Coaching Biz Tips

Weekly Roundup

This week's items of interest:

• For coaches who do in-person planning -- turn those giant mindmaps and colorful newsprints into a visual reminder that your clients can frame! Check out Wallhogs.com

• Going through a dry spell with your blogging? Philip Liu's 101 Great Posting Ideas that Will Make Your Blog Sizzle should jolt you out of your rut and back on to the blogging super-highway.
• I recently discovered the magic of TiddlyWiki, "a free, open-source reusable non-linear personal web notebook." Now I know that's a baffling mouthful, but you have to understand, I've been searching for the Holy Grail of personal organizers for the last 30 years. If you're a PO crusader like me, you'll want to check this out. There are a whole bunch of related sites, including TiddlySpot.com, where you can get your TiddlyWiki hosted for free.
  NOTE: If you're a fan of David Allen's Getting Things Done system, be sure to try the MonkeyGTD 2.1 alpha template at TiddlySpot (when you set up your free account, click on "More Flavors" and select the very last one.)   
• Just for fun, check out Jessica Hagy's site, Indexed. Every one of her post-a-grams makes me laugh AND makes me think (well, ok, not necessarily in that order...).
• Even more fun: a (savage)chicken a day keeps the blues away!

Email verification - the "secret handshake" of e-commerce

Have you noticed lately that some of your subscribers are requiring you to fill out an email verification form before they'll give you permission to send them email - even though they subscribed themselves to your list?

It takes a couple of minutes to process each request, because in addition to clicking the links and keying in the correct CAPTCHA characters, you usually have to type your email address and name, as well.

This kind of 'phishing filter' is intended to protect subscribers from spam. If you want your email to make it all the way to the subscriber's inbox, you have to complete the process.

Otherwise, your email gets stopped by the filter and the subscriber never sees it. If you don't get the 'secret handshake' right, you're out of luck.

This topic came up recently at the New Coach Connection online forum. The conversation centered on what a pain it is to deal with these requests; most of the suggestions had to do with how to politely encourage the subscriber NOT to use email verification if they want to get email from you; for example, adding a statement to your mailing list sign-up page that basically says, "I do not respond to email verification requests."

Here's my take on the issue:

It's kind of ironic, when you stop to think about it. I mean, if you have double opt-in enabled for your mailing list, your subscribers have to take the time to check their email for the confirmation message and then they have to remember to actually CLICK the link to confirm their subscription.

This Captcha thing is just the customer's version of a double opt-in confirmation email -- in reverse.

It's tempting to say "I don't respond to verification requests" -- but I wonder what my subscribers would think if I required THEM to take a few extra steps to get onto my list, while I, on the other hand, refuse to take a few extra steps to verify that I'm not a spambot. That just doesn't sit right with me.

I look at it like this: When I have guests in my home, I want to make sure they feel welcome and comfortable. I'll even go out of my way to make sure that they are.

I see my subscribers as guests in my business, and of course I want to make sure we can communicate with each other. It's one of the first steps towards building trust in the relationship, and it's critical.

Yes, it takes a few more steps and a little more time to confirm my subscribers these days; yes, it eats into my profit margin a little more than it used to. But I haven't heard of a better solution yet. Maybe this is just what it takes to build a list these days.

OK, your turn! What's your view on the subject? Got any ideas on how to get past it? Post a comment here on my blog or join the thread over at NCC.
 

Weekly Roundup

A collection of articles, blog posts and tasty tidbits that have caught my attention recently:

 

• I spend around an hour a day doing R&D for my niche, in search of successful coaching business models, products, websites and programs. This week's research lead me to The Integrated Mother eMentoring Club, a beautiful example of a membership business model in action. The website is really well-done, with a clear and compelling core marketing message written for a specific target audience.

• Mona Grayson (Question the Mind) forwarded a link to an article from Business 2.0 magazine, called "Why it pays to give away the store". I love the term, "Freemiums"! And the article is great, too. (Thanks, Mona!)

• I loved Adam Kayce's post, "One generation or two", about how helping your customer help THEIR customers leads to long term, loyal customers for everyone.

• Molly Gordon's post, "How to serve your customers by selling to them" is a powerful reminder that we are, after all, in business. And that being afraid to SELL what we're selling isn't just bad service -- it leads to "financial anorexia".

• This next one's not quite as fresh as it would have been 2 weeks ago, but anything by Kathy Sierra at Creating Passionate Users has a long shelf life in my book. Kathy's one of my heros -- a woman blogger who is still standing (and blogging) after basically being mugged online by a couple of sick, anonymous misogynists. In spite of the upheaval and craziness this caused (and apparently, is still causing) in her personal life, she still manages to stay focused and write awesome articles. Here's one about creating a strong user community around your products (or, in the case of coaches, around your signature coaching program).

The Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co.

This is the coolest thing I've ever seen. THE COOLEST.

Cool idea. Cool stuff in the store. Cool behind-the-scenes ulterior motive. Cool marketing.

It's exactly what it appears to be at first glance: an honest-to-goodness Space Travel Supply Company. Right here in Seattle.

And it's much, much more. It's the store front and cash flow engine for a totally awesome non-profit called 826 Seattle:

826 Seattle is a nonprofit writing and tutoring center dedicated to helping youth, ages six to 18, improve their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write. Our services are structured around our belief that great leaps in learning can happen with one-on-one attention and that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success.

826 Seattle is one of six 826 National chapters. The original, 826 Valencia, is located in San Francisco’s Mission District (826valencia.org). The others are in Ann Arbor (826michigan.org); Brooklyn (826NYC.org); Chicago (826chi.org); and Los Angeles (826la.org).

Each of the chapters has a funky and fun "front". Only it's not just a front -- you can actually find the stuff advertised:

…the Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co. is the kind of novelty shop that sells imagination. . . .But what makes this beautifully realized shop work is its unflinching devotion to theme. As far as I’m concerned, this truly is a space-travel supply store, my first stop for rocket fuel, stun guns and do-it-yourself intergalactic treaties.”

— Convergence Zone, NWsource web blog, November 29, 2005

PLUS you can also find the stuff that the kids are writing.

Read more about 826 and other mojo magic over at Magic Boxes, Canned Chaos and Creative Totems, by Josh Clark of Global Moxie.

I wonder what kind of mileage a gal could get with a Star Trek shuttlecraft...

Are you looking for a supportive coaching community?

I just stumbled upon a really neat online coaching community called New Coach Connection, which was started by Candye Hinton. There's also a blog, called Making Coach Connections.

Here's a link back to a recent blog post on Coaching Tools.

If you've been searching for a supportive professional coaching forum, you'll definitely want to check these folks out. It's set up on a Yahoo Group, so you have some control over how much email ends up in your box.

I really like the way they've organized things, too:

We urge you to participate actively. Let other members know who you are. Share about your coaching practice. If you have a coaching problem, issue, or concern, ask it here. If you feel that you can contribute to someone else, please do.

In addition to encouraging you to ask questions any time, we have themed days for our group that serve as discussion starters.

• Monday Madness (life balance issues)
• Ask Anything Tuesday (skill building, ask anything)
• Reach Out Wednesday (business and community and network building)
• Techie Thursday (Technical and administrative issues, questions and solutions)
• Free Friday (shamelessly market your services and products to our community, courage building)

We host the "NCC Monthly Call" each month and sometimes schedule special calls. These are free to NCC members and guests. Watch for announcements and invite your friends and colleagues.

They currently have around 550 members, and their goal for 2007 is to expand to 1500. Let's help them reach their goal!

Hope to *see* you at NCC soon --

P.S. I forgot to mention that it's FREE!