The new year is here, and I’m sure you’ve got lots of exciting plans for growing your business! If your list for 2011 includes a new website or revamp of your existing site, there are many questions for you to consider. One of the most important elements of your website is your content.

It’s a great idea, especially if you’re new to the organizing profession, to look at other professional organizer websites for inspiration. Seeing what others have done can give you a good sense of the type of information to include on your own site. You might even see one and think,

I offer the exact same services as this organizer. I’m sure he/she won’t mind if I use the same wording. After all, we’re hundreds of miles apart, so it’s not like I’ll be taking away business from them.

Guess again! Even though technology makes it easy for us to simply copy and paste text and images from other websites, it’s no different than a student copying information out of a book and submitting it to the teacher as their own work. It’s both unethical and illegal. Furthermore, technology also increases the likelihood that you’ll get caught, potentially damaging your reputation or even having your website taken offline by your hosting company.

Taking that text and mixing it up a bit isn’t enough. According to Wikipedia,

Plagiarism is not only the mere copying of text, but also the presentation of another’s ideas as one’s own, regardless of the specific words or constructs used to express that idea.

In other words, your website content needs to be original. As it should! You may not be the only professional organizer in the world, but you are the only YOU. Your website needs to express the reasons why clients should choose YOU to help them solve their organizing challenges. At a minimum, it should answer the following questions:

• What services do you offer?
• What areas do you serve?
• Who is your target organizing client? How will they benefit from working with you?
• What are your qualifications?
• Do you belong to any organizations?

And most importantly,

• What makes you different from your competition?

To get indexed by Google and other search engines, it’s recommended that you have at least 250 words on the main pages of your website. Keep in mind, however, that when gathering information online, most people prefer browsing over reading. You should therefore avoid dense blocks of text and instead use a combination of lists and short paragraphs.

When writing your content, be sure to include the keywords and phrases that people are most likely to use when searching for your business online, but remember, it’s more important to write for human visitors than for search engines spiders. We’ve all seen websites that were so heavily laden with keywords that it was a challenge to understand the actual message. That’s a surefire way to get people to leave your site in a hurry!

For some excellent guidance in writing your own website copy, I highly recommend The Longman Guide to Style and Writing on the Internet. And no matter what your writing ability, be sure to ask someone else to proofread your work before you publish it online. When you know what something is supposed to say, that’s what your mind sees, whether it actually says that or not.

On the other hand, if there are other things you’d rather do with your time, let’s talk! I’d love to help you find just the right words to describe you and your business, and attract the type of clients you’re looking for.

Photo source: iStockphoto

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A few weeks ago, I participated in a blogging competition sponsored by Blog Energizer. Thank you very much for your votes – I’m excited to announce that I came in second, winning a lifetime membership to Contentrix Better Content, and especially pleased that it’s something that will help me make this blog an even better resource for you.

Let me tell you a bit about my prize! Contentrix is an interactive program that helps you create content for your blog or website, generate traffic to your site and, most importantly, convert that traffic to sales.

As a student, I receive weekly lessons, complete with homework assignments, focused on a specific aspect of content marketing, such as idea generation, copywriting fundamentals, creating winning headlines, branding your content, repurposing your material, developing information products, and lots more.

Each lesson includes both a PDF and an audio file, to accommodate both visual and auditory learners, and I can interact with the course developer any time I have questions or comments.

To see what type of information this course provides, you can download a free Content Marketing Copy Swipe File.

I would really love to have someone take the program with me! If you’re interested in joining me, you can get a trial membership for only $1.00.

Photo: vistamommy

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Many of my clients come to me for help because they lack either the technical skills or the time required to create or maintain a website or a blog. Whether you handle these tasks yourself, or you choose to outsource them, there are a few basic terms and facts you should be familiar with.

Blog: A blog is a specific type of Website, where new content is continually added to previous content, rather than replacing it. Most blogs allow for communication between the author and his or her readers, in the form of comments.

Browser (or Web Browser): A software program used to display Web Pages. Internet Explorer has traditionally been the most widely used, as it comes pre-installed on Windows-based computers, but Firefox is starting to overtake it in number of users. Other popular browsers include Chrome, Safari, and Opera. It’s important to realize that Web Pages may display differently in different browsers.

