You’re invited to this Thursday night’s webinar at 6 pm Pacific/9 pm Eastern, on “Next-Level Websites for Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses.” What do I mean by “next-level”?

As Internet Marketers we’re taught to go for content: write articles, write blog posts, bring those search engines in! High-content websites are an excellent goal to have, but you need some way to manage all that content and still make it available, organized, and searchable. About a year ago, I was facing this problem with my membership site: the content was on the site, but it was presented in the wrong format. I needed some way to organize multiple types of content, have it protected, and still make it a multi-user website.

So last December I began working with Joomla, an open-source, content management system designed to handle large volumes of content. Over the last 9 months, I’ve learned about Joomla, tested for use by entrepreneurs and small businesses, and built almost a dozen websites with it.

Now I’m ready to tell you what I’ve discovered about Joomla and why I think you should consider it for some of YOUR websites! In fact, I am using my Joomla site to handle webinar registrations: now you’ll just need to register and opt-in once, and you’ll have access to all future webinar registration links. Current members can just log in to get the link.

Here’s how to register:

1. Go to www.websavvysupport.com (my new Joomla site!) and click on Register/Join.
2. Choose Web-Savvy Support Registered Membership, and complete the form.
3. On the next screen, enter your name and email address to immediately receive the webinar link and instructions for future webinars. That’s all there is to it!

NOTE: If you have had an ICFMW membership with the site in the past (paid or trial membership), use the same username and password to log onto the site. If you don’t remember them, just go to the home page and click Forgot Username or Forgot Password under the Login box to have them sent to you.

It has taken time for your business to grow; it will take time to get your site ready for the next level. Join me on Thursday to get this valuable information NOW so you can make plans. Thanks to my 30% Off Sale, now might be the right time to make those plans and take advantage of the savings!

Talk to you Thursday at 6 pm Pacific/9 pm Eastern!!

Thinking about joining us for the Remote Blogging Techniques Webinar? It’s happening at 2 pm Pacific, 5 pm Eastern time today, so now’s the time to join our group for a month and benefit from all the features of membership. Support Forum where you can post questions and get answers within hours.

http://www.websavvysupport.com/amember/signup.php

Can you believe it’s almost September? I hope you’ve had a great summer.

Last week my godsons stopped by to see us, and they reminded us that school starts this week. I got to thinking about the days when my Mom took me to the “dime store” and we picked up school supplies. Dad, who was a teacher at the time, was pulling out lesson plans and figuring out which kids in his class had older siblings who had been through his classroom.

I’m glad I grew up in a house where continuous learning was emphasized as being critical to success. I’ve carried that with me into my years as an entrepreneur, and it has served me well. There’s no doubt that the Internet moves quickly; we have got to make time to keep up with it to sustain our online presence.

What’s on your plate for this fall? A refresh of your website? New content? New services? New products? What do you need to learn to make that happen? Starting today, you can get help at 30% off.

• Learn more about your website, blog, or Joomla site; sharpen your skills so that you can update your site yourself. Visit www.ToolieCoaching.com and make an appointment for one-on-one coaching.
• Refresh the look of your website this Fall. You don’t have to do a complete overhaul, you could just take advantage of a “website update package” that might include a new header, new buttons and graphics, or an introductory video. Visit www.ToolieWebDesign.com for ideas and to view my portfolio of over 40 websites and blogs.
• Add new feature to your website, like StarDevelop’s Live Help, that improves your connection to your website visitors. For a one-time purchase and installation fee, you could add the same feature to your site. Visit www.ToolieSofwareSetups.com to learn more.

These are just some of the ideas I have for you! I’ve been learning some new things myself in the last 6 months, and I’ll share them with you over the next few weeks.

All you have to do to get started is to make an appointment. Use this link: http://www.toolie.com/links/initialconsultation and we’ll work together to bring your ideas into reality.

Talk to you soon!

Toolie®

Do you love your business? When you became an entrepreneur, did you feel a sense of excitement — doing the things you love, and being in charge of your own destiny?

When you love someone, you do things for them. It’s the same when you love your business: you do things like marketing, networking, and … working on your websites and blogs! Are you ready to show your business that you love it?

If you are, then your timing is perfect: the Love Your Business 30% Off Sale is underway! I’m taking 30% off website and blog projects at ToolieWebDesign.com, installation services on ToolieSoftwareSetups.com, and individual coaching sessions on ToolieCoaching.com.

So show your business that you love it by taking care of your most important online business assets: your websites and blogs. The coupon code you need is:

LOVEMYBIZ

Using that code in the shopping cart gets you an immediate 30% off your purchase on specified products and services. Each website has a description of the items on sale.

