direct sales tips

FREE Stock Photos for Amazing Graphics

October 30, 2018 By Joni Kinney Leave a Comment

Having your own graphics is so important when you are trying to stand out from the crowd! You can read more about why I think it’s essential to brand yourself in my Direct Sales: How do I brand myself? article. When you want to make your graphics sometimes you need a good photo and using stock photos can help. Here are a few places you can start your search for Free Stock Photos.

Ivory Mix

Ivory Mix has lots of free downloads you can use. Most of them are quite feminine in format which makes it great for the boss ladies out there. You do have to sign up, but then you get access to their free images which they add to every month.

Site advantages

Lots of variety
Beautiful flat lays
Commercial use allowed
Royalty Free

Unsplash

Unsplash has so many great things to choose from, and they are all FREE. They have over 300,000 images on their site, and they add to that listing every day.

Site advantages

So many things to pick from
Easy to use search features
Images are categorized

Canva

Canva is excellent for many reasons, but the editing options are what sets them apart for me. One of my favorite uses is Resizing photos quickly with Canva. Even if you don’t take advantage of their photo editing, they have a pretty comprehensive database of images you can use.

Site advantages

Built-in editing
Templates
Easy to find images

Pixaby

Pixaby kind of drives me crazy because the photos I always see first are the ones to Shutterstock. Once you get used to not looking at those, you will be fine!

Site advantages

Easy to search
Once you click on an image, you can see other similar photos. Having choices is especially helpful if you are a blogger trying to create a series with similar images.
Lots of choices and design aesthetics

Just a reminder, that site you are using resources from, make sure you check their terms of service. They may change, and you wouldn’t want to be held liable for using something you shouldn’t.

For more great tips on how to succeed in your business check out Pinterest tips for maximizing results.

Valuable Holiday Blog Schedule you need to know and FREE Printable

September 14, 2018 By Joni Kinney Leave a Comment

When you start out blogging one of the hardest things to wrap your mind around is blogging early for seasonal events or taking into account holiday blog topics. Some things happen every year like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and Christmas. However, creating a holiday blog post after the date has passed pretty much makes your effectiveness zero until next year.

When to create Holiday Blog posts / Event posts

With most holidays or Major events you want to be posting your articles at least a month ahead of the event. For some holidays like Christmas, you want to begin your Pinterest strategy to start at the end of June or Early July. When you are blogging, you want to be very conscious about when you are posting. Start thinking about your posts as a significant part of your social strategy and marketing content areas. You want to post when it makes sense. This allows you to maximize traffic to your social funnels and is an integral part of blogging.

***For tips on social marketing I suggest you join the Socialite Suite who offers a course on Funnel Strategy.

Topics to write about

Writing blog posts about gift ideas for a holiday such as Mother’s Day or Father’s Day are always popular. Other favorite ideas are crafts, DIYs and tips, and tricks. If you need some help determining what to write about join our blogging community The Bloggers Bistro get all the best blogging tips. Additionally, check out this fantastic article by Pinterest on trending events for each holiday.

Free Printable

I’ve created a FREE printable for you to use that will help you decide when you should start considering holiday blog posts based on Pinterest activity around those events/holidays.

If you found this article useful, please share it so others can see it as well!

Team Motivation for Direct Sales

July 8, 2018 By Joni Kinney Leave a Comment

Team motivation applies to everyone. Everyone is on or leads a team of some sort. You may be a team leader of your family, your friends, your town board or lead a group at a corporate job. No matter what having a confident team and team motivation determine how successful you are on a daily basis.

5 Keys to Team Motivation Success

Lead from the front – Don’t ask your team members to do things you wouldn’t do. If you aren’t putting your best foot forward your team and those around you will know it. Your team will feel like you don’t care and that is precisely the opposite of what you want.
There is POWER in staying POSTIVE. Negativity has no place in a team setting so keeping a positive mindset is critical. Find ways to encourage, work through issues and put positivity at the forefront of all the things you do.
Have a single mission. Everyone on the team needs to understand the big picture. What are you trying to accomplish? Having a purpose no matter what type of organization can mean the difference between success and failure, your mission can and should change over time. Whether your mission is to make it through the day with no boo-boos or to redesign the corporate logo you need to know what you are trying to accomplish.
Don’t spend time concentrating on things you can’t control. You can only control your reaction, your influences, and your attitudes. Don’t waste time trying to convince others you are right or your way is best. Merely lead the way, and they will get onboard with your vision or they will not. Exuding to much energy into something you can’t control is exhausting and won’t change the outcome anyway.
Gratitude! Showing others they matter means so much to them. It is your job as the leader to help your team stay positive and showing them they matter to you and each other. Team members who feel like they matter are more likely to want to stay engaged and part of the team. Help them see the vision, recognize their accomplishments (even if small) and encourage them to understand and accept others.

Team Motivation Quotes

Your energy is contagious. Either you affect people or you infect them.
Replace “I can’t” with “How can I?”
If you love someone, do not let them settle for less than their best.
When “We” comes before “Me,” you become the person and TEAM you are meant to be.
One person can’t make the team, but one person can break a team.
Dream big, sparkle more, shine brightly.
A little progress each day leads to big results.
Excellence is not a skill; it’s an attitude
Believe in yourself
Be brave enough to believe in yourself.

Looking to set some team goals? Check out our free ebook: Kinney Chaos

Direct Sales Coaching : Strategies for Success

June 22, 2018 By Joni Kinney Leave a Comment

Have you ever thought to yourself I would do so much better in this business if I just had some Direct Sales Coaching? Or Man I wish I could afford one on one training?

