Archive for the ‘Free Goodies’ Category

Get a Free Gravatar to Improve Your Networking and Personal Brand Recognition

Get a Free Gravatar to Improve Your Networking and Personal Brand Recognition

Do you have a Gravatar yet? If not, I highly encourage you to get one right now.

What is Gravatar?

Gravatar (which stands for Globally Recognized Avatar) is a play on the word “avatar” which is a photo, image or other representation of you online. This free service allows you to upload a photo that it then automatically associates with whatever email address(es) you tell it to.

Once you set your account up, your Gravatar will display your photo beside your name whenever you comment or post on a blog, publish articles, set up profiles… a whole host of things.

This helps instantly and automatically identify your online articles, comments and posts on blogs, forums, websites, etc.

This is super helpful to you in your business because it puts a face with a name which makes you more memorable to people (any of whom could be your next potential clients).

By visually branding all your online content with your face, you stick out more. The more your face keeps popping up, the more people start to notice and recognize you wherever they go online.

This helps grow the “know, like and trust” factor exponentially; the more they see your face, the more they feel like they know you and can trust you.

You can upload any image you like; however, I suggest you avoid logos and caricatures. These do nothing to humanize your business.

Stick with a nice headshot. Your image packs a more powerful punch in creating rapport.

And there is no one you-er than you so it’s the utmost in unique and memorable “branding.”

That’s because first and foremost, people do business with people. They notice and look at photos of other people far more than any other kind of image.

It doesn’t even need to be by a pro as long as it’s clear and pleasant: fix your hair, wear something presentable and smile warmly. This will suffice until you are able to get some pro shots taken.

Setting your Gravatar up is quick and easy. You can add as many email addresses as you want and swap out your photo anytime. You can learn about more of its uses and how to do things on their support page.

And, like I said, it’s free, so there’s really no reason not to take advantage of this very handy marketing tool.

Go set your Gravatar up now, then post a comment below to see how it looks!

Tune Into My Interview on BlogTalkRadio with LaToya Haynes

The lovely LaToya Haynes has invited me for a live interview on her BlogTalkRadio show this Friday, and you’re invited.

Here are the details for tuning in:

Fabulous Careers, Doing What You Love

BlogTalkRadio show with host LaToya Haynes of Driven Results VP

Date: Friday, April 18, 2014
Time: 11a PDT | 12p MDT | 1p CDT | 2p EDT (U.S.)
(Need time zone conversion, go to TimeAndDate.com)
Duration: 1 hour

Tune in this Friday: http://tobtr.com/s/6329503

Want to know what marketing terms could be sending the wrong clients instead of ideal clients in your administrative consulting practice? Are you struggling with how to charge your clients in your practice?

Tune in this Friday when I’ll be providing tips and strategies to get your business going in the right direction. Your questions are welcome!

“See” you there. 🙂

Do You Need to Earn Some Extra Money?

The other day, I was chatting with a colleague by email. She was sharing some health issues she was having related to weight so we got to talking about diet and exercise.

I told her I was huge fan of Jillian Michaels’s stuff because she’s not about fad diets and gimmicks; rather, she’s all about the science and knowing your numbers and eating healthy, nutritious, organic food.

When I recommended that she get Jillian’s books (particularly Winning by Losing), my colleague said she didn’t have money for food right now, let alone books.

Well, that just broke my heart, as I’m sure it does yours. I immediately set about mailing her my copy.

And then later, a lightbulb went off. Duh! I have an affiliate program!

She is already a follower of my advice and mentoring, trusts me, and has some of my products and thinks highly of the value, quality and integrity of the information and education I provide in them. She could totally be referring others to my Success Store and earning 25% commissions from every sale for the recommendations she gives anyway!

And it doesn’t require any extra work or time beyond her usual participation in online industry groups other than replying to posts or emailing or PMing people privately whenever those opportunities to refer arise.

And, of course, she can also upload our affiliate image graphics to her website with her referral link attached for completely passive referrals.

So I told her to be sure to register so that she could start earning some side money to help improve her situation. It was a no-brainer!

It’s these types of opportunities that feel so good, so gratifying… to have something that allows me to share in success and give back financially to those who support me in my movement to elevate our profession and help others succeed by empowering them with proper business tools and education.

I see all kinds of opportunities on LinkedIn and various other forums, listservs and online groups where you could be referring others to the ACA Success Store (such as when they are looking for contracts—we have the best!—or want to learn about things I teach on such as pricing and packaging, how to consult with clients, writing their magnetic marketing message, etc.) and earning yourself some income at the same time. There are women who are earning an extra $400-600+ a month doing this, which is nothing to sniff at.

Could you use some extra money (who couldn’t, right, lol)? Well, then, let me send you some every month! I would LOVE to! Simply sign up to start earning today.

Wanna Be Part of the Community?

In case you didn’t realize it, the ACA uses its Facebook page as a community forum. It’s where I share wayyyy more mentoring and guidance beyond the blog here, and where our members and friends can ask questions and add their voice to the conversation.

I’d love to have you join us there! And if you’re not there, you’re missing out on a TON more conversation, fellowship and learning.

See you there!

ACA Facebook Community

 

Want to Know How to Get Clients?

This is the single most frequently asked question in business.

And the answer is surprisingly simple. There’s still work and effort involved, of course.

But the “secret,” if you want to think of it like that, is really and truly simplicity itself.

Download our new free tool to learn the answer to this age-old question and get the 3 simple steps to getting those clients for your business!

Free Gift for You: Intro to Business Formations

One of the most important decisions you must make in your business is what business formation to choose. Many of us start out as sole proprietors. For many reasons, there often comes a time to decide whether incorporating is the next best move in your business. However, it can be really confusing trying to understand all the different forms of incorporation in order to decide which is best for you.

As part of the work I’m doing on our Start Your Business section of the ACA website, I came up with a free guide to business formations to provide an at-a-glance comparison of the different formations and some of the most important things to know about each.

You can download your free Intro to Business Formations here.

Could you do me a favor in return? Since this is new, I hope you will let me know if this guide is helpful or not or if you spot any typos or anything else a miss. I sure would appreciate it!

Have a rockin’ Monday and enjoy!

Free Income and Pricing Calculator

Hey, I’ve got a little present for you today!

It’s our new and HUGELY improved automated ACA Income and Pricing Calculator that you can download for free.

We’ve offered a calculator since 2006 to help folks get conscious about their numbers and figure out their hourly rate.

However, I’ve never been an advocate of billing by the hour because it’s the least accurate way to charge for the value you provide. In fact, it actually causes you to LOSE money and earn poorly.

So for the longest time I’ve wanted to completely overhaul our calculator to walk you through the process of getting clarity around your income needs and help you calculate your pricing baseline in a completely new and different way, a way that will help you actually realize your income aspirations and look at achieving them from a different angle.

I finally got around to doing just that earlier this year, but then I got stuck on a more advanced Excel formula so I put it back on the shelf until two weeks ago when a colleague came to my rescue.  Thanks to her wonderful assistance, I was finally able to finalize our new calculator so I could share it with you today. Enjoy!

PS: Please do let me know what you think!