Evergreen Success» branding

Online Branding: What’s the Right Facebook Timeline Cover?

Jennifer — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:05:43 +0000

The new Facebook timeline has me thinking about branding strategies today. The timeline is rolling out to everyone tomorrow, so like it or not, it’s time to think about how the changes are going to effect your online branding.

Your new Facebook timeline is important to your branding strategies because of the huge space your cover photo occupies. The cover photo is the first thing people see when they visit your timeline.

Basically, its a person’s first impression of you. So, if you use social media to grow your business, you really should make it a good one.

But what makes a good first impression? Is it a picture from your family vacation? After all, marketing is all about relationships these days. And people relate to people, not business logos.

Or is it a professionally done graphic that incorporates your business brand? People who are just on Facebook for “fun” will be showing their family pictures. As a business professional, isn’t this a great way to show off your online branding? An opportunity to convince people they should do business with you?

The answer is, “it depends.” It depends on who your market is. And it depends on what your branding strategies are.

If you are a social media manager, and people are looking at whether to hire you to manage their social media campaigns, the professional graphic is probably right for you. My friend Kim Garst has one of the best looking professional covers I’ve seen.

And remember, your personal profile picture is inserted at the bottom left side of your cover, so your visitors can still see a picture of you even if you go with a professional graphic for your cover.

If you brand your business name or logo, rather than yourself and your own face, a professional cover consistent with your online branding seems obvious.

But what about the rest of us solo entrepreneurs? When you’re looking for just the right combination of personal and professional, what are the right branding strategies for you?

Will a picture of your kids on your Facebook cover (a la my timeline) cause people not to take you seriously? To think your business isn’t making enough money to have a “real” cover?

Will an impersonal graphic keep people from relating to you and feeling that they know, like and can trust you?

Again, this is where you have to look at your market and your own branding strategies. It’s not as easy as, “this is what I want people to see.” You need to ask “what does my market want to see?”

One way to figure this out is to look at what the leaders in your market are doing. Look at your competitors’ timeline covers. And experiment with it. Changing your cover is simple. Rotate various covers for a few weeks and see what kind of feedback you’re getting.

Here are a few good “do it yourself” sites that will allow you to experiment with trying different covers without spending a fortune for custom designs:

NewFacebookBanners.com

FaceitPages.com

Myfbcovers.com

CoverPhotoMagic.com — this one makes your cover using selected photos from your Facebook albums.

The other thing you’ll want to ask yourself when considering what type of cover to use is “who am I to my market?” In other words, what are you telling your market on Facebook?

Do you share a lot about what you do in your personal life with your business contacts? Does your market know how many kids you have and where you went on vacation this year? If so, you may want to go more personal with your cover.

I’m thinking that a mix of personal and professional might best fit my online branding. There’s so much room on your cover, a good designer could blend the two.

I like what Mari Smith has done with hers. Obviously it will be changed soon, so I’ll tell you that right now it has a very cute holiday graphic as the main cover, and then a graphic showing off her new book that takes up a narrow strip on the right side of the cover. A nice blend between personal and professional.

Whatever you decide, share your link in the comments. I’d love to check it out and get some ideas from you!

JENNIFER HERNDON is a work at home mom with three fabulous kids, ages 3, 4 and 7. She has been enjoying the time freedom and financial benefits of working at home for over 13 years. Jennifer’s passion is empowering others to personal and business success through a positive mindset and consistent action.

Jennifer credits the turn-around in her online business to Jim Rohn’s One Year Success Plan, the perfect tool for planning a successful life. Here’s your chance to be inspired and guided daily by the world’s greatest business philosopher. Create your future with Jim Rohn’s One Year Success Plan and start improving your life and your business today!

Online Branding and Standing Out: How to Grow Your Home Business

Jennifer — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 19:32:14 +0000

I stopped at a small, off-the-path restaurant and got a wrap for lunch the other day. The server handed it to me in a somewhat typical clear plastic container. Except that the top of the container was covered with the name and logo of the restaurant.

