We welcome Rhani from Idea + Ink Graphic Design.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
New Online Diva: Melissa Wolsey from 4littleducks.com.au
We welcome Melissa Wolsey from 4 Little Ducks.
New Online Diva: Kara Woskett from karawoskett.co.nz
We welcome Kara Woscett from Kara Woskett Photography.
New Online Divas: Nedahl Stelio and Alissar Stelio from cocolee.com.au
We welcome Nedahl Stelio and Alissar Stelio from Coco Lee.
How to formulate an effective linking strategy
Today, again, a small but very important article. When you have your online business you want that it pops up at Google’s first page when you search for it. For optimal search engine optimization you need to use a good and effective linking strategy. Below you find four points you need to follow when you formulate a linking strategy
• Requesting links to your website from the websites of friends and associates
• Finding businesses that share a similar customer demographic to you (but are not your competitors) and exchange links with them.
• Avoiding links from ‘bad neighbourhoods'. If it sounds too good to be true, it will be. Promises of 1000's of inward links for $99USD will not deliver a good Google ranking, maybe the opposite. There are no short-cuts here, just hard work.
• Don't link to 'bad neighbourhoods'.
Remember - Google isn't silly. If you think you have stumbled onto a way to trick them they will probably already know about it. Your website listing may be adversely affected.
Source: thewebshowroom.com.au
Monday, November 9, 2009
New Online Divas: Jane Hages and Nicky Rowsell from flamingosands.com
We welcome Jane Hages and Nicky Rowsell from Flamingo Sands.
New Online Diva: Monique Bryden from moniquebryden.com
We welcome Monique Bryden from Monique Bryden.
New Online Diva: Zoe Weir from zoeelizabeth.com.au
We welcome Zoe Weir from Zoe ElizabethZoe Weir designed and founded Zoe Elizabeth Bikini Queen in 2005. Knowing that fashion was her calling, she applied to study Product Development and Merchandising at Melbourne’s RMIT. Deciding that she wanted a more hands on approach Zoe shifted her focus to design experimenting with textiles, colours and fabrics.
Zoe grew up spending endless summers down at Portsea looking through her grandmothers photographs, watching Gidget and Listening to the Beach Boys. Zoe drew inspiration from her grandmother who was an expert dressmaker who encouraged Zoe’s love of well cut garments and interesting fabrics all these things have contributed to shaping her unique style.
Made from the highest quality 100% cotton fabrics each Bikini is in bold signature prints, designed swimwear with a twist. Zoe’s love of paisleys, polka, dots, vintage, novelty and stripes have inspired her range of quirky and adorable pieces, a must have for any cossie lover.
Ten top Social Media Stories
Everybody Twitters about something else. Some are telling personal stuff, while others just publish general information. Below we’ve listed 10 stories. From serious to strange.
1. HOW TO: Use Twitter Lists – Twitter: has launched Lists, a new way to organize people you follow on Twitter. Josh Catone tells us how to get the most of the new feature.
2. 10 Ways You Can Use Twitter Lists – More Twitter List goodness, this time with real-world examples of Twitter list usage.
3. LEAKED: Microsoft Courier Tablet User Interface Details – Microsoft is working on a slick-looking tablet. Now interface details have emerged.
4. Google Dashboard: Now You Know What Google Knows About You – Google this week launched a single location to find all the data the company is storing about you.
5. IBREAKING: Rollout of Twitter Retweet Feature Has Begun [PCS] – Twitter is set to support retweets as a native feature. Some users already have access.
6. Now You Can Dislike Stuff on Facebook (With a Firefox Plugin) – Facebook’s “Like” feature is a handy way to show props for a status update, photo or link … but what if you want to express dislike? Facebook has no such feature natively, but a Firefox ( ) plugin lets you do much the same thing.
7. The Top Internet Memes of 2009 – What were the top Internet memes of the year? We look back at a year in Internet culture.
8. T-Mobile Down Nationwide – T-Mobile suffered a major outage this week, affecting users across the country.
9. Motorola Droid’s New “Stealth” Commercial [Video] – The Motorola Droid is here, along with a new ad that includes stealth bombers and cowboys.
10. Out of Control Forklift Driver Destroys Vodka Warehouse [VIDEO] – A video of a forklift crash went viral on YouTube this week, making for an amusing diversion.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
New Online Diva: Leigh Turtle from bronz.com.au
We welcome Leigh Turtle from Bronz - Skin Body & Spirit
New Online Diva: Melanie Corlis from bronzalicious.rtrk.com.au
We welcome Melanie Corlis from Bronzalicious Tan|Skin|Body.
New Online Diva: Simone from modeltanning.com
We welcome Simone from Mobile Spray Tanning by Simone.
Do you keep your business timeline in mind? (part 3)
Last week the first ten years were in the picture. Today, we will discuss all the years after the first ten and your way to retirement. Keep in mind that some businesses slow down and this is a part of the natural business life cycle but stay positive keep your head up and with new leadership you can embace new ways of being.With the maturity of becoming a decade-old company comes stability. That's the good news. The bad news is that while your company stabilizes, markets continue to change, competitors arise, technologies disrupt and the world otherwise evolves. So the primary growth challenge in this era is to keep innovating.
You've spent years building systems to formalize the way your company is run. Now take a look at what you've made with an eye to tearing at least some of it down. Channels of communication that worked well for years will be found to leave important constituencies out of the loop. Department leaders will be seen as more concerned with turf wars than growing the company. Policies that once promoted growth will be recognized as growth-retardants. Markets that once seemed they would expand forever suddenly mature themselves and become slow- or no-growth ventures.
This is often a hard phase for entrepreneurs to endure because everything they've built is now being re-evaluated. But the way you've always done it may no longer be good enough. Given that, it's fortunate that now is the time for entrepreneurs to begin grooming a potential successor and initiate the process of stepping back from day-to-day operations. With new leadership coming on board and the founding entrepreneur taking a smaller role, it will be easier and more natural for the organization to embrace new ways of being.
The tendency of many entrepreneurs is to select a successor who will do things just the way the entrepreneur would have done them. If the organization is having trouble adjusting to change, however, this is usually the wrong approach. The question is not what kind of person the founder is. The question is what kind of person the company needs. A visionary entrepreneur who can grasp the whole picture but isn't good with specifics may have founded a company that is now in a mature industry and needs a detail-minded manager to squeeze all possible efficiency from the enterprise. Often the entrepreneur can't properly ask or answer the question of what the company needs now and should assemble a group of people from inside and outside the company to research it.
Even the perfect successor can rarely step into a company and run it as well as someone who has spent time learning how the company does things, what the problems with its products and markets may be, and what solutions have been tried. Of course, sometimes a complete new perspective unclouded by past events is beneficial. But usually a successor performs better if they're trained in a broad spectrum of jobs within the company in various departments and at various levels over a period of years before he or she is ready to step into the lead role.
Identifying and grooming a new successor is the first and most critical step to allowing an entrepreneur to step back from day-to-day company affairs. But it's not the only one and, in many ways, it's not the most difficult either. Many an heir apparent has turned out to be more apparent than heir because, when the moment arrived, the entrepreneur had not prepared either herself or the organization by moving toward the change in stages. One way to do this is to start taking vacations--real vacations--of increasing length, during which the successor is left in charge and the entrepreneur is only contacted if absolutely necessary.
Source: entrepreneur.com
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
New Online Diva: Mercedes Sarmini from flowersbymercedes.com.au
We welcome Mercedes Sarmini from Flowers by Mercedes.
New Online Diva: Meaghan South from embracingmotherhood.com
We welcome Meaghan South from Embracing Motherhood.
Do you keep your business timeline in mind? (part 2)
Yesterday we talked about the first five years of your business and that you need to take the time to grow. Well, today we are going to discuss the years 5 to 10 and that you need to grow to the Next level. You need to understand your business, use the right technologies and start spending more time and energy reducing costs. Hopefully you can find your own timeline in these tips and tomorrow we'll discuss the rest of the years!
After several years in business, it's not uncommon to find sales slowing, demand slackening and growth stalling as you extract potential from the products, services, customers and markets you began with. One option at this point is to abandon these tiring horses and go in search of fresher mounts in the form of completely new products, services and markets.
It makes more sense, however, for many firms to consider incremental expansion in the form of extensions of existing products and services. Developing a different size, color or packaging is much less risky than coming up with an entirely new product. And slight changes can allow you to sell to significant numbers of new customers in old markets, as well as sell more to existing customers.
