I am a big fan (if you can call it that) of referrals when it comes to working with someone virtually. Most of my clients are referred to me by former or current clients. Its also a mutually benefical process because it gives each person an idea of what to expect from the other if they do get into a work relationship.

Its also one of the best (and least expensive!) forms of marketing you can do. There’s no trick to it, it doesn’t cost anything, you don’t have to worry about niches and target markets. All you have to do is a good job and clients or colleagues will gladly pass your name on to others.

Now with all of this talk of recession, the economy, and stimulus packages, many people are taking control of their careers and launching their own businesses. And they’re discovering that advertising and marketing can be time consuming and expensive.

Here’s a way we can all help each other out:

Make a Referral Week

From their website:

Make a Referral Week is an entrepreneurial approach to stimulating the small business economy one referred business at a time. The goal for the week is to generate 1000 referred leads to 1000 deserving small businesses in an effort to highlight the impact of a simple action that could blossom into millions of dollars in new business. Small business is the lifeblood and job-creating engine of the economy and merits the positive attention so often saved for corporate bailout stories.

And here’s how you can help…visit the Make a Referral Week website and sign the pledge to make at least one referral between March 9th and March 13th and then return to the site and tell them about the referral you made.

Its as simple as that. Of course, you don’t have to limit yourself to just one referral nor do you have to limit it to just this one week. But its a good start.

Related posts:

1. Building Your List with Freebie Giveaways: The Missing Ingredient
2. Blog marketing
3. Make 2009 the Year You Make Money Online

I wrote a guest post for Sparkplugging’s WAHM 2.0 about Social Media Overkill.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on how you’re using social media effectively without it monopolizing your time online. And while you’re visiting Sparkplugging, be sure to read some of the great posts there.

Here are some of my recent favorites:

From ‘Freelance Parent’ – What’s an acceptable freelance turnaround time?

From ‘Marketing Eggspert’ – If you can’t do good marketing, get out of the kitchen

From ‘WAHM 2.0′ – How Kelly McCausey sorts her PLR

Related posts:

1. WAHM Wish
2. Marketing Your Articles
3. Where in the world is April Tara?

Becoming a mom – it’s the most life-changing event we go through.  Our children become the center of our lives, and we must make adjustments to in our schedules and priorities make sure they’re cared for.  Instead of hiring nannies or using day care services, more and more moms are choosing to start their own online businesses so they can be there for their kids and still contribute to the family income.

This is especially true right now during the tough economic times we’re living in. Even if you’re comfortably existing on one income, you may find yourself on no income soon enough if your husband gets laid off, downsized, rightsized, outsourced or whatever they’re calling it these days. Do you have the recommended 6 months’ living expenses tucked away in savings in preparation for this event?

Statistics show many of us do not. This is all the more reason for mom to look for ways to make money online before the disaster strikes.

Starting an online business has a number of advantages for moms.

* Start-up costs can be kept low.  So even if you are not currently working outside the home, starting an online business is usually within reach with small adjustments to the budget.  Setting up a website means acquiring a domain name and hosting space – and with tools like WordPress available at no cost, you can literally be up and running for around $20. You will also want to invest in some education. Learning the basics of how to market your website online are not difficult, but be careful where you get your information.

The Natural Mom Business Guide is one solid source of info. It includes an ebook with detailed information about researching your target market, the various ways to make money with a website, and how to get the traffic you need to earn income. It even has video and audio tutorials as well as printable “cheat sheets” you can keep by your computer to remind you of the essential steps you need to take in your business to build traffic and make more income.

* Doing business online doesn’t require one to keep regular hours.  You can work early in the morning before the kids get up, during the baby’s nap, or late at night when everyone is in bed.  And with the automation that the Internet has to offer, orders can be processed and virtual products delivered while you are sleeping or taking care of the kids.

* You can get some work done with the kids right by your side.  Older children may even be able to help you with simple tasks.  Did you know that the IRS allows you to deduct wages (up to a certain amount) paid to a child who is age seven or older to work in your home business from your taxes? I have even trained my oldest son to add articles to my websites. He earns a nice wage for doing so, far more than an allowance, and is providing a valuable service to me.

There are all sorts of online businesses that are great for moms.  You could sell your crafts or start a recipe website, or you could start a podcast.  You might offer services such as writing, transcription, web design or virtual assistance to customers around the world.  Or you could create and sell information products.  Even blogging offers impressive money-making potential.  The possibilities are many, and there’s sure to be something out there that’s just right for any mom.

Moms make up a large portion of the people who are making money online.  This allows them to take a hands-on approach to raising their children while still making money to support the household.  They don’t have to count on a sitter to take care of their children’s needs, and they don’t have to make a commute part of their daily routine.  It’s no wonder that the number of moms starting online businesses is growing in leaps and bounds.