“That’s cool,” I thought, “but I bet they paid quite a bit extra for that branding.”

I hadn’t finished my lunch, so I brought it into a meeting I had. After the meeting, someone noticed my leftovers and said, “oh, is that the place over on . . .” “Yes,” I responded. We discussed the place (she’d never been there), I gave it a good recommendation, and she plans to check it out.

Had the restaurant chosen the cheap Styrofoam containers, and not put their name and logo on their take-out food, that conversation never would have occurred.

Who knows how many new customers their branding brings in. Or how many people see the containers and are reminded of the out-of-the-way eatery. Or how many people stop in after driving by because they remember that a friend had take-out food from there once.

This small out-of-the way sandwich place (I’ve often wondered how they stay in business), has good food, and good branding. And it works.

So much for my theory that their branding costs them money . . .

There’s a crucial lesson here for your home business.

It feels like everyone is online these days. Your home business has lots of competition.

Chances are, you are not the McDonald’s of your niche. So you need good products/services and good online branding.

More and more, I see an inferior product outdoing its competition simply because it has superior online branding.

Yet, the number one concern of most home business owners I work with is that they create and provide the best product out there.

While this is a noble goal, you can’t spend 90% of your time on product creation and 10% on your online branding. Reversing those numbers would serve you better.

“So,” you may be thinking, “sounds great, but I don’t know how to effectively do online branding in my home business.”

Let me share another story with you about online branding.

I’ve worked out with the same aerobics teacher for at least 12 years. New people often follow my feet because I know what I’m doing.

But it’s hard for me to keep track of these people. They’re looking at me, but I’m not looking at them.

I hate to be rude and not speak to people I should know. But I admit that often one of them will strike up a conversation with me about our class and I’ll swear I’ve never seen them before.

The exception is one girl. I can always identify her. And I always remember her. Because she wears colorful knee-high socks to class every day.

Everyone else is in their cute little aerobic-wear, but she looks different. She stands out. And I notice.

There’s a lot to be learned from this when it comes to your online branding.

Think about how you stand out in your home business. How are you different from the competition? What makes you unique?

And don’t say you’re not. You are. Only you are you (obviously, huh?), which means you have a unique hook that no one else has.

It may be a story, a look, a tagline, a product or service.

Stop trying to be like everyone else in your market. Figure out how you’re different. Embrace it. Put it out there. Use it to make a million dollars.

And let me know how it goes for you!

2 Big Reasons Your Online Business Needs WordPress.org

Jennifer — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 19:21:03 +0000

One of the most basic, yet most important, questions for online business owners is “how do I put up my website?”

The good news is, even the most technically challenged among us no longer has to hire someone to put up a website. My 7-year-old could do this.

Many online business owners operate on a tight budget to begin with. The temptation therefore is to use WordPress.com (or, less frequently, Blogger.com). Both of these platforms allow you to set up a blog for free.

If you are serious about your online business – I mean if you want to make any money at all – resist the free temptation and lay out a few bucks to host your own site using WordPress.org.

When it comes to using WordPress.com versus WordPress.org, you do in fact “get what you pay for.”

Now I don’t always buy into the “you get what you pay for” theory. I’ve never tasted any difference in the store brand macaroni and the name brand. But, the $20 jeans I buy my kids do have fewer holes in them than the $10 ones.

And WordPress.com will serve your hobby well, but could destroy your online business.

We could talk about the need for WordPress.org all day, but really, there are two big reasons your home business must have it. So let’s just get to the heart of it.

→ First, You Need to Own and Control Your Content←

With WordPress.com, you don’t own anything you put on your site. You don’t pay for hosting – they do. Which means they make the rules. And the rules are not online business-friendly.

