Category: Grow a Home Business

    Improve Your Approach Towards Writing by Boosting Your Self-esteem

    Your writing can suffer due to many reasons. However, one of the biggest factors that contribute to your determination is your self-esteem. Your self-esteem is the general feeling you have about yourself – your belief in your abilities, the kind of person you are and your exceptions from yourself in the future. Apart from how it can affect everyone around you, your self-esteem has a huge influence on the way you approach writing. Given below are some ways in which you can improve your self-esteem and write better as a result:

    Know yourself:

    The path to improving your writing starts with getting to know yourself on a deeper level. Most of the well-adjusted people have a good sense of what they are. Knowing yourself is more than identifying your strengths and weaknesses. You will need to open yourself up to new opportunities, meet new people and try new things to find out what you are passionate about. You may even start a new hobby or a career path!

    Exercise:

    Apart from getting to know yourself on a mental level, you will also need to find out your physical limits. People who exercise regularly are not only healthier, but they also have a much better idea of their physical capabilities. Your improved physical health means that you will have more energy to invest in writing.

    Build relationships with different types of people:

    The people you meet regularly can influence your daily thoughts and moods. Being around people who constantly criticize you can damage what you think about yourself over time. Take the time and effort to associate yourself with people who stimulate your intellect and make you think about new ideas. It does not mean that you should cut everyone else out. Having good relationships with people from different career paths, religious beliefs, age groups and nationalities can help you come up with more creative ideas.

    Reduce the effect of criticism:

    As you meet people and talk about what you do, you will come across some who never seem to be impressed with anything you do. You will have to find a way to reduce the effect of their criticisms on your mental health or become more assertive with them. Trying to make everyone happy with your writing will simply reduce the quality of your work and discourage you from penning your original ideas. Instead, take honest reviews from only a select group of people, who will point out flaws without harping on your mistakes.

    Your self-esteem is a strong personality trait and it is not easy to make dramatic changes in a short amount of time. Regardless of what methods to use to improve your beliefs about yourself, bringing about a positive change takes time, patience and a lot of trial and error on your part. However, if you make an effort to be fair to yourself, you may be able to slowly improve not only the quality of your writing, but also the quality of your life.

    Categories: Book Publishing Tags: Tags:

    Selling Services with WooCommerce

    When considering an ecommerce site through WordPress most of the focus is on selling products. How can you add and manage products with WooCommerce? How can you add variations? How can stock be managed? While these are all great questions for selling products, what if you are selling services instead? Can you still use WooCommerce effectively in order to sell your services?

    When selling services there are some features of the plugin that you will not need such as shipping capabilities. However, there are some of the other features of the plugin that can be useful such as sending invoices or managing orders. Here are some ways to determine the best features for your service-based business.

    What is Being Sold?

    Is your site only going to sell services or are you going to sell other things as well. For example, you may be offering freelance development work, but are you also going to sell eBooks, themes, and plugins? You may add on tools that can help your customers down the road. If you think that you may sell something besides your services it is a good idea to start out using WooCommerce, as it will allow you to easily integrate other products as you increase your offerings.

    Bookings Extension

    WooCommerce allows you to sell almost anything at all. There are many extensions available that will help you sell your services. One of the extensions is called Bookings, which allows you to be able sell your time or to sell appointments. This is a great option for a service-based business that offers coaching or installations and other products that require a set time commitment.

    Payment Options

    WooCommerce will provide you with different payment options as well. You will need to determine whether your customers will pay when the service is booked or if they are going to be provided with a quote in order to pay later. If you are selling products as well you will be able to manage your revenue using WooCommerce rather than creating an invoice system.

    WooCommerce is a quality plugin with many different features that can be used for both product-based and service-based sites. The plugin is free should be considered for use by all ecommerce sites that are using the WordPress platform.

    Categories: ecommerce Tags: Tags:

    Maximizing your Marketing Campaign with these Google Analytics Tricks

    Google Analytics is the best free tool available for measuring the success of your marketing campaigns. It allows you to see the amount of website traffic coming in, as well as track where your users are coming from.

    Using Google Analytics can be simple or complicated based on your needs. If you truly want to get the most from your marketing efforts you may need to dig deeper than you have before. Here are some tips you can use to improve your marketing efforts through the use of Google Analytics.

    Create Goals

    One of the easiest features to use with Google Analytics is goals. To set up your first goal, go to admin – goals-new goal. Conversion is typically the most important goal for most sites. There are many templates that you can choose from to effectively track your conversions. Once you have set up your goals you can quickly monitor your conversion progress.

