Here are three free ways to get traffic:
1) Post in forums, with a link to your site in your forum signature. That “sig” is likely to get you some click-through traffic, if what you say is compelling enough. (HINT: You could tell them about your free offer!)
2) Write short articles and publish them for free at sites like EzineArticles.com. You’ll put a link to your site in your author box at the end of the article, which most article sites encourage. You might say something like this:
3) Create what’s called a lens at Squidoo.com. That site lets you create your own page (they call it a lens), much like a blog. Then you can link to any other site you want. You could create a lens, describe your free offer, give people a link to your site and see your traffic soar.
All of those techniques will give you high-quality inbound links to your site, which will help you Google PageRank.
A side benefit of all of those strategies is that search engines like Google love sites with frequently changing content. Forums, article sites and especially Squidoo all fit the bill. Google loves them. So you’ll probably get an extra SEO boost for any keyword you put in your link text in your forum sig, your article author boxes, or your Squidoo links.
“Michael Rasmussen wrote this article. If you liked it, there’s more where that came from! Visit http://www.SomeSite.com to read more, and get a free list-building kit just for stopping by.”
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There can be a whole bunch of reasons why you are procrastinating but before you force yourself to do something try to figure out why you are procrastinating.
Maybe you don’t enjoy the task you have to do (tax returns, chasing a client for paymnet for example) perhaps you should find someone else to do it for you, then you can spend time growing your business or networking rather than stressing over something you hate doing. (I’m an accountant but I get someone else to do my tax returns – and then drive them nuts with all my questions !!)
Maybe the thing have to do is something you don’t know how to do – so see if there is a suitable course or workshop running in your town or do some research on the internet – its amazing what you can learn via the internet. If you can afford to – outsource it !
Maybe you’re procrastinating because you can’t find the time, so draw up a list of things you have to do – assign priorities to them and then work your way down through the list. A little Excel spreadsheet is great for this – then whenever priorities change you can reassign, sort the list by priority and start working your way through the new list !
Start to watch yourself and see what tasks you are always deferring and then spend some time (maybe over a glass of wine) and figure out how you are going to either motivate yourself to get them done or delegate them. Sometimes, you just have to bite the bullet and pay someone to do them.
I read somewhere once that if you don’t like to do something “delete it, delegate it, or automate it.” So play to your strengths, stick to the things you enjoy doing and are good at.
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Feeling nervous about starting a business ? I thought this list entitled: “The Key to Changing Course is to Start” was very apt. Aimed at people wanting to start their own business, it’s just as applicable to anyone who wants to follow their dream, find their bliss.
1. Start where you are
2. Start hanging out with the right crowd
3. Start tuning into your gifts
4. Start listening more to yourself and less to others
5. Start letting go of the idea that everything has to be perfect
6. Start taking action
If we can help you get your business started visit our website and read more about our services.
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Here are a few suggestions for those of you who work from home on what to do when you are having a bad day:
Know when to stop. One bad thing seems to attract another and when you are feeling this way, it is far better to move away from what you are doing. Stop forcing yourself to follow up those phone calls, for example, when you are beginning to believe that you are only going to get “no’s”. Because that is exactly what you will get at that time.
Take a break. Go out for a walk, do some household chores, go out and buy a newspaper – it doesn’t really matter what it is a long as you are able to distance yourself from the stuff that doesn’t seem to be going your way.
Have a business buddy. A friend may not understand what you are going through if you phone up for a moan (and can quite often encourage you to moan even more if they are being sympathetic to your needs!) Having one or two business buddies – people you feel you can be honest with and yet can encourage each other to move forward with projects and ideas – can be a lifesaver on a bad day. Having someone who understands but keeps you on track with a little kick up the butt!
Play your favourite tune – playing your favourite upbeat music can lift your mood and make you feel motivated.
Make a daily list of achievements. Write down the 3 things you have been most proud of each day in a journal, diary or on your PC (or maybe even your blog). It could be as amazing as winning a huge contract or as small as making a call to someone you have been putting off for weeks. Whenever you feel like the business is against you, read through your lists and realise how much you have achieved already.
Remember that some days will always be bad days. Not every day is going to be a great day. There will be days that clients cancel, work goes wrong. You can’t control other people’s (and technology!) actions. The one thing you can control is the way you deal with those actions when they happen.
These suggestions came from the Karen Skidmore Kick-Ass blog (I edited them a bit but I don’t think she’ll mind !).
I would also add – connect to someone else who works from home using Skype. You don’t have to talk to each other, but its kind of like being in an office environment in that you hear papers being moved, the phone rings and so on. You can always hit mute when you don’t want the other person to hear your phone conversation. My friend Florence and I passed many a compainable hour working on the lectures we were going to be giving to our students with Skype open and every now and then exchanging a few words – we reckoned we were a lot more productive.
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Ever wondered how some people find out where they have popped up and been mentioned on various blogs or websites?
Get yourself set up on Google Alerts so that anytime your name or the name of your company is mentioned on a site indexed by Google, you get an email straight to your inbox. Its free!
By the way, I found out about this via the Karen Skidmore Kick Ass Blog
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I was at a soirée at the Château Versailles Hotel in Montreal this evening and got talking to someone about Hiroshima. We talked about the A building and how this contrasts with the bustle of the street; the Peace Garden and the museum. I will never forget seeing the model of Hiroshima before the bomb dropped and the model of Hiroshima afterwards. If only world leaders could be obliged to go to that museum they would perhaps conclude that war in general and nuclear weapons in particular need to become things of the past.
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Broken links are a big problem where search engines are concerned.If you rename a page on your website or move it without updating the link or an external link no longer works this is not good.
You can check broken links by using the W3C link validation tool at http://validator.w3.org/checklink to check your site for broken links.
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… also proving its never too late for a lady to be published.
My mum’s first collection of poetry was published in January. Its called A Drift of Petals and published by Redlader Publishing in Montreal.
Check it out !
If you are located in Canada it’s available online at Indigo/Chapters or by special order from any Chapters or Indigo store and for those of you in Montreal the bookstore Nicholas Hoare (Greene Avenue in Westmount) is carrying copies of it.
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Doing something for free (other than for a not for profit) has to bring a consultant/coach into contact with potential clients and provide great visibility for their business….. Just thought I’d mention this ……!
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Hmmm.. Boston agency Modernista took the phrase “less is more” to heart when updating its website. Enter their website address and all you get is a Google page. If you go the top left hand corner in tiny tiny script you can access their Facebook page or their Wikipedia entry.The agency’s past work appears on Flickr, YouTube and del.icio.us. For company news, users are directed to Google News. In other worrds the agency’s new online destination is “siteless” – entirely dependent on public resources.
So – great idea ? crazy idea ? do we still need a website when we have a Facebook page ? Would you like to see this or this ?
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