Build An Online Empire | Solo Mompreneur

What Juicy Items Are In Your Gutter?

No, not the rain gutter on your house or the gutter at your local bowling alley!

I’m talking about the gutter/s on your website or blog – the left and/or right hand columns that flank your content.

What items with juicy benefits are you positioning in this prime time piece of real estate? Or are you ignoring this space or maybe just throwing any old stuff in your gutter you happen to have the html code for?

I constantly hear online marketers comment that buttons, badges, and banners in the gutter are insignificant and ineffective. I don’t go along with that train of thought. Whenever I land on a site, my eyes will definitely scan down the gutters and see if anything pops out at me.

I’ve met the neatest people, found the coolest resources, and grabbed a number of dynamite freebies by taking a few minutes to see what’s in someone’s gutter.

Take a few minutes today and take inventory of your gutter. Maybe it’s time to do a little gutter clean up!

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Filed Under: Affiliate Marketing, Blogging, Build an online empire, Building relationships online, Business Plan, Infopreneurs, Online Marketing, Organize Your Online Business Tagged With: Blogging, Internet business success, Marketing your services online, Online Promotions, website gutters

Perfectionists Stubbornly Refuse To Outsource

By Melanie Kissell 7 Comments

… well, that is until they get exhausted, burned out, and haven’t slept a wink in a week.

Perfectionists are some of the most pigheaded, cantankerous, and inflexible people you’ll ever meet. They can’t help it. They were born that way! They’re also some of the most proud individuals on the planet – proud of their work ethics and their accomplishments.

We all know that no one is perfect, right? Save yourself the grief and don’t try sharing that little gem of wisdom with a perfectionist. These poor folks can spend a lifetime striving for the impossible!

How hard do you think it is for a perfectionist to manage and build a small business single-handedly? It’s got to be at least a hundred times harder than it is for anyone else who recognizes their limitations and time constraints and reaches out for help.

It’s harder for a perfectionist to outsource business building tasks than it is to run a marathon barefoot!

Think I’m exaggerating? Find a small business owner who’s a true perfectionist and ask them for outsourcing referrals or recommendations. My guess? That section of their rolodex will be blank.

Being a perfectionist is NOT a blessing … it’s a curse. How can I be so sure? I’ll let you figure that out.

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Filed Under: Build an online empire, Online Marketing, Organize Your Online Business Tagged With: Internet business success, Marketing your services online, Outsourcing, Perfectionists

How To Feel More Like The Windshield Than The Bug

By Melanie Kissell 2 Comments

I heard the saying, “Sometimes you’re the windshield and sometimes you’re the bug” a lot when I was growing up. What that old saying means is that sometimes you have good days and sometimes … well, not-so-good days.

Growing your small business requires discipline, commitment, and a lot of energy.

You’re really fooling yourself if you try to sweep “self-care” under the rug, ignore it, or pretend your fairy godmother will magically preside over your well being. Get out of the fog and remember to put yourself FIRST. Decide that YOU are the highest priority in your business.

If building your small business ever starts feeling more like “drudgery” than “enjoyment” … STOP. I don’t mean quit or throw in the towel. After all, you’ve got something wonderful to share with the world!

So what do you do? How do you start feeling more like the windshield than the (squashed) bug?

Try changing your environment for a bit. Go outside, sit on your porch or patio, and get some fresh air. Take yourself or your dog for a walk. Linger for a long soak in the tub. Read a book that’s been collecting dust on your bookshelf for months or years. Put pen to paper and write a letter to someone who would treasure getting something handwritten from you. Take a friend to lunch. You get the idea.

Taking a “breather” will actually help to renew, revive, and restore your desire and enthusiasm to get back to work and make your business the very best it can be!

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Filed Under: Build an online empire, Business Plan, Following Your Passion, Online Marketing Tagged With: Internet business success, Marketing your services online, Online Success

Nothing Tops A Toot Of The Horn To Validate You As An Expert

By Melanie Kissell Leave a Comment

What do you think is one of the biggest factors for someone making the decision to join your list, download your free offer, or purchase your products and services? WHY do people consider you to be an expert in your niche and choose to work with you? Well, I’ll tell you what it’s NOT.

Your prospects, clients, and customers don’t think of you as an expert because you’ve built a better mouse trap, drive the fanciest car, or sell an invention that scrubs their toilet while they sleep!

It’s sometimes a hard pill to swallow as a small business owner, but people don’t really care about YOU. Ouch.

So what do people care about? What do they look for that will absolutely cement you in as an expert in their eyes?

Third-party endorsements – oftentimes referred to as Testimonials or Social Proof. People put a lot of weight on what OTHER people have to say about you. They need to know that people JUST LIKE THEM are coming to you to find solutions to their problems.

If you’re just getting your new business off the ground and you don’t have any testimonials yet, don’t worry. Start by asking your friends, colleagues, and subscribers to your list to provide you with “A Toot Of The Horn”.

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Filed Under: Build an online empire, Building relationships online, Business Plan, Online Marketing, Starting Out Small Tagged With: Personal Endorsements, Social Proof, Testimonials, Third Party Validation

An Online Marketer’s Journey To Success Means Nothing But Problems

By Melanie Kissell Leave a Comment

You bet it does! And that’s a really good thing. Problems are a “good” thing? Yes. And the more problems, the better.

Now don’t run away just yet. Stick with me and let me explain. I promise you’ll be glad you have lots of problems.

I don’t blame you if you’re thinking you just bumped into the craziest person on the internet. That’s okay. I’ve been called worse things than that.

Stop for a moment and ask yourself this question …

Is it really a program, product, or service you’re offering your prospects, clients, or customers? I hope not.

Maybe you’re selling a miracle wrinkle cream or fresh-baked bread or tax consultations for small business owners. Or you might teach a cycling class or train dogs how to stay off the furniture. You may even be a tour guide or a home decorator or a childbirth educator. That’s great! But I’ve got a big secret to tell you. You’re not really selling ANY of those things! You’re selling “solutions” to problems.

For example …

Someone who’s selling wrinkle cream isn’t really selling a skin care product. They’re selling a “solution” for looking younger and more vibrant. If someone owns a dog that won’t stay off the couch, they’re looking for a “solution”.

If you think in terms of what problems you can solve for the target market you serve, you’ve got the foundation for a very successful business. Instead of focusing on products and programs, focus on ways to alleviate people’s pain, worry, and frustration.

Keep looking for more problems!

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Filed Under: Build an online empire, Building relationships online, Business Plan, Following Your Passion, Online Marketing, Online Promotions, Service Business Owners Tagged With: Customer Care, Internet business success, Marketing your services online, Online Promotions, Solving problems for your prospects

Coming Soon To An Opt In Box Near You

By Melanie Kissell Leave a Comment

How do you get your prospects, clients, or customers excited and anxious to learn about your newest offer? That’s easy. Don’t show it to them!

Say what? That’s right. Don’t show it to them. Instead, create some “anticipation” by relying on basic human psychology. People’s processes (how they go about taking action) are psychologically channeled by the ways in which they anticipate events.

Anticipation is an emotion that involves pleasure and enthusiasm. Remember anticipating a trip to the amusement park when you were young? Or waiting anxiously for your upcoming birthday party?

You can put this knowledge into action in your business by getting your prospects and others looking forward, with enthusiasm, to what you’ve got cookin’.

There are so few surprises as adults. Good ones,that is! So we grown-ups really enjoy and embrace the element of surprise when we feel that something exciting is waiting for us just around the corner. The waiting, the wondering, the gradual pull toward it (product, program, event) creates a pleasurable experience in our brains.

