Katie Joll

Local's tips for enjoying Lake Tahoe.

Explore Sonoma in the "hoof steps" of Jack London and take to heart his words; "the proper function of man is to live, not to exist."

Gather the girls for a weekend getaway of relaxation and local flavors
There’s nothing quite like a girls’ trip. The laughter, the camaraderie, the fun, and the sense of adventure and shared experience—to my friends and me, this is raising life to the highest pitch of enjoyment.
It’s not always easy to get away, between hectic work and home lives, but my besties and I decided a girls’ weekend was long overdue. Santa Rosa—the hub of Sonoma County wine country—was our agreed-upon destination du...

What’s the first thing you think of when you hear “Anaheim, California”? For most people, the “happiest place on Earth” is top-of-mind, and for good reason.

My husband Vic, daughter Bailey, and I were in Anaheim recently and spent a day at Disneyland® Park. We spun ourselves dizzy on the Astro Orbitor, found Nemo on a submarine voyage, and practiced our pirate voices on The Pirates of the Caribbean.

As we headed back to the car, bedecked in the classic Mickey Mouse ears, Bailey asked what we were doing the next day.

Disney has put Anaheim on the map for many families, but there is so much m

“It’s an odd thing, but anyone who disappears is said to be in San Francisco.” —Oscar Wilde

San Francisco has inspired some of the world’s great minds for generations. It’s a city full of surprises and, yes, it is a place to disappear into, as my friend Jen and I discovered on a recent visit...

Having a smoothly managed cash flow is essential to keeping your business running successfully.
If you’ve decided to source product or sell in international markets, then you’ve got added layers of complexity to deal with when it comes to managing that cash flow. You might have suppliers in one country, buyers in several others, while you sit somewhere else entirely.
Many sellers have faced challenging scenarios, such as where cash flows get held up, supplies of new inventory then get held ba...

Redesigning your website is an exciting but often risky project. The temptation to start from scratch often leads to making decisions based on a lot of assumptions, and many underestimate the value of testing those assumptions.
To make educated, data-driven design decisions, testing some elements first might be a great way to start. In doing so, you might find that smaller changes over time will give you a better return.
There are actually cases to be made for both a radical redesign and incr...

Selling on Amazon is kind of a game of “Survivor,” with the show’s motto, “outwit, outplay, outlast” being appropriate for sellers too.
You’re hoping to not only stay on the island, but win the game, and you’re relying on the “votes” of buyers on Amazon to do so. This means you’ve got to take every advantage you can get.
Visual listing optimization is one of those potential advantages and is a great way to make your listings stand out. What can you do to optimize better than your competitors?...

There’s no question that content marketing can provide an effective boost to the visibility of your business, but creating that content is not where the story ends.
Content promotion is a critical piece of the exercise – without putting effort into promoting your content, how will people find it? Effective content promotion often involves a mix of free and paid forms of advertising. The rub here is that in recent years, there has been increasing resistance to paid advertising, with ad blockers becoming commonplace...

What goals do you have for your content marketing this year?
One that we hear frequently is a renewed commitment to putting out quality content on a regular schedule. “Let’s do this!” the business owner cries enthusiastically, only by February or March, they’re staring at a blank screen, wondering what on earth to write about.
We’ve all been there when it comes to content creation – we know it’s frustrating! One thing that helps is having topic planning nailed down ahead of time.
Some people ...

How successful has your content marketing strategy been so far?
If your answer is “I’m not really sure” or “I think it could be better,” then there’s a good chance that your content marketing efforts are hobbled by a common problem; undefined or unclear metrics for success.
It’s difficult to make a judgment about how successful any kind of strategy is without having clear goals and metrics in place. The old adage “what gets measured, gets managed” is as true a statement for content marketing ...

This free 65-page eBook will guide your marketing strategy to power your next big push to grow your audience, your customer-base, and your brand.
Ready to make that big marketing push?
Your business needs a jolt of energy, a boost in traffic, and an increase in sales and revenue. Don’t we all!?
But really, what you need is a sustainable marketing system that can fuel your growth for months or years to come. In order to achieve this, you’ll need to lay the groundwork with a firm marketing foun...

Have you ever felt that something isn’t quite “clicking” with the marketing for your business?
Perhaps you’re ending up with customers who use a lot of extra resources because nothing is ever quite “right,” or you’re simply not getting enough customers who are a great fit for your business in the first place.
Or maybe you’re getting a lot of cancellations and you’re trying to put your finger on what is behind them…
Here's how your customer personas can play an important role: