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I just read Suzen Petit’s excellent, information packed blog post on increasing your blog rankings viw alexa.com. It was an explanation I could understand. This was the second or third time I had heard that site referred to.
I checked it out and got mildly depressed…for a minute. By inputting a variety of blog listings, I was able to find my own ranking and those of my friends and competitors. The lower your score, the more the readers you have. The more readers you have, the more likely anything you’re marketing will reach the people you want to reach.
For instance Seth Godin, who is one of the most famous bloggers I read, has an alexa score of 5,766. Mine is 5,205,336. This sounds horrifying (to me) until I search for the stats on another blogger I know and find his ranking is 15,755,386. I don’t feel so bad anymore.
Like anything else based on numbers–like weight or income–it’s good to know where you are so that, moving forward, you can see whether you’re increasing readership or losing it. It’s only a number. And I have work to do.
Old Ongapotchket Site
After many months and many meetings and many decisions, the new janepollak.com is alive and well and hopefully worth your valuable time and attention. It feels as though my last website went up only weeks ago, but it’s been six years. It was time for something new, fresh and more adaptable to today’s social media opportunities.
My mother used a lot of Yiddish words when we were growing up. The one that popped into my mind every time I pulled up my old site was ongepotchket (uhng-guh-potch-kit), which can mean too fancy or ornate, fussy, overdressed, overdone. What I had it mean in my head was “too much going on.” After four years of plain and simple, I had my assistant add the logos from the media outlets that had once featured me. Then, when the revised edition of Soul Proprietor came out in May 2010, we threw the new cover up there with links to amazon.com.
The site got cluttered and messy looking–ongepotchket–so every time I clicked on my home page I had to squint so as not to notice the clutter.
And then, you just know, it’s time to re-group and re-launch. I hired a wonderful marketing/branding company to work with me, and I’m thrilled with my new look. It’s congruent with the cover of my book. There’s no more ‘egg’ symbolism. And we’ve added a lot of video and social media connections to stay abreast of the times.
I hope you’ll spend some time checking it out, send your friends, sign up for a free webinar and/or hang out with my remarkable clients sharing their experiences on the youtube clips.
Welcome to my new site!
You don’t have to be a college student or grad to benefit from the advice in this revised edition of Lindsey’s book. Lindsey, for those of you who don’t know, is my daughter.
She used to come to me for career advice, but the tables have turned. She’s my go-to person for all things electronic and social media related when it comes to business. When I was considering linking sites with a particular organization recently, and I sought her wisdom, I told her I wasn’t sure I understood exactly what was required of me or what the benefits would be. But it sounded kind of good from the pitch I received. “Mom, if you don’t understand it and aren’t highly motivated to participate, say no.” I followed that advice with no regrets.
Please, buy a copy of her book for yourself or someone you love who’s looking for work. She’s a trustworthy guide and will be truly grateful for your purchase.
At last night’s mastermind group, during the first round of sharing successes, photographer Katie Settel took her turn with pride and delight. Her goal had been to photograph Beyonce’s new baby. We all supported the dream she had laid out in session 1 (this was our 5th) and have witnessed her transformation as Katie developed her marketing materials in that pursuit.
At our third session, Katie arrived with an elegantly designed package of her photographs, which demonstrate her talent, plus her freshly written cover letter…and a huge smile. She had put together an exquisite pitch package which she sent to Beyonce’s agent in NYC. Even getting that far was a win. Katie also designed the concept of a photo shoot with purpose (i.e. not winning a million dollar contract from People, say) which she proposed as a differentiator from all the other photographers in pursuit of that opportunity.
The baby has been born. I haven’t found any photos on the internet yet (correct me if I’m wrong), but as Katie put it last night when giving her report, “I didn’t get the shot, but I gave it a shot.”
While not everyone would claim not getting the sought after opportunity as a success, I surely do. How many people scheme and dream and don’t even take the first step in the direction of their own success? Katie moved several paces in that direction by not only following through on her own vision, but also by ratcheting up her skills, materials and courage level by giving it a go.
Success is the journey toward a worthy goal, so chalk up miles of advancement for Katie’s career.
When I signed up for the Meet the Editors event at Miraval Spa in Tucson last June, I had no idea how well-timed this getaway retreat would be. These last few weeks have been intensely full and productive with my recent free webinar and subsequent sell-out of the actual 8-session course starting next week.
I’ve wrapped up all the trimmings for the first session on 11/17, so feel really good about taking a long weekend of rest, renewal and some pretty cool networking.
My coach asked me what my ‘high dream’ would be around the event. What would be the best outcome? I don’t know how this came out of my mouth, but ‘a column’ was what I responded. I’ve got copies of my book to distribute–I shipped them ahead to avoid shlepping them on the plane. And I believe I walk the talk of a Soul Proprietor. A monthly column geared toward women-owned businesses would work beautifully in that publication.
Earl Nightingale said that “Luck is when preparedness meets opportunity.” Wish me luck!
I’ve been a fan of Susan Keane Baker since we first met at an NSA-NY Chapter meeting in NYC at least 15 years ago. Class acts have a way of being class acts from the get-go. Susan’s brand experience is excellence, depth and connection and she’s delivered that consistently in our friendship and professional relationship since day one.
