Kristie T’s Home Business Blog Fun, mom-geared work-at-home tips and advice on making money on the net.

One of my friends, Alice Seba, had a great post on her blog post about “Slow and Steady Wins the Race”. In it, she shares how a lot of people have the illusion that if you build a website that you will just magically start getting orders. One of my clients asked me yesterday, “So what happens after site launch?” The answer is, then you roll up your sleeves and get to work driving traffic to your site.

Unless you go out into the cyberworld and get seen, you are marketing in a bubble. You have to let people get to know who you are and what you are about.

Here are some tips for breaking out of your bubble and into the light!

1) Write a free special report - Rich Scheferen made a huge splash in the net marketing community by unleashing his Manifesto. Then when he opened his coaching up, his practice filled within a couple of days. This is no accident. He offered something of real value, people got a no risk taste of him for free. He gave lots of solid evidence that his stuff works with free teleclasses where people talked about the results of his coaching.

2) Write a free ecourse - My friend Kelly McCausey has had great results with her free ecourse on podcasting. Why not break up 4-5 of your articles into an ecourse?

3) Develop a free teleclass - If you have friends with big lists, offer to do a free teleclass for their group and give them a percentage of the sales from anyone who either buys their product or signs up for their coaching as a result. This is a model that Stacey Mayo, The Dream Coach, has used with great success to fill up her Living Your Dreams Coaching program.

4) Create a viral movie - Stacey Mayo grew her list to a whopping 22,000 subscribers using The Dream Movie, a touching viral movie. Watch it and see how it encourages you to sign up for her list and pass it to a friend at the end.

5) Write articles - The biggest generator of visibility and traffic for me has always been writing articles and submitting to article directories. And now with ISnare.com, it makes it really easy to push new articles out to all the article directories quickly. If you don’t have time or desire to write articles yourself, then either get private label articles that you can tweak or hire a ghostwriter. Most of the time you can get an article written for $15-$30 apiece. Kelly McCausey does ghostwriting over at Article Mojo.

So ask yourself, what I am doing to actively get known, build my list, and drive traffic to my site. If the answer is “nothing” then my guess is that your not too happy with the results you are getting in your business.

What are your best ways of driving traffic to your site? Share your traffic generation tips here.

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If you haven’t had a chance to watch the movie The Secret yet, I urge you to do so. It’s a wonderful reminder of the power that lies within each of us if only we choose to believe and embrace that.

In The Secret, they give quotes from many of the greatest thinkers of all time who embraced the power of attraction in their lives. Call it the power of positive thinking or manifesting, it’s the same process with different names.

Here are those life changing inspirational quotes from the The Secret

“The secret is the answer to all that has been all this is and all that will be” - Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882

“You create your own universe as you go along” - Winston Churchill 1874-1965

“Take the first step in faith you don’t have to see the whole staircase just take the first step” - Martin Luther King Jr. 1929-1968

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought.” - Buddha

“Whatever we think about and thank about we bring about.” - John Demartini

“What power this is I cannot say. All that I know is that it exists.” - Alexander Graham Bell 1847-1922

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.” - Albert Einstein 1879-1955

“What you resist persists.” - Carl Jung 1875-1961

“All power is from within and is therefore under our control” - Robert Collier 1885-1950

“Whether you think you can or can’t either way you are right.” - Henry Ford 1863-1947

“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls” - Joseph Campbell 1904-1987

Wishing you joy, peace, and bliss,

Kristie T

Here are related posts with teachings from The Secret:

• Quotes from The Movie The Secret
• The 1 Secret That Will Change Your Life
• Get more in life by being grateful - how gratitude (and my gratitude rock) are changing my life
• The Power of Gratitude
• Overcoming Limiting Beliefs
• Staying postive when your business hits bumps in the road
• 5 Keys for Creating your Dream Life from The Secret

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I came across the best list of blog directories and wanted to share so it will make promoting your blog easier.

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I was reading the Duct Tape Marketing blog today and saw that John Jantsch has some cool little social bookmarking links at the foot of his blog posts. And of course, being the guru gadget I am I wanted to get those social bookmarklets on my blog too. So I emailed John, and he actually emailed me back to tell me how! What an awesome guy! I love ya John! Thanks!

