Free and Low Cost Business Resources!

Put Your Web Address In Your Newsletter!!!!

2008-06-24T09:42:00.000-05:00

Seriously!

Why do you write newsletters?

To tell people about your business, right?

If that's why you write newsletters then you should probably include a link to your website in the newsletter.

As I've said before - I subscribe to a lot of newsletters.

At least three times during the past week I've recieved newsletters from people who haven't even mentioned the name of their website at all.

One company didn't even mention the name of their business!

How does that help you draw traffic to your site, or make sales?

The company that didn't mention the name of the business was advertising a sale - which I would have posted about on the forums, but I have no idea which company it was, because the name wasn't mentioned on the site.

I could reply to the sender, and figure it out, but I have other things to do - like writing this post :-)

I did reply to one person to ask what the site address was and guess what - the next time he sent out a letter - which was actually a letter saying "Post on my forum or you'll be deleted" he didn't even send a link to the website.

How many people do you think will post on the forum if they don't remember where it is?

One of the companies which didn't include an web address did use a professional email address to send from. Since the url was in the email address - bob at northernlightsreptiles.com for example, I was able to actually find the website, but if it hadn't been there I wouldn't have gone looking for it.

The other two newsletters were from gmail accounts and contained the senders name as the "from" name - and there's really no way to tell what the website was from that.

At least if it's from "Northern Lights Reptiles" I'll have a better idea of how to find the website the newsletter is mentioning, if I want to go through all that trouble.

So - if you write a newsletter make sure you clearly mention which business you are talking about, and include at least one link to your website.

If you don't your just wasting people's time, and inbox space.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

What's your business email address?

2008-04-22T16:07:00.000-05:00

Come on people, if you have a business you need to have a way for people to contact you.

The fact that people are already on the internet when they are looking at your website means that you should have an email address listed in the contact information for your business.

I can't believe how many times I've been unable to find email adresses or contact information when I'm looking for items to feature on Sarah's Surprises.

Just today I was planning to do a feature on Can-Do-Candles, and when I clicked on their contact us page Outlook Express tried to open up - but since I don't use Outlook Express I couldn't see their email address, or any other contact information.

Because I had already written the post, and I was just emailing them to ask permission to use one of their pictures on my blog, I tried to sign up for their newsletter to see if I could get an email address from their - but the newsletter link went to the front page of another website.

I don't want to send my readers to a shoddy site like that, and as a customer I'm definitely not willing to buy from someone I know nothing about, who doesn't have contact information listed on their website.

Is your email address or other contact information easily accessible on your website?

Can people who don't have Outlook email you, or even see your address?

Do you buy from other websites who don't have any contact information listed?

Leave a comment and let me know.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Updating web sites for the new year

2008-01-16T15:36:00.000-05:00

I just finished going through one of my websites, and updating it for the new year.

Although it's a pain, I'm sure that removing extra code, dead links, updating the copyright notice, and refreshing some of my content will pay off in the long run.

Is there anything that you need to do to update your web site for the new year?

Is there anything that you do on a regular basis to keep your sites up to date?

Have you been Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Can I find your business website from your blog?

2007-11-30T09:20:00.000-05:00

Many businesses these days have blogs that are supposed to help promote their business, yet I've come across way to many business blogs that don't have a link back to the business website.

If I visit your blog now, can I figure out where to buy your products?

How long will it take me (or anyone unfamiliar with your blog) to find the link back to your business?

If you haven't checked yourself recently then go check - and if you have, and aren't sure how easy it is get someone else to check.

Leave a comment with your and I'll check for you, if you'd like.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Free VA Course Giveaway

2007-11-30T09:11:00.000-05:00

If you're interested in becoming a Virtual Assistant, Nell Taliercio, the Telecommuting Answer Lady is having a Freebie Friday: VA Course giveaway today. Just leave a comment and blog about it - or email 3 friends and you're entered to win.

Good luck!

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

How much work do your customers have to do to get information about you?

2007-11-05T15:32:00.000-05:00

I'm paranoid.

I don't like giving my complete name to strangers, much less my street address and phone number, yet I'm running accross an increasing number of etailers who require people to sign up with their first and last name, and complete street address before they can get to their newsletter.

Your newsletter is a tool to keep reminding people about your business...what you offer, how much it is, what's going on with your company.

Why would you limit access to it?

You want people to know about you, and you want to keep your company in their minds - that's the point of a newsletter.

When I see a newsletter that requires my street address, I don't sign up for the newsletter.

If I don't sign up for the newsletter, I'm not reminded about the company, so I'm not going to remember the site, and I'm not going to think about it next time I'm looking for the product they sale.

Of course this means I also won't purchase from them.

Don't limit access to your newsletter unless you have too.

After all if people sign up for it, they're interested in you.

Why not let them learn as much about you as they can?

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Are you professional?

2007-11-02T10:53:00.000-05:00

I'm sure you've heard the saying "First impressions last the longest."

What type of first impression does your web site make?

If you're in business, your web site needs to have a professional appearance.

After all, who wants to spend their hard earned money with someone who can't be bothered to have a professional looking appearance.

Would you spend your money with someone who had more links to other sites than they have to their own products?

I wouldn't.

Link exchanges, web rings, and other member badges and buttons might help bring links to your site, but if they're on your front page they make the web site look unprofessional, and they change the way consumers view your site.

If you have ads on your page - whether it's ads that you've chosen, or ads that appear because you have free hosting (another no no for a business web site - people will think that if you can't afford $8 a year for a domain name, and $4 a month for hosting you must not be serious about your business) the ads you show may be inappropriate.

I remember a couple of years ago screenshots were taken, and a review was written of a child friendly company hosted on geocities with porn ads at the top. Do you think that web site owner enjoyed that type of attention?

Just last month people with affiliate ad banners for an online shopping site had "adult" toys show up on their blogs. That definitely wasn't the kind of material they were pushing, and their only option to prevent that type of material from showing again was to take down the affiliate banners.

Why not avoid the affiliate banners in the first place, and avoid the negative fall out?

You also need to know how your web site works.

If your sale codes don't work as promised, links on your web site go to error pages, or links just don't work - most people aren't going to waste their time figuring out what's wrong.

They are going to visit another site that works, and buy from them.

Congratulations, you just lost a sale.

If you use other hosting services for your photos, know what happens when your users click on those photos - I recently visited a web site, and when I clicked on a link I was presented with a tiny little picture - and a full page of ads trying to convince me to join the hosting service.

That annoyed me, and I wouldn't make a point of clicking on links at that web site again - if I could remember what site it was.

You also need to consider how you present material if you aim to have a professional looking web site.

Are their spelling errors? Do the links work? Are your items, prices, and descriptions correct and easy to find?

I know some people aren't good at spelling - but I have to admit, I think less of web sites with lots of spelling errors. I recently was looking at a web site to review for Etailers Mall - The Blog, and there were so many spelling errors I couldn't believe it.

They even misspelled their company name!

If you don't care enough to make sure that the face you present to the world is the best it can be, how can I be sure that the products you make for me will be the best they can be?

I can't.

So I probably won't buy from you.

What else do you think you need to have a professional web site?

Leave a comment and let me know.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Free PDF converter

2007-10-25T10:58:00.000-05:00

I just found out about PrimoPDF, which is a free tool that makes PDF's.

I haven't tried it yet, so I'd love to hear what you think about it.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Is your business accessible?

2007-10-24T10:44:00.000-05:00

Is your business accessible?

Do your customers and potential customers know where to find your business?

If people can't find you, they can't purchase from you, so it's very important to make sure that people can find your website and your products when they search for them.

Unfortunately even if people go to a search engine and type in your business name, they might not be able to find your web site, so you need to make sure that you have several links to your business showing up in the search engines.

After all, you don't want people looking for you to go to your competitors site.

You can make sure that people find your business by having a blog for your business, or by posting a profile on another website such as Squidoo.