    Customize your Dashboards

    To do this, go to your dashboard and then to new dashboard. You can have up to 20 dashboards at any point. Once your opening template has been selected you will be able to add widgets. This can be very useful for getting consistent reports and high level views of the overall progress of your campaign.

    Setting Custom Alerts

    Most of us do not have the time to check our Google Analytics page each day for any type of unusual activity. This is why setting custom alerts is useful. To do this, simply go to your admin page then to custom alerts and then create new alert.

    You can apply these alerts to all of your traffic or just different segments. You can then set the alert to go off when a certain metric either goes up or falls (within a set amount of time). When the conditions are met you will receive either a text or an email.

    Stop Visiting Your Site

    Chances are that you visit your website often to make sure that everything is working. While this is good, your visits can actually skew the information provided by Google Analytics. You can set up a filter in the admin panel so that traffic from your IP address is excluded.

    Use Google Webmaster Tools

    Setting up google webmaster tools for your site is highly recommended as this will provide you with further insights that are not offered through Google Analytics. These insights include impression data, spam actions, and organic keyword search.

    Categories: Google Analytics Tags: Tags:

    Using Live Stream Marketing to Connect with Your Customers

    As marketers, we are told over and over again to connect with our customers. We have subscriber lists of people that have bought products from us before. However, they don’t really know who we are. Unless we are constantly bombarding them with emails and annoying them with offers, they are likely to forget about us. That is until you start to introduce live stream marketing into the mix.
    With live stream marketing, you have a way of speaking directly to your customer base. You can give them tips and tricks about your products, or you can simply use the medium to keep in touch. Ask them if they have any questions or concerns about the products they bought from you. It can even be used to let them know about up and coming events.

    Using a Personal Touch
    There’s not too much in the marketing world that gets as personal as live stream media. Unless you plan on contacting every person on your list, one-on-one via phone, broadcasting via video is the next best thing. Customers will appreciate this kind of engagement because they see it is an actual person running the video. It turns a cold customer into a warm one and a warm customer into a hot one. This increases the trust factor of your customers by a wide margin. The hotter your customers are with respect to trust, the easier it is to get them to buy from you.

    Are You Afraid of the Camera?
    If you are camera shy, you still have options when it comes to live stream. You can outsource the broadcast. The person you choose to do the video should be on board with what you are trying to accomplish. This could present a problem if the person is unknown and has no real connection to your business. The best way around this is to find people that you have worked with on a long term basis who are as comfortable with you as you are with them.

    Another choice is to find a friend or family member that you know is not afraid of the camera. If the budget is tight, you can offer them a percentage of the sales that come from the product you are selling.

    The field is wide open for live stream marketing and it’s going to be interesting to see which players come to the foreground and which get left behind. One thing is certain, it’s going to be a great ride for marketers on the whole.

    Categories: broadcasting Tags: Tags:

    How to Write a Self-help Book that Sells

    Self-help books are the craze today and the number of new authors trying their hand at the genre is a proof of the fact. However, only a handful of them succeed in writing a book that people want to read. If you want your self-help book to be a commercial success, there are a few critical points that you should keep in mind.

    Be yourself, be real

    When someone picks up your self-help book, they want to get the feeling that you know what you are talking about. When you over-dramatize the situation/event or exaggerate the impact that it had on you, the book starts sounding more like fiction. That is exactly what you do NOT want. Be real, be realistic and be yourself to convince your reader that you have actually experienced the situation yourself. Your writing should convince them that you do have the personal experience to write a self-help book that can give some really useful inputs to them.

    Be practical

    Self-help books may address an issue that is not well defined or structured. They may even discuss a problem and offer a solution for an issue that is not widely accepted or even acknowledged. However, the book and its message cannot be vague or confused and most importantly, it cannot offer impractical solutions to the problem. The expectation of your readers is that they will find an answer to their problem from your book. If you fail to fulfill it, you will get some negative reviews that can cause immense damage to your book sales. Clear cut, unambiguous, completely practical solutions are a must for a best-selling self-help book.

    Add value

    When you compare two products that are similar, but only one of them offers a freebie, there is a huge chance that you will pick the value added one that gives you more for the same cost. The same goes for your self-help book, especially if the topic you are covering has already been written about extensively. Not only should you try to bring in an entirely new perspective to attract the audience, you can also ensure that your buyers get more value by adding a freebie that they will find useful. For example, a book about the benefits of yoga can come with a free CD showing your readers how to do various yoga poses and exercises. They will get to know why yoga is great for them and they can also progress to doing it, thanks to your CD.

    Categories: Book Publishing Tags: Tags:

    Is WooCommerce Right for your Startup?

