Taking It Easy In 2007
Yesterday, I asked about your goals for the New Year, but today I want to ask how you’re going to streamline your business. How are you going to make things easier for yourself?
There are so many ways to run your business without it running you. You can outsource tasks such as article submissions, bookkeeping, website updates, and more. You can automate a lot of your routine tasks such as newsletter writing and blog posts? You can even create a more defined schedule (as much as I dislike schedules, they do work). Block your time and only take on what you can easily handle in that time.
My friend Kelly is finally going to outsource her email and support. It’s about time! I asked Kelly what held her back so long and why she finally decided to bite the bullet and let these things go.
“I have labored over this decision for six months or more. Email is such an important part of my business and I rather enjoyed checking it and responding – but in recent months I find it harder to keep up with email and have time to devote to income producing projects.
Something that really contributed to my decision was realizing the need for a real work schedule and a business routine for me. I can’t embrace that and keep up with daily email. You can’t move forward and keep doing all of the same things. So I’m braving it and turning email over to my Virtual Assistant.
We’ve created a multitude of form letters for her to use, set up spreadsheets with link info for all of my products so that she’s empowered to respond to all kinds of requests for help.
I’m excited about it and look forward to all of the extra time I’ll have to be creative and complete projects.”
I think it’s great that Kelly has opened more doors for herself and her business and know that with this monkey off her back, she’ll no doubt be cranking out more great products and websites. Way to go Kelly, I’m proud of you!
As for me, my business is pretty streamlined already and requires very little work from me as it is. Therefore, I plan to continue being as lazy as I possibly can and will be giving plenty of work to my assistants, programmer and other great partners and helpers. 
How about you?
By the way, if you need outsourcing tips, grab ‘em for free here.
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I Wouldn’t Lie to You & Goals
A little while ago, I predicted the death of 2006 and it seems no one believed me or paid attention because no one commented. Well here we are with only 2 days left before the demise of 2006 and it seems my prediction is coming true.
As the year comes to a close, I have taken some time to reflect upon where I have been and what I have done with the past 365 days. Wow…what a ride and it’s not over just yet.
As I wrap up my goals for 2006, I’m thinking of where I want to be this time next year and am setting plans in action to get me there.
One of my goals for the coming year is to sell more of my own products. Don’t fret, I’ll still do affiliates, of course, but I love the continuity you have by selling to your own customers over and over again. If they love your stuff, they’ll keep buying. This also helps me to reach my other goals even quicker, all the while moving on to bigger and better things at the same time.
So, what are your goals for 2007?
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Tick Tock – The Countdown’s On
Yes, the countdown to 2007, but also the countdown to a charter membership to All Health Content is coming really close. Current members already receive:
- 50 pieces of quality, targeted health content each month.
- Access to the private members-only forum
….and starting January 1st, members get a bonus of a 7-10 page health-related report each and every month. Use it as a give-away, a bonus for an ebook or whatever you’d like. When we announced the new development to our members, a few wrote back quickly and said:
“I’m loving all of the content I’m receiving and putting it to good use in many different ways. Thanks so much.” – Sherry
“Oh my gosh that rocks! I give a free monthly gift to my list, and I like to give more than one when i can!~ — now its taken care of! Thanks Guys!” – Sarah z.
“Wow, that’s excellent, thank you!” – Karlyn
If you join today, you’ll get the low charter member price of $9.97 and all of December’s great content. If wait until January, you’ll get the bonus report along with everything else, but the charter member price will be gone. 
If you target the health market or have readers that want a more healthy lifestyle, please join us. We’d love to have you.
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Solution for a Popular New Year’s Resolution
In just a few days, 2007 will have arrived. The time for starting new or adding to, will be on the minds of many over the next few weeks.
A lot of people are making it their resolution to earn more money in 2007. Many will be looking for business opportunities to join and others will be looking to grow their existing direct sales teams.
It seems the New Year is always a booming time for direct sales businesses. People are hoping to work for themselves, but don’t want the hassle of starting from scratch with their own business idea. They are not looking to re-invent the wheel, but rather find an established company that allows them the freedom of being their own boss and setting their own schedules. Direct sales companies offer a way to work from home minus the hassles of operating a business that seems to keep its owner on a short leash.
When looking for information about direct sales companies, it’s easy to get confused and overwhelmed from all of the options available. That’s one of the reasons Linda Stacy and I created DirectSalesDirectories.com. We wanted to offer information about various direct sales opportunities all in one place. This saves time from hunting around here, there, and everywhere online for all the different opportunities. By having various company’s information in one central location it makes the process not only faster, but also easier to choose the one that’s best for you. No pressure, just find the one that compliments you and your interests the best and we’ll put you in touch with a consultant who will tell you everything you need to know. This week we’ve added 2 new business opportunities for you to check out; KitchenToolsBusiness.com and GoodFoodBusiness.com.
