Archive for April, 2009
Review: Doing Business By the Book
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Sophfronia Scott: Doing Business By The Book
Now is not the time to remain silent. In this economic climate the best thing you can do for your business is to showcase your skill and expertise—and one of the best ways to do that is to become a published author.
Doing Business By the Book: How to Craft a Crowd-Pleasing Book and Attract More Clients and Speaking Engagements Than You Ever Thought Possible is a quick, easy-to-read book and throughout you will find the basic nuts and bolts on choosing and assembling just the right stories to tell in your book. In addition, you’ll learn ideas for powerful lead generation strategies to make your book a success. If you have given any thought to writing a non-fiction book, this how-to book is a must have.
In Doing Business By the Book, Sophfronia Scott tells us that in today’s business world, a “published book is the near equivalent of a business card”. A book brings the author both publicity and notoriety and becomes a platform from which to grow a business. This book details how to do the entire process of using a non-fiction book for business development. She takes us from the beginning of finding your unique voice through organizing the book, tips for writing, publicity, and where and how to sell the book. There are dozens of ideas included for using a book as a platform for business expansion; this alone is worth the price of the book.
This is also a book by an author to develop other authors. There is discussion of voice, theme, theory and even how to choose the right stories to illustrate the points of the book. Doing Business By the Book teaches how to make a well-crafted book – the exercise of completing the Book Building Circle will ensure the reader has all the elements for a successful book.
One of the themes of Doing Business By the Book is that the best non-fiction “delivers on the promise of a system” by taking the reader “by the hand and show them how to do something”. Scott has demonstrated her own theory in producing a book which is a must read for any business owner who is looking for a powerful way to get their message out and grow their business.
I highly encourage you to pick up a copy of Doing Business By the Book: How to Craft a Crowd-Pleasing Book and Attract More Clients and Speaking Engagements Than You Ever Thought Possible and you will be so glad that you did!
What’s stopping you from writing your own book?
Your Website Copy Speaks Volumes
Posted by: | CommentsIf you think the text on your website isn’t important then you better think again. Website copy is one of the most important parts of your website. Your website’s success can actually hinder on how effective the copy is. Copy that isn’t up to standard will cause your site to fail quickly when a visitor arrives, no matter how great the graphics look or the services and/or products are.
You Only Have a Few Precious Seconds Before Your Visitor Clicks Away
The first few seconds are extremely crucial to the success of your website. You must grab their attention right away in order to keep them reading. When you’ve kept them there, you must continue to grab their attention or they’ll reach for their mouse instantly.
Internet surfers are diligently looking for information on a certain topic. Once they’ve stumbled onto your site, they will quickly skim through your material and see if your site has the information they’re looking for. Sites that don’t grab their attention right away; lose their visit and a potential sale.
Websites with poorly written web copy are doomed to fail. Those that do, generally make the following mistakes:
- Small or fancy style fonts
- Boring text
- Provide information unrelated to their website topic
- Contain several spelling errors
Walk in Your Customer’s Shoes
Think like your target market. If you were looking to buy the same services and products that you currently plan to offer, what copy would you want to see on the site? Would you want boring, unrelated material to read or something that grabs your attention and makes you want to read more about it?
More than likely, you want something that will grab your attention. The best way to accomplish that is to:
Write the Way They Want to Read or Would Understand
Think about who your target audience is. What are their likes and dislikes? Get to know them better. Now, provide them with text they could understand and would actually want to read.
For example, let’s say, your target market is women business start-ups in the telecom industry. If these women are on your site, you are going to walk their walk and speak their speak. Because they are in the start-up phase of their business they are more apt to review larger of amounts of text as long as it is written in way they understand. They will skim headlines and bolded text however and focus on what relates to them.
If that’s the case, then would they want to read text that’s geared towards the pharmaceutical industry? Probably not. They’re not likely to relate to the wording or the overall products/service even if they could possibly benefit from it. All in all this means that they will click away.
A website relies on the written text, not graphics, to get visitors to the site, grabs their attention and keeps them there. Don’t risk your business success by slapping down some copy and hope for the best. Give your visitors what they need and what they want.
Monday Marketing Tips: 5 Ways to Get More Business
Posted by: | Comments1. Article Submission
Writing articles is an easy way to boost your credibility as an expert in your field. Articles should contain a minimum of 250 words and an intriguing bio. When writing your bio, don’t necessarily start with your name. Keep with the flow of the article so the reader thinks that it’s part of it. When readers see your name, some automatically stop reading because they assume it’s the end of the article.