That way, even if your web site doesn't show up, something that you wrote will - and that will point them to your web site.

You also need to consider how easy it will be for people to find your website when you are chosing your company name, and your domain name.

I know of a business that recently changed changed their name and domain because their customers were typing in the wrong web address and were going to another site.

I also know of occassions where I was trying to visit one company, and repeatedly visited another company on the web.

These companies were selling two different things - but I was interested in both of their products, and I could have easily spent the money that I'd alloted for the first company at the second company.

Do you really want that to happen to you?

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

New Series - Are you?

2007-10-19T13:01:00.000-05:00

Hi, I hope you and your business are doing well.

I've got a new serious of "Are you?" articles that will be coming out on a weekly basis.

Here are a few questions to get you started thinking about how your business is doing.

Are you professional?
Are you user friendly?
Are you accessible?
Are you legal?

Think about your business for a few minutes.

Do you present a professsional image to the world?

Is it easy for your users to find what they are looking for, and order the products, or ask questions if they want to know more about something?

Are your web site and products accessible - can people easily find them?

Is your business in compliance with federal and local laws, especially when they relate to mailing lists?

I hope you can confidently say "Yes!" to all of these questions!

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Grow Up!

2007-09-18T08:58:00.000-05:00

In business, you have to be the grown up.

I think it's a shame that I have to tell you this, but recent events compel me me to.

Grow up!

If you're not grown up, at least pretend you are.

I recently have seen a situation where a manager for a company and a director for another part of the company are basically having a verbal war on the company message group.

How is that productive?

How do those messages help the rest of the people on that group?

It isn't, and they don't.

I've been working as an independent contractor with this company for over a year, and I have had no problems with them.

However, the manager involved just happens to be my manager, so I am concerned about my position in the company, and I'm more that a little concerned about the bad behavior of upper management.

I was also hoping to try some new things with the company, and now I'm afraid too.

I don't want to be associated with a company that will allow it's top people to treat other people like that.

There are some situations where it's good to discuss business problems out in the open, but it is never ok to publicly humiliate and degrade someone.

Even if the person who is being attacked doesn't mind, there are always other people looking, and do you really think that they would want to do business with a company that acts like a spoiled two year old throwing a tantrum in public?

I know I wouldn't.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Drive Traffic To Your Site With Blogrush

2007-09-17T10:29:00.000-05:00

I've just signed up with Blogrush - you can see it at the bottom of the sidebar.

Pretty much, every time the Blogrush Widget loads on your page, you get a credit, and one of your posts is shown in another Blogrush Widget.

You also get credit for referrals as well.

They don't have quiet as many categories as I'd like - I'd love to tell the Beauty Blog Network about it, but they don't have a beauty category yet, and I can't figure out how to email them to ask them to add one. I've got it up on my other blogs as well, and I'll see how it works out.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Don't change your list midstream

2007-09-12T08:34:00.000-05:00

People signed up for your list because they were interested in what you are promoting.

If you suddenly decide that instead of internet marketing you want to focus on a direct sales program get a new list for the direct sales program, or at least announce what you are doing on the list so the uninterested people can unsubscribe.

I've been on two mailing lists where the focus changed after several years.

When I signed up for one list I was interested in internet marketing, and all of a sudden I started getting 2-3 messages a week about telling me why I should use the products from the list owners new direct sales adventure.

That obviously wasn't what I was interested in, and it made me lose respect for the list owner.

It also made me think that if she was so desperate to make a few dollars that she would take her list that she worked so hard to grow for several years and turn it into a permanent direct sales list, then she wasn't doing very well at what she was teaching, so I probably shouldn't listen to her anymore.

People sign up for your list to listen to what you have to say about a particular subject.

If you change the focus of that subject they may be interested, or they may not be, but it will definitely change their view of you, and that won't be good.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Check your outgoing links!

2007-09-07T15:06:00.000-05:00

Check your outgoing links.

I know it's a pain, but it has to be done.

People routinely don't renew domain names, and you never know what will go up after they give up their site...but your still linking to it.

I just got a trojan horse when I checked the link to the website of the person who designed Etailers Mall.

Can you imagine what would happen if that happened to your customers?

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Thank you and other niceties

2007-09-04T09:09:00.000-05:00

What two words will leave a lot of good feelings in the hearts of your customers, friends, family...pretty much anyone on earth as long as you say them sincerely?

Why is it so hard for people to say thank you?

If you're in business, your job is to make your customers happy.

You don't have to make your customers happy at the expense of your happiness, but you need to keep basic manners in mind when you are dealing with customers.

As a blogger and product reviewer, I deal with a lot of different etailers, and I have to say that the small business owners that include a personal note with their shipment to me make me feel all warm in fuzzy inside.

It doesn't even matter if it's a preprinted card with a handwritten signature, saying thank you, the fact that someone I don't know is doing something they don't have to to say how important I am to them means something to me.

If someone does something special for you, say thank you - even if you don't think it's all that special.

If someone mentions you on their blog, don't just say thank you in email, say thank you on their blog too.

That gets more exposure for you, and it makes people think that you are nice.

People are more likely to buy from you if they like you, and they're more likely to like you if they think you are nice.

Be nice.

Say thank you.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Keep Away From Bad Neighborhoods

2007-08-20T11:52:00.000-05:00

Did your parents ever tell you to keep away from bad neighborhoods when you were little?

I'm sure they did - after all, if you are in a bad neighborhood chances are that you are a lot more likely to get hurt than you would be if you were in good neighborhood.

The same thing applies online!

If you promote products that aren't trustworthy, then you lose your creditbility.

Sure you may make a few dollars...but that's it.

The people who bought bad items based on your recommendation will probably never trust you again, so even though you made money from them once, that's the end of the line.

If you promote products that you honestly believe in, and you make sure that you promote useful, credible products, that deliver what they promise, then the your subscribers will continue to have faith in you, and will listen to your recommendations.

You also don't have to worry about the them telling other people not to listen to you because you promote horrible products.

You also need to keep yourself out of bad neighborhoods, by making sure that you deliver what you promise on your website.

I'm currently in a situation where I joined a membership community, admittedly, for a lark, because while I thought the community was a good idea, I knew that I don't meet the requirements for the community.

I filled out the application anyways, to see what would happen, and I was approved, and paid my money.

It's been months now, and we haven't begun to get half the things that were promoted on the sign up letter.

What's worse, is that the things we are getting are being phased out, because the owner of the group thinks it will be easier to do things differently.

It is definitely a smart decision to take stock of your business, and even your life, and weed out things that aren't working for you, but if you have dozens of members who have signed up for a year long group, you can't just take their money and run, and phase out the group because it isn't convenient for you.

If you don't live up to your promises then you are going to wind up in a "bad neighborhood" and people are going to steer clear of you, and avoid doing business with you.

And it's not just going to be you that is hurting.

People who are partnering with you will also be affected by this.

After all, they are actively promoting your product, and they see first hand whether you overdeliver, or under deliver on your promises.

If you are interested in making money for the long haul, then when you make a commitment to your customers, newsletter subscribers, blog readers, forum members, or even to other members of communities that you are a part of, you need to be able to deliver on your promises for the length of your promise.

If that's just for the length of time it takes someone to read a blog entry, or download an ebook thats fine, but if you promise them forum access to you and your trusted advisors, plus monthly exclusive content for a year, then you need to be able to deliver that.

When you start out that first month without the promised content, then you know it's going to be harder for you to get caught up, and you know your customers have already lost some of the faith they had in you - even if they aren't willing to admit it.

Life does happen, and sometimes that will get in the way.

Some people will be understanding if something happens and you can't keep ongoing commitments for a certain amount of time, if you let them know what's going on.

You don't have to go into detail if you're not comfortable with that, usually a simple "I'm having some personal problems right now, and I'm going to be unable to ...., but things should be back on track next month," should suffice.