    WooCommerce is one of the many free plugins offered for WordPress websites. It is an eCommerce platform that lets you transform your WordPress website into an online shop that offers physical products, digital downloads or even services.

    Unlike some free plugins that do not deliver what they promise, WooCommerce is a user-friendly plugin that offers a ton of features. This is one of the reasons that many startups use WooCommerce. Here are some other reasons why WooCommerce is probably the best choice for your startup ecommerce site.

    1. It’s Free

    If you are just starting out chances are you do not have a very large budget. WooCommerce is free to use. There are some premium extensions that do cost money, but they are not necessary in order to get started and can be added on as you build up your business.

    2. Seamless Integration

    If you are using WordPress for your website, WooCommerce will integrate seamlessly with your site making it easy to get started right away. Because it is a WordPress plugin, you will recognize the dashboard.

    3. Flexibility

    WooCommerce provides you with a large amount of flexibility from the start. Also, you do not need to have a lot of technical knowledge in order to use the plugin. WooCommerce makes it easy to categorize, provide sale prices, and create independent attributes for each of your products. You will be able to sell virtual, physical, or downloadable products from your site.

    4. Professional but Simple

    While WooCommerce is free and user-friendly, this does not mean that it is not a professional solution for your ecommerce needs. You will be able to track orders, view any open or past orders, manage your inventory, provide coupon codes to customers, and so much more. This plugin provides you with everything needed to create a professional ecommerce website.

    If you have a startup company and have been looking at ecommerce solutions chances are that you have found many different plugin options from which to choose. The problem with many of these plugins is that they are expensive and as a startup may not be within your budget. WooCommerce can be downloaded for free allowing you the option to get your business off the ground immediately. It is easy to use and provides a professional solution with no cost.

    Categories: ecommerce Tags: Tags:

    How to Determine Your Budget for Marketing Automation

    How to Determine Your Budget for Marketing Automation

    Determining a budget for a new segment of your business can be tough, if not almost impossible. There are many unknowns when stepping into areas or processes in which you have no direct experience, and this can lead to a feeling of bewilderment. The first step in creating any budget is to outline your goals and objectives. Why do you want to automate your marketing? Are you even in a place where marketing automation makes sense for your business? How soon will you be ready to begin? When would you like the process completely in place (be realistic)? Do you have sufficient staff currently to handle the process, or will you have to hire and train additional staff? These and other questions must be answered prior to creating an automation budget.

    The important thing, when setting up a budget, is to avoid the tendency to overspend. On the other hand, you should not cut corners and spend too little you have to get a feel for what is the appropriate initial investment, as well as ongoing, monthly and annual, expenses.

    Your initial investment into marketing automation may or may not include the services of a consultant. If you decide to consult with a professional, they may draw up a budget for you based on your objectives. However, if you decide not to enlist a consultant, you’ll have to determine your budget on your own. Major components of a marketing automation budget may be software licenses, training for existing staff, and additional staff and training, among other things.

    If you find that you don’t have quite the budget necessary to implement marketing automation, there are ways to still get closer to full automation without actually spending the big money that most full marketing automation solutions require.

    Marketing automation falls roughly into three categories:

    Sales Force Automation,

    Drip Marketing Automation, and

    Content Marketing Automation.

    For each of these categories, there are several free and inexpensive solutions, aimed at the smaller business owner.

    Even if you opt to go the free/inexpensive route, you will surely need to hire one or more individuals to implement and maintain this new department. Even though you already have a Marketing Department, marketing automation is a separate function (arguably within Marketing, yes) that should not be lumped together with Marketing. Each area has subtle, but distinct, differences in their objectives and operations.

    The need for a comprehensive and detailed budget is crucial, especially if you decide to take the free or inexpensive route. When your overall business financial picture is relatively small, errors in projection or budgeting can be devastating.

    Categories: Marketing Tags: Tags:

    Major Challenges with Live Video Streaming

    Live stream broadcasting is exciting and people are jumping on it like wild fires. But there are some key challenges that people using the technology are going to run up against. Bandwidth and buffering being two that come to mind.

    Bandwidth has two issues. Video coupled with audio, uses a high amount of bandwidth. If you are one of those lucky enough to have a data plan on your smartphone with unlimited data usage, you probably have nothing to worry about. Although, talk to people that have reached a high amount of usage even on those plans. They will tell you their providers complain about fair use, etc.
    If you have a plan that is limited, you could end up paying some hefty overage fees if you go over the limit. This may not be a problem if you are able to monetize as a result of the broadcasts you are doing. But you will need to make more than the extra charges that your smart device is running up.
    Of course, if you are broadcasting from your home, you could easily set your phone up to use your Wi Fi connection. This will circumvent any usage on your data plan, assuming that your Wi Fi usage is still unlimited. At this point, most home internet plans allow for unlimited use. It remains to be seen if that will last forever.