When your article is complete, submit it to online databases like:
EzineArticles.com
IdeaMarketers.com
ArticleDashboard.com
2. Offer Free Info Sessions and Educational Seminars
Do you have a product or service that could benefit members of your local community or Chamber of Commerce? If so, offer a free info session/educational seminar. Invite those you think could benefit directly. Keep a product on hand and offer back of the room sales once you conclude your presentation. If you have an ebook, put it onto a CD so the purchaser can take it with them that day.
3. Have a Contest
Everyone loves to enter a good contest for the chance to earn something of value. Set up your contest on your blog or within your ezine. Offer the registrant a free report or ecourse just for signing up for the contest. Post your contest in your ezine, blog, Twitter, Facebook and any social networking site you are a part of.
4. Write an Ebook
While this can sound daunting to many it can be easily achieved. Simply sit down and start writing on your area of expertise. If you have ezines with a lot of content and articles that you have written, can you expound upon them? If so, you have the beginnings of an ebook and/or informational product.
5. Offer a Teleclass/Tele-Seminar
Invite your personal list, Twitter followers, Facebook friends and your whole social networking group to join you on a teleclass to showcase your expertise, product and/or service. Provide lots of great information and a special offer at the end for the participants of the call.
Build Your Coaching Business with Help from the Father of Coaching
Posted by: | CommentsIf you could learn from the man who made Coaching as a business possible, would you listen?
If you were told that you can get 100 tried and tested lessons on getting clients, by Thomas Leonard himself, would you be interested?
I have been coaching for years and I was interested. I cannot wait until my first box arrives on my doorstep. Just like me, you do not need to wait for this anymore. Thomas may not be physically here with us any longer, but you can still get access to his insight and knowledge. The Thomas Leonard Success Strategies Program is available as a physical product sent to your doorstep or digitally delivered to your Inbox.
There are so many things that you will learn, that it does not make sense to list them all again. You can get your copies by going to the Thomas Leonard Success Strategies Program web site. You will want to hurry and order your copy now while there is a huge discount. The offer ends on April 13, 2009.
Now, if the 100 lessons were the only items in this program, it would still be a tremendous deal by itself. However, there is so much more included in this program that not getting it as soon as possible would be a $300 mistake. You will get books, audios, pre-recorded teleconferences and more. But in addition to all the wisdom from Thomas himself, you also get the energy of Andrea J. Lee.
I have spent parts of the past year working behind the scenes with Andrea and I can tell you she is as bright and as creative as she seems. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear Andrea live on two calls a month as she presents the wisdom of Thomas updated for today’s world. This alone is worth the price of the program.
Hurry to get your seat while there are still openings. This program is already almost full. There is even a convenient payment program in easy to manage increments. So, now you really have no excuse for putting this off. Hurry and get the Thomas Leonard Success Strategies Program now!
5 Marketing Strategies To Catapult Your Business
Posted by: | Comments1. Write a book. Take a moment to really think about the expertise you bring to the table. Write down at least 10 areas and write a paragraph about each. You now have the beginnings of a book. Elaborate on each section and send it off to an editor. Hand the finished product off to a virtual assistant for formatting. Then use a Print on Demand service like LuLu.com or Xlibris.com for publishing.
2. Article Marketing. There are many article directories, but not all of them are worth your time. Since you’re trying to get traffic to your website, you want to find the very best ones. It can be hard to choose since the search engine’s “love” for these directories seems to change all the time. Still, there are a few that you can always count on.
These include:
EzineArticles.com
GoArticles.com
ArticleDashboard.com
IdeaMarketers.com
3. Use Google Adwords and split test your ads. Sometimes, people don’t click on our ads even when we think they’re great. There are many different reasons for this, and that’s why it’s so important to split test your ads. Pay Per Click engines like Google Adwords actually make this easier than ever. You can set up two or more different ads so you can see what is the better performer over time. I recommend that you take advantage of this because you might find that one ad never gets clicks and the other gets great clicks and conversions. Once you have these results, you can delete the non-performer and concentrate on the one that’s giving you the level of traffic and sales that you want.
4. Use Facebook. There are many ways to use Facebook as a business tool:
You can update people with your blog entries.
You can use the updates section to talk about changes you’ve made to your website.
You can join networking groups that are related to the niche topic you’re focusing on.
You can place a link to your site and company in your profile so that as many targeted people (the friend’s you’ve selected) as possible can view it.
