Posts Tagged ‘Business’
Are you looking for hosting services for your Internet business? If you visit any hosting website, you will probably come across a comparison table, offering all the different hosting packages side by side. At a glance, you should be able to see the difference between the various hosting packages, and that will make your buying decision easier. However, if you are new to web hosting, you may find some of the features unfamiliar, and you are not sure how those features are going to help you building your Internet business. Hopefully, this article will help you. In general, you will see two different types of servers in the market – Windows based servers, and Linux based servers. These are operating systems, and they differ in terms of performance, features, and pricing. Since Linux is an open source operating system, you can expect Linux hosting to be more affordable. Features wise, it all depends on the programming language you are familiar with. If you are mainly going to upload static HTML pages, then you can use any type of server you want. But you are going to use PHP as your core language, Linux servers would be a better choice. Modern Windows servers do support PHP, but they are initially built for Windows programming languages only. Therefore, they are more ideal with Windows based programming languages such as classic ASP or ASP.NET. Dot Net is Microsoft’s latest framework, and developers are warming up quickly to this powerful framework. Many popular online software such as forum software, blogs, and content management systems are available for free on the Internet. Linux servers even come with the popular Cpanel control panel, which allows you to install numerous applications for free without any technical knowledge. For instance, if you want to set up a WordPress blog, you can easily install WordPress on your server with just a few simple clicks. Many Internet business owners prefer Linux hosting because of Cpanel. It allows them to install additional software easily, at no extra cost. Hence, they save on software development costs. Windows servers also have a rather popular control panel known as HELM. Using the control panel, you can add new websites, manage domains, add POP email accounts, subdomains, etc. You can do all that without having to email your hosting company. You can even install your own databases from the control panel. Linux servers usually offer support for MySQL database, while Windows servers may offer support for Access Databases, MySQL databases, and MSSQL databases. One frequently seen question in hosting forums is, “Which is a more reliable operating system as a server?” The best answer to that question is that both are reliable servers, but the reliability of the servers depend on the experience of the server administrators. Under the skillful hands of highly experienced server administrators, both types of servers can be very stable and reliable. So don’t just choose based on the operating system. Remember to learn more about the people behind the hosting services as well.
What happens when your web host has a failure and your account gets damaged or worse case scenario, the web host loses everything?
Do you run away screaming, or get angry with your web hosting company because you didn’t have any website backups? It’s a very common problem, which is so unfortunate, since it’s avoidable with a bit of knowledge and action on your part.
You should not rely on your web host to take backups for you? Unless you expressly pay them to do so, and even then I wouldn’t count on them being there for you. You can only trust what you take action on.
Check the fine print of most web hosts terms of service and they will state that they are not responsible for your data, even if it’s their fault. Great isn’t it.
So what’s the solution. Simple. Backup your data regularly.
cPanel control panels for your web hosting are the most widespread among web hosting companies. So let me tell you how to backup your websites on cPanel web servers, it’s quite labour intensive, but well worth it.
a) Go to your domain dot com:2082 or domain dot com/cpanel and enter in your login credentials. (replace domain dot com with your website of course)
b) Go to the Backup icon (will look different depending on your cPanel theme)
c) Click on the link to download the home directory backup (this will take all your files, including stored emailed)
d) Click on the individual links to download your databases
e) Click on the individual links to download your email filters or email aliases
Don’t worry about taking the full backup since that’s mostly helpful for hosting providers, the home directory backup is much better for restoration purposes.
Now do that once a week or month for your home directory (files) and everyday for your databases like WordPress, Forums, Shopping Carts, Email Lists.
You want to take a backup of your databases everyday since they change regularly, especially now with the widespread use of blogging software such as WordPress. Your content is entered online, and if you don’t backup then you have no local copies of your content.
Once you download your website make sure to keep it on your harddrive in a central spot that you are going to remember where you put it should you need to recover.
Keep at least 3 versions of your backups in dated sub directories so that you can recover from earlier backups in case any of them were corrupt or contain any broken files or databases.
To recover and restore your website backup you simply reverse the process. In the cPanel control panel, under the Backup icon, you can upload your backup file or database file and restore it.
If that all seems like to much work, to remember to backup your websites, and actually go through and download everything, across multiple websites (if you have more than one), you are right. It’s a massive job, which is why hardly anyone does it.
That’s where software comes in, to automate these mundane tasks. Fortunately there are a couple of good applications for downloading a website backup on a regular schedule.
* Have you ever tried building a successful small business on the Internet before, but failed to make it work?
* Would you like to discover a 5-step, sure-fire formula that is guaranteed to help you effectively market your business on the Web…?
* Would you like to know all of the FREE tools successful online small businesses use, that you can use too, to effectively grow your business?
If you found yourself answering YES to any of the questions asked above, then this will be the most important article you’ll ever read…
Today, practically every other brick-and-mortar business has an online presence. What with the Internet fast revolutionizing people’s lifestyles, it has come to a point where offline businesses that don’t have a presence on the Web, lose out on a large number of potential customers.
That’s why many offline small businesses are keen to establish a strong online identity as well. Unfortunately though, many end up shutting down in less than 12 months. And my guess is: you’ve had ‘a go at it’ yourself. How successful were you?
Well, this article will reveal a foolproof step-by-step formula you can easily use to get your small business up and running on the Web once more. Let’s dive right in, shall we?
Step # 1: Write Out A Business Plan
Even though most business owners write out a business plan when starting an offline venture, many of them forget to do it when it comes to Internet marketing. In fact, this is thought to be one of the foremost reasons for the failure of a small business on the Web.
