I decided to create a video review on popular guest blogging platform – My Blog Guest, as this is a site (and tool) I use quite often.

Watch the video for tips on how best to use the site and how to make it work for you – and your niche.

The video contains tips on the following:

*how to use the site
*the two keys to making the site work for you, and not against you
*why I use it so often
*why I believe it’s an excellent resource for guest blogging
*and more

Whether you’re new to guest blogging or have experience in it, MBG is a good resource in your online content marketing strategy. However there are keys in using it correctly and getting the most out of it. Watch the video above for my tips, insight and opinion on My Blog Guest.

Do you have questions on this topic or the site? Please leave them below and I will answer each and everyone of them.

Kindly,
Missy

p.s. Are you curious as to how guest blogging can help your site, contact Missy now and get a FREE consult.

With attention spans getting shorter and shorter, new apps are hitting the market that allow you to communicate with your community or user base faster and easier.

Case in point? Vine.

Vine is a new app that allows anyone with an iPhone (Android not available, as of this writing) to make short 6 second videos. These videos can also be quickly shared across popular social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

We heart the idea and concept behind Vine and decided to write a piece for those who have stores or – blog shops – on how they can use Vine to creatively promote themselves. See our tips below.

50 Ways To Use Vine To Promote Your Store or Web Shop

1. Tell a short story – a pictorial, if you will
2. Showcase your products – like this
3. Feature your staff – or yourself
4. Ask a question (or six)
5. have fun with your logo and make a movie out of it
6. loop your website or blog
7. create a quick tutorial (it’s possible, just consolidate and squeeze!!!)
8. highlight a customer
9. discuss Vine on your blog (show others how you use it)
10. create a character/mascot and feature him or her on video
11. show your pet wearing your creations
12. get a testimonial in 6 seconds
13. make a fun silent movie (like they did on this episode of The Apprentice)
14. go street walking, and get potential customers on camera by asking them a fun or pertinent question
15. capture the essence of your brand with several still images (be creative, since you don’t have much time)
16. feature a competitor and note the differences between them and you
17. make a *visual* mission statement
18. create a 6 second FAQ
19. have a Pinterest contest for awesome Vine videos (be sure to give out a great prize)
20. feature winner or winners of said contest with a Vine
21. demo how your products can be used – if you sell fabric, feature ready made clothes fashioned with your fabric
22. get email sign ups, by creating a cool Vine only landing page
23. feature customers in store – using your product or service
24. get clients to make Vine videos of themselves and feature them on your blog
25. get reviews (of your customer service) on Vine, solicit them on your social media accounts and via email
26. feature the BOSS in a funny costume, have your Facebook fans caption the Vine
27. create a 6 second news segment (about company news)
28. create a 6 second cartoon (featuring your store)
29. create a 6 second commercial (make it funny, no – make it hilarious)
30. play hide and seek – grab one of your products, hide it under a towel and have your customers GUESS what it is for a sweet prize
31. feature a weekly “customer of the week”
32. feature a monthly “employee of the month”
33. showcase a “product of the week”
34. HAVE FUN, do something crazy and wild – you decide here what that is for your specific niche and industry
35. Explain in words why use and heart Vine
36. Demand Android availability from Vine creators on their blog
37. Randomly pick a social media follower on Twitter or Facebook and Vine them (as in thank them)
38. Have a fun contest to get more Vine followers
39. encourage employees to come up with *new* Vine ideas – the one with the best weekly idea gets a free lunch
40. create a fun weekly segment – such as “Ask The Boss Something Personal”
41. show images of a full jar of Jelly Beans and ask “How Many Jellies in The Jelly Jar” – best or correct guess wins an item from your store
42. Guess city sport scores for the week – baseball, football pool, etc
43. make interesting or thoughtful Holiday themed Vine compilations
44. Christmas should prove to be a goldmine for Vine creativity (yes!!!)
45. so.many.ideas.so.little.time
46. play Pictionary through a carefully crafted Vine (what fun!)
47. giveaway tickets to a local sporting event through Vine
48. have customers take pics of themselves holding YOUR product
49. capture employees “singing” the praises of either your company, product or customers
50. announce a grand opening, new hire, new product line, etc
51. go outside and shoot your store – well, shoot as in Vine it (lol)

There you have it. 50 (plus) excellent ways to use Vine to promote your store or web shop. We can come up with more if you like or we can feature niche specific ideas. Simply tell us below if you want us to expand and create a Part Deux.

What other creative and fun ways can you come up with? Tell us below.