If you have someone who can answer questions or perform some of the duties while you are unavailable that's even better, just point everyone towards them.

Things change, and you may decide that you can't continue to commit to long term promised you've made.

Then you simply must explain what's going on, try to do something that will help your customers, and above all respond to them when they ask you questions or express their concerns.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Are you ready for your big sale?

2007-08-09T09:48:00.000-05:00

It's your big sale day.

You've announced it to your mailing list, changed the code on the website so the discounts would be applied, and you're off to a great start?

Or are you?

Have you checked to make sure the promised discounts have been applied, or will be applied at the right time?

Are you sure that everyone who goes to your site will be able to tell what they need to do to get the discount?

If despite all of your planning a customer has a problem, will they be able to figure out how to contact you on the day of the sale?

Even if you are sure, you better double check.

You definitely don't want what happened to me to happen to your customers.

It's the big sale day.

I got the news in a newsletter several days ago, and I was so excited that I even wrote it on my calendar!

I wake up, and before I even start working I know that I must visit your site to make my purchases.

I find the newsletter that announced the sale, make sure today is the day, then I visit your site.

I read the note on the homepage that says everything is 25% off...all I have to do is add it to my cart and the discount will be applied.

I start adding stuff to my shopping cart, and, then look at the contents of the cart.

Hmm, one thing that I added isn't in the cart, and the other stuff is regular price!

That's odd.

I go and add the stuff that's missing - fortunately it's easy to find. If it wasn't, I'm definitely not going to go look through your whole website again to find it.

I'm a busy woman.

Look at cart again.

Nope, still no discount.

Reread instructions, then check for an email to see if anything has changed, or if there's a code for the sale that I don't know about.

Oh well, it's only 8 am, maybe the site owner is still asleep and doesn't realize that the discount isn't going through.

I decide to wait a while and see if maybe the discount will show up later.

I get bored of waiting, or I need to close the computer down, or (insert excuse here) so I check my cart.

Nope, still no discount.

Refresh cart, look around some more.

Still no discount.

Reread instructions again.

There's no code, and everything is supposed to be discounted when it goes in the cart.

I decide to see how far I can get with the check out process, without entering my personal data.

Hmm, still no discount, and if I do any more, I'll end up purchasing the items at full price, which I'm not going to do.

After all, everything is supposed to be on sale, I'm not paying full price.

So I close up the computer, and you lose a customer.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Comments4aCure June 4-6

2007-06-04T18:53:00.001-05:00

Just a reminder, it’s time for Comments4aCure.

Leave a comment at Mystical Beauty’s Musings from now until Wednesday, and I’ll donate $1 to the Susan G Komen Foundation, up to $50.

For other participating blogs, or for more information visit The Beauty Blog Network’s Comments4aCure page.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Stand Up to Your Commitments

2007-02-09T13:33:00.000-05:00

Stand up to your commitments!

As a business owner - or in life in general, things can get hectic, and crazy.

Sometimes you might feel like a chicken running around with your head cut off, and even though you are human, as a business owner you have a responsibility to your clients.

If you wish to maintain good relationships with your clients, you have to be organized, and you have to keep your commitments.

If you make a mistake you should definitely own up to it as soon as possible!

Although there may be repercussions even if you admit a mistake and try to fix the problem immediately, chances are that they will be less than they would be if you didn't admit the mistake - or worse denied that a mistake had happened in the first place.

I recently scheduled a phone consultation with someone who didn't call me at the time we scheduled for our appointment.

Trust me, I thought that I must have misunderstood, I reread the email several times, and I'd even confirmed with the date and time with the consultant since there were different time zones involved.

After waiting for 3 hours after the scheduled time (it was supposed to be a skype conference) I decided to look to make sure that the meeting was supposed to be at 11AM, and not 11 PM. Sure enough, she had written "tomorrow at 9 AM MST" in the confirmation email.

Whew, I wasn't going crazy.

It's been a day since our scheduled appointment, and I still haven't heard from her.

If this situation happened to you, would it affect your view of the consultant?

Would you want to give her your hard earned money to let her teach you if she wasn't able to keep your first appointment, or would you search for another consultant who had better time management skills?

I know that I'm pretty busy, and I don't have time to make appointments with people that aren't going to keep them. Now there may be some circumstances that would cause me to reconsider, and continue to do business with a person who had stood me up, if things were explained in a timely manner, but I can't think of too many.

Now this is situation where I probably never would have named names, unless someone specifically asked me about my experiences with this consultant, but It just so happened that I had guests call and ask if they could come over shortly before our scheduled appointment time. I told them that they could come over, but I had an appointment for a consultation that was to be held over the computer, so they could come, but they had to be quiet so the consultant wouldn't hear their conversation.

Of course when my guests arrived, the first thing they did was ask about the consultation, and if the person had called yet, and how it went - of course I had to tell them what was going on - and that was the first time my guests had ever heard of this person.

Chances are they won't be using the consultant's services because she didn't call me at our scheduled appointment time. I wasn't trying to give her negative publicity, but based on the circumstances, I did just the same.

On another occasion I won a door price at an online conference.

I was told to email the people who were running the conference with my contact information, and they would pass it along to the person who donated the prize.

I never heard back from them, or from the person who donated the prize that I won.

How would that make you feel about the company, or the person who donated the prize?

I have to tell you I'll definitely look at the people who were involved in that conference with a more skeptical eye than I would have before I attended the conference.

Unfortunately, the way your business is viewed is based on the perceptions of other people, and you can't control all of those perceptions.

You can only do your best to influence those perceptions so that they will be positive ones.

When you do something, think about how it will affect your business, and other people's perceptions of your business.

Do your best to provide the best quality products and/or services possible, and keep your promises, and hopefully everyone that comes in contact you will have a positive perception of you and your business!

Good luck!Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Alexandria Brown's Blowing Up Her Castle!

2007-01-22T13:19:00.000-05:00

The Queen's blowing up her castle!

What do I mean?

Alexandria Brown, a.k.a. "The Ezine Queen" is blowing up her
website on January 31 in order to make room for a better, more
streamlined network of sites.

You see, the site's grown out of control, so she figured out it
would be less work to simply demolish the entire thing and start
over. (Even though last year her business brought in over
$1 million alone - so it obviously wasn't doing too badly! ; ))

What a great example of "creative destruction" in order to grow.

Anyway, in the process, she'll be DISCONTINUING 8 products that
will NOT be sold on the new website. (They're fine programs, but
she said she just wants to focus on bigger fish.)

Topics include emails that sell, websites that sell, hosting
teleseminars, marketing plans, hiring an assistant, and more.

So Ali's having a special CLOSE-OUT EVENT right now, which is
only good through Wednesday, January 31, 2007.

That means you only have a few days left to grab these products
at 50% OFF -- before they disappear forever!

I already picked up a few products myself, and I highly advise
you do so as well. You can see the quick list here

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

PS -- Please forward this email to any other colleagues you think
would be interested in these business-building topics! I'd hate
to see anyone miss out on this ONE-TIME event.

AIM Phoneline

2006-12-13T17:34:00.000-05:00

If you're like me, and you're a little worried about giving your cell phone or home number out to strangers, try AIM phoneline.

I haven't had a ton of calls on the line, but those that I have had have been clear, although it can take a while to answer the call.

Callers are able to leave voice messages, and you do get missed call notices, and a list of the callers numbers, which is helpful if they don't leave a message.

The call seems to be better quality then Skype, which I also use to make outgoing calls, and which I use to listen to conference calls.

It's so much better to have it coming through the computer than it is to be tied to a phone for an hour or so.

Of course, you do need to know how to mute the phone if you're listening to a conference call.

Right now I'm using the free versions of both sites, while I try to decide if we're going to get a house phone.

Even if we do get a home phone I am plannning on giving the aim number out to all the advertising people that I think will harass me with annoying phone calls.

