Inside Out Empowerment

Choice Theory and Righteousness

Question: Now that I have been learning CT/RT and have bought into the theory, I find myself being very judgmental of others who use external control. I find it difficult because I always feel the need to interject my thoughts onto others who are using external control. Do you find this difficult? How do you deal with other using external control?

Answer:Yes, it is difficult not to be judgmental of those using external control. I find the best way for me is to remind myself that not everyone thinks like I do and they certainly have a right to do it their way. I just remind myself to stay true to my course and at every opportunity, I try to ask questions of the external control people about how what they do is working for them. I am also prepared to take it further if they say it works, great! For example, do you think that person will now do what you are asking when you aren’t around? What do you think he is thinking? What do you think he will do when you are out of sight? Do you think you are strengthening or weakening your relationship? Do you think relationships are important? Do you find him responding to anyone else better than he responds to you? What do you think the difference is?

Remember, we know learning is best done inside out. You need to function as a self-evaluation facilitator instead of giving your unsolicited opinion. Eventually, many of those you are attempting to influence will “get it.” The other thing you need to remember is your relationship with them. You will lose your ability to influence them without a positive relationship. You can’t get them to give up their external control if you are attempting to externally control them. Remember, they are doing the best they know how at this point in time to get something they want. They need to be invited to try an potentially better way.

Creating an Effective Online Presence: Joint Ventures

Over the past five years, I've learned some things about creating an online presence. There is so much to know and most people who start their own businesses really don’t know how to create, maximize and leverage their online presence.

I realized I have only scratched the surface of what there is to know but if I can in any way reduce your learning curve by sharing the things I’ve already learned, then that’s what I want to do.

Joint Ventures

The last area I want to talk about may be the most lucrative on the Internet, actually. Anytime you can partner with another professional you are increasing your exposure and broadening your client base.

There are many advantages to joint venture partnering:

• You gain access to another person’s email list.
• You gain access to another person’s expertise.
• You increase the odds of others wanting to partner with you.
• You get to put yourself in front of audiences you wouldn’t otherwise have access to.

There are many opportunities for joint venture partnering but the typical one you see is one person promoting another person’s book or information product in an attempt to make it a bestseller on a particular day. In addition to the ones who send this notice out to their list, there are other joint venture partners who offer free bonus gifts in exchange for increased, targeted traffic to their sites.

This usually results in a win/win scenario for both people involved. 

What tips do you have about joint venture partners? I know you want to approach people from a position of strength. Get rid of the idea that you may be imposing on someone's time and understand that you have a valuable business offer to make that will benefit the person you are approaching. 'Please share your ideas and practices here.

For a more in depth understanding of creating an effective online presence, I recommend Michael Port’s book, Book Yourself Solid, as an excellent resource to fill in the blanks for you.

Creating an online presence is particularly important for coaches. If you are interested in becoming a coach or developing your coaching skills, we are starting a new coaching school based on Choice Theory, affiliated with Prairie State College. It is starting in August. If you are interested in learning more, check out the Choice Coaching Institute. You will learn more details about creating an online presence in that program.

Creating an Effective Online Presence: The Sales Funnel

Over the past five years, I've learned some things about creating an online presence. There is so much to know and most people who start their own businesses really don’t know how to create, maximize and leverage their online presence.

I realized I have only scratched the surface of what there is to know but if I can in any way reduce your learning curve by sharing the things I’ve already learned, then that’s what I want to do.

Creating Your Sales Funnel

The sales funnel is a metaphor for the way you bring clients to increasingly higher levels of commitment in their buying cycle. The idea is that all your potential clients will enter the mouth of the funnel by agreeing to give you their name and email address. Then, the idea is to create increasingly more expensive products and attempt to move your customers through your sales funnel progressively by offering them the next product.

The funnel analogy is used because at each level, less of your customer base will pursue your offer until you get down to the skinniest end of the funnel where only a few choice clientele will go.

You must create a progressive line of product offerings that are targeted to your audience both in content and modality. Don’t offer teleclasses to a group who historically doesn’t purchase teleclasses. Perhaps you will need a CD or MP3 product instead.

And you will need to draft compelling sales letters for each of the products you offer, which was discussed in a previous post.

What tips do you have about creating the sales funnel? I've found I can sell an eBook at a higher price point than my actual hardcover book. The perceived value of an eBook is high. However, this is changing and more value is once again being placed with a hard copy book. Please share your ideas and practices here.

