As some of you know, my first website was about career planning and career change. One of the challenges of a mid-career executive or professional is, “My career seems to be going nowhere. Should I hang on or make a change?”

Business owners face a similar challenge. Recently I was talking to a client “Daphne” who had 3 websites, all relating to her main business area. (I’ll disguise the details as usual.)

Daphne began her services as a wellness coach after becoming frustrated with her nursing job. She knew she wanted to offer classes, info products and one-to-one coaching. She was invited to hold classes at a fitness center, so she decided she’d better get a website together. She found a designer and put together “HealthOne,” a site that now, she says, causes her intense embarrassment.

Daphne also started “HealthBlog” on blogger.com. She began posts related to diet, exercise and time management. (Time management?! She’s fascinated by the topic and points out that time-pressed people can be less healthy,)

Several months later, Daphne learned WordPress and put together a more professional website, “HealthTwo.”

HealthTwo seems to overlap a lot with HealthOne. But Daphne’s afraid to merge the websites because HealthOne has been around awhile and is an authority site.

Now let’s look at “Craig.”  Craig began his career as a professional organizer. He was asked to help plan some events, based on his organizational skills, and now he is more of an event planner. Craig wonders if he should maintain his site as a professional organizer.

Both Daphne and Craig have to make decisions about their identity as business people.

Daphne has to look at the facts.For example:

Is her first site, “HealthOne,” really high in the Alexa rankings? Does she have energy to maintain both sites? How are her clients benefiting from access to two sites rather than one?

Daphne has to be careful about getting bogged down in logistics. She can start wondering, “What pages from HealthOne should be moved to HealthTwo? What about menu bars? What about posts from two blogs?” Those issues are fairly straightforward; an hour with a copywriter or online marketing consultant will answer all those questions. Her real challenge is strategic.

Craig has a bigger issue – and it’s one I can relate to. I first kept up my career site with a weekly newsletter. Then I cut back to an ecourse that’s sent automatically. Now I’m probably going to set the site up to sell products and offer services only on request. It’s hard to give up something that’s earning revenue – until you realize that your energy could be invested to earn even more. In my case, there’s also a synergy, as some clients sign up for one service and then ask for the other. I’ve had  career clients ask me about helping them start a business and business clients wonder about career moves.

Ultimately, Craig’s challenge gets down to his identity as a business owner and professional. He has to be careful of holding on to an identity he’s outgrown. Sometimes it makes sense to hold on to a former business; at other times you have to be ruthless: take down the first website and start over completely.

If you’d like to discuss your options, check out the Laser Marketing Makeover: http://budurl.com/lasercopy

As a copywriter I create a huge amount of content. Clients often remind me that they get busy and don’t have time to write articles, ebooks, blog posts, sales pages and more. Most of my clients are busy – even time-starved – and they need to make one marketing tool do the work of three.

And that one marketing tool needs to get created very fast.

If you’re faced with this challenge, you may find your answer by holding teleseminars. The beauty of a teleseminar is that once you’ve got a system going, you can accomplish more in less time because you use your teleseminar over and over again.

Here’s what I’ve done with just 1 teleseminar.

(1) I recorded the call as part of the regular Cat Chats. These calls (held almost every week). These calls accomplish several purposes:

… Connecting to people on my opt-in list

… Market research

… Promotion of products for myself and for affiliates

(2) Unexpectedly I was asked to participate in a joint venture, where I’d be part of a telesummit. I needed to come up with a giveaway info product and didn’t have time to write a new ebook. My gift was of this one-hour teleseminar recording drew over 100 new subscribers to my opt-in list.

(3) I offered the teleseminar recording as a bonus for a paid product.

Time to create the product:

Set up Time: 5 minutes.

I had my teleseminar recording system in place.  I use InstantTeleseminar.

Write the Landing Page: 15 minutes.

I am a copywriter and I’ve created templates, which I will share at the forthcoming workshop. If you’re not used to copywriting you might need some more time.

Modifying the Landing Page for the Bonus Giveaway: 10 minutes.

Organizing the Call: 15 minutes.

Since I give these calls often, I can put my notes together quickly. I’ve also got some tricks for creating content for a teleseminar so you can do the same. And I’ll share those on the forthcoming workshop as well.

Now … compare this to writing an ebook. No comparison!

We’ll talk more about this topic on Friday’s Cat Chat.

We used to think of creating one BIG website for our businesses. And we expected to make this website become a humongous project…taking a year or more.

Today a lot of savvy entrepreneurs are trying something totally different – tightly niched mini-sites that make money from Adsense ads and sometimes selling your own products and services.