Cheers,
Missy

p.s. Feel free to link your Vine’s below in the comment area – we want to see them. Thanks.

p.s.s. Did you find this list helpful or useful? Please share it around on Facebook and Twitter. Appreciate the shares.

image above via (Mashable)

Below is a Vine created by Gap trying #2 and #21 from above. Great example.

Are you a crafter? A handmade maverick.

Do you love to make things at home?

Things like candles, soaps, jewelry, etc. If so, and want to possibly sell your handmade goods online – consider opening a blog shop.

What is a blog shop you ask? It’s a web shop with a blog attached. Quite simple really.

We use WordPress to create both the store and the blog. Essentially how it works is that you talk to me on the type of shop you want, we go over a few pre selected templates/designs and I create the blog shop for you.

COMPREHENSIVE MUST READ RESOURCES ABOUT ONLINE SHOPS:

Ultimate Guide to Setting Up Your First Online Shop

7 Free eCommerce WordPress Plugins Reviewed

We want to see your homemade goods online. Why? Because we love helping web entrepreneurs and we heart WordPress – the software used to make the shops.

It’s what we do for a living.

We work online and love helping others work online as well.

If you want to talk more about our blog shops, contact me (Missy) right now and let’s chat.

Kindly,
Missy

p.s. We use Dreamhost as the blog host provider which costs just $10.95 a month. However we will create the shop for you for FREE if you use our referral link for the hosting. Have questions? Leave them below in the comment area. Look forward to hearing about your ideas.

p.s.s. Your blog shop will be a fully fledged web store that you can put items on and sell directly to consumers.

Need more convincing?

10 Reasons To Get A Blog Shop With Us

1. We champion handmade homemade sellers here on our blog
2. Our preselected templates/designs are top notch modern styles you will love
3. We go above and beyond with customer service
4. Our Facebook page has tips and tricks about selling online
5. We heart small “mom and pop” retail shops
6. You can sell anything online that you make at home (including wood crafts, clothing, jewelry, soap, candles and more)
7. We read and follow industry blogs on the topic of online shopping/web stores
8. Our process includes hands on training on WordPress (so you can update your store yourself and make any additions or changes)
9. We use videos and Skype text chat for the quick hands on training
10. Our primary goal is to help you sell your handmade goods online

Ready to chat with me? Contact Missy now.

The page below houses the two FREE eCommerce themes and templates we work with – have a look at the screenshot or click it and you’ll be directed straight to the page for a closer look at each.

Follow us on Facebook to get blog post updates.

***VIDEO Coming of both themes above, so you can see them in action. Follow on Facebook to get notice of the video. Follow us on Facebook today. Thanks.

It’s Friday and we have an excellent round up of stories, products and goodies for you today. Read on.

This day brings you a website promotion class offered up by the guys and gals at eClasses.org – this is a 6 week class that costs $100 and is meant to cover all the main facets of promoting a website online. We wonder how many of our fellow blog owners would take a class like this. Would you?

As part of the class above, one is required to buy the book – 101 Ways to Promote Your Web Site – and we heart books like this, because it houses lots of information in one sitting. This one comes from Susan Sweeney but it only comes in paperback form – sorry Kindle users. Hopefully Susan will add a Kindle version soon.

And last but not least we bring you an informative article from the folks at Hostgator. Yes! the hosting company. They actually have quite a neat blog with good tips, specifically we want to point you in the direction of one of their latest pieces – 11 Ways To Increase User Engagement on Your Blog or Site. Have a look at this one, it has good ideas for you on getting more user activity on Facebook. Who could use more of that? – raise your hand. Ours is up.

That’s it for this Friday.

Have a good weekend, see ya next week.

It finally happened. It finally happened! You always had a “wish list” of clients in the back of your mind (or the back of your desk) and you finally were able to snag them. The meeting went great and they loved all of your work. Everything seems like it’s going swimmingly until you hear those dreaded words: “Sorry, we just can’t afford you.”

client and payment arrangements

It is the worst feeling in the world to know that you got so close – and did nothing wrong – but you still can’t work with your dream client. Or can you? Short of just lowering your fee to work with a favorite client, something freelancers are usually staunchly against (for good reason), what can you do?

Check out these great ideas below.

Negotiate Terms

If the two of you really want to work together, maybe there’s a way to work it out. For example:

·       Have the client’s staff do part of the work that you normally do – like research, finding stock photos, or posting content

·       Negotiate an extremely long deadline so you can work on this project in your down time, or alternatively, only work on the project in your off-season

·       Offer a simplified version of your services. Perhaps they only get two logo designs to choose from instead of the customary three. Or perhaps they only get one revision.

