Over the years we have researched and used heaps of different software. Some have been brilliant and we still use them today. Others cost us literally tens of thousands of dollars in lost sales, over-paid affiliate payments and staff time in trouble shooting problems. That doesn’t include the emotional strain of dealing with dodgy technology and uncooperative suppliers. How do you put a price on tears?

We now use a very powerful but simple combination of software tools to run our business. Each part of the software puzzle is used because it is the best at that part of the system, is simple to use and is great value. In fact, some of them are free and the rest are low cost.

In the video below, I walk you through the software we use. I show you how it is used, what we like about it and also, what are the limitations of them. This video is 1 of 6 videos in this month’s Wonderful Web Women gold member module. This month’s module takes you behind the scenes of a successful list building funnel, shows you why each section works so well and how to implement the same in your business simply and quickly. You can get life-time access to this training module by joining as a member today. This no-fuss training has been getting excellent reviews.

Any questions you have on the software I show you in this video, just leave below. I’d love to hear any questions you have and any experience you have with choosing software to run your business so leave your comments below. I’ll come back and join the conversation.

Cheers

Janet

P.S.

Links to the software:

Hosting (www.WonderfulWebHosting.com)

WordPress (comes free with your hosting. This creates your website)

Optimize Press Theme ($97). Puts your free wordpress software on steroids.

Aweber

1ShoppingCart

Product Launches do more than promote the release of your new product.

They can also be an incredible waste of energy if not done correctly.

I’ve been fortunate to be involved in quite a few launches. My own, my consulting clients and graduates of my Passion to Profits Program. They can be a lot of fun.

They can often seem to be very complicated and overwhelming and so a lot of people think they are only the domain of “the Big Boys”. Not so.

Every launch follows 6 steps and if you use the same psychology you would apply to planning a party to end all parties, you are more than half way there.

I thought I’d share a video with you. It is video number 2 of the 9 videos that are part of the Wonderful Web Women Gold Member’s July Training module “Product Launch Cheat Sheet”. It covers the 6 steps in a launch and gives you an overview of how a launch works.

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Please leave your comments and questions below. And if you’d like to join the other Gold Members learning this module, it will be lovely to welcome you.

Have you run a launch? If so how did it go. If you have any tips or lessons to share I know other readers here would love to hear it. And remember any questions you have, just leave them below.

Cheers

Janet

We all hope you have a wonderful break this Christmas and have the opportunity to be with people you love.

Janet, Douglas, Phoebe and Clancy

100 Year Anniversary of International Women’s Day

Did you know that March 8th 2011 is the 100th year of International Women’s Day?
What started as a social movement to fight for rights for women has endured and evolved for 100 years. That is incredible vision and focus.

So this year, the book will launch on March 8th 2011. To celebrate this vision, the book will include chapters by:
100 women from around the world, sharing 100 stories on how they keep their vision and focus alive day to day.

I explain more in the video above

You can get all the details and register over here.

1 Million Women out of Poverty

Although there have been amazing progresses made for women over the past 100 years there are still millions of women who live in poverty with no hope of social welfare or even borrowing money to start a business and change their lives. We can change that.

Wonderful Web Women is proud to announce we are now an ambassador for The 1 Million Women out of poverty project which is an initiative of Opportunity International Australia. This project has already helped over 1 million women gain access to micro-finance. These are small loans which allow a woman to start her own business and break the poverty cycle. We will be supporting to help the next million women.

A percentage of all gold memberships of Wonderful Web Women will be donated to support this cause and this book will share the stories of some of these women and raise awareness of this program.

So as well as helping readers with your stories, helping your business growth with the marketing power of the book, you will also be helping millions of women to start their first business, against the odds.

We Need A Snappy Title

I really need your help to come up with a snappy title for the book. One we can create a great graphic cover for and is easy to remember. The draft, and very awkward, title is

“100 International Women Share 100 Inspiring Stories on How To Keep Your Dreams Alive in Celebration of 100 Years of International Women’s Day”.

Can you come up with a better idea? I’d love to hear your suggestions below.

I thought you may like to see the application we submitted. Hopefully it may give you some ideas for your won business?

Cheers

Janet

Wonderful Web Women began life in September 2007 using the Memberspeed software. 8 weeks later we won an award for best membership site using that software. The web site really tested Memberspeed functionality and, even though the software was powerful with great functions, the bugs in the software were driving us crazy! After 2 years Wonderful Web Women had grown into an incredible resource. With hundreds of audios, pdf’s, videos and member articles, as well as thousands of members on the database, the membership site had grown into a real community. We really wanted to transfer the site to a more reliable platform but with such a big site the task seemed overwhelming. So we put that in our “one day” basket and soldiered on.

Be careful what you wish for! In January 2010, the hosting provider for Wonderful Web Women disappeared.  One morning, when trying to access the site(s), they were just not there.  The hosting provider was not responding to calls and investigation showed that the physical server did not exist. They had gone belly-up without telling us.

PHOENIX RISING FROM THE ASHES

At first we decided to reinstate the site using the backups we made on a regular basis. These were made using the procedures recommended with the Memberspeed software. Imagine our horror when we discovered none of the physical files (MP3s, pdfs, images, videos etc) were backed up. The back-up procedures recommended were inadequate.

Faced with the massive task of recreating the site from almost scratch, we saw this as an opportunity. We would come back better than before, with a much more reliable and flexible system. Wishlist Member of course! A regular Phoenix rising from the ashes.

Lead by our web developer, Charly Leetham, we pulled together our team of virtual assistants who, between them and us, had every file created over the last 2 years. We consulted with our members on what they would like to have on the new site and we even had members sending us CDs with files they had downloaded over the years.

Wonderful Web Women has an incredibly loyal membership. Many of our members have been with us for over 2 years. It took our team, working around the clock, 4 weeks to recreate the web site and in that time not a single member left us. In fact people emailed us asking how to join. We had to turn them away because there was no web site!

Below are some of the special features we developed especially for the site, ways we have made the most of Wishlist features and some comments on how this has revolutionized the running of our business. We now recommend Wishlist to all our customers and have produced 2 other membership sites created with Wishlist (www.wonderfulwebseminars.com and www.wonderfulwebworld.com ).

MEMBERSHIP LEVELS

There are several membership levels to Wonderful Web Women:

1. Free membership to develop the trust relationship with the member

This membership level provides limited access to content and resources.  The resources provided are very valuable, though naturally the real ‘meat’ of the site is provided to paying members. There is a one time offer for paid membership when a free member first joins. A Free Member is assigned a specific WP Role on registration.

2. Gold Membership

This membership provides access to all content and resources on the site.  There are several ways to pay for Gold Membership: Monthly recurring, Annually and Lifetime. A Gold Member is assigned a specific WP Role on registration.

3. Faculty Members

The faculty are the people that Janet has interviewed as part of the Wonderful Web Women program.  The Faculty members have access to lifetime Gold membership. They are also featured in a special part of the site, which is a profile function of Wishlist / wordpress. A Faculty Member is assigned a specific WP Role on registration.

SPECIAL FEATURES

******Displaying Gold Member Profiles******

Each Gold Member has the ability to display a profile on the Wonderful Web Women website.  A rotating profile is displayed on the home page of the site automatically, and all profiles may be viewed through the Gold Members Profiles page.  This gives members great exposure and back links to their sites.

Members are able to upload their own image, add a profile, a link to their website and links to their social network profiles.  Each gold member may nominate whether their profile is displayed on the site.

If information is missing from the profile, it will not be displayed on the site which means the profile appears complete and professional for all members.

******Displaying Faculty Member Profiles********

Faculty Member profiles are updated by Janets’ VA’s and displayed automatically on the site.  The same information is provided for Faculty Members as it is for Gold Members except they are in a different, featured part of the site.

The Faculty Member display checks whether there is a profile description for the member and, if it is missing, the profile will not display.  If the profile description exists, the Faculty Member profile will display as standard. Affiliate links to the faculty member’s offers are displayed which provides another stream of income.

For both profile pages, the profiles are displayed in a random order and also randomly featured on the home page.

********Member Dashboards********

The Wonderful Web Women site uses different dashboards for the Free and Gold Members.

These pages are more like ‘portals’ to the other parts of the site.

This site has a lot of information and rather than overwhelming members with everything at once, the dashboard pages have been created to guide members to the sections they are looking for.

********Modules Page********

Another way to help members access the wealth of resources without suffering overwhelm was to create a “modules” page. This has the topic area and then icons in a table for audio, video, checklists etc. To keep update simple, new resources are created as posts with tags that relate to the module category (eg: websitebasics/audios). This means all latest resources are available by clicking on the link and the resources that display will always be up to date.

********Navigation********

Different navigation menus have been created based on the logged in and membership level.

We have created a navigation menu for the top of the site and the right hand column (sidebar).

One challenge we experienced in developing this site was the fact that the menu’s for all levels were displayed to the admin users.  This created confusion for the various admin users and to remedy this, a series of functions to determine the ROLE of the logged in user.  These functions are called using the Wishlist Widget Logic plugin to determine which Menu to display.  This ensures that admin users see specific menus and not all menus.

********Home Page********

The Home Page is created from content on the site.

The different sections on the homepage are taken from Categories or Tags, this makes it easy for the site administrators to change the content on the homepage. It also means there is rotating content on the site to highlight different members and content.

********Forum********

Simple Press Forum has been implemented to increase the community interaction.

A number of sub forums exist and access to those forums are based on the WP Role of the member.

One challenge noted was the upgrade from Free to Paid members.  On membership upgrade using Wishlist Member, the WordPress Role is not changed.  This created an issue where paid members were not able to access areas on the Forum.  A script was developed that checked the members roles on login and added or removed roles according to the active WLM level(s).

HOW WISHLIST HAS REVOLUTIONISED OUR BUSINESS

Using Wishlist has saved us thousands of dollars in staff / contractor costs. Trouble shooting is now at a minimum because the software is so reliable.

We have integrated Wishlist with 1 Shopping Cart which means we can really run everything in the business from 2 places:

1.       WordPress admin (we don’t have to log into WishList a lot once it is set up, so we really only have to add content and occasional member changes).

2.       Admin area of 1 Shopping Cart.

This has allowed me to create a new suite of procedure checklists for our virtual team that let them take over responsibilities that before had too many steps involved.

The consequence? A reduction in staffing costs and a business that is so systemized now, that 2 months after rebuilding Wonderful Web Women the owners were able to spend close to a month in Thailand, with no computer and no contact with our virtual team. And returned to money in the bank and happy customers. Bliss!

REASON FOR THE NOMINATION

Wonderful Web Women was completely rebuilt using WordPress and Wishlist Member in 4 weeks.  This included the development of a specialised theme, graphic design and specialised coding for the Profile and Home pages, navigation menus and Change WLM Roles functionality.  It also included uploading all the content and creating pages and posts for the display of information.

The site has been designed to deliver content to the Wonderful Web Women community in an easy to find fashion, whilst providing an ease of management to the site administrators.

This is a membership site that has become the hub of a genuine online community, has weathered the test of time and will be here for years to come.

Who wins is determined by vote so I’d really appreciate if you can take 30 seconds to vote over here:

I’ve shot this short video below to share with you:

• What the Wishies are
• Why this is so significant
• What software combination we use to create our membership sites
• How transferring our business to this combo has saved us thousands of dollars already
• How this combo let me travel for close to a month in Thailand with no computer.

I’d love to hear your comments. Just leave them below.

And thankyou so much for taking the time to vote and even more for being part of this great community.

Here’s the link to vote again. It should only take about 30 seconds.

Can you also take the time to vote here for Charly Leetham, the web site wiz who created our sites? She is a finalist for being a great techy and she so deserves to win.

Cheers

Janet

P.S. I’d love to hear your comments and questions below. Go on…..join the conversation

P.P.S. Would you like to see our application we sent in that got us to the top 5? I’ve posted it here for you. This may give you some ideas for entering awards yourself and also give you ideas for your business.

One of the wonderful advantages of using the services at Women’s Radio to host your own radio show is the fantastic marketing advantage for your business that it gives you. Pat and her team work very hard to promote your show and have an outstanding web presence of their own. This combination of expertise, contacts and marketing oomph can boost your own online presence to much greater heights than can likely be achieved using only your own efforts.

We were very excited to be able to launch Wonderful Web Radio and if you’d like to check out what we’ve done so far, just head over to http://womensradio.com/wonderfulwebradio and listen in. Our own format is in the form of grabbing the very best snippets of interviews that I have done with some of our wonderful guest speakers in the past along with some fantastic interviews with our very own rising stars who are members of our Community who have used the resources and information at Wonderful Web Women and have taken action and are succeeding in their chosen fields.

So we’d love for you to head on over and check us out at Wonderful Web Radio and if you feel you would like to become a guest speaker yourself, drop me a line.

I’d love to hear your comments. What do you think of mastermind groups and retreats? Or just tell me how much you love what you do to.

Sparkling Diamonds Share Their Stories

Some of the wonderful people in the Diamond program shared their experiences of the power of a mastermind, moving out of your comfort zone and being in an intensive program designed to focus on YOU. Each one is only short but very powerful. Watch these people. They are going to make a huge change to people’s lives. I’d love to hear your comments below or click on the videos to leave a comment for each person over on YouTube.

Cheers

Janet

JP Miller shares the joy of moving out of your comfort zone

Kim Morris shares the power of the mastermind

Lorrah Berg shares the power of breakthroughs

Louise Brogan and Trish Rock share  the gorgeous retreat “office” and the power of action

Here’s the link folks to take this short survey and be in the draw to win a lifetime membership to Wonderful Web Women plus a lazer focused coachng session with me.

Thanks so much for your support.

Cheers

Janet

We are looking for a person to create articles, blog posts, e-books and follow up auto-responders for our own projects and those of our clients. Usually you will be asked to re-purpose existing content (for example take a transcript of an interview and create multiple content types from it) so there is rarely the need for research on the topic.

We’re looking for someone with experience and who has a business that can grow if we send you referrals. If you give great service and value to us then we will refer you to our clients. We need to know you are serious about ghost writing as your business because we need to know you can cope with any referrals we send you and still provide great service and meet deadlines for us and them (you may be able to tell here that in the past we have referred so many people to suppliers they stopped meeting our own deadlines!).

So please, if you like the idea of writing but it is something on the side, rather than your passion, please don’t apply.

General Requirements:

• Reliably meet deadlines
• Provide value for money
• Charge and accept payment in Australian dollars so we can predictably budget.
• Write in a similar style to me which is pretty informal & friendly with  a sense of humour (you can see examples here on my blog)
• Write without hype. I like to keep it pretty real.
• Use your initiative, ie if you have ideas on how to improve what we do, using your services, we want to hear it.

How to Apply

I have linked here to a typical transcript you will receive from us (click on the zip file at the bottom of the page this link takes you to). Can you please quote to re-purpose this content into the following bundles listed below. If your have examples of work you have done previously which is similar please provide this too.

Package A

1. 2 articles to be posted to article directories
2. 4 blog posts to be added to this blog (or one of our sister sites). It is OK for the blog posts to contain similar content to the articles, just be aware of duplicate content.
3. 4 Facebook updates for our fan page – along the lines of questions, challenges etc to involve readers
4. 12 tips to share on twitter
5. 4 Handy tips, about 1 paragraph long to include in newsletters. These are actionable “how to”  tips.

Package B

1. E-book created from transcript
2. Series of 7 follow up auto-responders to encourage interaction and link to products that may be for sale on the site

In The Ideal World…….

There are 2 other services we also need. I don’t expect you to also provide these services, but if you do please let us know.

We need prices for the following (and examples please)

Transcription

1. Transcript of 60 minute interview
2. Action Plan and Cheat Sheet as per example given above

CopyWriting

1. Creation of sales letter, for example at http://4thdimensionmastery.com/workfun-shop

If there are any other services you provide that you think fit in logically with what we are looking for, please let us know.

Next Steps

1. Please send through your quotes, links etc to theteam (at) wonderfulwebwomen.com
2. Leave a comment below. You may as well let our readers know of your skills. You might pick up new clients that way.
3. Any questions you have, can you please ask in the comments section below.

I look forward to receiving so many wonderful applications that it feels like I am in a chocolate shop

Cheers

Janet

If you could learn the rope of how to work smart by creating and using systems in your business from 8 of today’s most successful female entrepreneurs for FREE, would you be interested?

Yes? Well then this project that I have to tell you about is really going to get your heart
started! I have joined 7 other women online entrepreneurs in an amazing collaboration where we share tips, techniques and advice on how to work smarter in your business. We’Ave joined forces and we are on a mission to help women entrepreneurs get more time, more life and more money by creating and using systems. It’s our intention to share the message, and of course a little “secret or two” about how you can work smarter to create the business of your dreams!

Check Out This Great Launch Here

Transcript of the Interview

Dana: Kim, welcome to the call.

Kim: Thanks, Dana.

Dana: Well, thanks for joining us and taking time out of your day.  So, if you don’t mind, please share with our listeners a little bit more about you and your business.

Kim: Sure, I am Kim Morris as you’ve already said and I am from beautiful Brisbane in Queensland, Australia and for the past 10 years I’ve worked throughout Australia in a lot of different corporate roles.  From lots of different roles through some universities to power generation plants to power electricity distributors, just to give you a little bit of an idea.  Some of the really cool expertise that I have developed during this time is in the areas of business analysis, project improvement, project management and human resource management.

And having grown up in quite a business environment, watching my parents really struggle both financially and emotionally to create a really good and sustainable business, I’ve always had a passion to work with small businesses, to help them create the business that they’ve always wanted.  And I know that with the skills and expertise that I’ve developed, both in the corporate world and also from my own previous business activities as a fitness business owner, so I can translate these into valuable learning and knowledge that will help other small-business owners to get the business that they’ve always wanted.

And so now I have a business that is called Entrepreneur Systems that’s all about working with small service type businesses, where the owner is sick and tired of micro-managing employees and is feeling really burnt out from wearing the different hats in their business and is really pretty much losing the battle of focusing on what’s important because they’re just firefighting in their business all the time.  So, essentially what Entrepreneur Systems is about, is helping business owners to create a lifestyle business and to become what I call practically irrelevant to their business knowing that it will keep making money and that their business will still keep going to achieve its overall objective.

Dana: Fantastic!  Well, I love…I love the name, too.  Entrepreneur Systems, as sometimes as entrepreneurs we don’t, you know, really get the fact that we need to have some systems in place to keep a really well-oiled business going.

Kim: Absolutely. Key systems are definitely the foundation of really creating that sustainable business: that set you up for the long term, not just a business that is here one minute and gone the next.  I’m absolutely just so passionate about systems and they are the backbone of every business situation.

Dana: Oh, they absolutely are and I also picked up on your—the term “lifestyle” business, which, as we sometimes forget, that this is something we’re creating as entrepreneurs is a lifestyle.

Kim: Absolutely and you know most of us go into business to get more life not to get less life and quite often really are in business, particularly in those early years, what we end up with is less life.  So, you know, by being smart and actually creating systems in your business, it really will help you to get more life and more of what you’ve really been wanting.

Dana: Fantastic and that’s what we’re all doing this for, isn’t it?

Kim: Oh, totally, for sure…

Dana: Now I know you have been a member, actually a gold member and you have some special…you know, you’re kind of high up there in Janet’s community, so we’re thrilled to be able to feature you as one of her rising stars today. But you’ve been a member, a gold member, especially, of Wonderful Web Woman for quite some time now, haven’t you?

Kim: I have, yes and I first discovered  Wonderful Web Woman about 18 months ago and I have to say I immediately resonated with Janet because she just really had such a down-to-earth and authentic approach and coupled with that, I soon realized after listening to her speak, just a few times, that she had this really incredible business-savviness. And I knew that that business-savviness and that really structured system way of running her business that she was the ideal person kind of person that I really wanted to learn from.

Dana: Fantastic.  Well I know I’ve learned so much from her over the period of a couple of years, now, myself  and you have actually had the pleasure of being with her, in-person at some of her events.  In fact, just as recent as just a few weeks ago, right?

Kim: I was. I was at her “4^th Dimension Mastery” workshop that was held in Sydney and it was a totally mind-blowing experience.  Just the content and the other people that were there just, it was just so inspiring to hear what people are doing and to network with like-minded people, to really understand some of the challenges and frustrations that they’re having.  And it’s amazing, when you start talking to other people about their businesses, how you automatically have already brought life up in your own mind about how you can actually make your own business better and things you can be doing in your own business to move…move it along and keep that momentum going… that was an absolute great experience.

Dana: Yeah, there’s nothing like that synergy that’s built where you’re…when you’re in a room of like-minded entrepreneurs who are just as “success-driven” as you are.

Kim: Oh, it was just mind-blowing and the great thing about it is that there were people who were there that were way ahead of where I was and also, people who were about at the same stage as where I was…so, it was great to get those different perspectives as well, to have people kind of throw in new ideas like, “Hey , have you thought of this?” or “Why are you really doing that?” And they… they, you know,  come to things to come up in your mind and that had I not gone to that workshop probably I would  still be mulling over those same things and wondering what I was doing, quite honestly.

Dana: Right, it’s giving you some systems. But you can go create those systems, isn’t it?

Kim: It is essentially and it’s really also…that workshop really helped me to define who my target market was because being in a room full of business people is probably not something you do on a daily basis.  You know most people you hang around with are friends and family who don’t tend to be overly on the same page as you. So, being in that room with 60 other business minds who were quite helpful , in terms of what you need to be doing and where you need to be focusing your energies.  It’s really just a little bit of a…a kick in the right direction and a real kind of energy boost to realign your focus, I think.

Dana: I absolutely agree.  So, now, because you’ve been a member of Wonderful Web Women for quite a period of time, you’ve listened to a lot of the…the great guest interviews that Janet has conducted and you’ve obviously now have been just so blessed to be able to go to some live events with her. Was there anything…was there one particular call or was it the live event that really helped you make that business shift?

Kim: There absolutely was and it was a call just not too long ago and it was about creating a business avatar which I now realize is actually something that I had been missing the point on.  And then it’s her way of explaining why you need to clarify and define the business avatar was absolutely invaluable.  It was just such a powerful call and I know that the lights actually went on for a lot of people after listening to that call.

Dana: Yeah I got on that, too and it’s something you have one of those…aha…moments, when you realize that…if all you have to do is really take time to really determine what your business avatar is…what your, who your target market is. Who are you speaking to.

Kim: Yes, definitely and I think that the key is actually taking the time to do it and not rushing through it and thinking that you have it, but actually taking the process slowly and actually digging deep and researching the market and finding out who sees your ideal customer because that can save you a lot of heartache later on, knowing that information up front.

Dana: Well, and it’s taking the time initially, up front, even though it’s going to take a little bit of time, but it’s the long term gain that’s going to really result because you really want to be speaking to the right people.

Kim: Absolutely.  And I know from some of my own experience because that’s not an exercise that I did right at the very beginning that I did actually invest time and energy into creating things that were really not suited to my ideal customer.  So, as a result of that, I have quite a number of things that are sitting on the shelf in my office here which I may not ever even use because they’re really not …they’re not really relevant to where my business is going right now.  And knowing that business avatar will really allow me to create products and services that fit my ideal customer right from the very, very beginning.

Dana: Wow, yeah that definitely, that’s definitely a stand out.  That’ll definitely help you push forward.  So,  then that would have been my next question for you is, so how have  you been able to apply that to your life and businesses? Sounds like that is kind of a work in progress right now.

Kim: It is and part of the way I’ve been able to apply understanding what my avatar is and really getting clarity around my avatar has really been in creating my signature system and that’s something I’ve been working on the past couple of months.  And because I am really clear now on who my avatar is the process of creating my signature system is so much more simpler because as I’m creating my system I can just ask my avatar, how would this benefit you by including this piece of information in my signature system? And, if I had created that profile already of my avatar or my ideal customer… if by asking them that question I get the response of, no, that doesn’t benefit me and it wouldn’t benefit me in any way, shape or form, then, I’ll disregard that piece of information.  But, if I can look at my avatar and ask that question and get a positive response and say yes would benefit me in this way, then I’ll seriously consider including that piece of information in my signature system.  So, I think it has been a really powerful combination of learning for me, in that sense.

Dana: Oh, I think so.  It sounds like you’ve really embraced it because I think it’s really going to be able to propel you forward and what a great way…what a great thing to share with everybody.  So those of you that are listening to this, if you haven’t had a chance to learn more about that, you definitely want to go over to Wonderful Web Women.  Well now Kim I wanted to be able to ask you, is there any other tips for our listeners that you would like to share as a result of being a member of Wonderful Web Women? Any last minute thoughts?

Kim: Absolutely and this has been a really, really big one for me because when I started on the journey of wanting to have my own business, I knew right from the beginning that I did not want to do it on my own. I always knew that I would need help and based on that I always knew I wanted to take the path of least resistance. So, I really wanted to find someone who’d been there, done that and achieved the kind of success that I wanted.  So, my advice is to do exactly that.  Find someone that has already achieved the type of success that you want and follow them, learn from them, study what they do and understand why they do it.  And I believe that this is ultimately one of the things that will make a really, really big difference as to whether or not your idea never gets lift-off or whether you can push the idea forward to have it blossom into the beautiful and profitable flower that you know that it could always be.  The clue is to really have just at least one mentor who can help guide you along the way to creating that business that you’ve always wanted.

Dana: Fantastic.  Well thank you  so much for sharing that and I know that we’ve just had a little bit of time together on this call and I’m sure there are several of our listeners, right now listening tour radio show that are very excited to learn more about you and your business.  So, where would they go find you?  I know you said it’s Entrepreneur Systems. Is it Entrepreneur Systems.com?

Kim: it is Entrepreneur Systems.com and there are lots of free resources over there at that web site and also, I would like to also just let people know to keep an eye out for my free report that will be coming out soon on my new 5-step Business Brief Drive System that will help  you separate the owner in you from the employee in you and to really help you to bridge the gap from your current business to your ideal business.

Dana: Oh wow…so everybody go over there and sign up so that you’ll be one of the first ones to get that report.  That will be an awesome, awesome resource that you’ll want to have.  Well gosh Kim, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to join us.  This has been really exciting.

Kim: It’s been an absolute pleasure and I’ve loved being able to share some of the things that I’ve learned being a member and just knowing Janet and who she is and what she stands for.  I think she’s doing some wonderful things with her community and I’ve just learned so much.  I really don’t think I’d be where I was without having been part of her community.  It’s been a wonderful experience.

Dana: Well you are just a perfect example of one of our rising stars and we are so very proud of what you’re doing.  So again, everybody you do want to go ahead and go over to Entrepreneur Systems.com and go ahead and sign up and get with Kim because she has a lot of great resources to share with all of you.

