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

17 Sources for Content Inspiration

When you're stumped for what to write about on your blog or ezine, here's a list of 17 sources that may inspire you.

Oprah Revolutionizes E-Mail

The post title above is an interesting headline for an article about how an advertiser has a full page ad in O Magazine and the call to action is to sign up for an opt in email list. Is this really revolutionary?

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Free Services Translate to New Clients

The concept of giving away a sample of your products or services is not new. But I just stumbled upon a new term for it: "Freemiums."

Chris Mercer writes about the value of freemiums for professional service providers in the financial industry, over at his excellent blog MercerOnValue.com. Of course, this business model can apply to any business with an online presence. Here's what Chris reports:

...the Business 2.0 article (written by Katherine Heires, freelance writer) provides nine tips for venture capitalists and entrepreneurs to help in developing freemium businesses:

Professional Fees: How do you determine what to charge for your services?

I had a very interesting phone call today.  This morning I received an email from a woman whose name I know and work/books I'm familiar with, but whom I've never met nor communicated with.  This is not entirely unusual since I do have an Internet based business and get contact by prospects and customers nearly every day.

What was unusual was her message.  She referred to our Pink Bag Special and asked me to call her because she had a important suggestion for me.  My first thought was that she was going to critique the product or my blog post about the special.  But instead, I got a suggestion I didn't anticipate.

She told me we are not charging enough for our blog set up services and that we are undervaluing what we provide for professionals like her who have no time or interest in setting up a blog themselves.  She told me we are offering too much for too little money. Wow.  That is not what I expected to hear.  I don't think anyone's ever told me I'm not charging enough money.  Why would they when they can get great value and service for the lower fee I currently charge?

49 Experts in 8 Days: TeleClasses Have Changed Our World

10 years ago I attended my first teleclass being presented by the late Thomas Leonard, an innovative business coach who was in the forefront of using technology to educate and reach people in new ways.  My (former) husband and I had just moved to rural Ontario in Canada and were living on a 100 acre property in the middle of nowhere.  At least that's what I felt having moved from Los Angeles.

We were starting our own business coaching practice in 1996 and in Canada, coaching meant one thing...hockey.  How in the heck were we going to build a business in an area where the closest town was a 45 minute drive, our neighbors were all farmers and business coaching hadn't hit the news?

Why do I relate this personal history?  Because if it were not for the Internet (we had one phone line with a 28K dial up connection) and learning about this "revolutionary" new learning tool - the telephone -- we would never have been able to create the 6 figure business we evolved into within 5 years.

No travel.  No travel expenses.  Worldwide reach.  Low tech.  Most people have telephones and know how to use them (as opposed to the Internet which at that time was quite a new phenomenon for business use.  Many people did not even have email.)

Fast forward 10 years.  Teleclasses are ubiquitous.  It's still low tech and still a great way to reach people worldwide.  And it's even less expensive now with long distance telephone rates dropping and access to voice over Internet services.  Our own Conversations with Experts TeleSeries has been a huge success for the past 1 1/2 years, attracting thousands of new people into our network and expanding our reach and our connections with fantastic people all over the world.

Now, Alex Mandossian and his team have created Virtual Seminar Week. This is a virtual seminar, not a hotel seminar. A hotel seminar costs thousands of dollars to attend (after travel, hotel, and attendee fee). VSW costs much less because you listen over the phone or web, from the comfort of your own home.

You get access to 49 world class experts over 8 days...for $97.  At first I was not going to bother with this program.  However, as I read the list of people who are presenting, I realized there are quite a few I want to hear and probably wouldn't get a chance any other way.  It's a tiny investment for a lot of value. 

The following experts and celebrities are speaking at VirtualSeminarWeek (this November 10th-17th):