Growing your business

Broken links

July 12, 2011 By Melissa Leave a Comment

Have you checked your links lately?

Have you checked your website or blog for broken links recently? I hadn’t, until I started the process of updating this blog – there were hundreds of broken links! OK, maybe I’m exaggerating slightly, but there were over 100 – from posts and comments.

Before you ask, no, I didn’t go through each post and comment and check each link, I simply added a broken link checker to this blog through the Plugins option, and that let me know of any broken links in posts and comments, as well as checking any images to make sure they were still current.

Many links were broken simply because someone had moved their blog, so it was fairly easy to find the moved post and update the link. For others, the website had closed, so it was a matter of either deleting or editing the post so it still made sense without the link.

I know not many people are likely to go back to really early posts in this blog, but if they do find them, it’s good to have current links.

So, have you checked your website or blog for broken links? If not, this is something worthwhile to do.

Filed Under: Customer Service, Growing your business

Custom made & one of a kind – when an item is sold

March 17, 2011 By Business Mums Leave a Comment

Do you put items in a gallery?

There are a lot of business mums who create custom made and one of a kind items for sale and sell them in online shops.

Many shopping carts have a function that removes an item from a shop when it is out of stock. Another thing that can happen is someone falls in love with an item and wants to buy it, but it is already out of stock.

So, what do you do when a custom made or one of a kind item has been sold?

One great thing I’ve seen some people do is to put items that have been sold in to a gallery to showcase work that has been done in the past.

This has been done in a couple of ways.

The first is to create a new category for your shop called “Gallery” where the items cannot be added to the shopping cart. When an item has been purchased, the shop owner moves the item to this category, still showcasing it to visitors, however clearly marking these items are not available for sale.

The second is to create a section on your website called “Gallery” where you showcase past items, taking them out of your shopping cart completely.

Another thing you can do if you have a blog, is to create a blog post about each item, including photographs and the story behind the item. If your customer has sent you photographs of them using the item, you may want to include those too, with permission from your customer.

If you create custom made or one of a kind items, do you have some other ways to showcase items you have sold?

Filed Under: Blogging, Growing your business, Promoting your business

How often do you update?

March 1, 2011 By Business Mums Leave a Comment

How often do you update your site?

How often do you update your website?

Updating your website could include adding a new product, tweaking the text on information pages, adding a blog post or review, or even adding a copy of a newsletter.

Search engines love websites that have regularly updated content, which is one reason why blogs do so well in the search engines.

Adding new information and/or products to your website can also be a reason for people to come back to visit your site, as well as giving you a reason to post an announcement on Facebook or send an update to your email list.

Adding new products can also be a reason to contact past customers, especially if it’s the sort of product that will compliment the products they have bought previously.

So, how often do you update your website?

Filed Under: Blogging, Growing your business, Technology

Value add on your Facebook page

February 8, 2011 By Business Mums Leave a Comment

Give something extra to your fans

Sometimes, finding things to post on your Facebook page can be a challenge, especially when you are busy with running your business.

One way to add something extra to your Facebook page is to use Networked Blogs.

Do you have a blog you follow that would be useful for your readers? Share their posts on your page.

You can either use the “Share” button, or copy and paste the post URL into your page status.

There is a way you can syndicate other people’s blogs on your page, I know it can be done because people have syndicated my blog, however I can’t find the instructions to share them with you.

Syndicating and sharing blog posts is a win-win-win for everyone. You win because you can share great information with your followers. Your followers win because they get regular updates and useful information. And the blogs you follow win because they are getting extra promotion and readers for their blogs.

If you know how to syndicate other blogs to your Facebook page, please let me know.

Filed Under: Blogging, Facebook, Growing your business

Share the Good Karma

January 27, 2011 By Business Mums Leave a Comment

Strategic alliances help you grow your business

Last year, I joined the Good Karma Alliance, an initiative of Brenda Thomson of Networking World.

The Good Karma Alliance is all about connecting people with similar target markets and helping them grow their businesses – whether through marketing, supporting each other, brainstorming, and anything else.

