The cheapest deal isn’t always the best deal.

When business owners start looking for service providers to outsource to, they sometimes seem to forget that little fact. Judging from many inquiries I’ve been getting lately, a lot of people are getting hung up on price.

Service providers aren’t all that different from light bulbs. We both brighten up your day, for one thing. For another, you always get what you pay for. Cheaper prices usually mean lesser quality.

If you’re still asking, “How much will this cost me?” you’re asking the wrong question. When it comes to outsourcing your business needs to service providers, the real question should be:

“How much will this profit me?”

If you pay someone to write an article for you, how many leads will that article bring?
If you pay someone to redesign your website, how many more visitors will the up-to-date look convert?
If you pay someone to write a press release for you, how much exposure will your business get?

It’s impossible to say for sure, of course. But I can tell you this: it depends on the quality of the finished product.

The wonder of outsourcing is that it doesn’t actually save you money. Instead, it creates opportunities for you to make more money.

So, doesn’t it make sense that price should not be a sticking point when you’re looking for someone to outsource to? Don’t you want to create as many money making opportunities for yourself as possible?

If you’re still looking for the lowest price, you have the idea behind outsourcing all wrong.

But please give me a call anyway. I can give you a great deal on a box of light bulbs I’m not using.

Are you thinking of outsourcing your web content? I help my clients build relationships with their “people” by writing professional blogs, articles and press releases, then publishing and repurposing them in strategic ways.

Check out my portfolio and read my client testimonials. Then request a quote for your content marketing needs.

Want to learn more about Roxy and Smokey? You’ll find that here

The dogs, Roxy and Smoky, and the cats, Shadow and Daisy, provide loads of of entertainment for the rest of us. Like when the cats try to steal the pencils out of my kids hands while they’re doing their schoolwork. Or when Roxy pushes Enter on my keyboard before I’m done typing a tweet…  The guinea pigs’ grunts and squeaks provide the soundtrack for all the action around here.

But I’ve also learned a lot by inviting this small menagerie into my life. For one thing, never leave a sandwich, even an extremely well-wrapped one, on the coffee table while you’re putting on your coat. When you turn around, the sandwich will be gone, but your dog will be very proud of herself for figuring out how to unwrap it.

Surprisingly, they’ve even taught me a thing or two about running a business. Here are five lessons my furry friends have taught me about what it takes to be successful, while still staying cute and cuddly.

1.    Sometimes the right time is right now.
One morning I had a sudden attack of insanity brainwave and suggested to my husband that it might be fun to adopt a couple of kittens for the kids. So, we went to the SPCA to see if they had two kittens in need of a loving home. And they did! An adorable brother and sister, just a few months old. We hesitated for a moment… Wouldn’t it wouldn’t be smarter to really think things through before bringing two kittens home? Were we sure that now was really the right time?

We decided to go for it, and am I glad we did! When we were leaving with our new additions, a staff member told us that this had been the Shadow and Daisy’s last day. If they hadn’t been adopted by closing time, they were scheduled to be “put to sleep” the next day.

In business, sometimes it’s tempting to put things off. Maybe you want to do just “one more thing” before you’re ready. Maybe you’re wondering if right now really is the right time. Wouldn’t later be better, when you’re more prepared? But sometimes, the right time is right now. Go for it. Tomorrow the opportunity may be gone.

2.    You don’t know how far you can leap until you try.
Cats are created to jump. Soon Shadow and Daisy were jumping onto window ledges. And not quite making it. Trying to leap halfway across the basement from the back of the couch to one of the bookshelves. They usually fell just short of their goal. But sometimes they did make it. And over time, they learned what they really could do.

How many times have you considered trying something new, but worried you might fall flat on your face? You won’t know what you’re capable of until you try. True, you might fail. But even if you do, you will have a better sense of what you really are capable of. Or maybe you will know what to do differently next time.