    Buffering can occur if you have a slow connection. If you plan on broadcasting, it is a good idea to stop any background processes from running during the broadcast. Also, you may want to shut down any file sharing and file uploads while the broadcast is running. Remember, you want to make the experience for your viewers as smooth as possible. Since broadcasting is live, any buffering will cause delays for your viewers. This will likely get them to move on from your broadcasts. The idea is to keep them coming back not to scare them off.

    It’s going to be interesting to see, now that live video streaming has exploded onto the scene, how that will affect data plan prices going forward. It could be just the thing needed to motivate the phone service providers into offering more robust plans. These plans may come at a higher price, at least initially. But that is certainly a better option than having to pay per minute overages any time you go over your limits. Besides, as more phone service providers scramble to get your business, the end result will likely be lower prices across the board.

    Categories: broadcasting Tags: Tags:

    How To Promote Your Self-published Book

    So, you have your very first self-published book all ready to unveil to the world? You even have a list of friends, acquaintances and relatives lined up to buy your first copies? That’s great, but what comes next when you have already sold your book to the first group of buyers? To canvass the marketplace in the most effective way and to ensure that your book sells, you need to invest attention in promotions too. Here are a few points you can use.

    Everyone is not your audience

    It’s true, not everyone is going to want to read your book and thats not bad. In fact, there is probably no book in existence that has universal appeal. However, assuming that your book will appeal to everyone can be a big marketing mistake.

    The first step in effectively promoting your book is to understand who your audience is. You have already worked on it when you started to write the book, i.e.: defining your audience. Now, you take this a step further and assess where the audience is likely to congregate so that you can focus your promotions in these areas. For example, if you have a book titled Caring for your newborn, you may want to promote it in forums where new parents tend to interact, or on communities managed by brands that sell products for newborns.

    Offer your book free in exchange for reviews

    Offering your book for free may seem to be rather counterproductive, but if you get some really good reviews in, the move can pay off in spades. Typically, you should limit the freebie offer to a few days right after launch and encourage the buyers to give reviews. Do not expect all of them to comply with your request, but some of them will surely oblige. If you know the top reviewers or subject matter experts in the niche that your book belongs to, offer them a free copy before launch and get their views on the book. Publish these along with your book listing to give it credibility in the marketplace.

    Use social media to the fullest

    Thanks to social media, sharing news with the world is easy and you can leverage the advantage to promote your self- published book to the world at large. Include blurbs from the book, pictures, reviews, excerpts to tantalize your social media followers to read the book. If there is any recent news that can be related to your book, refer to it and link it with your book and its contents. It is a great way to make the best of trending news in your promotional strategies.

    Categories: Book Publishing Tags: Tags:

    How to Run a Successful WooCommerce Site

    If you have been thinking about launching your own online store, one of the best choices to get started is WooCommerce. Paired with WordPress, the WooCommerce plugin is a flexible system that offers a number of tools that will allow you to sell your services and products the way you want to. Perhaps the best part is that WooCommerce is completely free to download and start using.

    The question is how do you go from building a startup online storefront into running a business that is successful? The most important thing to focus on is the experience of the user so that shopping on your website is fast and easy. Here are some tips for making your online store a success.

    1. Photos

    It is important to use good photos of your products. This is what potential customers will browse through before deciding to make a purchase. Either take quality photos of your products or find good pictures through other sources.

    2. Content

    One of the biggest mistakes that online retailers make is that they do not focus on the content of the page. Having good pictures is simply not enough. It is important to make sure that the content on your website that uses a consistent voice in order to tell the story of your brand. Your about us page, blog, and help pages should all consistently tell your story.

    Product descriptions should be vivid and explain what the product does and why the consumer would benefit from it.

    3. Newsletters

    Reaching out to your consumers regularly using a newsletter will help keep them informed about the products that you offer as well as what your company is currently doing. Email marketing is necessary if you want your business to be a success.

    4. Keep it Simple

    Perhaps the most important thing to remember when creating your website using WordPress and the WooCommerce plugin is that you need to keep it simple. It is easy to become overwhelmed with all of the different themes and templates that are available. Make sure that your website always remains user-friendly and loads fast. Many templates can bog down the site and make it slow, which can result in potential customers going to a competitor’s website. In most cases, simple is better as users want to be able to quickly find and purchase the products that they are looking for.

    Categories: ecommerce Tags: Tags: