Womens Leadership

Savor DallasI moved from working in my business to working on my business!
Jim White, Founder Savor Dallas
http://www.savordallas.com
 
CoachWorks InternationalI found a community of business leaders who make being in business a lot more fun and less lonely.
Jeannine Sandstrom,
CEO CoachWorks International, Inc.
http://www.coachworks.com
 
The Sales CompanyI now have a place to be open about my business success and future challenges.
Debbie Mrazek, CEO The Sales Company
Author The Field Guide to Sales
http://www.the-sales-company.com
 

Mindset Reset for Success

Posts Tagged ‘author’

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Effectively Using PR Tactics: Seven Tips To Boost Brand Awareness

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September 15, 2008

By Maggie Chamberlin Holben, APR

In my opinion, the greatest sin in the public relations realm is the sin of doing absolutely nothing and then wondering why the media aren’t paying attention to you (or, in the case of a crisis, are eating you alive). As a small business owner or manager, you can arm yourself with a copy of Full Frontal PR: Building Buzz About Your Business, Your Product, or You or Public Relations For Dummies (For Dummies (Business & Personal Finance)) and engage in “do it yourself” PR. Or, you can contract with a PR consulting firm to assist in the process.

Whatever the case, it’s up to you to make use of proven PR tactics to help build awareness and credibility of your brand. Here are seven tips to help jumpstart your PR efforts, or improve existing programs:

1) Focus On Your Newsworthy Attributes

The news hook is an important information trigger that actually interests news editors and reporters, not something contrived or self-serving that you think should interest the media. You’ll have far greater success garnering news coverage if your announcement is based on a proven news hook, rather than being full of puffery and information only of interest to you.

2) Keep Your PR Tools Up-To-Date

The basic tools for being reporter friendly are: well-written news releases, media/press kit (both online and hardcopy), fact sheets and Q&A documents, backgrounders and history documents, bios of key employees, milestone recap and related timeline, photography (high resolution required for print reproduction), and technical documents such as white papers and case studies. The more information you are able to provide an interested reporter, the more likely your encounter will result in thorough, accurate and engaging coverage.

3) Utilize Newswire Services

Newswires – effectively selected, written and timed – turn up the volume on your media announcement. Specialized dissemination services — such as PR Newswire, Business Wire, PR Web, PR.com and PR Leap – can give your news release added exposure to both the media and potential customers searching the Internet for your products or services as the release remains posted online.

4) Become Skilled At E-mail Campaigns

E-mail is, on the whole, the most preferred form of communication for reaching the news media (versus unsolicited phone calls, text messages or podcasts to busy journalists). Where do you get the e-mail addresses? Check the contact section of the media outlet’s website or subscribe to a media contact data source such as Bacon’s MediaSource, Burrelles Luce MediaContacts or Bulldog Reporter MediaBase.

5) Make Use Of Leads Services

The leads service is a special PR tool that allows reporters on deadline to reach out to companies and individuals for information and interviews. Examples of these services, available by subscription, are PR Newswire’s ProfNet and PRSourceCode. Here’s an example of a recent Profnet Query: “I am writing a story for a national business publication roughly titled ‘Sales 2.0.’ The article looks at how some of the new tools such as LinkedIn, Jigsaw, and other Web 2.0 tech stuff are changing the way companies prospect for sales, contact and woo sales, close sales, and then keep customers happy. I am only interested in talking to small and medium-sized businesses (with 1,000 employees or less).”

6) Share Your Expertise Via Articles

Bylined articles, like you’re reading now, are when you write articles for the print media (usually at the invitation of the editor) about your area of expertise. Opportunities can range from a 250-word squib to a 2,000-word feature. A short paragraph at the end of the article usually recaps the author’s credentials, explains his/her company or organization title and affiliation, and provides the reader with website contact information.

7) Win Awards To Attract Attention

Receipt of an industry or community award is a legitimate news hook that can help attract the attention of editors and reporters and ultimately gain valuable media exposure. The focus of the award gives the recipient a reason to expand on the particular topic by providing additional information and related photography. Quite frequently, the prestige of receiving one or several industry awards offers the “awareness lift” necessary to secure a profile or full feature about your company or organization.

A skilled practitioner can assist you with your PR initiative and help you understand the many tactics
available to you.

Happy awareness building of your brand!

About the Author:

Maggie Chamberlin Holben, founder of Denver-based Absolutely Public Relations www.absolutelypr.com, is accredited by the Public Relations Society of America and a member of its Counselors Academy. A Colorado native, Holben serves on the board of directors of the Colorado Bioscience Association, receiving the association’s 2006 Partner of the Year award. In 2005, she was certified as an industry analyst relations practitioner. Frequently interviewed as a PR expert by the media, Holben’s “expert profile” is available online at Expert411.com.

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Tradeshow Marketing – Get Ready for the Big Event!

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September 14, 2008

How do you know which tradeshows to attend? Learn these basics for proper show selection.

