Marisa Murgatroyd

By now you’ve probably heard about the hot new (or not so new) social network Pinterest. You may have taken a guilty pleasure sneak peak and found yourself immersed in a vast wonderland of images.

Like all social networks, Pinterest is designed to suck you in and keep you there as long as possible. And it’s working…

Pinterest has been growing like wildfire. We’ve seen statistics suggesting that it drives more referral traffic than YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn combined. You’re probably also aware that the majority of Pinterest users are women — 83% in fact, according to the latest survey results. But I’m not here to bore you with statistics.

I’m here to show you a few best practices to drive traffic and leads to your website using Pinterest — from how to set up your profile to what to pin about and how to build your following.

There are 5 words I hear over and over again in my business, “I need a new website.”

And 4 words that I rarely hear, “I love my website.”

With over 160 million website online, why is it so hard to find business owners who love their sites?

The reason is simple. Most businesses are looking at their website in the wrong way. At best, they see it as a tool, a technology, a business necessity. At worst, they see it as a burden or necessary evil.


But, what if your website has the potential to be much more than that?


What if your website was YOU?

Let me explain.

My client Morgan Langan once told me, “Launching isn’t for pussies” and I have to agree.

They should make t-shirts: “I just survived my first product launch!”

While we’ve built product launch platforms for other entrepreneurs, this is the first time I’ve walked through the fire myself and I wanted to share the mistakes I made and the lessons I learned.

I just “closed the cart” on Message to Money and I’m excited to have over 60 amazing entrepreneurs and small business owners in the program.

So how did I pull off such a successful first launch? Or what should you do to launch a new product online?

I’m Murray and here at Live Your Message, I specialize in creating tools that help simplify complicated things in your business. I’ve done social tools and website testing tools, as well as complete business marketing solutions. I thrive on helping people make their business run better – and one thing that can help is by starting a blog.

You get the chance to give a real voice to not just your business, but YOURSELF. And the market gets a chance to figure out not just who you are, but what you stand for, and what you believe in. What better way to attract new clients but to write from your heart and alllow people to come to you simply because you’re “their kind of people?”

If you need any proof that this strategy of telling people your big WHY works, look no further than Apple’s Steve Jobs.

But I digress — this article was supposed to be a practical one, showing you HOW you get start your own blog in just a couple of minutes.

OK, so you have a small business and you want to do social media right. But what does it take to really do social media in a way that grows your business?

The good news is that I’ve created a 5-step social media system to help you get real business results fast… and I’m giving away all my ninja tricks here so you can:

• build your network and following
• deepen relationships with partners, prospects and clients
• position yourself as an expert and leading authority
• increase your search engine visibility
• and generate targeted traffic to your website

The bad news for all you Facebook addicts is that this system doesn’t involve wasting hours each day on Facebook.

OK, so here’s the bird’s eye view:

1. FOUNDATION – maximize and target traffic coming to your website and social media channels