This has been happening more and more and it causes people to lose respect for the company that issued the email. They clearly are either sloppily assembling their subscriber lists or are buying information off other companies.

Either way, they don’t deserve any attention, or  business. A company that does this to enough people will slowly create a legion of unloyal customers, unsubscribers who will likely never return. This is ineffective email marketing at its worst.

If you’re an Internet entrepreneur, or at least interested in becoming one, you should take note of the ways in which social media can essentially replace the need for an email newsletter and create your own brand ambassadors. Since most popular social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest require users to ‘like’ or ‘follow’ someone before they receive updates from them,  a social media presence for your company allows you to gauge who actually wants to hear your updates, creating an interested audience, instead of blindly sending out emails to people who might have never subscribed in the first place.

Social media posts can help virtually any business, from keeping clients apprised of medical equipment shipping dates and costs to offering discounts on electronic products or services.

Social media posts can be effective at relaying information, garnering real-time feedback, and actually converting ‘followers’ into customers. Facebook exposes your brand to hundreds of millions of people; Twitter allows you to track trends and hashtags and tap into niche markets; Pinterest gives you the inside track into one of the hottest networks on the Internet. Even the photo app network Instagram (freshly acquired from Facebook) can be a clever way for businesses to brand a new line of products.

If you’re running a small business and are looking to up the ante on your Internet retail sales, make sure that you are not  just another pesky email in someone’s inbox and start creating active dialogues with consumers on social media networks. You stand to improve your revenue, enhance your brand, build your customers base, and stop annoying the unsubscribed.

But for many of us the question eventually surfaces: Should I get myself an office space? A real, physical one?

Answering this question has become increasingly difficult to do. For those of us who work primarily online, it was once perfectly common to operate our business from the kitchen table. The online industry was still in its frontier-style infancy, and it didn’t matter where you were so long as you had a computer and perhaps a Skype account.

But a few things have happened to change that in the past couple years. First, the internet business has gone mainstream and “settled down” more, meaning that once again people are more likely to work out of an office than a garage. Second, the popularity of shared work spaces – offices where small or solo businesses can rent out a desk or two in a room full of workers in a similar industry – has brought many cost-conscious entrepreneurs out of the shadows in places like New York and San Francisco. And, finally, when you work for a while in one job you can go through long periods where it is hard to be productive outside of an office environment. You’ll never miss the commute, but you likely will occasionally regret not having a set workspace outside of the home.

So this is all to say that getting an office can be a tempting proposition, even for someone who does all their work online and rarely needs to meet with a client. If you feel that renting out an office or a desk would truly help improve your productivity, doing so may ultimately help your business’ bottom line. In this case, you can start searching out comfortable office chairs for sale and prepare to make your working life a bit less migratory. But make sure that you aren’t simply getting an office to counter a productivity slump or keep pace with your peers.

After all, not having your own place certainly comes with its disadvantages. But as self-employed workers we know that nothing can ultimately tie us down – not even an office.

Socrates

The simple solution to this is as follows: Never stop learning.

When you learn something new, you are either accepting that preconceived notions were false or filling in the voids of ignorance. In either scenario, you are admitting that you are indeed not the knower of all things. By doing this, you begin to break out of the bad habit of thinking you’re always right.

It’s a phenomenon you may have experienced in your school days. Maybe you started off certain you knew everything, but eventually an educator blew your mind away with a color wheel or some other introduction to basic knowledge. From there onward, you at least knew you didn’t know everything.

But then you graduated from high school, went on to college and earned your diploma, and stopped spending several hours a week learning new information. Without that constant reminder that you don’t know everything, it became easier to accept that your outlook on life required no further fine-tuning.

There’s no reason why you can’t make it a habit to keep learning new information everyday. While reading up on current events is part of that, acquiring new and detailed information about deep issues and unfamiliar subjects is equally important.

What’s great is that there’s never been an easier time to make this a daily habit. E learning is increasingly connecting those who want to know more to video lectures and other online resources that can be accessed wherever there’s a computer and a web connection.

