How can LaMothe Services help you and your business?

We make it our responsibility to know you and your business. LaMothe Services will work closely with you to ensure that the solutions we provide are tailored to meet your unique needs and challenges. We are committed to your success. Our job is to enter into collaborative relationships with you as our client and take on those assignments that provide dramatic increases in growth and profitability.

LaMothe Services will provide you with the resources to optimize every opportunity.   LaMothe Services also provides Coaching, Mentorship, Training, Seminars, Staff Education, and Public Speaking events in the area of Third Party Reproduction, namely Surrogacy and Egg Donation. Our background and expertise will provide your staff with the development and training resources and the results are that your employees will be more motivated, focused, organized and realize results!    At LaMothe Services our highest priority is satisfied customers. We are proud to serve you and work hard to earn your business. Call 727-458-8333 to schedule your free personal 40 minute consultation. There's no obligation, only opportunity.

A Family of My Own is Coming to Orlando! Sunday September 7th!

I will be speaking with several others on the topic of third party family building...This is a not to be missed FREE event! 

Let’s Talk about Making Parenthood Possible!

The Largest Family Building Event in Florida

Whether You’re Hoping for your First or Next

In One Day Discover Your Options

Sunday, September 7, 2014
9:00am – 3:00pm

The conference is returning to Orlando with an expanded schedule of the most up-to-date topics and must-know family building information. 

This FREE event will offer you an opportunity to meet many speakers, specialists and professionals in the fertility and adoption field and ask questions one-on-one.

More than 15 Educational Sessions to choose from throughout the day.  Attend as many or as few as you like!

Exhibit Hall – Attendee Specials - Giveaways!

Topics include:

What to Expect When You’re Not Expecting: Infertility Basics and Beyond

Common Infertility Concerns: Endometriosis, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), Immune Disorders

Getting Fit for Fertility: How Nutrition and Health affect Men and Women’s Fertility

Modern Family Building with Third Party Reproduction: Sperm and Egg Donation, Surrogacy

Men’s Reproductive Health

The Latest, Successful Reproductive Surgery Options for Women and Men

Financing Fertility Treatments: Know Your Insurance/Prescription Plans, Other Finance Programs, Questions to Ask

Adoption Basics and Must Ask Questions: Starting Your Adoption Journey

Adoption Options: Domestic / Open / Closed / International / Transracial and Transcultural / Foster / Social Media

Openness in Adoption: A Candid Discussion with Adoptive Parent and Birthmom

Sunday, September 7, 2014

9:00am – 3:00pm 

Westin Lake Mary

2974 International Parkway
Lake Mary, FL 32746 (map)

It's Not Too Late to Register for START ART 2014! August 6-9 in Las Vegas!

http://www.directrsvp.com/STARTART/ is the place to register! I have been attending for over 12 years and this is a great conference if you are a professional in the field of infertility or you are in the medical field and want to explore what's going on with Assisted Reproductive Technology. I hope to see you there!

Sharon

Five Common Mistakes Bloggers Make When They Want More Readers … and How to Fix Them By by Ali Luke

Do you want more readers?

It’s a silly question. Almost every blogger does – whether they have 5 readers, 500 or 5,000.
However, some bloggers end up making big mistakes when they focus on growing their blog larger. These are five of the most common, though you may well have come across others (share your thoughts in the comments below).

Mistake #1: Not Building a Good Blog First

However great your promotional skills are, you’re not going to get far if your blog looks really amateur, contains only two posts, or has default text (like the WordPress sample page) still in place.
Imagine coming across a new blog for the first time, perhaps through a search or through social media. If it makes a poor impression on you, there’s a good chance you won’t be back.
Fix it: Before you start gaining readers, make sure your blog is in good shape. It certainly doesn’t need to be perfect – but you should have at least five posts in place, and at least one of those should have been published within the last month.

Mistake #2: Using Shady SEO Tactics

Some bloggers turn straight to SEO (Search Engine Optimization) when they want new readers. And while being found in search engines is really important, it’s not a good idea to take shortcuts.
Dodgy tactics like writing hundreds of low-quality guest posts just for backlinks, participating in link exchanges, or stuffing your posts full of keywords probably won’t work, and if they do work in the short term, they’ll almost certainly see your site heavily penalized in the next Google update.
Fix it: By all means pay attention to SEO, but use “white hat” tactics that make your blog a better reading experience too. For instance, you could hand-craft descriptions for each post (using a plugin like All in One SEO Pack) and come up with keyword-rich titles that help readers know exactly what your post is about.