If you’ve ever thought any of these things, then Suite SassyPants is the place for you!

What is Suite SassyPants?

Suite SassyPants is a premium Direct Sales coaching group that is run by the Socialite Suite. This group is self-guided but oh so very helpful when you are trying to build your business. While the group is intended mostly for Direct Sales companies, anyone running a business will find the information useful.

What are some of the Suite SassyPants Group Benefits?

Printables
Tips of the Day Videos full of live coaching
Graphics Challenges
Monthly Graphic packs
Sales Strategy calls
Mindset

The best part of this Direct Sales coaching group is that there is a wealth of previous information that can help you as you focus on putting the puzzle pieces of your business together. So if you are working on something, chances are someone else has worked on that too.

Direct Sales Coaching Topics Covered

This group does a 6-month rotation around the following topics:

Content Strategy- Knowing what to post and when
Systems and Tools – What can I use to do all the things?
Marketing Strategies – Creating value, being an influencer and how to use influencers to help you
Branding – Why you need to brand yourself and how to do it. For specifics on only this topic check out our previous article on Personal Branding.
Community Management – How to help your groups, pages, etc. be successful
Funnel Strategy – Getting people where you want them to maximize your reach/customers

How much does it cost?

The monthly membership is $19.99 per month. However, there are bundles for six months and 12-month memberships available. These bundles have discounts applied to them, and once you lock in the rate, it’s your rate for life.

How do you join?

I am so glad you asked! If you own or run or help with a business, you need to be in the pants! Join Suite SassyPants today to help you take your business to new heights!

**** Note this site does contain affiliate links which may give me a small payout on your purchases. This is a service I representant as I am part of the Suite SassyPants community. I would never recommend products or services I don’t personally use.

Instagram Auto Post: Planoly

June 1, 2018 By Joni Kinney 1 Comment

I love Instagram and my new favorite tool, Planoly! There are some visually stunning posts on Instagram and if you are into the Instagram Grid you will find some amazing creativity. With that said, I am always forgetting to actually post on Instagram. If you are stuck on what to post on Instagram, check out our article on types of photos to post.

Let’s face it as someone who is trying to increase their social media awareness you can’t afford to forget to post on one of the social media channels you are trying to build. I am a planner and like to spend a few hours at the beginning of the week creating all my graphics and posts across all of my social media channels. My one missing piece was a way to auto post on Instagram. So I was super excited to find Planoly which will auto post for you!

Insert my new best friend: Planoly!

This amazing little tool of creative goodness let’s you set your images to auto post on Instagram! This is a game changer for those who like to plan ahead and set up their social media posts.

Some great Features include:

Visual Organization: You can see how your posts look together and create a cohesive brand awareness by seeing how your images work together before they actually post.
Pre Write your Posts: Yay! I love being able to plan out what I want to say. This is especially helpful if you are using an challenge or prompts to create your posts.
Analytics: You are going to want to at a minimum check out to see how your posts are doing and see which ones are getting you the most bang for your buck. Therefore creating more posts like the ones that do well and minimizing the ones that don’t.

Let me know what you think of Planoly by commenting on this article!

Direct Sales: What types of Instagram Photos should I post?

May 23, 2018 By Joni Kinney Leave a Comment

Instagram is an amazing tool you can use to express your personality for both personal and business. However many people wonder what are the best Instagram photos to post? Here are some different types of instagram photos that will allow you to help maximize your engagement and interaction.

Instagram Photos with Quotes

The first type of photo you will often see is something with a fun quote. These quotes are often motivational and inspirational. They can be so fun to read what others think people need to see. Keep these types of posts short!

Current Events

By being responsible and posting to relevant current event hashtags will pull people to you. If you combine this with good hashtags, great content and useful ideas/perspectives on things happening around us right now will help boost your posts. Make sure you are not taking advantage of social situations or current events though as that would do the opposite of what you are trying to accomplish.

Organizational Photos

There is something to be said about a well lit, fun photo of objects. This is another great way to help push forward your brand awareness. Read more about how to brand yourself if you don’t already have a personal brand established.

Seasonal Photos

There is just something fun about Christmas Lights, BBQ photos, Valentines hearts and fun loving photos around holidays that make people happy. Your audience should want to get to know you and what your family is doing. That doesn’t mean you have to always share overly personal things, but giving your audience a glimpse into your life makes you relatable. That makes people want to get to know you, and to ultimately follow you on social media.

Selfies

Look to take selfies in unique places to provide fun backgrounds. I’ve recently taken some selfies in hardware stores, craft stores, and randomly along the road. Try to mix in your unique personality with your selfies and show your audience a variety of things and unique color blends to stand out.

With all those ideas the number one characteristic of amazing content that will attract new people to your photo is the ability of your audience to relate to the photo. If you are being authentic, sharing good content, fun ideas and being genuine people are sure to find you.

Great photos and an awesome hashtag strategy are sure fire ways to get you more followers on Instagram. If you want additional tips on how to rock out Instagram I suggest you check out the Suite Success with Instagram video course! This course will help you set up your profile, content and hashtag strategy!

direct sales tips

Ivory Mix

Unsplash

Canva

Pixaby

When to create Holiday Blog posts / Event posts

Topics to write about

Free Printable

5 Keys to Team Motivation Success

Team Motivation Quotes

What is Suite SassyPants?

What are some of the Suite SassyPants Group Benefits?

Direct Sales Coaching Topics Covered

How much does it cost?

How do you join?

Insert my new best friend: Planoly!

Instagram Photos with Quotes

Current Events

Organizational Photos

Seasonal Photos

Selfies

Thank you!

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