If you need some assistance choosing a niche, get some coaching from an experienced online marketer. Take the leap – you’ll be glad you did!

Carrie Lauth is an internet marketing mom who loves to help other moms launch profitable websites. She created the Natural Mom Business Guide for women who want to market to the “natural family” niche. To learn about how she can give you one-on-one coaching, visit her website today.

Related posts:

1. The New American Dream
2. Who IS your target market?
3. Back to School…for YOU!

You’ve read my posts about Alice Seba a/k/a The Internet Marketing Sweetie, right? I really admire her approach to marketing and she’s very good at what she does. Fortunately, she shares her knowledge with others, whether you’re just starting your online business or you’re trying to give your current business a boost.

Alice is now taking registrations for Email Marketing Reform School which is a 4-week program that takes you building a highly-targeted list and profiting from it, without working yourself half to death. Each week includes a detailed lesson and practical assignments, but the best part is the one-on-one guidance Alice provides throughout the coaching.

Now you’ve probably heard that it’s a good idea to offer some kind of freebie to entice your visitors to sign up for your mailing list. That way you’ll get more people on your list that you can turn into subscribers.

This advice can be true, but it’s only telling part of the story.

Do it wrong and you might grow the list, but your responsiveness will go down the tubes.

The Key to List Freebies: Make sure the freebie is something created by your company, represents you and your products…and is very relevant to what you plan to sell to your list.

That may sound simple enough, but I see people scrambling to acquire resell/giveaway rights to products they can put as bribes for subscribers.

Why This is a Problem

This strategy promotes someone else’s business and showcases someone else’s expertise. To have a truly responsive list of your own, you have to knock their socks off with YOUR stuff. You want to start your relationship-building off with a bang and you can’t do that giving away Joe Blow’s Guide to Growing Beautiful Tulips.

Freebie Ideas

* A topic-specific report you created (if you use PLR, take it and make it unique, add your branding and promotions).
* Go the extra mile and create a full-on course (instead of a teeny-weeny report) that will show your readers exactly the kind of great stuff you are famous for.
* Coupons and other special offers for your product – particularly for shopping cart style websites with store update newsletters.
* Useful tools, spreadsheets, software…anything your customers need to help them eventually consume more of your products.

If you currently offer a freebie made and branded by someone else…cut it out. If you don’t offer one, try a highly-targeted free offer and see what it does for your opt-in rates. Take the time to create something that will WOW your readers and they’ll be tuned into what you have to say, week after week.

To help get you started, head over to the Email Marketing Reform School website and download your free audio and transcript of “Selling Confidently to Your List” and sign up for the program. As always, class size is limited, especially since this is one-on-one coaching, so make sure you get registered quickly.

Related posts:

1. Internet Marketing Spring Cleaning
2. Nominations for Twitter “Must Follow” List
3. Make a Referral Week

I recently read a discussion on a group for legal bloggers in which an attorney was asking for comments on his blog. I haven’t met a blogger yet who didn’t appreciate comments. We all have our own personal measures of validation whether its traffic stats, RSS subscribers or how many comments we receive.

But there’s more to it than just saying “Hey, I wrote some blog posts. Can you please go read them and leave me a comment?” Blog comments are like compliments. They have more meaning when they are sincere and unsolicited.

So how do you get more comments? Well, in order to get comments you need to get readers. And in order to get readers, you need to market your blog.

Let’s start with some of the easiest and most popular methods of publicizing your blog.

Blog directories – Think of a blog directory as the “yellow pages” of blogging. Bloggers can submit their listing and, depending upon the directories format, the blogs are then categorized or tagged by topic, making it easier for readers interested in that topic to find them. Most blog directories cover a wide variety of blogging genres, both personal and business. You can also try business blog directories, most of which break their listings down into types of businesses, such as marketing, computers, health, education, and law.

Signature lines – If you have a business and you use email, you probably have an email signature. Most signatures include your name, company name and your phone and fax numbers. But what about your website or blog URL? Including it in your signature lines will let your existing contacts know about your blog. Don’t overlook forum signatures either. If you belong to any forums, check their guidelines about signatures and if links are allowed, add yours!

Leave comments for others – Everyone appreciates comments and sometimes you have to give to receive. If you come across an interesting post, show the author of the post some appreciation by letting them know. However, don’t just leave a comment saying “Great post. I agree.” Engage in conversation, even if you don’t agree. Provide interesting and thought-provoking feedback and others just might follow your link back to your blog to see what else you have to say.

Social networking – If you’re not investing some of your marketing efforts in social networking, its time to start. As I’ve said in a prior post, use places liked LinkedIn, Ning and Twitter to get the word out about your business and your blog.

But publicizing your blog to get more readers and more traffic isn’t enough. Like the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. Once you’ve brough someone to your blog, you have to give them a reason to want to stay as well as to come back again later.

