We all know that the competition is getting fiercer out there. I was looking at one funding body yesterday and they warned that less than 5% of the applicants are successful. How many man hours are spent in this country writing unsuccessful funding applications? This also means that there is a huge amount of stress put on the poor funding bodies who have to go through hundreds of grant applications to choose the winners.
I know people are starting to get more creative with funding bids and are submitting DVDs and other forms of multi media to stand out from the crowd on first look. This is crucial in today's world. I also think in this age of uber information success in the third sector depends on your ability to convince people that you are real and working with real people. How can you do that?
You and your organisation need to shine through as much as the people who you are helping do. The reality is, no matter what you do or how well you you are doing it, if you can't engage your funder or sponsor, you will not get a second chance in a pile of bids. Your goal is to keep ‘em reading, whether that is on a website or an application. If your funder likes your “voice” and your “music”, then you’re on your way to getting through to the critical next stage in the process.
People are more likely to donate to people. Include something on your website that tells your personal story and the story of your organisation so that your supporters can relate to you when they visit your website for the first time. Even if you don't feel competent in your writing skills, don't worry, people relate to REAL people. Anyway, once you get those creative juices flowing you might just surprise yourself.
People will trust and relate to you more if you share your background and what you
were looking for when you got started, as well as WHY you are so passionate about your charity or social enterprise.
Tell them a little about you. Most people are involved in charity work because they have been personally affected in some way themselves. I am so passionate about this because I have been there myself and I feel passionate about finding ways for the amazing and caring people to free themselves from financial worry and just get on with doing their charitable work. I also want them to have some kind of life outside of that work. So let your supporter find some common ground and relate to you on many different levels. You never know exactly where someone might find a connection with you, so include as much detailed info as you can, as long as it’s on topic.
You’ll be more likely to attract like-minded funders and supporters that way too, which will make your life so much easier when you are delivering what you have agreed to deliver. Remember, YOU are the one thing that sets you apart from everyone
else in the field. And your story is the one thing that no one can duplicate.
Writing your story out will require a bit of thought, but it will be well worth it.
When you are finished, let a few people read it and get some feedback. Do remember to ask people who will be honest rather than say what they think you want to hear!
Have fun with it! Make it interesting, add photos that people will relate to, but keep it professional too.
I would love to see any examples and would be happy to post them on here. Mine about me page is www.whoiskayhebbourn.com. Happy to have feedback from you!
Remember to ask me how Yahoo! is willing to give your charity or SE a free guaranteed funding stream.
Friday, 30 October 2009
Thursday, 29 October 2009
Time, Money and Freedom. Gold Fever?
Time, Money and Freedom. Gold Fever?
Time, money and freedom (especially financial) are the top 3 reasons that people join in the contemporary 'goldrush' that we see now as people from every demographic search the net to find the holy grail. It used to be 6 figures, but more recently I notice that there are more and more ads suggesting that 7 figures are possible with the latest biz op. I unerstand that only 1-2% of internet marketers are successful, although just how those statsitics can be measured I don't know.
What I do know is that there are some striking similarities between the goldrush at Klondyke and the clamber to the top of Google. During the goldrush, educated men like doctors, lawyers, teachers and writers took to the cruel Canadian terrain and risked everything in order to gain in most cases nothing. They left families behind to cope without them and many of them never returned. The analogy here is obvious, Joe Bloggs turned internet marketer has an acute case of Gold Fever. Last seen in a pair of pyjammas, he was disappearing into the screen of his laptop having maxed out every credit card going. Meanwhile, he becomes more and more desperate as the need to generate huge amounts of money drives him in a relentless persuit of finding the pot of gold. In the same way that the goldrush brought out man's inhumanity to man, so does the internet. He uses ruthless scams, spam, schemes, fraud, complex trickery, hacking and lies and perpetuates the cycle.
On the other hand, we see some people digging deep and thinking laterally. Have you ever noticed that creative inspiration is often concieved in the darkest places inside ourselves? Jack London, whose books include White Fang, The Call of the Wild, and To Build a Fire, a collection of short stories, based his work on his time in The Yukon. My suspicion is that writing is one of the keys to making it online too. Whether it is convincing sales copy, quality content, hilariously funny blogs or how to articles, writing is key. I know that many very wealthy people have been bankrupt, on the streets or have had to figure out how to get out of the gutter. Many writers have discovered themselves by accident, or out of necessity.
So what is it that makes the difference between success and failure? I think it is about a shift in approach, mindset and flexibility. It is about thinking positively, noticing opportunities, taking risks, becoming ok with failure and plodding along with focus. It may also be about having the right mentor, and by that I mean someone who is a good teacher but also encourages individuality in his students. The other attributes of successful people are self esteem, resourcefulness and self respect. If these things are part of daily life we stand much more of a chance to collect the coins along the way and actually enjoy the journey at the same time. If you are chasing pots of gold, please think carefully about what it is costing you and whether a bit of lateral thinking might help you get there faster.
Time, money and freedom (especially financial) are the top 3 reasons that people join in the contemporary 'goldrush' that we see now as people from every demographic search the net to find the holy grail. It used to be 6 figures, but more recently I notice that there are more and more ads suggesting that 7 figures are possible with the latest biz op. I unerstand that only 1-2% of internet marketers are successful, although just how those statsitics can be measured I don't know.
What I do know is that there are some striking similarities between the goldrush at Klondyke and the clamber to the top of Google. During the goldrush, educated men like doctors, lawyers, teachers and writers took to the cruel Canadian terrain and risked everything in order to gain in most cases nothing. They left families behind to cope without them and many of them never returned. The analogy here is obvious, Joe Bloggs turned internet marketer has an acute case of Gold Fever. Last seen in a pair of pyjammas, he was disappearing into the screen of his laptop having maxed out every credit card going. Meanwhile, he becomes more and more desperate as the need to generate huge amounts of money drives him in a relentless persuit of finding the pot of gold. In the same way that the goldrush brought out man's inhumanity to man, so does the internet. He uses ruthless scams, spam, schemes, fraud, complex trickery, hacking and lies and perpetuates the cycle.
On the other hand, we see some people digging deep and thinking laterally. Have you ever noticed that creative inspiration is often concieved in the darkest places inside ourselves? Jack London, whose books include White Fang, The Call of the Wild, and To Build a Fire, a collection of short stories, based his work on his time in The Yukon. My suspicion is that writing is one of the keys to making it online too. Whether it is convincing sales copy, quality content, hilariously funny blogs or how to articles, writing is key. I know that many very wealthy people have been bankrupt, on the streets or have had to figure out how to get out of the gutter. Many writers have discovered themselves by accident, or out of necessity.
So what is it that makes the difference between success and failure? I think it is about a shift in approach, mindset and flexibility. It is about thinking positively, noticing opportunities, taking risks, becoming ok with failure and plodding along with focus. It may also be about having the right mentor, and by that I mean someone who is a good teacher but also encourages individuality in his students. The other attributes of successful people are self esteem, resourcefulness and self respect. If these things are part of daily life we stand much more of a chance to collect the coins along the way and actually enjoy the journey at the same time. If you are chasing pots of gold, please think carefully about what it is costing you and whether a bit of lateral thinking might help you get there faster.
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
Raise Unlimited Funds with YAHOO Now!
Raise Unlimited Funds with Yahoo!
Yahoo! have partnered with Whitebox to offer any charity or social enterprise a no-brain solution to fundraising. This is a fantastic opportunity for organisations to raise money. It takes very little effort and is completely FREE. What's the catch? There isn't one.
It is a win win situation for everyone. This is how it works.
Whitebox will provide you with a dedicated search box that is linked to your website. If you don't have a website they will build a website for you, completely free of charge, with a revenue generating searchbox on it. This searchbox is customised to be in line with the branding of your charity. If you already have a website, you can choose to have a search box added to your own browser and this will also generate revenue. You can add this to as many sites as you want on the internet or even intranet. Yahoo! then pays the charity money for a percentage of searches through this box. You can keep track of what you are raising on a daily basis.
The idea is that you give the link to as many supporters,friends and family as you can and then they fundraise for you, just by doing their ordinary searches online. Whitebox collect the money from Yahoo and pay you what you have raised straight into your bank account. The opportunity is not available to individuals or private businesses of course.
Who wins? Yahoo! win because they increase the number of searches to their site thereby generating money from their paid advertisers. The advertisers win because they get found. Whitebox win because they take a percentage of the Yahoo! donations to continue to build their team, build websites, provide links and manage the financial accounts. you win because you have the capacity to raise lots of money without filling in a single form.
How can this be true? It is! Whitebox have got their tick from Charity Fundraising Standards and have partnered with NCGO,WCVO and SCVO. Their policy is to be as transparent as possible and they are very happy to chat with you, they are real people. Whitebox is a family run organisation with Tony and Fiona Lloyd running the show and their two boys Alisdair and Peter hot on their heels.
They are as happy to work with tiny charities as they are with large multi-nationals and they even take on non-constituted groups so long as they are meeting community needs. One of the most successful charities is The Railway Children, a charity who support children living on the streets. They have installed the search boxes on the London Underground Intranet and have raised more than £63,000 for the children!
If you would like more informationa about how your organisation could benefit, please give me a shout and I'll help you get going or mail info@whitebox.com
Yahoo! have partnered with Whitebox to offer any charity or social enterprise a no-brain solution to fundraising. This is a fantastic opportunity for organisations to raise money. It takes very little effort and is completely FREE. What's the catch? There isn't one.
It is a win win situation for everyone. This is how it works.
Whitebox will provide you with a dedicated search box that is linked to your website. If you don't have a website they will build a website for you, completely free of charge, with a revenue generating searchbox on it. This searchbox is customised to be in line with the branding of your charity. If you already have a website, you can choose to have a search box added to your own browser and this will also generate revenue. You can add this to as many sites as you want on the internet or even intranet. Yahoo! then pays the charity money for a percentage of searches through this box. You can keep track of what you are raising on a daily basis.
The idea is that you give the link to as many supporters,friends and family as you can and then they fundraise for you, just by doing their ordinary searches online. Whitebox collect the money from Yahoo and pay you what you have raised straight into your bank account. The opportunity is not available to individuals or private businesses of course.
Who wins? Yahoo! win because they increase the number of searches to their site thereby generating money from their paid advertisers. The advertisers win because they get found. Whitebox win because they take a percentage of the Yahoo! donations to continue to build their team, build websites, provide links and manage the financial accounts. you win because you have the capacity to raise lots of money without filling in a single form.
How can this be true? It is! Whitebox have got their tick from Charity Fundraising Standards and have partnered with NCGO,WCVO and SCVO. Their policy is to be as transparent as possible and they are very happy to chat with you, they are real people. Whitebox is a family run organisation with Tony and Fiona Lloyd running the show and their two boys Alisdair and Peter hot on their heels.
They are as happy to work with tiny charities as they are with large multi-nationals and they even take on non-constituted groups so long as they are meeting community needs. One of the most successful charities is The Railway Children, a charity who support children living on the streets. They have installed the search boxes on the London Underground Intranet and have raised more than £63,000 for the children!
If you would like more informationa about how your organisation could benefit, please give me a shout and I'll help you get going or mail info@whitebox.com
Tuesday, 27 October 2009
Cloud Sourcing? It's all Geek to Me
Cloud Sourcing? It's all Geek to me.
What is all this talk about cloud sourcing? It's all Geek to me... I am waiting for the for dummies version to come out! What I do know is that it is going to level the playing field of opportunities around the world. I think it is so hard to grasp because it is requiring me to think aobut something in another dimension. Now I need to think vertically as well as laterally.
What is a Cloud?
A global marketplace in cyberland. A place where smart people from all round the planet meet. Cool people like techies and geeks, artists and designers, movers and shakers, entrepreneurs and gurus, scientists, politicians and other suit wearing people. Another step towards leveling the playing field.
Cloud sourcing enables someone with unique needs to connect with someone who can deliver them. One person could be in Siberia and the other in tim buc two as long as they can both access the cloud. No longer does the sole trader have to stretch himself to the point of exhaustion trying to be expert in every aspect of his business in order to remain solvent. No one has to be a jack of all trades and organisations can get on with doing what they do best.
Great news for the third sector. Fundraising sharks can be outsourced by remote organisations freeing them up to do the fantastic things that they do best. Think of the impact on the environment. Think of what it will do for budding musicians trying to get found...Cloud Factor here we come!
Cloud sourcing will allow important global challenges to be discussed by in real time, and for new platforms to be established by the smartest thinkers around the world. Using clouds to outsource aspects of a project to experts in other locations will mean quicker completion and reduced expenditure for budding companies with big potential. Joint partnerships will develop from the most unlikely places and new products will find their way to market in record time.
There will be more collaboration and less competition and the world will come to know about new innovations as soon as they hit the streets. And best of all it's free. Bring it on!
What is all this talk about cloud sourcing? It's all Geek to me... I am waiting for the for dummies version to come out! What I do know is that it is going to level the playing field of opportunities around the world. I think it is so hard to grasp because it is requiring me to think aobut something in another dimension. Now I need to think vertically as well as laterally.
What is a Cloud?
A global marketplace in cyberland. A place where smart people from all round the planet meet. Cool people like techies and geeks, artists and designers, movers and shakers, entrepreneurs and gurus, scientists, politicians and other suit wearing people. Another step towards leveling the playing field.
Cloud sourcing enables someone with unique needs to connect with someone who can deliver them. One person could be in Siberia and the other in tim buc two as long as they can both access the cloud. No longer does the sole trader have to stretch himself to the point of exhaustion trying to be expert in every aspect of his business in order to remain solvent. No one has to be a jack of all trades and organisations can get on with doing what they do best.
Great news for the third sector. Fundraising sharks can be outsourced by remote organisations freeing them up to do the fantastic things that they do best. Think of the impact on the environment. Think of what it will do for budding musicians trying to get found...Cloud Factor here we come!
Cloud sourcing will allow important global challenges to be discussed by in real time, and for new platforms to be established by the smartest thinkers around the world. Using clouds to outsource aspects of a project to experts in other locations will mean quicker completion and reduced expenditure for budding companies with big potential. Joint partnerships will develop from the most unlikely places and new products will find their way to market in record time.
There will be more collaboration and less competition and the world will come to know about new innovations as soon as they hit the streets. And best of all it's free. Bring it on!
Monday, 26 October 2009
Coaching, Training and Mentoring
The words coaching, training and mentoring get shoved into a phrase and knocked about too easily these days. I feel that that this sidelines and undermines the true value in each of these processes. They have become like one phrase that has lost all meaning or value, especially in the internet marketing industry.
What is Internet Marketing?
Internet Marketing is a system of marketing on the internet! Now there's a surprise! It usually involves setting up a website, affiliate marketing, banner ads, branding, selling products and services or training, raising awareness, writing blogs and articles, social networking, video and other multi media marketing. This is not a complete list, there are so many aspects to IM limited only by your imagination. So whilst thre are huge opportunities for success, there is massive scope for failure and scamming.
Why? It is heavily branded as a get rich quick arena and this is of course very appealing to people who are in dire straits. It has the potential for unethical sales people to use all of their snake oil tricks on a very targeted and vulnerable market in direct ways. Secondly, it can be a very overwhelming and confusing field to work in as there is so much to learn. If you don't have someone reminding you to just take one step at a time, it would be easy to go under because of the overwhelm. So to supposedly combat the element of confusion, many internet marketing companies sell their business opportunities by promising a coaching component. However, this is often not delivered in the proper sense of the word.
What is a Coach?
