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4 Proven Online Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business


Building it is not enough - if you want business to arrive, you'll need some proven online marketing strategies to drive it. Here are four to start Read more

4 Simple Ways to Increase Leads On Your WordPress Website


If you want to increase leads on your WordPress website, there's some work involved, but it will repay you with increased rankings on Google, which means increased visits and revenues Read more

Shared Hosting and IP-Based Spam Lists


Shared hosting is inexpensive for small companies starting out on the web, but it has its risks and downsides. Getting blacklisted can be very bad for Read more

A Friday Story, and Blocking Spam


Have you heard the Friday Story? It's about what happens when you consistently give something for free - and every business owner needs to think about it. We talk about blocking spam Read more

Article Keyword Research - Going Where The Traffic Is


Do your Article Keyword Research before you start writing blog posts, and your website traffic will improve fast. It's fast, easy, and it pays Read more

WordPress - Disable Comments


If you find yourself frustrated by spam and searching for wordpress disable comments or turn off comments wordpress, we're happy to help. The Quick Answer To How To Disable Comments In WordPress Log in and go to Settings, Discussion. Uncheck "Allow people Read more

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What I Do For You

Posted on October 1, 2010 by Karilee in Small Business Marketing 9 Comments

Naomi Dunford of Ittybiz just posted a game about making sure your readers understand your business. Since Naomi’s posting for the second time on this topic, and she’s brilliant at helping tiny businesses get less tiny, let’s play her game. What you need to do is copy the following questions into a document, and then <drumroll> answer them. Then, for big bonus points, make sure your website answers them!

What’s your game? What do you do?

Why do you do it? Do you love it, or do you just have one of those creepy knacks?

Who are your customers? What kind of people would need or want what you offer?

What’s your marketing USP? Why should I buy from you instead of the other losers?

What’s next for you? What’s the big plan? Read more


How To Get UNfollowed On Twitter

Posted on September 25, 2010 by Karilee in Social Media 9 Comments

Since I was sitting here updating some of my workshop materials for my Social Media and Networking Power Workshop, I thought I’d share some sure-fire techniques for losing the followers you already have on Twitter.

Unrelentingly Try To Sell Junk

This is a sure-fired technique that will drive anyone who actually reads your Twitter stream away. Sure, sell me products you produce, or really use yourself, in extreme moderation. But don’t link-spam me with every affiliate offer you can find out there on Commission Junction or Clickbank. There’s nothing wrong with some of the products sold there, don’t get me wrong. But if your Tweets consist primarily of links to products you know nothing about, I’ll unfollow you in a flash. Ugh.

Post Nothing But Links

You know, I’m grateful for someone who posts a link to a high-quality article in a niche that interests me. Some people do this very well. Then there are those of you who discover how to connect keyword-driven RSS feeds to your Twitter stream, blasting lists of crap at me that you’ve never read. Guess what? It’s possible to tell the difference. Read more


Better Website Client Service

Posted on September 21, 2010 by Karilee in Website Creation 47 Comments

How’s Your Website Experience?

There’s nothing more frustrating than a website that fails, because our visitor’s expectation is 24/7 service. It’s important that you make sure your site is serving your clients well, and that if it does fail, they’re not at a dead end. Here are three ways to ensure your client’s experience on your site is what it should be.

Fix Your Broken Links

First, make sure your site isn’t littered with broken links. If you’re running WordPress, the Plugin Broken Link Checker makes this easy. It will monitor your site for links that no longer work, and point them out to you for repairs. Remember that a link may appear broken if a site is down temporarily, so don’t rush to fix a broken link that just appeared. If it’s still there in a day or two, get on it! Read more


Menopause for Business?

Posted on August 28, 2010 by Karilee in Small Business Marketing 3 Comments

Seasonal Business Disorder?

A friend of mine, a sales professional, is frustrated with the lack of focus in the people he’s been calling for the last few days.

“Everyone’s going through the season change – it’s like menopause for business.”

Everyone seems to be busy, scattered, and a little unfocused. I don’t know if they’re feeling mood swings as well, but it seems like a tough week to get people looking forward… or backward, or in any constructive direction.

Maybe it’s the kids going back to school soon, or the urge to cram activity into the last week of summer. Whatever is causing the distraction, it’s a bit frustrating when you’re trying to connect to get business done.

