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Are You Curious About Membership Programs?

July 15, 2010 By Michelle Shaeffer Leave a Comment

If you’ve considered starting a membership program or club on your website you might be wondering what the best way to do that is, how expensive and difficult it might be, or just where to begin. Today I’m sharing an article from Rebekah Zobel Jones, who specializes in membership site setup and is a fantastic resource if you’re considering adding a membership site to your business.

I met Rebekah last year at the Attract Clients Like Crazy seminar, where she had to put up with me as a roommate.  ;)  She’s a patient person and very smart cookie.

Creating Membership Sites – 3 Myths of Membership Site Creation Debunked!

As with any information product, there are many myths that surround the membership site creation process. The end result seems completely out of reach of the normal coach, consultant or small business owner. Yet, creating a membership program can be done in a simple, yet comprehensive fashion. Here are three myths that keep cropping up in discussions with prospective membership site owners and the truth behind them.

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Filed Under: Guest Brilliance, Website Tips Tagged With: , , ,

The Care and Feeding of Your Opt-ins

July 14, 2010 By Michelle Shaeffer 11 Comments

One of the cool entrepreneurs I connected with during the #blog30 challenge was Melanie Kissell.  I invited her to share a guest blog post and gave her free reign on topic.  She’s fantastic at brainstorming, has a great sense of humor (go read her blog, it’ll brighten your day), and here she shared some great tips for your newsletter list.

Guest post by Melanie Kissell

You’ve tapped into your unstoppable passion and crafted a one-of-a-kind, super duper, must-have freebie offer for your target audience.

Splendid!

You’re off to a good start and the feeling of self-accomplishment is cause for celebration.  How about a Danish?  A chocolate donut maybe?

When the party mood lifts, you’re ready to buckle down again and take the next important step.  You subscribe to an email marketing system and set up your opt-in box on your web site or blog or both.

Magnificent!

Consider yourself a successful action-taker.  Break out a bottle of sparkling cider!  You’re about to start building a list.

But wait.

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Filed Under: Guest Brilliance, Newsletters & Email Tagged With: , , , ,

What My Dogs Taught Me About Social Media

July 13, 2010 By Michelle Shaeffer 2 Comments

I’ve invited Traci Hayner Vanover to share a post today.  I connected with her through social media and our mutual love of caffeine and animals.  A fantastic resource for all things related to social media – and small business in general.  Check out her sites at the end of this post, lots of resources to learn from.

My husband and I share our home and life with three spoiled rotten Yorkshire terriers.

Anyone that’s known me longer than five minutes will surely tell you that I love to share stories about my canine kids, and how there’s scarcely a dull moment at our house. I’m one of “those” dog owners that dresses her dogs — and photos of the furry trio often grace my Facebook page.

Yes, I’m crazy about my dogs. But, I was just as surprised as anyone when I realized how much they could teach me about social media. Dogs have a zest and appreciation for life that we could all do well to adopt. On any given day, they’d easily be social media icons (save for that pesky typing issue).

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Filed Under: Guest Brilliance, Social Networking Tagged With: ,

Beware of Goal Busters

July 7, 2010 By Michelle Shaeffer 4 Comments

Note from Michelle: I decided to share a great article today from one of the most action-oriented women I know.  When this lady talks about goals and action, it’s from experience, and there’s lots to learn!

Do you have lofty goals? Then you should be aware of the goal busters that surround you.

Goal busters can be anything from a deceptively friendly acquaintance (who really doesn’t want you to succeed) to even an inanimate object. Consider a few examples of persons, places and things that seem to carry negative energy-which is lethal to a person trying to make a change in life!

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Filed Under: Goals, Guest Brilliance, Mindset Tagged With: , ,

How to Stay Motivated

June 19, 2010 By Michelle Shaeffer 6 Comments

A couple of weeks ago I was reading on Michele Scism’s blog and ran across a video with some great ideas about staying motivated. If you struggle with staying motivated, you’re not alone!

Here are some great suggestions from Adam Urbanski on how to keep yourself going when you hit those tough moments where you want to give up (or, turn off the computer and crawl behind your couch and hide…)

I pin up note cards on my bulletin board, and keep a folder on my computer that has screenshot images of nice things people say about me online or via email. It definitely helps on the challenging days. If you don’t have a “Fans Folder” or positivity file yet, you may like this post I wrote last year on how to create one to help you through those confidence crises we sometimes run into when we run our own businesses: http://thesmallbusinessmuse.com/handling-a-confidence-crisis-with-your-own-positivity-file-2/2009/02/17

What do you do to stay motivated? Please share your tips in the comments!

Filed Under: Guest Brilliance, Inspiration, Mindset, Staying Balanced & Inspired Tagged With: , , , , , ,

How To Work A Full Time Job & Still Build A Business Of Your Own

May 20, 2010 By Michelle Shaeffer Leave a Comment

This is a special guest article reprinted with permission by Sue Painter of Confident Marketer.  I came across it in her ezine and thought the five points she offered were fantastic for anyone trying to transition from working a job to creating their own home business.

I promised to answer some of the questions you gave me when you took my survey a few months ago, remember?  One question that several people asked was how they could build their own business when they were already working a full time job.  From the questions, I can tell there is a good bit of frustration, exhaustion, and worry going on about this topic.  So I decided to pull together some ways to build a business even if you are working.
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Filed Under: Challenges, Guest Brilliance, Inspiration, Mindset, Work at Home Tagged With: , , , , , ,

6 Steps to Social Media Success

January 21, 2010 By Michelle Shaeffer 5 Comments

Reprinted with permission from Christine Gallagher’s Communicate Value Newsletter

These six steps were born out of common frustrations I hear from people about understanding how to market online.

Does this sound familiar? “I know I need to figure out all of this social media stuff, but it’s all piecemeal now and I just don’t know where to start!”

You may have noticed how some small business owners seem to attract clients and customers almost effortlessly–while others struggle to keep their business afloat. The reason is that they are following a proven business model to market their business.

The six steps outlined here not only incorporate that proven model, but show you how you can supercharge it by adding social media tools and techniques–leading to more clients, customers and sales.

Without further ado…
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Filed Under: Guest Brilliance, Online Marketing, Social Networking
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