Crissy Says – IndieBizChicks.com

Crissy Says

3 Ways To Market Your Biz With Kindle Books

Are you looking for a way to market your business online, to a whole new audience? Would you like Amazon to help you?

Here’s an idea: start writing Kindle books!

Here are some reasons why this is a good idea:

Use Your Kindle Book As An Introduction To Your Larger Info Product: If you have any workshops or other info products, take a small portion of that content and use it to create a Kindle Book. You can price your Kindle Book low ($1.99 or less), or even offer it for free. This will make it a no-brainer decision for people. At the end of the Kindle Book, invite the readers to purchase your larger info product or workshop. (you can include the link right in the content of the
Kindle Book)

Use Kindle Books To Grow Your Email List: Within the first few pages of your Kindle Book, offer a freebie that people can get for signing up for your mailing list. (you can include the URL within the content) Even if someone only downloaded the free sample of your Kindle Book, they will see this offer and it can really help you grow your mailing list!

Amazon Will Promote You! If you are an Amazon customer, you know that they will send you emails of recommended products. Once you start creating Kindle Books, they will promote them to their customers! This will introduce you to a HUGE audience that may never have found your site otherwise!

These are just a few of the reasons I think you should start creating Kindle Books.

Crissy Says

Tips For Using HARO To Get Great Press Coverage

How would you like to get your biz featured in the national press? It’s a pretty awesome feeling! And of course, the more people who know your business exists, the better!

What’s the secret? HARO! (It stands for “help a reporter out”)

This is a service that will send you 3 emails per day, Monday – Friday, with queries from reporters, producers, bloggers, and other people in the media, looking for people to interview.

You can sign up free here.

Here are a few tips on using HARO:

1) Respond as quickly as possible. There are tens of thousands of HARO users, so if you see a query that that interests you, it’s important to act quickly. Waiting until later to respond could cost you a great opportunity.

2) Read queries carefully before responding. Sometimes the requester asks for specific information. He will likely receive numerous responses, and those that lack the information he needs will probably be weeded out first.

3) Resist the urge to tell your life story. Reporters aren’t usually looking for a full bio. Stick to the information that is specifically requested in your response. If they want to know more, they will ask.

Business, Crissy Says

Should You Add Coaching to Your Business? Here’s all you need.

Hi. I’m Nicole Dean from Coach Glue and I’m the first of four guest bloggers who will be visiting Crissy’s home here in the next month during her surgeries.

Today I want to talk about why you want to add Coaching to your business and what types of entrepreneurs should think about adding this income stream today.

First, why coaching?

1. It’s a high-ticket item.

You can charge hundreds or thousands of dollars, depending on how much time you want to invest and your level of credibility.

2. It’s high-impact.

You can change lives very quickly with coaching. It’s very rewarding.

3. It’s flexible (that’s a big one for me).

You can create the coaching program that works for you when you want to work.

Design your coaching program however you want. Maybe you love Skype calls, or you just want to do phone calls while you’re driving or in the car while you’re in car line waiting to pick up your kids.

Perhaps you don’t want to get on the phone at all so you just offer email coaching.

Or maybe you want to do face to face coaching.

You can even decide if you have to schedule the calls or if you want to do Voxer coaching so you can batch answer your clients’ questions when YOU want to.

You choose – it’s one of the most flexible online businesses out there.

4. It’s easy to get started.

You don’t need much to get started. In fact, you only need three things.

Your brain.
A paypal or Stripe account
This “Coaching Kit” which is free!

So, who should consider adding a coaching offer?

1. Service Providers.

If you are a Virtual Assistant, Web Designer, Video Producer, Social Media Manager, or anyone with a specialty that people are already paying for, you know enough in order to add a Coaching offer to your site. Try it. It’ll take 5 minutes and you never know who will say “Heck yes!” to that.

2. Bloggers.

If you’re blogging and have a following, no matter what niche you’re in, there are others out there like you who want to “pick your brain” to get your help. If they’re paying enough, let them pick away.

3. Influencers.

If you’re an influencer and have a following on social media that’s larger or more interactive than most, then you can bet that others wish they could ask you questions about how you did it.

4. Speakers.

You’ve already got a platform and know how to rock it. Start offering a coaching program from stage and watch people snap it up!

5. Authors.

Whether you write cookbooks, pet training books, or even trashy novels (which I love), there are people out there who would love to pay you to answer their questions.

So why not?

You’ve got your brain. (Check!)
You’ve got a PayPal or Stripe account. (Check!)
You’ve got a following. (Check! Or you’re working on it!)

The only thing you’re missing is the package of forms to start your business.

Grab 17 Free Forms to Start and Streamline your Business right here.

Hugs and high fives,
Nicole Dean, Coach Glue

Crissy Says

Earning Money With Affiliate Programs + Blogging

Blogging is one way that people make their presence known on the Internet.What started out as simple, online journals in the 90s have become a phenomenon! One way to monetize your blog is through affiliate programs.

