Entries from September 2007 ↓

There was a question recently at our Wahm Forum which I answered, and I thought it would also make a great blog post, so I decided to share it here:

Question: What do you do with reports that you have written other than just marketing them on your site?  Are there directories that you can submit them to just like you would submit articles? How do you make them avaiable to bloggers?

 Reply:

I haven’t done a thorough research on “report directories” to submit to. I did indeed find one, but it seemed sort of spammy to me since I was encountered with a few popups, so I will not list it here. Funny thing is I did start a squidoo lens for free reports, but haven’t worked on it yet. (smile)

Usually you offer your free report as an incentive for signing up for your mailing list. So, I usually have my report ready in PDF format and load it to my hosting server. When they sign up for mailing list and confirm their signup my autoresponder automatically sends out the next message with the link to my free report. I instruct them to save it to their computer.

You could use article marketing to advertise your report as well. Submit several articles on topics targeting your target market and include your bio at the end by putting in a plug about getting your free report when they visit your site.

Getting a few online partners to offer your report in exchange for your offering their report (not competitors in the same exact field, of course) or some similar exchange might be a good possibility.

So for the question of distributing your report, an autoresponder works good for mailing signups.

I have also used to use Tradebit.com which offers file storage that you can share or sell for as low as $0.59 per month for 40 mb of storage. Click on “Sell here now” at the very top of their web page to view their different levels of service. *You can also start a group there where you allow certain people access to your file. One other thing that I like is that they make it easy to link to your files and you have your own webpage. So if you sign up be sure to make your username a good “keyword” because it will be used for your url link. (In fact, I guess I could write a whole article on the subject on how to market online using tradebit, but I’ll pass for now…I blog more on this later.)

As far as the purpose of reports, you brand it with your business information…sort of like handing out your business cards in hope that they’ll keep it on hand and later when they need your services…they’ll hopefully contact you. It also helps to establish yourself as an expert in your field as you share your knowledge within your report.

For affiliate marketers, placing their affiliate links in their reports and distributing the free report will hopefully increase sales as well.

Others have used reports to create viral marketing. They sell their reports for a small sum and include an affiliate program to encourage others to sell their report and distribute it as well, and all the while they are spreading the news about their business because their reports are branded.

For more information on profiting from reports check out  ”Write that Report.”

I was recently called upon to take a meal today for an elderly lady at church.  I immediately said, “Yes” that I would be glad to take a meal.  As busy as I am, I know that without outsourcing, I would certainly have a hard time accomplishing all that I do in a day.  I have to admit, I’m planning on outsourcing the meal preparation by doing a pickup at a local restaurant.  The fact is, many of us do outsourcing on a daily basis for dry cleaning, baked bread, an entire meal, and more.  But we start fretting when it comes to outsourcing tasks for our home business.

You have probably heard about the benefits of outsourcing some of your business tasks. Maybe you would like to, but you just feel you do not have the money to hire anyone. It may seem backwards, but paying others to handle some of your business tasks will actually make you money in the long run.

Here are some tips for outsourcing when you don’t have alot of extra money:

Take a look at the number of hours you are working on your business and figure out which tasks are actually helping you to earn money and which tasks are taking away from the time you could be spending on more important things.

Think about how much more money you could be earning if you spent all of your working hours on the tasks that make you money. The truth is you cannot afford to not start outsourcing. The following are tips for outsourcing your tasks when you do not have a lot of extra money to spend on hiring others.

Start outsourcing your tasks slowly. Maybe you can hire a ghostwriter to write a couple articles for you. That may not seem like much, but those articles can be used on your website and distributed to article directories, which can help bring in a lot of traffic to your site. You can hire a virtual assistant to write and distribute a press release for you. Which, again, can help bring in a lot of traffic for you.

Another option is to barter with service providers. If you sell Tupperware and are looking for someone to help you create a newsletter, ask if they will accept some of your product instead of cash. Or, if you are a ghostwriter in need of a website, ask a web designer if she will trade her services for articles.

If you visit a service-providers’ website and you notice that they charge $15 per hour but you can only afford to pay $10 per hour, send them an email and let them know your situation. If they know that you plan on being a steady client, they may be willing to offer you a reduced rate.

You can also contact your local high school or college and offer an internship in your business. An intern is a student who is willing to work for free in exchange for the experience. Depending on what the student is studying, he or she may be able to handle administrative tasks such as answering email and returning phone calls or highly technical tasks such as web design.

As your profits increase, you can slowly start adding to the list of items you outsource. Even if you add one thing per month, within a year you will have gained a lot of time and maximized your profits.

==> Click Here: Pick up Alice’s Free 16-page Outsourcing Guide

Should I Blog About My Personal Life?

When it comes to writing content and blog posts, there is a question of how personal you should get. Your customers are looking for information on your products and services, right? Therefore, you should keep everything business focused. However, one could argue that letting your customers see a more personable side of you will create a relationship and trust and, therefore, they will prefer to do business with you, rather than some nameless, faceless website belonging to your competition.

On your website you should probably keep things a bit more business focused. Your website serves as your “front office”.  On the other side of the coin, feel free to get a bit more personal on your blog.  Your customers may not need to know exactly what you ate for dinner every day during the week or what your opinion is of your favorite soap star’s current relationship, but they can appreciate knowing you are a real human being, just like them.

If you are writing about a topic that relates to your business, go ahead and give your opinion. If you were affected by a news story you saw or it’s your child’s first day of kindergarten and you are feeling emotional, go ahead and write a quick blog post about it. Your readers have probably gone through a similar situation and can certainly relate.

Just keep in mind that what you put on the web stays on the web. If you feel that you may not want the whole world to know about a personal issue, do not put it online. Not long ago, before the rise of reality television, personal blogs, video diaries, and Myspace pages, there was a thing known as privacy. Some people still go out of their way to keep it, and actually prefer it. All jokes aside, your privacy is something to seriously consider when you are writing something to be published online. A good rule of thumb is to only publish items you would feel comfortable with your neighbors knowing.

You will also want to consider other people’s cultures, customs, and religious affiliations. While there may be many similarities between you and your reader, there could also be some big differences. You do not want to alienate anyone by putting something potentially offensive on your website or blog.

In most cases, if you keep your tone natural and modest, your readers will appreciate getting to know you on a more personal level. They will think of you as their friend and will become loyal customers.