Hey, if you’re thinking “I’ll wait until I’ve achieved something huge first” then please know…I (and my followers) are inspired by people who have taken any action, no matter how small you see it. So let me hold you up high now, not later

It’s like Backyard Blitz but with a computer

Have you ever seen the “reality” TV show Backyard Blitz? Maybe in your country they have something similar but under a different name.  You know the drill…A family or similar are sent away for a weekend on some pretence while a cast of attractive and resourceful workers move in to totally make-over their backyard (or home or similar).

The tension mounts towards the end of the show because the team (the attractive and resourceful ones) are running out of time and the unsuspecting home owners are letting themselves in through the front door while the last pallet load of pavers is unloaded out the back.

How awful would it be if the truck with the last pavers didn’t turn up and the cast had the embarrassment of showing the returning tenants a half-finished job with a pile of mess in the yard? The suspense builds but the attractive and resourceful ones  never lose their cool. They still have time to joke and it all comes together in the end

That’s what it’s been like at Wonderful Web HQ.

It’s Web Site Blitz!!

Our launch time looms just hours away and the tension mounts. Now before I describe the incredible make-over our own attractive and resourceful team have done, let me tell you something…

The virtual equivalent of the truck with the pavers has failed to turn up. Yep. I’ll tell you all the frustrating details in a moment but let me tell you what this means for you.

Re-Launch delayed by one week:

Instead of launching tomorrow with a special tele-class (details and registration here at this link) we will now be launching one week later. I have changed the dates over there on the registration page. We figured you’d rather come home to a beautiful backyard make-over than be faced with a pile of construction material.

OK. That’s about as far as I can continue with the Backyard Blitz analogy.

At least I got to mention how attractive and resourceful our team is

What’s Involved in The Make-Over?

OK. I can probably stretch this analogy a bit further. Let me share a few statistics with you on what is involved in a Web Site Blitz.

Since the total recreation of  Wonderful Web Seminars, which was our first priority, we have turned our full attention to the recreation of Wonderful Web Women. Let me tell you what we have done in the last 10 days. Well actually, this is a really abbreviated version. I tell you this mainly so you can appreciate what is involved in re-building a business but also because I’m really quite proud.

1. Communicate with existing customers

If you’re building a business from scratch, you would focus on finding new customers. For us it was really important to keep the ones we had. They need to know what is happening at all stages so they know we still value them. So this has involved blog posts, emails, Facebook messages, Twitter updates, 2 special teleclasses for paying customers and in some cases, personal phone calls.

You can’t neglect this or you will lose your customers who are the most valuable asset you have.

2. Re-Evaluate the Business Plan

We could have recovered a few days earlier if we simply recreated our sites exactly as they were before. But we saw this as an opportunity to reinvent and come back even better than before.

After 2 years of running Wonderful Web Women we have a much better idea of what our customers want and what will help them reach their goals faster. We also have a better idea of what we are capable of providing. So lots of visualising, coloured textas and really thinking about what we value.

If you are starting from scratch, this is the first step you will do. Actually this is great step to do at many times during your business.

3. Ask Your Customers

We have also surveyed our customers and subscribers this last few weeks. We asked them to complete a survey and the results were incredibly powerful in helping us shape the new business. We printed out and analysed hundreds of responses.

I recommend you survey your customers at least twice per year. You should always be responding to the changing needs of your customers. Besides they have great ideas!

4. Move to a New Platform

For the last few years we have built our membership sites using Memberspeed software. This is incredibly powerful software but because it attempts to do so many complex things, it does them all poorly. I have literally spent tens of thousands of dollars fixing the problems this software has caused it. I had wanted to move to another platform for a while but the cost of redevelopment seemed a low priority. Well, be careful what you wish for!

This is the new platform we are using:

1. WordPress for the site structure with lots of really cool plugins
2. Wishlist Plug-in to manage the membership part of the site
3. Auto WebBusiness (a.k.a. 1ShoppingCart) to manage our sales, affiliate payments and tracking
4. EWay payment gateway so the info collected from the shoppingcart gets sent to the merchant account
5. Merchant Account. Previously we only used PayPal but Auto Web Business does not work with PayPal for subscription payments (yep, painful isn’t it?)
6. Aweber: We could use AutoWeb Business for our emails but we already have all our lists set up on Aweber so we decided to stick with them. Besides, Aweber rocks.

5. Design The New Site

We looked at all the resources we had, the new ones we wanted to offer and how the software worked and created a very detailed site map of the new web site.

We then had to create stunning looking templates for all areas of the site to make it really easy for people to navigate. Trickier than it sounds.

When people decide to get a web site done this is usually the main thing they think about. It can take forever  but as you can see, it really is the 5th step.

6. Add the Content

To give you an example of the content we have created in the last 10 days:

• 367 Pages of content already
• 88 MP3s plus transcript bundles added
• hundreds of images uploaded
• Then there is the sales copy to be crafted so people know what benefits there are to membership.
• There are email follow ups to write and sign up pages to create

Phew, exhausting just thinking about it isn’t it?

7. Prepare to Relaunch

There’s no use opening the doors if no-one is there to see it. This is where affiliates and JV partners come in.

So you need to set up an affiliate program, add sample promotion material for your affiliates and then contact your past affiliates and let them know of your new program. Ask them for help.

We also decided to create an opening event, which is the free tele-class we will run. So we needed to set that up as well

8. Tie it all together and test, test, test

This is the stage  we are at now. So many people don’t do this very thoroughly and it is where you really let your customers down. It is really frustrating for customers if links don’t work, payments don’t go through, emails don’t arrive.

Sure, you will find things once it is getting used but you need to really check through as if you were the customer. Without fail, you will find a really long list of things that don’t work properly and things that don’t make sense for the visitor to the site.

Now here’s where we have been let down. The virtual truck with the pavers…..

Unexpected Red Tape

Remember how I said we need to set up a merchant account because we will now use Auto Web Business. And PayPal won’t take subscription payments with this system?

That’s OK. We intended to get one anyway so as soon as we realised we needed to reinvent we applied for our account. 8th January. We chose the National Australia Bank (NAB) because at the moment they are the only bank that allows you to accept payments in multiple currencies.

3 weeks later they finally worked through the paper work (after we turned into the customers from hell) and came back with some very surprising conditions. It will still take a few more days for the paperwork to come through.

That’s why our relaunch is delayed.

I’ve been amazed at how slow this process has been. I’ve helped clients set up merchant accounts online before and it usually only takes 10 days.

On our call next week I’ll tell you why we had to come up with $7000 cash fast (luckily we had it on hand) and what the implications are for you, especially if you are just setting up. Heavens, even if you have a trading history of 3 years like we do!!!

Apparently, because so many merchants have gone bust with the Global Financial Crisis, banks are placing very severe restrictions on companies setting up to have an online merchant account. These restrictions have only been introduced in the last few months.

So shop around and find out what restrictions each bank will impose on you. They will very likely ask you to deposit money into a term deposit as security, especially if you have no merchant history with that bank. This is a new thing so take this into account if you are setting this up yourself.

Hope this helps you if you are planning to launch a new online business, or reinvent like we have.

In the mean time, I can’t wait to open the doors and show you what we have done with the place. The new Wonderful Web Women will be a force to be reckoned with on the Internet.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences you have had setting up from scratch or reinventing.

Just share your thoughts below and I’ll come back here and continue the conversation.

Cheers

Janet

I will be sharing a lot of this process with you over the next few weeks and my wonderful gold members who have stuck with me through the last few weeks will be showered with gifts of gratitude

Let me give you a quick update on the rising of The Phoenix:

If this is all news to you, check out the blog post that started it all.

Wonderful Web Seminars is live and I am so excited about the improvements we have made. Check it out and see I have also added an incredibly generous free membership.

Wonderful Web Women is having a HUGE overhaul and I have some great new benefits for our gold members – and some very real opportunities. We will launch in 10 days. I’ll send you info before then.

Win a lifetime membership: Tell me what you want in our shiny new Wonderful Web Women and win the chance of a lifetime membership. Valued well over $1000

We have extended the date for you to contribute to the collaborative ebook “The Law of Attraction in Action III”. You have until the end of February now to get your chapter in and we will launch in mid March. So you can take a big breath .

You can get details on this opportunity here.

Thanks heaps for your patience. I reckon it’s only about 9 days and the shiny new Wonderful Web Women willbe open for business.

Cheers

Janet

You see, this week all my major money-making sites disappeared overnight. Gone! I could very easily be out of business. You can find out how this happened and how the exact same thing could happen to you in my blog post from yesterday.

I came very, very close to just quitting. But then I started to see the opportunities. Dawn , one of the wonderful people who sent messages of support yesterday, made the comment “Bravo to you Janet for turning lemons into lemonade”. That’s when  I thought “why stop at lemonade when you can make a Margarita!”

So that’s what I’m doing. I’m mixing a mean Margarita and invite you to join in.

This is the opportunity I see. Sure, Wonderful Web Women has disappeared but that just gives me a clean canvas to create something beautiful with. Can you help me create a strong and beautiful Phoenix from the ashes of this Internet nightmare? Lets create the dream online community and come back even better than before.

This is how you can help. I’d like to know what is in YOUR dream online community. To make it easy, I have put together a short survey so you can have input into what YOU want.