FACT: To be able to fully tap into the lucrative potential of the Internet, you’ll need to have a specific blueprint.
Make absolutely sure you have a systematic approach in place, together with a detailed list of goals, and gear your business for success.
Step # 2: Find Your Niche And Position Your Business For Success!
‘To survive in the Internet jungle, it’s vital you stand out from the crowd!’
This is what an Internet marketing expert will tell you when you’re seeking to establish an online small business.
If you think about it for a moment, it makes perfect sense to set yourself as the best and most knowledgeable company folks can turn to, when seeking goods and services in your target market.
Finding your niche and then taking steps to dominate it, is guaranteed to propel your online small business to huge success.
But since this one article alone, is not sufficient to help you gain a good understanding of the vast amount of info Niche Marketing covers, here are some links to some outstanding websites that discuss this topic at length:
* www.entrepreneur.com/marketing/marketingcolumnistkimtgordon/article49608.html
* www.wilsonweb.com/misc/niche-marketing.htm
* www.authenticpromotion.com/niche-marketing/
Step # 3: Maintain A ‘Sticky’ Site
A ‘sticky’ website is simply a site that attracts repeat visitors. A major share of the success of an online small business can be attributed to the type of website it portrays. If you maintain a website that provides valuable information to potential customers, drives sales, and offers specialized solutions to the problems faced by clients in your industry, then your business can’t go wrong!
And oh, there’s one more thing you might want to consider: Maintaining a free electronic newsletter, otherwise known as an e-zine. You see, there’s no better tool to build a solid relationship and gain the trust of a customer, than a valuable newsletter. A newsletter is considered by many internet marketing professionals as THE MOST POWERFUL tool for gaining customer trust and driving sales!
Every week or every month, you can send out an ezine, containing useful snippets of information. Remember to avoid pitching your products heavily though, as this may turn off a lot of subscribers. However, a couple links inserted in between paragraphs, is perfectly alright.
TIP: Here’s a great piece of Email Marketing software you can use: Infacta offers a free version of their award-winning email marketing software – GroupMail. (www.group-mail.com) It provides all that you’ll need to start building a unique and personalized relationship with your customers via email.
Step # 4: Stay abreast Of Technology
The secret to running a hugely successful online small business these days is using every last piece of technology to your best advantage, so you can pass on all of the benefits to your customers.
Many online small businesses ignore this obvious advice, and have paid the price for it. You see, in order to stay two steps ahead of the rest in an intensely competitive online world, you need to keep up with the most recent technologies and who uses them.
And with the Internet evolving at such a frantic pace, the latest piece of software on the market today, may well become obsolete tomorrow! (so you may be spending too much effort in obsolete technology that no-one uses anymore. Example? – Meta-tags!)
Granted, you can’t utilize all of the newest tools that keep popping up, because frankly, some of them are just way too expensive, especially for a small business.
However, you sure can harness the amazing power of these FREE marvels of technology!
Here’s a list to help you get started:
* Blogging: A blog is a great way to get your customers involved in your business and let them know of the latest services/events you plan on rolling out. Many top companies use WordPress (www.wordpress.com), because they offer an excellent package of free blog creation and hosting services, and are highly recommended.
* RSS Marketing: ‘Nooked’ (www.nooked.com) has a free RSS Marketing service that you can try out. It’s a great tool to help you familiarize yourself with the exciting opportunities that RSS offers.
* Podcasting: Podcasting is the hottest trend amongst online small businesses today, so check this one out right now! ‘Audacity’ (audacity.sourceforge.net) will give you access to a free podcast creation and management application that’s sure to add a new dimension to your existing content.
* Desktop Publishing: Want a free alternative to Microsoft Office? Open Office (www.openoffice.org/)comes equipped with word processing, presentation, drawing, spreadsheet, and database applications.
* Press Releases: PRWeb (www.prweb.com/) is a massively popular free online Press Release distribution service that will help publicize your business announcements to the Internet Community.
* Website Analysis: If you want to analyze the amount of traffic your website generates, and gage the success of your online marketing efforts, then make sure you head over to Google’s free website statistics utility (www.google.com/analytics/)
Step # 5: Cut The Learning Curve – Hire An Internet Marketing Expert!
If you prefer not to handle all of the above on your own the next time you attempt to re-build your small business on the Web, why not hire an internet marketing expert?
Sure, hiring a specialist costs money, but if you want to jumpstart your Internet marketing, or if you just want to get on with business and leave the internet to the expert professionals, then this is definitely the way to go.
Do-It-Yourself can be a low cost way to start, but don’t forget that your Return on Investment is directly proportional to PERCEIVED value by the consumer (your potential customer) and not related to PRICE or COST.
Hmmm… sounds like a whole separate subject on marketing…
Well, there you have it! A 5-step plan designed to help your business succeed with Internet Marketing.
Whether you choose Blogger or WordPress, both have their own strengths and weaknesses. Blogger has the lack of trackback and categories and WordPress the poor raw html editing facility, but each has its fans and when the user has used to one, he is unwilling to change.
Those who use the hosted version for their home business opportunity do so, because they do not need the options, which the uploaded software can offer and are pleased to use the options, which the blog host has to offer. There are also people, who has no website, nor are planned to get one and many bloggers are not internet marketers and thus do not have enough knowledge about programming and their target is not to make money.
