In the spirit of full disclosure so you can learn, too, here’s what I’m planning to do differently with marketing my business this year.
I will give up managing my business and hire a marketing manager so I can concentrate on Business Owner conversations and developments insteadI will create a systematic Get Known Now training that [...]

There’s one thing every single branded website, blog and podcast needs out there … and somehow very few have. That would be a USP, or Unique Selling Proposition. Back in the 80’s, I was a copywriter at Ted Bates, the New York agency started by Rosser Reeves, inventor of the USP. And man, did I [...]

As we near the end of the year, it occurs to me that we should set some really specific, concrete goals for the new year. So here’s a small assignment to complete by January 1, when you have a moment that’s not too muddled by the season.
Find some quiet time, in a relaxed, comforting environment. [...]

Every year, my husband and I have an annual ritual of spending the day in a nice inn in Vermont, and setting our goals for the year together (both work and personal.)

Here’s what my goals were for 2005, some personal but most about my business.

Increased income: I missed the mark by about 18%
Increased profit [...]

Here’s what Rich Schefren, my new business building coach, has me doing during the intervening two weeks between our calls: tracking my time, crafting my USP, and determining where I spend most of my time in my biz. I also need to determine my ‘Big Hairy Audacious Goal’ – an intersection of my passion, what [...]

What are you really good at in your business? My new business building coach, Rich Schefren, of Strategic Profits Coaching, says we should only be doing the stuff we’re good at … and outsourcing the rest.

I’ve always thought of myself as ‘good at everything’, from loading web pages to selecting key phrases for SEO and [...]

This question was asked recently on my Get Known Now coaching group’s Yahoo Group – and I rushed to reply. No! Stop! Don’t be tempted too fast!
It’s pretty irresistible when a ‘publisher’ scoops up a net beginner, and starts making promises about getting published. Especially when the publisher in question has any kind of [...]

In the spirit of Web feng shui, which I blogged about here recently, it’s time to go deeper. My good tech consultant, Lena West of Xyno Media, and I had our first ‘housekeeping’ session – where her system starts. We went over all sorts of detailed criteria about my site, and made the following observations:

The [...]

It’s the old conundrum: the shoemaker’s children are never well shod.
That would be me, and correctly marketing my sites. It’s not that I can’t do it … it’s that I don’t do it as fully as I could. (Sound familiar?) And when I sit down to make marketing decisions, I always feel like I can’t [...]

OK, holiday promotions have just hit a new low. Innocently, I picked up the phone a few minutes ago and got a recording of a cloyingly adorable child named Matthew saying ‘My dad said I could call so I hope you don’t mind.’ Then the ‘adorable’ Matthew went on to deliver a message for a [...]