If you've had success with either of these plans, I'd love to hear about it.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Got 10 minutes to spare for SEO?

2006-11-08T12:09:00.000-05:00

Alice Seba has a 10 minute SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tutorial!

Run check it out, and implement the strategies she's got, and you should find more traffic...which should lead to more money.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Business and Learning Expo going on now

2006-11-06T10:50:00.000-05:00

The business and learning expo is going on now.

There will be vendors, and guest speakers and prizes!

Go check them out now!

Feature Speakers Include :
Kelly McCausey of Wahm Talk Radio
Alice Seba of Internet Based Moms
Nicole Dean of Easy Article Marketing
Kristie Tamsevicius of WebMomz.com
Kai Wilson of The Blogging Coach
Kim Emerson of Secret of Prosperity
Tonya Ramsey of Life By Design
JoJo Tabares of The Art of Eloquence
Shannon Cherry of Cherry Communications
Lisa Braithwaite of Coach Lisa B

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Are you a hot mama? Do you want to be one?

2006-10-30T18:46:00.000-05:00

I know that this isn't typically what you would expect from a business resource site, however, in order to have a successful business, it is important to make time to take care of yourself, and to take care of your family.

If you're a hot mama (even if you don't have kids yet - I don't, and I'm still reading the article) or if you want to be one, visit the site below to get your Hot Mama Makeover!

PS The guide is geared towards couples, but it does have information that is useful even if you aren't married or in a relationship.

Blueprint to Online Success

2006-10-03T17:13:00.000-05:00

If you're like me you are always trying to find new ways to build your business.

Here's my newest find, I hope you enjoy.

Fast Action Bonus #1:

Get your hands on Shane Dolby's "Your BluePrint to Online Success" absolutely free!!

This awesome package includes 12 step-by-step modules where Shane walks you through everything you need to know to setup your very own money making websites.

NOTE: Shane has also included several bonuses, worth hundreds of dollars by themselves.

Value: $97.00

Click Here To Claim Your FREE Course!

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Looking for a few quick marketing tidbits?

2006-09-21T11:34:00.000-05:00

If you're like me and you're always interested in learning more about marketing, but you don't have a lot of time check out the Midnight Marketing Snack blog!

You'll find quick marketing tips, that you can read when you only have a minute to spare!

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Moving

2006-06-21T10:30:00.000-05:00

Hi!

I wanted to tell you that I'm moving this week, so it might be a couple of weeks until you hear from me again.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

The WC News is Now Free!

2006-06-15T13:15:00.000-05:00

The WC News is a totally free magazine, that's packed solid with the hot tips & great info work at home moms need!

Go sign up today! The next issue will be mailed (yes, this is a real magazine, not an ezine) to you in August or September, depending on whether or not Kelly has to oustource the printing.

I hope you enjoy it!

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Free Publicity Tips

2006-06-15T09:15:00.000-05:00

If you're looking for a little extra publicity you can download "The Best of The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week of 2005."

You can get even more free publicity tips by reading these free articles.

Enjoy!

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Free Ezine Resources

2006-06-14T09:05:00.000-05:00

If you've been researching ways to make money using the internet for any amount of time, I'm sure you've heard the phrase "The money is in the list!"

But how do you build a list?

How do you build a quality list that people want to stay on?

Check out E-zine University's free online courses!

You can also get a FREE report from the Ezine Queen Alexandria Brown! I've been on her list for a while now, and I really enjoy it!

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Free Internet Marketing Courses

2006-06-12T15:29:00.000-05:00

Cody Moya's offering some free internet marketing courses.

I haven't really had time to check them out with the job search, and trying to move and everything, but I decided I'd better share.

Enjoy, and leave a comment and tell me how you liked the courses!

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Free Information Product Seminar

2006-05-04T17:56:00.000-05:00

Alice Seba has a free Information product seminar on May 10th - don't worry if you can't make it, she'll send you the transcripts after the call.

I think Alice is a very knowledgable woman, and I'm looking forward to the call.

I hope I'll "see" you there too.

If you've been thinking of making your own information product, or even if you haven't, if you want to grow your business you should definitely be on this call.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

NVU

2006-05-04T15:58:00.000-05:00

I am really impressed with the free, opensource NVU - The Complete Web Authoring System, which I used for most of my recent Mystical Beauty, and Etailers Mall updates.

NVU made it so easy to go in and add a few links and a little information to the pages, without having to mess with the code. Even when I was switching all of the Mystical Beauty pages over to the new design, I didn't have much trouble.

The only thing I've found that I don't like is that Google Adsense doesn't show up, so you have to edit the code in notepad or another editor in order to put them on the site, and make sure they work.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

HP Classes

2006-04-29T11:47:00.000-05:00

HP actually has some free classes to.

I signed up for the Introduction to Word, and the Introduction to Excel, so I'll let you know how it goes.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Digital Photography Tips

2006-04-28T17:46:00.000-05:00

Hi, I just added a link to Digital Photography Tips to the free resources section of the blog, but I wanted to post about it here.

This is another blog from Cricket's Small Business Development Training Center, which offers free Search enging optimization, website development, website marketing classes, and more!

Digital Photography Tips offers not only tips, but image editing tutorials as well.

I definitely need to spend some time over there.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

free entrepreneurial training resources from Kutztown University

2006-04-28T09:16:00.000-05:00

While I was looking at the free resources at the US SBA (you can see the post here) I ran across the Small Business Development Center at Kutztown University, which claims "Our E-Learning program is the largest collection of free entrepreneurial training resources available on the internet."

I havne't taken any classes through them yet - although the Accounting Class I registered for at the Small Business Association is through them, I'm not sure if there are different sign up requirements when you sign up directly through Kutztown, instead of through the SBA.

Have you tried their classes?

Do you know of any other classes for small business owners?

If so I'd love it if you'd click to leave a comment and tell me about them.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Free Online Courses From the US Small Business Association

2006-04-28T09:11:00.000-05:00

I ran across the United States Small Business Association a few weeks ago, and was delighted to realize they had free training courses.

You can find courses for everything from starting a business, building your website, federal taxes, to retirement planning.

I haven't had time to actually play with the site much, but I did sign up for the Accounting 101 the fundamentals class today.

I filled out a form with my name, city, state, zip, and a few other questions (They did not ask for a phone number, address or email address, which surprised me)and I went directly to the course.

LOL, so I emailed that to myself, so I could come here and tell you about it, and I'll look at that later.

If you've taken any of their courses, I'd love it if you would leave a comment and tell me how they went.

If you're planning on taking one, come back and tell me what you think when you're done.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Free Affiliate Marketing Tips

2006-04-22T10:31:00.000-05:00

You may have heard that affiliate marketing is a great way to create a hands-off business. You don’t have to ship products or deal with customers…you just refer customers to another company, in return for a commission.

But if it’s that easy, why are so many people struggling to get their affiliate marketing businesses going? The truth is, getting things started is hard work and there’s a learning process involved.

And sometimes, all it takes is a good teacher. If you’re trying to make more with affiliate programs, I highly recommend you sign up for Alice Seba’s free Affiliate Marketing Tips. Alice is a stay at home mom who’s been making a full-time income from affiliate programs since 2003 and she loves to share her secrets to success.

Just follow this link and sign up for the tips. You’ll also have the opportunity for a great discount on Alice’s upcoming Affiliate marketing course – but there is absolutely no obligation to do anything else but receive your free tips.

Now I'm off to read some more from the affiliate marketing course.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

I'm gonna be an Affiliate Marketing Sweetie

2006-04-13T17:34:00.000-05:00

I just got Alice Seba's new Affiliate Marketing Sweetie!

I am so excited!

I've been trying to get around to putting some affiliate products on my sites, but I just haven't yet, lol.

I'm really excited that now I can do it right.

I'll let you know how it goes!

If you're not ready to spring for the course yet, but you want a taste of what you'll be getting check out Alice's Free Affiliate Marketing Tips!