In addition, there’s the go-to Wikipedia as well as trusted information available through a multitude of college and government agency websites. While you shouldn’t simply rely on Google to find these sources for you, virtually any information on any topic can be uncovered with the right web search.

Let’s not forget the library. It’s free after all and jam packed with information you’ve yet to absorb.

By making a habit of learning everyday you accomplish two things: you never forget that you are, relatively speaking, a child lost in the library, and you inch yourself a little farther out of the depths of ignorance. Learning is the only way to turn knowing you know nothing into something.

Your customers are the lifeblood of your company, not just in terms of producing the revenue that powers your business, but as ambassadors to your brand.

Your customers are the ones who will be telling other people, possibly hundreds of them, about their experience with your services or products. Sometimes they are dissatisfied and testy, and you have to be prepared for this.

A business event speaker might tell an arena full of entrepreneurs and small business owners that the customer is always right, and that would largely be correct. However, there are times when the customer is not right and you have to know how to handle these situations so that they don’t become a stain on your business.

If a customer is harassing or psychologically abusing one of your employees, he or she is not right.

This is when you must draw the line and protect your employee. If you’re not careful, you could lose a component of your workforce, which in the long run could be a lot more valuable. A customer is not always unhappy for rational reasons. There can be other, more personal, factors at play and sometimes it doesn’t matter what you do, the person is not going to back down. If you’ve done everything in your power to assuage the customer’s grievances and that person is still occupying your storefront with lewd comments, anger, and inappropriate comments, it may be time to ask them to leave.

If a customer is spreading lies or slander about your company across the Internet, he or she is not right.

It’s much easier now for one person’s opinion to be seen and heard by the masses. Through blogging, message boards, and social media, customers who are dissatisfied can make a lot of trouble for small businesses by damaging their reputations online. Negative reviews on Yelp, Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, and other popular sites combined can impact your business adversely. It’s a good idea to look into reputation management services that can work to wipe out or mitigate slander. It’s also a good idea to become knowledgeable of social media so that you can create positive niches for your company online.

If a customer is simply looking for a free lunch, he or she is not right.

This one’s probably not worth having an argument about, but there are customers out there who will complain about a product simply to get it for free. Either construct a quality-assurance policy that protects you from liability, or build in safeguards to your return policy that deal specifically with unsatisfied customers. Best case scenario: your products are so amazing no one ever complains!

The customer is not always right. With online tools and social media, a person can now inflict major damage on a small business that will take time, resources, and energy to combat. Obviously it’s best to avoid these skirmishes in the first place with stellar customer service and pristine company ethics. But in the rare instances when a customer relation gets out of hand, be prepared to deal with it well after the customer has left the store.

Each  day, for 30 days, you will receive a blogging tip and a blog post idea. I’ll be sending them directly to your email. The best part? The cost is only $10

To purchase now, for only $10,  click here

Not sure if this is something you’d use? Read on for a sample:

30 Days Of Blogging Motivation

Daily Tip: The idea of writing a blog post can seem intimidating to some people. Don’t look at it as “formal writing.” Instead, sit down and write in the way that you speak.

Your blog is a communication tool. It’s like a written conversation with your readers. You write the post, they leave comments, you comment back. There is a flowing dialogue. Get rid of the stiff writing and have a conversation!

Daily Post Idea: Tomorrow is December 1. Think about all the things that have happened this year. Write a post about one of your happiest moments this year.

If you’d like to get more of these tips and ideas emailed to you every day, for 30 days,

Click Here To Purchase Now For Only $10

In this show, Oprah shows footage from the episodes of her former talk show, and talks about the lessons that can be learned from those interviews / moments.

Oprah is reusing her content, and you can, too! It is perfectly okay to “recycle” some of your blog posts, and it can also help you save time in a pinch! Here are some examples:

Popular Posts: Go through your stats and find out what your most popular posts have been in the last few months, year, or even several years. Write a new blog post with the links to your most popular posts.

Favorite Posts: What have been your most favorite posts that you’ve written in the past year? Create a new blog post with the links to them, and feel free to comment on why they are your favorite. This is a great thing to do as we are nearing the end of the year!

