Sweetie Saturday: Internet Marketing Sweetie Could Be Yours!
What better way to celebrate "Sweetie Saturday" than to give away 2 copies of the original Internet Marketing Sweetie course? This is our flagship course that showed that YES, there is no need to be cutthroat to get ahead in your business.You can win by telling me what you do in your business to help others with the aim to make a profit at the same time. After, we may be Sweeties, but we're still business people with a profit plan. :-)
Here's How It Works:
1. Find out what's in the course, so you know what you're getting into!2. Post 150-400 words in the comments area to show your business helps other people (and is still designed to give a profit back to you!). If you're new business and aren't turning a profit yet, that's okay...just share how you'd like to achieve those goals.
3. Deadline for entry is 8 AM (08:00) PST tomorrow (September 30, 2007 - Click here to see what time it is in PST).
4. I'll announce a winner sometime tomorrow. I'll announce it on the blog and give instructions on claiming the prize.
By the way, if you'd like to contribute a product for Sweetie Saturday, go here.
10 Comments:
Hi Alice,
Here's my entry:
In 1995, I saw the Internet through a Web browser for the first time and my wife said that my eyes got as big as saucers...
And I was floored. My mind was racing as I understood the potential that the Web had to teach others. A few months later I had my first Web site up. It was like most sites in the 90s, basic HTML with a lot of links that said "click here." But the site was and is very helpful.
One of my passions is genealogy - you know, family tree research.
My genealogy site, called "Treasure Maps" How-to Genealogy site, along with the companion e-mail newsletter was born. It got lots of traffic and back then, it took me, staying up all night for THREE nights to send the e-mail newsletter out. For those who deal with e-mail newsletters, all I can say is God Bless AWEBER. Now I can click a button and spend time with the family.
My humble site got rave reviews in the trade magazines and one of the online tutorials was even mentioned in TIME magazine!
Hurray! The down side was...when I mentioned the success of my helpful genealogy site, friends and family ALWAYS asked, "Is it making any money?" Umm, no it wasn't. However there was such good traffic that my Internet provider started charging double.
I'm a good genealogy teacher, and a fair computer geek, so I wrote how-to manuals and in more recent years, added Adsense and affiliate links and turned things around and now make a profit. A roller-coaster-some-months-are-better-than-others profit, but enough to keep the project going all these years.
I'd like to think that I am already a sweetie (in my own goofy yet "manly" way) but I'd like to win the Sweetie course to better understand the woman's perspective and to do even better.
If anyone is interested in how to do their family history, take a look at the Treasure Maps site and blog:
http://www.amberskyline.com/treasuremaps/
http://www.amberskyline.com/treasuremaps/blog/
Thanks,
;-) Robert Ragan
Hi Alice,
I've been a professional organizer for 7 years. My offline niche was "busy families." I almost always worked with moms which was perfect for me because I'm a busy mom too and know how quickly a home can become cluttered and family life chaotic. It was pretty common for me to become friends with the moms and families I helped because getting organized made such a difference in their lives. My goal for my clients was always to help them create more time for what they would rather be doing by getting more organized. Some say I even helped save their marriages. lol
About two years ago I built homeorganizeit.com to help market my business online. It wasn't long before I realized that I could reach WAY more moms by using my Web site to help them organize their homes on their own. Last year I stopped offline organizing altogether and began to devote a lot of time to growing my site, researching the best organizing products and systems to offer my visitors and become a mentor via e-mail.
I also mentor some moms who are getting into the organizing business. Even though I have never met these up and coming organizers, I love the fact that I can be an encouragement to them as they develop their business which is HUGELY needed. Any family that has gotten themselves to the point of C.H.A.O.S. (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome) and has hired an organizer to help them find some balance can attest to this need.
Generally our culture has become mass consumers of "stuff". Fun though some of the stuff may be, eventually it can take over your life and your time and rob you of what's important... relationships and the time you could have with those you love. Helping people find this "time" is something I am very passionate about.
I feel very blessed that I can help so many moms from my Web site, be home for my children and earn income doing something I love. Although I enjoyed organizing offline, I love doing the online thing even more. While I don’t earn enough from my site yet to support my family (which means I still to do other work), my goal is to build up my site to the point where I can earn enough and then start another related site to help moms with other needs.
All the best,
Erin
http://www.homeorganizeit.com
Make Time For What's Important... Get Organized!
Wow, you guys. I really appreciate the thought you put into your responses.
But to everyone else, don't let that frighten you from entering too...the requirements are only 150-400 words and I'd LOVE to hear from you!