With the increase in number of tradeshows being held across the world, it has become imperative to check the trade shows’ credentials before you commit participation. Here are some quick tips on checks to ensure that you are not heading for a dud trade show:

  • Check previous history and years of experience including backing by any large industrial groups: This is the most obvious way to research on the event planners. Trade shows backed by large organizations would have greater availability of resources and marketing skills.
  • Demographics of previous trade shows: Did the last show done by the trade show provider have a decent show of visitors? Is the trade show provider boasting about the numbers on its marketing material or hiding it in some obscure corner for the number crunchers? Did the trade show provider have a professional organization draw up the demographics of the visitors? Do the demographics fit your requirement? Answers to these queries should help you decide if you should use this trade show as a sales and marketing vehicle for your company.
  • If there is a conference, who are the speakers? You should have at least heard of a few of the speakers or their organizations if they are speaking in the conference. A quick check should also be done to see if the speakers also have a booth at the tradeshow. Tradeshow booth providers usually give out speaker slots as an added incentive to exhibitors and you might like to avoid such events as they are not very genuine.
  • What is the timing of the trade show? Is it just time filler for the conference? If this is true, I would suggest that you avoid this trade event like the plague. The event planners are just putting in the booths as time filler and the trade show is not likely to be heavily promoted either. So just don’t waste your marketing budget on such as event. You will all notice that such time filler exhibitions usually have very few booths in the first place and are located outside the exit area of the conference hall to catch the attendees as they dash off towards food and nature’s call.
  • What is the total number of booths and what is the occupancy rate a few weeks before the show? The thumb rule is that a trade show can have about 5 to 10 percent of empty stands about 2 weeks before the event which eventually gets filled in my last minute confirmations or by sponsors. If the numbers are higher that this, you should check the official reason given by the exhibitors to ensure that you don’t end up participating in a show which has too many empty stands.
  • Is the tradeshow provider offering a ‘desperate’ discount and doing unusual number of follow ups? If you get an offer for a trade show booth which is just too good to believe then it is probably too good to believe. ‘Desperate’ discounts are offered by event planners as a last ditch attempt to sell all booths as you should only participate is such tradeshows if you have unique reason to do so.
  • Testimonials and repeat number of participants year after year is another good way to check on the trade show. If you see a large number of repeat participants over a number of years, it is a good way to determine the quality of the event. Quality of location and association with service providers also help in getting to know the seriousness with which the trade show providers approach their work. I hope this article is also read by trade show providers to realize what exhibitors look out for!

About the author:
Patty Stripes is an editor for The Trade Show Booth

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Using An SEO Company Versus Hiring an In-House Expert

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September 12, 2008

it’s a common question that companies who are considering hiring a search engine optimization company often face – is this something that we can do in-house? More importantly, can we do this in-house and get the same results that an expert search engine optimization company would provide?

As this article will demonstrate, clearly the answer is "yes" to both questions. However, as this article will also demonstrate, getting the types of results that an expert at search engine optimization can provide will cost you – often more than outsourcing.

For the purpose of this article, I’m ignoring the multitudes of companies that decide to dump the job on somebody already in their organization (usually an IT person who already has too much to do) rather than hiring a search engine optimization company.

It has been my experience that while some of these people eventually provide decent results, they are the exception. More often than not, the project never leaves the ground, or the effort is halfhearted at best. In a worst case scenario, your internal person may embrace tactics that no expert search engine optimization company would ever use because they can put your site at risk of penalization or outright removal from the engine indexes.

My company often works with firms after they have used non-expert internal talent to optimize their website, and most of the time we are actually doing more work because much of what has been done is ineffective or dangerous. We have to take everything apart and put it all back together, often while making requests to the search engines to have penalties lifted.

The real goal of this article, however, is to assume that a business has decided to embark on a search engine optimization campaign, and that it is also committed to using a proven expert in search engine optimization.

The choice then is simple – does the business hire an experienced resource to work in-house or should it instead go with an outsourced search engine optimization company?

A recent study by the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, published in the January 2008 edition of DM News ("Healthy SEM Salaries Rule: SEMPO Survey"), points out that experience in search engine marketing carries a high price tag.

For instance, if you were looking to hire someone with more than five years of experience in search engine marketing, you could expect to pay between $100,000 and $200,000 per year.

For somebody with experience but not five or more years, you can expect to pay anywhere from $60,000 to $100,000 per year. If nothing else, these real world figures should convince discerning companies that expert search engine optimization and marketing is not something that you should dump off on an existing employee without any experience in the field.

The free market has determined that expert search engine optimization and marketing is worth at least $60,000 per year for a full time position, and up to $200,000 per year. On the other hand, most reputable search agencies have many more than five years of collective experience in the search engine marketing industry.

