Business Visibility for High Profits – Seven Ways

Is your present marketing working? Working well enough to take a yearly vacation, buy that needed car, or create tuition enough to send your child to college?

Do you wonder how you can write powerful copy for email marketing, stay in touch with your potential clients, and keep your web site selling?

Now you can attract all the clients and product sales you want with… No selling. No expensive Google ads or pay-per-click tools. No telephone cold or warm calls. No seminars, travel. panty hose. No closing. No hard-to-learn techie ways. You can reach this goal by creating the following seven ways to get your service business more visible.

1. Power up your signature file. Does it inspire your reader to take action? Always include your contact information, a free offer such as an ezine or special report. Make sure you put your defining statement under your name. Potential clients don’t care about the initials after your name. They care what you can do for them. Automate your signature file so it’s on every email you send out-a really soft way to sell yourself. It’s a big mistake to not include your sig file in each email you send.

2. Brand your business with a short print or eBook. Stop thinking difficult, expensive and the long, slow traditional path. You don’t need to write the end all, be all book. Today’s busy people want a short read. They don’t have time to read long books loaded with stories. They want their information fast and easy-to-read. A book coach can help you make each page of your book market itself by engaging its readers in each chapters.

A saleable book is well organized, well formatted and answers the questions your clients need answers for. You are much more likely to get glowing testimonials this way too.

3. Know your preferred audience-your potential clients and customers before you write a marketing piece. This is all important for each seminar, email, enewsletter, and web copy you create. Take time to create an audiece profile. Does your audience use the internet? Are they primarily women or men? Age group? What questions do they want answered?

4. Write short tip and how to articles. Submit these as a complimentary report to your email lists each two weeks.

Then, when your group thinks they are ready for you, they will remember how much you helped them along the way. They will see you as the savvy expert in your field. Writing articles are money in the bank. You can leverage one article into four. You can use them in your ezines. You can submit to them to top web sites and article directories. These publishers want your original information for their subscribers. When the subscribers read your articles and like what you say, they will flock to your web site.

5. Submit your articles to high traffic web sites and article directories. This takes only a half hour a day or about four hours total a week. After you gather 10 articles, you are ready to grab the fortunes of viral marketing. When people see your article on one site, they may use it on their own site, on their blogs, and in their ezines. This is endless publicity that keeps your name alive for many years.

6. Delegate the submissions to an assistant like your internet marketing coach does. For five hours of web marketing each week that sends two articles to around 50 web sites, the cost is $50 for over $5000 sales each month. This giving to get advanced article marketing is the #one way to get big visibility to your business.

7. Revise your web copy on your home page and service pages if your aren’t attracting plenty of clients. Did you know that each product and service you offer needs a sales letter so your potential clients will have enough information to make a decision to buy?

Make your business much more visible at the lowest cost and time investment. Use these seven ways and profit!

Book and Internet Marketing Coach Judy Cullins helps businesses build clients and sell books. Author of "How to Write your Book Fast" and "The Fast and Cheap Way to Explode Targeted Web Traffic," Judy offers free eBook "Book Writing and Marketing Tips" with monthly ezines at http://www.bookcoaching.com/

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You from this moment on.

[You from this moment on: Where would you like to be physically, socially and professionally in five years? Writing about your past and present can help you attain those goals.]

Imagine that you have written your autobiography, titled My Life, Up to This Moment. All the stories of your life are included in this precious book, printed in indelible black ink and bound in soft leather. What have you written in its pages, aside from mere chronological events? How have you described yourself in terms of your social life? Your job? Your body image? Your stress level? What did you say about yourself emotionally, intellectually and spiritually? What are your hopes, plans and dreams for Volume II: My Life, From This Moment On?

These are tough questions, but they are ones counselor and psychology educator Elaine Sullivan, M.Ed., L.P.C., of Dallas has been asking women to explore for more than 30 years. Long before the now-popular term “journaling” was coined, Sullivan — who is also a board member of the National Wellness Institute in Stevens Point, Wis. — was urging women to write their autobiographies, using their own stories as tools of discovery in search of what she calls the True Self.