As the saying goes, “Don’t give away the store!”. That’s no fun. Over a designated period of time, give everyone hints, clues, and sneak peeks of what you have up your sleeve. Keep them thinking. Keep them curious. Keep them on the edge of their seats.

When you finally guide people to the end of their journey of anticipation, they’ll be more than ready to check out your latest offer!

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Filed Under: Build an online empire, Building relationships online, Online Marketing, Online Promotions Tagged With: Internet business success, Marketing your services online, Online Promotions

Be Yourself, Free Yourself

By Melanie Kissell Leave a Comment

How an Internet Business Can Give You Inner Freedom

By David Wood

Can you be yourself at the office? Many people differentiate their work persona from who they really are. That’s because their work doesn’t have its foundation in their passions, interests, hobbies and experience. It doesn’t have to be that way, though.

Imagine what it would be like to be yourself all the time — even at work — and create a revenue stream from what really interests you. That’s what I call inner freedom — the freedom to be yourself and to share what you know and love with the world.

You have a lot to offer. But you need to be able to leverage your knowledge in such a way that it frees you to be yourself while bringing in revenue. The Internet gives you limitless possibilities to do just that. Do you feel there is something holding you back? Here are some common excuses I hear that people give themselves for not starting an online business:

But I’m not an expert. Who will listen to me?

Doubting your qualifications, the value of your ideas, or level of your expertise is common — so common that it keeps thousands of people paralyzed in dead-end jobs. If you can move past this one obstacle, you’ll be far ahead of the pack in terms of what you can achieve.

Why Twins Have the Same Surname and Different First Names

By Melanie Kissell Leave a Comment

My youngest daughters are twins. So the title of this article really caught my attention. Enjoy!

Parents know it instinctively. To differentiate one from the other, they give their newborn different names. Most businesses beg to differ, and often end up giving the same name to multiple (and widely differing) products, without realising the negative impact on the brand.

Whether you’ve got a growing business or a well-established one, it’s important not to ignore that important law of physics. Two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time. This branding article
will show you why!

Why Brand And Line Extension Don’t Work

Heard of a cheese company called Kraft? You say Kraft and people say cheese. The amazing association of cheese with their name should have kept the company smiling for decades. But that didn’t happen. Like most companies, Kraft figured they had a great brand name that would extend to a whole range of foods.

Online Marketing: Your Big Electronic Business Card

By Melanie Kissell Leave a Comment

Growing really tired of attending rubber chicken luncheons, paying for ineffective classified ads, mailing out postcards that bring no results, and spending countless hours doing cold calling? Then you’ll want to learn about the important benefits of marketing your business online.

The internet provides you with a slam dunk opportunity for massive visibility. Handing someone a business card is fine, but creating your big “electronic” business card through online marketing will get you and your services in front of hundreds of thousands of eyes. I’d say that beats the heck out of walking around parking lots putting flyers on windshields, wouldn’t you?

As a Solo Mompreneur, marketing your business online will allow you to:

1) Showcase Your Expertise – Put yourself in the spotlight and toot your own horn. Authentically tell your story and reassure your prospects that you work with people just like them. People don’t want processes, they want solutions. Add results-oriented testimonials to your marketing strategy and allow your current clients to sell for you.

Who else wants to craft grab-them-by-the-collar headlines?

By Melanie Kissell Leave a Comment

Whether you want someone to visit your blog, view your videos, read your articles, subscribe to your list, attend your teleclasses, or grab your freebie offer …

It all starts by crafting grab-them-by-the-collar titles and headlines that compel people to Take Action!

Instead of writing my own “take” on this topic, I’d like to share two incredible resources and an amazingly helpful tool.

READ THESE COOL POSTS:

3 Rules for Writing Effective Titles by Daniel Scocco

10 Surefire Headline Formulas that Work by Brian Clark

CHECK OUT THIS FANTASTIC FREE TOOL:

Free Headline Analyzer

By the way, I entered several possibilities into the free headline analyzer tool before I decided on a title for this post.