Here is some information you may be interested in , if you have been thinking about starting a blog of your very own.
Initially, you will need to be a significant and expert blogger. If you want to become a well-known blogger, you will need to be able to blog often. You have to post new blogs with fresh contents weekly; if you're able to post many times per week, very good. Try this and you may attract a huge amount of traffic to your site. You will get more publicity by blogging regularly. If you can't blog often, you must tell your readers. This way, your audience will not forget you.
When you a new blogger, you'll be able to request fellow bloggers with high PRs (page ranks) to switch links. When Yahoo along with other search engines like google rank pages, you can benefit a good deal. You can also get high rankings if you have many links with high PR pages. Exchange links are also very useful for bloggers. You'll be able to do this with your friends, relatives, colleagues, as well as other bloggers.
If you want, you can use Google to search for those who want to switch their links with yours. However, you should only exchange links with those that are related to your blogs. If not, don't exchange links. Unrelated exchange links will not be of any good to you.
When you begin blogging, just be sure you signup with Technorati.com. High rankings in this site may also mean more readers and possible subscribers for your web sites. Apart from Technorati.com, it's also wise to sign-up with feedburner.com. If you still haven't registered at those two websites, sign-up now. Conduct a research about Technorati.com and feedburner.com to find out more about these sites. You'll be able to also ask other bloggers about such sites.
Your blogs should also be responsive to search engines like google. Budding bloggers may find this a bit difficult but if you only try, you can benefit from it in the future. In all your blogging efforts, you need to always focus. Using this method, you can write powerful and interesting content that can catch the interest of many viewers and subscribers.
Hope this information is helpful to you ,
Julie
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Are you looking for more REFERRALS?
Well that was a stupid question, because everyone loves referrals!!!
Here are some tips on how to get more for your business.
Here are seven things you can do to increase customer referrals at your business. They’re not complicated and they won’t cost you a fortune. And if you do them well and consistently, they’ll help you build a better business.
1. Talk to your customers.
Have real person-to-person conversations with as many customers as you can. If you have a lot of customers relative to your employees, then you’ll need to prioritize. Find ways to have real, meaningful and ongoing conversations with them.
This might mean inviting some to lunch. It might mean hosting get-togethers at your business. It might start with a survey and end with a phone call or a meeting. For others it might be virtual conversations using email or Web 2.0 tools.
2. Serve their needs.
Of course you’re doing this to make your company better. But everything you do in your customer referral effort needs to be useful from your customer’s perspective. Educate them while you engage them.
3. Engage your customers.
Find multiple ways to get your customers involved. For some people, just a regular phone call or lunch will be enough. For others you might get their help finding solutions to challenges you’re facing (using brainstorming or other facilitated meetings). Create communities for your customers to participate in. Forums and blogs are great for this. Software and online companies have done this for years but so can small businesses.
4. Get your employees involved.
Let your employees participate. Don’t script them or micro-manage their involvement. Let them get to know your customers and vice-versa. The more your customers know and like your employees, the more likely they will tell others to do business with you.
5. Hire customer friendly.
You can train, teach and coach a lot of things but being friendly is not one of them. And beyond just friendly, you should look for employees who make a habit of focusing on the customer, who go out of their way to take care of customer’s needs. One of the best ways to do this is to keep your eyes open when you are a customer. When you meet people who are very good, tell them what you do. Start a relationship so if they look for other work they might call you.
6. Post reminders.
This sounds basic but it works. Make posters of the top things your customers want from you. Include your “customer service standards” so everyone knows what the expectations are. Place them around your business so everyone can see them. Also, use post-it notes, emails, customer service calendars and any other fun ways you can think of to refresh your employee’s memories.
7. Celebrate good news.
When customers give you and your staff good feedback, share it. Have a party! Let all your staff know about it. Show your employees how important it is. Post it where people will see it. Send emails. Talk about it at staff meetings.
