Archive for October, 2007

Focus: This unsubscriber could teach me a thing or two

Tuesday, October 30th, 2007

I’ve said before on my blog that people who unsubscribe from your newsletter can be a good thing for your business.

For one, they can teach you what you might be doing wrong. If all your unsubs say the same thing like: “Your newsleter is crap!” then that’s pretty valuable information.

They can also teach you who your target audience is. If they all say something like: “I’m not a Mom with young kids”, you know that you’re mostly talking to Moms of young kids.

You can even make money from your unsubscribe page. And, sometimes unsubs can teach you something entirely new.

Last weekend, I wrote as a guest on Kelly McCausey’s blog about focus. Focus for me is like a journey, not a destination. Just when I think I’ve focused, I realize I need to refocus!

Awhile back I got an unsubscribe message from a subscriber. It read like this:

Comments:
Please understand, this has nothing to do with your product so much as it has to do with my focus. I am becoming accutely aware of the fact that too many options available to me is only a distraction. You are not the first and only marketer I have recently opted out from.
I have recently chosen two directions on the Internet in which to begin my Internet marketing, and two is overwhelming already. I have to sacrifice from one just to work on the other. Three would certainly be out of the question: Although your product does look interesting…but I think I would go into information overload if I took another step forward with anyone eles’s offers.
I wish you the best in your endeavors.
Take Care.
Sincerely,
John Doe
First of all, aren’t my subscribers nice? :-) He took the time to write a long explanation almost as if he cared about my feelings. But the point is, he realized something very valuable:
That listening to too many people or going in too many different directions would make him lose his place in his marketing efforts.
Pretty smart marketer. ;)
What have you done recently to focus? Or re-focus? I sold a website and am moving completely away from one of my markets. What about you?

Freebie Friday: Content Skills to Pay The Bills

Friday, October 26th, 2007

Sorry I’ve been a bit MIA around here. You see I’ve been hard at work on a couple of things:

  • Re-Focusing. I’m dumping a couple of projects and even leaving an entire market behind. I’m learning that Focus is a moving target instead of a one time goal! More on that later.

  • Busy with mine and Tiffany Washko’s new Natural Mom PLR membership site.

But enough about me. Let’s talk about the freebie for this week. It’s all about using Content to grow your online business. This won’t take all day to read, in fact it’s just 9 pages long. But it touches on the following points:

  • How content sets you apart from other businesses
  • Why you want to be a “value added” marketer – and how to get there
  • What to do if you’re not a great writer
  • Getting other people to write content for you – free and paid
  • How to figure out what your ideal customer wants by way of content
  • And more good stuff.

You can download it here: Content Skills

Feel free to pass it around. :)

Free Tax Strategy Seminar for Work at Home Professionals

Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007

Just caught sight of this on Kristine McKinley’s blog. Kristine is a CPA with a blog focused on financial tips for work at home Moms.
She is offering a free teleseminar on taxes. I don’t know about you, but I want to be ready on April 15th and I want to minimize my tax liability so I will be on the call!

Dinner With the Mom Masterminds

Wednesday, October 17th, 2007
Well, 4 of them at least!

Last week I had the chance to have dinner with Alice Seba, of Internet Marketing Sweetie, Lynette Chandler of Tech Based Marketing, Darina Loakman of I Am a Wahm, and Tiffany Smith of Headshot Photographer Match.

What a treat! Alice and Darina came all the way from Delta, B.C. and Dublin, Ireland to attend the Big Seminar in Atlanta, and since Tiffani and I are from Atlanta and Lynette was going to be in the area, we couldn’t not get together.

I’m sharing some pics below. :-)

I don’t remember what was so funny, but this one was so cute and natural. From L-R it’s Alice, Darina and Lynette.

Here is all 5 of us: L-R Tiffani, Alice, Me, Darina, Lynette

Show Me The (Blog) Money

Friday, October 12th, 2007

This was fun. It’s a “What kind of ___ are you?” as it relates to blogs. Mine, as it turns out, is all about the dough.

What Kind of Blogger Are You?

Which actually kind of surprised me, because I love blogging, not just because of the income. But yes, making money from your blog is especially nice. Mostly because you know that you can only make money if someone is listening to you.

So what kind of blogger are you? Let me know.

Hat tip to Alyssa of Life from my Laptop for the cute quiz.

And p.s. if you want to learn more about making money from your blog, just click. :)

Another Reason I Like Dave Ramsey

Thursday, October 11th, 2007

I was just listening to Dave Ramsey on my radio, and realized another reason I like him. First I love his attitude about “living like noone else now so you can live like noone else later”. He also talks a lot about not being a slave to money and debt, and that makes it really clear.

A few minutes ago he was talking to a caller who was on disability. She had some health problems but didn’t like being on disability, and wanted to start her own business. She had prior experience in a business of her own. Dave’s advice was to start an internet business.

This is one of the reasons I don’t worry about retirement as much as the average person. I ascribe to the “Die Broke” philosophy. I would much rather give my children money to help them when they need it as young adults, than concern myself with their inheritance, which they won’t get until they’re already financially solvent.