So, what if you already run a direct sales business and want to make more money in 2007 by doing less selling and more team building? We’ve got help for you too.
One of the hardest things about direct selling is creating your down line. Many people who own a direct sales business do a wonderful job selling the products, but when it comes to creating their down line and improving their passive income, they find it difficult and time consuming. That’s why we offer those already in the direct sales industry the option of having all leads generated from our site sent directly to them.
When someone finds your company on the site and are interested in learning more, they contact you directly. This way, you aren’t contacting (or paying for) leads who aren’t interested. Instead, you are getting prospects who actually want to know more about the business opportunity and have came to you for that information.
Whether you are looking for a direct sales company to join for the first time or hoping to build your current team, here’s to a prosperous 2007! Head on over to DirectSalesDirectories.com to find just what you are looking for in your direct sales needs.
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I’m A Lover Not A Fighter (Boxing Day)
The gifts are unwrapped and the festivities have commenced (at least for a few days), but the sales and shopping have not.
Yesterday was Boxing Day, an actual holiday in Canada, the United Kingdom and other countries. It is most likely just as popular (if not more popular, actually) as Black Friday in terms of retail sales. Most stores have their left over holiday merchandise and other select items marked down drastically.
According to Wikipedia, there are a few theories as to how Boxing Day got it’s name and where it originated. Interestingly, they all make sense, but I have my own opinions of why it’s called Boxing Day (think boxing as a sport). My 5 year-old son also explained to me yesterday that you can only use your hands in boxing and can’t kick anyone. I’m not sure if most people actually follow that rule during Boxing Day shopping.
Personally, I never go shopping on Boxing Day because the crowds are outrageous, definitely worse than Black Friday, with sales prices as low as 50-75% off on some items. When I have participated in the past, I hardly ever found anything I wanted on sale and ended up buying things for full price, just to make my trip to the stores seem justified somehow.
For those reasons, I just don’t go. I can go shopping on any other day and save myself the stress of the craziness that lurks at the malls. After all, it’s nice to really relax with no worries of getting the house clean for the holiday dinners and scrambling to get the batteries I forgot for the toys under the tree. I can watch my boys enjoy the gifts they received the day before. Who wouldn’t trade the loud, hectic stores of Boxing Day for the peace and relaxation of staying home with family?
And maybe if people shop online on Boxing Day they won’t have to fight for a parking space or battle any crowds? For those that have something specific they want or just have an itch to shop, they can get the best of both worlds by doing their shopping online. Now that’s a deal! Do you cater to the Boxing Day shopper on your website?
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Before You Eat Too Much Turkey, Download This
I’ll be off to my parent’s house for a dinner of pork chops and potato salad (long story on why that is) in short little while, but I wanted to remind you to download your opt-in builder software before we put a price on it. Today is the last day it will be free.
In case you are wondering why you would need this software here are a few examples of what it has done for others who have downloaded it and put it to use for their business.
“I do love the ease of the opt-in page and that fact that it is so simple.”
“It’s only one month, but my opt-in conversion is 45%. I was like WOW, but Aweber lies not to me. This is signups based on unique visitors. Very, very cool. If you haven’t used it yet, give it a go.”
Creatures of habit we as humans are. Most people listened when their parents said to them “Do what you are told.” Use that to your advantage.
With the opt-in builder that Lynette and I put together, you can create a one page opt-in site in minutes.
You’ll get your visitor’s attention from the get go and keep them focused on the one thing you want them to do. When you give them one and ONLY one thing to accomplish while at your site, the chances they will “do what they are told” are far higher than just sending them to your site’s homepage and hoping they will see the sign up box and actually remember to sign up before they close their browser.
A well put together and easy to follow single opt-in page can only increase the size of your list and possibly even the profitability of your business.
So, go grab your opt-in page builder today, as of tomorrow it will no longer be on the house! You can find it here => http://www.copywritingsweetie.com/tips.html
By the way, when you register for the opt-in builder, you’ll be the first to know when we release a few other builders that are in the works for 2007. Be on the lookout for builders that will help you easily create a sales letter, survey page and a thank you page too!
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More on Community Blogs – How To
Last week I talked about community blogs and the reasons they can be good for you and your business. You can read the community blogs post if you missed it.
