Archive for October, 2009
Repurposing Your Content
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Repurposing your content makes good business sense and it’s a good way to squeeze out as much value as possible from your current content. Also repurposing helps your customers by providing fantastic content in a variety of ways.
Here are just a few ideas to help you repurpose your content:
Recycle. There’s no need to just use great content once. Recycling your content benefits everyone in a positive way. A good way to do this is to think about each piece of content and how you can reuse it.
A few ideas may be to:
1. Take a special download report and use the content for article distribution. The report is only available for download on your website but you can use several articles within the report to distribute to article directories. That content will then work to bring you new subscribers to your site.
2. Use product content to create an autoresponder series. If you have an info product available for sale (or a free one) you can take snippets of that content and turn it into an autoresponder series. This way your customers can preview the content through the autoresponder series and the autoresponder series can promote the actual product.
3. Use the content on your website for a product. If you have articles on your website or blog you can easily turn these into a product. Simply choose a collection of articles you’ve previously written and make them available in download format for customers.
You can choose to use this content as a free giveaway to gain more subscribers, or you can turn it into an actual product for purchase. Not everyone is likely to look through your whole website or blog to find the content. Also, people will often pay for the convenience of having the information at their fingertips without having to search for it.
4. Use your newsletter to attract search engines. If you have a regular newsletter which you send out make sure you also add it to your website or blog pages after sending. This will help you attract more search engine traffic and will give customers an archive to view previous newsletters.
5. Turn your audios into content. If you have audios on your website, use them to get more free search engine traffic. Have the audios transcribed and place them on your website or blog pages. This also gives your customers options, as some people will prefer to read rather than listen to an audio.
With a little thinking and planning you can make your content go a long way.
What’s New on Facebook?
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Have you been to our Facebook Fan Page recently? I highly encourage you to go to www.facebook.com/solopreneurbiz right now and share your business insights with us. I would love to interact with you and have a meaningful discussion around creating the business of your dreams.
Recently we’ve talked about:
Relationships Matter (LinkedIn)
Be My Special Guest (Contest!)
New Internet Marketing FTC Regulations
and so much more!
I want to encourage you to take a few minutes to visit our discussion board and enter our contest here. While you are on the discussion board, take a moment to introduce yourself and give your business a little shameless self promotion in “What’s Your Solopreneur Biz?“. Also, please feel free to start your own topics!
If you’re not already, go on over to our Facebook Fan Page and become a “fan” today! We would love to have your input in our discussions.
Be My Guest at The Coaches’ Edge Contest
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Be My Guest at The Coaches’ Edge – Extravaganza for Coaches in Orlando, Florida on December 2, 2009
I’ll be one of the panelists at this day-long event and I want YOU to attend as my guest.
The Event: This is your opportunity to meet with other coaches for discussion and networking on what makes a successful coaching business. You’ll love the “wisdom circle” format that will ensure the sharing of lots of great ideas. Learn secrets of a successful coaching business, discovering your perfect niche, ways to turn prospects into paying clients and how to develop business systems that work.
If you are going to the ICF conference in Orlando, change your travel plans right now and get to the Coaches Edge event too. You won’t want to miss this. If you can’t make it to Orlando, don’t worry, the entire event will be recorded and you can get all the information from wherever you are.
Register now for the event – early bird pricing ends on October 30th. Grab the 49% discount by getting in now. Get all the details and register for your seat here.
The Contest: Here are all the details.
First prize: Win a free registration to The Coaches’ Edge Extravaganza and attend the event as my guest. (Travel to Orlando and participation at the ICF event not included). If winner is unable to attend the live event, they will be awarded the recording of the event. Value $139.
Second prize: Your own copy of the workbook, Mind Your Own Biz: Discover the Secrets to Creating a Successful Coaching Business. Both print and digital versions. Value $47.
How to Enter: Follow these directions carefully!
1. You’ll need to go to my Facebook fan page to register.
If you aren’t already a fan, make sure to click that “Become a Fan” button at the top of the page to be eligible to win.
2. Go to the discussion tab and post your entry under “Be My Guest at The Coaches’ Edge”. Tell me why you want to attend The Coaches’ Edge event and how you expect it to help your coaching business. Explain why you should be the one chosen to spend the day with me there.
3. Be sure to leave your email address or phone number in your post so I can get in touch if you are one of the winners!
Contest Deadline: All entries must be made by midnight (ET) on November 1st. Winners will be contacted and announced on November 2nd. If winner has already registered for the event, reimbursement will be arranged.
More Extravaganza Benefits:
Participate in Wisdom Circles and brainstorm ideas.
Discover Janet’s secrets for success along with those of 18 other Expert Coaches
Get real, hands-on experiences
Connect with coaches from around the world/make new friends
Evolve new and better ways to grow your business
Get tools and tips for getting the most from the ICF Conference
Have a chance to win over $10,000 in coaching prizes
Receive a goody bag each valued at $2000+!!!
