Guest Post by Michelle Shaeffer

Are secret fears holding you back from jumping head first into blogging? Don’t let them! Blogging is nothing to be afraid of, and nothing has done as much to boost my business and my visibility as blogging has.

So let’s talk about some of those fears that might be holding you back from blogging:

1. I’m not sure I have anything to blog about…

Everyone has something to share. If you’re an entrepreneur and you’re in business for yourself, then it’s safe to assume you’re passionate about something, right? Blog about that!

If you’re blogging for business, then it doesn’t necessarily matter what you feel you’ve got to share–it only matters what your audience wants to read. They’ve got problems, challenges, questions, and you can be the one to deliver the answers they’re searching for.

Once you’ve got your main topic or theme for your blog, you can find inspiration everywhere. Here are some great resources to get your brain going:
Chris Brogan
Blogging Bookshelf
Social Media Examiner
Simple Storming

2. But I’m not a writer!

So do a video blog or an audio blog. Create a blog that’s just you doing a weekly interview with experts or sharing a book review on video. Use a voice-to-text program to speak your blog posts and let your computer do the typing for you. There are options that don’t require you to write at all.

You could also consider hiring a ghostwriter, using PLR articles, reprinting free articles, featuring guest bloggers, or using the content you’re already creating (for your marketing materials, ezine, newsletter, ebooks, or whatever else you’ve got).

Or, be okay with the fact that you aren’t a “writer” and blog anyway. Blogging isn’t like your thesis where every word has to be perfect and every sentence has to be grammatically correct. It’s a conversational, relaxed form of written communication. Basic writing skills are necessary if you’re going to write a blog. In general, if you can write an email, you can blog.

3. I’m too busy and I don’t have time to blog!

Blogging does take time. There’s no way around that. But it doesn’t have to take hours a day. And since blogging allows you to create content that you can repurpose into other materials (articles, ezines, ebooks, print books, and much more) it’s definitely not wasted time.

Remember that you set your own blogging schedule. You don’t have to blog daily. I blog nearly daily and it works for me. But many bloggers post 2 or 3 times a week. The key is consistency with whatever schedule you choose.

There are sneaky ways you can speed up your blogging, as well. Here are 10 ways to blog better and faster.

4. What if no one reads my blog?

If you don’t let people know it’s there, they won’t read it. But it’s not difficult to promote your blog. You just need a system of where and how you’ll promote it and drive traffic (just like you already do for your website, right?). This is one of the easier obstacles to overcome.

Get a group of friends together and ask them to actively comment on your blog. Some bloggers even ask their virtual assistant to leave comments. Setup a commenting circle where you subscribe to a few friends’ blogs and they subscribe to yours, then each leave a comment when new posts are published. Once you’ve got a few comments appearing, it’ll be easier for new readers to jump in and comment, too.

Join a comment tribe. Comment tribes are groups (on Facebook or other networking platforms) where everyone shares their blog post, then comments on others in the group. Just check the rules before joining any so you know what you’re in for.

5. How will I find time to promote my blog when I’m already busy?

Once you’ve created a blog promotion plan, it’s easier and doesn’t take too much time.

There are many promotion strategies that can be automated so they happen every time you post a new entry on your blog, without any extra action from you (such as using Twitter Tools to send your posts to Twitter, NetworkedBlogs to send your blog to Facebook, and ping to tell the search engines you’ve shared something new).

6. It’s too expensive (or too technical) to get it set up.

No need to start with a whizz-bang fancy-shmancy custom blog design. WordPress is free software and there are 1,000s of free themes. Many website hosts will install WordPress free for you, so your only initial expense is the hosting (under $10 a month).

One of the coolest things about WordPress is that it grows with you. You can easily upgrade later to a customized header, theme, and other shiny things.

7. Why would anyone pay for my services if I’m sharing what I know free?

Flip that question right around. Why would anyone pay for your services if they don’t know what you can offer them? Blogging allows you a way to showcase your expertise!

8. There are already blogs about the same topics I’d blog about.

So what? I can buy shoes at a hundred different stores online but that doesn’t stop the smart ones from making sales. There’s the low price leaders like Payless, fashion boutiques like Nordstroms, charity supporting stores like Toms, service-centric sites like Zappos. They each choose a specific audience, play on their uniqueness, and it works.

