Sharon Hurley Hall

I’m a big fan of article marketing. It’s a promotional technique which has worked well both for me and my clients. That’s why I was so pleased to get an email from the EzineArticles team today, saying I’d been featured in their Expert Author Case Study series.  Their intro says: “Sharon Hurley Hall is an excellent example of a member who has taken our advice as a package, instead of piecemeal like most members, and parlayed that advice into making a living with the written word.”

Check out the case study for my views on article marketing - and of course, contact me if you need an article marketing package to promote your business.

I’ve known Mitchell Allen for a few years now, so I was delighted when he asked me to arrange for a team member to write his sales letter. I sent off my client questionnaire, got the answer and got the work done. Here’s what Mitch had to say:

“Sharon and her team are awesome. They helped me figure out what I wanted to say in my sales letter, then they put it together so clearly that, for the first time, I can give an elevator speech when someone asks me, ‘what does your program do?’ I am very happy that this crucial piece of my marketing campaign is in place!”

Thanks, Mitch

Unlike my last on the web post, this time I’m writing about interviews and mentions rather than guest posts. I’ll handle those in a follow-up post.  This month I have contributed to a post on the cost of living abroad on Man vs Debt, a post on Brazen Careerist on the freelance writing jobs I refuse to take, and have been listed on Info Barrel among the top ten freelance writing blogs.

I have also been interviewed by Brooke Ferguson of Business Backpacker and hope to have another interview appear soon on Jetsetizen. I’ve also agreed to play a leading role in the Location Independent Parents site and have been busily getting content ready.

Stay tuned for a roundup of the blog posts I’ve published recently as well as a wonderful testimonial from a client which I’ll be adding to the site soon.

If you are starting out with a home based business, the chances are that your budget for promotion does not exist. When you are new to working at home, you may be lucky to afford all the electronic equipment you will need. However, promotion is essential if you are to grow your business and make a success of it. Here are some tips which can help you to promote for free.

First of all, set up a website or blog. Although it is better to spring for the cost of registering and hosting your own domain, you can also take advantage of free blogging sites such as WordPress and Blogger. WordPress is slightly better because there is less spam and you can set up a static home page that looks like a normal website.

Use your site or blog to publish details of your skills, services and products so everyone can see them. Be sure to do some research and include keywords relevant to your home based business in your site content. That will help people to find your site through the search engines.

Next, let people know it is there. Write an article related to your business area and submit it to a free article directory such as EzineArticles or GoArticle. Be sure to include a bio box at the end that says what you do, links to your site and includes a call to action. This article will be reprinted on hundreds of sites, all of which will have a link to yours.

Register with forums that relate to your business. Post and comment regularly, using a link to your site in your signature. People will click on the link and will find your business.

With any luck the word will start to spread, but you can still help it along by commenting on relevant blogs and including a link to your website. No spam, please – keep your comments targeted and relevant and that’s exactly the kind of traffic you will get.

Of course, not all your promotional efforts have to be online. You can also put a sticker in your car window showing the address of your website or blog. You can also take out free ads both offline and online which will describe your business and make it attractive to prospective buyers.

All of these strategies will help you to raise the profile of your home based business and they won’t cost you anything but the time it takes to do them. This time is well worth spending if it means that your business is a success.

Want to use this article on your site?  Contact me about licensing rights.

My latest guest blogging gig has been for Mixed Market Arts, with a series of three posts. The second of those is all about web marketing with Twitter,

If you can write the news, you can write a press release.  As I’ve shown in my posts on Daily Writing Tips, the techniques for writing news stories and press releases are identical. As a former journalist and editor, I have read and written plenty of press releases, and the secret is simple:

• a killer headline
• a good angle
• decent quotes

Here’s how I work. You hire me to write your press release. I will ask questions about the purpose of the release, the target audience, and the company. I will try to find out what will give us the best angle for the release, and I’ll create a release that will meet your needs.  I am fast, accurate and reasonable.  Check out the top of my testimonials page for feedback from my latest client.

Building Traffic With Blog Carnivals is my first post for Mixed Market Arts. It’s an introduction to blog carnivals which highlights what they can do for your blog.