It is so easy to get off track for our objectives, by allowing ourselves to be distracted with bright, shiny new things.  Now that’s not saying we shouldn’t look into the latest methods – but we really have to exercise a level of restraint when doing so.

How many times have you opened an email and found a call to action for the latest list building technique, the one technique that will increase sales by 500% and so and so forth….?  Depending on which email lists you are signed up to, you may even see several messages a day offering you different products or services to benefit your business.

Certainly, some of these products or services are worthwhile for different businesses – in fact, these products may be more appropriate for different businesses at different times.  However, I question whether all of the products are as effective as they are made out to be – or whether they are appropriate for all businesses, all the time.

Do you find yourself rushing out to grab the latest and greatest product or service to help build your business?  Have you found that once you have grabbed this product, you can’t use it or that it doesn’t fit your business operations?

When I see the next ‘latest and greatest’ product through my email, I ask myself - how does this help me meet my business goals and objectives?

I then ask myself what tools I am currently using, that may do the same or similar functions to the new product and consider whether I will actually get a Return On Investment to start using it. Often the cost to change business operations far outweighs any improvement the new product may offer.

This is why having clear goals and objectives for your business is just so important!  If you don’t know what you want to achieve, how can you decide what will work for your business and what won’t?

As a business owner – do you have clear goals and objectives, do you know what toolset you currently use?  Do you stop and assess your product and services purchases and how they will benefit your business now and in the long run?

If not – don’t you think it’s time you do?

Finally, I ask myself whether I am the right person to even evaluate the product, service or even method – or whether I should seek advise from someone who has a better understanding.  This is an age old dilemma – as a business owner, we must take care to ensure we educate ourselves sufficiently to make an informed decision, but how much can we utilise someone elses expertise to do so?  I know that I am approached my many of my clients asking for either a general or specific opinion and then we, as a team, evaluate the new offering filtering it through the businesses specific requirements and situation.  I also seek advise on new offerings from my colleagues, peers and other consultants – I find that I develop a view of the offering that allows me to investigate further or decide not to pursue at that point in time.

I would love to hear about your experiences with taking on new products and services – how have you evaluated them, how beneficial (or not) have the purchases been and what would you do differently next time?

Bright, Shiny Things – Business Benefit or Business Distraction? is a post from: Ask Charly Leetham |

Related Articles

1. Is This Business Opportunity Right For Me?
2. Using Giveaways To Maximum Effect For Your Business
3. 4 Ways To Boost Self Confidence For Women In Business

The training was great – whilst I already had a good understanding of Wishlist, I picked up a heap of excellent tips and some great resources.

I am very pleased to announce that I am now Wishlist Member Certified!

Aptly fitting, well I think so, is the fact that Wishlist Products are running a great offer until March 17th 2010.

From March 11th-17th, WishList Products (who sell the famous WishList Member software) are giving anyone who purchases a Single Site license the chance to get a second license for just an extra $25 (74% discount).  All you need to do is click here to get your 2nd Wishlist Member license for $25.

Related Blogs

• Final Robin Hood Trailer Earns Anticipation – Screen Rant
• Texas Insider » Democrats Cancel All Hearings in Anticipation of …
• Peeing My Pants With Book Anticipation – THE QUEEN OF PALMYRA …
• Stress… and anticipation too « Social Worker-to-be
• Anticipation « The Ardent Thread's Weblog

Certified! Wishlist Member Certified is a post from: Ask Charly Leetham |

Related Articles

1. Wordpress Membership: Wishlist Member Enhancements
2. Wordpress Membership Sites: Wishlist Enhancements
3. Start Your Membership Site Today – With My Help

Enjoy.

Release is a post from: Ask Charly Leetham |

Article Of Interest:

Free Content For Your Niche Site.

Perhaps you have some clients you are coaching right now and you are seeing a steady stream of income.  However, you need to keep in mind that eventually these clients will move on and you will need new ones lined up and ready to go.  It is absolutely essential that you continue to market your coaching business now, while you are busy with current customers, and not wait until they are done.  If you wait, you will likely see a decline in income as you find new clients.How do you get new clients?