I get them, and was impressed enough to buy the book!

This is the first ebook/course/whatever I've ever actually paid for!

Can you believe it?

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

IRS Guidelines for Direct Sellers

2006-04-04T18:56:00.000-05:00

I ran across this while I was doing my taxes, and I think it will be pretty useful for the direct sellers out there.

I hope it helps!

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Spring Fling Giveaway

2006-03-16T19:55:00.000-05:00

Check out the Spring Fling Great Giveaway!

All you have to do is sign up with your name and email address.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Free Website Templates

2006-03-14T12:41:00.000-05:00

Although it's always best to have unique templates, so that when people see certain pages they know they belong to your site, sometimes you can't afford to spend as much money as you need to on your web templates.

Here are some sites with free templates, to help get you started.

Steve's Templates

Here's a blurb from the site

"This site provides free web page templates which are nice looking, professional and can be used free for personal and business websites. Whether you don't know how to design a web page or are in a hurry to get a site up, my templates are the perfect solution. All templates and graphics on this site are original (with the exception of Premium Templates). I have only one rule that you must follow, so before you get started using my templates and graphics, please read the terms of usage."

Free Website Templates from Jimworld

Starting a new web site, or sprucing up one that is a bit shop worn is a daunting task. That empty screen just sits there and dares you to be creative.

No longer must you face the dreaded blank screen alone. Start with a creative design from FreeSiteTemplates.com and jump-start your development process.

Use the "Browse Templates" links on the left to browse our growing collection of pre-built site templates. Don't miss our Speed Demon templates. They are great looking and use, at most, a few simple graphics.

Both sites offer free templates, and paid templates.

I haven't used any of the templates, but if you try them out, let me know if you like them!

Feel free to share other template sites as well.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Email Marketing Best Practices

2006-02-14T09:03:00.000-05:00

I have been doing a lot of research on email marketing and building your lists lately, and I ran across this article that was pretty helpful.

I hope you enjoy it.

Do you have a list?

Do you have any tips or tricks for building your lists?

Where did you find your info on the rules and regulations that are neccessary to follow when operating an email list?

Leave a comment and let me know!

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Real Women, Real Business, Real Solutions

2006-01-09T18:52:00.000-05:00

I ran across this talk show today, and I was really excited when I realized that Alexandria Brown, The E-zine Queen was a guest, since I'm on her mailing list.

Although I only listented to the 2005-Dec-12 show, I enjoyed it, and I will be back to listen to more shows when I have the time.

While you're there, poke around a little bit.

Global Talk Radio has several business and marketing shows, and 3 Women's Programs, in addition to a variety of other shows.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Another Free banner/button/display site

2005-12-17T11:33:00.000-05:00

Wow, it's been a long time.

I'm studiously trying to avoid the computer today, and as you can see, it's not working :-)

Anyways, I was looking for some paint shop pro tutorials, and I found another free banner site, so I figured I'd share it with you.

I haven't played with these too much, since I figure it is going to take me a long, long time to figure out how to make a banner with paint shop pro :-)

Animation Online Free Animated Banners, Buttons, and Displays

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Looking for a little help getting your forums started?

2005-11-18T18:47:00.000-05:00

I ran across the article How to Build A Popular and Profitable Forum Community today, and I thought it was very interesting.

I'm currently using PhpBB for my at Mystical Beauty Forums and my Etailers Mall Forums and found them relatively simple to use. Of course, I installed them through the Cpanel, so that made it really easy.

I do think it is very important to keep posting to new messages to your forums, and keep adding new relavant information to them, even when it feels like you are talking to yourself. It can be very frustrating when trying to get a forum started, but if you get the word out, people will eventually come see what you have to offer.

I had not thought about using ezine articles to keep the interest in the site up, before I read this article, but I am definitly going to look into it now. Since the articles are not on your web pages, and since they will not stand alone, it should be ok reprint these articles in a forum post, without having to worry about duplicate content issues.

I also agree with the author that less is more when it comes to the number of catagories in a new forum. I know I am much more likely to leave a site if it has a bunch of forums with no posts in them.

At the same time, I wonder how some people can send out an email with a message saying "Hey look at this new forum I just created" and when I look at the forum it already has hundreds of posts on it. I guess some people are just lucky like that.

Do you have a forum? Post a comment and share the url, and let us know the best ways you've found to build and promote your forums.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

The Home Based Business Kit From Hobby to Profit - Book Review

2005-11-13T19:09:00.000-05:00

The Home Based Business Kit From Hobby to Profit, by Diana Brodman Summers, and D-M Boulay, Attorneys at Law, promises to teach you how to "launch a money-making venture from the comfort of your own home" and does a pretty good job at it.

This book covers the basics of starting a home business, such as who you might need to help you with your business (such as attorneys and accountants) and why, how to decide which type of business structure will be best for your business, a brief overview of how to make a marketing plan and a budget, financial considerations to consider with your business and so on.

It also covers things that one wouldn't normally think of when planning to start a home business, such as what happens if you get hurt, or have a family emergency, and can't work on the business for a period of time - do you have a plan in place so that your business can keep going? What happens when a customer or associate gets hurt while visiting your home business - will your regular insurance cover you or do you need special insurance?

And something that I never really thought about before - how does your office look to your customers? If they need to come to your house is there a separate entrance for them?

Is there a way to separate the office from the rest of the house so that your house and your family are safe from people that you don't know who may stop by to visit your business? Will you advertise your home address for your business, or will you use a service that provides a street address for your postal needs, so you don't give everyone to your home address?

If there isn't a separate entrance to your office, is your office near the front of the house so that customers won't have to pass through several rooms before they get to your office?

Are the areas that the customers will see clean, well kept, and free from potential hazards such as low hanging chandeliers?

Are there any special considerations your customers need to be aware of before they come to your house, such as not parking in the street, or only parking on one side of the street? If so make sure you remind your customers of that each time they come to visit.

This is a great book, that was very thought provoking, especially when it comes to things that apply to home businesses, that don't apply to other businesses! I strongly suggest that you read it if you are considering starting your own home business!

The Home Based Business Kit From Hobby to Profit can be purchased from Amazon.com - just click below if you're interested.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Lead Generation Training Calls

2005-10-14T18:30:00.000-05:00

I ran across some training calls from Moon Advertising Solutions tonight (umm...so they'd been in my inbox since June). Moon Advertising Solutions is a lead generation company which has 5 training calls online. Bootcamp 1, 2, 3 of 5, (I wonder where 4 and 5 are :-) ) Q & A, and Quick Tips for Prospecting Leads. I haven't listened to them all yet - it's not a good idea to navigate away from the website while you are listening to them.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Duplicate Content

2005-10-14T07:10:00.000-05:00

I got a great article in a newsletter yesterday.

Then today, I got the exact same article, in a different newsletter. I'd just signed up for the second newsletter, and it's the first newsletter that I got from them, so I'm really disappointed. Not only did they take someone else's article, and make that their entire newsletter, they pretty much stole the name of the article for the newsletter. That shows me that these people put about 5 minutes of thought into their newsletter, and into their customers.

Now I don't mind using other people's articles..but to mail it out in a newsletter the day after the original person mailed it, is a bit much. If they had written, "I ran across this article by so and so yesterday" it would have been a little bit better. But they didn't. They wrote "I ran across this article recently, check it out." So I went ahead and clicked on the link, and found the same article I'd read yesterday - only now it was full of google ads :-(

In addition to this I noted that although most articles that are available for reprint say something along the lines of "please feel free to reprint this as long as you leave this resource box at the bottom" there was no resource box on this page. I even looked up the original article, and although I couldn't find it, all the other articles that were available on the original author's website, had a resource box, and a message at the bottom saying that you could reprint the article, as long as you included the resource box, and emailed a copy of the reprint back to the original author.

