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FNQ Apartments is a great secret Santa

August 20, 2010 By Megan Leave a Comment

I had breakfast this morning with Brenda from FNQ Apartments. She told me she is loving the weekly email tips on how to be an anonymous support for another small business website (she’s a secret Santa and, in return, she has an anonymous secret Santa). She described the deliciously sneaky way she made anonymous contact with her website buddy and sent them a supportive message.

We were like a pair of school girls on Christmas Eve, in glee, savouring the delicious suspense and wonder created by such a simple and positive action – an action that expects nothing in return and is provided only with the thought of boosting another small business owner’s self esteem.

How wonderful it is to receive positive and unsolicited feedback… and… I also know that the recipient of Brenda’s feedback was tickled pink because they contacted me, amazed, that the all year long secret Santa system of support for small business websites is working.

Now I’m off to raid my cupboard for my sparklies and reds and greens….I feel motivated to dress like a Christmas fairy and today is as good as any other to dress up.

Here’s to ongoing goodwill, generosity, altruism and giving. Who said it has to stop with Christmas day?!

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Filed Under: Blog, Small business Tagged With: , ,

Relationship marketing thank you

August 7, 2010 By Megan 2 Comments

Thank you. The new web 2.0 phase? I hope so. Thank you.

There’s a great article about the power of saying saying thank you over at Famous Bloggers, Content is not King, Relationship is.

Content IS NOT king

Contrary to popular belief, blogging isn’t a newspaper or encyclopedia and content IS NOT king anymore. At least not the content most people are describing when they use this phrase. What is king now?

Relationship.

If you want to build a sustainable blog, no matter the niche, you’ve got to build relationship. This throws people off because relationship, just like in the real world, takes time.

Given that Web 2.0 is about social interaction and participation, it would make sense that people concentrate on relationship marketing. But, so many people are merely interested in traffic and forget about the importance of relationships to keep people coming back to check on you and your movements. Specifically, they forget about the conversion from traffic to sales when relationships and mutual respect are formed.

Many years ago when I first started blogging, I developed a relationship with Nicole from It’s all about writing. A lovely woman, we clicked. Why? Because she followed up on the developing relationship by engaging in a two way discussion. She cared past traffic; she cared about me as a person. It made a HUGE difference to my introduction to a professional blogging life…and I became her fan for life.

Another woman who has held a blogging relationship well is Opal from Celebrate Life. She had a two year blogging hiatus but I often thought of her and wondered what she was doing, was all well for her and her child and was her business doing okay. That is the type of relationship we all need to create for loyal following and lasting impression.

Are you all aware of the marvellous Jackie and Sparkplug from People You Need to Know? There’s a couple who understand relationship marketing and have made a business out of it. Jackie consistently follows up comments, tweets and enters beyond the written into the social and personal. I have throughly enjoyed getting to know how Jackie and Sparkplug work and if I was in Atlanta I would employ them to be on my marketing team.

To those bloggers mentioned, people I have never met, THANK YOU for making the world a better place merely by recognising the importance of relationships and using them as your blogging platform. I stumble you all regularly, my little secret Santa gift to you to say thank you for being in my online life.

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Filed Under: Blog, self development Tagged With: , ,

Secret Santa for websites, all year long

July 25, 2010 By Megan 2 Comments

Secret Santa in the blogosphere, all year long. What a terrific idea for social understanding, connections and unconditional positive regard of ALL people….particularly small, online business people.

Every Christmas I say, “I want to have this feeling of goodwill ALL year. I want to help other people all throughout the year.”

Now you can. Today I start the year long goodwill by introducing an all year Secret Santa in the small business blogosphere. For just Aust$1.50 (admin fee) bloggers, website owners or internet users will be matched to enter into a year long buddy system of support, encouragement and surprise from across the miles. Upon payment and processing of your A$1.50 admin fee, you will receive a down-loadable link seeking your match up information. Once completed and returned to me, you are matched with another internet user and the anonymous relationship building is in your hands. This is global community development at it’s finest: social understanding and unconditional positive regard is within your fingertips, simply by playing Secret Santa all year long.

This has the potential to make the world a better place. You have nothing to lose by being a decent human being that cares for other online users and businesses. 

A blogger pen pal systems of sorts, the year long blogger buddy Secret Santa aims to

  • increase your website traffic, links in, advertising and send you anonymous little gifts designed to make your world a better place,
  • enhance social understanding and community development,
  • keep the spirit of Christmas going throughout the year, and to
  • connect at a basic emotional level with people we may never meet.

