Annie Anderson | Blog

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A couple of days ago, I wrote about a writer’s purpose and today I want to expand on that a little bit. But this doesn’t apply only to writing - it applies to business in all forms. No matter what business you’re in, customer service is one of the most important aspects of your company. And it should be a major part of your focus.

Because, in reality, it’s all about connecting.

Developing good relationships is the backbone of any business, whether online or off. As markets become unstable, buyers get more picky, prices go up, it’s going to become even more important to connect with clients and potential customers on a more personal level.

You’ve heard of social networking, right? If you’re online at all, you likely have. It seems that everywhere we turn, it’s all about social this, that or the other thing. We have websites to connect with each other such as myspace, linkedin, facebook and myriads more.

And their whole theme is all about connecting - new relationships, old relationships, changing relationships. Some are business, some more personal but they all share a common goal - to connect with others.

When I was training agents and investors in real estate, this is one of the key concepts I taught - that no matter else is going on, no matter any other circumstance, you must connect with people. It’s not about helping them or selling them something - those are secondary. If you can make that connection, you’re nearly there.

What does take to connect?

It starts with knowing what people want.

How do we know what people want? We listen, we ask questions, we dig a little deeper when necessary. We interact with them, show we care. We’re polite, yet assertive when need be. We leave the door open and allow interaction.

This is one of the things that make blogs so beneficial - it’s an open door that allows people to feel comfortable. It allows people to glimpse inside and get a feel for what’s going on before taking the proverbial plunge.

The whole goal of any business or relationship should be to connect. And then to keep that connection open and strong through communication, sharing and a sense of community.

What do you think makes customer service good? And what do you think customer service should be?

I’ll share some more thoughts on this later but I’d like to hear your thoughts to these 2 questions first. Please feel free to post in the comments. I love hearing from you!

In the arena,

Make $10k in a weekend - “Too good to be true.” That’s the first thing I said when
I heard of http://tinyurl.com/5lq2g4. You can’t REALLY make $10K in a weekend. But I quickly bit my tongue once I saw the content. . .

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business - just as if it were her own.

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First - the links. I said earlier this week I’d post some links to stuff around the web that I found and enjoyed lately and I have yet to do that. So . . .

Jeff Fisher Logo Motives - The Practice: What’s Wrong With Spec Work?

Steve Pavlina - Money and The Law of Attraction

Freelance Folder - Massive List of Killer Freelancing Tips By and For Our Readers

Zen Habits - 32 Ways to Make Someone Happy Today

There were a couple of others and for the life of me, I cannot remember what I was thinking! But I have a good reason . . .

The Short Dude fell this afternoon and smacked his head - H A R D - on the corner of my desk. He and G-Man were running around being wild munchkins and ran into my office where The Short Dude miscalculated his distance as he climbed up on my chair’s arm and fell off. When he fell, his head hit the edge of my desk.

He cried for a moment as I picked him up and rushed to the kitchen for an ice pack. When I set him down in the chair at the table to grab the ice, he stopped crying and tilted to one side, nearly falling asleep. I knew then it wasn’t just a little bump. He was pretty lethargic and his pupils were dilated.

I grabbed the ice pack, scooped him up, called my husband at work (because he had taken the car today (we only have one car) for an appointment after work) and told him to bring it home immediately. I then called my mom, who luckily, was just on her way home from work and asked her to come help me get him to the doctor. While we waited for everybody, I called the doctors office and they cleared space for him to see the urgent care doctor. Fortunately my husband only works 3 miles down the road so he was able to get home pretty fast.

My husband’s boss followed him home so he could take him back to work (since it’s only the 2 of them there and my husband had deliveries to make this afternoon). But it did irritate me a bit that he couldn’t just come home and help me. If my mom had not been able to come help me, I’d have been more irritated. But . . . anyway. That’s a whole ‘nother story.
When the doctor was checking his face and head, pressing here and there around his check bones and eyes, she asked him if it hurt here or here or here and he kept saying no. But when she got to just above his right eye where the bump and bruise are, he grimaced and wrinkled up his nose but he said it didn’t hurt. She said “I think it hurts there.”

The good news is that the ice pack did wonders and probably saved him from worse trauma. It took a long time before it actually bruised. The bad news is he has a concussion, a huge bump, an ugly bruise and he’s pretty nauseous. His head hurts like hell, too.