“Most of us live on the surface, never touching any depth,” says Sullivan, who points out that many women’s lives revolve around the quest for approval they sought as children from family and society. “We’re just too busy to listen to the world inside us and spend too much time listening to the world outside us,” she says. “To know one’s life story takes silence, reflection, writing, slowing down.”

It is through writing our life stories, she emphasizes, that we can see the patterns of our lives unfold, reclaim who we really are, and achieve a sense of health, balance and wholeness. That means recalling both the highs and the lows, Sullivan says, pointing out that life is full of extremes like joy and pain, shadow and light, strengths and weaknesses. “We need to learn to accept our wounds and our gifts,” she says. “It’s about celebrating all of who we are.”

6 Steps to creating a happier life by writing your personal story.

Writing your life story will help you discover the unique aspects of your own journey. It will help you recognize and avoid repeating old, nonproductive patterns, so you are free to focus your energy in new directions. “It’s about becoming whole in every aspect of our lives,” Sullivan says. Find a quiet place to sit with paper and pen, and try the six exercises here: 6 steps to creating a happier life by writing your personal story

Divide your life into decades, allowing one full page for each. Briefly describe the highs and the lows that marked that time in your life. Think about these pivotal times, and write down something you learned about yourself during each one and a quality you gained as a result.

Record one memory you associate with each of these words: laughter, sadness, anger, fear, joy, grief and kindness.

Write down how you felt about yourself during each decade physically (body confidence/body image), socially (relationships), occupationally/professionally, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually.

Imagine all the fresh, white pages ahead in Volume II of your life story and describe yourself — the best you can — five years from today.

Write down what you envision to be the potential “highs” and note where you would like to see yourself physically, socially, professionally, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually.

Let go of old labels (I’m overweight, untalented, stuck in my job) and envision yourself as you’d like to be (I’m healthy, creative, in a job I enjoy). Brainstorm concrete ways to make these things happen (e.g., see a nutritionist, start walking in the morning, take an art class, research jobs that interest me) and write them down. This is how to begin creating Volume II, the life you want to be living.

To learn more about how journaling can help you achieve your goals, read The Healing Art of Storytelling by Richard Stone (Hyperion, 1996), Writing for Your Life — A Guide and Companion to the Inner Worlds by Deena Metzger (Harper San Francisco, 1992) and Opening Up: The Healing Power of Confiding in Others by James W. Pennebaker (Guildford Press, 1997).

Carolyn C. Armistead is a writer living in Carlisle, Mass.

Original source: http://www.findarticles.com

COPYRIGHT 2002 Weider Publications
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group

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You CAN Create Your Own Job If —

Sick of working for someone else and believe you’ve got what it takes to create your own job?

You can create your own job if:

One: You believe in your products and services
You must believe in your products and services enough to be able to sell them consistently. For creatives, that means you must believe enough in yourself to know that you can create products people will want to buy, and then you must market, market, market, and market some more.

Stating the blindingly obvious, right?

It should be obvious, but it’s not. The saying: “Love what you do and the money will follow” should be amended to: “Love what you do and be prepared to market it and the money will follow”.

I’ve lost count of the number of writers I know who’ve decided to freelance, and then after six months decided that they couldn’t take it and scooted back to the corporate world.

You must be passionate, but at the same time develop acceptance. Passionate enough to put your heart and soul into your work, and into your marketing, and at the same time, accept that it will take time to develop your niche, and that you may be making less money than you could if you were working for someone else.

Two: You can work harder for yourself than you would for someone else
When you create your own job, you get to do it all. You’re in charge.

A lot of the work that happens in a business is invisible to you if you work for someone else. The invisible chores include a multitude of tasks, such as keeping the computer system functioning, getting material printed, placing Yellow Pages ads, and returning phone calls. All this stuff takes time and energy.

When it’s all up to you, you have to decide what’s important for you to be doing right now. You need a list of what must get done today, this week, and next week, and you need to keep up to date, even if it means working on Saturday and Sunday.

Three: You’re constantly learning
When you work for someone else, your employer trains you so that you can do your job effectively. When you’ve created your own job, your training is up to you.

Learning needs to be fun for you. You must see it as an investment in yourself. The Internet is a blessing, and you’ll find many training packages online. You don’t even need to leave the house to learn something new.