When your company is driven by service, your customers will notice. And they’ll like it. Serve them well and they’ll keep coming back. Even better, they’ll tell their friends too!
Again, this is just my way of helping you business ladies/and gentlemen out a little more with building your business to the success you know it can be!
Julie
Here are some tips on how to get more for your business.
Here are seven things you can do to increase customer referrals at your business. They’re not complicated and they won’t cost you a fortune. And if you do them well and consistently, they’ll help you build a better business.
1. Talk to your customers.
Have real person-to-person conversations with as many customers as you can. If you have a lot of customers relative to your employees, then you’ll need to prioritize. Find ways to have real, meaningful and ongoing conversations with them.
This might mean inviting some to lunch. It might mean hosting get-togethers at your business. It might start with a survey and end with a phone call or a meeting. For others it might be virtual conversations using email or Web 2.0 tools.
2. Serve their needs.
Of course you’re doing this to make your company better. But everything you do in your customer referral effort needs to be useful from your customer’s perspective. Educate them while you engage them.
3. Engage your customers.
Find multiple ways to get your customers involved. For some people, just a regular phone call or lunch will be enough. For others you might get their help finding solutions to challenges you’re facing (using brainstorming or other facilitated meetings). Create communities for your customers to participate in. Forums and blogs are great for this. Software and online companies have done this for years but so can small businesses.
4. Get your employees involved.
Let your employees participate. Don’t script them or micro-manage their involvement. Let them get to know your customers and vice-versa. The more your customers know and like your employees, the more likely they will tell others to do business with you.
5. Hire customer friendly.
You can train, teach and coach a lot of things but being friendly is not one of them. And beyond just friendly, you should look for employees who make a habit of focusing on the customer, who go out of their way to take care of customer’s needs. One of the best ways to do this is to keep your eyes open when you are a customer. When you meet people who are very good, tell them what you do. Start a relationship so if they look for other work they might call you.
6. Post reminders.
This sounds basic but it works. Make posters of the top things your customers want from you. Include your “customer service standards” so everyone knows what the expectations are. Place them around your business so everyone can see them. Also, use post-it notes, emails, customer service calendars and any other fun ways you can think of to refresh your employee’s memories.
7. Celebrate good news.
When customers give you and your staff good feedback, share it. Have a party! Let all your staff know about it. Show your employees how important it is. Post it where people will see it. Send emails. Talk about it at staff meetings.
When your company is driven by service, your customers will notice. And they’ll like it. Serve them well and they’ll keep coming back. Even better, they’ll tell their friends too!
Again, this is just my way of helping you business ladies/and gentlemen out a little more with building your business to the success you know it can be!
Julie
Tips on working Smarter instead of Harder
Working smarter doesn’t come naturally to everyone. Most entrepreneurs have to, well, work at it a bit. But it’s worth the extra effort up front because it lets you get more done with less effort later.
So here are some simple tips for you to get started…
1. Stop multi-tasking now.
The phone, email, Facebook, Twitter... it all competes for your time and attention so you have a huge sense of busy-ness. But don’t mistake it for true productivity. Studies now show that multi-tasking doesn’t increase productivity or speed up the completion time for each task—it does just the opposite. (Type ‘Juggling Too Many Tasks Could Make You Stupid’ into a search engine for a great Wall Street Journal article by author Sue Shellenbarger.)
Instead, turn your phone and email off and focus for one hour straight (or if it takes less than an hour, focus until it’s done).
2. Act like you’re a franchise!
Everything in your business should be done the same way, every time. That means having set processes in writing.
Most people find the idea of sitting down and creating process documents and how-to’s for different tasks about as much fun as a trip to the orthodontist. But it needs to be done—even if you’re a solopreneur.
Otherwise you end up wasting time and your efforts lack consistency. Plus, when you’re ready to hire an employee or outsource tasks, those process docs make it a breeze to get the results you’re after.
