Karen Skidmore's Kick-Ass Blog | CanDoCanBe

Link Building Courses Up for Grabs

Do you have an Internet based business? Struggling to find it on Google and the other search engines? Well stop looking and start finding.  There are two main activities you need to carry out to make sure your site is listed and ranking well for your search terms.  Getting links and writing great content.

For link building, there are a huge number of different techniques and it can be overwhelming. Now link building expert, Jason Hulott has put together a 6 week modular programme to show you what to do and when to do it.  He will provide you with a full blueprint of what is needed.

And he is looking for some feedback to make the course even more usable and profitable for your business.  He is kindly giving away 10 complete copies of the course to subscribers to gain some valuable feedback.  What do you need to do to get one of these 10 copies...

Simply contact Jason at jason@speediepr.co.uk and tell him I sent you.  He will want to know your website address as he is looking for those who will implement this and he will be able to give you feedback too.

Need funding for an overseas project?

Janet Dowling, a professional story teller, kindly forwarded me this information and I thought it was worth sharing here on my blog.  Janet was awarded £7,000 in 2005 to travel to the US and Canada for 8 weeks looking at “Storytelling in the Care of the Dying and the Bereaved”.

If you are looking for funds to take you on a research project or business initiative, then check out the following:

“The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust offers you the Opportunity to increase your knowledge  and experience through overseas travel in order to benefit others within your  community.

If awarded a Fellowship, you will receive a grant that will cover all your relevant expenses. In 2008 the average grant was £5300, covering a stay of between 4-8 weeks (minimum of 4 weeks) but can be longer. The grant includes return travel, daily living, internal travel and appropriate insurance within the countries visited. Applications close 14 October 2008”

For more information go to http://www.wcmt.org.uk/

Launch of Surrey Women's Enterprise

If you run your own business and often feel that exhibiting at various events could be a great way of reaching customers – but are then put off by the costs of hiring exhibition space then you may be interested in a new venture co-founded by a good business buddy of mine, Ida Horner.

Ida and 3 other ladies have founded Surrey Women’s Enterprise and they are planning on co-ordinating and running events which allow women who run retail, complementary therapy or in deed any business which would benefit from exhibiting and selling their wares direct to customers.

They have an event running in Farnham on June 28^th and if you would like to be involved, then contact Ida through their website www.SurreyWomensEnterprise.co.uk

Can you help me to 300 comments?

A big thank you to everyone who reads this blog.  And a special thank you to those who contribute and leave a comment.

At the time of posting, Kick-Ass Blog has reached a grand total of 278 comments – which I must admit to being pretty chuffed about.

Your comments help make this blog full of practical and (what I would call) “real-life” tips and advice.  And the more received, the more inspired I am to write more articles.

Could you help me with a small something though?

It would be absolutely fabulous to reach 300 before the end of the month.  And when we do, I promise to post a small thank you from my collection of teleforum recordings on the blog.

So go on – leave your tips or thoughts on the article you are reading

Want to know how to get your website found on Google?

Then join me this Thursday for a special 90 minute telephone workshop where I will be sharing my tips, tricks and techniques to SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).

SEO is not something that you spend every other Tuesday afternoon doing.  It isn’t a to-do-list item that you tick off once a month.

Once you understand how the internet works and, more importantly, how your customers use the internet, you can easily incorporate SEO in to every day aspects of running your own business.

It really isn’t as technical and geeky as many SEO experts make out

Click here for more details:  www.Kick-AssTeleForums.com/SEOMadeEasy.php

 

Women's Marketing Forum is open for membership

18 months ago Louisa Bird launched the Women’s Marketing Forum for women looking for marketing inspiration and ways to attract more clients to their businesses.

For the past few months, Louisa has been revamping the site and called me today to say that the all new, Women’s Marketing Forum is open for membership.

