$17.95 AUD | 27 pages | 1.7Mb | PDF

How to use Twitter for business

The rise in popularity of Twitter means that business can no longer ignore this social media platform.

This article teaches you how to use Twitter for business to increase website visitors, leads & sales by connecting with people. Note: This article is an updated version of the eBook “Using Twitter for Business”.

What you’ll learn

• What is Twitter?
• Why using Twitter for business is personal
• The 5 golden rules
• Why limiting self promotion will grow your business
• Practical ways to use Twitter for business
• Real world examples
• Personal branding vs business branding and which is better
• How to get started & build your network
• How to build solid relationships
• How to manage your reputation and find out what’s being said about you
• Glossary of terms
• Tips from other small business owners successfully using Twitter
• Which Twitter tools to use
• Answers to frequently asked question

About the Author

Practical Mag articles are written by Clare Lancaster, a communication design professional with over 10 years of online business development and marketing experience.

Clare runs several online businesses, her work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and Forbes and she is a regular columnist for Nett Magazine.

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$17.95 AUD | 27 pages | 2.5Mb | PDF

How do I get more website visitors?

It’s one of the most common questions I get asked and an important issue for any business with a website.

There’s a million and one ways to get more website visitors.

This article is designed to introduce you to the only 2 strategies you need. Based on these strategies, it takes you through 12 online marketing tactics that you can use to attract the right type of visitor to your website.

What you’ll learn

• The two vital things you need to do before you start marketing your website
• How to find your ideal visitor
• How to connect to people looking for what you’ve got
• What search engine strategies to use
• How to engage your visitors and encourage word of mouth marketing
• If social bookmarking websites like Digg are really the holy grail of traffic
• How to create a sales team to market your business
• The power of link building
• How to approach forums as a source of website traffic
• How to use social media to grow your business
• The value of other people’s blogs
• The truth about advertising & traditional media

About the Author

Practical Mag articles are written by Clare Lancaster, a communication design professional with over 10 years of online business development and marketing experience.

Clare runs several online businesses, her work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and Forbes and she is a regular columnist for Nett Magazine.

Shop more articles

Visit the shop to browse more online business & marketing articles.

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Hi guys, I want to let you know about a project I’ve launched over at Women in Business.

Practical Mag is a digital magazine published one article at a time for people who want practical online business and marketing advice without the fluff.

Doing business online can be daunting. There’s a mystery that surrounds it – from secretive service providers to people out to make a quick buck. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Practical Mag is designed to give you accessible advice without the hype. It teaches you the ‘know how’ you need to establish an online business and grow it using solid marketing techniques.

Who it is for?

• Small business owners who know there’s incredible opportunity online but don’t know the steps required to take advantage of it.
• People who don’t have time to trawl through thousands of articles to find the right info.
• Anyone who wants simple, accessible online business advice that will save them time and money.

What’s it about?

Practical Mag offers you a reliable source of quality DIY online business and marketing solutions. The magazine is published one article at a time so that you can pick and mix the articles you require.

The articles explore the answers to your online business and marketing questions in depth. If you’ve got a question or problem you want help with – please submit it here or leave a comment below.

Each article is an in-depth tutorial, Q&A or case study packaged into a PDF suitable for viewing on your computer screen or for printing.

About the Author

Practical Mag articles are written by Clare Lancaster, a communication design professional with over 10 years of online business development and marketing experience.

Clare runs several online businesses, her work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and Forbes and she is a regular columnist for Nett Magazine.

Coming up next

The first article I’m publishing is the most common question I’m asked – how do I get more website visitors?

Filed under: Miscellaneous
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The Ladies being Australian women in business and female entrepreneurs – of course.

I’ve just released the advertiser kit for womeninbusiness.com.au. There are opportunities to advertise on the website and in the weekly newsletter.

I designed the advertising spots to be affordable and give options for micro businesses and up.

Check it out here or drop me a line with any questions.

Filed under: Miscellaneous
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Have you heard about Project 365?

It’s a photo/blogging project that popped up a few years ago. Basically you take one picture per day for 365 days – effectively documenting your year in photos. You can read more about it here and here.

Looking back over a year in pictures sounds absolutely delightful so I decided to take part in the project this year.

I decided to create a set in my Flickr account to log the photos and am using my iPhone and the Flickr app to upload them daily. I know a few people who are dedicating their Posterous to the project which would also work really well.

Are you taking part in Project 365? Would love to follow it if you are – leave a link to your site or Flickr set in the comments below!

Image credit: Meshel

Filed under: Behind the Scenes, Blogging
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Welcome to 2010. It’s The Future! Otherwise known as the year of wealth, health and happiness for one Ms Clare Lancaster.

You know what I love? A blog that stumbles and then, after a few makeovers, finally finds its way. Ok, I don’t love that BUT that’s what I’m hoping will happen to this little place this year.

I tried to go tutorial based, I tried a bit of news and a bit of personal – and what I’ve decided on is something for me. Writing about my life for me. Ta da! No – really. Now that I’ve got this fun place to offload my best online business finds, tips and tutorials I’ve decided to use my blog for something a little more personal.

