YIKES! The blog looks bad right? No worries, we are in the middle of redesigning and moving....bare with us for a little longer, I promise it will be worth it!

What the heck Lisa?

I know I know... what happened to Lisa? All I can say is that I am still here and still kicking with tons of projects in the works (a few fun personal ones as well as business). I hope to be back and start posting again soon. Please bare with me for just a little longer. :)

Biz Monday - HARO

Ok so a confession first... I tend to bite off more than I can chew. Yes, I am a self admitted multi-tasker and I need to get professional help! ;) When I originally started the email list, I thought I would be able to offer tips each week there and then again on Monday with the biz blog posts...ummm well, when I am wrong, I say I am wrong and since there isn't an extra 5 hours in my day I just can't keep up. So it was either do away with the blog posts or the weekly emails... I chose the email. I am still going to be sending out periodic emails but more when I have a special announcement or something like that. I know I can reach more people with the blog post so that's why I chose to keep it. :) With all that said, on to Biz Monday.

DO YOU KNOW HARO?
If you don't you definitely should! HARO stands for "help a reporter out" and it is an awesome service for the small business. It is a list of subjects that reporters are looking to write stories about. This makes it easy to get your name out there without a lot of effort since the daily (sometimes 2 times a day) come right to your email.

If you see a story that may fit your business all you have to do is respond directly to the reporter and you could be on your way to free publicity! Of course, there are a few things I would recommend when responding to any inquiry with HARO. Check out my tips below. HARO also has another email list specifically for gift baskets so if you have a product that you would like to get into the hands of a celebrity or go to a good cause in your name, sign up for that one too!

For those of you that don't know, I used to own a children's clothing company called iza bella. I used this service a lot and it got me some great press! My products were featured in Pregnancy and Newborn Magazine twice, Earnshaws and Pregnancy Magazine just to name a few. It is a great way to get your name out there for free (which we ALL love!).

Join Me Tuesday!

I will be speaking at the Winter Biz Session (sponsored by Indie Biz Chicks) on Tuesday at 9:00 pm. Come join me for an hour of fun and business! My topic is "What NOT to do when starting your web site" and I just finished up 2 pages of notes so there will be plenty to talk about. I think I will be speaking first and then taking questions at the end of the session. I am a little nervous because I have never done a session like this but I am sure that Crissy will walk me through it. ;) Hope to see (well, hear actually) you then!

Random Photo and the Week

Work has me slammed, which is a great thing so I am trying to finish up a few projects that are almost complete. We are also battling with Gia acting up at school. Seems she has gone back to her old ways of not listening (granted she is 4 but still) so she is in trouble this weekend and can't play with any of her toys. Oh I am not looking forward to dealing with that inevitable struggle. She is very sneaky so you have to keep an eye on her at all times otherwise she will find a way to play with one of her toys. Have you ever thought that the problems we have as children are really great traits to have as adults? I mean seriously, think about it. Being stubborn with your ideas, standing up for what you think is right, not taking no for an answer...these are not bad traits to have as an adult but as a kid it is labeled as disobedient and defiant. By no means am I saying that I wouldn't correct these things because I can't have my 4 year old telling her teachers No and that they are poopie heads (she hasn't gone that far yet). I was just pondering that with The Baconator today so I thought I would put it out there.

Here is another random photo that Morgan took of us. I haven't got around to edited any of them really (I think 5 maybe?) so you know it's been a busy week. I chose this one because really, who would think this cute little thing could be so bad?

Biz Monday - Google Alerts

So who doesn't love Google? I use it constantly throughout my day online. But did you know they they also offer some pretty cool tools for small business owners? Oh yes, if you have a Blogger Blog then chances are you already have an account with Google but if not you will need to sign up to take advantages of everything they offer. One of my favorite things is Google Alerts. Google scours the web for keywords that you enter and then sends you a report with the finds. You can have it sent to you daily or as they find them. (I would definitely go with daily because sometimes they can get a bit overwhelming depending on your keywords.) What can you use this for you say? Well to see who is talking about you silly! Someone out there may be saying great things about you and unless they send you a link (which most of the time doesn't happen) you would never know it. With Google Alerts you can keep up with who's talking about you and what they are saying. This is a great way to keep up with marketing efforts to. If you just did a press release, you definitely want to know who is picking up your story and running with it! Signing up is simple and only takes a few minutes to get started. Once you sign into your account, you can start setting up your Alerts (see screenshot below).