Small Business Success Strategies

Easy Ways to Publicize Your Coaching Business Blog, Part 1

If you’re following my advice, you may have decided that the online home for your coaching business will be a blog. Perhaps you’ve already launched your new blog, or you’re getting ready to. Now the question is how to build your audience.

There are dozens of ways to drive traffic to your blog, including search engine optimization (SEO), affiliates and joint ventures, advertising, press releases and more. SEO is a must, but that’s for another post.

But to produce results, many traffic building techniques require long lead times and significant investments of time and money. Here I’m going to focus on the first of three ways to publicize your blog that you can easily do yourself and that may get you some quick traction. Two more ways coming.

Read Rhonda's entire article Easy Ways to Publicize Your Coaching Business Blog, Part 1

Rhonda Hess, our official Coaching Business Expert

Transform Your Small Business Marketing

I regularly interview small and solo business owners who call my coaching company looking for help. After getting a sense of what their business is all about, what their biggest goals are, and what lifestyle they are trying to create, I ask them what their biggest challenges are.

Nine times out of ten, it's getting more clients and the problem is marketing. Most work very hard at trying to get one client at a time. They try many different small business marketing methods that they've heard about or which they've seen their competitors use. In other words, a little of this and a little of that. The results are inevitably mediocre. It's easy to get discouraged when you know you have a great skill or talent to offer the world and yet no one is listening to what you have to say.

Read Janis' entire article Transform Your Small Business Marketing

Janis Pettit, our official Small Business Strategy Coach Expert

Google's Secret Domain Name Registration Policy

I was reading a forum post by Willie Crawford who is one of my favorite Internet marketers. Willie brought up a point that Google may favor ranking domains that have longer registration periods. His source, a domain name registrar, stated the following:

"As part of Google's recent patent application, Google made apparent its efforts to wipe out search engine spam, stating:

'Valuable (legitimate) domains are often paid for several years in advance, while doorway (illegitimate) domains rarely are used for more than a year. Therefore, the date when a domain expires in the future can be used as a factor in predicting the legitimacy of a domain and, thus, the documents associated therewith.'

Read Stone's entire article Google's Secret Domain Name Registration Policy

Stone Evans, our official Home Business Expert

SMARTcut Solutions- When Life Goes Awry- Part 1 of 6

This morning I’m being interviewed for the AWHW (Association of Work at Home Women). The topic is “What to do when things don’t go as planned.” This, soon to be published, article was in response to the unexpected delays caused for travelers due to the recent volcanic ash.

In fact, I too should have been inconvenienced by this “act of God”. The SMARTcut(R) GEEK and I were scheduled to be in Ireland with the rest of my Mastermind group. Fortunately for us, our trip didn’t work out. The rest of the U.S. trailers to the event were delayed an extra week.

Besides the backlog of work created from an unscheduled week of “vacation,” there was undoubtedly a significant amount of unexpected cost involved. For an entrepreneur, that lost time can show up as lost income. That makes for a real “double whammy!”

Read Debbye's entire article SMARTcut Solutions- When Life Goes Awry- Part 1 of 6

Debbye Cannon, our official BusinessMom Mentor Expert

What Does Gratitude Have to Do With Career Change?

As I drove alongside the Connecticut River today, I spotted two snow-white swans gliding elegantly atop still waters. I felt so blessed to have been in that place at that time to experience such a serenely beautiful moment. I feel lucky that way . . . a lot.

I don't think I happen upon these moments any more than anyone else does. I just "see" them more than others do. I believe that's because gratitude is so central to both my life and my work. I also happen to believe that maintaining a state of gratitude is fundamental to the process of changing course. Yet, I'm not sure I've ever heard another career counselor talk about gratitude as an essential element of career change. Come to think of it, I'm not aware of any career related books that talk about the importance of being thankful either.

Read Valerie's entire article What Does Gratitude Have to Do With Career Change?

Valerie Young, our official Career Change Expert

An iPhone App Designed for Truckers But Appealing to Everyone . . . If you Drive You'll Love TRUCKER

When the first iPhone application for professional truck drivers was introduced into the iTunes market, no one ever thought that the audience would permeate beyond the trucking community. After all, this was an application designed for the needs and entertainment of truck drivers, right?

