Helping Hands For Coaches

This is a must-read for all you future and current bloggers! In the blog I’d Rather Be Writing, Tom Johnson gives the top 20 usability tips for your blog.

Here’s the short list:
1. Pick a topic for your blog. Makes (more…)

But, you might feel like one – but, don’t worry, it’s really not that difficult. In fact, I would say it’s as easy as baking sugar cookies! It just takes a little attention, following a recipe, and some readers to ‘eat it up’.

This past Friday I walked our class through the marketing and optimization of a WordPress blog. This included:

- Pingbacks and Trackbacks
- Finding keywords and keyphrases
- Utilizing Social Media Marketing, including Ping.fm and BudURL.com
- Using YouTube to drive traffic to your blog
- Directories – such as Technorati and others

I also gave each of our participants a free editorial calender for their blog to help us organize our thoughts while publishing our blog on a regular basis. But, remember, it’s fun to blog (and eat cookies)!

Friday is quickly approaching, and we are super excited to have our Blogging Success Forum! Below are the bios of our two panelists. I’m sure this will be a popular class, so please make sure to save the date: This Friday, May 15th, from 10-11am PST / 1-2pm EST.

Rick Burnes is Inbound Marketing Manager at HubSpot, a leader in marketing software for small- and medium-sized businesses. He is the editor of HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing Blog, which is consistently featured on the AdAge Power 150 top media marketing blogs. In addition to his work on the blog, Rick develops videos, research, case studies and webinars on new approaches to online marketing. Prior to HubSpot, Rick was co-founder of Faneuil Media, a startup that provided inbound marketing solutions for local businesses. From 2001-2004 Rick worked at NYTimes.com, where he managed the launch of new sections, including search and theater. He started at The Times two months before 9/11 and spent his first year working on the Pulitzer-Prize-winning Nation Challenged section. He has also worked at Google, The Moscow Times and The New Bedford Standard Times. Rick is active on Twitter and occasionally posts on his personal blog. He resides in Cambridge, MA.

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Roger Matus is a well-known commentator on the use of email, IM, and messaging technologies. He was CEO and founder of the email archiving company, InBoxer, which he recently sold to Safecore, Inc. At Safecore, Roger is now the Executive Vice President. He has been in the software business for about 25 years, and worked on the development of an email product back in 1983. Since February 2007, he has been the author of the blog Death By Email, which Roger says was essential to growth and successful sale of his company.

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Cindi Schmitzer is the married mother of four who lives in Sparta, New Jersey. She is the co-owner of LTDchix, a company who created a line of funny tees targeted specifically toward moms. She grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and attended Penn State University where she received a bachelor’s degree in accounting. She eventually married and has moved around quite a bit with her husband’s job. In fact, they brought their four kids home to four different addresses. Her and her business partner founded LTDchix about three years ago. In the past few months, they have started a blog relating to their business. On the blog, they share funny tales about motherhood and news about their business. The blog web address for LTDchix is www.blog.ltdchix.com.
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If you’re a coach or speaker, and you’re new to your business, then a WordPress.com website/blog would be a great start to building your Internet Marketing presence. We gave a LOT of information on how-to edit your own WordPress.com blog/website this past Friday – here’s just a sample of what we did:
1. How to create your own header with an image
2. How to add images, video, or HTML to your blog post or page
3. Discussion on Pingbacks

4. Have a ‘traditional’ Home Page for your WordPress.com website
5. Comment posting
6. Widgets and protecting your blog from SPAM
To learn more, please listen to our podcast below. This Friday, we’ll be discussing how to promote and market your WordPress.com blog/website. Be sure to sign-up at the Webinar’s page!

We went over the basic steps to working with a blog, such as:

1. Understanding what a blog is: an informative, opinionated, ‘human’ look at a company/business or person. As a coach, this will be the way that your potential clients will get to know the ‘real’ you – not just the one you show for your sales copy. Why do we want to show this human side of a life or business coach? Well, what is the first rule of sales: we buy from people that we know, like and trust – and a blog allows us to build that!

2. Blog styles: we discussed Blogger, Typepad, WordPress.com and WordPress.org

3. Get involved: before you start your blog, however, you should read and participate in some that are interesting to you, or are in your industry. Make sure to choose ones that are active and popular. In order to find a few blogs that you like, search Technorati. Oh – and the answer between Authority and Ranking is that they’re basically the same: to build authority or ranking within Technorati you need to build links from other blogs to yours. Be aware that links will ‘clear out’ from Technorati if they’re older than 6 months.

4. Have a plan and get started! Your blog should be part of your over-all marketing plan – so before you get started with designing or adding content to your blog, it’s a good idea to have a clear idea of where it’s going.

This week, we’ll be reviewing how to update your blog – design wise and adding multi-media. If you would like to learn how-to customize your WordPress.com website / blog, click here to be sure to sign-up for our May 1st class!

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So, you have the blog up and running – but, now the big question (that I often get) – now what? You might be thinking, “There’s this big, beautiful, empty blog staring at me – and it’s a little intimidating!” The best advice I can give you, is first:

1. Research what other bloggers in your market are blogging about. Don’t shy away from your competition, but don’t write exactly the same stuff they’re writing about. Knowing what your competition is writing about will give you some ideas and a sense of comfort.

2. Be yourself – and don’t over-think it. One thing I’ve noticed from blogs that I follow is that they don’t over-think their post. Sometimes it’s spontaneous, sometimes it’s a great planned post, but it’s usually short, sweet, and to the point.

3. Don’t be a spam blog (an ugly name for a spam blog is ‘splog‘ – sounds like a flattened frog – yuck!). That means the only reason you have a blog is to promote you, you, you. Be interesting, or no one will be interested (and who really wants to be as interesting as a splattered frog?)

