Passions and Profits » business

Follow Your Heart To Business – 4 Things The Books May Not Tell You About Starting Your Own Business

The Passion Diva — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:07:00 +0000

Many (most?) of us dream of the perfect job or business, but few of us ever get there. Usually this is not because of a lack of opportunity, but more of an abundance of fear. To follow you heart to your business dreams takes courage, lots of it. And a good dose of chutzpah helps, too. Go to any bookstore and you will find literally dozens of books on self-employment, starting your own business, writing business plans, and so on.

Pick a few or read them all; you are bound to get good practical advice. Take classes, work with a coach, join groups. If you don’t get overwhelmed by all the input you will be able to set the forces in motion and get started.

Here are four simple steps you may or may not get in those practical guides or from that experienced business coach:

Do listen to your heart (and your coach if you have one): I finally went for the gusto, back to something I first did when I was nine years old, after piddling around in dissatisfying jobs or unsuccessful ventures for years. Now I am happy and making money at it, too. Recently I ran across notes from coaching I did a couple of business flops back. What struck me is that I am now doing pretty much what the sessions pointed to, information I ignored for years. I stopped trying to put square me in the round hole.

Don’t talk too much to friends: This is not to protect your idea, although that may well be a consideration. This is to protect yourself. Your friends and family members may be well-intentioned, or they may be unintentional saboteurs. Well-meaning people can say mean things. Don’t listen to criticism and advice from people who don’t really understand what you are doing or why you are doing it. If you do listen, but don’t take it to heart.

Trust in yourself.
Know yourself and your pace: I am a plodder; it takes me a long time to make decisions, take the first steps, make the calls. The ideas are there, they just sometimes take a long time to come to fruition. I know my pace. People are compelled to tell me to contact Oprah about my product, start looking into manufacturing/mass production, do this, do that. I am not ready to do all that, and I know it. I just smile and nod, and go at my snail’s pace. It works for me, even if it does not work for others. Maybe you are the sort to rush headlong into things and that is great. But if you take what seems like forever, don’t beat yourself up over it. Remember the Hare and the Tortoise?

Avoid panic and self-doubt: This is probably the hardest step for me. If there is a lull in business I freak out and think I will go broke. Invoking the lessons of “The Secret” may or may not help. I obsessively look at similar products on line and question what I am doing, even though I know I am doing what is right for ME and is working as is. Do your best to avoid comparing your business or product to others that are similar. If you are struggling financially, get a part time job, get a loan, but don’t throw in the towel if you are truly doing what you love. Take a deep breath and another step forward.

So, in addition to all the practical aspects of starting a business, keep these emotional steps in mind as well. Being on your own is not easy, but it is worth it if you do it right. Trust your instincts, follow your heart, do what you love. Good luck!

Peace with each of our own hearts possible. Every heart that finds peace, even for a moment at a time, gets us one step, one heart closer to a universal peace. If you follow your heart and build a business you love you will be making a positive step not just for yourself, but in a small and important way, to all human beings. See how one entrepreneur is doing that at http://www.peacefulheartsdolls.com/

Dream Big. Think Small.

The Passion Diva — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 23:45:00 +0000

You see, I’ve studied hundreds of successful people. I’ve read their biographies.

One thing I’ve always seen whether it’s a Hollywood actor or business person.

There’s always incremental growth before breakout, exponential growth.

Maybe there are a few exceptions, though for the most part this is true.

So what that means is you go from $300 a month, to $500, to $900… and on to $3,000, $5,000, etc….then you get an exponential jump from say $7,000 one month to $17,000 the next (and you never look back).

I believe in MOMENTUM. I want to help you get there.

I believe in CELEBRATING small victories. I want to celebrate your victories with you.

If you’ve had challenges getting good results in your life, getting momentum going, don’t ‘think bigger’, THINK SMALLER and watch what happens.

Dream Big. Think Small.

How To Become The Obvious Expert in Social Media

The Passion Diva — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:19:56 +0000

Using Your Content for Internet Marketing

The Passion Diva — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 03:32:21 +0000

If you are currently marketing your business online and have not put a great deal of thought into the content on your website, you may be making an incredibly costly mistake. The content on your website is invaluable for a number of reasons. First of all it gives visitors to your website their first impression of your business and the products and services you offer. Additionally, well written content can be instrumental in selling your products and services to your potential customers. Finally, the content on your website can influence the size of the target audience you are able to reach by helping to improve your search engine rankings. With your content capable of doing so much, it is clear you should be hiring a professional content writer to assist you writing the copy for your website. This article will delve deeper into the importance of providing accurate, concise and informative content on your website when you are marketing online.

