Turning Ideas into $$$$s takes WORK!
Are you always on the outlook for new ideas to turn your ideas into $$$$s?
Do you look at new promotional media and new ways to to get the word out about your product or service or do you do the same old
media (magazines, newspapers, Television)?
DIGITAL has CHANGED the WORLD
According to an article in Newspaper Death Watch professional marketers are changing their use of media, especially print. Depending on their target audience, they are using the media that is actually relevant to their audiences. That sometimes means digital. That could mean visual in places where their prospects frequent or it could mean finding new fun promotional techniques to help people reach their audience.
The professionals are aware that the world has changed.
(professionals meaning here people who are paid to do the promotion)
Competitions, social media promotions and games or contests allow direct and indirect promotion. They create fun and excitement. One such option is a scavenger hunt like the one currently being run by Firepole Marketing. (Wow do I admire what they are doing)
Now doing a contest or a competition, a scavenger hunt or even a social media campaign takes WORK.
You need to keep priming the pump.
You need to keep the excitement happening.
You need to track what you are delivering.
You need to keep people informed about what is happening
In the good old days of advertising, you designed your ad, placed it in your media and made sure that when people responded to the ad, your suppliers and staff could fulfill the orders. The work came in preparing the ad and making sure you could deliver what was promised in your advertisement.
In the second decade of the 21st century, you need to keep the energy and excitement going.
- You need to respond to the tweets,
- Support the Facebook likes, shares and comments,
- Answer questions and comments on blogs and
- Spend time and energy interacting with people to keep the excitement up.
And that is WORK.
Work that many small business people fail to understand or plan for.
Yes Virtual assistants can help you but only if they have clear, measurable goals.
The other day, Sherryl Perry, in Keep up with the Web wrote a blog on what to measure (Tracking Your Blog Post SEO Meta Tag Data). I asked Sherryl about how she tracks and I am hoping that she will write a blog around her answer to my comment. One thing – even to track takes WORK.
Writing a book takes WORK!
Writing a blog takes WORK!
Creating a product takes WORK!
Delivering a service takes WORK!
Building a relationship takes WORK!
Maintaining a relationship once built takes WORK!
Work is a four letter word but it is one that will help you earn dollars rather than one that gets your mouth washed out with soap (do they still do that?).
If you want to turn your ideas into dollars, you need to plan to work. And finding out what to work at, what to do takes PLANNING and PREPARATION.
Remember if you have the money to pay others to do the work, you are using the money that you worked for to save you time and buy the time and effort of others.
WORK costs – money and time.
What work are you doing today to help your ideas become the dollars you want? Share your work in the comments below. And yes that takes work but it helps get your message to a wider audience.
To your success in making those ideas = $$$$$s
How to use Blogging to turn Ideas into $$$$s
Blogging helps you turn your ideas into $$$$s.
Blogging is a promotional tools that allows you to tell the story about your idea and still ask for the order. It is usually a subtle form of advertising but more importantly what it offers your reader is the opportunity to connect with you and see you as a person interested in helping them solve their problem.
In a blog, you can tell stories of how your product or service works. You can show video, do podcasts or just provide information that helps build a relationship. But a powerful tool for blogging is learning to Guest Blog. 
Over the last few months, I have been learning the importance of Guest Blogging from Jon Morrow.
Guest blogging can take several forms:
- You can be invited to guest blog. I have been privileged to guest blog with wonderful people like Lynn Brown of Learn It 2 Earn It plus several other Facebook friends.
- This usually means that your friend believes your content will be benefit their readers.
- You can volunteer to write blogs for your friends if your content fits their content and then they invite you to contribute.
- You can join sites that allow you to share unique blogs.
- Ask to guest post. There are dozens of posts on the market that depend on guest posters to post on their blog. Jon Morrow is one of the most successful in teaching how to do this. You can find out more by clicking the link at the side.
- And Jon’s Headline Hacks is a tool I use almost every day when I write blogs, landing pages, sales pages, articles or chapters for a book or a presentation. They are FABULOUS and FREE.