A coach believes in you and helps you believe in yourself
A coach is a leader who helps you take control of your destiny
A coach has special tools to help you reach your goals
A coach is specially trained and has skills to eek out the rubbish and replace it with shiny new patterns
A coach has undergone training, supevised practice and has been coached themselves
As a qualified and experienced success coach and NLP practitioner, I feel that the word coach is used too freely on the internet. Coaching is much more than advice, a paint by number system or a series of videos. Coaching is individual and related directly to changing individual thought patterning. Coaching is about a real person engaging in a real process with you. If you are buying a package because of the coaching element, make sure that it really is coaching that is being offered, not just another ebook or video.
What is Training?
Training is a process of teaching and learning of information, skills and creates time to reflect on personal effectiveness. Effective trainings make you think about things differently and then make improvements. The goal of training is to create new skills that extend way beyond the time of the training.
Video training lends itself well to internet marketing because you can stop and start the video and pull up a second screen and complete tasks one at a time. This reinforces the learning and breaks complicated tasks into simple steps. It also allows you to watch it over and over again if you need to (I did)!
Live training of course allows for interaction and for the trainer to provide feedback and guidance.
What is a Mentor?
A mentor is a guide who can help you find the right direction. Mentors draw on their own similar experiences to give you an opportunity to succeed. A mentor should ask questions and challenge, while providing guidance and encouragement. A good mentor helps you become more self aware and helps you take more responsibility for your life and points you in the right direction.
Choosing the right business mentor is really important. Can you remember anyone who really inspired you and motivated you to learn? We all need that kind of person when we are starting out. This is the kind of person you need to look for if you are serious about finding funding streams online.
If you are completely new to IM and you are really serious about making a lot of money you will need all three. You need to find somene who will work with you to set your goals, be able to train you and give you new skills, and will be able to guide you with your business strategy. It is worth doing your research, it will save you in the long run.
What is Internet Marketing?
Internet Marketing is a system of marketing on the internet! Now there's a surprise! It usually involves setting up a website, affiliate marketing, banner ads, branding, selling products and services or training, raising awareness, writing blogs and articles, social networking, video and other multi media marketing. This is not a complete list, there are so many aspects to IM limited only by your imagination. So whilst thre are huge opportunities for success, there is massive scope for failure and scamming.
Why? It is heavily branded as a get rich quick arena and this is of course very appealing to people who are in dire straits. It has the potential for unethical sales people to use all of their snake oil tricks on a very targeted and vulnerable market in direct ways. Secondly, it can be a very overwhelming and confusing field to work in as there is so much to learn. If you don't have someone reminding you to just take one step at a time, it would be easy to go under because of the overwhelm. So to supposedly combat the element of confusion, many internet marketing companies sell their business opportunities by promising a coaching component. However, this is often not delivered in the proper sense of the word.
What is a Coach?
A coach believes in you and helps you believe in yourself
A coach is a leader who helps you take control of your destiny
A coach has special tools to help you reach your goals
A coach is specially trained and has skills to eek out the rubbish and replace it with shiny new patterns
A coach has undergone training, supevised practice and has been coached themselves
As a qualified and experienced success coach and NLP practitioner, I feel that the word coach is used too freely on the internet. Coaching is much more than advice, a paint by number system or a series of videos. Coaching is individual and related directly to changing individual thought patterning. Coaching is about a real person engaging in a real process with you. If you are buying a package because of the coaching element, make sure that it really is coaching that is being offered, not just another ebook or video.
What is Training?
Training is a process of teaching and learning of information, skills and creates time to reflect on personal effectiveness. Effective trainings make you think about things differently and then make improvements. The goal of training is to create new skills that extend way beyond the time of the training.
Video training lends itself well to internet marketing because you can stop and start the video and pull up a second screen and complete tasks one at a time. This reinforces the learning and breaks complicated tasks into simple steps. It also allows you to watch it over and over again if you need to (I did)!
Live training of course allows for interaction and for the trainer to provide feedback and guidance.
What is a Mentor?
A mentor is a guide who can help you find the right direction. Mentors draw on their own similar experiences to give you an opportunity to succeed. A mentor should ask questions and challenge, while providing guidance and encouragement. A good mentor helps you become more self aware and helps you take more responsibility for your life and points you in the right direction.
Choosing the right business mentor is really important. Can you remember anyone who really inspired you and motivated you to learn? We all need that kind of person when we are starting out. This is the kind of person you need to look for if you are serious about finding funding streams online.
If you are completely new to IM and you are really serious about making a lot of money you will need all three. You need to find somene who will work with you to set your goals, be able to train you and give you new skills, and will be able to guide you with your business strategy. It is worth doing your research, it will save you in the long run.
Saturday, 24 October 2009
How Article Writing Will Benefit Your Charity or Social Enterprise
Four Reasons That Your Charity Will Benefit From Article Writing
Article writing is of huge benefit to charities and social enterprises for four reasons: they help you get in front of the right people, in the right way, drives the right traffic back to your site and increases your Google rankings. Oh and they won't cost you anything!
Articles are informative pieces of writing of about 500-700 words that you can submit to article directories, other websites, blogs, other related charity publications, CVS bulletins or anywhere that you think your supporters are likely to visit. You provide informative content and you get a link back to your site. This has two benefits, it increases your Google rankings and it makes it possible for people to find you even if your site is not doing too well. Great news for third sector organisations that have not got a big budget. It would obviously make sense to write about what you know best, your charity or social enterprise and your subject area. You don't have to be a brilliant writer to get all the benfits, you just have to give information that is useful. In addition do write to appeal to people's emotions. Photographs can really help with this.
Choose a title that tells the reader what to expect. Use keywords that you think that your supporters are likely to use in their searches for you.
There is also a good chance that your articles will be picked up by online publishers and published somewhere else credited to you and linked to your site. It is possible to submit the same article to many different distributors. Of course, the more links you have, the more traffic you get and the more likely you will be to get donations. The most important thing is to make it a regular practice, keep your articles current, fresh and interesting. Soon you will be seen as a trusted expert in your field. This also supports any funding bids that you do too.
Submit articles to places you think good supporters my be lurking. For instance if your social enterprise addresses environmental issues in Zog you might want to submit something to a high society online magazine like 'Zog Life' where influential land owners might share your concerns. Be creative.
The best thing is it's Free!
So make it a habit, put it in your diary and do it! If you would like to put something on here with a link back to your site that would be great.
Happy Writing!
Kay
Article writing is of huge benefit to charities and social enterprises for four reasons: they help you get in front of the right people, in the right way, drives the right traffic back to your site and increases your Google rankings. Oh and they won't cost you anything!
Articles are informative pieces of writing of about 500-700 words that you can submit to article directories, other websites, blogs, other related charity publications, CVS bulletins or anywhere that you think your supporters are likely to visit. You provide informative content and you get a link back to your site. This has two benefits, it increases your Google rankings and it makes it possible for people to find you even if your site is not doing too well. Great news for third sector organisations that have not got a big budget. It would obviously make sense to write about what you know best, your charity or social enterprise and your subject area. You don't have to be a brilliant writer to get all the benfits, you just have to give information that is useful. In addition do write to appeal to people's emotions. Photographs can really help with this.
Choose a title that tells the reader what to expect. Use keywords that you think that your supporters are likely to use in their searches for you.
There is also a good chance that your articles will be picked up by online publishers and published somewhere else credited to you and linked to your site. It is possible to submit the same article to many different distributors. Of course, the more links you have, the more traffic you get and the more likely you will be to get donations. The most important thing is to make it a regular practice, keep your articles current, fresh and interesting. Soon you will be seen as a trusted expert in your field. This also supports any funding bids that you do too.
Submit articles to places you think good supporters my be lurking. For instance if your social enterprise addresses environmental issues in Zog you might want to submit something to a high society online magazine like 'Zog Life' where influential land owners might share your concerns. Be creative.
The best thing is it's Free!
So make it a habit, put it in your diary and do it! If you would like to put something on here with a link back to your site that would be great.
Happy Writing!
Kay
The Secret Reverse Robinhood Principle
The Secret
I have been working in the personal development field for a long time now, with myself, private clients and students. I have traveled the Artist's Way, learned from Deepak Chopra and learned NLP, CBT and EFT. I have been coached, theraped and mentored and have offered these services to others. I have successfully managed to be a single WAHP (Work at Home Parent) whilst working in this field and have got the t-shirt!
I learned and taught that our thoughts create our reality. That we need to take responsibility for what is happening to us and that no one can make us feel anything, and we create our own feeling state.
I watched The Secret when it first came out and loved it. I read Louise Hay, Napoleon Hill and have seen many trends come and go. But there is one trend that has never changed.
The reality is that most people who watch The Secret or something similar, are inspired and and believe that this new insight will change their lives but when this doesn't happen, they soon revert to old styles of thinking. They then buy the next product that offers the secret.
Why is this?
Well, lots of people have a huge dissonance between their desired world beliefs and their actual personal beliefs about themselves and this results in confusion. This means that the actions they take and the efforts to attract different things in life are not in line with either their desired world beliefs or their personal beliefs. They become victims to anyone who claims to be able to sell them the next hyped up solution. When these fail, they end up feeling worse than ever, like a complete failure. This just reinforces the negative self beliefs and makes them search for something out there that will help them.
The internet marketing and MLM industries are case in point. They become entwined with personal development and spirituality. The personal development is sold alongside the moneymaking package making people believe that the products are ethical and credible and people buy them thinking that it will solve their problems. However, for faulty thought patterning to change, people need to work at a very deep level and often need intensive one to one support of one kind or another over a period of time. This level of support is not given to the consumers of the money making products and so the cycle continues. The hungry and needy and desperate continue to line the pockets of the very wealthy.
More recently, I have seen a new generation of gurus who are claiming to be giving back and wanting to teach people how to overcome this problem. It will be interesting to see if this is the case. I am fascinated by what makes people tick, what drives their decision-making and what makes some of them eventually really take stock and decide to address their underlying problems. The Secret has created a big platform for people to sell 'I can show you how to make it work' products to victims of low self esteem, there are probably ads on the side of this page that illustrate this beautifully. This happens in money making arenas and in the personal development industry. I think this is a part of the western economic crisis as people have gone into debt to try and grasp the holy grail. The problem is they are grasping at something external.
The sad thing is mindset and finances are interlinked. You just need to really understand how they are really related and which one comes first. Others can teach you how to make money, but you need to make the inner changes yourself. No one can give you a paint by number formula. You can create the future you want but you need to understand what needs fixing. The old methods of cold calling and hard selling are over. We need to learn to give in order to receive.
Not much of a secret really.
I have been working in the personal development field for a long time now, with myself, private clients and students. I have traveled the Artist's Way, learned from Deepak Chopra and learned NLP, CBT and EFT. I have been coached, theraped and mentored and have offered these services to others. I have successfully managed to be a single WAHP (Work at Home Parent) whilst working in this field and have got the t-shirt!
I learned and taught that our thoughts create our reality. That we need to take responsibility for what is happening to us and that no one can make us feel anything, and we create our own feeling state.
I watched The Secret when it first came out and loved it. I read Louise Hay, Napoleon Hill and have seen many trends come and go. But there is one trend that has never changed.
The reality is that most people who watch The Secret or something similar, are inspired and and believe that this new insight will change their lives but when this doesn't happen, they soon revert to old styles of thinking. They then buy the next product that offers the secret.
Why is this?
Well, lots of people have a huge dissonance between their desired world beliefs and their actual personal beliefs about themselves and this results in confusion. This means that the actions they take and the efforts to attract different things in life are not in line with either their desired world beliefs or their personal beliefs. They become victims to anyone who claims to be able to sell them the next hyped up solution. When these fail, they end up feeling worse than ever, like a complete failure. This just reinforces the negative self beliefs and makes them search for something out there that will help them.
The internet marketing and MLM industries are case in point. They become entwined with personal development and spirituality. The personal development is sold alongside the moneymaking package making people believe that the products are ethical and credible and people buy them thinking that it will solve their problems. However, for faulty thought patterning to change, people need to work at a very deep level and often need intensive one to one support of one kind or another over a period of time. This level of support is not given to the consumers of the money making products and so the cycle continues. The hungry and needy and desperate continue to line the pockets of the very wealthy.
More recently, I have seen a new generation of gurus who are claiming to be giving back and wanting to teach people how to overcome this problem. It will be interesting to see if this is the case. I am fascinated by what makes people tick, what drives their decision-making and what makes some of them eventually really take stock and decide to address their underlying problems. The Secret has created a big platform for people to sell 'I can show you how to make it work' products to victims of low self esteem, there are probably ads on the side of this page that illustrate this beautifully. This happens in money making arenas and in the personal development industry. I think this is a part of the western economic crisis as people have gone into debt to try and grasp the holy grail. The problem is they are grasping at something external.
The sad thing is mindset and finances are interlinked. You just need to really understand how they are really related and which one comes first. Others can teach you how to make money, but you need to make the inner changes yourself. No one can give you a paint by number formula. You can create the future you want but you need to understand what needs fixing. The old methods of cold calling and hard selling are over. We need to learn to give in order to receive.
Not much of a secret really.
Friday, 23 October 2009
Niche, Brand or Partner?
Yesterday I spoke a bit about the importance of finding the right people to help you with the areas of your work that you know you are a bit weak in. I would like to look at that in more detail today and especially look at why this is important online. Think of the last three purchases you made online. Who did you buy from (or donate to) and why? The chances are you did some research, looked at the price, the product and the terms and conditions and felt that you could trust the organisation. We buy from people we know. like and trust. Sometimes we trust a company because we are very familiar with the brand like Amazon. Sometimes we trust a company because they demonstrate expertise in a niche market. So they might not have an international appeal and recognition, but within a niche community they are respected.
So what does this mean for you? It means that it would be foolish to think that you could start raising a lot of money by trying to sell commonly searched for and widely available products if you are not a recognised online brand. Online branding is quite a different process to offline and it is much more than just your website. If you were thinking of buying something from someone online, you would probably Google their name to find out more about them. You would want to know that they are who they say they are. This means you would look at the things that they have published to the web like press releases, blogs, articles, their website and adverts. You will want to also know what others are saying about them too in postings and in the social networking arena. That is assuming of course that you can find them online in the first place. If you are a small charity or social enterprise who is hoping to attract donations online you will be competing against much bigger organisations who have already got a very strong online brand.
One way around this is joint venturing, after all two or more heads are always better than one. Strategic alliances account for a massive percentage of online trading. I can give you a few examples. WAHPs are Work at Home Parents who have found strength in numbers, so individuals gathering as one unity create a big presence. Whitebox on the other hand is one organisation who partner with many charities and social enterprises. They find a simple way for organisations to generate fundraising revenue. It is free to join and is a revenue sharing scheme. More on that one tomorrow after I have spoken with one of the Whitebox team later on. Another form of joint venture is merging. The internet training company that I trained with is an alliance of the two biggest training companies who were previously competitors. As a result the training resources are infinite and they are streets ahead of any of their competition and they are enjoying the benefits of collaboration.
If you want to think beyond joint venturing, you could think about developing a powerful online presence in a niche market. A niche market will attract fewer searches but it is more reachable to establish yourself as a big fish in a smaller pond. However, please don't set yourself up as an expert online unless you really are one, it is crucial to be transparent. It is surprising how much misinformation is on the web and if you can deliver some comprehensive information or quality specialist product or service that is currently not widely available you will do well if you are smart about your branding.
So, more food for thought and I will be back tomorrow to let you know about Whitebox and how they might be able to help you.