In addition, a high percentage of these agencies offer SEO services that cost considerably less than $60,000 per year, to say nothing of $200,000 per year. It should also be noted that this figure neglects to include any of the additional costs associated with hiring – benefits, training, and so on. In addition, an expert search engine optimization company will have a broad range of sites from which to draw knowledge, while your in-house expert will likely only have one, or a handful at best.

To be fair, there are certain advantages to hiring an in-house expert. First of all, experts will have their feet to the fire, so to speak. A search engine optimization company isn’t likely to go out of business if it underperforms on your site, but an in-house expert in search engine optimization is likely to lose his or her job.

It’s also much easier to get the whole team together to discuss your SEO initiatives at any time you choose when you are working with someone in-house. And hey, when you’re paying someone $200,000 per year, you can be pretty certain that you’re going to get top-notch work. But can an expert search engine optimization company give you that same level of work for a lot less money? Probably.

Conclusion

There are many compelling reasons why your business should hire an expert search engine optimization company rather than bring in an SEO expert internally or simply give the SEO project to an existing team member. Financially, it makes sense. But more so, you’re more likely to get the results over the short and long term with an outsourced company for all of the reasons noted above. I’m not saying you have to hire an SEO company – at first. I’m saying eventually you’ll probably want to.

About the Author

Scott Buresh is the founder and CEO of Medium Blue (www.mediumblue.com), which was named the number one organic search engine optimization company in the world by PromotionWorld in 2006 and 2007. Scott’s articles have appeared in numerous publications, including ZDNet, WebProNews, MarketingProfs, DarwinMag, SiteProNews, ISEDB.com, and Search Engine Guide. He was also a contributor to The Complete Guide to Google Advertising (Brown, 2008) and Building Your Business with Google For Dummies (Wiley, 2004). Medium Blue is an Atlanta search engine optimization company with local and national clients, including Boston Scientific, DS Waters, and Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. Visit MediumBlue.com to request a custom SEO guarantee (http://www.mediumblue.com/seo-guarantee.html) based on your goals and your data.

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How To Get More Website Traffic

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September 6, 2008

When You Write Articles Want to get more website traffic and more prospects now? When you write articles, you will attract more attention and get more website traffic, online publicity and profits.

BUT, if you want to write articles that get read and keep your audience coming back for more, you must follow my basic rules of writing for an online audience. If you are used to writing articles for print publications, be sure to read these rules. The online consumer is different than the print consumer.

7 Article Writing Tips to Ensure Your Targeted Audience Reads What You Write & Buys What You Are Selling:

1. Use conversational copy. Talk to your readers. Use words that people know. Absolutely, do not use jargon. It is boring. You will lose your audience’s attention immediately. So, use words that people are familiar with and can connect to. Write like you talk and let your personality and experience shine through. You will make a better connection with your readers.

2.Go active. Words have power. Find specific active verbs to paint your copy. This will make your article exciting and lively. Action verbs are more engaging and will move the reader along. And, by using action verbs, you will automatically reduce the number of words it will take to get your message across. For example, "John loves Mary" is stronger than "Mary is loved by John."

3. Make your copy benefit oriented. Honestly, your readers don’t care how many awards you have won. They don’t care how many degrees you have or how many books you have written. All they care about is how you can help them solve their problems. So include a strong benefit in your article title. Include benefits in your article. And add benefits to your "About the Author" section.

4. Connect with your readers’ emotions. We all want to feel smarter, richer, happier and thinner. Use these emotions to connect with your reader. For example, "Do you feel paralyzed every time you have to go shopping? Do you hate trying on clothes? Does stepping in front of that three way mirror strike fear inside you? Here are my 7 top tips to help you lose weight now…"

5. Keep sentences and paragraphs short. When your readers see articles with long sentences, long paragraphs and no bullet points or sub-headings, they will automatically skip that article. Here’s why? – Large chunks of information scare them. – It overwhelms them. – It takes too much time and effort to read that article. And that’s the psychology of most readers online. So make your sentences and paragraphs short. If your sentences are longer than 20 words, cut them up into two sentences. You can also add lists and bullet points. And, use subheadings that will attract readers when they scan articles, just like I have done with this article.

6. Front-load your point. When you make readers wade through paragraph after paragraph of unrelated anecdotes before you get to your point, you’ve lost your audience’s attention. Yes, Mark Twain pulled that stunt all the time. But, your name is not Mark Twain. You want to tease your readers with bits of information they need to know. This way they’ll stick around to the end. They’ll then want to click on the link in your "About the Author" section and buy your products or services.

7. Simplify. Worried you’re not using the right words? Use simpler words. Worried that your sentences are not clear? Make simpler sentences. Worried that people won’t see your point? Make your point simpler. Make things simpler and your writing problems will vanish. That’s why every newspaper in the world is written so a sixth grader can understand. I’m not telling you to boil everything down to "see spot run" simplicity. But, if you can’t make people understand what you write, it’s not because the world is filled with morons. It’s because your messages are not clear.