Perhaps this is a good time to plan ahead for what happens after the Labor Day weekend. Usually it’s a good time to get my clients looking forward. Their kids going back to school reminds them of the importance of learning new things, like applying web marketing to their businesses. Read more


3 Ways to Market in Under 10 Minutes

Posted on August 24, 2010 by Karilee in Weekly Marketing Tips 13 Comments

Are You REALLY Marketing Enough?

The first challenge for my clients in our Weekly Marketing Mastermind Group Coaching is to realize what they’re really getting done in terms of their small business marketing. Action matters, not plans. Most people underestimate what they can accomplish in the long term and overestimate what they can do in the short term. Here are two questions to get you started:

  • How much time do you spend on marketing in your business, on average, every day?
  • How much time do you think your business needs you to spend on marketing every day?

A Tiny Marketing Action Has Big Impact Over Time

Marketing Actions - Like Water on Rock

 

Over time, taking a very small marketing action consistently will add up. Creating the habit of taking action on your marketing every day is of huge benefit to growing your business.

Think of water wearing away rock – a drip system of tiny actions can add hugely to your marketing impact over time. Read more


How to Add a Tweet Button to WordPress

Posted on August 21, 2010 by Karilee in WordPress Tips 1 Comment

What Is the Tweet Button?

Recently, Twitter released an official “Tweet” button. You can read more about it in jeffbullas.com’s excellent post, or watch the video:

Read more


Why Word Of Mouth Isn’t Enough

Posted on August 20, 2010 by Karilee in Small Business Marketing 28 Comments

Where Do You Find Clients?

Find ClientsThere’s a poll up at Freelance Switch, asking Where Do You Find Your Clients? It’s a great question, but the challenge with any poll is that the responses are taken out of context. The poll allows you to choose from the following seven responses about where you find clients:

  • Local Business
  • Professional Website
  • Word of Mouth
  • Cold Calling
  • Pay Per Click ads (Google, Facebook, etc)
  • Social Media (Twitter, Facebook, etc)
  • Off-Line Networking Events Read more

A Greeting Card Marketing Strategy

Posted on July 27, 2010 by Karilee in Weekly Marketing Tips 5 Comments

The World’s Greatest Car Salesman

I just read a story about Joe Girard, known as the world’s greatest car salesman. He was the only salesman to be inducted into the Automotive Hall of fame – for selling 13,001 cars in one year!

Joe started his working career at 9, shining shoes during the great depression. He was an abused child, living in a Detroit ghetto, but he rose to become unparalleled at his chosen career, selling automobiles. His sales secret was pretty simple, too. It wasn’t high pressure sales tactics or manipulative closes. He simply never let a customer forget him, and most of his customers were repeat buyers. Many of them started as referrals. His “secret” was consistent marketing. Read more


Contrasts in Marketing

Posted on July 15, 2010 by Karilee in Small Business Marketing 15 Comments

I’ve been talking to various people today, and I wanted to point out the huge contrast between a couple of them. First, let’s talk about one of the calls I tried to make, from contacts I made at a business mixer this week. I picked up a copy of my card (yes, this person had no card), with a name and number scrawled on the back, and it went to voicemail.

Except it didn’t.

The message was “this customer has not yet initiated their voicemail service. When you speak to this customer, please remind them that they need to configure their voicemail.”

Wow. There’s a marketing impression.

Now, I know stuff happens. There’s probably no marketing sin that I haven’t committed at some time, I’ve just learned better in some cases. It’s easy to overlook details, but having your voicemail set up is a good basic to get out of the way. If you haven’t already grabbed it, the free Small Business Marketing Self-Assessment does remind you to check that you have a clear phone message (or phone reception) set up. Plus over 40 other things to check. Read more


Consistent Marketing Mathematics

Posted on July 9, 2010 by Karilee in Small Business Marketing 1 Comment

Consistent Marketing a Bite at a Time

Consistent marketing is the magic behind our Outcome-Focused Weekly Marketing Programs. When the actions necessary to promote your small business, build your reputation, and develop a stream of prospective clients are broken down into bite-sized pieces, they don’t look so overwhelming.

testimonialFor example, most businesses benefit from having a testimonials book for sales presentations. Gathering those testimonials together may seem like an overwhelming challenge, but if you gather just one or two per week, at the end of the year your book contains 50 to 100 testimonials. That’s the power of consistent marketing.

Building Your List is Essential

Building your mailing list is an essential part of marketing, and the number one thing that most entrepreneurs regret failing to do immediately when they launched. Read more


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