Companies sometimes change locations to follow markets, customers and even suppliers, but the biggest reason for relocationis the simple requirement for more room. Employees need space to work, inventory needs space to be stored and, at some point, no amount of shoehorning can hide that it's time to get a bigger place. If you're considering a new facility, carefully analyze the labor force, transportation, communication, customer markets and other infrastructure issues that will affect the move's success.
These middle years are also a good time to turn the focus away from merely increasing sales and start spending more time and energy reducing costs. Larger organizations contain larger amounts of waste, so the bigger you are, the more you can benefit from improving your productivity. Pencil and paper are your biggest allies here, as you create flow charts, step-by-step instructions and systems diagrams to find out where the bottlenecks are, how you can cut waste and which processes may be eliminated entirely. And unlike sales increases, which only turn into profits after the costs of those sales are subtracted, cost cuts go directly to the bottom line.
Only after you really understand your business's systems should you consider turning to technology as a productivity booster. New computers and more sophisticated software laid over a dysfunctional business system will result in higher costs rather than higher productivity. Once you thoroughly analyze your systems and select technology that will help make them run more smoothly, don't forget the training. Much of the cost of new technology comes from having to train employees in its use, but so does much of the benefit.
Who's going to pay for these new facilities, new technology and product development efforts? As a relatively mature company with a lengthy track record, you're now squarely in the sweet spot of banks and private investors. You can negotiate better terms than before, and you may well find financiers competing to do business with your solid, well-established firm. The public markets also open up around this time. While up-front costs are high, initial public offeringsgive you access to the lowest-cost capital source of all, the stock and bond markets.
Source: entrepreneur.com
Monday, November 2, 2009
New Online Diva: Jennifer Gehbauer from 2-sights.com
We welcome Jennifer Gehbauer from 2 Sights Design.
Do you keep your business timeline in mind? (part 1)
Today and the upcoming two days we are going to discuss with you the business timeline. Today the years 2 to 5, tomorrow the years 5 to 10 and Thursday the years 10 to retirement.
It’s good if you keep the timeline in your mind for your business because in the first five years you really need the time to grow., the next five years you need to grow to the next level and the last years till your retirement you need to manage your maturity.
Hopefully you follow the timeline with your business and tomorrow you can read about the next five years.
After your first year, re-read the business plan you started with. One reason to review it now is to update and, if necessary, revise your goals or schedules. Re-reading your business plan also re-acquaints you with the goals you had in the beginning but may have lost touch with during the hectic start-up days. Fix these goals in mind as you enter years two through five.
Now is the time to begin formalizing the processes and procedures you've developed during your first year. The basic goal is to get information out of people's heads and onto paper. Writing down operations procedures in a manual also helps you think through the elements of critical tasks in the company. Having a system that's rational and repeatable is invaluable as you plan for your first sustained growth phase.
As you enter this first growth phase, you may hire your first employees or begin bringing on new people in greater numbers than before. Foolproof this process by writing job descriptions for all positions new and old. Well thought-out job descriptions help you hire the right people for the right jobs. They'll also guide you in developing training that provides additional skills to people already hired.
Sales and marketing processes also cry out for standardization. Carefully consider the face you want to present to customers. Codify the messages, images and other marketing materials used to present it. Look at everything--from the way service reps answer your phones to the color of your company trucks. A standardized marketing message is vital for differentiating yourself from your competitors and establishing brand identity.
At some point, your company is likely to grow too large to manage in the hands-on way you may have used successfully in the beginning. It's time to hire a management team, which may mean anyone from a supervisor who will oversee the night shift to a COO responsible for a wide array of day-to-day decisions. Either way, you'll have to let go and delegate some authority, and that's often difficult for entrepreneurs used to signing every check and approving every expense. Make it easier by asking yourself what kind of person you can work with and creating highly specific job descriptions for managers you can truly have faith in.
Personal savings, friends-and-family money and bootstrapping suffice to start many a new enterprise, but as your company grows, its needs for capital are likely to outstrip those initial funding sources. The good news is that now you have a track record, you'll be much more attractive to banks, angel investors and other financing sources.
And while you may have been able to borrow from a family member with nothing more than a handshake, it's important to know that institutional financial sources require more documentation. Prepare for near-future financing needs by moving as soon as possible to institute solid bookkeeping procedures. Generate regular and accurate accounting reports including income statements, cash flow projections and balance sheets.
Bear in mind that banks are most concerned with feeling certain their loan will be repaid, while venture investors are willing to gamble with a higher risk of failure in return for the chance to earn annual rates of return of 35 percent or more through a sale or merger within three to five years. Angel investors, another source of capital for firms at this stage, may be motivated by any combination of those two, along with the simple desire to help an entrepreneur like you to succeed.
Source: entrepreneur.com
Sunday, November 1, 2009
New Online Diva: Carolyn Madden from wsswebsite.com.au
We welcome Carolyn Madden from Women Surviving Separation
New Online Diva: Feyi Akindoyeni from kreabgavinanderson.com
We welcome Feyi Akindoyeni from GA search.
New Online Diva: Marjorie Johnston from wordmakers.com.au
We welcome Marjorie Johnston from Wordmakers
New Online Divas: Sonya Saywell and Tracy Saywell from aicdedu.com.au
We welcome Sonya Saywell and Tracy Saywell from Australian Institute of Creative Design.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
New Online Diva: Pierre Winter from pierrewinterfinejewels.com
We welcome Pierre Winter from PIERRE WINTER FINE JEWELS.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Keyword research in a nutshell
The topic of today is Keyword research. This is important because internet users use search engines to find solutions of their problems. A clear description about this subject is from Allen Moon, entrepreneur.com
“There are so many ways of expressing the same problem. "Cat food" could also be "cat treats," "food for kitty," "organic cat food." Someone who needs to feed a cat could use any of those terms in their search, or hundreds of others--and search engines record every one of them. That means there's a mountain of data about what people are searching for--and it's all waiting to be analysed. That's why initial keyword research is a crucial first step if you're just starting an online business.”
In the beginning you will not notice a lot of difference, but you should focus on the people who are willing to buy you product. You must use words that attract your target. Below you find keyword research in a nutshell
1. Use one word to describe a passion or interest, e.g., dog.
2. Combine your interest word with "how" to generate problem statements in your keyword research tool, e.g., "how dog." We use Google's free AdWords Keyword Tool for this brainstorming process.
3. Record the "action words" that come up, e.g., "how wash dog," "how housetrain dog.". These are terms that people are using to search the internet to solve a problem they have.
4. From that list, choose some problems that you have the interest, knowledge, or skill to solve, e.g., "train dog."
5. Find as many ways as possible to express your interest word and your action word, e.g., training, educate, teach, show, obedience, commands, stop. To find similar terms quickly and easily, try entering each term into Thesaurus.com or the new Google Sets.
6. Enter your interest-plus-action phrases into your paid keyword tool--you'll get a long list of real searches that people are doing in the area you're focusing on, e.g., "stop Pomeranian yapping," "teach dog cute tricks," "paper train puppy."
7. Organize the top keywords into groups according to the action being performed, e.g., barking, basic obedience, tricks, housetraining, professional dog training, puppy training, etc.--now you have some pretty specific problems you can investigate.
8. Look for the largest clusters and add up the number of actual searches--a large cluster with lots of searches is worth exploring further because it indicates that a large number of people are trying to solve the same problem.
Source: entrepreneur.com
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
New Online Diva: Kelly Buer from fdcbuilding.com.au
We welcome Kelly Buer from Construction & Fitout Pty Ltd
Don't forget your privacy!
Today we have a small article, but not less important. When you have a small business you sometimes forget that you need privacy. Below there is a perfect tip from Heather Dorso, TRUSTe, about privacy and small businesses. Let's read what she has to say.
“You may be a small business, but chances are you collect some form of personally identifiable information (PII). Even small businesses are accountable for the safety of user PII, and thereby must take adequate measures to protect it. Lead Microsoft.com editor Monte Enbysk gathered TRUSTe’s insight to help develop 6 privacy tips for small businesses:
1. Take inventory of the personal information you collect and store.
2. Analyze how safely you use and store this data.
3. Make sure you’re complying with industry or federal laws.
4. Post a privacy policy that is clear and comprehensive.
5. Have your policy reviewed by an attorney or by a privacy seal program.
6. If you have employees, make sure their personal information is protected too.
According to Enbysk , you should seek the expert opinion of a privacy service like TRUSTe who can help ensure the accuracy and validity of your privacy statement. Not only may a third-party privacy authority ensure your privacy statement and practices are up to par, but a seal from TRUSTe can benefit your brand.
