Small Acorns & Information Products 31 October 2007

You’ve probably noticed (or not!) that I have not posted for a while. Well, as luck would have it, I managed to fall off another horse last Wednesday, after having done so earlier this year and broken my back. This time, I got away lightly with just a fractured arm, and some nasty whiplash and tendons/ligaments injuries. Feel sorry for myself? Moi? Oh, go on, then – I’m open to receiving lots of sympathy, preferably accompanied by tea and cake. : )

OK, since I can just about type ope-handedly, here’s a short message to think about:

If you are thinking of selling information products (aka info products) via your website, then I recommend that you take small steps.

Let’s say you’ve already created one or more special reports. Start small my selling them for under £10. The reason for the low price tag is that people are more likely to take a chance on lower-priced items than higher-priced ones . . . at least until they get to know you. Once you have made some sales, received some great feedback and have built up an air of trustworthiness in what you deliver, by all means experiment with your pricing structure by raising prices. But it’s necessary to start out on a humble footing before you can get to the big time.

What about you? Do you sell info products? Write and tell me about what you offer via the comments link below. I love to hear from my readers, and it’s always nice to share news. : )

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Are You Blind to Your Own Embarrassing Hiccups? 24 October 2007

Film director David Cronenberg recently aired a warning to all budding scriptwriters:
“Most scriptwriters are illiterate - their grammar is non-existent and they can’t spell. If I’m distracted by spelling mistakes, I can’t get through a script, so I turn it down,” said Cronenberg, speaking on BBC’s Radio 4 on why he turns down film scripts.

As well as ruining any chances of potential stardom, not noticing or, worse, ignoring ongoing errors on your website, in your blog posts, in your advertising, your press releases, and other marketing communications, is bad for business. Sloppy copy confuses your reader, or makes them think you simply can’t be trusted to get things right.

That, in a nutshell, is why proofreaders are so important.

You see, when it comes to checking your own work, ‘blind spots’ get in the way. Oh, you think you know it like the back of your hand; you’ve read the piece so many times, you are certain there aren’t any rogue typos, misspelled words or erroneous punctuation.

The thing is, your eyes are playing tricks on you. They’ve scanned that piece of work so many times now, that they have simply become bored. So they begin to skip the details. Hence, errors stay put.

In my 12 years-plus of proofreading, there’s one surefire thing I have noticed: That it’s fairly easy to spot errors in other people’s work, but not so in your own.

What about you? Do you think we should bother with grammar and spelling? Please share your thoughts via the comments link below. I look forward to hearing your views.

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Feed the Courage and Do it Anyway 22 October 2007

I’ve been tagged by blogger Lorraine Cohen to partake in the following meme:

What’s the bravest thing you ever did that you’re most proud of? What gave you courage to be brave then, that continues to give you courage today?

Wow! What a challenge. There are quite a number of times in my life when I have had to enlist the help of courage to get me through intact, but I guess one in particular was when I was 18. My parents were about to move to a foreign country, due to my father’s job. I was fresh out of college, and had just qualified as a BHSAI (British Horse Society Affiliated Instructor).

Not one to miss out on new experiences, or new lands to explore, I decided to up my roots and follow my parents.

Within just a few weeks of landing on foreign shores, I managed to bag a very enviable position as equestrian manageress.

Of course, at my age (then just 1 the responsibilities (which included looking after the health and wellbeing of 27 horses, taking on a steep learning curve of veterinary procedures (the nearest vet was a good five-hour drive away), managing stable staff, doing monthly inventories and reports for the owner, stock-taking, leading trail rides, etc) seemed mammoth. Plus, I’d never been in charge before. Not least of myself, really. : )

Anyway, I took on the challenge and one of the most enjoyable times of my life.

I guess I have my parents to thank for pulling it off. My dad for having the skills to take his work abroad. My mum for always telling me that if I believed I could so something strongly enough, then I could do that. To just believe in myself.

That belief is what fuels me to this day. That and knowing I can pull even the most (seemingly) mammoth of challenges that fall before me.

How about you? What’s the bravest thing you ever did that you’re most proud of? What gave you courage to be brave then, that continues to give you courage today?

Join the conversation by leaving a comment on this blog (oh, go on, please divulge all!), or write a fresh post on your own blog, but please do try to put a link/trackback to this post. Thanks – I look forward to reading about your bravery.

