Seth Godin’s post on analysis v. conundrum really struck a chord with me. I know there are LOTS of VAs out there that would be utterly thrilled to have a full client load and make their preferred hourly rate times the number of hours they have available to work. And that’s fine. But my instincts tell me there’s something more out there. I can leverage my knowledge and time to create products and opportunities that will provide me with years if residual income rather than just an hour for money trade.
This is probably not the most popular route, and if I told a room full of VAs that my goal wasn’t to get a “full” caseload using up all my available time, I’d probably get some puzzled stares. My intuition tells me I’m making the right decision, even if it’s not the most popular one. As Seth says, “unsound things become hits.” That’s awfully close to my saying of, “without great risks, there are no great rewards.”
Go with your gut…even if it’s telling you to go down the unbeaten path.
I stumbled across a Instant Press Release Writing Software and Template on the Duct Tape Marketing site. I looked at the sample press release this program generates and it’s not bad. Not too exciting–very basic, but not bad. It certainly covers all the basics, but lacks the pizzaz I like to bring to press releases. You can always use it as a starting point.
Since I often get asked, “How do I write a press release?” I thought this would be a good resource. My advice is to make your lead more dynamic. Start with something that grabs the reader’s attention…an anecdote, a dramatic (yet true) statement, a statistic or a quote.
I will be writing a bunch more articles soon. I’ll be sure to do a complete one on how to write a press release, complete with an example.
Every day I get a minimum of 20 spam comments posted to my blog. Each time I get a new comment, I get an email. Once a week or two, I sign onto my blog and spend a good bit of time deleting my comments. It’s very rare that I get a legitimate comment and moderating these spam comments were sapping more time and energy then they were worth. So, while I still have trackbacks and pingbacks enabled, the comments are gone.
In the coming weeks I’ll make some other changes to my blog. Stay tuned!
Over the July 4th holiday, my husband went to the hill at the back of our property and told me, “oh, by the way, there are some black raspberries up on the hill”. Wow, really? That’s cool! I couldn’t wait to go check it out myself. Indeed, there was wild berries growing up there, but they were blackberries. Excited, I immediately went up and picked about a pint. I washed them, then I ate some and gave some to my 4 year old son to try. He loved them too. Later, I scoured the net to see what I could make with the blackberries. I settled on some blackberry liquor, which is currently fermenting in my house and will have an uncorking with my closest neighbor friends when it has aged.
So, what does this have to do with business and marketing? Surprises are a great motivator. We’ve lived in this house for 3 years. We have a small lot and I never noticed the berries growing on the bank. But once I did, I had to share them and tell others about them. Surprises spark people’s interest. Think of when you can incorporate the element of surprise. In your writing, can you put in a funny (yet appropriate) comment, or when speaking, can you throw out a good quote or statistic? Can you make people laugh? Can you give them a small gift? Do you send them lumpy mail? How can you use the element of surprise to keep your clients and prospects awake and interested?
There’s no easy answer. The solution has to be uniquely yours. Think of the fresh blackberries your customers would love to find in the hill full of weeds.