by The Happy WAHM
Public relations, or what is more commonly referred to as PR, is a persuasion business. Having a good one is what you, as a business owner, should aim to maintain so people will buy your products or services. So you and your product will stay top of mind for consumers.
But what does good public relations entail? What do you need to do?
In my last post, I wrote the top things you need to consider when planning a business expansion. Towards the end, I mentioned being consistent with your message and your brand. And this is where public relations come in.
The Public Relations Society of America defines public relations as a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.
Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), 2012
If you want your business to grow, then consider maintaining good PR as an essential part of your business. From the small online sellers that sprouted during this pandemic, to the big, established businesses that are trying to survive the economic downturn, good, if not excellent PR, is a necessity.
If you are a small business and are just starting, gaining visibility through multiple social media platforms might be enough. Partnering with bloggers who can create a story and make people follow that story might just work.
But if you are already a established business, and you are neck deep in competition with other big businesses, this is not enough.
Working with a Knowledgeable PR & Branding Agency
PR professionals generate positive publicity for their clients. They keep the public abreast of the activities that your company is doing. They write speeches, they write and distribute press releases, they conduct market research, and they craft responses to negative opinions about your product or business online.
What you need to keep in mind is that PR is different from advertising. While advertising will tell the public to “buy this product,” public relations will say “this product is important.” Advertising builds exposure. PR builds trust. While ads are mostly visual, PR uses language. And if what I’m saying is confusing to you, I’d say, collaborate with a PR & branding company that specializes in your business area because they know what they’re doing.
There is a PR company for every niche. So let’s say you are a law firm. When your law firm collaborates with a company like Elite Lawyer Management, for example, you will benefit from the national media outlets they already have relationships with. They can get your law firm’s name in front of a bigger audience. They can also help you with content marketing to help you promote your organization widely and effectively.
Collaborating with professionals who are experts in the public relations niche allows you to concentrate on what you do the best: running your business. It also takes away the high cost of having to do trial and error, and the stress that comes with it.
Gaining Credibility
One the things that a good public relations firm will do for you is establish your credibility. There are two sides to public relations: the story-telling side, and the damage-control side.
The storytelling side cultivates a story that establishes your reputation as a business. They tell a story about your ideas, your products, your projects, your accomplishments. Then they reach out to established news outlets that will feature these stories about you. This will help attract customers to do business with you.
This storytelling aims to show the human side of your brand through PR materials. Sharing the story behind your company’s founder, for example, can build an emotional connection with your audience. Sharing customer reviews can elicit a similar response and build a loyal client base.
The damage control side aims to mitigate any damage to your business’ reputation. Unintentionally releasing a bad product, for example, can damage your company’s reputation beyond repair. PR professionals come in to craft an actionable plan to mitigate the damage. Recall the products. Issue press releases that would inform the public not to buy any more of those bad products. Let the public know what the company is doing to make the products good again. These are actions that cannot be addressed by advertising.
Building Awareness for Your Product or Service
The storytelling side of PR also aims to build awareness of your company and your product or service. Let’s say you have a complex product or service. The PR professionals working with you can break down the complexities and make it easier for the public to understand.
There is what we call social media, and traditional media.
Traditional media is the likes of the New York Times, or the Huffington Post. Social media is Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. You cannot post a press release on social media. It will be too boring.
PR professionals can take this press release apart and make it an announcement with just 140 characters for Twitter; create a captivating graphic for Instagram and Pinterest; or create a video explainer for Facebook and YouTube.
Easier, Yes, But It Still Takes Time
While it is indeed easier to just work with a reputable PR firm, it will still take time to reap results. Success does not happen overnight, even for the biggest companies out there.
Over time, though, you can expect to see results as your business starts to become a household name and stand apart from your competitors. Growing your business will be a walk in the park once you’ve leveraged the use of good great public relations.
by The Happy WAHM
Business expansion? Am I crazy to be writing about a business expansion when COVID is still here, no vaccine in sight, offices are still closed, and businesses are closing down?