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Recommended Resource 19 October 2007

Just before I moved house recently my shelves, groaning under the weight of my personal library, collapsed. All I did was add Jonathan Gabay’s Copywriters’ Compendium. Still, you haven’t seen the amount of books I have. Really, I could give The British Library a run for its money.

Back to the book . . . Bound to be dog-eared in no time, I can’t recommend the Gabay’s Copywriters’ Compendiumhighly enough. It is THE definitive guide for all people who put pen to paper – not just copywriters.

Described as “a fantastic and eclectic collection of wordy ideas, appropriate vocabulary, enticing dictum, and well-researched advice” for anyone who has anything to do with writing, it is a must-read. There is even a handy section of writing various briefs for specific marketing materials, including brochures and websites.

Gabay has a fresh approach and a wonderful play on words. If you want to think creatively, polish up your writing and have fun while doing so, then this is the book to get.

•Gabay’s Copywriters’ Compendium

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Jaws Has Nothing on Facebook 18 October 2007

Do you have – or have you thought about having – a profile on social-networking sites such as MySpace and FaceBook? Then you might want to think again before jumping in the water…

Blogger ‘Legal Andrew’ has published a fascinating (and, frankly, unnerving) take on the T&Cs found at the FaceBook website.

Once you are on FaceBook, you are in its Jaws-like grip of death insofar as your rights are concerned…

Essentially, you are ’signing’ away your intellectual property rights as well as your rights to privacy and the use (or misuse) of any personal data you provide.

I haven’t decided (yet) to pull my entire profile from the site, but I have pulled a substantial amount of my copyrighted content. I’ll bide my time with the rest of it and watch with interest if anyone bothers to tackle the powers at FaceBook or a similar site (MySpace springs to mind).

In the meantime, my advice: ALWAYS read the small print and make sure you are comfortable with it before you sign up to or publish personal data/content on Web 2.0.

Further reading:

• “Why I stopped using Facebook“

• “Facebook – innocent social networking website, or high tech spy network?“

• BBC news item on tracking within social networking

• “Insider threat is greater than you might think”

• “Facebook shrugs off privacy fears with plan for targeted advertising“

• “Facebook says you should not expect privacy
“

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Watch Your Business Grow 17 October 2007

The October 2007 issue of the ‘Communiqué for Success’ newsletter has been published. It answers such questions as:

• How do you get your business on the TV?

• What can you do if you need to increase sales?

• How can you attract customers without the hard sell?

• What is the best marketing tool to ensure a growth in business?

• How can you ensure your newsletter is doing its job?

• What can you do to beat the Christmas rush?

All the answers (and more goodies) are in this month’s newsletter.

Best of all, it’s free to CfS subscribers.

Point your browser to:

• http://snipurl.com/cfs

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Email is Top Marketing Tool 15 October 2007

Email continues to be the marketing tool of choice in B2B marketing. In a recent survey, more than 80% of UK B2B marketers surveyed consider email to be an essential part of their marketing mix.

The majority of B2B marketers said they prefer to use email to communicate with existing customers, be it to build relationships with their customers or to up sell/cross sell additional products or services.

The future looks promising, too – with most businesses citing that they expect their email marketing budgets to continue to grow.

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The survey, conducted by B2B Marketing magazine, also showed that B2B marketers are planning to use email more selectively in the future, which supports the increased confidence B2B marketers have in email as an effective marketing tool.

“The results of this survey highlight the importance of email in the B2B marketing mix,” says Joel Harrison, editor B2B Marketing magazine. “B2B marketers are embracing email and we will see it grow to become a key part of any B2B marketing strategy.”

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5 Tips For Better HomeWorking 12 October 2007

1. Organise Your Paperwork

Deal with what needs to be dealt with, and file the rest. Pieces of paperwork will only waste your time.

2. Business Noise

If you work from home, make sure your customers won’t be able to hear your children or the TV playing in the background – it really doesn’t create a professional image.

3. Ambition

Work expands to fill the time allotted, so be ambitious with your plans and you will probably accomplish more.

4. Phone Manner

If you put someone on hold, provide them with a frequent progress report, or they will think they have been forgotten and might just hang up.

5. Pause to Relax

Take some time to recharge every day – we all need breaks and without them we become stressed, bad tempered and less productive.

Source: Start Your Business magazine, Issue 15, p28

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Reader Q&A: Blogs vs Ezines 10 October 2007

QUESTION
CfS reader Ariana Gee of Real Connection asks, “If you have a blog and an ezine, how does the content tend to differ. I notice you are putting questions and answers in yours, which is obviously one way, but do you have other ideas. Or might you have the same content in both?”

