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STRESS MANAGEMENT How To Break Through Fear in Turbulent Times Solving Problems in a High-Stress Environment Break Through Self-Doubt & Fear Make 2004 your Year of Organization Manage Stress by Stopping Obsessive or Unwanted Thoughts Stress; Control It, Change It or Let It Go! Tips for Managing Holiday Madness Modern Day Stressors: What Stress Looks Like in the 21st Century The Life Juggle: How to Find Lifework Balance
CHANGE The Questions Leaders Should Ask Themselves about Change The Top Ten Ways to Manage People through Change
RUNNING A BUSINESS Be Heard. Be Strong. Be Effective. How to Deliver Impressive Presentations Getting Started in the Speaking Business: Answers to Burning Questions What Entrepreneurs Need to Know to be Successful How to Create and Maintain Culture as You Grow Recruitment and Retention of Diverse Candidates
DIVERSITY Traits of a Diverse Organization Simma's Holiday Diversity Q and A How to Go from Eggshell Walking to Multicultural Festivity Making Are You Wasting Your Money on Diversity Training? Interview Bias: Overcoming the Silent Forces Working Against You How to Help LGBT Employees Help Your Organization Grow How to Integrate Diversity Into Your Business Strategy Diversity Benefits Organizations and Communities 10 PC Tips for Communicating with a Diverse Audience Interviewing Employees Who Stay Wage and Position Disparity Across Gender What Every Consultant Needs to Know About Diversity Consulting and Training Diversity Competency Assessment Recruitment and Retention of Diverse Candidates Understanding Diversity Dialogues Dialogue as a Communication Tool Amongst Diverse Groups of People Communicating across Generations in the Workplace Simma & Kate's Strategies for Cross-Generational Relationship Building Valuing Diversity during the Holidays
COMMUNICATION Understanding Dialogue: A Q&A on the benefits of dialogue Dialogue as a Communication Tool 10 PC Tips for Communicating with a Diverse Audience Tips for Better Communication Between Men and Women in the Workplace Understanding Diversity Dialogues Dialogue as a Communication Tool Amongst Diverse Groups of People Simma & Kate's Strategies for Cross-Generational Relationship Building
GENDER COMMUNICATION Differences in Male and Female Communication Styles Gender Communications Differences and Strategies Wage and Position Disparity across Gender Tips for Better Communication between Men and Women in the Workplace
WORK/LIFE BALANCE Life/Work Balance in the Real World New Year's Resolutions: A New Approach? Working with Loved Ones: Leverage Potential and Avoid Pitfalls Modern Day Stressors: What Stress Looks Like in the 21st Century The Life Juggle: How to Find Lifework Balance
RESTAURANT & HOSPITALITY
Are You Truly Successful?
FEAR & SELF-DOUBT |
Web Site Tips You can drive yourself crazy trying to contact a meeting planner hoping to get thrown a bone to send them your press kit. With overnight delivery, a press kit with demo audio/video can cost 35-50 dollars. You may never hear from them again. But something amazing happened over the last year. Ninety percent of my business started coming off the internet. The inside secrets how to make this happen begins by having your web site ready for the internet search engines to find you. How do people find you? Can you be found with an internet search? Go to www.google.com and do a search of your name, topic and any product titles you may have. If the search does not find something about you, you have to start asking yourself why. More speakers than ever are being booked from leads off the internet. On a recent search of my name and product titles, I stopped looking after 20 matches, including a posting I made on Speaknet.com on media tips and a European book web site that was selling one of my books. Wally Bock presented a program to bureau owners at a NSA Western Workshop (it was not listed in the schedule; and no you were not invited.) Using a LCD screen, he did an internet search of his name. One hundred and seventy matches came back. He told the group if I can do that, so can anyone looking for me, another speaker or topic. When someone does a search on the web for key words, product titles or topics, search engines seek out these titles, meta tag key words and descriptions. These are invisibly buried in the HTML code within your web site. I'm shocked by how many web sites are weak or totally without these key ingredients. You can view your key elements, or those on other web sites, by clicking view on your tool bar then select page source. If you're using Internet Explorer, right click with your mouse on the page of interest. Then, click "View Source." Tom Antion is a top internet guru for speakers and their products. If you want to stay ahead of the curve, get to one of his Butt Camps or purchase his CD's from his web site http://www.Antion.com. You can find out which of your key words, or the ones similar to them, can have the most impact by going to https://www.goto.com/s/dtc/signup/ and doing a search on possible words. You can bid on keys words you want on this site so your web site will come to the top when someone does a search. When you go to try and find the right key words, click on Search Suggestion Tool under the tool section upper right corner to see how key words are ranked.
