Biz Tips Blog: Online Marketing, Visibility and Business Blogging Tips

Adventures with a Professional Organizer

This is not a marketing tip; it's a how-to-be-more-effective-in-your- business tip.  On Saturday I shut down my computer and surrendered myself to the expertise of a professional organizer. 

As many solo professionals do, I work at home.  My office is in a corner of my living room.  It's pretty compact and everything I need is within reach. The problem is, it's so small that stuff was beginning to pile up and spread into my living space.  I'm a pretty organized person, but I decided I needed some help to get some fresh ideas about how I could better organize my space to be more efficient and less cluttered.

I contacted my friend and colleague John Trosko of OrganizingLA.  John is awesome.  He brought boxes, labels, tools and we jumped in.  I completed his client questionnaire about my ideas about my space, what works, what doesn't work, what organizing means to me.  Then we ripped apart my office and started making piles of stuff.

Oh yeah, first he took pictures so I would have before an after photos.  I don't have them yet, so I cannot share.  That might be a little too personal.

John gave me great, practical ideas for how to organize my files, how to decide what I need and what I can get rid of; what's important to have at hand, what can be out of sight.  The clutter started to disappear.

We're not done yet so I cannot report on my final results.  We discussed several options for shelving, file storage, stuff storage.  Now, I'm a smart person and probably I could have figured all this out for myself if I spent some time doing it.  However, I realized how important it is to reach out to a non-judgmental, objective person whose only motivator is getting me organized in a space that is conducive to more clarity, efficiency and productivity.  John really helped me stop and deal with all the clutter I've been tolerating but not dealing with. 

Stay tuned for a report on the results of my adventures in organizing!

Marketing with Teleclasses

My colleague, Mike Jay, founder of B\Coach and Leadership University, has posted an excellent article on marketing teleclasses and how they can help any independent professional build their business.

Here's an excerpt from his post on the formula to get started:

First off, teach classes that are on your path, that you yourself want a deeper experience of and want to learn more by teaching. Then whether you have 2 or 20 in your class, you'll get psychic income and what's more, PROGRESS along your path.

It's impossible to lose in this formula.

If you don't make a lot or any money, it still makes sense for several reasons:

1. you get better at what you're doing...i.e. pay your dues!

2. you put into the universe your aim, which to me, may be the most important part of any success.

3. record the classes to audio and create products from your training.

4. Set up subscriptions and feed these people your materials, both audio and teleclass over time, aggregate a community of interest--into a community of practice.

5. get other people to refer you to people they know--YOU NEVER KNOW where your next big deal is going to come from, it could come from a single contact you never realized you made, but you have to put it out there in order to make waves, so to speak in the universal field.

Read the full article on Mike's blog.

Build A Better Blog Ebook Preview Edition is Ready

Okay, so you don’t want to follow the fad du jour, and you know everybody’s talking about blogs for business, but do you really need another marketing task to do?

Isn’t having a web site and a newsletter enough?

Can you afford NOT to do a blog?

The problem is, many of your competitors already have their blogs up and running, and are communicating to your potential clients as you are reading this message, right now.

Wouldn’t you rather have your clients reading your blog?

And have you really gotten the results you hoped for from your web site? How’s traffic to your site these days? When is the last time you changed any of the content? I know, every time you contact your web designer with a request for a change, he/she charges you an arm and a leg.

Well, you could learn html coding, or Front Page, or Dreamweaver, buy some expensive software and do it yourself.

Or, you could spend a few dollars a month for a blog. Okay, more than a few, maybe even a whole $9 a month to have a mid-level service from Typepad (one of the most user-friendly and professional blog hosting services around).

But when are you going to find the time to learn to use your blog?

Glad you asked! Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff are launching the Build a Better Blog system, an ebook containing all the tutorials, set up steps, and information you need to dramatically shorten the learning curve and get your professional blog published on the Internet in a matter of hours.

Don’t waste your time and money and make mistakes setting up your blog that have to be undone and fixed later on. Start it right and make it look good.

Your blog should reflect the quality of services you provide as a professional.

Sure, you can do a blog yourself. Most services are very user-friendly and designed for the non-techie.

In fact, one person we know says, go ahead and “Fire Your Web Designer! Use a blog instead to communicate with your readers and clients!”

We agree. But make no mistake; you don’t want your business blog to look like the blog for the kid across the street.

We’ll teach you all the short cuts to creating a professional blog that gets results.

We’ve interviewed successful professionals and include over 60 pages of interviews. Learn from the experts.

We’ve included many links so you can see what effective professional blogs look like.

We’ve included many articles on how to write for your blog.

We’ve included over 25 tutorials with simple step-by-step instructions that will save you a lot of time and energy and headaches.

Here's the catch.  The Build A Better Blog System is not yet ready to be published.  However, we have put together a pre-launch offer so you can get a deep discount and we will give you a preview edition so you can get started right away. You pay only $35 for the pre-launch special. This special offer is only available until the full version is ready in a week to 10 days, so don’t wait.  After that the retail price will be $49.

We’ll send you the full version as soon as the editors finish checking and double checking it, and you won’t have to pay full price. Plus we have some really great bonuses just for early purchasers.

To see all the details and what you get, go here.

Or you can skip the sales letter and purchase directly now.

If you’re still not convinced you need to set up a blog for your business, read this article about Top Ten Reasons to Do a Blog and an Ezine.

Happy Blogging!

Patsi Krakoff and Denise Wakeman
http://www.BuildABetterBlog.com

P.S.   Don’t want to do it yourself? We can set up your blog for you, teach you how to use it, and get it ready for you to start posting. We have three levels of blog building services. Go here for more information on our blog for business services

Keyword Suggestion Tool

I just found a cool, free tool you may be interested in if you find yourself stumped for keywords.  The Keyword Suggestion Tool is a utility that shows results from Wordtracker and Overture and determines which words and phrases are searched most often.

Often when you submit your blog or website to directories, you are asked to enter keywords that you think people will search on.  This tool can help you come up with relevant keywords.

P.S.  I learned about this nifty tool on a post on Paul Chaney's Radiant Marketing Blog.  Gotta give credit where credit is due.

All Marketers are Liars

One of my favorite business writers, Seth Godin, is marketing his new book (being published in May) via a new blog...All Marketers Are Liars.

Can't wait to read this one!

One of my favorite Seth Godin books is Purple Cow, for marketing ideas outside the box.