2009 April | Michelle Shaeffer

Have You Seen the WAHM Articles Forum?

April 27, 2009 By Michelle Shaeffer Leave a Comment

If you’ve been following me or subscribed to my newsletter for a while, you already know I love article marketing as a promotional strategy. One place I regularly submit my articles to is WAHM Articles, and you can find more info below about the site.

This week we’ve been authorized to giveaway ONE Platinum membership to the article marketing forum! In addition, I’ll include a free copy of my guide to article marketing for the winner. Would you like to enter? Just post a comment below and we’ll draw a random winner on May 6th then announce it in the newsletter next week.

Many women with home businesses discover that being a work at home mom requires a lot more time, money and energy than they had expected.

If your time and energy is in short supply, and your business needs a boost, WAHM-Articles.com has launched a new social networking community that might help.

The WAHM-Articles Forum helps work-at-home-moms learn how to market their businesses in less time and more effectively by using article marketing. Article marketing is a marketing strategy where you write articles to promote your products and services and let others publish them for free in exchange for a link back to your site.

Many of the members at the WAHM-Articles Forum are experienced article marketers and publishers, so it’s a great place to hook up with website owners who are looking for articles like yours and ask all your article marketing questions.

In the forum, they talk about everything to do with article marketing, including:

- How to write articles that get more traffic to your website or blog
- How to use your articles to get more subscribers to your mailing list
- How to get your article readers to visit your website
- How to convince those website visitors to buy from you.

Joining the forum is free. There is also a Platinum membership that gives you access to article reviews, article marketing training, and valuable resources and discounts. Platinum memberships are available for an introductory price of $50 a year.

If you want to learn how to get more traffic and sales in less time, I recommend you go to http://www.WAHM-Articles.com/forum and register for a free account.

I’m a member and I’ve already learned a lot from the community there. If you join us, you can discover how to spend less time on marketing your website so you have more time spend with the kids, or on taking your business to the next level.

I’d love to see you there! You can register at http://www.WAHM-Articles.com/forum

Filed Under: Business Online, Online Marketing, Work at Home

Shape Up Your Website–Make it Work For You!

April 22, 2009 By Michelle Shaeffer Leave a Comment

Is your website working effectively for you?

It’s your 24/7 sales person – is it representing you well?

Does it reflect the very best of your products and/or services?

Before you invest time & money promoting your site, SHAPE IT UP!

The #1 Question You Need to Answer: What is the purpose of your website?

Why do you have a website? What’s the goal? What should it be accomplishing for you?

Here are some possible goals for a website:

to develop a list of targeted prospects
to sell products or services
to encourage potential customers to contact us by phone or mail
to provide product information and/or price lists to customers
to provide product information and/or price lists to distributors
to provide customer service (how to use/wash/care for items, etc)
to provide information to a particular niche or target market
to strengthen brand recognition

Your website may have more than one goal, and several goals may work together. For example, if your main goal is to sell products or services, then developing a list of targeted prospects who are interested in and need the products or services you offer should be a goal also.

As you “shape up” your website, you want to keep in mind the actions that you want to focus on. If your goal is to sell your products, then everything needs to be centered on that goal and making it as easy as possible for customers to purchase. Use large, easy to find “add to cart” buttons. Make it easy to find the answer to questions about policies, payments, and shipping.

If you are focused on building a list, you want to make it easy for customers to subscribe to that list and would take actions such as:

Create an easy to use subscribe form
Put the subscribe form in the top area of your site & doesn’t require scrolling
Put that form on every page of your website
Request only the essential information you need (name and email) and not name, address, phone, etc
Offer customers a free gift, download, coupon, etc if they sign up
Consider designing an image to represent what the visitor gets when they sign up
Add a privacy statement such as: We will not share your information.

If building a list of prospects is your only goal, then you may even consider having a one-page squeeze type site where the only option a visitor has is to subscribe to your list. Keep it simple!

But if you have a dual goal of selling products/services and building a list of prospects, then don’t hide your store behind a squeeze page.

Whatever your goals are, you’ll find ways to make that easier for customers to do. It should require as few clicks as possible, be as easy to find/do as possible, etc. Don’t make your customers think hard or search around for how to buy or how to contact you. The easier you make it, the more visitors will take that action.