If you are interested in creating WIN-WIN-WIN alliances with other business owner who share your target market, this year, then the Good Karma Alliance is worth being part of.

Brenda is offering a 30 day guest pass to readers of this blog. If you would like to try it out for 30 days, click here to sign up.

Filed Under: Growing your business, Promoting your business

Setting a Challenge

November 29, 2010 By Business Mums 2 Comments

I'm setting you a challenge

Over the weekend, I noticed a lot of Facebook pages had been closed down. Some had disappeared, others had been hacked so the admins could no longer access them. I don’t know the reasons behind this, I just saw that a lot of pages had sent out requests for people to join their new pages.

One of the problems with a Facebook page is that people can lose their fans very quickly. Many people don’t have their fans on their newsletter list or any other database other than Facebook.

I know it’s Monday, and I should be posting a Marketing Monday post, but what I saw over the weekend has prompted me to do something a bit different today.

My challenge to you this week is to go through the business pages on Facebook that you are a fan of (or the pages that you like) and sign up to their newsletter lists, or, even better, buy something from them. This is so you are on their database and if anything happens to their page, you will be told about it and be able to join up again.

Many newsletters also have other great information and resources as well as details of any sales they may have. Joining their newsletter lists is also a great way to support the businesses you like on Facebook.

This is a spur of the moment challenge, however I would like to hear about your progress and how many businesses you’ve signed up to. I’m planning to contact some of my alliance partners to see about getting some prizes for this challenge.

So, get subscribing and supporting those businesses you like! (Also, this would be a great time to finish your Christmas shopping with some of these businesses!)

Filed Under: Business Mum, Competitions, e-Newsletters, General, Growing your business

Friday Five – Making Strategic Alliances Pay

November 19, 2010 By Business Mums Leave a Comment

Strategic alliances are awesome! I have used them a lot to grow my business, and in many different ways. One thing I have learned is there is a danger of being out of pocket because you are offering so much and getting nothing in return. It’s a win for your partner, a win for your customers, but not for you.

If a strategic alliance is sending you broke, then it’s not a good strategic alliance.

This week I’ll look at 5 common alliance activities and give a tip or two on how you can make this pay.

Expo Stand – split the cost of an expo stand evenly between all participants, especially if they are getting equal space on the stand. If people are just including brochures or similar to include on your stand, decide on what to charge them. After all, they are using space on your stand for promotion.
Mail Out – ask for something toward the cost of postage to include items with a mail out. After all it is saving them postage and they are getting their items in front of your database. This is especially important if the item adds to the weight and you need to pay more to send each item out.
Brochure/Advertising – sharing the cost of a brochure or ad in a magazine is a great alliance opportunity. Make sure you split the cost of design and printing among all the participants.
Competitions – it may be tempting to get a prize for a competition as a donation only. One of the biggest dangers is finding the postage cost is high. You can either ask for the cost of the postage from the prize giver, ask the prize giver to send the prize directly to the winner, or split the postage cost between you. This will mean you are not out of pocket, especially if the prize is big and heavy.
Events – if you are running events with alliance partners, again, split the costs between you. If it is a co-branded event, work it out so you also split the profits, giving added benefit to all. If you are simply handing out brochures or including items in goodie bags, ask for some money toward the cost of running the event, after all, your partners are getting their businesses in front of your database.

These are just a few examples to help make sure a strategic alliance is a win all around. Remember that in order to be a win-win-win, you must also benefit from it, meaning it’s not costing you financially and making it harder for you to do business.

Filed Under: Branding, Finances, Friday Five, Growing your business, Promoting your business

Marketing Monday – Halloween

November 15, 2010 By Business Mums Leave a Comment

OK, OK, I know this post is a couple of weeks late. Our family doesn’t observe Halloween so it wasn’t high on my list of things to blog about.

In the lead up to Halloween, I did see some great marketing ideas from a couple of business mums, so thought I’d tell you about them. I know it’s too late for 2010, but they might give you some great ideas for promoting your business in 2011.

