Did you know you can remove the Constant Contact logo from the bottom of your email newsletters?
All you have to do is send Constant Contact an email and ask them to remove it; this usually takes 24 hours or less. You can send the email from the help screen while you are logged in to your Constant Contact account – otherwise, please make sure to include your username in your email.
Are there times you have a project you know you should complete, but you just don't want to?
Procrastination not only affects the project you're avoiding, it also affects the rest of your work by interfering with your concentration and sapping your energy.
Here's the cure, and I am proud to say it has a 100% success rate.
Tool needed: a timer.
Step 1 – Clear away all distractions. Turn off the phone, radio, etc.
Step 2 – Set the timer for 15 minutes.
Step 3 – Work on the loathsome project, without stopping, for the entire 15 minutes.
Step 4 – After your 15 minutes are up, assess the situation. If you want to stop the project, give yourself permission to walk away without guilt.
When I try this exercise, I usually find myself so relieved to finally tackle the project that it's a breeze for me to complete it.
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JC Kadii, Mortgage Virtual Assistant . Through http://www.close-more-loans.com/, JC leads a team providing top notch administrative, internet marketing, and technology services to mortgage professionals. Mortgage professionals are encouraged to visit the website and sign up for the More Closings email newsletter to receive the report 6 Steps to More Referrals.
Let’s say you receive an email with this information in the signature file:
Linda Somebody
XYZ Lending
1234 Executive Park Drive
Atlanta, GA 30999
770 555 1212 phone
770 555 1212 fax
linda@xyzlending.com
You’d like to get Linda’s contact information into Microsoft Outlook. To do this, you would have to copy and paste each item.
I found a software application that makes it so much easier. With it, all you do is highlight Linda’s contact information and click a couple of keys. The software will (1) open Outlook, (2) create a new contact for Linda, and (3) place all her contact information in the appropriate fields.
In addition to Outlook, it also works with Salesforce, Palm, Netsuite, Jigsaw, and Tablet PC.
I love this software and thought I’d share it with you. Feel free to try it free, and let me know how it works.
Here’s the link:
http://www.snipurl.com/1wdju. Click on the link that reads download 45-day trial (it’s on the right hand side of the page).
Speed up your Searches
JC Kadii, Mortgage Virtual Assistant™
With larger and larger hard drives, we often find ourselves using the "file search" feature to find files and folders.
Here's a tip for speeding up your search for files.
Let's say you're looking for flyers you've received from lenders on Community programs. They are saved in your "Lenders" subdirectory on your "C" drive.
Slowest
Click Start, then Search and then for Files and Folders. In the box under “search for files or folders named,” type the word "community."
Click Search Now, and go get a cup of coffee. This is the slowest possible way of conducting this search. Windows will look through every single folder on your hard drive.
Faster
Click Start, then Search and then for Files and Folders.
In the box under “search for files or folders named,” type the word "community."
In the box under “look in”, type "c:lenders." Click Search Now. This is much faster, because it limits Windows' search to your lenders subdirectory.
Fastest
Click Start, then Search and then for Files and Folders. In the box under “search for files or folders named,” type "c:lenders community." Make sure there is a space between the word lenders and "community." Hit the return key. You'll have your answer in the blink of an eye.
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JC Kadii, Mortgage Virtual Assistant . Through http://www.close-more-loans.com, JC leads a team providing top notch administrative, internet marketing, and technology services to mortgage professionals. Mortgage professionals are encouraged to visit the website and sign up for the More Closings email newsletter to receive the report 6 Steps to More Referrals.
8 Technology Resolutions for 2008 (Part 2)
By JC Kadii, Mortgage Virtual Assistant
5. I will find and store all the disks that came with my system in an easily accessible place.
Save yourself headaches down the road by putting all the disks and booklets that came with your system in one easy to find place. If you should have a technical problem, your tech support person may need those disks in order to repair your system. If you don't have the disks, count on doubling or tripling your tech repair bill.
6. I will keep my virus definitions up to date.
Viruses, spyware and malware cost businesses $53 billion each year. At minimum, you need virus protection software, firewall software, and spyware protection.
