Kreative Ramblings
Archive for August, 2009
Learning Life’s Lessons
Author: Karen McGreeveyPay Attention to Your Inner Talk
I have BAD news and GOOD news…the bad news is my main computer has taken a turn for the worse and has been sent to the “infirmary”! When my computer kept shutting off after I had turned it on, and did this several times in a row over one morning last week, I decided it was probably a good time to have someone with a lot more experience than I look at it.
The GOOD news is two-fold.
When I took my computer in, I was informed they were having“free tuneups” all this week…so I’m getting it looked at, cleaned, etc., initially at no cost! Woo hoo!
The other “good news” is I finally listened to me. And it’s paid off. If you’ve been reading along here regularly, you know sometimes suggest tasks you might perform, or various products and tools that could help you in your business.
One of my tips was to do regular backups. Which I have been doing regularly, usingCarbonite Online Backup.
Fortunately, I’ve had a second computer that I’ve used off and on the last few months more for “turning on and turning off”, checking online email, surfing the web, all while taking my time getting it set up so I could begin to use it on a regular basis. <
One of the other recent suggestions I’ve written about was to use PC Mover to transfer files from an old computer to a new computer. Luckily, I had that “moving day” about three weeks ago.
So, this past weekend I logged in to Carbonite, selected their “Restore” files feature (to get Carbonite installed on my new computer) and to begin the “restore” of my files.
So, I”m not missing a beat…well, I am a little because of the file transfer time…but the good news is I am not losing my files.
Note to self: Pay attention to those “inner voices” more often!
Jewels of Life: Believe, Dream, Internet Marketing, Tips and Tricks, Working with a VA
read comments (0)Consistency is the Key to Blogging
Author: Karen McGreeveyWhen creating your business blog, consistency is the key to keeping readers coming back time and again.
Your readers will come to know you by your brand, your writing style and even the colors
and fonts you use.
Therefore, you want to make a practice of maintaining consistency throughout your blog.
Before creating your blog, if you haven’t done so already, think about what colors and font styles you are going to use.
You want your business blog to flow with your business Web site, so using colors and styles from there would be your best option.
If you don’t have a Web site for your business, use colors and styles in your logo or from something that customers will recognize as your business.
And if you have a logo for your business, be sure to use it on your business blog.
If you already have a business blog up and running, but feel it is “noisy” or there are too many colors and font choices, choose 2 to 3 colors to use throughout and then choose only one or two font styles at the most.
Having too many colors and fonts can appear cluttered, and your readers will soon lose interest because they will feel overwhelmed by all the busy-ness.
Consistency is not only in the appearance of your blog, but in the content as well. When you are creating posts for your business blog, they need to be geared toward your products, services and your business.
Your writing style should always be consistent.
It’s okay to put some personal flair in your posts, but the main content should be professional.
If you use a ghostwriter to write your blog content, be sure touse only one or two, otherwise you may end up with too many writing styles and your readers may pick up on the fact you use ghostwriters.
There is nothing wrong with using a ghostwriter, just be sure they are consistent and produce the kind of content you would if you were actually doing the writing.
When you are consistent on your business blog, your customers will come to trust you because consistency shows reliability and when your readers know they can rely on you, they will buy from you.
Jewels of Life: Believe, Tips and Tricks, Internet Marketing, Working with a VA
Your Talking Traffic
Author: Karen McGreeveySo now we continue with our last three tips as a conclusion to yesterday’s blog post about getting traffic to your site.
3. Is your traffic leaving as soon as they hit your landing page? If they are, you know you have a problem.
As soon as users get there, you want to reinforce to them they’re in the right place. Says John Marshall, founder and CEO of http://ClickTracks.com, “Make sure the keyword the user clicked is associated with, and strongly connected to the copy in that landing page, and throughout the experience…
“Just paying attention to that could probably get you a 20% to 50% improvement in your conversion rate.”
4. Where people are exiting your site
This is especially important when you have customers leaving in the middle of checkout. If you see a high rate of users, with full shopping carts, leaving on a particular page, you can pinpoint what’s costing you sales:
• If they’re exiting on the page where you explain shipping costs, you might see that your shipping appears higher than your competitors’.