Remember that when we’re learning about any topic, we generally don’t choose only one source of info. I’ve got marketing books on my shelf by more authors than I want to count! All of their voices add something different to my knowledge. Blogs are the same way–a chorus of easily accessible information we can learn from. If there are successful blogs on your topic already that’s a sign that people want learn about it which is a good thing!

You are unique. Your voice is unique. And there are people waiting to hear you share your knowledge and life’s journey in the voice only you can share it in.

And that, in a nutshell, is what busts through all of these excuses. Your blog is your stage. And your audience is waiting. So get out there!

Michelle Shaeffer’s Twitter profile describes her as: “Caffeine powered, Libertarian gal enjoying life with my kids and husband. Empowering entrepreneurs.” That sums it up nicely. You can find her helping to simplify online business at MichelleShaeffer.com or serving up ideas for bloggers at Daily Blogging Ideas.

In a previous guest post, Michelle Shaeffer shared 10 proven strategies to help you improve your business. The response from readers was overwhelming. In this guest post, Michelle shares 15 more tips.

Guest post by Michelle Shaeffer

1. Write a testimonial.
Think of a product or service you’ve recently received that was fantastic. Now write a testimonial for it and send it to the business along with name, business, URL, and city/state. Include a statement of your permission to reprint it on their site, in their newsletter, etc. If you don’t feel like writing, record it as an mp3 and send. Most (all?!) businesses love to get testimonials or positive reviews and will happily use them on their websites and include your business name and sometimes even a live link to your site.

2. Record a quick how to video and upload to YouTube.
YouTube is a huge source of traffic for many websites.  Using Jing (there’s a free version) or similar program you can quickly and easily create a short how to video with a tip or step by step use of a product or service you offer.

3. Record and share an AudioBoo or CinchCast.
You can record and share AudioBoo or CinchCast audio recordings on your blog, your website, your Facebook page, etc.  Like a podcast or audio blog post.  It’s super quick and easy way to share your thoughts.

4. Submit an article to Ezine Articles.
Notice I didn’t say *write* an article, but *submit* one.  I bet if you take a few minutes and look at your blog, website or ezine archives there’s something you’ve written that’s just waiting to be slightly edited so it’ll work as an article.  Edit and submit!

5. Brainstorm a reason to write a press release & a title.
It can feel like it’ll take a lot of time to write a press release but if you start by just thinking of a reason (new product, new improvement, new service, holiday sale, contest, giveaway, new resource on your site, recent award, etc) and brainstorming the title, then writing that on a note and pinning it up on your bulletin board, you’ll have a great start and then you can write the actual release later when you’ve got a half hour or so.  It’ll be easier to start if you’ve got your reason and title planned.

6. Shout out support to a fellow small business owner or solopreneur.
Pick a small business owner or solopreneur who you feel comfortable referring business to, and who you’ve worked with or learned from, and post a comment on their blog, or write a review for them on Facebook.  Do something public to show your support.  They’ll appreciate it, you’ll get some publicity, and they may just remember you next time they know someone who needs the product/service you provide.  Karma!

7. Order a decal or magnet for your car from VistaPrint.
How fast can you pick one and check out?  Here are the car door magnets and here are the window decals.  Choose one, order it, then slap it on your vehicle and every time you drive around town you’ll be promoting your business!  (So don’t drive like a maniac.  This one may help you avoid traffic tickets, too!)

8. Email a Letter to the Editor.
This one can be a challenge to do in 10 minutes, but it can be done.  Many news sites offer online ways to share your thoughts.  Choose a topic that’s relevant to your business and that will allow you to share your knowledge and present yourself as an expert by offering your two cents in agreement or disagreement with an article they’ve published.  To keep it quick choose one article and one point.  Be succinct.  Include all your contact info.  You may or may not see it published online or in the print paper but you can leverage this by also sharing what you wrote to the editor on your blog/website and turning it into an article or ezine feature later.

9. Check-in with a favorite contact and send a quick gift.
Who’s been referring business to you?  Get in touch with them to say thank you and let them know you appreciate their support.  Send a small gift.  Making yourself “present” in someone’s office it’s great way to stay on my mind.  Many online stores allow you to send an e-gift certificate and it can be done in just a few minutes.

10. Create or update your email signature then send out a fun email.
Is your email signature up to date?  If it’s not rockin’ then try WiseStamp.  Once it’s up to date find something funny like a joke, YouTube, etc (try looking at www.stufftotweet.com) and send it out to friends and family who don’t mind that type of email.  Your goal is to send something they’ll forward to their friends and family and so on, because your email signature will be on every one of those emails.

