I would like to introduce you to Wealth And Abundance Today!
Having a site like this has been a passion of mine! You see after working with several clients over the years it became more apparent that most business crave to know more. They want to be empowered working in their business regarding tools, programs, and website add-ons that will better their business. They don’t like feeling at the mercy of tech teams, webmasters, and even virtual assistant teams. This is not to be confused with wanting to do it all, they just want to know in case something happens and they need to go in and “do something” or even be able to see if they are being taken advantage of. Business owners are usually in a sense of overwhelm – on Wealth and Abundance Today we have put into action The Weekly Productivity Program – set up to have direct focus everyday on getting things done and learning/implementing something new! Increase Productivity Decrease Overwhelm and Stress!

Wealth And Abundance Today is a site where we will be reviewing different products, giving directions (in detail) on how to use certain programs, guest bloggers of great trainers and speakers along with interviews. This site is set up for ALL business owners – small businesses, network marketers, and direct sellers. The purpose is to EMPOWER, EDUCATE, TRAIN, SHARE, and have fun doing it! By setting up a site with all of this information the productivity will double if not triple – more getting done in the same time frame leads to more revenue and more free time! (that’s where the fun comes in)

We would like you to check it out, bookmark it and visit ofter. Register to be on the newsletter and receive a free report on Building Lists!

Google Calendars They are AWESOME!

I am HUGE on calendaring things! I currently use Google Calendar. It is Free. It has collaboration qualities. It will sync with Outlook (if I needed it to). It will sync with Blackberry and an iPhone well there’s an app for that! The Google Calendar allows me to create several different calendars on one account – I can share just one of the several or I can share all of them with an assistant or business partner or my husband. The calendars are color coded – one color is Clients, once color is Personal, one color is Meetings and so on (I have 6 total) this allows me at a glance to see where my time is spent in addition to see all of my commitments and make sure there is no overlapping! WONDERFUL! There is a task list you can have right on the side, you can have multiple time zones accounted for in your view and even a world clock! The calendar is VERY easy to use and I mean EASY! It will even email you a daily agenda every morning if you would like! I love FREE tools and especially ones that work! If you have any questions on how to set a calendar up, what is the best way to organize them or even more about how to use them – feel free to contact us using the “contact” page.

Who is GOOGLE pt 2, Google Alerts

First you might ask, “what is a Google alert?” This is a service that Google offers for free, it allows you to set up an account, choose topics that you would like to get alerted about when there is info on the web written about them. It is a great tool to have if you specialize in an area and want to keep up on what is going on out there about it and if you write content for a newsletter or blog! You can sign up for different variations of alerts, News, Web, Blog, Comprehensive, Videos and Groups: once you choose your variations then you niche it down even more by key words you want them to look for! It is a GREAT way to stay on top of things. The variations breakdown like this:
• News – the latest news articles that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top 10 results of the Google news search
• Web – the latest web pages that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top 20 results in a Google web search
• Blogs – the latest blog posts that contain the search terms of your choice and would appear in the top 10 results in your Google blog search
• Comprehensive – combines your results from the News, Web, and Blog on your search terms into one email alert
• Video – the latest videos that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top 10 results of a Google video search
• Groups – the latest “posts” in groups that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top 50 results from a Google group search

If you have a Google account you just activate the Google Alerts and set it up – if you do not have a Google account get one today, it is free and you don’t have to use Gmail because you sign up for one – you can register for your Google Account using your primary email addy as the registration email address. I highly recommend you try this out! When you set up your Google Alerts, be sure to do a comprehensive alert for your name and your company name – it is great to be informed of what people are saying about you… Be on the watch for next week and I will go over the new Google Buzz tool out there!

Who is GOOGLE?

In this Google series my goal is to make you more aware of tools out there you can use for free to help your visibility. Google is the King of the Internet for sure! Now you might ask why and how can Google offer all of these tools for free, even a phone number, well trust me it is not just out of the kindness of its “heart”. Google is an advertising monster! That is what it is! So by the more of us that list on it – they have more content to offer people when searching for things.

Google History: Google began in 1996 as a research project by two Stanford students. They were exploring the mathematical properties of the World Wide Web – and the web-crawler made its debut. They then created the page rank algorithm that we all strive to be at the top of even today!! Talk about a home-based business – they registered the domain Google.com in 1997 and was working out of a friends garage into 1998. Fun Fact: Google is actually from a misspelling of “googol” – which is represented by 1 and one hundred zeros following it. In 1999 the company moved into offices in Palo Alto and called their complex “googleplex” a play on the word “googolplex” which is represented by a 1 followed by googol of zeros. In 2006 bought their property for $319 million dollars! What a growth! Also in 2006 Google was added to the Merriam Webster & Oxford English dictionaries.

Check back for more on Google Tools offered to us all!

The BIG Debate, Picture or Not!