This article is an excerpt from “Shape Up Your Website” — click here for more ways to get your website in shape!

Filed Under: Articles From the Brainstorm eZine, Website Tips

Six Time Management Tips for Online WAHMs

April 15, 2009 By Michelle Shaeffer Leave a Comment

Your online business can become a time-sucking black hole, unless you learn to manage your time wisely.

It can begin with something as innocent as a routine check of your email, or a visit to your favorite networking site. Then before you know it, “just one more thing” has turned into 10 more things, it’s 3am, the kids are still awake, and you’re left wondering where all your time went!

Here are some tips that will help you manage your time as an online WAHM.

1. Plan your work day ahead of time. Write down exactly what you will do, and how long you will spend doing it. Know what the 2 or 3 most important things you need to complete are and focus on those first. Then follow your plan. If you’ve allowed yourself 45 minutes to write an article, or work on a blog post, that’s all you give yourself. When your time is up, your work is done. You will find you are much more focused when you know you only have a short time to spend on a specific task.

2. Get a grip on social networking. Online networking is important part of your online business. It can also be one of the biggest time eaters. To help tame this time eating monster, network only at sites that are valuable to you. Valuable sites are the sites that bring you quality traffic, and help you build important relationships. Schedule your social networking as well. Select a certain day or a certain time, and put a time limit on your social networking.

3. Check email only once or twice a day. Your email account can be another big time waster. To help keep it under control, unsubscribe from mailing lists that you don’t read. Allow only a certain amount of time for reading and responding to email, then shut down your email program. Set up an autoresponder that lets people know when they can expect a reply from you.

4. Deal with each email as you read it. Don’t leave it in the queue to be handled another day. If an email requires a response, reply immediately. If you need to take action on an email, add it to your to-do list, then file the email in an appropriate folder. This will help you keep control over your incoming email.

Note: I personally check my email more often, but I respond only to urgent emails immediately. I use GMail to manage my mail and have found it really helps me save time. I use some of the tips at http://putthingsoff.com/inbox-heaven/ and have found it tremendously helpful at managing the 600+ emails a day that come into my inbox.

5. Store your passwords in a safe place. Use a free program like Password Corral or RoboForm to keep track of all your passwords for your hosting, your blogs, and anything else you need a password for. This will keep you from wasting time guessing at passwords or using password recovery tools.

6. Use time management tools created by others. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel to discover the best time management practices for you. Look for books that deal with time management, and use the suggestions that make sense for you. Mind Tools (mindtools.com), a website dedicated to time management, has several free tools you can use to manage your time, such as activity log to track your time, steps for creating an action plan, and ideas for scheduling time. You may prefer a printed planner (tips on choosing the perfect planner for you are here), or an online calendar you can sync to your computer or ipod (I use BackPack along with my BaseCamp account).

Filed Under: Articles From the Brainstorm eZine, Organization, Work at Home

How to Promote Your Business with a Customer Welcome Kit

April 9, 2009 By Michelle Shaeffer 4 Comments

This is a great way to make new customers feel special. Put together a “welcome kit” to send to each new customer that includes customer service resources, helpful information, and promotional details about other products or services you offer.

The “Printable” Customer Welcome Kit

Here are some ideas of what you might include in a printable customer welcome kit:

* A welcome or thank you note
* A brochure about your products or services
* Care instructions for the products purchased
* Additional resources about the topics your customers are interested in
* Business cards
* Referral cards
* A coupon for a special deal on their next order
* A copy of your most recent (or favorite) eZine, with information on how they can subscribe

Package it all nicely in an envelope or similar. Put together a dozen or more at a time and they’ll be ready to go when you ship out your orders.

The “Digital” Customer Welcome Kit

If your products are digital (ebooks, software, or similar) you can create your own version of a customer welcome kit. Just put the items into PDF format for documents and JPG for coupons, then zip it all up.

* A welcome or thank you note
* A brochure about your products or services
* Customer support information (for example, your FAQ on digital downloads and support contact information)
* Additional resources about the topics your customers are interested in
* A coupon for a special deal on their next order
* A copy of your most recent (or favorite) eZine, with information on how they can subscribe

Bonus Idea: Find other businesses that target your market but with different products/services and offer to swap space in your welcome kit. You include a special deal offer from them to your new customers and they include your offer in the welcome kit sent to their customers. This allows you to add more value for your customers while also building beneficial relationships with other businesses and reaching a wider market.