When you are already busy, finding new clients can be challenging.  Here are some simple ways you can find new clients.

• Ask your current or previous customers for referrals – without a doubt, word of mouth referrals are a great way to build your business.  Offering a monetary incentive for a new client referral demonstrates how much you appreciate their faith in you and whilst a referral fee is not a new concept, it works for both offline and online coaching.  However, you will find that many of your existing clients will happily provide you with a reference – simply because you do a great job for them.

• Have a website or blog where you can showcase your expertise.  People will go to your site to check you out and see what your coaching program is about.  Ensure that you provide tips that show you know what you’re talking about, but don’t give away everything for free or you won’t get clients.

• Lead generation on your website is incredibly important and having a special giveaway offer in order to collect names and email addresses of people who visit your site.  These leads may be potential customers and by using Follow Up Emails and a regular newsletter, you can stay in contact with them.  In addition, it’s really important to have a way for your prospects and clients to easily contact you, as they may have questions regarding your services.

• Another way to secure new clients is to post helpful information and answer questions on appropriate forums.  This is a great way to build relationships, develop credibility as an expert, and gain trust.  Be helpful on these sites, and you will find that people will come to you but directly and blatantly marketing will most likely alienate your readers.  In fact, blatant marketing of  your business on forums is frowned upon and can even get you banned – so be sure to follow the rules of the forum and see how others are posting and answering.

• Get to know other coaches in your field.  Sometimes an associate will decide to cut back on her client load, or has an emergency where she can’t take on her next batch of clients – simply because of the relationship you have developed with her, she may refer these people to you.

Your coaching business not only needs clients to succeed, it needs good material.  By good material – it should be what the client wants.  Always take note of how coaching sessions are going, and always ask for feedback.  That way you can tailor your program to your clients.  You may think you know what they need, but it might not be what they want.

Are you a coach?  What methods do you find helpful in finding and securing new clients?  What has worked well for you, what hasn’t?  Leave your comments below…

Creating A Successful Coaching Business is a post from: Ask Charly Leetham |

Related Articles

1. Great Resources To Help With Your Online Business
2. Balancing Your Business Operations
3. Increasing your business using Appreciation Marketing and Promotion Gifts

I was really pleased to see that Aweber has introduced two new features to their offering that makes it possible to start your list before you get a website… if you are an affiliate marketer, this is a perfect way to get started at a relatively low cost.

Introducing Aweber Hosted Forms and Smart Video Thank You Pages.

Hosted Forms are the logical extension to Awebers Customized Optin Forms as you can now host your custom opt-in form on Aweber.  A perfect option for those just starting out.  Aweber also give you some great suggestions on how you can use their hosted optin forms….

Of course, if you want to put audio or video on your hosted opt in form, you still don’t require a website.  For video, you could consider using You Tube, one of the myriad of other video sharing sites or a service Audio Acrobat.  For audio, Audio Acrobat will provide you with the code to embed on your form and have it display a nicely formatted player (I’m sure there’s other ways too!)

The Smart Video Thank You Pages are the perfect match for hosted forms – once your subscriber has submitted their details, you can now redirect them to a page (hosted by Aweber) that will show them exactly what to look for in their email box and how to confirm their request.  Of course, the Video Thank You Pages only work if you have confirmed Opt In turned on.  The video below shows how easy it is to configure a smart video page…

Couple the hosted forms with the new Smart Video Thank You Pages and you have a winning combination.

How Many Ways Can You Use A Hosted Form & / or Smart Video Thank You Page?

I’m interested in how you think you could, or do, use the Aweber Hosted Forms – share your comments and links below for others to see….

Build Your List Without A Website! is a post from: Ask Charly Leetham |

Related Articles

1. Have You Tried The New AWeber Form Generator?
2. Wordpress As A WebSite Platform
3. Email Marketing: When Do You Agree To Join A List

Enjoy.

Be Free is a post from: Ask Charly Leetham |

Article Of Interest:

What Does Your Profile Say About You?.

Please connect with me on my Facebook Fanpage as well and join in the discussions….

Facebook FanPage: Adding An OptIn Box To Your is a post from: Ask Charly Leetham |

Related Articles

1. Facebook Privacy Settings – What Does It Mean
2. What Does Your Profile Say About You?
3. Build Your List Without A Website!

