Networking is like throwing stones into a lake. It’s a really big lake.  So big that you can’t see the other side. It’s a calm, still lake.  And every stone you throw creates ripples that spread gently across the surface. After a while, as you patiently keep throwing stones … after a while, even though all [...]

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I know it’s easy.  Just go to WordPress.com or Blogspot.com, or whichever free blog host is your preference, and it’s magic.  Within minutes, you have a blog.  You put a link onto your website, and there you are.  You’re a blogger! Well…  not quite. When you exile your blog to an external host, you take a serious [...]

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I write marketing content for a living, and I still stop and look and think:  Is this a feature, or a benefit, or what? And I can clearly remember my early days trying to understand the difference – and ending up confused about which one, features or benefits, I was supposed to be focusing on.  (It’s benefits, just in [...]

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Everyone loves getting referrals.  It feels good to know your work was appreciated and trusted enough to be recommended, and it’s a wonderful way to enroll quality clients with relatively little effort. As delightful as they are, referral clients are also a two-edged sword.  They can cut both ways – positively and negatively – and need to be handled [...]

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Seriously.  Those site statistics you track about your visitors?  Throw them out.  Because if you’re like most people, you’re tracking statistics that don’t matter. How many visitors come to your site doesn’t matter if they’re not doing anything – or, more accurately, not doing what you want them to do – while they’re there. And this is why I get [...]

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A few weeks ago, I attended the board meeting of a local professional organization to which I belong.  One of the topics on the evening’s agenda was volunteers:  how we can increase the number of volunteers, and keep those we already have actively engaged and happy. Not being a board member (I was there to [...]

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So, if you’ve poked around here on my website, you know I offer a homestudy program on how to be better at networking.  And if you’ve read the description, you know that once upon a time, back when I first started my business, networking terrified me.  Made me cry.  Made me think seriously about giving [...]

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I recently saw someone present an adamant argument that small business should never be personal.   This person was vehement about it.  His view is that your business and your personal life must be kept separate if you want to be successful.  Your business blog, Facebook, Twitter, other social media, and website should have nothing personal on it.  [...]

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A few weeks ago, I was talking with a friend about referrals. A few weeks before that, I was talking with a different friend about referrals. Both times, a knotty question came up. What do you do when you like and recommend someone’s work, but there doesn’t seem to be reciprocation?  All the referrals are flowing [...]

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Is it just me? There seems to be some circular affiliate marketing going on out there. In the last few weeks, I’ve been bombarded by offers for the same programs from three or four different people. Mind you, it’s fascinating to see the different spin each one has.  Um, up to a point. But let’s [...]

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