But I'm Not Trying to Build an Empire

As sent out to my mailing list today. Looking forward to your thoughts:
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Happy Hallowe'en! Just doing a bit of work on this fun day before
we get into today's festivities. Hope you're having a great day
as well.

Last week I told you about the Final Chapter of Rich Schefren's
Internet Business Manifesto. I received lots of great feedback
and many people told me they thought this final chapter was the
best. I thought so too!

But some people have expressed concern that they didn't feel that
the information was intended for them. They felt Rich was
snubbing the "lifestyle business myth" and it was a stab at what
they had been working so hard at. They also said they didn't want
to be multi-million dollar company, they just wanted to live a
comfortable lifestyle....so why would this information apply?

I've been working at what I consider to be the "lifestyle
business" too, but it's completely grounded in the real business
practices Rich sets out in his Manifesto chapters. You can't
build a long-term business chasing the latest money-making
opportunity.

And here's another important point...

You also can't set it and completely forget it, even if there are
many passive factors to your business. Even if it's not you
physically working at your business, you need the resources and
staff/contractors to maintain and grow your business. There is
always work to be done and strategies to put in place.

Rich teaches you how to make the most of the resources you have
and teaches you what resources you should acquire. It has been a
powerful lesson for me. Learning about the value of customers and
how to make the most of them was very important to me. And the
realization that just because I have someone on my "customer
list" doesn't mean they're a customer anymore. We need to put
things into place to make sure we keep our customers.

A solid plan is important and if we continue to wing it - no, I
don't agree that the big companies can come in and swallow us
whole because we have the "Sweetie" secret weapon the big guns
can't penetrate! But I do believe it makes it hard to grow your
business efficiently.

If you missed reading the Final Chapter, I encourage you to do
so.

If you already read it...come share your thoughts on my blog. I'd
love to chat!

Click here to get your copy.

All the best,
Alice Seba
Your Friend & Partner in Online Success

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More on Getting Organized & Customers

I've been quiet for the past few days because I'm still working on rethinking and reorganizing in my online business. I also spent some time today reading Rich Schefren's Final Chapter of his Internet Business Manifesto. This document came just as the right time in my planning process.

Coincidentally, Rich asked me to review the Final Chapter prior to my last blog entry about customer lists. I was just too busy to take a moment to look at it last week. Well, fortunately today, I made the time and what I've learned can help me create a better plan for acquiring and KEEPING my customers.

You can get your copy by clicking here. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Do You Make Offers to Your Customers?

It still suprises me that many people use PayPal buttons to sell products and then never collect customer contact information into a database. Or worse yet, there are people who have a system in place to contact their customers and make them offers, but never do.

Once a customer has purchased from you and is happy with your product, the chances they will purchase from you again are HUGE. Here's an experiment from today:

- Emailed customer list an offer for a complentary product to what they already purchased.
- It has only be about 8 hours since that offer, but over 31% have clicked through to check out the offer.
- 27% the clicked through actually purchased.

Those are great numbers and more than can usually be expected from a simple opt-in list or newsletter. And remember, only a few hours have passed and we can still follow-up with another email to reach anyone who missed the first email. We can also make similar offers in the future.

Sometimes we focus so heavily on our opt-in list and forget about those who have already shown us that they want to buy our stuff. I like people who buy my stuff. :-)

Lynn Terry - Now We Know the Truth

I enjoy browsing Technorati. I discover interesting things like how much I cost on eBay, etc.

But this is TOO good! I've been waiting for this forever...the TRUTH about Lynn Terry. What do you think we'll find out? Lynn Terry REALLY is a single mom that's been supporting her family from her Internet business earnings for years? Or maybe something more wild like her favorite color is pink and she likes romance novels. GASP!

Actually, I don't know if that last part is true, but I DO know Lynn is a great gal. That's why I think it's kind of funny the way people advertise. I'm sure the clickthroughs are high, but I wonder what kind of results a sensationalistic ad campaign can really have.

