VernonGirl

Linkwithin: A free secret weapon for getting readers to stay in your blog longer.

Many bloggers ask the question, "How can I get people to stay in my blog longer?" Linkwithin (not to be confused with LinkedIn) is my new secret weapon for getting readers to stay on my blog longer. If you have a blog, it's something you may want to add.

It's free.

It's very simple to add.

It doesn't come with advertising (other than an unobtrusive linkwithin link).

I have been very pleased with how it looks, how it pulls related articles and how it makes my site more "sticky" (people stay longer).

Photos are so important to a blog, and this little widget drives that point home. Linkwithin automatically pulls suggested articles to the bottom of your most recent blog post, and all of your other posts, along with a thumbnail photo from each article. You can tell it to pull three, four or five suggestions depending on how you would like it to look on your site.

Platforms it works on include:

Typepad
Blogger
Wordpress
(Other) ie: your own site

It is so attractive that it entices readers to stay longer on your blog. Readers poke around in other articles you've written.

This is what the sign up form looks like.




Don't get confused when you're setting it up because the process is so easy and simple. It literally takes about 1 minute.

How to set it up:

1. Open your blogging platform.
2. Then open linkwithin in a new window.
3. Fill out the form.
4. Hit the "get widget" picture.
5. Finish the prompts in your blogging platform to complete the process.

Presto, it's in there.

Articles are pulled based on categories or tags. Voila, you've got yourself an automatic-article-suggester-of-sorts. Now, watch your pageviews per unique visitor go waaaaaaay up. (If you're not sure what pageviews or unique visitors are, read this article about google analytics.)

If you add Linkwithin to your blog, please let me know how you like it by leaving a comment on this blog post. I love to hear your feedback.

Thanks for reading!

Courtenay Pitcher, Blogger

p.s. If you would like to get a blog and have it customized to your other branding, please contact me for a quote.

Import a blog to Facebook and update Twitter to Facebook and LinkedIn

While training a group of professionals yesterday about social media, these questions were popular. I've linked to their answers:

How to import your blog or RSS feed into Facebook.

How to update Twitter from Facebook and Facebook from Twitter.

How to import Twitter to LinkedIn.

Thanks for reading,

Courtenay

Slideshow - How Social Media Can Help Your Career

This slideshow describes what social media is, some of the various types (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Blogs), statistics and how they can help your career.

How Social Media Can Help Your Career

View more presentations from Courtenay Pitcher.

Three lucky charms for thriving in a tough economy – Okanagan business style

Lucky Charm One – Keep Overhead Low

In these tough economic times, Tammi Berzins, co-owner of Berzins Designs in Vernon, B.C. says, “People are still building, renovating and doing a bit of everything.” Tammi has been in business for four years. She says, “I love what I do and enjoy working in the Okanagan.” Tammi and her business partner Carley Sawka travel to interior design related trade shows to make sure they are current in the design world.

Berzins Designs recently completed an FF and E (the interior design and installation of furniture, fixtures and equipment) at Firelight Lodge at Silver Star Mountain Resort, but Tammi does admit these times are difficult. Tammi says, “We try to keep things minimal, and not have a large overhead. We were fortunate that the (Firelight Lodge) hotel project happened at a good time. My best suggestion for business owners is to keep expences and overhead as low as you can.” 

Berzins Designs does commercial and residential interior design work for a handful of builders in the Vernon area.

Lucky Charm Two – Fill A Need, Even if it’s only temporary

Elizabeth Sweezie has a background in accounting and a Business Administration diploma from Okanagan College. She has been organizing offices and their paperwork systems for twenty years. She started her business Office 2 Office one year ago because she knew it could fill the gap for a “temp” service.

Now, she steps in temporarily to help small businesses who are bursting at the seams with paperwork, lack of efficient systems, or expansion to organize their offices. She does collection letters, customizes forms, creates invoices, puts payables and receivables into one place and labels it all so they can find it. She says that the companies she helps just need, “a little specific organizational business to be done. This frees owners up to take care of their business.”

To find clients, she keeps herself involved with several organizations including:

Vernon Women in Business (Website Director)
North Okanagan Referral Association
Toastmasters (Acting VP of Education)
Okanagan Business Exchange.

Next, she will look at helping bookkeepers and accountants.

Lucky Charm Three – Diversify

When Adrienne Harris’ phone stopped ringing, she diversified to survive in business.