But for those, who use the blog as an important part of their home business opportunity, the blog must be well planned for this purpose and if so the blog is an effective medium for pre selling their offers and for instance to make money online with AdSense ads from Google.
Blogs offer an effective way to link several websites, which all sell different products from different niches. Search engines do not punish blogs for this, but if you do it with several websites, the engines will give a punishment.
It means that blogs have different rules at search engines, the websites must be related to be able to benefit from the backlinks but the linking blogs can be very diversified and that is seen as a benefit. If you want to run the blog on your own home business opportunity website, one idea is to upload the WordPress blog to your own space with the free software by the help of ftp. client. This sofware allows you to transfer files from the hard drive into the website or between the websites.
Upload facilities on websites make it possible to upload files but not folders or directories. If you do not use the ftp client, you have to create folders, which are identical to those at WordPress files and then upload them one by one and to keep the original directory structure.
This is very time consuming and sensitive to errors, so first that you have to do is to download the blogging software to your hard disc and after that ftp it to your home business opportunity website.Now your ftp sofware allows you to change file permissions as detailed in the blog set up instructions The use of the text editor is also recommended, when you will change the contents.
Then you have to create the MySQL database for your blog, which is OpenSourceSoftware database management system that utilizes SQL, which many web hosting companies will give free on your web space.
Now all is ready and you can use the default page template with a great flexibility as to the look of your home business opportunity blog. This makes it possible to upload whatever free or paid templates and any of the many plugins you like to use.
What is great is that you can edit all elements you like to customize them according your the requirements of your home business opportunity: the stylesheet, header, sidebars, footer etc and add graphics, affiliate links, AdSense ads or other elements.
The plugins are great elements, which bring special resources to your blog, like anti spam filters, sitemap generators, calendars, tag system and RSS feeds, the amount of choices is practically limitless.
As you see, the chances of the home business opportunity blog can be very addictive, because if you are a creative person, the ideas flow all the time how to make the blog more appealing and better. However, the technical aspects must always be in the use of business and in the end of the day, the content is the king. As a summary, the blog must offer useful information packed in a nice package, the truth well told!
Since it is established in 1999 with few members, in order to provide cost-effective, quality product and services to a wide spectrum of client worldwide. We’re a part of White House Group with a group employee base of over 3000+ and over 300+ in Information Technology and Multimedia. Our exclusive sales offices are in USA, UK, France, Malaysia, UAE and Saudi Arabia around the globe.
We have very strong software engineering process and our operations have been certified as ISO 9001:2000 by Bureau Vertias Certification. Our vision is to lead the world to a new era of learning.
WHBS is one of the world’s favorite outsourcing destinations. We work closely towards the global delivery and local service, with project being conducted at any location.
Our areas of operation include Link2School School Management System, Integral CE Campus Management System, i-Learn Knowledge Framework Learning Management Server and Smart books Enterprises suite.
With our comprehensive knowledge, WHBS offers services for the customers such as Custom e-Content Development, Strategic Consulting Service, Learning as a Service (LaaS), Search Engine Optimization and Technical Writing service.
Besides e-learning solutions developing and service rendering WHBS also offer best solution for Learning Management System, School Management System, Campus Management System, Assessment Management System, Customized Product Design and Hospital Management System.
We grant a fully customizable SCORM compliant Learning Management System that intended to address the learning and training needs of the organizations and educational institutions.
Our comprehensive Assessment Management System enables learning professionals, educational institutions, and training departments to develop, schedule, deliver, and report on surveys, quizzes, tests and exams.
Blueberry is a generic, flexible and user friendly Hospital Information System developed to render superior services more efficiently by managing the Out – patient (OPD), Inpatient (IP), Pharmacy, Inventory, Finance and Personnel of a multi-specialty hospital.
Some of our clients are small, medium, large enterprise and government organizations across the globe. We have global operations across USA, West Indies, Malaysia and India.
One of our clients Mr. Paul says “This is to say how pleased we are with the development and the speed at which WHBS is responsible to our requirements. Thanks for all of the hard work and we are really happy with the way things are going! It’s been excellent working with them!”
We will get back to you with new product as soon as possible. For further details, visit www.whitehouseit.com
About WHBS
WHBS is a multinational learning technology company having more than 1 million man-hours of experience in developing e-learning content and solutions for various educational institutions, enterprises and government organizations. Through the years of working various educators across the globe, WHBS has devised solutions and approaches that enhance students’ learning experience and education at large. WHBS is an ISO 9001-2000 Complaint Company certified by Bureau Veritas Certification, and adopts CMM level 4 Development standards, key process and quality assurance.
Newly added features in the WHBS site for SEO friendly are listed below:
Ease of website navigation from one page to other
W3C Compliance – HTML and CSS Validations
More appropriate keyword usage to provide our visitors with right information
Reduce the page loading time, so it quickly reach the users
Friendly with social networks such as Facebook, Linkedin, Blogger, WordPress, Twitter, RSS and Youtube.
Most probably everyone wanted to ask Why WHBS changed his corporate website? The answer is very simple – to make the website more appealing, attract more users, and make our business more transparent.
For more details http://www.ilearnsmart.com
This article is not intended to give you the newbies course about hosting, installing a blog on your domain and etc. It will give you some serious advice on your blog business
Bad blogging habits are easy to get into, and one of the worst is to leave your ‘About’ page unchanged. You know the page: it is provided by WordPress as standard and a whole host of bloggers leave it unchanged. Why they do this is known only to them, because this is the first page that a large number of first-time visitors to a blog check out, and the reason why many of them leave without looking further.
All you have to do is to say a little about yourself, who you are, and what your blog is about, why you feel qualified to write a blog about this topic and how you can be contacted. If your blog covers a particular niche, rather than being simply a log of personal comments, then your potential readers will want to know why they should believe what you say by reading your credentials on the subject.
There is nothing wrong with having a personal blog about your personal thoughts on things, but if you are presenting yourself as a form of expert on a specific topic, then you will have to persuade readers that you have a right to do so. You should use your ‘About’ page to do that.
Another tip you should take is to claim your blog with Technorati. This registers it as yours with Technorati, and you can get a whole load more visitors. Since joining Technorati most of my blogs’ traffic rocketed. It takes a while for new blogs to get going, but it’s a lot easier if you make use of sites such as Technorati. The same is true of most of the social bookmarking sites if traffic is important to you. If you are using a blog to promote a product, then this is essential.
If you have a website then don’t get lazy and be content to run your blog from a hosting site such as wordpress.com. It is better to download the software from wordpress.org, and host your own blog. You have much more control over the look and feel of it, and can use any of the thousands of plugins that are available online. You can also use any template you want, or even design your own. That way you get total customization of your blog pages, and can make it more distinctive than the majority hosted on WordPress or Blogger’s site. If you have tried and had problems downloading and installing it then send me an email. If needed I can take you through it online, or by telephone.
These are the two main tips that any blogger should take if they intend to blog seriously. However, was I to provide the third most important tip for anybody interested in blogging, then it would be to monetize your blog. Don’t blog for nothing. If your blog concerns a specific niche subject you can likely throw up one or two affiliate programs on your sidebar so that they appear with your new posts. A three column blog is useful for this, since your regular sidebar will generally be full of permanent links.
If you monetize using Adsense, a three column layout is even more essential, since you will want a vertical block down one of the columns, in addition to some at the bottom and the middle. A good Adsense layout would be a column to the left or right of the main text column containing a vertical ad unit, a horizontal link unit at the bottom of the blog, and also a horizontal ad unit at the bottom of the latest post. You could also include a search box at the top or bottom of your main sidebar that allows a search either on Google, from which you get income, or on your blog.
You could also include one of your websites as a second search option, providing three altogether. The income might not be a lot, but most blocs with a few hundred visitors a day should be able to make from $10 to $20 daily minimum, depending on the niche. All you need are a few blogs like that.
These are my three main blogging tips. Yours would likely be different, since blogging is a very personal thing, but if you take these three on board you will likely find that you will get more visitors, have more fun and also be able to put a bit put aside for the holidays or that unexpected bill that always comes at the wrong time.
It is an obvious fact that each online business owner should know not little but a lot about search engine marketing setup. This idea involves optimizing your website for the search engines to think that your website provides useful and rich-content information and, therefore, you will be able to improve search engine ranking.
This is extremely efficient as other paid marketing methods like pay per click campaigns are really expensive and can not afforded by everyone especially the beginners who do not have that much money yet to invest. On the other hand, natural traffic gained from ethical and legal search engine optimization (SEO) is free of charge and targeted under the assumption that you avoid any black-hat SEO training.
Hence, you should not overlook the power of setting a proper search engine marketing setup when it comes to spreading the word about your home based business. To achieve this goal properly, you should consider the right keywords with the right density.
But the interesting question is: What are the proper keywords?
If you explore various articles on small business website optimization or ask any small business SEO agency that provides push promotion for websites, you will always be confronted with this sentence: “You need to consider the keywords and search terms that enjoy high traffic and have low competition”.
My personal point of view is that this answer is not clear enough as the terms low and high are very relative. Should you consider 100 searches per day a high search volume? In case you agree, then should you define 90 searches per day a relatively low search volume? Additionally, if the number of the websites that compete for your target search term is 100, should you define this competition high or low?
If we define 100 websites as low competition, is it feasible to define 150 websites as high competition? So, in other words, what is the meaning of high and low here? And this is the issue I handle in this article.
Briefly, to target the best search engine marketing setup, you should target the keywords that receive “high enough” traffic per month and at the same time enjoy “low enough” competition.
a) What should you define under the term high enough traffic?
There is no clear and unique answer as it totally depends on the type of your business and your goals. To achieve a brilliant success in online marketing, you should have a definite plan like your goals and the time needed to achieve them. I.e. you should plan how much money you like to earn and after how many months.
So, I will make a random assumption that you like to earn $1000 per month. Then, you should drive visitors to your website that make you $1000 per month and this traffic is your “high enough traffic”. But the exciting question is how to calculate this traffic in an accurate way?
You can definitely use such a mathematical formula:
Total Income per Month= Number of Visitors per Month x Conversion Rate x Income per Sale
In the above mentioned formula, all factors are known except the number of visitors per month. Specifically:
Income per sale is the amount of money or commission you earn when you achieve a sale.
Conversion rate is the amount of your internet surfers who may be interested to buy your product or service. For instance, 3% conversion rate means that 100 internet surfers are dropped by your website and only 3 out of these 100 decided to buy your product. This factor is totally dependent on your services, sales letter, etc.
You may calculate with 3% conversion rate, but I like to design my search engine marketing setup using a conversion rate of 1% as this is a very realistic rate.
Total money you like to make online is simply the cash you like to earn monthly, which is in our case the $1000.
So, now you can calculate how many visitors per month you should drive to your website in order to achieve the desired income. In case you like to earn more you may work on increasing the amount of visitors to your website or you should try to increase the conversion rate.
