Welcome back! Coffee's always on around here. Pull up your favorite chair and a grab a cup. Enjoy your visit today! And don't forget to stop back by again soon.

Just a quick post to let you know I’ll be posting some stuff from around the web later today along with a couple of other things and possibly part 3 of “Stories make us who we are.”

I also want to talk more about customer service but that will likely have to wait until Monday or so.

Don’t want to overwhelm anyone. I know these next few weeks are hectic for a lot of folks what with getting kids back to school and all.

So, see you soon!

In the arena,

Did you know I design blog headers and ebook cover graphics, too? Yes, I do. And you can get one now for the introductory price of $55 for a limited time. Just send a payment of $55 to me via PayPal along with a description of what you want. You’ll have a design within 48 hours.

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.

Is it really Friday? Because normally, I love Fridays – it means the weekend when things are slower and my husband is home from work is right around the corner. But today? Not so much.

It was Freshman Orientation and Check In today for The Teenager.

What a nightmare! I’m so glad the G-Man won’t be starting high school for another few years. The orientation was completely disorganized and probably completely unnecessary. I don’t think even half the freshman were there.

Now, the check-in earlier today wasn’t too bad. It could have been a bit more organized but it was at least manageable once you figured things out. The actual orientation, which was this evening, was a disaster. And in The Teenager’s opinion, “lame and stupid” not to mention totally not useful. There was nothing to indicate it was orientation.

I mean, when I think of orientation, it’s where teachers and other support faculty are on hand, answering questions, taking students on campus tours, showing kids where things are and what to expect. It’s like an outline for a paper – neat, tidy, organized and makes sense. All the points are thought out and filled in, not necessarily fully scheduled, but at least planned.

But not here. They threw everyone into the gym, had some upper classmen do some lame skits about having an ASB card and how if you don’t, dances and other activities cost more. While I’m all for supporting the ASB, it seems that was the focus of the whole orientation. Nothing about what to expect the first day of school or how things work, or where to go, although they did have some tours – which were so disorganized, we didn’t go on one. They did offer a Q&A session for the parents, but in my opinion, I think the kids should have been a part of it.

Fortunately, I graduated from my daughter’s high school, so I took her around and we found everything. Granted, some things are different now but we were still able to make sense of things. I told her perhaps we could go back next week during the day when the teachers are there and check things out if she feels the need to do so.

By time we left, The Teenager was grumpy and upset. I think she was feeling more than a little confused and overwhelmed too. I don’t blame her. If I were her, I probably would be too. It might have been better had we not gone at all this evening. Sometimes these things can affect her mood for days. But . . . I hope not this time.

Things are getting busy around the Anderson household as school gears up. In some ways, I’m dreading the start of school – don’t want to let the lazy days of summer slip away. On the other hand, I’m so ready for them to all have something else to do so I can get some work done!

Speaking of work . . .

My schedule is filling up fast for the next few months so if you think you might like to work with me on any of your upcoming copywriting or design projects, please let me know ASAP. If you miss the boat now, I likely won’t have any time available until November. I do have few slots available in September and October but as usual, I expect they will fill up fast. You can download a copy of my fee schedule on the Hire Me page. (Note: my fees are not set in stone. The best way to find out what it will cost for your project is to request a free quote.)

I hope you all had a great day and that you enjoy your weekend!

In the arena,

Did you know I design blog headers and ebook cover graphics, too? Yes, I do. And you can get one now for the introductory price of $55 for a limited time. Just send a payment of $55 to me via PayPal along with a description of what you want. You’ll have a design within 48 hours.

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.

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.

The failure of content

As a writer, I often help small business owners create content for their websites. I’m usually hired after another writer has backed out of the project for one reason or another. Sometimes I’m hired long after the original writer has flown the coop. Most of the time, I’m hired because the website isn’t working as well as it should or in the way that the business owner wants.

And the problem facing these business owners usually centers around content that is inadequate and/or unappealing. From a writer’s standpoint, it looks great. The failure is that the content isn’t written to compel the reader to take the next step. It isn’t written to inspire or to sell or even convert. It looks pretty, it reads well, but that’s about it. It’s stagnant, at best.

So, what does the content need to do? What’s the purpose?

The purpose of any writer, of any written content, is to convey to the reader a sense of urgency, something that moves them forward in the buying process. It’s purpose is to get the reader from one step to the next, whether that’s asking for free information or buying a product or service or both.

A writer’s job is to figure out the action a visitor to a website should take and get them to take it.

When I speak with someone about their website and marketing materials, I ask them a series of questions designed to help me figure that out.

Now, I do a lot of writing for the real estate market – that’s my main niche. And most real estate agents and brokers will tell you that it’s all about location, location, location. But I’m here to tell you – no it isn’t. It’s about selling homebuyers a dream – the American Dream. It’s about making things easy for them and helping them feel good about their purchase. It’s about appealing to their desires. Any good broker will be able to hone in on what a buyer really wants and sell them that ideal.

And a writer’s job is to help that agent or that broker look like a friend and yet professional. A professional who cares, is knowledgeable and can sell them that American Dream.

