Are You the Right company to be Pursuing Social Media Management?</h1> <article> <h1>Are You the Right company to be Pursuing Social Media Management?</h1> <p>Will Scarlet — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 07:59:54 GMT</p> <p>Social Media Management is a very effective method of promoting a website via the use of the very popular web 2.0, user generated content websites such as Digg, Del.icio.us,reddit. If a submitted content is successful, this can send thousands of visitors to a website in a short period, potentially leading to numerous incoming links. This method of promoting content via social media sites is commonly termed as linkbait.</p> <p>Businesses strive to find the best avenues to connect with their audiences. Today, social media is one of those avenues that not many companies are pursuing. Social media management can be a platform that is associated with many risks for those companies.</p> <p>If you have a business who has been ignoring the web 2.0 trend and the social media mangement, look out-the tide is shifting now and you are about to be left behind. The rise of social media did not happen overnight. The power of the internet to unite people, the ubiquity of broadband, the rise of Gen Y, the development of new technologies for socializing on the web-all these things and more led to the rise of social media mangement. And this new force is affecting change in the way that companies do business-now and many more years to come.</p> <p>The current trend is not just using blogs, but also social networks and other web 2.0 applications to spread news, connect, create buzz, interact and socialize with others-both for business and visibility. Now companies are struggling to adapt to this new trend in order to deal with their customers.</p> <p>We 2.0 technologies are used take content to the customers. RSS, social networks, web and desktop widgets, blogging, user communities and more can help a company easily reach customers to communicate a company’s message and increase brand awareness.</p> <p> </p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Basics Of Blogging For A living</h1> <p>Rose Dylan — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 08:07:01 GMT</p> <p>It's 2010 and you'll have to have been living under a rock to avoid discovering about the concept of blogging for a living. And perhaps it is because you are considering blogging as a possible source of income that you are reading this. I have been blogging for a few years now and am sharing some of the things that have helped along the way. When all is said and done, what you get out of your blog depends on what you put into it. Loads of people get excited and jump in to blogging but few succeed at it<br /> <br /> <strong>Before you get started</strong><br /> <br /> <strong>Niche</strong>. . Who is your market? It really is important to determine this before getting your domain name or hosting. Does the niche you selected have a need you can fill? It determines what your content is going to be and helps direct how you speak to your audience in your posts. Also if you know the market then it is easy to identify the breaches in the market and fill them<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <strong>Work Schedule</strong>. You need a schedule to work to. Treat your blog like a business. Have a set number of hours everyday that you work on your blog and stick to it. Obviously your schedule will vary if you do this part time from if you are going to be a full time blogger. I would suggest dividing your time into three. One part for generating content, one part for your own education and the last part for generating traffic to your blog <br /> <br /> <br /> <strong>Commit to a posting frequency</strong>. There is no doubt in my mind that the more frequently you post high quality content on your blog, the better it does in the search engines and visitor allegiance is improved. I would suggest posting at least three times a week to start with and once you have your audience you can slow this down. Having said that only post as frequently as you have useful information to share. <br /> <br /> <strong>SEO from The Start</strong><br /> Search engine optimization should start before you put the first word down. Good SEO means a ton of search engine targeted traffic to your blog. It's the difference between looking for traffic to your blog and having the traffic come looking for your content It should be reflected in your choice of domain name, the titles of your posts, the categories you use to archive your posts etc. It could actually determine the blogging platform you decide to use. Wordpress we all know has a fair amount of search engine optimization enhancing plug ins. Having said that though, the best SEO you can do on your pages is in the choice of words you use<br /> <br /> <strong>Become The Go to Guy In Your Niche</strong><br /> As a newbie blogger, you do not need to be that guy in your niche i.e. the guy ith all the answers. As long as you are enthusiastic about learning about that niche and aim to become an expert in the niche. We have all seen those hurriedly thrown together blog posts that just do not make any effort to make a connection with you the reader. You know the blogs we never go back to. And we also all know the blog posts that excite us when we are reading them. The ones that you read them and you feel energized and motivated. This is the style of writing you want to aspire to and choosing a niche you are excited about is a big step towards achieving this<br /> <br /> <br /> <strong>Jump Right in</strong><br /> <br /> <strong>Perpetual Newbie</strong>. You really want to go through the planning stage of your new blogging career very quickly and then jump right in. You have to keep in mind that no blogger started off with all the knowledge in his or her head. We all learned as we went along. And the best way to learn is by doing. So get that blog up and running. Do your niche selection and determine which blogging platform you want to use but get stuck in. The risk of being a perpetual newbie is you never get anything done. <br /> <br /> <strong>SEO Is Crucial</strong>. Good SEO must be the start point of each and every post you write on your blog. Select the keywords you want the post to rank for. Different posts should be optimized for a different set of keywords so that your posts cover a larger section of your niche in the search engines. Include your keyword or keyword phrase in your post title and early in the content of your article. Keep this concept in mind when you are generating backlinks to your blog. You want to use anchor text backlinks that contain the keyword you are optimizing that particular post for. Also aim to write about 350 to 500 words per post. To rank well in the search engines the spiders prefer to find a lot of words on your pages. The content must be original. I would advice not to use PLR articles or other content that can be found elsewhere on the internet. Write your own posts or outsource your content creation but make sure that your content is original<br /> <br /> <strong>Social Networking</strong>. Your reputation is only as big as your network so you need to get busy building a network of friends in the blogging world and in your niche. Mybloglog and technorati are good places to start networking with other bloggers. Blogcatalog is another decent option Facebook and linkedin are social networking sites that are popular with internet marketers. They have a wide variety of groups and you could find one or two in your niche. See what other bloggers are doing, learn from them and their mistakes. <br /> <br /> <strong>Blogging Platform</strong>. The two most popular platforms are Blogger and Wordpress. A lot of internet marketer and professional blogger swear by wordpress. It's great because of the versatility it provides. Blogger does not have the advantage of a whole host of plug ins but it does well in the search engines and the learning curve is not neck breakingly steep. The question may also arise as to whether to purchase your own hositng account or to use the free blogging platforms. As a professional blogger the aim is to host your own blogs. However as a beginner you could opt to use the free blogging platform and then migrate it to your own server once you have started making money from the blog. The one major disadvantage of this though is the loss of your backlinks you would have generated to the free hosted blog. Also a domain name and hosting service are not prohibitively expensive so for a few dollars, it certailnly is worth starting with your own hosting account<br /> <br /> <strong>Getting Traffic</strong><br /> <br /> <strong>Search Engine Optimization</strong>. This has been mentioned before but highlights how important SEO is to getting traffic to your blog in the long term. Each post must be optimized on an individual basis<br /> <br /> <strong>Keynote articles</strong>. These are articles that comprehensivey and exhaustively cover a particular subject in your niche. They are so thorough that they become the reference articles on that particular subject. Every once in a while, find out what people in your niche are most concerned about, what is giving them particular difficulty and write a pillar article on that. This article will act as a magnet for visitors to your site and could help establish your reputation as an expert in the field<br /> <br /> <strong>Blog carnivals</strong>. Blog carnivals are a very effective method of getting the word out about your blog. A blog carnival is a blogpost on someone elses blog that collects the most relevant articles on a particular subject. When published, the carnival post has a short intoduction to what the carnival is about then has snippets of blog posts that have been accepted on the carnival. There is then a link under each snippet to the blog where the original post is i.e your blog If your post gets accepted in someones carnival it's a good thing both for SEO and direct traffic<br /> <br /> <strong>Article marketing</strong>. No article on traffic generation os complete without at least a mention of article marketing. Article marketing involves writing high quality articles and submitting these articles to article directories online. If the article is accepted, there is a bio box or about the author space where you can put an anchor text link to your blog Do not use the same content on your blog for your article marketing campaigns<br /> <br /> <strong>Guest blogging. </strong>A little like article marketing because you are generating articles and submitting them to other peoples' sites. Instead of submitting your article to an article directory, you submit it to someone else's blog. You must make sure that the blogs you submit to attract visitors that are targetted to your niche, commands a lot of traffic and have a decent reputation<br /> <br /> <strong>Social Bookmarking And Blog Directories</strong>. Most of them are no follow so the backlink is not worth much from the SEO perspective but it does tell other people that your blog is out there. Social bookmarking sites need a little work to build a reputation. The earlier you start building a reputation or a network at the social bookmarking sites the better it will be for your bookmarks when you eventually start bookmarking your blog posts<br /> <br /> <br /> <strong>Back to school</strong><br /> <br /> Apart form learning as much as you possibly can about your niche, you must also keep up to date with what's going on in the world of blogging. People come across novel methods of getting traffic to blogs every so often. There are new software being developed, new rules regarding sharing of information and a myriad of things.Staing abreast of these developments can be daunting. A great way to get information is to join forums in your niche, forums about blogging and internet marketing forums There is a wealth of information shared in the forums on a daily basis. For tips on internet marketing, the warrior forum has a lot of marketers sharing tips and ideas. Whatever you do, keep learning and keep implementing what you learn <br /> <br /> <strong>Monetization</strong><br /> So you now have a blog with a few high quality posts that are getting a decent amount of traffic to it. The question is how do you make money from your blog. <br /> <br /> <strong>Google Adsense</strong>. Requires you to register with Google adsense and acceptance to the program is not automatic. adsense is an ad serving program that allows you the blog owner to make money by displaying ggogle adsense ads on your posts. Google gives you a code to place on your blog. This code leads to the display of adverts relevant to your blogs content on your pages. You get a small amount of money each time someone clicks on an adsense ad on your pages. With a large number of visitors per day and a large number of clicks, the earnings soon add up Adsense is quite popular with blog owners and webmasters because it is easy to use<br /> <br /> <strong>Affiliate Marketing</strong>. One of the leading methods of making money online and a really cool business model As an affiliate marketer you promote other peoples products and get paid a commission if a desires action is achieved. This could be a sale or a sign up. In affiliate marketing, you do not have any physical contact with the product so no storage or shipping required on your partYou role is simple to send buyers to the merchants site through a special affiliate link unique to you<br /> <br /> <strong>Promote your Business</strong>. It may well be that you have a business that you are trying to promote. Or perhaps a product that you wish to sell. The reach of your blog increases the audience to which you can market your business or product to Your blog could be your internet portal to get the word out about your business or product<br /> <br /> These are just a few of an infinite methods of making money from your blog. <br /> <br /> So that was a crash course on getting started with blogging. <br /> </p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Companies Call Social Media Marketing “Tradeshow Marketing” For the Online Medium.\</h1> <p>Oliver Feakins — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 15:07:27 GMT</p> <p>Prior to starting at a social media marketing agency, I was a corporate sales executive. Throughout my career I loved attending trade shows. It was different; it got me out of the standard routine of cold calling and scheduled meetings. It also appealed to me because of the unique way in which I could get in front of my potential client base to build relationships, answer questions and build my company’s brand. Management would always try to cut tradeshows from the marketing budget listing the expense and time that goes into them as the reasons. They would also complain tradeshow marketing was hard to justify because there was not a clear Return on Investment (ROI). With the rise of social media marketing, I’m beginning to see a lot of these same questions and concerns being raised about Social Media Marketing that were once raised about tradeshow marketing.</p> <p><br /> Like tradeshows, Social Media Marketing is about engaging a passionate group of potential customers and turning them into brand evangelists or enthusiasts. So instead of directly selling to a consumer (which you can do as well) you are hoping to indirectly sell them by influencing key influencers within the target market. The goal here is what is referred to as ‘viral exposure’ of your company’s brand and or product to people that will share your company’s message peer-to-peer, using the invaluable ‘word of mouth’ messaging we all strive for. Companies like Coca-Cola, Starbucks and other leading companies have seen outstanding results from their Social Media Marketing campaigns and have pushed social media into their mainstream marketing mix.</p> <p><br /> So how can you measure the process of generating “buzz”? Trying to measure the return on social media by using traditional online metrics is like trying to fit a square plug into a round hold - it just doesn’t work. It’s easy to measure visits, sales, inquires or other conversion items attributed to the Social Media Marketing campaign by using analytics. You’re then able to attribute a cost per visitor or even a cost per sale -just like handing out coupons at tradeshows. What you can’t account for is the buzz and brand building that Social Media Marketing offers. It may take months (and usually does) for Social Media Marketing campaigns to gather enough steam for companies to start seeing the results and even then they often come in ways that can’t be easily tracked. Some companies prefer to look at the number of engaged users from a campaign. They track server logs, monitor RSS feed subscriptions, count friends on social networking sites and users on widgets and many other ways. They then assign a cost per engagement metric. Be assured that as the campaign continues to build steam and generate lots of positive “buzz” about your company you are able to see your initial investment pay off and continue to grow right before your eyes. Like trade shows were to off-line marketing, Social Media Marketing builds and maintains a large list of potential brand enthusiasts that will work for your brand for free!</p> <p><br /> I’m a firm believer that a unique set of metrics needs to be defined for Social Media Marketing campaigns. When you take the cost of the campaign, along with the amount of engagement, site visits, sales and inquiries you’re able to put a number to the ROI of the Social Media Marketing campaign. And it’s important not forgot the other benefits to Social Media Marketing such as an increased in back links and rankings. These two very important benefits bring in tons of qualified traffic and also produce sales as well.<br /> This inability to show hard trackable results is just one example of the difficulties of attributing a comprehensive ROI to social media. In my opinion Social Media Marketing agencies need to do a better job explaining social media ROI along with reasonable expectations to their clients prior to starting any kind of viral or social media marketing campaign.