So not only was I reading the same article I'd read yesterday, the second newsletter writer had effectively stolen all of the traffic and interest that the original author worked so hard for, by failing to include the resource box.

Now I don't mind using articles that are available for reprint on your website, or even in your newsletters, but if you are going to use those articles, there are some things to consider.

First, you must abide by the conditions the author put on that article. If the author says you can reprint this article, just make sure included the resource box, then by all means reprint the article, and make sure you include the resource box.

After all, the author has spent time and energy writing that article, and if they are willing to share it with you, and help you provide interesting material for your users, then by all means give the author some credit!

If you don't, you might risk losing more than a few clicks on your site-you might risk losing the credibility of your business, and of yourself. After all, if I can't trust you to do something as simple as copy an entire article, resource box and all, to your site, how can I trust you to give me good advice about business? How can I trust you to accurately describe the items you are selling? How can I trust anything you say?

Second, if you are going to use articles from other sources to place on your website, you need to add your own information to those pages, so that you don't risk being penalized for duplicate content by the search engines. In the same vein, if you yourself are writing articles for dispersal, you need to make sure that there is enough extra content on the page that your articles are on on your website, so that you don't get banned for duplicate content either.
After all, the point of sharing articles is to help bring more traffic to your site, and if your site gets banned from Google, than those articles will be doing the exact opposite of what you intended.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Telecommuting post

2005-10-10T10:44:00.000-05:00

Hi! I put up a post about telecommuting at Mystical Beauty's Musings since a lot of people had questions about how I got my telecommuting position.

I hope you enjoy it!

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Recycling Packing Peanuts

2005-10-07T11:13:00.000-05:00

If you’re like me and you have a ton of packing peanuts lying around, but you feel bad throwing them away, check out the peanut hotline.

You can find drop off sites, sign up to be a member of the hotline for $30 a year, and learn more about recycling efforts and peanuts, or loose fill packaging, as peanuts are officially charged.

Although $30 can be an expensive amount for some businesses to spend, there are benefits to becoming a member-not only do you get packing material for free - and that stuff can be expsensive! You also get free advertising from the loose fill council, since your results will show up when customers look for drop off sites in their areas.

So go ahead and check out the peanut hotline. Whether you accept donations, or just donate your unwanted peanuts, you will be helping the environment, and you will have a great answer when people ask you "What is your business doing to help the environment?"

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

More Free Banners

2005-10-05T11:14:00.000-05:00

How could I forget ad designer when I was listing the free banners and buttons?

Although I wouldn't use this for long term professional use, because it does have a note on the bottom that says free ad by addesigner.com, I would use it to get an idea of the type of banner I want, and to play around with designs, animations, colors, and sizes.

If you need a banner quickly for a top sites list, or something of that matter, where you have to have a banner now, this would also be a great way to get an attention getting banner up until you can get something more professional looking!

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Wanna know what your website looks like on a MAC?

2005-10-05T11:01:00.000-05:00

Have you ever wondered what your site looks like on a MAC? It's important to know how your site appears on other computers, and in other browsers, because if your site doesn't show up clearly, and if it isn't easy to navigate, people are less likely to stick around and explore your site, and if they don't explore your site...they aren't going to buy your products, so you are losing business.

At the screenshot generator, you can choose to view a screenshot of your website on Safari, Mac Internet explorer, Camino, and Mozilla for Macintosh. This is a free service, but you can make a donation if you like.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Need to open an excel file, and don't have excel?

2005-09-27T18:57:00.000-05:00

Try Excel Viewer 2003.

I used this on 2 computers before I got Open Office. It was very useful, and I didn' have any trouble with it. You can't actually change anything in the file, but you can at least open the file, print it, and copy the data to another file.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Have you ever wanted to make your own font?

2005-09-25T15:32:00.000-05:00

Then check out My First Font

I've seen several webpages that had what looked like a handwritten note on the web page, and I always wondered how they did it.

Now I know!

My first font is a neat little site that tells you how to build your first font.

So if you have an hour to kill, and want to make your own font, check them out and send me a link to the font you make!

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Free banners and buttons!

2005-09-23T15:18:00.000-05:00

Ok, if you're like me, and can't figure out the free serif software - or if you don't have enough time to figure it out, you can use these free banners and buttons. They don't give you anywhere near as much control as doing it all on your own, but you can still get decent banners and buttons.

Adam Kalsey Buttonmaker
Although this button maker is made for RSS feeds, if you move the bar position to 0 and put your text in the right box you can get button without a divider.

Button Generator offers a wide variety of free and members only buttons and website navigation buttons. You are able to change the colors of the buttons, and add text before you download the buttons.

Freebuttons.com offers 14 free button styles. You can edit the text by using a graphics program.

Cooltext offers free logo and button designs.

Cool Archive offers free logo and button generators. I used the logo generator to make banners. They aren't fancy, but they work :-) They also have icons and other useful things.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Free Serif Software (Image & Photo Editing & More)

2005-09-19T19:49:00.000-05:00

If you're looking for some affordable software for image and photo editing check out serif software. I downloaded the PhotoPlus 6 a while ago, and I've had no trouble with it other than the fact that I never took the time to learn how to use the program.

The have several other programs, including PagePlus SE (Desktop Publishing), WebPlus 6.0 (Web Site Design & Publishing), DrawPlus 4.0 (Graphic Design and Vector Drawing), and 3DPlus 2.0 (3D Animation and Modeling.)

And oh yeah, it's free, although rumor has it they will try to get you to upgrade if you register by phone.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Open Office Update

2005-09-19T17:49:00.000-05:00

One problem. I can't open up microsoft works documents, which means I lost my recipe database. Of course since it was crazy anyways, I'd end up with three recipes mixed together...which is great when you end up with 1 cup of okra in your brownies :-) Just kidding. I don't have any recipes with okra in them...but you get the idea. Things for one recipe would be saved with another one, so it's probably time I copy them all to something new.

You are supposed to be able to save regular microsoft works documents into word format, so after you do that you can open them with open office. Unfortunately I ended up installing word on the computer with microsoft works, so I'm not sure which program is doing what, so I can't tell you how to do that.

Ooh, I just realized that I could convert documents to PDF in Open Office, I am so excited. When you open up a document in Open Office, there is a little PDF file, and all you have to do is click it, choose a file name, and it will save it in PDF form.

This is great if you want to offer little downloads to your users (such as Mystical Beauty's Free Beauty Tip Ebook, which I did not make with Open Office :-) .)

Ok, off to play :-) And no, I'm not getting paid to say this!

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Wish you could open those pesky word documents without word?

2005-09-19T14:53:00.000-05:00

I'm so excited. I recently downloaded open office, and now I can open the word and excel documents that I haven't been able to open forever.

Best of all it's free!

I downloaded the stable version, but if you want you can open the newest beta version. It might still have bugs though, and I wasn't feeling that brave today.

I haven't done much with it other than open the documents, but so far it seems great!

You can also save items in several different formats, including several versions of word and excel.

Open Office runs on Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, Windows, Mac OSX, and Irix, so it should work on your operating system. Installation was very easy, although it did not automatically install. I had to open the folder, and read the pdf with instructions, then basically I clicked on setup. You should read the instructions if you are running a computer with administration rights, or if are installing it on a network.

If you have any more question go ahead and ask, or check out the open office site. I wish I'd downloaded this earlier!

Now I'm off to see if I can send my recipe from my old computer and open it with this one :-) Please, please, please, lol.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

How I Moved From Blogger to Wordpress

2005-09-18T13:50:00.000-05:00

I just moved my Mystical Beauty blog from Blogger to Wordpress. I only had one major problem. None of my individual blog posts or category links worked. I have spent hours trying to get the links to show up in their own pages. I finally ended up changing the permalink structure to /%category%/%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/,(in wordpress click on permalinks, then insert this where it says structure) and it works. I am so relieved. Moving from blogger to wordpress was much easier than I thought, other than that one issue.

