Archive for November, 2006
Time for More Success…
This week is a big week for some of my clients. One in particular, Greg Hollings, is about to take the plunge and leave his ’safe’ job at Bloomberg. He’s about to start his business as a Holistic Health Coach and specialises in helping (stressed) people recover their zest for life – feel full of [...]
This week is a big week for some of my clients. One in particular, Greg Hollings, is about to take the plunge and leave his ’safe’ job at Bloomberg. He’s about to start his business as a Holistic Health Coach and specialises in helping (stressed) people recover their zest for life – feel full of energy, look great and feel even better.
I know exactly how he’s feeling – a little nervous, a lot excited (or is that the otherway round?!?). I felt the same way when I made my decision to leave Accenture – although it was under slightly different circumstances when I resigned 3 days after returning from a Leave of Absence (I think I still hold the record with that one!!) – a slight snap decision but one that was long overdue and I’ve never looked back.
But back to Greg…he will be absolutely fine – he’s got a great attitude, an easy-going, warm manner and has already had some fantastic results with clients. He’ll have plenty more time now to build his business up and attract clients and I hope he’ll have a lot of fun doing so.
The other exciting news for one of my clients is that he’s been asked to write a feature article for Men’s Health. Gary Ward is on a mission in life to improve the health of as many people as he can and is already running a successful personal training business in Newark. Not sure when the article will feature – any comments Gary? – but keep an eye out for it, it’ll be a good one!
So, all in all a really exciting week and one from which everyone will thrive…
Oh yes, we’re also on the verge of selling our flat too, which means we can really get our travel plans moving…SOOOO exciting!
Blogging Basics!
I love blogging! Since I ‘properly’ started a few months ago, it’s become a fun habit and also a great business tool. I almost bought a book from Waterstones the other day on “Business Blogging” or something like that – but didn’t because I already had about 5 books in my basket and I’ve got [...]
I love blogging! Since I ‘properly’ started a few months ago, it’s become a fun habit and also a great business tool. I almost bought a book from Waterstones the other day on “Business Blogging” or something like that – but didn’t because I already had about 5 books in my basket and I’ve got 3 books on my bedside table that I’m reading! (But I might get it soon…)
So I wanted to post something about blogs and why they are great for business…
1) They help people get to know you – the best blogs are those that convey an element of your personality, come from the heart, aren’t always politically/grammatically correct, share useful or entertaining information and are basically a way to help your readers get to know, like and trust you. They may one day decide to buy from on the basis of having ‘got to know, trust & like you’ via your blog.
2) Search engines love them – because blogs have regularly updated content (or at least should do), the search engines such as google absolutely love them. This is great if you post about the services/products you offer regularly. These posts will be picked up/crawled by the googlebot and then have a good chance of appearing whenever somebody searches for something you write about regularly. It’s much easier for Mr/Mrs Non-Techy to appear in the search engines from blog posts than from a website and on blogs, it’s all about the content.
3) They’re very cost-effective – when you consider the cost of a ‘properly’ designed & built website, a blog is cheap in comparison. Some of the most popular blogging services (Blogger, Wordpress) are free. And others like Typepad (which is what I use) cost about $9/month – a steal! Plus Typepad is SO easy to use. I give my clients access to some video tutorials on how to use Typepad, because it’s so easy to navigate round that you really don’t need a manual, just someone showing you how to do the basics.
4) They allow you to stay in control – because you control all the content of a blog (by posting regularly), you control the content. You don’t have to pay anyone to update it for you, you just do it yourself.
Although J and I do build & design websites for people (only really for my coaching clients nowadays), more often than not, I recommend people have a blog to begin with. So if you do want to ‘get online’ but think that having a website is your only option…consider a blog!
And if you have any comments on mine, let me know (click the “Comments” link below this post…
ps. that’s another great feature – they can be interactive and allow your readers to interact with you. Not always a good thing, but I try and encourage it :-)
My Thoughts on Marketing Mastermind, Jay Abraham
When I was deciding, which mentoring/coaching programme to do recently for next year – I was torn between 2. One is Bob Proctor’s programme and the other is a specific Marketing one with Jay Abraham.
Now if you know anything about marketing, network marketing or personal development, you’ll probably have heard of these 2.
Bob (yes, first [...]
When I was deciding, which mentoring/coaching programme to do recently for next year – I was torn between 2. One is Bob Proctor’s programme and the other is a specific Marketing one with Jay Abraham.
Now if you know anything about marketing, network marketing or personal development, you’ll probably have heard of these 2.
Bob (yes, first name terms, seeing as I decided to to join his programme in the end!) is very well-known in the field of personal development and also network marketing. He’s recently recognised for being one of The Secret’s main “Teachers”.
Jay, on the other hand, is one of the world’s highest paid marketing consultants (over $5k an hour, I’ve heard). So of course, I know I could learn tons from him.
But I decided to go for Bob’s programme and I suspect it might be one of the best things I’ve done.
However, I didn’t want to miss out on Mr. Abraham’s knowledge, so decided to invest in some of his material. It’s not cheap – I spent around $1k on two of his main manuals “Mr. X” and “Your Marketing Genius At Work”.
So having had them for a couple of weeks now and had a little time to delve into them, I thought I’d share my thoughts….
Well, first impressions – there’s a lot of content in there. It’s going to take me ages to get through it all – and I suspect they might become my main reference manuals over the years. However, one thing I didn’t realise is how old the material is. A lot of it is from the 1980s and some fom 1990s – which means it misses out one whole chunk of progress in marketing…the internet.
When at times he’s discussing the merits of one form of advertising over another (and the cost/benefit implications) – it’s clear that nowadays, we have a huge advantage by using the internet. Especially with tools such as google adwords – I mean, if you had to pay several hundreds of pounds just to run one advert – and then another several hundreds of pounds to run another, so that you could test the two and see which was the more responsive…well, I think most small businesses just wouldn’t bother. I don’t think I would.
However, with the internet & tools such as google adwords – you can do this instantly, spend pennies in comparison and get instant, almost real-time results.
But anyway, back to the Abraham stuff. It’s great – there’s some really solid marketing materials in there and it’s fascinating to see how his mind works. He really is a creative genius when it comes to marketing & marketing strategies. What’s encouraging for me, is that I do seem to know quite a lot of this stuff – I must have learned more than I thought when consulting at Accenture! But it’s definitely refreshed my memory and there’s some genius ideas in there – hence the title of course.
But was it worth $1,000?
Hmmm, I won’t be able to tell you until I actually apply some of his principles, test them and see what kind of a return on investment I get. I suspect they will be well worth what they cost – but if you don’t have the budget to spend that much on marketing manuals – then there are plenty more cost -effective books, manuals and courses to learn from for starters.
