Light, Motion and Magic

Happy Birthday to me! I began this Light, Motion and Magic blog a year ago - and what a great year it has been! Today I’d like to write a little about what I’ve learned from the blogging experience - and since this blog is all about being a woman entrepreneur starting my business - I’ll outline where my business efforts are right now.

This blogging experience has been terrific. There have been both outward and inward benefits to this blog. I started it because I realized that there is an online community that I would need to understand, reach out to and be a part of if I were ever going to make a success of my online business. That online community is every bit as robust as I thought it would be, and more. The other blogs and bloggers that I’ve followed, those I’ve communicated with in forums, and the additional Twitter community that I engage with has simply become a part of my life now. Yes, it takes up time, but it’s well, well worth it. I have a genuine fondness and respect for the friends I’ve made online, and the times I’ve reached out, I’ve rarely been disappointed.

On an internal level, I can’t overstate how important it has been, as I’ve gone through this business start-up process, to take the time to concentrate my thoughts and experiences as I’ve gone along. Yes, it’s been hard to think of exactly what to write about sometimes, but the effort has always been rewarding, and has often crystallized my thinking, or spurred me to more needed research.

I am very, very glad that I took the leap to try this online format, and I look forward to another year with you!

My latest test of patience in getting Miri Market off the ground is finally drawing to an end. Johannes will be done with the design enhancements soon, which I am very excited to see. After that, I look forward to getting reactions to the concept from people through online surveys and face-to-face research.

The economic conditions in which we find ourselves is going to affect my business decisions, without a doubt. It’s tough enough to get a business off the ground, even without the tremors of a looming economic crisis shaking that very ground. I will continue to move forward very cautiously. Admittedly, getting Miri Market going has been s-l-o-w-w-w-w, but I’ve always believed that the process will unfold as it should, in due time. Perhaps the delays have been a good thing, and I should be grateful that the nervousness of watching the economy this week was not compounded by having a container of new product to launch and sell! These are uncertain times, for sure, highlighting the need to minimize risk and do my research to make sure this is a product that will be well-received.

Thus, I start out on Year Two of this blog. As I proceed with my business plans through the months ahead I will continue to write about my experiences and bring to you my honest observations and insights. I thank all my readers, and I hope you’ll keep stopping by to take this journey with me.

Tags:blog, Blogging, business decisions, economy, Light Motion and Magic, Miri Market, online community

I hope you’re enjoying the new look of “Light, Motion and Magic!” I’d like to point out a few features.

For those of you who do not want to subscribe to a “feed,” you can now sign up to get my blog posts by email. In other words, every time I publish a post to this blog, it will automatically be sent to you in the form of an email. You simply sign up by typing in your email address in the space provided above and center, and click on the subscribe button. You will then go to a short form that requires you to type in the letters shown in a box - to verify that you are a human and not an automated spam program! Finally you will have to reply to a confirmation email sent to your email address, to make sure that the blog will go to the right address.

It’s an easy way for you to stay up on my adventures as a woman entrepreneur, and of course you can still come to this actual site any time!

As you can see, I now have a space on the right to feature my company, Miri Market. Click on the Miri Market logo and it will take you to my temporary Miri Market webiste. Don’t forget that you can sign up there to get my future “company” emails as well.

And finally, since my photo is above in the “About the author” section, I will no longer be putting my picture in every post. I will still use my photos and other images from time to time. I still have some work to do to fill out my blogroll and clean up the formatting with some old posts, but what you see is basically what you’ll be getting!

I hope you find this new design pleasing and easy to use. Please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions.

MANY, MANY thanks to Eric Florenzano for handling the migration to this new Wordpress design, and for all his unflagging technical advice and help. (I couldn’t do it without you, sweetie pie.)

Tags:Add new tag, blog, Miri Market, Woman entrepreneur

I was a lucky gal yesterday…I was able to attend a great event and hear Andy Sernovitz, author of Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking.  Jeff Rabkin of WOWZA and Terri Whitesel of Interpret-her also spoke at the co-sponsored the event titled, “Word of Mouth: Your Perpetual Marketing Machine.”

I loved the book Word of Mouth Marketing, and have referred to it already in my previous Blogworld post. In fact, it was one of the inspirations for me to start this blog.  The book is very amusing and accessible - Sernovitz writes in a conversational, easy-to-read way - and I was curious whether his speaking style would be as fun as the book style.

In a word, yes, it was.  He has a very relaxed speaking stye and yes, he was very funny.  The audience of about 100 was very responsive to his anecdotes, and laughed often at his observations.  He was also very genuine and approachable.

Before the program started he was standing by his table and not very busy, so I decided to introduce myself to him and tell him how much I enjoyed his book.  He was very gracious.  I told him that his book was an inspiration to me. That I found it to have an exciting message, but was very accessible as well, and he answered, “That’s great!  I’d love it if you’d write a review on Amazon.”  I said, “Really?  Aren’t there already a lot of reviews there?” He answered, “Yes, but every one helps.  ‘Exciting and accessible’ - that’s a great comment.  I’d love it if you would write a review - really.”  So I said, “Sure!  I will.”  He thanked me, and I enjoyed the rest of the program.

Can you guess what I did as soon as I got to my computer that afternoon?  I wrote a review of “Word of Mouth Marketing” on Amazon.com.

Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Do one thing every day that scares you” and yesterday, that was it.  I’ve never written a review on Amazon before.  I wasn’t sure how to write an Amazon review,  nor did I feel
particularly worthy of having my opinion on an Amazon review, but I did it anyway.

So, to recap…I read a great book on word of mouth marketing, and one month later I have my own blog,  meet the author in person, hear him speak, at his request write an Amazon review, which appears on the top right hand side under “Most Recent Customer Reviews.” And to top it all off, I get a personal thank-you email from him.
How cool is that !?!?

Thank you, Andy Sernovitz.

Tags:Amazon.com, Andy Sernovitz, blog, Blogging, blogworld, Eleanor Roosevelt, Interpret-her, Jeff Rabkin, Terri Whitesel, Word of Mouth marketing, WOWZA