January 28, 2019

Create a Simple Video Sales Letter Script in Five Steps

January 28, 2019/ Michelle Cornish

Video is gaining more popularity as a method of spreading your message. YouTube is now the second largest search engine next to Google and Google is starting to rank blog posts that include videos higher than similar posts that don’t include videos.

Marketers can connect with video viewers on a more emotional level than they can through a blog post because a video involves the use of more of our senses than reading a blog post.

January 17, 2019

Is Your Writing Hobby Actually a Business?

January 17, 2019/ Michelle Cornish

Is your writing hobby actually a business? And does it really matter? Absolutely! Especially if you want to save a bit of tax while you’re getting your business up and running.

So you’ve been earning a bit here and there with your self-published books or maybe bloggers have been paying you to write posts for them, but when you look at the money you’ve spent to publish those books or the tools you’ve paid for to run your freelance writing business, you realize you haven’t broken even, so you decide not to include your writing “business” on your taxes.

January 10, 2019

Achieve Your 2019 New Year Goals

January 10, 2019/ Michelle Cornish

January is popular time to reflect on the past year and look at setting new year goals. I don’t really like resolutions, but I do like setting goals and planning how I’m going to achieve them. Remember when I wrote about September being the new January? Well, now that it’s January, I find myself re-evaluating my goals for the new year.

In 2018, I remember saying I wanted to publish four or five books. I published one. In September, I set an income goal of $3,000/month for myself. The closest I got to that in the last quarter of 2018 was $1,100/month.

January 03, 2019

It's Tax Season! The Best Questions to Ask an Accountant

January 03, 2019/ Michelle Cornish

It’s that time of year when “accountants near me” is quite a popular Google search. But Google or the yellow pages aren’t always the best way to find the right accountant.

Before scheduling an accounting consult you want to make sure you know the right questions to ask an accountant or tax preparer.

Your Goals

Knowing what you want to accomplish by hiring an accountant can help you find the right person for the job. Some common goals of small business owners include increasing revenue, decreasing expenses, staying organized, paying as little tax as possible, and making sure all required tax returns are filed on time to avoid penalties and interest.

December 29, 2018

10 Ways Content Marketing Can Help You Grow Your Business

December 29, 2018/ Michelle Cornish

Content marketing is one of the best ways to show off your expertise, grab the attention of potential clients, and grow your business. It’s all about using information to sell your products and services rather than blatant self-promotion that nobody really wants to hear anyway.

According to the Content Marketing Institute, the amount of traffic to your website is directly related to the amount you publish on your site, with sites publishing four times per week experiencing three and a half times more traffic than sites publishing zero to four times per month.

November 30, 2018

Will You Celebrate ELF Day with Me?

November 30, 2018/ Michelle Cornish

On December 7, 2018, the Alzheimer’s Society, UK will be celebrating Elf Day, a festive fundraising day where people where red and green and dress like elves to raise awareness about dementia. I mention this because many families, including my own, are affected by dementia, but this isn’t the Elf Day I wanted to talk to you about today.

November 28, 2018

What's the Difference Between a Beta Reader and an Advance Reader?

November 28, 2018/ Michelle Cornish

I have been very fortunate to work with some amazing beta and advance readers. Recently, I realized that although some of these readers are very helpful, they don’t always understand the difference in the role they play when acting as a beta reader versus an advance reader.

November 05, 2018

What You Need to Know About Profit and ROI

November 05, 2018/ Michelle Cornish

As a former accountant, I get really annoyed when people use terms like “profit” and “ROI” incorrectly, especially in their marketing material. As I research different methods to market my books, I have been bombarded with emails to join courses. This is all well and good, I signed up to learn more about these courses, but lately, one of the course providers made the claim that I would only have to sell 20 books at $10 each to recover the cost of the course.

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