Domain Name: The name that identifies a Website, e.g. organizedassistant.com. A domain name is purchased from a domain registrar such as MyDomain and must be renewed annually, usually at a cost of around $10.00 per year. Your domain name needs to point to your Web Hosting in order to function.

Downloading: The act of transferring files from the Internet to a local computer.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol): A method for Uploading and Downloading files over the Internet, usually using software such as Filezilla.

Hosting (or Web Hosting): Just as files are stored on your personal computer, every website must be stored on a computer on the Internet. You need to purchase this service from a hosting company such as HostGator (affiliate link) – think of it as renting a home for your website. Fees for hosting vary widely, depending on the features and amount of storage you require. You can sometimes find free web hosting, but keep in mind that free services are usually funded by advertising which will appear on your website.

Metatag: Coding on a web page that is used to give Search Engines information about that page. The most important are the Title tag (which appears at the top of your Browser window while viewing the page), the Description tag (which may appear in the search results), and the Keywords tag (which provides keywords for the Search Engines to associate with your page).

Permalink: A URL that points to a specific Blog post, as opposed to the main page of the Website. The permalink appears in the address bar at the top of the Browser window. You can see that the permalink for this post is http://organizedassistant.com/2010/03/05/website-owners-guide-for-non-techies.

Search Engine: A computer program used to search and index the millions of pages of available information on the web. Although Google is the most widely used, there are many others, including Yahoo and Bing.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): A technique used to increase the likelihood of your Website coming up high in search results by making it more visible to Search Engines.

Uploading: The act of transferring files to the Internet from a local computer. Some websites have uploading features built in, but others require that you have FTP access.

URL: This is the web address you give people so they can go to your website, e.g. http://www.organizedassistant.com or http://organizedassistant.com/services/wordpress-website-and-blog-design/. Please note how this differs from the Domain Name.

Web Page: A single document displayed on the Internet.

Website: A collection of related Web Pages belonging to an individual, a company, or an organization.

WordPress: Free software used for creating both blogs and websites. When installed on your Web Hosting account, it can be completely customized in terms of both design and function. You can use WordPress at WordPress.com without purchasing web hosting or a domain name, but it is much more limited, unless you upgrade to a premium account.

If there’s terminology that puzzles you which I have not included here, you may be able to find a definition on one W3Schools.com or Build Web Site For You, which I found helpful while creating this post. For further clarification, feel free to ask me a question.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Website Owner’s Guide for Non-Techies.

Although I tend to focus a lot on the benefits of WordPress, a traditional HTML website can promote your organizing business equally well, if it is professionally designed, properly optimized for the search engines, and represents your business effectively. Otherwise, you may be wondering why your website is not generating the results you are looking for.

I was recently contacted by Nancy Quinlan, the owner of Must Get Organized in Arlington, Virginia. Nancy had already hired someone to create a website for her business, but it didn’t have the polished image she wanted to convey, and it wasn’t doing well in the search engines. Above is a screenshot of her original site.

The site had a clean, uncluttered look, which is important for organizing professionals, but it was almost too clean and had no visual appeal. She wanted to maintain her existing logo, as she was using it on her business card and other printed materials.

The first thing I did was change the background to a darker shade of blue to give the main content more impact. I also worked with Nancy to overhaul her existing content and make it more compelling. As you can see from the updated screenshot below, I also placed one of the images from her Before and After photo gallery on the home page for greater visual appeal. Click on the screenshot to see the rest of Nancy’s website, which has been revamped throughout.

Because for the most part I was working with existing graphics and content, I was able to complete this project at a much lower cost than a brand new website. I was therefore able to devote additional time to optimizing the site for the search engines, and continue to perform additional search engine optimization to improve the chances that her site will be found by clients in her target market.

If you’re no longer in love with your website, don’t despair. You don’t necessarily have to spend a fortune to get a fresh new look or to expand your reach. Why not contact me for a free 30 minute consultation? What do you have to lose?

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Does Your Website Need a Facelift?.

Internet Marketing is one of the most important tools in your business arsenal. Not only does it cost less than advertising in print and broadcast media, its interactive nature allows you to build relationships with clients and prospects without the need for time-consuming telephone or face-to-face meetings. Internet marketing is much more than just putting up a website! Your Internet marketing plan may include search engine optimization, email marketing, blogging, social networking, and other strategies.