Creating an online presence is particularly important for coaches. If you are interested in becoming a coach or developing your coaching skills, we are starting a new coaching school based on Choice Theory, affiliated with Prairie State College. It is starting in August. If you are interested in learning more, check out the Choice Coaching Institute. You will learn more details about creating an online presence in that program.

Creating an Effective Online Presence: Newsletters or eZines

Over the past five years, I've learned some things about creating an online presence. There is so much to know and most people who start their own businesses really don’t know how to create, maximize and leverage their online presence.

I realized I have only scratched the surface of what there is to know but if I can in any way reduce your learning curve by sharing the things I’ve already learned, then that’s what I want to do.

Newsletters or eZines

Having a newsletter or eZine (electronic magazine) is a great way to stay in contact with your clients and potential clients. A newsletter is one of those products you can offer for free to entice casual browsers to give you their name and email address. Some people argue that newsletters are no longer useful but I disagree. While some people are overrun with newsletters that hardly ever get read, for the amount of work it takes to put one together, it is worth the potential audiences you will reach.

One of the things about online marketing that will help you stand out from your competition is over delivering. A newsletter is one way to do that. Use your newsletter to deliver outstanding information to your targeted market that directly addresses their pain or their desires. Giving away great information is another way to build trust on the web.

What tips do you have about eZines or newsletters? I know the frequency varies but generally people are looking for short bits of information. Therefore, do a daily or every other day email with short tidbits or send out a longer newsletter more infrequently. With some of my sites, I send a short email every ten days and with others, I do a monthly eZine. Please share your ideas and practices here.

Creating an online presence is particularly important for coaches. If you are interested in becoming a coach or developing your coaching skills, we are starting a new coaching school based on Choice Theory, affiliated with Prairie State College. It is starting in August. If you are interested in learning more, check out the Choice Coaching Institute. You will learn more details about creating an online presence in that program.

Creating an Effective Online Presence: Blogs

I have learned so much over the past five years about creating an online presence. There is so very much to know and most people who start their own businesses really don’t know how to create, maximize and leverage their online presence.

I know I have only scratched the surface but if I can in any way reduce your learning curve by sharing the things I’ve already learned, then that’s what I want to do.

Blogs

A blog is short for weblog and it’s in actuality, an online journal. Blogs can be stand alone websites or incorporated into your website with its own page. As you can see, mine is incorporated into my website but it has its own URL so people can find it by both methods.

Creating a blog can be advantageous for a variety of reasons:

• They improve your standing with search engines as long as you post to them regularly.
• They help your readers get to know you in a more personal way.
• You can use your blog to market your existing products.
• You can use your blog to announce new product offerings.
• Blogs can help you create new information products. As you blog each day, you can actually organize your posts in such a way that you could blog a tip sheet, e-course, article or even a book.

If you want to start a blog, it’s easy. You don’t have to be a web designer or have any particular web expertise. All you need to do is go to Blogger,  Wordpress, or Typepad and start using their system. They will take you through the process step-by-step.

What tips do you have about blogging? My best tip is to focus on quantity and quality. Provide your readers with useful, meaty information and post often, at least three times a week. Please share your ideas and successes here.

Creating an online presence is particularly important for coaches. If you are interested in becoming a coach or developing your coaching skills, we are starting a new coaching school based on Choice Theory, affiliated with Prairie State College. It is starting in August. If you are interested in learning more, check out the Choice Coaching Institute. You will learn more details about creating an online presence in that program.

Creating an Effective Online Presence: Search Engine Traffic

I have learned so much over the past five years about creating an online presence. There is so very much to know and most people who start their own businesses really don’t know how to create, maximize and leverage their online presence.

I know I have only scratched the surface but if I can in any way reduce your learning curve by sharing the things I’ve already learned, then that’s what I want to do.

Search Engine Traffic

The first step in generating search engine traffic is to determine your best keywords and phrases. Generate about 25-30 keywords and phrases for each page of your website. Check them out on Word Tracker, Overture and Digital Point.

You are not simply looking for the words that receive the most clicks. You actually want to pick keywords that aren’t crowded with competitors. Then carefully place your keywords within the text of your website, as well as in the titles of your pages and the descriptions. You will also want to create metatags that are keyword rich. All of this will assist with increasing organic or natural traffic to your site.

Your goal is to be in the top websites listed when you google your keywords. Organic traffic is what will get you there.

