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A Solid Core is at the Center of a Strong Business

June 2, 2010 By

A few years ago I signed up for Pilates classes to get in shape and to build my core.  I finally quit when my flaky instructor showed up on the first day and then missed a few classes.  She had a great core, but a bad planning system.

In a recent blog post, New Marketing Labs, LLC president Chris Brogan stresses the need to develop a strong core. In this case he’s referring to your database, your email marketing, and some kind of community of prospects. He describes his four core tools of marketing.

Database – Your client and prospect list, your database, is the base of everything. If you don’t know who your customers are, who your next customers will be, then that’s where you start. Brogan uses BatchBook by BatchBlue for his contact database.  Constant Contact is another database manager to consider but a product endorsement by Brogan carries a lot of weight. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Balancing home/office Life, Home office technology, Internet marketing, Making money from home, Marketing/Public Relations, Working with clients Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Think Creativity Over Cash When Marketing Your Business

May 24, 2010 By

Marketing your homebased business can be challenging and frustrating, but it doesn’t have to be expensive.  In another Working Naked post, a few entrepreneurs shared their low-cost, highly effective ways to market their businesses on a budget. A few more entrepreneurs share their marketing secrets.

    “Unpaid public speaking is a fantastic way to drum up new business. Associations and Chambers of Commerce are always looking for free speakers educate and entertain at meetings. You’ll make your money from the “back of the room” after the event selling products/services, getting referrals and booking more gigs.”

    —Leslie Guria, SpeakingBonanza [Read more...]

Filed Under: Balancing home/office Life, Internet marketing, Making money from home, Marketing/Public Relations, Working with clients Tagged With: , , , ,

Don’t be a Dummy…Learn Smart Ways to Market Your Business

May 21, 2010 By

The folks at Copyblogger are no dummies. They know that if they fill their site with valuable advice about writing a blog and marketing online, their readers will want more. What kind of people are they?

Obviously they’re brilliant, generous and Internet savvy because they’re offering Internet Marketing for Smart People, a 20-part, free email course and continual newsletter. This course is down and dirty, quick and easy and best of all, packed with useful advice about Internet marketing.

Check the Internet and you’ll find hundreds of programs that promise to give you the “secrets” to Internet marketing. Sometimes you’ll see a photo of a guy on his yacht who wants to make it perfectly clear that he’s made a fortune from Internet marketing and you haven’t. My advice? Shop carefully and if you can get a high quality marketing course for free, grab it immediately.

After you’ve read through the free course, check out Copyblogger often. You won’t believe how much information is on their site. I never leave Copyblogger without learning at least one new thing. They know everything and I want to know it too (insert evil laugh).

Filed Under: Improving your web site, Internet marketing, Making money from home, Marketing/Public Relations Tagged With: , , ,

Why You May be Losing Followers on Twitter

May 18, 2010 By

Do you take the time to weed out the list of folks you follow on Twitter? Lisa Barone, Co-Founder and Chief Branding Officer at Outspoken Media, Inc., culls through her Twitter list monthly and stops following some people while adding others to her list.  I do the same thing every few months and each time I do that, I lose followers. I’m not obsessed with how many followers I have, but if someone stops following me, I wonder why.

In her Small Business Trends post, “20 Reasons People Unfollow You On Twitter,” Barone shares the results of a quick poll she did with Twitter users.  All of the tips are insightful and worth reading, especially these four.

1. You’re a self-promoter: Lots of people mentioned that they were turned off by Twitter users who do nothing but promote their own content. You want to drive traffic to your site, but there’s other content out there.

2. You’re too self-centered. Twitter is about connecting with others and not making it about you.

3. You auto-DM: Nothing hurts more than choosing to follow someone you think is cool…and then being hit with the dread auto spam DM. There will always be something annoying and creepy about getting a sales pitch via DM. Build a relationship before you try to sell something to someone.

4. You don’t share anything new. There’s nothing wrong with retweeting unless that’s all you do. Share new information when you can.

Filed Under: Home office technology, Improving your web site, Internet marketing Tagged With: , , , ,

Marketing Your Business on a Budget Takes Creativity

April 27, 2010 By

When you add up the expenses of running your own business, sometimes there’s not much money left for marketing. So when money is tight, you need to be creative. I asked homebased business owners to share out-of-the-ordinary, proven strategies they’ve used to market their businesses. Here are a few of the tips I collected.  I’ll share more tips soon. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Internet marketing, Making money from home, Working at home Tagged With: , ,

4 Ways to Brand Your Business

April 22, 2010 By

Guest Post by Joy Gendusa

“Branding” is important to your marketing, but have you ever wondered what that means for your business?