Driving more traffic to your website includes:
- Ethical optimization of your website by combining online and offline optimization.
- Online submission of high quality articles to high rank web directories is a good idea to get more quality links.
- Update your website frequently.
- It is really a good idea to mix both of article marketing and Web 2.0.0 services.
Increasing the conversion rate of your website involves:
- Enrich your sales web page with promises that you can really deliver.
- It is strongly recommended to offer your website internet surfers something extra for free.
- Add a hard deadline that they should act before it in order to be qualified for the free bonus.
b) What should you define under low enough competition?
To check the competition of a certain keyword, insert your target keyword between double quotes in Google to see how many other websites that are optimized for the same keyword. It is usually expected to find 0 or thousands of websites that are optimized for the same keyword and, therefore, you have to compete against them.
The answer to the question of a “low enough competition”is depending 100% on the planed destination, where you are going to submit your articles. Yes, this is correct as it is relatively sure that Google loves some certain websites and if your article -which should be optimized around a certain keyword-, is submitted there, then it has a better chance to appear on Google’s first page.
Some of the websites that Google certainly love are: ezinearticles.com, Squidoo.com, UsFreeads.com and any WordPress Blog. So, you should not overlook these cases in case you design your search engine marketing setup:
- Ezinearticles.com: Is the optimal choice to submit your articles, if your competitors websites do not exceed 10,000 websites.
- Squidoo.com: Is the optimal destination of your articles, if your competitors websites do not exceed 5,000 websites.
- UsFreeads: Is the optimal choice to submit your articles, if the number of competitors is approximately 3,000 websites.
- WordPress Blog: Is the optimal choice to submit your articles, if the number of websites that are optimized for the same keyword is not more than 1000 websites.
It is important to notice that the above results are my results based on trial and error procedures and there is always no guarantee, if we talk about Google. Nevertheless, the results and experiments I mentioned in this article worked on fine bases since 6 months now and, therefore; it is a good idea to try it when you finally decided to set up your next campaign.
The key point of this article is to find a mathematical description of the very vague terms high and low. So, now it should be clear for you which keywords you should consider for your campaign when you finally decided to carry out your search engine marketing setup.
Going back to basic, marketing is a system to present your offer in front of your customer. You can go out and present the offer using different advertising channels or you can create a system to attract customer to your product or service. Business Franchising There are tons of ways that you can use to market your business without burning a hole in your pocket. Most business owners feel that they don’t need marketing because they are doing ok. They forget the natural system of business. If a business is not growing each day then it’s shrinking. Nothing in this world stands still. It can either grow or become extinct. What you choose to do will decide the fate of your business. Here are five ninja marketing techniques that you can use to market your business both online and offline. It only takes few minutes each day and you don’t have to spend any money. This is not some old school marketing approach. These techniques are measurable and solid. 1. Blog – Blog is a web diary where you can post the daily activities of your business and marketplace. These posts should be more directed towards your customers. You can create a free blog at wordpress.com or blogger.com. Blogs can become an automated customer attraction system because search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN love blogs. 2. Simple SEO – Most people think that search engine optimization is too technical and scary but its not. If you can create an email account and login to your email then you can perform basic seo to your website easily. If you have your web hosting details then you can change the following in 10 mins without reading any technical manual. Just get access to your index.html or index.htm page Title tag – Your offer with a main keyword (no more than 60 word count) Meta description – Your offer explained in more detail with your phone# (no more than 200 word count) Meta keyword – few keywords related to your business ( no more than 60 word count) 3. Social Media – Most people use Face book and My Space for fun but you can easily use these free tools for business. You can create free face book groups and MySpace pages with your business details. Add new content each week to these pages and watch your network sky rocket. 4. Articles – One of the easiest ways to generated tons of traffic to your business website is by writing articles. You must writer 2-3 articles every week and submit to popular article directories like EzinerArticles.com. Article positions you as expert and build credibility. You can go to news.google and search for new content related to your business. 5. Google Analytics – Marketing is not only about getting new customers but it’s also about measuring current conversion. Google Analytics is free and most powerful tracking system. You can install analytics on a 5-10 page website in minutes. To quick install Google Analytics you must go to google.com/analytics and create a new account. It will ask you to enter your website address and then it will give you a code. Copy the code and paste it every where before the < /body > tag on your website. Now you can track your website and get tons of data on customer value, loyalty and conversion.