·       Barter products or services. Maybe they can’t afford to pay you in cash but can give you gift cards or services.

There are plenty of terms you and the client can negotiate that won’t affect the quality of the work.

Introductory Prices

You don’t want to lower your prices but your potential client has doubts about hiring you for the price you have now. Why not meet in the middle and give them a price they can work with right out of the gate?

An introductory price gives you the advantage of gaining a great new client you’ve always wanted while also letting them know that the discount won’t be around forever. If they get a better look at what terrific work you do and how much good it does for their business, they’re more likely to sign up for a long time.

The introductory price might even work so well you want to implement it into your regular price scheme. It could bring in tons of other clients who otherwise would go with a competitor but can’t pass up a good deal.

Talk With Them

Just because the client says right out of the gate that they can’t afford you doesn’t mean it is the final word. They may just be stalling for time or just unsure of your business prowess. It may be just the time for a little follow-up.

Email or call them back and ask to further discuss what can be done to win them over to your side. You may discover there’s much more to the story than you originally knew – honestly, there usually is more to the story, and it’s worth your time to find out what it is.

Make sure to friend them on various social media as well. Even if you don’t establish a client/freelancer relationship now doesn’t mean it won’t ever happen in the future.

Have you ever worked with a client who couldn’t afford your services? How did you work it out?

via (Tommie Media)

Writing on the web can be a great way for recent MBA grads to get their foot in the door to numerous networking and job opportunities.  You’ve already amassed a great deal of skills, so why not apply your skills to writing on the web? Here are a few suggestions for you to get started:

Start a blog with other people – If you don’t know where to start, blogging is an easy and free option. There are lots of free hosting services out there, so sign up and get started!

If you’re hesitant about doing this on your own, why not invite a few friends to blog with you? You can pool ideas, encourage each other and critique each other’s work.  If you have a bunch of recent MBA graduates on one site, it can add to the legitimacy of your articles because there is more than one person with the same level of expertise.

Rewrite or Elaborate on research papers you’ve already written – Why not use something that you’ve already written as inspiration?  You’ve worked hard on that research paper, so why not tweak it or draw inspiration from it and post it on the web? Make sure you’re not violating any policies if you’re going to post something you’ve already written for somebody else.

Answer questions on forums – This can be a great way to start writing on the web without the need to create articles from scratch.  It can help alleviate hesitations you have about interacting on the web, and help inspire ideas. You will also be helping other people with whatever questions they may have.  Just make sure you answers questions you actually have some knowledge on.

Read other articles of interest to you and offer to start a web series on that topic – Reading other blogs is a great way to see what is out there and give you an idea of what topics are of interest to others. There are also many articles that can be extended into a series of articles.  Why not approach these blogs and offer to write them? Introduce yourself and explain why you would be a great fit to write for that particular website.

If the articles you’ve read are opinion based, why not offer to write an article that states the opposite? All blogs want more traffic, and having articles with varying opinions can help interest readers. You can take it even one step further and respond to blog comments by writing an article in response to it. Don’t be afraid to approaching these blogs, the worst they can do is say no.

Hopefully some of these suggestions will show you that writing for the web isn’t as scary as it sounds. So what are you waiting for? Write something already.

This contribution comes courtesy of Online MBA Rankings – to submit your own, see our guidelines above.

The benefits of being your own boss are legion. You can make your own hours, pursue work you love… you name it. But it gets awfully lonely when the only water cooler conversation is you talking to your cat at the coffee pot.

image (via Flickr)

Nobody understands you like your co-workers. Even if you don’t have any co-workers in your own company, there are plenty of people out there who do what you do. Instead of seeing them as the competition, why not view them as the helpful colleagues that they are? Follow the tips below in order to maximize the benefits of your professional community.

Share Resources

If you’re a graphic designer, nobody will understand you quite like another graphic designer. So why not share your tips and tricks? Sure, it may sound counter intuitive to everything you know about business, but sharing resources and even leads can grow your independent business community in ways you never thought possible. Besides, if you can’t trust your members, you don’t really have a community anyway.

Even in an industry where all the businesses seem identical, there are bound to be some areas where you don’t overlap. Perhaps you work in slightly different niches (you work in the finance industry, he works in the beauty industry) or have slightly different products. No matter your differences, it’s easy to work them out so you all get a fair share.

Learning Sessions

As a community you want everyone on the same page business-wise. Not only does it help everyone grow and boost the community, you don’t have to spend extra time constantly picking up new members. For example, we hear a lot of gripes about new freelancers in all industries charging rates that are just too low to be sustainable. A strong community can prevent the devaluation of all of your work.

