Guest Post: Top 10 Ways to Know if You are a Suffering SuperWoman

March 26, 2012 By laurie Leave a Comment

By Guest Blogger: Francine Portelance.

Super Laurie

Are you a “Superwoman”? You know what I mean…

You have a can-do attitude! People are in AWE of you. Everyone comes to YOU when they need something done. For sure, you’re the one to call if they need something done tomorrow. After all – you get stuff done. You excel at…everything.

And…You. Are. Freakin’. TIRED!

Or maybe not.

Or maybe…

…You don’t have time to think about that right now, so let’s put it on your to-do list and figure that one out later, shall we?

Here are 10 ways to know if you are a “suffering” Superwoman?

1. You have found yourself in the middle of an important meeting when you discover you are wearing your sweater inside out.

I’m not saying that this happened to me or anything… but it may have...Okay, it did.

2. You have had to do a “duck and tuck” to retrieve the second pair of panty hose (or sock) that is dragging from your pant leg.

I’m not saying that this has ever happened to me… but, really – who can make this stuff up?

3. Every time your car runs out of gas, you feign shock, hoping, praying, and believing your car can run on gas fumes for just “one more” errand.

4. You rush to get your kids to practice, finally showing up somewhere on time! … only… you find out you had the time wrong, and it’s over. You spend the next 3 days wondering what happened.

5. You get your daily fluids by drinking coffee and Red Bull.

6. You had to do a u-turn because you overshot your destination…by 2 miles…because you are preoccupied thinking about your To Do List…

…and then you miss the turn again.

7. People often tell you they don’t know how you do it all, and you secretly think to yourself: “neither do I”.

8. You never volunteer to drive, because you’d be embarrassed if your friends and coworkers knew how cluttered your car was.

…plus, you’re always out of gas.

9. If it were up to you, it would be Cocktail Hour every hour.

10. Ummmmm, what was I talking about?

…..sorry … I got distracted, the dog is barking, I’m reaching for my 10^th coffee of the day, the phone is ringing and someone’s at the door.

Maybe you are chuckling at these true life stories about some times I, and some fellow Superwomen got ourselves into some pretty awkward moments (admit it – you can relate to some of those.) Why do we do this to ourselves? How do we get ourselves into these situations? We are smart! We get stuff done! Admittingly, we are hero-like in the way we get things done…

And…therein lies the problem.

They happen, because we have an over-reliance on our Super Hero powers. We think we can do it all, and get away with it (obviously not). I know that these kind of mishaps can easily happen to any of us. When we are pulled in too many directions, we keep piling stuff on our plates and we spread ourselves too thin.

Although we can giggle at these experiences, there is really nothing funny about this, because the truth of the matter is, we are hurting inside wondering how to keep it all together.

If this is you, maybe it’s time to get off the Suffering SuperWoman treadmill and get your life back!

(Want to know how? Listen to Francine’s no-cost training call “How to Get From Frazzled to Focused, Key Secrets of Successful SuperWomen” on March 27th! Missed it? Grab the recording!)

Francine is a Professional Life Coach and Life Balance Expert. She is most notably known for her work with ambitious, overachieving and over-scheduled women, an epidemic she refers to as Suffering SUPERwoman Syndrome.

After receiving a Master’s Degree in Child Development, Francine worked in the field of early intervention and education of infants and preschoolers with special needs. Over time, she became increasingly frustrated with the reality that there wasn’t enough money invested by the government to meet the needs of its most fragile citizens.

Disillusioned and feeling powerless, she left the security of a regular pay check to start a home-based networking business. Within 3 years, she achieved the coveted position of Independent Sales Director for Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Despite all her successes, Francine knows first-hand the challenges of working 7 days a week, with little time with her family and struggling with physical and emotional fatigue. After her second burnout, Francine started re-examining her life and set out on a new journey to reinvent herself, discovering along the way the important elements of living life with balance and creating a new business helping other women get off the Suffering SuperWoman treadmill and to find a better formula for living with purpose, balance and fulfillment.

Francine has a new found passion for living stress-free, for having fun and embracing new challenges. She is especially proud of having competed in her first Dragon Boat Race last year.

