Marketing :: Thinking Home Business | Practical Tips For People Who Work From Home

This week’s top site is Solo Business Marketing, subtitled “Where Entrepreneurs and Success Connect”, and is the work of my good friend and colleague and one of my favorite home based business owners, the ever enthusiastic Shirley George Frazier.

Since 1990, Shirley has been amazingly successful at starting and growing her business, gaining print and televised media attention along the way, and speaking at business and trade shows throughout the USA.

She also wrote the book Marketing Strategies for the Home-Based Business: Solutions You Can Use Today

The Solo Business Marketing blog makes great reading, not just for solo professionals working from home, but for anyone in business who is looking for practical, experience-based advice on marketing.

Shirley has a lovely, easy style of writing, which is actually a perfect reflection of what you would experience if you were to have the benefit, as I have, of a direct conversation with her. The warm, friendly and down-to-earth style of her blog posts can be experienced readily in such posts as:

Five Ways to Get Your Marketing Plan Back on Track

Yesterday evening I escorted a relative to the hospital. He had not eaten for two days and was feeling poorly.

Tell me you don’t want to read on.

Why Falling in the Street is a Great Marketing Lesson

This week, during one of my fitness walks through town, I found myself tumbling onto the concrete. My right foot turned slightly inward, and that’s when my body met the pavement.

“I cannot believe this is happening!” I shouted in my head, wondering if I’d get up and keep going or call on my cell phone for medical attention.

More (don’t know about you but I had to know where all that was going!)

I interviewed Shirley on my Des Walsh & Friends show on BlogTalkRadio back in February this year. You can hear/download the recording of that here.

Solo Business Marketing – Top Site. Check it out.

It is my intention to feature a new Top Site every week. If you have a favorite site on home based business or which would be of direct benefit to professionals working from home, please let me know so I can consider it for inclusion in the TopSites section of this site: please note, only sites with original, quality content and authored by a home based business person will be considered.

What’s Next Boomer Business Summit, Chicago, March 19, 2010

Seventh Annual What's Next Boomer Summit

For the seventh year in a row, on March 19, leading experts on the “boomer and beyond” marketplace will gather for the What’s Next Boomer Business Summit.

Boomers were born between 1946 and 1964

77 million baby boomers represent 28% of the U.S. population and account for 77% of all financial assets

Every 7 seconds someone is turning 50

By 2010, 108 million people will be over 45

Households headed by someone 40 or older hold 91% of America’s net worth

Boomers constitute 35% to 38% of Internet users

The caregiving marketplace is $800 billion

The day-long program includes a 45 minute session of what I assume are parallel workshops – four in all, on the general topic of “Web 3.0 Strategies: Tools You Can Use NOW to Boost Your Boomer Business”.

Maximize the effectiveness of your e-newsletter and online marketing programs

Get a handle on mobile marketing trends and how to reach your customers on smart phones and mobile devices

Connect, engage, and build loyalty with your customers using FaceBook, twitter, YouTube, blogs, and other social media

Incorporate iPhone apps into your overall marketing strategy

Make Google tools work for you

(I must confess to cringing a little at the “Web 3.0″ tag. I’m not really sure what “Web 3.0″ is: I assume it’s meant as something like “beyond Web 2.0″, but the items listed look to me suspiciously like Web 2.0).

If you are one of the 800+ members of Boomer Authority™, you may have picked up already that there is a 20% discount for the Chicago event (membership of Boomer Authority™ is free).

Note: Des Walsh is the Boomer Authority™ Country Chairperson for Australia – an honorary position.