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Small Business Tips

Lessons from the Spice Girls

August 20th, 2008 by Ingrid Cliff

I am not the world’s best cook (OK I am dreadful!). My spice tub (I gave up on a rack ages ago) has lots of containers and packets of spices that rattle around and go out of date. There is only so much nutmeg I can use in a year!

Enter the Spice Girls, or to give them their correct title - The Seasoned Palate. Two mumpreneurs who have packaged spices the way most people really cook - in single teaspoon servings. They only use high quality organic spices and as a result their product is a premium priced item … and it is taking the US by storm.

The thought for me is how many other everyday products do we have that could do with some creative rethinking in terms of packaging and bring out a whole new profit line?

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

Heart Harmony - SEO copywriter

We put your business into words

Category: Uncategorized | No Comments »

Managing the Winter Blues

August 18th, 2008 by Ingrid Cliff

Michelle from Tonic Gifts made a great post about the winter blues. She highlighted how during winter with its dull, short days people tend to feel more lethargic and lacking in motivation.

If you think about a farmer and their crops, generally winter is a time when the ground is fallow and being ploughed ready for spring planting.

We need to acknowledge the cycle of the seasons and take a lesson from nature. Do you find it harder to motivate yourself or your team during winter?

Winter is the perfect time to plan some team-building activities to get your team ready for the oncoming busy pre-Christmas season. It is also time to take time out for strategic planning or project planning your next big project.

Even businesses can work within the seasons for maximum effect so enjoy rather than work against the seasonal energy.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

Heart Harmony - freelance copywriter

We put your business into words

Category: business development | 2 Comments »

Return of the Calling Card

August 16th, 2008 by Ingrid Cliff

I was reading Time magazine (11th August issue) and it highlighted an old trend that has become new again - calling cards. In the 1800s they were used to request to visit someone’s home and were the precursor to our modern business cards.

These days calling cards are much less formal - they are for people like mums wanting to organise play-dates with other parents, retirees who miss having business cards to share their details, teens who want to give someone their phone and email address and places where business people don’t feel business cards are appropriate to use.

It is a whole new line for graphic designers to think about. The best bit is they don’t have to follow the same old business card sized rules. They can be funky colours and shapes so you can have a lot more fun with the designing of them.

Online printing shops like VistaPrint have some great free and low cost cards (the main reason I like VistaPrint are their caricature products - I use them for school notes to the teacher).

But you can’t beat personally designed cards from a great designer like Wild Dog Design. Jo is currently tweaking my existing business card design so I may just get her to do up some calling cards while she is at it. Now … what to say on them?

Until next time

Ingrid

Heart Harmony - freelance copywriter

We put your business into words

Category: business trends, marketing tips | No Comments »

Commenting on Blogs - Add value, don’t spam!

August 13th, 2008 by Ingrid Cliff

Commenting on other people’s blogs is a great way to generate back-links to your website. The problem is that many people forget the intent is to add value and become part of the community first, before leaping in with “all about me”.

My personal favourites are the people who post comments such as “I found your site when looking for blogs about (insert your keyword here), specifically sites about (insert long tail keyword here). I agree with what you say and/or you have a great site”.

Ed Dale from the 30 Day Challenge describes the sort of crap comments that I highlighted as making withdrawals from a bank you have no deposits in. It is called robbery!

I personally moderate all comments on my blog before they appear and take great delight in deleting the comment or listing the person as a spammer when they attempt to make these sort of comments.

You don’t have to publish spam comments on your blog just because someone made them. It will significantly reduce its value to the true community members who read your blog (as well as hurt you in search engine rankings). Delete them and stay true to your readers.

So … how can you comment on someone’s blog and not be seen  as a spammer?  Read the posts in some detail. Find out what the flow of the blog is all about and find a post that is directly relevant and related to a point you want to make.

Take some time to craft a reply expanding on a particular point in the post, commenting on a point in the post or adding in your own point. Yes, you can make a careful and considered link using your keywords back to your post BUT (and this is a big but) you have to add value first.