Mistake #3: Asking for Links (the Wrong Way)

Some new bloggers create lists of all the top blogs in their niche and promptly email everyone asking for a link.
While this might seem like a good idea at first glance, it’s not likely to result in links (large blogs are inundated with requests like these) and it may well annoy the people who you most want to impress.
Fix it: It’s OK to ask a blogger to link to you – but pick someone who you already have a good relationship with, and try to target someone who regularly includes links on their blog (either in a weekly roundup or in a blogroll).

Mistake #4: Leaving Loads of Blog Comments

While leaving comments is a great way to get involved in the blogging world and build relationships, it’s not a particularly good way to get readers – especially if your comments are all of the “Great post!” variety.
Many bloggers will edit or delete comments which use a keyword rather than your username, too, and some will delete comments that they feel aren't adding to the conversation.
Fix it: Go for quality not quantity in your comments. If you have a good point to add, by all means share it – this may encourage readers to click on your name and check out your blog. Remember that the most important thing is building a relationship with the person who owns the blog you’re commenting on.

Mistake #5: Thinking Great Content is Enough

Some bloggers don’t bother promoting their blog. They ignore SEO (maybe because they’re intimidated by it) and they rarely use social media, or comment on other blogs. In many ways, this is the opposite mistake to the above four.
These bloggers believe that by writing great content, they’ll eventually attract readers who’ll share their posts across the world. (This is the “if you build it, they will come” school of blogging.)
Fix it: Great content should absolutely be your first focus – but the blogging world is so busy and crowded that you need to market your content too.  Try cutting back your posting schedule so you have more time to promote your posts.


The key thing to remember when building an audience is that while there are no super-quick shortcuts, there are definitely methods which work well and consistently to grow your blog.

10 Signs You Might Not Be Ready to Start a Business Found on FOXBusiness by Susan Payton

Before you quit your day job and dive into entrepreneurship, take a moment to think about this major decision. While, certainly, becoming a business owner is an exciting endeavor, it’s not for everyone. And it’s a long-term commitment. You’ll pour blood, sweat, tears, and money into a business, and if it doesn’t work out, you won’t recoup that investment.

If any of the following ring true, you might not be ready to start a business.

1. You’re passionate, but you have no plan. While passion is a cornerstone of a successful small business, it’s simply not enough. You also need a plan for how you’ll make money and grow your business. If the idea of developing such a plan bores you or stresses you out, it might not be a good fit.

2. You don’t have any money. Starting a business is not a “get rich quick” endeavor by any stretch of the imagination. It may be months — or even years — before you turn a profit, and in the meantime, you’ll need enough cash to pay your business expenses and your personal expenses.

3. You have a really neat idea, if only the market wanted it. Unless your idea solves a problem or serves a need, you’ll have a hard time finding customers for it. Remember the dad from the Gremlins movies? He was constantly inventing solutions where there were no problems. A machine that took an egg out of a bowl and cracked it simply wasn’t something the market clamored for.

4. You’ve got major life changes happening. Maybe you just got married. Or had a baby. If you’re in a transitional stage in your life, starting a business will add to the already high levels of stress you’re experiencing. Entrepreneurship might be better later down the road.

5. You just want to be your own boss. If the appeal of not having an overbearing boss to answer to is your driver for starting a business, consider this: your customers will be your new bosses. They’ll dictate what you do and how you do it. If they don’t like what you’re selling, they won’t buy it. And you won’t have the stability of a paycheck as a safety net.

6. You’re the breadwinner in your family. Shifting from one salary to support your family to an erratic, virtually existent entrepreneur’s paycheck is one many families can’t stomach. If your family finances will suffer if you quit your job, wait until you have money saved for this endeavor.

7. You have no experience in this industry. Although you’ve worked as a lawyer for years, you’ve dreamed of opening a cupcake shop. If you’ve got rockstar baking skills, that might help you survive, but if you have no experience in leasing retail space, buying baking supplies, and managing staff, you may find yourself struggling.

