The Write Spot, LLC

If you want something done, give it to a busy person

Since my last update, I’ve signed on new clients and started new projects.

Community Moderating

I’m still a community operator at CafeMom, but have also signed on as a Mom Bloggers Club Ambassador and just started moderating the Mom Central bloggers Ning group. It’s fun networking with other women and discussing the ins and outs of mom blogging.

Glubble

However, I’m most excited to announce that I’m now the Community Moderator at the Glubble Parents Forum. Glubble is a free, online activity center for families with children 12 and under that allows parents to choose safe websites for their kids, supervise where children go online, and use social networking, photo sharing and other tools to enhance family relationships. (You can read my two reviews: Keep your kids safe online and your computer working with Glubble.com and Mommy may I? Glubble works with parents to make the Internet safe for kids.)

It’s challenging to moderate a community of parents from all over the work, but the Glubble Team are very supportive of their customers and it’s a pleasure working with them.

Blogging

I’m still posting away at my blogs and have avoided starting any more. Honestly, I’m too busy running giveaways for shoes, videos, yogurt, ice cream, cleaning products and turkeys these days. But I have added one more “place I blog at” – Rocky Mountain Moms Blog. You’ll see me there twice a month writing mom stories instead of my usual product reviews and recipes thing. I look forward to returning to where I started – blogging about motherhood. I have a Bell jar full of notes on possible topics and can’t wait to get started.

The latest July/August 2008: BlogHer 08, BlogTalkRadio interview, upcoming workshop, MOM CENTRAL CONSULTING, and The Big Tent at the DNC

BlogHer08

I was quoted on the CNET, Blogging and bringing home the bacon about BlogHer. They took a picture of the podium during my session, which was lived blogged very thoroughly at Free and Flawed by Jenn: Live Blogging from BlogHer ‘08 - DIY Content Syndication & Promotion and at happykatie: Blogher 2008 - DIY Content Syndication and Promotion. It was also followed up with a much better picture at our moderator, Krista’s blog, Kribaby: 5 Tips from BlogHer08 DIY Content Syndication. (That’s me seated in the middle, talking with my hands as usual.) Here's another picture of me from the Web Teacher.

I’ve been reading the other posts in the blogosphere about the session and either it was too advanced, too easy or full of good stuff. This leads me to believe that BlogHer needs better session descriptions. Since many people came up to me with compliments or questions, I believe I did a good job at least introducing people to the concept of social bookmarking.

I meant to write up a BlogHer post, but it’s been done by dozens of other bloggers who were there. All I can say was that seeing old friends was terrific, the sessions were fantastic, the networking was awesome, the keynote speakers amazing, and I am still learning so much at the sessions I attended. The only complaint? We need eggs and yogurt in the mornings at breakfast, not just pastry and fruit.

blogtalkradio: Motherhood Uncensored

I was recently on the Motherhood Uncensored BlogTalkRadio podcast, Back to Preschool: Getting Our Super Little Ones Prepared for Their Big Day. You can listen to the archived show here or click on the badge to the right. We talked about book you could read and activities you could do to prepare your child for that first day of school.

Workshops

I will also be teaching another blogging workshop, Beyond Blogging Basics, through the Northern Colorado Writers on Saturday August 23 at the Windsor Rec Center.

Mom Central Consulting

I’m now officially the Social Media Manager at Mom Central Consulting. I got to meet several of the women from Mom Central at BlogHer, which was fun because I’ve only worked with them on the phone. I hope to go out to their offices in Newton, MA soon.

The Big Tent

I will be representing the National Association of Mothers' Centers and MOTHERS at The Big Tent, the media tent for bloggers covering the Democratic National Convention. I’m the MOTHERS E-newsletter Author and Coordinator and blog at their book blog, MOTHERS Book Bag, and probably will be blogging there, having dispatches posted on the MOTHERS website, or both.

What’s up next month? For start, BlogWorldExpo 2008 in Las Vegas!

It's all About Me - Part II

An update on the latest with me.

Blogging Workshops

First, I'm partnering with the Northern Colorado Writers and teaching two blogging courses - Blogging Basics Saturday, June 21 and Beyond Blogging Basics Saturday, August 23. Both workshops will be at the Windsor (CO) Recreation Center. (Windsor is about 1 hour north of Denver.) If you live in Northern Colorado or Southern Wyoming and are interested in learning about how to blog or do more with your blog, sign up!

New Partnerships

(Drum roll please...) I've signed on with Mom Central Consulting as a social networking consultant. I am thrilled to be working with Stacy DeBroff and her awesome team of mom bloggers at Mom Central and Mother Talk.

Publicity

On July 30, I'll be a guest on the Motherhood Uncensored podcast. I'm a big fan of Kristen Chase and her Motherhood Uncensored blog. In fact, her podcast is one of the few I listen to regularly. (I also work with Kristen doing reviews for The Parent Bloggers Network.)  I'll be speaking as the My Readable Feast blogger on books to get kids ready for school as well as how to combine reading books with family activities like cooking and going to the zoo.

The May 2008 issue of Bloghology is out. You can download the PDF of the report at Search for Blogging. Not only does it feature an interview with yours truly, but a terrific article by my blogging mentor, Yaro Starak.

