How to Apply the Rules of Dating to Your Business

Posted by Denise Griffitts on Nov 8, 2010 in Entrepreneurism | 0 comments

Courting your Customers: The Secrets to Perfecting the Customer Lifecycle

Do you ever feel like you’re on a perpetual first date with your prospects? You focus on wearing the right outfit, saying the right things, knowing when/if to ask for a second date, and avoiding getting broccoli stuck in your teeth.

And if things don’t go well, you have the heartache that comes with rejection…or in this case, the pain of lost revenue.
Well, I may not have the answer to your dating struggles (not to say you’re struggling). But our friends at Infusionsoft do have a proven way to convert leads into customers, turn customers into raving fans, and build quality relationships that last a lifetime. (And before you ask if I am an Infusionsoft customer, I will tell you that I am. And a very happy one!)

When you apply the principles of dating to your business, you begin to remember that your customers are people. Then you can analyze your marketing practices:

• Do you have the same canned lines for all of your dates (a generic marketing message)?
• Are you too pushy on the first date (asking for the sale too early)?
• Do you forget to call back (poor follow-up)?
• Are you taking your relationships for granted (not taking care of existing customers)?

These are common mistakes made by many business owners (and certainly many, many people in the dating world). But you can do better!

The Infusionsoft team has created a fun new video that shows one of the common mistakes businesses make when trying to connect with prospects. And when you’re done watching it, you’ll have a much better idea of what you can do to WOW your customers from the beginning.

Watch the video now.

Find out how to make a lasting impression with your customers.

(And we’ll be here to tell you if you have broccoli in your teeth…honest.)

To your success!

BlogTalkRadio – How to Block a Nuisance

Posted by Denise Griffitts on Oct 20, 2010 in Entrepreneurism | 0 comments

BlogTalkRadio is the largest social radio network and is a wonderful place to host a radio show but every once in a while somebody will show up in the chat room and make a nuisance of themselves.

The host of the show does have the ability to kick or ban a user from their chat room. Just click on the user name listed in the right panel of the chat box. This will bring up a small box of options to choose from. If the host clicks on the Ban option, they will then have the option of selecting the duration of the banning.

If you continue to have problems with nuisances, just email support from this page. Send them a copy of any chat comments or messages that you receive from unwanted users and they will look further into the situation for you. In my case, I took a screenshot of the repeat offenders comments and emailed them directly to the help desk when they responded to my message. You won’t be able to do this from the contact form, but hang onto the screenshot so you can send it via direct email if it becomes necessary.

Now You Can Publish Your E-Book on Barnes and Noble

Posted by Denise Griffitts on Oct 14, 2010 in Entrepreneurism, Internet Mastery | 0 comments

Barnes & Noble has just released PubIt!, a new tool that allows authors and publishers to publish e-books through Barnes and Noble.com.

Now, you can upload Word, txt, rtf, html and other files directly to PubIt!, which will convert the files and make them available as an e-book. The e-book will be available within 72 hours of its upload.

The company will take as their royalty rate 35% of books priced between $2.99 and $9.99, and 60% of books priced below $2.98 and over $10.

The new service will compete with Amazon’s pioneering Digital Text Platform (DTP), which many writers have turned to for distributing their works to the Kindle and other devices that run the Kindle Reader software. Sony, too, has a DYI option for its Reader Store, and Apple is now allowing self-publishers to distribute their e-books in its iBookstore thanks to a deal with Smashwords, a start-up that specializes in DIY e-book creation and distribution.

Will PubIt! make e-books even more popular with readers – and writers? We shall see!

If you use PubIt!, send me an email and tell me about your experience. Good luck!

What Makes Quality Content?

Posted by Denise Griffitts on Sep 20, 2010 in Entrepreneurism, Internet Mastery | 0 comments

What Makes Quality Content?

“Language is the apparel in which your thoughts parade before the public.
Never clothe them in vulgar or shoddy attire.” ~  George Crane

Whether you write about the virtual assistance industry or scrap booking, there are key ingredients that go into the creation of a good article. Providing quality content involves providing website visitors and readers with information they find useful and informative. While the details will vary, depending on your topic and article structure, there are some common ingredients of quality content:

Answer a question.
People visit your website and your blog for one simple reason. What is in it for them?

• How can you help them find answers to their questions?
• What answers are people in your niche market searching for?
• What are the frequently asked questions in your niche?
• Are there subject areas in your niche for which few articles have been written?

Find out what readers in your niche are looking for and write articles that will answer those questions. Brainstorm a list of questions and topics. Providing the answers that readers (and potential buyers) are searching for will help to establish you as an expert who meets their needs.

Do the research to find out what your readers want answers to.

• Place a poll or survey on your website or blog. Survey Monkey offers a free Basic plan. Google “free online polls” to find other services.
• Send an appeal to your list and ask them what they want to know. People are genuinely disposed to be helpful and you will be surprised how many great answers you receive. Email marketing services like Constant Contact offer online polls as part of their service.
• Go to Facebook, Twitter and Linkedinand do some research on your niche. There is a wealth of information there. Join groups on LinkedIn, Facebook Fan Pages and target people in your industry on Twitter and follow them.

Write clearly and accurately.
Minimizing – or eliminating – grammatical and spelling mistakes is essential to good, high-quality content. Before submitting any article for publication, run spell check and proofread it to catch any spelling and grammar issues. If possible, have another set of eyes look at the article to catch anything that you missed. I always hand off my articles to my assistant to see where I might have missed something. Another tip is to read your work out loud to catch awkward phrasing or repetitions.

Include a compelling title.
If your title isn’t interesting, no one is ever going to get to your beautifully crafted article. Scan a few newsletters and blogs and see what articles and posts grab your attention. When in doubt, consider possible titles that include “5 Ways to…” or “10 Tips for… or “How to…” Such titles always attract readers who expect short tidbits and quick reads for their time. Good titles require some effort, but since the title is the first thing potential readers see, it’s worth your time to craft a strong one!

Be concise.
Online readers prefer short articles, ideally those between 300 – 500 words. There’s a fine line between providing enough content to answer your reader’s quest for information while not providing such a long article that they don’t make it to the end to click on your resource box. If your article is too long, consider breaking it up into a series as I have done with these article marketing tips.

What makes quality content? It’s content that a reader is looking for, that answers questions, offers information a reader wants and promises more of the same if they click on your link. Quality content is what will attract visitors to your website and make your article marketing efforts work.

Resources

Free Report: 5 Steps to a Big-Profit, S.M.A.L.L. Report Business by Jimmy D. Brown

Easy PLRis a wonderful resource that will help you find an ongoing supply of fresh content for your blog or article marketing efforts. However, I highly recommend that you edit and re-write these articles in your own voice. Use them as a jumping off point and then take it from there.

Need an Article. When you need well-crafted and well-written content for business, for website, or for personal reasons Need an Article has the solution to your writing needs. Again, the same suggestions about editing and re-writing these articles in your own voice applys.

Be sure to signup for our newsletter so these articles arrive in your email box when they are published.

Make Money Helping Local Businesses Start a Blog

Posted by Denise Griffitts on Sep 10, 2010 in Entrepreneurism, Web Development | 0 comments

I read a timely and brilliant article this morning on Rosalind Gardner’s Net Profits Today blog and wanted to share it with all of you who are skilled in WordPress and are looking for additional sources of business.

by Rosalind Gardner

You already know how to install a blog.

You also know which plugins to use to make it functional and how to make it look great with a pretty professional WordPress theme.

You know which pages are must-haves on any blog.

AND you understand the benefits of blogging in terms of getting free traffic, as well as how to use PPC at the local level to reduce advertising costs.

So, why not make money using your knowledge to help businesses in your local area either set up a new blog, or improve an existing web site?

Surely, you’ve come across a few local businesses that could benefit greatly from your blogging knowledge.

I run across awful local business sites all the time.

For example, most of the small resort, motel and private RV park/campground sites I find when doing travel research are just downright ugly. Most of them look like they were designed in 1997 and haven’t been updated since.

Read the rest of the article here: Rosalind Gardner’s Net Profits Today

If you want to brush up on your WordPress skills and be able to increase the professional fees you command take a look at these two programs.

Go For Your Dream WordPress Training. The next live WordPress Website Workshop begins next month, October, 2010. Be sure to register for the case study replays from their last workshop and get on the list to be notified when the new course starts. I work closely with Ben Cope and Kimberly Bohannan on many projects and highly recommendtheir WordPress trainings!

WordPress Mastery. They offer 3 free brief, but powerful videos that will let you find out more about the complete, step-by-step, multi-video training series. This course is perfect for people who are fairly new to WordPress and need to get the basics down pat.

My web development company, Your Office On The Web builds WordPress sites for clients each month. In fact, we may have as many as 8 -11 in production at any given time. Once you are confident that your WordPress skills can be considered “expert” I would love to see your portfolio!