Posts Tagged ‘business builder’

Outsource

// February 29th, 2012 // No Comments » // Blog, Business Tips, General Ideas, making money

My business has always been a one-woman show. I’ve never considered my future to include managing employees. But recently I made a decision for my business that I truly believe is one of the best I can possibly make. I hired an assistant.

I outsourced my daily functions and repetitive tasks to a virtual assistant about a month ago and in that time my business has doubled. Before I started to outsource, I really thought I was doing a lot of work every day but what I was doing was standard work that kept my business at its current level. I was advertising and monitoring more than anything. I wasn’t bringing in new projects or moving forward on my long term plans.

Now my assistant handles all the daily work tasks. She places my ads. She monitors my current websites. She keeps my current business running while I concentrate on creating new projects and new content. In the last month alone, I’ve finished a new training website and am starting two entirely new sites.
It did take me a week to interview and hire someone. I do all my work online and my assistant actually lives in another country. We communicate through Skype in the middle of the night. And training has been an ongoing project for the person I hired. I give my assistant a list of tasks and training requests for the week, she is expected to do the work and report back to me. I test her learning and knowledge by having her complete practice tasks on a blog or writing an article for me.

I love being able to give someone a list of daily tasks that need competing and then focusing on new projects. It takes trust and the ability to delegate work but those are skills that anyone can learn.
From now on, when a business building client tells me that they work all day and don’t seem to have time for new work – I’m going to tell them to hire an assistant. Outsource your daily tasks, it really is worth the time to get someone hired and trained.

Making Money with Your Blogs

// April 22nd, 2011 // 1 Comment » // Blog, Business Tips, General Ideas, making money

If you’ve decided that your business will include blogs and websites that make money, immediately sign up for a free Google Adsense account.  Having an Adsense account will allow you to immediately start placing ads on your site and allow you to start earning income from your blog.

Google Adsense will NOT make you rich overnight  Sure, if you play the marketing game correctly, you can earn some money but don’t fall for the get rich schemes flooding the internet.  It’s taken me 2 years to earn $5.00 with Adsense but my Adsense ads are few and far between right now.  And all my Adsense ads are on websites I’m currently not promoting or working on.

Making money with Adsense can be a fine art; web consumers are very savvy and understand the Adsense model.  If you place too many ads on your site, your visitors are going to see your blog as nothing more than a billboard and they are gone.  Then again, if you hide the advertisements – no one will see them.  If your visitors don’t click on the ads, you’re not making any money.

The secret is to integrate the ads and the content together but how do you do that?

 

Now That Your Blog is Running

// April 13th, 2011 // No Comments » // Blog, Business Tips, General Ideas

Once you have your blog and website up and running, you can just sit back and wait for the people to start buying your products, right?  Wrong!

You’re going to have to work on your blog on a regular basis to keep it current and profitable.  We’ve talked about the need to update your blog with new content at least once a week and making sure the content is targeted before.  But you’ve got to keep the look and feel of the site fresh and easy to navigate as well.

I think I went through 10 different themes while trying to find a look for heathergowrie.info that I liked.  I spent weeks looking for the perfect free blogging theme and was never happy.  I finally broke down and bought a theme.  It wasn’t really expensive and I’m constantly tweaking it but it seems to be working.

When building your own sites look and feel, don’t settle for something that is alight.  There are thousands of websites that offer blogging themes.  It’s sometimes a little hard to find free professional looking theme that actually works but you can find them.  If you’re really interested in building a professional looking site, you may have to pay for a well-designed theme but I can tell you, it’s worth it.

 

Confession Time

// April 10th, 2011 // No Comments » // Blog, Business Tips, Freelance Ideas, General Ideas

Ok, I’ll admit it – I have a variety of websites and blogs.  My internet business is based on these websites but not all of them are as great as this one (ha, ha).  And, if you know me you may be wondering why I have websites promoting and discussing some of the weird topics I’ve focused on.

Well – the truth is this – these sites make money.  I’m building an internet business based upon profitable niches and the obscure topics make money.  I enjoy building these sites and teaching others how to do the same thing.