Filed Under: personal developement

Online Sales 2 – How to do Email Marketing

March 20, 2012 By laurie Leave a Comment

Email marketing services can be one of the most productive, efficient, cost-effective methods for promoting your products and building online sales – when done properly. It can also be one of the least efficient and expensive time sucks you’ve ever had the misfortune to endure.

Find an Automated Email System that Works for You

The best email marketing systems are automated. They work for you..not the other way around. Systems like iContact (my fav!), Mailchimp, and Constant Contact are wonderful tools you can use to help you promote your products or services directly to the people most likely to appreciate them – and buy.

The best email marketing services will …

Track who or how many people read your emails
Show you who or how many people click on your links
Make sure you comply with anti-spam laws and give people a one-click unsubscribe option
Manage your email list for you
Allow you to put a “free download” or mailing list opt-in option on your website
Allow you to pre-schedule emails to go out to certain groups
Allow you to automatically send emails to people based on a particular time frame related to the day they “sign up” for something (Autoresponder series)
Save you time, money, and frustration

With the online sales process, these email marketing services allow you a pretty easy way to communicate to a lot of people. AND it gives you the tools to collect their emails in the first place (via an opt-in form).

When using email to promote your business and generate online sales, you want your prospects to actually open the sales letter you send them, right? With one of these email marketing services doing the work for you, you are much more likely to get the response you’re looking for; without wasting time doing it manually. You will avoid the junk or spam folder, and get your email in front of your prospect, which is your goal, after all.

You will also build your list, increase your back links and click-throughs, and improve your online sales.

We’ve made it to the second phase of the online sales process here, and we’re moving forward with trying to help you understand it. We will follow up on this post with more great info on how to manage your online sales in our next few posts. Stay tuned…

Filed Under: constant contact, email marketing, icontact, newsletter

Online Sales 1 – How to Sell Your Stuff Online

March 14, 2012 By laurie Leave a Comment

online store guy You can do online sales the easy way, or the hard way.
You can do it manually, or automatically.
You can spend hours every day doing follow-up and follow-through, or you can have it all done for you.

(The following is a fabricated conversation: any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental — I swear.)

Client: “I want to sell stuff online. I need you to set up a shopping cart for me.”

Me: “Sure thing. Which shopping cart are you thinking of?”

Client: “Uh…Whadda’ ya’ mean? I just need something that connects to my bank account.”

Me: “Welllll, shopping carts don’t connect to your bank account. Merchant accounts do. Are you sure you need a cart?”

Client: “Yes, I think so. My friend has one. And so does my Mom. And this girl in my BNI group – not her, but her cousin. She has one, so I’m pretty sure I need one.”

Me: “Okay, I think I need to explain some things to you…”

The world of online sales is a daunting one for many. Unfortunately, having a great product, or many great products, (or ideas for products) is just the beginning. Getting your stuff into the customer’s hands, and getting paid for it – that’s the hard part. Plus, there is so much information out there, and there are so many products to “Help” you do it, trying to figure it out on your own can make your eyes bleed. Well, here’s a little help.

Automation = Happiness (and Successful Online Sales)

The best approach to online sales is to get it right at the beginning, without wasting time or money on a system that isn’t right for you, and without getting frustrated and giving up. If your products are really as good as you think they are, you owe it to your customers to put it in their hands, in the most efficient, cost-effective manner possible. Automation of your sales process is the best way to get it done.

Let me break it down – and make it as simple as possible. There are really only three basic components you need to wrap your head around:

Email marketing (communicate)
Shopping carts (store front)
Merchant accounts / PayPal (get paid!)

Of course, these days, there are about 300 variations and 1000s of options for you to choose from out there, but don’t you worry your pretty little head about all that. We’ll tell you where to go from here (in our next article…).

We’re just at the beginning of the online sales process here, as well as being at the beginning of trying to help you understand it. We will follow up on this post with more great info on how to manage your online sales in our next few posts. Stay tuned…

Filed Under: 1shoppingcart, business, email marketing, info products, online store, shopping cart

Link Exchanges: The Good, The Bad, and The Spam

March 6, 2012 By laurie Leave a Comment

I got a question from a client recently who asked about link exchanges on her web site. The conversation was spawned from an email she received asking her to list a random web site URL on HER site, in exchange for this other random person linking to her. I thought this topic was important enough to share with the rest of you.

”I’ll link yours if you link mine…”

Don’t be fooled by these link exchange seductresses!