“The Web privacy seal is one of TRUSTe’s most popular products,” says TRUSTe’s VP of Communications, Carolyn Hodge. A privacy seal may be most beneficial to small e-tailers with little or no name recognition outside their hometown or region."
Source: blog.small-biz-marketing-tips.com
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
New Online Diva: Jo Philip from aspoonfulofsugar.com.au
We welcome Jo Philip from A Spoonful Of Sugar.
New Online Diva: Wendy White from http://www.bushbuddieshats.com.au/
We welcome Wendy White from Bush Buddies Hats on Main.
What and when is it a Business Opportunity?
When you want to start your own business you need to know if it is a business opportunity or not. Because not everything is a business opportunity. For example sales and franchise are business opportunities but not al business opportunities has something to do with franchise and sale. Do you know what I mean? Besides that, per state there are different laws defining business opportunities. We’ve put the general criteria below.
1. A business opportunity involves the sale or lease of any product, service, equipment, etc. that will enable the purchaser-licensee to begin a business.
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2. The licensor or seller of a business opportunity declares that it will secure or assist the buyer in finding a suitable location or provide the product to the purchaser-licensee.
3. The licensor-seller guarantees an income greater than or equal to the price the licensee-buyer pays for the product when it's resold and that there is a market present for the product or service.
4. The initial fee paid to the seller in order to start the business opportunity must range between $400 and $1,000.
5. The licensor-seller promises to buy back any product purchased by the licensee-buyer in the event it cannot be sold to the prospective customers of the business.
6. Any products or services developed by the seller-licensor will be purchased by the licensee-buyer.
7. The licensor-seller of the business opportunity will supply a sales or marketing program for the licensee-buyer that many times will include the use of a trade name or trademark.
The laws covering business opportunity ventures usually exclude the sale of an independent business by its owner. Rather, they are meant to cover the multiple sales of distributorships or businesses that do not meet the requirements of a franchise under the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rule passed in 1979. This act defines business offerings in three formats: package franchises, product franchises and business opportunity ventures.
In order to be a business opportunity venture under the FTC rule, four elements must be present:
1. The individual who buys a business opportunity, often referred to as a licensee or franchisee, must distribute or sell goods or services supplied by the licenser or franchisor.
2. The licensor or franchisor must help secure a retail outlet or accounts for the goods and services the licensee is distributing or selling.
3. There must be a cash transaction between the two parties of at least $500 prior to or within six months after the licensee or franchisee starts the business venture.
4. All terms and conditions of the relationship between the licensor and the licensee must be stated in writing.
You can readily see that the sale of business opportunities as defined by the FTC rule is quite different from the sale of an independent business. When you're dealing with the sale of an independent business, the buyer has no obligations to the seller. Once the sales transaction is completed, the buyer can subscribe to any business operations system he or she prefers. There is no continued relationship required by the seller. Business opportunity ventures, like franchises, are businesses in which the seller makes a commitment of continuing involvement with the buyer.
Source:entrepreneur.com
Monday, October 19, 2009
New Online Diva: Samantha Mitchell from rubyslipper.net.au
We welcome Samantha Mitchell from Rubyslipper
New Online Diva: Annalisa Holmes from thetranscriptionpeople.com.au
We welcome Annalisa Holmes from The Transcription People.
New Online Diva: Lisa Marinucci from lisamarinucci.com.au
We welcome Lisa Marinucci from Lisa Marinucci Designer Jewellery
How to get more fans to your Facebook FAN page
Facebook has more than 300 million users all around the world. That means that this is a great social medium for creating more social engine optimization. Facebook pages are currently the only featured indexed by Google. When you put the right keywords at your page and type it in Google, you can get tremendous SEO! First steps you need to do is inspire visitors of your fan page to become a fan, let them engage with your page and keep them coming back.We’ve listed 10 tips and tricks to create that extra SEO. Title your page, choose a popping picture, put your blogposts on your page and broadcast about it on Twitter. After all these steps you get more SEO and it’s all for free!
1. Title your page
When first creating your fan page, you need to choose a title; it could be your brand name, personal name, or business name, as well as a few descriptive words. Typically, the shorter the title, the better, because each time you add content to your fan page your long title will append to each post.
2. Choose a picture that pops
This is not a well-known fact, but Facebook's ideal size for a fan page image is 200 pixels wide by 600 pixels high (it looks rather like a bookmark shape).
Whenever you post on your own fan page, the thumbnail image that appears will show a section of your main picture, so you may need to experiment with your graphic to get the image just the way you want it.
3. Secure your username
As soon as you get your first 25 fans, you'll be able to register your unique username (often called a vanity URL) at http://facebook.com/username. For example, instead of being a long, unmemorable link, you can shorten the link by using your brand name, company name, etc. (mine is http://facebook.com/marismith).
4. Set a landing tab
You can create a fully customized "landing page" for your non-fans, with images, keyword-rich text, links, even video. How? Just add the Static FBML app, paste in your FBML code (very similar to HTML), then edit your fan page settings to select the specific tab you wish non-fans to land on.
For examples, see http://facebook.com/droz, http://facebook.com/gary, http://www.facebook.com/ellentv, http://www.facebook.com/cocacola, http://www.facebook.com/ONE, http://facebook.com/paysonjewelry.
5. Write an appealing About Us/Bio
There's a small text box area just under your fan page picture; use this area very strategically to essentially summarize what you do, whom you help, and how you help them. Even better, include a call to action with a hyperlink (be sure to include the "http://" so it's clickable).
6. Import your blog posts
Using the Notes app, pull in your blog feed so that each time you make a blog post, your fan page automatically updates and your fans can read and comment on the post. Doing so also helps to consistently add content to your fan page and keep it fresh and engaging.
7. Show posts by page and fans
There may be strategic reasons for showing posts only by you on the fan page, or only by your fans, but I highly recommend setting it to show both. That way, anyone who comes to your page can see the interaction from both sides.
8. Encourage your fans to add content
Your fans can add their own photos, videos, and comments on your "wall." Allowing and encouraging your fans to add their own content will make them feel more a part of your online Facebook community, and when they tag themselves that content goes out into their feeds creating more visibility for you.
9. Respond to your fans
Providing quality content is just one aspect of building a good Facebook fan page (or any social networking presence, for that matter). Another critical aspect is engagement. By actively responding to your fans' comments, questions, suggestions, ideas, etc., you show that you're a company that cares, listens, takes action, and engages your community.
10. Broadcast to Twitter
Using the new Facebook fan page to Twitter app http://facebook.com/twitter you can write status updates up to 420 characters that will go out as a tweet on your Twitter account and truncate at about 120 characters with a bit.ly link back to your fan page. Great for cross-promoting and extra visibility!
Source: marketingprofs.com
Sunday, October 18, 2009
New Online Diva: Helen Whitfield from creativeaddiction.com.au
We welcome Helen Whitfield from Creative Addiction Craft Directory
How can you save a lot of money in your business?
When you start your own online business, most of the times, you don’t have so much money to spend. Before you invest your money you want to be sure that it is worth doing it. We’ve listed 50 top tips for saving money in your business. We separate them in different categories; penny-pinching promotions, internet ideas, location logic, office overhead, insurance intelligence, employee economics, shipping savings, tax tactics, financial focus, professional policies and buying brainpower. You’ll see at every part in your business you can save money. A lot of money!
Penny-Pinching Promotions
1. Piggyback your advertising. Including advertising material in other mailings, such as in invoices, saves postage and other costs, says J. Donald Weinrauch, co-author of The Frugal Marketer. Likewise, make the most of your point-of-purchase opportunities by tucking coupons, newsletters or other promotional fliers in the bag with customers' purchases.
2. Be a good neighbor. Split advertising and promotion costs with neighboring businesses. Jointly promote a sidewalk sale, or take your marketing alliance further by sharing mailing lists, distribution channels and suppliers with businesses that sell complementary goods or services.
3. Ask the people you know for help. The kind of support you'd most like to get from your contacts is referrals-the names of specific individuals who need your products and services. So go ahead and ask! Your contacts can also give prospects your name and number. As the number of referrals you receive increases, so does your potential for increasing the percentage of your business generated through referrals.
4. Got a happy customer? By telling others what they've gained from using your products or services in presentations or informal conversations, your sources can encourage others to use your products or services.
