yellowhighlightermarketing.com » good stuff

Get In on the Blog Rush…

Meredith — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 12:10:29 +0000

I just signed up for John Reese’s Blog Rush. Blog Rush allows you to sign your blog up to get ads from other blogs in your same category. As people click the ads on your blog — your blog’s link shows up on someone else’s blog. Yes, this technology has been around for a while — but it hasn’t really worked because the interface has been clunky — or it is available only to people who have PCs, etc. This is clean, elegant, and gets people to my blog in an attractive way.

Happy prospecting.

Five Tips for A Peaceful Working Vacation

Meredith — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 02:06:13 +0000

One of the reasons I decided to start my own virtual business is so that I could spend more time with my family which is flung across the western United States. Last week, I actually had a chance to put my resolve to be "moible" to the test. My mom and dad very generously rented a beach house for a week on the Oregon coast. My daughter and I got a chance to spend time with them, my sister and her children and take in some ocean air. But, I also felt like I was on a bit of a roll with my business so I didn’t want to take a break at this point. So, I took my show on the road. Here are five tips for making it work (hint: communication is the key).

1. Let your clients know that you are going mobile for the week, but still working. Give them your cell number to contact you if needed. I actually didn’t get any calls. This is especially critical if you are travelling to a different time zone

2. Let your travel companions know that you need to work — and what your working hours will be. I did this with my family. They planned to be back after my work hours so that we could play together in the afternoon.

3. Scope out the Internet situation in advance. Do some research and locate nearby Internet cafes, etc.

4. Have a plan B. The Internet connection at the beach house was down. Luckily, I can use my laptop to access the Internet from my cell phone. The nearby internet cafe was also a nice place to work.

5. Remember to make time to have fun!

I really enjoyed my trip…. and working with an awesome view of the beach.

Do You Know Where Your Visitors Come From?

Meredith — Sun, 06 May 2007 15:33:36 +0000

To grow you audience, you have to know your audience. How are they finding you ? Where do they live? What are they looking for? I found a great new blog statistics tracking service – Performancing - that gives you all of this information, and more.

Performancing was really easy to set up. I registered my site, pasted the code they gave me into my blogs — and voila – I was all set up.

In about 10 minutes, the program started to produce gorgeous and very detailed reports about the visitors to my blogs. The report details the location of each user (complete with google map), and each click that they make on your site. It tracks trends over time and keeps statistics on every page on your blog. If your entire site is a blog (like mine), it a complete analytic package for your website.

Armed with the informaiton from the tracking software, you can make very important decisions about your business.

- Where should you advertise? If most of your business is not local — does it make sense to advertise locally?

- Is the money you are spending on Google Adsense really worth it?

- Most importantly, what are your visitors looking for, how can you adapt your services to give them what they need?

If you try out Performancing , let me know what you discover.

Need Help With Your Taxes?

meredithe — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 19:41:13 +0000

Tax time is looming. For many of us, that means that we will be savoring those extra 2 days and finishing them up this weekend. Did you know that there are volunteers that will help you with your taxes for free? One of my all time favorite jobs was recruiting volunteers and customers for the Fairfax County CASH Program which provides free tax assistance for people with incomes of less than $39,000 per year. Even if you make more than $39,000 and don’t live near Fairfax County, free help is available. If your adjusted gross income is less than $39,000, I would start by going to the Internal Revenue Service webpage and typing in Volunteers In Tax Assistance (or VITA) for a list of sites near you. The AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) offers more extensive assistance to people with higher incomes or more complicated returns. You do not have to be under 55 to take advantage of their services.

2. Tax Tips For People Who Don't Make A Lot Of Money

meredithe — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 12:39:22 +0000

One of my most worthwhile work projects is marketing the Fairfax County CASH (Creating Assets Savings and Hope) program. The program is part of the national Volunteers In Tax Assistance program that helps low income with taxes. I know, it sounds boring — but it is scandalous to me that big tax companies actively market high interest refund anticipation loans to people who can’t afford them and that big tax credits that could amount to thousands in extra refunds are hidden so well that over a quarter of the people eligible to take them don’t. Uncle Sam keeps the money instead of having it go toward groceries, medical bills, health insurance, etc.

Here are some tips on how you can make the most of your taxes even if you don’t make a lot of money.

Five Tax Tips for People Who Don’t Make A Lot of Money

1. You Can Have Your Taxes Prepared for Free if you make less than $39,000 per year. The Volunteers In Tax Assistance program trains and certifies volunteers to help you prepare your taxes and get all the credits and refunds to which you are entitled. Free online filing is also available. Go to irs.gov for more information.

2. Promises of “Instant Refunds” are really just loans. Every January, commercial tax companies run ads for quick refunds based on your paystub (not your W-2). These instant refunds are really very high interest loans (with rates up to 20%).

3. You can get your refund in less than 2 weeks if you use direct deposit. You can even split your refund between your savings and checking accounts.

4. You can give yourself a dollar and hour raise by taking the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). The EITC is the federal government’s largest anti-poverty program and a quarter of the people eligible don’t claim it. The maximum EITC credit is $4400. The average is $1400 (the equivalent of a dollar an hour raise).

5. You can save money on medical and child care expenses. Flexible spending accounts offered by many employers allow you to set aside up to $5000 per household for medical and child care expenses. This amount you choose is taken from your paycheck (tax free) and put into a special account. You submit receipts and your expenses are reimbursed from your account