Adriana left a comment and asked about how to get multiple contributors set up on a Wordpress blog. As I didn’t set up the Mom Masterminds Blog, which is done as a Wordpress format, I can’t explain it to her. However, I know someone who can. I told her I would see what I could come up with to help her out with the technical side of setting one up.
Who better to ask than the blogging expert herself? Lynette Chandler, the creator of the Blogging Starter Pack, was more than happy to help me out and has compiled a guide, complete with screenshots for the set up of Wordpress community blogs. Thank you Lynette!
I do, however know how it all works on the Blogger platform, as I set up multi-authors at my community blog over at BecauseMomSaidSo.com. Since I have experience with this particular platform, I could (and did) create a guide to help those of you who use it through setting up a Blogger community blog.
The screenshots in the Blogger guide are from the new Beta version of Blogger, so there may be a few things that look a tiny bit different if you are using the older version, but the process is pretty much the same for both. It really is as simple as sending an email to the people you want to invite to become co-authors on your blog. I have also included screenshots and step-by-step instructions for the entire process.
Here’s where you can find instructions for both Wordpress and Blogger:
Adding Contributors to a Wordpress Blog
Setting Up a Multi-Author Blog in Blogger
Oh yeah, one more thing. Feel free to share your community blog (current one or one you’ve set up with the guides) with everyone in the comments area.
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Review: SEO Book by Aaron Wall
Recently, the author of SEO Book asked if I would review his ebook for him. I’d heard of the SEO Book and seen Aaron’s very popular blog a few times, so I thought I’d take him up on his offer.
Overall, the ebook provides solid advice on growing and then maintaining your free traffic from search engines. I love that he keeps focus on providing quality content and he even says that some great content needn’t be optimized, but it serves other SEO purposes (but I’ll let him explain that to you!). He also is careful to tell his readers that SEO for SEO’s sake (i.e. to get free traffic) isn’t the way to do business online. If you can’t sell anything to that traffic – what’s the point?
Now, I do have to say the first 22 pages were a mish-mash of thoughts that might overwhelm someone new to online business. The first section was meant to be a summary, but the ideas were scattered and terminology was thrown about without explanation. Luckily, when chapter 1 finally starts on page 3, he explains all the concepts in more detail and he also points to his online glossary where you can check the meaning of any words you may not understand. He also gives his direct email address to ask quick questions.
He also explains in his ebook that some of the ideas may seem scattered because he is constantly working on the ebook, adding more information and just wants to give as much to his readers as he possibly can. And there is a ton of information. At 328 pages, there is no shortage of content. However, it’s important to realize that not all 328 pages are about search engine optimization. He includes other Internet marketing advice including branding, viral marketing, conversion and so forth.
The table of contents includes chapters on:
- Why Search
- A Brief History of the Web
- General Internet Topics
- Writing for Search Engines
- Directories & Communities
- Search Engines (details about the majors)
- Link Building
- Viral Marketing & The Social Web
- Monitoring Results
- Pay-Per-Click
- Hiring a Search Engine Optimizer
- Selling SEO Services (an interesting section for those wanting to make it a career)
I like the refreshing honesty that Aaron portrays in his ebook, but he needn’t be so modest. As his credential say on his website:
- Certified as a Google Advertising Professional
- Link Building Moderator at “SearchGuild” (awall19)
- SEO and Google Search Engine Moderator at “V7N” (awall19)
- Referenced numerous times by “Search Engine Watch” (the largest search engine information site on the web).
- Regular contributor and active participant in many of the SEO hotspots such as “The Search Engine Journal” and have been referenced many times over by every reputable SEO forum.
- Editor at many of the top web directories.
- Examples: I am the Skaffe Pay Per Click Search Engines Guide, a GoGuides Guide, Web Beacon Editor, and JoeAnt Shopping Editor.
- My articles have been syndicated on many SEO websites.
- ISEDB
- Search Engine Guide
- LilEngine
- SearchGuild
- WebProWorld
- dozens and dozens of others
- Current with the latest search engine news on SEOBook.com every day.
- And most importantly… I make my living on the Internet, entirely from SEO techniques!
The guide is clearly based on Aaron’s experience and that is so refreshing. Many Internet marketing-related ebooks are based on what people have read elsewhere. I’d rather read what works for people than just a bunch of theory. So, if you can get over the mish-mash at the start, you’ll probably find yourself an interesting resource to help you increase your traffic and your sales. You can read more about his SEO Book at his website.
If you’ve read the ebook, feel free to share your thoughts. It’s great to have a balanced perspective.
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