Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Content is KING!

Now that your website is looking good, design wise, what about your content? What are you going to have on your website for your potential clients to read and learn about? You know what the most important part of the content is don't you? Good Writing! And to keep people coming back for more, updating your content often. Now when we are talking about a website for a service like surrogacy I don't believe that visitors are expecting to have something new on your site every time they visit. If you actually have a gallery of available surrogates and egg donors then, yes, that needs to be updated each time you have an approved candidate come on board. IP's especially will continue to check in and see if there is anyone new that they may be interested in. However, if you are running your program in a way where Intended Parents and Surrogates have to call for information on available matches then you need to have another way to keep your site fresh. Some suggestions are to have an events calendar and list all related conferences and seminars whether you are planning to attend or not. You can list birth announcements or even birthday announcements with the permission of your surrogates and IP's. You can have a surrogacy or ART in the news where you have hot links to articles that may be of interest to your visitors. Will your agency hold luncheons? Holiday parties? Meet and Greets? Have a place on the site, with photos, for these events. Why not add a blog? Fresh content is always available if you know where to look.

What about the pages that will not change as often? Your About Us page, Contact Us Page, your Home Page with your Mission Statement? Are you going to have a page that lists your services? Will that page also have your price list? Are you going to have separate pages for Intended Parents and Surrogates? Keep in mind that they WILL read each other's pages. Are you going to have a page to list professional links? (This will be good to have so that you can have a link exchange for your continued marketing) Are you going to list medical requirements for your surrogates? And legal aspects for your IP's? There is a lot to think about and your website can have several pages before it's all said and done.

Yes, there will be more to come, but your homework now is to list out what content you are planning on sharing with the rest of the world! Happy writing!

Sharon
http://lamotheservices.com/

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Personal Power: Living From the Inside Out


I wanted to share this with you today because I feel that we often forget that we have "personal power"! We move through our daily life being pushed and persuaded in what we "should" think or what we "shouldn't" question or we may just be wandering aimlessly until "things resolve themselves".

Below is a great little article that may put it all back into your own hands and offer you some guidance in bringing back your own personal power. Take that control and know that you are in charge of your life, your hopes and your dreams. You have the Power inside you!

Sharon LaMothe

LaMothe Services, LLC



Personal Power:Living From the Inside Out

by Laura Belsten, PhD, MCC

Lao Tzu, famous Chinese philosopher living over 2500 years ago, stated that the biggest problem in the world is that individuals experience themselves as powerless. Powerless individuals feel helpless, negative, lethargic, frustrated, resentful, and often live in fear, enslaved by circumstances they perceive as beyond their control.

The opposite of powerless is an inner awareness, an internal state of being we refer to as “personal power” in the emotional intelligence field.

Personal power is an inner awareness that makes us feel in control of our lives. It is an inner knowing that we can achieve our goals, a calm conviction about who we are and our ability to get the things we want in life.

Quiet Confidence

People with a highly developed sense of personal power have a quiet self-confidence that they can set the direction of their lives, and they do. They are able to distinguish among circumstances over which they have some control and those they do not. They define themselves from the inside out (for example, their internal self talk includes messages like “I am a capable person, I can manage this setback, I’m good at managing conflict, I’m creative”)

The biggest barrier to success in almost any endeavor is powerlessness, negativity, helplessness and inertia. Mahatma Gandhi had no army, never held or accepted political office, never used violence. He was a small, frail man, yet he defeated the armed might of the British Empire, driving the British out of India without firing a single shot. How did he accomplish this?

Personal power. Personal power can move mountains. Personal power solves problems.

Dr. Laura Belsten is Dean of the Graduate School of Coaching, Master Certified Coach (MCC), and a national leader in the field of Emotional Intelligence. Personal Power is one of the twenty-four key competencies of the Emotional Intelligence Profile. Learn them all!