I L-O-V-E it when someone I know and admire creates an easy way to do something we all know we should be doing…but too often, don’t do.

My good friend Martha Carnahan has done exactly that with her Brilliant Testimonials Toolkit!

We all know that testimonials from happy customers have a positive effect on new prospects. I know they help me when I’m the prospect. I love reading specific examples of how the product or service I’m contemplating buying has helped someone else in my shoes.

So why does gathering effective testimonials – something we’d all love to have – keep getting pushed down, down, down the to-do list?

I’ve been blessed over the years with clients who’ve volunteered to write a testimonial because they’ve been so happy with me and the work I’ve done for them. God Bless them, because I know I’d have been too chicken to ask back in the beginning.

I’m not chicken anymore, but it still has been pushed down, down, down my to-do list. And that’s just silly, because can you really have too many great testimonials? I think not.

I know, for me, the reason has been lack of a clear outline in my head of what to do, how to do it and how to keep everyone happy and feeling good throughout the process. Knowing how to write a testimonial effectively makes all the difference in the world! And, let’s face it, our best client may or may not be able to write the best testimonial.

And what do you do when you ask someone to write a testimonial for you and they agree, but then take forever to do it? (They, too, may be unclear on how to write a testimonial effectively, so they stall. They want to give you a helpful testimonial, but just aren’t sure how to go about it.)

That’s exactly what Martha provides: A step-by-step, what-to-do along with when and how, guide for how to get a great testimonial from your clients and customers.

Get YOUR Toolkit here. At only $16 $11 – this one’s a no-brainer, folks.

So, you’ve been thinking about holding a teleclass, or maybe creating an audio download as the freebie for your mailing list opt-in. The whole idea seems groovy until… the dog barks. Or the kids come in yelling. Or the UPS man knocks at the door. Or the phone rings (because you forgot to turn the ringer off before you started recording.) Or any number of other things that can spoil your recording.

Not to worry! You can edit that stuff out…easily and visually, no less! And…for free! Oh yeah…love it when it’s free.

How? With WavePad. It comes in both Windows and Mac versions.

Now, I have other audio editing software available to me… GarageBand that came with my Mac, SoundForge that I paid a pretty penny for, and Audacity that is also free. But the reason I love WavePad so much is that it’s the only one that I could fire up, load an audio file and figure out how to edit it in seconds…not minutes, or hours…without reading instructions.

WavePad is very easy to use. Simply import your audio file and you are ready to begin editing. Or, for recording your own audio tracks, simply click the ‘New’ button on the toolbar and then hit the ‘Record’ button to begin recording.

While editing, you can see as well as hear the audio, and that makes it easy to identify the dog bark or the cough. You can just highlight that piece and hit your delete key – and it’s gone, bye-bye!

When I’m conducting a teleclass that I know I want to provide as an audio download later, I try to remember to take a breath and leave a few seconds of silence between the chit-chat and the actual start of the content of the call. That silence is easily identified in the visual representation of the audio so it’s easy to see how much of the beginning of the call to highlight and delete.

So, go ahead and create your audios because now you have a tool that’s easy to use for editing them and preparing them for publication! You can learn more about WavePad’s features here. (And no, the links in this post are not affiliate links.)

I woke up this morning to an email from Plaxo reminding me that my friend Janice’s birthday is in 7 days. That’s cool – I appreciate reminders like that. Only problem is she died in December. That reminder was like a kick in the gut that momentarily knocked the wind out of me. But it got me thinking about all this connectedness we have online these days…and that it’s another aspect of our lives we need to have a plan for after we’re gone.

Back in 2007, when I first adopted WordPress as my web platform of choice, I found a nifty little plugin called Next of Kin and installed it here on Suzanne-Bird-Harris.com.

Here’s a blurb from the WordPress Plugin directory about it:

Next of Kin is the plugin we don’t want to install. It handles what happens after we die. It monitors your own visits to your wordpress system, and will send you a warning email after a number of weeks (of your choice) without a visit. If you fail to visit your blog even after that, the system will send a mail you wrote to whoever you choose.