Next get your web site listed with the top search engines. You can list your site with the top 15 search engines free by going to www.thefrontpage.com. Type in "top search engines" as a search on this site. Another site to list on several search engines is http://www.uxn.com/search_engines.html. Since most of the search engines are refusing to accept mass e-mail listings, you need to go to each of the top sites and register separately. On some search engine registration pages, you have to scroll down to the bottom of the page and find the "add your URL" in small print. There is no need registering for 100 web sites. Beyond the top 15 is a waste of time. They are usually specialized search engines with little or no traffic for your interests. Continue to register your site every ninety days, even if you haven't made any changes. This causes the search engine spiders to take a fresh look at your site and move it up toward the top of their list. Consider listing with a few selected online speakers bureau web sites to increase traffic to your site. Increase your Web site traffic by dropping into Internet community bulletin boards on your topic. You can add content, answer questions and leave a trail back to your Web site. Go to www.egroups.com to find communities for your topic area. Web Site Orders: Statistics reveal 65% of those filling out an order form on an internet web site abort before they press send. Whether you have an existing order form on your site, or looking into establishing one, consider the ease of using a turn key system starting at little or no costs or fees to you courtesy of http://mals-e.com. Mals provides you with a link to their server that hosts your product order form. It comes with a secured credit card system, shopping cart, running total and much more. Easier E-zines: Starting an e-zine is a natural way to keep in front of your clients with the current WOW information and products. I was resistant to start one though because I didn't want the drudgery of putting up and taking down e-mails and managing the list. Postmaster General (www.mindsharedesign.com), is a service that will run the whole show for you. It won't be considered spam because the clients themselves subscribe and remove themselves right on your web site (unlike some of our speaker associates who sign us up without asking; because they know we will love their stuff). Postmaster General provides you with the subscribe and remove templates ready to place on your web site. You send
out your e-zine by posting it on your Postmaster General account page.
Cost: Starting at $19.95 a month for up to 300 e-mail addresses. I added
my e-zine (firezine) sign up on those pages that have the most traffic
on my web site on a late afternoon. The next morning I already had subscribers.
By the time I published the first edition, 126 were signed up. That's
like finding money in the street. Ask your Internet provider if they offer a Web Trends type reporting program that will give you reports on your web stats activity. This will give you an in depth look at how and where visitors are entering your site, what pages they go to, where they leave, key words that drew the search engine, how long they stayed and much more. This unique look at what is going on with your web site will allow you to tweak the structure of your site. When we were going on the Barbara Walter's show, we knew that ABC.com was going to be link our web site to theirs. Our web site was re-mapped so a show visitor was greeted, given the option to test drive sample chapters of our books, given free tip lists and the option to order our products from us or with a hyperlink to Amazon.com., who was placing orders for books every day for two weeks after the show. All this while we escaped to Europe after the show celebrating our 35 wedding anniversary. The link stayed on the ABC web site two months. Ask your web master to structure your web site so you can make changes. It's easier than you think. With more customers using high speed DSL and internet cable connections consider streaming video your demo video on your web site by going to www.speakersonvideo.com It gives a potential client an instant sample of what you can do. With everything
on my web site I often receive e-mail, i.e., Your availability May 5,
2002. Your fee. At first I would panic and want to send an impressive
e-mail and my press kit. Here's the big shocker. Most of those who are requesting information are not the traditional meeting planners. They are people who are searching the internet because they have been given the responsibility for obtaining a speaker, a member of a committee or their boss has done a web search and given them some web site URL's to check out. The amazing thing about this web site action is you make fewer, if any, cold calls. With the web site up 24 hours a day, they are finding me. How about you? Fire "Captain Bob" Smith, is a recognized speaker and authority on stress, team building, change, communication and relationship skills, a 28-year veteran firefighter, author of "Fire Up Your Communication Skills" and "Eat Stress For Breakfast". He is a frequent talk show guest (completing over 300 media interviews) including his appearance on ABC's Barbara Walters Show "The View", and has been featured in USA Today. (888) 238-3959 e-mail: captbob@verio.com Web site: www.eatstress.com |