Finally: check out the line up for this event – lots of great coaches and inportant info. I’ll be discussing how to turning prospects into raving fans and paying clients so that should be fun! Hope to see you there!! Get your entry in now….
Whose Goals are These?
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“Be true to yourself, and if you cannot put your heart in it, take yourself out of it.” Hardy Jackson couldn’t have said it better. When we try to walk in the path of someone else it doesn’t quite feel real to us. The same goes for goals. If they aren’t yours, whose goals are they?
It is easy for someone to suggest a new addition to one of your goals and easy to start following that path without really considering it. After a while you won’t know whose goal this really is, yours or someone else’s. Others can offer suggestions for achieving your goals but be sure that the goal still remains uniquely yours. Here are some questions to help you keep your goals true to yourself.
1. Do you desire to complete this goal? This is an important question. Without motivation for success you won’t succeed. Sometimes what you perceive as laziness in yourself is really a lack of motivation because the goal is in some way not totally your idea in the first place.
2. Can you define the goal? If a goal comes from your desires, you can tell someone all about it. Whatever question they ask, you can answer them with enthusiasm because it is a goal that you want to accomplish. When the details are fuzzy, the goal might not be your idea.
3. Are you doing it for someone else? If you are going to school to be a chef solely because your father was a chef, that goal needs some thought. If deep inside you are trying to keep your parents from lamenting over a lost chance at owning a restaurant, you won’t find any fulfillment or joy in taking up someone else’s torch. People do succeed at goals set for them by others, but the feelings of joy, accomplishment and pride that come with goal achievement aren’t there. And those feelings are what you want—they only come when your actions match your own goals.
4. Are you focused? Be cautious if one day you are gung ho and the next week your commitment wanes. If a goal seems to take a long time to complete, this could be a red flag. Before you let others jump to conclusions about your commitment, take another look at your goal. Try to find if there is something in the way of your focus or if you have taken on a goal that doesn’t suit you.
Never consider yourself as quitting when you drop a goal that you discover wasn’t yours in the first place. Careful consideration of the source of your goals, at any time, can be depended on to get you closer to living the life that will bring you true happiness. No one else’s goals can get you there!
Why Is Social Media Marketing So Important?: Getting Traffic with Social Media Pt 2
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Social Media Marketing Tip #3: Digg Your Way to the Top
Digg is a very interesting way to receive traffic, and it is currently adored by Google. The basic idea is that when you enjoy or really “dig” an article, you actually “Digg” it by voting for it. If other people are interested they will Digg it as well (by clicking the “Digg” button that appears). The more Diggs a web page gets, the higher the rankings and exposure tends to be.
You can Digg your own articles and pages on your site as long as you are careful. Digg has banned users for spamming or being too self promotional. However, if you use the true social aspect of it by making friends, digging their articles, and digging great articles you find online you can easily drive targeted traffic to your own submissions as well.
Social Media Marketing Tip #4: LinkedIn for Business
LinkedIn may be classified as an “unusual” social media site as compared to Twitter, Facebook or Digg. While those sites tend to promote finding old friends and making new ones while networking socially, LinkedIn is geared to the world of business networking. Using it will help you network within your chosen niche for suggestions, support and help. It will also allow you to search other niches and help you find targeted prospects as well.
LinkedIn is similar to Facebook in the fact that you will be given a Linked In “page” where you can post information about your business and the reason you are there. You can add business websites, blog addresses and anything else related to your business. As of this writing over 40 million professionals regularly use Linked In. Just think of how many people you may be able to reach out to for your business, LinkedIn is definitely a great social site for all business owners to join.
Social sites put an exciting spin on website promotion and marketing. Not only are you getting fantastic exposure for your online business, but it’s great to feel as if you are a part of a community, and it’s a whole lot of fun.
Why Is Social Media Marketing So Important?: Getting Traffic with Social Media Pt 1
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Social sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Digg have become hot and are getting hotter all the time. Both online and offline businesses are jumping into social marketing – and for a good reason. It works. To stay competitive, you’ll want to continually build relationships and stay ever-present in the marketplace. Social media can help you to accomplish this. And, it’s fun.
Thankfully, there are simple and effective ways to use these social Web 2.0 sites. I’ll share some of those tips with you now.
Social Media Marketing Tip #1: Twitter Is Golden
Many people are using twitter as a way to connect with colleagues, family, friends, and customers. If you haven’t tried Twitter, now may be the time to set up an account and see what it’s all about. Twitter is a “micro blogging” platform where you can write (in 140 characters or less) anything you’d like. You can update people about your day, share resources, send a link to your websites, etc. – anything that you feel your followers will find useful or interesting.
When you’re a member of twitter you “follow” people and they will “follow” you.
This just means that when you log in to your twitter account you will see the messages posted by those who you’re following. Likewise, the people who have decided to follow you will see your messages.
Ex. Sally follows Janet So, when Sally logs into her Twitter account, she can see Janet’s updates on her screen along with all of the other people she’s following.