Hi Alice,
I'm a graphic and web designer, and my partner is a programmer. Together, we are Zooop Design, and we help entrepreneurs project a professional image, get noticed, and take their business to the next level, using their website and promotional materials.
You know how sometimes entrepreneurs try to skimp on their promotional materials and website, and end up looking unprofessional? And potential clients don't take them seriously, despite the that they're great at what they do?
Well I help them remedy this situation, with designs that not only look professional, but that are unique and get them noticed. But please don't take my word for it, check out
http://www.zooop-design.com/ to see some examples of our work.
Our company is very small and new - it's just the 2 of us, and we work with a couple of excellent copywriters, because good copywriting is also crucial in a website. We all work from home, and keep our overhead very low. This way, we can keep our pricing very affordable.
Though we have many years of experience in design, programming and copywriting,
we charge a small fraction of what you would have paid to have us do the same work
through the companies we used to work for!
When designing a website, I don't just design the website, but help my client come up with a strategy and plan to use this website as a marketing and sales tool.
I usually come up with ideas for making the website sticky, which means that it gives people a reason to keep coming back to your website, how to keep in touch with visitors, because studies show that it's very rare that people will do business with you after the first visit, how to use your website to get lots of free publicity, and much more. I've been including this type of consulting in the initial planning process for web design, at no extra charge.
We also offer a free eZine, where I share some of our experience and expertise on how to use your website and the internet to grow your business. It's called Grow Your Biz, so if you're interested in learning more about internet marketing, please stop by our website and subscribe.
In a nutshell, we make quality design and time saving custom web applications affordable, thus leveling the playing field for small businesses.
Sorry - this might be a little bit longer than 400 words ;>
Cheers,
Emilie Nottle
http://www.zooop-design.com/
Hi Alice, I am a Certified Life coach and the host of a Podcast that is designed to help parents of teens. I love the work that I do in Life coaching and in hosting a podcast and I pride myself in being able to help moms live lives that they are truly happy about.
My entire life I have struggled with low self esteem and low self worth. I worked my entire life to build that up through therapy, self study, prayer, meditation and finally taking on self esteem classes that others have given. When I entered the online internet world (6years ago) in hopes of bringing in more income to my family (then I had a 1yo, 10yo, 12yo and 14yo) I looked and looked for ways to earn an income and help others. First I tried Herbalife, then it was Avon and finally I read about the business of life coaching. I quickly signed up for coaching classes (heck I had to borrow that money) and I fell in love with the idea of professionally helping other moms boost up their self esteem, organize their lives AND truly live happier.
I decided the day that I got my certification in Personal Life Coaching to do something about the state of some women and their unhappiness. I founded Real Life Coaching and offer my services at a super low price because most of the woman I help can’t afford the upwards of 2-3 times the amount that some others charge. I won’t lie – I love what I do but I would love to earn more money by doing it. I have created an ebook and a series of reports and marked them at a low price in order to get positive, helpful messages out to moms and again as you can see - my earnings weren’t not high because of the cost of the items but I was able to reach a large group of women with a powerful message.
Currently I work part time outside of the home but my dream, my big dream is to be able to work from home earning a full time income doing what I love - helping others. I have a 19yo now in College, a 16 year old that will be in college in 2 years and a 7yo that is in the 3rd grade. I have seen the benefits in all of my childing in having me home at 2pm every day and again my dream is to be home daily for them and still be able to do the work that I feel I was destined to do (helping others). It is so hard to do what I feel I have been called to do PT and feel as if I am giving it my *all* I am constantly trying to learn more, do more and give more so that I can help as many people possible.
Being one of the winners of this generous contest would truly be a blessing to me, my family, my business and ultimately other women out there that seek my help.
Aurelia Williams
http://www.reallifecoaching.net
http://www.parentingmyteen.com
Hi Alice!
Thank you for this opportunity.
I own a niche article directory, www.WAHM-Articles.com, which I purchased under a year ago. WAHM-Articles only publishes articles written for moms, written by moms.
I learned about article marketing from you Alice ;) and when I gave it a try for my first Internet business, the results were amazing.
Now I help other moms build and develop their own home-based Internet businesses by writing and submitting articles online.
WAHM-Articles.com is a place where moms who market their products or services to other moms can submit their articles and know they'll be found by their target audience.
I do everything I can to help our authors' articles and their businesses get noticed.
I regularly network with WAHM publishers to let them know about our great content. As a result, more and more articles from our directory are being reprinted where other moms can find them.
Our guidelines warn authors that we won't publish articles with spelling or grammatical errors. But that's easy for me to say - I'm also a professional proofreader. Not everyone can be great at spelling and grammar.
