Graceful Resources

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Content Marketing

How to Promote Your Website for Free

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You’ve got a great message or product to share with the world!

And you should profit from your passion so you can serve more people. You may have a website or landing page already published – awesome if you do, but no worries if you don’t yet.

One you have at least one landing page in place, you are ready to build an email list so you can stay connected to your audience.

(If you need help getting started, there’s an inexpensive Graceful Resources project launching in April titled How to Build an Email List – Even Without a Website)

Why Your Email List Matters

With an email list, you can build relationships with your audience.

With an email list, you can notify your audience of new blog posts.

With an email list, you can announce your offerings to people who already know you.

With an email list, you can segment your audience based on their interest (ConvertKit is recommended for this aspect – here’s why).

With an email list, you can be profitable and expand your great message or product to a global audience.

How to Promote Your Website for Free

How to Promote Your Website for Free

There are multiple common strategies to promote your website (and email list) for free such as:

  1. Publish and optimize blog posts to generate organic SEO traffic
  2. Share your web content on social media
  3. Add a link to your website or landing page in your email signature
  4. Talk about your web page in person at events
  5. Include your website in your professional profile on LinkedIn

Here is one more professional uncommon option that is available to you today:

Promote your website for free on this website (specifically, on the Graceful Resources Lead Magnet Examples page)

There’s just one catch…

Ok, there are two (but they’re both helpful to you):

  1. You need a lead magnet (if you need help creating a lead magnet, the upcoming Graceful Resources project will cover that step too). 
  2. You need to be a Graceful Resources email subscriber (it’s completely free).

When you become an email subscriber, you will now experience three benefits:

  1. FREE weekly project lessons learned to apply to your current or future landing pages, website, and email marketing.
  2. Announcements about deadlines for affordable professional projects to help you build a strong email list and online business.
  3. FREE professional publicity for your website on the Graceful Resources Lead Magnet Examples Page.

Your Passion Matters

You have a special gift to share with the world, and you should profit from your passion so you can serve more people.

If you have ever wondered how to promote your website for free, you now have another professional option through Graceful Resources:

Graceful Resources Lead Magnet Examples Page

Cheering for you!
Brent

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3 Bad Words to Avoid in Copywriting

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The previous blog post about the upcoming guided project was a copywriting mea culpa.

Stated humbly another way, it was a content selfie. You deserved better.

It contained three bad words to avoid in online copywriting, both in web content and email forms.

The project announcement has now been adjusted but you can probably spot the three bad copywriting words between these original and revised paragraphs:

Original Paragraph

In alignment with my three goals to guide you strategically, keep you moving forward every week, and save you time and money, I am now preparing a new interactive do-it-yourself guided project for those who want to build an email list even without a website.

This project is for professionals like you and me who what to get things done now.

Revised Paragraph

In alignment with the three goals of Graceful Resources to guide you strategically, keep you moving forward every week, and save you time and money, a new guided do-it-yourself project is being launched to help you build an email list even without a website.

The project is going to be a meaningful experience for you as an entrepreneur to start building an email list of people who are genuinely interested in what you have to say or offer.

3 Bad Words to Avoid in Copywriting

As you probably guessed, the three bad words to avoid in copywriting are:

  1. Me
  2. My(self)
  3. I

Full Disclosure: There were originally 27 instances of these three words in the post How to Build an Email List Even Without a Website. Ouch!

Hat tip to copywriter Carrie Glenn who shared the dangers of me, myself, and I.

So as you share your passion with others, be mindful of these three words.

They are the copywriting equivalent of a selfie. 

Words-To-Avoid-in-Copywriting

Me, myself, and I focus the content on the writer (not good).

You, yourself, and yours shift the content focus to the audience (good).

Plural Words to Avoid in Copywriting

Accordingly, avoid the plural selfie versions as well:

  1. Us
  2. Our(selves)
  3. We

They are just as damaging but thankfully easy to correct too.

If you decide to join in the upcoming guided project (click here to stay connected to announcements), you’ll be able to share drafts of your content with the Graceful Resources team and with other project participants.