What’s a Margarita party without prizes?

To thank you for your help, you can also choose at the end of the survey to enter the draw to win a LIFETIME membership to the new bright and shiny Wonderful Web Women. There will be one prize drawn and it could be you.

Thanks so much for your help. You can fill out the survey here:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/phoenix-from-ashes

I’ll tell you in a moment what drove me to that decision but first let me tell you what happened next.

Once I admitted defeat I decided that the next step was to look for a job. I didn’t want this responsibility any more. Then I started visualising what it would be like to work for someone else instead of myself. Stress free! Well, maybe not. But then I’d get bored. I know I would. I’d start telling my employer how to run their business.
I’d miss my customers, they’re part of my life now. I couldn’t duck down to the beach when I wanted to. I couldn’t be in charge of my own destiny.

Drat. I can’t quit.

What happened (this could happen to you)

3 days ago, on Sunday (Australia time) we discovered that all our major money-making web sites had disappeared. This is scary but not usually permanent. The server that hosts our websites had crashed.

If this happens to you, simply contact your host via their help desk and let them know. They will take this very seriously and usually have it fixed quickly.

This is not what happened to us. Our web host did not take it seriously. In fact they seem to have disappeared as well. We emailed, sent tickets through their support desk, Skyped them (over the last 2 years I have had numerous Skype conversations with the owner Kenneth Fox) but no response.

So I rang them. Bad sign. Their phone is disconnected. Really bad sign.
More emails, and now twitter, facebook, Warrior Forum and eventually I started ringing every Kenneth Fox in the Chicago area.

No response.

Why worry?
Your web host is one of the most important relationships you will have in your web business. We have used Windy City Web Solutions for over 2 years now. Their service was incredible. I had never experienced such amazing service before so we transferred all our web sites to them. They got us out of so many problems over the years and you will find numerous articles on this blog raving about them.
Our business relationship grew so strong we became Joint Venture Partners and I referred our customers to him to buy a special hosting package called Wonderful Web Hosting. I knew my customers would be cared for.

But something changed a few months ago.

I don’t know what, but Kenneth seemed to disappear. I knew he had some illness in his family so cut him some slack. His staff started to get really sloppy and service started to drop. We started talking about changing hosts, but that’s not something you rush into. Wish we had.
I was worried he was really ill (or dead) but found out, just 2 days ago that he was active and online over at The Warrior Forum.
Man oh man, do I feel betrayed. He just stopped caring. We still haven’t heard from him or any of his staff. So we can just assume that we will never get our web sites back online.

Can you see why I wanted to quit?

So what happens now and how does it affect you?

Anger is such a waste of energy. I could go into victim mode and blame and rant and rave but how does that help?

Instead, I choose to concentrate on the things I CAN change and stay focused on my power. There’s no use looking back. Just decide on a clear path forward and start taking MASSIVE action.

We have no choice but to recreate our web sites from scratch. This is not a little task. If you are a gold member of Wonderful Web Women or Wonderful Web Seminars you know how incredibly big these sites are. There is a bucket-load of resources in there!

In each case we had backups but here is where we have learned some really, really tough lessons.

Did you know when you back-up a dynamic, data-base driven site the back-up files have things such as “click here to download your MP3 recording” but the actual MP3 file is not backed up? AHHHHH!!!!!

We have learned some tough lessons this week and have investigated how to prevent this happening again. To us and to you. We are refining a reliable, automated system of backing up all our websites so if a server dies, we just have to do a few steps to switch to a replicated site.

In about 2 weeks (I’ll let you know the date) I will host a special call just for gold members of Wonderful Web Women and Wonderful Web Seminars. On this call, myself and the incredible Charly Leetham who heads our tech team, will share with you the exact system we will be implementing and show you how to do the same in your business. My wish for you is that you never have to go through this.

Sites affected & when they will be available to you again

Wonderful Web Solutions: This one is already back up. It was quick to do because we had only just finished making it so had all the files on hand.

Wonderful Web Seminars: We expect everything to be ready for our gold members by Sunday. You are our top priority as I know many of you are in the process of planning launches. In the meantime, all the audios in the program are on your iriver players and the DVDs we sent you have heaps of content. Please email or call us if you have any questions on anything. We will help you.

Wonderful Web Women: We have started recreating this site already and expect to be able to provide great resources to our gold members next week. In the meantime, we are planning a special gold members’ only coaching call to share with you the risk-management system we have devised so this will never happen to you. If you are contributing an article chapter for our 3rd collaborative ebook, your chapter is due at the end of the month. I’ll send you more info a bit later. Read on to find out what ideas I have in mind for Wonderful Web Women.

Wonderful Web Hosting: If you have organised your hosting through Windy City via the Wonderful Web Hosting package, it seems as if your sites are ok. We also have sites that are on the same server as yours and they are still OK.

We’re not willing to risk it though and have started to transfer all our web sites on that server to a new host. We have chosen to go with Hostgator as we really want to work with a big business that is not as likely to go out of business. They also have a great reputation. I recommend you do the same.

Hostgator will do the transfer for you if you contact them. If you need any advice, please email me or ask questions here on the blog. Of course, you can transfer to any host you choose and most of them will do the transfer for you.

A beautiful, strong Phoenix arises from the ashes

Sometimes great opportunities come disguised as disasters. I had been thinking of making some dramatic changes to Wonderful Web Women but kept putting them in the too-hard basket. After all, if it’s not broken, why fix it? Now it IS broken so I am free to create my dream program from a blank canvas (mind you, with an incredible amount of products and resources to start with). What I have planned will let me provide even more ACTIONABLE help for you and will be even more valuable than before.

I’m actually quite excited by the prospect and I’d love you to have input into this beautiful Phoenix. So watch out in the next day or so. I will be sending you a short survey to find out what is in YOUR dream program. One lucky person will win a lifetime subscription to the new and improved Wonderful Web Women.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear your wish list here. Why not share?

Also, any questions you have at all, please ask them here as I’m sure others will have the same questions too. Of course, you can always email us or connect with me on twitter or facebook.

Cheers

Janet

Liliane Grace Presents: How A Struggling Housewife Turned Successful Self-Publishing Author By Studying the Law Of Attraction

Audio will be available for replay/download from Mon, 2nd Nov US time/ Tues 3rd Nov Australian time from Wonderful Web Women

(you need to sign in as a free or gold member)

At the age of 39 Liliane was about to separate from her partner, her kids were constantly squabbling and she’d given up on her dream to be a writer; within a few short years she has turned every circumstance around: she and her partner are still together and more in love than ever, her kids get on brilliantly, and she’s the award-winning author of three books. How did she do it? She applied the principles that she talks about in her novel, The Mastery Club, a book that is empowering kids around the world to start up their own Mastery Clubs. Liliane’s mission is to inspire others to believe in themselves, follow their hearts and trust in universal laws…

“Inside The Millionaire Mindset” features interviews with some of the top movers and shakers online today. People like Alan Forrest Smith, Michel and Sylvie Fortin, Tracy Repchuk, Ari Galper and more. But it’s much more than just another series of interviews.

It’s being run by world leading “mindset upgrade expert” Nick Cownie. He’s tracked down an all-star list of online experts and convinced them to let him “dig deep” inside their own mindsets – live and uncensored – and share their success secrets with you.

Nothing like this has ever been done before. Nick is a qualified expert experienced at finding the subtle differences that let the gurus make millions whilst countless others make excuses. It’s creating quite a frenzy online as the seats are filling up fast from smart business owners all over the country (well, the world actually).

Register for this free event here.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing with you stories, photos and hopefully some video of my road trip.

If you can get to Vegas, why not join me at Ali Brown’s Shine event. Or at least join us for drinks the night before at the Shine tweetup? Love to see you there.

In the mean time, I have some sparkling knowledge for you

Yesterday I ran a special “pick my brains until they’re empty” tele-class and 2.5 hours later we finished. Gold members can access this in the gold members only section of Wonderful Web Women with the breakdown of questions asked at what times.

Today I share with you 3 very different people who have taken the system I used to launch Wonderful Web Women and put their very individual stamps on it. I encourage you to join each of these people in the launch of 3 very unique businesses. As you’ll see, with each you get to learn from world leaders in 3 very different niches and the opportunity to be part of the journey as these passionate people guide you to create your own success. Oooh I so love action takers and these people are certainly that.

Dana Dunn

“Women With Passion And Purpose.”

Dana is launching a very special Virtual event called, “Women With Passion And Purpose.” This is a FREE event that you will not want to miss!

I will be featured with 7 other Entrepreneurs, Soloprenuers, and Mompreneurs, who are living life on their terms, all while fulfilling their passions and purpose!

These are REAL Women, JUST LIKE YOU who are TAKING ACTION to make their Dreams, Passions and Purpose a reality! They are ready to reveal their secrets, strategies, and success tips with YOU!

This special series is designed for Work-at-Home-Women (or those who want to be).

This event is a MUST for any Woman who is looking to have more, do more and become more! We are Wives, Mothers, Grandmothers, Sisters, Daughters, and Girlfriends, but there is only one YOU! You are unique, and you are here on purpose! Whether you have found “IT”, or are still looking for “IT”…you won’t want to miss this special series. It’s been said, that if you find your true passion, you will never “work” another day in your life.