</p> <p><br /> Like tradeshows, corporate marketing executives are going to have to accept and realize the fact that there is a conversation going on right now in your industry within the social landscape. Socially “savvy” companies are already in the conversation and are subsequently enjoying the benefits of talking to potential customers in a somewhat “empty” space. By adding Social Media Marketing to your current marketing campaigns you can join the conversation and get in front of a highly influential set of individuals that have the ability and really influence and engage your company’s target market at the peer group level.</p> <p>Oliver Feakins is the President of WebTalent SEO, a full service internet marketing company and social media company based in Lancaster, PA. With a strong expertise in seo services, Oliver has helped clients from startups to publically traded corporations increase their reach online for over 8 years. WebTalent SEO can be found at http://www.webtalentseo.com .</p> <p><br /> </p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Link Building Company Spills The Beans On Building Backlinks</h1> <p>Oliver Feakins — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 14:52:51 GMT</p> <p>Having a Web site and a Web address doesn’t mean that people (other than your spouse, parents and best friend) will visit it. Hiring a link building company is an action you may take so that people searching for the services or products you offer will find your site.</p> <p>One way to get people to find you is to rank high in search engines. And one means to help you rank high is to have many links from other Web sites linking to your site. Called backlinks, these help your site come up high in search results at Google or Yahoo! or other search engine because search engines figure that sites that have many sites linking to them must have a lot of good, solid information within them. Link building services help create those backlinks for you.</p> <p>It’s akin to a third-party endorsement or referrals. The more links, the more people like your site, the better your site must be (or so the search engines think). Hence, the Googles and Yahoos! will rank your site higher than a competitor’s site that doesn’t have as many links.</p> <p>Search engines also will look for keywords in your Web site that people use when they perform searches, but the more people who link to you without you linking to them (backlinks) the more popular the search engines believe your site to be. Which means a better ranking for your site. Which is another reason you may wish to hire a link building company.</p> <p>There are several ways you can build links to your site without hiring link building services . For example, you could write short (300-500 words) article about your product or service and then submit it to several article directories. Article marketing, as this is called, is a great way to get focused traffic to your site because of the outreach well-known article directory sites such as EzineArticles.com, Goarticles.com, Isnare.com and others have.</p> <p>Another fun way to build backlinks is to comment on blogs and forums. Be sure to include a link to your Web site or blog in your “signature” line. You also should contribute something worthwhile to the forum or blog conversation. Comments such as “I agree” or “Nice post” are obvious signs you’re only in the conversation for your needs and will get tossed on your virtual keister quickly. Post a comment only when you truly have something interesting to say.</p> <p>You can write and submit the articles, as well as perform other link building services yourself. But this does take a lot of time. As a business owner, your time is at a premium and you should focus your efforts on the things you do best.</p> <p>So it may be time to hire a link building company to do perform link building services for you. You’ve gone to the trouble, expense and effort to create a Web site that offers the public your terrific product or your much-needed service. Link building will help them find you and a good link building company will ensure that you’ll receive a terrific return on your investment.</p> <p>Oliver Feakins is the President of WebTalent SEO, A full service SEO company offering internet marketing services to companies nationwide. For more information on Oliver's company visit http://www.webtalentseo.com .</p> <p> </p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>What Are Meta Tags and How Can They Help My Site?</h1> <p>Travis Petersen — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:59:20 GMT</p> <p> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b>Introduction</b><b><br /> </b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Getting your website found by search engines and making your way to the top of the rankings is tough—it’s a time-consuming process involving a lot of trial and error, the creation of good, quality content, obtaining quality backlinks from respected sites in your industry, and building and maintaining a site with an easy-to-navigate architecture that allows search engine spiders to move from page to page, indexing the site’s contents properly.<br /> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">There is a lot of debate about the use of meta tags, and whether or not having keyword-rich meta tags really helps your site. The truth of the matter is, there is no expert consensus as to whether or not Google uses meta data at all, but many SEO experts are sure that meta data is helpful for Yahoo!, and when it comes down to it, including keyword-rich meta tags is easy to do and doesn’t hurt. So we recommend that all sites include the meta description and meta keywords tags, as well as the title tag (not technically a meta tag, but often used in conjunction with them), and we recommend that sites use relevant keywords in those tags.<br /> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b>So, What ARE Meta Tags?</b><b><br /> </b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Simply put, meta tags are information that is placed in the “head” area of web pages that is not seen by visitors to your site that are using a web browser. Since the Title tag is visible in the top bar of the browser, it is technically not a meta tag, though it is often considered in conjunction with the meta description tag and the meta keywords tag. The most often used meta tags, and the ones we will discuss, are:<br /> </p> <ul style="margin-top:0in;"> <li class="MsoNormal">Meta description tag: <META name=”description” content=”Keyword-rich content goes here.”></li> <li class="MsoNormal">Meta keywords tag:<span> </span><META name=”keywords” content=”relevant keywords separated by commas go here”><br /> </li> </ul> <p class="MsoNormal">Just as it is important to use the Title tag, and include a relevant keyword, it is important to include keywords relevant to the content on the page in your meta description and in the meta keywords tag. With the meta keywords tag, it is easy: just include a comma-separated list of keywords (we recommend two or three per page, so as not to overdo it—you don’t want to look like a spammer!). The meta description can be a bit more tricky.<br /> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">The meta description should be written in one or two complete sentences. It should make sense when read, because this is often what shows up in search engines to summarize a site that appears in the SERPs (search engine results pages). We recommend including one or two keywords that fit naturally into a one or two sentence description that summarizes the content on your page, or gives a tease that searchers might find enticing when choosing a site to click on from the SERP.<br /> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">For example: Say your site sells toys for small dogs. You’ve already decided on “small dog toys” and “toys for small dogs” as the keywords to place in your meta keywords tag. A simple description for your Home or About Us page might read:<br /> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Pup Palace offers an extensive selection of toys for small dogs. Shop for small dog toys here.”<br /> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">It’s short, sweet, and contains two keywords that are relevant to the site.<br /> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b>How Can Meta Tags Help My Site?</b><b><br /> </b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Most search engine optimizers believe the title tag is an important ranking factor, but the benefit of meta tags has lessened over the past few years. Initially, the keywords tag was the main way search engines looked to find out what was on a site for indexing purposes. When this led to exploitation of the keywords tag by spammers, the engines found other ways to index. The keywords and description tag can still be beneficial, however, especially if they are used in a way that is relevant to the content of the page on which they are contained.<br /> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">It is a fairly common belief among SEO experts that Yahoo! still gives weight to meta tags. While no one knows if Google does or not, the description is usually what appears on Google SERPs to summarize the pages that appear in the results. If you don’t use the description tag (and use it wisely) a random snippet of text containing the relevant phrases can be pulled out of context and shown in its place.<br /> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Since the meta tags are easily added, and there is no risk in using them, the use is recommended.<br /> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b>Conclusion</b><b><br /> </b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Meta tags are just one piece of the SEO puzzle. The world of organic search marketing is constantly changing. Network Solutions’ experts are constantly working to keep up to date on the latest trends and changes. Check back often for more helpful articles.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Writing for the Web: Hook the Search Engines and Your Readers</h1> <p>Travis Petersen — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:55:01 GMT</p> <p> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Ever since people figured out that optimizing text for search engines was a good way to get rankings, way back in the dark ages of the early 2000s, it seems that the quality of text on websites has lost something. That something is “readability.” How many times have you searched for something on the web and been led to a site that reads something like the following?<br /> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Our small dog toy website sells the best small dog toys around. If you’re looking for toys for small dogs, small dog toys, or a particular small dog toy, you’ve come to the right place. Dog Toy Warehouse is your one stop shop for small dog toys and all of your small dog toy needs.”<br /> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">We bet it’s quite a few.<br /> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">The good news is that the search engines have caught on. Stuffing keywords into website text where it doesn’t belong, or overdoing it in terms of writing “optimized” text that’s only for the search engines, doesn’t work quite as well as it used to in achieving higher rankings. That’s because it’s the job of search engines like Google and Yahoo! to provide searchers with what they are looking for—relevant content that answers the question or provides the product they are searching for.<br /> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b>So what do we do now?</b><br /> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">When writing “optimized” text, think about optimizing text for readers first and search engines second. What do visitors to your site want to do? If you sell small dog toys, tell them about the toys you sell so that it’s easy to make an informed purchase. Inform them of discounts, promotions, and shipping policies. Think of yourself as someone who wants to purchase a small dog toy, and work backwards.<br /> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b>Give readers the good news</b><br /> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">A good way to think about it is to consider how journalists write news stories. Write a catchy, informative headline, and if your text is geared toward what web searchers are looking for, a keyword phrase should naturally appear within it:<br /> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Small Dog Toys: New Product Lines Available Now”<br /> </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Place the most important information, about your product or service, at the beginning of the text. Web users read quickly. Web users scan text. If you don’t hook them right away, it’s very possible they won’t read to the bottom of the page to figure out if you offer what they want. In this way, too, writing for the web can be like writing a quick news story.<br /> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b>Include keywords in bulleted lists</b><b><br /> </b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">While keywords might not naturally appear within paragraph text, using them in bulleted lists of available products or services is a good way to get them into the text without it seeming unnatural.<br /> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b>Good content is spider food</b><b><br /> </b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Providing helpful, relevant information is the goal of the search engines. Help the search engines, and they will help you. Write informative articles that readers will want to read, and the search engines will reward you. Have at least a few paragraphs (250 words is a good number to shoot for).<br /> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b>Conclusion</b><b><br /> </b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">There’s no one that knows more about your business than you do. Whether you write your content yourself, or employ a copywriter from an organization like Network Solutions, use your inside knowledge to provide your site’s visitors with the information they need. There’s no easy trick to writing for the search engines—the good news is, now there doesn’t have to be.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>5 Ingredients to Succeed In Affiliate Marketing</h1> <p>MySolutionSpot Editor — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 03:39:26 GMT</p> <p> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;">The idea of being mere passengers on a ship meant to sail to the farthest points of the earth does not appeal to people who like to put their destiny into their own hands. They have the desire of maneuvering the ship themselves, of being able to take the ship anywhere they want to. Being aboard a ship on its way to a particularly great destination is something each and every one of them dreams of, and the knowledge that they have the capacity to steer it themselves is what makes them actually want to.<br /> <br /> Perhaps this is the reason why more and more people are succumbing to one of the most popular businesses around – affiliate marketing. It is because in this business, there are no bosses to order the employees around. There are no deadlines to meet and no clutter of work do to. One only needs to be equipped with the tools needed to succeed in this business, and he is bound to get what his heart ultimately desires.<br /> <br /> Just what are the things needed to be able to succeed in affiliate marketing? What must one have within himself to be able to do well in this industry? <br /> <br /> There is a lot of competition involved in affiliate marketing, and to be able to rise above the norm, one must be equipped with just the right stuff necessary to propel himself forward. There are five things one must ultimately possess if he wants to achieve the glory he is yearning for and these five things are a must for him to be able to stand out from the rest.<br /> <br /> The very first quality one must possess is the willingness to learn and be trained. Treading through unfamiliar territory is scary stuff if one is not properly equipped, and he might get lost amidst a jungle of the unknown. Learning the tricks of the trade is also an important aspect of the game, and one’s willingness to know it all will give him far better advantages in the business than he could ever imagine.<br /> <br /> The second quality one must possess is the willingness to invest time and effort even if direct results do not seem apparent. Although several months may pass without good news, it is important for one who has his foot in the industry to hold on and wait. It is this quality which will save him from giving up after investing a lot of time in his business.<br /> <br /> The third quality one must possess is self-determination. If one wants to conquer the affiliate marketing world, he must have the ability to push himself ahead. A 'Never Say Die' attitude is a quality each and every affiliate marketer should possess, and the ability to motivate oneself into scaling greater heights is an ability which would actually take an affiliate marketer there.<br /> <br /> The fourth quality one must possess is discipline. If one knows how to teach himself to work everyday with all the energy he can muster, then he is close to achieving what he has set his heart to having in the first place.<br /> <br /> The fifth and last quality one must possess is optimism. Negative attitudes and hearsays should not discourage an affiliate marketer from pursuing what he has to in order to make life better for himself and for everyone concerned. Neither should anyone influence his attitude toward the business, because once in it, it is a must for him to be the captain of his ship and the master of his soul.<br /> <br /> The ingredients to success in a business such as affiliate marketing are diverse but the most important thing one needs lies within himself alone. It is he who has the capacity to do everything, to be able to realize his dreams, and the desire which fuels his heart in doing so is the gasoline which should keep the engine going.