One of the most basic reasons why the quality of the content on your website is so important is because visitors to your website will likely form their initial opinions of your website based on the content on your website. If the copy is poorly written, does not hold the visitors attention and does not promote your products and services well visitors are likely to exit your website without making a purchase. Conversely, if the copy on your website is well written, engages the reader and promotes the products and services you offer the visitor is more likely to investigate the website further to learn more about the products and services and may make a purchase. The content of your website will be one of the aspects of the website which is first noticed by visitors so it is important for this content to be well written.

Well written sales copy can also be very persuasive and may compel visitors to the website to purchase the products or services offered on the website. This is important especially if the main purpose of the website is to sell the products or services. The sales copy should accurately describe the products or services offered, stress the importance of these products and services and compel the visitor to make a purchase. All of this should be done without appearing to be blatantly advertising the products and services. Writing this type of copy can be quite complicated and typically requires hiring a sales copywriter who is experienced and skilled at writing this type of informative and persuasive content. Sales copy written by an amateur or an inexperienced writer will not likely be as effective as copy written by a professional with a great deal of experience in Internet marketing.

Finally the content on your website is very important because it can greatly influence your search engine rankings. This is critical because high search engine rankings help your business to reach a considerably larger audience. Internet users are typically looking for information quickly and want immediate results to their inquiries. Search engines understand this profile and write complicated algorithms which help them to supply the most relevant websites when a user searches for a particular word or phrase. This is important to business owners because Internet users realize the value of search engines and are likely to only visit websites which rank well in the search engines. This includes websites which rank on the first page or two of search results. Your business might sell football jerseys and you may have a well designed website, a superior inventory and excellent prices but if your website does not rank well in search engines you are missing out on a great deal of free advertising. If your website lands on the third page or lower most visitors who search for relevant terms will not likely visit your website because they will have found what they were looking for on earlier pages. This is where the content on your website becomes important. Websites containing content which has been optimized for particular keywords will likely rank well with search engines. Hiring a writer skilled in writing optimized content can help to improve your search engine rankings so you can reach more potential customers.

Tips For Selecting An Autoresponder

The Passion Diva — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 04:29:17 +0000

Anyone who owns a website can gain a world of benefit from an autoresponder. If you own a website, you probably have hundreds of visitors on a daily basis. Through the use of an autoresponder, you can take their emails addresses and contact them anytime you wish. Although an autoresponder is a great thing – you should be very careful when you choose the one for your website.

When you select your autoresponder, you want to purchase from a company that has a history of being stable and reliable. There have been several companies in the past that have went out of business, taking customer lists and leaving those with their autoresponders hanging. This can be very devastating to a company, and you should avoid it at all costs. You should always choose a company that you can rely on, and never go by price. If you try to save yourself some money, you could end up paying for it down the road.

If you run a big company, you’ll want an autoresponder that supports multiple lists and allows you to follow up with customers as many times as you wish. An autoresponder can do more than just answer emails, which is why you should pay close attention to features. Although you may have just one website now, you’ll want to plan ahead for the future just in case you decide to run more than one site.

If you don’t know a lot about computers, you’ll want to choose an autoresponder that is easy to set up. Non technical autoresponders are always the best, as virtually anyone can install them. Integration is also important, especially if you have a lot of other components on your website such as a shopping cart or a checkout. If you are paying for hosting with your website, you should check and see if the package comes with an autoresponder.

For many, price is a very important factor. If you don’t have a lot of money to spend, this will be a crucial consideration. Although there are free autoresponders out there, you should usually use them, as they come with ads and other annoyances. One of the best we have found that does offer a free account and no ads is www.Automatic-Responder.com for up to 250 subscribers it is a great deal. If you search around on the Internet, you may be able to find a complete package that offers you web hosting and an autoresponder together for one low price. The savings here can be really good, especially if you use a long term option.