“Year In Review” by Category: Like the above “favorite posts”, you can go through posts from this year and group them into categories. This is a great way to create a whole week of  blog posts. Your categories will depend on what you write about. If you often write about recipes, crafts, traveling, and your family, then each one of those can be a category in itself.

On Monday, you can feature your 5 favorite recipe posts or most popular recipe posts during 2011. On Tuesday, do the same with your craft posts. On Wednesday, feature your travel posts. You get the idea.

You can even do this now, and set them to publish during the busy week between Christmas and New Year’s. (imagine how awesome life will be without having to worry about blogging that week.)

Make this a priority now, and then take it easy later!

And in almost every retelling, this newly rich individual is a man, not a woman. We even expect that from our entrepreneurs, all entrepreneurs, whether or not they end up being wildly wealthy. This is just how it is.

But I have to ask: why? Why don’t more women start their own businesses? Why has Silicon Valley turned into more of a bachelor pad than Wall Street? We don’t live in the 1950s anymore, and women are all over the corporate world. But they don’t do start-ups.

My best guess is that women believe more in hard work than in taking risks. In college, we take our classes seriously, do our homework, and don’t fail out. Which, I suppose, is too bad, considering that failing out of school – or passing somehow while focusing only on your side project – sometimes feels like a prerequisite for entrepreneurial success. After college, we get advanced degrees or look for work in more traditional fields. We are being more practical here. All of us leave our twenties eventually, and we want to have a reliable income source when we do.

If there is some truth to my generalizations, it is certainly commendable that us women are such rational creatures. And, for many of us, the rational path is indeed the best one to take. But if you have an idea, or a service you can offer, or really a passion for anything that could turn into a viable model, I have a new question for you: Why not? If you have something to offer, why not see if it can turn into a career?

For many years, as women struggled to enter historically male-dominated professions, commentators noted that there were few role models for them to follow. Once there were role models, and a precedent of women entering that profession, girls became more likely to grow up with that career goal in mind. So I’m not worried that there are girls out there who want to be an entrepreneur. But they need a role model.

Have you registered for The IndieBizChicks Conference yet? It starts today and continues into tomorrow! If you haven’t registered, you still have time!

There will be 13 sessions – and they are all business focused. Each session is led by a “indie biz chick” who really knows what she is talking about!

This is a virtual conference. All of the sessions will be held via conference call. You simply have to dial in to join us.

Each of the sessions will be recorded – so if you can’t attend live, you can listen to the recording online, as well as download it to your
computer.

These sessions will teach you new things and motivate you to get down to business! And for only $49, this is the most affordable conference out there!

Click Here To Register Now For Only $49!

Want to know what you’ll learn? Here is a breakdown of
the sessioons:

• Blogging Basics, from Molly Ford of Smart, Pretty, Awkward – learn the basics of blogging – plus some!

• WordPress Websites For Indie Businesses,
  from Angela Wills of Marketers Mojo – learn how to create a website in WordPress for your indie biz

• Write Your Book In 90 Days, from Dawn Mena of Get Captivating Copy - learn how to write your book in 90 days

• How To Engage Journalists & Reports via Twitter, by Stephanie Dressler of  Montieth & Co – learn how to “talk” to reporters and journalists on Twitter (which can help you get LOTS of press coverage!)

• Show Me The Money! How to connect to the modern bride and book more business, from Krista Chapman of
  The Pink Bride - learn how to increase your sales by connecting with the bridal market

• Branding AND Re-branding Your Biz, from Kelly McCausey of  Solo Smarts – learn how to brand (and re-brand) your business
  
• 3 New Clients in 30 Days, from Latrisha Jacobs of The Girlfriends Talk -  Have a service based business? Learn how to get
  3 new clients in the next 30 days!

• Skip The Multi-Tasking: How To Cut The Time Wasters And Really Be Productive, from Stepfanie Cuevas of
  The Lady Bloggers Society – Multi-tasking doesn’t work – find out what does, and learn how to be more productive!