Well, maybe not. At least, not everyone is closing up shop at this time, right? Some are just starting. In fact, some businesses just opened up in response to the demand that the pandemic brought in.
So let’s say you have a business that you have been running from home. And that you are still going strong amidst the present challenges. It may be smart to look at the opportunities that opened up during quarantine and plan to scale up for when we ease into the new normal.
Business expansion can be done in several ways. You can maybe expand your service or product offering, expand to a new target market, expand to new locations, or even expand globally by going online. That is if you are not doing it yet.
Here’s a tip: Look at the influx of informal online sellers. Check out what they’re offering, and go from there.
If you are seriously thinking about a business expansion, consider the following:
Know who your next customers are
You have to know who will avail of your services or products next. Are your new offerings things that they would need or want? Can they afford them? Where are these people located? Do they shop online? Or do they prefer a brick and mortar store?
You would also want to identify other demographics of your new target market like age, gender, marital status, income, ethnicity, and occupation, to name a few. Be ready to adapt to how your customers react to stimulus so you know what type of advertising you’ll put in place. Be prepared to be flexible and tweak strategies based on how your new target market responds.
Hiring additional manpower
If you are expanding your business, there’s a fair chance that you won’t be able to stay at the same level of logistics that you have presently in place. You might have a small team already or may already be outsourcing. But you may need more, especially if you are branching out to different areas. Or maybe you’ll be offering a new service that will need a different skill level from people that you already have on board.
When time is short and money is tight, it can be difficult to train people up for what you want to do. Maybe you could even hire someone else to do the training for you, so you can focus on working on the strategies for your business expansion. For example, ELMO onboarding can help your new employees to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills they need for your business. This is another level of outsourcing, but it offers tremendous help for your business.
Being consistent
So you expand your business. You add more products. More services. You acquire a new customer base. You implement new processes to keep up with the change.
Do you just forget your old products? Ignore that old customer base? Let go of the old processes?
Of course not!
The key is consistency. You have to maintain the same level of service you provide to your existing customer, if not better. You have to continue to improve on your existing products and services. You have to keep the processes that worked and helped you get to where you are. Be consistent with your message. Be consistent with your brand.
Remember, you won’t even be in a place where you are able to expand your business without your existing products and services. You have your existing customer base to thank for your ability to grow your business. And you can always upsell to your existing customers.
And there you have it. I hope you find this helpful.
by The Happy WAHM
Last year, I wrote about how you can start a successful career as a freelancer. If you have not read that yet and you are interested in becoming a rockstar freelancer, then you should read that one first before reading this post. 🙂
Freelancing allows you to do many things. If you’re an artist, then it is a great way to build an impressive portfolio. If you are skilled in multiple niches, then It helps you narrow them down to the ones you love best doing, then refine and improve your skills in your chosen niche. Freelancing also helps you get your foot in the industry or niche of your choice, and it can help you make a name for yourself as a business owner.
And the best part… It allows you to call the shots – work when you want, where you want, with whoever you want, at the price that you want.
If you are already a freelancer, the next thing you want to know is how to rock it. And today,I have a few quick tips on how you can become a rockstar freelancer.
Always Do Your Research
Research is key. Doing user research so you can understand the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of the people who are likely to use your product or service will greatly help you serve your clients best. This will help identify their pain points, and enable you to offer them solutions.
You should also research on the tools that are best to use for your niche. Research on what other rockstar freelancers use. Find out what are the best practices. Get to know the best platforms to use to manage your projects. This list goes on, but the operative word is research. Even if you’re already a freelancer, you can never rest on your laurels. You can never say you know everything. There’s always a new tool to use, some new skills to learn, and some new platforms to try. If before there was just Trello and Basecamp and Asana, now there’s AirTable, Mondays and AdminJa. Don’t stop with what you know. Keep abreast of what technology can offer you.
And while I don’t recommend competing for price, it also helps to know what other freelancers are charging. You don’t have to charge what they charge, but if you’re just starting out, it’s good to have an idea of what’s the industry standard.
If you’re struggling to find a client, then maybe the niche is already saturated. Knowing how much competition you have will help you decide whether or not to stick to your chosen niche, or you can find out how you can offer value-added services to your existing package. Again, you can address this by doing research.
