Blogging | Solo Mompreneur

I Don’t Want To Be A “Lead” When I Grow Up

Imagine holding a baby and telling that precious child this bedtime story …

Life is colorful and full of adventure. When you grow up, you’re going to become a “lead”.

You’ll feel very special to be part of a “highly targeted” audience and an “autoresponder list”.

Oh, what fun you’ll have traveling through a “sales funnel”!

Not as thrilling as riding a roller coaster, but a fun ride nonetheless.

Online marketers and small business owners from around the globe will be competing for your attention. So you’ll need to become an instant pro at dodging “sales pitches” and recognizing “hype and fluff”.

Be careful! Those “bright shiny objects” can mesmerize and allure you.

Once you become someone’s “prospect”, your inbox will be overflowing with mail. Won’t it be wonderful to awaken every day to loads of correspondence from “internet marketers” who love to stay in touch with you?!

Some days they’ll send you off to a “squeeze page”. Don’t worry. The squeezing doesn’t hurt. I promise.

Other days they’ll ask you to enter an “opt in box”. It’s easy to get in and relatively painless.

You’ll have lots of opportunities to exercise your visual and auditory senses with all the invitations you’ll receive to attend “webinars” and “teleseminars”.

Your reading skills are sure to be sharpened, too! Everyone will ask you to visit their “blog”, read their “posts”, leave “comments”, and share their pearls of wisdom on “social media”.

It’s inevitable, at some point, you’ll be encouraged to pull out your credit card, make a purchase, and download an “info product”. But let’s not think about that right now. You’re looking pretty sleepy.

One more thing before you nod off and head into slumberland.

If you don’t want to be a “lead” when you grow up …

That’s okay and no one will blame you for feeling that way.

Traveling through that sales funnel sounds kinda scary, doesn’t it?!

People shouldn’t be referred to as leads, anyway. The term isn’t very endearing and it doesn’t have much of a friendly ring to it.

Now go off to sleep, little one, and “Dream Big!”

Filed Under: Blogging, Storytelling Tagged With: Autoresponders, generating leads, Internet marketing, opt in box, sales funnel, Social Media, squeeze pages, Target audience, Teleseminars, Webinars

Flushing Blog Posts Down The Toilet

By Melanie Kissell 20 Comments

I’m flushing blog posts down the toilet today over at We Blog Better.

Head over there and give me your thoughts. Your opinion matters to me.

Writing a blog post is one thing. Even if it takes hours or days to craft a post, that’s the easy part.

The hard part?

Promotion!

You, my loyal readers, have produced some works of art — so many beautifully-crafted, soul-driven pieces of work that aren’t getting nearly the attention they deserve.

You’ve put in the sweat equity with little or no return on your investment.

My goal is to end that misery for you.

You do want it to end, right?

I don’t want to see any more of your posts sailing down the drain.

Take a trip over to We Blog Better, read the post, and find the solution to getting more eyes (and the right eyes!) on your blog posts.

And before you decide you don’t need the resource I’m recommending …

How’s your current blog promotion strategy working for ya?
Getting lots of comments from your target audience? Or just the same loyal friends?

Today is the day to wrap your brain and your heart around a strategic blog promotion plan.

That is …

If you want to rock your blog and reach your goals!

Follow @MelanieKissell

Filed Under: Blog Promotion, Blogging Tagged With: blog promotin, Blogging, Business Blogging Success

Meet And Potatoes For Saucy Social Media Success

By Melanie Kissell 42 Comments

I’ve got a question for you today I bet NO ONE has ever asked you …

“How do you meet potato people online?”

These are the members of your target audience, fans, followers, and fellow bloggers who add the “starch” and the “thickener” to your social media sauce.

They’re the people who are vital in “congealing” your social media success!

Potatoes spend their life underground.

You may be feeling like the people you need to meet are hiding underground. Maybe your blog isn’t seeing much activity these days and you’re hearing crickets chirp when you publish a post.

For starters, you’ll want to grab some pointers on how to develop those all-important relationships with other bloggers.