Check it out.  It’s full of bite-sized practical marketing advice and there are plenty of recorded teleclasses waiting to be listened to.  And the best bit, is that membership is FREE!  How can you not be tempted

For more information visit www.WomensMarketingForum.com

Read, Surf & Listen - Top Resources for Home Businesses

Can you believe it that is almost Easter? The last time we had an Easter this early was in 1913, so it not surprising that some of you may have been taken by surprise with such an early holiday weekend.  I know I certainly am!

If you are lucky enough to get away for a break over Easter, I thought you may like some recommended reading.  And if you are hanging out at home but still plan to tinker on the internet, rather than totally switch off (I know, it's hard to do, isn't it?) I have also listed some useful websites that I know are popular with home businesses and self-employed professionals.

If you are more of an audio person and prefer to listen and learn, then check out the recommended podcasts.

Have a great Easter break and try not to eat too much chocolate! 

Read: Top Business Books to read over Easter

Feeling like you want to quit?

Seth Godin's latest book "The Dip" is a great read for anyone is wondering whether to quit or stick.  With the latest budget and talk of a possible recession, some of you may be wondering whether working for yourself is the right thing. 

Well, if you can succeed when the going gets tough, you can succeed at anything - and this book is great at helping you quit (if you really want to) or showing you that if you push through, you can achieve excellence. I know you know which one I would prefer you do :)

You can read this in an evening - short, sweet and very simple to read

Click here to view it on Amazon

Feel inspired after reading other people stories?

Personally, I tend to stay away from the "big entrepreneurs" biographies as they never seem to relate to me and my life.  But someone recommended Duncan Bannatyne's book "Anyone Can Do It" and as I enjoy a good episode of Dragon's Den, I decided to buy it. 

And what a great read.  Possibly not everyone's way of making business happen, but Duncan's story is very interesting and certainly proves that you can be successful from any background - and at any age.

Click here to view it on Amazon

Want to get started on a blog over Easter?

Andy Wibbels' book "BlogWild" inspired me more than 18 months ago and I still haven't found another book that outlines the steps to starting your own blog so simply.  Easy to digest chapters and simple steps to follow. Andy avoids any technical jargon and explains things so beautifully.

Click here to view it on Amazon

Surf:  Website resources to browse whilst avoiding those chocolate Easter eggs!

www.EveryWoman.com has been around for many years and offers a particularly good list of regional networking groups for women

www.BusinessWomensCafe.com is an online community for women in business that has just been launched.

www.EnterpriseNation.com launched last year as an online resource for home based businesses.

www.StartUpNation.com is an American based online community but is full of useful info, including some very active forums.

Listen:  Top Podcasts to download & learn from

www.ThePodcastSisters.com
is THE best podcast around so if you would rather listen than read or surf, then I can highly recommended you download the latest episodes.  Subscribe at i-tunes or listen through your PC, which ever is easier for you.  But I just know you will enjoy Krishna, Heather & Anna's take on Web 2.0.  The technophobes answer to techy stuff!

www.SmallBizPod.co.uk is a podcast hosted by Alex Bellinger.  Alex produces a great show where he presents interviews and case studies on topics such as social enterprise, business planning and life after Dragon's Den.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/ross/ is the Jonathan Ross podcast from his Saturday morning radio show.  Absolutely nothing to do with starting & growing a business! but if you want to laugh out loud and have break from work, then this is a fabulous way of doing it.  We all have to have fun, even at work

Only 1 more week to go!

One of the simplest and easiest ways of keeping the communication going with your past, present and future customers is harnessing the power of Email Newsletters.

Any yet, because of the technology involved and the thought that you have to be a HTML programmer to send one out, many of you are still very unsure on where to start and how to use the simple web-based technology available to you.

My 4 week Email Newsletter Bootcamp starts in less than a week!

A 4 week step-by-step programme that will show you how to set up, write and send out your email newsletter - by Easter.

Who is this programme for?