So what does this mean for you? It means that it would be foolish to think that you could start raising a lot of money by trying to sell commonly searched for and widely available products if you are not a recognised online brand. Online branding is quite a different process to offline and it is much more than just your website. If you were thinking of buying something from someone online, you would probably Google their name to find out more about them. You would want to know that they are who they say they are. This means you would look at the things that they have published to the web like press releases, blogs, articles, their website and adverts. You will want to also know what others are saying about them too in postings and in the social networking arena. That is assuming of course that you can find them online in the first place. If you are a small charity or social enterprise who is hoping to attract donations online you will be competing against much bigger organisations who have already got a very strong online brand.
One way around this is joint venturing, after all two or more heads are always better than one. Strategic alliances account for a massive percentage of online trading. I can give you a few examples. WAHPs are Work at Home Parents who have found strength in numbers, so individuals gathering as one unity create a big presence. Whitebox on the other hand is one organisation who partner with many charities and social enterprises. They find a simple way for organisations to generate fundraising revenue. It is free to join and is a revenue sharing scheme. More on that one tomorrow after I have spoken with one of the Whitebox team later on. Another form of joint venture is merging. The internet training company that I trained with is an alliance of the two biggest training companies who were previously competitors. As a result the training resources are infinite and they are streets ahead of any of their competition and they are enjoying the benefits of collaboration.
If you want to think beyond joint venturing, you could think about developing a powerful online presence in a niche market. A niche market will attract fewer searches but it is more reachable to establish yourself as a big fish in a smaller pond. However, please don't set yourself up as an expert online unless you really are one, it is crucial to be transparent. It is surprising how much misinformation is on the web and if you can deliver some comprehensive information or quality specialist product or service that is currently not widely available you will do well if you are smart about your branding.
So, more food for thought and I will be back tomorrow to let you know about Whitebox and how they might be able to help you.
Thursday, 22 October 2009
An enterprise that is social, or a socially motivated enterprise?
Well the business planning course was fantastic, it was lovely to see everyone and to be in a room full of people who are doing such inspiring work. Our local CVS is very active, offers lots of personal support and really cares about individual charities and social enterprises. It is important to network with others working in the sector and keep each other motivated.
One of the ongoing conversations that kept cropping up (apart from the obvious lack of funding and grants available) was about the challenges of having to wear so many hats and develop so many skills in order to do the charitable work. It would seem that some social enterprises are conceived by people who are driven by a desire to create social change and therefore develop enterprise to support it. I think this is a difficult route and the CVS people said that a number of local social enterprises are converting to charities because they being pulled in too many directions. There are also more grants and funding opportunities available for charities.
Then there are people who are naturally motivated by entrepreneurial activity, have good business skills but also have a desire to create social change. They are successful in business and want make a positive social impact.
We discussed the importance of having a vibrant business plan, especially if you are not naturally business minded. The trainer used a metaphor about going on a train journey and pointed out that any journey requires planning and part of that is knowing where you want to go and also having some contingencies in place. He quoted Dr. Lawrence "If you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else."
This led on to discussions about financial planning and cash flows and projections and how difficult it is for third sector organisations to plan their cash flow over the required 3 years in a business plan. We all have to pull figures out of the air to a certain extent because we cannot be certain of success in our funding bids or securing grants. It is easier to predict if we have supporters who give regular donations on a monthly or yearly basis, but generally speaking we have to learn to live with uncertainty.
Developing a strategic plan to raise money online could add an element of certainty to your planning. This involves having a system in place to generate multiple streams of income. You can experiment with different methods and explore the new avenues. Take a logical approach and if you don't feel experienced enough get support from a reliable source.
Getting the right help with any aspect of business is crucial to success. If your SWOT analysis identifies a serious threat to your business you need to search for a solution. There are many bid writers who can help you and write themselves into the bid, business plan experts are happy to look at your plan and work with you to develop a plan that is persuasive to funders. Internet marketing is the same. There are countless opportunities and possibilities and with the right support, you could be on the road to sustainability!
until tomorrow
Kay
One of the ongoing conversations that kept cropping up (apart from the obvious lack of funding and grants available) was about the challenges of having to wear so many hats and develop so many skills in order to do the charitable work. It would seem that some social enterprises are conceived by people who are driven by a desire to create social change and therefore develop enterprise to support it. I think this is a difficult route and the CVS people said that a number of local social enterprises are converting to charities because they being pulled in too many directions. There are also more grants and funding opportunities available for charities.
Then there are people who are naturally motivated by entrepreneurial activity, have good business skills but also have a desire to create social change. They are successful in business and want make a positive social impact.
We discussed the importance of having a vibrant business plan, especially if you are not naturally business minded. The trainer used a metaphor about going on a train journey and pointed out that any journey requires planning and part of that is knowing where you want to go and also having some contingencies in place. He quoted Dr. Lawrence "If you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else."
This led on to discussions about financial planning and cash flows and projections and how difficult it is for third sector organisations to plan their cash flow over the required 3 years in a business plan. We all have to pull figures out of the air to a certain extent because we cannot be certain of success in our funding bids or securing grants. It is easier to predict if we have supporters who give regular donations on a monthly or yearly basis, but generally speaking we have to learn to live with uncertainty.
Developing a strategic plan to raise money online could add an element of certainty to your planning. This involves having a system in place to generate multiple streams of income. You can experiment with different methods and explore the new avenues. Take a logical approach and if you don't feel experienced enough get support from a reliable source.
Getting the right help with any aspect of business is crucial to success. If your SWOT analysis identifies a serious threat to your business you need to search for a solution. There are many bid writers who can help you and write themselves into the bid, business plan experts are happy to look at your plan and work with you to develop a plan that is persuasive to funders. Internet marketing is the same. There are countless opportunities and possibilities and with the right support, you could be on the road to sustainability!
until tomorrow
Kay
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Third Sector up North
Well, yesterday I spent some time looking at various funding sources and also training days for third sector organisations in the UK. We have been developing a funding map and looking at the trails of funding from Europe or central government through to local fundholders. Well some of it is a trail and some of it is a web!
Location makes a big difference to funding eligibility. I noticed 4 trends.
We live between two highly funded areas, one because it is a national park and attracts visitors and tourists and the other because it is one of the worst areas of deprivation in the country. Both of these areas are likely to attract funding for different reasons. I noticed that many of the arts or cultural pots of funding are much more likely to be available to those living in or around big cities. Thirdly, I noticed that the closer to London you live, the more likely it is that you are to find decent training and support courses specifically on internet marketing to help you either get funding or sharpen your business skills. Lastly, I noticed that there is a definite movement towards helping charities and social enterprises exploit the use of the internet to raise or make money online in the south, but much less so here in the north.
So, I have decided to do something about this. I contacted my Business Links advisor and told him that I would be running some courses teaching third sector organisations how to carry out effective internet marketing campaigns. He was very supportive and immediately gave me some links and suggestions and a call to action!
I can't release the exact date yet because I haven't confirmed it with the training rooms, but I am very excited about putting it together. I will be inviting 15 people to bring their laptops to a one day training and workshop about internet marketing. Each person will create up a free blog or a website and we will explore 5 ways that it can make money. We will look at the search engine optimisation, how to make money from writing and various ways of selling things online. It will be a fun interactive action day as opposed to a talking shop and the delegates will go home with new ideas and skills that are ready to go straight into practice.
I am very excited about this and looking forward to teaching and empowering others to get up and running. I had a great one to one session with someone yesterday who is just starting a business. I so love working with people to help them to identify where they want to go and how to get there. Today I'm off to do some learning on a course run by the CVS about business planning. The guy that is teaching is said to be a crash hot business planner so I am really looking forward to working with him. Teaching and learning are so important in this day and age where everything changes so fast and keeping up to date is crucial. We all have something to teach and lots to learn and learning environments are fantastic places to meet new people and network. Until tomorrow!
Kay
Location makes a big difference to funding eligibility. I noticed 4 trends.