Here’s an example from one of my businesses. I use a hybrid version of printable/digital because it’s so nice to get something real in the mail but the resources I offer are all digital. When a new hosting client signs up at Creo Communico LLC, my virtual assistant sends a snail mail card that includes a nice thank you note along with a link to a special area of our website that only clients can access. In the special client area they’ll find discounts for several businesses, free resources, and more. Each month I add new resources. I choose things that are easy for me to setup and give away (PDF reports, ebooks, mp3 downloads, PDF worksheets, etc) so it doesn’t add a lot of time or support issues, but that also have value to my clients. Since my hosting business targets work at home moms, I include resources like marketing ideas, reports on promotion techniques, etc. that will help them build their businesses.

Challenge: Set aside time this week to create your customer welcome kit and put it into action.

Remember, it’s easier to KEEP a customer you’ve already got, then to FIND a new customer! So keep those customers happy by showing them how much you value their business.

Filed Under: Articles From the Brainstorm eZine, Customer Service

Helpful Resource: 4 Lifesaving Keys to a Successful Service Business for Mothers

April 1, 2009 By Michelle Shaeffer Leave a Comment

Discover the joy of running your own home-based service business… allowing you the flexibility and freedom to be there when your children need you… I’ve done it, and so can you! Download Kimberly Reddington’s popular report “4 Lifesaving Keys to a Successful Service Business for Mothers” by visiting http://www.cereuswomen.com

Filed Under: Work at Home

5 Steps to Deal With Overwhelm

April 1, 2009 By Michelle Shaeffer Leave a Comment

By Marcia Francois

So many readers write in with this question: “how do I deal with overwhelm?”

A few weeks ago, I was dealing with my own overwhelm. I had many meetings day after day after day (which means you get behind on the office stuff), my normal business activities plus I had to re-write a LOT of the copy for the website. All on deadline!

Add to that the stuff of life like cooking, cleaning and gym and you can see why I felt overwhelmed.

Doesn’t it feel good to know you’re not alone?!

We all have our own stories but the FEELINGS are exactly the same – a sense of being out of control and a to-do list a mile long!

So what did I do to cope?

1. MAKE A LIST

I printed out 10 of my master to-do lists because it felt like I had hundreds of things to do.

I used one page for each project – website, clients, etc…

The amazing thing was my imagination was much worse than reality because I only needed 4 of those 10 pages ;) Honestly, it does help to see how bad it really is, or isn’t.

2. ASK YOURSELF A KEY QUESTION

When you feel overwhelmed, it’s important to realize that “this too shall pass” and to CONTINUALLY ask yourself this question:

What is the MOST important use of my time right now?

Remember, it’s not about being busy, but about being effective!

3. CUT OUT ALL NON-ESSENTIALS

Once you have the answer to that question, it’s easier to cut out the non-essentials.

Let go of the minor website changes and the email responses to your blog comments. Rather answer only client emails.

When the busy period is over, re-look at those non-essentials and REALLY question whether you even need to add them back into your life.

4. FOCUS AND EAT YOUR FROG

Now that you know what is MOST important, switch off cell phones, email, etc. and get it done.

If you have to do a proposal for a company, do nothing else til it’s done. That’s so that even when your day is done and the to-do list is still half a mile long, at least you have a sense of ACCOMPLISHMENT in having completed that task.

5. CATEGORIZE AND BATCH

Once you’ve eaten your frog, and you still have energy, then categorize whatever’s left and tackle those items in batches.

Take your to-do list and use letters in the margin, like P for phone, E for email, etc. Then pick up the phone and make all your phone calls in one go. You save energy because you prepare once instead of 5 different times in the day.

And THAT is how I dealt with my overwhelm.

Next time you feel overwhelmed, try these 5 steps and get rid of that overwhelm at once.

Marcia Francois is a time management and business organizing coach who helps small business owners break out of overwhelm, make the most of their time and get important projects done. Visit http://organiseyourbusiness.com for your free 7-part audio series, 7 tips for time-strapped business owners.

Filed Under: Articles From the Brainstorm eZine, Organization