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It’s all about the dash – In between life and death.

admin — Mon, 07 May 2012 20:41:38 +0000

Are you making a difference with your life?

What does your dash (example: 1949-2009) look like?
Are you waiting for life to happen or are you making a
difference along the way?

Guest post by Debbie Zimmerman – Co-Founder of The 100 Women Project

The “dash” is what separates your birth date and the day you die.
It’s all about the dash. What does your dash look like? Are you waiting for life to happen or are you making a difference along the way? Here are ten tips/suggestions to help your dash be meaningful, impactful and full.

4 of 10 tips:

Be proactive. Stop waiting for others to do something and take action.
Set goals and take action steps to reach them. Small steps each day will get you where you want to go. Set new goals every 6 months.
Practice random acts of kindness. Be compassionate and kind.
Volunteer and give to others. Whether you are donating time or money, the impact is the same. Making a difference in this world is priceless.

6 more tips:

Create your own opportunities. You can wait for life to happen, or you can make it happen yourself.
Slow down. We are moving at the speed of lightening. Take time to call a friend. Eat slower, Move slower. Smell the roses. You will be surprised how fulfilling this is.
Get out! Get out of the house. Get out of the office. Get out of your shell. Stop sticking to your routines. There is a lot of life out of your comfort zone!
Change your mind. Have you been procrastinating about something? Once you change your mind, you can accomplish anything. If you have been waiting to start a new project, lose some weight, exercise, learn a new skill….then change your mind to do it today.
Find your passion. Then, enjoy every minute of it.
Be true to yourself. Stop trying to please people all the time and make yourself a priority.

What does your dash say about you?

Debbie Zimmerman is the Co-Founder of The 100 Women Project, www.100womenproject.com a healthy social network where she is creating a ripple effect of health and happiness around the world…one woman at a time. She is a sought after motivational speaker for corporations and events, writer, weight loss coach and a Certified Holistic Health Coach. Feel free to contact her at debbie@100womenproject.com

Comment from SocialNetBlogger, Karen Teeters: Thank you, Debbie! I love these little tips about living life that seem to come from the ageless wise ones. So whether you are running a small business, taking care of home and family, or writing a blog, I welcome all to borrow a bit of wisdom listed here. Make a difference today and share these wise words.

I invite you to take a look at this site, SocialNetBlogger.com and its sister site, FiveStarSiteMakers.com to see how the SocialNetBlogger/FiveStar team uses blogging, social media and WordPress to get great online results! We can take you on the road to getting fantabulous results for your small business site too! For a FREE website or social media evaluation contact us at karen@fivestarsitemakers.com.

Karen Teeters is a full time online marketer, blogger, website designer and developer. She is an avid fan of the power of WordPress websites! For more tips on online and social media marketing, follow her blog, SocialNetBlogger.com and visit our website creation website at FiveStarSiteMakers.com. You may republish this article in full. Just make sure you list this paragraph and provide a link.

7 Proven LinkedIn Group Strategies That Actually Get Results!

admin — Sat, 05 May 2012 02:22:44 +0000

LinkedIn Groups are Dynamic Marketing Tools for B to B Small Businesses

by KarenTeeters

If your small business is involved in business to business marketing and you haven't started using the power of LinkedIn groups, why not?

Let me give you a quick idea of how dynamic these groups can be. A few weeks ago for my local MeetUp group that I run, Business Blogging and Online Marketers, I posted the meeting to all my local Linkedin groups with the enticing title of my topic of How Do I Get All These Blog Topic Ideas?

I added the link to my MeetUp page for people to RSVP and guess what? I had a record number of people at the next meeting! The number doubled as a matter of fact. When I asked for a raise of hands as to who found out about the meeting from LinkedIn, fully half of the people attending raised their hands!

Another LinkedIn group win. This past week I posted what I thought was an eyeball grabbing topic on blogging. I listed an attention getting question and a brief description of my own article with a link. I received three comments on the first day and they are still coming. And did I mention that I also got someone to sign up for my newsletter from this effort? Social Media marketing does work but it really works well when you use the right networks for your market or audience! LinkedIn rocks for business to business!

I could list these same types of posts and links to my Facebook Business page and most days not get any comments! What is nice about the Linkedin Groups is that my group posts are sent out in e-mails to all of the members of the groups! On Facebook, you're lucky if one or two people comment on your post. Facebook may see your post as “popular” and actually place your post on the news feeds of the people who have liked you. No comments and you get next to no shares. Yes, I like LinkedIn Groups because I get results!

So what are the steps you need to take to get these same kind of
great LinkedIn Group results for your small business?

Sign up for LinkedIin and fill in your profile to the max if you have not already. Read a book like The Power Formula for LinkedIn Success by Wayne Breitbarth for great pointers.

Connect with people that you already know if you have not already and check what groups they belong to for your own interest or just check the groups list in the top menu bar. A hint to find local business networking groups is to search your town or county name.

Search the groups for business topics that pertain to your business. See how many members are in the group. Check out how active the members are and see if what you do will definitely be of help to the members.

Already having an active blog post with great helpful articles already published is a huge prerequisite to having success with LinkedIn Groups. Basically you need great content to share and link to, to be seen and respected as an authority in your field.

Start posting cool questions and tips with links to your own articles. Check your email in bin for any comments that you get and don't forget to comment back! Keep posting on a regular basis. The consistent bird gets the worm.

Make sure at the end of all your blog post articles (that you linked to) that you have a sign up opt in box for your newsletter for people who like your writing. They need to sign up for your newsletter to get your most recent blog posts and special offers, right? Keep track of the email sign ups that you get right after you post on LinkedIn.

Take note of the group members that comment on your LinkedIn group posts. These are people you may want to connect with on LinkedIn if you have not already.

Have you used LinkedIn groups to get your marketing message out? You probably know then that you can't just be telling people how great your product or service is. Spam is not appreciated. Mentioning helpful tips or questions with a well written eye grabbing headline is key. Very often you will see the group leader make a statement in the sidebar. It is usually advice to use another discussion stream in the group for promotional announcements. You need to abide by the rules so that you will not be banned!

Please feel free to share the success stories you have had with LinkedIn groups. And please share a few of your own pointers that you don't see listed here.

Business Bloggers as Professional Writers, Not Really a Novel Concept

admin — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 20:14:10 +0000

Ready, Set, Write. It's the only way blogging works for you

By Karen Teeters

examine your blogging intentions

It's always a good time to reexamine your goals, and intentions when it comes to your business blog writing. I bet you put together an amazing list of goals at the beginning of this year to get better results with your business blog. And here you are further along in the year and not everything is happening the way you planned. Right?

stuff gets in the way of writing

Don't worry. You are in good company, myself included. But it is not time to despair and make yourself wrong. Last week crazy business stuff happened and you did not write the two blog posts you said you would write. You did not follow the ideas in your editorial calendar. You did write a few paragraphs of something that came to you. But you never finished it 'cause stuff got in the way. Yes, those last few sentences are semi-autobiographical for me too, I confess.

stay committed to your blog writing

It's like your new eating plans or new intention plans. Just because you fall off the wagon does not give you an excuse to uncommit to your new plans. I have been reading a lot about what it takes to be a writer recently. And if you have committed to your business blog plans, you have committed to being a writer. So what do the best, professional writers do? For one thing, they see themselves as a writer. Have you done that yet?

How to see your list of business blogging goals in a new light as a WRITER:

These are now your writing goals. See yourself as a writer first.

The first thing a writer does in the morning is write for several hours.

To meet your financial goals, you need to write consistently.

Write blog articles so you can promote with social media and search engines.

You are paying yourself to write and publish your blog - you are a professional writer.

freedom to be a professional writer

Give yourself the freedom to be creative and open to put that pen to paper or those flying fingers to the keyboard and write something amazing. An article that will help your existing and potential clients solve a problem or see a challenge in a new way is inside you and needs to come out. Let it. A professional writer has a transforming affect on the reader. Can you imagine how you will feel when everyday or almost everyday, you get up and write an article before you do anything else? You will feel like an accomplished, professional writer, I promise you!

professional writing goals

Those goals you wrote are great. They are now your professional writing goals. Is that empowering? Sit down in the chair. Write something on the paper or on the screen. Start with one sentence. Now the next. I think you've got it! Do it everyday for 21 days straight and the experts say you will own that new habit. Ready, Set, Write. Seeing yourself as not just a business blogger but as a professional writer is not a novel concept. Own it.

Biz Blog Tips & Tricks: Adding YouTube Videos Is Fall Off A Log Easy!

admin — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 01:55:01 +0000

Make Your WordPress Blog or Website
Fun with YouTube Videos and They Will Come

by K. Scott Teeters

Remember the line from the movie, “Field of Dreams” that goes, “If you build it, they will come.”? (you have to whisper that line to really get it) Well, a while ago when I was researching other car blogs to see what the other car bloggers were up to, I noticed a pattern. Some were pages and pages of text and information, which is good, but after a few dozen pages, gets a little old. And then others had lots of variety – pictures, slide shows, videos – you know “fun stuff.”

Then… I heard a voice. A quiet voice. Almost a whisper. And it said, “Make it fun, and they will come.” It made sense to me because I had keyed into about 4 car blog sites that I kept visiting because they’re FUN. Hey, if I want to read dry material, I’ll go to the Wall Street Journal. So I came up with a short list of fun things to add to my car blog to, well, make it FUN. This short post will address how to add YouTube videos to your WordPress blog pages.

YouTube WANTS you to post their videos on your website. And they make it relatively easy. After you find a YouTube clip that you’d like to use on your site, look under the black control bar just under the video window, you’ll see a button that says, “Share.”

The page will change slightly and you’ll see a dialog box with the pages URL address on the left side and to the right, there’s an “Embed” button. Click the Embed button and you get this…

Again, the page changes slightly and you’ll see another dialog box with the HTML gobbledy-gook code highlighted for you in orange. Go up to the browser’s menu bar and click “Edit,” then “Copy.” Now the embed code for the video is stored on your computer’s short term memory. If you are going to be adding the video at a later time, you can paste the code into a document to use later.

So, now you have the code. We do our blogs with WordPress, so I’ll describe how I add videos to a WP site and then how I add a video to a web authoring program, such as Adobe GoLive.

If I was adding this video to a blog post, I would have opened my “Edit Post” page, as seen below.

After I decide where I want the video to be placed on the page, I type in the page layout “zzz.” This is just a marker I use to find the placement on the HTML side. Now it’s time to wander into the strange Land of HTML. To do that in WordPress, I click on the tab that says, “HTML.”

Now the page looks like this…

Pretty frightening stuff, isn’t it? But be brave, we’re almost there. Remember the “zzz” I typed on the layout side? Here’s how to easily find the spot. Up at the top of the browser’s menu bar, click Edit, the look for “Find.” A little window will open at the bottom of the page with a dialog box. Type in “zzz” and click the “Next” button to the right and POOF! Look what’s highlighted in green – my “zzz.” I then click on the page layout area and highlight the “zzz.” If the Embed code from YouTUbe is still in your PC’s short term memory, all you have to do is click Edit from the dropdown menu, then Paste, or click on your keyboard either “Control + V” or “Command +V” and the copied Embed code will drop in over top of the “zzz.”

There’s only one thing left to do. Here’s the straight Embed code for my video…

Notice the part of the code at the top that I highlighted in red that says, “.” This sets the width of the video window on your completed page. “853” is a measurement in “pixels” and 853 pixels is very wide. My CorvetteReport.com blog site is setup so that the copy area where my posts and articles are shown is 650 pixels wide. So, in the code, I replace “853” with “650.” If I didn’t change this, the video window would run over my right sidebar.

After I have dropped in the code where I want it using the “zzz” method of finding a placement within all the htlm code, I click on the “Visual” tab on the right side of my WP Edit Post page and it looks like this…

The yellow box with the little “F” in a circle is the video. If I click the Preview button on my WP Edit Post page, I’ll see this…

And POOF! There’s my added feature video. Once you’ve done a few, it’s actually easier to do than it is to explain. Now you “could” have gone the easy way and just added a clickable link to the YouTube page. But, there’s just something about seeing a video window on a page that makes the mind say, “Hey, let’s see what this is about.” But if it’s just a text link, there’s a tendency to say, “I’ll go there later” and most likely you won’t remember.

If you are NOT using WordPress, the technique is essentially the same. When I add videos to my sites made with Adobe GoLive (this will apply to any web authoring program), I insert a “zzz” where I want the video to be displayed, highlight the “zzz,” then jump over to the HTML side. In GoLive, if I highlight something, it’s still highlighted on the HTML side – a very nice feature. If your web authoring program doesn’t do that, it will have a “Find” function in the Edit dropdown menu. Open the Find tool and type in “zzz” and it’ll find your place marker. Then just paste the Embed code over your marker and your YouTube video is now on your page.

A brief word about the YouTube videos. Adding YouTube videos to your site does not tax your server because the video is being created by YouTube and is coming from them. However, if you add LOTS of videos to your page, it will add some load time to your page, as the computer and browser has to create the video box and interface connection. But a few videos will not cause anyone’s PC to crash.

So, there you have it! Now you can add videos to your posts that are connected to what you are talking about. Remember, “Make it fun, and they will come.” – Scott

I invite you to take a look at this site, SocialNetBlogger.com to see how the SocialNetBlogger team uses social media and WordPress to get great online results! We can take you on the road to getting fantabulous results for your business site too! For a FREE website and online marketing strategies evaluation contact us at karen@socialnetblogger.com.

K.Scott Teeters is a full time online marketer, blogger, website designer and developer. He is the writing and illustrating talent behind CorvetteReport.com and an avid fan of the power of WordPress websites! For more tips on online and social media marketing, follow the blog, SocialNetBlogger.com. You may republish this article in full. Just make sure you list this paragraph and provide a link.

The Why and Not the What of Business Blogging

admin — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 03:20:58 +0000

Does your inner “Why” come through
in your life, your business, your writing?

by Karen Teeters

Profound TED Videos
(enjoy the TED video listed at the end of this post)

An associate of mine recently shared with me one of those amazing TED videos where the innovative movers and upcoming shakers of the world get on stage for 15 or so minutes and rock the audience with profound, life changing thinking. You have probably seen many of these videos on YouTube.

Simon Sinek's TED talk is titled How Great Leaders Inspire Action. The basic premise of his talk comes from his 2009 book titled Start With Why. His book became a big hit with corporate America.

Simon Sinek's Golden Circle

He talks about a Golden Circle, emphasizing the why, how and what of living. What does this mean to you?

Here is Simon Sinek's Golden Circle:

He explains that so many people when they talk about what they do, especially around business, will explain it from the outside in. You go to a cocktail party and you are asked what you do. You explain your line of work and you talk about what you sell, what service you offer.

Simon believes that the really great thinkers and leaders like Martin Luther King JR and Steve Jobs did not reach their greatness by sharing what they did but Why they did it. This is authentic sharing or being from the inside out. This is the passion that comes from doing something whether or not you are paid to do it.

People Who Believe What you Believe

Here is a wonderful quote from Simon Sinek, “If you hire people just because they can do a job, they’ll work for your money. But if you hire people who believe what you believe, they’ll work for you with blood and sweat and tears.”

I would like to look at that idea from the perspective of small business owners. When you hire a small business owner or entrepreneur, you want to hire a person that believes what you believe. I like to think that is why my clients have hired me. Many of my clients have told me they have spoken with other services, but that they want to hire me because they know they can work with me, that I “get” who they are.

I could not ask for a greater compliment. I feel the same way in that I want to draw to me the clients that have a Why as the inner reason that drives their what.

"Why" do you Blog about your Business?

I love it. So why do you blog about your business? Do you want more sales, more profit? That is not really the Why of your writing/blogging efforts is it? If you are like me and many of my clients, you are a passionate small business owner, an entrepreneur who started a business because you have a knack for something, a real love, a passion.

You might, for example, be an an excellent accountant who loves what you do and want your small business clients to do less of what they do not like to do (the books – the numbers stuff) and more of what they are good at – what they enjoy (the sales stuff, the massage therapy, the nutrition counseling etc.). So it is not the What you do (works well with numbers), it is the Why you do it (works well with people-makes their work lives easier) that moves you to get up in the morning.

Trust your gut to perceive the Why

It is that kind of passion that can move a small business owner to write engaging blog articles about the Why of who they are and what they do. When someone reads an article written by someone who is passionate about their business and life, it leads to a curiosity to look deeper and possibly hire that person.

Don't you normally know in your gut who you want to work with or hire? Doesn't that normally come from a perception of who the person is rather than what they do?

So why do I write blog articles about writing business blog articles? I love seeing small business owners like myself find success. That is my Why.

And I really do believe that this online content writing is so much more powerful and connecting than yesterday's billboard or magazine ads. The personal one to one style of writing a business blog gets to the Why so much better than blasting out today's special offer (the what).

Today, we want to know, like and trust who we buy from and the internet has made that so possible, so transparent. Let me read a person's LinkedIn recommendations and find out what real people think about a business owner. Is this person coming from the Why or the what?

What kind of blog articles has she posted in her blog, LinkedIn or Facebook groups? Are they helpful knowledge or blasting out commercial offers? Is she coming from a deep, personal Why or what money can I make today motivation?

Get in touch with your inner Why – Watch the TED Video

Are you in touch with your Why? Do you want to work with people that have a Why? Does your Why come across in your blog or online content writing?

Simon Sinek's TED video is a bit over 18 minutes but is definitely worth the time to absorb and consider. View it. Afterward, you may want to sit down and take an introspective minute to write down your Why. And may that drive your day and drive your business to the success you seek.

I invite you to take a look at this site, SocialNetBlogger.com and its sister site, FiveStarSiteMakers.com to see how the SocialNetBlogger/FiveStar team uses social media and WordPress to get great online results! We can take you on the road to getting fantabulous results for your small business site too! For a FREE website or social media evaluation contact us at karen@fivestarsitemakers.com.

Karen Teeters is a full time online marketer, blogger, website designer and developer. She is an avid fan of the power of WordPress websites!. For more tips on online and social media marketing, follow her blog, SocialNetBlogger.com and visit our website creation website at FiveStarSiteMakers.com. You may republish this article in full. Just make sure you list this paragraph and provide a link.