• Become a Passive Revenue Powerhouse: How to Create Passive Revenue in Your Business, from Erin Blaskie of
  BSETC – The fact is, you can only “work” so much. Passive income allows you to earn more money, without putting more work in!

• Streamlining Your Marketing, from by Deb Averett of Dose Of Happy, Is your marketing in all different directions? Learn how to streamline and get better results!

• PR 101 For Small Businesses, from by Taryn Scher of TK Public Relations – Want to build up your PR skills? This session will
  teach you the basics!
• Blog Evolution: Turning Your Blog Into A Live Medium, presented by Stephanie Precourt of Adventures
  in Babywearing – One of the most well-known “mommy bloggers” in the universe, Stephanie turned her blog into a live medium, and is now the director / producer of the NW Indiana production of Listen To Your Mother.

• How To Make Money With Your Blog, presented by Crissy Herron of  IndieBizChicks – I’m sure if you’re reading this, you know who I am. Well, in my session I’m going to teach you how to make money with your blog - from selling your own products to affiliate marketing, working with brands, and more!

Click Here To Register Now For Only $49!

]]> http://indiebizchicks.com/wp/dont-miss-out-on-this/feed/ 0 http://indiebizchicks.com/wp/blogs-that-will-attract-readers-advertisers/ http://indiebizchicks.com/wp/blogs-that-will-attract-readers-advertisers/#comments Tue, 13 Sep 2011 04:46:06 +0000 Crissy Herron http://indiebizchicks.com/wp/?p=4200 There seems to be a million different sources online that will tell you that blogging can make you money, but few that tell you why or how. There can be a lot of money you can make through blogging, but not every blog will generate the kind of traffic you want. It’s easy to say, “just start a blog and advertise,” but the simple fact is that much of the money you’re going to receive is through advertisers that are looking to capitalize on the traffic you’re getting out of your site. If you’re toying around with the idea of throwing your hat into the blogosphere, here’s some of the most successful blog niche’s that are on the web:

How To/ Tutorial

The web is the place to go for knowledge. People don’t call the Internet the information highway for nothing. Whenever someone wants to get some information on a topic or how to do something, especially when it comes to technology, we are going online to figure it out. Whether it’s with Anywho’s reverse phone number finder or building a budget spreadsheet, people go online for everything. These types of How-To blogs are really popular. Of course, within this niche, there are sub-topics. You’ll probably want to focus on how-to topics with technology, budgeting, spending, saving, etc. The more detailed your instructional information is the better you’re going to do. These sites get a lot of traffic and this means that advertisers will be willing to pay you more for your ad space.

Finance

Financial advice and information is a big part of the blogging world, especially with so many people struggling to get a hold on their debt and wanting to learn the best way to balance their monthly budget. People want as much information on financial planning as they can get, and in recent years it has become one of the most successful blog niches on the web. There’s also a wealth of knowledge that you can find through local and national media sources that will give you excellent ideas and source material. People are really worried about the way the spend right now and you could get a lot of traction through this type of approach.

The Personal Touch

There’s a lot of blogs out there, and with that said, every niche has those bloggers that take a very bland

approach to what they’re doing. Sometimes personalizing your blog to portray your lifestyle or what’s important to you can fill a niche that people could really respond to. For example, if you’re a mother that’s constantly dealing with the struggles and demands of motherhood, write about that. Make it personal and it can cover a wide rage of different topics. This way you don’t have to just talk about finances or business. Taking a personal touch to your blog can make it more interesting and diverse for your readers.

All of these approaches have proven to be very effectual at getting the attention of readers. If you’re not really approaching your blog as a way to make money, then it doesn’t really matter. If you do want to have a successful blog, then you need to focus on the ways that you can generate traffic quickly, because the more traffic you have the more likely that advertisers will want to pay you for your ad space.

Learn Something New

Learning something new can definitely energize you and get you excited to get back to work! I have several free classes to choose from! From creating a newsletter to using social media to copywriting and more!

Click Here To Sign Up For The Free Classes