If you follow these simple strategies and focus on adding value first, everyone wins.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

Heart Harmony - Freelance Copywriter

We put your business into words

Category: internet marketing, thirty day challenge | 4 Comments »

The wisdom of the challenge

August 11th, 2008 by Ingrid Cliff

I was reading the Modern Goddess (online) blog and came across this quote from Eckhart Tolle.

“When you face a challenge truly, there is no thought. There is just the looking… you see what needs to be solved at that moment, and that looking is fierce and gentle at the same time. And there is an activation of a greater intelligence than whatever you have learned.”

– Eckhart Tolle

This is very true. Today I was working with a business that is in massive debt. The Directors need to stop and take stock first - deciding within their hearts if they have it within themselves to do what needs to be done to turn their business around. Are they up to the challenge of a business turnaround?

Only once they have made a decision with their emotions to stay or go will they be able to truly face the process of doing what needs to be done.

This is not an easy process for many businesses, but if tackled honestly they will be able to face all challenges with wisdom and heart and will get better outcomes as a result.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

Heart Harmony - Freelance Copwriters

Putting your business into words

Category: business development | 1 Comment »

So … what is Blog Whammy?

August 7th, 2008 by Ingrid Cliff

Recently a few people have asked me about the Blog Whammy list of businesses I have on my blogroll. They wanted to know - what exactly is Blog Whammy.

Well …  the Blog Whammy is a group of business women who all regularly blog. We take turns on a sort of roster system to all visit and comment on a particular blog each week.

By visiting and commenting on each other’s blogs we not only share our knowledge, we boost traffic to our blogs and build our own blog ranks at the same time! It is a very simple and effective SEO strategy that any business owner can adopt.

I have met some brilliant fellow business owners through Whammy and really enjoy checking out what the team members are up to (and not just on their rostered whammy week).

If you want to learn more about Blog Whammy just visit the website www.blogwhammy.com

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

Heart Harmony - Brisbane SEO Copywriters

We put your business into words

Category: internet marketing | 2 Comments »

Stop Blaming Circumstances

August 6th, 2008 by Ingrid Cliff

I received this great email from Bob Proctor on Insight of the Day.

The greatest stumbling block to achieving anything of importance in your life is circumstances. We let circumstances get us off the hook when we should be giving it everything we’ve got. More dreams are shattered and goals lost because of circumstances than any other single factor.

How often have you caught yourself saying, “I would like to do or have this but I can’t because…?” Whatever follows “because” is the circumstance.

Successful people use circumstances to catapult them on toward their goal, while the masses use them as road blocks. A circumstance may cause a detour in your life but you should never permit it to stop you. …

The next time you hear someone say they would like to vacation in Paris, or purchase a particular automobile but they can’t because they have no money. Tell them they don’t need any money. …

Explain they don’t need the money until they make a decision to go to Paris or purchase the car. When the decision is made, they will figure out a way to get the amount needed. They always do.

The circumstance they are using is one of the most common: a lack of money. The real cause of their problem is lack of decision. You always attract what you need when you decide it must be done. Try this yourself today. You know the task you have been putting off “because…” Make a decision, forget the circumstance … but get it done!

I see this a lot with small business owners. Once they make a deep heartfelt decision to fix their webcopy because they want to attract new clients, even before we have finished with the  web copy and it goes live, new customers start appearing for them. I don’t know why it works - but it does!

So as Bob says - what is a task you have been putting off “because …”. Make a decision to get  it done today.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

Heart Harmony

Brisbane Freelance Copywriters

We put your business into words

Category: Web copywriting, business development, marketing tips, success | 1 Comment »

The small business time juggle

August 5th, 2008 by Ingrid Cliff

I finally got back to reading more on the MYOB report on small business I mentioned the other day. Here are some more stats that caught my attention.

  • 33% of all small business owners work over 51 hours per week
  • 46% work a 6 or 7 day week
  • 34% work more than 10 hours per day in their most recent work week

Queensland small business owners had the longest average working day of all the states with 37% of all owners regularly working over 10 hours per day.

My question is - how productive are we really? Are we making the highest and best use of each of those more than 10 hours per day? Yes … we are really busy, but are we making a difference?

I know there are days I burn the midnight oil when I am in peak creativity mode. Those are the times when all I can do is write copy for my clients and I can’t stop until every ounce (mg for those metrically minded) of creativity is drained out of me.