<br /> <br /> In summary the five ingredients for a successful affiliate marketer are:<br /> <br /> 1. Willingness to learn and to be trained<br /> 2. Willingness to invest time and effort<br /> 3. Determination<br /> 4. Discipline<br /> 5. Optimism<br /> <br /> Affiliate marketing is all about putting one’s fate into one's own hands. The right attitude is the key to being able to steer one’s ship into that part of the ocean where a certain kind of serenity can be found, one that permeates the atmosphere as the ship sails calmly on.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;">Author: Steve Sharpe</span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;"></span></b><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial;">To get your free ebook 'Article Marketing Avalanche', please visit<a href="http://www.articleland.co.uk/" target="_blank"> http://www.articleland.co.uk</a>. Steve Sharpe is the CEO & Editor in Chief of<a href="http://www.informationbooth.net/" target="_blank"> http://www.informationbooth.net</a> and<a href="http://www.articleland.co.uk/" target="_blank"> http://www.articleland.co.uk</a>. He has been in internet marketing for a number of years and can be reached for further information at his websites.</span></p> </article> <article> <h1>5 Secrets Executives Should Know About Customer Surveys</h1> <p>Terri Schepps — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:51:55 GMT</p> <p> </p> <div style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;"><b><span style="font-size:14pt;color:#333399;">Secret #1: </span></b></div> <div style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;"><b><span style="color:#333399;">Executives need to know what customers are saying and thinking</span></b></div> <div style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:#333399;">Executives seeking feedback from their customers will get a view point like no other. Who better to ask than your customer about what you’re selling, your staff, the experience, whether or not they know someone else that may want to purchase? The accuracy and precision of decisions made based on up-to-date customer feedback is priceless. </span></div> <div style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;"> </div> <div style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;"> </div> <div style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;"> </div> <div style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;"><b><span style="font-size:14pt;color:#333399;">Secret #2: </span></b></div> <div style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;"><b><span style="color:#333399;">Executives can use survey data to save expenses and generate profits</span></b></div> <div style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:#333399;">Executives review numbers when it’s too late. Balance sheets, sales reports and statistics are results not the details needed to see what is driving results. If a customer is not having a good experience they can either complain or take their business somewhere else. Companies can be blind sighted by several issues: untrained staff, inadequate resources, poor quality and the list goes on. It only takes a single negative experience for your customer to decide they’ve had enough. </span></div> <div style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;"> </div> <div style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;"><b><span style="font-size:14pt;color:#333399;">Secret #3: </span></b></div> <div style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;"><b><span style="color:#333399;">Customers want to give meaningful feedback</span></b></div> <div style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:#333399;">Customers are usually left to their own when it comes to feedback. Without a crystal ball there is no way to identify which customers have positive or negative feedback to share. Very few companies seek pro-active feedback from its customers, yet customers will readily share their feedback when asked. When customers are engaged on this level, the message goes beyond just a simple survey or phone call. Companies who actively seek feedback from their customers can use this exchange to enhance and improve the relationship they have with its customers.</span></div> <div style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;"> </div> <div style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;"><b><span style="font-size:14pt;color:#333399;">Secret #4: </span></b></div> <div style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;"><b><span style="color:#333399;">Surveys can generate referrals and inform customers about products/services offered</span></b></div> <div style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:#333399;">Customers are not always aware of all the products offered. Companies want their customers to be aware of the full product selection, but it can be challenging keeping customers informed. Referrals can dramatically increase if customers simply know they are desired. From the beginning, the customer should know the goal is for them to be so pleased with the service or product they would, if given the opportunity, refer others.</span></div> <div style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;"> </div> <div style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;"><b><span style="font-size:14pt;color:#333399;">Secret #5:</span></b></div> <div style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;"><b><span style="color:#333399;">Surveys don’t have to be annoying, time consuming and costly</span></b></div> <div style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:#333399;">Having dialog with customers as a routine course of business, limiting the information collected to relationship indicators, executives have the power to monitor and even change customer experiences for the better. Customer surveys can be used to collect relevant, real time information. With the right strategy, customer surveys are a sound investment of time and money. </span></div> <div style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;"> </div> <div style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size:10pt;color:#333399;"><span style="font-size:10pt;"><strong>11 page executive report is available by request: </strong><a href="mailto:surveys@rrc.us.com"><strong>surveys@rrc.us.com</strong></a></span><span style="font-size:10pt;"> <b>Subject: Executive Report</b></span></span></div> <div style="margin:0in 0in 0pt;"><b> </b></div><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Top 7 challenges every affiliate marketer will face</h1> <p>Ryan Jones — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 20:43:59 GMT</p> <p><strong>Introduction</strong></p> <p>So, you have seen ads on TV late at night advertising that you can make millions of dollars simply by promoting other people's products or services online via affiliate marketing (such as the <em>Short Cut to Millions </em>commercials you see from time to time about people striking it rich with their program). Or maybe you are looking for work at various job hunting sites like career builder and see a catchy work at home opportunity that seems to have your name on it (herbalife is an example of that). Whatever the program there is out there, just about any work at home program will say that it is easy to make millions simply by promoting whatever the companies have to offer. Of course, if you are like a typical newbie at affilite marketing (like I am) when you do take up that program and start working on earning commissions, you will probably find that successfully generating sales and income (let alone big commissions) can literally be easier said than done. Also, depending on your skill level, making good money online can literally take days, weeks, or even months before you can get good results. I have done affiliate marketing since last July with no prior sales and marketing experience, and I can tell you first hand that making money online certainly does take lots of work. In this article I will cover at least 7 obstacles you will face when it comes to generating income online. Note this article is completely in my own opinion, and you are free to agree or disagree with me.</p> <p><strong>Challenge #1 Finding a profitable niche to build your website around</strong></p> <p>If you are looking to make relatively quick commissions online, you will find that many veteran affiliate marketers all say that you must find a highly profitable <u>niche</u> to build a website around. A "niche" is basically the general theme that your website is built around. For example, if you built a website about your favorite vacation spot (we will take Seattle, Washington as an example), and wanted to build a website about Seattle, then your niche would be "Seattle". Ideally, most expert affiliate marketers (i.e., Ken Evoy, Rosalind Gardiner, Average Joe Marketer, and others) will tell you that you need to build a website around a narrow niche that is often searched for that gets low results on search engines. For example, if you have dogs, and want to build a website centered around dogs in general, you can do that, however if you do a search for "dogs" in most search engines (such as Google or Bing), you will find that you have millions of different websites you are competing with for the top spot on search engines (they say you should appear within the top 20 results of a key word search on search engines for best results via search engine marketing). Also, most search engines give all new websites a page rank of 0 initially (especially Google), and so your site would be near the far end of the search results unless if your site climbs in rank. Of course, finding the best possible niche to build a website around is not easy either as even many long tail key words are getting taken (especially popular niches). If you were looking for ebooks on dogs for example, you would realize that when you do a search for "ebooks on dogs" at Google, you would find that there are more than 4,000,000 different listings for websites on dogs. So, finding the perfect niche to build your site around will take time and energy. Of course, there are ways to simplify the task as there are tools out there to help you find the perfect niche. This brings us to obstacle number 2.</p> <p><strong>Challenge #2- Competing in more competitive fields- </strong></p> <p>This type of challenge is certainly common when it comes to turn key websites (or those websites you can purchase from various providers, such as Yourbizwebsites, Amazon, and plug in profit sites that come loaded with prebuilt commercial content covering various subjects and all you really have to do is to plug your affiliate id on the links you have and just promote the site to make profits, instead of having to build the site from scratch) as well as most multilevel marketing firms where you have a sign up link that you have to promote to build your downline. So, let's say you decided to take a competitive field in affiliate marketing and build say a website on the Xbox 360. While the Xbox 360 is a hot topic to build a website around, you will find that there are many other websites that are on the Xbox 360, but you do it anyways. You can go that route, but search engine marketing alone is probably not going to be the best route to go at first (unless if you can build up your inbound links and thus your search engine rankings in a short amount of time). Of course, there are ways to market more competitive niches, such as building a website around multiple topics (if you build a generic website), doing paid advertising (where you can literally buy traffic to your site for a certain ammont of money), as well as straight up guerrilla marketing (i.e., blogging, social networking, posting classified ads, door to door sales, etc). Of course, it can take both time and money for you to build your client base or get any real results with this strategy. Also, if you opt to do paid advertising, some key words are more expensive to bid on than others (ideally you want to get as mainly clicks for your dollar as you can get for as low price as possible, but some key words are bidding at $1.00 per click or higher, which you will need to spend more money for optimal results, and can get expensive after a while). Even free traffic building techniques do have their obvious pros and cons (and can take a long time to generate good results depending on how you promote).</p> <p><strong>Challenge #3- Low skill level</strong></p> <p>Ideally if you plan to take up affiliate marketing, it helps to have some successful marketing experience, preferably in a commission sales setting. This is because being an affiliate marketer is essentially a commission sales job, which means you get paid for what you sell (though some companies pay on a per click or lead basis). Naturally, some products and services will be easier to sell than others and it certainly does pay to know what you are doing when you take up marketing. If you are good with commission sales programs, then affiliate marketing can be very profitable for you, whereas on the flip side, if you are a total newbie, earning commissions can definitely be easier said than done, and it can take months, weeks, or even years before you get good results if you don't know what you are doing. On the plus side, there are mentors out there (even with some of the companies that specialize in affiliate marketing), but many of them do charge their clients for their services (which can be expensive depending on who is mentoring you). There are also videos, ebooks, and regular books out there, but not all of them are free, and some may be more helpful than others. It might be easier to not go at it alone, and recruit people into your business that can help you get started. For example, if you don't know how to make a website, then you could hire someone to build your site for you and you can focus more on promotion, list building, and budgeting. Of course, I do not recommend affiliate marketing to anyone who does not know what they are doing and have little or no prior commission sales experience (unless if you are willing to hire people to help you promote your business).</p> <p><strong>Challenge 4 - not putting a hole in your budget</strong></p> <p>With affiliate marketing, you are essentially running your own business. You set up your own website, you run marketing campaigns yourself, and so fourth. Like just about any kind of business, you can expect to spend money with affiliate marketing, with common costs including web hosting for the website you build, advertising, maintaining a mailing list for your subscribers, training material, and the like. Of course, if you are not careful about how you spend your money, costs can add up after a while. I made that mistake myself by pouring more than $2000 into my affiliate marketing efforts by buying ebooks, spending lots of money with paid advertising, a $500 ebook on list building, as well as upgraded memberships at traffic exchanges, and so now my money is extremely tight. There are plenty of resources out there, and you will likely attract spammers with your efforts (especially if you advertise on Craigslist as people will solict you trying to get you to join their classified ads service), along with the occasional scam artist that wants to rip you off on something, but then if you give your money to every service out there, you will likely find yourself in a pit sooner or later (such as huge credit card debts). Of course, there are ways to keep costs down, such as choosing your hosting service carefully (some services are more affordable than others you know), getting the most cost effective resources for your business, try to get as many clicks for each dollar you spend on pay per click ads, as well as not taking up every offer you see out there. </p> <p><strong> Challenge 5 - becoming a "spammer magnet"</strong></p> <p>Alan Gardyne from the Associate Programs website (see resource box below for link) rightly says in his tutorial article, "18 Step Affiliate Program Tutorial" that after you have built your website and are waiting for people to buy from the companies you represent, you will become a prime target from spammers, as well as occasional scam artists alike (Gardyne). Since you have to expose your presence online, post your email address on sites, as well as joining various networking sites online, you will likely get get other web marketers who try to solicit you on stuff. For example, if you have invested in the multilevel marketing business, sometimes you might get people from other MLMs that try to recruit you into their MLM firm, usually saying that theirs is better than yours. I get that myself, as I have been a Global Domains International Member since September of 2008, and now I get people from other MLMs trying to get me to join theirs (some noteworthy ones includes: carbon copy pro, vemma builder, xango juice, alive max, and push button extreme). Of course, I am not about to invest my money into multiple MLMs out there since not only would that get expensive after a while and plus it helps to get a decent conversion rate with one program before moving onto another (which is common sense). One other thing worth mentioning is that if you put your phone number up online, some people WILL call you offering services for money. I remember a while back when I first joined Legit Online Jobs, for example, I got a guy representing the company wanting to offer me 1 on 1 coaching service for at least $2000 up front. Of course, $2000 is a lot of money to invest in training for affiliate marketing business (especially if you can go to friends, your former employer, or even college professor for advise, or even getting a good ebook for less than $100 that explains the opportunity in detail). Bottom line, new marketers beware: other marketers are coming after you for your money. Of course, there are a few ways to curb spam, such as not signing up for every newsletter you find online, being mindful where you post your information, having people "work" for your sign up, or even referring them to other advertising services.