Social Media Money Tips for Women Entrepreneurs + My Just For Today Thing

Right now I have Social Networking / Social Media Marketing ALL Over my brain. While I normally limit myself to only 3 web projects a month, right now I am working on 4 custom ning network projects and 2 wordpress blog projects + redesigning my black parenting + along with maintaining my current 3 ning networks. I am 'work at home' working hard right now!



I just had an amazing radio interview with, Deborah Owens Finance Guru and Host of Wealthy Lifestyle Radio (replay below). Next week I am off to social network at Blogalicous Weekend 2010 and THEN two weeks later I will be speaking about Social Networking Essentials at the Extreme Makeover for the Woman Summit & Benefit.



Some how I've also managed to host a boat load of giveaways this week (see one, two, three), take my son to Toys R Us for Geoffry's 49th birthday party last week (adding pics to my facebook page soon) And in an hour from now we are going to the NC Seafood festival today after a day of fun yesterday! When next month hits, I think you'll have to stick a fork in ME instead of the turkey.



Wealthy Lifestyle Radio with Deborah Owens Audio Replay:

LaShanda Henry Talks about Why some internet entrepreneurs don't make sales because they are either too social (aka passive) or too aggressive with their marketing. (No audio below? Click here.)




Because Social Networking for Women Entrepreneurs is pretty much my thang I recently got my social network, featured in the latest For Dummies Guide - Social Media Marketing All In One! You can see shots of my network, Black Business Women Online and everything! (Pictures Coming Soon ... sorry I type faster than I get my photos and videos up). Anyhoo... I'm so excited about all my new found Social Networking Buzz and Business that I decided to give you some of my Social Media Money and Marketing secrets today!



Fact: When I started working at home full time, my first real goal was to make more than I was working in my 9-5. And now, in the last three months my income is 250% larger than it was when I left my job just a few years ago. Much of that growth I can attribute to using social media platforms like my blog AND building my own social network.



Go Download My Two Part MP3s: 5 Easy Steps and Using Social Media Marketing: What, Why, and How AND How to Overcome Your Fear of Using Technology to Build Your Business. Price: $15 (regular $27) | Download Here | Promo Code: SMM15



Go Download My Selling On Social Networks 7 Day eCourse: Price: $19 (regular $49) | Download Here | Promo Code SSN19



Go Download My Two eBooks: Create Your Own Ningalicous Network + Making Money With your Social Network: Price: $19 (regular $29) | Download Here | Promo Code CNN19



Just one more ... for purchases over $25 use this code for an additional 5 Discount: HI5



How could I forget, the Sistas Who Sell 7 Day Challenge is $7 | Sign Up Here | Ends Next Week



That's all she wrote, boys and girls! I am off to have a fabulous time at the Seafood fest and then its back to work for momma! TTFN -lh



Related Post: Facebook Marketing for Coaches: Profile Page Vs Fan Page

9 Things Women Entrepreneurs Online Should Know About Building a Successful Business

Remember a few weeks ago when I posted the question, "What would you ask me if we were on the phone right now?" Well, one of the questions I received from my Facebook circle was, "Do you still have a mentor or person you admire in your industry?" Truth be told I have a few people who guide me and help me learn more about Building a Successful Business.

As you can tell I have a ton of advice for women starting their own business, so I decided to pick 9 things that I have learned and turn them into the video above entitled, "9 Things Women Entrepreneurs Online Should Know About Buiding a Successful Business". If you can not view this video, click here.

After you watch this video be sure to click here and see what LaShanda Henry is working on FOR YOU right now.

7 Simple Ways Women Entrepreneurs Market Online [pdf download]

As a thank you for being a member of the Black Business Women Online Social Network and/or reader of the SistaSense.com Small Business Blog I would like to give you my latest eGuide, “What’s Working Now: 7 Simple Ways Women Entrepreneurs Market Online.”

To download this guide, sign up to my Money and Marketing Newsletter. Truth be told, I decided to setup this new Mega-Newsletter because My BBWO Community is growing along side the SistaSense Blog and its been a challenge to keep up with the two. This past week I had a light bulb moment and figured it was officially time to combine my best marketing advice and resources into one guide that everyone can use.