We live between two highly funded areas, one because it is a national park and attracts visitors and tourists and the other because it is one of the worst areas of deprivation in the country. Both of these areas are likely to attract funding for different reasons. I noticed that many of the arts or cultural pots of funding are much more likely to be available to those living in or around big cities. Thirdly, I noticed that the closer to London you live, the more likely it is that you are to find decent training and support courses specifically on internet marketing to help you either get funding or sharpen your business skills. Lastly, I noticed that there is a definite movement towards helping charities and social enterprises exploit the use of the internet to raise or make money online in the south, but much less so here in the north.
So, I have decided to do something about this. I contacted my Business Links advisor and told him that I would be running some courses teaching third sector organisations how to carry out effective internet marketing campaigns. He was very supportive and immediately gave me some links and suggestions and a call to action!
I can't release the exact date yet because I haven't confirmed it with the training rooms, but I am very excited about putting it together. I will be inviting 15 people to bring their laptops to a one day training and workshop about internet marketing. Each person will create up a free blog or a website and we will explore 5 ways that it can make money. We will look at the search engine optimisation, how to make money from writing and various ways of selling things online. It will be a fun interactive action day as opposed to a talking shop and the delegates will go home with new ideas and skills that are ready to go straight into practice.
I am very excited about this and looking forward to teaching and empowering others to get up and running. I had a great one to one session with someone yesterday who is just starting a business. I so love working with people to help them to identify where they want to go and how to get there. Today I'm off to do some learning on a course run by the CVS about business planning. The guy that is teaching is said to be a crash hot business planner so I am really looking forward to working with him. Teaching and learning are so important in this day and age where everything changes so fast and keeping up to date is crucial. We all have something to teach and lots to learn and learning environments are fantastic places to meet new people and network. Until tomorrow!
Kay
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
No Direct Mail at Christmas? Strike while the iron is hot...
Many charities and social enterprises rely heavily on donations that result from direct mail appeals at Christmas time. With the threat of the Royal Mail strike/collapse, they will need to consider online methods of fundraising and start preparing now for a campaign. There are many ways to make money from writing online such as getting paid to write articles, writing and selling e-books, money generated by advertisers on your blog, compelling stories that inspire people to donate and direct e-mail to your supporters.
Articles are needed for websites all the time. People want fresh and current content on whatever they are researching or looking to buy and they want to know that the content is reliable. They also want to be able to understand it, so your writing should be clear, concise and understandable to an average 14 year old. It's a bit like writing a funding application, you have to assume that the funder does not have any understanding about your subject area and you must avoid using jargon.
To get started, you could write about 5 samples of your work (about 500 words) and you can then submit them to sites that are interested in your field. You can also network with internet marketers and webmasters. Many of the big websites outsource their writing projects and are looking for interesting content.
You can be as creative as you like and set up fundraising appeals. For instance, there is an appeal running on Facebook right now called Causes. This costs nothing to set up and already they have raised thousands for various charities. Last Friday, a Twitter campaign was launched. Every time someone mentioned '#BeatCancer' money was donated to cancer charities. A new Guinness World Record was set for the most social mentions in 24 hours, which by Saturday had already topped 200,000 on Twitter, Facebook and blog posts. Don't underestimate the power of free social networking.
You can create newsletters and reports that you send out to your sponsors to encourage them to keep sponsoring you. If they know that you are continuing to make a difference, they will want to keep supporting. If you can develop a story telling style, all the better. Case studies can be an extremely effective method of convincing the public to donate. It goes without saying that you need to be careful about confidentiality especially on the web.
Press releases are a very powerful and effective way of encouraging people to visit your website. If you are doing something that is newsworthy, let people know about it. You can submit it to Google news and of course let your supporters know about it in an email. If you don't have anything particularly big happening, you can always interview some of your service users and create a testimonial report.
E Books are very popular now and very easy to create. There are plenty of software packages available that make it really easy for you to convert your information into an ebook. You could write one that has international appeal or one that is aimed at your local community. Once you have created it, you can upload it to ebay, let people know about it and where to find it and they can buy it through paypal.
Blogging is very useful. Blog sites climb to the top of the search engine quickly because they have so much content. Make sure you keep using your key words and remember to link to your website. This will help to improve the rankings of your site as well. Allowing advertisers to place ads on your blog is another way of generating some income, as you will get paid a little every time someone clicks on one of the ads. Google is good at matching appropriate adverts to your blog through Adsense. More on that later!
If you really want to get stuck in and make some money from writing, the Directory of Social Change are hosting a fabulous workshop:
CHARITY WRITING AND PUBLICATIONS TRAINING DAY
Monday 2 November
Directory of Social Change,
24 Stephenson Way, London NW1 2DP
http://www.dsc.org.uk
Maybe I'll see you there!
Happy Writing,
Kay
Articles are needed for websites all the time. People want fresh and current content on whatever they are researching or looking to buy and they want to know that the content is reliable. They also want to be able to understand it, so your writing should be clear, concise and understandable to an average 14 year old. It's a bit like writing a funding application, you have to assume that the funder does not have any understanding about your subject area and you must avoid using jargon.
To get started, you could write about 5 samples of your work (about 500 words) and you can then submit them to sites that are interested in your field. You can also network with internet marketers and webmasters. Many of the big websites outsource their writing projects and are looking for interesting content.
You can be as creative as you like and set up fundraising appeals. For instance, there is an appeal running on Facebook right now called Causes. This costs nothing to set up and already they have raised thousands for various charities. Last Friday, a Twitter campaign was launched. Every time someone mentioned '#BeatCancer' money was donated to cancer charities. A new Guinness World Record was set for the most social mentions in 24 hours, which by Saturday had already topped 200,000 on Twitter, Facebook and blog posts. Don't underestimate the power of free social networking.
You can create newsletters and reports that you send out to your sponsors to encourage them to keep sponsoring you. If they know that you are continuing to make a difference, they will want to keep supporting. If you can develop a story telling style, all the better. Case studies can be an extremely effective method of convincing the public to donate. It goes without saying that you need to be careful about confidentiality especially on the web.
Press releases are a very powerful and effective way of encouraging people to visit your website. If you are doing something that is newsworthy, let people know about it. You can submit it to Google news and of course let your supporters know about it in an email. If you don't have anything particularly big happening, you can always interview some of your service users and create a testimonial report.
E Books are very popular now and very easy to create. There are plenty of software packages available that make it really easy for you to convert your information into an ebook. You could write one that has international appeal or one that is aimed at your local community. Once you have created it, you can upload it to ebay, let people know about it and where to find it and they can buy it through paypal.
Blogging is very useful. Blog sites climb to the top of the search engine quickly because they have so much content. Make sure you keep using your key words and remember to link to your website. This will help to improve the rankings of your site as well. Allowing advertisers to place ads on your blog is another way of generating some income, as you will get paid a little every time someone clicks on one of the ads. Google is good at matching appropriate adverts to your blog through Adsense. More on that later!
If you really want to get stuck in and make some money from writing, the Directory of Social Change are hosting a fabulous workshop:
CHARITY WRITING AND PUBLICATIONS TRAINING DAY
Monday 2 November
Directory of Social Change,
24 Stephenson Way, London NW1 2DP
http://www.dsc.org.uk
Maybe I'll see you there!
Happy Writing,
Kay
Monday, 19 October 2009
Raising Money and Awareness- the Write Way
The internet is a great source of information but unfortunately there is a lot of rubbish out there too. People are hungry for good reliable content, especially in niche areas. I worked in the eating disorders field for a long time and I know that one of the hardest things for sufferers and parents was finding decent help, especially if they lived rurally. The internet can offer a remote lifeline to these people but equally the 'pro-anna' type of sites can make things worse. If you have expertise in a niche area and a sound value system, you could be one of those lifelines and help people get the information they need.
So you're going to give it a go...a few things to think about.
