Inspiration In Odd Places

If I’m known for anything it is generally for scrapbooking. A simple google of my name will find lots of scrapbook pages featuring my kids and then other people’s layouts using my digital designs.  This evening I was seeking some inspiration for a scrapbook page and found this fun website with lots of terrific life lessons that apply to life, work and hobby. Here are just a few of my favorites that I thought you might like too.   If you like them or the website, visit and leave a comment or find a post-it that speaks to you and share with your list, readers or followers.

Hope you enjoyed these post-its of wisdom!

Customizing Your Opt-In Box

Have you seen aWeber’s new Opt-in Box customization feature?  It is fantastic! No more boring opt-in boxes.  aWeber has included multiple templates, color schemes, themes and ways to customize it to match your site and catch people’s attention.  In addition, you can save it and tweak it for later. I’m most impressed and glad to see aWeber listening to and acting upon customer suggestions.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day!

Mutual Respect is Key to VA-Client Relationships

Yesterday I received a phone call from a client who simply called to tell me that she has my invoice and hasn’t forgotten about it.  She’s a very good client and pays my invoices in a timely manner so truthfully, I really wasn’t very concerned.  She explained that she is waiting for a very large payment from one of her clients that has delayed her personal bills as well as my invoice.

Why do I mention this? Because I so appreciate her show of respect for me, my business and family needs.  As business owners  and entrepreneurs, we understand that things happen. Most of us have experienced this first hand ourselves. Not only did she show me respect, she also saved me time and energy. I didn’t spend time sending an email asking if she had received it or to send a 2nd invoice. Also, I didn’t spend any energy worrying about it.  Now I can manage my expectations and cash flow accordingly.

The few minutes it took her to call me, tell me  that she has my invoice and that it is a priority meant so much to me.

Mutual respect is so important to a healthy Client-Virtual Assistant relationship. Without mutual respect it is very easy for resentment to build up, poor communication and ultimately contract termination.

Whether you are a VA or work with a VA, take the extra minute and make that phone call. It will go miles toward a productive and profitable relationship for all parties.

10 Tips for Using Videos to Market Your Business by Lisa Wells

I decided to share this article by Lisa Wells not only because it is terrific content, but to issue myself and anyone else who isn’t using video yet on their website or blog to take the leap and record a video and add it to your site. It’s one of my goals for the coming week!

If you get busy and do a recording, link me up here. I’d love to see it! Thanks for visiting!
Copyright 2009, Lisa Wells. Article reprinted with permission.

Even if you’re not selling video-based products, you should be using video to market your business. That’s because different customers respond better to video than they do to text. When you use both text and video, you’re reaching a wider audience than you would with text alone.

Here then are 10 tips and tricks for using video to market your business…

1. Keep ‘em short

Whether you’re loading videos on YouTube.com or you’re using them to pre-sell products on your blog or site, keep them short (around five minutes or so)… especially if your audience includes people who don’t know you. If needed, break a long video into multiple smaller videos.

2. Post videos on your sales pages

You can use video sales letters to highlight the main points of your regular sales letter. You can also use videos to demonstrate what the product is and how easy it is to use. You may also get your satisfied customers to give you video testimonials. (Uh, you’ll notice that I did NOT do this on my sales page – bad hair month, lame excuse I know).

3. Choose your keywords carefully

If you’re loading your videos onto YouTube, choose keywords that your market is currently using to find information in your niche. You may also choose keywords that match those being used alongside other popular videos in your niche.

4. Know your purpose before you start

Before you film, choose one purpose for your video. Is it to get subscribers? Send traffic to your blog or membership site? Pre-sell a product? Whatever the reason, base your entire video around that singular goal. Don’t confuse your viewer by giving more than one option.

5. Create a call to action

You should create at least one call to action in your video, where you tell people exactly what you want them to do and why (e.g., “Go to www.AskMrVideo.com to grab Part 2 of this video – but hurry, you can only get it free for a limited time!”)

6. Encourage comments

If you’re posting your video on YouTube, on your blog or other social sites, encourage comments (even controversial ones). The more people talk about your video, the more your visitors will return to your page to see what’s new in the discussion.

7. Use other social sites to jumpstart the viral effect

If you want your video to go viral, you need to advertise it. One way to do that is to link to or embed your video on your other social media site pages, like Twitter or MySpace.

8. Blog about your video

Another way to advertise your video is to blog about it. If you embed your video on your blog, then encourage your visitors to bookmark it using Digg.com, StumbleUpon.com or similar.

9. Ask your JV partners to share your video with their prospects and customers

Yet another away to advertise your video is by asking your joint venture partners / affiliates to mention it in their newsletters, blog about it, and share it with their social media contacts.

10. Put a video on a CD/DVD and give it away for free

You can build a physical mailing list by putting your video on a CD or DVD and giving it away for free to those who give you a mailing address. (You can just charge for shipping.) Be sure to include an upsell at the end of your video.

You can use videos to pre-sell products, demonstrate products, teach your prospects, drive traffic to your sites, and grow your mailing list. Start applying these tips today – you’ll be amazed at what video marketing can do for you!

For tons of video tips, tricks, you name it, visit AskMrVideo.com and don’t forget to join his newsletter list!

Copyright 2009, Lisa Wells. Article reprinted with permission. Lisa Wells is a Certified eMarketing Associate who partners with successful coaches, consultants, and online marketers, managing their online marketing needs. Move your business to the next level and up your e-marketing game – sign up for her FREE e-course at http://www.eMarketingToolboxEssentials.com.