The Re-Organization Project

Today, I emailed my Internet Marketing Prescriptions list with my need to really to take stock in what I'm working on my business and ensuring I'm using my time wisely.

As I wrote earlier today:

"I say it's time to drop that old baggage and put your attention that makes you happiest, healthiest and wealthiest!"

Part of that process includes getting my days organized. To those who know me well, it's no secret, that I'm not the most organized person. I forget dates, I have to constantly ask for reminders and sometimes I say I'll do more than I really can.

I've tried different organizational systems. I've tried daytimers. I've used my Microsoft Outlook Calendar. I've used the calendar on my cell phone/PDA. I've also used Jimmy D. Brown's AWESOME "to do" sheets that he provided in a coaching program I did with him.

Thus far, Jimmy's sheets were best. They separated the different types of tasks I needed to do in my business to ensure maximum profitability. It was very helpful, but I ran into a problem. My daily life not only integrates busines, but it also includes the very personal. As a mom in business, I'm always on the run.

I needed some kind of system that I'd have in my face every day and included my business and personal obligations (and honors). So, this is what I came up with...what you see in the picture (excuse my horrible handwriting). I could have used Jimmy's sheets, enlarged them and integrated the personal side of my life...but that seemed like too much work. :-(

Instead, I got a Dayrunner business planner calendar that I velcroed to my fridge. I separated each day into two and outlined each day in a felt marker. Then the white board below is to highlight what's happening each day - divided into personal and business. As you can see, I have movie date with a friend on Wednesday and have some recording to do with Kelly in the morning (maybe too much information, right?).

I don't know if this is going to work. I'm helplessly disorganized. Prior to having kids I was rather anal about always being on time and never forgetting anything. Kids changed that and then business made it worse. I hope this system will make things a bit better.

Please share your system. I know there's so many of us who DESPERATELY need it!

Want Your Customers to Take Action - Maybe They Should Pay For It

I'm all for offering freebies to my readers and I give them out all the time. I give out a full-fledged traffic course with my newsletter sign up, I give out ebooks, audios, hold teleseminars and even have some cool pieces of free software coming.

I give these out for a few reasons:

• I like to help people
• It helps build trust with my readers
• When you give, you often receive plenty more back in return

But my business partner, Kelly McCausey and I, seemed to find an exception to the benefits of offering free stuff. We have been running a website hosting service at Mom Webs for a couple of years now. This service was completely free, in return for displaying some subtle advertising on the page.

Neither of us have ever been fans of free web hosting. If you want to have a BUSINESS, you've got to be able to shell out a few bucks for a professional web presence. But we came into contact with a lot of people who were dying for free web hosting, so we decided to provide it.

Our free hosting was different in a few ways:

• The advertising we put on the page was very subtle
• It was full-fledged cpanel hosting with great features
• There was an option to upgrade to ad-free hosting (that's not an original idea...but a handy feature for those who were ready to go fully legit)

We had it all set up and guess what happened? People signed up for accounts and never used them. Some built websites, but never promoted them. In other words, in most cases, the people who got it for free did just about NOTHING.

So, Kelly and I decided that we're going to scrap that free stuff and just charge for our hosting. That way, we can attract people who are serious about their businesses. We've amped up the services, but kept them affordable. You can see what we have available here.

Free is good...but maybe not always the best. What do you think?

No Spam - I'm So Lonely!

...but it's a good lonely.

I figured it was high-time I got a new email address, so I've handed over my old personal email address to my V.A. Funny thing is, now that I get almost no email, I feel a bit lonely, but I think I'll survive! Hee hee.

Still, it's interesting how getting a bunch of email in your inbox, even if it's spam, can make you feel busy and somehow important.

I could have just cancelled the email address, but I had a number of important things coming to that email I didn't want to lose. I also could have made the transition myself by changing my email in various accounts, telling my contacts, etc...but I think my time is better spent on other things. That's why it's a perfect task for my V.A.