If you decide to download this guide, you will also get the latest news, discussions, and small business resources available to the members of Black Business Women Online, a social network for women entrepreneurs.

As you try and learn about new marketing strategies, it only makes sense to be aware of what's working now, which is why I created this particular guide. Beyond building your website and purchasing advertising through various media outlets, this report details how Women Entrepreneurs are using the latest Small Business and Internet Marketing Strategies to drive more traffic and sales to their online ventures.

Along with this guide you will receive my bi-weekly newsletter on the most effective ways to market your business and network with other entrepreneurs online. If you have questions about the guide and/or the newsletter, let me know.

Also note the Sistas Who Sell 7 Day Challenge is happening now, so click here to get started and click here to find out what sistas are saying about the challenge.

SistaSense Talks MP3 Giveaway + Selling Ad Space On Your Blog + BBWO Bloggers

SistaSense Talks MP3 Giveaway: Grab Yours Before Its Gone
As you can tell by these weekly emails, I am a typer ... NOT a talker, BUT I heard it from the great vine that you might just want to do more than read today. Perhaps right this minute, you need to hear my voice and feel like I’m holding your hand, walking you through the process of figuring out where your online business is to today vs. where it could be tomorrow.
SistaSense Talks | Download

Did you watch, A Single Rose yet? Did you see what happened in that first scene? Crazy right! Its playing online right now. Be sure to watch it and let me know what you thought @sistasense.

BUZZ TOPICS ON BBWO
(01) Selling Space On Your Blog ... How do you know what to charge?
(02) Is Anyone Familiar With Adsense?
(03) Can a social network be a business?
(04) In Case Others Want to Know, How do you ...
(05) How to Get Answers to Your Survey Questions
(06) How did you establish your business?

BBWO BLOGGERS AND NEW BUSINESS NEWS
(01) Upcoming Events for Women Entrepreneurs
(02) Are you promoting your business on youtube?
(03) Business Women Today: What are you doing right now?
(04) Too Busy: How to Keep Up With BBWO
(05) 7 Ways Work at Home Moms Stay Sane and Profitable in the Summer
(06) Did you website get featured in the DailyClick?


Help a Sister Out....
Help with Your Ning Network
Help with Starting a Business Online
Help with Low Cost Marketing Strategies & Driving Traffic to Yo...
Help with Making Money online
Help with Starting a Blog

This concludes the Black Business Women Online Weekend Broadcast. To have your news featured in next weeks email, click here.

Black Business Starter Kit Giveaway + Watch Black Movies Online + Black Enterprise Financial Fitness Contest

Black Movies Online: Now Playing a Single Rose
Ready for some original black entertainment? Take a break and watch this short film online, A Single Rose.

Set in the South during the 1940’s, an emboldened choir girl with a taste for the finer things, sings at the local juke joint when her husband is away. Its not long before she’s tempted by the flesh.

Black Business Starter Kit Giveaway Contest
Ever wanted to download my ebooks or signup for one of my eCourses. Now is your chance to get the complete Black Business Starter Kit. To enter you just have to answer one question. Contest Ends Soon. Enter Here.

BUZZ TOPICS ON BBWO
(01) Is It Hard to Find Black Products Online?
(02) Using Banners for Your Business
(03) Does picking a Target Market hurt your pocket?
(04) How do I Get It All Done? Time Mangement Tips
(05) How to Avoid Broke Coach Mistake #2
(06) 3 Things Blocking Your Business

ON BLACK ENTERPRISE
(01) Black Enterprise Financial Fitness Contest - $2000
(02) 5 Things To Do Before You Start a Charity
(03) Economista: Top Job Search Websites
(04) HomeBase: 5 Resources for Women Entrepeneurs
(05) Celebrity Side Hustle: WNBA Fashionista Cappie Pondexter
(06) Black Enterprise iPad App

Help a Sister Out....
Help with Your Ning Network
Help with Starting a Business Online
Help with Low Cost Marketing Strategies & Driving Traffic to Yo...
Help with Making Money online
Help with Starting a Blog

This concludes the Black Business Women Online Weekend Broadcast. To have your news featured in next weeks email, click here.

Is it hard to find black products online?

