homebased business

Beginner’s Guide to Business Systems – Making It Easy to Succeed

Donna Ward
Donna Ward
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Donna Ward
Social Media Manager, Blog Consultant and Trainer at Ask Coach Donna
Social media training and promotion for entrepreneurs, professionals, and business bloggers.
Certified Business Coach, Intuitive Strategist ~ As a Social Media Manager and Coach, I do the work for you and/or train corporations and small businesses how to set up their blog and a Social Media Marketing Plan around their blog/website as their business hub. As a Social Media Marketing Expert, I teach Relationship Marketing and Social Media Mastery, consulting and speaking services for corporate, business owners, and conscious entrepreneurs around the globe!
Donna Ward
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There must be some reason that when I mention business systems, you might think of computers storing and process data, like a ‘point of sale’ system for retail stores. That’s what many small business owners picture. And they think these type of systems aren’t for them..

Well, that type of system may or may not be for your business. But, a business system isn’t just hardware or software. It’s the way that you do any part of your business. It’s how you do things. You may not be aware of using systems, or you just may not using them efficiently.

Your own business support system typically is a disciplined, regular procedure or process running your business operations.

As an example: Read more →

Setting Your 2011 Goals for Your Home Based Business

Donna Ward
Donna Ward
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Donna Ward
Social Media Manager, Blog Consultant and Trainer at Ask Coach Donna
Social media training and promotion for entrepreneurs, professionals, and business bloggers.
Certified Business Coach, Intuitive Strategist ~ As a Social Media Manager and Coach, I do the work for you and/or train corporations and small businesses how to set up their blog and a Social Media Marketing Plan around their blog/website as their business hub. As a Social Media Marketing Expert, I teach Relationship Marketing and Social Media Mastery, consulting and speaking services for corporate, business owners, and conscious entrepreneurs around the globe!
Donna Ward
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Before you settle into your goals for your home business in 2011, you need to think about what you really want from your home business.

One of the most frequently asked question I get is “what is business success?”

  • It is achieving your goals for your business.

Here are examples of questions I ask myself and you need to answer when planning business goals. Read more →

Make Sure Your Email Messages Are Being Delivered

Donna Ward
Donna Ward
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Donna Ward
Social Media Manager, Blog Consultant and Trainer at Ask Coach Donna
Social media training and promotion for entrepreneurs, professionals, and business bloggers.
Certified Business Coach, Intuitive Strategist ~ As a Social Media Manager and Coach, I do the work for you and/or train corporations and small businesses how to set up their blog and a Social Media Marketing Plan around their blog/website as their business hub. As a Social Media Marketing Expert, I teach Relationship Marketing and Social Media Mastery, consulting and speaking services for corporate, business owners, and conscious entrepreneurs around the globe!
Donna Ward
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Less than 10% of your subscribers might actually be reading your email messages. Scary, but true. Some of that is your subject lines, some is your relationship, but some… is that the spam-bots are blocking your delivery. Not cool.

Let’s face it, with spam filters and other delivery problems, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to get your messages through to the very people who have requested them.

So, above everything else, you’ve got to make sure your messages are being delivered. There are a variety of things you can do, but the one thing I want to mention here is simply this: check your spam score before sending out any email to your lists.

I use e-Filtrate and the built in Spam Assassin check at Aweber.com. Both of these allow Read more →

Two Ways Writing Articles Puts a Sales Agent To Work for You

Donna Ward
Donna Ward
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Donna Ward
Social Media Manager, Blog Consultant and Trainer at Ask Coach Donna
Social media training and promotion for entrepreneurs, professionals, and business bloggers.
Certified Business Coach, Intuitive Strategist ~ As a Social Media Manager and Coach, I do the work for you and/or train corporations and small businesses how to set up their blog and a Social Media Marketing Plan around their blog/website as their business hub. As a Social Media Marketing Expert, I teach Relationship Marketing and Social Media Mastery, consulting and speaking services for corporate, business owners, and conscious entrepreneurs around the globe!
Donna Ward
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I have always been impressed by how the Internet Marketing Gurus continue to write articles for online exposure.

And that is why Article Marketing needs to be a part of your marketing strategy.

Many people feel they are just not good at writing and that can hold you up for a long time. But, you will need to change that type of thinking if you are planning on building an online business! As a business coach, I decided I needed to learn how to take advantage of this and get my ‘sales agents’ out there working for me A.S.A.P.

What will writing articles do?

  • Make you a published writer – Wow! I was so excited and my family impressed by that little fact. Of course, it is a big deal for someone like me that always wanted to be a published writer! And, what seems difficult to my family and friends, really is very simple for me, now. Now that my own business coaches convinced me, that is!
  • Writing articles will get the ‘word’ out about you and your business – as an entrepreneur and small business owner or just starting an internet business
  • Reach targeted buyers online, bringing in organic traffic (not paid for traffic)
  • It is a self promotion method that takes little time to accomplish Read more →

How to Find Ideas to Write About – Creative Content

Donna Ward
Donna Ward
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Donna Ward
Social Media Manager, Blog Consultant and Trainer at Ask Coach Donna
Social media training and promotion for entrepreneurs, professionals, and business bloggers.
Certified Business Coach, Intuitive Strategist ~ As a Social Media Manager and Coach, I do the work for you and/or train corporations and small businesses how to set up their blog and a Social Media Marketing Plan around their blog/website as their business hub. As a Social Media Marketing Expert, I teach Relationship Marketing and Social Media Mastery, consulting and speaking services for corporate, business owners, and conscious entrepreneurs around the globe!
Donna Ward
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Starting a blog is easy – keeping a blog interesting and fresh is a whole other matter.