I wanted to discuss the BIG DEBATE going on at some “open” networking events. Your Picture on your business card – should it be there? Yes or No? I have run into people that support both sides of this argument. I have to say YES in my opinion… In this world of networking, facebooking, twittering and so on we rely on visual reminders – if all I have is a name I run the risk of not recognizing someone I have done business with, chatted with or just met before. I changed my business cards mainly for that reason. I know my logo has become very visible and when people learn what company I am with they go “oh you are the one with that great card” but they did not connect the two right off the top. I want it to be easy to recognize me while I am out in the community or re-visiting different chambers and meetings – adding my picture will help in this.

So that is where I stand on the debate! Check out your business cards you are bringing to events and look at all of your “marketing” materials together – do they the information they should: Biz Name, Your Name, Address, Phone Number, Fax, email address, website address, tag line and your pic? Do they tell everyone exactly who you are and give them something to remember you by?
Personal touches are so important – remember we are building “relationships” with our clients!

Inviting Through Facebook

OK by now you should have a Facebook Profile/Fan Page… did you know that you can use that profile/fan page to market your services. Please be aware that Facebook frowns on you using it to solicit sales of products but to market a free event it is GREAT. Free events could be something like Stephanie Graziano’s, Building Your Own Business – once a month coaching conference call (www.buildingyourownbusiness.com) or Judith Cassis’ Teleseminar Series she is prepping for (www.successmadesimpleteleseminars.com ). When she has a topic that is open to the public she can “invite” through Facebook. Even the great “gatherings” McKenna and Green do in the store for their clientele, they too can send invites through Facebook events. How great to open up your visibility and get more exposure. True Stephanie’s and Judith’s are set for an “audience” from anywhere in the world but do not discount the marketing you can do just by sharing information. You never know who is really in your backyard! Use every available tool out there to get noticed! More advertising!!! Don’t forget Merchant Circle also, this is more for local businesses…

LinkedIn and Plaxo “a bit of news”

• LinkedIn  for Social Networking

There are several ways to network.  You can network in person and you can network “virtually” through venues set-up for Social Networking.  One of these Social Networks is called LinkedIn.  Linked in was started May 2003. It is a “corporate” setting and structure compared to other venues.  It is noted that 7.8 million people have used LinkedIn since its start and the daily growth is 6,980 new members.   You might have been asked to join it already.. have you?  Do you log in and use it?  Do you know how to?  LinkedIn is a site where people sign-up (register) and you import your entire database of contacts.  At this point anyone you invite or accept into your circle can see your database as well as you can see theirs.  And so on as the tree grows bigger.  This allows you to see who your “friend” knows and gives you the chance to ask for a warm introduction to that person – you connect with them and there you have it, you are now socially networking through LinkedIn.  LinkedIn has its own emailing area so you can communicate as well as make announcements about upcoming events to your contacts and all of the contacts you are linked to.  The key is to build relationships just as you would in face to face traditional networking.  Take advantage of this free way to network especially if your business can travel outside of your local area.

• Plaxo for Social Networking

In addition to your traditional, check out all that is available to you… we are working on a series of information about Social Networking.  Last week we talked about LinkedIn and today Plaxo.  Plaxo was started in November 2002.  It offered members an easy way to keep their contacts up to date.  It also is integrated into your outlook or outlook express. This allows for an easier way to keep up with changes in contact information with family, friends, clients, vendor and suppliers.  Plaxo also offers a paid service where you can connect to your information via your mobile phone!  Plaxo is used all over the world and manages over a billion contacts collectively.  Plaxo’s focus is keeping your records up to date at all times with the members of your database.  It has a different view of your contacts and that is, they are YOUR contacts and they are in a sense private.  You do not share contacts with other Plaxo members unless you share a contact directly.  The company put out a notice in Aug. 2007 stating they are looking into the social network value but at this point they did not have anything in the works.  Plaxo is a great way to keep your ever changing, ever updating outlook file clean and current but is not considered a great way to socially network.

Your Virtual Assistant can help you with on-line Shopping Cart programs!!

Many small business owners have product for sale.  Products can consist of tangible “touchable” items like books, CD’s or DVD’s.  Products can be digital too like e-books and MP3 downloads.  Products can also be service or event based like counseling time, coaching time, seminars, webinars and workshops.  All of these items can be managed online through your website and programs called “shopping carts”.  There are several shopping cart programs you can subscribe to, 1Shopping Cart is just one to name for the moment.  Your VA can create items within your shopping cart and create a link to be put on your website.  Customers then can purchase or register right through the website.  Your VA can also set up “auto responders” so that your customers receive immediate messages regarding their purchase.  You can also use the shopping cart for reports on your product sales, tracking your customer’s purchases along with sending global “news blasts” to the data base that has been created by your customers.  Having a shopping cart is a great way to begin to automate your business and employing a VA to run it can even makes it more hands free for you!