Here’s a few of the big rules that should make you, the home business owner, run screaming for WordPress.org:

◊ No Adsense, Skimlinks, or similar ads allowed (unless you have a really popular blog ~ and then you have to split the profits 50/50 with them. What?!);

◊ No affiliate links to Clickbank allowed;

◊ No promotion of network marketing/MLM companies allowed;

◊ No blogs with the primary purpose of promoting affiliate products or network marketing products allowed.

Even if you have your own products, these rules are bad news for your online business.

Chances are that someday you are going to want to joint venture with others and promote an affiliate product here and there. Do it on WordPress.com and you could find your blog – and all your hard work – has vanished into thin air one day . . .

→ Second, You Need to Control the Look & Features of Your Blog ←

Three more disadvantages come with not owning your blog. First, you can’t install a custom header on your blog, which means you’re stuck with their themes. For branding purposes, you need a picture of yourself in your header – which isn’t happening on WordPress.com.

Second, you can’t install any plug-ins on WordPress.com blogs. For SEO purposes and for tracking your business stats, plug-ins are a must. You’ll also want special plug-ins to enhance commenting and sharing of your blog posts. Again, not happening on WordPress.com.

Finally, if you host your site on WordPress.com, everyone knows it. For example, my website would be www.JenniferHerndon.wordpress.com.

So what if it’s not pretty, you say? Well, that’s not the point. You are not going to be taken seriously with “wordpress” in the middle of your domain name. Not by potential JV partners, other marketers you want to connect with, and (depending on your niche) your customers.

If you are 100% unable to make the change today, you can spend a few dollars and buy a domain name from WordPress.com and they will redirect your blog to that domain. This means “wordpress” won’t show up in your domain name.

But this is a temporary fix only. It doesn’t fix any of the above problems that we talked about. It just makes you look good. Which is nice, but not near as nice as being good. And that’s what WordPress.org will do for you!

3 Roads to Online Business Success Through Product Creation

Jennifer — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 16:16:03 +0000

One of the biggest concerns I hear from new or prospective online business owners is “What will I sell?”

You may have a burning desire to help people lose 100 pounds like you did. But how do you turn that passion into an online business if you have no “how to lose weight” product to sell your clients?

The obvious and easy answer, of course, is that you can become an affiliate marketer. It’s definitely possible to create a healthy online business through selling other people’s products. And I know there are people who swear by it.

But, even the most super-successful affiliate marketers all seem to come out with their own product — about how to become a super-successful affiliate marketer.

Having gone the affiliate marketing route in my home business for several years, I realize that I could have served more people, and made more money, if I had overcome my fear and just created a product much sooner than I did.

Like most things, affiliate marketing is okay in moderation. I still promote Jim Rohn’s One Year Success Plan. It made a huge difference in my life. It complements my own products. I think it’s a perfect place for everyone to start. And, since I’m about serving my clients in the best way I can, I recommend it. And make a little money when people get started on the plan.

I also recommend that you start your online business with an affiliate product if you don’t have a product of your own ready to go. Work diligently on your product creation. Give yourself a deadline.

But don’t wait to start your home business until your product is ready. Set up your website and start gathering your audience while you’re working on your product. Monetize your site with an affiliate product for starters.

But, if you want evergreen success . . . there are three things your own product will do to put you on that road.

Your Own Product Will Allow the Unique You to Shine

Success requires competition. If you are the only one in your niche, there’s a problem.

If there’s money to be made, there are going to be thousands of people there, trying to grab their slice of the pie.

If you want to get your share, you are going to have to be unique in some way. You’ll need to give your potential clients a reason to remember you, and to chose to follow you.

Going back to the weight loss niche, even if you followed a plan or system to lose weight, I guarantee your specific experience was unique. Creating a product gives you something no affiliate marketer has — a one of a kind unique weight loss plan that is only available from you.

Your Own Product Will Give You Credibility

Have you ever gotten the exact same email promoting a product from two different marketers (at least!)? Or gotten a product promotion from someone and wondered whether he had ever used or even seen the product he was encouraging you to buy?