The phone isn’t answered, dirty coffee cups pile up around me like the Great Wall of China and it is as if my keyboard is somehow wired into my internal circuits - there is this amazing connection between brain and keyboard. It doesn’t seem like work - it is much more fun and exciting when that flow happens!

There are also some days when I pfaff around distracting myself beautifully from anything except the task at hand. I go wander through my Google Reader feeds, hit the Stumble button a few too many times and all of my contacts get to hear from me. Those days it feels a bit like I am playing hooky and work seems almost insurmountable.

Then there are days when I turn the computer off totally and go for long adventures with my kids (I call them adventures - the kids just reckon I get lost and don’t know how to get home). Work - what work?

So am I productive 100% of the time - NO WAY! But on balance I reckon my 10 hour plus days when I am hyper productive seems to balance out the down times. Overall I know I am making a difference somewhere to at least one person each day.

Enough of the philosophy - how balanced overall is your life? Do the MYOB stats for you reflect a life of overall happiness and fulfillment, or one of struggle and hardship?

Just some questions to get you thinking ….

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

Heart Harmony

Freelance Writers - Putting your business into words

Category: business development, success | 1 Comment »

54 Places to Get Great Niche Ideas - 30 Day Challenge Rocks!

August 3rd, 2008 by Ingrid Cliff

Hi everyone

Well the 30 Day Challenge is off and racing! It is not too late to join in and learn about Internet Marketing. Click here to taken to the Challenge website and join in - it’s free!

Day 1 - Ed covered the essential 4 stages of internet marketing (in order)

  1. Market Research
  2. Traffic
  3. Conversion
  4. Product (yes - this comes last!)

On day one Ed covered where to find a niche market. Here is a list they put together of 54 brilliant places to discover niches. Many of these are new from last year.

The idea behind a niche is to find something you are interested in (if you are in business ideally aligned to your business). Don’t go for something huge like weight-loss or internet marketing as they are very hard to break into when just starting out - find a niche of smaller groups of people who have common interests.

Last year I researched a few niches with my final two niches- small business owners who needed HR Manuals and small business owners who needed help doing employee performance reviews.

What else did I discover in my research last year - well there is a huge niche out there for pest controllers willing to look at products such as “how to get rid of bed-bugs” as well as for creative people to put something together on “halloween pumpkin carving”. I didn’t follow them up as I couldn’t get excited about bed bugs (or pumpkins for that matter).

So get going - check out these sites for potential niches. Get a list together and then get onto the 30DC for a brilliant tool that will help you work out the potential traffic of your niche (but that is Day 2).

1. 43things.com http://www.43things.com/
2. About.com Be a Guide Topics http://beaguide.about.com/topics.htm
3. About.com A to Z list http://azlist.about.com/
4. Alexa Top 500 http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_500
5. Amazon Hot New Releases http://www.amazon.com/gp/new-releases
6. Amazon Magazines http://www.amazon.com/magazine-newspaper-subscriptions/
7. AOL Hot Searches http://hotsearches.aol.com/
8. Ask.com Top Searches http://about.ask.com/en/docs/iq/iq.shtml
9. Barnes & Noble Daily top Sellers http://www.barnesandnoble.com/bestsellers/
top10everything.asp
10. BoingBoing http://www.boingboing.net/
11. Delicious.com Popular http://del.icio.us/
12. Digg.com Popular Archive http://digg.com/archive
13. Digg Spy http://digg.com/spy
14. Dummies.com http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesTitleAll/index.html
15. eBay Hot Categories monthly pdf report http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/
hotitems.pdf