I found a lot of useful resources. I could not figure out how to migrate from blogger to wordpress by looking at the wordpress info-I ended up figuring out how to do it by googling it.

I followed the tutorial from Catsutorials in order to import my data from blogger to wordpress. I don't have too many comments, so I did not use the hack to import comments. The process was very easy, and I didn't have any trouble at all.

All in all this process was very easy. I'm not sure what caused my category pages not to show up, but that was the only problem I had, and hey-you know how to fix that now :-)

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

RSS info at GNC Web Creations Seo Classes

2005-09-10T13:34:00.000-05:00

As if you aren't tired enough of me telling you to join the GNC Web Creations Seo Classes now the tech hideaway, which is a separate group you can join if you are interested, but don't have to join to be a member of the SEO classes, is offering a course on RSS feeds. You do have to be a member of the SEO groups to join the tech hideway! I'm excited.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

W3 Schools - Free Web Building Tutorials

2005-09-10T08:01:00.000-05:00

I just ran across this site today. I love the examples, which allow you to adjust the code, and immediately see how it looks, without messing up your own pages!

W3 schools has HTML, XML, Browser Scripting, Server Scripting, .NET, Multimedia, and Web Building tutorials, and examples.

They also have quizzes so you can see how much you know-I got a 70 on the HTML quiz. Oops, guess I need to study a little more.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Do you have an ad for your link exchanges?

2005-09-08T20:39:00.000-05:00

Do you have an ad for your business? Do you have an ad that's ready to use at a moments notice, if you just happen to find a quality site, that you think would benefit your users, and that just happens to have a link exchange program? I know it's hard to have something ready at all times, and to be perfectly honest, I never feel like anything I write is ever finished - I can always figure out a way to polish it some more, and more, and more.

However, since quality incoming links from other sites are vital in order for your pages to rank well, a good prepared ad for link exchanges is a must!

Today, I checked my email, and I had several messages from people who wanted me to place their link at the Etailers Mall Mall. However, none of the people had followed the directions I'd given them. I had some people who didn't put their name, or the business name in the form. Now the business owners name isn't as important - I just like to have it when I email people to tell them where I put their link.

But what am I supposed to do when they don't give me their business's name? That means I have to go to their website, and figure out what their business name is (which can be harder than you think!) This wastes my precious time, and makes me not want to put their link up. (At Etailers Mall, I do not require a reciprocal link in order for etailers to be listed in the mall, because I am offering a list of etailers as a service to my users, so there is nothing in this for me, other than making my users happy. I do have an Etailers Mall Links" page, and an Etailers Mall "Other" page for sites that are not stores, or that aren't bath, body, candles, cosmetics, or jewelry etailers and would like to do a link exchange though.)

Although not having your business name is bad enough, today I had a link description sent in that was just a list of random words describing the products. They were in no certain order, and did not make sense. I spent at least 20 minutes working that description into a useable description, because, to be perfectly honest with you, I would have been embarrassed to put the description that was given to me on my website.

Although I realize that every one makes mistakes, it is important for your website to have a professional looking ad, that accurately describes what the user will find when he or she clicks on it, and makes people want to click on your ad instead of all of the other ads that are listed on that links page. Now when I say professional looking ad, I don't mean the ad needs to be professionally designed, but the ad does need to make sense (yes, I'm only writing this because of the ad I got today :-) It also needs to be free of grammar or spelling errors.

If you'd like feedback on your ad, feel free to leave a comment with your ad description in it, and I'll tell you what I think.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Free Online Education/Classes, etc

2005-09-05T10:21:00.000-05:00

BBC Learning Homepage

This site has a lot of useful information, including adult learning, children's learning, language classes, and business skills.

Barnes & Noble University I Love Barnes & Noble University. I actually learned HTML here (I am almost positive it was the web pages made easy class), and designed all of my sites, with the exception of the new layout of Etailers Mall with the info that I learned here....and I didn't even buy the book that was recommended for the class.

B&N University has liberal arts and life improvement classes, and online reading groups. You can go at your own pace, so if you get behind it's not a problem-most of the classes repeat every month.

CNET's Free Online Courses I haven't really looked at these too much. Right now they have a Home Theater Workshop up, and a free online course on HDTV made simple. They do have classes on adobe photoshop basics, powerpoint 2003, and master buying and selling on ebay coming up soon. You can register to be notified when these classes come up, and although you do have to register to be a part of the class, I was able to look at some of the lessons for the Home Theater workshop, without registering.

Free-ed.net These are free educational webcasts. They have more than 120 classes and tutorials, including anatomy, finance, mastering quicken, powerpoint 2000. You don't have to sign up for most of the classes-just click and watch.

Ok, more coming later :-)

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Emergency Party Room!

2005-09-05T09:16:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately, I've been to several online parties where people could not get in the room. I know this results in frustrations, and lost sales.

I had an extra chat room from the old Mystical Beauty forums, so I decided to turn it into an Emergency Party Room!

So if you're ever stuck and can't get in the room to have your party, just head on over to the Emergency Party Room! As long as there is no one else in it you can use it. This is java script, and opens right in your browser, so you don't have to worry about people not being able to get into it because they are using aol. I know I have that problem with the Etailers Mall Chat Room

You can also use one of the Etailers Mall chat rooms in an emergency, as long as there is no one else there-or you can plan to hold your party there if you are having a bath, body, candle, cosmetics, or jewelry party. Just request the date on the Etailers Mall calendar.

Of course I hope you never have to use the Emergency Party Room, but if you do...it's nice to know it's there.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Finding a Craft Show from teachsoap.com

2005-09-04T14:58:00.000-05:00

I ran across this today, the list of things to take with you is very useful, even if you aren't selling soaps. I never would have remembered to take the coffee beans, or tape and scissors.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Wish you had a way to try scripts before you download them?

2005-09-03T19:07:00.000-05:00

Then check out Open Source CMS - Try Before You Install

I found this today while I was looking up chat rooms for Etailers Mall. I really wish I had found this when I was installing my forums, lol. I think I ended up installing SMS, then going back and installing phpbb.

Anyways, this has site lets you try out some mysql/php based free and open source programs.

Not only do you get to see the program, you get to the administator username and password for every program, so you can fix it up, and change it however you want to to see if it will work for what you need it to work for. The sites are deleted and reinstalled every two hours-so you can see what it's like when the site is new, and what it's like after you get done.

Anyways, they have lots of cool stuff..including a promising sounding phpmysurvey in the Misc. folder-that's where phpmychat is too :-)

Next time I'm adding something to the site, I'm definitely looking there to see if I can demo it!

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Free HTML Class from about.com

2005-09-02T22:10:00.000-05:00

I ran across this class a few days ago, and I figured I'd put it up here. I'm not taking this class, since I learned html from Barnes & Noble University, and since there are lessons with the SEO Online Training classes.

Apparently these are 11 week classes sent via email, and they are interactive. You will have homework, but it won't be graded, and you can take the class at your own pace, but you will still get lessons each week.

They also have a test at the end of the classes, and you get a certificate if you pass the test.

If you do take these classes please leave a comment and let me know how you liked them.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Great Web Graphics & Web Graphics Optimization Classes (free)

2005-08-27T18:59:00.000-05:00

Hi! These were recommended in the SEO class, so I thought I would share. I looked through them quickly and they look decent! I'll have to go back and look later when I have time. Fortunately, I don't have many graphics yet.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Keyword Suggestion Tool

2005-08-25T14:21:00.000-05:00

Here's a handy tool to help you determine what your key phrases should be, and how many searches they get per day!

You can use the link above to go to their home page, or enter your phrase in the text box, and hit enter, and it will take you to their page to enter a verification code, then you can see your results.

For some reason the code isn't working right, but it all still seems to work.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Effective Brand Toolbars

2005-08-23T20:54:00.000-05:00

UPDATED!

