Category: Grow a Home Business

    How to Become a Speaker

    Becoming a speaker is a wonderful way to spread awareness about your topic, niche or cause. Also, in many cases speakers are well-paid to deliver their information to certain audiences. But, first of all – to become a sought-out speaker you need to find your audience, and deliver the information that audience desires in a way that is pleasant and memorable.

    * Identify Your Audience – Everything starts with your audience, of course. Know who they are, what they need, what their desires are and also what they can afford to reasonable do about their situations. If you can figure all that out, you can craft wonderful speeches with just the right information.

    * Choose Your Message – As you get to know your audience, you can choose the message you want to impart. Sometimes speakers have more than one speech in their repertoire, so that venues and groups can pick between them. Narrow your message down to two or three major solutions for your audience.

    * Develop Your Speech – Choose one of the three and start developing the speech. Write down notes, and form an outline for the speech. Decide on how long it will be. Sometimes you’ll need versions of your speech in different time lengths for various audiences. But start with a reasonable time of about 20 to 40 minutes.

    * Write and Publish a Book – Using the information that you are gathering for speeches to write a book will not only help you identify information that you want to give in a speech, but it will also give you something to promote at your talks. Plus, you will be introduced as an author.

    * Keep Studying – Never stop studying up on your audience and niche. Things change over time and you want to keep your information as current as possible. If your message becomes dated and old, you will not be asked to speak at events as much.

    * Practice – Always practice every single speech you want to give, because you’ll need to change it up a bit to fit in with the particular audience that you give the speech to. While you make it for one audience, you’ll need to narrow it down further when you find out exactly who you’ll be talking to.

    * Create a “One Sheet” – A one sheet is one regular piece of paper that explains what you talk about in your different speeches. It’s also all the information about you on one piece of paper: your background, your expertise, and what you can speak about, plus your contact information.

    * Promote Yourself – It’s imperative that once you’ve decided to become a speaker, you promote yourself. You may have to give free talks for a little while, but chalk it up as practice to help you build up your reputation. When something is free, ask if you can record it for use later, as this will help you get better.

    Becoming a speaker can take your career or business to a whole new level. You’ll be seen far and wide as an expert in your field. You’ll be able to craft more speeches and more talks, in more venues, as you develop your program according to what you want to promote. Normally speaking goes hand-in-hand with promotion of other products after the speech, even when you’re being paid to do so.

    Categories: public speaking, Run a Home Business Tags: Tags:

    Nine Ways to Show Your Expertise When First Starting Out

    When you first start out wanting to work from home and start your own business, it can be frightening and even seem impossible. It’s the old conundrum about how you can get experience without having experience. But, when you start an online business, you can make your own experience and prove your expertise with just a little work, and this is how.

    1. Blog Regularly Toward Your Audience – Start a blog on your website and blog directly to your audience with many forms of content, discussing many issues that the audience has. It’s a great way to get traffic, but it’s also a great way to demonstrate expertise.

    2. Write a White Paper about a Problem – A white paper is a long report that addresses a problem and then offers solutions to the problem. If you write a paper or two about individual problems your audience has, you’ll be able to show your expertise even though you’re just starting out.

    3. Publish a Book about Your Expertise – Writing a book and authorship is always a great way to show your expertise. Direct the book to your target audience and answer questions they may have. Address one problem and solve it and then you’ll get more respect that you do know what you’re talking about.

    4. Make Checklists to Help Your Target Audience – If you know the types of things that your audience has questions about, you can create helpful checklists, cheat sheets, or tip sheets that are available for view and/or download on your website or blog.

    5. Share Answers Freely on Social Networks – Social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, and even forums and message boards are great places to answer other people’s questions in a way that highlights your expertise.

    6. Become a Contributing Writer – Blogs, websites, newspapers and magazines all want more content and will take well-written, expertly delivered articles. Some of these will even pay you for the content. Write originally for each and rely on your bio to send traffic your way.

    7. Get on a Speaking Circuit – Create a couple of presentations that you could easily turn into public speaking fodder. Practice by putting that information on video on your blog, YouTube, and other places that take video. Make a “one sheet” which is one downloadable 8×11 sheet that tells about what you’ll speak on and your prices.