16. eBay Marketplace Research http://pages.ebay.com/marketplace_research/index.html
17. eBay Pulse http://pulse.ebay.com/
18. eBay Seller Central http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/
19. eBay What’s Hot http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/whatshot.html
20. eHow http://www.ehow.com/
21. Face Book http://www.facebook.com/
22. FreeIQ.com http://freeiq.com/wrkfrmhm
23. Google Catalogs http://catalogs.google.com/
24. Google Groups http://groups.google.com/
25. Google Groups Active http://groups.google.com/groups/dir?&sel=0,83986080
26. Google Keyword Tool https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
27. Google News - Most Popular http://news.google.com/news?ned=us&topic=po
28. Google Trends http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends
29. Google Zeitgeist http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html
30. GoogSpy http://www.googspy.com/
31. How to Do Things.com http://www.howtodothings.com/
32. Keyword Discovery http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/
33. Live Search http://www.live.com/
34. Lycos 50 http://50.lycos.com/
35. Magazines.com http://magazines.com/
36. Meetup Topics http://www.meetup.com/topics/
37. My Goals http://mygoals.com/
38. MySimon Categories http://www.mysimon.com/4002-5_8-6273602.html?tag=ftr.glnav
39. MySimon Top Searches http://www.mysimon.com/9098-1_8-0.html
40. Neilsen Net Ratings http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/resources.jsp
41. Netscape Popular http://netscape.aol.com/
42. Omgili http://www.omgili.com/
43. Reddit.com Popular http://reddit.com/
44. SEObook Keyword Tool http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword/
45. SEOmoz http://www.seomoz.org/popular-searches/
46. Technorati Popular http://technorati.com/pop/
47. Thisnext.com/activity http://www.thisnext.com/
48. Trendwatching http://www.trendwatching.com/
49. ViewDo http://www.viewdo.com/
50. viralvideochart.com http://www.viralvideochart.com/
51. WikiHow http://www.wikihow.com/
52. WordTracker.com http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/
53. Yahoo Answers http://answers.yahoo.com/
54. Yahoo Buzz http://buzz.yahoo.com/

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

Heart Harmony

Putting your business into words

Category: internet marketing, thirty day challenge | 1 Comment »

Using E-Books as a Tool for Marketing

August 2nd, 2008 by Ingrid Cliff

As you know the team here at Heart Harmony love and believe in e-books. Information products are a great way to share your expertise with people. But how do you go about writing one if you don’t have the time or can’t string two words together. Hire a ghost-writer!

This article by my UK writing friend and colleague Julie-Ann Amos from Exquisite Writing helps to demystify ghostwriting of books.

Many people are quite surprised to discover than an E-book can be used as a tool for marketing almost any type of business in existence. There is no better method of getting your information into the hands of the buying public than the e-book. E-books are quite versatile, as they can either be downloaded by a customer, or placed on a CD and distributed via that method. Downloading seems to be more popular, as people enjoy getting the information they want NOW, rather than waiting for a book to be delivered to them.

You probably already have an audience in mind for an E-book. You’ve realized that you have specialized knowledge that other people need and want, and the E-book format seems to be the best way to distribute the information. You might be thinking of selling the finished E-book, or using it as a free gift to go along with another product you’ll be offering, or to bring more traffic to your website.

Whatever you choose to do, you’ll soon be able to see for yourself that information products such as E-books are one of the best marketing trends you can find! Information sells like magic, and a quality E-book that contains the info that your audience is looking for is a tool that will promote you and your business 24/7.

So, why don’t more E-books get written and distributed? It’s because not everyone feels they have the ability to write a top-notch product. Rather than release an inferior E-Book, they feel as if they have to miss out on the chance to use this marketing tool. But, they don’t have to miss out on a thing if they hire a ghost writer to write their E-Book for them.

A ghost writer is a professional writer who specializes in writing material that their clients can use as if they wrote it themselves. They will take your information and/or ideas, and craft an E-Book which lists you as the author. Ghost writers are used by celebrities and other famous folk, professional people, plus your average business person who wants to take advantage of the quality writing that these talented writers can produce.

You can do the same thing by hiring a ghost writer to bring your own E-book to fruition. The ghost writer will be able to help you assemble your information by writing a high quality E-book that will list your own name as the author. You don’t have to reveal the fact that you had help from a professional to get your E-Book written, and you can be sure that the person you choose to do your writing will handle you needs in an efficient and competent manner.

Though you must pay a fee in order to have a ghost writer work for you, you will think the finished product was well worth the cost. Why not look into hiring a ghost writer for all of your writing needs?

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

Heart Harmony

Putting your business into words

Category: copywriting, marketing tips | 1 Comment »