Copywriting selfies will be caught! 🙂

Hope this blog post helps,
Brent

3 Goals for Email Marketing (And For Your Success)

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Today is my birthday so been thinking a lot about the best ways to have a positive impact in the year ahead for the gracious professionals like you who are joining this journey called Graceful Resources.

You have a special gift to share with the world and you should profit from that passion so you can serve more people.

But you need momentum, one project step at a time.

If you are seeking professional project guidance for an online business, I’m here to help!

What_is_an_autoresponder

3 Goals for Email Marketing (And For Your Success)

1. Receive Strategic Direction

Every online entrepreneur must have a solid foundation for growth and that starts with the right strategic direction and the right technology toolkit.

Strategic resources including some great books are outlined on the Graceful Resources about page.

2. Move Forward Every Week

Success is delivered to people who plan the work and then work the plan. A clear plan of action will guide your next step toward great results.

We use Teamwork Projects software for client projects and are now sharing this great project tool with participants in the upcoming guided do-it-yourself project to build an email list even without a website.

When you join the project, you’ll be given your own Teamwork login account and you will connect with other entrepreneurs going through the same project and journey.

And you will be guided along one project step at a time.

3. Save Time and Money

Online entrepreneurship is not free. There are real costs of doing online business plus the opportunity cost of your time.  You are on a tight budget and you do not want to make bad investments in software, services, programs, or people (only to then have to hire someone else to fix the problems).

Wise investments of your time and money will keep your dream alive!

Three Goals for Email Marketing (and Your Success)

If these three goals resonate with you, it would be an honor to have your join the Graceful Resources journey via this free mailing list. If you have any feedback, please feel free to drop a note via this form or in reply to any of email message.

Your success happens, one project step at a time!

Brent

Special Bonus: All subscribers to the mailing list can add their own lead magnet web addresses at any time to the lead magnet examples listing here on the Graceful Resources website. So free publicity for your website!

3 Email Marketing Tips When Things Go Wrong

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What often holds me back from sending out emails to my interest list is that I’m afraid my emails aren’t good enough. I forget that when you are in genuine and sharing stories (like I did last week in this post), it’s really going to be ok.

But I do agonize over what to say and I get paralyzed by my own analysis.

Can you relate?

The reality is that we are are completely overthinking things. It’s just an email folks.

Yes, some people will be deeply disturbed by our messages and unsubscribe from our lists because they are in an “unsubscribe kind of mood“.

I get that and I’ve been there. Then I often realize I unsubscribed from someone with a high level of integrity and honesty.

So I go back and opt back in, and save my “unsubscribe moments” for email marketers who seem to try to sell us something with every automated message that was scripted years ago.

The reality is good people like you and me sometimes send email messages with errors in them.

We are humans after all.

And we are using email marketing software that was well… designed by humans.

So it’s been known to do weird things too even when we test out the message before sending it out.

The key is to know how to response gracefully when errors do occur.

3 Email Marketing Tips When Things Go Wrong

1. Be Timely

When you send out an email that has an error in it like a broken link, be timely with your response. If you notice it (or someone on your list tells you), craft a follow-up message as soon as you can.

My client Martina Wing is a passionate manta ray advocate in Hawaii. She is in the process of migrating her email list from AWeber to ConvertKit with my project help.

We are using a really cool marine life coloring book lead magnet as an incentive for her existing list to “opt back in” (you’ll discover more about Martina’s journey in upcoming posts).

The other day, the wrong version of a message was sent to over 2000 people.

Within an hour, Martina crafted a follow-up message with the graceful introduction:

Oops! Accidents happen. Please accept my apology. Here is the correct message for your response…

2. Be Authentic

When errors occur (or plans change), take ownership. Don’t blame someone or the email server for something simple that goes wrong.

Let the miscommunication be an opportunity to show authenticity and humor.

My client Darcy Eikenberg offers career coaching services and products through her business Red Cape Revolution.  She is offering a free video training series this month to help professionals make their make career decision of 2017 (you can check it out here).

When she realized the early bird savings she promised on her upcoming course was communicated for the wrong week, she took ownership of it and then offered to increase the savings!

3. Be Careful

When you discover an error in your email message to your list, you’ll also want to be careful with the follow up message.