7. I will vigilantly maintain my contact database.
Marketing research shows that it takes, on average, 7 reminders to convert a prospect into a client. A well managed marketing database is the goose that will lay golden eggs over and over again. Any money you invest in establishing and maintaining your database is an investment that will continually reap rewards.
8. I will learn how to leverage technology in my marketing.
Technology is the great equalizer, enabling small businesses to compete with "the big guys." Technology marketing offers almost unlimited ways for you to market your business without breaking the bank. Your options include: websites, blogging, url forwarding, search engine optimization, and article writing.
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Posted by JC Kadii. JC leads a team of Mortgage Virtual Assistants, who provide top-notch marketing, administrative and technology services exclusively to mortgage professionals. For additional information, please visit TheMortageVA.com or call 770.469.7385.
8 Technology Resolutions for 2008.
By JC Kadii, Mortgage Virtual Assistant
1. I will not spend a dime on technology unless I earn a return on my investment (ROI). Jumping on every hyped-up technology bandwagon is the surefire way to go bananas and broke. For this reason, I focus on recommending practical, common-sense technology solutions that have a measurable return on investment.
Before you spend a dime on a technology product or service, ask yourself these questions.
2. I will back up my data on a regular basis.
You have not lived until you’ve had the sinking feeling in your stomach that comes from realizing you’ve lost all of the data on your hard drive. Data you must back up includes: any software you’ve downloaded, your desktop shortcuts, your Internet favorites, your data files, your contacts, and your email messages.
3. I will increase my productivity by learning to use my software.
Software training is a one-time cost that pays for itself. Stop struggling with the same problems over and over. Instead, invest the time and money in learning how to cure your software headaches once and for all.
4. I will learn how to manage my email.
Reading and dealing with email is one of the biggest time wasters. Learn power tricks to help you automatically file your email messages, and cut the time you spend dealing with email in half.
to be continued . . .
Someone shared this quote with me, and I think it’s great!
Affirmations are fine, but affirmations alone don’t change your life. You
can say, “I am rich, I am rich, I am rich” until your face turns the color of
money, but until you stop doing stupid stuff with your money and start doing
smart stuff with your money, you will still be broke.
Affirmation without implementation is self-delusion.
Larry Winget, You’re Broke Because You Want to Be
Jackie, Mortgage Virtual Assistant
There are literally hundreds of ways to market, and you can drive yourself batty (and make yourself broke) springing from one tactic to another.
One of my favorite marketing tactics is easy, highly effective, often quite affordable, and not time consuming. It is tailor made for a lazy marketer like me. I not only use this for my businesses, I also use it when creating marketing plans for clients.
Here it is. Make a list of your closed files. Trace the source of each client, i.e., how did they hear about your company?
Dig deep. The more details you unearth about the source of each client, the more successful your marketing strategy will be. In other words, it is not enough to list “workshops” it is better to list “health fair workshop.”
Here are some of the questions you can ask as you complete this list:
As you complete this list, a pattern will emerge. You’ll start to see that there are some things you are doing that are working extraordinarily well.
Your next steps are quite simple.
Have you ever come across a url like this that you were trying to share with someone that looks like this: http://www.whatumacallit.com/thingamajig/23498709%.php?
As you can imagine, this could become pretty unwieldy. Depending on the recipient's email window, the url may end up wrapped on two lines, which means they'd have to copy and paste the it into their browser in order to visit the website.
I use the following two websites to solve the unwieldy url problem. As you can see, the url for my ezine's signup page is pretty narly: http://visitor.constantcontact.com/optin.jsp?v=0011ZF-NU4nD5hvF8f1LIo5s-lLP-iSc1RJere.
Tinyurl.com converts it to: http://tinyurl.com/2nhhu4
Snipurl.com converts it to: http://snipurl.com/1vu6o
Of the two, I prefer snipurl.com because it allows you to set easy to remember nicknames. So the url for my ezine's sign up page is now: http://snipurl.com/cmlezine.
As I inhale the aroma of my black-eyed peas and greens simmering on the stove, I thought it would be fun to share some New Year's superstitions.
So, what do you do for good luck on New Year's day?
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