Sista Sense

Black Business Women Today: Lucky Ladies, New Giveaway, What NOT to do On Social Networks, and More

sistasense — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 23:14:24 +0000

Two lucky ladies got the Starter Kit Giveaway: Deanetta Thompson and Daphne Williams

Grab your kit today. There are two more Starter Kits left to download … if you’ve always wanted to read my eBooks, BUT couldn’t afford to get them, now you can for $47. Promo Code: BACK2SCHOOL | Click Here.

NEW GIVEAWAY
This week I interviewed Raven Symone and she talked ALL about her new character in Disney Movie: Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue. Enter to snag one of these Disney Dvds for your kiddies. Click Here.

THIS FRIDAY…
Did you download the new SistaSense mp3s on promoting products online, using Adsense, social media marketing, building your list and getting people to pick you online? If not, go download now and get two hours of one-one-one web strategies from me to you. This ends tomorrow.

BUZZ TOPICS ON BBWO
(01) I NEED Encouragement
(02) The One Thing That WON’T Get Your Business on Social Networks
(03) Entrepreneur On a Budget: Adding New Life to My Old HP Laptop
(04) Selling Space On Your Blog or Website
(05) How to Get Answers to Your Survey Questions

IT’S OVER
The SistaSense Circle, my tele-group for business women online has ended. We had 4 wonderful group sessions and I had the pleasure of hosting 10 amazing private sessions for some wonderful web women. Do you want to join our next circle? Click Here for the Waiting List | Next Session Starts October 2010

What Sistas are saying about Our Circle:

Penny said, “I am practicing what we are learning. Working my “lists”. I just want to say that this is has been one of the best spent $97 EVER. I hate to see this end but I know that we have much work to do amongst ourselves.”

Evelyn said, “I’m also sorry to see the Circle coming to an end. This was, indeed, the best $97. I’ve spent on training in a long time. Thank you, LaShanda.”

Deborah said, “Great one on one coaching session. Loved your ability to keep me focused on specific actionable tactics that I can implement immediately. Your knowledge of Social Media is phenomenal. You get to the “why” of things by telling me not only how to implement but why it makes sense. Now I know why you branded “SistaSense.” You are one smart cookie and as the leading authority on investment literacy, I love getting an immediate return on my investment.”

Click Here for the SistaSense Circle Waiting List

You Didn’t know did you….
When you start a discussion or add a blog post to BBWO they get featured on our BBWO Fanpage. Be sure to check that page too, you’ll see additional comments on your posts from our extended Facebook Family.

This concludes the BBWO Thursday Broadcast. To have your news featured in next week’s email, click here.

Princess Tiana Look Out! Raven Symone Talks about Tinker Bell and her New Fairy-Fabulous Disney Character Iridessa

sistasense — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 22:05:06 +0000

As the creator of the Black Moms Club and the Black Parenting blog, I had the pleasure of interviewing Raven Symone, getting the inside scoop on Disney’s soon to be released animated movie, Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue.

Raven plays, “Iridessa”, a light fairy who brings light to all the little plants and animals. She also happens to be one of Tinker Bell’s best friends.

LaShanda: We’ve all grown up with Tinker Bell, how does it feel to be a part of the story?

Raven: It’s really exciting. If you go to my mom’s house, in my room in the drawers underneath my television you’ll find every Disney animated movie on VHS. When I first found out about this, I knew I had to be a part of it. I’ve always loved the part in Peter Pan where we have to clap to keep Tinker Bell alive. I’m thrilled to be a part of the story of Tinker Bell and I love being able to play such a beautiful black character.

LaShanda: What’s your favorite part about Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue?

Raven: I love that the fairies stand for amazing things like nature and friendship. They each have unique identities that can appeal to different types of young girls.

LaShanda: What can little girls learn from this story?

Raven: They can learn about being understanding of other people, being adventurous, and trusting in friends. And parents should watch with their kids because if you follow Lizzy, the little girl in the story who loves fairies and her relationship with her father who does not believe in fairies, you’ll see its also about communication and family.

LaShanda: We’ve seen you in so many amazing roles on television and the big screen, is ‘Iridessa’ different from the other characters you have played?

Raven: Iridessa is very different from ‘Olivia’ the character I played on the Cosby show to my character on ‘That’s So Raven’. She likes to play it safe, whereas those other characters were more adventurous, loud mouthed (lol) and take charge.

LaShanda: Do you have anything in common with Iridessa?

Raven: Well she likes to play it safe, while on a good day I’m adventurous. Like Iridessa, I am always down to help my friends.

LaShanda: We know Iridessa’s talent is light. If we had Raven the Fairy, what would your talent be?

Raven: I think I would be a water fairy. I like to go with the flow and I’d be able to stop it from raining, so it wouldn’t mess up my hair (lol).

LaShanda: Disney has given us our first African American Princess, the beautiful Princess Tiana from Princess and the Frog and now we have the lovable Iridessa. What do you think about these new animated characters of color and their importance to little girls?

Raven: I think Disney was waiting for the right time to come out with these very strong and beautiful characters and share them with the world.

I had such a great time speaking with the beautiful and talented Raven Symone, who I’ve been honored to also feature on my SistaSense.com blog as one of our Successful Sistas who’s made over $400 million in her career!

I have to agree with Raven on two points… I think most of us sistas would love to be water fairies to keep our hair nice and right during those rainy days (lol). And as a Disney Magical Mocha Mom, I first hand see Disney’s commitment to diversity and the creation of characters that all little girls and boys can enjoy.

Definitely look out for the release of the new animated Tinker Bell DVD. If you’d like to win one, enter the Black Moms Club Giveaway: Disney DVD – Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue.

