What are your life dreams?

The Paper Bull posted today asking What do you want to do before you die?

This really hit home with me because I have a *huge* list of things to do before I die. I've been thinking for a long time about starting a blog to talk about the things on my list but I've been putting it off to focus on my business. Well, as the saying goes, all work and no play makes pf101 a dull girl. So, with that in mind, I've established a new blog.

I just launched Things to do before I die. I'll post 10 things per day that I've done or want to do as well as details about something I've done. Now, I realize that this blog is pure ego (as is posting here) but I think that if you have a blog then, by default, you have a decent sized ego. :-)

I don't expect that my new blog will change your life but I hope it'll remind you to slow down a bit and enjoy life. It isn't all about working and making money it's also about living.

Building My Business Posts of the day: 3/30/07

• John Chow tells us how to increase RSS subscriptions.
• Google Webmaster Blog talks about how to build your audience.
  

Business Cards and Networking

I've been doing a lot of reading about how to use business cards appropriately and how to network.

I've gotten some great suggestions on what to have on my business cards and ways to use them. My current cards have the following on the back:

Everything you need to know to manage your money
www.personalfinance101.org

I think I'm going to change that to:

How to save for retirement:

1. Contribute to your employer plan to get full match
2. Contribute to a Roth IRA
3. Pay off consumer debt
4. Fully fund your employer plan
5. Save in a taxable investment account

Want to learn more? Mention this card for a 10% discount on Financial Coaching services.

From what I've read, this will increase the odds that people will hold onto my business card because it gives them useful information and offers them an incentive. I'd love to hear any feedback you have about this plan.

Networking has always been a bit of a downfall of mine - I'm not good at sales and am hesitant about following-up with people since I don't like to be pushy. This is even when people have shown a strong interest - I wait for them to contact me. So, this will be a new focus for me. Since I'm moving to a place where I only slightly know one other person, networking will be a must so I want to make sure I'm doing it right.

I've been trying to do some advanced research and so far I've come up with a few leads:

• BNI - this is a definite. I attended one meeting in DC and got lots of great contacts and ideas so this will be done soon.
• Mindshare - a local Portland networking group. I signed up for their e-mail list so we'll see how that pans out.
• Portland SBA - I'll have to figure out all the requirements for setting up shop in Portland so I'm sure I'll be visiting these offices.
• Portland Bizwomen - I've signed up for their e-mail newsletter
• Alliance of Portland Neighborhood Business Associations - I'll have to see what neighborhood(s) I'll be working in most
• OMEN
• Professional Services Council
• SBE Council
• NFIB
• Association of Home Businesses
• Governor's Small Business Council
• Portland Business Alliance

Any Portland, OR locals who can recommend any other resources?

Building My Business Posts of the day: 3/29/07

• (EMP) E-Marketing Performance has a good post on Link Baiting.
• Jozzua talks about the benefits of using mybloglog to generate traffic. I just added mine.
• Articles That Sell reminds us to make use of our Resource Box.
• Harpzon has a good post about how to get into the swing of blogging.
• Find out how to blacklist low-paying AdSense ads.
• Make Money With Your Blog talks about opt-in lists and affiliate marketing.
• North x East lists 9 essential posts every blogger should know.
• WebProNews talks about how to get email marketing right.
  

Something I want to do that will take a lot of time and make me no money!

On April 28 I'm participating in Learn-a-palooza in Washington, DC. I'll be presenting a shortened version of my Intro to Personal Finance class, covering the topics of goal setting, budgeting, debt management and credit.

I *love* this idea and I'm very excited about presenting. Since I am the kind of person I am, now that I'm leaving the area I want to steal this idea and take it with me and produce it in Portland, OR which is going to be my new home town. As such, I've contacted the organizer and am attending a meeting on Saturday to learn just how much work I'm getting myself into.

I'm guessing it's going to be a lot of hard work, but I think it's SO worth it. There are so many people out there with skills and knowledge to share and what a great idea it is to let them do that. I encourage those of you in other areas to consider something like this for your home town. And, if you happen to be in DC on April 28, I'll be at Potter's House from 11-Noon, stop by and say hi!