Finally, I will be appearing in my local paper, the Daily Times-Call - Carbon Valley edition's "Spotlight on Business" this week. (Here's the link: ‘Mommy blogger’ has found outlet for her writing.)

It's a busy summer so far!

Anne-Marie Nichols joins Parents Behaving Badly

I've joined Jay Allen, The Zero Boss at Parents Behaving Badly. The blog is part of b5media's blog network, and is about all the horrible things adults do to kids.

My first two posts at Parents Behaving Badly deal with Michael Barber, the lowlife who beat up his former girlfriend's two-year-old. At his recent parole hearing, Barber took responsibility then blamed the boy's mother for the beating.

Blogging at Parents Behaving Badly should be a depressing gig. Except by the time the news hits the papers, the kids are in protective custody and the adults are in jail. Thank goodness for the small glimmer of hope in these stories.

But what about the cases that don't make the news, and the parents who haven't been caught yet? That's the real tragedy, folks.

Identifying your ideal client

With the beginning of the year comes goal settting for many people, both professionally and personally. I'm no exception, and have been reading books and listening to audio tapes to guide me through this process. Lately, I've begun to notice some common themes, like the concept of identifying and choosing your ideal client.

Michael Port, author of Book Yourself Solid: The Fastest, Easiest, and Most Reliable System for Getting More Clients Than You Can Handle Even if You Hate Marketing and Selling is a firm believer in this concept. As he writes at Nightingale.com:

Learn to live by the red velvet rope policy of ideal clients. By eliminating the painful negative energy and time spent worrying about challenging client relationships, you will dramatically increase your productivity, happiness, and client referral rate.

After all, how much time do we spend trying to convince someone that they need our services? I waste so much effort on prospect who don't understand how writing a brochure, press release or web page will save them time so they can concentrate on running their business. I get potential clients who believe that copywriting should be free or extremely cheap...after all it's only writing. They seriously believe that a brochure or web page should only take an hour - meeting time, research and brainstorming don't count, aren't necessary, and certainly aren't billable activities.

My ideal clients know they need my services. They value my time and efforts by accepting my hourly rate and paying me quickly. They know they can't do my job. And they know I save them time and money by helping them market their company more efficiently and effectively than they can.   

John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing: The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide writes in his free online sample white paper:

Clients that don’t respect the value you bring, don’t pay on time, and don’t do their part, will drag your marketing business down faster than any other business dynamic.

Jantsch helps you identify your ideal clients by looking at your past history. Of your former and continuing clients, which are the most awarding professionally and financially? He then has you identify them by physical and emotional characteristics.

This reminds me how I help clients identify the audience(s) for their marketing efforts by assigning them a psychographic label. This technique quickly gives people a picture of who they're marketing to, for example a yoga mom or a young at heart senior. Assigning your ideal client a psychographic label will help you quickly determine if a prospect is right for you or not.

So who's your ideal client?

Be nice, even to your problem clients

Recently, instead of being the copywriter, I was the client on a team that had hired a PR firm to do a communication plan. After several months of work, the plan was incomplete and showed a lack of understanding of the problems we faced.

I sent a strong critique of the work to my team and asked that we talk about it at our next meeting. Unfortunately, one of my team members - the person who had actually hired the firm - thought it was a good idea to send it directly to our hired gun even though she thought my comments were "unprofessional." (That's a story for another day.)

The response from our PR person was surprising. His response dripped with defensiveness. As the client, I didn't appreciate it and wondered if we hired the wrong firm.

Don't let the bastards get you down
As a hired gun myself, I was surprised by his defensiveness. Yes, I've had clients piss me off. But have I let them know? No way. It's part of my job to keep them happy and meet their needs. That means getting work to them on time as promised, and being up front with how much the project will cost them.

Also, clients talk. If you work in a small community - and I do - if the word gets out that you are rude, defensive or unprofessional, it will hurt your business.

Cognitive Solutions, Inc.

I'm pleased to announce that I have been hired to rewrite the content at Cognitive Soluntions' website. BKMedia Group is doing the website redesign.

Cognitive Solutions, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of high performance bar code printers. We serve customers worldwide and provide bar code printing solutions to all industries, including retail, manufacturing, automotive, distribution, health care, among others. They are located in Golden, Colorado.

A Mama's Rant Says Hello Oregon

My personal blog, A Mama's Rant, has been picked up by Oregon's KPTV Fox12's website in the Surfing with Steph section.

So I've now got both coasts and Texas. What next, the world?

A Mama's Rant syndicated by the Austin-American Statesman

A Mama's Rant has been syndicated by the Austin-American Statesman. I've been listed under the BlogHer: A Collection of Blogs By Women, For Women thanks to signing up with BlogBurst.

BlogBurst is a syndication service that places your blog content on top-tier online destinations. Bloggers get visibility, audience reach and increased traffic, while publishers get a wide range of new coverage to broaden their reach and increase page views.

Carbon Valley Chamber of Commerce

I'm now a member of the Carbon Valley Chamber of Commerce, both for my freelance writing and Usborne Books businesses.

I attended my first luncheon this week and was very impressed with the great turnout of local businesses people as well as members of the various governmental agencies in the area.

The Carbon Valley Academy was very well represented as our principal, myself (I'm the VP now), our president, and one of our new members all attended.

I've made several good contacts for both my businesses as well as the school, and look forward to attending more chamber functions in the future.