We made the switch just before my short holiday earlier this week and things are starting to come together. Mel is getting my affiliate accounts set to the correct address, updating the subscriptions I actually want to keep (not many) and redirecting people to my new address. Slowly, but surely...we're getting organized.

In a few weeks, we'll just shut down the address completely, so she doesn't have to deal with the truckload of spam each day.

If sorting through email is burning a big chunk of your day, it might be time to do a little email reorganization yourself.

Grabbed Me A Piece of Sylvie Fortin's Scalp

Sounds kind of sick and morbid, doesn't it? FAR from it.

As you may already know, soon after my friends Syvlie Fortin (nee Charriere - of Workaholics4Hire) and Michel Fortin (a good friend and my favorite copywriter) were married this summer, they announced that Sylvie was battling breast cancer.

The news hit me HARD. I was supposed to attend the wedding, but due to personal obligations, I had to cancel. Then I heard the news and it hit me like a brick. In the time I've known Sylvie, she's always been an inspiration to me, but now the inspiration has reached new heights. You may have seen her Breast Cancer Victory blog that brings spreads awareness and strength to men and women alike. Or you may have read Sylvie's wonderful story on her page at the Internet Based Moms Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign.

It doesn't matter where you heard of her (or if you're just hearing of her now), her strength is amazing. She's about to undergo chemotherapy and she's still working to spread awareness and raise funds for breast cancer.

And that fundraiser is where my claim on her scalp comes in.

Sylvie has created a unique fundraising campain that you'll want to participate in. This wonderful lady is shaving her head off so it can be fashioned into a real hair wig for a child living with cancer. Then she's putting her bald head up as advertising space (think "Rent My Chest" or all those crazy "Pixel Ads") in return for your donation to the Avon Breast Cancer Crusade.

I've grabbed my $250 piece, so DJ Dave can talk about my website on the video...yippee!. You can grab a piece of her Virtual Scalp Real Estate (I believe John Reese would call this "VSRE") for a minimum donation of $50. And if you can't manage $50, please visit the Avon Foundation and make ANY donation in Sylvie Fortin's name.

Every little bit helps. Click below to get the full details of her fundraiser, but HURRY you must fill in your pledge form by tomorrow (Sunday).

=> Click here to learn more and get a piece of Sylvies' Scalp

Sylvie - you're an inspiration to all of us...and we appreciate you!

PR Web - Free Releases End & SEO Consequences?

I read on Armand Morin's blog (who read it elsewhere) that as of October 23, 2006, PR Web will no longer accept free press release submissions. The new fee structure will start at $80 to submit a release.

Now, I don't blame a company for limiting it's submissions...it was bound to happen as press releases became an Internet Marketing FAD, rather than the sound public relations opportunity they are.

But here's what really caught my eye and triggered my "I don't know about that" radar:

I logged into my account to see what was up at PR Web and I saw a new interesting "LinkWriter" option. PR Web now accepts anchor text in the link in your press releases provided you pay a minimum of $200 for your submission.

Hmmm...paying $200 for keyword-rich incoming links. Not sure how the powers that be at the major search engines will see that. Given the massive size of PR Web...certainly it's not that hard for the search engines to get wind of this and possibly evaluate the links accordingly.

Of course, I don't have a crystal ball on this one and maybe Google and others will always see PR Web as an authority site (rather than a link broker) and there won't be a problem. Still, I'd watch and see how useful those anchor text links are in the months to come.

By the way, I reference PR Web as a free submission service on a number of my websites and in my Press Release Profits course. I will be updating those references in the next week or so, please be patient.

Pay 11.3 Million to State Your Opinion

I can't really come up with an opinion on this one because there aren't enough details, but a WHOPPING 11.3 million dollars was awarded (but will probably never be paid) to a woman who sued another woman over defamatory remarks posted on the Internet.

Here's the story.

The defendent (who could no longer afford a lawyer and didn't appear in court) claims she was just stating her opinion...which I hope will always be allowed. However, the article says that the woman used the words "crook", "con artist" and "fraud" in her post which might make it more than simply an opinion.

