Contributor Update September 2009

By:  Bob Simpson

We have been hard at work over the past month working to deliver the promises from the last newsletter.  It took us about two weeks longer than we had expected, but I am pleased to report that the three major enhancements that we discussed in Contributor Upgrades last month are now up and running. 

Events Calendar

The Events Calendar can now be seen on the home page, right in the middle of the page.  I have added in some events – actually just one for now but it is a recurring item so it gives the calendar some substance.  If you are a Premium Contributor, you can go to My Spotlight and you will see the Events Calendar there.  If you click on the link for View Bob Simpson’s Events (in my case), you will see a link to Add An Event at the very top.  If you click on that link you can enter details of your event and have it repeat, if you wish.  The events will then show up on the main calendar on the home page and on your Public Profile.

I am very excited about this option as it creates another call to action for visitors to our site to connect with you.  If you want to take advantage of this, you can upgrade your account by visiting your My Spotlight page.

Blog or Article Comments

The Comments function is now live.  Visitors can now post comments to your articles.  Another way for visitors to connect with you. 

Ask the Coach

Ask the Coach can now be found in the left column of any of the tabbed pages (Strategy, Succession, etc. tabs at the top of the site).  We have populated it with initial discussions for each of the tabs and Backstage.  When you get a chance, please visit Ask the Coach and join the discussions.  It is a great way for you to display your expertise.  We are working to set up a facility for visitors to enter questions and participate in discussions, so you can respond and start building some rapport with our visitors. 

This now completes the innovations we planned.  We are now turning our attention to driving traffic to the site.

Extension of Premium Members’ Renewal

We made a major strategic decision in the past month.  We have decided to extend the renewal date for all current and future Premium members to a date to be determined.  As these members have committed their hard earned money to be part of our Premium community, we want to make sure that there is sufficient site traffic, so are extending your renewal until we have more than doubled our current daily traffic to the site.  So, if you signed up in May, your renewal may not come up until sometime close to the end of 2010.

New Newsletter Contributor

I am pleased to introduce Linda Dessau as a new contributor to our newsletter.  Linda Dessau is the author of The Customizable Style Guide for Coaches Who Write: Look Smarter, Write Faster, and Get Better Results from Your Writing. She has been writing and marketing online since 2003 and has helped more than 100 coaches and other small business owners get better results from their articles, blog posts, websites, e-books, e-courses, reports and other online writing projects.  Linda is a member of the Editors' Association of Canada and lives in Toronto, Canada.

If you work with coaches, especially in public relations, branding, blogging, etc. and would like to write a guest column in our newsletter, please send me an e-mail at info@coachspotlight.com.

Wealth Manager Spotlight (USA)

Now that we have completed adding the new functionality to Coach Spotlight, we are ready to take the next step in the development of The Spotlight Network with the upcoming launch of Wealth Manager Spotlight (USA) for wealth managers, financial planners and investment advisors.  Our plan is to launch www.thespotlightnetwork.com and www.wealthmanagerspotlight.com within the next month.  Spotlight Network will be primarily a search site, like Google to search all the articles of the sites we launch. 

The advantage of launching multiple sites is that it will help build traffic through building a large database of articles from a variety of professionals like photographers, realtors, consultants, chiropractors, etc.  The more content, the more traffic.

At some point we will be moving the Wealth tab from Coach Spotlight and replacing it with another business tab.  If you have any suggestions for a new business category, please let me know.

We will keep you posted on this development.

Does your Public Profile need a Power Edit?

By Linda Dessau

Hello! My name is Linda Dessau and I've been helping coaches get better results from their online content since 2005. Thanks to Bob Simpson, I now have the opportunity to assist Coach Spotlight contributors as well. I'll be posting articles to the Backstage area of the site, as well as providing tips and resources in this newsletter.

So far in your time here, you've probably been putting most of your attention on writing high-quality articles that will get noticed by people who are searching for the solutions you provide. That's great, but what will those people see when they click through to find out more about you on your profile page?

I recently posted an article outlining the "Top 5 Mistakes to Avoid on Your Article Directory Page," designed to help you improve your profile page here on Coach Spotlight, or other article directories you may be part of. I hope the tips will also be helpful as you write your profile for other settings such as your website About page or when you're speaking at an event.

If you find that you're making several of the mistakes I point out in the article, or if you're just not sure your profile is working for you, please visit www.youtalk-iwrite.com/power-edit.html to learn more about a very affordable editing package that I offer to first-time clients.

Shine a Spotlight ON ...

By:  Kira Simpson

Now that we have better functionality (Ask the Coach), we have a forum to better seek your opinion.  We have created two discussions to allow collaboration on selection of topics for our Shine a Spotlight On … special feature.

One discussion is Life Coaching and one is Business Coaching focused.

Here’s how the new process works.  Each month, we are going to run both a Shine a Spotlight On … a topic relating to Life Coaching and a topic relating to Business Coaching. 

We will conduct a discussion relating to each in the "Ask the Coach" forum (on the tabbed (inside) pages of Coach Spotlight in the left column).  We will ask you what you would like to see as a topic for the following month.  All you need to do is to log in and click on the discussion, enter your response in the message box and hit "Submit Post".  Once we have a variety of topics, we will run a poll and ask you which topic you prefer.   You can find polls right under "Ask the Coach" on the inside pages.  On the final day of the month, we will report the topics via newsletter and Twitter.  You then have the entire month to send us your articles. 

This month, we are giving you short notice to discuss topics.  Please go to "Ask the Coach" and let us know what you would like to see as topics for October.  For October, please send us topics for Leadership Coaching (Business) and Life Coaching (Life).