For years I have seen small business owners struggle to grow their business. Most business owners think that they need lot of money to market and grow their business to next level. I agree that it takes money to advertise and hire a sales team but I can argue whole day about money and marketing. Going back to basic, marketing is a system to present your offer in front of your customer. You can go out and present the offer using different advertising channels or you can create a system to attract customer to your product or service. Business Franchising There are tons of ways that you can use to market your business without burning a hole in your pocket. Most business owners feel that they don’t need marketing because they are doing ok. They forget the natural system of business. If a business is not growing each day then it’s shrinking. Nothing in this world stands still. It can either grow or become extinct. What you choose to do will decide the fate of your business. Here are five ninja marketing techniques that you can use to market your business both online and offline. It only takes few minutes each day and you don’t have to spend any money. This is not some old school marketing approach. These techniques are measurable and solid. 1. Blog – Blog is a web diary where you can post the daily activities of your business and marketplace. These posts should be more directed towards your customers. You can create a free blog at wordpress.com or blogger.com. Blogs can become an automated customer attraction system because search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN love blogs. 2. Simple SEO – Most people think that search engine optimization is too technical and scary but its not. If you can create an email account and login to your email then you can perform basic seo to your website easily. If you have your web hosting details then you can change the following in 10 mins without reading any technical manual. Just get access to your index.html or index.htm page Title tag – Your offer with a main keyword (no more than 60 word count) Meta description – Your offer explained in more detail with your phone# (no more than 200 word count) Meta keyword – few keywords related to your business ( no more than 60 word count) 3. Social Media – Most people use Face book and My Space for fun but you can easily use these free tools for business. You can create free face book groups and MySpace pages with your business details. Add new content each week to these pages and watch your network sky rocket. 4. Articles – One of the easiest ways to generated tons of traffic to your business website is by writing articles. You must writer 2-3 articles every week and submit to popular article directories like EzinerArticles.com. Article positions you as expert and build credibility. You can go to news.google and search for new content related to your business. 5. Google Analytics – Marketing is not only about getting new customers but it’s also about measuring current conversion. Google Analytics is free and most powerful tracking system. You can install analytics on a 5-10 page website in minutes. To quick install Google Analytics you must go to google.com/analytics and create a new account. It will ask you to enter your website address and then it will give you a code. Copy the code and paste it every where before the < /body > tag on your website. Now you can track your website and get tons of data on customer value, loyalty and conversion. For years I have seen small business owners struggle to grow their business. Most business owners think that they need lot of money to market and grow their business to next level. I agree that it takes money to advertise and hire a sales team but I can argue whole day about money and marketing. Going back to basic, marketing is a system to present your offer in front of your customer. You can go out and present the offer using different advertising channels or you can create a system to attract customer to your product or service. Business Franchising There are tons of ways that you can use to market your business without burning a hole in your pocket. Most business owners feel that they don’t need marketing because they are doing ok. They forget the natural system of business. If a business is not growing each day then it’s shrinking. Nothing in this world stands still. It can either grow or become extinct. What you choose to do will decide the fate of your business. Here are five ninja marketing techniques that you can use to market your business both online and offline. It only takes few minutes each day and you don’t have to spend any money. This is not some old school marketing approach. These techniques are measurable and solid. 1. Blog – Blog is a web diary where you can post the daily activities of your business and marketplace. These posts should be more directed towards your customers. You can create a free blog at wordpress.com or blogger.com. Blogs can become an automated customer attraction system because search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN love blogs. 2. Simple SEO – Most people think that search engine optimization is too technical and scary but its not. If you can create an email account and login to your email then you can perform basic seo to your website easily. If you have your web hosting details then you can change the following in 10 mins without reading any technical manual. Just get access to your index.html or index.htm page Title tag – Your offer with a main keyword (no more than 60 word count) Meta description – Your offer explained in more detail with your phone# (no more than 200 word count) Meta keyword – few keywords related to your business ( no more than 60 word count) 3. Social Media – Most people use Face book and My Space for fun but you can easily use these free tools for business. You can create free face book groups and MySpace pages with your business details. Add new content each week to these pages and watch your network sky rocket. 4. Articles – One of the easiest ways to generated tons of traffic to your business website is by writing articles. You must writer 2-3 articles every week and submit to popular article directories like EzinerArticles.com. Article positions you as expert and build credibility. You can go to news.google and search for new content related to your business. 5. Google Analytics – Marketing is not only about getting new customers but it’s also about measuring current conversion. Google Analytics is free and most powerful tracking system. You can install analytics on a 5-10 page website in minutes. To quick install Google Analytics you must go to google.com/analytics and create a new account. It will ask you to enter your website address and then it will give you a code. Copy the code and paste it every where before the < /body > tag on your website. Now you can track your website and get tons of data on customer value, loyalty and conversion.
The benefits of corporate blogging are numerous. Blogging has been around since 1993, but really became mainstream in 1999. And the benefits of blogging have remained virtually unchanged since then.
I LOVE blogging and know you will too. Here’s why:
FREE lead generation – For me, putting my lead generation efforts on autopilot is the single biggest benefit of blogging. Every word I write on my blog has the ability to show up in a search result at the most popular search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Bing…. in just days (maybe even in a few hours). And when a Google customer searches for words that also appear on my blog, I have an excellent chance to have that same visitor swing by my site FREE. While my competitors are paying 50 cents… a dollar… or even up to $50.00 for each lead, getting the same precisely-qualified visitor to my blog at no charge is quite exciting. That’s an amazing concept worth repeating… … Every word you display on your blog is likely to show up in a Google search in hours (or even mere minutes). And when a Google search matches the words on your blog, there’s an excellent chance to have that same searcher click to read your entire blog post. That means every time you write on your blog, you’re almost instantly scaling out your lead generation efforts. How awesome is that?
Gain international fame – Blogging positions yourself as the expert on the topic you choose to write about. It’s true. The fact that you’ve put your thoughts in writing is much more powerful than saying it out loud. And the more you blog, the more your “fans” (i.e. repeat visitors) are going to adore you.
Become an instant free agent – Another one of the many benefits of corporate blogging is it gives you instant “free agent” status. Just like a star football player. When you name your blog with your actual name in the blog title, you retain ownership no matter where you blog from (or for whom you work for). In today’s economic climate, odds are you’re not going to retire at the same company you’re currently employed with. But the good news is blogging vritually bulletproofs your job security. If your boss threatens to fire you or let you go, just remind him/her that the competition would LOVE to have you continue blogging for the away team.