These are just some of the tips found in my Complete A to Z Article Marketing System at http://www.BroadcastYourArticles.com This easy system has helped hundreds of people just like you get articles get read from top to bottom. Follow my article writing advice and you will get more online publicity, website traffic and profits! By revealing his top secrets to writing articles that sell fast,

About the Author
Article Marketing Expert Eric Gruber has helped of thousands of experts just like you boost traffic, get more leads and increase sales. Go to http://www.BroadcastYourArticles.com and let Your Article Marketing Expert take you by the hand & teach you step-by-step, how to write your way to profits!

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Constant Communication Marketing Mistakes

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August 29, 2008

Are You Making This Marketing Mistake?

A few years ago, I met one of the best known ‘sales experts’ in the UK. He had authored several books, and provided motivational training for blue-chip companies in a career spanning decades. If you’ve worked in the sales world for any time, you have almost certainly heard of him. Now in the ‘golden years’ of his career, he could sit back and let the opportunities come to him, couldn’t he? Actually no.

"We never kept a database, Bernadette" he privately confessed to me. So at great expense he had to hire and manage a sales team to set appointments for him. If he had cultivated a list over the years, he would have had prospective clients knocking on his door. "But my business is different!" Ok, so you’re a consultant – and you only work with 3-4 large clients each year. Surely you don’t need a list of 1,000 do you? Maybe not, but any list will give you huge leverage.

If you run a training course, you could offer ‘tips’ to attendees, which you mail, or email after the training. Make sure you keep in touch because even though they may not have buying authority right now, some of those attendees will get promoted, some will move to other departments, some of them will move to different companies, or even different industries.

Several business opportunities have come to me this way over the years. Or you’re a massage therapist – and you can only see 12 clients a week, so you think you don’t need to have a huge list either. No therapist who has been in business for more than 2 years should ever have an empty appointment book. Just this week I heard the sad tale of an experienced complementary therapist who had worked with over 1,000 clients. Business had mainly come her way via word of mouth and referral. But then, for a variety of reasons, she had to stop working with clients for a couple of months and had lost momentum.Now she was struggling to re-establish her client base to its previous levels.

"Well, why not send a mailer to your past clients," was the advice. "Ah", she replied, "I didn’t actually keep a list of addresses of my clients". So she was basically starting from scratch all over again. This sounds so obvious, but you would be surprised just how many people I have seen make this fundamental marketing mistake.

Keep a list of all your past clients, and if you come up to a lean period, you can simply send a mailer to them. It doesn’t have to be a hard sell, just a simple reminder that you’re available, and perhaps a special offer. I guarantee you will get a response from people who have been meaning to call you for weeks or months, but never got around to it – until you contacted them.

Action Steps

1. Commit to collecting names and contact details of every single person who expresses an interest in your business. Look at every current activity you do to market your business and make sure that there is a way of capturing details of people – even if they’re not ready to buy right away.

2. Follow up and stay in touch. Yes, I know you’re really busy and don’t have time to follow up with everyone, but there are ways of following up with people that don’t have to be a huge drain on your time or money. An email newsletter is a cost effective way to stay in touch with thousands of people. Even monthly or quarterly mailers or postcards would be better than nothing at all.

3. Stop trying to be perfect. Some sort of name capture and follow up is better than nothing at all, and you can always tweak and adjust your follow up messages as you go along (that’s what I do).

4. Start measuring success differently. Most people measure their business results in terms of sales and profits. I recommend that you also add ‘size of the list’ to your success measurement – as it can help you plan for future sales and profits too.

5. Commit to building and cultivating a prospect list. Put ‘growing your list’ to the top of your priorities and you’ll be surprised at the results you can achieve.

About the Author
Bernadette Doyle publishes her weekly Client Magnets newsletter for trainers, coaches, consultants, complementary therapists and solo professionals. If you want to get clients calling you instead of you calling them, then get your free tips now at http://www.clientmagnets.com.

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Do Free Consultations Work?

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August 21, 2008

It’s not unusual for someone setting up a service business to be advised to give a free consultation as a way of winning business. In the coaching world in particular (and many other service businesses) this is recommended as the main way of winning clients. Many coaches are assured (often by the people selling them their coaching training) that all they will need to do to have a full practice is offer free taster sessions, and somehow those people will magically transform into paying clients.

This in my view is one of the Big Fat Myths Of Building A Coaching Practice, and it really annoys me to see would-be coaches being duped and misled in this way. The fact is, with any buying decision, the buyer has questions and concerns that need to be addressed, and not all of them will be handled in the free consultation.

Over the years I’ve encountered people who are frustrated and demoralized by their conversion of free consultations into paying business. So what’s the answer? Are we for or against free consultations? My take on this is that free consultations might work, but you need to use them in the right way, and that means asking the prospect to take the next step at the end of the session.

The Free Consultation Won’t Do The Selling For You!

