There are days that I sit here and I’m so engrossed in what I’m doing that I lose all track of time.
Don’t get me wrong, I love what I do. I love the drive that I have when I’m “in the zone” but along with that drive comes the difficulty to stop working.
There was a time that I saw the internet going down as a curse. It added pressure. How was I possibly going to get my work done? Who had emailed me? How could I blog?
And then? One day I did see it as a blessing.
Because on that day, there was no choice but to go outside and play. While I was waiting for the kids to get home, I played with the dog. We played fetch, or rather, I played fetch. I have the only labrador retriever who doesn’t retrieve. She likes for me to throw the ball and then she’ll run and get it and drop it making me go and get it.
It was a great day and I wouldn’t have taken the time to enjoy it had my internet not gone down.
So how about you?
What do you do when the internet goes down?
Until next time…
Heather
Permalink 10 CommentsThree Tips to Improve Your Writing Skills
Writing is a skill that doesn’t come easily to everyone; some people have a natural writing flow that almost bursts off a page while others stumble and trip over the words they write. If you happen to fall into the second category, don’t let that stop you. You can improve your writing skills by using the following tips.
Like it or not, your grammar skills play a big part in your writing. You may not want to think about nouns, verbs, adverbs, conjunctions or prepositions, but if you want to be a good writer you need to know what they are and how to use them correctly. Using the proper punctuation will ensure that people are reading your sentences correctly. For instance, if you intended a sentence to end, but didn’t end it with a period, your readers wouldn’t be able to make sense out of your writing. Don’t forget to use the spell-check function that came with the word processing software on your computer.
This may sound backwards, but to be a good writer, you need to be a good reader. Try to read something everyday. Expand your knowledge by reading different types of writing. If you are primarily a fiction reader, start reading the newspaper or non-fiction books. Read articles online versus magazine articles and see if you notice the differences in writing styles. If you happen to read something that you really enjoy, study the article or story. Use the tips you find to improve your own writing. On the other hand, when you read something you don’t care for, make mental notes of the mistakes the writer made and try to avoid them when you sit down to write.
To become a good writer, you need to practice, practice, and practice some more! Writing something everyday, even something as short as a few sentences can improve your writing over time. There are many websites targeted to writers that offer daily writing exercises. For example, the site may ask you to write the opening paragraph of a romance story one day and the next day it could ask you to write a “how-to paragraph” about grinding coffee. Experimenting with different writing genres will greatly improve your writing.
Save your writing and re-read it from time to time. You will see the improvements you have made. As your skills and your confidence grow, you will find that writing not only comes easier to you, it becomes something you enjoy doing!
To improve your writing skills, check out the Everyday Guide to Writing Wisely at http://www.valleyva.net/writing-wisely.html
Until next time…
Heather
Permalink 8 CommentsThe Accountability Formula
“When is John going to get me that report?”
“What is going on in marketing? When are they going to finish that project?”
“I can’t believe Mary is so late in making those phone calls.”
“Okay…who dropped the ball this time?”
“Hey…that’s not MY job.”
Does this sound familiar? If so, your team and company may be faced with a very big challenge with accountability, which results in finger pointing, frustration and broken trust. Personal responsibility and accountability can put an end to the blame game, saving your company thousands if not millions of dollars by increasing productivity, customer service and job satisfaction. This article offers leaders five basic approaches to increasing accountability, which are simple, yet they require actually building a culture of accountability or even going so far to adopting accountability as one of the core values of your company.
Communicate the big picture- Accountability stands a better chance of succeeding if everyone in your company embraces a larger responsibility for the success of the entire organization. Spend time talking individually with team members about how his or her project affects the vision and mission of the company. With this communication, people can make wiser decisions from the context of the “big picture” rather than from the perspective of what may seem to be a detailed and boring task.
State clear expectations- If one person on the team does not meet your expectations, the entire team can fail. It is important from the very beginning of any new project to state the expectations clearly and repeat them over and over again until your team really “gets it.” These expectations need to be crystal clear, including dates, who is responsible for what, the details of the task and how you want the finished product delivered. If your expectations are fuzzy or confusing in any way, your team can break down, and the fine and very important details can fall through the cracks.
Accountability work groups- One of the best ways to achieve accountability is to develop shared accountability among team members. Accountability within the team can be accomplished by what Morris R. Shechtman calls “accountability groups,” groups which give team members the permission to speak and listen in a way which is frank and open. This accountability group can then serve as a small unit of people working together to confide in with struggles, weaknesses and insecurities and they relate to the goals and growth the team intends to achieve.
Move to action- In order for accountability to work, people have to know that failure of completion will come with certain consequences, including written warnings, loss of a bonus or extra hours served on a week-end to complete the project on the table. Without consequences, your employees won’t take you seriously. They will think that
Reward and recognition program- Employees need to know in a tangible way their efforts are indeed driving the company forward, and it is important for them to share in the fruits of their hard work. The offer of increased pay and benefits (vacations, time off and other perks) can keep accountability and morale high and can motivate employees to continue to strive for high levels of performance.
