Hello again; When I first had the idea to sell amusement equipment full time, I knew that it would be a process. I knew there were things I would want to do, but some of them would have to wait until my income grew or my skills improved. My primary goal though is and has been to represent people and their equipment in the most professional manner possible. Some of the things I have done so far were to replace the html website I built in the beginning with a static word press based site that is more uniform and more appealing to the eye. Another thing I did was to change my email address from one at people pc to one incorporated in the website. I have also added this blog and do my best to post regularly. So recently, I was happy to accomplish a few other tasks that will make the site and business more professional.
First, My friends at Anarckey Entertainment were generous enough to create a logo for my company You can read about that Here. I can’t thank Kelly Corbin at Anarckey Entertainment enough for coming up with the logo for me.
After seeing the new logo, my good friend Robin Hallett at robinhallett.com suggested that the new logo needed to be incorporated into the site and would be perfect for some new business cards. She is an intuitive healer who helps people become the person they are meant to be, and doing things like this for her friend just shows how much of a caring loving person she is. She knows I am blind, so she volunteered to help with the process. She took the logo image file and cropped and edited it so it would fit into the header of my site. Then I gave her my site’s log in information, and she added the logo to the header. You can see how it looks on the home page at www.midwaymarketplace.com Then we discussed my ordering my first business cards for the site. A few years ago I had a friend create some simple cards on her printer. Most people said they were fine, but when my mom told me that she was ashamed to pass them out; I decided people had only been being nice. So, I threw them away and decided not to have more made until I could be sure they would be done properly and be a positive reflection on me and the company. So, my friend Robin told me to do my best to create the card and she would look over my work before I pressed the button to complete the order. We discussed who to use. I told her I was thinking about Vista Print. She told me that they had used Vista until realizing that there were lots of hidden charges with them. She said I should check out moo.com So, I went to the site and checked them out. I was able to set up an account by myself. Thank goodness they didn’t have one of those awful security puzzles with their even more horrible audio challenges. I uploaded the photos and submitted some text and saved the project. I sent it to Robin. She said I was close but the photos needed to be resized. She promised to work on it, and I know she will. So, in a day or two I will have placed an order for my first official professional business cards. Be sure to visit Robin’s site and check out her blog. Not only are her posts uplifting, but they come with such great art work. I’m generally a cautious person, so I’m only ordering 50 cards at first. I want to show them to a few people and make sure they are good enough before I order a large amount. Also, one of the things Moo offers is the ability to put a different photo and or saying on the back of each card. The image on the back can be changed for every 50 cards ordered. So, it will give me some time to think about what else to use for the reverse images. Since I plan to attend my first trade show this fall, having quality cards to exchange with other convention goers has become a priority. The event I am targeting is the November gathering for IAAPA, The International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions. It is held in Orlando the week before Thanksgiving. If you plan to be in the area, then please send me an email to let me know.
One other thing I did this month was to improve the comment section of my blog. One of the ways search engines gage the popularity of a blog is how many people leave comments and how often they leave them. My posts don’t routinely receive many comments or shares. Last month I was reading an article about a plug in for word press called Comment Love Premium. It encourages people to comment on your site by helping them with their own site traffic. It allows for a commenter to leave a link to their twitter handle as part of their comment. It also lets them display links to one or more of their own posts with their comment. So, in addition to the people who have a genuine opinion of or interest in my posts, there will be those who will comment just to get the back links. I will still be able to approve or reject their comments, and the plug in comes with very impressive anti spam tools. If you like the plug in, then please use the link to their site; so I can receive a commission for referring you to them. I should mention that I heard about this product from Adrienne Smith. She writes a very helpful blog for entrepreneurs at her site AdrienneSmith.net And she happens to be a fellow Texan, so that’s another reason to promote her site. I highly suggest you check her out. If you like what you see, then please be sure to subscribe to her blog. Well, I should say that I have been blessed by having many good friends both online and in person who have been willing to help me over the years. Kelly Corbin, Robin Hallett, and Adrienne Smith are just the latest to play important rolls in my life. They have done so much to help me make the site more professional. Since I feel like I owe my clients an obligation to do anything possible to help sell their items, I am always trying to think of ways to improve both personally and professionally. The first thing I do in the morning is to check the email and voicemail in hopes that some great news is waiting. And the last thing I do before going to bed at night is to ask myself if there is something more I could be doing. I still want to do a video podcast focusing on the amusement industry and the equipment I have for sale. I will be attending my first trade show later this year. And I’m sure there will be a few opportunities that I haven’t even thought of yet.
I appreciate your reading my blog, and I especially thank those who have subscribed to get email alerts about new posts. If you enjoyed this post, then please share it with your friends, family, and coworkers. Be sure to leave a comment. And I want to know what you think of the new comment love fields. I love getting emails and texts from my readers, so I hope to hear from you soon. Thanks and take care, Max