Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Self-Promotion That's Fun

This is a picture of me at the Hubbard Glacier!


I have been working with individuals who have no idea how to market themselves. They even seem a little embarrassed that they have to "do it" at all. In the past many relied on referrals from professionals who have been long standing friends as well as colleagues, but as people move on, change jobs, or retire sometimes those referrals dry up and it's hard to relearn how to network and, well...basically sell themselves and their services.

This article below gives an insight to self-promotion. Many of my clients are already on FaceBook, Linkedin, Twitter, Pinterest and Plaxo among other social networking sites but those venues are just the tip of a very large Internet iceberg!

Feel free to contact me with any questions regarding your own marketing issues. Simple and affordable solutions can be found at
http://lamotheservices.com/

Sharon LaMothe

Self-Promotion That's Fun

by Will Craig

Do you have as many clients as you want? Are you "landing" the type of clients that are absolutely fun to work with? Okay, here is one more question... Are you promoting yourself?

The reason most of us get into coaching is to coach. Few of us -if any- get into this business to promote ourselves (and wouldn't it be great if we didn't have to). The sad fact is, we do.

Here's why:
Unless people know about you they can't hire you. It's easy to think that others who enthusiastically market themselves are, in some way, "fly-by-night hucksters." In some cases this may even be true. The fact is, if you don't promote yourself your potential clients may end up hiring those less qualified individuals instead of you. You've given them no choice because you haven't promoted yourself to them as an option.

If you think about it you have an obligation to promote yourself so that the clients that really need to work with you have a way to reach you (and not someone else). The good news is this doesn't have to be an obnoxious task.

Here's how:

The professionals that are successful at selling their services aren't really selling at all. They are promoting themselves in subtle, yet convincing ways. They are allowing their prospects to get to know them. They are building rapport and trust. In a nutshell, they are just being themselves.

If you put yourself in situations where you allow people to experience you, you will have your pick of clients. And they'll be the best clients for you! Feel good about promoting yourself by recognizing that marketing your professional services is nothing more than relationship building.

Mainstream sales and advertising has given the marketing of professional services a bad rap. When self-promotion is done right, it's fun and rewarding, PLUS you can feel good about it. Go out and be yourself with as many people as possible. The ones who are attracted to you will work the hardest for themselves. They will also be the most fun for you to have as clients.

Sharon LaMothe
LaMothe Services, LLC http://lamotheservices.com
LaMothe Surrogacy Consulting http://lamothesurrogacyconsulting.com
Infertility Answers, Inc. http://infertilityanswers.org


Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Blog Post Ideas and Topics for Your Small Business Website from The Small Business Survival Guide

Having new and updated content on your website is important. We are consistently reminding small business owners of the importance of keeping a blog aspect incorporated into their site as well as adding to it on a regular basis.

At times small business owners are stumped as to what to write about. So here is a short list of possible simple topics to get you started. You will quickly notice that many posts can be written in a few minutes.


Meet one of our employees

Meet one of our customers

Here’s an upcoming event you might be interested in.

A quick tip

One of our clients sent us this photo

Something I read that you might find useful

A couple of websites that can be helpful

An industry trend we see developing

Why did we start this company.

What it is like to work for our company

Something we are doing to support our community

How our business was founded

We had a client ask us this yesterday

A new service we are offering

A new product available

How we make the ordering process simple for you.

Meet our customer support team

Find us on Facebook, LinkedIN, Pinterest, Twitter etc

Visit us at ________event

Sign up for our newsletter

In the News


I added a few more ideas but if you need more help you can contact LaMothe Services!! We can brainstorm with you!

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

8 Tips to Optimize Your Time for Blog Writing by Marko Saric

I regularly hear statements like I just don’t have time to work on my blog, I am too busy to get out there and promote the blog, I have to do this, I have to do that, plus many other excuses. What these people really mean is I prioritize something else.

“Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back.” – Harvey MacKay

Even though time is a limited resource, we still have 24 hours in a day, which is plenty of time, but it is a matter of reevaluating our priorities.

Most bloggers might have a job that takes some 9 hours daily, then you sleep some 7 hours and it leaves you with some 8 hours daily to do some house work, hang out with your friends and family or work on your hobbies.

That is why you have to learn to control your time, optimize it the best possible way and manage it wisely. There are the 8 ways that you can find more time to work on your blogging dreams.

Stop reading, take action

Reading and learning is important, but only to a point. It is important to stop and implement some of the things you have read about. If you don’t take your time to use what you have learned, nothing will change and you will stand still. Be a blog producer.

Stop checking the stats

If you are regularly stressing yourself checking your blog visitor stats, your RSS subscriber stats, your earning stats, stop. Checking them will not help, but actively working on things that will improve those stats will. Try not to check the stats more than once daily.

Focus on the tasks that have the highest impact

You must focus your energy on the tasks that have the highest impact on your goals. For bloggers, the goal usually is to increase the readership, and the task that will bring you closer to that goal is creating remarkable content and pulling your target audience to your blog.

Don’t get distracted

In the age of the Internet it is very easy to get distracted and waste several hours reading RSS, checking Facebook, sending tweets or reading Steve Pavlina’s blog (it happens to me every once in a while as Steve’s blog is so good). Shut out the distractions!
Throw away your television

Most of the people that say that they are too busy to be able to work on their blogs regularly, still seem to have enough time to watch hours of television every day. TV watching might be entertaining, but it is not going to bring you closer to your blogging goals.

Forget your strict schedule

Did you set yourself on a very strict schedule of having to produce regular blog posts? Forget about it. Your blog will not become extinct if you miss a day or two. The tight schedule just might strain you so much that you give up the blog. Writing one great post per week will have a much bigger impact than writing one average post daily.

Maximize your health

Eat healthy. Do some exercise. Get enough sleep. Leading a healthy lifestyle will definitely make you more energetic, fresh and will improve your productivity and will win you time.

Your passion motivates you

We always hear about the blog passion and it really is true. If your blog topic is something you really love, it is going to be so much easier to motivate yourself to work on it. You will not be able to fall asleep because you would want to blog, you would wake up very early energetic to get out of the bed and do even more blogging.

From passive viewing to active working

Majority of the “busy” bloggers are spending more time surfing the internet and watching TV than working on their blogs and at the end of another day they have nothing to show for. You must be disciplined and shift your focus from passive viewing into active working on your blogging targets and dreams. No one else but you can do it.

**You can always hire a "ghost blogger" from LaMothe Services. We offer monthly packages to help you keep up with the demands of your readers! Give us a call!