8. You want to do what you love. Why would that be a reason to not start a business, you ask? The truth is, few business owners do that thing they love 40 hours a week. In the cupcake shop example, you may find that, while you really enjoy the baking portion of the work, you’re actually doing very little of that in between your admin responsibilities. You’ll be busy creating employee schedules, making deposits at the bank, and calling your suppliers. Someone else will have to handle the baking.

9. You don’t know much about business. While you don’t need an MBA to be a business owner, it helps to have a basic understanding of marketing, accounting, management and finance. You can take continuing education courses at your local community college, read books and blogs, or simply teach yourself. But without a solid business foundation, your house of cards may crumble quickly.

10. You’re not excited enough. Going back to the first example here: you absolutely should be passionate and excited about starting a business. You should be able to see yourself working in that business for decades. You should be willing to do whatever it takes — work 80 hours a week, moonlight while keeping your day job, see your family less — to realize your dreams of business ownership. If you’re not, it’s not worth the pain of starting a business to find that out.

Six Ways to Get Traffic to Your Blog – Without Getting Penalised by Google by Ali Luke

All these tips are ones that you can do right from day one … but they’ll also help you out if you’ve been blogging for years and struggling to get traffic.

#1: Write Content That People Want to Read and Link To

Before you put any other traffic-generation tips into practice, you need to make sure your content is as good as it can be.
To get traffic, you need to have content people want to read. It needs to be:

• Useful or entertaining (or both!)
• Well-written
• Nicely formatted for easy reading

When other people link to your content – with no prompting from you – then you’ll know you’ve got it right. These links are also really valuable, as Google views them as natural and trustworthy.
Go further: It’s OK to occasionally ask someone for a link, but only do this for your very best posts. Don’t ask the same people all the time – and don’t target top A-list bloggers when you’re just starting out.

#2: Use Social Media

If you aren’t already on Twitter or Facebook, get started with one of them.
You don’t need to be on every network out there: focus on one or two that you’re comfortable with, and that are a good fit for your audience. (If you’ve got a business-focused blog, for instance, you might find your readers are more likely to hang out on LinkedIn.)
As well as getting traffic from links shared on social media, you’ll get new followers, plus some bloggers will use links they’ve tweeted as the basis of a weekly round-up of their niche.

#3: Leave Comments on Other Blogs

In the early weeks and months of blogging, leaving comments on other people’s blogs is a great way to get some extra traffic. You might only get a handful of visitors from a comment – but if you leave five comments every day, this will soon add up.
Make sure your comments add value to the conversation, and use your real name (or pseudonym) not a keyword.
Go further: Reply to other readers’ comments and questions, rather than just adding your own thoughts. This is a great way to connect with them as well as with the blogger.

#4: Be Generous in Linking Out

How often do you link to other bloggers? If it’s rarely – or never – then you’re not giving them much reason to link to you.
By being generous with your links, you’ll often find that a blogger will return the favour. You may also be able to strike up a relationship them, potentially helping one another out in other ways too.
Go further: Link to other bloggers in your guest posts (see #6); if they receive a link from a high-profile blog as a result, they’ll definitely be grateful.

#5: Use Your Email Signature

Email signatures are often overlooked as a source of traffic. Look at it this way: you probably send multiple emails every day, and some of those will be to people who don’t know about your blog (or who haven’t visited it in a while).
Include a link to your blog in your signature – perhaps with your tagline, or a few words describing what your blog is about.
Go further: Do the same with your signature on any forums you belong to, if this is allowed.

#6: Write Guest Posts for Other Blogs

Guest posting is a great way to grow your blog fast. It gets your writing in front of a new (and usually much bigger) audience, and you’ll have a short bio at the end of your post to link to your blog, or a post on it.
You’ll get traffic directly from your guest post, but the link itself is valuable too and will help your blog rank more highly in search engines.
Google regularly cracks down on low-quality links, however, so make sure you’re only guest posting on high-quality, reputable sites.

Go further: List the top five sites in your niche that you want to guest post for, and study them carefully to find out what types of post they publish.

If you try to get traffic to your blog by dubious methods, Google will sooner or later crack down and you’ll find your traffic gone.