3. Turn it down.
Be choosier about the work and clients you take on. It’s easy to say yes to any and every client or job that comes your way when you need the cash. But juggling as many as you can doesn’t inherently mean more success or revenues for your business.
In fact, it might just spread you thin, wear you out and actually make you less money since some clients are more high maintenance than others. Plus, you want to make sure your more lucrative projects or clients don’t suffer from your diluted attention and efforts.
4. Keep marketing regardless of your budget.
If you don’t market your business regularly you’re always going to struggle to find enough clients.
Thankfully there are plenty of low-cost ways to market any business.
Try putting out press releases online, participating on social networking sites and doing email marketing. Spruce up your bio. Or commit to attending live networking meetings every month. If you have something to say that potential clients might want to hear try blogging. You can create a blog for free on WordPress then add short articles, tips, audios or videos.
5. Get it off your plate!
If you’re really strapped for time, or you have tasks you just can’t stomach doing or are bad at, outsource to a Virtual Assistant (VA). This is one of my favorite solutions for getting more done with less effort—especially when it comes to online marketing!
VAs can do everything from answering email to setting up social networking profiles, building blogs, creating newsletters, sending holiday cards, and more. Some even specialize in online marketing. I hired my first VA team years ago and it’s been the best thing I’ve ever done for my business—and for getting my own life back because I’m not chained to my computer trying to figure out how to do things like build a blog.
I do provide VA services through my Lynn Marketing Concepts Business: if you are interested in knowing more about that aspect of my business, please visit my other blog at :
Lynn Marketing Conceps
And notice how large I made #4, this is a biggie! You must constantly market your business if you want to be successful in any business!!!
Julie
So here are some simple tips for you to get started…
1. Stop multi-tasking now.
The phone, email, Facebook, Twitter... it all competes for your time and attention so you have a huge sense of busy-ness. But don’t mistake it for true productivity. Studies now show that multi-tasking doesn’t increase productivity or speed up the completion time for each task—it does just the opposite. (Type ‘Juggling Too Many Tasks Could Make You Stupid’ into a search engine for a great Wall Street Journal article by author Sue Shellenbarger.)
Instead, turn your phone and email off and focus for one hour straight (or if it takes less than an hour, focus until it’s done).
2. Act like you’re a franchise!
Everything in your business should be done the same way, every time. That means having set processes in writing.
Most people find the idea of sitting down and creating process documents and how-to’s for different tasks about as much fun as a trip to the orthodontist. But it needs to be done—even if you’re a solopreneur.
Otherwise you end up wasting time and your efforts lack consistency. Plus, when you’re ready to hire an employee or outsource tasks, those process docs make it a breeze to get the results you’re after.
3. Turn it down.
Be choosier about the work and clients you take on. It’s easy to say yes to any and every client or job that comes your way when you need the cash. But juggling as many as you can doesn’t inherently mean more success or revenues for your business.
In fact, it might just spread you thin, wear you out and actually make you less money since some clients are more high maintenance than others. Plus, you want to make sure your more lucrative projects or clients don’t suffer from your diluted attention and efforts.
4. Keep marketing regardless of your budget.
If you don’t market your business regularly you’re always going to struggle to find enough clients.
Thankfully there are plenty of low-cost ways to market any business.
Try putting out press releases online, participating on social networking sites and doing email marketing. Spruce up your bio. Or commit to attending live networking meetings every month. If you have something to say that potential clients might want to hear try blogging. You can create a blog for free on WordPress then add short articles, tips, audios or videos.
5. Get it off your plate!
If you’re really strapped for time, or you have tasks you just can’t stomach doing or are bad at, outsource to a Virtual Assistant (VA). This is one of my favorite solutions for getting more done with less effort—especially when it comes to online marketing!
VAs can do everything from answering email to setting up social networking profiles, building blogs, creating newsletters, sending holiday cards, and more. Some even specialize in online marketing. I hired my first VA team years ago and it’s been the best thing I’ve ever done for my business—and for getting my own life back because I’m not chained to my computer trying to figure out how to do things like build a blog.