This page is written and hosted by Blogger. It's free and easy to set up. There are clear instructions and lots of blogs that will show you how to do it.
Be clear and concise, especially in the first paragraph. Think about what you want to say and tell the reader what to expect.
Keep your content useful and easy to understand. Bite sized chunks are good. People don't tend to read, they skim so make sure your blog or article is really easy on the eye.
Remember who you are speaking to. If it is a 'user' you might want to keep it really simple, if it is potential funders or researchers, you may need to go into more detail and make sure you reference properly as you would offline. Be careful about making unsupported claims.
Let people know how to contact you for more information or to donate, and make it easy for them to donate.
Let people know who you have helped and how, people love to read about personal and real life experiences. If you can convey the benefits of your organisation you will be much more likely to get paid to write and to attract traffic to your pages.
Point your reader to other resources or useful sources of information, if you send links to good respectable sites, you will also find that this helps with your search engine ranking.
Try to include lots of keywords that will help people find you. Think of what people will type into the search bar if they were looking for your information. This includes the title of your site, try and tell people what you are about in your domain name and blog/article title.
Don't worry if you are not about to win a literary prize for your work, the main thing is providing your reader with reliable information. If you do start a blog, keep it going. Be regular and keep it fresh. Hubpages is a fantastic place to get going too, you can create a 'hub' of information about your work. Adding videos and images will also add to the viewing experience and help people to remember your work.
And lastly, have fun! I hope this article will inspire you to start getting your word on the e-streets and see how easy it is to get going! Tomorrow I will tell you more specifically how your charity or social enterprise can start raising money from writing.
So you're going to give it a go...a few things to think about.
This page is written and hosted by Blogger. It's free and easy to set up. There are clear instructions and lots of blogs that will show you how to do it.
Be clear and concise, especially in the first paragraph. Think about what you want to say and tell the reader what to expect.
Keep your content useful and easy to understand. Bite sized chunks are good. People don't tend to read, they skim so make sure your blog or article is really easy on the eye.
Remember who you are speaking to. If it is a 'user' you might want to keep it really simple, if it is potential funders or researchers, you may need to go into more detail and make sure you reference properly as you would offline. Be careful about making unsupported claims.
Let people know how to contact you for more information or to donate, and make it easy for them to donate.
Let people know who you have helped and how, people love to read about personal and real life experiences. If you can convey the benefits of your organisation you will be much more likely to get paid to write and to attract traffic to your pages.
Point your reader to other resources or useful sources of information, if you send links to good respectable sites, you will also find that this helps with your search engine ranking.
Try to include lots of keywords that will help people find you. Think of what people will type into the search bar if they were looking for your information. This includes the title of your site, try and tell people what you are about in your domain name and blog/article title.
Don't worry if you are not about to win a literary prize for your work, the main thing is providing your reader with reliable information. If you do start a blog, keep it going. Be regular and keep it fresh. Hubpages is a fantastic place to get going too, you can create a 'hub' of information about your work. Adding videos and images will also add to the viewing experience and help people to remember your work.
And lastly, have fun! I hope this article will inspire you to start getting your word on the e-streets and see how easy it is to get going! Tomorrow I will tell you more specifically how your charity or social enterprise can start raising money from writing.
Sunday, 18 October 2009
Match Funding? Turn it into cash
If you are working in the third sector chances are you are no stranger to writing...funding bids that is. It can be a grueling process having to describe what you are about in as many ways as there are funding pots. Talk about Groundhog Day. Not only are you likely to be expert in your field, you have to become expert filling in funding and grant applications. You will have learned to write appealing bids that make the funders want to support your organisation.
Why not use those skills to make money? You are ideally placed. Your have experience and expertise within your field in your charity or social enterprise and this makes for fantastic content that the search engines will love. This means that you can deliver really useful information directly to your clients and sponsors and people will actually be able to find you. Sponsors are more likely to give to your organisation if you give them a peek into your work. Make it personal, colourful and add images if you can.
Not only are you able to provide quality information and attract more donations, but you can also get paid for the writing itself. This means that if you are counting your bid writing time as match funding, you could get paid for publishing some of the content as well. The contents of one funding bid could create any number of informative and profitable posts.
You can get paid for writing informative and credible articles, e-zines, blogs and newsletters. You can also use that opportunity to talk about donations, gift aid and legacies. Be creative, what information do you have that your supporters are likely to look for? How and where would they search for it? What do you know that the users of your service need to know? The best bit is, it is free and easy to get started. It needn't take too much time, and if you get into the habit of it you coul build it into your financial strategy. More on how to start getting paid for writing tomorrow...until then, have a great day.
For more information about turning your latent match funding into real time money, do get in touch. We are happy to support you.
Why not use those skills to make money? You are ideally placed. Your have experience and expertise within your field in your charity or social enterprise and this makes for fantastic content that the search engines will love. This means that you can deliver really useful information directly to your clients and sponsors and people will actually be able to find you. Sponsors are more likely to give to your organisation if you give them a peek into your work. Make it personal, colourful and add images if you can.
Not only are you able to provide quality information and attract more donations, but you can also get paid for the writing itself. This means that if you are counting your bid writing time as match funding, you could get paid for publishing some of the content as well. The contents of one funding bid could create any number of informative and profitable posts.
You can get paid for writing informative and credible articles, e-zines, blogs and newsletters. You can also use that opportunity to talk about donations, gift aid and legacies. Be creative, what information do you have that your supporters are likely to look for? How and where would they search for it? What do you know that the users of your service need to know? The best bit is, it is free and easy to get started. It needn't take too much time, and if you get into the habit of it you coul build it into your financial strategy. More on how to start getting paid for writing tomorrow...until then, have a great day.
For more information about turning your latent match funding into real time money, do get in touch. We are happy to support you.
Saturday, 17 October 2009
Another New Wave... I am getting old....
It is fascinating how speed of light everything is online. Google has been the market leader for searching for a long time now, the phrase 'Google It' has become synonymous with 'look it up'. But in a matter of months, more people are searching on Twitter than Google in many searches. Why? I think the main reason is that Twitter is in real time and it takes seconds to get found on the internet rather than the days, months or weeks on Google. The playing field has been leveled. Also, if you want to get repeated exposure, you can use Twitterhawk, a tool that allows you to do an advanced search for terms and then create automated tweets. It is much cheaper and much more simple than Google's adsense. It also has the capacity for each tweet to reach many more people.
Just when I get my head around Twitter, I am preparing to catch the next wave, The Google Wave. What is it?
Google Wave is real time, mobile and social, possibly the three trendiest features in internet marketing. The Wave allows you to store personal content and then share everything with anyone. It will be a bit like a combined Facebook, Twitter, email, picture and video album and word document holder all at once. A bit mind blowing. It will make email much more dynamic than ordinary email but so far it is only available to select developers who have been specially selected by Google to test ride.
However, if you are curious, you can apply for an invitation to ride it...I have and I will let you know as soon as I catch it!
Just when I get my head around Twitter, I am preparing to catch the next wave, The Google Wave. What is it?
Google Wave is real time, mobile and social, possibly the three trendiest features in internet marketing. The Wave allows you to store personal content and then share everything with anyone. It will be a bit like a combined Facebook, Twitter, email, picture and video album and word document holder all at once. A bit mind blowing. It will make email much more dynamic than ordinary email but so far it is only available to select developers who have been specially selected by Google to test ride.
However, if you are curious, you can apply for an invitation to ride it...I have and I will let you know as soon as I catch it!
Monday, 12 October 2009
More Creative Thinking...The Social Network Revolution
The possibilities are endless when we bring creativity into business and business into creativity. It is such an exciting time in history, I'm sure the future generations will look back on this time as the 'Social Network Revolution' in the same way we look back on the 60s as the Sexual Revolution. We are witnessing a whole new era of collaboration, it is indeed the Age of Aquarius.