</p> <p><strong>Challenge 6 - Promoting your website or program without spamming</strong></p> <p>In the last section, I talked about trying to promote a website without spamming, and now I will talk about a similar issue that you will likely encounter online: how to promote without spamming. Of course, I am not talking about spam as a good thing, but now days where people are extra weary about web marketers and spammer, some people have a very broad definition of what "spam" is. For example, let's say you don't have the money to advertise your website on pay per click advertising (AdWords can get very expensive if you are not able to generate sales with it after all), and so you decide to write a classified ad on Craigslist. You can do that, but there are two things to watch for: 1) Craigslist does prohibit direct affiliate marketing, and 2) there are flaggers lurking around on Craigslist often looking to enforce the rules to the letter, and so if your ad looks too catchy, or you make your affiliate marketing efforts obvious (I am sure that we have all made that mistake at some point), someone will flag your ad and it will get deleted. Consequently, one has to mask their promotional efforts a bit to avoid "spamming" Craigslist. Also, for companies that have invite systems (such as Global Domains International), naturally you will probably try to invite people you know to join your downline, but then if you are not careful about who you invite, some people may get upset and treat your invite as "spam". Even on forums and social networking sites, you will find that some are more lenient than others about what you post, as well as sites where there are "stalinist" moderators who consider even linking to your own site as "spam". Some forums even have restrictions on what goes on your signature file. In fact, the other day, I had an interesting thing happen to me, I used to be a member at a popular business forum called business forums, and I don't know what I said or did (or maybe it had something to do with me showcasing my website in the advertising section on the site), but one day when I tried to log in, I found out that my ip address was banned. Obviously, I am not normally the spammer type, but I must have pissed someone off there unintentionally, and the admin decided to ban me (he never even gave me a warning or gave me a chance to explain myself). Luckily that was just one several forums I was a part of, but that example is to illustrate how easy it can be to cross the line and be considered a "spammer". Perhaps the best things you can do to avoid "spamming" is to mask your marketing efforts when doing free methods, not posting referral links on social networking sites (unless if they don't restrict them), and taking things slowly. Another thing you could do is go the path of least resistance, as there are sites that are more lenient about how you promote than others. For example, one type of site I tend to favor are traffic exchanges since one can simply post almost any link they wish to promote (though some restrictions apply), surf other webmasters' ads and get easy page views that way. The only downside to traffic exchanges is that you will find that the conversion rate is not very good with those as most fellow surfers will likely visit your website mainly to get credits, and so you would have to surf lots of sites (ideally at least 1000 credits' worth of sites per day minimum) if you want best results with them, which can take time and work (like spending up to 6 hours or more per day surfing countless sites for credits). You could also focus more on offline promotion where you can show of your links to friend, family, and other people you come across.</p> <p><strong>Challenge 7 - Going "impressions" and "clicks" to actually getting "leads" and "sales"</strong></p> <p>This is a challenge I am facing now and can't really provide and answer to this: if you market your website properly, you will find that most of the time you will only get hits and occasional hits for the links you have. Of course, the real challenge is to be able to go get some of the hits to turn into sales or payable leads. You might get 1000 impressions, and 100 clicks on average, but if none of them convert to leads or sales, it can be extra tricky to earn money with affiliate marketing. It would be nice if companies paid on a per click or 1000 impressions basis, but that is not so with most companies. Even with Google AdSense, which pays on a per click basis, it can be tricky to generate extra clicks each day. Perhaps the best way to improve your conversion rate (or sales, payable leads/clicks, etc) is to get feedback from people and try to build up traffic and tweek your site to give people reasons to do more than just clicking on your links.</p> <p>Well, that are all of the challenges worth pointing out for now, and I will plan on posting more as I come across more challenges over time. </p> <p>Ryan Jones is the webmaster of <a href="http://www.snohomish-ebook-store.net/" target="_new">http://www.snohomish-ebook-store.net</a>, which contains ebooks on a variety of subjects, including topics on web marketing, and so if you need extra resources for your business, you are welcome to check it out. You can also view his blog at <a href="http://www.iblog.at/ryansjones">www.iblog.at/ryansjones </a></p> <p>Other links: Gardyne, Allan, "18 Steps Affiliate Program Tuturial", <a href="http://www.associateprograms.com/articles/188/1/Affiliate-Program-Tutorial/" target="_new">http://www.associateprograms.com/articles/188/1/Affiliate-Program-Tutorial/</a>, Associate programs, published on 1/28/2006</p> <p>www.businessforums.com</p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Local Search Marketing - Interview with Svetlana West</h1> <p>MySolutionSpot Editor — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:27:45 GMT</p> <p style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><b><span><span>1.<span> </span></span></span></b><b><span>Introduce yourself and tell us about your position at Network Solutions®?</span></b></p> <p><span>Hi, I am Svetlana West, Product Manager for Online Marketing Services at Network Solutions®. My job focuses on providing affordable online marketing solutions to small businesses that are looking to grow online and get found by potential customers searching the Internet for products and services they want to buy. Our services range from Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising and Local Search Visibility that deliver quick results through targeted online marketing campaigns to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Online Press Releases and Email Marketing that grow the visibility of a Website over time and keep customers coming back to your Website.</span></p> <div> </div> <p style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><b><span><span>2.<span> </span></span></span></b><b><span>How is local search marketing different from regular search engine marketing?</span></b></p> <p><span>Local search marketing is a component of search engine marketing. Customers looking for local businesses online type search queries that include not only the “what” (e.g., a product name) but also the “where” such as street address, zip code or city name. Thus, “lawyer in New York” or “pizza restaurant in Manhattan” are examples of local searches. Local search marketing can be very effective as it targets customers in a specific geographic area. </span></p> <p><span>Local search marketing can be as simple as creating a business listing in the Internet yellow pages such as Kudzu.com, for example. It can also be a Pay Per Click tactic that involves bidding on local keywords to have your ads appear prominently in the sponsored listings of search engines. You can also optimize your Website with keywords that are local in content, thus attracting visitors from your geographic area of service.</span></p> <div> </div> <p style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><b><span><span>3.<span> </span></span></span></b><b>Which are the best local directories to submit to?</b> </p> <p><span>The big names come to mind – Google® Maps, Yahoo!® Local, MSN® Local, AOL® Local, YellowPages.com®, Superpages.com®, Citysearch®, etc. We also have our own Network Solutions ® local directory called <a href="http://www.thinklocal.com/">ThinkLocal™</a> with over 17 million businesses listed. It is a good idea to submit to as many directories as possible to ensure that you are reaching out to your potential customers who favor various places when it comes to searching for local businesses online. You will also gain an added benefit of multiple links pointing back to your Website, which is an important factor in achieving higher search engine rankings.</span></p> <p><span>The submission process to individual directories can be time-consuming. That is why, services that submit your listings automatically to the various directories, without you having to visit hundreds of sites, are a cost-effective and convenient way to blast your local information to hundreds of directories out there.</span></p> <div> </div> <p style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><b><span><span>4.<span> </span></span></span></b><b><span>How does local search interact with properties like Google Maps and MapQuest?</span></b></p> <p><span>Internet users can look for local information in two ways. They can go directly to the search engine such as Google and type what they are looking for. If a local qualifier such as a zip code is entered, Google will return local business results. Alternatively, users can go directly to Google Maps or MapQuest and look for local businesses there. Results similar to the search engine page will be returned here. Each listing will be flagged on the map. The “More info” link provides more information about each business, including customer reviews.</span></p> <div> </div> <p style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in; page-break-after: avoid;"><b><span><span>5.<span> </span></span></span></b><b><span>I’ve noticed Yahoo!® Local includes user ratings, how do these impact my listing?</span></b></p> <p style="page-break-after: avoid;"><span>User ratings for local business listings are attractive to both potential customers and search engines. Customers can learn more about your business and its offerings from user ratings and reviews. Search engines view user reviews as additional content that is directly related to your business, which helps move your Website rank upwards in the search results. </span></p> <p style="page-break-after: avoid;"><span>As a business owner, it is a good idea to keep an eye on the type of ratings and reviews that you get online. If you happen to receive a negative review, try to reach out directly to that customer and understand why they were unhappy with the service or product. You may even be able to turn them into one of your company advocates. </span></p> <div> </div> <p style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><b><span><span>6.<span> </span></span></span></b><b><span>Network Solutions® has a new tool for Local Search Marketing, can you tell us a little about it?</span></b></p> <p><span>We are very excited about our Local Search Visibility service. This service is your gateway into the world of local search marketing. You enter your business information into a simple, one-step form. With a click of a button, this information is syndicated to our network of more than a hundred local online directories, including Google® Maps, Yahoo!® Local, MSN® Local, YellowPages.com, Kudzu.com and many more. Your business listing can be as detailed as you want to make it, including company description, products and services, brands, hours of operation, payment methods, etc. This service is priced at $39.95 a month with no setup fees. </span></p> <p><span>Our service comes with a keyword suggestion tool that automatically prompts keywords that are popular on the Internet and should be included in your business profile. The Delivery Center tracks the status of your submissions and provides links to directory and search engine listings as they become available. The on-demand reporting tracks the performance of your Website and business listing in the top search engines and business directories, day by day.</span></p> <div> </div> <p style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><b><span><span>7.<span> </span></span></span></b><b>What is the average cost for local search marketing?</b></p> <p><span>You can create local business listings in places like Google Maps and YellowPages.com free of charge. However, it takes time. If any of your information changes later, you will have to update each individual listing, one at a time, which is a tedious process. Therefore, it is often a good idea to take advantage of services similar to Local Search Visibility from Network Solutions that submits your information to over a hundred local online directories with a click of a button. You can come back and update your information in one place at any time. You can choose to pay for a service like this on a monthly basis. This will cost you anywhere from $20 to $70 a month. Or you can sign up for an annual plan that offers one, two or more months for free.</span></p> <div> </div> <p style="margin-left: 0.25in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><b><span><span>8.<span> </span></span></span></b><b><span>Aside from submitting to local directories, do you have advice for a larger local marketing strategy?</span></b></p> <p><span>If you target market is local, make sure that your Website is optimized for local search by selecting local keywords that will bring your site to the top of search results when someone is looking for products and services in your geographic area. It is also a good idea to complement your SEO efforts with a Pay Per Click campaign that targets local keywords as well. Your ads will only appear to customers entering local search terms. </span></p> <p style="page-break-after: avoid;"><span>Obtaining a local or 1-800 phone number that you can track is an excellent way to monitor the ROI on your local marketing campaigns. The number can be featured on your Website or included in your direct marketing materials. When a potential customer calls this number, the call is tracked and recorded. You can view the call details (e.g., origin, duration, etc.) as well as listen to the recording online. </span></p> <p><span>When developing your marketing strategy, think big and think creative, but also don’t forget to take advantage of the people and resources right in your own community.</span></p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Drive local customer traffic through your doors!</h1> <p>Sian Simon — Thu, 28 May 2009 17:22:37 GMT</p> <p>The current state of the economy has made things tough for businesses of all sizes, but it also provides the opportunity to find new customers, especially in your local area. A growing number of consumers are searching for local providers of products and services on the Internet, and this trend is increasing every year.</p> <p align="center"><br /> <br /> Source: comScore® qSearch March 2008</p> <p>In fact, in 2008, over 50% of consumers with Internet access used search engines and other online resources to find local businesses, compared to 30% who used printed yellow pages and only 3% who used local newspapers*.</p> <p>So how do you tap into this opportunity? The best way is to appear near the top of the local results in search engines like Google® and Yahoo!®. The local results are the ones that generally appear with a map showing the locations of the businesses listed.</p> <p align="center"></p> <p>Appearing in local search results is not the same as being listed in the standard results on search engines, so even if you have submitted your Website to search engines like Google™ and Yahoo!®, your business may not appear in local search results. Local search listings are created when search engines find information about businesses from sources such as online business directories. If they find multiple references to your business on the Internet, they will give you more credibility and your position in the results will be higher. </p> <p>You must have a physical address for your business to be included in local search results. If your address isn’t listed in any online directories, the search engines may not find and display your business at all. In this case you will need to submit your business for consideration. Search engines have a special submission process for local listings and usually require business information such as your address, hours of operation, products and services, affiliations and other important details. You can submit your business to the three biggest search engines, Google™ Maps <a href="https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?continue=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Flocal%2Fadd%2FbusinessCenter%3Fgl%3DUS%26hl%3Den-US&service=lbc&hl=en-US&gl=US">here</a>, Yahoo! ® Local <a href="http://listings.local.yahoo.com/csubmit/index.php">here</a>, and MSN® Live Search™ Local <a href="https://ssl.search.live.com/listings/BusinessSearch.aspx">here</a>. which will ensure that they have accurate information about your business.</p> <p>In addition to submitting your business directly to the search engines, you should also submit it to online business directories to gain credibility and help boost your position in the local search results. There are many thousands of directories on the Internet, so you should aim to get listed in some of the larger general directories such as <a href="http://www.yellowpages.com">YellowPages.com</a>™, <a href="http://www.citysearch.com">CitySearch</a>® and <a href="http://www.thinklocal.com">ThinkLocal</a>®. Each of these will have a different submission process, so unless you use a local directory submission service, you will need to create an account with each directory. In addition to this, try finding specialized directories that are related to your business and the products and services you offer, or that cover the geographic areas where you are looking for new customers. <a href="http://search.dmoz.org/cgi-bin/search?search=business+directories&all=yes&cs=UTF-8&cat=Reference%2FDirectories">DMOZ</a> is an online directory that has a list of business directories to consider, and you can also <a href="http://www.dmoz.org/add.html">submit your business</a> for inclusion in DMOZ’s own directory.