5. Use Squidoo.com. Developed by Seth Godin, Squidoo is an excellent website that can help you generate traffic to your own site. You create “lenses” with Squidoo, which are not necessarily blogs, but not websites either. You could say lenses are something in between. Squidoo offers many different modules that help you add content quicker and easier than you might think possible. Squidoo also lets you place your RSS feed from your blog on your lens. This is a hands-off way to keep your lens fresh with content since it will update itself as you update your blog. Your blog gets the benefit of the great link.
Find Out What You Need to Know Using Google Alerts
Posted by: | CommentsOne of the many free features of Google is called Google Alerts. A Google alert is an email that sends you links to places on the internet that discuss the subject of your choice. This is a way to keep current on your niche, increase your business knowledge and follow what is being written about certain subjects in the news.
Set up your Google alerts at http://www.google.com/alerts. Let’s say your niche is finding the issues and problems facing the Generation Y crowd. Your search term could be “Generation Y” issues or “Gen Y” issues – the quotes indicate words that need to be kept together.
Then choose the type of alert based on where you want Google to look for new information – news pages, web pages, blogs, etc. The comprehensive option will look at all these sources. Finally decide how often the search should occur – daily, weekly or as-it-happens. When new material is found on your subject, you will receive an email with headlines and a few sentences for each source found along with a link to see the entire source.
At the very minimum, every business owner needs a Google alert for their niche, business name and their own name. Following where you own name is appearing on the internet is a great way to keep track of your marketing reach. Google alerts help to ensure that you know that the search engines find your websites, blogs (including posts), where your name is being used, where your articles are being used and so much more. Free Google Alerts are one business option you shouldn’t be without.
How do you use Google Alerts? What interesting things have you come across?
Free Publicity with Press Releases
Posted by: | CommentsEvery business can make use of the press release at various times as a free source of publicity for their business. A press release is used to notify the media of a newsworthy event occurring in a business, which can include the launch of your business, the creation of a new product or service and so much more.
When writing a press release, there are certain factors to keep in mind. Be sure to communicate the 5 Ws and the H:
WHO – The people, service, product, etc. associated with the news.
WHAT – What is the news/source of the news?
WHEN – When does/did the news take place?
WHERE – Where will/did the news happen?
WHY – Why is it news?
HOW – How is it newsworthy/purpose of the news?
The subject of the press release must be newsworthy and not just an advertisement. It should be simple and current. If you can, tie in what you are announcing to what is happening in today’s world. Finally, include a human interest angle that is targeted to the audience of that media. If you are sending the press release to your local paper, discuss impact in the community; for a larger outlet, talk about national trends.
Most editors and news directors receive many press releases on a daily basis and will not waste time on those that are not easily useable or formatted correctly. Be sure to catch the editors attention quickly with a punchy headline that summarizes your release.
Resources for details about writing your press release can be found:
How are you using press releases for your business? What success stories can you share?
How Do You Deal With Setbacks?
Posted by: | CommentsForrest Gump certainly possessed a lot of wisdom because life IS definitively like a box of chocolates…you never know what you’re going to get. There are assorted flavors that are fruity, chewy, and sometimes nutty. We may not even like all of the chocolates in the box, but we have to deal with them.
There are many words to describe what happens when we don’t get what we want. Some use the term “failure” but even that word is used in the wrong context most of the time. We opt for words like “setback” and “stalled.” I think Thomas Edison allegedly said it best, “I have not failed 1,000 times. I have successfully discovered 1,000 ways to NOT make a light bulb.”
Whatever you want to call it, these are the road bumps in life. If life was always smooth sailing, we’d be pretty poorly equipped people. The first rough patch and we’d probably be carried off in a strait jacket.
Have you ever seen the hands of a farmer? His skin is wrinkled and dark from long winters and blistering summers. On his palms are thick areas of skin from tousling with ropes and equipment. Those calluses form in response to his work so that the next time, his hands will be prepared for the ropes.
With the proper help, we will bounce back. Setbacks can beat us down to where we don’t want to try anymore. It is hard to make it alone, but having someone else along for the ride can soften the road bumps and keep us moving in a positive direction. This is exactly where a life and/or business coach can come into play.
Some setbacks require the buddy system to overcome. The buddy can be a coach, counselor friend, or family member. Their job is to be a sounding board for you. If needed, they offer advice to get you going again. This person is your counterweight to keep your life in balance when it threatens to tip one way or another.
Part of bouncing back from a loss or setback is putting the situation in proper perspective. You lost the race, because you didn’t practice enough or the other racers were better. Counter that setback with more practice. Even ask for tips from other racers. Look to the positive side for answers to setbacks.
Would it feel good to give up? Of course it wouldn’t. You’d harp on your loss. Getting back in the saddle as soon as possible is the key to regaining your confidence and the will to try again.