Four: You can ignore setbacks
Stuff happens. Your computer refuses to boot up. Instead of working on a client’s project you need to take your computer to the repair shop. A client cancels a meeting that you’ve just cancelled another meeting to attend. You get the flu, and have to work anyway, even though you’re so dizzy you can’t focus on the computer screen.

After you’ve been working as your own employer for a while, setbacks like this will amuse you rather than defeat you. You know that in a week or a month, you’ll be laughing about this, so why not crack a smile now?

Five: You’re prepared to invest in your business
When you’ve created your own job, your business comes first. This means that when you get a hefty client payment, most of that money will have to go right back into the business.

You need to be clever about how you invest this money however. Do really you need a full page display ad in that magazine? Could you save money by placing a half page ad, or a quarter page? Do you need that new software package which costs a thousand dollars?

Is creating your own job for you? Only you know the answer to that question.

Veteran multi-published author and copywriter Angela Booth crafts words for your business — words to sell, educate or persuade. E-books and e-courses on Web site. FREE ezines for writers and small biz: http://www.digital-e.biz/

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You Can’t Copyright Ideas

There’s a saying that “you can’t copyright ideas.” Look at Shakespeare to see the truth of the saying. Whether our tellings have Shakespeare’s genius or not, I leave up to the audience. (Fortunately the folk form doesn’t require such literary genius.) Folklorists have both a standard Tale Type, developed by Antti Aarne, and a motif index, such as Stith Thompson developed. This lets variants be searched and compared.

Storytellers may find the appeal of setting a familiar tale in a different locale with characters and other specifics tempting. This may not be the most authentic version of the story that would appeal to a folklorist or other purist, but it can have impact with a specific audience by tying it to their own situation. While it takes the story away from its origins, it is also part of the process that created all those variants over the ages and so it, too, is part of the folk process.

In addition, those Tale Types and motifs can serve as a launching point, inspiring a story that takes off in a different direction or tells the viewpoint of someone other than the usual main character. John Scieszka’s successful picture book, The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by A. Wolf is a literary example of this. By thinking about the problems and point of view of a character, or even object in a story, you may decide the original tale is unnecessary and need not show its roots.

In the Scieszka tale, showing the contrast with the original tale is part of the fun. To do this properly you need to know as much as you can about the character upon which you focus. Remember that the feelings of this character motivate it and will lead it to whatever action or inaction it takes to resolve the problem forming your story’s motif. Those feelings will be what your audience will either echo or contrast.

Just using the list of motifs and peopling it in a setting of your choice is yet another way to develop your own folk tale. If ever you were to find the truth to “You can’t copyright ideas,” this is the place. A quick scan of the motifs shows how omnipresent such tales are. For example Category “L”, Reversal of Fortune, has these five options:

• victorious youngest child
• unpromising hero or heroine
• modesty brings reward
• triumph of the weak and
• pride brought low.

Whatever idea here reminds you of an incident in your own past or that of someone you know, or just interests you, can result in an all new story inspired by its folk roots. To make the point even more obvious, go to Category “T”, Sex, and think about its major categories of:

• love
• marriage
• married life
• chastity and celibacy
• illicit sexual relations
• conception and birth
• care of children.

Authors from Shakespeare (oh, yes, before him, too), best sellers, and soap operas have all used those topics. The motif index goes into greater detail on each of those major categories, so if the broad category doesn’t spark your imagination try some of the subgroups within that category. To use the last category, “care of children,” as something likely to lead to my favorite type of folktale, the tall tale:

• supernatural growth
• precocious speech
• substitute for a child and
• each likes his own child best

This leads to an example where a prize is offered to the prettiest child. My mind loves to take things to their most illogical extreme, so if a contest was offered for the ugliest child, it pictures a variety of silly, far-fetched children with their parents each hoping to win fame and fortune from their offspring who probably resemble their equally odd parents.