Adrienne Harris has owned Lasting Impressions Home Staging and Design for four years and she helps the homeowner or real estate professional prepare the condition of a home or property to sell. She says, “This enhances marketing, because 90% of home buyers look on line before purchasing.” According to Adrienne, when a homebuyer works with a realtor, they look at location and what they can spend. Once those needs are met, they buy that home based on its condition….that’s where she comes in.

(Before shot)

Her husband Adam Harris is a real estate agent with Century 21. Her and Adam have been buying, renovating and selling houses (also called “flipping”) for the past three years. This has led to doing small renovations for others.

“To survive in business, we’ve had to diversify. My husband went from full time real estate to taking on more renovations. I’ve had to diversify too. I’ve had to recreate my business. My phone was no longer ringing. I may do the work myself rather than sub it out to a sub trade. I’m not going to hire someone to powerwash a client’s dock when I’m more than capable of doing it.” Adrienne remarks.


Recently, Adrienne and Adam combined two businesses they own, Lasting Impressions Home Staging and Design and Portico Property Concierge, into a corporation called North Okanagan Property Services. She says, “We want to be a one stop shop service for homeowners whether they need maintenance, renovations or want to sell their home.”

You can follow Adrienne on Twitter: http://www.Twitter.com/okanaganstager

What are you doing to survive or thrive in these tough times? I would love to hear from you. Comments can be left at the bottom of this blog by clicking the comments link below.

Thanks for reading!

Courtenay Pitcher, Business Survivor

Follow me on Twitter (@vernongirl) or subscribe to my blog.

Grow Your Business With Social Media - Workshop - Vernon - April 17

Grow Your Business With Social Media
A Workshop With Courtenay Pitcher

Saturday, April 17, 2010 - 8:30 to Noon
Schubert Centre - 3505 30th Ave.  - Vernon, BC

For members and future members of Vernon Women in Business

$20 for members.

RSVP by April 10, 2010.

Register for the workshop.

8:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.         Networking and Registration
9:00 to 12:00                       Workshop

Laptops are welcome. We will be working live on the internet. Wireless access provided.

Topics will include:

LinkedIn - Learn how to network with LinkedIn for advancing your career or small business. Create a LinkedIn profile, get and give recommendations, connect your LinkedIn profile to Twitter, customize your website link, start or join a group, share your blog or rss feed.

Blogs – You’ll see how cheap and easy it is to begin blogging. Learn how to post articles, photos and YouTube videos to your blog. Learn what a category cloud is. Understand why you should comment on other blogs to promote your business. Learn why blogging can leverage your marketing, earn trust, clients and credibility.

Twitter – Set up a profile, tweet, retweet, direct message, reply, customize your Twitter background, and schedule tweets. How to brand yourself using Twitter, increase traffic to your blog or website, build relationships and increase your profile. Learn how to use Hootsuite. Learn powerful automation tricks to save time.

Facebook – Set up a Facebook Fan page for your business. Learn how to engage people on your Fan Page. Get people to write on your wall, start discussions, and automatically bring in your RSS or blog feed.

For more information, contact me or Cindy Bertrand, Director of Education for VWIB education@vwib.com

Hope to see you there!

Courtenay Pitcher, Social Media Coach

How social media and government money can help your career in Vernon or Kelowna

How can social media help your career? If you are a client or an alumni of the CBD Network in Vernon, B.C., you can find out on March 25, 2010 from Noon to 1:00 p.m. when I speak to that group. If you are thinking of jumping careers, or if you are looking for work, you may want to consider becoming a CBD Network client and attending this event.

CBD Network stands for Career Business Development network. They help professional and highly skilled people find work. They are great at it too. In fact, I was a client in 1999 after I was laid off from a full-time marketing position. (My lay-off was a result of the restructuring of a majour ski resort.) I also became a client in 2006 when I decided to put self-employment on the backburner for a while and get a "job" with a regular paycheque. (Obviously, I got bored with a regular paycheque and returned to self-employment because here I am writing this blog and promoting myself as an on-line marketing coach.)