3.    If you’re frightened, find a friend to walk beside you.
When we brought our dog Roxy home from the SPCA, she was scared of everything. Especially Shadow and Daisy. In fact, she wouldn’t even enter a room if they were there. But if I walked beside her, that changed everything. Suddenly she had the courage to walk right past those kitties to get wherever she wanted to go.

Facing fear is part of being in business. I love the saying, “If you aren’t a little bit scared, the game isn’t big enough.” But sometimes our fears hold us back from getting something we really want or need. When that happens, find a friend who’ll walk beside you. It might be a colleague who encourages you or a business coach or professional mentor who helps. When you have a friend at your side you, those big bad puddy-tats don’t look so scary after all.

4.    Persistence pays off.
In our house, we have a rule: animals do not come to the table. They are not fed from the table. They do not sit in our laps while we’re sitting at the table. But Roxy has found a way around all that. During meal times she sits just far enough away that I can’t accuse her of being underfoot and looks at me with those puppy-dog eyes… just waiting for me to be done eating so she can come sit on my lap and get just a nibble of whatever I’m having. And it works. Every time.

What goal are you pursuing, but just can’t seem to reach? Keep trying.  The puppy-dog eyes probably won’t work as well for you, but you have other recourses. If a paper doesn’t want to follow up on your press release, send them another, from a different angle. The company you want to work with doesn’t return your calls? Look for another way to get their attention. Whatever you do, don’t give up on goals that are important to you.

5.    A glass box is not real life.
Smoky is the most recent addition to our family. He came from a pet store where he spent his first six months living in a glass box. So, when we brought him home he had no clue what the real world was like. He ran for cover whenever a car drove by our house. He fell off the back deck when he backed up too far without looking at what was behind him. He had no idea why we would try to drag him beside us when we went for our walks. For six months, he had been watching the world, but hadn’t truly been a part of it.

Are you engaged with your audience? Or are you in a glass box, just watching things going on around you? To create meaningful relationships you need to leave that box and find ways to connect with your market. That means getting on Twitter, starting a Facebook page, sending out your newsletter, posting on your blog.

Get in touch with your market for real. Otherwise you’ll be hitting the gravel below the back deck before you even knew it was there.

Are you thinking of outsourcing your web content? I help my clients build relationships with their “people” by writing professional blogs, articles and press releases, then publishing and repurposing them in strategic ways.

Check out my portfolio and read my client testimonials. Then request a quote for your content marketing needs.

Want to learn more about Roxy and Smokey? You’ll find that here

According to Chase’s Calendar of Events, June is Effective Communications Month. For internet entrepreneurs, that means it’s the perfect time to evaluate how effectively you’re communicating information on the world wide web.

A website that lists your phone number and an email address is no
longer considered “effective communication.”

Online communication tools like blogs, articles, and community forums have contributed to an internet culture that wants the information they need to be easy to find. And they want it right now.

The increasing usage of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter means internet users want to engage with businesses like yours in myriad ways.

The rules have changed. Are you keeping up? If you need some help, here are my five rules for writing web content that “wows.”

1. People use the internet because they want helpful information they can use right now. So give it to them. That will give you credibility with consumers.

2. Forget everything you learned in your English composition classes. When you’re writing for the web, write like you speak. Leave out the jargon and complex sentences. However, good grammar and proper punctuation are still essential.

3. Be consistent. It’s not enough to write a blog post or update your social media sites once every so often. Publish information regularly. Blog editorial calendars and marketing schedules can help you stay on track.

4. Be everywhere. Internet users expect to be able to communicate with you in multiple ways. Your website alone won’t cut it. Set up a Facebook page. Get blogging. Post regular tweets to your Twitter account. You might even want to set up your own social network to get your clients communicating with you, and with each other.

5. Remember that you don’t have to do it all on your own. Feeling overwhelmed by the myriad ways to communicate on the internet? Consider partnering with a virtual assistant to help you communicate more effectively.