His speech is still a little bit slurred and he’s got the hiccups from his tummy being upset but otherwise, he’s acting pretty normal right now, though he’s pretty tired. It’s been about 7 hours since he hit his head and there doesn’t seem to be any new symptoms or anything going on so I will feel better about putting him down to bed.

Ok . . . well, that’s about all the drama I can handle for a day so I’m off to get some things done, like finishing up the laundry and dishes.

In the arena or the laundry,

Make $10k in a weekend - “Too good to be true.” That’s the first thing I said when
I heard of http://tinyurl.com/5lq2g4. You can’t REALLY make $10K in a weekend. But I quickly bit my tongue once I saw the content. . .

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business - just as if it were her own.

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A couple of days ago, I promised a list of some cool articles . . . so here are a few links to articles around the web which I’ve found particularly useful or fun or just liked. I thought perhaps you’d enjoy them as well.

Chris Brogan - Do What Works for You

Blogging Without a Blog - Interview with Lorelle Van Fossen Part 7 (Check out the rest of the series with Lorelle also.)

A Year of Crockpotting - Vegetarian No Noodle Lasagna (This looks so good! I’m going to be making it one night this week.)

Catherine Lawson - Are You Falling into the TFT?

Freelance Folder - Becoming a Freelancer: 7 Things To Do When (Or Before) You Take the Plunge

Joel Falconer - How to Double Your Income With the Art of Delegation

If you’ve found something this week you really liked, why not share it with us? Feel free to post it in the comments. I love finding new blogs with great content so don’t be shy. I read everything from tech blogs to fun blogs to design blogs and news blogs, so don’t censor something you enjoy by thinking nobody else will. Just put it out there!
In the arena,

Make $10k in a weekend - “Too good to be true.” That’s the first thing I said when
I heard of http://tinyurl.com/5lq2g4. You can’t REALLY make $10K in a weekend. But I quickly bit my tongue once I saw the content. . .

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business - just as if it were her own.

Share

This week marks the beginning of a couple of new projects, one of which I’ll be posting an announcement about either Monday afternoon or Tuesday. It’s just about something I’m starting - a sort of niche within a niche - because I’ve seen a need for it lately. I’m excited about launching it.

Well, it’s not really a launch, per se, or at least not like one of those big launches most of us have come to expect from the big marketing guru’s. No, it’s just a simple announcement and I hope it’s something that others will find useful. If not, we’ll regroup and take another path. Simple as that.

It’s not an earth shattering thing nor anything new - just a simple thing I hope does well. And if the comments I’ve read recently around the web are any indication, I think it’s going to be a nice little project.

Anyway, enough of that. For now.

A while back, I wrote a post about regrouping and dropping some projects that just don’t fit. In the past month + since then, I’ve done that and I feel good about the direction I’ve chosen. Right now, the decision I need to make concerns what to do with the projects I’m letting go - sell them, sit them on the back burner and come back to them later or just completely delete them. I’m not sure.

I’m seriously considering selling one of them but to be honest, I have no idea how to go about that. I’ve never sold a website/concept/project before. So, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Meanwhile, expect some other things coming up including what I’m working on for the Thirty Day Challenge.

And of course, my announcement later today.

I hope you had a great weekend! If you haven’t checked out what’s new here in the past couple of days, don’t miss my write up about the KWJZ Smooth Jazz Festival my mom and I went to Saturday. Wayman Tisdale brought the house down! Man, what a great show.

It was equally great to spend time with my mom. Not something we get to do very often and I always enjoy it when we do. It’s so great to just get out with her by myself and have fun.

And it was great to come home to a fixed septic system after our relaxing day out. Spending a week + with things out of whack was very difficult, especially with 4 kids home all day. Glad it’s over and things can get back to normal. If you’ve ever dealt with septic issues, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.

Oh - one last thing before I go - look out for a post in the next day or two about stuff from around the web. Haven’t done one of those posts in a while and I’ve found some great stuff lately I’d like to share with you. Hope you enjoy it!
In the arena,

Make $10k in a weekend - “Too good to be true.” That’s the first thing I said when

I heard of http://tinyurl.com/5lq2g4. You can’t REALLY make $10K in a weekend. But I quickly bit my tongue once I saw the content. . .

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business - just as if it were her own.

Share

It’s almost time for the Thirty Day Challenge again - it begins August 1st. This is the 2nd year I’ve participated during the actual challenge month, although I’ve been doing the challenge for 3 years now. The first year, I began at the very end of August and went through everything on my own. It’s much more fun to do it during the “live” challenge. If you haven’t checked out it yet, I encourage you to do so.