You may have gone through the process of setting up your site – spending hundreds or thousands of dollars. Sometimes ths investment will make sense. For instance if you sell a service, your site has to be set up with care so you develop credibility and introduce yourself to your prospects.

An alternative for some services is to create a set of mini-sites – each 4 or 5 pages max. Your mini-site includes a home page, a contact page, and at least a couple of pages of content, such as articles. You may need a page for your privacy policy but of course you can create this page just once – on one website – and then refer visitors over and over.

Your business can be put together with one or two mini-sites and then add more as your business grows. Because you build each site in WordPress, your construction time is minimal. In fact, once you set up one site, you can just clone the format. You’ll soon discover which plug-ins make the most sense and bring you the best results.

Don’t tear down your current site. Just make notes of what’s working and what’s not. Then begin working on your mini-sites.

You can get a step-by-step guide to mini-sites, created by my friend Connie Ragen Green: It’s affordable and it’s a good way to get started quickly on making money on the Internet. http://bit.ly/tinysite

Service business owners and independent professionals often realize that branding is a key component of online marketing. Your brand answers the questions, “Why are you special?” and “What kind of problems do you solve?” Branding helps you stand out from competitors, get noticed and get more clients.

A branding strategy begins with identifying your niche: you identify your core strengths in terms of your clients’ needs and challenges. Branding strategies include developing a strong connection to your market and a communication strategy.

Here are three steps to begin establishing a strong professional brand.

1. Assess your strength, area of expertise, gifts and talents.

What makes you fabulous? I call the answer to this question your “Fab Factor.” Often it’s hard to identify your own Fab Factor because you are so close to your own offering. Don’t be surprised if you recognize your Fab Factor when you begin writing content for your website, especially when you begin listing benefit and features.

2. Develop a clear way to state your uniqueness.

Professional branding process is about becoming aware of how your strengths and talents uniquely serve your target market, and then letting everyone know how your expertise can be applied to solve their problems. Your content needs to present a clear impression of who you are, how you work, why you’re passionate about what you do, and what prospective clients can expect when they work with you. You need strong copywriting to present yourself as an online presence, readily differentiated from the competition. No wimpy noodle copy allowed!

There are two parts to this requirement. First, you need a consistent message. Many business owners think they can demonstrate consistency by using a logo. In fact, your content and message should send out a consistent “vibe.”

Additionally, you need to communicate through a number of channels, all of which refer back to your central website. These days you’ll want some combination of a blog, social media presence, and article marketing.

Many experts believe that establishing a professional brand is essential to long term, sustainable business growth. You will most likely be competing in a crowded market so you’ll need to stand out authentically, based on your core strength, message and niche. Your brand includes your reputation for integrity, your ability to deliver value and your on-time, reliable performance.

What are your top strengths and talents? What do you do better than anyone else? What does your niche struggle with and why do they turn to you for help?

Answering these questions will let you take your first step to achieving a compelling brand and a profitable online presence.

And for more personalized attention to your own brand promise check out my express workshop: Express Lane to Reach Your Niche.

Many of my clients think copywriting begins and ends with sales pages. But you’re creating copy – content for promotion – when you interact with clients.

Example 1: You offer a get-acquainted call to a prospect. He says, “I really want to hire you -but I have to talk to my team members before approving the expenditure.”

You say: “When do you expect to make a decision? Who else is involved?”

You write copy for a follow-up email. Let’s say your prospect anticipates a decision in 2 weeks. It is now March 1.
On March 10: Your follow-up email refers to the earlier conversation and asks for a status update. You can use language like, “where you are in your process.”
On March 20: If you’re not signed, you can politely follow up again.

If appropriate, you may need to remind prospects of the lead time needed to set up call. for example, “I am booking 2 weeks ahead.” Or, “I can work with just 6 clients and have room for 2 more.”

Example 2: You meet Bob at a networking event. He offers to try out your newest coaching program.

First, either way, create an agreement. Let Bob know you are beta-testing. Your agreement can be just a simple email agreement spelling out your mutual responsibilities. You’ll save LOTS of hassles later. You will also get a chance to test your agreement for clarity.

Second I would recommend that you charge at least a small amount. Your dynamic shifts when money changes hands.

Third, if you don’t want to charge and/or you are doing a trade, make sure your agreement spells out what you will do. At the very least, Bob should agree to give you a testimonial if he is satisfied. If you have a mutli-session program, or a product delivered in stages, check Bob’s satisfaction at each stage so you won’t have surprises.

This post was prompted by a question from a coaching client. Learn more here.

Somehow I lived this long without gambling (unless you count the occasional football pool). Never placed a bet on a slot machine.