Blogging is easy – And blogging today is easier than ever. The latest version of WordPress sets you back about 30 minutes to install. After that, you’re done. Time to blog. Internet marketing couldn’t be easier. WordPress’ blogging software offers us hundreds (maybe even thousands) of “plugins”… almost always free software enhancements that adds additional features to your blog. I currently use 8 plugins. These plugins help speed up the load time of my blog pages… display the best-matching corporate sponsors next to each blog post… and even handle the SEO work automatically.
The bottom line is no aspect of internet marketing delivers as many benefits as corporate blogging… and the best part is it’s all entirely FREE.
1. With a blog, you can easily brand yourself as an expert in your subject area and promote yourself all over the net. Blogs have taken a life of its own, and there are many blog directories springing to life.
Each blog directory is classified according to various topics of interest, and you can submit your blog to the major blog directories.
You can then easily attract readers to your area of specialisation, and slowly brand yourself
as the expert from the many readers who visit these blog directories each day.
2. Search engine will rank your web site higher if you have a blog on your site. This is because search engine “spider bots” like fresh content, and with a blog, you can just spend 5 – 10 mins per day posting what you want to share for that day and that’s it.
Do that on a consistent basis, and the search engine spider bots will come back to your site more
often. Having a blog on your own site is so simple my 9 year old cousin can do it, and you will
learn how in my multimedia course.
3. Blogs allow you to build and foster a closer relationship with your visitors and readers,
building trust and rapport. Blogs allow readers to post comments, and it promotes interaction.
With good relationship with your readers it will be easier for you when it comes to recommending
products and services because they trust you.
4.Blogs are a one stop push button publishing system.
You can easily set up a blog with Google’s Blogger in three easy steps. Likewise, now that WordPress has offered free WordPress blog accounts, you can again easily set up your free WordPress account.
With a blogging account, you can easily publish anything online, unlike the usual way of publishing where you have to create and edit the page using some web site editing software and uploading it to your hosting account.
And with WordPress, you can instantly link all your posts and pages together, unlike your standard web site where you have to link web pages manually.
Blog saves time and is a quick and easy way to build an online presence.
5. Incoming Links
Blogs, especially WordPress blogs has a feature called trackback. Trackback basically allows someone to post a comment on another person’s blog with a link
pointing back to your own blog.
This is one way to get incoming links to your site. And we know that the more incoming links you have to your site, the higher your site will rank for certain keywords.
These are just some of the powerful ways Blogs can help with your online business.
These are just some reasons how blogs can help you in your online business.
If you want to set up a blog for business, you should follow certain steps to establish yourself as professional bloggers. A business blog has got certain features that you need to install. Here I cover some of the most important steps in this regard:Step 1: Take WordPress as your blogging platform First of all, WordPress is a search engine friendly software that interacts very easily and frequently with search engines. Therefore, it informs them of your online presence. It also has got several plugins to integrate various functions into your blog.Step 2: Conduct a keyword research to have a set of key phrases. Keywords are going to be used in your domain name, file names, categories, tags, titles, headings, etc. So, you should have a handful of them to use when you start your blogging. Professional blogging without a keyword basket has got something missing.Step 3: Have your blog Hosted on your server. Some people setup their blogs as a subdomain of blogspot, wordpress, etc. This is not professional blogging at all. What you need to do is to get a hosting service and install your blog easily on your server. As a result, your domain name will bear only your name, not another company’s name in its web address. Also, try to use your main keyword in your domain name if you have not chosen a name for your blog.Step 3: Change your free theme to a professional one. The reason to do so is that you will need the full functionality of your blog. Most of the free themes do not have that professional look and feel. Besides, they cannot be handled like what WordPress explains. For example, this software has got the possibility of creating sub-pages in cascading form on the blog menu while most of the free themes create the page and place it on the blog menu. Step 4: Set a goal for your business blog. When you set up a blog for business, you need to have a goal for it. You may want to create awareness about your product, service, etc. You may need to introduce new updates and developments your products are undergoing. You may want to support the technicians using your products with technical information. There could be a lot of reasons why you want to have such a business blog.Step 5: Focus on the goal at your niche. It is not a professional blogging practice to write about other topics if you have set your objectives and clearly mentioned it to your audience from day one. The more niche-oriented you are at your blog, the more professional you will look. This may end in having less subscribers and readers. Instead, they are more fervent ones that could turn into your fans. Step 6: Have a technical staff equip your blog with the required plugins. One of the great features of WordPress is the fact that you can install various plugins on it and increase its functionalities, automate processes, etc. If you don’t know how to do it, you’d better hire some technical staff to do it for you. Even if you have the know-how of doing such maintenance, it is always better to focus on your topic as a processional and leave the technicalities to others. Step 7: Publish posts on regular basis. Your audience is waiting to hear from you, to read what you have got to say. They get used to receive your feed, email, etc. So, you should commit to write a certain number of posts on a regular basis. Stick to this commitment and behave professionally. Step 8: Use the language of your audience to communicate with them. In order to have a smooth line of communication between you and your audience, you should know what language your readers use. The amount of technical terms used at your posts and the level of such jargon should be in proportion to the knowledge or culture of your audience.Step 09: Retain your traffic. The email or feed subscription should be easily located on your blog page and people should be able to easily click on it and subscribe to receive your content. You can also add a newsletter so that your blog enthusiasts can subscribe to it and receive your content via email from time to time. This ensures a constant contact for the time when you have something new to offer, some news to inform them, etc. Step 10: Ask feedback occasionally from your readers. The reason you blog is those who read them. You should adjust your content to what they want and expect from you. One good way of such adjustment is to ask what they think about your posts, blog, etc. Their feedback can help you work for them as an expert blogger. Professional blogging helps you interact with your readers efficiently. This is more or less about how to set up a blog for business. You can generate revenue with your blog as well. If you want to do everything professionally on your blog, you need to learn it from those who coach others in doing this. Nobody becomes a professional blogger by instinct. They learn from experts.
