Self Employed Success

It’s so important for you to learn the basics of copywriting. There are a thousand times each year when knowing how to write good marketing text, even just the very basics, can change your marketing and communication efforts.

Here’s a great site full of resources for copywriting,

“Online Copywriting 101: The Ultimate Cheat Sheet”

A colleague of mine sent me this. It’s wonderful!

The next time you’re mad at yourself, you can look at this little animated film and know you’re not alone! 

When we laugh at ourselves, it lightens the load, don’t you think?

http://www.augustmusic.net/video.html

I’m giving up reading the news each day: the economic news (and the wars, and the politics) just drains my energy. I need MORE energy to run my business, not less.

So I’m going to do a two-week test, replacing reading the news with watching online motivational videos. Who is your favorite motivational speaker?

As I find great videos of your favorite motivational speakers, I’ll post them here to my blog so that you, too, can have a motivational minute to inspire you each day.

How to have your best year ever (part 1 of 3), with Jim Rohn

Do you feel like can you can’t teach a teleseminar because you’re not an expert on the topic?

Or perhaps you don’t have time to put together an hour’s worth of material for a teleseminar?

Don’t worry! There are plenty of experts out there who you can interview in a teleseminar. Here’s how you do it:

1. Decide what topic you’ll present in the teleseminar.
2. Find an expert who is BOTH qualified to talk about the subject and has good teleclass leading skills. (If you’re unsure about whether they can perform well on a teleclass, ask to listen to a recording of a recent teleclass where they presented.) You can have more than one expert on a call, but I wouldn’t recommend more than 2 experts on a call because it become confusing to the listener.
3. Decide up-front if the experts will be allowed to market their products or services on the call. If yes, decide on how many minutes they’ll have to do so. My opinion is that a teleseminar should be 99% education and only 1% marketing. (No one likes to listen to a “teleSALESinar” where the expert drones on and on about their products.)
4. Come up with a list of interview questions. Since the experts are most likely to know the best interview questions, collaborate with the experts to come up with a good list.
5. Schedule the teleseminar and invite your mailing list. You can ask the experts to invite people from their list as well.
6. Hold the teleseminar and make sure you record it. Some listeners can’t attend the live teleseminar, but they will be able to listen to the recording later.
7. Edit the recording and put it on your website.Inform your mailing list (and the experts’ mailing list) that the recording is now available.

It’s that easy!

You can listen to me interview guest experts on my Self Employed Success teleseminar series. The recordings are free here:

http://www.passionforbusiness.com/teleclass-recordings.htm

Does it seem like stamp prices just increased in the USA a few short months ago? They did, in May 2008.

Stamp prices are set to increase again on May 11, 2009, from .42 to .44 for a letter. As more and more small business owners use email, the United States Postal Service (USPS) is taking a beating and their revenues are heading downward each year. To offset this, the USPS announced a stamp price increase — and you will see one every May, I suspect.

Also, the postcard stamp will increase 1 cent, and the first ounce of “large envelope” mail increases 5 cents. Lots of businesses use postcards for marketing, and large envelopes to send out proposals, contracts, etc.

Last year I announced the stamp price increase for 2008, and encouraged you to start thinking of electronic products versus paperback books and audio CDs. I followed my own advice and converted nearly every product I sell to downloadable  (PDF for ebooks, MP3 for audios). Despite the obvious file-sharing concerns, I’ve been very happy with my choice. My customers tell me they are happy as well, as they appreciate the instant access to ebooks and MP3 audios instead of waiting for a mail delivery.

As always, there is a bit of good news: you can still buy the USPS “Forever Stamp” at .42 until May 11 and use it anytime in the future to mail a letter, even if stamp prices increase. Count your blessings.

Rant: The one thing I can’t understand is this: if the USPS is losing money, why are there FIVE post offices in my area within a ten mile stretch of road? And I live in the countryside, where the population is minimal. Can’t they combine office and reduce costs? (I’ll get off my soap box now…)

If you are new to blogging, you will love this article by Darren Rowse (Problogger) on resources, tutorials and ideas for your new blog strategy.  Very, very helpful and informative.

Teleseminars are a great way to teach! But how can you teach when people can’t see you?

In this teleseminar, you will learn techniques that boost your teaching skills in a teleclass environment, overcoming the visual barriers and creating interactive and supportive environments for your students. Create telephone-based learning environments that keep students coming back for more!

In this three-week teleseminar, you will learn about:

• Handling the first few minutes of your teleseminar, the springboard to any successful teleclass
• Teleclass leading skills for interactivity and learning
• Creating rapport with students over the phone
• The common mistakes the teleseminar leaders make
• Techniques for keeping momentum while also allowing for student discussion
• Discovering your own style and voice
• Dealing with student situations that can undermine your teleclass success
• Handling the technology of using a teleconference line

This teleseminar meets one hour each week, for three weeks:

February 24
March 3
March 10

All teleclasses are 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM eastern

$110 for the three-week class

For more class details and to register:

http://www.passionforbusiness.com/calendar.htm

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You MUST have a way to measure the results of all your marketing. Tracking the success or failure of a marketing techniques solves the age-old question of “Which marketing techniques should I use?”

For instance:

• When you joined Facebook, did it increase traffic to your website?
• When you sent out your last email broadcast, did it produce sales?
• When you wrote your last blog entry, did it produce comments or link backs?
• When you did SEO on your website, did it increase your rankings in the search engine results?
• When you made your free offer, did people subscribe to your mailing list?

Never, never start a new marketing technique without having a clear idea of what result you want from that technique, and a way to measure those results.

And at the end of each month take a look at those results and compare them to the results you wanted. Just because something produced poor results doesn’t mean you should give it the heave-ho. The first thing you should do it see if there are tweaks you could make that would produce better marketing results. Only after repeated failure should you get rid of a technique that is not producing for you.