The tall tale format is a specific style of folktale that especially benefits from brainstormingthe wildest possible options. Legends, wonder tales, pourquois (origin) tales each are specific styles of folktales that have their own conventional ways of dealing with a topic like parents liking their own child best. The legendary Finn MacCool is saved by taking him to live in a hollow tree for his first five years and then he is trained to claim the place of his murdered father. The wonder tale’s Sleeping Beauty copes with the gifts of the fairies her parents invited or ignored. And, the pourquoi tale gives the origin of Sleeping Bear Dunes, saying they were formed by a mother bear trying to save her cubs from a forest fire. Look at the biblical tale of Jacob and Esau and how it continues to play out in the Middle East for yet another example.

Stories are all around us. Sometimes the tales just need us prodding our imagination to let them out.

Lois Sprengnether has been a storyteller-librarian since 1971. You can contact her at: 5640 Farley Road, Clarkston, MI 48043 248-625-5848 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. http://home.earthlink.net/~loissez

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You Don’t Need Inspiration!

Or do you?

Writers write. You shouldn’t wait around for inspiration to come. But sometimes, there are days you can’t get anything written down. Or you’re at a loss for words. You can’t think of anything to write. You don’t have any idea what to write about.

And then you end up believing you’re having writer’s block.

You end up believing it too much, you stop writing altogether. You might even think of yourself as not a real writer.

And all because of what? You think your muse deserted you? You think you have writer’s block?

Think again! You don’t need inspiration to write! What you do need are prompts to help get your writer’s mind working and your hands writing or typing.

These prompts are your beginnings; the glimmer; the little sparks that you can shape and fashion into stories, articles, essays and features.

You don’t need inspiration. All you need is an idea.

And here are a dozen seeds you can try out for yourself:
1. The first typewriter was patented on July 23, 1829. Interview some of the writers in your group and find out how they write. You can develop this into a light-hearted article about writers.

2. Many fictional characters are not fictional at all. Write about one real person who has been fictionalized.

3. Electricity is a recent discovery. Think of 10 things to do when there’s no power.

4. Pirates no longer just refer to the highwaymen of the seas. There are different breeds of pirates today. Write about today’s pirates and what they’re pirating.

5. Many words in the English language come from the names of people — such as mesmerize (from Mesmer, a hypnotist). Find out more words from people’s names and write the story behind the words.

6. The US Declaration of Independence begins with this line: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” Write your own Declaration of Independence by using the same line as your starting point.

7. How do you start a fan club? Write a how-to on organizing a fan club for a favorite author, singer, actor or sports figure.

8. How do planets die?

9. Expound or dispute this: “Where science ends, religion begins.”

10. Take a look at your bookshelf. Pick one book and write a review of it.

11. How is privacy invaded on the Internet?

12. Write an article on how to choose a pet. Target your piece for kids aged 7-10.

Shery is the creator of Ebook Pizzazz, a package that helps you create eye-catching PDF ebooks with over 100 MS Word templates that will give your ebooks and other documents the Ooomph! they deserve.

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You, Too, Can be a Salesperson

I am not a sales and marketing guru. I’ve written two books on marketing and taught thousands of people how to sell themselves, but really, I don’t know more about sales and marketing than most of you.

What I know how to do is talk to people, all kinds of people — restaurant owners and waiters, CEO’s and receptionists, entrepreneurs and kindergarten teachers. I don’t try to sell these people anything; we just have a conversation. But sales happen as a result.

In my book “Get Clients Now!” I define marketing as telling people what you do over and over. That’s part of the secret right there. I’ve seen too many business owners fail because they simply don’t speak up about their business. Or else they tell someone once what they do for a living, and then think they never need to mention it again.

But there’s another piece of the sales and marketing puzzle that often gets left out. When you talk to someone about your business, you need to be direct, authentic, and unattached to the outcome.

Clients and students often ask me questions like, “What do I say when I call Mr. Big to find out if he’s ready to buy?” They’re shocked when they hear my answer: “Hello, Mr. Big, have you decided to purchase our product?”

Or maybe the question is how to follow up with someone you met at last night’s event who expressed some interest in your service. My suggestion is to say: “When we spoke last night, you seemed interested in my services, and I’d like to continue our conversation.”

What do you do when you fear that the client doubts your qualifications? How about: “You seem a bit unsure of my qualifications to do the job, and I’d like to address that. What are your concerns?”

These are all conversations. You ask a question; they answer. They ask a question; you answer. It’s like a friendly tennis match — all you have to do is keep the ball in the air, and nothing is at stake.