Entrepreneur On a Budget: Adding New Life to My Old HP Laptop

sistasense — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 06:34:09 +0000

I’m going on a business trip soon, which means lots of hours on the road. My little family and I always travel together, so of course I have to have some sort of portable DVD player for Chris when he’s not watching Scooby Doo on my Android or daddy’s Samsung (lol). Anyhoo, while I was going over my trip itinerary I thought to myself, it would be soooooooo wonderful to have my laptop working while I’m on the go. My laptop (aka) my other baby, is a trooper. I worked my battery down to the last drop SO if she’s not plugged in, bless her little heart she ain’t turning on (lol).

I know, I know, I should be ashamed. We techies aren’t always as up-to-date on the latest gadgets as we should be. Not only that, I hate to part with this one. Its an “hp pavilion entertainment pc”, its got all the right bells and whistles. A wide screen (perfect for all my web design projects), webcam, wireless, SD card slots, and all my graphic software. It takes a while to break in your laptop, I hate to even think about doing it again. SO I finally did the thing I’ve been avoiding for ages, I got a new battery for my baby. The average 6-cell battery lasts about 90 minutes, BUT I decided to visit the official HP Parts Store online and get a 12-cell battery that lasts a wopping 4 hours! I dropped a little cash and with express mail, to my surprise I had my new battery the next day.

And that my friends is how this busy business lady on a budget added new life to her old HP laptop. The next thing on my todolist is getting an HP Mini, so I can have something a little more light weight and portable for business trips. Now that I know Netflix (my entertainment necessity) is viewable on iPad, I am seriously considering getting one BUT the drawback for me is that an iPad wouldn’t compare to my HP as far as being able to do graphics and web design and have all my digital design software where ever I go.

As I mentioned in another post about BlackWeb2.0 Giveaway: Win an HP Mini 210 HD: Of all the computer brands that I’ve had ( IBM, Apple, Sony, Fujitsu, Dell, AND Hewlett Packard) … my HP gave me the best bang for my buck with all the features that I wanted. While I do have the option of getting both an IPAD and a Mini, I’m not a fan of overspending just to be up on the trends. My main focus is getting something that works best for my business, so I’ll keep you posted on what I decide to get.

For now, I just wanted to share an easy way you can stick to your budget and work with the laptop you have, if getting something new is not an option. If battery life isn’t an issue, but space is then consider getting an external hard drive. I have two WD Passport External hard drives. One serves as a backup. I don’t touch it. I just put stuff on it in case my other stuff goes kaput! Then I have my day-to-day external drive where I put my main files, so I keep the space on my HP Laptop light and breezy. In the past I’ve been known to stuff my computers full of files, so this time I decided the external drive was the best way to go. BUT I’m going off on a totally different topic now, I clearly need to talk tech more often.

How to Sell Ad Space On Your Blog or Website

sistasense — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 05:35:59 +0000

I love to give you some new “make money online” answers when I get asked great questions. I recently came across a good question on my social network, Black Business Women Online.

“I am curious as to how people determine what their rates are on their blog or website for advertisers. I would also like to know how any of you might go about offering space for another person (like an author, entertainer, artist etc.) to sell their products or goods through your site. ” -Evonna

Before I get to my response, let me share these two cents. If you are interested in promoting your products or services via social networks, regularly browsing forums and sharing advice is a good way to build relationships and introduce your business in a not so pitchy way. We don’t like the sleezy salesman types, but we do like folks who share valuable information.

My Response:Great question Evonna:

I sell ad space on all my websites, because it just makes sense. Once you start to build a following of loyal viewers in a particular target market (very important to note), business owners and entrepreneurs just might want to advertise on your website. The key thing to note is that you need traffic if you want to get the attention of advertisers.

Solopreneurs generally start selling adspace any where from $10 – $100 per month (when they start out and are looking to attract their first real advertisers). When you start putting together advanced advertising campaigns, you might charge anywhere between $1 and $50 for CPM…. CPM means Cost per 1000 impressions. That means an ad banner or text link gets viewed 1000 times, and for every 1000 the advertiser pays you a certain amount. Most times you would charge a minimum fee if you were going to setup CPM ad packages or a Rate Card, so people can see what your ad prices are.

This is all stuff you can Google, but I have written a beginners guide to help newbies with these questions, as well as explain how I got started selling advertising on my website and the tools that I used. It’s call my Easy Ad Builder Hand Book. Here is a discount code, if you decide to download it. Code: SELLADS.

Usually when folks ask me about selling ad space, they also want to learn more about Making Google Adsense Money. I have created a few audio mp3s and video tutorials on Using Google Adsense. You can download them from this link.

Lashanda

This Ends Friday…

sistasense — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:01:49 +0000

She said to me, “LaShanda, I love all your stuff. I just don’t know where to start and I can’t get it all now.” At first I didn’t know how to respond to that, but then it became clear…

You Need More People to Buy Your Products
You Need More Clients to Pick You
You Need to Make Sense of Google Adsense so you can make more.

In short, you need all the help you can get with your online business… more clarity and less confusion SO I’m giving you 2+ hours of me talking to you, in mp3 downloads, about all the stuff I mentioned above.

Between now and Friday, you can download these 3 SistaSense Talks Audio Sessions including 6 mp3s + 3 video tutorials on Google Web Tools for $30 (after Friday these go back to totaling $71).

No confusion and no extra cost; just you, me and hours of step-by-step, how to market your online business strategies. It can’t get any easier than that! Just remember this goes away by Friday, click here to download your SistaSense Sessions now.

LaShanda | @sistasense

p.s. The Official url is: http://www.sistasense.com/sistassense-talks