While I’m here in Las Vegas attending Shine, I spent some time with Jeanette Cates, an established and highly successful Internet marketer. One of my Seattle friends insisted, “You’ve got to place at least one bet!” and Jeanette agreed to show me the ropes.

Well, I got quite an education – in marketing. Jeanette explained that gambling forces

Some people will never place a bet – not even a small one that they can easily afford to use. They’re totally risk averse or they’re afraid they’ll get hooked.

You can protect yourself by setting limits. Before you place a bet, decide how much loss you will tolerate before you leave and when you’ll decide you’ve won enough and you need to cash out.

If you hit a losing streak, change to a new machine or change the way you bet. For instance, you can bet a different amount per line (don’t ask me to explain).

Most important, follow your intuition. When you feel drawn to a machine, maybe you should play that one. When you feel turned off or just in the wrong mood, don’t play.

No matter how you strategize, you’ll have some great days and some bad days.

Well, here’s what I did. Jeanette guided me to one machine. I added $20. First I won a little but then hit a losing streak. Time to find a new machine.

These machines have themes. Star Trek? Weather? No thanks. Ah – there’s a machine based on the theme from Sex and The City television show! One of my faves. OK, I was drawn to that machine. We transferred our balances. This time I got a bonus play…and some bonus spins of the wheel. Soon my $20 became $75.

My friend who challenged me to place a bet will get treated to a good dinner. And I think I learned about a lot more than gambling.

I’ll be incorporating some of these lessons (indirectly) when we begin the workshop next week. There’s still time to sign up at the Early Bird rate. Just go here to learn more.

Ouch…it happened to me today. My first website was related to careers and I still offer products and service related to career change and relocation, although very rarely these days. The website is http://www.midlifecareerstrategy.com

But you may not be able to reach it. Here’s why.

I was getting ready to send a message to my career list, something I rarely do. I was going to recommend an article and a really good book, as well as a visit to the career site. Fortunately, I checked all the links before hitting the “send” button. There, right in front of me, was a big red flag where my website should be. Something about “malicious malware.” Me? I barely know what malware is.

However, after being on the Internet awhile, I knew just what to do. First, I googled, “Website flagged by google.” Sure enough, I found some threads that applied to me directly. One of them warned about widespread misuse of these warnings, apparently due to some flaw in the google redirect. If you’re interested (and somewhat technically inclined) you can read about it here:
http://bit.ly/c8Uw6x

I also found advice to call my webhost, which in my case is Hostgator. That’s another thing I’ve learned from being on the Internet awhile. You absolutely, positively need a website with 24/7 support. One guy who “usually is around to return calls” won’t cut it.

The Hostgator people said they’d take care of searching for the problem and then tell me the exact steps to take to get in touch with Google to restore the site.

Additionally, I posted to Facebook, where I received a number of helpful suggestions. One comment confirmed that the problem is widespread. Another reiterated what the Hostgator rep said: make sure you have the current edition of WordPress. Older versions get hacked. Hmm…that site went back to Version 2.7, a real dinosaur.

The final lesson: When working on the Internet and helping people with their websites, you need a complete bag of tricks. Sometimes I can help my clients in ways that go way beyond copywriting, just because I’ve been around and because I had to be very hands-on with my first websites. Sometimes I can turn a client’s problem around very quickly with the Breakthrough Consultation, just because I’ve been there and done that so they don’t have to.

http://bit.ly/c8Uw6x

Offering teleseminars is a powerful way to build your list and establish credibility online. Here are 3 ways you can use teleseminars for business growth.

Promote Yourself With Professionalism: The Showcase Teleseminar

When you’re new to the world of teleseminars, you can get your feet wet with a showcase call. You get interviewed by a pro, who asks questions designed to demonstrate your expertise. What’s nice about these calls is tha you aren’t bragging or boasting. You just answer questions truthfully. They just have to be the right questions. If you are new to this medium, I’d invest in some coaching to create questions and rehearse your answers.

You can negotiate with an interviewer or wait to be asked. You can also work with a marketing coach to create an interview call, record the call, and promote it on your website. I offer this service for my own clients. Visit http://www.goodcatmarketing.com/showcase.html

Get to know your clients: The “Ask me anything” call

Once you’ve got a following, you can invite clients to join you on a call where they create the content. You just promote the call and answer questions.

On the plus side, you get to learn a lot about what your clients are thinking. You come across as an expert. You might even offer to solve their challenges as a demonstration of what you know. I offer this option on just about all my Cat Chats.

This type of call can be difficult to implement when you are new. If clients don’t value your services they won’t get excited about free information.

Gain credibility by borrowing expertise: The Expert Interview call

When you interview an expert, you deliver value to your market, so you increase their loyalty and build relationships. Since your expert probably will promote a product or service, you will benefit when your listeners buy through your affiliate link. When you publicize the call, you grow your list because many people will sign up just to get access to the expert.

