Susan Finch - Web Solutions Provider

Pet Expo USA is Ready For 2010 Santa Clarita Show

I have had so much fun with PetExpoUSA.net as a client. Pet Expo USA is a gathering of pet supply exhibitors, renown speakers including: equine expert, Van Harding, Animal Planet celebrity, Shorty Rossi, Travis & Preseley, and more.  One of the main focuses of the event is pet adoption and rescue. There will be free vaccinations, free micro chips and adoptions galore! This event is May 1 - 2 in Santa Clarita so we needed to give is a great face lift for this year.

We've combined the freshened-up layout with a social media blitz of Twitter, Yelp, Google, Facebook, and all feed services through their blog.  Due to the outreach, and new sponsors, this event is going to be a tremendous success!  Anyone who has anything to do with pets, green pet products and rescues should be in this event.

Wondering what your undeliverable email codes mean?

My clients have me use a variety of tools for sending out e-newsletters.  Some have enormous lists of their clients, some have thousands of people who have subscribed through their site.  Since we don't spam, EVER and don't buy lists, I was curious why one particular list had so many returns. 

Our list dates back seven years, so many things change.  To better analyze this anomaly, I actually manually glanced through each and every of the 2500 that came back.  Usually we just delete en-mass, or let the email marketing program handle it all, but I wanted to know because it was such a large number. 

Do you have a back up plan? I'm glad I do.

This morning at 7:30 I has to test the effectiveness of my back up drive software. Most of the time I'm quite annoyed at how it interferes in my jumping around from program to program, checking 10 email accounts every 5 minutes.  I turn it off a lot until "system idle."  This morning, when I booted up, I let it do it's magic for the first 20 minutes and catch up from yesterday.  "Back up complete" it told me; whatever that means.  I have not had a lot of success with back up drives.  I figured this one was just another placebo; until this morning.

Missing the office, but I found a solution - The Power MOB

As a member of two amazing professional women's organizations:  Oregon WEO and ThePowerMOB, I'm able to engage in intelligent business conversations with a variety of women from endless experiences.  This is a gift I receive as a member. Two meetings a year are worth the price of membership!

As a work from home professional, isolation is a part of the day; nose to the screen and keyboard to plow through the day.  I rarely look at what's happening in the adjoining room until 3:30 or so, only to feast my eyes on total toy chaos and snack debris.  As a result I don't get a chance for a lot of face-to-face communication with my clients.  This is alright. I really enjoy my clients, but what I miss the most is the positive side of the "office."

Hey - just whose website is it, anyway?

Lately I can't attend a workshop, networking event, business meeting without hearing a tale of woe about  "..they've stolen my website and won't give it back!"  The cry for justice varies from: "I don't know where my website is" to "I don't know how to find 'the guy' anymore."

Don't dry victim, don't be helpless, don't give up.  Take control.  Learn to ask the questions that will leave you informed.  This is YOUR marketing tool, YOUR identity, YOUR branding. Shouldn't you take steps to protect it, just like you would a product, logo or trade secrets?  (hint - the answer is YES!)

Have I told you lately, that I love you?

Ahh, Valentine's Day approaches.  Who needs Hallmark when we have the Internet?  We can tell some of those around us how we feel, quickly, for free and then move on with our day.  I'm not talking about your main squeeze, children and best friends; I'm talking about those we encounter each day in our lives.  These include the grocer, dentist, hair salon, gas station, restaurants, coffee houses.  Tell them how you feel the best way you can - REVIEW their businesses for the world to see!