</p> <p>As a business owner, it is important to adjust your marketing strategy to keep up with the changing ways people find local products and services. Local search marketing is a simple, cost-effective strategy which, if implemented correctly, can have a long term impact on your ability to put your products and services in front of new customers. It may take a few months for you to start to see results, but over time, you should start to see qualified leads and new prospects walking through your doors.</p> <p>* Source: <a href="http://www.emarketer.com">eMarketer,</a> October 2008</p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Social Media: Where to Begin?</h1> <p>Susan Wade — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:30:16 GMT</p> <p>Recently I attended a gathering of Washington DC restaurant owners, which was hosted by Network Solutions and Yelp, an online review website. The topic of discussion was social media and whether to engage or not engage. And if you engage, where do you start!</p> <p> </p> <p>Some of the restaurant owners were active in various social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, Yelp and Open Table; however, there were many in the room that were not so sure they have the time nor the need to participate, but wanted to know more. Below are some tips and suggestions offered by the small business owners involved in some form of social media engagement that may help others take the first steps into exploring social media.</p> <p> </p> <p>o <strong>Determine if Your Customers Use Social Media </strong>– Find out by setting Google Alerts (free service from Google, go to google.com and type in ‘Google alert’ to find out how to set them up) with your businesses name, product and or services you offer and the alerts will be sent to your e-mailbox. If alerts and comments about your business start coming in to your emailbox, then it’s a pretty good signal that your customers use social media and you should start getting involved. </p> <p> </p> <p>o <strong>Listen to the Conversation </strong>– Especially if it’s about you or your competitors. Review the Google Alerts and take note of the blogs, review sites or forums where most of the discussion is taking place about your business or topics related to your business. Keep it simple by picking one or two of these social media channels and start monitoring them once or twice a week.</p> <p> </p> <p>o<strong> Join the Discussion When You can Add Value</strong>: It’s like joining a conversation at a dinner party. The most natural way to join the conversation is if you have had a similar experience or have information that can provide more insight into a situation. </p> <p> </p> <p>o <strong>Take the Sting out of Negative Comments </strong>– If you see misinformation or a negative comment about your company, try responding directly to the person who posted the negative review or comment to get more details about their experience to help clarify the issue. This can help to tone down the negativity of the comments because now they are talking directly with you and not just shouting out to anyone that might see the comment. In most cases, when you post a polite response to the comment, it helps provide a balanced view for others who may see the comments. <br /> </p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Interview with Kevin Lee, Yelp® Community Manager</h1> <p>MySolutionSpot Editor — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:51:02 GMT</p> <p> <b>1. Introduce yourself and tell us about Yelp®.</b><br /><br /> Hi, I'm <a href="http://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=RmXIjppHNtVveguN10iO1g">Kevin L.</a>, the local Yelp Community Manager for Washington, DC! Yelp is a website that connects people to great local businesses - what does that mean? It means that it's a one-stop-shop to get interesting, insightful opinions from other locals about their favorite places to eat, shop, sweat, and everything in between. Yelp is available whether you're in <a href="http://www.yelp.com/dc">DC</a>, on the other side of the country in <a href="http://www.yelp.com/seattle">Seattle</a> or <a href="http://www.yelp.com/">San Francisco</a>, across the Atlantic in the <a href="http://www.yelp.co.uk/">UK</a>, or even in <a href="http://www.yelp.com/missoula-mt">Missoula, Montana</a>.<br /> <br /><br /> <b>2. How do you think social media can help small businesses?</b><br /><br /> Social media allow small businesses to do what they do best: focus on providing unparalleled customer service that is hard to match by the big box stores where the stakeholders are separated from the clients via layers upon layers. As they grow in popularity and presence, social media tools provide platforms that level the playing field between companies with enormous marketing and advertising budgets, versus the little guys (and girls) that can't afford the same branding. When it comes down to it, if you treat your customers well, they will return the favor many times over by sharing with the world. As more and more people turn to the internet for personal (and personable!) recommendations on everything from products to services, having a strong brand presence, especially as represented by public opinion, can readily influence consumers looking to spend money.<br /> <br /><br /> <b>3. How is Yelp similar to other social networking sites? How is it different?</b><br /><br /> Unlike some other social networking sites, Yelp is specifically focused on sharing user reviews about all of the hot (and not-so-hot) places around town. While there is a focus on the interpersonal interactions within Yelp's local community, whether it's gabbing on Talk about a great <a href="http://www.yelp.com/topic/washington-house-painting">apartment painting</a> contractor or the <a href="http://www.yelp.com/topic/alexandria-your-favorite-cheap-eat">best cheap</a> eats in the area, Yelp is fundamentally about finding and sharing the best of all things local.<br /><br /> Yelp is meant for just about any sort of local service or destination and business owners are often surprised to learn that their business is already listed on the site. A <a href="http://www.yelp.com/biz/city-paws-animal-hospital-washington">standard business page</a> on Yelp will list details such as location, address, and hours. But when a business begins to accrue reviews, Yelpers can also upload pictures and provide answers to survey questions such as whether a business takes credit cards, what meals they're best for, if they take reservations and more. Additionally, depending on how many reviews a business has, you might also notice something called: <a href="http://www.yelp.com/biz/urbana-washington">Review Highlights</a> and Rating Distribution. Our very own "Yelp Robot" looks at what phrases or words Yelpers mention the most in the business' review and then lists them at the top of the page for a quick description of that business and its average rating.<br /><br /> Overall, a Yelp page should provide a great snapshot of that business from the general listing information to details about specialties, service and so forth.<br /> <br /><br /> <b>4. What are the demographics of people who engage with Yelp?</b><br /><br /> The majority of "yelpers" are between the ages of 24 and 40, and hold some form of college or graduate school degree. Also, most yelpers make over $60,000 a year, which is reflected in how frequently they are out and about, exploring the city, and sharing their opinions with the community. These are savvy consumers who are not only discerning and decisive about where they spend their earnings; they are also often well written and passionate about sharing their personal, authentic customer experiences.<br /> <br /><br /> <b>5. Why do you think a small business owner should leverage Yelp?</b><br /><br /> Conversations happen about small businesses on a daily basis, whether it's between work colleagues, friends, family, or via some social medium like Yelp. Through leveraging the free suite of business tools - <a href="http://www.biz.yelp.com/">Yelp for Business Owners</a> - small businesses have the opportunity to directly engage with their most valuable customers, as well as to have a voice to share their story for anyone visiting their page on Yelp.<br /> <br /><br /> <b>6. How can Yelp help a small business with marketing or customer service?</b><br /><br /> <a href="http://www.biz.yelp.com/">Yelp for Business Owners</a> is a free suite of tools available to all business owners. It has functionality to monitor customer perceptions and promote your business<br /><br /> · Monitoring the number of page clicks to the business's page on Yelp<br /><br /> · Giving business owners a voice with an entire page dedicated to their story and the history of the business<br /><br /> · Posting <a href="http://www.yelp.com/specialoffers/dc">special announcements</a> and deals right at the top of their business page<br /><br /> · Provides a simple and streamlined toolset for directly messaging with yelpers who have reviewed their business - these are customers who have taken the time to sit down and share their experience with the rest of the local community, and they can be valuable, loyal brand ambassadors for local businesses!<br /><br /> To get started find out what yelpers are writing about you, whether it's good, bad, or indifferent. Knowledge is power, and in this case, it's being offered up at the tidy sum of... free!</p> <p> <br /> <b>7. How does Yelp fit into a larger social media marketing strategy?</b><br /><br /> As with any public relations or media tool out there, Yelp is a single channel in reaching out to a specific, but rapidly expanding swath of the market. While traditional PR and marketing have their place and are valuable in their own right, communicating with customers and having a voice in online communities via Yelp or other social media tools can reap its own rewards. Consider these tools as free avenues to <br /><br /> · Conduct timely communications, whether that's thanking customers for spreading the word, or to reach out to correct (or at least address) a perceived wrong<br /><br /> · Obtain unbiased feedback on what the business is doing well, but also where the business could improve<br /><br /> · Spread the passion for your business, and put a human face to the work that you pour your lifeblood into<br /> <br /><br /> <b>8. Do you have any last remarks or advice for business owners? </b><br /><br /> Absolutely join in on the conversation. Find out what your customers are buzzing about. <a href="https://biz.yelp.com/signup/">Claim your page</a> on Yelp for free and make sure that all of the information (address, phone number, hours of operation) is accurate and up-to-date. Reach out and communicate with your customers that are writing about you. Share your story and your passion. We look forward to seeing you on Yelp (SYOY)! </p> <p> </p> <p>To contact Kevin Lee, please visit <a target="_blank" href="http://www.mysolutionspot.com/KevinL">http://www.mysolutionspot.com/KevinL</a>.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Interview with Danilo Bogdanovic - Growing Business Through Tweets and Posts</h1> <p>MySolutionSpot Editor — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:53:42 GMT</p> <p> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document" /> <meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11" /> <meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11" /> <link rel="File-List" href="http://www.mysolutionspot.com/C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Cjdalton%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml" /> <b>Danilo Bogdanovic, Real Estate Consultant and Blogger</b> <br /><br /> <b>1. </b><b>Introduce yourself and tell us about your business. </b><br /><br /> My name is Danilo Bogdanovic, it's long and tough to pronounce for many folks so most people call me "D". My roots are in Northern VA and, although I love to travel to other places, I always love coming back home to NoVA. I've been a residential real estate consultant and Realtor for 5 years. Though I'm licensed in all of Virginia, I specialize in Loudoun County and Fairfax County. My business is strongly rooted in referrals and social media including my two local real estate blog sites - <a target="_blank" href="http://LoudounScene.com">LoudounScene.com</a> and <a target="_blank" href="http://LoudounForeclosures.com">LoudounForeclosures.com</a>. <br /><br /> <b>2. </b><b>What specific social media tools do you use and what do you use each one for? </b><br /><br /> I use social media for both customer acquisition and as a business resource. I focus on blogs to put myself in front of home buyers, home sellers, renters and investors. Both of my blogs provide my readers, including potential and current clients, with local real estate information and guidance through the real estate purchase/sale process. Through this I'm able to establish and enhance my credibility as a local real estate expert. I've built both of my blogs using WordPress<sup>TM</sup> which has given me a lot of flexibility with how I display information, pictures, video, and even interact with external search tools. <br /><br /> Twitter<sup>TM</sup>, FaceBook® and Google® Reader are some of the other social media tools I use most often. Though the dynamics of Twitter and FaceBook are a different from my blogs as well as each other, I use both to communicate with fellow real estate professionals, clients, friends and others with similar interests. When I'm at a conference or event, I'll use Twitter to provide instant updates on what's going on. When I'm out previewing real estate properties, I may even "tweet" an update on Twitter when I run across a great real estate deal. My Twitter feed is fed to both blogs and my FaceBook profile allowing me to update all three at the same time. I find these tools valuable in that they add a personal touch to my marketing and help enhance my credibility. <br /><br /> I also share info using Google Reader. This tool aggregates and shares news articles and blog posts pertaining to the local and national real estate market as well as other interesting and relevant topics. <br /><br /> <b>3. </b><b>How did you get started with your blog? </b><br /><br /> I started reading real estate blogs in summer of 2006. I realized that real estate marketing strategies and tactics were changing. Consumers want relevant and hyper-local information immediately and they want it easily accessible which to me meant online. Also, consumers wanted transparency and honesty from real estate agents. What better way to meet the demands of consumers than having an online destination where they could quickly and easily find relevant, honest, and easily digestible information about real estate. That's how I decided to launch LoudounScene.com. <br /><br /> My blog has been an effective part of my business for three years. In fact, 75 percent of my business can be directly or indirectly attributed to my blog sites and other social media channels. <br /><b><br /> 4.</b> <b>How did you find out about other social media channels and outlets?</b> <br /><br /> I'd been using social media like FaceBook for fun and personal reasons, but in talking with others in the real estate business and watching how businesses in other industries began to leverage these mediums to interact with customers I knew I had to incorporate these channels into my marketing strategy. I've learned a lot and continue to learn how to improve from others in the social media world whether online or in person. The social media community is very self-less and incredibly good at sharing information and tips with one another. The general mentality amongst within the social media community is, "We're all in this together". <br /><br /> <b>5. </b><b>How has the use of social media allowed you to generate more leads and drive more business? </b><br /><br /> As I said earlier, 75% of my clients find me online, typically through my blogs. My blogs are my main marketing channel and have given me the opportunity to build a relationship with people I've never met nor would I have had it not been for my blogs. Clients find my blogs through various ways including online research (search engines), links to my blogs from colleagues and partners' websites, and many times my clients will forward the blog link on to people looking for homes in the area. <br /><br /> <b>6. </b><b>Has the use of social media ever allowed you to combat a business crisis or risk? </b><br /><br /> I've posted questions pertaining to my real estate business on Twitter<sup>TM</sup> and other social media sites and received one, if not several answers to my question within minutes. Having my questions answered quickly just reduced my risk of screwing something up or wasting my time. <br /><br /> <b>7. </b><b>Who are your blog followers and how often do they visit your site and blog? </b><br /><br /> The majority of my blog readers and commentators are consumers, real estate professionals and the media. Most of those who visit my actual website are new visitors - the rest have subscribed to the RSS feed, signed up for email updates or added the blogs to their Google® or other reader. In case you are unfamiliar with the term, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) also called a "feed", includes a summary of my blog posts and publishing dates. This gives blog readers the opportunity to sign up to receive real time blog updates without having to navigate to the site. <br /><br /> <b>8. </b><b>How much of your time is spent working on your blog and other social media tools? </b><br /><br /> I spend an average of a few hours per day on social media (business and personal). That may sound like a lot, but because my business strategy focuses on social media to generate new clientele, I don't spend time every day doing what many other agents do - broker office functions, Chamber of Commerce meetings, or preparing print ads, giving more time to dedicate to my social media channels. <br /><br /> <b>9. </b> <b>Do you have any last remarks or advice for realtors and business owners?