In a related story: Courts are asked to crack down on bloggers, websites. This article talks about a few cases where people have definitely gone too far, including the totally disgusting (my opinion, of course!) dontdatehimgirl.com site, where women are allowed to post full names, locations and unverified details about their prior boyfriends/spouses/etc.

Does this mean we can't share our opinions? I don't think so, but definitely don't think your freedom of speech means you can state anything you want as fact. And hey, if you're unsure if you can say what you're thinking...talk to a lawyer because this is definitely not legal advice.

It's Alice's BIG Sweetie Pack - But Only Until Tomorrow

Macy's has their one-day sale. I love Macy's by the way. We don't have any in Canada so I always have to drop in when I'm south of the border!

A local furniture store always has their 24 Hour Madness sale and it REALLY is madness there.

Personally, I hate those sales. It's always to crowded and what I want is never on sale, so I battle the crowd just to pay full price.

I'm hoping to do better for you with my own virtual one day sale. There's no crowds to battle and ALL my Internet marketing courses are on sale, so you don't have to worry about getting stuck paying full price.

Here's the awesome deal for my one day sale (and you get a headstart now because it technically starts on Saturday):

** Alice's BIG Sweetie Pack **

If you've thought about buying any of my courses, but weren't sure which, you don't have to make a decision anymore. Get 'em ALL!

My Big Sweetie Pack includes:

- Internet Marketing Sweetie
http://www.InternetMarketingSweetie.com

- Press Release Profits
http://www.PressReleaseProfits.com

- Affiliate Marketing Sweetie
http://www.AffiliateMarketingSweetie.com

- Information Product Sweetie
http://www.InformationProductSweetie.com

with a retail value of -> $125.80

But of course, the real value is priceless! ;-)

For my first 100 customers (or until tomorrow night at midnight PST - whichever comes first), you can get the whole lot at 40% off. That's all four courses for $75.48.

Grab yours by using this shopping cart link:
http://www.aliceseba.com/sweetiepacks.html

Important note: That's a shopping cart link above where you need to order to get the low price. If you need information about the courses, please visit the individual websites and then go to the shopping cart link.

Once your order is complete, you'll receive INSTANT access to everything! I look forward to working with you.

Remember...there's only 100 available, so grab it quick.

What Kind of Blogger Are You?

Hmmmm...I promise I didn't rig this one, but here's what a quiz told me:

You Are a Pundit Blogger!

Your blog is smart, insightful, and always a quality read. Truly appreciated by many, surpassed by only a few

What Kind of Blogger Are You?

Want More Subscribers? Free Tool Coming!

If you're on my Internet Marketing Prescriptions list, you'll already know that Lynette Chandler and I are working on a tool (and now that tool will also include a full-blown guide) to help you increase your opt-ins. It's going to be a great tool for people who hate fiddling with HTML code and want everything laid out for them.

Best of all - it's going to be free, but likely only to a limited number of people.

Interested?

Can You Lend Your Support?

Since 2003, we've participated in Breast Cancer Awareness Month at Internet Based Moms.com and this year the tradition continues. Breast Cancer Awareness month is traditionally in October, but we provide information to women and participate in fundraisers all year round. Since last November 1, 2003, we've raised over $1000 for breast cancer charities...please help us grow that number in October.

You can help by one or even all of the following:

• Reading and sharing the facts about breast cancer.
• Shopping in our fundraising directory or getting your own fundraiser listed.
• Pick up a ribbon for your website and send out a pre-written press release. Click here for yours.

Thanks for your suport. Let's make breast cancer HISTORY!

Holy Toledo! Moms and Home Business

The Toledo Blade has published an article about moms and home business. You can read it here. I spoke to the writer, Mary Beth McLaughlin, and we chatted for a while about what kinds of things moms are doing online and why they might want to get into virtual Internet marketing, instead of a "traditional" home business.

A lot of that info didn't make the article, but it's still a cool read about other moms doing their thang at home. Go mommies!

Here's the article:
Home is Where Mom Has Set up a Business