Are you thinking of outsourcing your web content? I help my clients build relationships with their “people” by writing professional blogs, articles and press releases, then publishing and repurposing them in strategic ways.

Check out my portfolio and read my client testimonials. Then request a quote for your content marketing needs.

Want to learn more about Roxy and Smokey? You’ll find that here

What you may not know is how to work with your ghost writer so you get the results you’re looking for.

As someone who has been ghost writing web content for several years now, I’ve learned that not everyone understands how the ghost writer/client relationship works best. Take these three things to heart, and you will be on your way to getting more than your money’s worth from the ghost writer you hire.

Generic articles get generic results.

Many small business owners will approach a ghost writer for the first time by saying, “I need a 500 word article on such-and-such a topic.” Your ghost writer will be able to produce that for you, of course. But if that’s all the information you give your writer, you’ll likely get a generic-sounding article that anyone could have written. And, more importantly, that no one will want to read.

Web content is most effective when it is written in your unique voice and contains your one-of-a-kind ideas. Articles like that are the ones that will help you gain trust with your audience, and eventually turn them into clients.

To help your ghost writer produce a relationship-building article for you, give her some insight into your thoughts and ideas so they can be included. Alternatively, be prepared to add your own original ideas to the article after the ghost writer is done with it.

This is a relationship.

Once you’ve found someone you think you could have a good working relationship with, it’s worth investing the time to foster that relationship.

The longer you and your writer work together, the more she will understand your web content needs. As she learns about your business, she may even be able to help you plan your article topics and develop your article marketing strategy.

If the content you get from the ghost writer the first time isn’t exactly what you had in mind, don’t assume that using a ghost writer is not for you. Perhaps you need to communicate your ideas more clearly. Or perhaps it will just take some feedback to get her on the right track.

Maybe what you really need is a virtual assistant.

There are ghost writing services. And then there are virtual assistants who specialize in ghost writing.

What’s the difference? A ghost writer is just that.

A virtual assistant, on the other hand, has business sense and experience and can help you use the content she writes for you in strategic ways.

A virtual assistant can repurpose your content into blog posts, tweets, Facebook updates, ebooks, even teleseminars. If you don’t have a blog or don’t get social media, she can help you with that too. She can also help you find new places to publish your articles, and keep track of them for you.

The one article you paid for can be used in so many ways to find new prospects and win new clients. That saves you time and money, and makes you look really smart.

Business owners who decide to outsource their content often initially wonder if it’s worth the money they’ll spend. Or they wonder if the ghost writer will be able to produce the articles they need. By keeping these points in mind, you’ll be on your way to building a positive relationship with the writing professional you hire.

Are you thinking of outsourcing your content? I help my clients build relationships with their “people” by writing professional blogs, articles and press releases, then publishing and repurposing them in strategic ways.

Check out my portfolio and read my client testimonials. Then request a quote for your article and press release marketing needs.

Want to learn more about Roxy and Smokey? You’ll find that here

Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week.

Joseph Addison

Weekends don’t count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless.

~Bill Watterson

Living up to ideals is like doing everyday work with your Sunday clothes on.

~Ed Howe

As I think of everything I didn’t get done this week, I appreciate this humorous reminder:

Only Robinson Crusoe had everything done by Friday.

~Author Unknown

In fact, if you come right out and tell me that I’m wrong about something that’s important to me, you’ll probably be able to watch my defences go up right before your eyes. It will be a few minutes (or days, depending) until I’m ready to listen to anything else you have to say. Even if it’s for my own benefit.

I’ve notice the same behavior in my colleagues and friends too. It seems that none of us enjoy being told we’re wrong! So, I think it’s safe to say that the people reading your articles feel the same way.

One of my favorite articles to write addresses a mistake my readers might be making and helping them correct it. An article like that is a tool I can use to educate my market and show them how I can help solve their problems.