- And Jon’s Headline Hacks is a tool I use almost every day when I write blogs, landing pages, sales pages, articles or chapters for a book or a presentation. They are FABULOUS and FREE.
- Submit posts just as you would articles. While this is strictly not guest blogging, if someone searches Squidoo or Mashable and finds your blog then it has the same effect as a guest post just less directed and focused. You can submit your post to groups and if your headline is good enough or your friends are helping you, they will share your post, comment on your post or just generally help build your credibility. In 2009, I joined a group on Facebook that helped me take the blogs on Get out of Stuck Excel from an Alexa ranking of 5 million to under 1 million. Unfortunately since then, it has gone back up to over 1 million. (But working on that).
Why Guest Blog?
Thousands of blogs are posted EVERY HOUR of the day. Take a look at some of the infographics on Pinterest to see some of the infographics and numbers, especially the content Marketing Explosion Infographic.
This blog’s readership grows every day but blogs like Firepole Marketing, Copyblogger, Problogger or Stepcase Lifehack to mention just a small number grow even more because a blog with thousands of followers has a bigger pool to pull followers from.
“Some Simple Math”
1% of 100 blog readers = 1 new follower
1% of 1000 blog readers = 10 new followers
1% of 10,000 blog readers = 100 followers for your blog.
Learn about Guest Blogging.
Blog on your own website.
Blog on organisational and association websites (but make sure you follow their rules).
TELL the WORLD about how your product or service Helps
Blogging is replacing many different off-line communication tools. Blogging allows you to tell your story and help people LOVE YOU or your product!
Blogging is one of the least expensive ways of testing an idea, promoting your idea and building the fan base to have people FOLLOW and BUY your products or services.
Will you blog today? In the comment box, promote your blog and I promise to comment on your blog link.
Enjoy today
Roberta Budvietas
Why A Picture Matters.
What happens when you look at a picture of your loved ones? Does your heart flutter? Do you become more responsive to what comes next?
Did you know that a picture can connect you to an experience. And that experience connects you to an emotion. And that emotion can connect you to an action. And in business action and emotion can help your business grow or it can prevent that growth
How the Picture triggers the mind
What do you think when you look at each of the people in the picture above?
Do you see an excited grandmother who now will need to buy a gift for the newest grandchild or do you see something else?
Do you see a wizard and think of a flim flam man trying to get you to believe his pitch?
Or do you see the successful young executive busy closing the deal?
Do you see a young woman showing you something or do you see something else?
Why do car dealers use bikini models to sell certain brands of cars? Is it because the models make men feel young? Have you noticed the new beefcake models used to sell cars to women?
Why do successful real estate people show their houses in ways that make them inviting to the people who might buy the house?
What YOU See either virtually or actually triggers most of the things you say, do and think
When you have a picture, real or virtual (in your mind) of the prospect you are talking to, you write better copy. You create best when you talk to a real person about what you want to say. Seeing a real person rather than a vague construct, the demographic of your ideal prospect, helps you focus on what you want to say.
Understanding this concept is difficult for many of us. We are afraid that if we talk only to one picture we will miss opportunities with others. But, the interesting thing is that what you see in your picture is different from how others see themselves.
My Business Start Up was specifically targeted to women over 50 who were finding it difficult to find employment and self employment was a viable option for their skills. Our best pieces were created when we talked to each other either in person or pictures each other.
But our following included men and people in their teens and twenties who saw value in the messages we were giving.
Roberta Budvietas
LinkedIn Is Rapidly Growing – Are You On-Board?
In case you haven’t read recent articles, LinkedIn is growing by leaps and bounds — solid and steady. So, what I want to know is…. are you on-board?
This is icon for social networking website. This is part of Open Icon Library’s webpage icon package. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
LinkedIn Now Has 175 Million Members – article by Todd Wasserman on Mashable Business
If you find yourself wondering, “Why isn’t my business growing? Why don’t I have greater visibility? Why is my business growing at a slow and steady pace rather than exploding?” — it’s time to get serious about LinkedIn.