I hope you’ll join me for this very special event.

Nick Cownie

“Inside The Millionaire Mindset ”

“Inside The Millionaire Mindset” features interviews with some of the top movers and shakers online today. People like Alan Forrest Smith, Michel and Sylvie Fortin, Tracy Repchuk, Ari Galper and more. But it’s much more than just another series of interviews.

It’s being run by world leading “mindset upgrade expert” Nick Cownie. He’s tracked down an all-star list of online experts and convinced them to let him “dig deep” inside their own mindsets – live and uncensored – and share their success secrets with you.

Nothing like this has ever been done before. Nick is a qualified expert experienced at finding the subtle differences that let the gurus make millions whilst countless others make excuses. It’s creating quite a frenzy online as the seats are filling up fast from smart business owners all over the country (well, the world actually).

Register for this free event here.

Dr Kashonia Carnegie

The Learning Loving and Laughing Project

This is such a unique event. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like it.

Whether you believe in the 2012 affect or not, there’s no question that the World’s Cultural and Business Stories are Rapidly Changing.

Change Your Stories … Change Your Life

Change Your Business Stories … Change Your Business AND get a Competitive Advantage

So join Kashonia and let some of the planet’s Evolutionary & Visionary Leaders share how these new stories can give your business a competitive advantage in our New World of rapidly evolving Consciousness and Love

LEARNING: The Key to Growth

LOVING: The Key to Integrity – a Loving Life is an Ethical Life

LAUGHING (with): The #1 Way to Convey Love

So you need some useful tools so you can keep an eye on the people you want, find out what people are saying about you and keep an eye on certain topics.

I use Tweetdeck which is great but am now experimenting with hootsuite because you can schedule multiple tweets ahead of time and look busier than you really are. I’ll let you know what I think of it. Love to hear your experiences.

These books will only be available when people join as a gold member of Wonderful Web Women. (and if you’re already a gold member, watch out for a present in the post – as soon as I can sign the hundreds of books).

Limited Time Only Offer

For a limited time only, you can get a signed copy of the book when you join Wonderful Web Women. For a VERY limited time, membership is still $9.95 for the first month. This WILL change very soon (as soon as John, our wonderful copywriter can get the new sales copy done for the site). so ACT NOW.

Order in bulk as gifts

This is a special for gold members of Wonderful Web Women and Wonderful Web Seminars only. You can order 10 copies of the book to sell or gift for only $29.95 Australian – plus postage.

In the book stores the book is $29.95 alone. This special edition also includes the $48 USD CDRom. So Save $48 USD PER BOOK.

To order, please email me and we will send you a special order invoice.

To be an intelligent leader you first need to be an intelligent follower.

This means you can learn everything you need from your mentors. This is so true.
I have found the private coaching clients I have who take massive action on what I tell them to do, and have faith – are the ones who quickly become leaders themselves.
So my question to you? Are you intelligently choosing the best mentors? When you have found the right person or people to learn from, are you intelligently learning and applying what they teach?
Or are you choosing mentors and then  ignore their guidance, trying to reinvent the wheel anyway?
Do you do this? If so, do you find yourself months down the track no further ahead than you were before, complaining that the mentors you chose to learn from have let you down?

This is not intelligent following and does not  lead to intelligent leadership.

Through Wonderful Web Women, my goal is to help you find the perfect mentor for whatever stage you are at in business right now. That mentor may be me or it may be one of the incredible women I interview. Or it may be a combination. It doesn’t really matter.

What DOES matter is that when you do find the mentor (or leader) that you resonate with, that you follow them intelligently.

This is the first step to becoming an intelligent leader yourself. As Napoleon Hill states “Most great leaders began in the capacity of followers. They became great leaders because they were INTELLIGENT FOLLOWERS. With few exceptions, the (wo)man who cannot follow a leader intelligently, cannot become an efficient leader.”
Who Has Inspired You?

I’m interested to hear who you have found as a mentor and how you have applied what they have taught you. I have had numerous mentors throughout my career and have many wonderful mentors at the moment. I choose them carefully and then take action on what they teach me until I raise myself to the level as their peer.

I am always very grateful for their leadership and for showing me the path so I can then walk beside them.

So tell me. Who has inspired you as a leader and mentor? Most importantly, how have you intelligently learned from them so that you can become a leader to others?

I’d love to hear your comments here.

This week I interviewed Sharla Jacobs who has helped thousands of people in “heart based” professions with strategies to build a successful business while still providing genuine service.

She has built her program around the 5 elements found in chinese medicine. This is such a unique way of looking at the conversations we have with our customers and it really resonated with a lot of the people on the call. You can see a diagram of how this works here.

My challenge to you

On the call this week I announced a challenge to myself and extended it to you. Well, I’ve kept my side of the bargain – how about you? To find out what I’m talking about, read my article here.

On a personal note

School holidays start tomorrow. We all respond to that differently. Some say “Oh no”, others (like me) can’t wait, and others (without school age kids) say “so what?”

For me, it’s a time that really tests my ability to focus – both on my family and on my growing business. I’ve never found the perfect balance yet. Usually one gets neglected – the business or the children – or me!. There’s no use stressing over it though – just go with the flow

Have an awesome week yourself.

Cheers

Janet

I’m grateful to Kim and Vito for running this call. They have great value to share.

Next Week……. (register NOW)

Kim Castle and Vito Montone of BrandU

The 7 Secrets Behind Today’s Top-earning Brands: Why Some Businesses Are Still Thriving in Today’s Economy and How Yours Can Too
Wednesday, July 15, 2009

5PM PST (6PM MT, 7PM CT, 8PM ET), Thursday July 16, 10 am East Coast Australia

75 minutes

FR*EE (Value $97)

This is a special invitation to a free tele-class hosted by Kim and Vito.

You can register here:

Do overnight success stories irk you? Wonder how they really happen?

Join my dear friends Kim Castle and Vito Montone, co-creators of BrandU this Wednesday, July 15th on a free teleseminar where they will share how they doubled their business every six months at its launch…

Yes it’s true!

Kim and Vito will reveal the secrets they used to manifest their continual business growth, which has allowed them to live the life of their dreams in Southern California – secrets that every small business can and should be implementing, especially during this time of recession. You’ll learn how your business can “thrive” while every one else is cutting back.

Show up for the call, and get a gift from Kim and Vito worth $500!

To give you an idea of the brilliance of Kim and Vito….if you have watched the career of Ali Brown as she evolved from the Ezine Queen to a visionary of a multi-million dollar business? Well Kim and Vito are the people responsible for working with Ali to turn her vision into a big brand.

Stacey has identified 5 main business processes for the online entrepreneur. If you can measure and analyse these 5 processes you have the secret to working smarter, not harder in your business.

The Marketing Process

The Marketing Process is the series of steps that build your list of targeted leads. The outcome from this process is leads. There are 3 steps to achieve this:

1. Eyeballs: how many times to people see your message and know about you? Such as see your ad, see an article you’ve written, heard you talk on a teleseminar etc

2. Clicks: how many times to people take action and click on your ad, on your link in an article etc

3. Contacts: How many times do people take action and actually call you or join your mailing list (the final outcome)
The Selling Process

The Selling Process is the series of steps that convert targeted leads into profitable customers. The outcome here is profit but also a customer that you can sell to again and again.

This is where you measure conversion rates, upsells etc
The Delivering Process

The Delivering Process is the series of steps that meet your customers’ expectations and fulfil the promises of your products and services. Interestingly the outcome here is not just that your customers use your product and services. The outcome here is that your customers become true fans.
The Developing Process

The Developing Process is the series of steps that create profitable and valuable information products and services. This is a process many entrepreneurs shortcut in their enthusiasm to get their product to market. It involves research to make sure their is a demand for the product or service and also that it will be profitable.
The Managing Process

This is the process where an entrepreneur manages and tracks the 2 resources they have: time and money. The outcome here is to get the best return for your time.

The beauty of concentrating on these processes when deciding what things to measure and analyse in your business is it keeps you focused. Stacey has identified 55 things you can track but stresses that you should NOT measure all 55. In fact, if you are a start up you probably only need to measure 5 things. To find out what stage your business is at and which measures you should be tracking at each stage, why not do Stacey’s quiz? It’s free and will give you great insight into where you should be putting your energy.

*********************************************

Would you like to use this article on your blog or
newsletter? You can as long as you include the blurb
below in full (feel free to use your Wonderful Web Women
affiliate link)

Janet Beckers is the host and founder of Wonderful
Web Women.

To learn from the most successful women on the internet
through live webinars, masterminds and forums absolutely
free, visit http://www.WonderfulWebWomen.com and join today.

When you take the time to fill out my survey (only takes about 5 to 10 minutes, depending on how much you want to write) you receive a great ebook Douglas the Web Man created to show you step-by-step how to create your own survey.

You know how much I love action takers so if you create a survey using Douglas’ book I’ll reward you. Send me the link and I’ll include it in my next newsletter and on my blog. Hopefully you’ll find some new customers interested in your services. You have 7 days from today to send me your survey, so get moving.