Click the link below to book a Free 30-minute Initial Consultation to discuss your business needs.

http://www.toolie.com/links/initialconsultation

Make your apppointment today!

Toolie®

P.S. There is a minimum purchase of $95 to receive the 30% off discount.

NOW we are finally ready to set goals for 2011

Day 11: Create your List of Business Goals for 2011

Back in the early 1990s I first encountered Tony Robbins, the guru with the great self-help program. His goal-setting workshop taught me that goals written down have a much greater chance of coming to pass. I’ve been remiss in setting goals lately, but that’s about to change. Why? Because every time I’ve made time to actually write down my goals, I have achieved them. We’re not talking about New Year’s Resolutions here, we’re talking about business goals that we pursue in a deliberate, systematic way.

During this 11-day series, you’ve started to track your time, what you do every day, what your current products and services are, what you’d like them to be, what makes you money, and finally, the list of products and services you’ve decided to develop and keep. Now you are in an excellent position to set your goals for 2011 because your goals will be based on real data and a recent, detailed look at your business.

It’s important also to create a plan for each goal. When I was building my I Can Fix My Website Program, I started by imagining the end result; how many CDs the product would have, what bonuses I would include, how I would market them, what infrastructure would have to be in place to support the sales: everything I could think of about the end result.

Then I worked backward from that final result to identify each step in reverse order, until I got to the beginning of the process of product creation. This reverse-order process can help you to ensure that you are not missing any steps, and can help you determine where the dependencies are that might hold you up along the way. I guess it’s basic project management practice, but doing it in reverse seems to help me complete the planning process much more quickly.

Perhaps you’re taking today (Friday) off, or maybe you’re just leaving early because it’s New Year’s Eve. I encourage you to take a few minutes now, though, and jot down at least your top 5 goals for the year while you’re thinking about them. Take that list with you though, don’t leave it in your office.

I find that it’s easier to think strategically when I am away from my office. In fact, I do my best thinking when I’m at my satellite office (my nearby Red Robin restaurant), where I’m practically a fixture with my pad of notepaper, stacks of files, and planning calendar. So sometime over the weekend, sit down and fill in the details on how you’re going to accomplish your goals while your mind is relaxed and refreshed.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed and benefitted from this series. I wish for you the very best possible 2011 and I look forward to hearing your success story.

Write down your top 5 goals for 2011, and fill in the details on how you are going to accomplish them. Be specific about products and services you’re working on, the high-value marketing activities that go with them, and then estimate the financial results. Imagining the end result is essential!

Then, write out your 2-, 5-, and 10-year goals while you’re in the mood. Naturally, you will be revising them as time passes, but writing them down is the most important thing. You’ll be surprised at how quickly you achieve them.

At the start of each week, review the goals you’ve set for the year. Review the detailed lists for each goal, and select the items you can do this week towards accomplishing the goal. Remember to include your 3 high-value marketing activities each day. Keep track of the activities and the results, and you’ll be even more motivated to continue this discipline.

Happy New Year!

Toolie®

You can change your business future with 3 high-value marketing activities per day…

Day 10: Set Up Your 3 High-Value Marketing Activities Per Day

I had the opportunity to attend a business development weekend a few years back offered by the former national president of my speakers association, Mark LeBlanc. One of the first things he taught us after identifying our income goals was that we needed to commit to performing 3 high-value marketing activities each day. If we wanted to achieve the monthly numbers we had just described, then we needed to take action every day.

At the time I took the course, I was in the process of shifting my business completely. I had no idea what I was going to create for myself at that point, so it was hard to tell what marketing activities I should be undertaking. However within a week, I began to understand that what Mark was asking us to do was nothing short of brilliant.

It seems so simple a concept, but the effect is profound. I wrote down his next statement: “It’s not about being productive, it’s about being deliberate and consistent!!” You focus on what YOU have control over — that’s how you structure your 3 activities. They are not results-based, though, which takes a bit to understand.

If I have decided to make calls for appointments with meeting planners, I would focus on making the calls, the part I can control. Whether it takes me 8 calls to get an appointment or I make 8 calls but get no appointment, at the end of the day it’s still a YES, because I made the calls, not whether I GOT the appointments. Ultimately the effect of those calls will take hold, but you’re not focused on the results, you’re focused on doing the work and being consistent.