Kiesha Easley of “We Blog Better” has just the H.E.L.P. you need! She explains how this four-letter word contains the critical components of builidng relationships online in her article, “The #1 Secret to Getting the Most out of Social Media”.

Bloggers form a very special bond and they’re some of the neatest potato people around!

Potatoes can be red, yellow, white, purple, and brown and they come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and textures.

You can’t expect to have any semblance of success by participating in just one social media activity. Blogging may be your all-time favorite social media platform and that’s great. It’s my favorite, too.

But you need to create a presence on a variety of platforms if you want those potatoes to come up out of the ground.

Give podcasting a try. Your target audience will love hearing your voice and it adds a nice personal touch.

Join some groups on LinkedIn that are related to your niche. LinkedIn is currently the best business-to-business social media venue and the members are very responsive professionals who value interaction.

Create some videos and post them on video-sharing sites like You Tube, Vimeo, Viddler, and One True Media.

Or you might enjoy turning your blog posts into a series of slides on Slideshare, writing press releases, article marketing, or doing book reviews on Amazon.

Make it your goal this week to meet some potato people and start creating saucy social media success!

Your turn …

What are you doing to build strong relationships with other bloggers?
Do you have a social media success story you’d like to share?
Who are some of the coolest potato people you’ve met online?

Follow @MelanieKissell

Filed Under: Blogging, Social Media Success Tagged With: Blog, Kiesha Easley, LinkedIn, One True Media, Potato, Slideshare, Social Media, Viddler, Vimeo, We Blog Better

We Blog Better And Maybe You Blog Best

By Melanie Kissell 31 Comments

I’ve never viewed myself as someone with a “competitive” nature.

I’m not a big risk-taker and I dislike confrontation.

And when there’s a contest of any kind, I want EVERYONE to win.

Well, things are about to change.

A hallmark moment is on the horizon. I’m diving in, head first, and entering a guest posting contest on We Blog Better.

Middle age does these kinds of things to you.

It makes you sit up and pay attention to the fact you only get one chance to go around in life — so you better make the most of it!

At first, I wasn’t going to enter the contest. After all, the competition is STIFF. I’ve read some of the entries already and they’re darned good.

But then I thought about it some more …

What have I got to lose? I’ll toss my post in with the mix and see what happens. Worst case scenario? All the awesome prizes the sponsors are offering will go to someone else.

And that’s okay.

Because I will have crossed over a new bridge to become a contestant. Taking a risk by competing will be the blue ribbon I’ll award myself!

If you’d like to craft a guest post and dive in with me, the deadline is May 31st. Just head over to We Blog Better for all the details and guidelines.

Oh, one very important note …

I’ll be asking for your support throughout the contest. So get ready to start clicking those social media “share” buttons!

So …

What do you think I should blog about?
Have a favorite topic?

P.S. Please add me as a friend on Blokube and Blog Interact. Thank You.

Darren Monroe – Online Business Ideas

Mike – WordPress Themes: Premium WordPress Themes

Ileane – Basic Blog Tips: Blogging Tips

Dan – Keyword Winner: SEO Plugin and GSEO: SEO Outsourcing

Lisa Irby – 2 Create A Website

Linda Hewett – Positive Spin Blog

Francisco Perez – iBlogZone: Home Business Resources

Brankica Underwood – Live Your Love: How To Blog Like A Star

Mavis Nong – Attraction Marketing

Danny Brown – Social Media Marketing Blog

Roberto Montanez – PsychBits: Psychology

Jane Sheeba – Find All Answers: Blogging Tips

Laura Burke – Skip the Scams: Learn affiliate marketing

Ana Hoffman – Traffic Generation Cafe: Tools for Internet Marketing

Kristi Hines – Kikolani: Blogging Marketing

Heather C. Stephens – Blog Marketing Ideas

Peppy – The Peppy Writes Chronicles

The Health Media Watch Blog: Fresh. Hip. Healthy

Tristan: The Blogging Bookshelf: Blogging tips

Ann Smarty – My Blog Guest

David – Blog Writer for Hire

Credit Cards Canada

Sean – Find Your Peak: Make Money, Live Fully, and Create the Life of Your Dreams!