There are a few things here:

Having links from other websites that point back to your website IS valuable. It increases your “legitimacy” and likeability in the eyes of The Almighty Google. HOWEVER, you want to do link exchanges with legitimate sites (ahhhh, we knew there would be a catch!), AND (for the sake of your reputation) you only want to link exchange with businesses that you know and like. Otherwise, you don’t really know where you are sending your visitors.

In this particular email that she got, we saw that the URL led to a random, web site about dentistry. This client of mine is an EFT Coach. Does anyone see a match here? No? Me either.

Sometimes (although, I’d say rarely), you will get a legitimate request for something like this. But, it will probably come from someone you know. For instance, if my client wanted to link to a local holistic health care provider who knows and practices EFT, that might be interesting and beneficial to her people. In turn, he/she might want to link to an EFT site to provide their patients with alternative ways to manage pain and suffering. That would make sense.

Mostly, you can consider these requests to be spam.

Delete. Destroy. and most importantly – do not click on links in emails from people you don’t know! (and sometimes – don’t click on the ones from the people you do know) lol.

Filed Under: SEO, websites

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!

February 27, 2012 By laurie 2 Comments

I walked out of my front door one day to find a box of lemons on my door step.

No note.
No identifying marks.
Just a…
Big.
Ass.
Box.
…of lemons.

The next thing I did was call my dear friend and videographer, Ana. How can you NOT make a video when life (or…some random neighbor) gives you lemons? Like – literally gives you lemons. So – armed with no knowledge of how this might work, or a juicer, we set out on our adventure. This slightly long video is that adventure.

Do you have a “when life gives you lemons” story to share? Please do so in the comments!

OR – if you have a favorite lemon recipe – let’s hear it!

Filed Under: how to, videos, YouTube

That’s what the heck SEO is…

February 21, 2012 By laurie 1 Comment

At the beginning of this series on SEO, we promised to provide you with the SEO basics. And – that’s what

we did! Yet, there are a few more things to add. (But of course, there always are…remember what a big subject we said this was? Oy vey.)

Your SEO strategy is a process

Once again, there is no magic bean to plant, button to push, or lever to pull to improve your ranking in the search results. You can’t simply “turn on” your SEO. Sorryyyyyyyy, it just doesn’t work that way.

Optimizing your site for the search engines takes time. Why? Because, as we explained in the post “What the heck is website SEO, anyway?” the search engines store their search results rather than performing a new search every time a search term is entered. By building what is essentially a library of optimized content at your site, you give them search results they can store for the next time your keyword is used in a search. Boom, done…

SEO techniques change over time

Yeah, sorry again (aren’t we just the bad news bears today…) but, the techniques that are used today to maximize SEO, even the SEO basics, are different than they were just a few years ago. They’ll be different again a few years from now, too.

As the search engines develop and become more refined in their techniques, information providers, those of us who own websites and blogs, must also become more refined in the ways we make our information available to them. Don’t take it personally that you have to change with the times; it’s just progress.

Website SEO requires diligence

If you want to improve your ranking in the search results; if you want to move to the top of the page on Google, you can’t afford to do some of the things some of the time. Since the search engines are relentless in their pursuit of information, you must be equally relentless in providing it for them.

Content SEO requires creativity

Content SEO requires the creative use of keywords, as well as the creative generation of content. As the search engines become more focused on quality of content, you must provide that quality if you hope to be found. Besides appealing to the search engines, quality content also appeals to the reader, who is your ultimate target, after all.

Stick to the SEO basics…for now

Remember this, as you see the results of your own web searches improve, providing you with higher quality information every time you enter a search term, it is the refining of search techniques which makes this possible. Your response to these refinements, as a website or blog owner and web-based information provider, should be enthusiastic. Why? Because, this means it will actually become easier for your target audience to find you.

For now, stick to these SEO basics to improve the SEO of your site, but don’t allow yourself to become complacent. You can’t afford to – none of us can.

(This is post 4 of 4 in a series on SEO and SEO Basics)

[<--- go back to the article on Content SEO]

Filed Under: SEO

What the heck is content SEO?

February 13, 2012 By laurie 2 Comments

Now that we know what SEO is, and now that we know what website SEO is, let’s learn about CONTENT SEO!