Every morning you identify what your 3 activities are. Every evening you ask yourself if you completed the activities. You don’t do 4 activities today and 2 tomorrow; there is no plus or minus carryover. If you get to the end of the day and you haven’t finished those 3 activities, stop, stay at your desk (or wherever), and complete those activities. If you do, then you can say YES, you accomplished the goal for the day.

Create a list of high-value marketing activities for your business, especially online marketing. Hanging out in Facebook can be a high-value activity if you know you get clients through Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Otherwise, it might be wiser to spend your time writing a blog post, or creating an article for an article directory.

Try to come up with at least 12-15 different activities you can then rotate through on a daily basis for the next 30 days. In a month’s time of deliberate marketing effort, you’ll begin to discern which ones really ARE the high-value activities. Let the others go or drop them to the bottom of the list, and focus on the ones that are really working.

Now that you’ve identified your high-value activities, go to your Calendar program and set aside time each day as an appointment with yourself to accomplish these 3 high-value marketing activities. You’re going to be tempted to skip some days and move the time around other days. Resist the temptation! This is about consistency. Be consistent and the results take care of themselves.

Toolie®

Do you know what you need to know to craft your new future?

Day 9: Decide What Education You Need to Achieve Improvements

The Internet Marketers I’ve observed over the last 6 years who are still around have one important characteristic in common: they are constantly learning and educating themselves. The Internet moves so quickly that you can’t afford to sit back and refuse to learn new things. I’m not talking about just the professional development needed to maintain your business, but also an education in how the Internet works.

If you’ve attended any of my webinars, you understand what I mean: learning the mechanics of your websites and blogs so that you’re never stuck because you don’t know how to update them. Opportunities appear one day and are gone the next. The entrepreneurs who can provide a connection point for those opportunities in the form of a new web page or a new blog post can capitalize on opportunities and profit from them.

What am I learning to craft my new future? Well I mentioned that I’m doing some web design subcontracting, and I decided that it’s time that I finally really, really learn Javascript. Doing so provides new income opportunities for me because I can add features that my contractor’s clients want. I am also learning jQuery, a Javascript library that has some really cool features. I want to be able to manipulate and customize the FlowPlayer video and audio players using jQuery.

I’m also studying Joomla, an open-source content management system. It takes a while to learn all the moving parts, but it has a very active developer community and good support. I am thinking of using Joomla for one of my future websites, and if I get good at it, I may get a chance to use Joomla with some medium-sized businesses.

What investments are you making in your own knowledge? What training have you been putting off that might open new income sources to you?

Having products and services to share is one thing, but not knowing how to market them online will leave you with excess inventory. Go back through your newly minted list of products and services, and identify the skills and knowledge you need to acquire to properly market them. Then find the people who can help you learn what you need to know.

Set aside time every month to learn at least one new tactic for marketing your business. This may include more time spent reading up on social media marketing from experts, attending my free monthly webinars, and signing up for coaching time. Take a look at http://www.tooliecoaching.com/howcantooliehelpyou.html for ideas on ways we can work together to improve your websites and blogs. Then book a 30-minute free consulation at www.toolie.com/links/initialconsultation and let’s get to work!

Toolie®

Letting go can be a theraputic process, and it can also create some extra work for you. But be excited: you’re entering the new year with a much clearer vision for your business that you have in the past. Let’s continue….

Day 8: Decide What Needs Be Added, Dropped, or Delegated

Yesterday you made some tough decisions: you evaluated your business from both a profit/loss perspective and a value perspective. Just because something isn’t currently profitable, doesn’t mean that it can’t become profitable, but sometimes you just need to work on something else. My mentor Tom Antion taught us to “fail fast,” so that we could move onto the next possibility.

Adding Products or Services:
Start a list of the things you need to create to support the new effort: pages on your website, marketing materials, tag lines, logos — everything you can thing of right now.

Dropping or Phasing Out Products and Services:
Determine an end-date for each if you can. If you’re going to take down web pages or close a blog, remember that those pages need to be redirected to the new products and services, or to a page with an explanation that these items are no longer available.

Delegating Tasks:
During the course of your business evaluation, have you thought about getting more help? It could mean that it’s time to hire a virtual assistant to handle some of the administrative work you’ve been handling yourself.

Go back to the website/blog To-Do list you started on Day 6, and add the web-related tasks to it. You are probably in need of some website coaching, so visit http://www.tooliecoaching.com/buytime.html and purchase some coaching time.

Or you may be ready to start a new web project to support your new efforts. If that’s the case, go to http://www.toolie.com/links/initialconsultation, and make a free 30-minute appointment to talk everything over with me. We can talk about the changes you’re making and how they’ll affect your current site. I’m available all week.

Toolie®