</b> <br /><br /> You may think that social media is not for you or your business...and you may be right. But social media, if used correctly, can help you reach people and potential customers you've never been able to reach before. It will help you create and stay connected to your loyal client base more effectively than most other forms of marketing or communication. If you're nervous, just try it out you'll be surprised at how others, even your customers will help you figure it out.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Practical Uses for Social Media - How to Benefit Your Business</h1> <p>Julia Dalton — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:44:38 GMT</p> <p><eta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"> <eta content="Word.Document" name="ProgId"> <eta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Generator"> <eta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Originator"> <link href="http://www.mysolutionspot.com/C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Cjdalton%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List" /> <b>How You Can Use Social Media to Benefit Your Business</b><br /> <br /> No matter how much you might want to ignore the proliferation of social media, you cannot. Social media has become a part of everyday life, and it is time for you to get involved. <br /> <br /> Social media (SM) is an umbrella term, referring to a collection of online tools and practices that enable online users to share a variety of information. Social media participants usually discuss anything from ideas and opinions to interests and experiences. They also communicate information about themselves, their businesses and their expertise. <br /> <br /> The social media audience is massive and diverse. It is not restricted to savvy marketers or new media gurus, and it is not exclusively comprised of Generation Y. According to a 2007 study*, almost half of all Facebook® users were over the age of 25, and the majority of that portion was age 35 and over. Some of these participants had personal accounts. Some had business accounts. Some had both.<br /> <br /> To better understand how social media can help your business, you will need to recognize the practical uses for social media.<br /> <br /> <b>Practical Uses for Social Media</b><br /> <br /> 1. Brand building<br /> <br /> In today's online environment there are a wide variety of ways in which you can leverage, monitor, and promote your brand. With the surge in applications like Twitter<sup>TM</sup>, Digg®, Facebook, and the popularity of blogs, conversation and the flow of real-time information has exploded. The key to unlocking these tools and leveraging their power to build your brand is, fundamentally, to "listen and engage." <br /> <br /> Go where your audience is talking about your company (or relevant issues to your business) and engage them. Use many of the listening tools that are available like Google® Alerts, Twitter search, and other social monitoring tools to help keep a pulse on the areas your brand pops up on the web. These type of active "listening techniques" will not only help you make connections with customers and prospects, but it will give you the opportunity to reinforce the proper usage of your brand and ensure consistency of your message. <br /> <br /> 2. Enhancing visibility<br /> <br /> It doesn't matter whether you are a newer business just starting out or are an established company, social media, done correctly, can enhance your online visibility to your customers and new audiences. Instead of relying solely on your website and search engines for your online presence, consider investing some time in cultivating a presence using social media. <br /> <br /> The benefit of creating a presence on a site like Twitter or Facebook is that you are going where your customers and prospects "hang out." You have the opportunity to interact, get your name out there, talk about your services and help others with questions, all in a place where they feel comfortable and regularly visit.<br /> <br /> 3. Showcasing your expertise<br /> <br /> One of the best ways to convince a prospect to becoming a customer or client is by showing your expertise in your field of business. If you are able to demonstrate that you have the knowledge and experience to handle their needs, and then would be customers are more likely to become clients and trust your company to provide competent service.<br /> <br /> Social media channels enable you to engage with an audience who is looking for help, questions, and assistance with issues that are related to your company's offerings. Utilizing these SM channels will help you find conversations and dialogue in which your company could provide assistance and guidance. This could be in the form of answering questions, troubleshooting, offering tips and tricks, and potentially even customer service. Not only are you becoming more accessible to a relevant audience, but you are helping them with their needs. <br /> <br /> 4. Building you network.<br /> <br /> Outside of using social media to connect with a unique audience of potential customers, you can also build a network of people who may help you grow your business. You can connect with other industry experts, suppliers, potential partners, and find new business contacts that may help you with an aspect of your business. <br /> <br /> Often times your network can be a tremendous tool for disseminating information about your company, but also being an advocate for your business. There are several theories and methods to take to build your network, but the most important thing to consider is the reason in which you connect with someone. Do I know this person? Are they in a similar or relevant industry? Etc. By putting some forethought into building your network, you can end up with a very powerful mechanism that will help distribute information about your company. <br /> <br /> <b>Is Social Media Right for your Business? </b><br /> <br /> While there are many reasons a business can benefit from utilizing social media tools, not every business is cut out for it. There are some things to consider and evaluate about your own company, prior to jumping into a social media campaign.<br /> <br /> First, you need to have the time and resources to be able to drive your SM efforts effectively. Managing a social media presence takes time and investment because it does require social interaction to be truly effective. Automated responses and lackluster efforts will not produce the type of results your company may be expecting.<br /> <br /> Secondly, your company culture and values have to back up your social presence. Even the most effective promotional campaign could kill your business if you cannot back up what you're selling. Don't try to sell personalized service when you don't have the ability to truly offer it. Your social media identity should not be drastically different from how you present yourself to your customers face to face, on your web site, or through your service. Keep it consistent and "walk the walk."<br /> <br /> Lastly, don't jump in head first without a strategy. Creating a social media campaign requires just as much thought, strategy, and planning as any other promotional effort. Be sure to understand your market and how your business can align itself with the proper social media channels. Determine what your business goals are for social media, who you want to engage and where, how you want to measure the results and so forth. Without this type of planning and consideration, you could be setting yourself up for failure.</eta></eta></eta></eta></p> <p><br /> Gonzalez, N. (2007). <i>Facebook Users Up 89% Over Last Year; Demographic Shift.</i> Retrieved April 9, 2009, from <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/06/facebook-users-up-89-over-last-year-demographic-shift/">http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/06/facebook-users-up-89-over-last-year-demographic-shift/</a><br /> <br /> Leitch, Danielle. (2008). Practical Users of Social Media in Business. Retrieved April 9, 2009, from <a href="http://www.morevisibility.com/news_item/practical-uses-of-social-media-in-business.html">http://www.morevisibility.com/news_item/practical-uses-of-social-media-in-business.html</a></p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Small Business Success Index Forecast: The Future of Online Advertising</h1> <p>MySolutionSpot Editor — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 19:08:08 GMT</p> <p>About <a href="http://www.sellingtosmallbusinesses.com/70-percent-largest-small-businesses-have-website/">half of all small businesses </a>still do not have a Web site, and of the businesses that do have Web sites, a large number exert very little effort in promoting their sites. However, according to the <a target="_blank" href="http://cli.gs/vVyDu3">Small Business Success Index</a>,* an ongoing study of U.S. small businesses conducted by Network Solutions® and the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business, everything is about to change.<br /><br />The study states, "Only 23% of businesses now utilize online advertising that places ads on sites, but over 40% are expected to do so in upcoming years." In addition, "nearly 1/3 of businesses will have a search engine optimization plan in place in the upcoming years." These growth projections are quite significant and indicate that small businesses have not only begun to recognize the efficacy of online advertising, but they have also made plans to take action. In fact, the study reports the "use of internet marketing by businesses is poised for growth; offline marketing is expected to remain stable or fall slightly."<br /><br />It is vital for businesses to understand that online advertising is not just another advertising option. Rather, it is quickly becoming one of the most powerful methods for reaching ones target audience and for building ones brand. To remain competitive in the future, all businesses should engage in some form of online advertising. Popular methods include search engine optimization (SEO), local search, online press release distribution and pay-per-click advertising (PPC). <br /><br /><br />*The Small Business Success Index, an ongoing measurement of the overall health of U.S. small businesses, was commissioned by Network Solutions, LLC and the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business. To take the survey yourself, click <a target="_blank" href="http://cli.gs/vVyDu3">here</a>.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Building a brand</h1> <p>darcy knapp — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 16:07:53 GMT</p> <p>What is in a name...your name is your identity, but it is also your brand. Your name is the first thing you give new people that you meet. Every voice mail you leave, every letter you sign and your business cards all have one thing in common, your name. <br /><br />You need to consider the value of your name and make sure that if a potential customer loses your contact information, they can turn to his or her most trusted ally and instantly have your information. <br /><br />Do you know who your customers ask? The most significant third party reference source for the average American is Google...and good electronic reputation management will insure that your contacts can find you with just a click of their mouse. <br /><br />Go to Google and put your name in the search bar, if you do not appear you have some work to do. Start registering with social media sites and create a profile for yourself, your online business card. Consider joining sites like Linked-In, Facebook, Naymz, YouTube, eBay, Classmates, Plaxo (all dot coms by the way) and build your brand. <br /><br />Go and buy yourself a domain (your name, if it is available) and build a Web site, even a simple one page business card site will do the trick! They are easy for any novice to build and less than $5 a month to host with any domain provider. In this electronic age, think about how many times you have Googled a prospective customer/provider to see if its site measures up to your expectations? Your credibility as a business person is dramatically increased if you have a Web site. <br /><br />Would you do business with a company that did not have a Web site? You can win that prospect’s business if you have a solid Web presence and your competitors do not. Take that one step further and build your personal site. Google has become the new reference provider for all generations. You do not ask your mother where to get a product or service anymore, you ask Google and take the recommendations you receive as the best options available. <br /><br />Now you just need to make sure that you are one of the options that Google provides if your name is queried. If you do not own your name (www.yourname.com) you should consider the $10 investment before a disgruntled employee, angry neighbor or ex-loved one buys it and builds an embarrassing page on your behalf. And for those of you with simple names (like John Smith) you can try adding in your middle initial or the town you live in (www.johnsmithalbany.com).<br /><br /><strong>Darcy Knapp, Account Executive, Network Solutions</strong> <br /><a href="mailto:Darcy.Knapp@NetworkSolutions.com"><span style="font-size:small;color:#0000ff;">Darcy.Knapp@NetworkSolutions.com</span></a></p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Types of email marketing</h1> <p>sean duffy — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:10:32 GMT</p> <p>Widely considered the most efficient form of communicating with prospective customers, email marketing campaigns are increasing in popularity and therefore advancing accordingly. It is estimated that half of all internet users - circumstances permitting - check their emails on a daily basis. <br /><br /> Research shows that the UK consumers are among the most likely to purchase services or goods online. Countries such as Germany and Japan are others that are making the most of online deals and are increasingly shopping on the internet. The current economic situation means that many businesses are being encouraged to be more pro-active when it comes to marketing and sales. It goes without saying that direct marketing is more affordable and often more efficient than other promotional tools. Email marketing is possibly the best example of this; huge numbers of potential customers can be contacted quickly and easily. With the correct facilities it is also much easier for businesses to study responses from prospective customers through open and click rates. With all these advantages large numbers of companies are following expert advice and utilising email marketing. But in order to achieve optimum results the emails need to be of a high quality standard and sent to an appropriate audience for the product/service/company being promoted.<br /><br />Recently increasing diversity in the content and format of marketing emails has arisen due to the need for individual emails to stand out- in what could potentially be an inbox crowded with others. This has meant static emails are often being rejected in favour of audio or even video versions. Audio adverts can sometimes play automatically once the email is opened. This creates a strong impression on prospective customers, it is different to the advertisements that they are used to receiving. It also gives an idea that a company has put more effort into their campaign and made it more user friendly. Statistics show that people are often put off marketing emails when they have to use quite a lot of time and effort accessing different links and reading more than necessary. Having an email sent that announces its purpose with so little user time and activity is certainly seen to be considerate and up to date. <br /><br />Video emails are less straightforward at this moment in time due to the fact they often rely on links to external sources or have a large download size. This may mean they require more time or effort from a recipient to be used effectively. These problems are often rectifiable by the use of technology that can reduce download sizes. It is also worth mentioning at this point that, generally speaking, a consumer’s standard of software and access to increased bandwidth is improving. This means that this form of marketing email has the potential to gain more and more popularity in the future. On another note, consumers find videos more interesting than static emails. Encouraging research has shown that measured response rates (opens and clicks) can sometimes be up to ten times higher than for static emails. They also promote viral email marketing quite well. This can lead to a much wider consumer base just through items of interest being forwarded by recipients. <br /><br />With online sales continuing to rise, it is essential that companies are using all the means they can to promote services and products online. Email marketing is a fundamental part of this. Whether static or other emails are used, it is vital that any promotional information sent is of exceptional quality and is user friendly. <br /><br />To explore our range of <a href="http://www.emailcenteruk.com/%20">Email Marketing services</a>, please visit our website at http://www.emailcenteruk.com/</p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Business Story Interview with MySolutionSpot - Barry Godofsky</h1> <p>Barry Godofsky — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:53:55 GMT</p> <p><b>Please give us a brief description of your business. </b>We are an Independent Sales Office (ISO), authorized Agents for several for the most prominent credit card processing providers (Acquirers) in the USA.<br /><br /><br /><b>What inspired you to start your own business?</b> I guess I just have, and have always had, the 'entrepreneurial' gene in me. I just like the opportunity and associated rewards of controlling my own destiny and doing things my way.<br /><br /><br /><b>In your opinion, what are some of the biggest challenges faced by entrepreneurs and small business owners? </b>Lots of things these days. Number one, it seems margins for error are a lot smaller these days due to intense competition and costs of doing business. Insurance in general, especially liability, costs lots more percentage-wise then it used to. Also, in the old days, we didn't have ecommerce, email, Web hosting, cell phone and tons of other expenses that are now unavoidable costs of doing business. And let's not even talk about tax and business related business license and other expenses. So entrepreneurs nowadays have to be REALLY on the ball. No second chances. Mess up once and your done.