There are lots of resources available to help you understand various aspects of online marketing, including this blog, but did you ever think it would be helpful to have that information neatly packaged into a 90-minute seminar? Do you prefer learning in a live group setting, rather than participating in a webinar or teleclass? Have I got news for you!

I am really excited to announce that I’ve been invited to be the guest speaker at the POC Toronto Chapter meeting this month, where I’ll be sharing some of my best Internet marketing tips to help you decide the best ways to market your organizing business.

The meeting is being held upstairs at Loblaws – Forest Hill Market, which offers free parking and is right across from the St. Clair West subway station. Come at 6:00 for networking and refreshments; the seminar itself will start around 7:00, and there will be plenty of time allowed to ask questions after my formal presentation.

There is no charge to members of Professional Organizers in Canada to attend, and guests pay only $15.00 at the door. I hope you will try to make it if you can, as it’s such a great value, and I’d love to meet as many of my blog readers as possible! I’m especially looking forward to reconnecting with POC members that I haven’t seen since I last went to Conference, in 2006.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Live Seminar in Toronto: Maximizing Your Internet Marketing.

It seems that all the buzz these days is about Twitter, but there’s another important social network that’s been around even longer. Established in 2003, LinkedIn currently reports 45 million users, approximately three times as many as Twitter.

Of course the main purpose of any social networking site is to network, but there are other benefits to being on LinkedIn.

Search Engine Positioning

LinkedIn allows you to include as much detailed information as you wish on your profile, providing you with a great opportunity to use keywords abundantly. Not only does this help you to be found by a person searching on LinkedIn for someone with your expertise, but it means your profile itself will come in Google and other search engines. There has been more than one occasion where I couldn’t remember an individual’s website address or the name of their business, but I’ve easily found their LinkedIn profile on Google, simply by searching on their name.

LinkedIn also allows you to enter links to your business website, your blog, and any other sites you have. Links from high quality sites will help your own sites’ search engine positioning as well. By the way, when setting this up, instead of choosing the default names of My Company and My Blog, choose “Other.” This will allow you to name the links something more meaningful (and keyword rich) such as the name of your business and the title of your blog.

Recommendations

Any recommendations you receive via LinkedIn are displayed prominently on your profile. You can take advantage of this to request recommendations from a wide range of people. They don’t necessarily have to be clients – they may be colleagues with whom you’ve worked on a committee or collaborated on a project, people who have heard you speak or used your products, former employers or co-workers – anyone who is in a position to comment on your work. You always have an opportunity to approve recommendations before they are published on your profile, so if you don’t think the individual has worded it in a way that is beneficial to you, you can ask them to edit it or simply leave it unpublished.

In some cases, you may wish to copy recommendations to your website or other marketing materials, or you can simply place a link after the testimonials on your site, inviting others to read more recommendations on your LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn recommendations can have even more impact than testimonials placed on your website, because they are linked to the profile of the person making the recommendation, so there’s never any question as to the authenticity.

Event Promotion

Are you holding a teleclass, live workshop, or other event? List it on LinkedIn. Not only can you send invitations directly to your LinkedIn contacts, but the event will appear in the main events directory where it may be found by other interested parties who might otherwise not have known about it.

I’ll be sharing some tips for effective networking on LinkedIn in some future posts. In the meantime, you’ll find some great information on these blogs:

• I’m On LinkedIn – Now What???
• Linked Intelligence
• LinkedIn Blog

If you haven’t already, please connect with me on LinkedIn. I’d appreciate a note letting me know you read Your Organizing Business. There are people who refer to themselves as “open networkers” but I’m not one of them.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on You Should Be on LinkedIn, and Here's Why.

Starting your own organizing business is an exciting adventure, but before you can become successful, you need to let as many people as possible know that you exist. Until you have money coming in, you may be reluctant to invest in advertising, but that’s probably a good thing, as paid ads are rarely cost-effective for service businesses. You can reach a larger audience in a much more powerful way by getting your business mentioned on TV or radio, or in newspapers, magazines, or other publications. And the best part is, it won’t cost you a small fortune!