Quick definitions: “Traffic” means readers coming to your blog – the more, the better!
A “backlink” is a link from another site, pointing to your site. It might go to your homepage, to another page, or to a specific blog post.

It's Cyber Monday and LaMothe Services is offering it's very first Social Networking Special!

It's Cyber Monday and LaMothe Services is offering it's very first Social Networking Special!

 

Social Networking is the fastest and easiest way to stay in touch with colleagues, co-workers, industry professionals, family, and friends. But learning how to navigate a social networking site by yourself can be frustrating especially if you would rather be spending time doing other things. Networking in any form is a great way to keep your business in the forefront of everyone's mind and lead you to a better position in your industry.

 

Package #1 includes:

(Cyber Monday Special of a one time set up fee of $300.00)

Facebook~LinkedIN~Twitter~Wellsphere etc.

 

Setting up your social networking site with your e-mail and contact information

Posting your bio and other relevant information

Feed your blog to your networking site if possible

Showing you how to invite friends from your address book to your site

Teaching you how to navigate the site easily and quickly

 

Package #2 includes:

(Cyber Monday Special of $250.00 paid monthly)

Maintenance of your social networking sites

Posting on your sites 2-3x per week

Networking with other relevant groups from your site

Keeping you informed of events posted on your sites

Posting Your events on your sites

Driving traffic to your social net working sites

 

You can activate this special between now and Jan 1st, 2014. Just let us know when you would like to get started!

 

Happy Holidays!

 

Sharon LaMothe

727-458-8333

LaMotheServices@aol.com

 

Four Types of Popular Blog Post That Don’t Require Much Writing by Ali Luke

Do you wish you could produce great blog posts with a minimum of writing?
Well … you can! And they might even turn out to be some of the most popular posts on your blog.
I’m not talking about using video, audio or images here – though all of those can work very well. You can create a normal, text-based post without doing much writing at all.
Here are three types of blog post that often go down very with readers. You won’t need to write more than a few sentences for each (unless you want to).

#1: The Quotes Post

Lists of inspiring, motivational or useful quotes are hugely popular – with good reason. They offer bite-sized, easy-to-digest chunks of advice (or doses of humour).
To put one together, use sites like BrainyQuote and Goodreads to find great quotes on your topic. You might also collect quotes from books, websites, etc during the normal course of your reading and blogging: store them safely for future use.
Example:
How to Flourish: 17 Quotes On Living, Being and Doing (Charlie Gilkey, Productive Flourishing)
This post had over 1,400 shares on Facebook – and I know it’s one of Charlie’s most popular pieces. Yet the only words he wrote are a single-line introduction, and a two-sentence conclusion linking to a follow-up piece.

#2: The Interview Post

If you’re not an expert yet, turn to the people who are. An interview post is a win-win-win: it gives you content you couldn’t have written yourself, it raises your interviewee’s profile, and it provides a fresh perspective for your readers.
Interview posts take time to put together, especially if you’re interviewing several people at once (which can make for a really good resource). Make sure you plan ahead and allow time for busy bloggers to get back to you with their answers.
Example:
Six Inspiring Experts Answer Five Questions on Writing and Blogging (Ali Luke, Zen Optimise)
I put together this post a few weeks ago for Zen Optimise (where I’m Head of Content). Although I wrote quite a long introduction, it only takes up a fraction of the post – each of the six interviewees provided generous, in-depth answers. Daniel’s one of them, so you may want to check out his tips!

#3: The Discussion Post

This type of post works best once your blog has been running long enough to build up a loyal audience of engaged readers. Instead of writing about a topic yourself, you simply pose a question – and watch the comments come in.
Discussion posts can build engagement and community, and they can also be a rich source of ideas for future posts. (You might write a post quoting some of the best comments, for instance – in a similar way to Great Guest Post Pitching Advice from Two DailyBlogTips Readers.)
Example:
DISCUSS: How Often Do You Redesign Your Blog? (Darren Rowse, ProBlogger)
Darren runs discussion posts on a regular basis, with readers adding their answers in the comments. Many readers will write quite in-depth comments – several sentences or a couple of paragraphs.