LinkedIn affords you the largest and most focused professional social platform on the planet. It delivers a tremendous opportunity to source connections, leads and prospects. Exactly how should you take the leap into LinkedIn? A great technique you can implement immediately is…
Connection “Tags” – Build Your Lists
I’m sure you’ve heard the statement, “The money is in the list.” LinkedIn lets you build a list almost immediately upon setting up your profile. Organizing your connections, from the onset, will not only save you time but will also enable you to engage target markets.
LinkedIn “tags” is a great tool. After accepting connection invitations, it is crucial to visit “Connections” in your LinkedIn profile and “tag” these people.
You can create lists for specific prospects, types of clients or even according to location.
“Tags” also build your lists and provide an awesome opportunity to ‘in-mail’ that particular list (tag) in order to share company information, links to videos, gain important information (go ahead…ask questions!) or anything else you might do when attempting to turn leads or connections into customers or clients.
Visit your LinkedIn profile and click on “Contacts” – this will take you to your list of connections.
Next, click on the link entitled “untagged.”
Hover over the first connection, click, and the information for that contact will appear on the right side.
Under the connections information, you will see a link entitled “Edit Tags” — click on that link.
A list of tags will drop down. Select one or however many pertain to that contact. You can also ADD new tags too!
Be sure to “Save” the tag(s)! You can confirm that your contact was tagged by viewing “All Connections” to ensure the numbers have increased. Next, check to ensure your “untagged” numbers have decreased.
After completing the above steps, you are now ready to begin connecting with contacts within the specific lists you created through utilizing “tags.”
This is just one of the many features that LinkedIn offers to almost make your profile a custom business website. Take some time and check out how ‘tagging’ your connections can be help you start prospecting for leads and building your list.
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Guest Author: Lynn Brown – Social Media Marketing Manager, Coach – Blogging Strategist and LinkedIn Specialist helping small business owners, online marketers and professionals achieve increased company branding and visibility through social media for their specific products, programs or industry. Complimentary consultation available.
Use New Words for New Worlds
In business and life words can make or break a business or situation.
Customers are Ignoring You (Photo credit: ronploof)
Using the right words in copy, make a sale. Using the wrong words mean no sale. Saying the wrong thing can collapse a deal. Misunderstanding what is said can lead to dissatisfaction, frustration and no repeat business.
And then there are the words we say to ourselves or use to describe the terms commonly used in business. Words like value, customer, service, marketing, sales, and many other words mean different things to different people at different times.
The words customer service is an example. Some people call it an oxymoron. If you actually have a customer then you must give service and if you give service then you can have customers.
But what is service?
Service is a noun derived from the verb serve. When you serve, you provide others with what they want. Servants meet the needs of others. So customer service means providing the customer with what they want.
But what is a customer? Is a customer someone who is in the habit of visiting your business? Or is the customer someone who gives your their custom once and you never see them again?
In working with businesses, the challenge is to understand that some businesses can have customers but many businesses have oncelers (people who visit once and each buying decision is independent of the last one).
Building a list of prospects ensures only awareness. Even when they buy once, there is no guarantee that they will come back another time. And yet everyone who teaches or mentors business talks about the value of the customer.
The challenge is how to get customers? And is it possible for you to get customers? Do you have a product or service that people can buy again and again or once bought, will they ever buy again?
When you look at the words you use and what that means to you, you can start to see the obstacles in your thinking. Everyone who says they hate to sell, can reframe the word sell into another word or phrase and suddenly, they are capable of closing the transaction.
In the comment box below, tell me what these two words mean to you and your business. Just write it without much thinking until after you have written your answer and then ask yourself if that is really what happens for you. The words
Cheering your business successes
Roberta Budvietas
Maven Connect
CommentLUV
Guest Blogging with Jon Morrow