You can also pay for high listing through advertising using your keywords and phrases. This is generally what comes up on the right-hand side of the search engine page. These are companies who have advertised through pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. I use yahoo, google and MIVA. PPC advertising has become less attractive because there is so much competition now, the cost is often prohibitive.

What tips do you have about search engine traffic? Please share your ideas and successes here.

Creating an online presence is particularly important for coaches. If you are interested in becoming a coach or developing your coaching skills, we are starting a new coaching school based on Choice Theory, affiliated with Prairie State College. It is starting in August. If you are interested in learning more, check out the Choice Coaching Institute. You will learn more details about creating an online presence in that program.

Creating an Effective Online Presence: Submitting to Directories

I have learned so much over the past five years about creating an online presence. There is so very much to know and most people who start their own businesses really don’t know how to create, maximize and leverage their online presence.

I know I have only scratched the surface but if I can in any way reduce your learning curve by sharing the things I’ve already learned, then that’s what I want to do.

Submitting to Directories

There are software programs and companies out there who use them that will automatically register your site with hundreds of directories. For some reason unknown to me, apparently search engines don’t look favorably on this kind of activity. They somehow have “intelligence” and can tell when the same submission has been done in bulk like that, so you want to do this submission yourself or delegate to some other live person.

This is why when registering your site with search engines, you want to create about ten different descriptions for your site and alternate those descriptions between different directories.

Seo Company is a great site that provides free search engine directory listings. I registered at all the ones that didn’t require reciprocal links.

When you can budget for some paid search engine directories, here are the ones that were recommended to me, listed in order from least to most expensive:

Abilogic--express submission
Greenstalk
Octopedia
Business
Yahoo

SEO Company also has paid search engine listings. Add yourself to them as your budget allows. It is always a good idea to do one at a time and track your traffic and conversions so you can determine which are generating the best return on your investment.

eZine Directories-If you are putting out an electronic newsletter or eZine, then google eZine directories and list your eZine there.

Blog Directories-If you have a blog, list your blog in the blog directories.

Podcast Directories-If you have any downloadable audio products on your website, you can list your site in podcast directories.

Software Directories-If you provide any software products such as screensavers or interactive software programs, you can list yourself in the software directories.

Video Directories-If you have videos, place them on You Tube and other video directories.

The more listings you have, the greater your traffic will be and the more external links you will have pointing back to your site. this is great for organic search engine ranking.

What tips do you have about submitting to directories? One thing I recommend is to delegate this work. It is easy to find a virtual assistant or someone on Elance who can do this for a fraction of the cost of the value of your time to your business. Please share your ideas and successes here.

Creating an online presence is particularly important for coaches. If you are interested in becoming a coach or developing your coaching skills, we are starting a new coaching school based on Choice Theory, affiliated with Prairie State College. It is starting in August. If you are interested in learning more, check out the Choice Coaching Institute. You will learn more details about creating an online presence in that program.

Creating an Effective Online Presence: Press Releases

I have learned so much over the past five years about creating an online presence. There is so very much to know and most people who start their own businesses really don’t know how to create, maximize and leverage their online presence.

I know I have only scratched the surface but if I can in any way reduce your learning curve by sharing the things I’ve already learned, then that’s what I want to do.

Press Releases

Whenever you are rolling out a new product or service, you want to do a press release however, you want to tie them to something newsworthy so it doesn’t seem like an advertisement described as a press release. Do this by connecting your news or product offering to something currently in the news.

In general, a press release shouldn’t be longer than one page. Keep it concise and write in journalistic language answering the basics of who, what when, where, why and how in the first paragraph. Deal with the facts and avoid marketer’s language. Write it in the third person voice. If appropriate, provide quotes from those in the news. End the first paragraph with a “hook,” that will keep your readers interested and reading more but also must be relevant to the news editors.

In about ten words, create a grabbing headline that summarizes the content of the release in an exciting way.

Write the rest of your press release with the most important information first so that if the editor must cut the length of your release, the less important information is at the end of the release.

At the top of the release write the release date or “For Immediate Release.” Be sure to include your contact information: name, title, address, phone number, fax, email and website addresses.

There are three press release sites I would recommend: PR Web, PR Newswire and 24-7 Press Release www.24-7pressrelease.com.  They have free listings but if you want to increase your exposure and the likelihood that your release will be picked up by more venues, then you want to pay. Paying also allows you to include hyperlinks in your release that direct traffic (and search engines) track back to your site, another way to increase your traffic.