    8. Create a Dedicated YouTube Channel – Many people have become famous because of YouTube, and you can too. Use YouTube as a way to demonstrate your expertise on the topics of interest to your audience.

    9. Host a Free Webinar or Teleseminar – Technology enables you to do a lot to spread the word about your knowledge and expertise. You can do “how to” videos, and tip videos and more to show the world and most importantly, your audience, what you know.

    These ways to show your expertise when first starting out don’t require you to have a huge client roster, or even a following yet. Doing them will help you gain a following, improve search engine optimization (SEO) and help you build the work-at-home business of your dreams.

    Categories: Expert Tags: Tags:

    What You Need for Offline Marketing to Be Successful

    In the days of online marketing, many small business owners forget about the benefits of offline marketing. Offline marketing is very lucrative and can help you improve your business exponentially. Some of the ideas that you can use to market offline are listed below, and it is by no means a comprehensive list.

    * Business Cards – You can have many different types of business cards designed. Don’t think that you have to use the same type of cards other people use. There are many sizes, shapes and materials that you can use for creating business cards. Give them out when you go to events, if you meet someone in a store, and any time you feel that you can make a connection with someone.

    * Promotional Apparel – People love getting free t-shirts, hats and other types of promotional apparel. In some cases, depending on the type of business you have you, can even sell these items to your customers. They’ll become walking advertisements for your business and you’ll get paid for it.

    * Pens and Other Promotional Items – These types of items are very helpful for marketing your business because when you use them, people notice. Plus, you can hand them out so that other people notice your business name too.

    * Brochures and Flyers – Carry these with you wherever you go, so that when people ask you about your business you can show them. Get someone to help you create them in a professional manner so that you can get all the information you need on them in a creative way.

    * Branded Envelopes and Stationery – Whenever you send anything through the mail, the branded envelopes and stationery will help tremendously. When they see the information on the outside, they’ll feel as if they’re dealing with a professional.

    * Posters and Banners – These are also great to hand out or post up in places where your audience may congregate. These can be made to catch the eye, with just enough information on them to get the attention for your audience so that they want more info. Try adding a QR code that takes them to a newsletter sign-up to integrate online marketing with offline.

    * TV and Radio Advertising – This is a great way to get the word out about your business. More people than you think listen to the radio and watch local TV. People like shopping and working with local people. It doesn’t matter if you have an international online business, local people will want to work with you.

    * Networking Events – While networking events aren’t a “thing” to have, they are a thing you need to do. Networking events that are local are very important to attend in order to get known locally. You can even purchase sponsorships to local networking events to help get your business name out.

    Using these materials and going to local events are all very useful ways to market your business offline. It doesn’t really matter if your business is mostly online; marketing offline can be very lucrative.

    Categories: Marketing

    The Most Important Thing You Need When Hiring a VA

    When you work with a VA it’s essential to treat it like a very important business deal and not casually. You wouldn’t work with most people without the most important document that you can have in the business world: a contract. Many people make the mistake of not getting a contract first because they feel like it’s a lot of work. But, it will be a lot more work if you don’t get a contract.

    Here’s what a contract involves:

    1. Write Down the Offer – Write down in a list every last thing that is being offered by both sides of the agreement.

    2. Spell Out Terms – Express how much money will exchange hands and how it will happen, such as the monthly fee and how it will be paid, such as through PayPal.

    3. List Contact Information – Be sure to list main and alternate contact information such as business name and address work phone and business phone number, as well as pertinent email addresses.

    4. State Expectations – Be sure to list all the expectations and responsibilities of each business involved. For example, the VA must get the work done by xyz date, after being given the work by xyz date by the business owner.

    5. Mention Consequences – It’s always a good idea to mention the consequences of not following the contract, such as whether or not both agree to arbitration and which country, state, city and county laws will be enforced.

    6. Sign the Contract – Use something like HelloSign.com to sign the documents to make them legally binding. It’s very important to get the contracts signed in a legally binding manner.

    These things are important because:

    * Without a Contract You Have No Legal Standing – It is true that sometimes a judge will enforce a handshake and emails if you have enough compelling evidence to back up your claims, but a signed contract is iron clad.