<br /><br /><br /><b>What obstacles did you face when you first started your business and how did you overcome them?</b> I began in business very young. At 23, it was very difficult to have people take me seriously. Now in my sixties, that's not so much of a problem anymore. I can sum up how I overcame this in two words: (1) perseverance and (2) preparation. That means I refused to give up, and when I did something I made sure I knew what I was doing...it's called homework.<br /><br /><b><br />What advice would you give to someone who is contemplating starting his or her own business?</b> DO YOUR HOMEWORK. When decisions have to be made (and starting a new business involves tons of decisions), there are two types of successful people: Those who are astute enough to do the homework necessary to gain the knowledge needed to make an intelligent decision, and those who don't possess the knowledge for whatever reason but who are smart enough to refer themselves to a specialist who DOES know what needs to be known. The third kind, the ones who make eenie-meenie-miney-mo decisions with no clue what they're dong, are the ones with 'Going Out of Business" signs in their windows.<br /><br /><b><br />How has networking helped you grow your business? </b>Can't overstate value of networking. Without networking I wouldn't have a business. Can't be done without.<br /><br /></p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Why Now May be the Best Time to Start an Online Business</h1> <p>MySolutionSpot Editor — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:06:35 GMT</p> <p>In this tough economy, you might be concerned about job security. In addition, you might be experiencing anxiety about your financial situation, rising prices, and fluctuating mortgage costs. Every day, the news reminds us of skyrocketing number of bankruptcies, foreclosures, business failings, and low consumer spending. So you might assume that this would be the wrong time to consider launching a new business. But the reality is if it's an online business, this might be one of the very best times to launch. <br /> <br />Here are several reasons why... <br /><br /><b>Moonlight your way to success</b>.<br />Launching an online business can be something that you do "on the side" in addition to your full-time job. You do not need to forsake your career or current job security, especially in the beginning stages as you build the business. Instead, think of it as a supplement to your work. If you anticipate being out of work in the near future, then trying to set up an income-generating Web business now is in your best interest. Or, if you have been considering re-entering the job market after a hiatus in order to generate more income for your family, this may be an ideal way to tackle that goal.<br /><br /><b>Increase your income</b>.<br />An online business can be one of the best ways to increase your income. It's more flexible than a part-time job and it offers you more control. Plus, it's an investment in you and your future.<br /><br /><b>Enjoy low costs and low risk, but with high flexibility.</b><br />An online business is a venture that requires little capital financing. Because you don't have to pay for retail space, excessive inventory, or overhead, starting an <a target="_blank" href="http://www.networksolutions.com/e-commerce/index.jsp">ecommerce site</a> can be one of the most cost-effective ways to build a business.<br /><br />Best of all, running and managing a Web-based business can be done from home when it is convenient for you, be it at night or on weekends. If you are a stay-at-home parent, it can be done while the kids are in school or during naptimes. And you don't even have to get out of your sweatpants or pajamas if you don't want to.<br /><br /><b>Act on your dreams or hobbies.</b><br />You may wonder, "What could I possibly do as a Web business?" An online business can be built around a variety of services, products, talents, or skills. One option is to start by looking to your passions and hobbies. Highly successful ecommerce sites cater to niche markets. That's because buyers are frequently unable to purchase specialty items in their town, so they must turn to the Web to find retailers or sellers.<br /><br />If you have a hobby, think of different ways that you might be able to share your wares or your knowledge of that hobby. For example, if you are a watercolor artist, perhaps you could reproduce some of your paintings on notecards, stationery, or paper pads and sell them. If you are a collector, is there a way that you could become an online seller of the same items that you collect? Or ask yourself, if you could do or sell anything, what would it be? In essence, think of a Web-based business as being the path to your entrepreneurial dreams. <br /><br /><b>Enjoy a quick start-up.</b><br />Once you have an idea for the type of business you'd like to launch, you need to plan the details of your site. Conduct research to gather advice from the experts on how to create a Web presence. With plan in-hand, you can then set up a basic Web site in a weekend, using the types of tools and templates available through hosting companies like Network Solutions. And because Web sites should always be updated to stay fresh and current, you don't have to worry about getting your site perfect the first time it goes "live." Instead, think of your site as evolving, improving over time the more experienced you become.<br /><br /><b>Reach global markets instantly.</b><br />With your site up and running, one of the most amazing aspects of the Web is that a business can have global reach instantly. So you're not confined to marketing only to people in your area. You can sell to consumers from Oregon to New York, as well as to those from England to Japan. . . without ever leaving home!<br /><br /><b>Still not convinced? Let history be your guide!</b><br />Many businesses whose names are now household words or whose business models radically changed or defined American culture were started during rough economic times.</p> <ul> <li>Mickey Mouse may have first made an appearance in 1928, but Disney's dominance in animated films started in the throes of the depression, with their first Academy Award in 1933. Their consumer products business also started up in the 1930, with the publication of the first Mickey Mouse book.<span style="font-size:xx-small;">1</span> The Allstate Corporation, <span style="font-size:xx-small;">2</span> Alaska Airlines <span style="font-size:xx-small;">3</span> and the Toyota Motor Corporation <span style="font-size:xx-small;">1</span> were all founded during the global financial crises of the 1930s. <span style="font-size:xx-small;">4</span></li> <li>Hyatt opened their first hotel at the Los Angeles International Airport during an economic slump in 1957 and quickly grew to 13 hotels over the next decade. <span style="font-size:xx-small;">5</span> The Harvard Student Association, the largest student-run corporation in the world, also began to offer the opportunity for students to finance their education through employment in that same year. <span style="font-size:xx-small;">6</span></li> <li>The challenges of the 1970's did not stop corporate giant Microsoft's founders when they started their business in 1975. <span style="font-size:xx-small;">7</span></li> <li>Television was redefined in the midst of the recession of the early 1980's. CNN introduced the concept of a 24-hour television news station when it launched in 1980. <span style="font-size:xx-small;">8</span> A year later, MTV opened its first broadcast in August of 1981 with "Video Killed the Radio Star" <span style="font-size:xx-small;">9</span> forever broadening the way in which Americans experience music.</li> </ul> <p><br />So take a lesson from history! Over these coming weeks, rather than spending time fretting about job security or reading endless articles about foreclosures and bailouts, invest your time in thinking about how you can launch an online business. Explore how your talents, skills, passions, or hobbies can become marketable commodities. Because <b>now</b> may be the very best time to chart your course for the future and to tackle the World Wide Web of opportunity that awaits you.<br /><br /><br /><b>References:</b></p> <ol> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://corporate.disney.go.com/corporate/complete_history_1.html">http://corporate.disney.go.com/corporate/complete_history_1.html</a></li> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://media.allstate.com/categories/19/releases/4028">http://media.allstate.com/categories/19/releases/4028</a></li> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=109361&p=irol-IRHome">http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=109361&p=irol-IRHome</a></li> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.automotivehistoryonline.com/Toyota.htm">http://www.automotivehistoryonline.com/Toyota.htm</a></li> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.hyatt.com/hyatt/about/overview/history-of-hyatt-corporation.jsp">http://www.hyatt.com/hyatt/about/overview/history-of-hyatt-corporation.jsp</a></li> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.harvardstudentagencies.com/corporate/history.asp">http://www.harvardstudentagencies.com/corporate/history.asp</a></li> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/insidefacts_ms.mspx#EWLAE">http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/insidefacts_ms.mspx#EWLAE</a></li> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.turner.com/about/corporate_history.html">http://www.turner.com/about/corporate_history.html</a></li> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/M/htmlM/musictelevis/musictelevis.htm">http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/M/htmlM/musictelevis/musictelevis.htm</a></li> </ol> <p><br />Written with Kim Murphy.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>5 Tips to Recession Proof Your Business</h1> <p>MySolutionSpot Editor — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:11:42 GMT</p> <p>It's a scary time for businesses, large and small. And even though the country has survived tough economic times before, it's likely this may be the first major recession that you have had to weather as an entrepreneur or small business owner. But there are steps you can take to recession proof your business. Best of all, these steps are easy and cost-effective for any Web-based business to implement.<br /><br /><b>Expand your offerings. </b>During hard times, you want to find as many ways as possible to attract customers. To do that, you need to offer as many products and services as reasonably possible. If you are in a niche market, this does not mean that you should move away from your core business focus. Rather, look within your niche to see what other related products or services you might offer. If you sell girls' party dresses online, would it be possible to expand your offering to sell accessories, shoes, tights, or even party invitations? If you sell copiers, could you branch out to also provide paper and copier supplies? Or, if you are a professional services provider, such as an accountant or lawyer, could you offer local workshops on topics of interest to people in your community? Charging a nominal fee would enable you to increase revenue, while also networking with people who could become potential clients. Take some time to think about products or services that are a natural fit for your business; then start rolling them out. <br /><br /><b>Continue to sell and market. </b>In times of recession, most businesses understand the need to cut costs and to closely track expenses. But one area where you should not scrimp is in your marketing and sales efforts. If anything, these areas need a boost in spending! A critical factor in determining how well you survive the recession will be whether or not you are able to keep sales stable, if not strong. <br /><br />So consider some of the low cost, highly effective <a target="_blank" href="http://www.networksolutions.com/online-marketing/index.jsp">online marketing</a> techniques that the Web offers. For example, now is an ideal time to explore blogging, social networking sites, and <a target="_blank" href="http://www.networksolutions.com/online-marketing/search-engine-optimization.jsp">search engine optimization</a>. Creating a page on a social networking site, like Facebook, is free. It can help you to get the word out about sales, build customer relations and loyalty, as well as get feedback on customer wants and needs. You can also create a blog to help attract attention from search engine spiders; or visit other blogs, add comments on posts, and leave a signature with your Website link. Ultimately, your goals are to build a positive buzz around your business that will attract visitors and lead to sales. So keep all of your posts upbeat and relevant, finding ways to demonstrate your business' value to readers and customers.<br /><br /><b>Give great customer service. </b>Once you have a customer, be sure to take care of them. After all, they are prime candidates for repeat business and future sales. Plus it is far more expensive to cultivate new customers than it is to build stronger, ongoing relationships with existing ones. So, while it is important to target new prospects, it is equally important to care for the customers you already have. How do you do that? Be responsive to complaints and feedback and thank them for their business. Offer them special deals and sales, and recognize how valuable they are to you by telling them they are valued. Most important, stay in tune with customer needs. Be sure you are meeting their needs. If you're not, figure out what you must do. If their needs change, then you have to assess what that means for you and your business.<br /><br /><b>Stay lean.</b> If you haven't done so already, now is the time to pare down extra spending, find ways to control costs, and be fiscally conservative. Often, such precarious financial situations are highly stressful for business owners. So, be careful not to let your anxiety show, be it to vendors, suppliers, or employees. Instead, realize that "this too shall pass," and when it does you will be far better off if you are able to keep all of your relationships strong and in tact. After all, you'll want to celebrate with someone (maybe even everyone) once the recession finally ends!<br /><br /><b>Take advantage of your size. </b>Small businesses, by their very nature, are more flexible, responsive, and adaptive; Web-based businesses even more so. Now more than ever, these are going to be key qualities for success. As the recession takes its toll, large companies will not be able to transform themselves or to react quick enough to capitalize on new markets, adapt to shifting consumer habits, or roll out new offerings. But you can. <br /><br />From offering new products to using the Web to network with customers, there are many steps you can take to protect your business during hard times. The key is to stay focused while also trying to look ahead to new opportunities. In that way, you'll be one of the first to see light at the end of the tunnel.<br /><br /><b>Written by Kim Murphy.</b></p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Use Your Creativity to Make Money Fast Online!</h1> <p>Wayne Ming — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 06:05:22 GMT</p> <p>As anyone who's been online knows, there are a million and one ways to make money fast on the Web. The Internet provides an amazing opportunity to start a home based business with minimal investment while setting your own schedule and enjoying time with your family more than ever. Let's explore some creative ways to make money online and build a solid stream of income. <br /><br /><b>Use Your Skills to Create a Service </b><br /><br />If you have a special skill that can benefit others, turn this skill into a home business. You can make money at home doing what you do best, whether it's motivational speaking, consulting, marketing, writing, making crafts, sewing, painting, cooking, or parenting. You can develop your own niche product and promote it online through your own website, affiliate marketing, and even online auctions. <br /><br />You might ask, "How do you do this quickly?" You can start a website fast as long as the site doesn't require complicated programming and ordering systems. You can set up small, one-page or five-page websites in a matter of hours with some software programs. Once your website is ready to sell, you'll need to promote it through free and paid search engines, content marketing, press releases, online ads, e-newsletter ads, and perhaps even off-line avenues. While you're building your business, you can still sell items or services through online auctions to get immediate exposure.</p> <p> <b>MLM and Network Marketing </b><br /></p> <p>Another way to make money fast is to sign on with an MLM (multi-level marketing) company and begin networking with others. This type of business opportunity works really well online because you can enter a proven system and promote the program without leaving your home. It's easier than ever to promote these types of programs online. The good thing about these programs is you can learn from experienced members that are already making money. It allows you to make money now using their knowledge instead of waiting to learn it all on your own. <br /><br /><b>Help Others Start a Business Online </b><br /><br />You can also make fast money by helping others start an online home business. You can sell products, e-books, and software to help others learn how to get started. There are thousands of people every day looking for that perfect business online. They are seeking ways to make money on the Net - just like you! When you provide services to help them realize their dreams, you will earn a profit in the process. And this type of business can be very rewarding as you see others succeed. <br /><br />Some software programs that are popular in this field are affiliate software, e-mail follow-up software, motivational CDs, e-books about making money, home business tips, website creation software, and so forth. <br /><br /><b>Make Money with Your Computer through Freelance Bid Sites </b><br /><br />If you're happy with a home business in which you work a set number of hours or complete projects for others, you can easily make money at home through freelance bid sites. There are thousands of companies looking for skilled persons in fields such as data entry, medical billing or transcription, coding, writing, web design, graphic design, and accounting. You can use your skills to earn a living from home while still being your own boss as a freelancer. <br /><br />With any new home business, expect to work hard if you want to make money fast. Every business requires careful study and a daily effort to make it work. Use these simple, but lucrative ideas to make money fast with an online business today!