Jun 01
Attend this exciting Digital Publishing Virtual Summit from 12th to 14th June & 19th to 21st June 2012
20 World-Renowned Experts – Several sessions per day! Each day, there are new presenters with new ideas and fresh ways of approaching the challenges of marketing a book to build your brand in today’s changed publishing environment.
There will be 20, action-packed workshop sessions in four content areas:
1. Promoting Your Message
2. Book Creation Strategies
3. Creating Multimedia Content
4. Making Money with your Message
My friend, and event founder, D’vorah Lansky puts on a fantastic event. You can sign up for free and watch a brief video.
Check out the amazing speaker line-up:
* Lynnette Phillips: “It’s an Amazing Time to Be an Author”
* Roger C. Parker: “Creating a Map to Your Personal Branding Success”
* Sandra Beckwith: “No Need to Pack for a Virtual Book Tour”
* Marnie Pehrson: “The Anatomy of an Amazon Bestseller Launch for Print and Kindle Books”
* Craig Cannings: “Accomplish More in Less Time by Teaming Up with a Virtual Assistant”
* Jim Edwards: “5 Ways to Have Your eBook Done By Next Friday”
* Joel Friedlander: “3 Keys to Book Design Success”
* Aggie Villanueva: “Why a “Category” Bestseller at Amazon is So Important & How to Get One (or more)”
* Val Waldeck: “Book Creation Strategies: Extending Your Reach”
* Kristen Eckstein: “How to Go from eBook to Printed Book”
* Michelle Schoen: “Easy Digital Publishing with PowerPoint”
* Felicia Slattery: “Produce Talking Head Videos and Drive Traffic Right to Your Book Site”
* Erin Ferree: “How I Went Viral with My eBook And You Can Too!”
* Dr. Jeanette Cates: “Build Your Credibility with An Online Course”
* Jackie Lapin: “Internet Radio—Your Launching Pad for Digital Products”
* David Hancock: “A Blueprint for Success Without Stress, Now and In The Future”
* Ali Luke: “Marketing Your Digital Book or Products with a Powerful Sales Page”
* Ellen Violette: “Kindle vs. Self-Publishing, How Should I Publish My eBook”
* Terry Whalin: “Become a Prolific Writer and Write Less: Repurpose Your Message and Sell More Books”
* Leesa Barnes: “Multiple Streams of Virtual Event Income”
May 12
What a lifesaver….Just read a blog post from Niel at WpDude describing the benefits of installing a plugin called WordPress Editorial Calendar. Usually I have post-it notes all over my desk with exerts of blog post ideas I want to follow up with. It does get a bit untidy and of course some ideas do get lost in the shuffle.
I have installed this plugin and I am amazed at how easy and convenient it is. The WordPress editorial calendar allows you to setup a schedule of posts to publish or write in the future. It also allows you to create a schedule of posts that are in outline or draft that you intend to write at a later date.
The plugin also comes with a video to show you how to use it. You can download it here
May 12
is a registrar I use and trust. I use HostGator for hosting my domains as it has 24/7 online support. If something goes wrong with your site it usually happens after hours ( usually in the middle of the night… if you work late like I do) and it is so reassuring to be able to contact a person and get help quickly.
Apr 16
Free Tools You Can Use To Build Your Business
Project Management
Google Apps– Surprised? Don’t be. This is exactly what I use to track my projects – well sort of I also use it conjunction with Google Calendar and Docs.
Just to be clear though, I use Google Apps for my day to day business management and not the normal Gmail.
Web Based Productivity Suites
These are systems that provide your business with fully hosted web mail, team chat or collaboration, online office suites like spreadsheets, word processor and presentation tools. You can also build internal wikis and web sites with them.
GoogleApps
Email Marketing
Email marketing is the corner stone of every online business regardless whether your product is physical,
electronic or content based. There are tons of free scripts out there that claim to be able to do the work for you.
Stay away from them! Seriously. I’ve been burned badly by those you can read all about it if you wish.
The following are services we found that are fully hosted meaning the software and deliverability is all on the
service providers. This is important because the last thing you want is to have your Internet or web hosting
account shut down because of your mass mailing activities.
MailChimp – 100 subscribers, can only mail out 6 times a month and a MailChimp logo is added to all your
emails.They have great tutorials and support forum. They also have a paid version. I find the free version is robust enough for all my business needs.
Aweber they have been in this business for a long time. They have good deliverability rates to make sure your emails get through. It’s not free but they are one of the longest staying and reputable ones around. They do have a trial version you can use out to see if this is the product your business needs.
Shopping Cart or Checkout Systems
That’s why we’re in business right? To sell something? These shopping carts offer free basic accounts. A WordPress plugin is a lot easier to handle than installing a stand alone shopping cart system when you’re new to this stuff.
MarketPress is an easy to use, best designed and most powerful ecommerce / shopping cart plugin available for WordPress today.
Blogs
Some things need to be hosted yourself for maximum benefit and growth of your business.