Writers create a mental image and the key is creating an image that reflects the business owner as well as the ideals of the target audience. The website must be comfortable to the website owner and it must also appeal to the buyer.

Image is just as important as content.

A poorly designed website will do nothing. In fact, the site owner might even be so embarrassed by it, they don’t share it with potential clients or customers! I’ve seen this happen many times. And the result is that the business owner loses money and has little or no return on their investment. Their business might even dry up because nobody knows about their website.

As they say, first impressions are everything. This is as true for the web as it is in person. Hiring a good writer is just as important as hiring a good designer. It could mean the difference between few sales and a booming business.

What’s your website saying?

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.

What a weekend! My brain is fried, I’m tellin’ you.

The Short Dude fell Thursday and bonked his head. Just in time for his 4th birthday Friday. You can read about it here.

Friday was spent between ensuring The Short Dude wasn’t going to puke and trying to cool down. Because it was hot. In Seattle, if you can believe that.

Saturday was shopping day. We met Gramma (her spelling) at Staples and got supplies for the kids. Do you know how much it costs to get school supplies for 4 kids? Even when Staples is having sales and things can be had for .09¢? Yeah . . . $78. I don’t even want to think how much it would have been had they been normal prices. And I won’t tell you how much we spent on clothes! 4 kids and clothes? Let’s just say one almost has to take out a line of credit on their home equity to pull it off!

The Teenager spent the night with Auntie Friday night so I took her clothes shopping today. What an experience. Ever shopped with a teenager? Let me rephrase that . . . have you ever shopped with an ultra *picky* teenager? Don’t. It’ll take years off your life.

On a more business-like note – I have some projects coming up in the next few weeks that I’m really excited about. A couple of them are in real estate which is fun. Real estate is one of my favorite topics. I also have a couple of projects in the design department as well as a few others. It’s always fun to work on projects that are in alignment with ones hobbies and joys.

It’s also the 3rd week of The Thirty Day Challenge. I’m way behind again and who knows when I’ll get caught up. I haven’t even looked at any of the stuff for the past 3-4 days and I’ll be too busy for most of this week to do so. I might have some time very late in the evenings but not sure if it’ll be enough to catch up on anything completely. We will see.

This week is also orientation for The Teenager at the high school. She’ll confirm her class list, get pictures taken, get her ASB card and pay for a bajillion dollars worth of stuff – PE clothes, ASB card, yearbook and other necessary teenager stuff.

And the 21st marks the first day of classes for me again too. I took the last 2 quarters off and it’s time to get started again. I still need to order books which I’ll probably do tomorrow and if I order through Amazon like usual, they’ll be here in time.

I’m not really ready for summer to be over, though. We’re finally just now getting to have summer-like weather here and it’s a bit sad to know it’s almost over anyway. Oh well! At least it’ll be quiet around the house for a few hours every day. I actually am looking very forward to that part! 4 noisy kids home all summer has meant a change in my writing schedule and it’ll be nice to get back to a more regular one.

I hope everyone had a great weekend and that your week ahead is wonderful!

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.

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.

I don’t really have anything planned for this post so I apologize in advance if it ends up wandering all over the place!

The kids and I were able to spend some time outside today in the garden. I’ve been neglecting it badly all summer, mostly because we’ve had such awful weather until recently. On those few rare days of sun during the months of June and July, it always turned out I had something else to do.

So, the flower bed in the front yard is now clean and my rhododendrons, hibiscus, lavender and roses can breathe again. I think I even found some rhubarb. At least, that’s what it looks like. I’ll have to ask my mom to have a look at it next time she drops by. Tomorrow I plan to put down the mulch and compost and possibly plant some late summer blooming wild flowers. I’ll also be ripping out the grass that somehow has made its way into the gravel of the driveway. Of course, I’m sure my back will be killing me tomorrow night which means I may not be here.

There’s also lots of other stuff on the agenda for this week including school clothes shopping and The Short Dude’s birthday. He’ll be 4! It’s hard to believe my little baby is a big boy! He’s also getting his new big boy bed this weekend. He’s been asking about it for a month now and I think it’s high time we get it done. Or he’ll be sleeping in his small bed until he’s in college, I think.

My elbow is burning from all the weeding I did today. That really hurts. And I do mean burning. It’s an odd sensation. If you have bursitis or tendinitis, you probably know what I mean. I wish it would go away. Might have to go get a heat pack. But who wants to do that when it’s 90 degrees in the house and the laptop is already sizzling? I would put cold on it, but that makes it hurt worse, unfortunately.

I’ve been reading a lot of new blogs lately so look for a post sometime this week about some cool stuff from around the web. There are so many interesting things, I could quite literally spend all day reading them!

And of course, it’s Day 11, almost Day 12 of the Thirty Day Challenge. I finally got caught up yesterday. Well, almost. I got to Day 8. I did Days 9 & 10 today so I am only 1 day behind now. That should be easy enough to get fully caught up on tomorrow.

Little Girl just got up. She needed a drink of water. I think she’s too hot. She’s so sleepy, she could hardly stand here and tell me what she needed. I better go check on her. I think she might have fallen asleep at the table where I left her with her drink of water because she has not gone back to bed yet.

In the arena (or maybe the kitchen),

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.