Now let’s look at how to keep the readers once they’ve found you.

Engaging content – Blog writing is different than any other kind of writing. Its more interactive than journalistic writing, less “wordy” than legal writing. Keep paragraphs short and make your first paragraph attention-getting.

Visual appeal – Make sure your blog is easy to read. Avoid using fonts that are too small or don’t contrast well with your background. Break your blog into sections by making headers clear to distinguish between posts, use photos to draw attention to your content, and avoid using too many distractions like animated images or lots of ad links.

Invite and encourage – Once you’ve managed to draw a reader to your blog then kept them interested in your content, ask for their participation. Invite them to comment by asking questions like “What do you think?” or “Have you ever experienced this? How did you or how would you have handled it?” You can also add social bookmarking services at the end of your posts to encourage readers to add your post to popular sites like Stumble Upon and Digg.

Make it easy for them to come back – If you don’t have an RSS feed, get one. Give your readers the opportunity to subscribe to your blog updates by email or feed reader. Feedburner is a good choice and its very easy to set up and monitor. Once you’ve added RSS subscription options, make it easy to find. Its frustrating for readers who have found a blog they like and want to continue reading to have to hunt down your subscription info. Use an RSS icon and place it somewhere at the top of your blog. Some bloggers even add subscription options at the end of each post.

Once you’ve added some of these steps to your blogging regimen, you’ll see some increased traffic and more comments. If you need assistance with any of these, whether its promoting your blog, designing it, or adding content to it, Advantage Virtual Assistant can help. Its just one of the many services we provide for our clients.

Related posts:

1. Do you need to blog regularly if you have a service-based business?
2. Marketing Your Articles
3. Internet Marketing Spring Cleaning

One of the things Advantage can assist you with is creating and managing newsletters. The following is an article by Lisa Taliga of Virtual PA Business that explains how you can use newsletters to obtain new clients and keep your current clients informed. The original article can be found here at Ms. Taliga’s website, Virtual PA Assistant.

Use
A Newsletter To Get More Clients

by
Lisa Taliga

Imagine the following scenario: six months ago you paid someone
to come and do your gardening. You’d like to use them again but
you can’t remember their name and have lost their business card.
You end up going to another gardener, which means that the first
gardener has probably lost a customer for life.

How easy would it have been for that gardener to stay in touch
with you by sending you a newsletter with gardening tips and
product recommendations?

If you’re running your own business, you can’t afford not to
have a newsletter. Sure, it seems that every business sends
out one nowadays but that is no reason to avoid using this invaluable
marketing tool. It’s an excellent way to build ongoing customer
relationships, establish trust and build credibility.

The most cost effective way to send out a newsletter is by
email. That way you avoid printing and mailing costs, and it’s
so much more immediate.

Here are 5 tips to using email newsletters as a way of staying
in touch with your customer base:

1. Use the 80% 20% Rule

One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is talking only
about themselves in their newsletters. Think about the newsletters
that you delete and the ones that you make the effort to read.
Usually the most interesting ones contain solid information
and tips that benefit you in some way. Think about what would
really interest and help your readers and write articles on
those topics accordingly.
80% of your newsletter content should directly benefit your
reader. Only allow 20% of your content to promote your business.

2. Choose a schedule and stick to it

Consistency is the key when sending out newsletters. Whether
you decide on a monthly or fortnightly newsletter, make a commitment
to yourself to keep to this schedule. If your newsletter is
good, your customers will start to look forward to hearing from
you and you don’t want to disappoint them, do you?

3. Pick a quality newsletter provider

I did a lot of research into different newsletter services
and it turns out that Aweber is known as one of the best in
the world. I haven’t been disappointed. Aweber gives me fantastic
service at a very reasonable price.

As part of signing up, you get free templates to use. Customise
these with your logo and photo to add that personal touch. Aweber
also manages people wanting to unsubscribe from your list automatically,
which is a great time saver. You can try Aweber risk-free for
30 days here:

http://www.virtualpabusiness.com/recommends/aweber.html

4. Plan your content

Instead of inwardly groaning when suddenly it’s time to send
out your newsletter again, why not brainstorm and work on some
article ideas in advance? Think of your newsletter as an ongoing,
fun project and it will be.

5. Put your sign-up box on your website

Make it easy for people to sign up for your newsletter by putting
a sign-up box prominently on your website. Also invite people
to sign up by putting a sentence at the end of your email signature,
saying something like ‘Sign up for my newsletter with the latest
articles, news, tips and stories at ………’

The time and effort that you put into your newsletter will
pay off dividends by increasing repeat business, and bringing
in new business.

Check out Lisa’s ’5 Key Steps to Your Successful Virtual Assistant Business – Freelance From Home!’ Toolkit

Related posts:

1. Think outside the blog
2. Failure to deliver
3. Build Your Business