A few days ago on my Black Parenting Blog (and sistasense too) I decided to post: 'DailyClick Mommy Picks: Dolls Like Me + 4 Black Parenting Friendly Websites.' The idea behind the post was to share a few quality black websites for moms, mommy bloggers, and dads too. Well, I noticed someone left a comment yesterday that really got me thinking. She said:

I have to check this out (dollslikeme.com). My middle daughter is dark brown and I've been bothered by the white dolls their father has for them at his house. Even with my oldest daughter, who was very light at that age, I preferred to give her toys that she could relate too. My middle daughter has even said she prefers the long straight hair as opposed to her hair being curly. It's extremely long, but she'd rather wear it straight. Anyway, I hope I can impart on her (and her other two siblings) the same messages that I was able to with her older sister. -Petula

Her comment reminded me of how many times African American moms and dads online have visited my Mahogany Momma website and asked me where to find dolls, party favors, toys, books and videos that their children, black children could relate to because even with the Wallmarts, Toys R Us, and Barnes and Nobles of the world many black parents (parents of children in color in general) still find in difficult in their day to day lives to find products worth buying for their children and for themselves.

We still have some fighting to do as far as getting some more real visibility in the mainstream world BUT there are some good things that I'm seeing right now. There are people like myself who rather than wait for folks to figure out that black consumers and black business owners need more attention, they are doing something about it. For starters, I hope you have heard about the Anderson Family and their Experiment to only buy black for one year. They have been seen on television several times and I posted one of their interviews on my website: The Empowerment Experiment. Their story shows that more of us have to make an effort to go against the grain and support black business owners because that is how we are going to build up our communities. Don't believe the hype, when folks say it doesn't matter. Every other cultural/ethnic community, Spanish, Chinese, Italian, Jewish communities, invest in their families and their people, and we have to start doing the same as well.

I personally have 30 plus black websites, because I feel compelled to make the changes that I want to see. Over the years I've built spaces like FindBlackProducts.com, The Search Urban Directory, and The Black Girl Click Ad Network specifically to address these issues. I'll be honest with you, when I do hear from big companies who want to connect with African American viewers online they usually aren't looking to invest in my projects through sponsorships or advertising. Most of the time I am targeted by their PR companies looking for free reviews and plugs, which works well for them (because they get paid, and their big company clients get publicity) BUT that stuff doesn't help me be able to afford to invest my websites like I would want to. BUT what keeps me motivated and consistent is that I am able to work with black business owners and entrepreneurs who want to promote themselves on these spaces and in turn I'm able to give you and other online viewers an opportunity to see what great black products and services we do have with/or without mainstream publicity. So for myself I've learned to build my business by working with other black entrepreneurs and without depending on sponsors or grants, which I think is something a lot of us are going to have to learn how to do if we want to get these things done on our own.

Perfect personal example of this, when I had my son, all I knew about with respect to hair care products for black children was "Just for Me", "Dax", or "Baby Oil" (lol). Even with searching, I had to settle for finding a few natural oils to use on his hair and not dry it out with baby oil, because that is a big mistake but when you don't no better you can't do better (right?). So, this past month, a new member joined my social network "Black Business Women Online" (mybbwo.com) and her name is Landra Booker Johnson, the creator of Cara B Naturally (mycarab.com), an all natural hair care line for black children. And she created it because she needed something like that for her child, again being the change we seek! Now if I hadn't been frustrated about not being able to find black business women online and created BBWO, I might have not found Cara B and this is exactly why its so important for us to be the change we seek!

I recently teamed up with Kimberly Allers Seals from MochaManual.com. She told me about a company that was looking for the input of African American moms online to put in a new collection of greeting products for our market in exchange for the chance to win a $50 gift certificate. As soon as I got her email I jumped at the chance to help, because I first and foremost love when we sisters can work together (I've had my share of horror stories) and guess what! The moms shared their input, all went well and one of the moms in my Black Moms Club Social Network won the gift certificate! Woo Hoo!