11. Connect with a colleague and ask how you can promote or support them.
No strings attached, just reach out and see what you can help someone else with.  Focus on building the relationship without asking and watch what happens in the future.

12. Make someone’s day better.
Have you noticed someone dealing with a tough customer, difficult feedback, technical issues or other crisis?  Stop and send some positivity their way.  If it’s someone you’ve worked with, you can share why you value their service/product.  If it’s someone you haven’t worked with then just offer an encouraging word to let them know you care.  People will remember this.

13. Pick up your phone.
Make a call to a client you haven’t been in touch with in a while.  Just check in and see how they’re doing.  Or call a past joint venture or promotional partner.  Make that voice connection with someone.

14. Do a video book review.
Remember, we’re going for fast action.  Grab one of your favorite business books.  Quickly come up with just 2 or 3 things that you learned from it.  Turn on your video camera and share that, along with the title, author and where viewers can grab their own copy.  Keep your video down to 2 or 3 minutes, tops.  Upload to YouTube and embed on your blog or website.

15. Delegate something.
Take 5 minutes to look over your ever-expanding “to do” list an choose one item that you don’t have to do yourself.  Then spend 5 minutes identifying who you already know that can take care of it for you, or who you can ask for a referral to someone reliable, and get in touch to get the ball rolling.  Your small time investment will pay off in getting the busy work off your plate so you have more time to focus on what only you can do best in your business!

Michelle Shaeffer’s Twitter profile describes her as: “Caffeine powered, Libertarian gal enjoying life with my kids and husband. Empowering entrepreneurs.” That sums it up nicely. You can find her helping to simplify online business at MichelleShaeffer or serving up ideas for bloggers at DailyBloggingIdeas.com.

Guest post by Michelle Shaeffer

Sometimes we’ve only got a few minutes here and there to work on our home-based businesses.  Don’t let this stop you from marketing and building your business network!

If you’ve got just 10 minutes, you can take positive actions that will help you move forward.

If I had to write a 50-page marketing plan and spend 4 hours a day implementing it… well, either it’d never happen… or I’d never get anything else done and never have time to complete the services I need to for my clients and create the products I offer. Or, I’d never get to play with my kiddos and my house would look like a hurricane hit it. There just aren’t that many hours in the day.

Always remember the reason you started your business – I’m pretty sure that “So I can test out how much stress a human body can handle, then end up in therapy!” wasn’t on your top ten list of reasons, right? Yeah, it wasn’t on mine either.

My strategy is more of a one-page style marketing plan.  Beyond the big things on the plan,  the rest of my marketing revolves around QUICK things I can do in between everything else that’s going on in my world. So I’ve made it a point to know what I get done in 5 or 10 minutes.

Anyone can squeeze in 10 minutes at least a few times a day, right?

Remember that done is better than perfect!  To get these done in 10 minutes each you need to focus on fast action and getting it great, but not perfect, or any of them can easily end up taking an hour instead of 10 minutes.

Here are some ideas:

1. Write a quick blog post and promote it.

Jot down some random thoughts about something helpful for your readers.  Try a top 10 list or top 5 list.  You can polish it later and use it as an article, in your newsletter, for a podcast, in a video, etc.  Take time to tweet your post and add it to your Facebook status.  If you’re using Networked Blogs or a similar plugin or service, it will tweet/update for you.If you feel overwhelmed at the thought of posting in 10 minutes, here are some tips to help you blog better, faster.

2. Write a few thank you cards or emails.

It only takes a few minutes to write out a card, but it’s so nice to receive a thank you in the mail.  If you don’t have thank you cards or aren’t a handwritten card person, try Send Out Cards, which lets you pick a card to send and personalize it, and then they mail it snail mail for you.  Or, send out a couple of quick emails or ecards.

3. Pick 2 or 3 blogs to comment on and leave a thoughtful comment.

Choose blogs that either you want to connect with and get known by the authors, or that reach your target market.  Leave a comment to let them know you appreciate their content, or that it sparked ideas for you or helped you in some way.

4. Hop on Facebook and do a super fast like/comment spree and update your status.

In 10 minutes you can hit like and leave short comments on a lot of posts.  Update your status, and your fan page status while you’re there.

5. Use HootSuite to schedule tweets and status updates for the next couple of days.

With HootSuite you can schedule your tweets and status updates and set what time you want them to post.  Very cool way to stay visible on the social networks without being chained to your computer.