I do provide VA services through my Lynn Marketing Concepts Business: if you are interested in knowing more about that aspect of my business, please visit my other blog at :
Lynn Marketing Conceps
And notice how large I made #4, this is a biggie! You must constantly market your business if you want to be successful in any business!!!
Julie
Some General Info for Small Business Owners
Many business owners know the 80-20 principle in doing business. This principle means that you will try to focus on 20% of the customers and provide good service for them. And for the rest of the customers, you may maintain a good relationship with them but they will not be the main target of your business.
In fact, this is quite useful for beginners of the business world. You will find that it is very hard to make everyone happy with the performance of your business. Therefore, you can follow the principle to serve the most important customers for your business instead of all of them.
If there are no such customers in your business, you lose in the competition already. If you wish to enjoy a large amount of loyal customers in the sales network, you have to know some useful ways to please them. For example, you have to keep good contact with them. If you know that they have a regularly purchase habit, you can send them reminders a few days before they make the purchase. Of course, it means that you have to keep the shopping habits of some customers in mind well.
You may say that it is hard to keep such record for all the customers. Well, I am not saying that you should treat every customer in this way. You should only treat part of the customers. The selection criteria depend on you, but you should only target about 20% of the customers. Or, you may select customers which can contribute to 20% of the total sales of your business.
When you try to target these customers, you can give them some extra offers or discounts. For example, you can try to offer them professional help for them to use the products efficiently. You may also give them some bonus coupons so that they can enjoy a price reduction when they purchase the products.
Doing promotion or advertising work will surely be needed if you want to explore new market. However, you should never sell your business in a hard-sell mood. It is very annoying to promote your products in that way. If you are the customer, you also want to have some interesting and professional articles to read instead of some hard-selling articles which are very annoying.
But when you are giving the information to your customers, you should make sure that you are not giving too much. You should not tell everything at once when they contact you and ask you the questions. Keep something in your mind first. Make them curious about your information and tell them bit by bit. This can surely make them loyal to your business and this can surely increase the trust from your customers.
To conclude, you should figure out some unique ways to provide impressive services to the clients of your company. It can help your business to be outstanding in the market.
Just some informational tips that I will be providing from time to time so check back frequently!
Julie
In fact, this is quite useful for beginners of the business world. You will find that it is very hard to make everyone happy with the performance of your business. Therefore, you can follow the principle to serve the most important customers for your business instead of all of them.
If there are no such customers in your business, you lose in the competition already. If you wish to enjoy a large amount of loyal customers in the sales network, you have to know some useful ways to please them. For example, you have to keep good contact with them. If you know that they have a regularly purchase habit, you can send them reminders a few days before they make the purchase. Of course, it means that you have to keep the shopping habits of some customers in mind well.
You may say that it is hard to keep such record for all the customers. Well, I am not saying that you should treat every customer in this way. You should only treat part of the customers. The selection criteria depend on you, but you should only target about 20% of the customers. Or, you may select customers which can contribute to 20% of the total sales of your business.
When you try to target these customers, you can give them some extra offers or discounts. For example, you can try to offer them professional help for them to use the products efficiently. You may also give them some bonus coupons so that they can enjoy a price reduction when they purchase the products.
Doing promotion or advertising work will surely be needed if you want to explore new market. However, you should never sell your business in a hard-sell mood. It is very annoying to promote your products in that way. If you are the customer, you also want to have some interesting and professional articles to read instead of some hard-selling articles which are very annoying.
But when you are giving the information to your customers, you should make sure that you are not giving too much. You should not tell everything at once when they contact you and ask you the questions. Keep something in your mind first. Make them curious about your information and tell them bit by bit. This can surely make them loyal to your business and this can surely increase the trust from your customers.
To conclude, you should figure out some unique ways to provide impressive services to the clients of your company. It can help your business to be outstanding in the market.