Unfortunately I have uninstalled the effective brand toolbar. I had 2 occassions where the toolbar took over my screen, opening at least 30 new windows on one occassion. IMHO this is completely unacceptable behavior.

When I wrote the company, they said there was a bug in that version of the toolbar, and all I had to do was download it and I wouldn't have any trouble anymore. The thing is, I had reinstalled the toolbar the day before, and then I had the errors again.

Even if they had updated the version of the toolbar, which I am not sure they did, I think they should have notified it's users that there was a bug in that toolbar. After all, if people are using their toolbar to promote their websites, and they are guaranteeing that the toolbar is adware and spyware free, when the toolbar starts opening 30 pages in someones window, the person who is promoting the toolbar is going to lose credibility. And that is not acceptable.

Here is the original message.

I got my very own toolbar for my site-so can you.

I ran across Effective Brand while searching the web, then got a newsletter about the toolbars being good, and spyware free, and effective, so I figured I'd try it. I think this will be an effective business tool, if we can get people to download the toolbars. The toolbars are customizeable by the maker, and by the user once they are downloaded, so it's pretty cool.

I put an RSS feed on my toolbar, so each day I go to effective brand, fill out a form, and send a message to the toolbar. In my case it's the site of the day, but you could use it to announce sales, specials, the arrival of new products, online parties - or you oculd even do something wild, like send a message and say the next person to email me gets a free item. (I saw something where someone had posted a message on a message board that said the first person who emails me gets 3 lotions, and I was really impressed. I think that is a great way to engender good will towards their business.)

I have a radio with preset stations, and you can also add your own stations-the only problem is you just have the call letters for most of the stations, so you have no idea what kind of music they play until you listen to it.

I also have a search engine (they get their revenue from sponsored results from the search engines, so the toolbar is completely free to download) they do offer to let you plug your code in so you can get some of the money from the search engine results too, and I believe they alternate using your code and their code in the search results. I also have it set up so that the Etailers Mall logo is displayed on the search engine results page.

I do have the Etailers Mall logo on the toolbar, and if you click on that it takes you to the Mall.

I also have a link to the forums on the toolbar.

And I have my very own toolbar chatroom, which is interesting since I was thinking about putting up a chatroom on Etailers Mall.

There are several other options that can be added on the toolbar to customize it.

The toolbar fits right underneath my google toolbar so it's pretty cool. Just so you know...I'm pretty paranoid about downloading stuff. I just downloaded the google toolbar this weekend. LOL. But I really do think this is safe. I haven't had any trouble with the toolbar so far. But I will definitely let you know if I do!

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Craftlister.com

2005-08-23T20:47:00.000-05:00

Craftlister.com has craft experts, articles, and listings for all those craft shows!

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Networking Times University

2005-08-23T20:37:00.000-05:00

Networking University is pretty cool. They offer free seminars weekly, usually on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, and 9 pm EST. (Yes, I'm listening now.) You do have to sign up for an account, but they don't send too too much mail most of the mail I get because I sign up for all of the seminars, so I get an email reminding me of the seminar, then I get a follow up email about the seminar. Which I've never filled out. Oops. I do have to reinstall the chat software everytime, but it doesn't take too long. Now I'm not saying that I go to all the seminars, but I try. Sometimes I just don't feel like it, and since I am listening to an average of 2 dani johnson calls while I am working each day, I figure that's ok. I haven't really checked out more of the website, but I probably should when I ever get enough time.

They do have paid memberships, and I'm not sure how they work, because I'm not paying for anything from them at the moment.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Dani Johnson Calls for new recruits

2005-08-23T20:25:00.000-05:00

These are calls that are recommended for new/potential recruits or people who are new to the business by Dani.

April 11, 2005

January 3, 2005

May 31, 2004

I would recommend March 28, 2005. In this call Dani goes through some of her coaching sessions, with real students on the phone. I found this call very interesting and helpful, and I probably need to listen to it again.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Passion Fire Training Links

2005-08-20T13:16:00.000-05:00

I haven't looked at this yet, but he's got a lot of links-it might be taking you to other sites to get you to buy stuff though.

He also has training calls on Monday at 10 pm EST (look at free calls), I haven't made it yet. I wish they would put them on the website...but oh well. I can't remember if Dani Johnson's calls are at 9pm, or 10, but I usually listen to them on the website the next day.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

119 Places to find a craft show

2005-08-20T13:14:00.000-05:00

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Business Radio Programs and Seminars

2005-08-20T13:12:00.000-05:00

danijohnson.com

wahm talk radio

direct sales talk radio

Although some of these are targeted towards direct sales and mlm, I think most of the ideas can be applied towards the general business world, especially with Dani Johnson's calls.

If you know of any more let me know!

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

GNC Web Creations Seo Class

2005-08-20T13:08:00.000-05:00

This is great so far. It's a lot of info to take in, and I definitely think I will have to take it a couple of times, but it's been very helpful.

The new class started yesterday, and classes repeat on a continuous basis, so if you get behind it's no problem, you can work at your own pace, and take the class as many times as possible.

I highly recommend this class! Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Welcome to the Business Help Blog!

2005-08-20T13:00:00.000-05:00

Hope you enjoy your time here. If you have any sites, or information that has been useful to you, or has helped your business please feel free to leave a comment and tell us about it!

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Free and Low Cost Business Resources!

Put Your Web Address In Your Newsletter!!!!

What's your business email address?

Updating web sites for the new year

Can I find your business website from your blog?

Free VA Course Giveaway

How much work do your customers have to do to get information about you?

Are you professional?

Free PDF converter

Is your business accessible?

New Series - Are you?

Grow Up!

Drive Traffic To Your Site With Blogrush

Don't change your list midstream

Check your outgoing links!

Thank you and other niceties

Keep Away From Bad Neighborhoods

Are you ready for your big sale?

Comments4aCure June 4-6

Stand Up to Your Commitments

Alexandria Brown's Blowing Up Her Castle!

AIM Phoneline

Got 10 minutes to spare for SEO?

Business and Learning Expo going on now

Are you a hot mama? Do you want to be one?

Blueprint to Online Success

Looking for a few quick marketing tidbits?

Moving

The WC News is Now Free!

Free Publicity Tips

Free Ezine Resources

Free Internet Marketing Courses

Free Information Product Seminar

NVU

HP Classes

Digital Photography Tips

free entrepreneurial training resources from Kutztown University

Free Online Courses From the US Small Business Association

Free Affiliate Marketing Tips

I'm gonna be an Affiliate Marketing Sweetie

IRS Guidelines for Direct Sellers

Spring Fling Giveaway

Free Website Templates

Email Marketing Best Practices

Real Women, Real Business, Real Solutions

Another Free banner/button/display site

Looking for a little help getting your forums started?

The Home Based Business Kit From Hobby to Profit - Book Review

Lead Generation Training Calls

Duplicate Content

Telecommuting post

Recycling Packing Peanuts

More Free Banners

Wanna know what your website looks like on a MAC?

Need to open an excel file, and don't have excel?

Have you ever wanted to make your own font?

More HTML Tutorials

Free banners and buttons!

Free Serif Software (Image & Photo Editing & More)

Open Office Update

Wish you could open those pesky word documents without word?

How I Moved From Blogger to Wordpress

RSS info at GNC Web Creations Seo Classes

W3 Schools - Free Web Building Tutorials

Do you have an ad for your link exchanges?

Free Online Education/Classes, etc

Emergency Party Room!

Finding a Craft Show from teachsoap.com

Wish you had a way to try scripts before you download them?

Free HTML Class from about.com

Great Web Graphics & Web Graphics Optimization Classes (free)

Keyword Suggestion Tool

Effective Brand Toolbars

Craftlister.com

Networking Times University

Dani Johnson Calls for new recruits

Passion Fire Training Links

119 Places to find a craft show

Business Radio Programs and Seminars

GNC Web Creations Seo Class