It was from Susan that I learned how important the personal touch is. She’s been sending out a print newsletter for over a decade. She mails several thousand at a time and hand writes a message to each recipient. Who does that anymore?!
Every newsletter I receive from Susan is packed with valuable content on her subject: improving the patient/health care practitioner relationship. Of course, substitute the word “client” for patient and “service provider” for health care practitioner and her advice resonates loud and clear.
Each time I open one of Susan’s mailings, and they come quarterly, I think to myself, will there be a message in this one? Is it really possible for her to do this repeatedly?
I was not surprised then, but ever delighted, when I opened up her most recently mailed newsletter and found not “Happy Fall!” or “Hope to see you soon!” but a truly personal, hand-written note acknowledging my new webinar launch. That’s the Susan experience.
What’s your brand experience, and when was the last time your client/patient/customer had a taste of it?
Set-Up for Tonight's Webinar
I’m beyond excited about presenting my free webinar tonight. Those of you who’ve been following this journey–I started taking classes on how to do this whole thing back in July–have heard me whining, listened to my starts and stops and are now witnessing my transformation from student to teacher. It’s been a long haul, and I’m thrilled to have arrived at delivery at last.
Delivery is a great metaphor because this has been like a pregnancy and labor up until now. I just rehearsed one more time in preparation for tonight’s debut. I’m feeling ecstatic. That’s the natural bi-product of hard work and accomplishment, no drugs or sweets required. Just a deep feeling of satisfaction and seeing all the pieces fitting together.
I’ve got well over 150 people signed up and anticipate at least 1/2 of those people being on the call. I love my offering and the value it will bring to anyone who invests the time and attention. I’m not bragging, just wanting to show you my beautiful baby.
Also, this is the beginning of a whole new family of offers for me in my business. Can I show you the pictures?!
I use mailchimp.com for my online marketing campaigns. I used to use Constant Contact, but on the advice of my virtual assistant, mailchimp has more capabilities, so I switched. I was looking around on it today at some recent activity and saw this message along with a list of people who had unsubscribed:
Nuts, you had a few people jump ship. Ah, who needs them anyway?
They’re encouraging when new people sign up for my information:
Nice! Guess people like what you’re saying.
I know it’s an inanimate object, but positive reinforcement helps, whatever the source.
Photo permission Katie Settel Photography
“Oh, hello Oprah. Yes, can I call you back? I’m in the middle of my Come As You’ll Be event.”
I explained to the assembled superstars at my networking event that now, in the year 2016, I have limited my coaching practice to the most successful women entrepreneurs in the country–Oprah, Michelle Obama (now operating her global organic gardening business), and Lady Gaga who wanted a Mastermind Group to support her in her continuing meteoric rise to the top–to name a few. Oops, I shouldn’t be breaking their anonymity…
The event that took place at Denise DiGrigoli’s Troy Fine Art was a blast into the future. As each woman business owner walked into 2016, the paparazzi flashed her picture, and she was welcomed into that year. As we went around the room and introduced ourselves, the smiles got broader. I asked the prominent lawyer in attendance to not be so shy about her cover article for Time magazine, or that our retreat leader at least tell us a tidbit about her event with the Dalai Lama.
We broke up into smaller, more intimate groups to bring the evening to a more meaningful level of conversation. I asked the women to talk about what steps they had taken to achieve their great success, what advice they would give their younger selves (say, in the year 2011) and what was the most important thing they learned on the journey. The responses were uplifting, informative, and in one particular case hysterically funny. I wish you could’ve been there.
Sandy Sergeant, owner of CT Caring Solutions, has been leading mission trips to third world countries for many years. At my Come As You’ll Be evening, we celebrated Sandy’s Nobel Prize win. You can see her response. She summed up the night in a beautiful testimonial she’s allowing me to share:
I would like to thank you for that innovative meeting on Wednesday, both Sandra and I enjoyed it immensely, it was like actually living out your dream, in a moment of time. How fascinating, It made everything so real, and breaking up in the small groups was even more effective. Being there was truly a blessing. Looking, forward to participating in your upcoming mastermind group.
Our Nobel Prize Winner (photo by Katie Settel Photography)
Getting specific around numbers is an awareness that continues to grow within me.
I still remember my 10th grade math teacher, Miss Stone, who always referred to things that happened “a hundred years ago.” Invariably, it meant something from two decades prior–or before us high-schoolers’ brief lives even existed. Now, hundreds of years later, I find myself using that phrase every ten seconds. Since the rise of the Internet and all it has brought with it, anything 20th Century does feel like eons ago.
It’s got me thinking about how and why we over-estimate numerical values. I rarely say I have 38 emails in my inbox. It’s “I’ve got a thousand emails.” Or, I won’t get specific and say I have to return 6 phone calls. No, it’s “I have to make a ton of calls.”
I was thinking of this today as time becomes more and more precious. I’ve gotten hundreds of new clients since the second or third week of September. Four, to be exact.
What is the correlation–for you–between what you say out loud and the truth?
Is it to make us feel more important? To pump up the numbers to foster our sense of significance? How much more trustworthy is the person who names the actual amount without exaggeration? There’s a ring of truth when it’s spoken, and that’s what I want to hear, no matter how low it goes.
Do you ever inflate your numbers, and if so, for what reason?