About the Author
Bea Fields is an Executive Coach and the President of Five Star Leader Coaching and Training. She is a Consultant, Trainer, Public Speaker and author of the Five Star Leader e-course. Along with Mitch Meyerson, Founder of Guerrilla Marketing Coach, she is the co-leader of the Guerrilla Marketing Coach Certification program. She is the Visionary for the Teleclass Leaders Learning Program and the Personal Environments Learning Program for CoachVille, LLC.
Strategies for Writing Effective Website Copy
By Alice Seba
It’s relatively simple to gain trust with your website copy and establish yourself as the expert in your area of business. This article will help you star doing that. Whether you sell candles or mining equipment, your online customers want to know that you are a reputable business person and that you “know your stuff”.
You need to speak directly to your target audience and give them the information they are looking for.
Writing for the Web Requires a Different Approach
Internet surfers are continuously looking for information and a solution to their problems. If they’re going to buy anything from you, you need to establish yourself as a credible and informative resource, who also happens to have a terrific product. Speak directly to the needs and desires of your visitor and you will have a captivated audience.
A Few Tips:
1. Talk to your customer - Avoid focusing on yourself. You are irrelevant. Tell your customer how she will benefit from using your product. Use the word “you” and you can be certain you are speaking directly to your customer.
2. Understand your target customer - Understand what motivates your customer and write from their perspective. Don’t try to appeal to everyone. You’ll get better results when you can speak directly the pains and problems your potential customer has than trying generic copy to sell to a wide variety of people.
3. Get attention - You can do this with a good headline and sub-headlines. That way, people will know instantly if you have what they are looking for. Forget cute and clever headlines…give your visitors the straight goods.
4. Keep it simple - Use short sentences and simple words. Your visitors eyes tire easily. Be kind to them! Break up your paragraphs and create plenty of white space.
5. Be casual - The web not the place for a formal essay. Write as you speak and be friendly with your visitor. Do double-check your spelling and follow most grammar rules, but keep the tone light, especially when your target is a more casual group.
6. Set yourself apart from the competition - What makes your product unique?
7. Prove it! - Add testimonials, sales statistics and anything else that proves your claims.
8. Create a sense of urgency - If people don’t sense urgency, they aren’t likely to click on your link. Limited time offers are perfect or showing your potential customer can no longer wait to solve her problem, can be effective. Make sure your potential customers feel the need to click on your link now.
Recommended for Further Study:
For more help with your copywriting and creating a website that people will stick around to read and buy from, check out Alice Seba’s Copywriting Sweetie. It comes complete with software and training to help you sell more of your product to customers who will buy from you over and over again.
Until next time…
Heather
Permalink 5 CommentsAffiliate or Referral Program?
If you own a website that sells a service, hand-made products, or an informational product that you’ve created, then an affiliate program can help you to get more traffic and make more money in the process.
What is an Affiliate Program?
Affiliate or referral programs reward people for bringing them customers.
There are three types of affiliate programs:
Pay Per Click, Pay Per Lead or Pay Per Sale. If you’re considering paying for traffic, then you’ll want to check out our article about benefiting from pay per click traffic.
In this article, we’d like to talk about Pay Per Sale. That means that you’ll only pay your affiliates for sending you customers, not just for sending you leads or traffic. So, you pay them money only if they make you money.
I like to compare the Pay Per Sale model to Realtors. They make a commission from each house they sell. If they don’t sell any houses for six months, they don’t make any money during that time. If they sell 100 houses, they make a lot of money.
What are the other benefits of starting an affiliate program?
The benefits are great with an affiliate program. You get exposure from having others spread the word about your product or services, and your work is less than if you tried to do it all alone. You and your loyal affiliates both benefit.
How do you start an affiliate program?
There are several programs available for starting an affiliate program. Before you start, really consider how much growth you plan to have in the coming year.
If you only plan to launch one info product (or electronic product) and want to get it out quickly, then we recommend Clickbank.
Pros: Simple and inexpensive to start. They handle all payments.
Cons: Difficult to track and train your affiliates. You pay per transaction so, if your product becomes very successful, your monthly expenses may become higher than if you had a shopping cart.
If you plan to grow and have multiple products (or you have products that aren’t electronic, like food or skin care), you may want to look into a shopping cart system that has an affiliate program built in like WAHMCart or QuickPayPro.
Pros: All-inclusive. No per-transaction fees. Includes a follow-up responder.
Cons: Monthly fee.
That gives you an idea of where to begin to set up your affiliate program. How do you keep your affiliates loyal and happy? That’s another article…
Until next time…
Heather
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