    * It Solidifies the Business Relationships – It’s good to keep your professional and business life as separate as possible, and the best way to do that is through a contract. You’ll likely become close to your VA over time but the contract will help keep you both on the right path.

    Contracts do not have to be complicated but they do need to be very specific and include every eventuality that you can consider within the contract. Include prices, extras, and more. The more you put, the better.

    Categories: Outsourcing Tags: Tags:

    Eight Ways to Create Passive Income

    There are many ways to create passive income online today – more ways than this one article can give you. Perhaps you will get your creative juices flowing by looking at these ideas for making passive income online.

    1. YouTube Channel

    Creating a YouTube channel to make passive income can take a lot of work. But, the video you make today can earn money for you forever, or at least as long as YouTube continue to do things the way they now do it.

    The best way to proceed is to come up with a good idea that your audience will enjoy and try to put up as many videos as you can each week, no less than one a week. With YouTube, consistency is the key. A good example of a high earning YouTube Channel is Mother Goose Club which earns millions a year.

    Link – https://www.youtube.com/user/MotherGooseClub

    2. Busy Niche Website / Blog

    A busy website or blog is a great way to earn passive income. At first you’ll have to work extra hard getting up the right content, and finding the right products to promote. You won’t be able to join an ad network other than AdSense until you are more popular, but it won’t take long if you work at it daily.

    A good example of a blog that earns good money is RealitySteve.com. You don’t have to create something about celebrities to earn a lot of money, though.

    3. Kindle EBooks

    You can write and publish Kindle eBooks for passive income. It’s easy and free to publish on Kindle. You can write the books yourself, or you can truly make it passive by outsourcing it to someone else to do. A man by the name of Ty Cohen makes millions via Kindle publishing. There are more, so that means it’s possible.

    4. Develop an App

    Take a clue from Ty Cohen and create apps too. You don’t need to know even one bit of code, because you can find a freelancer on a site like Upwork.com to do it for you. Then you will promote the app to your audience. The app will earn money for a long time if you create the right kind.

    5. Create an ECourse

    With all the simple software that is available now, you can take your idea and create a course in no time. Try using a system like LearnDash.com, or Udemy.com to promote and sell your course. Look up LMS or “sell your eCourse online for money” and you’ll find plenty of ways to do it.

    6. Develop Information Products

    You can write or use digital video to create information products to promote to your audience. In fact you can put them on ClickBank.com, JVZoo.com, and other affiliate networks to allow others to sell the product too for a percentage. This is the fastest way to start making passive income, because technically you only need sales pages and not full-fledged websites to promote.

    7. Membership Website

    If you have knowledge that others want, you can put it behind a membership wall and collect a monthly fee for those who want to join. Some good examples of memberships that make money are Writer Help Wanted, and the membership community Living Plant Based. Any idea that you have can work as a membership community.

    Links:
    Writer Help Wanted – http://www.writerhelpwanted.com/
    Living Plant Based – http://www.livingplantbased.com/

    8. Become a Niche Affiliate Marketer

    There are many products already created that you can start to promote now. You can go to ClickBank.com, JVZoo.com and other affiliate networks to find products that have affiliate programs that are ready for you to promote. Simply use proven systems to promote their products, and you can be making passive income in no time.

    While the beginning of creating passive income is anything but “passive,” the point is that once you start creating and marketing these products you will stop the treadmill of trading hours for dollars. Instead of being limited by how much time you have each day, you’ll be able to sell your products to as many people as you desire.

    Categories: Content, Run a Home Business Tags: Tags:

    How to Expand Your Service Business to Include Products and Your Product Business to Include Services

    When you first started your business, you probably thought you’d just do it one way. You’d provide services or you’d provide products. But, now you want to expand your business to include both. How do you get started?

    Believe it or not, you do it the same way you would if you were starting a brand new business. The only difference is that you have plenty of information to help you succeed.

    Add Products to a Service-Based Business

    Let’s say you’re a graphic designer who builds web pages and makes banner and advertising graphics. This is a service that you enjoy doing, and you work mainly with book authors. You need to figure out what type of products they buy and need.

    * Survey Your Audience – Ask them what they want. You may get some insight that you never even considered. They may already know some graphic design and website products they want but can’t find.

