Working from a home office never felt so cool
If you’re serious about competing with major corporations and growing your business, you have to have a website. It’s not enough to have a Facebook page, a Twitter account and online ads…you have to have a Web presence, too.
For a small cost — actually, it’s an investment — you can have a site that provides valuable information and, of course, a reason for others to contact you for your services, or to buy your products. There are a few ways to create a site that works for you.
Guest Post by Monica Crowe
Have you ever sat at your computer on the day you were supposed to post to your blog and been completely stumped about what to write?Believe me. It’s not just you. Writers block happens to the best of us.
But I’ll bet that just as often as you’re stuck for what to write, you also have inspired ideas for blog posts. Yet, if you don’t take note of them, they float off into the ether never to be remembered. Then, on blog posting day, you end up sitting in front of that blank white page with a blinking cursor for longer than you want or need.
Luckily, there is a simple blog post organizing system that will help you to not only corral your ideas as they come to you, but also have a plan in place every time you sit down to write. But first, let’s address the problem of what to write. [Read more...]
Guest Post by Michelle ShaefferAre secret fears holding you back from jumping head first into blogging? Don’t let them! Blogging is nothing to be afraid of, and nothing has done as much to boost my business and my visibility as blogging has.
So let’s talk about some of those fears that might be holding you back from blogging:
Everyone has something to share. If you’re an entrepreneur and you’re in business for yourself, then it’s safe to assume you’re passionate about something, right? Blog about that! [Read more...]
In a previous guest post, Michelle Shaeffer shared 10 proven strategies to help you improve your business. The response from readers was overwhelming. In this guest post, Michelle shares 15 more tips.
Guest post by Michelle Shaeffer
1. Write a testimonial.
Think of a product or service you’ve recently received that was fantastic. Now write a testimonial for it and send it to the business along with name, business, URL, and city/state. Include a statement of your permission to reprint it on their site, in their newsletter, etc. If you don’t feel like writing, record it as an mp3 and send. Most (all?!) businesses love to get testimonials or positive reviews and will happily use them on their websites and include your business name and sometimes even a live link to your site.
2. Record a quick how to video and upload to YouTube.
YouTube is a huge source of traffic for many websites. Using Jing (there’s a free version) or similar program you can quickly and easily create a short how to video with a tip or step by step use of a product or service you offer. [Read more...]
Driving visitors to your website takes more than just having good content. People need to know that your website exists.
Through Working Naked Day, the holiday I sponsor, thousands of people learned about Working Naked… the blog and the lifestyle. But now that the holiday is over, I spend time each day working on my search engine rankings through social media and other methods. I want to keep my site traffic strong.
I could hire someone to handle my search engine optimization (SEO) but that can be expensive. Instead, I downloaded the e-book “50 SEO Secrets for Mom Entrepreneurs” by Holly Klaassen (affiliate link). This e-book offers practical, quick, and effective tips that work not only for moms, but for anyone who wants to increase his or her site traffic.
Holly breaks down the mystery of SEO into 50 easy-to-use tips including:
I’ve been using Google Alerts for a few years to keep up on the latest small business and home office news, to make sure I don’t miss any articles written about my business, and to track what’s going on in my clients’ industries.
What I didn’t realize is what a good detective Google Alerts can be.
Last week I opened a Googl
e Alerts email and saw a link for a blog post with a title I’d seen before…on my site. When I clicked on the link I saw a site with several of my blog posts on it and someone else’s copyright at the bottom of the page.
If I were a cartoon character, you would have seen smoke coming out of my ears.
Apparently the owner of the site had no problem taking my hard work and calling it his own. My guess is that he didn’t think he’d get caught. He was wrong. [Read more...]
My site has gone through a few transformations or what I like to call facelifts. The design is cleaner, it’s easier to read and is better organized than before.
The truth is that if a Web designer/friend with a keen eye hadn’t picked apart the old design and made me realize that while the site was good, it wasn’t completely functional, I would have kept it the same. I was so closely tied to my site that I didn’t recognize that it could be better.
Take a close look at your Web site and ask yourself a few questions. [Read more...]
One of my clients just fired her Webmaster.
It was sort of my fault.
She kept complaining to me about how long she had to wait for him to make updates, program the right keywords and put together an opt-in form, so I took a close look at her site. After I read a few pages, I realized why her blood boiled every time she thought about her site. [Read more...]
Last Friday — I couldn’t stay away from the mall — I met a woman waiting in line who offers a service my clients could use. When I asked her for her Web site address, she told me she doesn’t have one because she works on a referral basis. I tried not to give her a strange look but the thought of someone running a small business without a Web site, threw me.
The bottom line is that if you’re serious about owning your own business, especially one that’s home-based, you need a Web site. There are several things a Web site can do for you. [Read more...]
My Web site is a work in progress. I make a few changes to it and then a month later I think of a few more things I need to update. W
ithin the next few weeks I’ll be making a few more changes. It never ends.
In “11 Reasons Customers Don’t Trust Your Web Site,” writer Lisa Barone shares common sense tips and easy-to-stop-doing strategies for making your site better.It’s more of a list of Web site mistakes you may be making including:
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