The CBD Network's process teaches you how to identify what you really want in a career and put this information into a resume that positions you as an expert in your skill set. Then, they provide coaching around how to network and market yourself to that perfect career, or one that will be the stepping stone at least. In my case in 1999, I chose a career of self-employment. With that choice, they referred me onto a self-employment program and I started my company Lava Marketing. In 2006, they were definitely instrumental in helping me land a great job that I enjoyed thoroughly and did well at until I got over my self-employment, life, baby-making, father-dying, fire-evacuating burn-out and got bored. (There are some stories there I will tell another time, or upon request.)

My career and self-employment transitions were made a bit easier with Government of Canada money that I accessed with the assistance of the CBD Network. And I didn't have to pay for the CBD Network's assistance because some government agency paid them.

The Okanagan is not exactly plentiful in the job department and finding a good job requires guerilla marketing techniques that you will learn as a client of the CBD Network.

In the one hour presentation on Thursday, March 25, 2010, I will review social media sites like LinkedIn and Twitter and provide some tips on how blogging can help a career.

If you are an out of work professional, contact the CBD Network in either Vernon or Kelowna to see if you are a good fit for their services. If you don't qualify as a CBD Network client or alumni, I offer one-on-one or group coaching on those techniques too.

Thanks for reading.

Courtenay Pitcher, not burned out, happy, professional job hunter

Vernon, B.C. Woman of the Year Nominations Open March 1 to 31, 2010

I like to support my community by volunteering and sponsoring events. I am a member of Vernon Women in Business and I currently sit on the 2010 Woman of the Year Committee. For 2009 and 2008, I was the Chairperson. This year, I stepped back as Chairperson to focus more on my writing. Rhino Curbing, a company my husband and I own, is proud to be a Platinum sponsor of this event.

Menza Bouwman of Triboda Printing Company in Vernon is the 2010 Chairperson of the Woman of the Year Committee.

“Woman of the Year nominations will be accepted March 1 to March 31”, according to Bouwman.

 

New this year, a five member judging panel from the community will be struck to determine who will be Woman of the Year. In previous years, the organizing committee determined the Woman of the Year. This new process is designed to streamline the decision-making process.

 

Bouwman says, “The Woman of the Year will be honoured with a Journey Pendant valued at $1495 retail.

 

 

 

 

The pendant is on display inside Gregory’s Fine Jewellery.

 

The nomination form is available by clicking any of the above images, on the Vernon Women in Business website or at sponsor locations including Triboda Printing, Kal Tire, Rhino Curbing, Scotiabank, Gregory’s Fine Jewellery, Shaw, Sun FM, The Morning Star, Kiss FM, Resort TV, Allan-Francis-Pringle, Harris Flowers and Brenda Hala Photography.

 

The Woman of the Year Gala is a community event designed to celebrate exceptional women. It is planned and executed by volunteer members of Vernon Women in Business.  The woman of the year:

1. Consistently displays and exercises leadership.

2. Demonstrates vision, initiative, creativity and courage.

3. Enriches and improves quality of life for others.

4. Has an impact in her chosen field.

5. Displays and sustains a continued commitment to her community.

6. Promotes and supports opportunities for females.

7. Has made Greater Vernon a better place to live.

 

In addition to the diamond pendant, the Woman of the Year will receive a one year parking pass for the City of Vernon, prizes, and the recognition and honour that comes with being the 23rd Annual Recipient of the award.

The Woman of the Year will be announced at the Woman of the Year Gala on the evening of Thursday, May 20, 2010 at the Best Western Vernon Lodge. Tickets for the event will go on sale in April. The 2009 Woman of the Year was Barrita Durward.  The deadline for nominations is 5:00 p.m.  March 31, 2010.

Woman of the Year Past Recipients

1988    Jean Koenig & Melanie Korol                   
1989    Daphne Thuillier       
1990    Claudette Everitt       
1991    Hedi Lattey           
1992    Colleen Vollan       
1993    Donna Mihalcheon       
1994    June Rigby           
1995    Ruth Wolfe           
1996    Joan Jacobi           
1997    Jane Lister           
1998    Liz McArthur           
1999    Betty Selin           
2000    Ann Powter           
2001    Marie Fleming           
2002    Phyllis Simon           
2003    Carol Williams       
2004    Marlene Stark           
2005    Carole Benz           
2006     Val Heuman           
2007    Michele Blais           
2008   Carol Wutzke           
2009   Barrita Durward           

For more information, please contact: Menza@Triboda.com phone: 250-549-2900 

Thanks for reading!

Courtenay Pitcher, Volunteer and proud sponsor of the Woman of the Year Event

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