What’s interesting is how this plugin works. The default timeframe before it takes any action is two weeks. So, if you haven’t logged in to your WordPress site in two weeks, it sends you a little email to check up on you. Just you, no scaring anyone else just yet.

I’ve got mine set to send me an email with the subject: “Log in to your site or I’m emailing Tracy!” (Tracy is one of my best friends, I talk to her almost everyday, she has worked with me in my business off and on, so she’s familiar with my stuff and she’s close enough that if she had to, she could jump in her car and be here in 4-5 hours.)

When (and if) I should ever get that email, all I have to do is log in and push the reset button on the plugin to let it know I’m alive and kicking.

If I don’t do that within a week, this time the plugin sends Tracy an email telling her that I haven’t logged in to my site and that she should check on me. In the email, I give her not only my current office and cell phone numbers (which she already knows, of course) but my parents’ phone numbers, too. The plugin sends me a copy of that email, too, just in case I was busy and inadvertently ignored the first email it sent.

If I survive the butt-chewing Tracy would give me for letting it get that far, I just go in an click the reset button. But if something has happened to me, the next email it sends to her has all my logins…to my sites, to my social media sites (like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter) so she can take the appropriate actions and prevent me from haunting you after the fact, like Janice did me this morning.

Obviously, you could just write up all this information and send it to someone and be covered, but what I like about this plugin is that it “has my back” by monitoring my visits to my own site. I’ve had this plugin installed for years, and I’ve never gotten even the first email from it, but I really like knowing that there’s a system in place in case I get abducted by aliens, hospitalized, or worse yet, die.

A big THANK YOU to all who participated in my Blogging Hurdles survey. The results are in, and they’re very interesting…

The survey consisted of 3 questions:

1. I experience hurdles in the following areas:

• Technical know-how (actually posting my blogs)
• Content creation (knowing what to blog about)
• Applying SEO to increase my reach
• Time (something else always seems to get my time and attention first)

Here are the results:

2. I’d say my biggest blogging hurdle is:

The vast majority of answers here had to do with finding time to blog, content creation, consistency in posting, and where to promote posts. No surprises there, really.

3. I consider myself:

• A complete blogging newbie
• Capable, but I know there’s more I need to learn
• Competent and I’m ready for advanced topics

And here is how folks categorized themselves:

Why did I want to know?

First and foremost, to be sure I’m on track with meeting the your needs. And thanks to the candid responses to question #2, I am now specifically aware of ways in which I can help.

Secondly, I wanted to make sure I spend my time wisely, creating products and services that meet you where you are at and help you move forward.

One of the big realizations that came to me was that I was in the midst of planning a workshop that would have been over the heads of most of the people I had in mind.

(insert squealing brake sounds here)

Back to the drawing board for me, sort of…

I am happy to announce a workshop that will bring you up to speed for the one I was planning (that will now be held in January.) This workshop is for you if you find yourself in the newbie or capable category above, and specifically addresses 3 of the 4 hurdles from question #1, and then some! (The SEO hurdle will be covered in the January workshop.)

Introducing….
Blogging 101: 6 Weeks to Confident Blogging

(…there’s an early bird special on through Friday…)

As if it’s not terrifying enough to start your own business, sooner than later, you’ll find yourself writing an About page for your site.

“But, why? Why do I need an About page?” you ask…

A few reasons…

1. People do business with other people…not websites.
2. People do business with people they know, like and trust.
3. Allowing yourself to be known – particularly in your own words – engenders trust.
4. People don’t have all day…your About page tells them (among other things) who you are so they don’t have to read your entire site to piece it together.

The About page is usually the first click when I land on a new site I’ve never visited before. And I’m not the only one, apparently.