WordPress is what I recommend and pretty much the only thing I use on all my sites. I do not recommend
WordPress.com because they have strict rules about advertising and more. I also don’t recommend Blogger
anymore because of the lack of control. Blogger has also been known to delete blogs ‘by mistake’. You definitely
don’t need that kind of agitation. You can get free themes but I recommend getting a paid theme as these will give on going support and forums to help with editing and setting up the blog.
Appointment Scheduling
GenBook – You have to pay for this but can get a trial version
Google Apps Appointy – Appointment Scheduling Software | Online Scheduler (FREE)
Invoicing
Billing Boss – is a totally free invoicing application with pretty features. The user can easily keep track of billings and payments. Account at Billing Boss can be integrated with PayPal. In result, customers can pay your invoice online immediately. Further, the mobile version of web interface is also available to interact with application on iPhone or G1.
Apr 16
According to the Small Business Association, 63% of all small businesses fail in the first 5 years…the top 5 reasons are:
1. Lack of vision and SYSTEMATIC strategy
2. No marketing SYSTEM
3. No client follow-up SYSTEM
4. No Multi-team SYSTEM -Trying to do too many things at once
5. Doing everything from scratch and without SYSTEMS
Notice the trend above (see red capitalized words)?
Definition of Business Systems: A methodical procedure or process that is used as a delivery mechanism for providing specific goods or services to customers.
The problem with most small business owners is not simply that they are doing too much work, but that they are doing the wrong kind of work. They should be looking at where their input adds the most strategic value to the business. Put a value on your time. What is it worth to the business?
Do you have systems in your business?
Such as autoresponders,
Client Manual
Client collaboration software
Lead Generation
Website
Business Plan
In this post I have a list of free business systems tools
Share your systems for a more efficient work day….
Apr 15
How do you remove your flash drive?
It is a really bad idea to just yank a USB flash drive or external hard drive out of the USB port. You should safely remove it to make sure none of your important data becomes corrupted.
There are several ways to do this. The most common one is to squint at the notification area by the clock in the lower right corner of the screen and look for a tiny green icon, click on it, and click on the drive.
Another way to do this — without squinting — is to click on Computer, find the drive, right-click on it and click on “Eject” in Windows 7 or “Safely remove” in Vista. Still a lot of clicking but it’s easier to see.
If you already know you’re not going to remember that way either, try a utility called USB Disk Ejector. It will work on anything from XP to Windows 7. It’s super easy to use. It can eject things that Windows (Vista in particular) fusses about and won’t let you eject without swearing at it.
You can make desktop shortcuts to your drives, and if you put Disk Ejector on a flash drive, it can even eject the flash drive it’s on. Don’t ask me how they do that, but I’ve tried it and it works
You can download here for free
Apr 11
The new era of publishing: Making it work for you
One of the biggest challenges an author faces is How To Publish your work.
With the development of new platforms such as Kindle and E-pub, it so much easier for an author to publish their own books and reach their readers directly.- bypassing the middle man of Traditional Publishing.
These new platforms demand time learning them and time to implement them.
My name is Susanne, I am a Virtual Assistant and Certified Online Book Marketing Specialist based in the middle of British Columbia, but working globally. I work with my clients to help them achieve their goals by freeing up their time so they can get on with what they do best… and enjoy the most.
Like you, I have a great interest in books, and as a Community Librarian I had the opportunity to set up and host visiting authors for their book tours.
Most importantly, I have the time and expertise to promote your book online, so you don’t have to worry about doing it.
How can I help you?
The key to really making your name known is having a successful PLATFORM (more readers = financial success).
Your platform consists of:
Having a great looking Author blog, customized to reflect the look and feel of your book is an essential part of marketing online
These are just two of the services I can offer you.
What about actively promoting your work through a Virtual Book Tour, without even leaving your desk? I can arrange (virtual) locations, create the itinerary, and put together a campaign to make sure that everyone knows about it!
Regardless of where you are in the publishing process, it is never too early to start working with Sues complete Web Solutions to promote and market your book. So why not get in touch with me today and together we can bring your book to the world!
Treasure of My Heart Book Blog
Apr 11
Just wondering around my hosting c-panel and noticed that they offered free SEO Tools. They even create a site map of your website and submit this to search engines including Google and Ask.com.
Another great tool is Attracta!™and they claim they are the World’s Largest SEO service. They offer One-click Malware and Google Blacklist check
and they Build Back Links so that you can get more traffic from Twitter and Facebook. Attracta crawls your website finding all of its pages, including pages that can’t be found by search engines’ crawlers, to create an XML Sitemap and SEO dashboard report also they help you find and fix SEO errors.Attracta provides a step by step check list that is very interactive. and give you a site score that grades your site based on Google’s Webmaster Guidelines for increasing search traffic from 0-100.
My c-panel also has SEO video tutorials and tips. I didn’t realize there was such great resources right at my fingertips. I really appreciate Hostgator as a hosting company. They sure give good service. Does your c-panel have free SEO tools? Go check it out.