But that’s the catch, isn’t it? You think there’s a lot at stake. What if you don’t get the contract, the client, the money? So you make the conversation overly significant, put on your marketing face and your selling voice, speak someone else’s words… and the result is anything but direct and authentic.

What impact does this have on the person you’re speaking with? The opposite of a direct approach is an indirect one: devious, underhanded, sneaky (check your thesaurus). The opposite of authentic is inauthentic: phony, fraudulent, insincere. Isn’t this exactly what you have always been afraid of — sounding like a used car salesman or telemarketer reading a script?

Scripts are for rehearsals. In a meeting or on the phone, keep some talking points in front of you, but don’t read. Every word should be one you would use in normal conversation — use instead of utilize; fix instead of rectify; help instead of facilitate. Get to the point quickly, and tell the truth about it. “I’m just calling to introduce myself,” is not only an ineffective pproach, it’s a lie.

Show a sincere interest in people by asking questions about their goals and problems. When you see a place where your business can help, don’t hesitate to say so. Be respectful of people’s time and really listen to what they say. Respond to what you heard instead of continuing to the next item on your agenda. Don’t be afraid to toot your own horn while staying true to who you are.

But these are just tips for changing your behavior. The real key is in your attitude. If you can recognize that being indirect, inauthentic, or attached to the outcome is causing you to lose sales instead of make them, you’ll have a powerful incentive to do things differently.

C.J. Hayden is the author of Get Clients NOW! Thousands of business owners and salespeople have used her simple sales and marketing system to double or triple their income. Get a free copy of "Five Secrets to Finding All the Clients You'll Ever Need" at http://www.getclientsnow.com

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What Does it Mean to be Successful?

I successfully returned from the Ventura Writers Weekend and I set to work. Within five days of coming home, I had three pieces accepted for publication–that has never happened before.

As I wrote one of the pieces (“Promotion for the Painfully Shy”, due December 1st) I wondered about how others become successful in the face of obstacles.

Serendipity gifted me this: Eight Things Remarkably Successful People Do.

When I was thirteen, I sold 354 boxes of Girl Scout cookies in my first year as a Girl Scout. I managed to make contact with people all over my community. I was shy back then, but I was on a mission to sell the most Girl Scout cookies ever. I don’t remember why.

When I was fourteen, I pitched myself as a journalist worthy of my own “Teen Talk” column in the local paper, The Friday Flyer. Part of my job involved interviewing local students about their school.

I attended a public charter school for one year, from fourteen to fifteen. I was Student of the Month, Student of the Year, and on the Honor Roll. I was asked to give speeches when accepting the awards.

I graduated from High School as Valedictorian at sixteen, with additional honors in Creative Writing and Poetry. My valedictorian speech was printed in the local paper.

Everything I had set out to do, I had made it work, despite the fact that I had occasional panic attacks that brought on sobs of anxiety. No one knew, except perhaps my mother. But she knows everything.

Looking back at that time when I was successful in that way, there seems to be a parallel between what I faced (give up the goal or overcome the anxiety) and what someone might experience if they came across a loved one trapped under a car. There is no back-up plan, no time or room for failure. The fact that the car must move means the person will find a way to lift the car. That lifting two tons of metal is impossible doesn’t fit in the equation.

I was raised by a remarkably successful woman; how much she rubbed off on me or how much she encouraged me to just be myself, I don’t know. But I have learned to anticipate how much work is required and I embrace the challenge, especially if it means I can help others along the way.

By Joanna Celeste http://joannaceleste.com

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Your Life Shines In Your Job Choices

Could you rank your jobs in your life by their relevance to your life? All of life is full of choices; your job choices should reflect how you lead your life. You can make the most out of your job selections by allowing how you conduct yourself in life to filter into your jobs. When you care a lot about your jobs, your life in turn greatly benefits.

Career choices are a reflection of your passions, interests and aptitude. While some people are born with innate abilities that can develop into grand contributions to society if fostered properly, others must dig deep and work hard to bring their capabilities up to speed with their passions. Your job is to find what are your strongest aptitudes and find out if your passions for these areas match. In some ways, this is like asking, “which came first, the chicken or the egg?” However, once you find a good match, you can own your career choices.

