The Care and Feeding of Your Opt-ins

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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What My Dogs Taught Me About Social Media

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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A Treat for My Readers!

I’m in the midst of a small personal crisis this week.  I’m not inspired to blog and don’t have time with all the changes I’ve got to make to undo the last 5 years of work.  I’d like to hide under a blanket and cry (but that wouldn’t be very productive since I’m quite claustrophic!).

So, while I focus on fixing a mess, and taking action to get it all straightened out, I’ve invited some fabulous business women to share posts on my blog this week!  The topics will range from dogs in social media to membership sites to how to care for your opt-ins and more.  I’m excited to introduce you to these ladies and each post will start with a little intro about how I connected with them.

Begins tomorrow at 7:00am (Alaska time) and posts are scheduled for every morning this week.  If you aren’t already subscribed to the RSS feed, email delivery, or NetworkedBlogs, you might want to get connected so you don’t miss any of their great content!

You’ll also be able to access it all under “Guest Brilliance” on the navigation bar – that’s where posts by other brilliant people live on my site.

Motivation for the Week: Words of Wisdom

Could you use a little motivation to get you started off this week?  Here’s a video with great quotes from Napoleon Hill.

If you like it, check out YouTube user OnlineMotivator to find more inspirational videos with quotes from other great minds like Winston Churchill, Zig Ziglar, Jim Rohn, and many others.

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Ch-ch-ch-changes

For reasons I’ll maybe go into later, I have to change the domain/tag line I’ve used for the past 5 years and can no longer use The Small Business Muse. So this means big changes!

I’ve grown pretty attached to it since I started using it while my design business was under Elemental Muse, and I’m sad to have to drop it.  Sometimes when we refuse to jump the universe has to push us a little bit to get us to move to bigger and better things.  Negativity never helps so other than allowing myself  to indulge in a few tears, I’m noting several important business lessons (yeah, I’ll share those later, too), trusting it’s for the best, and moving on.

First, I need a new tag line.  I’m not crazy about the one I put in the header and I’d love your suggestions.  Help me solve my identity crisis!  Who am I?  What do I do?

Second, I’ve had to move to a new fan page, where I’m going to be creating even more goodies.  It’s seriously boring right now but I’d so appreciate you joining me there – http://facebook.michelleshaeffer.com

Does it Matter Where You’re Making Noise?

You’ve got two basic choices in promoting your business:
1. You can stand right there where you’re at, making noise and trying to get people to come to you.
2. You can figure out where the people are, go to them, and then make noise.

Now, of course, what kind of noise you make matters (are you just yelling about yourself or demonstrating how you can help by sharing smart resources like your newsletter, case studies, blog, articles, videos and more).

But which choice do you think would make it easier to connect with the perfect customers or clients?  #2!

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Adventures in Audio Blogging

So, I decided this week to try doing audio versions of my blog.  I’ve done one.  You can listen in here: http://thesmallbusinessmuse.com/have-a-little-faith-in-yourself/2010/07/06

More are coming soon!

I’ve been having fun playing with two of the options, CinchCast and AudioBoo, and thought I’d share some info about each.

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Beware of Goal Busters

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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Have a Little Faith in Yourself

Would you like to listen to this post? CinchCast audio is just above the related posts, sharing links, and comments at the bottom. Look for the purple play button.
Ever feel like the woman on the left – biting your nails nervously when you think about running your own business?  Good thing you stopped by today, it’s a Tuesday pep talk!

Personal and business get so intertwined when you’re a solopreneur – personal progress IS business progress and growing as a person is required to grow your business…

My greatest challenge in business isn’t marketing, or my technical services, or writing… it’s doing the work to be a better, stronger, bolder version of myself and to have faith and confidence that I’ll succeed.

So if you find it challenging, too, know that you aren’t alone! And you can do it.

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10 More Things You Can Do in 10 Minutes Each to Move Your Business Forward

My first post on this topic was pretty popular so I thought I’d give it a second round. Marketing can feel like this huge overwhelming thunderstorm that hangs over our heads when we’re running our own businesses. As if we’ve got TIME to deal with ONE MORE THING! But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Believe me, I understand! If I had to write a 50 page marketing plan and spend 4 hours a day implementing it… well, either it’d never happen… or I’d never get anything else done and never have time to complete the services I need to for my clients and create the products I offer. Or, I’d never get to play with my kiddos and my house would look like a hurricane hit it. There just aren’t that many hours in the day. If I wanted that much stress I wouldn’t be working from home with my own business. Always remember the reason you started your business – I’m pretty sure that “So I can go legally insane and end up in therapy!” wasn’t on your top ten list of reasons, right? Yeah, it wasn’t on mine either.

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