Take Your Time
Another tip that doesn’t get mentioned often is the need to take your time.
So you’ve done your research. You’ve found out what’s happening in the industry, found out the best tools and the best platforms.
Next thing you have to do is take time to learn those tools and platforms. Learn them and compare them with what you’re already using. Will it be beneficial to switch? Or are the ones you’re using serving you well?
Take time to build your profile, too. Don’t rush things. Say you are a creative freelancer and you have a huge portfolio. Take time to evaluate your work and select the best ones to include in your website. Better to have just 10 of your best work than have hundreds of mediocre pieces on display.
Taking your time with your tasks is also important. I don’t mean to suggest that you should dilly-dally with your tasks. What I mean is to take time to understand the process and what the desired result is, so that you get it right the first time. Don’t aim for a quick finish. Aim for an efficient one. Delivering an error-free project will score you great points, whatever your freelance skill is. In addition, if you keep getting things done right consistently, you are sure to earn a very positive reputation in the industry and people will be more likely to hire you or refer you to their contacts.
Understand The Client
A rockstar freelancer is also at least one step ahead of the client, and that is possible when you fully understand the client’s goals, their pain points, and their personal preferences.
Here’s the thing… A freelancer is not an employee. A freelancer is, in a way, a business partner of the client. Understanding your client empowers you to be proactive and to take initiatives. This also reduces the number of times you have to ask questions. Say you are a freelancer specializing in travel management. Take the initiative to know your client’s preferences when traveling. Preferred departure times, arrival times, window or aisle seats, coach, business or first class, need wifi connection, passports updated, frequent flyer accounts? Get all these data the first time your client asks you to book them for travel and file them away in a safe place for your easy reference next time.
Making the effort to understand your client on Day 1 will not only make your life easier. It will also allow you to accomplish your tasks with the least back and forth with your client. And aren’t you there to save your client precious time, so they can focus on strategies and not dwell on the mundane? So yes, save your client some time. They will love you for it.
Keep Your Work Consistent
Consistent work should be more of a set default for you rather than something you are told to do. Consistent work shows you are committed to your work, commitment shows confidence, confidence shows you know what you need to do and that earns you the client’s trust. Consistency in work is good to have, but consistency in quality is a must-have.
If you do a really great job with a client, they then go and tell their tribe. Members of that tribe can become your clients, too.
What happens if you’re not consistent?
You get more clients because you’ve been referred by a happy client, But then you deliver an inferior performance for the new client. Of course, the new client will be unhappy. And guess what? One bad review can cancel out whatever good reviews you’ve had in the past.
Sell Yourself
What does this mean?
As a freelancer, I highly doubt if you’ll ever have a marketing budget. Most freelancers I know don’t even have personal branding. So let’s say you are among those who missed the memo on the importance of branding… what do you do?
You only have your skills and your experience to bring to the table. You have no products to sell. Just yourself. So make sure you package yourself well. Polish your about page on your website. If you don’t have a website, at least have an account on LinkedIn. Be visible on social media, but be very careful on what you post. Be the person that you want your client to be working with. Be the consummate professional.
Being a freelancer can be scary sometimes, but it really isn’t that hard to rock it. Try to practice the quick tips I mentioned above, add in a dash of determination, a pinch of perseverance and whole lot of hard work and you’ll be on the road to rockstardom,
Remember, the word freelancing starts with free. It’s the freedom to do what you love, and being paid while doing it.
by The Happy WAHM
I recently wrote about how you can start a successful career as a freelancer. Today, I write about the ten best online business models that you can do should you decide to take the entrepreneur path.
I chose ten because these are the models that I have already done, and doing.
So let’s go through them one by one.
Make Money on Affiliate Marketing
Affiliating with businesses in order to promote them is not a new concept. But what you need to know here is that you can make it your main source of income without the need to physically venture an inch out of your home.