The first idea comes from Giggleberry Creations. On her blog, she has a post about her Halloween celebrations. You can read the post here. In readiness for any Trick or Treaters that came to her door, she packaged up some “Giggleberries”, complete with her business details on them. This is a brilliant idea – it gives the kids a treat and gets her business in front of parents, her target market. The other advantage is if there are any left over at the end of the day, she can use them for other events where she needs to give out some goodies.

The second idea comes from Sambellina. They created a free printable to use to get your neighbours involved in Trick or Treating. You can view their blog post and download their printable here. Quite apart from me blogging about it, a number of my Facebook friends also commented about it and linked to it (which is how I discovered it). While they don’t have their web address or anything on the printable, simply having one is getting people talking about their site and linking to their blog so people can use this printable.

Did you do anything for Halloween in your business this year? Share your ideas by adding a comment.

Filed Under: Branding, Growing your business, Promoting your business, Seasonal

Why? A question about websites

November 11, 2010 By Business Mums Leave a Comment

A question about websites

I’ve noticed a lot of new businesses lately that set up a free website, either through a free web provider or WordPress or Blogspot. They also use a gmail or similar as their email address. Then I see them spend a lot of money on getting a custom template, flyers and banners designed and also on advertising.

For me, seeing these businesses makes me reluctant to buy. Why? Simple, URLs are very cheap, you can get a .com domain from around $10 a year. You can also find hosting providers who charge around $5 a month. With many of these hosts, you can install a WordPress blog to run your site for free. They also include using your domain as your email as part of the package.

Another option is to get a domain name and point it to your free webspace and use the domain as your email forwarding to your gmail account. Again, this doesn’t cost a lot of money.

Having your own domain gives credibility to your business and website. It can also bring more confidence in your business and people are more likely to part with their money.

I can understand people who are starting out and dabbling to use a free space while they are working out what to do, however once you start running your business as a business rather than a hobby, it is worth investing in your domain name. This will also protect your name from others who may want to buy “your” domain. Maybe it’s on their list to upgrade and they haven’t got around to it…

If this is you, please let me know your thoughts behind using a free web space for your business and then spending a lot of money on advertising, banners, and so on. I am curious.

Filed Under: Branding, Business Mum, General, Growing your business

Marketing Monday – Extra promotion from markets

November 1, 2010 By Business Mums 5 Comments

There seem to be a lot of hand made markets popping up around the country. I follow many of these markets on Facebook, though I haven’t been able to go to any (yet).

Many of these market owners are providing some fantastic additional promotion for their stall holders.

Some examples include:

Modish Markets – Weekly stallholder giveaway is promoted on their blog, Facebook page and email list, providing the business with some fantastic promotion.
Fairy Floss Markets - Tuesday’s Hidden Treasures provide an opportunity for stall holders to showcase a product each week, and they also have their Flossy of the Week spotlight.
Lollipop Markets – Showcase their upcoming stallholders on their homepage.
Monkey Markets – Interviews stallholders to feature on their website.

This is just a handful of the examples I’ve seen. These markets also regularly tag the Facebook pages of their stallholders to give them some promotion and help them grow their followers. Many of these markets also have opportunities for banner ads and other promotion. Also, many of these additional promotion opportunities have an additional fee.

These opportunities can do a number of things for your business, other than give you extra promotion. They can encourage visitors to the market to look you up as well as find you again after the market. They can also expose your business to anyone who was unable to attend the market. If any of these opportunities have links to your website, Made It or Etsy store, they can result in additional sales, especially if they are accompanied by consistent attendance at any of these markets.

If you are looking for even more promotion for your business, don’t forget to check out Market Angel. As well as a featured market each week, they also feature a business. The Market Angel audience is a lot wider than a single market, and you never know, you may find some markets to get a stall at that you hadn’t heard about before.

Do you know of some other markets that have additional promotion opportunities for their stall holders? Let us know about them by adding a comment.

Filed Under: Branding, Growing your business, Markets