What the heck is content SEO, anyway?

Content is the text you post to your blog or website…Duh, thanks for nothing! (Be patient, young grasshopper!). Content SEO, on the other hand, is the practice of making your text easy to find for the search engines, as well as relevant to the search they are performing.

How do the search engines do it?

First, you need to know that Google, and the other search engines, don’t actually search the web every time a search term is typed into the search box. They search their servers. Huh…?

That’s right, Google and all the others have literally millions of servers around the world which are constantly “crawling” the web for content relevant to search terms they’ve stored in their systems. They could never search the entire web for you as quickly as they do if every search was a new one. With literally billions of websites to search, there is just too much information out there. Plus, they rank the quality of the info they deliver to you and that takes time too. So, they store it up for you and everyone else, and make it available in seconds. Cool, huh?

Why do the search engines prefer text?

Since text is the easiest type of information to crawl, that also makes it the cheapest to crawl. That means the search engines absolutely love text – and they always will. Beyond that, as the web began to develop as an information-sharing platform, and due to the relatively prehistoric technology available at the time, it developed as a text-based platform. So, text-based searching became fundamental to the development of search engine technology. It is now so deeply ingrained, it will never go away. And, again, it’s cheap.

Here are some tips on Content SEO:

Content SEO techniques…

Use your Keyword in the first 50-100 words of your text
Use your Keyword in the approximate middle of your text
Use your Keyword in the last 50-100 words
Text should be no less than 300 words
Highlight your Keywords with bold, underline, and italics, once each

For more information on content SEO techniques, check out this article at SEOmoz.

The final step to effective content SEO…

You knew this one was coming, didn’t you? Just as with website SEO, to make your content SEO efforts pay off for you, you must do these things consistently and relentlessly. This means – every time you post!

In other words, if you don’t want to waste all the effort of creating quality web content, perform these few simple tasks on each and every post to maximize your optimization efforts.

(This is post 3 of 4 in a series on SEO and SEO Basics)

[<--- go back to the article on Website SEO / go to the next article on THAT's What SEO is --->]

Filed Under: how to, SEO, websites

What the heck is website SEO?

February 6, 2012 By laurie 3 Comments

Now that we know what SEO is…

What the heck is website
SEO, anyway?

The simple answer to this question is, “Use WordPress.” If the response to this recommendation is, “OK,” then boom, we’re done. If you ask me, “Why?” well, that’s what this post is about.

WordPress is SEO-friendly – by design

When we talk about website SEO, what we’re really talking about is the structure and design of your blogging platform, or Content Management System (CMS) [non-techy people - don't fade - it gets better]. This structure and design can make it easy, or hard, for search engines to scan, or “crawl,” each website for useful information.

The beauty of WordPress is that it was designed and structured specifically to be Google-friendly, which also makes it search-engine friendly (to those “other search engines. Yes, there are others). Without going into a bunch of technical detail, we’ll just say that no other CMS is as SEO-friendly as WordPress (this is a good thing).

What do the search engines look for?

The search engines look for key words, what we now call keywords, to help them judge the relevancy of your site to a particular search term. A search term is what you type in to Google like: “videos of cute cats” (come on, you KNOW you do that). They first look in the most obvious places, then they dig a little deeper, if necessary. What are the most obvious places? The search engines will look for the keywords you’re using in the content or page title, of course, and in the permalink (aka the URL of the page, aka the web address, aka the thing up at the top of the screen that starts with www….), plus the headers, especially H1, and in the Meta information.

Here are places to place your keywords (if this list of things makes you cry because you don’t know what it means, skip to the next paragraph).

Website SEO techniques…

Keyword in the Title
Keyword at the beginning of the Title
Keyword in the Permalink (the page/post URL)
Keyword in the first Header (H1)
Keyword at the beginning of the first Header (H1)
Keyword in the Meta Description

For more information on website SEO techniques, here’s a great article at SEOmoz.

WordPress does much of this for you…

Do you remember that we talked about WordPress being a great CSM, above? Well, here’s why. WordPress does a bunch of these website SEO thingies for you! That’s right, WordPress will automatically use your title as the H1 tag, as well as placing it in the permalink for you (you have to set this up though – as your web person). Plus, with a WordPress plug-in such as “All-in-One SEO Pack,” which is FREE by the way, the Meta title and Meta description are taken care of for you, as well.

