Save the Children

The book is available for purchase on my website, www.johnromano.com/books/ for $9.95. The best part is that by purchasing it you will be helping other children. I am donating 100 percent of the proceeds to the Save the Children organization, which is dedicated to helping children in need.

In writing this book I have tried to impart invaluable information to be used along with a rule of thumb I believe goes along with any parenting task: be involved. Know why, when and how your children are using their computer. Make it a family activity. Know who they are communicating with. All of those things will help you provide online safety for your child and shield him or her from danger.