Any how, this site gives how to add those social bookmarklets to your blog. Have fun!

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I was having coffee with a friend yesterday who has started and sold several businesses for millions of dollars. Recently he started a small business training business. I noticed that recently he removed his name from the company name and switched to a more company based presence. In his opinion, owning a personality driven business can hurt you when it comes to an IPO. Venture capitalists believe that once the “face” of a personality business leaves, the company dies.

While having a business driven by a personal brand is great to get known quickly for what you do, if you plan on selling your business down the road, you may consider taking your name out of the business.

There are 2 exceptions to the rule that I can think of where the person behind the company became the company name and they achieved huge business success.

Mary Kay - that fabulous “think pink” makeup company
and
Ruth Chris - that amazing steak house.

For the time being, I am going to keep my Kristie T name for my training/consulting business. But I do have separate company names for Branding on the Net and Webmomz.

What are your thoughts on whether using your name in your business is good?

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I read a statistic the other day from SCORE & US Bank that in 70% of small business failures, a key factor was the owner not recognizing or ignoring weaknesses and then not seeking help.

Wow! That really struck me. Have you ever sat down and made a list of what your biggest weaknesses are?

For instance, I am working on:
- better time management
- delegating more
- focusing

Click here to share what are your weaknesses and what are you doing to improve on them?

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Are you quotable? Hey you thought leaders, how’d you like to get your quotations featured on Starbucks website? Right now they have a cool campaign going on called “The Way I See It”

So if you have something to say (or just want some free publicity)and submit your The Way I See It quotes (65 words or less) on the Starbucks website.

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When you are a consultant you earn a living by doing consultations, so nothing is more frustrating then when people befriend you to get free advice. What do you say when people say, “I’d like to pick your brain on…..”

I was listening to the Cubicle Diva podcast today by Leesa BarnesHere are some great responses I picked up from the Cubicle Diva podcast about how to deal with Brokeback Entrepreneurs:

Person Says: “I’d love to pick your brain, can we get together for coffee sometime?”

Answer A: You know, people pay me $100/hr to find out that information. I’d be happy to sit down and share that information. And if you find it helpful, you’d be willing to pay me $100 right?

Answer B: You know what, people pay me $100 per hour to answer questions like that. Would you like to schedule a consultation so I could answer those questions for you?

Answer C: I have a ton of low cost and free resources on my website that would help you with that. Then give them the links to your free articles, ebooks, ecourses, and your ezine.

Great ideas Leesa! Thanks! Be sure to check out her podcast - it’s super!

Tell me what creative ways you have gotten out of spilling your wisdom for free.

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Bookstores are a lousy place to sell books. But who’d have thought that you could sell books at Starbucks while drinking your Mocha Latte?

One of my buddies, Don Paullin of Hiring Firing Experts, just release his hillarious and awesome book “Hire Hotdogs Fire Baloney” about how to hire the best people for your company. And if you can believe this, he is selling books everyday at Starbucks while he is drinking his coffee. He just sits at Starbucks with his laptop and has a few copies of his book laid out on the table. A lot of people stop to ask him about his book. And Don’s such an awesome salesman, they always end up buying a copy of his book from him.

I am meeting Don at Starbucks for coffee today to catch up. I can’t wait to see him “in action” selling books at Starbucks.

Tell me, have you ever sold your books in an interesting non conventional place?

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For those of you who use private label articles or free reprint articles to get ideas for content, here’s a way to jumpstart your thinking on content for new ebooks, teleclasses, and special reports - public domain works. There are over 18,000 free ebooks at Gutenberg that are public domain and that you are free to use.

According to Wikipedia,

public domain comprises the body of knowledge and innovation (especially creative works such as writing, art, music, and inventions) in relation to which no person or other legal entity can establish or maintain proprietary interests within a particular legal jurisdiction. This body of information and creativity is considered to be part of a common cultural and intellectual heritage, which, in general, anyone may use or exploit, whether for commercial or non-commercial purposes.

Even some of today’s big name authors and speakers have snagged up public domain works, giving them their own creative touch, and selling them as new products.

Why not stop by and see what public works you could use? Tell me, do you know anyone who has used public works from Gutenberg to create a product?

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