An automated DM in Twitter is when you use software to automatically send a direct message to new followers. I was (and still am) against them because everyone knows they’re automated and are often annoying to the receiver. They do nothing to help the receiver get to know, like and trust you better. Getting people to know, like and trust you is your main purpose with marketing.

However, I recently received this automated DM and this is the exception to my no auto-DM rule. Why? Because it made me laugh – which is clearly the goal. It is poking fun at how most people craft these types of messages and instantly made me like the sender a little more. Therefore, it did the job.

What do you think? Leave a comment please.

Andrea J. Stenberg

I know because I’ve done this too – waited for the time/situation to be just perfect before getting started.

But then last week I was reading Prince Charming Isnt Coming
: How Women Get Smart About Money by Barbara Stanny. In this book, Stanny talks about how women often wait for a man to look after their finances for them. There is one particular passage that jumped out at me.

“Please note: “Mr. Right” or “Prince Charming” need not be a man, or even a person. Our prince could be an ideal job, an insurance settlement, the lottery jackpot, or just an amorphous “something” – anything that we fantasize will save us financially. To become genuinely smart with money, we must get to the point where we can say with total conviction, I can do it myself.

This passage really grabbed me by the throat and made me realize that there are a number of projects I’ve had on hold because I didn’t have everything perfect.  I gave myself a long, hard look and realized I’ve been waiting for my business “Prince Charming”. In this case, my Prince isn’t a man either. Here’s what I’ve been waiting on and what I’m doing about it:

Schedule time

I’ve been waiting for more time to finish writing a book and several ebooks. Well, guess what? The free time is never there.  I need to schedule it to make it happen. How did I solve this? I booked several three hour chunks this month. Will it finish all the writing projects I have? No. But it will get me closer to finishing.

Don’t let cash flow stop you

I need some money to implement a couple of my projects and cash flow is tight right now so I’ve been putting them off. Instead of continuing to wait for things to get better, I arranged for some barter with a graphic designer to get one project completed. Then I looked at my accounts receivable and contacted people who owe me money.

Next, I looked out for “low hanging fruit” or ways I can make money quickly to allow me to finance my bigger projects. Finally, I looked for (and found) ways to complete my projects without spending as much money. It won’t be as fancy as I hoped, but it will get to market, which is far better than having a project on the drawing board indefinitely.

Procrastination

There are a couple of things I need to be doing to promote my products and services that I’ve just been putting off. I call it procrastination but really it should be called either perfectionism or fear of success. Either way, I’ve looked it in the eye and started implementation. I’ve created a list and committed to crossing one item off my list each day until it’s done.

If you’re like me, you have some projects that you’ve been putting off until the time is right. I heard a saying: The best time to plant a tree is 10 years ago. The next best time is today.

What are you going to plant today?

Andrea J. Stenberg

There are a number of misconceptions people have about marketing that makes it hard for them to get results. In the SOS 4 Your Business
in Business Blog Talk radio show I discussed them with host Yvonne McCoy.

Topics discussed were:

• not putting all your marketing eggs in one basket
• using the marketing medium your customers use
• having a marketing message geared to your audience
• marketing is usually a long-term strategy – you’re a farmer not a hunter
• and more

Listen to the replay of the show at SOS 4 Your Business or here by pressing play below.

Google Analytics Dashboard WordPress Widget lets you see your Google Analytics at a glance from your WordPress Dashboard. It doesn’t give you everything, but you can top posts, top searches and top referrers. These are all important things to see every day.The Link Within plug-in gives you the related posts you see at the bottom of my blog posts. It’s a nice way to encourage visitors to go to more pages on your site.

The Maintenance Mode plug-in allows you to make major changes to your site without having visitors see a mess. Instead, visitors will get a message telling them the site is undergoing maintenance and when they can expect the site to be back, including date, time and how long. You wouldn’t want to do this often, but if you’re implementing a major overhaul of your site, this is handy to have.

For automatically Tweeting new blog posts I use Twitter Tools. It was easy to set up and works well. You can also add hashtags to any Tweet you want to send.

If you’re selling digital products on your site but don’t have enough sales to make buying a fancy shopping cart a financially viable option, try the eStore Plug-in. It’s easy to use, easy to install and will integrate with your email list and PayPal. Best of all, rather than a monthly fee, you just pay one price.

Please share your favourites by leaving a comment on the blog.

Follow the money

First, you need to measure your money. Are your books up-to-date? Bookkeeping isn’t just for tax time. You need to keep them current so you can predict cash flow and see what products and services are profitable.

Cash flow is obvious, but looking at what areas are profitable is just as important. I knew one business owner who upon looking closer at his books, realized his best selling product was actually losing him money.

While the direct cost of the product was less than the selling price, the cost of servicing it meant he actually lost about $100 per unit. By eliminating that one product, although his total sales went down, his profits shot way up.