I was surprised (and gratified) when I checked this site’s stats and found that 18% of my total page views last month were my About page, and for 48% of those views, my About page was the visitor’s first click after landing on my site. So, that tells me that I’m not the only one (by far) who checks out the About page fairly quickly. Even better, about half of those folks went from there to other pages on my site instead of leaving. (So, I guess I didn’t scare them, too bad, eh? More on that in a minute…)

Do you have to have an About page? No. You can leave us guessing and wondering, if you like.

That said…

Elements of a Great About Page

• Your Picture: I’m a fan of ‘real’ pictures, not staid, boring portraits.
• What You Do: Here’s the perfect place for your X, Y, Z statement.
• Who You Are: Not your whole life story, but the parts relevant to you being in business…this business…
• Need to Know Info: Anything that you absolutely want people considering working with you to know about you, your work, or how you work.
• How to Contact You: State your preferences and your boundaries.
• Something Unique (aka Weird): You decide. But take a risk. It’s good for you.

You’re welcome to check out my About page for some ideas. Or Marty’s. Or Liz’s. Or Christa’s.

Your Picture

Yours. Not a cartoon version, either. Include more, if you like…but let folks put a face to your name. (I have a family pic as well as one of me holding my granddaughter when she was bitty bitty. These are my peeps and the reasons you do not find me playing online games or watching afternoon TV. These babies are always needing new shoes!)

What You Do

Preferably in one sentence, a paragraph, if you must. Call the name of your ideal client here. Others will respond, but your “right” people will recognize themselves as belonging here.

Who You Are

As you can see, I talk about the fact that I’m a single mom (because that’s what made me want to work from home so bad.) I also talk about how I came to blend coaching and web design into the same business. Some people think that’s weird, so after being asked a few dozen times, I decided it warranted a mention in a public space.

Need to Know Info

Here’s an example from my page: “My office is my home, so if you call here outside my business hours (9am-3pm CT M-Th), you’ll hear kids and dogs and all manner of other racket in the background. That’s why I have published business hours – to spare you all that drama. If you need to talk to me outside of those hours, consider yourself warned, and you’ll have to schedule it ahead of time.” Handy to know that ahead of time, no?

How to Contact You

Link to your contact page/form, post your phone number, give directions to your front door – whatever you feel comfortable. Just be accessible some kind of way.

If you’re involved in any social networks, this is a handy place and time to extend an invitation for people to connect with you there, too.

Something Unique (aka Weird)

I’ve got some favorite quotes, Liz and Christa have some “fun facts” about themselves…let people get a peek at the non-business you some kind of way. You become more ‘human’ when you do…more accessible…and remember, people do business with people, not websites.

I scratch my head on a regular basis at the number of people I see out there who never seem to get out of the starting gate when it comes to their blog.

About once a week, I catch myself thinking, “Suzanne…what can you do to help these folks? Shoot, girl…what can you do to help yourself?!”

It really bugs me, because back before I had a full client roster, I blogged my behind off. For real. (I wholeheartedly believe in blogging as a way to attract clients, so I was a blogging fool! Today my blogging suffers because I am – thankfully – so busy.)

I always seem to come to the same conclusion: I need to know more about why folks aren’t blogging before I can help them.

So…if you hear your name being called in this post (and know that I’m calling my own name, too!) would you take a few minutes to share with me what your biggest blocks are when it comes to blogging?

(I require myself to practice what I preach, so helping others helps me get back into my blogging groove. Plus…and shhhhh!!…this isn’t for public announcement just yet: Patsi Krakoff and I are planning a blogging workshop for the end of the year, and I’d really like to tailor it to your needs!)

(If you’re reading from the feed, come to the site so you can answer the 3 questions. Just takes a minute…promise. And thanks!)

Over the weekend, I read a great article at Freelance Folder about improving your productivity by using agile techniques. (I’m always interested in productivity tools and methods…likely because my to-do list is always taller than me!)

While this particular article outlined some ideas that are probably overkill for a scattered girl like me…I did find out about one technique I wanted to share with you all because it intrigued me so: The Pomodoro Technique (Pomodoro means tomato in Italian. If you click through to the site, you’ll find cute tomato-shaped timers available, too!)