About Learn-a-palooza:

Learn-a-Palooza DC is a first-of-its-kind community organized event happening on Saturday, April 28th, 2007. From 10AM-6PM businesses, homes, and community centers in Adams Morgan, U St, Dupont, and Columbia Heights will open their doors to hold short "workshops" on every topic under the sun – from "Intro to Yoga", to "Beat the Sugar Blues", to "How to Learn 19 Languages", to "Acting 101", to "Buying Your First Home", to "Understanding Your Camera".

Tips on presenting

North X East (who is quickly becoming one of my favorite bloggers) has a great post on how to give a good presentation.

This is particularly pertinent to me because my entire business at this point revolves around me giving presetations. Currently most of my business comes from small group presentations but I've discovered that I really enjoy presenting to larger groups. This good because I've been invited to present at a national conference in early 2008 where I'll be presenting to a few hundred people.

The tips were, for the most part, common sense, but sometimes common sense isn't all that common. The biggest one that hit home with me was #2 - get feedback on your technique. I don't do this and I should. I get a lot of praise and positive response both on content and presentation style, but most people aren't going to walk up to you and say negative things so I need to work on that. Guess I really need to finish that seminar survey that I've been procrastinating on. :-)

Turning Contacts Into Clients

Posted at Doing Business With Style, I found this post to be very helpful. I meet tons of people but I'll be the first person to tell you that I'm horrible at leveraging these meetings into business for myself. I'm very good at what I do and that is NOT sales even though *almost every* person that I meet and talk to about my business responds with "wow, I need to do that!" It's something I need to focus on more...following-up, and turning these chance meetings into good clients. This was a good reminder.

Get involved in the blogger community

This is in response to Random Bytes post Contributing to a blogging community? 4 points to remember

This post really spoke to me. As I'm doing my reading and trying to figure out what I really want from this blog I've realized that my main purpose is really gathering information and putting it into a form that might help others. This isn't surprising given my other projects. So, while I'm reading a lot of posts on Affiliate Marketing and ways to make money with your blog, that isn't my main goal (though it would be nice!). Basically I want to learn and share my experience. I also want to make sure that the people I'm learning from get the credit they deserve even if they don't realize that they've helped me specifically. That's why I'm being careful to link back.

So, to all of you bloggers out there spending your time writing to share your knowledge, thank you! You rock! I'll do my best to follow your lead.

Building My Business Posts of the day: 3/28/07

• Dosh Dosh gives us a list of 26 forums to help you make money online.
  

Building My Business Posts of the day: 3/27/07

• North X East gives some great suggestions on how to build traffic to your blog.
• Harpzon gives some good resources for the whole e-book writing-sales lifecycle.
  

My head hurts too!

I agree with The Paper Bull who also just started a blog and has posted the 50 things he learned this month while blogging.

I'm on information overload after the last 48 hours of frantic reading. I've actually gone a bit insane I think. :-) I have close to 100 different blogs bookmarked with bloglines and I've been going back through some of their old posts too. I'm linking the posts I find most useful here so I can go back later and read them at my leisure but right now my brain is just about full.

I've learned quite a lot though and I'm looking forward to learning more from all of these great bloggers, the best of which I'll be linking in the right column.

Business goal: Use Adsense, Commission Junction and other affiliate marketing income to pay for expenses

Even though Adsense and Commission Junction have been around for a while, I've not used either of them before now. I've decided to take a stab at that and other affiliate marketing sites to try to earn enough each month to pay for my hosting fees. This will at least make the business break-even instead of automatically operating in the red. I've only been doing it 24 hours and have already made a bit so I'm hoping the trend continues.

The most important thing to me is that (at least with CJ) I'm only putting ads on my site for businesses that I actually use. It's important to me to only promote services that I think are really worth it. Check out a list of my favorite sites.

I've subscribed to several blogs on this topic to learn all the hints and tips, the best of which I'll post to this site. I'll also do monthly summaries of my earnings just to show you how it's going.

Business goal: More large-group public personal finance presentations

So I've discovered over the last few months that I really enjoy giving my Intro to Personal Finance class to large groups. I'll admit that part of it is the thrill of looking up and seeing 75 people frantically writing down what I'm telling them, but also just enjoy presenting to groups. As a result, one of the focuses I'm going to have with my business revamp is to start arranging more large-scale presentations.