#4: The Recap Post

New readers often miss out on your older posts, and readers who’ve been around a while may not read every post. A recap post – covering the previous month, three months, six months, or a year – is a great way to showcase some of your best work … without doing much writing.
In your recap post, you’ll obviously put the titles of and links to previous posts, but you might also copy their opening lines or a key paragraph. Once you’ve created one post like this, you can reuse the format again and again – saving you even more time.
Example:
Don’t Miss Out: Read Our Five Top Posts from October 2013 (Ali Luke, DailyBlogTips)
This was a quick post to write, with a short introduction and conclusion, and a main body made up of the top five posts of October – each one has the title, date, and a short excerpt.


I’m sure there are a few tricks I've missed! Drop a comment below and let us know your ideas for creating posts without writing much.

Donor Anonymity: Are Sperm Donors Really Anonymous? By Guest Blogger Michelle Patterson

The decision to become a sperm donor is a major decision that needs to be thoroughly thought out beforehand.  While there are many factors to consider before making your decision, the most important factor to consider is that of your confidentiality and anonymity. You should know and understand what to expect from a donation clinic as far as your confidentiality and your rights as a donor are concerned.  While your rights will differ depending upon what type of donor you will choose to be, they are nonetheless important. 

You should take an adequate amount of time to educate yourself regarding the donation clinic’s confidentiality and anonymity contract before making such an important decision.  You need to insure that you are choosing the clinic that best meets your needs.  All donation centers must have a confidentiality agreement that protects your rights as a donor, and knowing those rights beforehand can make a world of difference before signing a contract.  This article will discuss what to expect from a donation center regarding your confidentiality and anonymity as a donor.

While there are two ways to donate your sperm, anonymously and not anonymously, this article will focus on anonymous donors only.  When donating anonymously, you should expect just that; that your sperm donation will be made entirely and completely anonymously with no chance of your name ever being released to the recipient or the child at any point.  Most clinics should assign you a specific donor number that you will be referred to throughout the donation process, and any other time you decide to donate.  This number will then be included on all of your paperwork in the place of your name, thus again further protecting your anonymity.

It is always important that you read any contract that you are given in full detail before signing your name.  If you have any questions regarding the contract and your rights as a donor, it is vital that you have your questions and concerns addressed before signing the contract.  If you are choosing to donate anonymously, then you most likely have concerns about meeting a child later on, and you want to be sure to agree to that fully in the contract.

Another thing to check on at the donation center is whether or not the center has what is called an “openness agreement.”  An openness agreement is an agreement you sign that states that if a child born from your donation wishes to contact you, you can be contacted by the clinic and asked if you would like to meet the child.  Even if you agree to sign this agreement in case you change your mind about anonymity later on, the agreement should state that your name and information will not be given out without your consent and without the phone call from the clinic beforehand.

Again, it is important to do your research on the clinic you wish to use in order to insure your anonymity, although most clinics that are accredited follow confidentiality contracts fully.

About the Author

Michelle Patterson is a nurse with several years’ experience in a sperm clinic.  She suggests looking into the information provided by California Cryobank regarding sperm donor anonymity before making the decision to become a sperm donor.

Borrowed Wisdom: How to Use Quotes on Your Blog from Daily BlogTips

Have you ever read something – perhaps in a book or blog – and thought wow, I wish I’d written that.
While you can’t take the words and pretend they’re your own, you can use them to support your blogging.
Quoting other people is a staple of many types of writing. Journalists use quotes in their stories, magazine writers interview experts to support their piece, and academics quote research papers. As a blogger, you too can borrow the wisdom of others to inspire and support your writing.
This is also an under-used technique, so it’s one that can make you stand out:

For an entire week I read every post from five A-list bloggers to see how many of their posts included quotes. Out of 31 posts, only three did.
– Bamboo Forest, Elevate Your Writing By Using Well-Positioned Quotes, Write to Done

It does take a little extra time and effort to add a quote (or a few quotes) into your post … but if you follow these steps, you can’t go wrong.

Step #1: Find an Appropriate Quote

Quotes can come from all sorts of sources, but three of the most likely ones you’ll use are:
Other Blogs
It’s easy to do a quick Google search for information when you’re writing a post: if you find a great piece of advice, you can include it in your piece as a quote. Alternatively, you might save good quotes as you’re reading, so you can use them in future posts.
Books
It’s fine to quote briefly from a book so long as you acknowledge the source (see Step #3). If you have an ereader, highlight relevant passages when you’re reading so you can easily find useful quotes afterwards.
Collections of Quotes
Sites like Brainy Quote list thousands upon thousands of quotes, and you can search by topic. If you do choose a quote that’s been widely reproduced, check several sites as the wording (and sometimes the attribution) may be incorrect in places.

