The Tip Jar
This section is devoted to sharing the tools I use to run the Big Brand System site.
You’ll find reviews for all the software and services I’ve researched and put to use here. I offer two links to each product. One is the Tip Jar version, which – at no additional cost to you – will put a little money in my pocket. I’d appreciate you using these links if you’re comfortable with it. A little extra income makes it easier for me to keep bringing you all the Big Brand System information.
If you’d prefer not to, that’s fine: I’ve also offered “regular” links to the products. If you click on those, I won’t receive any affiliate income. Either way, you’ll go straight to the product page.
All the tools I recommend in this section have been personally tested by me. I researched these options obsessively, and I’m including the good, the bad and the ugly in my reviews. I want you to understand the pluses and minuses of each product or service before you buy.
If you have any questions or want more information, please feel free to contact me through the form on the About page.
TOOLS I USE TO RUN THIS SITE:
Search Engine Optimization
A confession: I didn’t know SEO from deo up until a short time ago. I knew Search Engine Optimization was an important way to drive traffic to your blog, but every time I tried to read about and master it, I ended up more confused than when I started.
Then I found Scribe SEO. Scribe makes search engine optimization into a game. It gives you an SEO score for your copy, and in a very short time, you master the basics of writing in a way that will make your site more easily found on the web.
You can use it as a plugin on your blog, or as a standalone application to optimize everything you write. It suggests ways to naturally weave keywords into your text so that your site can be found by the people who are out there looking for you.
As a matter of fact, Brian Clark of Scribe allows me to offer his free 28-page report about SEO copywriting here on my site. It’s an instant download (so you don’t have to sign up for it). You can get it by clicking on the image at left, and I highly recommend you read it all the way through. Let’s just say good things come to those who read to the very end.
Now if I can just get it to write my posts while I sleep…
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Scribe SEO Tip Jar version
Scribe SEO (regular link)
Email Marketing
Constant Contact | AWeber | MailChimp
Writing and sending compelling, informative and helpful emails is a great way to stay in contact with your audience. My email newsletter, which publishes every other week, is sent out using Constant Contact.
For ease of use, fantastic reporting and A+ customer service, Constant Contact can’t be beat. What they don’t offer, however, is good, solid auto-responders.
Auto-responders allow you to set up a series of email messages that you can send out to your mailing list over time. Those of you who have signed up for the free Design 101 e-course have received a series of design tips via auto-responder. That series is sent out using AWeber.
AWeber is not quite as easy to use as Constant Contact, but has very high deliverability rates, which means more of your emails get through to your customers’ inboxes. AWeber also offers the ability to turn your blog posts into email messages. Those of you who sign up for blog updates for this blog receive them through the AWeber system.
There’s one service that may combine the best of Constant Contact and AWeber, but I don’t have much experience with it. I’m including it here, and I’ll update this page once I’ve used it a little. It’s MailChimp.
MailChimp offers easy templates like Constant Contact. It also offers autoresponders like AWeber. Could it be the One Service That Rules Them All?
We’ll see. In the meantime, I’m recommending all of them, with reservations. Be clear about what you want your email provider to do for your business, and choose accordingly.
RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS
Constant Contact Tip Jar version
Constant Contact (regular link)
AWeber Tip Jar version
AWeber (regular link)
MailChimp Tip Jar version
MailChimp (regular link)
Teaching Sells: Learn to Create Courses and Products that Teach
The Big Brand System is a teaching blog — I share my knowledge of marketing and design with small business owners who can benefit from it — and it’s also a business. I offer the Big Brand System online course, which is a membership site where participants get in-depth information that helps them create polished, professional marketing materials. In the near future I’ll have products for sale that will help people learn these skills, too.
How did I learn to create teaching products? In August of 2009, I signed up for Teaching Sells. It was one of the smartest business decisions I made that year.
Teaching Sells is a comprehensive online course that teaches you how to create online courses. The modules cover everything from figuring out what to teach, to the mechanics of setting up your member site. It covers how to create material that meets the needs of different types of students, how to deliver compelling sales pages, and the steps involved in launching your final product.
It’s not cheap, but it’s comprehensive, and once you pay for it you have ongoing access to the material. The Teaching Sells forum is a tremendous resource, too.
The course fills up fast when it’s offered. If you think you might be interested, sign up for the no-obligation notification list so you’ll find out as soon as they’re open again.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Teaching Sells Tip Jar version
Teaching Sells (regular link)