Do you know what products or services are most profitable? Look at your books. If you’re not sure how to determine profitability, ask your bookkeeper or accountant.

What’s your web traffic?

Measuring your web traffic is another important measurement to track. You need to know how many people are visiting your site, how many are subscribing to your RSS feed, how long people are staying, where those people are coming from (did they find you on Google, from Facebook, from someone else’s site), and what pages they’re looking at. You also need to track trends from month to month. Knowing whether traffic is increasing or decreasing is more important than total numbers.

Google Analytics can tell you what keywords people are using to find your site. This can help you figure out what type of blog posts to write, what kinds of headlines you should have, and even insight into new products.

Social Media stats

Social media stats are somewhat misleading and difficult to measure. Having a large number of connections, doesn’t necessarily mean your social media efforts are profitable. You can have a large number of followers but if they never engage with you or take action, they’ll do you no good.

Also, you can’t get a straight measurement of profitability. If you run a Google Adwords campaign, you know how much you paid per click and what percentage of people bought your product. You can tell right away whether this campaign is worth your time and money.

With social media, it’s occasionally very direct. For example, recently I made a post to LinkedIn. About 10 minutes later I got a message through LinkedIn from a colleague asking if I do training on marketing with Facebook. I was floored because I thought he knew what I do. After a brief meeting over coffee, I ended up with a $1,000 client.

However, most social media efforts are much less obvious. For example, I know before I do business with someone I check out their social media profiles. I always check out their LinkedIn profile and look closely at their testimonials. However, they may not be aware that I did this, nor how much of an impact that had on my decision.

Likewise, I often see people follow me on Twitter, then connect on Facebook, then sign up for my email newsletter. Later when they become a customer, how much of that business can be attributed to social media? I would never have made the sale if they weren’t on my email list, but they never would have been there in the first place if not for social media.

Your challenge

My challenge to you is to check your stats this week.

1. Get your books up-to-date if they aren’t already. Then notice which products are most profitable. Are there ways you can increase sales of these products?

2. Check out the traffic to your website. Has it increased or decreased from last month? Where is that traffic coming from? What keywords are people using to find you? If you’re getting a lot of traffic from one source, look for ways to get even more. For example, if Facebook is sending a lot of people to your website, vow to spend an extra hour this week on Facebook. If you don’t already have Google Analtyics set up on your website or blog, make that your first priority.

3. Notice whether any of your customers are connected with you on social media. If there’s one site that is working particularly well, spend an hour this week working on planning ways to be even more effective on this site and how to engage with your connections.

Finally, put a reminder in your calendar to do this check each month. You can set up a recurring appointment with yourself to monitor your progress. After all, if you don’t measure it, you can’t improve it.

Andrea J. Stenberg

Do you monitor your stats regularly? How has that helped your business? Or are you a seat-of-the-pants kind of person? Please leave a comment and share your story.

However, I know that many people who get on LinkedIn, set up a profile, send a few invites to connect, then sit there with a handful of connections, wondering what to do next. If that sounds like you, please join me on September 7th for my online workshop: How to Build a Profitable LinkedIn Network. I will teach you the secrets of creating a great profile, how and when to send invitations to people you don’t know and what you need to watch out for so you don’t get kicked off the site.

Just go to http://thebabyboomerentrepreneur.com/linkedintraining/ to register

Working from home is sometimes a challenge in the summer. Yes, there’s the fact that I have no air conditioning and my office is on the 2^nd floor. (Last week’s heat wave in eastern Canada and U.S. was brutal).

There’s also my teenage son who is home from school and around the house. Plus there’s the sun shining and I want to be outside.

As a result, there are some days where sitting at my desk staring at my computer seems unbearable.

But I still need to work. The mortgage still needs to be paid and we have this pesky little addition to food.

So, what’s a home-based entrepreneur to do?

I posed this question to my network and got some interesting answers.

Some people like to get up and do something physical: “a walk, mowing the lawn, stacking firewood. For me physical activity is the key to getting unblocked.”

Other’s shared that tidying the office is a good start. I know my desk often looks like a paper bomb exploded on it. And if I let it go too long the paper breeds and soon my office is covered. Taking even 10 minutes to clear the desk to the surface can often be enough to unblock me and get me going. In fact, that’s what I did right before writing this blog post.

Another friend commented that she picks the easiest thing on her task list. Getting that done and out of the way motivates her to keep going.

And sometimes, I think you need to give in to your inner sloth and enjoy the summer. Get outside and do something fun, even if it’s just sitting on the deck having a beer and reading a trashy novel. You’ll feel refreshed and pleased that you no longer have the worst boss you’ve ever had. And likely, the next day you’ll come back to your work with renewed energy and enthusiasm.

Andrea J. Stenberg

What’s your trick for getting back on track? Share your thoughts and experiences by leaving a comment.