5. Make a special TV appearance. Local cable TV stations often have very reasonable advertising rates at time slots throughout the day and night. Though you won't necessarily reach prime-time viewers, you will make an impression where it counts-in the comfort of potential customers' homes.
6. Offer expert advice. Teaching a class, speaking at a community meeting, or writing an article for a local paper not only makes you look like an expert but garners low-cost attention for your business.
Internet Ideas
7. Start your search engines. Research your market and find potential visitors for your Web site by looking through Usenet newsgroups (forums on the Internet where people post messages for public viewing) and special-interest groups related to your target market, product or service. Or, if you have America Online, visit their Small Business Center, which includes libraries of small-business information you can download at no charge.
8. Cut costs when setting up your online store. Think going online has to cost an arm and a leg? You can start out by selling items for next to nothing on online auction sites like eBay and Yahoo! Auctions. If you want to create a professional storefront, there are several "Web site in a box" solutions available, usually for a low monthly fee.
· Read more online here.
9. Start chatting. Find newsgroups that cater to your audience, and join the fray. "I didn't start [participating in online discussion groups] to generate business, but as a way to find information for myself on various subjects," says Shel Horowitz, owner of Northampton, Massachusetts-based Accurate Writing & More and author of several marketing books, including Grassroots Marketing. "But it turned out to be the single best marketing tool I use. It costs only my time. [One] list alone has gotten me around 60 clients in the past five years." Always include your URL in your signature, but don't do any hard selling-most groups will ban you immediately. Instead, provide useful information that'll make people will want to click on your site.
10. Spread the word yourself. Are you letting people know what your URL is? Try putting it on your letterhead and business cards and in e-mail signatures-wherever potential visitors are likely to see it. Include it on employee uniforms, any promotional items you give away, all press releases, in your Yellow Pages ad and on company vehicles.
Location Logic
11. Get a suite deal. You don't have to run your office full-time from an executive suite to benefit from its services. Many homebased entrepreneurs find executive suites meet a range of needs, including access to a private mailbox and a receptionist to answer or forward calls to your home office. Visit the Office Business Center Association International Web site for more information.
12. Be mobile. While the costs of establishing a permanent retail location can be steep-you may spend up to $100,000 or more, with leases spanning three to 10 years-carts, kiosks and temporary spaces can be an easier way to get a foot in the door with a lot less risk. The upfront investment for a kiosk or a cart ranges from just $2,000 to $10,000, according to Patricia Norins, publisher of Specialty Retail Report. License agreements for carts and kiosks are shorter and are usually renewed every month up to one year depending on the location. This arrangement makes it easy for entrepreneurs to "come in, try it out for a month, and if their product isn't working, shift to a new product line or close up shop and move to a new location," Norins says.
Office Overhead
13. Buy recycled printer cartridges. Check Google or your Yellow Pages for a local recycled printer cartridge supplier. Or if you want to mix your charitable instincts with your printing needs, visit www.lasermonks.com, a remanufactured printing supply company run by a group of monks in Wisconsin who, after business expenses are paid, donate their profits.
14. Fill it out for free. Instead of buying forms at your local office supply store or spending time creating them yourself, you can find tons of free forms online that you can download, customize and print. Our free forms on Formnet can get you started.
15. Get free software. Visit Download.com to try hundreds of software products for free through trial downloads, freeware and limited versions of the full product. Visit our Complete Guide to Software to find the best software options for small businesses, including many links to the free trials of those brands. Another tip: If you haven't found what you're looking for through Download.com or our software guide, check out the manufacturer's site. Most offer free trial downloads.
16. Buy used equipment. Save up to 60 percent by buying used computer equipment, copiers and office furniture from stores such as the nationwide Aaron Rents & Sells chain. Auctions and newspaper classifieds are other good sources of used equipment.
Insurance Intelligence
17. Save by association. When looking for insurance, check with your trade association. Many associations offer competitive group insurance.
18. Be prepared. Buying appropriate insurance upfront saves money in the long run, says Jeanne Salvatore of the Insurance Information Institute, a nonprofit organization in New York City. Consider what situations would be catastrophic to your business and protect yourself with adequate insurance. "Disaster recovery," says Salvatore, "is one area where business owners shouldn't scrimp."
19. Make a foul-weather friend. By arranging for an alternative place to run your business in case of a major disaster, you may be able to save on business interruption insurance, advises the Insurance Information Institute. For instance, you could arrange with a firm in the same industry to use their facilities in case of damage, and vice versa.
20. Check up on your medical insurance. Before choosing a medical insurance carrier, ask for information on past claims and the loss ratio of paid claims to premiums, advises the Council of Better Business Bureaus in Arlington, Virginia.
21. Raise your deductible. Raising the deductible on your insurance usually lowers your premiums. Even if you end up having to pay the deductible, it's likely to be less than the amount you save.
Employee Economics
22. Aim to lease. Employee leasing-in which you turn over your work force to a professional employer organization that leases your employees back to you-can save you substantial cash on employee benefits, says Bruce Steinberg at the American Staffing Association (ASA). For referral to a leasing company near you, visit the ASA online at www.staffingtoday.net.
23. Go with the flow. Rather than paying for employees who sit idle when business is slow, consider hiring temporary employees to handle surges in business.
24. Make experience count. Get free or low-cost help-and give local college students a chance to learn the ropes-by hiring interns.
25. Use independent contractors. Employers generally don't have to withhold or pay any taxes on payments to independent contractors. But be very careful that your independent contractors fit the definition provided by the IRS or you could face penalties.
26. Commission your sales force. Overhead, salaries, incentives, training costs, fringe benefits and expenses add up when you're hiring your own sales representatives. Contracting independent manufacturers' sales reps, paid on commission only, is less expensive-and often equally effective.
Shipping Savings
27. Clean up your mailing list. The U.S. Postal Service will clean up your mailing list for free, correcting addresses, noting incomplete addresses and adding ZIP+4 numbers so you'll be eligible for bar-code discounts.
28. Prune that mailing list even more. The Direct Marketing Association offers this checklist of cost-cutting ideas. Eliminate nonresponders and marginal prospects; print "Address Correction Requested" on the face of your mail; investigate co-mingling your mail with that of other small mailers to take advantage of discounts available mainly to large mailers; and stockpile mail to build up larger volumes.
29. Be an early bird. Send mail early in the day, and you can usually expect to get one- to two-day delivery for the price of a first-class stamp.
30. Shop around for an overnight courier. Overnight delivery rates for the major couriers are competitive; however, if you're willing to wait a few hours-or even an extra day-you could save.
Tax Tactics
31. Mind some petty pointers. Don't get careless about your petty cash account. "Though you don't need receipts for expenses under $75, you should still track these expenses since they can add up," advises Holmes Crouch, author of 18 tax books.
32. Hire your children. If your children are at least 14 years old and pay their own taxes, it pays to take advantage of their lower tax bracket. "You can essentially transfer income from your business to them [to save money]," says David L. Scott, author of The Guide to Saving Money (The Globe Pequot Press).
33. Take a stand on taxes. If your business is new in the neighborhood, you may be at a higher tax rate than those who have been there longer. "Go to city hall to determine what your neighbors are paying, and use this to negotiate a better rate," says Pete Collins of New York City-based PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. "Expanding businesses can often negotiate with community authorities, who want them to stay in town rather than move and take jobs elsewhere."
34. Homebased? Don't overlook crucial tax deductions. In addition to being able to deduct a portion of your rent or mortgage interest and utilities as a business expense, you can also deduct a percentage of various home maintenance expenses, along with a portion of the cost of services such as house cleaning and lawn care. Check out the IRS's Web site, or check with a knowledgeable tax advisor for more information.
35. Get out on the town. If much of your business is conducted at restaurants or you find yourself driving to clients' offices, make sure you take those deductions. If you entertain clients or potential clients to discuss a current or future project, you can deduct a portion of your entertainment costs. To qualify for this deduction, you must maintain a log of entertainment-related expenses you plan to deduct. For mileage, you can deduct 37.5 cents per mile in 2004. This figure usually changes annually, so check with your accountant at the beginning of each year.
Financial Focus
36. Make credit comparisons. If you tend to run unpaid balances on your credit cards at the end of the month, shop for a card with a low interest rate. If you pay in full, it's more important to avoid an annual fee and look for a longer grace period. "Often credit card issuers waive the annual fee or reduce the interest rate if you ask," says Scott. "Just tell your credit card company you've had several solicitations from other companies with more favorable interest rates or no annual fees, and ask if they will reduce yours."
37. Avoid cash advances. "Credit card companies usually charge an upfront fee of up to 2 percent of the advance, with interest accruing immediately," says Scott.
38. Bank on an early deposit. Make bank deposits early enough in the day so you get credit (and start earning interest) that day.
39. Get checks in the mail. Ordering your checks from a printing company often costs less than getting them from a bank. Options include Checks in the Mail and Designer Checks.
40. Form a buying alliance. Join with another business or a trade association for bulk purchasing discounts.
41. Take it with you. If you're near your suppliers, pick up your order yourself-or perhaps have a friend or family member do it for you, suggests Sarah Williams Steinman, president of Casco Bay Herb Co., an herbal soap manufacturer in Cumberland, Maine. For example, Steinman's husband travels throughout the Northeast. "He keeps me updated as to when he might be near one of my suppliers," she says. "He often travels through the town where my olive oil supplier is, and he'll pick up a few hundred pounds of oil on his way home. That saves me about $75 in shipping." Caution: Pick up supplies yourself only when it truly saves you money. If it's taking you away from a revenue-producing activity, you're not really saving.
42. Be reluctant to give credit. If you do extend credit, thoroughly check the client's credit background, says Collins. For less-than-creditworthy accounts, Collins advises considering the following actions: Collect cash in advance; send partial shipments; request letters of credit, personal guarantees and a pledge of assets; take out credit insurance; or think about factoring (see below).
Professional Policies
43. Query your consultants. The professionals you work with regularly are often easy to bargain with, thanks to the rapport you've developed with them. Ask your insurance agent, accountant or attorney how you can cut back on their costs. You'd be surprised at the suggestions they might offer on ways to cut your premiums, reduce billable hours or avoid huge retainers. You might also barter your services.
44. Be a legal eagle. When hiring an attorney, make sure you have a written fee agreement to prevent surprises. It should include an estimate of the time to be spent on your case and specify what's covered in the fee-including typing or copying-and what is not.
45. Learn something new. Rather than pay a consultant to write your press releases, for example, hire one for an hour or so to show you how to do it yourself.
46. Run from the law. "Avoiding lawsuits is a big factor in business success," says tax book author Crouch. "Even arbitration can get expensive." The best alternative: Try to work out any problems before they grow to the point that attorneys get involved. "Don't ignore any written or phone complaints."
Buying Brainpower
47. Stretch your budget with barter. Swapping one product or service for another is a good way to avoid cash outlays-and unload slow-moving inventory. If you'd rather not bargain with other businesses directly, hire a commissioned barter broker (listed in the Yellow Pages under "Barter"), or join a commercial barter club or exchange. The National Association of Trade Exchanges (NATE) is a clearinghouse for member exchanges across the country, allowing business owners to swap just about anything with anyone. Participants typically receive "trade dollars" for their goods or services, which are brokered across cities nationwide with the help of NATE. Visit NATE at www.nate.org.
48. Time your payments. Ask suppliers if they give discounts for early payment. If not, it's to your advantage to pay your bills-including utilities, taxes and suppliers-as late as possible without incurring a fee, advises Scott. "The longer funds are under your control," he says, "the longer they're earning a return for you rather than someone else."
49. Join an association. Many trade and business associations have reasonable membership fees and offer discounts on everything from insurance, travel and car rental to long-distance phone service, prescriptions and even golf course fees.
50. Seek at least three bids on everything. Even mundane purchases merit shopping around. If you quote a competitor's lower price, a supplier or vendor will often match that price to win your business.
Source: entrepreneur.com
Thursday, October 15, 2009
5 annoying things about some websites
Yesterday we discussed how you can make your website better. Our topic today is the opposite; 5 things that we hate about websites. We’ve listed a short list with 5 things we really don’t like. The thing that annoys us the most is unfindable contact information. Besides that one, there are 4 more. After reading last two articles you can see if your website included the right information and isn’t annoying.
1. Your contact information is not visible on your home page. I wish I had a dime for every small business site I've visited where I not only could not see a phone number or address on the home page--where it belongs--but I could not even see an obvious "contact us" tab. I know--you're trying to seem cosmopolitan, global, mysterious, you're everywhere...or that's what you think this is accomplishing. But it's really just making you look amateurish.
I want to know what city you are based in, and I want to know right away. I need to know what time zone you're in so I know if now's a good time to call you. Or I have a story where I need sources from various parts of the country, and I want to know if you're in one the places I need. But I can't find out. Do you have a business death wish, that you're making it hard for people to get in touch?
Ideally, your contact info, or at worst contact link, should be visible right at the top of your web page, without my even having to scroll down. As opposed to being in Times Roman eight-point at the bottom of your home page, in pale gray type, as it seems to be on so many of the small business sites that do manage to get their contact info onto the home page at all.
Fixing this would help customers as well as reporters, hmmm?
2. You only offer me a fill-in email form. I have a bulletin for everybody who's got these e-mail forms on their contact page: Nobody wants to fill them out. They feel anonymous and weird--I don't know who, if anyone, will be getting this message. I'd love to see stats for the percentage of people who bail on your site after being confronted with one of those forms. If you are in love with your form because it captures data straight into your CRM system for you, or whatever other reason you might have, then at least list your email and give me the option of clicking a link.
3. You have no phone number. That's right, your contact page doesn't have an address, and it often doesn't have a phone number, either. Just that fill-in form. More of the awe and mystery of your pseudo-globalness, or so you think. Reality: This makes me think your company is likely two guys (or girls) sharing a laptop in one of their bedrooms.
4. Your 'About Us' page doesn't tell when your company was founded, or by whom. This is an epidemic lately. About us pages sound like this now: "Faux Global is dedicated to giving customers the most amazing widget possible." Paragraphs and paragraphs of vague junk like that. The company might have been founded by a former child star and have $90 million in sales, but I'll never know.
Reporters are looking for great stories to tell. This is the page where I'm hoping to learn about your story--who's behind this and how they got this puppy off the ground.
5. Your 'News' or 'Press' page has no media contacts. That's right--you've got a page of press releases, a page of clips from media you've been in, but nowhere does it say who I should contact if I want to talk to you. Combine this one with no phone number and that email form, and odds are, if I'm on any kind of deadline, we're not going to connect in time to include you in my story.
Source: blog.entrepreneur.com
New Online Diva: Danielle Maugeri from danimdesign.com
We welcome Danielle Maugeri from Dani M Design.
New Online Diva: Sonya Mefaddi from fashionpalette.com.au
We welcome Sonya Mefaddi from Fashion Palette.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
New Online Diva: Delia Timms from findababysitter.com.au
We welcome Delia Timms from Find a Babysitter
New Online Diva: Stephanie Macintosh from bonitobaby.com.au
We welcome Stephanie Macintosh from Bonito Baby
5 Tips for a good website
Today we have a short article about how to get more out of your website. We have listed 5 easy-to-use tips. Online Divas choose this subject for today because every Online Diva needs to have a beautiful and useful website. So stay up to date, add a photo gallery, get rid of your trash and the flash video, install Google Analytics and Voila, you have a good website.
Add a ‘Latest News’ section to you website
Search engines just love new content, so keep yours fresh! Update your 'Latest News' section with information about any of your new projects, about new employees in your company, about new products, or any industry news that you have created.
Add a 'Photo Gallery' to your website.
This is a really easy way to add new content to your site and statistics prove that it keeps visitors at your site much longer. Longer visits mean viewers have a much better connection to you and your company. Your Photo Gallery can have portfolio or product photos, company event photos, etc. Make sure you add Titles and Descriptions to the images – the Search Engines love this stuff!
Clean up your Home Page and get rid of the trash.
Organize the site so that users aren’t overwhelmed by too much information. Your Home Page must be clean and easy to navigate. Too much information, too many links, menus, and site widgets (Google Search Box, Weather Info, etc) will scare your visitors away and they’ll be off to your competitors website within a click. Confuse them and you lose them!
Install 'Google Analytics’ in your website.
Formerly known as 'Urchin', this industry leading software is free to use (for the moment at least) and has the best site traffic reporting tools available anywhere. Important things to know about your website visitors are: How many visitors are coming to your site, where do they come from, what keywords do they use to find your site, which pages of your website are they viewing, how much time are they spending at your site and do they ever come back.
Get rid of the Flash Intro.
The FLASH intro and text 'Click to Enter' was used up to 2001 and it is not 'Search Engine friendly'.
Source: navegabem.com
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
There is to the Twitter world then meets the eye!
At the moment, celebrities are taken over Twitter. Almost everybody is using it for sharing their thoughts and opinions to the whole world. But do you know that there are many more social sites instead of Twitter. They are also very useful and not so massive as Twitter. We’ve listed also some handy search features like Lunch. You can become an important resource and you can share your opinions and facts with the other members. Happy reading and hopefully you find another useful websites instead of Twitter.
12seconds
12seconds is like Twitter, but it’s for video status updates. Like Twitter, you’re limited in the amount of information you can convey. The idea is to keep it short and sweet, so you get 12seconds. Use your webcam to record your video status update, and spread it around the web.
12seconds has integration with Twitter and several other web apps, so it’s easy enough to redistribute your content. There’s also an iPhone application, so you can send in updates to 12seconds while you’re on the go. The iPhone application can’t yet support video, but a series of photos to accompany your 12 second voice recording will do the trick.
How is it useful to celebrities? We always love to see their faces, don’t we? Can’t you imagine Ashton Kutcher getting a kick out of 12seconds video status updates?
Dopplr
Dopplr is actually an itinerary service that helps you stay organized while you travel, but it’s social in that you can see where your contacts will be as they travel as well. It sounds a little too personal for the celebrity lifestyle, but a series or privacy settings could in fact make Dopplr useful. Celebrities can keep the personal stuff private, but share the pertinent travel information in order to keep fans updated to their whereabouts.
Particularly useful to musicians and others that travel and frequently tour, Dopplr could be the personal touch for promotional purposes that celebrities seek out these days.
FriendFeed
Even if the early adopters have begun to lose interest in FriendFeed, this is one social media service that hasn’t yet caught the eye of mainstream users or celebrities. This social media aggregator lets you pour all of your activity across various blogs, social networks and other media sites into one central location. From here, it can be redistributed across other media channels, from RSS feeds to other blogs.
Similar to Twitter, the format of FriendFeed allows you to follow other users, though they don’t have to follow you back in order for you to view their updates. You can respond to others’ posts with comments or the sharing of other links/media, and you can also send direct messages. Unlike Twitter, FriendFeed has groups, which offers more niche community features within FriendFeed. The site also recently added realtime streaming for content pushed through FriendFeed, which ultimately is an effort to create more value through search and filtering on FriendFeed’s site.
One true benefit of FriendFeed is that it can be a very automated process, meaning celebrities can push content through FriendFeed from their various social media channels and not have a second thought about it. Engaging fans from there is just as easy as it is on Twitter.
Ping.fm
Another Twitter competitor, Ping.fm is a social media aggregator in its own right. What Ping.fm allows you to do is send out updates and messages to a variety of social media sites from one central location. That includes instant messengers, Twitter, Facebook, iGoogle, LinkedIn, Bebo, Wordpress, Blogger, Tumblr and many more.
For the celebrity on the go, Ping.fm also has mobile integration for easy updates via SMS. The benefit of sending out a single message to several places on the web is the ability to easily manage multiple accounts without having to visit multiple sites. Since launching last year, Ping.fm has added several great features and a wealth of social networks and services that it supports, indicating that this site is seeing a good amount of growth and utilization from members.
Microsoft Vine
One of the newer services on this list, Microsoft Vine is a status update and distribution application designed for alerting members of an emergency. Celebrities may not need to use Vine for this purpose, but the potential of Vine goes far beyond its initial application use case.
As a desktop application, Vine acts as a hub for alerts and other activity, such as location updates and regular status updates. The best use for Vine currently is for families and organizations, but the larger potential for Vine is its seamless integration of location-based features. Having such features come from an established company such as Microsoft may make status + location awareness more mainstream. This could be useful for celebrities for promotional and touring purposes, and may be preferred to a more intimate setting such as Dopplr.
SocialThing
A company that’s still in private beta but has gained a great deal of buzz and has already been acquired by AOL, SocialThing is another social media aggregation service. SocialThing also synchronizes your social media activity, giving the busy celebrity the hands-off approach they need to creating a personable online presence to engage fans and even other celebrities.
The benefit of SocialThing is that through its acquisition, the technology behind the company is being instituted across a number of AOL online properties, including Bebo. We’ve already witnessed some of this potential with Bebo’s recent releases, which debut a streamlines and very social homepage for users. Having direct and seamless integration for other large social networks just adds to the hands-off approach to social media content sharing and redistribution.
Quub
Quub is an update service that is still very much under the radar, meaning you’re highly unlikely to find any celebrities here. But should they find out about it, they might find some of its features useful. When submitting an update, Quub asks you three things: where are you, what are you doing, and what else would you like to share with the world? Fill in the blanks Mad-lib style, and you’ve got yourself a status update.
Words and phrases used by other Quub users are floating around the hompeage. Click on any of these if you’d like to steal their ideas, or merely see in semi-realtime what other Quub users are doing. Quub also has public and private messaging, along with groups and acquaintance filters for easy update management.
To be truly useful to celebrities, however, integration with other social media sites like Twitter and Facebook would be necessary. Mobile support is also a must. Luckily Quub has integration with most major social networking sites, with mobile support is in the works.
Lunch
Lunch is not a social media aggregator but is instead a place where you can become a useful resource to others. This is a site where you can share opinions and facts. This content can be rated by others, and spread further across the web. From there, you can connect with others that are great resources, and further discover content and people that is useful for your purposes.
Lunch features a unique matching system to help you on this discovery path, showing you how you align with each user you come in contact with on the site. This is a helpful way of organizing web content while combining it with people that matter for personalized recommendations.
It’s these personalized recommendations that could very well come in handy for celebrities, as they may want to share facts and media around themselves or each other for the purpose of having an integral web portal that’s semi-branded and useful to others. Unlike fan pages, dedicated websites or wikis, Lunch really does take a unique approach to the sharing of information within a social setting, which ultimately benefits all parties involved. Facebook Connect integration also makes the site more usable and able to readily spread content to one’s specific social graph.
Evernote
Evernote is great because it’s mobile, among other things. While Evernote is first and foremost a bookmarking tool, recent upgrades and a deeper delve into broader social media is making Evernote an even more handy tool for personal bookmarking and media sharing. With Evernote you can add items to your “digital brain” via email, browser bookmarklet, mobile text messages, phone calls, direct uploads and synchronizations with your computer desktop.
While Evernote’s product can’t be directly utilized for promotional purposes, a celebrity would find it quite useful for merely organizing thoughts, activities and media to be shared at a later date. The search function on Evernote is very nice, extending a very intuitive way in which to parse text from photos, or enabling you to find content based on direct or indirect context. If celebrities are really serious about using social media to its fullest, staying sane and organized is a great way to start. Future updates will make Evernote more social, which could prove increasingly useful to celebrities and the rest of us.
Twine
The semantic web is still a somewhat intangible concept, but Twine’s ability to bookmark and add content for the purpose of building an intuitive database is great for celebrities that would like to establish themselves and their information on the web. Similar to Lunch, the idea behind Twine is to organize web data and make it easier to find based on very fluid filters, tag words, users and other search options. The end result is a great discovery tool that can provide users with a wealth of information at their fingertips.
Source: socialtimes.com
Learn more about the Social Media Roadmap
SEO is very important for you online business especially in combination with social media work. But you need to use the right combination otherwise it doesn’t work well together. Below you find a social media roadmap with tips and tricks how you can find a good combination and how you can get the most out of it.1. Find the audience; understand their behaviors, preferences, methods of publishing, and sharing. Most companies that are involved with the social web in the channels where their customers spend time have a good sense of where to start. Many companies are ahead of the game by tracking their audience via social media monitoring software that identifies keywords, conversations and influencers such as those pictured in the Radian6 screen shot below.
2. Define your objectives. Objectives are often driven by marketing or sales, and SEO has long been directly accountable to substantial improvements in web sales. Social media is not direct marketing though, so different objectives and measurements apply. The role of SEO in a social media effort is to directly influence discovery of social communities or content via search. Do a search for Zappos on Google, for example, and you’ll easily find more than shoes: Twitter, Blog (blog) and a YouTube (YouTube) channel are all on the first page of search results.
Indirectly, social content can boost links to website content, improving search traffic and online sales.
3. Establish a game plan. The game plan for reaching objectives in a combined SEO and social media effort will often focus on content and interaction, since it is content that people discover and share. Whether a keyword-focused strategy for reaching goals means publishing new content or creating an opportunity for consumer-generated content, it must involve proactive promotion and easy sharing amongst members of the community.
4. Create a tactical mix. The tactical mix for a social media marketing effort is based on doing the homework of finding where the desired audience spends its time interacting with and sharing content. Whatever the tactical mix is, it’s an investment in time and relationships – not a short term “link dump” to promote optimized link bait. Much of the content creation and promotion for a social media marketing effort happens within the tactical mix and, of course, that means optimizing content for keywords.
Whether content is created by marketers as part of a social destination like a niche community or a promotion vehicle such as an interactive ad, keyword glossaries become useful for writing headlines, deciding on anchor text for links and outreach activities like blogger relations.5. Measure your goals. Goals measurement should roll up to the specific objectives, both direct and indirect. Leveraging both social media monitoring services as well as web analytics can provide marketers with the insight to improve results. Radian6 and Webtrends have recently announced a partnership that will bring web analytics and social media analytics together all in one interface. In the meantime, marketers can use specific measurement tools to monitor the effect of their social web participation as well as the search engine performance of SEO efforts.
Source: mashable.com
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Do you know how to optimize your LinkedIn account?
Every business professional should use LinkedIn. LinkedIn can give you a tremendous amount of SEO and drive awareness around your business. So, what do you need to put on your account? And what information should you hide from who and why? Well, if you don’t know these answers, keep on reading the article below as we discuss the 10 top tips to help you optimize your LinkedIn account.
Fully complete your profile – Ensuring that this contains all relevant career history and interests. LinkedIn makes this easy by displaying a percentage score to show how complete your profile is. A LinkedIn profile basically acts as an online CV, so make sure you’re being honest and describing yourself and career clearly.
Edit profile to claim vanity URL – This should be set to use your name (or closest match if unavailable) within the URL, for example: www.linkedin.com/in/kevingibbons – this will help you to optimise your own name in the search engines and also makes the URL easier to remember if promoted on business cards or email signatures.
Make your profile publicly available – You can set the information which is publicly available to non-members/contacts, be careful with blocking too much information as this will also be unavailable to the search engines. As a minimum, I would recommend providing enough information for the search engines to index your profile and cache the external links you have listed! In terms of optimising your profile, the main goals are normally to rank for your own name, company name and possibly industry keywords related to this.
Make connections – Increase the reach of your profile by connecting with current and former work colleagues, clients, friends and family. I’d also recommend adding any industry contacts, perhaps from people you have met at conferences/events or are connected with on other social media sites and share a similar interest.
Request recommendations – Obviously don’t ask everyone, especially if you don’t know them that well. But having recommendations will help your profile to stand out and will help to build trust in your reputation to visiting users. This will help improve the visibility of your own profile within internal LinkedIn searches too.
Register a company profile – If your company doesn’t already have a company listing, you should create one! Here’s an example of the SEOptimise company profile, if your company does have a profile, you should encourage employees to create their own individual LinkedIn profile’s and ensure the current employer entry is completed. This will automatically update all employees listed on the company profile, providing the company name is exactly matched.
Make use of the 3 website hyperlinks – For SEO value, LinkedIn is very good – they give you the opportunity to add three hyperlinks to websites of your choice. If you’re not trying to optimise your site for “My Website”, “My Portfolio” and “My Blog” it might be an idea to select “Other” and choose your own anchor text instead!
Join related groups – Find groups where other industry professionals have joined and look to participate in (or at least join) these groups. Adding value to your own profile and helping you to get found by other industry contacts.
Use LinkedIn Answers – This can help to build up your reputation within a field. For SEO it also builds the number of internal links pointing to your profile from within LinkedIn, therefore helping to strengthen your profile in the search engines!
Optimise your job title – LinkedIn now includes your job title within profile title tags. I’m not saying you should lie about your job, but within reason you could include descriptive keywords which may help to attract relevant search engine traffic. For example, using “SEO Account Manager” as a job title instead of “Account Manager”, if appropriate.
So these are my tips, if you have any of your own please leave them in the comments. Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn too.
Source: seoptimise.com
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Thursday, October 1, 2009
New Online Diva: Shania Shegedyn from designerlegs.com.au
We welcome Shania Shegedyn from Designer Legs
New Online Diva: Sahra Raward from framedweddingflowers.com.au
We welcome Sahra Raward from Framed Wedding Flowers
Optimize your Google search results
Are you using Google to search the internet? Probably, as a recent comScore research revealed today that Google’s share of the worldwide search market is 67.5%! Second place is Yahoo with no more than 7.8%. So, today Online Divas will teach you in this blog post how to optimize your search results in Google. Using the tips below will save you time and make your search results work more effectively for you and your business!define: This operator will find definitions for a certain term or word over the Internet. Very useful when you come across a strange word when writing a post. (i.e. define:trackback).
info: The info operator will list the sets of information that Google has from a specific website (i.e. info:www.yoursite.com)
site: This operator can be used to see the number of indexed pages on your site (i.e. site:www.yoursite.com). Alternative it can also be used to search for information inside a specific site or class of sites. (i.e. "blog site:.org" will search for the term "blog" inside all the sites with a .org extension).
link: The link operator allows you to find backlinks pointing to your site. Unfortunately the count is not updated frequently and not all backlinks are shown (arguably because Google does not want to reveal details about its search algorithm).
allinurl: Using this operator will limit the search to results that contain the desired keywords on the URL structure. (i.e. allinurl:dailyblogtips)
fileformat: Useful operator for finding specific file formats. Sometimes you know that the information you are looking for is likely to be contained in a PDF document or on a PowerPoint presentation, for instance. (i.e. "fileformat:.pdf market research" will search for PDF documents that contain the terms "market" and "research")
Source: dailyblogtips.com
New Online Diva: Liz Courtney from thewardrobestore.com
We welcome Liz Courtney from THE Wardrobe Store
New Online Diva: Gabrielle Thompson from tomgunn.com
We welcome Gabrielle Thompson from TomGunn Shoes
New Online Diva: Christine Chouquet from biguinebio.com.au
We welcome Christine Chouquet from Biguine Bio - Natural and Beautiful Organic Cosmetics
New Online Diva: Claire McFee from organizeyourlife.com.au
We welcome Claire McFee from Organize your life
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
New Online Diva: Zoe Lamont from bellaboobabe.com
We welcome Zoe Lamont from Bellaboo
New Online Diva: Carolyn Schonafinger from holidaystoeurope.com.au
We welcome Carolyn Schonafinger from Holidays to Europe
New Online Diva: Jodie Day from fileonstyle.com
We welcome Jodie Day from File on StyleAbout File on Style:
File on style is designed to be your online bible for Australian style. As Yves Saint Laurent once said, “fashions fade, style is eternal.” And that’s what we’re about. Not just bringing you the latest trends but helping you discover, imagine and create your own style.
Our aim is to support Australian fashion, so of course FOS brings you the latest cutting edge trends from the hottest Aussie designers. We don’t simply want to give you the power to create the latest looks, we want inspire you to create your own individual style. We place the power and individuality of fashion in your hands.
This mission has also made us realize that we’re nothing without our users. Which is why we’re aiming to create Australia’s biggest online fashion community. Discuss the hottest looks in our online forums, network with some of the Australian fashion industries future stars or join one of the many loyalty programs offered by the hottest Aussie designers.
File on style will also be Australia’s most comprehensive directory listings for fashion, with comprehensive profiles and purchase information, an eBoutique, a calendar of events and even job placements within the industry. Basically, if it’s not here at File on Style, it’s not worth knowing. So, don’t forget to come back often, because just like fashion we’re always evolving.
http://www.fileonstyle.com
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Protect your computer from viruses!
For sure all of you know what it’s like to have a virus on your computer: programs are no longer working, you've got problems opening files, and it just gets worse from here. Not only are viruses incredibly annoying but they can also be very dangerous for your documents. And no matter how hard you try you can’t remove these fast spreading nasty trojan worms quick enough without them doing harm in microseconds to your precious data. So Online Divas is here to teach you the best way to avoid getting viruses on your computer all-together!Say goodbye to computer viruses for good!
Computer Viruses
Individuals who create these viruses, estimated at 10-15 new ones a day, are the electronic version of terrorists. Their goal is to inflict havoc and destruction on as many people as possible by disabling, stealing, damaging, or destroying computer and information resources. Often, they have no specific target in mind, so no one is safe. If you access the internet, share files or your computer with others, or load anything from diskettes, CDs, or DVDs onto your computer, you are vulnerable to viruses.
Fortunately, there are good guys working just as hard as the hackers to develop cures for viruses as quickly as they send them off into cyberspace. And there are many things you can do to keep your computer from catching viruses in the first place.