If you take your time and choose a reliable autoresponder, you’ll save your company and yourself a lot of money in the long run. Buying or downloading a free or cheap autoresponder is never a good idea, as it will end up costing you both money and time. The ideal way to find the best autoresponder is weigh out your options, take your time, and select best autoresponder for your company.

Personalizing Autoresponders

The Passion Diva — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 18:24:55 +0000

Have you ever walked into a store in your town, and
been addressed by name? This has probably
happened to you at stores that you frequent often.
The shop owner knows your name, and uses it. He
remembers you, and he wants you to know that he
cared enough about you and your business to
remember you. In the offline world, this is just one
aspect of customer support.

Customer service like this is almost impossible to
achieve on the Internet, but some semblance of it
can exist when you personalize your autoresponder
messages. Autoresponder messages can be set up
to address people by their first or last name – or both.
In fact, there is quite a bit of personalized information
that can be added, depending on the autoresponder
that you are using.

The information is included in the autoresponder
messages by using codes. Each autoresponder will
use different codes to insert the information in your
messages. You simply write your message, and put
the codes where you want the personalized
information to appear. For instance, your message
may start out with ‘Hello (code for first name)! In this
case, the person’s first name will be inserted where
that code is.

Personalizing your autoresponder messages will
most likely improve your response rate. Research
has shown that emails that are personalized with the
person’s first name are opened more often, and
those people are generally more receptive to the
contents of the email message. It is usually very
easy to do. You write one message, using the
codes where you want the personalization,
then, no matter who that one email is sent out to,
their personal information will appear where the
codes are.

Of course, the autoresponder must collect the
information first. This is done with the use of forms
that activate the autoresponder. For instance, if you
are giving away a free ebook, and you have your
visitor fill out a form with their email address to receive
the download instructions for the ebook by email, that
form should collect any type of information that you
want for personalization – such as a first name, as
well as the email address. If that information is not
collected, the autoresponder won’t have anything to
insert where that code appears in your messages!

Take a look around the control panel of your
autoresponder, and find out what type of
personalization you can add to your autoresponder
messages. You may be very surprised at the
improved results!

Articles and Autoresponders

The Passion Diva — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:23:49 +0000

Writing articles to market a product or service is an
excellent way to build business. The articles should
be very informative, providing the reader with
information that is relevant to a specific topic. The
article usually includes a link to a webpage for more
information. The webpage, of course, is designed to
sell a product or service that relates to the topic of
the article.

These articles are commonly submitted to article
banks, websites, and ezine publishers. This is one
of the most effective ways to market a service or
product on the Internet, and it can become even more
effective when it is combined with the use of an
autoresponder.

Begin by setting each of your articles up in your
autoresponder. It is important that each article have
its very own autoresponder address, so you will
need an autoresponder service that will allow you to
do this. Next, make a master list of your articles, with
the autoresponder address for each article listed
beside the title. You can even add descriptions of the
articles on your master list if you want to.

Advertising your articles one at a time can take a
great deal of time…but advertising one autoresponder
address – the one for the master list – won’t take
very much time at all. Simply put it in your newsletter
and on your website. You can even allow other
ezine publishers to use this is a free resource for
their subscribers!

Should You Blog For Business

The Passion Diva — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 04:53:22 +0000

Before you jump on the bandwagon and start your own blog, you should understand what
a blog entails. Otherwise, you will begin writing and then lose interest. If you stop
blogging, then everything you have done up to that point will have been worth little.

How can you determine if a blog will actually benefit your business? You need to know
why people start blogs in the first place. You also need to know how to find the right
topic for you and how to find tools that will help your become an efficient, successful
blogger.

Articles and content are important for attracting and maintaining your client list. This
content can be provided in a variety of forms, and blog is one of the most popular today.
You can use your blog to connect your business to your readers in hopes of drawing
potential customers to your site.

You need to decide how you want to approach your blog. While it can be fun and
therapeutic to talk about your life, it will not necessarily attract many readers unless you
are a celebrity. Most people these days want people to give them advice on how to
become successful or they want information on a certain product or area of interest. Most
readers do not want to read an advertisement that is wrapped up in uninteresting content.
Instead, they need to see how the site owner can relate the product to real life.

Before you start a blog you should ask yourself a few questions. Do you really have
something to say? Do you have the time to devote to updating your blog regularly? Can
you provide information that would be relevant and important to someone else? How
will you use the blog to attract new visitors to your site?