The trouble is, many people use free consultations in the hope that the consultation will do the selling for them, and they won’t have to engage in the ‘dirty’ business of asking for the order. So the consultation comes to an end, the service provider says, "I hope you enjoyed that/found it useful", and then waits for the client to initiate the next step, because they don’t want to be ‘pushy’. Meanwhile the prospect is actually waiting for some direction from the service provider, yet when none is forthcoming, leaves, or ends the phone call, confused. So if you are going to offer free consultations, make sure that at the very least you invite the prospect to take the next step, and find out what questions and concerns they have about proceeding.

The free consultation should pave the way for a sales conversation to take place, not replace it. They Take Up Your Time The main objection I have to ‘free consultations’ as a selling tool is how much time they take. When you’re running your own business, time is the most valuable resource you have. You can always make more money, but none of us, not even Bill Gates or Oprah Winfrey, can manufacture more time. Most people, especially when they are starting out, think that they are cash-poor, but time rich, and therefore happily offer free sessions in the hope that it will win them some business. The trouble is, if you’re even half way good at what you do, it won’t take long for word to get round, and your calendar will be full with free consultations, but no paying clients.

I suggest that instead of offering free consultations ‘one-to-one’ you offer group tele-coaching preview calls. That way you will leverage your time and can simultaneously reach a number of prospects.

What Type Of Prospects Do You Attract With Free Offers?

I hate to say it, but in my experience it’s true, when you offer anything for free, you will attract a percentage of people who will never, ever buy from you no matter what you do for them. I have had many successful coaches admit to me privately that it was only when they found the confidence to charge for an introductory session that they attracted a better caliber of client. I’m not saying don’t offer free stuff – but offer things that are low cost for you to deliver and high perceived value to the prospect e.g. special report, e-book, free teleseminar. Things that take your time on a one-to-one basis are a HIGH cost to deliver, because it’s time you can’t sell to anyone else, or time you could be spending on other projects.

Why People Say No To Free Consultations

Some people are mystified that even when they offer something free – people don’t want it. I’m reminded of the man in Hyde Park who, as an experiment, started offering £5 notes to passers by, only to be refused! There are a whole host of reasons why someone might be reluctant to take up your free consultation.

First, they might be worried about what they are getting into, secondly it’s wrong to assume that the financial risk is the only barrier preventing someone from doing business with you. They might be worried about being vulnerable or looking foolish. In these circumstances the prospect will take the safest option i.e. do nothing!

So should you offer free consultations? Well, at the risk of sounding like a politician, it depends. What I’ve done in this article is give you some things to take into consideration. At the end of the day, you have to consider all the options and make the decision that is best for your business right now. (You can always change your mind later).

About the Author
Bernadette Doyle publishes her weekly Client Magnets newsletter for trainers, coaches, consultants, complementary therapists and solo professionals. If you want to get clients calling you instead of you calling them, then get your free tips now at http://www.clientmagnets.com.

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Queen of Dreams Limited Edition Intuitive Healing and Coaching Event

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August 20, 2008

Now, before anyone starts emailing me asking if business executives use intuitive healers and coaches, the answer is YES. Go watch Flipping out on Bravo and you will even see wealthy people having their houses cleansed. Now read on about the event and get what you want out of life :)

Internationally Recognized Intuitive Healer, Author, and Soul Gifts Teacher

"TINA FERGUSON" THE QUEEN OF DREAMS

You are loved, You have a divine right to happiness.

Tina FergusonImagine a world filled with people who experience peace, purpose and prosperity on a daily basis. Wouldn’t that be great? I think so! You are a beautiful child of God. You have a divine right to enjoy abundance and joy each and every day. Do you believe it? Do you realize that you can have everything you can imagine and more? It’s true! It’s also simpler than you think and nearer than you realize. Begin today to allow all that is yours. Begin by seeing all the abundance already present in your life today – beauty, joy, nature, experiences, relationships. See more and receive more.

We want you to know that you are divine! You are so loved and so supported, there are no words to begin to tell you how much you are thought about and cared for! There is virtually nothing you could ever ask for that would not be met with resounding enthusiasm and joy.

I live in our great, big, beautiful world with my son and husband, and then of course, there’s our angel dog, Rico (think big – really big – like Marmaduke).

Beyond this there are many people I love and care about who call this planet home. Suffice to say I want the world to be a good place now and in the future. What better way to help make the world a better place than by working with people to help them understand that they already hold the keys to the life they truly desire?

I have experienced an adventurous life path. It has been steep at times, always breathtaking, and abundantly bountiful in gifts. What I see most often is that people often know something isn’t right, and they believe they aren’t sure what it is until the guidance comes and it confirms what they knew all along! This is just one of the things I delight in when working with people.

I have worked with people dealing with all changes of life and I am usually the last stop on their journey. They have tried the medications, 20 sometimes 30 years of therapy, and everything in between. I am here to say that most of my clients are able to use the guidance to heal their lives even after:

  • Loss

  • Unemployment

  • Death

  • Depression

  • Cancer

  • Divorce

  • just about any life challenge you can imagine

If money is an issue in your life feel free to listen to our Free Radio show on iTunes and talkshoe Every Thursday 8 Central. Just search for the queen of dreams and look for her picture.