Defining Viruses
A virus is a small computer program that can copy and spread itself from one computer to another, with or without the help of the user. However, viruses typically do more than just be fruitful and multiply, which is bad enough in itself because it hogs system resources. Anything else viruses are programmed to do, from displaying annoying messages to destroying files, is called their payload. Often, they cannot deliver their payload until an unsuspecting user does something to make the virus execute its programmed function. This could be as simple as clicking on an innocent looking file attachment with the .exe (executable) extension.
Catching a Virus
Most viruses are spread through e-mail attachments because it’s the easiest way to do it. Although Macintosh, Unix, and Linux systems can catch viruses, hackers are particularly keen on exploiting the security weaknesses in anything Microsoft, particularly Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express. Because of the popularity of this software, hackers get maximum bang for their buck, and they probably get some satisfaction from continually reminding Microsoft that being big doesn’t mean you’re perfect.
Solution 1: Anti-virus Software
Your first line of defense is to install anti-virus software. To be extra safe, also install firewall software, which is now included in some anti-virus packages. This software can scan all of your drives for viruses and neutralize them. Here are some features to consider when evaluating anti-virus software.
- Compatibility with your operating system – Make sure the software works with your system, particularly if you are using an older operating system like Windows 98.
- Firewall software – If it’s not included, find out if it’s available. If you must, buy it from another vendor.
- Automatic background protection – This means your software will constantly scan behind the scenes for infections and neutralize them as they appear. This provides some peace of mind.
- Automatic, frequent updates – Because new viruses appear every day, you’ll want regular updates. It’s even better if they occur automatically when you connect to the internet. If automatic updating isn’t included, you’ll have to check the vendor’s website and download updates yourself. This is vitally important, because you will not be protected from new viruses if your software is out of date.
- Disaster recovery – Software with a recovery utility to help you get your system back to normal after a virus attack is always good to have.
- ICSA certification – The International Computer Security Association has standards for the detection rates of anti-virus software. Make sure your software has the ICSA certification.
- Technical support – It’s a good idea to select a package that offers free technical support, either online or through a toll-free number. If you’re ever felled by a virus, you may need it. Some anti-virus software vendors are Symantec Corporation (Norton AntiVirus), McAfee Corporation (McAfee VirusScan), Trend Micro Inc. (PC-cillin), and Zone Labs Inc. (Zone Alarm Suite).
If you receive a particularly juicy attachment that you’re dying to open, save it on your Windows desktop and run your anti-virus software on it first. To do this, click once gently on the file on your desktop … don’t actually open it … then right click and choose Scan with (Name of Anti-Virus Software) to activate a virus scan.
If it’s infected, your anti-virus software may neutralize it, or at least tell you the attachment is too dangerous to open. On the other hand, don’t feel guilty if the very thought of saving a potentially damaging file anywhere on your system is enough to quell your eagerness to open it and make you delete it immediately.
Solution 3: Delete first, ask questions later.
When in doubt about the origin of an e-mail, the best thing to do is delete it without previewing or opening it. However, some viruses, such as Klez, propagate by fishing in people’s address books and sending themselves from any contact they find to another random contact. You can spread a virus just by having people in your address book, even if you don’t actually e-mail them anything. They’ll receive it from someone else in your address book, which really makes life confusing. Because of the proliferation of porn on the internet, e-mail viruses often tempt victims by using sexual filenames, such as nudes.exe. Don’t fall for it.
Solution 4: Beware of virus hoaxes
E-mails warning you about viruses are almost always hoaxes. You may be tempted to believe them because you typically receive them from well-meaning friends, who received them from friends, etc. These e-mails themselves usually aren’t viruses, but some have actually fallen into the hands of hackers who loaded them with viruses and forwarded them merrily on their way as a sick joke.
The proliferation of e-mails about virus hoaxes can become nearly as bad as a real virus. Think about it, if you obey an e-mail that tells you to forward it to everyone in your address book, and they THEY do it, and this goes on long enough, you could bring the internet to its knees. If you ever want to verify a virus warning, your anti-virus vendor may have a list of hoaxes on it website. It’s in the business of providing the fixes, so it will know which viruses are real.
Solution 5: Beware of filename extensions
The extension of a filename is the three characters that come after the dot. Windows now defaults to hiding filename extensions, but it isn’t a good idea. Just being able to see a suspicious extension and deleting the file before opening it can save you from a virus infection.
To see filename extensions in all your directory listings, on the Windows XP desktop, click Start button | Control Panels | Folder Options | View Tab. Clear the check box for Hide extensions of known file types. Click Apply | OK. System files will still be hidden, but you’ll be able to see extensions for all the files you need to be concerned with. Viruses often live on files with these extensions – .vbs, .shs, .pif, .Ink – and they are almost never legitimately used for attachments.
Solution 6: Disable the .shs extension
One dangerous extension you can easily disable is .shs. Windows won’t recognize it and will alert you before attempting to open an .shs file. The extension is usually just used for “scrap object” files created in Word and Excell when you highlight text and drag it to the desktop for pasting into other documents. If this isn’t something you ever do, or you have Word and Excell 2000 or later, which allow you to have 12 items on the Clipboard, click the Start button | Control Panel | Folder Options | File Types tab. Under Registered file types, scroll down and highlight the SHS extension. Click Delete | Yes | Apply | OK.
Solution 7: Dealing with double extensions
When you turn on your extensions in Windows, you’ll be able to detect viruses that piggy-back themselves onto innocent looking files with a double extension, such as happybirthday.doc.exe. NEVER trust a file with a double extension – it goes against Nature.
Solution 8: Beware of unknown .exe files
A virus is a program that must be executed to do its dirty work, so it may have an .exe extension. Unfortunately, this is the same extension used by legitimate program files. So, don’t panic if you find files named Word.exe or Excel.exe on your system – they’re your Microsoft software. Just don’t EVER open any file with an .exe extension if you don’t know what the file’s purpose is.
Solution 9: Watch out for icons
Viruses in attachment files have been known to assume the shape of familiar looking icons of text or picture files, like the wolf in the hen house. If you recieve an unexpected attachment, don’t open it without first running it through your anti-virus software.
Solution 10: Don’t download from public newsgroups
What better place for a hacker to lurk and stick his virus than in the middle of a crowd? Sooner or later, someone’s bound to download it and get the virus going. Don’t download files and programs from newsgroups or bulletin boards, or open attachments sent from strangers in chatrooms (”Let’s exchange pictures!”) without first scanning with your anti-virus software.
Solution 11: Avoid bootleg software
This may seem like a no brainer, but sometimes that tiny price tag on a popular but expensive package can be too good to resist. Resist it! Likewise, be careful about accepting application software from others. You don’t know where it’s been, and what may have started out as a perfectly clean package could have become infected during installation on someone else’s infected computer.
Solution 12: Protect macros in MS Word, Excel, and Powerpoint
A common type of virus uses macros. Macros are sets of stored commands that users can save as shortcuts to perform long functions in just a few keystrokes. A macro virus may perform such mischief as changing file types from text files or spreadsheets into templates, locking up keyboards, and deleting files. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint come with macro virus protection. To make sure yours is activated, open each application, then click Tools menu | Macro | Security. On the Security Level tab, make sure Medium or High is selected. Click OK. If you are already infected with a macro virus, you may find that the steps of this procedure are unavailable because the virus has disabled them. In that event, run a virus scan on your system to see if your anti-virus software can kill the virus.
Solution 13: Use passwords
If you share your computer, it’s a good idea to assign everyone a password. Passwords should be a combination of letters and numbers no less than eight characters long, and preferably nonsensical. Never write passwords and stick them anywhere near the computer. To assign passwords in Windows XP, click the Start button | Control Panel | User Accounts. Follow the prompts to assign/change passwords.
Solution 14: Update application software
Microsoft constantly issues patches for the security holes in its operating system and applications software. however, don’t be lulled into complacency if you have Windows Update automatically checking things for you. Update checks for patches to repair bugs in the operating system, not for security problems.
To get the latest security hotfixes (as Microsoft calls them), visit www.microsoft.com and look for hotfixes for all your Microsoft software, particularly Outlook and Outlook Express.
Microsoft also has a free downloadable package called Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) that scans your system for missing hotfixes. It works with Windows 2000 and XP Home and Professional only. It doesn’t support Windows 95, 98, or ME.
To download the MBSA, go to the TechNet section of the Microsoft Website. Be warned that the information is written in techie language, so you may find it daunting.
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