6. Send a short note to your email list recommending a great resource.

What have you found lately (especially free or low-cost) that would be helpful to your mailing list?  Write up a quick review with how it’s saved you time, money, frustration or energy and share it with them.  People love being connected to helpful tools and services.

7. Pick one person you’d like to get to know and send a short, professional email introducing yourself.

No need to ask for anything or have a specific project in mind.  Just a note to let them know you appreciate their information, blog, articles, whatever you like, and send it.

8. Connect people.

Think of someone you know who could help someone else you know and introduce them to each other.  In 10 minutes you could come up with several sets of people to connect.

9. Go answer questions on a niche forum or a website.

There are always people looking for help on forums or sites like Yahoo! Answers and Quora.  Go find some that have questions you can answer and help with.  Save those answers – you can re-purpose them into articles, blog posts, etc. later.

10. Take action on something to build your business.

Find a blog post, article, ezine or something else you’ve got filed or bookmarked that had a great idea you meant to implement but kept forgetting.  Implement it!  Most little tweaks and action steps take very little time, we’ve just got to focus and get them done. Fast action!

Ready… set… go! Take 10 minutes and go implement one of these ideas, then come comment and tell us which you did.  You’ll feel great when it’s done — positive action in our businesses always feels fantastic!

P.S.  Don’t forget to bookmark this blog post so next time you’ve got a few minutes you can use that time to take smart action to move your business forward.

Michelle Shaeffer’s Twitter profile describes her as: “Caffeine powered, Libertarian gal enjoying life with my kids and husband. Empowering entrepreneurs.”  That sums it up nicely.  You can find her helping to simplify online business at MichelleShaeffer or serving up ideas for bloggers at DailyBloggingIdeas.com.

Working Naked Day is over, but that doesn’t mean the celebration has to end. You can still enjoy the fact that you have the freedom to set your own hours, follow your own rules and live life on your own terms. Best of all, when your neighbor is scraping ice off his car in below-freezing weather, you can enjoy a cup of coffee while working in your pajamas.

Twitter is a valuable tool that can help you bring visitors to your blog, spread the word about your business, connect with your customers and more. But as with any tool, there’s a right way to use it and a wrong way.  I’m always looking for ways to make better use of Twitter. Some tips that I’ve tried worked well, while others have failed miserably.

The HubSpot article “The 9 Worst Ways to Use Twitter for Business,” takes an “avoid doing this” approach to making Twitter more effective.  A few of the top Twitter don’ts include:

1. Only include links to your own blog
Business blogging is a great marketing tactic, and so is sharing your blog posts on Twitter. Find other relevant bloggers in your industry on Twitter and retweet their articles. Another tip is to find interesting and relevant articles on the Web instead of just on Twitter, and share the links with your followers.

2. Follow Anyone and Everyone
If you follow a ton of just anyone, not only will your Twitter stream be filled with irrelevant content you don’t care about, but you’ll look spammy to people who see your skewed follow numbers. It’s not completely fair but if the number of people you follow, far outnumbers your followers, it hurts your credibility.

3. Don’t Interact With Other Twitter Users
Make sure to retweet and reply to at least a few people each day so that you’re making Twitter a two-way conversation.  It’s tough, but make this the first thing you do each morning and it will become a habit.

4. Only Tweet Once Per Week
If you follow some of the advice above, by taking a few minutes each day to retweet interesting tweets and share relevant content, you shouldn’t have a problem here. On the opposite side, don’t tweet so often that you annoy your followers.

My #10 don’t do tip is: Use the term “Twittering” instead of the right term “Tweeting.” It lets someone know right away that you’re new to Twitter or that you have no idea what it is.

Twitter can be invaluable to your business if you know what not to do.

Related posts:
There’s more to Twitter than tweeting your next task

5 ways Twitter makes you a better person

Years ago, when my older son came home from his first day of Kindergarten and I asked him what he’d learned, he said, “My brain is full!” After going to the NAOEM conference last weekend as a speaker and an attendee, I understand how he felt.

During the two days of information-packed sessions ranging from how to market your business to growing your online presence, I was surprised at how much I learned.

Not only did I learn great tips and strategies from the speakers, I picked up a few tips from the attendees as well.  This was no group of slackers!

Before you go to your next live conference, consider these tips:

• Make sure that the conference you want to attend, will help you grow your business. Unless you’re attending a conference that’s in town, going to an out-of-town conference can be expensive and may not be worth your time and money. Even if it is in town, the conference should be worth the time you’ll need to take off from your business.