You are Loved

*Please remember you are never alone the angels are always around you.

Client Testimonials

Crystal Clear Clarity

Hello Beautiful Tina … I have been meaning to drop you a note of thanks for our last class and the gift of all your teachings … so now I will also add my thanks for this beautiful call tonight . I honor you Tina for bringing such incredible peace, love and wisdom to all those you speak with! Bless you bless you bless you!
With Love

Crystal Clear Clarity

As I sit here and watch the snow, I’m in awe of how wonderful my life is, in spite of how quickly things change! Even though January has been a horrible month for me (I’ve been riddled with an illness that has left me really fatigued), I have still kept up my attitude, continued to bill clients, have touched based with new prospects and managed to continue working on my writing. I owe a lot of that to you. I just wanted to drop you a line of thanks! Through your wonderful work, I have persevered and maintained my passion for adding a new aspect to my business, and honing this new skill. You are truly wonderful!
I hope that the years are everything you hope, and deserve, which will be nothing short of wondrous!
Best Wishes,

Crystal Clear Clarity

Dear Tina,
Over the past 30 years, I have had the pleasure of working with outstanding Metaphysical Teachers. Some known world-wide.
May I share that your material is excellent, but that is not what makes you stand out.
You are indeed special. But that is not what puts you in the forefront.
Your listening skills and information is focused and clear. But that is not what makes you, “uniquely unique”.
It is your vibration, your empowerment and your genuine sincerity and humble acceptance of the Divine. It rings through the telephone with, “soul power”.
May all our journey’s be filled with glory.

Crystal Clear Clarity

Hi Tina,
Had to record this——unbelievable—-at 5:00 a.m. today, energy was pushing both me and my furry friend out of the bed. Neither one of us could stay in bed no matter how hard we tried—–we were literally tossed out. I/we were amazed- could you do this every morning please!!! And I had tons of energy at work today. Thank you, I was 20 min. early for work.
There is a P.S. to this—–the energy I feel is truly amazing.

You should/must be very pleased with your work-you truly have mastered this technique-rather all techniques. You are the Grand Master and when you say that gratitude is the fastest way to increase the vibrational levels, all I have to do is think of you and study your e-mails and I am most grateful that God put you in my life……how truly loving he is to let us walk with you for a while.
With love,

Life Coaching Client

“Words can not express my appreciation for you and for the help that you have been.”
The advice today was right on for me.
Much love

Life Coaching Client

“Just a note to let you know I just landed my first website copy writing job today. Thanks so much for all you have done for me!”
Kindest Regards

Web Development Company Owner

“When I first started working with Tina, I was lost. There wasn’t a single area in my life that was going the way I wanted it to. She helped me get focused and grounded so that I could start digging myself out of the hole. Each day I made a small change in my thoughts and my outlook and those thoughts began to manifest into reality. With the tools Tina has given me, I’m able to meet new challenges without getting bogged down and mired in the abyss I used to “live” in. I can never thank her enough for guiding me back to myself. So far, I’ve lost over 50 pounds, increased the daily “gifts” that come my way, and have more joy than ever in my life.”

D. Magazine Owner

“I had already experienced one business failing that resulted in bankruptcy and was facing
another one when I met Tina at a conference. She offered to help me free of charge. I knew something good was going to come of our meeting, I just didn’t know what. After six months, my struggling publication that was about to shut down, grew 50 percent larger, I increased my revenue 300 percent, and attracted some of the most well-known names in our industry. I can’t believe all of this happened so fast. I know without a doubt that without her guidance I would not be in this place today.”

As an internationally recognized Author, Intuitive, Healer, Marketing Expert and Business Coach, I’m honored to use my gifts to serve the Creator of All That Is and the creator in you.

http://www.thequeenofdreams.com or http://queenofdreams.ning.com/

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Marketing to Millennials

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August 17, 2008

The Millennial Generation was born between 1977 and 1998 and is just beginning to enter the workforce. Members of this 75 million person group are being raised at the most child-centric time in our history and the impact to marketers is undeniable.

In general, it is said that this group displays a great deal of confidence. This could be the result of focus they receive from parents and high expectations placed upon them – not to mention their new found independence with the advent of cell phones, the Internet, and other electronic forms of communication. This is truly the first generation to grow up completely online and as a result, the marketing mix used to target them needs to evolve. As you might expect, this group is technically literate like none other.

Socially, Millennials are different as well. They are typically team-oriented, banding together to date and socialize rather than pairing off. They work well in groups, preferring this to individual endeavors. They are also good at multi-tasking and were the ones studying while listening to the radio or watching television – all the more reason to ensure that you utilize cross-media marketing and ensure consistency among your communications.