Assuming you’re using Twitter for marketing, the people you follow and those who follow you should be highly targeted. They log in because they are interested in what you and others have to say. Since there are only 140 characters allowed per “tweet” (twitter post), you’ll want to encourage your followers to follow your link for more information on what you are referring to.
If you use this social media site in the correct way you’ll gain loyal followers which leads to targeted traffic and then some very targeted customers. Some have even found Twitter traffic to be more targeted than pay-per-click advertsing and article marketing, both which have been shown to be proven methods of internet marketing.
Social Media Marketing Tip #2: Facebook for Friends
Facebook is a social media site that actually started out as a way for college friends to keep in contact. Soon many high school students signed on as well and now it has grown to being an important site for business communication. . It seems that everyone you run into today has a Facebook page. As of this writing, Facebook has over 200,000,000 active users. That’s a whole lot of potential traffic.
Just like you have followers on Twitter, you have friends on Facebook and that’s where the power of Facebook lies.
You can update your status, link to your website, and leave comments on your friends’ Facebook pages. Again, this creates a great community feeling and also very targeted traffic since people will get to know you and become interested in your opinions and suggestions before clicking through a link to your website.
New On Facebook for Solopreneur.biz
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Have you been to our Facebook Fan Page recently? I highly encourage you to go to http://www.facebook.com/solopreneurbiz right now and share your business insights with us. We have been getting a lot of interaction lately and it really makes for a lively yet meaningful discussion.
Recently we’ve talked about:
The Most Important Things in Life (and Marketing) are Free
Social Media Made Easy
Strategies for a Slow Economy
and so much more!
I also encourage you to take a few minutes and go to our discussions page and add your business to “What is Your Solopreneur Biz?” While you are there, visit some of the awesome businesses listed! Also, please feel free to start your own discussion on the board.
If you’re not already, go on over to our Facebook Fan Page and become a “fan” today! We would love to have your input in our discussions.
WordPress Learning Curve Part 2
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Typing Your Blog Entries Directly into WordPress is Easy
However most people do not use WordPress to enter their information, they instead use a word processing program such as Microsoft Word. This creates a whole new level of problems, since Microsoft Word embeds coding within your text and what you see is not always what you get. For instance, you may have your lists separated at the right line spacing, and indented just right with a flushed indentation for overflow; but when you paste it into WordPress all your formatting disappears and things don’t look anything like you imagined.
To help alleviate this issue, WordPress has added an icon (Kitchen Sink) for inserting your text from Microsoft Word. Simply click on the button and paste your information. The goal of inserting your text this way is that WordPress is supposed to recognize the formatting and follow all the rules you established in your original document. While this is a wonderful tool, it doesn’t always work as planned and formatting can be dropped or added within the document.
One workaround is to use the insert as plain text icon in WordPress. By pasting your text through this application, all the embedded codes are supposed to be stripped from your inserted text. At this point you can use the available WordPress icons and features to create the right look of your document in the visual tab.
WordPress also offers a preview key which acts similar to the print preview in word processing programs. By clicking this button, you are able to see what your document will look like when it actually posts to your site. This is a great tool to keep checking your document to make sure it is just right before you publish it for everyone to see.
These and many other features are standard within the WordPress administrative dashboard. They serve as a great benefit to the non-technical administrator or writer, enabling them to produce great documentation to their website without learning difficult HTML or other source coding.
WordPress Learning Curve Part 1
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WYSIWYG…Come Again?
Using WordPress has its many advantages from unlimited themes, plugins, and widgets to open source software and the incredible knowledge forums available on the Internet. The most exciting feature of WordPress though is its HTML free zone.
For individuals who are unfamiliar with HTML coding and more familiar with using Microsoft Word, WordPress is a dream. Your website, regardless if it is used for personal blogs or business information and sales, is controlled in the administrative panel of WordPress. On that screen, the administrator has two options, to enter information via an HTML box or to utilize the user-friendly WYSIWYG feature.
For those not familiar with the term WYSIWYG it’s a term that was coined in the origination days of word processing. Prior to that time, what you entered on your word processor may not be what printed out. WYSIWYG was a term that was coined simply meaning What You See (while typing on screen) Is What You Get (when you print or publish your document).
WordPress uses the terminology “visual” to refer to the WYSIWIG editor in their system. In this format, what you see while typing is what you get when you post your article or news/information item.
In the administrator module there are two selections for entering information – either visual or HTML. The HTML screen is available to use if you understand embedded coding such as <i> </i>, which simply tells the program to italicize the text that’s in between those two symbols.
In the visual editor, things are made much simpler for you. As you type, you can utilize the icons for changing your text to bold, italic, or change the sizes or color of your text. You can also add lists in bulleted or numbered form, or create a quotation text box which will shade and indent a specific portion of your text. Using the visual editor makes working in WordPress almost as simple as if you were writing a document in Microsoft Word.