• Take notes…plenty of notes. By the end of the two days, I had pages and pages of valuable notes and strategies to take my business to the next level.

• Start a To Do page. The organizer of the conference, Cathy Alessandra, provided each of us with a detailed booklet that featured each speaker’s bio and room to take notes. I took notes on the speaker’s pages, and on a separate To Do page I listed action steps. Taking notes is one thing…putting the information to use is another.

• Network, network, network. During each break, I made it a point to meet at least 3-4 new people. They even had a contest for the person who collected the most business cards. (I lost.) Almost every person I met was prepared with a one-sentence “elevator pitch.” I’d ask someone what she does and she’d answer, “I work with (insert type of business) to help them (insert three benefits). Brilliant! In one sentence I learned what they did and what type of people they helped.

I’ve “virtually” attended plenty of Webinars and at times walk away from my laptop with tips I can use.  But nothing beats the energy, enthusiasm and inspiration that a group of successful entrepreneurs (both male and female) provides at a live conference.  The next time a Webinar invitation hits your e-mail, think twice and maybe opt for a live conference instead.

My Web site is a work in progress. I make a few changes to it and then a month later I think of a few more things I need to update. Within the next few weeks I’ll be making a few more changes. It never ends.

In “11 Reasons Customers Don’t Trust Your Web Site,” writer Lisa Barone shares common sense tips and easy-to-stop-doing strategies for making your site better.It’s more of a list of Web site mistakes you may be making including:

• It’s littered with typos. Do your best to find typos and squash them dead. It’s hard to believe what someone has written when every other word is spelled wrong. Also, it looks bad if your phone number is wrong. My number changed recently but I didn’t change it on my site until last week. (Oprah, if you tried to call before, try again!)

• You don’t say why you’re different. Guilty as charged. This is one of the points I hadn’t considered but will be changing shortly. No matter what type of expertise you have, there has to be something that sets you apart from your competitors. Highlight that difference on your site.

• It’s hard to navigate. If I’m struggling to find your Product pages, than your site must be for people way smarter than me. I’ll go elsewhere. When you’re closely tied to your company, product and site, you may not realize how easy your site is to navigate. Do an informal survey with business associates whose opinions you trust and make any changes to make it easier for visitors to find the information they need.

• There’s no About page. Help people trust your Web site by telling them about yourself, why you do what you do, how long you’ve been doing it, and by introducing to the people who run your store. Include a photo so people can attach a name to a face.

The beauty of a Web site is that you can make changes whenever you want. Finding the time to make those changes though, can be the challenge.

Last week, at a party, I mentioned that Twitter has been invaluable to my business.  A few of my friends said (as they rolled their eyes) that it doesn’t matter if someone’s on their way to the gym or late to get a haircut.

They don’t get it. Others don’t either, unless they use Twitter often.

Twitter isn’t just about letting others know what you’re doing through your tweets. The truth is that unless you’re a major celebrity, not everyone cares where you’re going or where you’ve been.

There are a few ways that you can use Twitter to help you grow your business including:

Drawing traffic to your blog. When you update your blog (which you should do several times a week), tweet your latest blog headline and a (shortened) link. The better the headline, the faster your followers will flock to your site.

Sharing articles that may interest your followers. Tweet about articles, blog posts or even photos that will help your followers. I scan about 150 articles a day to find the right ones to share with my followers. If my followers like my tweets, they’ll retweet them, which introduces me to their followers.

Establishing you as the go-to expert. When a writer, reporter or producer is looking for an expert, they may use TweetDeck, HootSuite,  Seesmic, or Twitter Search to find the right person to interview. The same goes for prospective clients looking for a product or service. Twitter is a viable search engine for up-to-the-minute events. While the tweets you find may not be from major news outlets, the links they provide may come from sources you recognize.  This Open Forum article, “Search Marketing, Twitter-Style” gives a good description of how well Twitter works as a search engine.

Growing your online presence. If you’re serious about growing your business, you have to have a Web presence.  Do an Internet search of your name and your company name and if you don’t find yourself, you need to ramp up your online efforts.  Twitter is a good way to do that.

Making new business contacts. I’ve been fortunate to meet some incredible business owners through Twitter including @daveyank, @RightGirl (she’s hilarious) and @TachelleDaniels. We’ve worked on projects together, provided guest posts or interviews for one another’s sites, and found ways to help each other out.