But if I’m not careful, it can easily sound like I’m telling them they’re wrong and I’m right. You have to admit, it’s pretty hard to educate your reader if you’ve just offended them!

So, here’s a trick I’ve learned to more subtly make my point.

When you describe a common mistake or negative situation to your readers, avoid using the pronoun “you.” If you address your reader directly, you could possibly put them on the defensive.

Instead, write in the third person for that portion of the article. Your readers will probably identify with the behaviour you’re describing, but not feel like you’re accusing them of making that mistake.

Then, when you go on to explain your solution to the problem, they’ll be much more open to what you have to say.

That means they’ll be more open to clicking on the link in your resource box and eventually buying your product or service too.

“Blah, blah, blah…. treat!”

“Blah, blah, blah…. walk!”

“Blah, blah, blah…. cookie!”

Most of what I babble on about is irrelevant to their little lives. But once in a while I hit on something that is really important to them. The rest, well, they’ll just put up with it because that’s what dogs do.

When people visit your blog, do they read “blah, blah, blah”?

Or do their ears perk up because you’re hitting on things that really speak to them?

Unlike my dogs, who are devoted to me regardless of my blah, blah, blahing, your blog readers don’t have time to sift through the blah blahs until they get to something good. The nanosecond they feel a hint of boredom, they’ll just click away.

You’re fascinating. (All of us are!) Yet when it comes to our blogs, many of us aren’t doing justice to our captivating personalities and spellbinding ideas.

So just how did your blog get so boring? I think there are some common culprits for the boringitis that’s infesting so many blogs right now. Here are a few of them.

Laziness… or is it thoughtlessness? Occasionally, laziness is the culprit behind a boring blog. Instead of coming up with their own ideas, people rehash the overused ideas of others. PLR articles, even rewritten, can kill a blog. Hiring a ghostwriter to write a generic article on a generic topic, without giving any input of your own, will result in blah blah blog posts.

Maybe it’s not true laziness that’s the problem here…  It might be just that these boring bloggers haven’t realized it’s not the blogging that matters. It’s the personal investment that goes into your blog that counts.

Overly focused on being the expert. Current internet culture puts high value on being the “expert.” To a degree, I understand that. As consumers, of course we want to work with people who know what they’re talking about.

But I have to confess, this idea of being an “expert” has always bothered me a little. I want to work with real people. Not experts who stand aloof, preaching that they know better than everyone else…  and forget to mention that they’re real people too.

You’ve heard the saying, “people buy from people they know like and trust.” The key word for me in there is “people.” Be a real one.

Not enough time. You may have heard blogging experts pronounce that having no time is no reason not to blog.  To an extent, I agree. You can write a quickie blog post in 15 minutes.

But to be fair to everyone who cries out that they’re too busy to blog (and to my clients who have their days scheduled down to the last five minute increment with not a second spare for blogging) there’s a lot more that goes into a blog post than just the writing of it. There’s planning the overall role that your blog will play in your business. There’s choosing topics to write about. The actual writing of the blog fits in there somewhere. Then there’s taking the time to schedule it or publish it depending on your schedule. Sometimes, that’s just too much to ask.

If your blog isn’t working for you - i.e. bringing you traffic and customers and earning you money – it might be worth asking yourself why. And what you’re going to do about it.

Maybe it’s time to insert a few of your more outrageous opinions. (I know you have them!) Or reveal that you’re not always perfect – you face the same challenges your readers do. (We all know you do anyway, so you might as well admit it.) Perhaps it’s time to consider outsourcing some of your blogging – whether it be the planning, writing, or even the publishing.

Once you show your readers that you know what they really want to hear from you, you’ll have them salivating for more.

If someone disagreed with you, you would just admit that they were right. When someone made a mistake, a nice girl (or guy) wouldn’t embarrass them by pointing it out – even if it was for their benefit. Someone wronged you? Tell them you’re sorry (for what, I’m still not sure) and then get over it.