    * Brainstorm Ideas – Depending upon your skills, or your access to skills, you can create different types of options. Perhaps your audience needs an easy way to make memes and graphics without you. That might be scary, but that’s how software like Canva.com was created.

    * Narrow It Down – The project management system Basecamp.com used to be known as 37signals, and they were a web design firm. They soon realized that they could earn more money providing a product (software as service) like the well-loved project management software, using the skills they already had.

    * Tell Your Secrets – One thing service providers might not realize is that other people may want to do what they’re doing. Write a book as a product, or create a course as a product, that can be sold to a new audience that will buy it and implement it.

    Add Services to a Product-Based Business

    Let’s say you have a product you created such as PLR – private label rights articles, blogs, videos and so forth. Now you want to add a service possibility to the offering. You can do that easily. You just need to think about what your audience may need.

    * Ask the Audience – Send your audience, those who have purchased from you, a short survey asking them what their main issues are with putting the PLR to use.

    * Collect the Ideas – Make a spreadsheet of the ideas that come forth from the survey. Now, add some to it that you have thought of based on reading their ideas.

    * Assess Your Skills – What can you do from the list provided? Perhaps someone mentioned not understanding how to edit PLR. Can you provide a service to edit it and post it for them?

    * Determine Your Time Ability – Can you find outsourcers who can do this for you? Can you make it financially feasible? Ask your audience what they’re willing to pay to help you determine if the idea is viable.

    The important thing to do is to never assume that something will work. Always research every idea by asking your audience, then doing a test market study by having a small launch before moving forward with a huge time investment.

    Categories: Grow a Home Business, Run a Home Business Tags: Tags:

    Online Marketing Tips for Home Business Owners

    As a home business owner you need to continuously market your business. There is a saying for all businesses and it is “always be marketing.” This is a very important thing to remember, because it’s true. Even if you think you have enough clients or customers, you may not a month from now, and the marketing you do today will pay off tomorrow. Here are some online marketing tips to keep the marketing going.

    * Know Your Goals – You need to start by knowing your goals. Each type of marketing that you do will be designed for a different goal.

    * Evaluate Where You Are – Determine where you are now in terms of your content and all aspects of your marketing. Punch up the things that need to be punched up and pull back on the things that need to be pulled back on.

    * Use Appropriate Tags – Meta tags, header tags, and alt tags are all still important when it comes to getting attention for your website from search engines. Check everything to ensure that all your tags are set.

    * Learn to Understand Your Analytics – Whether it’s Google Analytics or social network analytics, it’s important to familiarize yourself with them so that you can use them to improve your marketing efforts. No matter how small of a business you have, understanding the metrics can help you tremendously.

    * Join the Chamber of Commerce – That might seem like weird advice for online marketing, but usually you can end up on their online list which can give you a credible link back to your website.

    * Get to Know Your Competition – Always get to know who your competition is and what they’re doing. You don’t want to copy them, but you can get ideas from them on what type of marketing works. Plus, you can look at their offerings and figure out how you can make them better.

    * Improve Your Website – Once you build your website and it works, you’ll be super happy and feel done. But, when it comes to websites, you have to keep updating them continuously. Improve your SEO, improve the layout, and keep improving the content.

    * Post Videos Online – A great way to move offline activity into online activity is to post videos online. Post them on YouTube, Facebook, and your blog. People love watching short videos from one to three minutes long.

    * Post Images Online – Still images are a big hit online too. Post a few pictures of the “day in the life” of your work and you’ll be more relatable to your peers and to your customers as well. It’s a good way to tie in different events to your products and services.

    * Blog Regularly – The more you can blog, the better, but it’s important that you have something to say too. Don’t just put up something for the sake of putting up anything. Be sure to create a blog post that has a reason for being and a goal in mind.

    * Read about Your Niche – The more you can read about your industry and niche, the more you’ll have to add to it. You can learn about your industry from magazines, books, blogs, and other types of publications.

    Keep marketing in all the normal ways such as online social networks, blogging, and social networking. Try adding in a new way of marketing each month to find out which type of marketing works best for you.