Twitter can help you grow your business if you take advantage of all it has to offer. As for letting others know that you’re on your way to buy frozen yogurt, you may want to open a personal account for that.

Some people welcome competition and see it as an opportunity to improve their business. Others put on blinders, ignore the competition and are happy to run their business as usual. There are a few ways to learn about what works and doesn’t work for your competitors so you can create a business that’s all your own.

• Research your competition honestly. Never mislead competitors by pretending to be a client. Instead, set up a Google alert with your competitor’s name in quotes. Each time they’re in the news, you’ll receive an e-mail alert. Check out their Web site to learn more about their products, services and business philosophy.

• Introduce yourself to your competitors. Savvy business people know that there’s enough business for everyone. If a competitor is up to his or her eyeballs in clients, they may send a few clients your way. Or if you’re in different cities, you may be able to partner on different projects.

• Offer to pay for a competitor’s time. If a competitor is willing to offer you advice, be willing to pay for it. While they may not accept your offer, you’re making it clear to them that their time is valuable.

• Talk to people who are using a competitor’s products or services and find out what’s missing. Maybe your competitor is missing something that you could add to enhance your product or service. Consumers will always have a different view of your industry than you.

Take the time to research ways to grow your business, yet make it different from a competitor’s business. No one likes a copycat.

Guest Post by Wendy Sullivan

Podcasting isn’t terribly different from blogging. One of the top touted ways of drawing traffic to your blog is to guest post on other people’s sites. I’ve found, in my experience, that inviting guests to be on your podcast really draws the traffic.

According to a study posted on Podcasting News (which you should be reading!), half the Internet radio audience is listening to podcasts, as opposed to streaming radio.

When I began my podcast back on May 18, 2008, it was small. My blog was a small-medium political site, with about 800 daily readers, many of whom were happy to tune into my little voice experiment. The first four weeks of Brass Balls Radio – now off the air – brought a couple thousand listeners, thanks to friends linking to us on their own blogs.

For my fourth show, I screwed up all my courage and invited author and columnist Mark Steyn to join me. At the time of recording, he had just walked out of a court in Vancouver after fighting a human rights complaint over an excerpt of his book, America Alone. Mark was very much in the news in both Canada and the United States during this time, and scoring him for my now-defunct show Brass Balls Radio was quite a coup.

In addition to merely appearing on the show, he also linked to his episode on his own website. That brought me not hundreds or even thousands of listeners – it brought almost 20,000! Not all of them subscribed, but thousands tuned in week after week to listen to the musings of me and my co-host Mike Williams.

It was time to leverage this information to draw in ever more listeners each week. We used different methods:

• Facebook fan pages
• Twitter
• Interviewing other bloggers in our niche and receiving links from them
• Sending out thank you mugs for special guest-hosts

All of these things resulted in more links back to Brass Balls Radio. Someone appeared on our show, they’d mention us on their website. If they received a personalized mug, they posted a picture of it and linked back to us. People not only wanted to listen to the show, the petitioned us to be on it, too. Traffic grew.

One of the most important things we did was to register our site feed with iTunes. Apple owns the podcasting world, and we just live in it. Ergo, making sure our listeners could get our show on their iPods without a lot of effort was really important. You can learn about sending your podcast feed to iTunes here.

So how do you get great guests to entertain and educate your podcast listeners? You ask them! It’s as simple as that, really. Your momma told you that “if you don’t ask, you don’t get.” Very wise advice. Whether you want a high ranking politician, a famous author or a tenured expert on ecology, you have to keep in mind that they are all human beings trying to promote their own product/idea. In the case of Mark Steyn, he was not only kind enough to appear often as a guest, but also agreed to guest-host for our 1st anniversary show. Rush Limbaugh pays him much more than a personalized coffee mug to do the same, I assure you! Obviously I had to approach him first, and this took confidence and more than a little chutzpah.

Don’t be afraid of people just because they are “experts” or are more successful than you. Most of them will be friendly and outgoing, happy to talk about their ideas on your show. I think that out of all the guests I invited, only one ever turned me down – Lord Conrad Black’s wife, and only because Lord Black was about to head back into court in Chicago.

If you build it – and have the confidence to ask – they will come.

Wendy Sullivan is a freelance writer and journalist based in Toronto, where she lives with her muse – an 8 lb chihuahua named Bug. Check Wendy out at Girl on the Write.