Just some informational tips that I will be providing from time to time so check back frequently!
Julie
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Welcome Amanda Rosen to the Marketing Mix
Please Welcome Amanda Rosen from Scentsy to our Mommy Bags Team....She is an Independent Representative with a great company called Scentsy and it is a pretty amazing company. If you are not familiar with what Scentsy has to offer, please visit Amanda's website:
www.candleky.com
Amanda also has a blogsite you are welcome to visit:
www.kyscents.blogspot.com
Julie
www.candleky.com
Amanda also has a blogsite you are welcome to visit:
www.kyscents.blogspot.com
Julie
Event Information from MacPherson Academy
This Event Information is from MacPherson Academy
www.macphersonacademy.com
Everyone is invited to join this event for free.
"Navigating Education In Today's World"
Join our discussions on:
Planning Education to move students from the classroom, through college and into the workplace.
Explore the facets of Traditional, Private, and Homeschool methods for success. Learn how to inspire students to take ownership of their education.
Facilitator: Dr. Robert V. Hale
Friday- July 23, 2010
7:00-830 pm
@ Barnes & Noble Booksellers
Hamburg Pavilion, 1932 Pavilion Way
Lexington,Ky
The panel of experts will include college planners, admissions officers, and professors from University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, Transylvania University, Eastern Kentucky University, Berea College, Asbury University and Others.
For more information or if you have questions, contact Judy Mortkowitz.
MacPherson Academy, (859) 619-2040
http://www.macphersonacademy.com/
Please share this event information with all your friends and family.
Thanks,
Julie
www.macphersonacademy.com
Everyone is invited to join this event for free.
"Navigating Education In Today's World"
Join our discussions on:
Planning Education to move students from the classroom, through college and into the workplace.
Explore the facets of Traditional, Private, and Homeschool methods for success. Learn how to inspire students to take ownership of their education.
Facilitator: Dr. Robert V. Hale
Friday- July 23, 2010
7:00-830 pm
@ Barnes & Noble Booksellers
Hamburg Pavilion, 1932 Pavilion Way
Lexington,Ky
The panel of experts will include college planners, admissions officers, and professors from University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, Transylvania University, Eastern Kentucky University, Berea College, Asbury University and Others.
For more information or if you have questions, contact Judy Mortkowitz.
MacPherson Academy, (859) 619-2040
http://www.macphersonacademy.com/
Please share this event information with all your friends and family.
Thanks,
Julie
I have 5 Free Invites to hand out to Lookville.com
Lookville? What is it, you ask?
It is a social fashion network made up of people from all around the world answering each other's fashion related questions.
Think of it as a giant fitting room, with people to give you thumbs up or down on your looks. Our goal is to create a community where people can come and have their fashion related questions answered and a channel to share fashion tips and advice.
We are still in private beta. You will need an invitation to join, come in for a sneak peek. And I received an invitation and joined and they gave me 5 free invites to hand out to my clients.
So if you are interested in getting even more exposure for your website or blog, email me and the first 5 people to get in touch with me and ask for an invite, will receive one for FREE!
Oh, and the site is completely FREE as well at this time so get in while it's free. Free advertising is never a bad thing!
Julie
email me at jlynn.mommybags@gmail.com
It is a social fashion network made up of people from all around the world answering each other's fashion related questions.
Think of it as a giant fitting room, with people to give you thumbs up or down on your looks. Our goal is to create a community where people can come and have their fashion related questions answered and a channel to share fashion tips and advice.
We are still in private beta. You will need an invitation to join, come in for a sneak peek. And I received an invitation and joined and they gave me 5 free invites to hand out to my clients.
So if you are interested in getting even more exposure for your website or blog, email me and the first 5 people to get in touch with me and ask for an invite, will receive one for FREE!
Oh, and the site is completely FREE as well at this time so get in while it's free. Free advertising is never a bad thing!
Julie
email me at jlynn.mommybags@gmail.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