The last step to effective website SEO…

The final thing to remember is this; to make your website SEO strategy effective, you must do these things consistently and relentlessly. This means – every time you post! Since, with WordPress, some of the most important website SEO functions are automated, it is the CMS of choice for the savvy web entrepreneur. You do want to be known as a savvy entrepreneur, don’t you?

(This is post 2 of 4 in a series on SEO and SEO Basics.)

[<---- go back to the first article on SEO basics] [go to the next article on Content SEO --->]

Filed Under: SEO, websites, Wordpress

3 Reasons Why You NEED YouTube For Your Business

February 1, 2012 By laurie Leave a Comment

By Guest Blogger: Ana Levley

A lot of businesses still are debating whether or not to do social media. I understand the concern. When you come from a “traditional corporate” background, it may be really hard to imagine personalizing your business. But let’s take a look at one of the biggest social media sites out there: the amazing YouTube. It is not JUST a social media site. It is not JUST a place to find videos of cute cats and kids. It is also a search engine (the second most popular search engine, actually) – yes, really!

Are you on YouTube? If not, here are three reasons why you should be if you have a business:

1. YouTube is FREE. It is a free channel that billions of people view every day. That’s right! In fact, Mashable reports that YouTube just surpassed 2 billion views daily. YouTube is like basic cable now because everyone who has Internet can access it and watch it. So your business could have free promotion and ads with thousands of views at no charge.

2. YouTube is the second most popular search engine in the world according to UPI.com. 28% of Google’s searches are referred to YouTube.

3. YouTube is great to boost your Website SEO by embedding the videos. Google helps out its own comrades, (which, YouTube is, since it is owned by Google). Google loves YouTube and will help anyone who searches for your keywords find your videos in the search results. With the keywords tool on YouTube you can easily reach your target demographic.

With YouTube videos, you will be able to reach your target demographic and spread your brand. Now, knowing this, all you have to do is create a YouTube Video!

Don’t know how to make a YouTube Video?

Don’t care how to make a YouTube Video (and just want it boom, done)?

We can help.

[Also - if you are in the Los Angeles or Orange County Area (or will be), Ana is available for filming.]

Ana Levley is the resident Go2Girls Video Guru. Her social media experience comes from a broad background including, film and comic books. She is great at driving traffic in niche markets. Ana graduated from UC Irvine with a major in Drama and minor in conflict resolution, which we are convinced is the driving force behind her sense of humor and ability to deal with Laurie’s “Ana! I have the BEST idea for a video!” late night calls.

Ana believes in giving back to the community. She is involved in a variety of charities including Walk for Alzheimer’s and Relay for Life and also donates time working with Families Forward and Invisible Children. A lover of all thing outdoors, Ana enjoys camping, hiking and kayaking. She also knows how to cook tofu. All around, she is an impressive gal.

Filed Under: building a list, SEO, videos, YouTube

How to import contacts from Excel to Address book

January 30, 2012 By laurie Leave a Comment

Soooo – you’ve scanned in all your business cards from that trade show, and put them in Excel. How do you get your contacts from Excel to Address Book. (Address Book is where contacts are stored on the MAC – just in case “you are a PC” and you are reading this).

So, here’s what you do:

1. Make sure your Excel file uses the first row as headings (first name, last name, street address, etc), and then save your Excel file as a .CSV, preferably somewhere that you can easily find it, 45 seconds from now.

2. BACK UP your address book by clicking on File –> Export –> Address Book Archive.

3. Save it somewhere that you can quickly recover it in case something goes awry (you never know!)

4. Import your .CSV file by clicking File –> Import

5. Navigate to where the .CSV file is, and then click “open” (Leave “text encoding” to Automatic)

6. Make sure that the little box in the lower left that says “ignore first card” is checked (this is going to refer to your header column that you made sure was there in step 1)

7. Take a look at the left window to make sure everything looks like it is matching up right. If it’s not, you can change what gets imported where by clicking the up/down arrows next to the thing you want to change.

8. If you want to see the first few cards that will be imported, you can click through them by using the left and right arrow buttons in the bottom center.

9. Click ok.

Boom, done!

(Welllll…. almost…You still have to follow up with all those people)

Filed Under: how to, MAC Tips