I think this will be beneficial for a few reasons:

1. I'll be able to reach people I wouldn't have otherwise reached
2. I'll have a larger audience which should (hopefully) lead to more business in the future
3. I can charge a smaller session fee but still make more money (because as much as I love this, it is about making money)

I have a few ideas on how to start doing this. I'm going to join Idealist.org as a service provider and contact some non-profits in the area about giving free presentations. I'm all about giving free seminars just to get the word out. I'm also going to contact some local assoications, community and alumni groups about presenting to them.

Building My Business Posts of the day: 3/26/07

• Instigator Blog listed 4 Great Blog Resources. I think the two that I'll find most useful will be 66 Ways to Build Links in 2007 (so much information, going to keep me VERY busy reading!) and the link to the new (to me) blog Blogged Out.
• Small Business SEM told us about this guide on how to get your site listed all over the place. It is a TON if information but I'm going to try to work my way down the list.
• I Help You Blog tells us 5 Quick Things You Can Do To Make Money With Your Blog
• Fuzzy Future gives us 20 ways to promote your blog for under $10.
• Lead Optimize reminds us to follow up and manage sales leads.
  

Building My Business Posts of the day: 3/25/07

• Red Fly Marketing tells us why SEO and PPC should be friends.
  

Building My Business Posts of the day: 3/23/07

• Instigator Blog posted The Top 10 Tips For New Consultants and Freelancers. While not a traditional consultant or freelancer, I think that most of the suggestions on that list area applicable to anyone who is self-employed.
  

Building My Business Posts of the day: 3/22/07

• (EMP) E-Marketing Performance recommended the following free e-books which I have downloaded and look forward to reading
• Brian Clark's Viral Copy
  
• Seth Godin's Incomplete Guide to Building a Website that Works

• EMP also lets us know about Destination Marketing
  
• ProBlogger talks about 10 Ways to Make your Blog More Attractive to Advertisers
  

Building My Business Posts of the day: 3/21/07

• Mind Petals reminds us that snail mail isn't dead for marketing.
• Stuntdubl tells us 20 ways to alienate your readers.
• Brandon Hopkins tells us 66 ways to build links in 2007.
  

Building My Business Posts of the day: 3/20/07

• Blogged Out made a great point about making sure you have a way for your visitors to contact you. This was a great suggestion that I hadn't really thought of. It's next on my list of things to do. The comments of the post have many suggestions on where to get such a form.
• Harpzon has a 3-part series on how to work with Google Adwords.
• He also gives tips on how to write blog headlines.
  

Building My Business Posts of the day: 3/19/07

• North X East has a very informative post on Guerilla Marketing which will come in handy considering my small (read non-existant) marketing budget.
• SEO Blog gives a great list of best blog promotion techniques
  

Building My Business Posts of the day: 3/14/07

• John Chow has a great post about monitizing your blog. Good suggestions and resources.
  

Building My Business Posts of the day: 3/13/07

• North X East offers a guide on starting your own freelance business.
  

Building My Business Posts of the day: 3/11/07

• Hannes Johnson makes a case for having a good about page.
• Lead Optimize has several good posts:
• how to get more leads from current traffic
  
• SEO for lead optimization
• how to create effective e-newsletters
  

Building My Business Posts of the day: 3/10/07

• If You Wanna Make Money had a great post on networking your blog. Since I'm just starting out I found these suggestions to be very helpful. I know that networking has been an issue for me in the past so this was great.
  

Building My Business Posts of the day: 3/9/07

• Lead Optimize tells us how to get more leads from contact forms.
  

Building My Business Posts of the day: 3/7/07

• Debt Free offers some resources for small businesses.
• Blog Business World gives some marketing tips.
• Journey to Financial Freedom gives us 10 triggers that make people buy.
  

Building My Business Posts of the day: 3/6/07

• Harpzon gives some tips on how to increase traffic to your site.
  

Building My Business Posts of the day: 3/5/07

• Earners Blog gives some hints on how to do well with a Digg article.
  

Building My Business Posts of the day: 3/2/07

• Great FX gives some great hints on how to use business cards appropriately.