What I mean is don’t be in such a rush to send out another broadcast that you forget to send yourself a copy of the new message first and test the links.

I will confess, as a Certified PMP, I am really particular about testing when it comes to software. I put it on schedules for my own projects and for client projects using Teamwork software from Ireland.

That being said, testing is still required even if it is not in your project plan.

If you send a follow-up message with the same or another error, your window for being timely and authentic has closed.

Don’t send a third message.

Otherwise, members of your list will then be in a truly “unsubscribe kind of mood“!

Hope this blog post helps,
Brent

If you’d like to stay connected to my work with clients and the transformation they are experiencing, simply click here to sign up for my email list. You’ll receive professional advice and examples every week.

Special Bonus: All subscribers to my mailing list can add their own lead magnet web addresses at any time to my upcoming lead magnet examples listing here on the Graceful Resources website. So free publicity for their respective websites!

10 Tips for Website Names

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This week, a new client identified and registered a name for her new website. It’s a fun and creative project activity because it is the start of a successful brand name that can last for decades for an entrepreneur.

Each time the naming process starts though, the sinking feeling that all the good domain names that end in .com are long gone. But within minutes of a quick domain name search, you discover how easy it is to still find and register a domain name for about $15/year.

In her case, she was seeking a domain name for a parent website that will host membership solutions for different niches that people are passionate about.  The domain name PassionateSolutions.com was the perfect fit and it was available for only a few dollars.

A website represents a journey and every journey deserves a name

When you think of a journey, consider Teddy Roosevelt’s dangerous but successful exploration of the unchartered Amazonian forest of Brazil along the Rio da Duvida (the River of Doubt). To this day, the river is known as Rio Roosevelt.

Former President Roosevelt is seated at the right side of this photo from the expedition (source: wikipedia):

RiverofDoubtExploration

Your journey deserves a name as well and your website should be a reflection of that journey.

Your web address is comparable to a physical mailing address. It’s an officially registered address that requires extra paperwork and expense to change ownership.

So choose wisely.

For domain registration, GoDaddy.com is straightforward.  They are the largest domain registrant in the world and their registration process is seamless with clear invoice billing.

Note: Upon domain registration (with GoDaddy or any registrant), you may want to add Private Registration at checkout so that you are not spammed through the public Whois database.  It’s a lot of peace of mind for an extra $8/year.  

10 Tips for Website Names

Here are 10 tips to help you decide on a good web address name (if you do not already have one registered):

1.  Consider using your personal name (e.g. http://brentpeterson.me) if you are not certain what your web journey will be about or if you want the focus to be on your life or career. Your personal name also gives you the most flexibility if your platform changes. However, it ties the online business directly to your identity (making a transition to someone else, like a family member or another entrepreneur, very difficult).

2. Consider using a name that defines your journey (e.g. ClutterFreeRevolution.com). This approach limits the theme of your journey, but it is favorable to web search engines if your web address contains keywords (e.g. clutter free). A website based on a theme name (in contract to a personal name) also passes the “t-shirt test”. In other words, would people want to display the name and tagline of your site on a t-shirt? Not likely if it is a personal name.

3. If possible, end your theme web address name with “.com”. While there are several other extensions available (e.g. .net, .org), users assume “.com” (e.g. http://NotchDolphinBook.com) when using a browser.

4. Make the web address easy to remember and easy to say. One of my previous blog names was Stand & Inspire (http://standandinspire.com) which I discovered to be difficult to say in conversation because the first two words rhyme.

5. Avoid the words “for” and “to” in your web address, since these two words can easily be interpreted by the numbers “4” and “2” and people will not necessarily know how to spell your domain name if they heard about it through word of mouth.

6. Avoid a hyphen (“-“) in the web address. It’s not great for search engines and is also difficult to communicate to people in conversation outside the web.

7. Check to see if your domain name is also available on prominent social networks (e.g. Twitter, Instagram). If so, register the social media names for free at the same time.

8. Keep the domain name relatively short so it is easy for people to type into browsers. Ideally, the domain name is 20 characters or less (e.g. ChildhoodLoss.com).

9. Combine two (or up to three) words that are easy to spell, pronounce, and are distinctive together. For example, Darcy Eikenberg is an executive coach who helps professionals bring their superpowers to work. Her business and website name is appropriately named RedCapeRevolution.com.