Being quoted as an expert in your field has a lot more impact on readers than merely purchasing an ad, because it shows that someone other than you values your knowledge, thereby building your reputation and growing your business brand. Furthermore, people often skip over advertisements, unless they are truly creative. Honestly, when you’re reading a magazine or newspaper, how many ads do you pay attention to?

So how can you get the media to notice YOU?

The traditional method is to send out a press release whenever you have something newsworthy to share. Perhaps you’ve won an award, or maybe you’re the first professional organizer in your small town. Media contacts are inundated with releases every day, so if your story offers something unique, you have a much better chance of getting noticed.

When I was a new professional organizer, I decided to take part in National Organizing Week. That particular year, Professional Organizers in Canada (POC) had selected Big Brothers and Big Sisters as the national charity who would receive free organizing services from members across Canada. After contacting my local organization to make arrangements, I customized the press release template I’d received from POC and sent it out to the local media. The people at the local TV station were so surprised to learn that there was such a thing as National Organizing Week that they decided to come and interview me for the evening news! I’m not going to lie to you and say that I was inundated with phone calls and emails from potential clients after that, but people did mention for several months that they’d seen my interview, and to this day I’m able to say that I’ve been featured as an organizing expert on CH News, which enhances my credibility.

Keep in mind that reporters and journalists do not rely on press releases for their story lines. Topics are often assigned to them by editors, or they may have their own ideas to pursue. For this reason, a strong online presence can be very beneficial. I’ve been approached by media contacts on a number of occasions just because my website or my blog came up when they conducted an online search on the topic they were researching! If you’re not doing as well in the search engines as you should be, I’d love to help you. I can’t promise to get you on the first page of search results (although I’ve achieved that for many of my clients) because there are just too many factors involved, and you should beware of anyone who makes that claim, but I’d be happy to create and implement a search engine optimization strategy for you. Feel free to contact me any time!

Because searching the web can be such a daunting and time-consuming task, many reporters in search of experts to interview submit their requests to Peter Shankman, who compiles the requests and emails them to subscribers three times per day. As I scan each email, I let my clients know of any inquiries that might be of interest to them. Of course they – and you – can also become a subscriber by signing up at http://helpareporter.com/. Urgent requests are also posted on Twitter, at http://twitter.com/helpareporter.

I’d love to hear about your media success stories too!

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on How to Get Media Exposure.

There’s no question that social media has taken the world by storm. In addition to business-oriented sites like LinkedIn, micro-blogging tools like Twitter, and one-size-fits-all sites like Facebook and Plaxo, there are lots of new sites dedicated to professional organizers and other special interest groups. If you’re in any doubt, check out some of these Social Media Statistics.

You can look forward to future posts on this blog covering such topics as identifying the sites that are most worthwhile for you, setting up your profiles, and effectively maintaining your online presence. And of course, since one of my functions as a virtual assistant is supporting my clients’ social networking activities, you are welcome to contact me at any time to find out how I can help you in this area.

But perhaps you are anxious to get started, or you’d like a more in-depth understanding of how it all works before you can develop your own social networking strategy. If so, be sure to mark Embrace Social Media on your calendar for June 10 and 11! Because this is a telesummit, you won’t have any travel or accommodation costs, and you won’t have to get dressed up. In fact, you won’t even have to leave home! You will, however, have the opportunity to learn from eight experts in various aspects of social media, who will each present for 75 minutes over the course of two days.

If you can’t fit the live calls into your schedule, or you don’t want to spend that much time on the telephone, you can still benefit from this event. Enhanced plans are available, allowing you to access the recordings online, or to receive a complete package including audio CDs, transcripts, and Tweet notes from Twitter, delivered right to your door.

All participants will also receive a two-month free Teleclass Membership and two teleclass audios from A Red Bench, a finalist in the “Most Valuable Educational Resource” category of the 2009 LA Organizing Awards.

Visit the website for complete information about Embrace Social Media, including a full schedule and registration details.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Isn’t It Time You Embraced Social Media?.

I’ve blogged previously about why it’s important for professional organizers to have a website, but to really reap the benefits of your website, you’ll want it to come up as high in the search engine results as possible. There are many strategies for enhancing your search engine positioning, some involving factors within your website, and others outside it. Today I’m going to share a tip that will, in many cases, put your site at the top of the first page of Google, and it won’t cost you a dime.