This type of program is great for a blog. Affiliate programs are everywhere now. They range from pay-per-click to pay-per-lead to pay-per-sale. It all depends on what you want to explore. With some of the bigger programs, you are almost guaranteed a profit on the brand alone.

Finding a Suitable Affiliate Program

All affiliate programs are not created equal. First, choose one that is suitable for the purpose of your blog. You wouldn’t advertise for hair care products if you blog is about gardening. The program product has to fit your needs.

Check out the commission structure. If you are going to promote this program, you want it to be worth your while. Many have a structure where you can earn money for your leads and also for referrals. Can you move up? A multi-level program gives you incentive to promote harder for the monetary gains.

Do you believe in the product? Remember, you are accountable to your readers on your blog. Promoting a product simply for the money would betray them and you would lose your audience.

Try the products you are promoting. Ask for feedback on the program if you have to. You will be more passionate about the product if you like it.

Go for the top. Why not Amazon or eBay? They offer popular affiliate programs that can help monetize your blog. Well established programs usually have more resources for the affiliates to use to increase their commissions.

Affiliate Directories

This is another way to get going with affiliate programs. This is like a marketplace where merchants can list their affiliate opportunities. You can apply for their programs. Here, though, you may be rejected if your blog doesn’t meet certain criteria such as length of time on the Internet.

Affiliate programs are an easy way to get started in the area of monetizing your blog. You can sign up for many even if your blog is new and get going in minutes.

Crissy Says

De-Clutter Your Website & Blog

When you think of de-cluttering, you probably think of cleaning the clutter in your home — but let’s talk about taking care of some digital clutter. Specifically – let’s talk about your website and blog! Those things need to get freshened up, too! Here are a few things to consider:

Links – Linking to other sites when you write posts, create a blog roll, etc are very helpful to your reader. But those links can become broken after time, as pages on other sites get moved or deleted. Checking your links every so often and making sure they are in working order is a good thing to do, and it can also make life easier for your readers. If you use WordPress, this plugin can check your links for you.

About Me – When is the last time you updated your “about me” page? Go read through it — if it says you are a single woman living in Paris, and since then, you’ve gotten married, had three kids and settled down in Buffalo, it’s time to change your bio! (okay, okay – you probably haven’t been through that many changes, but you get the point)

Press – Again, this is a page that should be updated! You want the public to view all of your latest press, right? So if you haven’t posted the links to your five most recent interviews, reviews, etc, now is the time to do so!

Header – Putting up a new header on your site is like going to the doctor for one of those non-invasive mini-peels or laser treatments. It will give a whole new look to your face without requiring any downtime.

Colors – Look at your site objectively… Are the colors pleasant and complementary? Or are they so garish they make you cross-eyed? So bland that everything blends together? Be honest! If they are less than awesome, it’s time to change ’em.

Theme – If you are using a theme that no longer appeals to you or no longer meets your needs, it could be time to change it. Yes -this procedure can be a bit more invasive than changing your header, but you can have a new theme installed and customized with your colors, choice of font, etc in less than a week. That’s really not so bad, now is it?

Crissy Says

Gaining Traffic From Social Media

Social media is all the rage. Business owners are smart to tap into these tools to drive traffic to their sites, yet many are missing the mark. Here are some tips:

1. Offer insight about your industry. When you’re online at your social networking site of choice it’s absolutely important to participate, but how you participate can make all the difference. If you’re merely commenting about what you had for dinner and your new car, then you’re not optimizing the site or your time. Instead, make sure to offer insight about your industry. This doesn’t mean every post has to link to an article or post of yours.

You can link to relevant content on other sites, offer quotes and data. So while it’s great to share your personality on these sites, it’s also important to establish your credibility and authority. Provide relevant and useful information, and people will automatically go to your site to learn more about you and what you have to offer.

2. Use attention-grabbing headlines, as well as comments, controversy, and how-to statements.

3. Offer giveaways. People still like getting something for free and you can promote your freebies and giveaways on social networking sites. Reports, online courses or tutorials, blueprints, ebooks and video and audio content are all great ways to motivate traffic to your site.

4. Use special promotions for your unique social media audience. If you have Facebook fans, consider offering them special promotions for signing up and for being a fan. You can do the same thing if you have a twitter account and so on. Consider giving each new friend/follower a coupon via a direct message to them. That coupon will motivate them to at least visit your website and may turn them into a customer or subscriber.

Be willing to test and track to see what works. You can create a special webpage to drive social networking traffic to. You can even duplicate that page and use a unique URL for each site you participate on. This way you can track your traffic from each post and from each social networking site to see what works. It’s a great way to gain insight to your audience and to ensure you’re optimizing your time and efforts.

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