But, you might be wondering just what the challenge is, huh?

Well, it’s put on by 2 internet marketing guys - Ed Dale and Dan Raine - who have been very successful with their own online businesses and they do this every August - for FREE. They teach you how to make your first $10 online with subjects such as:

• Niches
• Keywords
• WordPress and other platforms
• Social Media

And lots, lots more

And they use free tools to teach it so if you don’t have a lot of extra money to throw at a new online biz, this is for you. Or even if you do, this is for you. Lessons are generally posted weekly and there’s a video, sometimes a podcast and sometimes PDF downloads and such. The official website has a forum where everyone can share and learn together as well. There are even prizes to win! I have no idea what’s in store for this year, but Ed and Dan promise it’s going to be awesome!

The tagline this year - “There’s no charge for awesomeness.”

Since June, Ed’s been hosting “pre-season” - this is where he helps you get set up with some of the tools that’ll be used for this years Challenge. For 2008, they include the social web browser, Flock, YouTube, Twitter and Twhirl (a Twitter desktop client), FriendFeed, Google Reader, StumbleUpon and more.

Oh, and you know - half the fun are Ed and Dan themselves. Ed is a crazy Australian dude and Dan is witty guy from the UK.

There’s still time to get in! And yes, you can do it alongside your other activities and commitments. It’s meant to be a fun learning experience, no pressure. You won’t be graded or kicked out if you get behind.

I’ll see you there!

PS - I’m lsandrsn over on the 30dc forum.

PPS - Almost forgot! I have a 30dc blog that I blog the challenge from, too. Come along for the ride!

Make $10k in a weekend - “Too good to be true.” That’s the first thing I said when
I heard of http://tinyurl.com/5lq2g4. You can’t REALLY make $10K in a weekend. But I quickly bit my tongue once I saw the content. . .

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business - just as if it were her own.

Share

As you may know, over the weekend, I went on a de-cluttering spree in my office to make room for a new desk and although it’s taken a bit longer than I expected (due to some issues with our septic system!!!), it is nearly finished. I expect to have pics and all up by Wednesday.

Like I mentioned earlier, it’s a bit weird having drawers in my desk again. Out of 6 drawers, I only have stuff in 2 of them so far. Aside from that, the nicest part of the whole thing is that my desk top isn’t FULL of STUFF. Right now, I have the office phone, cell phone, my MacBook Pro, wireless Mighty Mouse and my coffee mug on it. And instead of taking me 30 seconds to find things, it only takes 2.

One drawback so far - the kids think “Oh look, mom has room on her desk. I’ll just set my papers and junk artwork here.”

Yeah, I’ve had to clear their stuff off my desk once or twice today. (Can you tell? )

Anyway, I’ll tell you about the septic issues another day. For now, I’m just going to sit here and enjoy my new desk and listen to the radio before heading off to bed. It’s already midnight . . .

Make $10k in a weekend - “Too good to be true.” That’s the first thing I said when
I heard of http://tinyurl.com/5lq2g4. You can’t REALLY make $10K in a weekend. But I quickly bit my tongue once I saw the content. . .

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business - just as if it were her own.

Share

Over the past few years, I’ve accepted much of the social media that has come down the pike:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Last.fm
• Myspace
• LinkedIn

And more.

But plurk? I don’t know what it is - but I’m having trouble adopting it. I like the concept - mini conversations that basically anyone can jump into. A little more adaptable than twitter in that way. Yet, there’s something that keeps me from fulling accepting it, fully using it. It’s fun, but . . .

Maybe it’s the time line aspect? It has a design that doesn’t flow in what I consider a logical pattern. Or something. I don’t know . . . ??

I’m sure it has great potential and, at some point in the future, it could ultimately be one of those social media tools we can’t imagine *not* using. Right now, though, I’m having serious trouble getting my head around it.

If you’re an avid plurk user or you can at least espouse it’s merits in a way that changes my thinking, please share! I’d love to hear your thoughts on plurk or even on social media in general.

Make $10k in a weekend - “Too good to be true.” That’s the first thing I said when
I heard of http://tinyurl.com/5lq2g4. You can’t REALLY make $10K in a weekend. But I quickly bit my tongue once I saw the content. . .

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business - just as if it were her own.

Share