As a basically “nice” person, I went along with it for a while. But then I began to realize that my being “nice” usually ended up hurting me, my friends and family. Even the people I worked with.

If you’ve been playing “nice” in your business, stop it right now. Because you’re not only not being fair to yourself. You’re misleading your clients/market as to who you really are. Your ideal client is never going to find you if you’re faking being something you’re not. And you’re going to miss out on all the fulfillment that you thought becoming an entrepreneur would bring.

Is being nice hurting your business? Here’s a quick “nice” quiz I came up with:

- Have you ever accepted work you didn’t really want because you don’t like saying no?

- Have you ever charged less than you really wanted to (or knew you should) because you wanted to be nice?

- Do you have good reason to disagree with a current trend in your industry but don’t want to say so because it wouldn’t be… well… nice?

- Have you ever not posted your true opinion on a popular industry blog or forum because you worried it wouldn’t be considered nice?

If you answered “yes” to any of the above questions, your “niceness” is hurting you and your business.

Don’t feel too badly, though. I’ve been guilty of every one of those transgressions too at some time or another. So, you know you’re in good company.

But what is a well-intentioned, not-so-nice business owner to do?

First of all, set boundaries for yourself. I think knowing your niche is part of that. Know what work you will do, what you won’t do. You’ll be happier and so will your clients.

Know what you charge, and then stick to it. Your rates are no place to play nice. This is your business and if you want to stick around to help people in the future, you need to make a decent income at what you do.

And say what you really think. Please. The internet is already crammed full of boring ideas that have been nicely yet excruciatingly boringly repeated by too many other people.

Write articles that reflect your own opinions, not rehash someone else’s. Post blogs that get people thinking and questioning what they thought they knew. Let people know you – the real you. Not the nice you that you think we all want to see. Nice is boring. And it’s not really you anyway.

Which is all we’re really asking for. For you to be true about who you really are. To be honest with your clients/market about what you can do for them. To let us know if we’re your ideal client, or if we should save both of us a lot of wasted time and stress and just keep looking for someone who does think we’d be the perfect fit.

Doesn’t sound so nice, does it? Well, tell them you’re sorry and then get over it. Besides, once you stop being nice and start being real, you’ll be too busy enjoying your business and the people you work with to worry about it .

Falling rain is such a therapeutic and relaxing sound. So, with so much rain on my mind, I wanted to share some of my favorite “rain quotes” with you.

I hope these quotes add some peaceful feelings, and maybe a little inspiration, to your day too.

“No person has the right to rain on your dreams.”
Marian Wright Edelman

“Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet.”
Roger Miller

“Rain is grace; rain is the sky condescending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life.”
John Updike

“The best thing one can do when it’s raining is to let it rain.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Don’t pray when it rains if you don’t pray when the sun shines.”
Satchel Paige

I wasn’t aware there was so much ambiguity surrounding the word “original,” but there has been enough debate about its definition lately that I decided to revisit it myself.

Even Ezine Articles, the mother of all article directories, has found it necessary to clarify the meaning of the word for its users.

When new clients contact me about writing an article for them, one of the first questions they ask me is something like:

“Do you write original articles? That you don’t copy from someone else? Because I found out the last writer I hired was just copying and pasting from other internet articles she found.”

Does “original” have any other meaning? To some other “writers,” it must, or else we wouldn’t be having these conversations and writing these blog posts.

The articles I write for my clients are 100% unique, belong exclusively to them, and represent their own unique ideas.

How do I come up with articles like that? By asking you a lot of questions. By learning about your business. By discovering what makes you so special… because of course you are.

That kind of article doesn’t come cheap. though. And it isn’t whipped together overnight. Instead, it requires a lot of thought and research and wordsmithing to get them to sound just right. And then if you’re not happy, it takes some more tweaking.

But when you’re building your reputation by distributing articles online, that kind of content is priceless.