Building Your Business

As many of you have on-line business’ that you are trying to grow, promote and make some income with I thought I’d talk a little about ways that have worked for me. There are millions of people around the globe logging onto the internet daily. These people are looking for work from home ideas or business’, services or products to purchase. If you have a company where you are selling products like myself the first thing to do is to set up an attractive website, maintain it regularly and add new products daily if this is something you can do. Then join social/business networks and market, market, market. Of course  go about this in a professional manner, you don’t want to annoy people and turn them away. The idea is to capture their attention with your designs, products or services so they will remember you and return to your site.  Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,IBO Toolbox are some suggestions for you to get started. Connect with others, this can really help you to stay motivated too! Hope this inspires you and helps you take the next step on your journey. 

Here are some designs and products from my store Designs by Shell Come by for a visit… always keeping it fresh with lots of new designs.

My three kids went camping with friends in the BWCA

 http://www.megavideo.com/?v=5BBBEDLA   (A link to their Boundary Water Trip video put together by Kyle Kimberlin.)

It was a little cold and wet the first couple of days.  This is a picture of my daughter Suzanne
 and her friend Keith.  They met and became friends at Indiana University.



A beautiful bald eagle!



Matthew (my son), Janine (my dtr) and friend Adam went fishing and are returning to camp. 





The guy in blue is Kyle.  He was my son's roommate at the Academy.



My daughter, Suzanne, is wearing mosquito netting over her head.  The mosquitoes can be fierce out in the BWCA, however, the kids were more irritated with tiny black flies when they were there.  I guess there were a lot of them and the evil critters knew how to bite hard.  Luckily, all the kids brought and used the netting Suzanne is wearing in this picture. 



Adam --my son became friends with him when he went to the Academy in Muncie, IN for high school.



Fun pictures!

This is a photo of a picture my brother took. This picture is hanging in his photography studio (in Hawley, Minnesota) and is, of course, not in any way blurred.  The boy with the horse is my nephew, Michael. 

 My brother told a funny joke just before he snapped the picture.  It must have been a horse joke since there seems to have been lots of horsey laughter.  ha, ha, ha! 

I don't think I've ever seen such straight, large teeth -- I'm not referring to Michael's.  Actually this particular horse does his smile on command.  I want to meet him.  Next time I'm in Minnesota for a visit, I'm going to see those pearly whites for myself.

 Horses always seem on the verge of laughing, don't they?  A whinny is almost a laugh. 

Here's another one of my brother's pictures.  He does a lot of weddings.
I love this picture of a bride and groom.  It looks like a photograph taken in 1955, doesn't it?  My brother wasn't even born then.  I assure you the people in this picture haven't been married very long.

 There's something about a black and white photo that speaks to me.  Photos without color make me think there must have been a happier simpler time.  I guess when I look at this particular picture, I think of the hope of a happy new beginning.  The couple seems friendly and down to earth because of the clean cut  look they have.  The "Leave it to Beaver" family could have attended this wedding.

Ways to Market Your Business

Are you struggling with ways to get your business seen by others? Is the lack of traffic and sales getting you down? I thought I’d share a few ideas for marketing your store or service.  Just like a brick and mortar business an on-line business needs to be promoted and marketed, perhaps even more so. There are many places that I have found that have worked for bringing more traffic to my business.

If you’re reading this then you know that blogging is an important one for marketing your business. On a blog you can share information about your work, upcoming promotions, your latest designs or whatever you want potential customers to know.

Another idea is creating a Facebook fan page. It’s free and you basically control what links and information you want others to see. People ‘like’ your page and this helps you get seen by their network of associates too! The potential for visibility is unlimited.

Join networking sites for business like LinkedIn, IBOTOOLBOX, and Twitter. Also spend time in forums and comment  and share others links as well. These will all help you grow your business and help you gain a presence in the business market. 

Okay, well here are some fresh and fun designs and products from my store Designs by Shell. Come by for a visit to see more…

Annabelle is a happy pup

This is Annabelle (my granddog) laying on our soft back yard grass, smiling for the camera. She has a lot to smile about; the back yard is a whole lot of fun for her. There are dogs next door to talk to, interesting critters that fly and, of course, there is digging fun.  Luckily our little lady has learned the joy of digging in the sandbox.  She goes there when she's inspired to use her front paws in that way.

My daughter, Janine, has been in the BWCA with her brother and sister so Annabelle has been visiting with another family.  It's always nice to get away, but coming home feels good too.  It'll be fun to see her happy greeting again.  Miss you Annabelle!  See ya soon!

Why You Should Have a Facebook Fan Page

Have you joined the ultimate site to market your business. Facebook has become a huge new advertising platform for your company. There are a lot of great reasons that you will want to do this. For instance, the pages are public meaning that the search engines can index the page and that allows people to find it and visit your link. Links are good. As the author of your Facebook page you get to control it and add links, remove content, etc. The best thing is that it’s free marketing for your business. You can create a page in a matter of minutes by following simple steps. So if you haven’t done this yet you might want to think about getting a page out there. It sure can’t hurt. Here is the link to my page Designs by Shell Please like it and I’ll like your page back! :-) I update my page daily with new designs from my store. Here are some more cute things I’ve created! Come by for a visit!

Money in My Pocket

Do you love to write? How about writing and really, seriously getting paid for it! Well with this site called Squidoo you can write one page articles (called a lens) These pages practically come together on there own. The modules where you add content be it information about your topic, pictures, tips, products that others can purchase are all ready for you to use. Just choose the ones that you would like on your page, upload your content and when you're ready hit the publish button to set it out to be seen.

When people click on a link you make a small royalty from the click outs. If you add a selling module like ebay or amazon and show items for people to buy when they click through and make a purchase you also get a royalty.

What a great way to let your imagination go free writing on any topic you choose. It's free to join so what are you waiting for go sign up... you'll love it. I have to say once you do a few of these pages it becomes addicting.

Here are some inspiring items from Designs by Shell