I’ve been planning this year, in one way or another, for the past 10 years. If things go as planned, this year will be pretty exciting and rewarding. I’d love it if you share it with me.

Image credit: Anitacanita

Filed under: Behind the Scenes
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As the final version of womeninbusiness.com.au comes closer to completion my thoughts have turned to its launch.

Specifically, how it should be launched. I’m so excited about this site and what it will offer women in business so I want it to launch with a bang.

I received some movie double passes to giveaway on the site – this got me thinking – maybe I should celebrate with a launch competition.

I thought it might be useful for other online business owners if I went through the process of organising a website launch competition. Of course, you don’t have to be launching anything to run a competition on your website.

Why run a website launch competition?

I’ve decided to run a competition to launch Women in Business for a couple of reasons:

1. People love winning things, will draw attention to the website
2. I want people to sign up as a member – this is a good incentive for people to join
3. To gauge the interest of advertisers in this space and start connecting with them

So now that I’d decided on a competition I started thinking, how would I reach businesses to source the prizes?

How to source prizes for the competition

That’s where Source Bottle came in.

Source Bottle connects bloggers and journalists to businesses and PR for mutual benefit. I had never used the (free) service before but thought I’d give it a try for this purpose.

The results have been incredible – with over 65 businesses offering prizes for the launch competition.

Organising the competition entry

The primary objective that I want visitors to meet is to signup to be a member. Membership is free and I wanted to use the competition prizes as an incentive for signup.

In addition, the businesses offering the giveaways also want some return – in the form of entry email addresses.

So in order to enter the competitions, visitors are required to signup for membership and accept entry terms and conditions.

Selecting a winner

I’m planning on using random.org’s Third Party Draw service. This works by uploading a list of identifiers (in this case, email addresses) for each prize to randomly select a winner.

Prize winner logistics

I’m assuming that the prizes will be delivered to me – for me to send to entry winners.

Challenges

I’ve come across a few challenges in organising the website launch competition including:

• Selecting appropriate prizes
• Looking into terms and conditions
• The technology behind competition entry – I don’t want visitors to have to enter their details for each competition

The result

Don’t know the answer to this one yet! Will report back once the website is launched and the competition has closed.

Image Credit: Flickr

Filed under: Miscellaneous
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Helloooooo? Is anybody still there?

If you are – you might have noticed that I’ve been missing in action. The thing is though – I haven’t been missing. I’ve been spending time with my other love.

I don’t know how I’m going to juggle them both just yet but I thought I better pop in and say Hi.

It’s been heads down, shoulders hunched for the past two weeks while I’ve been working on Women in Business.

I’ve been quietly adding content to the site while I’m making it beautiful inside and out (whatever that means) getting it ready for it’s spectaular launch coming up next week.

So while I’ve been working away I found out yesterday that I’ve been included in Forbes.com list of 30 female entrepreuers to follow on Twitter.

Wow. What a great surprise and I have the fabulous Natalie MacNeil of She Takes on the World to thank for it. So – Natalie – thank you!

Now there are a several great things about this but as one clever Twitter friend pointed out. I can now put “As featured in Forbes Magazine” in my bio. I’m so down with that.

Filed under: Behind the Scenes
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I’m writing this post from the sunny Gold Coast – I’ve got views to the beach on one side and views to the shopping Mecca Pacific Fair on the other.

Their proximity has highlighted how important it is to be productive while you’re working away from your usual location. It’s all business – no busyness! If you want to enjoy your location, you get your work done promptly!!

We’re down here for a holiday break but I’m using it to live out a little location independent experiment.

I’ve always dreamed of being able to work from anywhere in the world.

Most recently, my dream found form in creating a business that consumed my passion and was driven by a desire to make a difference to people so they can change their world for the better. This business is being built on a model of processes and automation.

While this year I’ve had success with consulting – one on one and groups – the face to face nature of the model wasn’t helping me reach my goals.

Also, while consulting is great – it didn’t fulfil the passion side of my dream equation. However – if there’s anything I’ve learned this year is that patience is golden and allows you time to figure out what you want among other things.

While I will continue consulting – I’m looking at a more effective way to deliver my knowledge and experience to those who need it. But that’s another story.

I acquired the domain womeninbusiness.com.au late last year. Every time I thought about it I’d lose concentration from excitement.

I knew this was going to help me achieve my dream.

So here I am – the Women in Business website is up but still in development – getting ready for its official launch in a couple of weeks.

I’ve had a taste of managing the business while I’ve been away and it’s worked like a dream (oh <- that’s appropriate!)

I’ve spent roughly 4 hours a day working on the business – 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. Posting to the blog, handling enquiries, approving comments, managing the LinkedIn group and building features behind the scenes.

There are a couple of process I can see need to be refined but overall, if I could live my life like this I’d be one happy woman (in business).

Filed under: Do good business online, Inspiration
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I just came across this video on Mumbrella featuring an interview with Australian Anthill’s founder.

When I interviewed James Tuckerman I was so impressed with what he said that I’ve been keeping an eye on his opinions ever since.

This is probably the best summary I’ve seen yet about where media is heading and how individuals can take advantage of it.

Filed under: Content, Do good business online, Tips
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