Web Optimization

Hey Everyone!
Yesterday I attended a lunch and learn on how to make your website appear first in line, when searched for. I often get this question from clients: "How do I get to the top of the Google list?" The answer was reiterated to me, yesterday.

Simply the five steps (and you can read more about them at: http://www.bluetraffic.com/local-marketing/5-steps-improve-online-visibility):

1. Start by learning how your potential customers are searching for you.
I often am asked how to come up with the best keywords? Bluetraffic.com has a great tidbit on this, but also I honestly sit at my google screen and say to myself, "if I were hunting for a local dress maker, what words would I use to google search them?" Then I do just that and see what comes up. That way I can decide if that's the location I want my website to come up in.

2. Look for ways to work your keyword phrases into your website.
Now I know, that without spellcheck I would not function very well. I'm reliant on spellcheck to do the spelling work for me, but I also know there are others out there that are just as bad at spelling and grammar as I am, hence use that as a tool. Think about how you may misspell something or use the jargon term instead of the actual term to find something? For example, it's not common that one searches for "incorporated" when searching for a company they are interested in. Most likely they search for the abbreviated term "inc." Keep that in mind when your choosing your keyword phrases or keywords.

3. Promote your website with social media
Has anyone seen the new movie, called The Social Network? It's a very powerful tool to advancing your business. People now a days spend a tremendous amount of time on such things as Facebook, Twitter, and My Space. As a business owner, you should use that knowledge to your advantage. Check out ping.com that will also help you post all at once, rather than trying to hire your teenage son/daughter to do such things for you. If your very serious about this sort of advertising, there are companies out there to assist you in that en devour, such as Bluetraffic.com or lavarow.com.

4. Open Google Places acct: www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter
Very good advice! This is a powerful tool to help people find you, not only in your own "website city address" but your local physical location.

5. Start a Google Adwords campaign at https://adwords.google.com/
I've talked about Google Adwords in the past. I have even had pretty good luck with landing customers out of Adword campaigns. I do think it's a matter of what your willing to do to get customer's though. If this is your lively hood and advertising is a must for you, then I'd agree that Google Adwords is probably one of the best tools out there for advertising. Other than Facebook Ads.

Well folks, this is just my opinion. I hope everyone has learned, what I think is the most important lesson, pay attention. Pay attention to your website, your content, your links, your life!

Peace,
Misty

The Artist's Way Challenge

Greetings Fellow Artists,
Julia Cameron has said it best with her book "The Artist's Way!" In this 12-week program she details a lesson plan that involves morning writings (3-pages daily of written thoughts!), sense of identity, power and integrity, a long with many other lessons. Julia's program is a challenging one that has most assuredly opened my artist block. Her program has helped me step outside of the box and into what I thought was impossible.

Working with many life coaches I've done the wheel of life exercise, that has you draw a circle and divide it into six pieces of pie, then label each one areas like spirituality, exercise, play, work, friends, romance, etc.. You are to draw a dot at the degree which are fulfilled in that area (outer rim indicates great, inner circle not so great). Then connect the dots to show where your pie is uneven. This is a very useful map in finding out the areas of which you need to improve in your life.

Julia furthers this by suggesting you create a map to help you protect your most sacred imagination! She suggests you draw a circle on a piece of paper. Inside the circle place the topics that you feel you should protect. Outside the circle place the names of those things and people that you must self protect your ideas from. Add names as appropriate to the inner and outer circle. I find this most intriguing, to write down the things that are important to you Sometimes without writing things down, we all forget what is important and what we should and shouldn't protect.

Maybe we all should try both of these exercises to find out what areas of our life we need to adjust to become more balanced, and what areas need to be protected.

Another challenge is the morning writings of thoughts. You are suggested to write 3 pages every morning with your thoughts, or maybe doing the book's homework. I've decided that writing on my blog is more useful to me and so expect to see more writings as it is my challenge for the year!

Ciao!
Misty

Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and how they work for you.

Hello World!
With so many things to keep track of this day and age, how is one to keep up with the task of updating all the things that the Internet creates. Updating your Facebook, My Space, Twitter, and even Blogger accounts can be daunting.

When researching this and carefully considering hiring a teenager to do such tasks for me, I came across http://ping.fm which will allow you to post to all sorts of networks with one post, instead of the dreaded logging in to each account and updating things one by one.

I think everyone needs to know about this! It's a free service and is incredibly user friendly! Check it out, sign up, and make this year's posts the most valuable of your business career!