  • Branding is more about being consistent in your message and image. When you put out your marketing pieces, you want to create a similar look and feel so that people remember you. And you want that similar look and feel on everything you put out.
  • You get to make the rules of your brand. You choose your colors, style of lettering, logo and message. There is some flexibility, so long as you follow the general rules you set for your brand. [Read more...]
Filed Under: Internet marketing, Making money from home, Working at home Tagged With: , ,

3 Ways to Become an Expert in Your Field

April 15, 2010 By

If you’re a physician, attorney, architect, or other professional who has to pass tests to be certified, you’re considered an expert.  If you’re not in a field with a standardized test to prove you’re an expert, you’ll need to prove your expertise in other ways.

After all, when the media, prospects or clients need insight or services from an expert in your field, you want to be the first one they call. So how do you make that happen?  There are several ways.

  • Write articles for trade publications and websites that cater to your expertise. The more often your articles are published with your byline and a link to your site — consider the link your “payment” for the article — the more you’ll become a household name within your industry. [Read more...]
Filed Under: Internet marketing, Making money from home, Working at home Tagged With: ,

How to Drive More Traffic to Your Site

April 9, 2010 By

My blog has an unusual and unpredictable traffic pattern. When I’m quoted in an article, my traffic increases.  During Working Naked Day, my numbers spiked.  While I can’t count on national articles or mentions from other sites to drive traffic, the one surefire way to drive up my numbers is to write guest blog posts. Denise Wakeman, online marketing advisor and founder of The Blog Squad shares that tip and others in her blog post “19 tips for driving traffic to your blog.” The following are some of her best tips: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Improving your web site, Internet marketing, Making money from home, Working at home Tagged With: ,

E-commerce Makes Cents…Dollars Too

March 1, 2010 By

#267-ecommerceFor the past few months I’ve been researching online payment systems for this site. The many articles I read gave me insight into what to look for and the costs involved.  While the articles were helpful, I turned to a few friends and colleagues to get their two cents about the checkout systems they use.

“For a new small business, there are a few tried and true online payment portals that people trust and are relatively easy to set up. PayPal and Google Checkout being the most obvious. Authorize.net is another relatively popular (and trusted by buyers) payment processor. CNet and Authorize.net have both published  comparisons.”

—Mika Lofton, MarComm 3.0 [Read more...]

Filed Under: Improving your web site, Internet marketing, Making money from home, Working at home Tagged With: , , ,

You CAN Get the Website You Want

February 25, 2010 By

Guest post by Dave Yankowiak

#266-Dave webAs a web developer, I’m often asked how much it costs to build a Web site. If you want a simple and generic Web site that doesn’t do much, it can be relatively cheap. If you want something custom with beautiful design and interactive features that will really appeal to your site’s visitors, it gets a bit more expensive. Here are a few tips to set expectations up front and get exactly the website you want.

Share Examples of Sites You Like

One of the best ways for a developer to get a feel for your tastes is to show him or her a few sample Web sites. Discuss what you like/dislike about each example, evaluating elements such as fonts, colors, layout, graphics, functionality, sections, navigation, and content.

Show Your Existing Stuff

If you’ve done any sort of marketing for your brand in the past, show samples of those campaigns. This can include logos, brochures, business cards, catalogs, giveaways, newsletters, old websites, and advertising. Even if some of these things contain branding you no longer want to use, it helps the Web designer get a feel for where you’ve been, where you are, and where you’re going with respect to your brand’s evolution.

Have Some Ideas

Bring your brainstorms, daydreams, things you’ve seen, and things you haven’t seen. If there’s a feature you’ve never seen on a competitor’s Web site that you think might work on yours, discuss it with your design firm. In the age of Web 2.0 the sky really is the limit. However be open to feedback. Designers spend a lot of time on the web and can offer guidance on things that may or may not work.

Think About the User

Why would people visit your Web site? Why would they come back again and again? Can your Web site essentially become a virtual customer service employee for your company? Focus on the user. A lot of brands try to create a website with cool features and things that are there to make the company look good, but they forget the site is there for the user. Cater to them. If your end-user is having a great experience, you’re going to be happy with the investment you’ve made in your new Web site.

Determine the Essential Pieces

You may not be able to afford everything you want in the first iteration of your new Web site. That’s fine and if you plan accordingly, adding features at a later time should be no problem. Dreaming big is good, but focus on the clearest path to launching a site that looks professional, has good content, and is shaped around the user’s experience. The bells and whistles can wait if they need to.

The more you can plan up front, the smoother the Web site development process will be. These tips will help both you and your designer visualize the Web site that you really want and put you on the path to a successful site launch.

Dave Yankowiak is a web-minded individual and owner of Lift Development LLC. He lives in Grand Rapids, MN and blogs about his “work anywhere” lifestyle on http://www.anywhereman.com.

Filed Under: Improving your web site, Internet marketing, Working at home Tagged With: , ,
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