David Shaw – Puxee: Puxee Blog Advertising

James – The E Cigarette Direct Affiliate Program

Filed Under: Blogging, Guest Posting Tagged With: Blog, Blogging Tips, contest, Guest posting, We Blog Better, Writers Resources

How To Get More From Google Analytics

By Melanie Kissell 41 Comments

Google Analytics is one of the best known analytics tools. Although there’s now plenty of competition, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t get everything you want from this fantastic Google tool. Here are some of the things you can do to improve your use of Google Analytics.

Leave Yourself Out

If you’ve ever spent some time installing a new WordPress theme or tweaking your site design, you’ll know that you spend a lot of time on the site. You may also spend time adding content, checking that it looks good, tweaking and checking again – and that activity shows up in your site stats. Since you don’t really need to know how often you visit your own site, then it’s best to leave those visits out. Google Analytics makes this easy by letting you exclude your IP address from tracking via a custom filter.

Check Social Media Activity

Ever wondered how you could track all those likes, tweets and shares to see what kind of social media pull your site has? Once again, Google Analytics has the answer with the track pageview function. Add the right piece of code to your social media button (suitably customized so you can tell where the source of the click is) and you will be able to find out how people are sharing your content via social media in your Analytics dashboard. Check this post on on Hongkiat for more detail.

Compare and Contrast

When you log into Google Analytics, you don’t have to stick with the default view. This shows you stats for the past month up to the previous day. There are two things you can do to make this data more relevant. The first is to manually select the last available date to give you stats up to the previous hour – which means you can figure out what’s happening with your site in almost real time. The second is to click the ‘compare to past’ check box to see how interaction with your site has changed month on month. It’s useful to be able to see what content is increasing in importance and what content is less popular so you can make changes.

Report Back

One often underused feature in Google Analytics is custom reporting. This is a great way to drill down into the really crucial data on your site. Want to find out how many people are really engaged with your site? Check out and customize the Non-Flirts report available on Occam’s Razor. Want to know how many people search specifically for your brand? Or how many people came to your site via the links you tweeted, liked or shared? Custom reporting can help you work it out. The feature is easy to use with drag and drop parameters and the ability to test your report to see if it’s giving you anything useful. And to make your Google Analytics reports even more useful, you can email them to yourself (or anyone else who needs access to them).

This was a post by Lior Levin who works for an applicant tracking software company and also advises to a neon signs online store

Filed Under: Blogging, Online Marketing, Social Media Marketing Tagged With: Google, Google Analytics, neon signs, people search, Search Engines, Social Media, WordPress

Two Ears and One Mouth – Do the Math

By Melanie Kissell 41 Comments

Have you noticed how much talking everyone is doing on the internet?

Some people refer to it as noise.

People are Tweeting up a storm on Twitter.
Blog posts and articles are being published by the thousands.
Facebook status updates are rolling in like there’s no tomorrow.
Teleseminars and webinars abound.
Group discussions on LinkedIn are too numerous to count.
Internet tv and radio channels are sprouting up faster than weeds.
New freebie offers keep appearing as if magic.
Podcasts and videos are being produced at lightning speed.

To coin a phrase from my friend, Martha Giffen, “It’s all good!”

It’s not only good, but all the talking people are doing is essential to success as an online marketer.

BUT …

With all the “talking” going on …

Who’s doing the “listening”?

Do the math — Maybe there’s a reason we have TWO ears and ONE mouth.

Listening is a critical communication skill. If you want people to listen to what you have to say and your intention is to build a lasting relationship with your target audience, you’ve got to stop some of the talking and learn to be a better listener.

Have you ever had a conversation with someone who won’t let you get a word in edgewise? You can’t shoehorn in a word if you tried?

That person was doing zero listening.

So don’t just jump from one online activity to the next, to the next, to the next in an effort to gain the attention of your target market.

Instead, become a better listener by tuning in to the needs of your prospects, customers, and clients.