Good Luck!
Misty

What does a vision board look like?

Hi Everyone!
Recently I co-hosted a teleclass with a client of mine, Heidi Michaels. In the class I focused on converting our garage into an art studio for my ever-talented husband (http://www.lincolnhover.com/) and I was asked a few questions about my personal vision board.

The first question I asked myself is how famous would l like for my husband to be with his wonderful artistic talents? In the vision board teleclass we have the ability to browse 10million photos through http://www.clipart.com/ and I typed in the word "famous." Of course, about 3000 pictures came up relating to that word, but the one that caught my vision was the Golden Gate Bridge. I copied the royalty free image and pasted it on my vision board. I want my husband to be as famous as the Golden Gate Bridge!

There were other questions, like why in the world do I have a air conditioner posted on there or why did I put a picture of a father teaching his child to paint? I simply answered with, we need an air conditioner for the garage and I want my husband to teach our son to paint. This is the simple logic behind the laws of attraction. You have to start manifesting your visions so your wants will have the right direction to find you!

The vision board teleclass is also an incredible fun journey. We spent time learning about ourselves and also learning some new technology too.

I hope you enjoy looking at my vibrant vision board and that you'll join us for the next teleclass on July 22, 2009 7pm CST! Email me at misty@mistylinc.com for more information!



Cheers!
Misty
http://www.mistylinc.com/

Join the fun!!!

I am the technical guru for Heidi Michaels and together we are offering a one-of-a-kind Girl's Night In! Vision Boards are incredibly powerful and we hope you'll plan on attending our tele-class on May 14, 2009!
Here are the details:

Attn: Life Coaches Out There!

Hi Everyone,
Many of our coaching clients have been offering the dreamboard creation series in their offices. It is a fantastic way to create goals for your future and focus in on what your heart and mind desire.

We've had a few inquiries about how to do a teleclass on dreamboard creation, so we have come up with the dream board teleclass details:

Most people who have been to a dreamboard creation class know that you spend a lot of time finding your pictures in magazine's and from various other places and then you spend time with the coach or moderator to help you design your dreamboard so it will use the laws of attraction to achieve your dreams, goals, and talents.

You may ask, how would doing a dreamboard teleclass benefit you and your life coaching business?
1. Your goal audience just expanded to be national and international.
2. You don't have to provide scissors to the participants.
3. You don't have to have a location rented or invite people to your office to participate.
4. And of course the cost of hosting such a party can be pricey.

We've all spent time in teleclasses and most of us know how to run a teleclass, so why not teleclass the dreamboard creation?

What does the teleclass cost and what are the processes involved?
1. You can host a teleclass with full digital technical support for $99, and that even includes the endless supply of online clipart for you and all of your teleclass participants.
2. The $99 fee includes:
a. Online clipart for all of the teleclass participants.
b. 15 minutes of on-line training from our design staff for all of the teleclass participants.
c. Meeting hosting for 2 hours so that all of you can view the instructors dreamboard, and your coaching instruction via audio and via your home office or office.

Email us for more details at misty@mistylinc.com

Warm Regards and Here's to Dreamboard Creation!
Misty Hover
Branding Architect
www.mistylinc.com
515.229.4767
Vibrant Branding for Your Life & Business.

Self Website Maintenance

Hello Everyone!
A common question among clients of ours is "Can I log in and change my own website content?" First let's start with YES you can and secondly let's talk about how this works. Paying a website developer (such as myself) can become very costly. If you need to change a sentence or two a website developer is going to charge you at least a 1/2 an hour of their time. If you have more extensive pages that need updated often, that could potentially run into a lot of money!

Our software allows you to log in, change whatever you would like with the content, and then publish it back to your own website, all by yourself! It also allows you to log in as often as you need or want to and at any time of any day. How does it work? It is called content management and what happens is it allows you to edit your live html documents, then publish them back to the same location they were before you edited them.

Our software also allows you to use a familiar format to edit your content. It is similar to a notepad format, or even blogger for a good example. It will allow you to add text, links, photos, even video, all of your own choice.

Now, your asking yourself how does this save me money? Because we charge $35/month for the content management, with all of the above featured benefits. You could easily spend that with your developer changing your content for you. So, what are you waiting for? Contact me today, call me direct at 515.229.4767 or email me at misty@mistylinc.com. Let's get started on your website today!

Self sufficient,
Misty