So here’s 1 action taker already.

Pam Brossman created hers in record time. Why not check out her results and get ideas for yours as well? Here’s the feedback she gave on the step-by-step ebook:

“Douglas, thank you so much for making ‘creating a survey’ so easy. I was able to follow your instructions and screen dumps to the letter and had my survey created in under an hour (creating the questions to ask took the longest). Fantastic ‘how to’ report for anyone creating an online survey (which you should all be doing if you are serious about your business). Thanks Douglas.”

You can get all the details here (and check out a little of my home office while you’re there).

Over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing the results of the survey with you and let you know the actions I have taken based on your feedback. I don’t know about you, but i always want to know the results of surveys I fill in but people rarely share them.

Results so far for Question 12. What is your preferred way of receiving information?

In this question I gave you lots of different ways to receive info (such as CDs, ebooks, events etc) and asked you to rate them as your most preferred to least preferred way of learning.

Results so far?

Out of 13 choices, the most preferred is:

1. One-on-one mentoring (41.9%)

2. Peer masterminds (36.1)

I can help you with finding a great peer mentoring group and then help you to manage the group so you all create great success. In fact, we already have 5 peer mastermind groups working well. All gold members can join one.

I can also help you with one-on-one mentoring.

I only ever work closely with a handful of people as I give a lot of my time. I only work with action takers so there is an application process. I had closed this service but now I have moved back into my home office I have some extra hours in my week.

So I have vacancies for 2 people only. I usually only work with people on a 6 month program (this gets results) and do not intend to offer this again after December. My other mentoring clients are already half way through their programs. So I can offer a 4 month mentorship (which allows us both time to have holidays and finish before Christmas). But only for 2 people.

You can details on the 6 month program here and the application form. To get the new price, simply multiply the price by 0.67 and this will give you the 4 month price.

Wow. I’m very humbled…. and amazed. How did they find me? I only launched Wonderful Web Women 20 months ago!

PS Wanna know something funny? When the letter forst came I thought it was spam asking me to buy the book so I put it in my “look at manana” pile. Lucky I checke dthe envelop before I shredded it!

I’m a long way from the fires but we are still affected.

Douglas, my husband, has been away fighting fires in NSW. Thank heavens he is not holding a hose. Instead he has been assigned to the command centre, planning where the troops on the ground go. He comes home tonight and then will be on standby to relieve the troops in Victoria who must be exhausted.

Here is a sneak peak behind the scenes. Doug Beckers,Tony Horwood, Paul McBain and Pamela Leach all looking at the 1900ha “Three Ways” Fire planning map

A Positive Story

There is so much heartache at the moment, I thought I would share a heart warming story from the fire front. If you click on the image you can view a video of a firefighter finding a burnt Koala in the bush. The Koala is so exhausted he drinks 3 bottles of water straight from the firefighter’s drink bottle.

If you would like to help, the best charity at the moment is The Red Cross.

Cheers, Janet

The Rules: Feel free not to write a note with 25 random things about you if you don’t want to.

1. My friends describe my style as “bohemian”. I’m a bit of a hippy at heart

2. When I was 21 I gave massages to tourists on the beach in my bikini for $5 each because I spent the rent money partying. I figured it worked in Bali. Found a great niche market!

3. I worked for years as a nurse

4. I worked as a lecturer in nursing for years at Uni and in hospitals

5. My favourite place for morning tea is my children’s tree house

6. I worked on a health farm for a while as a masseuse / receptionist / giver of gastric lavages!

6. When I worked as a receptionist I couldn’t type. When the owners passed my desk I would hit the space bar on the typewriter efficiently as if I was typing, then scroll the paper back up to the top again after they left the room.

7. The owners knew I couldn’t type and would walk past my desk so they could watch me “type” on the space bar

8. I am an artist but haven’t painted for a few years. My creative effort goes into my business.

9. My first business was an Internet art gallery

10. I have been married for 22 years

11. My husband still takes my breath away

12. I have 2 children who make me laugh a lot

13. I can forgive people of almost anything if they can make me laugh!

14. I spent a year back packing through South America with my husband before my children were born

15. I spent weeks paddling  a dug out canoe armed with a machete in the Amazon headwaters, collecting plants for a scientific study

16. I won a Salsa dancing competition with my husband in Ecuador. I didn’t and still don’t know how to Salsa.

17. I am teaching myself to surf. I am learning by finding a surfer who knows what they are doing and following them on every wave and doing whatever they do. I have become a surfer stalker!

18. I still can’t stand on my surfboard (but my children can)

19. I am happy as long as I am near the ocean.

20. When I started Wonderful Web Women I had spent my last cent and risked everything on the belief that it would work.

21. I think Wonderful Web Women is like surfing. It has a momentum of its own and I am standing high riding the wave into shore. The difference between my surfing and Wonderful Web Women, is in business I have learned to stand on my board!

22. I aspire to play the djembe drums really well

23. I haven’t eaten meat for over 2 years, but I do eat seafood

24. I used to need a walking stick and if I worked for one day I would need to sleep the next, because I had an auto-immune disease that started after travelling rough in  South America

25. I cured myself of my disease through meditation, keeping a dream diary and “getting my head straight”. When my disease was cured, my business also took off. This is not a coincidence.

26. I can’t count.

So here goes…….

Adding a Personal Touch To An On-line Business

We are so conditioned to think of Internet businesses as being completely “hands off” that it is rare to find an Internet based business that actually looks beyond the Internet as a way of communicating with clients. Over the last year I’ve come to realise that customers really wish for more personal contact and actually want more of a relationship with the businesses they purchase from regularly. So I’ve been on a bit of a mission to find ways to personalise our service which meets the following criteria:

• is respectful of our customers (no tele-marketing)
• time efficient
• cost efficient

These are the 2 methods we have just introduced.

1. Personal “getting to know you” welcome phone calls from one of our mentoring team to all new gold members. The phone call is arranged at a time that suits the member and helps them find out how to make the most of our services and helps us understand their needs. First calls have been this week and the response has been extremely positive. Can you do something similar? Can you pay a team member for 30 minutes of their time to help a new customer become a long term loyal customer?

How does this meet my criteria?

• is respectful of our customers: we make a time that suits them, we help them use the service they have paid for, we ask them their needs, no hard selling
• time efficient: Reduces help desk support, the call is focused because of the procedure we have created so we can offer a lot of help in a short amount of time
• cost efficient: We expect this to increase member retention & long term value of a customer. Reduces help desk support.

2. Personal greeting cards sent regularly to gold members. These cards feature inspirational art and quotes by children as they interpret 52 Virtues (you can read all about this wonderful project here). The messages I have written to each member are not salesy. It is designed to inspire, motivate and support our customers so they know we care and they will continue to remain our customer. Can you do something similar with your customers? You set yourself apart from your competitors if you take the time to thank your customers for trusting you, especially in a way that is personal, inspiring and with something they can pin on their note board instead of their inbox.

How does this meet my criteria?

• is respectful of our customers: The cards are inspiring & the messages caring. No hard sales.
• time efficient: Set up of the cards and messages takes a few hours. After that, a few minutes to add new member details & it runs on autopilot
• cost efficient: Using this system it is HEAPS cheaper than sending cards yourself or through a fulfilment service. Much cheaper than sending a paper newsletter. We also expect this to increase member retention & long term value of a customer. The system has a multi-level affiliate program so we will end up making more than we spend!

Main Features of This system

• Thousands of cards to choose from
• Nice envelope with a real stamp
• You can upload samples of your handwriting and it will use that as a font
• You can add your own signature
• You can upload your own photos / artwork
• A fraction of the cost of sending cards the usual way
• You can set up an “auto-responder” series and create relationships and follow up on autopilot
• You can send out a mass card mailing for Christmas etc or with a special offer
• You can even add special gifts such as books, gift cards, chocolate brownies
• You can sign up for personal use, wholesale card prices, or as an affiliate entrepreneur and get paid well when other people sign up on your referral.
• It’s easy!

How You Can Leverage Our Resources

Becki has joined our team to help people who are interested in this system get training and support. She’s excellent and has been training our team. So you get personal support. Becki’s team has ongoing regular training and a special blog where you can get support from her extended team.

Plus, we have an extra few bonuses:

When you join through www.WonderfulWebCards.com you also get access to something that no-one else has….

We will gift you our custom made cards to use with the Send Out Cards system. This set includes 52 cards, each one featuring childrens’ artwork and quote on the 52 virtues that have been found common to every one of the world’s religions. Example are love, persistence, enthusiasm, tact etc. I’m sure you can see how you can relate these messages to business as well as your personal life. People outside of our direct network will eventually have access to these cards – but they will need to buy them from us. You get them for free. You can also offer these as a bonus to people who join on your referral (which helps you offer an incentive to join with you).

Find Out More

If you’d like to have a tour around the inside of Send Out Cards and ask Becki all of your questions, you can join Becki on a personal webinar. The first one will be held tomorrow. You can get the details here and register your interest. You can be up and sending cards in time for Christmas.