ANSWER

A blog, like other communication vehicles (such as an email newsletter and direct mail), is just one of the many ways we can reach out to our target audience to keep them informed with up-to-date news, views and content.

Just as ezines keep potential clients aware that we exist, blogs may also serve the exact same function.

The original idea behind blogs was that people would gather news items or cool web sites and pages that people would otherwise miss or be too busy to find and read, and make them available to their friends and anyone else interested in knowing about them.

Thanks to the increasing problems with spam and overzealous filters, a lot of businesses are now reaching their customers and prospects through blogs, either alongside ezines or instead of them.

If you do a search on the net for blogs, you’ll see that some are about specific things, hobbies, business news, views and opinions on the world at large, etc, while others are not about anything in particular.

An ezine or email newsletter, on the other hand, is more akin to magazines or newspapers. A typical issue might include:

• a publisher’s note or editorial
• a feature or lead article
• supporting articles, or a guest article
• news
• a tip
• a featured customer case study
• advertisements
• resources
• a featured product or service
• event information
• a Q&A column
• interviews
• recommended tools
• and so on

Providing all this demands a fairly complex content mix, and a skilled, experienced editor. It doesn’t suit the blog format at all, which is where the content differs.

Blogs will be more random in their presentation of content. While it’s true that they are particularly well suited for selling content just as with a newsletter, the trick is balancing what is free and what is paid for.

Blogs can also be used to:

• link to other blog posts, or comment on them
• sell books, manuals and subscriptions
• showcase your best or latest work
• increase your online visibility
• provide a powerful internal corporate communications tool
• offer a fresh perspective on a given news item
• build your profile
• become an expert, or industry ‘thought leader’
• share random thoughts, ideas and strategies
• enter into an exchange with blog readers
• and any other manner of content

In short, I believe that a blog allows for a quicker, freer, more open and personal exchange with customers, potential clients and other blog readers. And a blog, don’t forget, is by its very nature more biased than a newsletter.

But don’t get carried away: People have to physically visit your blog (even if they sign up to a RSS feed) first before they read your content. Whereas, with an ezine, they have already expressed an interest in receiving your news, so when you deliver to them, they are, in my opinion, much more likely to read the requested content.

To get the best out of your blog, you really need to be posting every other day, at least. And, if you want to target customers and prospects, as I am, then you need to write about something that will be relevant to that audience.

Hope this helps!

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I’ve Been Tagged! 8 October 2007

I’ve been tagged by blogger Kyle Tully (thanks, Kyle!) for the meme asking to share 7 random things about myself and then tag other blogs of interest. So here goes (big breath!)…

1. I’m a hopeless perfectionist – this means good news for my clients, as they get a piece of copy that has been worked, reworked and perfected right down to the nth degree. However, it’s bad news for me, thanks to the extra pressure I put myself under.

2. I broke my back earlier this year. Ironically, I was trying out a horse (with a view to adding him to my family) to help heal my auto-immune illness. Ooops!

3. I have a first-class honours degree in Business Information Technology and French. My French got so good, I dreamed in French. Now, it’s about as good as the Pink Panther’s Inspector Cluso. OK, it’s a bit better than that, but I’m very rusty.

4. I used to teach horse riding, and would help out at a riding school offering lessons to disadvantaged children.

5. If I had to choose just five words to describe my character, they would be:

* Cheerful * Friendly and honest (oops! I’m cheating – that’s two, right?!) * Enthusiastic and hardworking * Daring * Strong and determined

6. When I was 18 months old, I used to eat worms. Obviously, I cottoned on to the importance of protein at an early age. : )

7. The things I enjoy most about life include… Freedom. Travelling and discovering new ways of living, thinking, eating, doing. Spending time with friends and family. Chocolate. Inspiring dialogue. Reading a good book. Escapism through a good film. My dog. My SO. Hope.

And another one for good measure:

8. I used to be a tomboy when I was little. However, being the only girl in a gang of boys meant that, yup you’ve guessed it, I was ALWAYS the one who got tied up and left during games involving ‘cowboys and Indians’.

OK, that it about me (you sigh with relief!), but I would like to throw the meme out and tag these bloggers, please:

• Lorraine Cohen

• Madeleine Giddens

• Linda Jones