How do you know if the blog you’re reading is good? Check-out the Technorati stats:

1. Look at the Authority Rating: it should be higher than other blogs. This is relative, so I can’t say ‘it should be over 20′, because it  would depend on how popular other blogs are in the same category.

2. If you’re looking at the Technorati ‘Rank’: it should be a lower number (for instance, it would be totally awesome to be ranked in the top 100 blogs).

The best way to know what your audience would like to hear about is by talking to them. So, when you’re out at networking groups, or you’re talking with a client, ask them: What are your interests? What do you struggle with? What blogs do you currently read? What are you looking for? Then take note- they’re telling you how to bring your blank blog canvas to life!

I’m not breaking news when I say Animoto is an awesome company with a amazing way to transform your photos into a tv-quality 30 second commercial, but I am breaking the news on how coaches can use it to build their business. As a life or business coach, you can use Animoto to create unique videos targeting your niche market. Here’s some examples:

1. Boomer Coach: create a video with the title ‘You know you’re a baby boomer when…’ (for example), and have images depicting how times have changed. Then, at the end of the video, have a call to action – such as ‘Download our free book on Boomer Transformations’ – and have the video link to your website (yes, Animoto can do that!)
2. Entrepreneur Coach:  create a video that explains how you can help them – with first describing the problem – such as organization, goal setting, motivation, sales, etc. Again, have the call to action at the end of the video.
3. AD/HD Coach: create a video for either the parents, the children, or the adults that suffer from this learning difficulty – and how you can help them.

You can try Animoto out for free with their 30 second shorts – a regular commercial length. If you use the 30 second short to create you video, then I recommend adding the text on the actual photos vs. using Animoto’s text feature. If, however, you do want to add the text separately, or you want to create one full-length (up to 10 minutes) video – you can for only $3 per video.

Some other features:

1. Highlight a particular photo – allowing that photo to get some more screen time.
2. Add music without paying extra, or worrying about copyrights – they take care of all of that.
3. Speed-up or slow-down the transitions, with a paid membership.
4. One-click remix. Don’t like the way Animoto configured your slide show? Click ‘Remix’, and they’ll do it again – without erasing the first one.

Some more ideas on how you can use an Animoto video:

1. Use it in eNewsletters, like a ‘video of the month’
2. Use it as a way to motivate or inspire your clients
3. Add it to blogs to make a point
4. Use it to promote an event
5. Upload it to YouTube for promotional purposes
6. Add it to your website, Facebook page, MySpace page, and more
7. Sell the DVDs as motivational or inspiration videos, or give-away the DVDs as a promotional piece

There are some limitations:

1. If you don’t like one particular transition, you can’t just tweak that transition – you have to ‘remix’ the entire video.
2. You can’t get rid of the Animoto branding completely, but you can minimize it (see below).
3. It does take time – you may find yourself remixing, changing, editing more than you had anticipated – because it’s fun!

If you would like a $5 discount on their ‘All Access’ account, then use this code when starting your account: iqeudyzs
The video at the top of the page is the 30 second short I did for the International Coach Federation’s Orange County chapter’s Holiday Dinner – the last image has me on the right.

Image below of what your ending screen can look like with the ‘All Access’ account:

I’m really looking forward to our class on Niching for Life and Business Coaches, with Wendi Liechty is a Business & Marketing Coach and founder of www.TheCasualEntrepreneur.com. She has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs including coaches, wellness professionals, designers and other service providers develop clear and compelling business and marketing concepts that are truly outside the box!

Participants always walk away with a renewed focus and enthusiasm for business and tangible steps that can be easily implemented right away. Wendi’s approach breaks through the limitations of traditional, outdated marketing strategies. She offers unconventional, highly personalized wisdom for modern day business goals and challenges so entrepreneurs can experience the success and freedom they crave. So be sure to sign-up for this interactive class! Remember – our teleclasses are always free and interactive – so get your questions on niching ready and I’ll see you on Friday! Register here: http://helpinghandsforcoaches.com/live-teleclasses/

Are you a new entrepreneur, a life or business coach ready to take the plunge and build your online presence: a website? Then you should listen to “Creating a FAPulous Website” to learn how to do it right the first time!

Creating focus:
http://www.Amazon.com
http://www.adobe.com/

eNewsletter Capture:
http://www.womenwholoveyoungermen.com
http://getknownnow.com/

Blogging:
http://www.Technorati.com: search for blogs that will be similar to yours, and remember to post your blog to Technorati once it’s live!
http://www.sixfiguremomsclub.com/
http://familyofentrepreneurs.com/
http://www.escapefromcubiclenation.com/

Podcasting:
http://www.apple.com/itunes/
http://odeo.com/

Good use of video: http://www.ardicefarrow.com

We broke-up the eNewsletter into 3 simple sections – so that it’s not overwhelming to the reader. The first section is a personal note from Chrissy, the second portion is an article on planning your vacation – in other words the article that is interesting and informative – and the third section is her call to action in which she asks her readers to use her website to book their next travel. She had over 20% click the link – all because the entire eNewsletter was focused and not overwhelming and ended with a call to action. http://blazeinteractive.com/clients/chrissy/newsletter/jun08_02.html
The eNewsletter service I recommend: http://www.icontact.com/a.pl/56191

Be sure to sign-up for the Search Engine Optimization *FREE* class, for this Friday, July 18th: http://helpinghandsforcoaches.com/live-teleclasses/ 

Hi Coaches! A little bird told me that some of my videos are hard to download for those of you on dial-up! I want everyone to have access to my classes, so I’m going to be creating them in audio format too! Below is the audio recording on how to create your own audio recording, publish it for a website and then replace already published audios using Audio Acrobat. Have fun!