Right now I am pushing for black women to support our fellow business sista, Sadia Sinsay and complete her survey about Black Women and underwear. She noticed that its difficult to find underwear in skin tones for women of color and she is working on making that change BUT needs you all to share your experiences in the two minute survey. Deanna Sutton, creator of Clutch Magazine has recently proposed a panel discussion at the major media, technology conference SXSW entitled the Elevation of Black Women in New Media, so that we can come together and us black women who are doing well creating spaces online can share our advice and words of wisdom with other black women bloggers and entrepreneurs online. But in order for her to get this panel passed you guys have to vote for it and share it with the women in your circle.


To answer the question I started with, yes, it is hard to find black products because everybody thinks we don't want them or we are not looking BUT we are. Have you seen how much attention my friends Lamar and Ronnie Tyler are getting over at BlackAndMarriedWithKids for their new movie 'You Saved Me', a documentary on married black couples? While the mainstream thinks its buzzworthy to JUST focus on single, black women in the corporate world with no man, the Tylers thought it was time to talk about our Real Men and Women who are getting married and can teach many of us what real black relationships SHOULD look like. Truth be told, we have individuals in our local communities who want to break it down like Dr. Phil, who want to put us in the picture like Tyler Perry, and tell us to 'Hug and Love ourselves' like Monique. We just have to find them and in some cases become them if we truly want to see the change that we seek.

Related Post: Don't Work With Black Women (Period)

Vote For The Elevation of Black Women in New Media

I was on twitter today and happened to see this tweet: @ClutchMagazine founder @dedej has a panel pitch for @SXSW called "The Elevation of Blk Women in New Media-Vote Now! http://bit.ly/abeE5L

I was introduced to SXSW this year. It is this MAJOR Music, film, and interactive conference and festival that all the techies go to for networking, scoping out the new new, etc. Well this year they had the 1st Black Blogging Rockstars Panel (watch video) with some of the top black bloggers and tech heads. Deanna, founder of ClutchMagazine and also listed on the BBWO50 Top Women Entrepreneurs on the Network, was a speaker on the Black Bloggers panel and for SXSW 2011 she is pitching a new panel discussion: The Elevation of Black Women in New Media, to focus on issues related to black women entrepreneurs and black women bloggers online.

I immediately clicked to read all about her idea and of course vote for this panel. I then sent Deanna a quick tweet showing my support and to my surprise she told me that she'd like to have me on the panel! Seeing it happen would be awesome, possible being a speaker, would be even better! But we'll see how things go if I officially get on the panel, for now I would just like you to find out more about her idea and vote for this discussion. Do that here: http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/5379.

The black blogging community has been talking about our issues not just as bloggers, but as entrepreneurs pushing to work amongst ourselves and gain credibility among mainstream advertisers and I think its high time we take this conversation to another level. On Black Web2.0 there as the post about African American mom bloggers finally getting their just due, myself and some wonderful mommy bloggers took part in the Magical Mocha Moms Mixer sponsored by Disney for Mommy Bloggers of Color, there was an article on BlogHer about African American Women Online seeking online networks and recently the Grio sparked discussion on the state of black women in the blogosphere.

Clearly folks are talking, its time for more of us to join the conversation. I hope you'll take a few minutes to vote for Deana's idea and if it all works out, perhaps more of us will be attending SXSW2011 and showcasing our contributions as the Black Social Media Community of today.


Go Vote and Read those other articles too! -LaShanda H.

Working on DailyClick: Spotlighting Black Websites by Black Business Owners

url: http://www.cocoababies.com

I've been quite busy this week, working on Banner Designs for new customers, launching my new blog iWatchBlackMovies.com and updating Black Business Women Online. BBWO is almost 10,000 members, so you know me .... I always have to make the network better. While alot of our members choose to pay for advertising on the network, I know that some folks are on a tight budget plus there are quite a few sites that I just like and want to share SO I came up with the BBWO DAILYCLICK. Every day, my hubby and I will showcase two websites by Black Business Women.

CococaBabies.com is one of my favorite sista sites and I just bought one of their Tees, 'Strong Black Man in the Making' for my son SO it's one of the first websites to be featured.

The DailyClick will be featured exclusively on Black Business Women Online, but today I decided to also share it on this blog as well. Today's DailyClick is brought to you by the Black Girl Click Ad Network and the Search Urban Directory. Would you like to be featured in the Daily Click? Click Here to submit your website for review.