From an academic perspective, they are the group that was able to play a sport, attend school, and engage in social endeavors. Millennials believe in going green and supporting endeavors that are good for the environment.

When it comes to work, Millennials seem to expect structure. They acknowledge and respect positions and titles, and want a relationship with their boss. Millennials are in need of mentoring and they’ll respond well to the personal attention. When considering the management of Millennials, be mindful that they appreciate structure and stability. Mentoring Millennials should be more formal, with set meetings and a more authoritative attitude on the mentor’s part.

How to Market

Now that you understand a little more about the target you are seeking to attract, consider the places they go for information and the way they behave. Millennials are logging into their MySpace and FaceBook accounts 3 – 4 times each day, sending instant messages to friends, and uploading their videos to YouTube. Are you there?

  1. Listen to the conversation. Where many businesses are failing today is that they are not listening to the conversations that the Millennials are having about their products or their company. Sign up for Google Alerts, visit Technorati and see what individuals are blogging about.
  2. Create accounts in FaceBook and MySpace and other Social Media. Put you name out there. Make sure that you company has a space among social media outlets. One thing to keep in mind though is to not be overly commercial. Millennials can see right through it. Rather, be genuine and let your prospective market understand what you’re really about and what you stand for.
  3. Communicate on a personal level. Create a two way dialogue with your audience. Give them an opportunity to speak to you. Whether you let them rate your products, share comments, or share their experience with friends, providing a forum to socialize is essential.
  4. Focus on consistent messaging. Regardless of which media type you use (email marketing, direct mail, Adwords, etc.), keep your messaging consistent. If you say one think and do another, or change your messaging frequently, you will not be building the trust necessary to ensure lifetime customer value.
  5. Be creative. When your marketing is creative, it can very quickly gain momentum. With the advent of YouTube, Flickr, and Delicious, messages are quickly shared and distributed. Don’t force the issue. Rather, create something meaningful, fun, and worth sharing. Before you know it, the Millennials will be sharing and distributing information about your and your brand.

Improving the effectiveness of your marketing to Millennials is no small undertaking. To be truly successful, you need to understand the social dependence these individuals have when communicating and the value they place on the opinion of others. Although much of Millennial marketing needs to happen online, don’t lose track of some tradition media like direct mail. As much as marketing has changed, traditional media can still be effective – just make sure it has a social component.

About the Author

Michael Fleischner is an Internet marketing expert and founder of MarketingScoop.com. He has more than 13 years of marketing experience and has appeared on the TODAY Show, Bloomberg Radio, and other major media. Michael is also the author of SEO Made Simple: Strategies for Dominating the World’s Largest Search Engine and The Webmasters Book of Secrets: Improve Search Engine Rankings.

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How Good Time Management Means Good Life Management

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August 3, 2008

Written by David Hurley

For nearly everyone, time is a scarce commodity. Yet, it is a common fallacy to suppose that when you start a home business you will suddenly have more hours in your day than you did when you worked for someone else. But once you actually get started in your own business it won’t be long before you feel as if there are not only fewer hours in a day, but that those hours seem as if they have fewer minutes in them.

Time management is not an easy skill to teach. Rather, it is a process that has to be learned through constant practice. Many tools are available to help people manage their time, but they have to take the initial step in getting started before they can make better use of the time they have. The development of time management skills will also help you balance the demands of your work and home life. This is commonly referred to as creating a work-life balance and to start you need to be aware of how closely work and home life are related, particularly for the work-at-home entrepreneur.

Do not make the mistake of separating your work and family life into two separate schedules. With the two so closely connected, you should keep all your appointments clearly written on a single calendar so that you can quickly determine whether or not you can fit other appointments into your week. The important thing is not so much the price or quality of the planner you use; the only thing that matters is that you get a planner with a calendar and use it regularly.

Consider your priorities before you fill out the calendar. Fill out the calendar for the whole week and try to allocate time for your long term quality projects as well as the immediate and pressing priorities. Try to reduce the amount of time spent on unimportant and unproductive activities. Constantly review your goals for the week, the month and the year, as well as your longer term goals, and consider how you will move towards each of them, even if only in a small way, each week. That way, you will keep your dreams and your highest aspirations alive and constantly in view. That is one of the most powerful motivators you can have – the constant reaffirmation of the goals that drive you.

However, even the best laid plans stand to be disrupted as new contingencies crop up each day, such as emergencies and unforeseen customer demands. One thing to bear in mind is that when a customer emergency comes up and is in direct conflict with a scheduled event, you will have to decide on where your priorities lie on that specific occasion. If you have an assistant to whom you can delegate the customer issue, that’s a bonus. If not, the customer may have to wait until after you have completed your scheduled task or spent quality time with your family.

When setting daily priorities, you should always begin with a block of time being set aside as contingency time. That is, a period of time set aside specifically to handle unexpected issues, even if it is as little as 15 minutes. If nothing happens, you can feel justified in rewarding yourself with an extra 15 minutes free time at the end of the day. However, if something does occur, you have some slack time in which to attempt to resolve it without throwing a spanner in the rest of the day’s schedule.