    Categories: Marketing Tags: Tags:

    Tools Needed to Be a Successful Virtual Assistant

    Being a successful VA doesn’t really require that much in the way of tools. The barrier to entry is extremely low, but there are certainly some tools that are helpful and that will make your life (and your clients’ lives) easier. This list is not exhaustive and you may have tools you love and would like to share too.

    * Bookkeeping and Invoicing Apps – Without a doubt, one of the most important aspects of being a VA is keeping track of your income and expenses, plus being able to send invoices to your clients. Today, it’s easier than ever. PayPal.com, GoDaddy, and QuickBooks offer tools for this purpose.

    Links:
    GoDaddy Bookkeeping – http://www.godaddy.com/Online_Bookkeeping
    QuickBooks – http://www.intuit.co.uk/

    * Relevant Software – Depending on what type of services you will offer, you’re going to need a list of software. If you plan to do graphic design, you might want to sign up for Adobe Creative Suite, for example. For sure you’re going to need word processing software like MS Word, or Open Office.

    * Password Keeping App – It’s likely you are going to have a lot of accounts to sign into as a VA. You’ll have your clients’ plus your own, so an app that helps you keep track of passwords is essential. A good one to get is Lastpass.com.

    Link – http://www.lastpass.com/

    * Computer, Laptop, Monitor(s), Etc… – Some virtual assistants enjoy having a super-fast and up-to-date desktop computer with more than one monitor. It is very helpful to have more than one monitor to help you get more done in less time.

    * File Backup and Sharing System – It’s important to be aware that file backup and sharing are not the same thing. You’ll need something like Dropbox.com for saving files, and for sharing with your clients. Plus, something like Mozy.com to back up your computer and files.

    * Website – It’s imperative that you have a professional website to be a successful VA. You need a website that is not a free one, but one with your own domain. It is highly recommended that you use something like self-hosted WordPress.org to build your site. There are a few builders that work such as New Rainmaker, but it will be more expensive.

    Link to New Rainmaker – http://my.newrainmaker.com/portal/

    * Comfortable Chair – You are going to be sitting a lot to do your work, so a comfortable desk chair and set-up is very important. Don’t forget to get up and stretch every 90 minutes or so, and walk around and get your exercise in. It can be dangerous to sit for more than four hours per day. A good chair and moving around can help eliminate some of these issues.

    * Calendar System – Keeping deadlines is very important for a VA. You will need a good calendar that will work on your mobile device. Google Calendar is actually a really good choice, but there are other types that even allow your clients to schedule appointments with you, such as TimeTrade.

    Link to TimeTrade – http://www.timetrade.com/

    The tools an individual VA may need will change depending upon their niche. For example, if you’re a VA who takes phone calls during lunch for a client, you’ll need a system that enables you to do that. The best course of action is to make a list of what you will do each day, and then ensure you have the tools that you need.

    Categories: Outsourcing

    Where to Learn What You Need to Know

    When seeking to become an expert in a niche, it’s important to realize it’s not going to happen overnight. You’re going to have to do your time like everyone else – learning, building, and becoming the expert that you want to become. However, don’t let the daunting hill ahead of you stop you. Before you know it, you’ll be at the top of that hill and you’ll never look back.

    Read Books

    There are likely books and opinions out there already on your niche. It’s important to read and soak in a variety of ideas from those who are already experts. Knowing the prevailing wisdom and how it came to be will help you on your journey to becoming an expert, and will also aid you in forming your own thoughts and opinions.

    Get Experience

    As you are learning from other experts, you’ll want to implement what you’ve learned. There is no such thing as an expert on a topic who has not tried it or done it. Put into practice the theories you’re learning about. Test out some of your own ideas, see what works and what doesn’t work. This is the foundation by which you’ll become a sought-out expert, because you have proof that you did xyz and it worked or did not work.

    Join Mastermind Groups

    A mastermind group usually consists of a leader who is an expert in a particular niche. You don’t have to join a group that is in your niche; instead join a group that is designed to help you achieve in your own niche. For example, if you need to learn more about public speaking to help promote your ideas, join a public speaking mastermind group.

    Take Courses

    Today you don’t have to even leave your house to take courses to learn the things you want to know. You can take both accredited and unaccredited courses to become an expert. Courses are offered by even MIT that are not accredited. The important thing is that you learn what you need to learn in a manner that enables you to learn a topic quickly.

