Archive for December, 2009
Planning and Overcoming Time Management Obstacles: Part 1
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Planning and time management can be the biggest challenges to starting a business and being a successful entrepreneur. Learning to overcome these obstacles can be the key to managing and leading a successful business.
What are time management obstacles and what causes them? Many things cause time management obstacles including:
1. Perfectionism – Many people use perfectionism as a crutch, a way to stay busy doing what they know how to do and to let the rest slide. For example, you’re a skilled writer but detest accounting, which means you spend days on a sales letter and your books are in such shambles that you are unsure who owes you what or how much money you’re making or losing.
2. Procrastination – This happens for a number of reasons. If you’re facing burnout, then you’ll likely feel like avoiding anything related to your business. However, if you’re facing a task you don’t want to do it’s much easier to procrastinate.
3. An inability to say no – Guess what…not only should you not be doing everything – you can’t! And if you try to, something’s going to give. You’re not going to be able to devote your full attention to your business-related tasks, they’ll suffer and your bottom line will suffer.
4. Lack of planning – It’s easy to become caught up in tasks like
- Social networking
- Phone calls
- Checking stats and website analytics (This is important but you don’t need to obsessively watch the numbers)
- Surfing the net, reading blogs and industry information
One quick email check can turn into a full hour of back and forth email correspondence and before you know it, your entire schedule is off for the day. Planning, and sticking to your plan, helps you stay on track. In part two of this article series, we’ll talk about how to overcome these obstacles.
Twitter Warning: Twitter is Addictive
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Twitter offers users a free social networking platform that works in real-time. It is micro-blogging that can be done on your PC with an Internet connection or used on your mobile device. People can be found twittering at bus stops, on the train, in their offices or at home. If you use Twitter for business, be careful that you don’t get sucked down into Twitter addiction.
If nothing else, Twitter is one of those sites that are catching. Once you start out on it you can’t seem to stop looking at it. Even if you are not twittering your fingers off, you are reading each and every tweet that comes your way. You sign up for feeds and get alerts when other tweeters post tweets.
Twittering is quite addictive. You start out posting tweets to make business connections and connect with your customers but before long you are spending more time socializing than you are working. You’ll wonder where the time has gone, losing hours to tweets, tweaking and twalking.
The business can suffer if you spend all of your time on Twitter using it ineffectively. As a home business owner or a small business owner, you are the only employee in some cases. Your time is precious and you could be twittering it away literally.
Have a plan when using Twitter for business purposes. Restrict your communication to business matters only when you are running your business. Save personal tweets for later in the day when you are on your own time. Separating business and personal accounts works also to that end.
If you have one Twitter account that you use for business and for personal this can pose a problem. While your intention is to show your human side to clients, doing far too much socializing can have the opposite effect and turn off potential visitors and customers. Even current customers can see you as becoming less professional by being too friendly.
Also, fellow Twitter users may see you as a spammer if your posts focus more on your business and not on being social. Social networks don’t take kindly to spammers. As an online business owner, the last thing you want is to give your business a bad name in the eyes of potential customers. It is a fine line to walk especially when you only have 140 characters to use, so be careful.
Twitter is a social micro-blogging platform than can be used for business. It is addictive as a social site for personal enjoyment which can take away from the business aspects of the site. Watch out or the draw of the tweet will entice you to do more playing than working.
Marketing 101: How to Choose an Email List Service Provider
Posted by: | CommentsIn the world of online marketing, building a list is absolutely imperative. Most solopreneurs don’t have the expertise or the time to set up a list management system on their own server, plus with the CAN-SPAM laws, it’s just not feasible anymore. Instead, most use a list provider. A list provider will allow you to collect e-mail addresses from buyers and visitors to your websites.
List management is an essential part of any online business. Capturing a person’s name and e-mail address when they visit your site allows you to send them helpful information, build your relationship with them and offer new products. It’s absolutely essential that your list provider be easy to use and have the capabilities to deliver professional messages.
Look for the following features to find the B.E.S.T. L.I.S.T.
Bad address protection.
Your list system should remove bad e-mail addresses automatically so you don’t have to deal with them manually. Clearing out bad addresses from your list can save you a lot of time.
Easy opt in creation.
Your list can’t exist unless you have an opt in form on your website. The opt in forms should be easy to create within the list provider’s system. You should be able to feel secure in putting the opt in form on your website and trusting that it will work.
Subscribe/unsubscribe system.
Subscriptions and unsubscriptions from your list shouldn’t require any input on your part. Your list members should be added automatically and removed just as easily.
Tracking capabilities.
E-mail marketing isn’t effective unless you can tell how your messages are being received. A robust list provider program will allow you test and track your messages. You can see how many are being opened by your list members and how many are clicking through on your links. This can be a great way to learn how to market more effectively so you can reach your audience.