Step #2: Decide How to Use the Quote

There are plenty of different ways to incorporate a quote into your post, and you don’t need to use the same method each time. These are some popular ones:
At the Start of Your Post
Alex Blackwell of The Bridgemaker has a quote at the start of every post he writes. This is a technique you’ll sometimes see used in books, with a quote at the start of each chapter.
As the Basis for Your Post
Barry Demp of The Quotable Coach bases each of his posts on a specific quote. Here on Daily Blog Tips, we often quote from and explain a good resource when we link to it – see The Psychology Behind The “One Weird Trick” Ads for an example.
To Support a Point You’re Making
Often, a quote from an expert can be a great way to support a particular part of your post. For instance, in Sonia Simone’s post The 5 Things Every (Great) Marketing Story Needs, her bonus – You need the truth – uses a quote from a book.

Step #3: Format the Quote Correctly

It’s often a good idea to distinguish quotes from the rest of your post, especially if you’re quoting more than a line or so.
There’s a handy HTML tag for this:

(Most visual blog editors will have a button that looks like quotation marks: this applies the

formatting.)

Different blog themes will have different styles of blockquotes, but almost all will indent the text from the left. They may use a different font colour or size, and might add other features like a quotation mark graphic or a line down the left hand side.
For very short quotes, you may not want to use the blockquote formatting. You can simply incorporate them into your sentence, using quotation marks. Here’s an example:
This week, I’ve decided to use more quotes on my blog. I was inspired by Ali Luke who explains, “You too can borrow the wisdom of others to inspire and support your writing.”
If you want more on punctuating posts correctly, check out 8 Tips for Using Quotes and Dialogue in Your Blog Posts (ProBlogger).

Step #4: Attribute the Quote Correctly

Make sure that all the quotes you use are attributed carefully: don’t just throw them in without a name or source.
At a bare minimum, you should include the name of the person (or where that’s not available, the website / publication) that the quote is from.
Normally, if you’re quoting from a blog post or website, it’s good to link to the source. This helps out the person you’re quoting (links are good for their search engine ranking) and it also offers extra value to your readers, who may want to read the whole of the source piece.
If you’re going to use quotes on a reasonably regular basis, work out a good standard way to attribute them. There are plenty of ways to do this. I like to have both the quote and the attribution in blockquote format, like this:

[quote]
– [name], [title of post, which links to it], [name of blog]

So, for instance, if you quoted from this post, you might do it like this:

Normally, if you’re quoting from a blog post or website, it’s good to link to the source. This helps out the person you’re quoting (links are good for their search engine ranking) and it also offers extra value to your readers, who may want to read the whole of the source piece.
– Ali Luke, Borrowed Wisdom: How to Use Quotes on Your Blog, Daily Blog Tips

Bonus Step: Changing the Quote

Sometimes, you’ll need to make changes to a quote. This is OK, but it needs to be clear to readers what’s changed. For instance:

• You might cut out a section of a long quote.
• You might alter a word to help the quote make sense.

There are standard conventions for doing this.
Cutting Part of a Quote
Use an ellipsis (three dots) to indicate where the cut part is.

Normally, if you’re quoting from a blog post or website, it’s good to link to the source. This … offers extra value to your readers, who may want to read the whole of the source piece.

Some writers like to put the ellipsis in square brackets too, like this: [...]
Warning: Be careful not to use an ellipsis to change the meaning of a quotation.
Changing a Word in a Quote
Sometimes, a quote doesn’t quite work out of context: for instance, there might be a word like “he” or “it” or “this” that refers to something in a previous sentence.
The easiest way to fix this is to simply replace the word by putting the new word or phrase in square brackets. For instance, in our example quote, you might choose to use the second sentence only, and change the word “this” at the start:

[Linking to the source] offers extra value to your readers, who may want to read the whole of the source piece.

Your turn! Use a quote in the next blog post you write. If you get stuck or you’re not sure if you’ve done it right, just pop a comment below so we can help.