</p> <p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.yoursoftwarefortune.com" class="null">Click Here</a></p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Make Money Fast and Maximize Home Business Promotions with these Proven Strategies</h1> <p>Wayne Ming — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 06:02:07 GMT</p> <p> <span style="font-size:x-small;font-family:Verdana;">It takes hard work and perseverance to build a home business, but it's a whole lot easier to make money at home when you have a blueprint to follow. These proven strategies provide a solid pattern so you can make money fast while avoiding some of the trial and error that comes with starting a business from scratch. <br /><br /><b>Use Marketing Techniques that Work Year Round </b><br /><br />Before jumping in with both feet, analyze each marketing opportunity to see if it will benefit your business for the long haul. Some advertising opportunities seem reliable, but actually soak up your dollars without any long-term results. The type of marketing that's worth trying is the type that brings in targeted customers that can possibly make multiple purchases and refer others to your business. <br /><br />Example: If you sell e-books about home business, target those who are interested in starting a home business and who might also be able to share your products with other home business owners. <br /><br />Campaigns that don't work are those that promise thousands of visitors to your website, but offer no promise that these visitors are remotely interested in your products. Some advertising sites will allow you to choose your category for targeting, but the categories are so vague that there's no guarantee you're reaching a target audience. These programs seem very cheap, but are usually wasteful. <br /><br /><b>Make Money Fast with Targeted Marketing that Works </b><br /><br />Make the most of your advertising dollars by finding very specific (or targeted) campaigns. These can be paid search engines using keywords, classified ads online and off-line, content article marketing, press releases, and e-zine advertising. Each of these methods can be costly, but they can also be targeted. So, you'll reach your audience and have more of an opportunity to sell your products and gain repeat business. If you want to make fast money online, it's pertinent that you find targeted methods of marketing. <br /><br /><b>Up-Sell Customers to Make Money at Home</b> <br /><br />Once your home business is established and you begin to make sales, use every opportunity to up-sell your customers. This means offering an additional item or service to your customers each time they make a purchase. Customers are more likely to add an extra product while in the middle of a purchase than to return later. You can up-sell using squeeze pages or checkboxes on the order form. Either way, you're encouraging customers to buy more during each visit, which can increase your bottom line in a hurry. <br /><br /><b>Build for the Future </b><br /><br />Always give customers the best service possible so they will buy from you again. This is crucial to building your business. The easiest customers to reach are those who have already bought from you before. You don't only want to make money now, but also in the future. Treat every customer as though they're going to spend hundreds of dollars with you over the next few years. You'll be a winner and your home business will grow. <br /><br /><b>Use Other Tools to Make Money with Your Computer</b> <br /><br />Having a home business doesn't mean you can't use some of the same tools that other businesses use. Create business cards, thank you cards, brochures, sales letters, and referral cards to send to your clients. These can go a long way and can continue selling for you when you're not able to speak face to face with a client. <br /><br />Also, keep your website up-to-date and follow up with clients using e-mail. Create a newsletter and offer useful tips based on what your customers need. This is a great way to get customers back to your website without using pushy tactics. Whether selling e-books, software, or other products and services, keep your business name before the customer as much as possible. <br /><br />Implement each of these strategies to make money fast online and you'll soon see results like never before! </span></p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>Business Intelligence: Get the Information You Need</h1> <p>Charles Nagel — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:56:48 GMT</p> <p>You can’t make decisions, at least good ones, for your business with bad data or data that is missing. Many CEO’s and managers often make the mistake of managing retroactively by only receiving important data points at the end of the month. From this vantage point, many issues that could have been easily fixed if the appropriate data had been available weekly or even daily have escalated into large problems. It is imperative that the management of your company has the information it needs when it needs it to proactively manage your business.<br /><br />The first step to getting the data you need is to sit down at the computer and create an outline of the most important data points to running your business. This data must be presented to you in a repetitive and reliable manner. At the same time, the format must be easy to read and quickly understood like a table or graph.<br /><br />Start with a list like this:<br /><br /> <b>Data I Need To Know</b></p> <ol> <li>Sales <ul> <li>Revenue by item or service</li> <li>Numbers of items (services) sold</li> <li>Revenue by salesperson</li> <li>Number of calls made by each salesperson</li> <li>Forecasted sales</li> <li>Other important sales indicators</li> </ul> </li> <li>Cost of goods sold</li> <li>Expenses <ul> <li>List of costs in descending order</li> </ul> </li> <li>Net Income</li> <li>Accounts receivable</li> <li>Accounts payable</li> <li>Cash</li> <li>Project data <ul> <li>Estimates</li> <li>Actual data</li> <li>Timelines</li> <li>Resources allocated/used</li> </ul> </li> <li>Anything that is important to your business success in measurable terms</li> </ol> <p><br />Remember to customize your list to suit your company’s own specific needs. Once you have the data points identified make sure you get this data weekly. Looking at information on a monthly basis is too infrequent and looking at information after the month is over may help you plan for the next month but it’s too late for anything else. Measure your data weekly and keep your staff informed of items that look like they are off track. The key is to catch problems early while you can still do something about them. Problems won’t escalate into large issues if this approach is taken.<br /><br /><b>The Mechanics of Getting The Information You Want:</b><br /><br />You want the above information generated automatically or nearly automatically. You do not want your accounting department to spend 8 hours formatting a file. You want a system in place that can create a predefined report in the format needed or as close a possible. The point? You want your accounting team to click a button and dump the needed data to a standard report format and email it to you. You don’t want to make a ton of work for your employees but you do need the information extracted and provided in relatively short order. A system like this reduces human error, facilitates the frequency you want, and keeps personnel working on mission critical items. In this case, software is your ally.<br /><br />To be able to gather this data you must use technology where possible. It does not get tired nor is prone to human error. It will do the same thing over and over again in the exact manner if you set it up right. My advice: USE A DASHBOARD. This cannot be stressed enough. Dashboards pull the data together and present it in an easy to understand format. If you don’t have dashboard technology, or you don’t know how it applies to your operation, you should really spend a day or two learning about the technology.<br /><br />Yes, you or another in your company will actually have to stop and learn about this technology. Once implemented the gains realized can be phenomenal. You get instant visibility and repeatability while your accounting staff focuses on the financial issues of your business. My own dashboard is setup such that all I do is click the refresh button and all the data points concerning the operational and financial health of my company are automatically updated and put into graphical format.<br /><br />Don’t assume that technology has to cost an arm and a leg. This kind of solution does not cost a lot of money. If you run QuickBooks®, take a look at our website <a target="_blank" href="http://www.qvinci.com">www.qvinci.com</a>. If you don’t run QuickBooks® you can still use Qvinci™ with Microsoft Excel® with much of the same functionality. Or you might find a software package that integrates with your financial solution. Dashboards range from $10 per month to $1,500 for enterprise class solutions for Oracle and larger implementations.<br /><br />Nevertheless, it all starts with you and your team. Sit down and document the important items to monitor. Once done you can look at solutions to provide the framework to deliver you the results. </p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> <article> <h1>The 1 Secret Small Business Must Know to Survive and Prosper</h1> <p>Charles Nagel — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:47:45 GMT</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';">Succeeding in business doesn’t happen by accident. It is hard work and perseverance that produce success. We often forget that it takes a LOT of effort to make a company successful. It also takes some luck and good timing. It’s been said that luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity (George Allen – NFL football coach). If that is true then luck is nothing more than hard work (strong effort and accurate preparation) while waiting for an opportunity to present itself. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';">You’ve probably also heard that if you fail to plan then you plan to fail. This cliché is actually pretty accurate when it comes to business. But why do so many business owners and managers hate preparation and planning? Maybe hate is too strong. Let’s try “avoid”. Well, planning usually involves a lot of detail work and many managers don’t like that kind of effort. <span> </span>But planning is not the secret referred to in the title of this article. Planning is a necessary part of running a business. You have to do it. It’s not negotiable. If you won’t do it then you put your business in the VERY HIGH RISK category. I’m assuming you are reading this article because want to find a tool that will help you run your company better, make better decisions or improve some aspect regarding your company. What you read below will do just that but <span style="text-decoration:underline;">you</span> have to take action or what you read cannot help you. That is where planning, perseverance and effort are needed as noted previously. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';">Are you ready? The great secret is:<span> </span>You don’t know what you don’t know. <span> </span>Failing to realize this fact and make adjustments is a very good way to ensure you <span style="text-decoration:underline;">make</span> mistakes. If this is true then what does it mean in practical terms?</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in;"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';"><span> </span><span> </span>Let me offer an actual example. When I was working as a business consultant, I specialized in turn-around consulting.<span> </span>I was hired by a company that was a fabricator of metal devices. The first meeting with the owner was typical. I asked a lot of questions to uncover details. When I asked about the team, he said they were skilled but were very inefficient and should be producing a lot more. I asked, “How do you know that to be true?” His answer: “I just know it.” </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in;text-indent:0.5in;"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';">The company had repeatedly missed the estimated budget and deadline for each project. They routinely used over-time hours (often over 30% of payroll) to bring projects to completion by the deadline.<span> </span>Obviously there was some gap in information or communication that resulted in missed deadlines and a large number of over-time hours, and I had a feeling that the reason was not inefficiency of the team.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in;text-indent:0.5in;"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';">This is where I prove my point. The company had the estimate budget and deadlines for all projects in one database. They had the actual time for every hour worked by every employee on every project in completely different database. They did not have a consolidated report that merged labor, resources, and deadlines into one format.<span> </span>The result was the managers could not make informed decisions or view all projects holistically. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:0.5in;text-indent:0.5in;"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';">To correct this, I created a single page (it was a big E-size print out) that showed what they budgeted, current status, and remaining days and resources for all projects. With this single page they were able to move resources as needed to meet deadlines without overtime. Then they could reallocate resources to ensure future projects were performed timely. The result? Overtime was taken to 0, that’s ZERO, in less than 4 weeks and they made their deadlines moving forward.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';">The managers of this company didn’t know what they didn’t know. Practically, the manager of a company needs accurate and timely information with which to make decisions. It is imperative to have whatever information is necessary, whether it is cost data, project data, time data, sales data or any other information that is critical to good decision-making. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';">Technology, software and hardware, can provide frameworks that facilitate collecting, sorting and displaying mission critical data.<span> </span>How is it possible to plan and prepare as discussed earlier if accurate and timely data is not available? Well, it’s not really possible. I submit that you cannot plan with any accuracy if data is faulty or missing. Remember, failing to plan is planning to fail.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';">All too often managers make decisions primarily based on “gut feel” without good metrics to substantiate the “gut feel”. You want your business to improve and your decisions to be better?<span> </span>Decide what data points you really need to know to make an informed decision and seek out technologies and methods to provide it to you in a reliable and repeatable manner. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';">Try to use the many-to-one concept for collecting data. For example, let’s say you have 5 salespersons and you would like to know “how things are going”. You could take several approaches from having meetings several times a week to talking with each salesperson frequently to waiting to see how things turn out at the end of the month, etc. Most of these methods take a lot of time and are usually subjective. They also take the salesperson away from selling.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';">But imagine you build an Excel spreadsheet that contains daily activity for leads, calls, prospects, targets, etc. This spreadsheet has the same format for all salespersons. Imagine you put it together so that each salesperson entered their daily activity on their sheet. It would be very easy to pull the data from each sheet and aggregate it to a top sheet for your viewing. You could easily see where each salesperson stood on targets you defined for them. And the benefits of this approach are fantastic. Taking just a few minutes, the salesperson enters data before her or she leaves for the day leaving more time for selling. You do not need to have a meeting to gather the data, the data is automatically aggregated for you and you get to see the individual as well as the team totals. With that kind of ammo, you can make informed decisions because you <span style="text-decoration:underline;">know</span> the details and you know them early in the game. If a particular salesperson isn’t hitting target you know it immediately and have time to make a decision or adjustment.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:0.5in;"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';">In short, you must know what you don’t know. Put processes in place that spread data entry across many resources to keep the burden light. Apply technology to give you the data reliably and daily. It costs less than you think and is worth its weight in gold.</span></p> <p> <span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';">To see more from Charles, please http://qvinci.wordpress.com/</span></p><div style="clear:both;"></div> </article> </main></body></html>