This application allows you to post content created on your Blackberry to your Wordpress blog – and that’s a selfhosted or .com Wordpress blog.

Whilst I can’t imagine writing much more than this (the fingers get a bit tired) – I can see how this will allow me to share passing thoughts.

Do you think you can use this type of functionality?

Wordpress For Blackberry is a post from: Ask Charly Leetham |

Related Articles

1. Self hosted Wordpress or Free Wordpress?
2. Wordpress As A WebSite Platform
3. Wordpress As A Membership Site

These events offer you FREE products… but the truth is that a giveaway is not truly free. In order for you (or your referral) to receive your free gifts, you have to give your email address away to every marketer whose product you download.  Unfortunately, this tends to fill your mailbox with emails promoting one thing or another several times a day, everyday, it can be really inconvenient.  However, handled properly, it can be a small price compared to the new load of ebooks and software you get hold of.
I’m going to discuss how Giveaways work for Contributors and Site Owners.

For Contributors….

A contributor is someone who provides a gift that is included in the Giveaway event.  As a contributor to the event, you will get a new subscriber to your list for every person who downloads your products.

Seasoned contributors often offer multiple products to the Giveaway, which multiplies their opportunities for list building. I have to say that sometimes the reasoning behind this, alludes me…. If you are offering similar products, I feel that getting the same person to opt in to different lists would have little benefit.

For contributors, a targetted giveaway event is a great way to build your list.  OK – a giveaway event in general can be a good way to build your list – but retention of subscribers may be an issue if you contribute to a Giveaway outside your niche.  What I mean is that if you are a Health And Wellness expert, and you contribute to an Internet Marketing giveaway not only would your conversion (or take up) rate for offers be low amongst these subscribers, your unsubscribe rate is likely to be high as well.  However, if you contribute to a giveaway event that is targetted around your niche, your subscribers are likely to be far more interested in your offerings and what you have to say.

Giveaway Owners

Giveaways are also great for the giveaway owner.  In fact, the site owner benefits most from the giveaway event as they get the benefit of your initial signup when you first visit the Giveaway plus all the referrals (people) you send to the site because those referrals have to opt-in with their email address before they can even see the products being offered for free download.

Making Money?

In some Giveaway events, you may make some money as a contributor.  Certainly, building a targetted list is highly likely to bring in a steady income from offers you make through your follow up emails.

Some giveaway events, may offer commissions on any sales that are made during the signup process for your referrals.  When you become a contributor, you are given a link to send your referrals to – this is also known as an affiliate ID or affiliate link.  When someone uses your affiliate link to visit a Giveaway and buys the One Time Offer (OTO), you as the referrer gets the commission for the sale.

Personally, I don’t participate in Giveaway Events for the income opportunity – I want to build a list of people who are interested in what I’m sharing first and foremost.

Why Should You Promote?

Another benefit of using your affiliate link, is that when you refer people to the Giveaway event, your offer is ‘ranked higher’ and is displayed on ‘higher’ or ‘earlier’ pages on the Giveaway event. By having your gift displayed on pages as close to the first page as possible, you increase the number of optins you will receive.

It is also important to understand that as a Contributor to a Giveaway Event – you are expected to promote.  Some Giveaway Events will not allow you to add a product to the Giveaway, or display your product, until you have sent a certain amount of traffic through your affiliate link. Promoting the event in a gracious manner, will not only let you list your product, but will build your credibility among your peers as well.

If you want to find events to join, I list the events that I am supporting and promoting at Current Giveaway Events and in my weekly newsletter.

Now, I know that a lot of my readers have had experiences, good and bad, with Giveaways – share your experiences below….

Using Giveaways To Maximum Effect For Your Business is a post from: Ask Charly Leetham |

Related Articles

1. Bright, Shiny Things – Business Benefit or Business Distraction?
2. Still More On Traffic And Listing Building
3. Creating A Successful Coaching Business

Enjoy.

Unique is a post from: Ask Charly Leetham |

Article Of Interest:

6 Tips For Great Sales Copy.