Some of the features which TRUCKER boasted, was the ability to find lowest fuel prices, locate truck stops, truck washes and weigh stations, find the nearest repair stations, up to date industry news, trucking load boards, trucking job locators, a mileage calculator, low clearance directory, weather and traffic updates, even an affordable health insurance locator. Also, included in this first of a kind application were emergency links to homeland security, FEMA, The Red Cross, not to mention the popular blogs, forums and radio stations that many truckers enjoy reading and listening to. State by State and national links to the USDOT are also listed as well as the FMCSA, ATA, and OOIDA. This, along with the many other resources designed for truckers, has made the Drivers Resource page a popular and much needed application for truckers all over.

Read Allen's entire article An iPhone App Designed for Truckers But Appealing to Everyone . . . If you Drive You'll Love TRUCKER

Allen Smith, our official Trucking/Truck Driver Training Expert

Design Your Marketing Calendar in 5 Simple Steps

If you haven't designed your Marketing Calendar for the New Year yet, now is the time to do it. As you know it's hard to get somewhere if you don't know where you're going. Now is the time to plan what you're going to do in 2010 to make sure you're out there in a big way.

Step 1: Fill in your calendar with all the events you KNOW you're going to attend so far.

I like to use an "all in one" 12 months at a time calendar for this so I can have a bird's eye view of what I'm planning.

* Networking events (weekly, monthly, quarterly)

* Industry events, trade shows and conferences you want to attend

* Speaking Events, Workshops, Talks you want to host

Read Sharon's entire article Design Your Marketing Calendar in 5 Simple Steps

Sharon Killion, our official Lead Generation Expert

Women Leading the Way in Social Marketing

When it comes to social marketing, the gurus to follow are not the "usual suspects" of internet marketing. Internet marketing, generally dominated by men, uses a very different approach than social marketing. The hard sell, always-be-closing approach falls flat in the Web 2.0 world of relationship building.

With social marketing, the focus is on planting the seeds of trust and likeability that blossom into profits later on. Traditional internet marketing takes a much more aggressive approach- all you have to do is look at a typical sales page from an internet marketer versus a Facebook profile page and you'll see the difference.

If you look around at people who are rising to the top of social networking, you will see the brightest and the best tend to be women. What does that tell you?

Read Nancy's entire article Women Leading the Way in Social Marketing

Nancy Marmolejo, our official Visibility Expert

Why Metaphors Make Great Company Brand Names

If a picture is truly worth one thousand words, then what better way to convey your corporate brand than with a metaphor? The hyperinflation of news and information requires branding strategies that disrupt, "stick," and convey more than the literal product or service a company offers. A great example of this type of name is the relatively new travel site named Kayak.

First off, the name is unexpected. It gives the listener reason to pause and ask for more. There is an element of intrigue in metaphorical names. Kayak? What type of company is that? And here's where it gets good . . . the follow up answer fits the name -- an on line travel booking site that can move you along, help things flow, streamline your travel plans, get you on your way, keep things afloat, stay above water, etc. etc. This type of naming strategy provides more than a mere moniker, it provides an entire marketing lexicon to build upon.

Read Phil's entire article Why Metaphors Make Great Company Brand Names

Phil Davis, our official Branding and Naming Expert

Conscious Business Development: The Golden Rule or the Rule of Gold Part 1

The purpose of this article series is to give you the tools you need to make more money -- double your income in a very short amount of time through business development-- ninety days or less, and thus give you the ability to make a difference in the world.

Everyone has something within them that is their assignment to bring to the world and this is mine: The knowledge of how to use and how to measure thought energy as it influences daily life, specifically business strategy and business development activities.

Intentional use and mastery of thought is the only strategic advantage in business and is first and foremost a development and harnessing of consciousness with corresponding application of the energy of thought to meaningful key indicators.

Read Dawn's entire article Conscious Business Development: The Golden Rule or the Rule of Gold Part 1

Dawn Todd, our official Business Development Expert