If you were to ask me a single method that marketers use to make a surefire rapid income on the Internet, my answer would be affiliate marketing. Though there are dozens of home business models on the Internet, and I’m going to cover 10 of them here, it is quite safe to say that affiliate marketing ranks among the top three.
I know this because, in over a decade of being a VA, 90% of the clients I’ve worked with are affiliate marketers. That’s what they do. That’s how they earn, and most of them are doing it passively. In fact, my very first client was an affiliate marketer. It is from him that I learned how to build a website, how to do SEO and how to find marketable products.
Basically, the affiliate marketing model means to promote someone’s
product over the Internet. You are helping them with their advertising and are
getting paid a commission for that.
You can start by making an account on an affiliate network such as ClickBank, ShareASale, Commission Junction, and my favorite, Amazon. This is a place where advertisers post their advertising requirements. When you are a part of any of the networks I mentioned, you can choose the products you want to promote. You will want to know what people within your network would be interested in and choose to promote those.
The roundabout way of doing this is to choose the products you want to promote first, then find out if they have an affiliate program, then sign up. This is more effective if you are like me who has chosen to promote very specific niche products.
So for example, you want to promote Tupperware. You can go to the Tupperware website and check out if they have an affiliate program. Or you can go to Amazon and see if they have Tupperware. Either way, you get an affiliate link, and you can promote Tupperware to your friends everywhere in the world where the Tupperware company or Amazon delivers. See the linked Tupperware word there? It has my Amazon affiliate link. So if you end up buying when you get to Amazon, I get a few cents out of that sale.
But wait! A few cents? Didn’t I just say that you can make this a main source of income?
Well, if you do your affiliate marketing business right, it can be. This post is going to be here until I stop publishing my website. And so that link stays for that same length of time. And this is not the only place where I have put that link. And that is not the only Amazon link that I have. Over time, it becomes a passive income.
Build a Niche Content Site
People on the Internet are mainly looking for information. If you provide them the information they are looking for, you are a winner all the way.
But what is a niche content site?
A niche content site is a site that caters to a particular group of people. Like gardening is a niche; cooking is a niche; crafting is a niche. Other people would not be interested in reading about those topics. But those who are will likely find your website and even subscribe to your RSS feed to watch out for new information that you might come up with next time.
There can also be a niche within a niche. Like, in gardening, there could be a sub-niche of how to do away with aphids or how to use the right mix of fertilizers to make those grapes bigger. These are sub-niches. You must remember one thing here… the narrower you are making your niche, the less traffic you are likely to get, but on the flipside, these people are more focused and they will be more interested in doing business with you.
Think about it. If someone really wants to have some information on aphid removal, and your site has that content and also promotes some product relating to it, like an aphid spray, the likelihood of that visitor buying the product from your site is indeed high.
This is how you need to go about it.
- First, think of a popular niche that you would like to build a site on. You could go to places like Google Suggest and check out what many people are looking for.
- Google Suggest will also give you a host of keywords that you can use. These are the keywords that most people are using when searching.
- Build content. You will need to have at least 50 pages or so of content to make some kind of impact. Spruce up your content by using the right keywords so that it reaches out to the people who are looking for the specific information.
- Then, look for products on your affiliate network site to promote on your niche site. You can put ads in the form of text and banners. By having your own website, you are saving money on advertising services such as Google Ads. You have to make your website popular so that more people will visit, which in turn will increase the number of clicks (and sales) that you get. At the same time, the popularity of your ads will increase the traffic on your website.
The Happy WAHM is a niche content site. My main niche is working from home. How to be happy working from home is a sub-niche. Or how to homeschool while working from home is a sub-niche. Another sub-niche is how to find time for a hobby while working from home. You get the idea.
Blog Your Story
This is one model where people actually have fun sharing their experiences and get paid. In my case, it also increases my business prospects.
You can monetize blogging in several different ways. There isn’t just one way in which you can make money out of a blog; there are several. Once you have a blog of your own, it is a learning experience in itself. But, at the same time, the money that comes in while you are simply sharing something that is already true to you becomes a motivation to go the distance.
A very good platform to build your blog would be WordPress or Blogger. I’m a WordPress advocate. Tried Blogger in the early days but it did not have all the features I wanted, so WordPress has been it for me.
While you can set up a free account on either platform, having a self-hosted domain lends more credibility. Partner brands would choose a self-hosted domain over a free one anytime. Some would even require you to submit your domain authority before they decide to work with you, so yes, a self-hosted domain is what you’d want to have if you want to be serious with your blogging.
If you’re interested in having one, check out my hosting services.
In blogging, content is king. If you want your site to be visited, then put out great content. In the past years, I very rarely blogged. But because the few times I did I had content relevant to my niche, partner products still found me and was fortunate enough to have written posts that I felt good about.
The following
are some ways in which you can monetize your blog:-
- You could use PPC advertising on your blog.
- You could directly sell or advertise products. (See my sidebar.)
- You could give away an eBook or a newsletter subscription and get leads.
- You could build a blog, populate it and then sell the whole thing for a tidy profit. (What I plan to do with my Essential Oils website but I will get a different domain for it.)
- You can accept paid posts from companies who need help in promoting their products. My rule on this one is to only accept posts that are within my niche. I don’t want to veer away from my narrative for the site.
Shout out to these groups of bloggers who are really rocking it in the blogging world. Mommy Bloggers Philippines and Bloggers ng Pinas, thank you for having me as a member although I’m not as active as the rest of you!
Infopublishing
When we talk about infopublishing, we are talking about eBooks, newsletters, videos, audiobooks and the like. Generally, this is content that people can download to their devices.
I have so far completed one eBook. And I have at least a dozen more drafts, but let’s talk about that another day, okay?
There are two ways in which you can get into the infopublishing business:
- You could create the info content yourself on a topic that is within your chosen niche and sell it on your website. This is what I did.
- You could hire someone to create it for you, then sell it on your website.
- You could promote someone else’s product for a commission.
Whatever is the way you choose to go, you would be distributing informative content.
You can also distribute this content through your own affiliate program. If you believe you have a great product, then go ahead and set up an affiliate program and have other people sell your product for you. That will multiply your reach a thousand-fold.
Sell Software
Never underestimate the power of software applications. You are using dozens of them on your desktop yourself.
Selling software is one of the most logical ways to make good money on the Internet. People who use computers are always trying to make their jobs easier or to add more quality to their jobs. That is the reason they are looking for good software all the time. With broadband Internet, it has become so very easy to provide software in downloadable formats. You promote a link from where people can download a particular software and allow them to access it when they make payment. They will pay and you give them the link to download the software.
Many marketers tease people by giving them demo versions of the software for free. This allows the downloaders to understand the quality of the product before they decide to spend good money on it. These demo versions generally have some features locked or they are timed demos that expire after a specific number of hours worth of usage. When that happens, people are prompted to buy the product to make use of it limitlessly.
For promotion, you can use more of the same methods that you would use for affiliate marketing. If your software becomes popular, especially in places where your niche market usually visits, you could be assured of a healthy flow of downloaders. At the same time, you have to remember that there is no lifespan for this. There will always be downloaders, provided you promote well and keep upgrading your software, which means, you can keep generating a flow of passive income for years.
Just like with infopublishing, you don’t have to be the one to create your software. Come up with an idea that your ideal software will solve, then hire someone to do it for you. And then set up an affiliate program for it.
And you can also sell software through affiliate marketing, just like the way I’m doing it with Scrivener on my sidebar. I’m personally using Scrivener for my own writing projects. This is a secret, but I’m working on my own book. Sssssshhhh!!! And because I found it really great, I decided to promote it. My market? My clients in my VA biz.
Membership Sites
Membership sites are just what their name indicates – these are sites where you are asking people to become members of your website site and in return, you are providing them with a host of value-added services. On most membership sites, the members are provided with some free offers and downloadable products and they get privileges on various affiliate sites, too.
The basic concept of a membership site is that you keep your goodies hidden from the general Internet public and allow them access to it only when they have taken the membership action that you ask them to. This has been on the pipeline for me for the longest time but alas, I still have yet to implement my plans.
Membership sites do take a lot of effort. You have to have a unique concept to make your membership site appealing to members and you have to make constant efforts to provide high-quality information to your members.
They are going to be disappointed otherwise and you are going to lose credibility. I know this because I have managed some membership sites for clients. The amount of work that goes into the maintenance of such site is just overwhelming.
But maybe I will still do this in the future. I have like 40GB worth of information/resources stored that I know WAHMs are going to love. For now, I’m just skimming the surface and sharing bits and pieces of them on my page and my Facebook Group.
Sell Your Services
What’s the best, most unique and special thing that you can sell and keep selling forever?
Your own services, that’s what.
You have a talent for something? Go right ahead and peddle it on the Internet.
The Internet has a market for everything. Even for your own services. If you think you are good at something, the Internet could be the best place for you to vend your skills.
Check out my post on how you can start a successful career as a freelancer.
Of course, it is understood that the kind of services that have a demand on the Internet are services that you can provide online. These are mostly services related to website building and maintenance, and Internet marketing, just like the ones below:
- Content creation
- Blog management
- Search engine optimization
- Website creation
- Social networking services such
as Craigslist postings
- Managing other virtual staff
- Proofreading and editing
The drawback here is that you have to spend a lot of time in front of your computer, all the time. Unlike in affiliate marketing, for example, where you can just set it up one time and forget about it. Until such time that you want to make an update, add a new link or remove a non-performing one. In selling your services, you earn only as much as you work and there is no opportunity for passive income.
Network Marketing
Network marketing has been present since the pre-Internet times and it has received its fair share of criticisms. However, this is a sure moneymaking biz as clearly evidenced by the millionaires you see gracing your Facebook and Twitter feed ever single day.
The concept is too darned simple – you build a network of people and jointly you promote a product or service. At the same time, you try to bring more people into the network. For each person that joins the network, the upline members earn a commission. Direct sales bring in the money, too, but the main commission is brought in through the commissions that the network building generates.
However, the implementation is not quite as simple. Building the network can be formidable to most people. To address that, trainings are provided so you can build your network well. You get a website from the network marketing company that you join, you can attend physical seminars and webinars and you have access to a host of material, online and offline, where you can learn how to promote your network most effectively and efficiently.
Presently, I am a member of two networking giants, Young Living and Lifestyles. I joined these companies because I found the products effective for me and my whole family. Earning from them is just an added bonus. Join my team!
The drawback here is that there are a lot of players in the network marketing (also called as multilevel marketing or simply MLM) world. A lot of them are scammers and these are the people who have given the industry a bad name. You have to be particularly wary of pyramid schemes in which people earn only through building a network but don’t have any product to sell.
Internet Auctions
Online auctions could be a good means to earn a good amount of online income.
Net auctions are just like the ordinary auctions that you know, except that they are conducted over the Internet. A product is displayed on the auction site with its features and benefits all spelled out. Then a minimum bid is marked.
Top of mind for auction sites is eBay. Another one is uBid. These are just a couple of sites where you can buy and sell products for a profit.
Speak Out Your Mind
Not many people know that they can really earn money for calling a spade a spade. On the Internet where anything goes, this happens, too!
You may have heard of online surveys. Yes, they’re legit. And yes, they pay.
Well, at least, some of them.
Take note, you can’t make this your sole source of income. This is just something you’d want to do in your spare time. Instead of endlessly scrolling through Facebook, try answering some survey questions instead. Online surveys can bring in money, but you can’t live on it.
But why do surveys work in the first place?
These surveys serve brands to improve their products. The brands hire a marketing team (or they have an in-house marketing department) who put up these surveys for people to respond to. Results of these surveys become the basis of how they can improve their products.
Yep, I did this, too. But only to try it out.
How to get into it? Just Google paid surveys and you’ll find hundreds of them. Just go for the legit ones, of course.
So those are my top 10 best online business models. I’m sure there are more, but I can only write about things I have firsthand knowledge of.
If you want to share YOUR favorite online business models with me, leave them on the comments below.
And just as I always close my posts, please LIKE me on Facebook.