We will also be running another introductory webinar in January but please register your interest using the link above.

Our first publication, 12 months ago, has been downloaded thousands of times and shared around the Internet. This is an opportunity to position yourself as an expert, attract new leads and have an excellent product to give away to customers and potential new customers. All for free. If you are a gold member of wonderful Web Women you have the opportunity to take part in this project at no cost and make the most of our organising and marketing power. Now that’s leverage!

You can find out about the project, see how to apply, find out deadlines, get the template to use for your submission and download last year’s publication for inspiration on this page.

All Your Questions Answered

Where can I find out details?

• How to apply, deadlines etc are here
• Recording of the 90 minute call about the project available to all here

Who can contribute

• Gold members of Wonderful Web Women (you must be a gold member to contribute and also be a gold member when the book launches at the end of January
• VIP speakers of Wonderful Web Women

Deadlines

• All submissions in by 14th December please

what’s the time line from here?

• Contributions by Dec 14
• A couple of weeks to pick up stragglers and look at the quality of submissions
• Christmas and a few week’s break – entrepreneurs need heaps of short breaks as we use an amazing amount of energy in short bursts of frenetic activity. Take a break!
• Mid January to end of January – Formatting, making the web site, dotting i’s and crossing t’s
• Tuesday 27th January (Australia time) – Grand Launch – coincides with a tele-class on how to use the book to make money$$$

Length of submission

• 1 page minimum, 10 pages maximum
• As a word guide: between 500 and 2500 words

Topics

The title of the book is law of Attraction in Action. Your article does not need to be on The Law of Attraction. Your article must give guides to taking ACTION. Part of the guidelines asks for 3 action points readers can take based on your article.

What if I have never written before?

That’s ok. Do the best you can and our volunteer editors will give you feedback if your work needs improving. Last year, many people wrote their first article / chapter ever and the quality was excellent. They had doubts before they started too.

Once I am a contributor does my name end up on the front page of Wonderful Web Women or is this another process?

No. Only our guest speakers are listed on the home page of Wonderful Web Women. You will be listed on the speaker feature page of Wonderful Law of Attraction.

Can you put YouTube links into book?

Sure. A suggestion is to take a screen grab of the video and then put this image in the book. We can then put the link to the video below the image.

What format do you need the chapter submission ?

We have provided a word template for you to use. Please use that as it will make it so much easier for us to put the final document together. Here is the link to download it.

What types of businesses would this be viable for

The topic has been chosen because you can twist it around to suit any business niche. You can talk about how to attract security when you are driving by including actions you can take to maintain your car. As long as the emphasis is on action and being the best you can be.

Contributing to the book will give me credibility but how else can it grow my business?

• You will can put a link to your web site at the end of your article so readers will visit your web site
• You can make a special offer to readers of your chapter that will entice them to come to your website and join your mailing list. A perfect enticement it a free ebook, audio or autoresponder course. Something they need to sign up to get. Then you can build on the relationship through your newsletter. Some people even offer discounts on services or free sessions if you don’t have a product.

Do I need to have a gift to giveaway to contribute?

• No you don’t but I encourage you to as it will help you make the most of this opportunity

I don’t have time to write my chapter and set everything up for a free gift for readers. What can I do?

• We’ve thought of a way to make this easier for you. If you have a description of your gift, great. Mention it at the end of your chapter. We have made it that all gifts will be listed on one page of a new website we will create especially for this book. It will be something like www.wonderfullawofattraction.com/gifts . We can add your gifts in January (or even later if you need to) so this takes the pressure off you.

Will the names/emails that are collected from those who want to download the ebook, and the names collected from the gift downloads be shared with the all of contributors? Will WWW have the entire list, and will this be shared?

There are 3 sets of people who can benefit from the distribution of this book throughout the Internet. Below is the way each party has the opportunity to grow their mailing list.

1. All free and gold members of Wonderful Web Women: Everyone has the right to give the book away. You can give it as a gift to your existing customers or give it away on your web site in return for an email. They join through your email program. The page they are sent to after they join your list is on our special book site. They do not need to join our mailing list to download the book. This makes it easy for you because you don’t need to worry about how much hosting space is taken up when people download the book.
2. Contributors: You can benefit as above but also you benefit when a complete stranger reads the book and decides to join your mailing list to take you up on your offer.
3. Wonderful Web Women: The only time we get people on our list is if the reader wants to check out all the special offers each contributor has made. To access the gift page they need to join our mailing list.

is there an opportunity to also be an affiliate on this? Meaning promote and get a share of the revenues?

Yes. You can make money as an affiliate in 2 ways:

1. This is a good time to promote Wonderful Web Women to your friends and customers using your Wonderful Web Women affiliate link. You can promote the opportunity to be a contributing author. You can join as an affiliate by logging into wwwomen, clicking on the affiliate link at the top and signing up. You will get your affiliate link. Our team has also created some sample emails you can use to promote this project. Simply look under the endorsement emails section in the affiliate tools area.
2. When the book is launched it is given away for free. We will show you how to use the wwwomen affiliate link when you direct new subscribers to the download page for the book. If readers are so impressed with the quality of our contributing members they decide to join Wonderful Web Women – you get credited.

That’s it for the moment. Over the next month I’ll be sharing ideas on how to promote the book to build your business.

Cheers

Janet

Interview Date: Monday, 24th November at 3:00pm Pacific, 6pm Eastern USA & Tuesday 25th November at 10am East Coast Australia

We’re doing it again! Here is your opportunity to be a contributing author in a quality e-book which will be distributed throughout the Internet. This means you will be an author in the same book as established, respected authors with the opportunity to promote your business, build your credibility and continue to grow your list.

The book is titled “The Law of Attraction in Action, Volume 2”. It is based on the structure of Volume 1 which was released in 2008 and since been downloaded thousands of times.

There is NO cost to contribute and contributors must be GOLD members of Wonderful Web Women. ALL members of Wonderful Web Women (Free and Gold) will have the right to give away the finished book as a way to grow your list. So everyone wins.

This is our way of giving you an opportunity to TAKE ACTION on everything you have learned with us.

To find out more, make sure you are on this week’s training call and send in any questions you may have by filling out the form on the web cast page (here is the link).

See you there.

And to think they met through a forum created by a woman in another state of Australia. It’s a small world after all. Margaret sent me this photo of their latest coffee meeting. Don’t they look radiant?

You can read about being a moderator here. As an extra bonus, we are creating a special mastermind area for our moderators so they can share ideas, communicate and get direct help from our team.  This should all be set up in a few days ready for our moderators to start.

Here are some ideas we came up with to create a buzz on the forum. I’d love to hear your input:

1. Beginning of week, post your goals for the week.
2. At the end of the week, post how you went with your goals
3. Run a poll: example ” which is your favourite auto-responder service: aweber, icontact, 1shoppingcart, other”
4. Share an affirmation of the week and feedback on how it worked for each person
5. Moderator sets a topic. Each person writes an article on that topic on their blog and puts the link to it in the forum. At the end of the time, all the articles are compiled into an ebook which each contributor has the right to give away.
6. Moderator chooses a topic. Contributors blog on the topic and leave the link to their blog on the forum. Other contributors then leave  comment on the other’s blogs . The winner is the person who gets the most comments or even better, the winner is the member who leaves the most comments!
7. Competition for the most creative “mind movie” on a particular theme. Contributors enter in the competition by posting on the blog the link to their movie
8. Share facebook and twitter addresses in the forum
9. Competitions for things such as most number of useful posts in a time
10. wwwomen can think of some prizes but others may contribute good prizes to get exposure
11. moderators can share ideas in the new mastermind group area
12. moderators can combne competitions and promotions to get people looking in forums they may not usually go to
13. A question or topic of discussion based on the latest interview through wwwomen. This could be good to do in the “Wonderful Web Women discussion” forum
14. In the fun section: Weekly question such as “share most embarrassing event”, funniest thing my children have said etc etc.
15. Productivity tips on different topics each week. Eg, productivity tips to automate your social networking on-line

Well that’s just a few ideas. Do you want to throw in some more ideas?

Cheers

Janet

We have 2 groups running very successfully and am ready to start another 2. One will be for Australian / US members (or people in countries with similar timezones). The other for members in the UK / India time-zone.

What’s involved

• Meet via conference line once every 2 weeks for 60 to 90 minutes
• Be open and honest
• Be generous with your advice and encouragement
• Commit to work towards your goals (or seek help from the group to discover why you are stuck)

How Wonderful Web Women can help

• We will help find your group members
• Provide guidelines to run a successful group
• set you up with a free conference line
• set up a password protected communication centre to share messages and files
• I will come on the first call with you to demonstrate how to facilitate a call

How to start

• Simply email us and tell us:
• What is your niche / area of interest
• your country and time zone
• What skills you can bring to a group

this will help us match you to the right group

We don’t have one for Wonderful Web Women and I’ve been trying to think of a phrase that sums us up.

Who better to ask than the people who are part of our community – you?
I’d love to hear your suggestions. I’ll be eternally grateful and if we end up using your ideas, I’ll shout your name (and url) from the rooftops – well, in this newsletter and blog

Cheers

Janet