In the example above, my search on professional organizer new york yielded nearly half a million results, but before the regular search results, you can see a small section with the heading “Local business results for professional organizer near New York, NY” along with a small map. Beside the map are several relevant listings, complete with telephone number. Wouldn’t you love to have that kind of visibility?

It’s actually fairly simple. All you need to do is:

1.    Go to the Google Local Business Center.

2.    Log in, using the same user name and password that you use for Gmail, Google Alerts, or any other Google service you may already by using. If you don’t have a Google account, simply click on Sign Up Now, enter your desired user name, password, and location. After you read and agree to the terms of service, your account will be created.

3.    Click on Add new business.

4.    Enter your business details, including a description of up to 200 characters.

5.    Enter one or more categories that apply to your business.

6.    If desired, you may also:

• Specify your hours of operation and payment options.
• Upload your logo and/or other images.
• If you have one or more videos on YouTube that you’d like to be linked to your listing, enter the URL(s).
• Enter any additional details you want people to know about your business.

7.    Click on Submit.

8.    For your protection, Google will verify your information before publishing it. Indicate whether you prefer to be contacted by telephone, text message, or snail mail, then click on Finish.

Google will then contact you with a personal identification number which you must enter to validate your listing. Your listing will usually appear online the next day. That’s all there is to it!

I realize that many professional organizers work from home and might have concerns around publishing their personal address. If you live in an apartment or townhouse, you can simply leave off your unit number (not recommended if you’ve asked them to contact you by snail mail, of course). Otherwise, you may want to consider renting a mailbox, as there are quite a few online directories that require you to provide a mailing address in order to obtain a listing.

It might not be as critical to get that top spot if you’re in a smaller community where you have less competition, but it sure couldn’t hurt!

I’ve helped many professional organizers and other small business clients to appear in the first page of search results in Google and/or Yahoo! and would love to help you too. Just drop me a line any time to request a free 30 minute consultation.

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Promoting Your Organizing Business with Google Local.

Writing articles has long been known as a powerful marketing tool. Organizers who succeed in getting an article published in a newspaper or magazine are able to reap the benefits of putting their name and their expertise in front of thousands of potential clients! Unfortunately, in most cases, the article is looked at only once before the publication is discarded, so unless you’re able to land a weekly column, your exposure is somewhat limited. Publishing your articles on the Internet, however, increases both the reach and the duration of your exposure.

If you already have articles on your website, good for you! Because your articles probably include many of the keywords your potential clients might use in an online search, this helps to ensure that your site will come up in the search results. But did you know that there are other ways your articles can bring traffic to your website?

You can maximize the impact of your articles by submitting them to various article directories and including an author resource box with a link to your website. People who read your articles on those other sites may then be compelled to visit your site for additional information. This is especially important if you sell information products such as books or teleclasses and you want to reach people outside your geographic area.

The most popular and probably the best article directory is EzineArticles. It’s used by millions of people and, because it’s very well organized, there’s a good chance of your articles being found by the people who need your help. With this type of article directory, when you submit an article, you grant permission for others to use it in websites, newsletters, or print publications, along with your author resource box and link to your website. This in turn increases the number of people who can learn about your site, but that’s only the beginning!

Each time your article and link appear on another website, it creates what’s called a backlink to your site. The number of backlinks is one of the factors considered by Google and other search engines when determining the importance of a website and how high it will appear in search results.

Now you can see why article marketing is so powerful!

If your time is limited, or writing is not your forte, there are many ways that Scott and I can help. We can research any facts and figures you may require to support your articles, and we can proofread and edit your articles for spelling, grammar, typos, and readability. If you’re too busy to write, you can take advantage of my experience in the organizing industry to ghost write articles on your behalf, or to prepare drafts to which you can apply your finishing touches. Once your articles are ready to be submitted, we can create your profile on article directory sites and submit your articles. We can even search for niche article directories, websites, and publications appropriate for your topic. Just drop me a line any time to request a free 30 minute consultation.

If you haven’t been using article marketing to promote your organizing business, maybe it’s time that you did!

Please visit Your Organizing Business to read and comment on Writing Articles to Market Your Organizing Business.