10. When in doubt, ask friends and family for their input when naming your journey. It’s a great conversation starter and people will take an immediate interest in your new website and business because…

LeadersInviteOthers

Other Graceful Resources to Grow Your Email List and Business

  1. Recommended Website and Email Resources (along with the reasons why)
  2. Lead Magnet Project (an interactive online project launching June 2017)
  3. Lead Magnet Examples (email subscribers can add their own web address for free)
  4. Lead Magnet Guide (5 essential characteristics of a lead magnet)
  5. Lead Magnet Survey (share your own opinion and discover what other entrepreneurs recommend)

Cheering for your online success – one project step at a time!
Brent

How to Correct Your Website Facebook Share Image

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When you or someone else shares a link to your website on the largest social media platform on the planet, Facebook will automatically attempt to associate an image with the page address.

If it’s a blog post (e.g. https://gracefulresources.com/errors-in-email-sign-up-incentives/) or specific page (e.g. https://gracefulresources.com/about) , Facebook will typically recognize the featured image associated with the content. It will also display the Meta Description – a fancy tech term for the text (up to 156 characters) that display under the link title in search engine results and on social media platforms like Facebook.

But when it’s your overall website address (e.g. https://GracefulResources.com) that is being shared, Facebook can get confused on what image and text to display and if it can’t find an image, it will display a big empty box (which doesn’t exactly inspire people to click on the link).

This happened to a client site I just launched and it was my error.

Here is how it looked on Facebook:

NoFacebookShareImage

The good news is that I humbly share my missteps here so you can put to practice the corrections I learn.

How to Correct Your Website Facebook Share Image

There are three steps to test and (if necessary) fix your own website Facebook share image when your URL is shared.

STEP ONE:  Preview Your Website Content with the Facebook Debugger

Facebook has a free publicly-available page that lets you preview what your website content looks like when it is shared and it lets you reset (or scrape) what Facebook is seeing.

Here is the web address:  https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/.

Simply enter your website address and then click “Debug” to preview your site:

FacebookShareImageDebugger

Technically speaking, Facebook looks for Open Graph (og) tags on your website to know what title, description, and image to display. If they are not explicitly set on your website, Facebook will guess at this information.

STEP TWO:  Correct Your Website Image, Title, and/or Description (If Required)

If you discover your intended image, title, or description is incorrect or missing, you’ll need to fix it within your website dashboard. If you are using WordPress, I use and recommend the free Yoast SEO plugin to fix this problem.

Once the plugin is installed and activated,  click on Social in the new SEO menu and then the Facebook tab to specify the Frontpage Settings:
FacebookShareImageYoastSEO

At the end of the same Yoast settings page, you may also need to enter a Facebook app ID. For more information and instruction for the app ID, please reference this article.

If you are running your WordPress website on the Rainmaker Platform, you can simply email their helpful customer support team with your front page image and description, and they will set it up for you free of charge. That’s what I did for this website and here is how it looks on Facebook:

Facebook-Error-Corrected

If you using another platform service, I recommend reviewing your social media metadata settings within your account or contacting the corresponding customer service for assistance.

STEP THREE:  Reset (or Scrape) What Facebook is Seeing

Once you make an adjustment on your website back-end, you can accelerate the time it takes Facebook to take another look at your website content by asking Facebook to scrape your address again.

If everything looks good, your website is now ready to be shared on Facebook!

In the case of my client’s new website SoftballPitchingTools.com, the correct results are now confirmed:

NoFacebookShareImageFixedHope this helps,
Brent

Other Resources for Your Online Success

  1. Lead Magnet Project (an interactive online project for professionals building relevant email lists)
  2. Lead Magnet Survey (share your own opinion about email sign up incentives and discover what other entrepreneurs recommend)
  3. Lead Magnet Guide (5 essential characteristics for email sign up incentives)
  4. Lead Magnet Examples (Graceful Resources email subscribers can add their own web address for free)
  5. Recommended Website and Email Software Resources (you’ll also discover why these resources are recommended)

Cheering for your online success – one project step at a time!

Brent