This is also why “learning sessions” or workshops are a great idea. Decide which subjects are most important and hold monthly or bi-monthly sessions on them. These can be online or, if you’re in a big city, at a meeting space. Bring in guest speakers as experts to give sessions a kick. Make sure to include a Q&A after to further ensure everyone is up to speed.

Start a Fun Club

It’s not all business all the time! Part of forming a community is that you’re not out there working by yourself. Small business management can be a lonely endeavor and it’s nice just to know you’re not going crazy by yourself.

So, when you’re not organizing business events, design a night full of fun and relaxation for your community members. Offline events like bowling, poker games, movie nights, or just a meet and greet at a local restaurant or bar can go a long way towards bringing everyone together. Informal online events like a Twitter Oscar Watch party could be a great way to connect. Think of events like these as team building exercises you would normally find at an office. In fact, they’re even better; since you’re not forced to be together, you actually enjoy each other’s company.

One of the wonderful things about the internet is that its one of the best ways to market your business online on the cheap. Whether you run a service business, have created a cell phone app or any other type of niche online business – you can market it on the web, all while pinching pennies.

This article covers four ways to market your business online on the cheap, and how best to go about each one. These ideas apply to any niche business that wishes to harness the power of the internet for promotional purposes. See our top four picks below.

1. Word of Mouth -

There’s no doubt that word of mouth is one of the best and smartest ways to harness the reach and power of the web, while keeping more dollars in your wallet. However, there are various word of mouth programs which you can use to drive traffic and sales for your online business, which one is right for you depends on what your goals are and how much time and resources you have to devote to it. Also word of mouth can be as simple or complicated as you wish, you can simply incorporate a small website only program where site visitors become your referral magnets or you can go all out and create an affiliate program and make a formal mission out of it. Your business, your choice – just be sure to choose the one that aligns with your overall goals and marketing objectives. Plus there’s the added benefit of this being a low cost promotional effort.

2. Email -

Although email marketing is not free, it is indeed low cost. For example, one of the most popular email service providers is Aweber, who charges as low as $19.99 a month for up to 500 subscribers. A frugal marketing effort to say the least. However anyone can sign up for Aweber, it’s another story to create a success email marketing campaign. Our advice is to seek out a mentor in your space that you can consult with to get your campaign off the ground running. Look to other bloggers in your niche as well, for advice and tips.

3. Social Media -

The cat is out of the bag. Pick up any major magazine or read any popular blog and you’ll see nothing but accolades and praise for the new web darling of the decade – social media. Which is unequivocally made up of (as of today) Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Google Plus. Pick one and create a marketing campaign that rivals that of a large print ad in The New York Post. However as noted above, seek the counsel and expertise of someone who has already created a successful social media campaign to learn the ropes from someone who has already been there, done that. Why make your own mistakes, when you don’t have to. Let others teach and guide you.

4. Giveaways/Contests -

Not only is this a frugal way to market your online business, but it’s also one of the most fun. Both for giver and receiver. The thing is that just about anything can be given away. From stickers to calendars to keychains or ebooks – which means there’s no shipping. Find a cost effective solution that gets your customer base excited but doesn’t hit the wallet hard. Get creative, have fun and be sure to also promote the giveaway on your site or blog – for max exposure all around.

Key Takeaway:

Marketing online has never been easier or more accessible, you just need to know how to best harness the power of the web – and all its many tools. Try one of our low cost marketing ideas today and take your online business to new heights tomorrow. Which idea do you plan to implement? Let me know below in the comment area.

DISCLOSURE:

This is a sponsored post, however all the points and views are my own.

1. Virtual Gifts:

- Before on Facebook you use to be able to send your friends virtual gifts such as a beer or flowers or a kiss basically whatever you wanted to send to someone to let you know you were thinking about them or just as something funny for you to share. You could actually purchase these things from Facebook it was the first time where you could actually spend money on F.B.. Even though generating cash flow the virtual gifts program was shut down on August 1st 2010 in favor of a program that allows you to send real tangible gifts instead.

2. The Facebook Wall:

- Before timeline was introduced the most used profile feature was the Facebook wall. You status update logged you into a different part of your F.B. acct and the wall was a place where you friends could send you a message strictly for you. Last year there was an outcry over the change to timeline people actually though that there private wall messages had been made public, but this was not the case. The timeline changed the pattern of this system your timeline is like one great big wall but is open to the public unless you change you profile settings and if you do that is open to other friends to see what’s going on with you.