If you philosophize too much about finding your passion first, then you may not hit the mark. Reason being, not every passion has a market or fits into the work environment. For many people who struggle to bring home a paycheck and work just to meet a basic need, the process of finding the right career choice takes a little longer and requires much sacrifice before they find a level that works for them. If you keep in mind that no job is unimportant and every job gets you closer to your career path, the journey can be much easier and sweeter.

Not all career choices come with a paycheck. For instance, the job of a full-time parent comes without financial rewards. In spite the lack of paycheck, many people consider parenting the most important job in their lives.

When you consider the benefits to forming a stable family environment and to developing lives that will later go on to contribute positively in society, the pay off comes later on down the road. This type of work is closer matching a passion rather than an aptitude, even though sacrifice and continual education will greatly benefit this job.

It doesn’t matter what aptitude or skill you’re born with ~ everyone is suited for some type of job in life. Everyone can uniquely contribute to society and you deserve the opportunity to explore what makes you tick. For some people, a high profile job fits their personality; others seek a job that is much more private. In the end, the job that’s right for you is one that fits you and your life.

When you find that match, you have undoubtedly found the most important job at your stage in life.

Copyright 2005 Harold Rino. All rights reserved.

Harold Rino is the author of Fig Job one of the best on-line job sites. Make sure you visit his archive of articles: http://www.figjob.com/

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Writing – QED

Good fiction is about forward thrust.

It’s your job to propel the reader through your story without having them feel they are wading through your writing. In fact, your ultimate aim is somehow make the reader feel they’re not actually reading at all.

It’s what my friend Kenyon calls transparency – the idea that there is nothing between your reader’s mind and your story – nothing as ugly as the text getting in the way!

Q.E.D. is a little acronym you might want to use to help you remember what you need to create compelling fiction on every page of your stories. Q.E.D. stands for:

Question

Empathy

Drama

Questions encourage people to look for answers. When readers read fiction they are asking themselves a series of questions about your characters and about your story.

Only when you satisfy your reader by feeding questions and later on providing answers will the reader feel entertained.

At the beginning of a new sheet of paper, ask yourself, What question am I going to place in the readers mind on this page?

You must have one – it’s what makes the reader keep reading. Without constantly stoking curiosity, a reader will simply get bored and not read on.

Empathy is crucial too. We looked at this. Not only is it important that you create empathy for your characters early on, you will also need to keep reinforcing it as you go.

Hopefully the actions that your characters make will take care of some of this. But you should be aware that if you feel your characters slipping away from you, it’s probably because you’re not keeping them human enough to be compelling.

A reader’s total empathy with a character can be powerful. It is the hallmark of all good fiction writers. To create a hero that is credible and popular is the goal of most leading authors. Because once you’ve done that, you can take your readers almost anywhere with them.

When it’s done well, the reader is totally in the your thrall and will trust you to take him further, on the adventure that is your novel, or series of novels.

Use it consciously. Readers rarely spot that you’re doing it deliberately. They only know what they like and that is, for the time they are reading, they like being your lead character.

Lastly, D is for Drama again. It’s important that you create drama, conflict and tension at least once on every page. It’s the way of modern fiction.

People want to be entertained. But they’ve seen it all before. On TV and at the movies. Try to think of new ways of being dramatic.

Don’t get bogged down with description. You don’t need long explanations or descriptions of things they are familiar with. It’s just not necessary.

Readers want to be thrown into the thick of things immediately. There are a hundred ways to do that but most of them involve action, conflict and drama. If you find yourself wandering from the point and nothing in particular is happening, cut back to where the last piece of conflict was, delete all the verbiage and static writing and move off again – this time at high speed!

Imagine you’re a soap opera writer where every scene counts, and every exchange is emotionally charged. Try not to sink into melodrama – but be aware that you’re writing primarily to entertain.

At the beginning and ending of every new page ask yourself:

Q.E.D? Have I fulfilled the three requirements of compelling fiction?

If the answer is yes then you’re probably on the way to becoming the next bestseller writer!

This article was written by Rob Parnell. Visit his website at www.easywaytowrite.com

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