One of the most important of those questions is whether you will have the time to write in
your blog regularly. You should be able to add something almost every day, with a
minimum of five times a week. Most of the blogs that show up in search engines actually
have multiple posts a day. You can read other blogs on similar topics and post a response
to those blogs. It is actually a common practice among bloggers. Cross-blog discussions
give new readers a reason to check out your blog if you post about a blog they read
regularly.

Besides that, you should consider the amount of website traffic you generally get. If you
have very little traffic, it will take more work to get your blog up and going and
successful. However, if you already have a lot of visitors to your site, then your blog will
be more likely to catch on quickly. Just realize that you may not become an overnight
success, but hard work will pay off in the end.

Your main goal with a commercial website is to gain profit. The way to do that is to
attract as many people as possible to your website and to maintain that client list by
enticing them to come back again and again. A blog is not for everyone or for every
business, but it may be exactly what you need!

Creating a Successful Blog

The Passion Diva — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 04:37:50 +0000

It is almost a necessity for an online business owner to have a blog these days. There are
all types of blogs out there: informative blogs, personal blogs, and marketing jobs, to
name a few. Now businesses have to compete using these blogs to receive a higher
ranking in the search engines.

In order to have a successful blog, you will need to insure that it is well-written. You will
also have to check to make sure it is designed well and that you can update it frequently
and regularly. You need to take the time to research and know your audience before you
start so you can be sure to target them appropriately.

But what if you are not trying to start a blog for business purposes? How can you create
a blog that is successful if you just want to have a blog? There are some tips you can
apply to help insure that your blog will do well.

First of all, select your topic. Since you aren’t using your blog for marketing your
product, you can write about anything that appeals to you. You can use a blog as your
own personal online journal or you can use it as your forum to comment on the news.
Just be sure to choose something you are passionate about, something that you know
well, and something that will allow you a chance to show the world the real you with all
your talents, knowledge, and ideas.

Secondly, write your blog as if you were conversing with a friend. Make your writing
conversational and free from a lot of technical jargon, unless you are directing it only
towards a very specific readership. Post frequently because having more content on your
blog will help more people to find it through search engines.

Use your blog to get your opinions out to the world. You are not moderated and you are
free to express yourself in whatever way you choose. However, do not use your blog to
insult people or try to damage businesses or organizations. Be wise in the decisions you
make regarding your blog usage. Remember that you are influencing people’s views and
they will be evaluating your credibility. If you are offensive, you may lose readership.

Finally, take time to promote your blog. Don’t be afraid to keep the URL for your blog
in the signature line of your emails. You never know when an email might cross the path
of someone who might be interested in what you have to say. If you publish a newsletter,
be sure to promote it there as well. Finally, you can join blog directories and post the link
there or join forums related to your topic and share your link with others.

If you do consider using a blog for business purposes, realize that it needs frequent
updating and good, solid content. Some people consider paying someone to maintain the
content aspect of the blog once it has been created. Many people make extra money
serving as content writers and prove to be beneficial to blog owners.

Which One is More Important – Product or Mailing List?

The Passion Diva — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 23:24:44 +0000

If you would ask this question, “Which one is more important – the mailing list or the product?” any savvy marketer would answer you, “The mailing list”.

Principally, any wise business person puts the importance of hungry demand (and not just any demand) in front of the product. In other words, there is no product if there is no demand! And a mailing list represents the demand or your business if you would like to call it.

If you frequent the Joint Venture forums and membership sites of any kind, you will find that product and service owners need mailing list owners more than the other way round. This is because the mailing list owners have the prospects that the other type of partner is looking for to sell to.

And if you are a mailing list owner, you do not have to necessarily make money from selling your own product. You can sell advertising space or craft a Joint Venture with product owners in return of commissions, recurring or not.

Most of the biggest success web businesses on the Internet today often establish the mailing list (or subscribers) first before the product. One fine example is Friendster.com.

Friendster.com, in the nutshell, is a website that connects friends and potential friends from around the world through a free membership access.

While Friendster.com does not make money from the number of members who join the site, the business makes money from selling advertising space and partnering with other big time merchants and businesses, owing to the established number of members Friendster.com has recruited.

This business is perfect example that demonstrates why every business should establish a need or demand before the product itself, and why you should do the same, whether you run a friends site or not.