While many marketers have no trouble beginning a niche blog, the sheer number of abandoned blogs around the ‘net speaks to the fact that many marketers don’t know what to do to keep a blog going. According to blogging experts, the key to keeping a blog going is to post frequently. This means that you’re going to need a ever present stream of content coming into your blog.

You may be intimidated by the thought of having to come up with lots of topic ideas. Finding topics for your blog posts are easy if you use the following ideas.

1. News in your niche
Your blog should be timely and there’s no better way to attract attention on your blog than to tap into some ongoing news. No matter what your niche is you can find news stories and breaking information that will help fuel timely blog posts. Sign up for Google Alerts (it’s free) and set up alerts on important words in your niche. This way you’ll be able to see the news in your niche and blog about current topics.

2. Comments section
The comments section in your blog can be a great source of writing inspiration. Let’s say you have a post on your marketing blog about keyword research. Within the comments section, a few people start asking about how to use keywords in articles for article marketing. Voila! You have your next blog post. Look through your comments section to identify topics that you can write about or questions you can answer in the form of a blog post. Read more →

How to Get Others to Buy Your Product or Service

Donna Ward
Donna Ward
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Donna Ward
Social Media Manager, Blog Consultant and Trainer at Ask Coach Donna
Social media training and promotion for entrepreneurs, professionals, and business bloggers.
Certified Business Coach, Intuitive Strategist ~ As a Social Media Manager and Coach, I do the work for you and/or train corporations and small businesses how to set up their blog and a Social Media Marketing Plan around their blog/website as their business hub. As a Social Media Marketing Expert, I teach Relationship Marketing and Social Media Mastery, consulting and speaking services for corporate, business owners, and conscious entrepreneurs around the globe!
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No Sales? Avoid this nightmare by following these tips for getting others to buy your products…

1. Get the Offer in Front of Targeted Audiences

First things first: Get your offer in front of targeted prospects.

Example: If you’re selling a dog training book, don’t email your coaching list and expect to make sales. Instead, get your offer in front of people who are likely to buy (e.g., people who need to train their dogs).

2. Craft a Compelling Sales Letter

Next, you need to create a sales page that persuades your prospects to buy your product. This means your sales letter ought to have an attention-getting headline, an opener that hooks the prospect and engages her emotions, a bulleted list of benefits, proof that your claims are true and a call to action. Search out what others are doing and saying – get your ideas and use your own voice.

3. Give a Bonus

You want to give your prospects a good deal, so that as they read the sales letter they’re thinking, “wow, I can’t believe I get all this for just 50 bucks.” Then you really thrill them by throwing in a valuable, tightly related bonus. This small act turns a “good deal” into a “no brainer.”

Don’t pick and choose the methods you like best. Instead, incorporate all these ideas… and enjoy the results!

Be sure to read: How Do You Get Others to Buy a Product or Service?


Content, content, content. Content makes the web go round.

Donna Ward
Donna Ward
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Donna Ward
Social Media Manager, Blog Consultant and Trainer at Ask Coach Donna
Social media training and promotion for entrepreneurs, professionals, and business bloggers.
Certified Business Coach, Intuitive Strategist ~ As a Social Media Manager and Coach, I do the work for you and/or train corporations and small businesses how to set up their blog and a Social Media Marketing Plan around their blog/website as their business hub. As a Social Media Marketing Expert, I teach Relationship Marketing and Social Media Mastery, consulting and speaking services for corporate, business owners, and conscious entrepreneurs around the globe!
Donna Ward
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From the moment you begin researching ways to make money online, you hear WRITING, WRITING, and MORE WRITING, over and over again.

One of the hottest ways to make money online is through the power of blogging and article marketing.

You need great, informative, content.

But, first, you need to know why content so important on the Internet and especially your blog and article marketing.

Why is Content Crucial?

Here are a few strategic reasons…

But, How Do You Get Others to Buy a Product or Service?

Donna Ward
Donna Ward
Follow me
Donna Ward
Social Media Manager, Blog Consultant and Trainer at Ask Coach Donna
Social media training and promotion for entrepreneurs, professionals, and business bloggers.
Certified Business Coach, Intuitive Strategist ~ As a Social Media Manager and Coach, I do the work for you and/or train corporations and small businesses how to set up their blog and a Social Media Marketing Plan around their blog/website as their business hub. As a Social Media Marketing Expert, I teach Relationship Marketing and Social Media Mastery, consulting and speaking services for corporate, business owners, and conscious entrepreneurs around the globe!
Donna Ward
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Okay, so you are a Home Based business or an entrepreneur (a businesspreneur) now —

Imagine this…

You create your product. You put up your sales page and order button. Then you unleash your advertising skills to get your offer in front of as many people as possible.

And then…

Nothing. No sales. Well, maybe a tiny trickle. But not the flood of PayPal or Clickbank notifications that we you were expecting.

No matter what type of affiliate product or service you’re selling, you’re probably always looking for ways to get your offers in front of more prospects… and you’re looking for ways to get folks to click on your affiliates links. That’s because marketing is a numbers game – the more targeted prospects who see your offers , or communicate to you via email, phone or in person, the more money you make.
Read more →