Since this is confession time -

I’ll be completely honest.  I don’t come up with the ideas for my websites and products alone.  I also don’t spend hours (or days) doing my own keyword research.  I’ve basically outsourced my keyword and niche research which allows me to focus on the parts my business building that I really enjoy.  And I get the research for FREE.  I have a great free tool that I use and I think you should use it as well.

Visit one of my other sites –  freenicheideas.com to get more information.

 

Help Your Blog Succeed

// April 8th, 2011 // No Comments » // Blog, Business Tips, Freelance Ideas, General Ideas

Whenever I start working on a new client’s marketing and promotion plan, I always start by building a blog and website.  It doesn’t matter what kind of business you have, I really do believe that a blog and website are beneficial in building your business.  Customers want to purchase products and services from people they know and trust – a blog can help you to build that relationship.

Blogging can build your business but unfortunately for many people, their blog will fail.  What makes one person succeed while another person blogging about the same topic fail?  It’s simple – Traffic.  You need to bring customers to your store or site and you need to keep them coming back.

How do you avoid building a blog that is doomed to fail?  It’s easy if you follow these tips:

1. Update content regularly – with a blog you need to post at least once a week to keep the search engines interested and sending traffic to your site.

2. Target the content to your site – if your content isn’t targeted and is too broad, no one will be able to keep your content or message straight.  People want to know what your store or service is about and not everything that pops into your head.

Growing your business through your blog and website can take some time but once you build your audience – your profits will grow.

 

Focus On One

// April 3rd, 2011 // No Comments » // Blog, Business Tips, General Ideas, Liz Tomey Ideas

There is this term – serial entrepreneur – that explains away the ADD of most American’s today. We accept the need to start a new business on a regular basis by calling ourselves serial entrepreneurs.

I will admit it – I’ve had this problem in the past but now I understand the need to focus. I’m here to build a business instead of serializing my life. I focused my own business on one business model and one idea at a time. I also work with my clients to understand the need for focus.

Without focus, you’ll find yourself struggling to keep your business moving forward. Without focus, you’ll find yourself overwhelmed and burnt out. Without focus, you’ll find yourself working on too many projects and never making any profit.

Thanks again to Liz Tomey for this great video that explains the need for focus.

Build Your Blog – You Can Do It

// April 2nd, 2011 // No Comments » // Blog, Business Tips

The first task I always give my clients is to set up their website and blog.  A website and blog will help to make you a real person to your clients.  People want to trust what you have to say and what your product promises to do and in order to do that they must trust you.

Even if you can’t possibility think of anything to write about, a blog can still be beneficial to your business.  Start slow and easy – you don’t need to write 5000 words on fly fishing every day.  Simply write short posts on a semi-regular basis.  Your business blog will basically be a place to share your ideas, experiences, problems and solutions in a diary format that others can see.

It’s the 21st century version of reading your sister’s diary.

 

Get More Done

// March 27th, 2011 // No Comments » // Blog, Business Tips, Liz Tomey Ideas

One of the greatest struggles for anyone building their business is trying to find the time to do things. Especially if you’re working a full-time job and building your own business as well. In order to make money, you have to concentrate on the work that will make you profitable. Here is a quick video with a great method to get more done with limited amounts of time.

Thanks to Liz Tomey. I really do like the 3×3 method of working. It works well for me.

Business Builder?

// March 26th, 2011 // No Comments » // Blog, Freelance Ideas, General Ideas

I’m a freelance marketer and business builder. What this means is not only do I build and work my own business but I take on clients and join with them to build their own business as well. With my clients, I’m not a partner in their business but a tool that will guide and help them take the ideas and desires they want out of life to build their own businesses.
Some may call me a serial entrepreneur but I prefer the visual of building businesses.

Being a business builder means I understand the need for optimism when the work gets hard and the days get long. Yes, the old saying that if you love what you do it will not feel like work is true. However, I often find myself reminding my clients that even though we love what we do, we sometimes still have to find the optimism and enthusiasm to get through the day.

You can’t build a house in a day and you can’t build a successful business overnight. Working for yourself is still – work. You just don’t have to sit through a performance review every year.