• If they’re leaving halfway through filling out the buyer’s information, you might consider that your buyer questionnaire’s too long.
So, as you can see, Web analytics puts you in a position to know what’s working on your Web site and what isn’t.
It’s also a way to determine where you need to make changes and then measure how effective those changes are.
Jewels of Life: Believe, Tips and Tricks, Working with a VA
What Your Traffic Is Telling You
Author: Karen McGreeveySome time ago there was a popular song with the words, “listen to your body talk”. Which can also be associated with how you pay attention to the rise of your business.
Brick-and-mortar stores often change displays, move goods around, and put impulse items beside checkouts.
Which can be so annoying!
The reason behind these changes is they’re really not trying your last nerve, but rather they’re analyzing customer traffic and studying behavioral patterns to understand how consumers shop.
As an online retailer, you need to study your customer traffic as well, in order to increase sales.
In fact, there are a number of web traffic analytics companies that analyze your customers’ shopping patterns. They follow your customers’ clicks to and through your web pages and provide you with valuable info on how your customers experience your Web site.
For instance, if you pay attention to what the “traffic to your Web site is telling you, you will learn:)
1. Which keywords bring you not only the most hits but also the highest conversion rates.
People often find the generic words they use bring them a great deal of traffic, but that traffic averages a shorter stay on the site.
The longer people spend on your site, the more likely they are to buy something. Analyzing that data allows you to see which keywords are effective for you.
2. The average amount of time users spend on your site.
Due to latent conversion, this is a good indicator of how business will be in the coming months.
If your users are taking their time, looking at things carefully, that tells you they’re really interested and will likely come back to complete the transaction.
Stop back here tomorrow; we’ll have a couple more tips to help you analyze your web traffic.
Jewels of Life: Believe, Tips and Tricks, Working with a VA
The Power of E-books
Author: Karen McGreeveyHave you ever wondered why e-books are so popular?
Can anyone write and publish an e-book?
It is well-known that people log on to the Internet in search of information each day, and the best way to give it to them is through e-books because they are quickly and easily delivered. In fact, their contribution to the marketplace is one of the fore-running advertisement methods in use today.
Using e-books to promote your business
When you offer free e-books to those people who visit your site, you are giving them the opportunity to know more about the product/service you are promoting. So by writing on a topic that you are familiar with, you set yourself as an authority in your particular field.
How do you write an e-book to help boost the traffic and sales to your Web site?
Can anyone write an E-Book? YES.
Even if you think you don’t have what it takes to be a writer, if you try you’ll see that it is not that difficult. The main thing is to write about something you are familiar with, to find the perfect niche for your business.
If you love video games, then write about video games; if you are good at fishing write about fishing techniques–you get the picture. When your readers see that you are an expert they will develop a trust in you and they will be more eager to do business with you.
After your e-book is finished, all you have to do is convert it to a PDF format. You can use any PDF converters that are available on the Internet.
Now that you have this knowledge, get going as quickly as possible.
After all, time is money
Jewels of Life: Believe, Dream, Tips and Tricks, Working with a VA
How to Achieve Your Writing Goals
Author: Karen McGreeveyTake baby steps!
Make them doable. If you set a goal to write 100 articles in two hours, chances are you’re not going to be able to do it.
No way, no how.
But, if you say you will write two articles in four hours, you’ve set a goal with a time-frame that you’ll most likely reach.
And along the way you’re likely to end up finishing a much larger goal, too.
In addition to taking the “baby steps” be willing to put your writing project aside and to look at it again in the cold light of the morning; if necessary, rearrange, replace and revise the elements of the piece to tell the story more clearly and more artfully.
Then perhaps repeat and repeat.
Long ago, I worked in the Editorial Department of a major magazine publishing company. The editors would write and rewrite and rewrite…their columns and articles…before the final piece was finally sent to the printer to be published.
And, also have the discipline to learn and to apply the rules of spelling and grammar, and their usage. Though true, when your work is accepted for magazine or book publication you will usually have an editor or someone who will catch any major mistakes. However, clients prefer to work with those who know and follow the standards of professional writing.
Jewels of Life: Believe Tips and Tricks, Tutorials, Working with a VA