The Isolated Entrepreneur

Every once in a while, I take a look at Isolated Entrepreneur’s statistics.  I thought I would share some since many subscribers are bloggers themselves.

Over the past year, the type of postings for our audience (micro business owners) that have the most hits continue to be the same.

• Case studies of successful companies (i.e. Baby Einstein)
• Economic outlook
• Marketing statistics

The periodic news tidbits are starting to take off as well, indicating an increase in RSS subscribers and repeat readers.

Writers wanted

Isolated Entrepreneur is looking for additional authors who want to blog to the micro-business communities.  Of special interest are: virtual assistants, coaches, accountants, and marketing specialists.

An author on a community blog will find the commitment level is smaller and the exposure is greater.  More authors means more contacts.

Authors at Isolated Entrepreneur have their own author profile page (just click on the author’s name at the top of a posting  or on the right side.

One of the first checks I do when I am about to meet with a prospective client is try and access the client’s website with www in front of the domain name - and without.

In most cases, it works with and without. If all or part of the site does not load, it usually involves a web-based application such as Joomla!, Wordpress, Typepad, etc.

Usually, it is an easy fix. Search “without www” in the support pages of the application or your domain registry’s website.

I have handled email lists and published e-newsletters for several clients in the past.   I always insist my clients comply with SPAM laws and grow their email lists through traditional means rather than sending it to everyone who drops a business card in their fish bowl at conventions.

Many people think of email marketing as a cheap, impersonal way to market.  It’s not.

Email is very personal to the person who receives it.  Many people think of email as an imposition - a necessary task that keeps them from getting things done.  E-newsletters should be informative and enjoyable first - a sales gimmick last.

Just like Justin at AWeber, I get offended when I get emails I did not explicitly opt to get.  Here is Justin’s take on it.  It may be worthwhile to read the comments below it as well.

Every year, I use my digital photos to use as notecards and to make gifts for relatives. Through my projects, I have learned that not all services are alike.

Snapfish is great for calendars, but Shutterfly rocks when it comes to a collage poster. (more…)

In this week’s Get to the Point newsletter, there is a great case study of why a person would drive approximately an hour to a Mac store rather than going to the local Apple store.

Anti-Phishing Phil is a free, interactive game that teaches users:

• What phishing is.
• How to determine if an email/website is legitimate.

It is geared towards people who are just beginning to use the computer.  The software is still under development, but you can  try it out.

Don’t depend on the forward button in your subscriber’s email software to spread the word about your e-zine.

Depending on what software the subscriber uses, the forwarded email may look garbled or just be the text version of your product.

By including a “refer a friend” and/or “forward newsletter to friend” links and webpages, you are better able to control the look-and-feel of the forwarded message.

Finally, you can get statistics on how viral your e-zine is.  =-)

Self had a wonderful article written by Andrea Todd.  “My husband is a better mother” talks about one mom’s guilty feelings.  It just goes to show we can be our own worst critiques.

If you work with zip (compressed) files as much as I do, you will find that the installed compression utility in Windows Vista is very slow.

My recommendation is to install 7-zip, a free, open source program.  This is great for Windows XP as well.  If you open the pop-up menu (right-mouse click) for any item you will find a new 7-zip menu that gives you several easy options for compressing and uncompressing files.

It also handles several other compressions such as Unix gzip and tar format.

If you are alike me, you mostly scan web content rather than reading it word-for-word.

Jakob Nielsen has a great newsletter article about web writing. Click on the “writing for the web” under Mea Culpa for great words of wisdom.