After interviewing lots of experts myself, I recommend that you listen to your guest before inviting him or her to join you.  Some experts turn out to be disastrous guests. Lay down the ground rules and  be firm. I once had a “Big Name” guest arrive with 17 pages of single-spaced notes (she told me – we were a thousand miles apart). She refused to deviate by even one word. My audience hated her.

Learn more: Guidance on teleseminars is included in most of my services pages.

If you’re like many service biz owners, you’ve identified a niche but reaching that niche remains a mystery.

Maybe you’re trying to reach female CPAs, new homeowners in Texas, or local health clubs that aren’t filling their classes. Once you get them, you want to sign them up for your services. But where are they? And how do you let them know what you can do?

Are you frustrated because…

…they need your services but they won’t pay

…you can’t get a listing of names and addresses

…you aren’t sure how to find them on social media

…you’re spending time and energy with no payback

…you’re starting to wonder if you should give up and go elsewhere (but they seem like such a great niche…why stop now?)

Recently I talked to several people who reported different variations on this challenge. Often they believed they had to invest in elaborate time-consuming processes. They weren’t using the full power of content to reach their juiciest targets and pluck the low-hanging fruit. That’s like lighting a room with 100 candles instead of turning on a light switch.

So I just opened the doors to a simple new program. Here’s the gist:

Who? Any entrepreneur, solo-preneur, mom-preneur, soul-preneur (and whatever other possible preneur title) who’s tired of throwing money and energy at a target market that seems to be moving farther and farther away.

What? If you’re tired of programs that leave you feeling, “That was interesting, but nothing new,” then you need to be aware that you will walk away with specific results.

This is a structured program. We are not going to just get on the phone and gab about whatever is going on in your biz. We are going to begin with exercises to uncover your “Fab Factor:” what makes you fabulous. We’ll look for your strengths and skills that can be monetized. And you will finish with at least three specific steps you can implement immediately with content strategies that translate to your own copy.

Your own program will be customized, but you can expect to walk away with…

…an action oriented approach to defining your niche (that makes the copy practically write itself)

…a clear understanding of your own unique Fab Factor: What should you promote to create a Fabulous Online Presence?

…my own closely-guarded secrets to creating an About Page and Home Page that attracts your target market

…at least 3 techniques and approaches to reach your niche (and we’ll skip the ho-hum “hang out in forums” unless you want to go there)

…my three-step Niche Quality Test: Is this target worthy of your efforts?

…tips to create an elevator speech that makes your niche members want to learn more

…how to get more targeted traffic to your own website and blog (without arcane SEO formulas and expensive programs)

You will get questions before each ONE-ON-ONE call. Each call operates like working with a personal trainer at the gym: we follow a specific series of steps. When you get involved and try out the exercises, you discover new energy and come away with results…sometimes a transformation of mind or marketing.

Where?: Your office, living room couch, poolside…anywhere you can sit with a phone and take notes. Not recommended for driving.

When?: Pick any 30-day period and we will get started. I have allocated a limited number of slots each month to this special.

How Much?: I want this opportunity to be a no-brainer. My ears are sore from hearing people talk about going to a mega-thousand dollar program and coming away with ideas that sound great … till you get off the plane and go one-on-one with your own business.  We’ve all been there.

So (at least for now) you get two 60-minute calls, email support for the 30-day period, reports after each call… Just $297 for 2 calls.

That’s not a mistake. It’s a special. How long will it last? No guarantees, no promises…a week, a year, who knows? But it’s on now.

How to get started? Click this link and get ready to reach your niche and rock.
Yes – let’s get started!

And we’ll do it!

Artists often ask me about creating websites. Most artists just showcase their art without spinning a story.

However, I came across a truly unique example of art marketing by Owen Garratt, a Canadian from Alberta:
http://www.pencilneck.com/

As far as I can tell he doesn’t have an affiliate program, but he does have a brilliant website. His video is a model of how to create a promotional video: scripted with a good story. Currently I don’t need any art (my condo looks like an art museum as it is). But his website made me wish I needed some art.

Just one caveat: I’d use caution when giving any artwork as a gift; art choices can be very personal. One person gave me a small sculpture of a cat. I hated it. But, not wanting to hurt that person’s feelings, I sent an enthusiastic thanks…and hid the object in the back of a cabinet. The next year I got – guess what – another one! Now both these objects have found a home in the Goodwill donation box.

I’m tempted to make this assignment in my next virtual class: Go to this site and list everything he does right. We have too many examples of what people get wrong.

To test your own site, download your own 5-point Online Marketing Checklist.