One of the best habits you can develop is to better manage your time is to establish a minimum of 10 minutes either last thing every evening or first thing every morning to review what you have to do on the coming day and try to accommodate any tasks on yesterday’s list that were not accomplished. This daily planning session can be the last thing you do at your office, or before retiring to bed, or the first thing you do when you get to your office, or something you do with your first cup of coffee. When you do it depends on the way you prefer to work, but the important thing is that you do do it! Get into the habit of reviewing your daily plans and then stick to the plan throughout the day.

About the Author

David Hurley writes articles on Internet marketing strategies and publishes a free Internet marketing newsletter which is available at: Grasp-The-Nettle.com.

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How To Promote and Market Your Site With Private Label Rights Articles

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August 1, 2008

Written by David Hurley

Private label rights exist to facilitate the trade of intellectual property beyond the scope of the original writer. The original property is generally commissioned for this purpose and the writer receives a one-time fee. In exchange, the writer retains copyright but the private label rights distributor receives the right to sell or trade the private label rights content. Generally, but not always, the original buyer receives master resell rights from the author, meaning that the purchaser has the right to not only redistribute the property but to sell others the right to do the same.

What is a private label rights service and how can it best be used to help you master the net and successfully promote your business? What are the pitfalls to be avoided in using plr articles?

A plr service produces a certain number of articles and even full-length ebooks every month for its subscribers. The articles are available to all the subscribers and they have the right to publish the material on their websites or elsewhere. The idea is that plr articles enable Internet business and marketing start-ups to build content quickly and are an option that many busy website owners are keen to use to add content to their sites under their own names. Plr ebooks may also be republished under the subscribers own name and marketed as new products or offered as incentives to visitors to sign up for their newsletters.

These features are said to give plr users extra credibility and make it more likely that a visitor will return to their site, or even go so far as to buy something.

However, remember at the beginning I asked "What are the pitfalls to be avoided"?

Well, there is just one pitfall, but it is a rather LARGE one that must be negotiated before you rush off to sign up with a plr publisher and start posting articles to your site.

That there pitfall is called "duplicate content."

Always remember: Google just hates duplicate content.

If you publish an article without making any changes to it, it will be identical to numerous articles found on many other sites. Your article will therefore be rated as "duplicate content" by the search engines.

The reason for this is that search engines aim to present their users with material that is useful, unique and relevant to their search terms. So, if 100 subscribers of a plr publisher simply paste and post the same articles on their sites, search engines that lack a "duplicate content" filter would turn up 100 identical articles for their users. As someone who probably searches for stuff on search engines, you can imagine how pleased a user would be with the results of their search if the first ten pages turned up identical sites! A search engine that did not filter duplicate content would soon go out of business as searchers would avoid it like the plague.

If you plan to use plr content, first check out how many other sites are using the same article before you publish it. You can easily do that by copying a sentence from the article straight into a search engine. Place inverted commas around it to narrow the search down to that exact string only. You’ll probably discover that as many as 100 or more sites have already beaten you to it and published the article.

If, on the other hand, you find just a handful of articles, and if it is a Google search you are conducting, don’t jump to the conclusion that your article is still quite fresh and new… Look out at the bottom of the listings for Google’s duplicate content message:

"In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the 5 already displayed. If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results included."

The last part of that sentence links to the full search results and you will almost certainly find many many more copies of the same article have been published.

So, is there a way to get your plr articles out there without suffering any penalties?

Yes, there is, but there are some steps you must take first. Here they are.

  1. Make sure you write your own unique title for the article.
  2. Write a unique opening paragraph for the article.
  3. Sorry, but you also need to rewrite large chunks of the second, third and probably fourth paragraphs too. Actually, once you get used to the process it is not so difficult. Read a few sentences at a time, then rephrase them, turn them around and mix them up.
  4. Write your own closing paragraph.

You will now have four to six paragraphs that are in your own words and that are therefore very unlikely to be counted as duplicate content.

Just how much of the article you rewrite is up to you. The more your rewrite and, the more changes you make, the more original the article will appear to both the search engines and your site’s visitors.

Well, you may ask, by the time I’ve done all that I could have written an original article from scratch. Of course, if you can write articles from scratch that is to be encouraged, and indeed, even if you use plr articles, you should still aim to write at least some articles entirely by yourself.

You will find that writing your own article takes longer than reworking a plr article, however. Plr articles can be rewritten in just a few minutes once you have got used to the process, so they save you a lot of writing time – and they also save you many hours of research.

Used properly, therefore, plr articles are a valuable tool in increasing both your personal productivity and your presence on the Internet.

About the Author

David Hurley writes articles on Internet marketing strategies and publishes a free Internet marketing newsletter which is available at: Grasp-The-Nettle.com.

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