To become a blogger buddy secret Santa for another website owner, send small gifts to the person whose name you are linked up with, and then a big gift at Christmas and revel your identity to your buddy.

The gifts may be free and thoughtful: stumble their pages in stumbleupon, using key words leave them comments about how much you like their posts, show interest in their business, offer free banner advertising on your site, write a post about their business and refer your traffic to them, link to their business, send a thoughtful ecard, like them on facebook and become active on their page, build them a free website, etc.

The gifts may be small, postable and appropriate gifts you have bought: send an anonymous post card or sticker, an ebook that will interest them, an iconic gift from your home town, tickets to something in their town,  secretly pay for a months web hosting or buy them some google adwords and run a campaign for them.

Most people do not want their buddy to know who the secret Santa is so buy a fair trade card wee gift via us and we will forward it to your buddy. We will NEVER reveal who you are or the addresses and emails of any of our registered secret Santas.

Interested? Invest in a global online community by becoming a $1.50 Secret Santa and to be buddied up with another Secret Santa. Once your payment is processed you will be sent questions to fill out seeking information about yourself: web address, postal address (for gifts), likes, dislikes, favourite colour/books, preferred gender of secret Santa, etc. This information helps your secret Santa anonymously buy for and support you. Once I have received back your completed form, I randomly assign you to another blogger or website owner somewhere in the world and you can begin spreading your year long spirit of Christmas. I then send out weekly reminders and hints of how to support your blogging buddy without them actually knowing who you are.

Here’s to social understanding and a year long spirit of Christmas.

Buy website goodwill for just $1.50.

Participating online business and bloggers so far (Aug 2010):

FNQ Apartments, Weight Loss Diet, PSI Tutor: Mentor, Ecstashe, Celebrate Life, Setup Complete, Sydney Karaoke Party Hire, Bronwyn Clee & Associates Darwin, Little Dun Pony (blog site), Guts N’ Glory,

YOU CAN HAVE A LINK HERE, TOO. Buy website goodwill now for just $1.50.

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Filed Under: Blog, Featured Content, website development Tagged With: ,

Pants to poverty gives poverty the bum to expose cracks in the first world

July 24, 2010 By Megan 3 Comments

 

Give poverty the arse.

Wear pants that feed communities, not fashion.


Buy yourself some ethical knickers within Australia.

Pants to Poverty web site.
Pants to Poverty blog.

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Filed Under: Blog, book shop Tagged With: , ,

The richness of difference

April 16, 2010 By Megan Leave a Comment

Twelve months ago I posted on ensuring we see all that is non obvious in our lives. It is in the non obvious space where great comfort and happiness are often found. It is curious that I have fallen upon this old post again today because I am playing with the joy that quitting my job is going to bring me: time for coffee, friends, no more head lice from children, freedom to write whenever I want – DELICIOUS happiness, stay with me.

What do you see?

black-dotIf you answered, “A black dot,” you are only partially correct. What about all that white space around the black dot?!

We are each trained to see the obvious and therefore our eyes go straight there. We then live our lives obeying the obvious: rules, traffic lights, social etiquettes, time frames, the list goes on. Each time we obey, we further strengthen the obvious and leave out the richness of difference.

What might happen if we each began to dabble in our white space…our not so obvious or dominant? How different our lives may become?

By concentrating solely on the obvious, we limit our thinking, our creativity and our opportunities.

Instead of trying to live outside the box just like every one else trying to be different (outside the box is pretty crowded these days), get to know your white space. It is in the white space that the most delicious difference and most amazing opportunities are to be found.

Here’s a simple exercise to help you start seeing your white opportunities:

  • Look at this picture and describe what you see.

Jabiru aka locally known as Postman bird

  • Look past the obvious: look into the background and again describe what you see.
  • How do these second findings fit in with your life now, i.e: what associations can you make between what you see on a deeper looking at what is happening in your life now?

A challenge for today: Look at the most dominant thing in your life (partner, kids, debt, job, upcoming holiday, etc). What are your thoughts around it? Now take a deeper look at those thoughts. What other thoughts are back there that could be more useful if they became dominant? If they are helpful thoughts, concentrate on them all day. Make the helpful dominant and the not so helpful non dominant.

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Filed Under: Blog, self development Tagged With: , ,
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