List management.
Your list provider should give you the ability to manage several different lists at once. You should be able to send a message to a few lists at once, filtering out people who are on a third list. You should also have the ability to send messages to people who subscribed after a certain date. All of these capabilities will help you market to your list more effectively.
Internet connection.
You shouldn’t have to wait for your messages to go out due to a server outage on your list provider’s side. Your list provider should be professional enough to keep an active Internet connection to your list management tools at all times. The better the connection, the faster you can work with your list.
Security features.
Your list provider should make it clear in their terms of service that your personal information and the information of your clients will be secure and protected from hackers. Since people are giving you their personal information, you deserve to know that the list provider will keep their information secure.
Technical support.
If your list provider isn’t there to help you work through the technical issues to use their system, they aren’t worth your time. You’re using a list provider in order to make your life easier. You shouldn’t have to be hassled with technical details. Look for a provider that offers phone and IM support.
By looking for these features in your list provider, you can be sure that you’re finding a true ally in your business and not just creating another hassle.
Social Bookmarking Can Multiply Backlinks to Your Site
Posted by: | CommentsHave you ever shared a link with someone else? You read something that was so incredible or informative that you had to tell others. Social bookmarking can help others do that very same thing for you.
Backlinking is the method of enhancing your website traffic through inbound links from other sites. And these are not just any sites, they are reputable business sites and blogs that are established on the Internet. It is not always easy to gain access to these sites and their loyal visitors.
Social Bookmarking
Try social bookmarking. Maybe you have seen all of those little icons at the bottom or middle of the page on websites and blogs.
These are links to social bookmarking sites. When you bookmark something, you want to be able to come back to it later without a lot of trouble. These sites allow you to submit articles that are ranked by other members. Content that is ranked high has a chance to be featured on the front page to gain even higher visibility.
To get the ball rolling, you can sign up for these accounts for free. Some of the most popular are Digg.com, Facebook, Twitter and Delicious. Facebook and Twitter are actual social networking sites where you can post links to articles posted on Digg, Delicious and your own website. With an extensive network of friends (and their friends), you can create a ton of backlinks in no time.
On your website, you can then post an icon for these social bookmarking sites. Readers who are members also, can click and post your article there.
You can be proactive and post your article there as well, with links back to your website. If your business associates and friends are also members, they can vote for your articles and you can do the same for them.
Here, quality does count. Votes will be cast for the best content that meets the needs of your peers. You can achieve a high status here for consistently great performances. That, in and of itself, can multiply your backlinks as everyone will be looking for your latest creation.
So, what are you waiting for? If you feel that your search engine ranking is not what it could be, it could be your backlinks or the lack thereof. Social bookmarking can help catapult you onto the front page of Google and Yahoo when you and others submit your content on those sites.
If You Can Dream It…WordPress Can Do It
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What do a classified site, job board, content management system, article directory, and sales promotion all have in common? They are all possibilities when using WordPress as your website platform.
WordPress is most commonly known as a blogging platform, and does the job tremendously. Blog owners can utilize the free themes and with very little effort, have their blog up and running in no time at all. For the more blog savvy owner, they can create static pages for contact information, directions, forms, news releases, anything imaginable to make the site more personable. The boundaries of WordPress are proving to be limitless as new users are finding ways to incorporate even more dynamic functions; taking this one-time blogging platform to new levels of sophistication.
Classifieds – Gone are the days of reading the newspaper every morning and browsing through the classified ads. The internet provides many free platforms for posting advertisements, and WordPress is included in this group. Using the classified plugin, WordPress administrators can advertise items on their site, and even allow visitors to post items.
Job Boards – In the search for employment one can easily stumble across hundreds of job boards in their region. The Jobpress theme allows for listings based on job categories. Other customizations include free or paid listings, RSS feeds pulling from other boards, additional categorization according to the type of position (part-time, temporary, etc.).
Content Management – WordPress permits the use of static pages within the creation of a site. These pages can be used for many things including contact forms, contributing author information pages, links to other sites, and storefronts. Because the pages are static, they can be placed as determined in the site, and do not require constant updates.
Article Directories – WordPress has plugins that will allow you to create an article directory for your blog postings, but even without the plugin WordPress automatically allows for pings, comments, and SEO as determined by your blog settings. Utilizing WordPress as your blog platform also allows you to create an online portfolio of your wok.
Sales Promotions – Static pages and home pages flexibility in the WordPress platform allow for the easy creation of sales promotions for your clients. Simply create a sales letter or promotion and load it as your home page in WordPress; then when people visit your site, they will see the sales promotion first and then navigate to other areas. The promotion page could also link to an affiliate site used for sales or collection of funds.
So whether you are blogging or have a product/service to sell, WordPress can be a perfect choice to create a site that is both flexible and adaptable to your needs as a website and business owner.