What tips do you have about writing and submitting press releases? One thing I recommend is to contact the person at the venue in charge of press releases and ask how he or she likes to receive them--hard copy in mail, fax or email. Each one will be different and you want to give them what they want. Please share your ideas and successes here.

Creating an online presence is particularly important for coaches. If you are interested in becoming a coach or developing your coaching skills, we are starting a new coaching school based on Choice Theory, affiliated with Prairie State College. It is starting in August. If you are interested in learning more, check out the Choice Coaching Institute. You will learn more details about creating an online presence in that program.

Creating an Effective Online Presence: Writing Articles

I have learned so much over the past five years about creating an online presence. There is so very much to know and most people who start their own businesses really don’t know how to create, maximize and leverage their online presence.

I know I have only scratched the surface but if I can in any way reduce your learning curve by sharing the things I’ve already learned, then that’s what I want to do.

Writing Articles

Writing articles is a tremendous way to get your name out there to the general public. I write at least two articles each month. I used to have my virtual assistant submit each one to online article banks individually. Now, for $100, I submit my article to I-Snare and they do the submitting for me. They will submit 100 articles for my $100 which is much more cost-effective than having to pay my assistant to do it.

There are still some specialized article banks I have my assistant submit to. I submit directly to eZine Articles because they post my submission directly on Twitter for me. It's a great benefit. I also submit directly to selfgrowth.com. You will likely have some you want to go directly to as well.

The purpose of writing articles is to help readers get to know you and what you have to offer. When you write, you are not necessarily trying to sell something—you are basically providing useful information, just like this article does. And you get to include a bio box at the end with a link back to your website home page, a product page or a sales letter. This will help increase the traffic to your website and it will be a targeted audience, meaning those who are already interested in what you have to say.

What tips do you have about writing and submitting articles? One thing I do is try to have a number in the title because these articles are read much more often than ones without a number. "Top 10 Reason to . . .," "Five Steps to. . .," or "Three Ways to . . ." are all examples of great titles for the Internet. Please share your ideas and successes here.

If you are interested in becoming a coach or developing your coaching skills, we are starting a new coaching school based on Choice Theory, affiliated with Prairie State College. It is starting in August. If you are interested in learning more, check out the Choice Coaching Institute. You will learn more details about creating an online presence in that program.

Creating an Effective Online Presence: Sales Letters

I have learned so much over the past five years about creating an online presence. There is so very much to know and most people who start their own businesses really don’t know how to create, maximize and leverage their online presence.

I know I have only scratched the surface but if I can in any way reduce your learning curve by sharing the things I’ve already learned, then that’s what I want to do.

Sales Letters

Sales letters are very important. If there is one thing I’d like to outsource, it would be sales letters. They are not fun for me to do but they may be fun for you. There are several things to be considered in a sales letter. First of all, research has shown that the length of the sales letter should be proportional to the price point. If it's a higher priced product, then the sales letter should be longer. If it's a free product or low-cost, then the sales letter can be shorter.

It must have a captivating title. It must be filled with information about WIIFM—What’s In It For Me, meaning your readers or potential customers. This is again tied to my original point about niche marketing. Your sales letter will be most effective when you can write as if you know the mind of the reader. You must understand their pain or speak to a goal they have. How can you be specific enough if you haven’t narrowed your niche? You can’t.

The letter should be crafted with both the skimming reader and the detail reader in mind. This means making main point subheadings so the person who skims can get the general idea of what you are talking about just by skimming the headings. However, include sufficient detail to convince the person who is interested in lots of facts and statistics. You don’t want to write your letter with only one group in mind because then you will lose out on the possibility of selling to the group you omitted.

Create products and services your niche is hungry for and then tell them why they must have your product to either solve their problem or help them become more successful. You want to detail the features, benefits and advantages of the product you are offering.

Sales letters must have an urgent call to action. Create some type of advantage for those who act NOW. Research shows that even if a person is interested in what you are offering, if they don’t act as they are reading your letter and decide to wait for another day, they never come back to it. Get them to act now by making it worth their while. You can even offer an extra incentive for the first 20 people who respond. It’s up to you.

What tips do you have about writing sales letters? Please share your ideas and successes here.

If you are interested in becoming a coach or developing your coaching skills, we are starting a new coaching school based on Choice Theory, affiliated with Prairie State College. It is starting in August. If you are interested in learning more, check out the Choice Coaching Institute. You will learn more details about creating an online presence in that program.