Martin Socially

Working with sociable people to build Lean & Agile Businesses that thrive

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The fat lady is now singing! :)

That's it,  still a few bits that I will tackle at my leisure for the fun of it.

Actually all of it has been immence fun!  I've met some great people, been challenged to pull all my best stuff out and face the things I really wouldnt normally have done so thankyou Firepole Marketing and everyone else who joined in  I am sure we will be seeing eachother again very soon!

Just in case Jim Bessy is looking at this...  I know, I know! I am afraid the pressure at the end has meant very little editing has been done! :)  Rest assured your Ultimate guide is pinned to my writing space though!

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The Trigger for hiring someone

This is one of the most difficult decisions anyone building a business has to tackle.  At what point do you hand over some of your work or duties to an assistant (virtual or otherwise).  The decision has been made slightly easier wth the rise of the "virtual assistant", they are people who are independant contractors who you comunicate with online and they don't even need to be in the same country as you, never mind office.  There is no doubt though, as soon as you make the decision to hire someone you do make yourself responsible in some small measure to their continued well being and financial security.

For me, the decision is very difficult because I have always been self-employed I have never employed anyone, I have an accountant who does the books anually but I have tended to do everything else myself. Writing, graphics, design work, programming etc as well as the filing (well stacking anyway!).  This has probably held me back in the past and I now realise that I could probably have built a much more secure future from an early stage if I has spread the load and spent a bit more time out winning new contracts rather than actally putting the graft in at the keyboard.

Turning over a ne leaf now I think for me the trigger point should be that if I can land enough secure work to hypothicate about 30 percent of the turnover to employing virtual assistance I will do it.  There should be very little extra overhead involve in hiring a virtual assistant so the margin on this can be tighter than would be normal in businesses employing inhouse staff.  It does rely though on being able to see a good 9 months ahead and sometimes that is very difficult.

FPMSH SS F #4

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The ultimate guide to free Wordpress SEO plugins

This heading, which could potentially be a post on my blog would attract a lot of search traffic because of the huge number of seaches for the terms Wordpress SEO and plugins. It would also provide relevant keyword content and search relevancy for anyone searching for SEO Guide, Wordpress Guide and plugin guide.  It would be an "Ultimate Guide" type post which always promises great value for reading time.  The short and desciptive title would encourage social media sharing and I would also ensure that an arresting and appropriate featured image was set to so that images would appear automatically in applications like feedly, twitter, facebook,G+ linkedin and pintrest. 

I would also ensure that the text contained plenty of calls to action in the form of comments to encourage engagement and social sharing.

FPMSH SS F #8

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I havent got enough keyword base searh traffic yet so I have dug into the Elevensestime.Blogspot.com site, the principle keywords are blueberrry cake!  One of our members posted a bluberry cake recipe a few years ago.  According to the Blogspot stats this post is by far the most popular on the site and the image above shows why! :)

FPMSH SS F #7b & c

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Network referals

FPMSH SS F #7a (0 points)

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Google Analytics for the MartinSocially.com domain - early days! The most frequent referer is the domain name itself which probably indicates that the vast majority of traffic is via word of mouth or cutting and pasting the actual address  - I have had seven hits from facebook recently which probably coincides with my pleas for hunters to have a look!

FPMSH SS F #7a

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Public Domain Images

FPMSH MM E #13

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Public Domain Image

FPMSH MM E #13d

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Public Domain image

FPMSH MM E #13c

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Public Domain photo - PublicDomainPictures.net

FPMSH MM E #13b

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Public domain images for future posts. 

FPMSH MM E #13a

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Be bold! Reach out to someone in your niche – that you’ve never really met before, and ask them if they have time for a “virtual coffee date” so you can pick their brain a little

FPMSH N&GP C #15

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Split testing

As my blog has only really been up for a couple of weeks and traffic at the moment is in the tens per day :)  Split testing may seem to be a bit of a sledge hammer to crack a walnut.  Of course, I will be making adjustments, thatnorfolkwriter has given me a whole load of things to change to optimise the layout.  So, when I have done those changes I will be setting up some split testing to assess the effectiveness of the design.  The main purpose of any blog (after entertaining, informing and educating of course!) is to encourage people to come back regularly to read all the wonderful stuff I'm producing. It is also important to have the right quality of content to make sure that Google think I am wonderful too.  This will be reflected in, visitor stats and page rank but also will be measured in terms of new signups to the email list.  

These are the five areas I will concentrate on adjusting to see what effect they have on the stats.

1.  Tag Line

2. size and position of sign up box

3 colour and text on signup button

4 double opt in v immediate sign up

5 wording of text in signup box

FPMSH SS F #3

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The fat lady hasn't sung yet

Aparently I still have 5 hrs left to complete challenge - going to be busy!

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My Favourite Tweeters

@iamamro

@damian_corbet

@cyteen02

@guykawasaki

@mashable

@techcrunch

@socialmedia2day

@jonmorrow

@lilachbullock

@jeanlucr

@ruhanirabin

@mikeelgan

@lisapatb

@mardixon

For anyone who isn't on this list, and there are literally hundreds, I am doing this in a hurry and restricted to 10 or so and I’m doing it from memory!

FPMSH SM D #5

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Comments Made on Firepole Marketing Blog

Cultivating Positive Relationships

How Avon uses the economy to grow

How to learn anything

FPMSH Gen B #1 (3 points)

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I offered to do a guest post for Sue Brage at Big Shoes Communications and she has accepted my proposed post idea

FPMSH N&GP C #2