When you are selling other people’s products in your home business, your potential clients (1) have no idea whether you’ve tried the product and actually know that it provides value, and (2) have no idea whether you have the slightest bit of knowledge about the niche you’re representing.

Having your own product, on the other hand, gives you credibility. It says to your clients, “Not only do I know something about this niche, I am so experienced that I have something of value to teach you about it.”

Obviously, if you have credibility in the eyes of your prospective clients, they are much more likely to buy from you. And to keep buying from you.

Which brings me to the last benefit of product creation.

Your Own Product Will Allow You to Create a Sales Funnel

A successful online business looks something like this. First, you grab your client’s attention by offering her something for free in exchange for her email address.

Next, you show her some value by offering a basic Ebook, video or audio course for $27. From there, you might go to a $97 expanded course, a $495 home study course, and then into coaching programs that can range from $97 a month to five figures a year.

It doesn’t have to look exactly like this, but the point is, once your client enters your sales funnel, she will purchase increasingly higher level products from you. And making a $1000 sale to a client who already knows, likes and trust you, is a lot easier and more profitable than continuously searching for $27 products to promote to new prospects.

If you can attract a client to buy “you,” then you will always be able to offer higher end products, and to see better profits, than if you are trying to sell someone else’s stuff.

The reality is, if you want a real online business – create a real product. Don’t get caught up in the fact that someone out there knows more than you do. There are thousands of people looking for an answer that you have. It’s time to start serving them.
JENNIFER HERNDON is a work at home mom with three fabulous kids, ages 3, 4 and 7. She has been enjoying the time freedom and financial benefits of working at home for over 13 years. Jennifer’s passion is empowering others to personal and business success through a positive mindset and consistent action.

3 Lessons I Learned From Steve Jobs

Jennifer — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 20:23:22 +0000

Steve Jobs died this week. He was only 56 years old. I don’t believe anyone dies before his time, so I’m not having any thoughts about what should have/could have been.

I have been a fan of his for a long time. Mysteriously drawn to a big company’s CEO for reasons I can’t articulate. I tend to run in the other direction from corporate types.

But I always felt Steve Jobs had a good soul. He put off good energy. (And yes, I’ve read all the stuff about what a driven tyrant he could be.)

As I reflect on what I got from Steve Jobs, 3 big lessons stand out. They are important. To your “self,” and to your business. So I share them with you here.

First, it doesn’t matter where you came from.

Steve Jobs was born out of wedlock (at a time when that mattered, I suppose). His birth parents made an adoption plan for him. Steve’s adoptive parents were an accountant and a coast guard veteran/machinist. He dropped out of college after only 6 months.

That Steve Jobs was adopted strikes a chord for me. My boys are adopted. Largely because of choices their birth mothers made, people often have lower expectations of my boys than they should. They are still young, but I try to raise them as if they are completely “normal” and were born with every advantage life has to offer.

Steve Jobs’ life always reinforced my belief in my boys. (Along with Wayne Dyer’s story of growing up in foster care under tragic conditions.) It doesn’t matter where you came from. What matters is what you do now that you’re here.

So what if you grew up “average,” or even poor. So what if you couldn’t afford college. “So what” to any excuse you’re throwing out there to justify your lack of success.

The only thing holding you back is you. Get past it. And the best way to do that is to just get to work on your dreams.

Second, you can change the world.

Really, Steve Jobs is proof that you can change the world.

As an entrepreneur, you undoubtedly look at what the top influencers in your market are doing and think “how will I ever be that big?” The thought of thousands or even millions of people being positively influenced by you, when right now 10 people read your blog and 50 follow your tweets, can be overwhelming and even depressing.

But Steve Jobs did it. He started hanging out with Steve Wozniak at Hewlett-Packard. Jobs sold his VW bus, Wozniak sold his scientific calculator, and Apple Computer was born in the Jobs’ family garage. The rest is history, as they say.