Dave pointed out that an internet business was totally doable for an older person or even someone with chronic health challenges, and I agree.

As an example, I interviewed Tawra Kellam of Living on a Dime last week for the Moms Money show. You can listen to that interview here. Tawra recently released a brand new book called Penny Pinching Mama, and I had a chance to review it. It’s the story of how her Mom lived on $1,000 a month (and later $500 a month). Tawra and her mother have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which causes a variety of symptoms including pain, immune disfunction and unrelenting fatigue. But the two of them have a thriving online presence!

When I’m too old to “work” (and how old is that these days? Some people in their late 80’s are still active.) I could still do what I do right now. I might need a little help if my eyesight was poor, but nothing a VA couldn’t help me with.

Geriatrics Talk Radio. Hmm, has a nice ring to it. ;)

Have You Heard The WC News?

Tuesday, October 9th, 2007

The Bigger & Better WC Mini Mag for WAHMsI’ve been talking about the W.C. News on this blog ever since Kelly McCausey launched it. I love this magazine and when it arrives in my mailbox (that’s a real, snail mail box not an email inbox!), I usually sit down on my couch and devour it.

It’s fun reading the stories and tips from fellow work at home Moms, and I always learn something or am inspired. Kelly recently announced a change at the W.C: she’s going back to an ad free, exclusive content style magazine. That means the W.C. will be juicier than ever.

I can’t wait to get my new copy. It even includes an audio CD with each issue! If you’re already a free subscriber you will need to upgrade to get the new good stuff, so do so here:

The WC News – because you don’t want to miss a thing!

Phase Three: We Have a Winner!

Monday, October 8th, 2007

The votes have been compiled and we have a winner: Announcing Tricia Ann Gardner of GardnerDragonFlyDreams as the new owner of Mommy Hobby.
Congrats Tricia! And a special thanks to Kelly McCausey of FlipThatMomsWebsite for her help and sweetening the pot. :-)

Niche PLR: Natural Family/Green Living

Thursday, October 4th, 2007

Many of you who visit this blog know that although I talk about general work at home/internet marketing topics, my target market is the “natural mom”. I own Natural Moms Talk Radio, created the Natural Mom Business Guide, and have a network of websites for this niche.

I’m very, very excited to tell you about a project Tiffany Washko and I have launched. I sent this newsletter out to my “natural business” subscribers earlier, but in case you aren’t a subscriber, I’m pasting it below.

As a subscriber to my newsletter, you’ve no doubt heard me mention Private Label Rights content (PLR) before and how much I use it in my business.

I’ve even made several recommendations of sources of PLR content, and all of these I still utilize.

But you know what? My friend Tiffany Washko and I saw a problem. Even though we both use PLR and have seen big things in our business as a result, we also saw a problem.

I know some of you have seen this too, because a couple of you have written to me about it!

Those of us who market to the natural mom know that we have a tough nut to crack. Natural moms are savvy. They’re well read. They research things. They know their stuff.

And they won’t be happy with sub-par information. And neither should you be!

With the PLR membership sites and article packs Tiffany and I have purchased, we were sometimes happy with the quality, and other times we weren’t. We often had to spend too much time rewriting the content, which in a way defeats the purpose of PLR, or we had to scrap a lot of it entirely because it just wasn’t appropriate for our market.

This is what one subscriber had to say:

I would never jeopardize my reputation in the natural community by passing along these subpar articles. I can see where in many marketing niches this level of content would be appropriate. However, in natural parenting it just doesn’t work. Honestly, my opinion of you has been negatively affected due to the referral to such a poor natural living resource.”

OUCH! But this reader had a point.

So Tiffany and I decided to do something about it. By now you’ve probably guessed what that is. :-)

Announcing high quality PLR articles, product reviews and recipes just for the natural family. You can get started now at: http://www.naturalmomplr.com/

Carrie
p.s. If you aren’t sure how PLR can work for you or why Tiffany and I are such big fans of it, sign up for that ecourse. Good PLR can turn around your business. And if you’re not currently marketing to the natural mom, you can still join. Interest in “green” parenting and natural living topics is getting more and more common. You would be smart to offer this kind of content on your family oriented websites.

Not Sure About Auction Ads Yet?

Monday, October 1st, 2007

I mentioned AuctionAds on this blog several weeks ago when I signed up. In a nutshell, AuctionAds are contextual advertising similar to Google AdSense.

You sign up, place a bit of code on your site, and small tasteful ads that lead to eBay auctions show up on your pages. When you send traffic to eBay using your AuctionAds, you get commissions when the visitor takes an action, like signing up for an eBay account, bidding or winning an auction, etc.

It’s been a lucrative way to monetize certain pages. Tiffany Washko has blogged about it on her site. I find that the ads are working best on pages that talk about or recommend a specific product (as opposed to pages that are mostly information oriented).

Right now AuctionAds is paying new account holders $25! So now is a great time to sign up if you haven’t already. :-)