Here we see business tycoon Richard Branson alongside Tellman Knudson. Tellman has been running barefoot across the States to raise millions for a national children's charity and has been using the media to promote his efforts.
Not a new idea, Terry Fox did it with one leg. What is new is the number of people involved in the real time multi-media interaction and sharing and therefore real time donations. No longer do we have to wait for events like Red Nose Day and Band Aid to appeal to the emotions of the sponsors. With a bit of planning and creative thinking this can be done at a grass roots level.
Not a new idea, Terry Fox did it with one leg. What is new is the number of people involved in the real time multi-media interaction and sharing and therefore real time donations. No longer do we have to wait for events like Red Nose Day and Band Aid to appeal to the emotions of the sponsors. With a bit of planning and creative thinking this can be done at a grass roots level.
Competition is out. Collaboration is in and people from the same and different disciplines are forming the most unlikely alliances and demonstrating that the whole is way more than the sum of the parts. Stacking sites are replacing blogs as bloggers get together and are driven to write about what their communities are interested in rather than what they are interested in. Change.org is a great example of this. It is an organisation that aims to raise people's awareness about all kinds of human causes and then empower people to work with non-profit organisations. Twitter is driving global interaction forward at the speed of light as people with common interests are finding each other in a split second. Jung would have had a field day blogging about collective (un)consciousness!
People around the globe are uniting online in an attempt to sort out environmental and economical messes and we are all being pulled together in a kind of global wartime effort.
Now then, if you have a creative idea, you can people to help you implement it. If you have a bank of skills to offer you can hook up with ideas people if you need that too. You literally have the world at your fingertips. Go for it and don't forget to write something on Oct 15th for National Blog Day. And as ever, do get in touch if I can help!
Kay
Sunday, 11 October 2009
Scam, Spam and Other Bologne
One of the first things to think about when you are starting out making money online is how do you spot scam and stop spam?
1. The Liars are the ones who assume a false identity. It is not unusual for people to create false identities online including email, websites and contact addresses. If someone asks you for money or contact details from a 'do not reply' to this address, don't do it. They may be selling your email address to someone who will send you lots of spam or a virus.
If you are wondering about someone's authenticity, don't open the email and if you are unsure, Google Who Is such and such. If they are above board you should find that out. The Whois website will give you contact details but you will probably see lots more information as well. Do they have a telephone number? A landline number is most credible. Linkedin is a good reliable source for business profiles. Twitter is great. Even if someone removes their tweets, they are still in the tweeting history and can be accessed. So do think before you open your beak!
Do they have an internet profile that makes you think they are who they say they are? Remember it is possible to change anything online, to make up a whole new virtual identity including switching gender and re-writing history. I guess we all have different aspects to our personalities in real life and we can choose appropriately who we those aspects with. Equally, it is easier to judge how authentic someone is in real time, however if you are easily sucked in, get a second opinion before making a decision.
2. The Exaggerators are the ones who boast that they will turn you into a millionaire overnight without you having to do any work. There is no magic system, no formula that will do that. In fact lots of people lose money because they are so busy chasing the holy grail that they don't check things out thoroughly. Having said that, scammers are clever and they cover their tracks well. Testimonials, photo shots of 'paychecks', fast cars, holiday snaps and big houses are used to lure people in. They use a lot of convincers to trick you in to buying a system that has made them 6 or 7 figures and will do the same for you. They often have a disclaimer at the bottom of the site in very small print. Remember all that glitters is not gold, trust your guts. Even if you really really want what they say they are offering, don't do it unless you are sure that they are going to deliver what they say they are going to deliver.
3. The Thieves are the ones who defraud accounts, don't send what you have paid for or trick you into buying something like the box that the widget came in rather than the widget itself. Keep your bank details safe, only use secure payment sites and only buy from people who have a good selling history. Check your statements, defrauders often take small amounts of money out at a time so you don't notice.
4. The Pests are the ones who fill your inbox up with unwanted annoying offers of viagra, weight loss products, money-making scams and casinos. Get a good email filter, do be careful of the free ones as they are often just selling your email addresses to third parties.
5. The Attackers are the ones who send you a virus of some kind and then offer to sell you a solution in the form of some kind of patch or other. Be careful of the websites you visit and do have good defense systems in place.
Well, it's not all bad news out there, just as the www increases the potential for viral abuse it also increases the potential to do the opposite. Check out the short video at the top that says 'NOW' and you will see what I mean. It is about the 3rd blog action day and will unite brilliant people from around the world in the most important issue facing us.
There is strength in numbers and we can all pull together and make a difference. Let's do it!
Saturday, 10 October 2009
Think Creative
Foetal Alcohol Syndrome Aware Uk have put a self-updating banner advert on Twitter to highlight the dangers of drinking during pregnancy. How cool is that? This is probably set up by using what is called an auto-responder. An auto responder is software that you program to send out responses to people who are on an email list. You can either add people into the list or the auto responder collects the list by catching the email addresses from people who send their details on a form from your web pages. You simply tell the software what to say
I use Aweber because they are so user friendly. They have extensive videos, newsletters and training seminars to help you make the most of their fantastic products. This means you spend a bit of time learning how to use it and then free up the time to do other things. It will also save you time and money that you would have spent on direct mail.
This is great news for third sector orgs who have traditionally sent out big direct mailshots to appeal for donations. Traditionally this is done near Christmas when people my feel emotionally charged and want to give to a charity. This year a lot of the big charities are worried about the effects of the potential and threatened Royal Mail Strike. Oh and speaking of Royal Mail, did you know you can get stamps online now too? Does that mean we will be literally printing money (they are legal tender)!
A lot of people worry that if they get into social marketing they will spend all their time on it and not get any work done. Some organisations have banned Facebook from their computers. Well, the smart companies are the ones who are using it wisely and to their advantage. It's fast, its cheap and it is such an easy way to build up your list of emails to send out mailings with your autoresponder. Do check though that they have given you permission to email them, otherwise it is spam.
Frustrations of a Third Sector Worker
Well, this all started because we have become very frustrated with the funding system. We are a social enterprise called Bohemian Trove CIC
www.bohemiantrove.com and are lucky enough to live in the Lake District and work in a beautiful old house in a park. We exist to incubate, train, mentor and support emerging creative entrepreneurs. We aim to add value to the area with the fruits of their achievements and also give them the best ongoing support possible. We are both (Sam and I) passionate about providing some hope and future prospects for young returning graduates who want to be able to make a future for themselves in our area. Currently many of them are unemployed or have to move to big cities to find prospects.
Well, the funding competition proved fierce and because we are not looking at a disadvantaged group, we didn't have a sustainability plan and because of some other local politics, we have found it a huge struggle. We spent hours working on funding bids, kept changing our model to suit funders and got increasingly worn out and disillusioned. We spent months meeting with potential funders and doing all the right things without much luck. At this point, I would like to thank and acknowledge the support we have had from UnLtd, they have been brilliant, and also Business Links. We had to find a way of generating income that would sustain us and get us non-grant dependent.
We needed to develop some income that would be automated and residual so that when we DO have students in, we would be able to concentrate on their enterprises and give them the time and energy that they need to achieve excellence.
So I set about learning about the different ways of making money online and this blog will share these ways with you. I have chosen to work with a company called Your Net Biz for a number of reasons. I knew that if I were serious about making money online I would need to get a mentor, to learn in a systematic way and get help with strategy. They have a library of videos for me to watch that covers every aspect of internet marketing and also some personal development which I am into anyway.
I have set up two strands to my business, one is Third Sector Finance and the other is Work in Slippers (that one is aimed at helping single parents).
We are also planning on developing office services, a virtual office and some facilities for hot-desking. We are planning ahead, and wondering what might be in store for third sector organisations if the Tories get in and we become the first sector.
I want to use my business experience, coaching skills and training background to help as many people as I can. I particularly keen to help single mothers and those in the third sector. Do drop me a line if I can help!
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