The basic idea of this technique is to chunk your time into 25-minute sessions wherein you tackle 1 task at a time from your to-do list, and you stay focused on that task, and that task only, for 25 minutes. Then you take a 5-minute break. Then you reset the timer and choose another task (or continue working on the same one from before, if it’s not done yet.) After 4 25-minute sessions, you take a 15-minute break.

I tried it on Saturday and found it a challenge to stay focused. No doubt because the kids were home, my granddaughter was here (she’s two and quite insistent when she wants your attention) and it wasn’t really supposed to be a ‘work’ day for me.

Instead of ordering a cute little tomato-shaped timer to use, I chose to download a free timer app call Focus Booster. They offer both a downloadable, desktop version and a web-based version. You can adjust the times on this handy little timer, if you like. The thing I like best is that it’s visible, so when the kids want to interrupt me, I can just point to the timer and they know how long until my next break. (They already know they’re not supposed to interrupt unless they’re bleeding or on fire…seriously…but this gives us the added advantage of having a known time when they CAN have my attention.)

Have you tried the Pomodoro technique? If so, share in the comments below. If not, tell us what helps you get more done.

Months ago, before I switched to my now beloved iMac, I had a snazzy email signature that I’d created for myself with HTML. One of my clients (who uses gMail) asked me if I’d create a fancy email signature for her, too. But, the way I did mine is not the way gMail likes to do things.

In fact, on my own gMail account, I don’t think I even bother with a signature file. (Of course, that’s probably more about the fact that I don’t use my gMail account for business-related email, than anything. But, I digress…)

All this time since, it’s stuck in the back of my mind that it’s just a royal pain in the patootey to make a rockin’ awesome signature for some of the web-based email services. And, if you’ve known me long, you know when something bugs me like that, I eventually will find some kind of solution for it…just because.

I’m happy to report I’ve found (or, rather, the Universe has been showing me about a bazillion times over the last month and I’ve just now noticed) a solution to the email signature situation for web-based email including gMail, Yahoo! mail, Windows Live mail and AOL mail: WiseStamp.

It’s no surprise that Patsi Krakoff would be the one putting WiseStamp in front of me cuz she’s a smart cookie. We’ve exchanged a ton of email before, during and since the call we did together last month, and she uses WiseStamp. Check out her email signature:

I must have seen this thing hundreds of times, but today I saw that last line…and clicked through and immediately realized – hey! Here’s the solution for my other client who uses gMail. Instead of just emailing her, I thought I’d let you all know about it, in case any of the rest of you were scratchin’ your head over this one.

Introducing a new player in the Social Networking arena: IMFacePlate.

It’s actually kinda cool, IMHO, because it combines the social connection aspects of Twitter, Facebook and others with the article marketing aspect of Ezine Articles, Squidoo, and others (remember folks…links back to your site…very important!)

I like it’s hub-like feel…people can really get a feel for who I am, what’s important to me, how I serve others and what I offer. I’m thinkin’ it has some great potential as an introduction/overview resource, as well as another great way to connect!

Get YOUR IM faceplate and let’s connect!

As many of you know, I’ve been holding a monthly, free, open Q&A teleclass for the last year where you can bring your WordPress questions and problems and get free WordPress consulting. This call is now the first offering of the new WordPress Free Clinic.

Just like a free medical clinic, you (and your site) can be seen, evaluated and given a prescription for addressing the issues you present, or your site’s overall health and well-being.

Unlike a free clinic, you won’t have to waste a whole day standing in line or sitting on hard plastic chairs in a crowded waiting room.

We meet in a webinar room (the link will be provided when you register) and you either dial in on the phone or you use your microphone and speakers to talk. We go around the room and address everyone’s questions/problems so that everyone can benefit from everyone else’s answers/solutions.

Clinic sessions are NOT recorded, so you need to be there to get the help you’re after.

Whether you’re struggling with the concept of how to accomplish something on your site, or the actual “how to” to get it done, bring your questions to the WordPress Free Clinic.