    Stay Focused

    While you’re involved with learning it can be easy to be distracted from your mission. Your mission is to become an expert in a particular topic and niche, not to become the best public speaker. So don’t get your head turned just because you find learning something exciting – stay the course.

    Hire a Coach

    For some people, hiring a coach that can help them stay focused on doing what they set out to do can be helpful. The coach doesn’t have to be an expert in the area you want expertise in either. Instead they should be an expert in helping people reach their goals, whatever they are. However, it does help if the coach is cognizant of your field a little.

    Practice

    You’ve heard your mom say it, “Practice makes perfect” and it’s true. The more you practice something and gain experience in something, the more likely you are to become an expert. Don’t just do it once a week; do whatever it is every day. They say it takes 10,000 hours of studying and doing to become an expert, so don’t waste any opportunities.

    Don’t Give Up

    It’s important to persevere and not give up. You may become an actual expert before the public accepts you as an expert. This is to be expected, but can be difficult to handle. Just keep going, keep promoting, and keep learning and it will happen. One step forward each day will culminate in gaining what you set out to gain.

    As you embark on your rise to expert status, you’ll likely find that there are roadblocks impeding your ability to get to the top. But, you can overcome all of them with perseverance and focus on the goals that you have made.

    Categories: Content, Run a Home Business Tags: Tags:

    How to Improve Your SEO from A to Z

    You hear a lot about search engine optimization or SEO, but often what that means is a mixed bag. Many people don’t understand what SEO is, or that there are many kinds of SEO and that you don’t have to be an expert to improve your SEO. There is both on-page and off-page SEO. Let’s take a look at both types.

    The thing to remember is that SEO tactics change continuously based on the algorithms that the search engines choose to use to help their audience find what they’re looking for. The big key to remember is that the search engines are trying to deliver excellent results for their target audience. Your job is to help them.

    Off-Page SEO

    Off-page SEO consists of anything you do to improve search engine traffic and results such as inbound links, trust building, social media, blog promotion, videos, press releases, commenting and more. You can use all of these tactics to help build up your website’s traffic and thus your conversions.

    * Comment on Blogs and Forums – Even if you’re not allowed a link back to your website, your comments on blogs and forums do not go unnoticed – especially today when most use identification procedures via Gravatar or Google to find you through your profile.

    * Social Media Posts and Promotions – When you write a blog post or publish anything on your blog use social media to promote it. Not only will you get more traffic to your posts, you’ll get more links to your website via your general social media promotions.

    * Conduct Interviews – Give interviews on radio shows, on blogs, and more. The more authority you can build by being interviewed, the more links you’ll get back to your website and products, and the more people will get to know you.

    Finally, when it comes to off-page SEO, don’t underestimate the power and effectiveness of the good old-fashioned press release to get the word out about your business to the media. Press releases are still excellent ways to publish information about your products and services, especially if you can tie it to a popular human interest story and news of the day.

    On-Page SEO

    On-page SEO consists of anything you do on your website to ensure that you get more traffic to your website via the search engines without paying anything for the traffic. Creating perfectly optimized pages is as simple as adding a little extra effort.

    * Publish Targeted Content – If your content is high quality, unique, and relevant to your audience, this will help them find you. They’ll look for words that are inside that content and be sent to your pages.

    * Headings on Pages – Using keyword-rich phrases for the headings on your website, including your blog posts, will help search engines find you too. Plus the words will be something your audience will focus on as they scan your page.

    * Check Grammar and Spelling – You want people who visit your website to come away believing you have authority on the topic that’s in your niche. Therefore, it’s important to double check your grammar and spelling.

    * Code Your Site Right – Within images, headings, descriptions and more, there are ways to use metatags to give the search engine clues about the topic on your blog or website. Use them properly to describe images and the subject matter, so that your audience will find you.

    Using both on- and off-page SEO is an effective way to ensure that you set up each page on your site properly. If you use self-hosted WordPress, you can use various plugins like SEO Yoast to help guide you for on-page SEO.

    Link to SEO Yoast – https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/

    Categories: SEO Tags: Tags: