Are You Serious About Success?

I was recently contacted by a woman who took me up on my offer (free website critique). She first sent me an e-mail and asked if we could talk, I then e-mailed her back with a time. 

She called me the minute I said I would contact her. You may be thinking so what? 

You may be amazed at what I am about to tell you, but there are so many people who claim to want to have a successful online business, or they say they

really, really want to do what it takes to make it to the top. 

Even so, they don't put the action behind the words… 

This woman showed she is serious about doing what it takes. 

In my many years of experience, I have had many people who have e-mailed me or sent me a project request, when I answered them they didn't even bother to reply – or they did not send me their telephone number because they were too busy to talk and say, “just send it to me in writing." 

This tells me one of two things, 

1. They are not serious about building a successful business. 

2. They don't respect my time - and want something for nothing.

In ether situation – it is not the atmosphere in which I will work… and as a professional – neither should you. 

If you are like me, you have very little time so every second counts. I only want to do business with like-minded people – those people who are willing to put in the work to do what it takes and those businesses that respect my professional expertise. 

Only 3% of people ever reach their goals in life – and get to where they want to go. The reason the other 97% don't is because they are not willing to do what it takes… 

Those that are successful are:

• Have a Plan
• Persistent
• Take action
• Do what it takes. 
• When they make mistakes, they pick themselves up, brush themselves off, learn from it and tread forward. 

Winston Churchill said "never, never, never give up." He was right...

Pamela Jacob Artista Design

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Always take the time to harvest the fruits of your labor…

Let me begin by saying writing articles is a fantastic way to get your name on the Internet as an authority in your field – it is also a wonderful way to gain exposure for your website, blog or e-zine. I would go so far as to claim it is one of the best ways to build your online database… But (and there is always a but!) You need to do it the right way or all your time and effort will be wasted, you will be one of the nay Sayers going around whining “I have tried it, it doesn't work”. Sometimes we have to step back take a deep breath and look at what we are doing and most of all how we are doing it. I have learned over the years that everything has its price. We all have to go through the process and do things right – when we take short cuts things don't work. And then one has to start the process all over again… This is true with everything in life, creating articles and using them for marketing is no different. I recently started consulting with a company, helping them put together a marketing strategy that would work for them. They eventually want to write articles to be posted to an article distribution websites, are so busy at this time it is next to impossible. We decided in the initial phase of the marketing plan we would work to get a blog up and all the SEO (search engine optimization) done correctly so that we have a solid foundation. The decision was also made to go out and get some free articles to place on the blog’s we are creating. In researching and pulling articles I begin to discover that the articles I found and liked had a resource box at the end they did not have a link back to their website! I was totally astounded - did they really think that a link was not important? You must must make it easy for someone to access information about you and your business – a link is like the key to unlock your store… Did they really think that anyone would take the time to find them through researching information in the byline? Hardly... I as a consumer would click on a link but would probably in all honesty not go to the trouble of finding them any other way. Even more astounding – I went a step further - I really like a few of these articles, I thought it would be great to be able to look at a website they had or some information they may give me. I decided to e-mail them through the article submission website. I e-mail about 6 individuals that had taken the time to write these articles and submit them (not always an easy task). I did not hear back from any of them, not one!! Amazing… Lesson to take from this: Please make sure you pay attention to details that could (will) cost you business… Please make sure and follow up with all emails What can we learn from this? Always take the time to harvest the fruits of your labor… After all if you were a farmer would you go to all the painstaking trouble to plow the orchard – plant the seeds, pamper the trees to maturity – fertilize and spray so the bugs don’t eat the buds and destroy your fruit. Then when the fruit is beautiful, ripe and ready to be consumed you let it fall to the ground and rot… Isn’t that exactly what is happening in the above scenario?

Does the Host You Choose Make a Difference?

Do you ever think about who is hosting your website, do you think it matters? Yes of course it does!

A web host is someone who “houses” you website/pages. A good analogy is it is like you are renting an on-line store. So it is important when renting this space that it is big enough to hold prospective customers that come into it. It is equally as important to have a space that will be able to manage all the inventory – and products you need to put in it. You also need a big enough door for you customers to fit through.

This is a simplification but honestly a host is so very important when considering the success of your online business. There are many hosting companies on the internet, some look great but are terrible, some charge an arm and a leg but do no more than a hosting company that charges a reasonable amount.

I have worked with hosting companies that I loved in the beginning then they cut the customer service (I left – I do not work with any company that does not offer excellent customer service). I do not work with hosting businesses I cannot get responses from or will not help me directly… I will only work with hosting companies (personally I have one I love) that enable me to get into the back end and add or take away an email and really manage my site.

This is so very important – yet sometime overlooked. You need a host that is up 99.99 % of the time. If a visitor comes to your website and it is down, chances are they will not come back. What happens then? A missed sale and a chance to have a life long customer.

One hosting company I highly recommend is Hands On Web Hosting I have had nothing but great customer service from them, I have actually gotten to know them quite well.

Word of Caution: Do not use a free host for you online business… They are NEVER what you need- some of them will not even let you use your own domain name. Most free hosting site have you put up banners and ads - how unprofessional is that!

If you are serious about your business, you must appear successful and if you cannot even afford a host for your website - what is that saying about you? It is so obvious to visitors that your business must be floundering - or not very successful…

This may seem like a small thing, but it is a big thing when marketing your business online.

Pamela Jacob - Artista Design

Providing Creative Solutions & Amazing Results