• Coaches and trainers who run seminars and workshops
• Consultants and therapists who would like to steady flow of 1-2-1 clients
• Women who feel overwhelmed by the technical aspect of setting up an email newsletter and yet can't afford a consultant to set one up for them
• Women who want to re-energise their marketing and discover how writing quality articles really can grow your business
• Women who would like to spend more time delivering the service and products they started up in business to do, rather than spend exorbitant amounts of money on advertising and sweat it out each month hoping that someone responds!

What will you get?

• 4 90 minute structure telephone workshops
• A bonus one hour follow-up clinic
• Workbooks for each of the 4 modules
• Dedicated website where you can access all recordings and workbooks
• Clear and simple actions to take between each module

When and where?

Dial in from the comfort of your own sofa or office
Starts Thursday 21st and then every following Thursday for 5 weeks
12.00pm until 1.30pm

The price of this programme is only £147 which includes personalised email support throughout the programme

The group is limited to an absolute maximum of 15 so that each of you receive personal attention and everyone's questions can be answered.

To quantify the value of this offer, the 1-2-1 coaching and mentoring programmes invested in separately would be £230 a month for just 2 one hour sessions.  If you were to invest in 6 hours with me on an individual basis, this would amount to £690.

£147 is a bargain!  Especially when you realise you will have the recordings and the workbooks to go over and over again whenever you need to.

Take action now and reserve your place immediately

There are only 6 places left at the time of this posting being made, so hurry before they all go.

Click here to reserve your place NOW!

FREE! teleclasses this month - will you join me?

In preparation for the start of the next Email Newsletter Bootcamp, I am very excited to announce two special FREE! teleclasses.

You can dial in and join a session called “Email Newsletters for Technophobes” where I will demonstrating how easy email newsletters are and how you don’t need to be an IT guru to work the systems.

You can then join in for a second session called “Will Email Newsletters work for your business” where I will be sharing, warts and all, the pros and cons to running email newsletters.  I can give you some questions to ask yourself to work out whether email newsletters are really right for you and your customers.

For more information and to register for the events, click here.

And if you can’t make it live on the day, register any way as you will receive a copy of the teleclass recording automatically after each event.  How cool is that?

Look forward to speaking to you live on the call.

CanDoCanBe Christmas Party - we raised £150!

Thank you to everyone who came along and celebrated the end of great year at the CanDoCanBe Christmas Office Party.

Tim at The Stoke Pub in Guildford laid on a fabulous meal with balloons, bangers and crackers – thanks Tim

We had an impromptu raffle as well which raised a massive £150 for a local charity that Melanie Simcock recommended.  Project 5 is a men’s overnight refuge shelter based in York Road, Guildford and the manager was delighted with the donation.  They will be buying hats, gloves & scarves for the men – so thank you.

So many ladies donated prizes and I promised a mention to them all here:

• Fiona Humberstone of www.GuildfordPrinting.com donated a 1 hour marketing consultation and a 30 minute design session.
• Emma Duggleby of www.fridgefairy.co.uk donated a dozen homemade mince pies and homemade truffles (thank you for your wonderful chocolates at the end of the meal)
• Winkie Spiers of www.WinkieSpiers.com donated a Bowen Technique session
• Caroline Oppenheimer of www.healthybiz.co.uk donated a goal setting session
• Samantha New-Fielding of www.newphoria.co.uk donated a reflexology session
• Steph Sullivan of www.tensawater.info donated a lovely skin care set as a treat over the holidays
• Karen Margerison of www.bloomhost.net donated a 1 hour website consultation
• Julia Hart of www.shortcakeproductions.co.uk donated a 1 hour of children’s entertainment for a birthday party
• Sandie Crawford of www.weekenders.com donated a morning’s session on what to wear
• And I offered a sneak preview of one of my new Business Guides as well as access to the recent Email Newsletter Bootcamp programme

Phew!  Not bad considering these prizes were all spontaneously donated. 

Now that my children have broken up for the school holidays, this will be my last post this year.  Time to have some fun and take a well deserved break.

Have a fabulous Christmas and I look forward to sharing with you lots more in 2008.