3. Wall to Wall:

- Before threaded comments which shows you exactly what is going on from timeline to timeline. You use to have to click back and forth on wall to wall to figure out what someone was talking about. If they were having an argument you might tell someone to look at so and so’s wall. Or if you were talking to someone yourself in i.m. you would say things like wall me. It was harder for someone to find out what you and someone else was talking about. The ability to see every interaction between a friend of yours and someone you don’t know use to be contested and despised.

4. The honesty box:

- The honesty box was a pretty cool thing Facebook use to have. It allowed you to find out things like if someone liked you or who was just pretending to be your friend or even if your girlfriend was cheating. You just asked a question and it was completely anonymous, the only thing it said was weather you were male or female then wait for their response.

The app was launch in 200? And the program has since been shut down.

5. Pirate Language:

- Talk like a pirate day in 2008 was the day Facebook launched their English to pirate English translation. It was one of the cooler things F.B. had done it literally translated everything on your profile into pirate language. You can still use this feature today you just have to know where you are looking. It’s actually located in the language setting where you would change it to things like French or Chinese. Give it a try it’s worth it and fun.

Brad Randolph presents Setting Up Divs For Responsive Web Development posted at Brand-It Web Design, saying, “Learn about the 4 main breaking points to design for in responsive web design. Take those breaking points and turn them into functioning divs to create a responsive web layout.”

Brandon Yawa presents 2000 Page Views in 2 Months posted at Brandon Yawa, saying, “This blog reveals a 2 month blog strategy that generated over 2000 page views.”

Online Marketing

Jon Rhodes presents Want High Affiliate Sales? Build Up Your Trust posted at Affiliate Help!, saying, “This article shows you the value of building trust with your potential customers.”

SEO

David Leonhardt presents Does Google think it’s God? posted at David Leonhardt’s SEO and Social Media Marketing, saying, “Google looks at your website on the Internet that same way as God looks at you. Google sees what our websites are really made of – the code, the content, the information.”

Small Business Marketing

Biz Tips presents Top Ten Sizzling Ways To Improve Your Ad Copy posted at Make Friends And Money Sharing Your Biz Tips, saying, “Ad Copy needs to be insightful and respectful of its audience without sounding trite. While there’s no one way of writing copy correctly, there are some general tips that can help you sharpen your advertising.”

WordPress

Jeremy Biberdorf presents It Is Your Blogging Journey, You Make The Rules posted at Modest Money, saying, “There are things where there is no set blueprint that you need to follow. You are free to do what works for you and sometimes just wing it. Blogging is one of those things. There may be strategies that have worked well for others, but how you approach it is completely up to you.”

Online Marketing

Jeszlene Zhou presents Get you (and your blog) in the press! posted at First Comms Job, saying, “Getting featured or interviewed by the press not promotes and drives traffic to your blog, but it increases you and your blog’s credibility. This article discusses how to receive press coverage.”

SEO

Daniel Drew presents The Truth: Press Release Links posted at Content Writing King Blog, saying, “There are many people (specifically in the SEO world) that use press releases as a “link building strategy. You need to realize that these are “paid links” which by Google’s own rules paid links need to be “NoFollow” links. None of the 3 online press release companies (PRWeb, Businesswire, or PRNewswire) even allow your keyword links to be “NoFollow”, thus right there you are breaking Googles own rules.”

Shamelle presents How To Improve Your Google Local Search Rankings – My Google Business Group Presentation posted at Better Blogging Ways, saying, “Local SEO is a specialist technique that aims at getting your business name and website in front of people that are physically located near it. Therefore, local SEO is an obvious choice to promote and market your business on the Web. The following blog post provides several actionable techniques to help drive traffic and sales to your website.”

Small Business Marketing

Bill Smith presents Matt Cutts Shares His Views On Guest BloggingAuthority Articles posted at Authority Articles, saying, “Matt Cutts discussed guest posting and its influence on links on Google’s Webmaster Help video released last month. Now he appears in a new video answering a related question.”

Matt Schoenherr presents Branding 101: 12 Brand Archetypes posted at Marketing Ideas 101, saying, “What is a brand archetype? Archetypes are a concept originally conceived by famed Swiss psychologist, Carl Jung. In marketing, a brand archetype is a genre you assign to your brand, based upon symbolism. The idea behind using brand archetypes is to anchor your brand against something iconic—something already embedded within the conscious and subconscious of humanity. In the minds of both the brand owner and the public, aligning with a brand archetype makes the brand easier to identify.”

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of a web marketing blog carnival using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.