Are you getting my twice-monthly audio newsletter/e-zine?  If not, you are missing out on some timely tips to streamline and promote your business.

The last e-zine talked about a free subscription service of queries from journalists.  Just this morning I heard from a listener that she signed up, responded to a query she knew something about, and the reporter has scheduled an interview with her tomorrow.  She will get some great PR for her business for less than 30 minutes of work and zero outlay of dollars.  She is thrilled and I am, too!

The previous e-zine described the new audio technology I'm using for the newsletters and my website.  It inspired one listener to do the same thing after putting off starting her newsletter for so long.  For a small monthly fee and a minor effort on her part, she can now stay in touch with her growing list of subscribers.  Another listener will be using it for testimonials on her site - powerful!

Are you taking advantage of all the great info I give out for *free* every month?  Check out the latest one underneath the signup box in the sidebar of my website.  Better yet, just sign up and it will show up in your inbox every couple of weeks.  You'll even get a download of my free report on Blogging from Start to Finish.

Can you hear me now? 

Are you prepared to make 5 to 20 contacts with a potential customer before she decides to do business with you?  I hope so, because statistics show that 80% of customers wait that long to make a buying decision.

You can make those contacts in a variety of ways, but if you count on occasional in-person contacts to do the trick you may be waiting years to make a sale.  And eating a lot of Ramen noodles.  

So, how can you increase the number of contacts with a potential client without getting too sales-y or spending too much time or money per lead?   

Remember, you can't duplicate yourself so you have to duplicate your effectiveness.

First things first:  Get a plan.

Mix it up.  Put together a program of calls, emails, blogs, ezines, face-to-face contact, and good old-fashioned cards and notes.  It doesn't matter how you put it together as long as it makes sense to you and your business.  You can easily set these up as drip campaigns or calendar reminders with a minimum of effort - if you have a plan.

Here is a sample followup plan for a warm lead met at a networking event:

• Put your lead in a system with all the details you can remember - use index cards, CRM program, spreadsheet, whatever - you can't keep track of them if you don't log them, and if you think you will remember everyone you meet you are not meeting enough people
  
• Send a "nice to meet you" card and reiterate what THEY are looking for and how you will keep that in mind for them
• Set up a Google alert on them and their company so you can be first to know when news happens about them - and contact them with congratulations
  
• Follow up a week or two after initial contact with an email or call with an article, introduction, or bit of info relating to their needs.  Ask them to sign up for your ezine.
  
• Check in a week or two later to see how that bit of information is working for them
• Send them an article from your blog or website that pertains to the service they are most likely to be interested in
• Set up a reminder of the people you want to follow up with at your next networking event and put it on your calendar.  Review the details the day before so you will be prepared to meet them again.

Lather, rinse, repeat for every warm lead (the more times you do it, the more you get out of your system).

See how these are all "giving" activities instead of "selling" activities?  Giving increases your good karma, your value to other people, and your reputation as a center of influence.  Besides making you feel good, it will also come back to you in business growth. 

If you don't have a system you will not be able to reliably predict how many customers you will have in the next month, quarter or year, and if you can't predict that you will never predict your income.  And when you can't do that, your business has no reliable means (or reason) to invest in growth.

Homework:  Send a card, make a call, email an interesting article.  Let them know you care before they do business with you.

Have you ever wanted someone to show you how to do something you knew you could do if you just saw it one time?  Well, instead of paying an expert or just deciding not to try it, you have a great new option. 

Wonder How To is a great site that showcases how-to videos on more subjects than you can imagine.  Just pick your category or do a search and you will likely find a video for your particular need.  Spend too much time there and you might get distracted by obscure things like solving a Rubik's cube or How to Fake UFO Photographs.

For the business viewer, you can find out how to perform tasks in common applications like Photoshop and  Excel, though you will also find gems like "How to Pick up Women."  (I would love to meet a guy who actually bought one of those books or read one of those articles and had success.  I'm pretty sure he doesn't exist.)

If you have videos, you can upload them for free to be included in the listing. 

The videos are sorted by category, so it is easy to find what you are looking for.  Many of the videos appear to be professionally produced, which is nicer than the usual YouTube look.  

Next time you "wonder how to" go to this site to find out for sure. 

Microsoft hosted a great online summit last week with experts in marketing, sales, small business technology, and customer relationships.  The event was live and 4 hours long each day, but if you missed it there is a replay this week running 3 times per day starting at 9 a.m. Pacific.

The topics for each day can be found here.  View the encore presentation of the summit here.

Monday:  Marketing topics, featuring John Jantsch of Duct-Tape Marketing

Tuesday: Productivity, Mobility and Security, featuring Mark Hurst of Bit Literacy (he has a great presentation on getting your email inbox empty - every single day!)

Wednesday: Financial Management - find out how a small business can weather economic ups and downs

Thursday: Startup Day - hear how Michele Hoskins started her syrup company - a great story!

I kept the summit going in my browser as I worked and tuned in to the segments I was most interested in based on the schedule.  This is a great way to participate in the summit without taking too much time away from your regular workday.  And if you have a call or meeting that interferes, you can just tune in to the replay later in the day.  Enjoy!

Most blogs contain an RSS feed (Really Simple Syndication).  An RSS feed allows you to capture the updated information on that blog or website and manage it from one single location, either a feed reader or your email.

The icon for an RSS feed looks like this and is usually located in both the sidebar of a blog and on the address line:    

To keep up with your industry and customer needs, it is important to read.  Most of us are busy, so using RSS to put all your important reading material in one place will save you time and allow you to focus on what is most important. 

There are many feed readers out there, but the one we will talk about today is Bloglines, which is what I use.  To set up a free account, go to www.bloglines.com.  This will be your feed reader page.

As you read blogs you can click on the orange RSS icon in the address bar to add that blog to your feed reader.  You will get a menu from Bloglines that asks if you want to see just headings or entire entries, so you can set it up the way it works best for you.  Click Save and you are done.

To read your blogs, go to www.bloglines.com/myblogs and you will see a list of your blogs.  The ones with new entries will be bolded and have a number next to them to identify how many new articles are available.  You can then click on each one to read the articles of most interest to you. 

By using a feed reader, I am able to keep up with about 40 blogs in less than 30 minutes per day (not everyone posts every day).  You can do the same thing with the blogs you need to read to keep up with your business.

If you have been saving your blogs in your Favorites you will be amazed at the time you save by using a feed readers.  And if you haven't been reading blogs to keep up with what is going on in your industry, well, you've got a lot of catching up to do!