Will you ever be as “big” as Steve Jobs? Maybe. Probably not. But who cares? What if you just help solve a problem for a few thousand people? Won’t that be enough to call it a life well lived?

And the beautiful thing about it is, the more people listen to you, the more people start listening to you. You client base starts growing one person at a time, but is multiplying before you know it.

So the lesson from Steve Jobs is don’t ever think your dream is too big.

Third, people care about you, not your company

I can count on one hand, with fingers to spare, the number of CEOs of big companies that I know. Steve Jobs is the first name that comes to mind.

Yes, everyone recognizes the apple with one bite missing as the company logo. But Steve Jobs is Apple. His trademark black turtleneck shirt, blue jeans and scruffy beard are nearly as familiar as the bitten apple. His frequent reflections on business and life fill my quote book.

Apple would not have been the same company without Steve Jobs being so “out there” as its CEO.

The lesson is, resist the temptation to put a logo out there as your avatar. Use your name, not your business, on social media.

People relate to people. They don’t trust businesses, especially big business. They trust people. Businesses sell to you, people help you.

If you have a fear of putting yourself “out there,” it’s time to act in spite of the fear. It will get easier every day. Eventually, as people grow to love you, you may just find that you love being the face of your business. I guarantee your bank account will love you for it!

RIP Steve Jobs. Thanks for what you gave the world, and me.

3 Steps to Turning Your Hobby Into an Online Money Making Opportunity

Jennifer — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 07:31:34 +0000

When I first started looking for ways to make online money, I was assured that all I had to do was find something I was passionate about. I thought about my hobbies and passions. But I couldn’t envision turning any of them into an online money making opportunity.

But I’m a good student, so I did what I was told. Surprisingly, I found that if you’re willing to invest the effort, it’s possible to turn almost anything you’re passionate about into an online money making opportunity.

Now if your passion is studying the mating habits of the Blue Ringed Octopus, you may be out of luck. But, seriously, there’s probably SOMETHING you enjoy that a few thousand others are also into.

So, take 15 minutes and make a list of things that interest you. Then start with your favorite and let’s take three steps to turn it into an online money making opportunity for you.

Your first step is to find a starving crowd. This is where you determine whether you can really make money online with your hobby. No reason to go further if no one is hungry for information and products in your niche.

To determine if there’s a starving crowd, do three things. First, run a search using a couple of different free keyword tools to determine how many people are searching for information in your niche. Second, run a Google search and see how many people are using adwords to advertise in your niche. Finally, go to the bookstore and see how many magazines are available related to your hobby.

So let’s say people are searching for information on your hobby. And people are paying to advertise in your niche. And people are buying magazines on the subject. Great, you’re in business.

But, you can’t stop there. If you want to really make money online, you have to take the second step and identify your specialty within your niche. Some call this “drilling down” into your niche.

For example, there are a lot of ways to make online money if your passion is house pets. But house pets is a huge market. Too huge to go after. You have to focus. Maybe you really like dogs. And really really are interested in doggy health and nutrition. And you believe in natural and organic solutions.

Great, you’ve gone from being an expert in house pets to being an expert in holistic and organic solutions for dog health and nutrition. This is a targeted market. Much easier to tackle than house pets in general. Of course as you’re identifying your specialty, you’ll want to go back through step one and make sure others are interested in this aspect of house pets too.

The third step is the hardest. And, not surprisingly, it’s the one that’s crucial if you want to REALLY make money online. You must brand yourself as an expert in your specialty. You must create an online presence that causes people to trust you when you speak on your subject. If they trust you, they will like you. And, ultimately, they will buy from you. Again and again.

Over the next few days, I’ll break each of these steps down for you. I’ll walk you through the details of each step so that you will be positioned to turn your hobby into a massive online money making opportunity. This will be good for your bank account. And it will make your work feel like play.