Because I know I can help, I personally go through every article I publish and correct any spelling and grammatical errors I find. I want to be sure the articles I publish show the authors in their best light and that publishers will like what they find and keep coming back for more.
While I haven't made a lot of profit yet, it comes from adsense revenue, advertising sales, and affiliate marketing.
Being one of the winners would help me better promote WAHM authors and ultimately help many other work-at-home-moms build successful Internet businesses too.
Warmly,
Denise Willms
Hi Alice,
My long term vision is to create a complete set of resources to help people who long to make difference in the world able to do so. This will include a full spectrum of tools to address all stages from helping people develop a vision(s) of how they want to participate in making the world a better place to how to create the capitol needed to fuel the visionary projects they develop. One of the greatest obstacles many project intended to bring great social benefit is the challenge of developing the cash flow to fuel the projects. But as I have not yet developed confidence in that part of the skill set myself, my fist public offering will be providing tools to help people with the first step which is centered around the now scientifically validated benefits of having an “open heart”. The HeartMath Institute as well as other researchers have now confirmed what spiritual traditions around the world have been saying for millennia. An open heart has very real and immediate benefit to the person with the open heart. States of love, caring, compassion and appreciation have measurable immediate and long-term affects on physiology and peak performance. Modern research has shown that the heart plays a key role in our neurology and its optimum performance in that role occurs when one is feeling loving, caring and compassionate. Having an open heart actually give one an performance edge in areas such as clear thinking and access to intuition as well as measurable physiological benefits such as increased immune response, reduction of stress indicators and increased production of hormones that have show to benefit longevity. My initial product offering will be centered on tools and resources to put this knowledge into practical use. I don’t have a commercial site up yet but I do have site a work in progress site up dealing with my larger vision - www.globalchemy.com .
Thank You Alice, for being a voice for a more heart centered capitalism.
Tamo Willsat
When I first started my bath & body business, I went through the whole process on my own and learned everything by trial and error. I did a ton of research to make sure that I was covered from labels to LLC, with everything in between. It was a very long and drawn out process to make sure I had all of my I’s dotted and my T’s crossed, but I finally made it. During this process, there were so many times I sat and thought, man..I wish there was one place I could go to ask questions and find the help I need, instead of blindly searching the internet and not being sure if I had everything I needed.
As I watched other competition come in, I didn’t realize that they were making some business threatening mistakes…not just for their business, but for all the businesses in this particular market. At one point, one of my newest competitors made a big mistake that could have had a devastating effect on her business, but also the WAHM community of this particular market.
It hit me then that there were a lot of people starting these small bath and body businesses that had not found all of the resources I had. I thought about all of the many hours of research I did and how lost I was in the beginning. I thought that it would be a great benefit to everyone for us to have one central place to go and ask questions, share information, get help if we needed it or just to blow off some steam.
I formed a group geared toward supporting these women, whether they were my direct competitors or other WAHMs in the community. It has been a great resource for us all and many newbie mistakes have been avoided since then. We share links of where to buy supplies and information on how to get started for people who have an idea but need direction. Not only are we protecting this small market that we are selling to, but we are also growing our businesses together, nurturing friendships and generally looking out for each other.
I feel really blessed to work with a group of ladies who all have common goals and who can set aside the “competition” mindset to help each other out.
I own a website on hydroponic gardening (www.simply-hydroponics.com). Like many others here, I am hoping to build a flexible business that allows me to work from home and take care of my family at the same time.
Hydroponics gardening is simply gardening without soil. There are many environmental benefits, such as water and space conservation. Hydroponics gardening is a viable alternative to traditional soil-based crops where land is neither available nor suitable or where water supply is scarce.
For example in a refugee camp in Afghanistan, an American, Betsy Beamon, has founded a project to teach widowed women with no means of support, to set up hydroponic micro gardens in order to grow food for their families.
Sustainable systems encompass economic prosperity, environmental quality and social equity. I think the Internet Sweetie philosophy embraces this philosophy. I would like to build a profitable business that helps others to set up their own hydroponic gardens while bringing to light some of the important issues of eco-friendly horticulture.
On a small scale, one way I see this happening is by helping to set up a small hydroponics experiment at my children’s school. This could provide a valuable and interesting experience for the kids as well as exposure for my new business!
A very interesting topic, it is inspiring to read how others have or are currently building strong businesses while staying true to their own beliefs.
Kindly,
Charlotte
Forgot to say - winners have been announced here. Thanks to everyone for taking the time to produce such thoughtful answers.
Post a Comment
<< Home