My Comments Were Included in Arizona Republic Nov 24 2011

I almost missed this article. I saw a blurb in the newspaper asking readers to explain why they live in the Scottsdale area. I responded and went back and forth by email with the reporter. Then I forgot about it (it was a month ago.) . I take the daily paper and missed the article.I was going back through the paper for a looking for an ad to an event I wanted to attend when I spotted my name.


So now I'm published again. Smile. You never know how things will turn out so If you have the opportunity to make your voice hear, do it.


You can click on the title to read the article.


You can also click on my etsy mini to the right to shop a small business this weekend. If you text "jewelry" to 41242 you will receive a nice bonus to my shop. Smile


Enjoy this holiday weekend.


The Amazon


Michelle

I am doing the NaBloPoMo 30 Day Blog Challenge

Hello All and to those who celebrate Ramadan Mubarak.


I'm doing the NaBloPoMo 30 Day Blog Challenge to post every day in August 2011. I'm looking forward to the challenge as many exciting events are taking place on the national and international stage that affects us all. On and off the net whether you are a big or small player a home based business craft or a big business, events are taking place that affect your business and you need to know about them.

We are going through trying and challenging times. I lived and worked in Houston, Texas during the 80's oil bust I saw fortunes made and lost. Here in Arizona we are going thorough the same spiral but its the housing and job market that is taking the hit.

How is that affecting folks? For me as a small business owner I was surprised in reviewing my sales they were equal US and Overseas. This was surprising since two thirds of my visitors are in the US. For me this means Americans can no longer stick their head in the sand. There is a whole world out there that we have to compete with. The questions this raises are not can you compete? You have to, but how will you compete?

Sign up for my newsletter and to follow my blog for new designs, gemstones and info you can use.

As always you can click on the title to purchase my pretties.

Thanks,
Michelle

Where Did All These Social Media Experts Come From?

Is it just me or are you tired of all the "Experts" who have jumped on the social media bandwagon? If you really look into their info you will find many of them have never sold anything and you can't find them on Google with a map. LOL

I missed posting yesterday (I thought erroneously that I had timed a post for yesterday). So I have to post twice today to make up. Back to the social media phenom. I attended a conference Thursday where they were going to show you what you needed to do and how to do it.

The presentation was excellent and they showed what the priorities you should set, gave the correct info on where you should be trying to position yourself and how. The kicker they then gave you a price tag on doing all this by hiring a person for each function. You know the price was through the roof. Then they hit their stride and gave you the sales pitch. For the low, low price of $3,999 per month they would handle the details for you with a dedicated team for your company.

If I were a doing enough volume to absorb the cost I would have signed up. This is the first presentation where they had all the ducks in order and all things considered you would receive value for your money.

Currently, I keeping my items on the first three pages of Google and have about five items cached on the first page of Google for their key words. This takes a lot of work which I would love to hand off to someone else. I'm a rainmaker. I don't like dotting the eyes and crossing the t's work, but we do what we must. A friend suggested I switch to representing people because people listen and place value on my opinion. I sell more jewelry off the web then I do on the web. LOL

What's your opinion on Social Media? Has it been a help to your business? How are you using it? I'd really like to know.

I have to run taking baby girl to a girls event and also attending a wealth building conference today. A long Saturday for me.