Listen to the questions they’re asking.
Listen to the problems they’re facing.
Listen for emotional triggers and clues to their frustrations.
Listen to the comments they post on your blog.
Listen to discussions they’re having on forums and in groups.

How well you listen has a major impact on your effectiveness as a small business owner, your ability to influence and persuade, and on the quality of your relationships with others.

So listen up!

Have you mastered the skill of listening?
How do you listen to your target audience?

Filed Under: Blogging, Building relationships online, Customer Care, Entrepreneurs, Online Marketing, Small business owners Tagged With: Facebook, Internet Radio, LinkedIn, Listening skills, Online marketing, Small business, Target market, Teleseminars, Twitter, Webinars

The Agony and Victory of Taglines

By Melanie Kissell 57 Comments

Taglines are tough.

Just my personal observation — no case studies, analytics, or scientific data to back it up.

I believe crafting your elevator speech or developing your unique selling propostion is a hundred times easier than creating a tagline!

What Is A Tagline?

Consider it a “sub-title” to the name of your business. It’s a few words, a phrase, or a sentence about what you have to offer your target audience.

Here are some examples:

Michelle Shaeffer’s tagline reads, “Simplifying Online Business Chaos: Websites, Blogging, Marketing & More”

Theresa Bradley-Banta’s says, “Empowering Entrepreneurs To Think And Act Like Entrepreneurs”

Deb Augur’s boldly states, “Making Sense Of Online Business!”

Heather Bestel of Mum’s Got A Business is “Empowering Successful Mumpreneurs”

Marcia Hoeck’s Breakthrough Business site’s tagline is, “Create A Business That Will Run Without You”

And then there’s Lisbeth Tanz. She doesn’t need a tagline (lucky duck!) since the name of her site says it all: “Your Words, Your Voice”. Lis is pretty sharp and I think she’s got a leg up on the rest of us. Darn clever to make her biz name and tagline one in the same. I’d stick close to Lis and hang around her blog if I were you.

My tagline is a little off the beaten path and that was intentional. What can I say? I’m a natural-born iconoclast. I wanted to do something slightly different by using individual words instead of a phrase.

Hence, my tagline reads, “Moms. Your Big Why. Your Big Idea. Market Smart.”

The Agony of Taglines

Ask the next ten online marketers you meet about how much “fun” they had coming up with a tagline. Chances are good they’re going to leave out the fun part and emphasize the “agony”.

That little piece of real estate on your website holds a lot of weight — keyword wise and otherwise. And getting it just right isn’t easy.

Small biz owners have agonized for weeks over what to use for a tagline. It really is a tough challenge.

The Victory of Taglines

Marcus Sheridan of The Sales Lion reigns victorious! Marcus was trying to come up with a tagline so guess what he did? He asked his loyal blogging community to craft one for him! Now there’s a bright idea.

Check out Marcus’s tagline story here: Dear Sales Lion Community – I Need Your Help!

Have you been struggling to come up with a tagline?
Do you have a tagline but you’re not satisfied with it?
What are your tips for creating a tagline?

Filed Under: Blogging, Brand yourself online, Moms in Business, Online Marketing, Small business owners Tagged With: Blog, Business, Internet marketing, Marketing, Tagline

“F” is for Friday and Fun and Four-legged Furry Friends

By Melanie Kissell 32 Comments

It’s Friday and I feel like having some fun.

We’re all working our fannies off to create a presence online, blogging our little hearts out, and trying to make some sense of this crazy thing called internet marketing.

So let’s take a break from talkin’ shop and lean toward the lighter side of life!

Do you have four-legged furry family members? Or know someone with pets?

I couldn’t stop laughing when I read what Melinda wrote here:
“What I Could Have Done With $900″

And if you’ve ever forked out the BIG BUCKS to a veterinarian, this post will resonate with you!

I love a person with a sense of humor. No other asset you own is more valuable.

Talking about fun and four-legged furry family members …

My friend, Keith Davis, had a cat that could open doors (so he claims) and his friend, Courtney, says her cat walks through walls.

Oh, brother.

Can you believe these people I meet online?!