Why “Team Success Builder”?
After all the Hypes and Scams on the web I have been through , I really thought id never find a Internet business that would be suitable to my needs . You see if there was a 1000% sure over night success business every one would be jumping all over that , I sure would .But the reality of things is,Its that there are no over night success business if you happen to find one there are a few things to look at:
1. Look at the benefits.
2. Look at the Money return
3. Look at the Reviews of that business.
What makes Team Success Builder the 2009 Booming Business?!
Reasons to Join TSB:
Reason #1. Every position will have a payout of up to $2,100 a month and Multiple Positions are Allowed.
Reason #2: Earn a Massive 20% Personal Sponsor Bonus on every member you sponsor.
Reason #3: Easy and Fast Filling 3 x 6 Forced Matrix – Spillover and Spill under is Guaranteed!
Reason #4: Fast and Easy Break-Even AND Into Profit for Everybody so people Will Stay.
Join Tody:=> http://www.teamsuccessbuilder.com/aff/id/amr92
TSB Product/Service:
All TSB upgraded members will be able to setup their own Unlimited cPanel Hosting account. This means you will be able to create your own personal/business websites, blogs, wordpress and a lot more without any restrictions.
Your easy to use unlimited hosting account will have the following features, just to name a few:
- Unlimited GB Space, – Unlimited GB Bandwidth, – Unlimited FTP Accounts,- Unlimited Email Accounts, – Unlimited Email Lists, – Unlimited Databases,- Unlimited Sub Domains, – Unlimited Parked Domains, – Unlimited Addon domains- 4 Website Builders (cPanel – RVBuilder, File Manager WYSIWYG Builder)- 50+ Fantastico De Luxe programs including WordPress Blog and…- phpList Email Autoresponder System! (Aweber and GetResponse cost $20 per month minimum)
This service would normally cost you more than $100 a month, but with TSB its included with your membership.
Since your first level can only have 3 people in it, when you refer more customers they get placed under someone else in your down line matrix automatically. You still earn a monthly residual commission off of them as long as they are part of the program, so don’t worry! You benefit off of spillover when a member above you refers in people, and they spill over into your down line too!
This is a great advantage and not to be taken lightly as ,I’m sure you’ll understand with thousands of new people expected to join in the weeks to come. When you join our team ,you will be around the most resourceful and knowledgeable member’s and internet marketers on the internet today.No hype we will prove it ,you will have all the tips, trick’s,e books an more we use in GDI ,Spider web marketing and in Team work revolution + other programs. We use to be in before we joined “Team Success Builder “to make our down line unbelievably deep with in weeks even days !! .. Join now while we are still in pre launch .So secure your spot and grow along with us into success !!!!
Join Today and secure your possition:=> http://www.teamsuccessbuilder.com/aff/id/amr92
Blogging has made it possible for any individual to publish his/her ideas on the internet easily and freely. For businesses, this marks a truly innovative change in the way that products and services can be promoted to a large audience and at a considerably reduced cost compared with traditional advertising methods. With blogs, average business people can write about what they know and are passionate about, as well as what they can offer to others. When this is done properly and is updated regularly to keep the content fresh, it can be a very powerful marketing tool that naturally draws the customers to your business instead of forcing yourself upon them, as in traditional advertising.
Three Ways That Blogs Improve Your BusinessWell-crafted blogs can significantly impact your business in 3 distinct ways.
1) Advertising. A good blog containing the right keywords and key phrases can give you higher ranking in the organic search engine result pages, which increases the liklihood that visitors will find you and be interested in your business or products/services.
2) Public Relations. Since a blog offers a more personal touch as an information resource, it may cultivate greater brand reinforcement and more interest and trust in potential customers researching what you have to offer.
3) Direct Subscription. Really Simple Syndication (RSS) capability gives rise to a kind of modern day direct marketing technique that will enable you to be easily found by your prospective customers.
The Value of Blogging on a Regular BasisBlogging can increase the visibility of your business because search engines favor content-rich blogs over websites. Blogs include timely information on various topics, which is an important complement to other marketing tools; however, it must be done on a regular basis to create the necessary interactive dynamic between your prospective customers and you. It is a discipline that you must adhere to in order to get results. If you can’t do it yourself, you should consider paying someone to blog for you based on the things that you want to showcase.
Free Blogs Are Frequently Not the Best ChoiceFor those business people with the interest and inclination to create and maintain their own blogs, a lot more is involved in the whole business-blogging process than one may realize. Some of the issues include the exact brand design, security, ownership, and search optimization needs of the business. It may pay to bring in outside help. When maintaining your blog, there will inevitably be maintenance challenges. If well managed blog solutions, service, and a reduced learning curve are available in a cost-effective manner, it is probably worth a great deal to a business. In truth, there are good free blog technologies available; however, what appears free is never really so.
Due to the availability of WordPress and other open source software, it is possible to set up a very attractive looking blog in a very short time. But what is often overlooked is that creating an effective site involves much more. Getting traffic to your site means nothing if you don’t engage visitors with a compelling story that entices them to click deeper and make a purchase or respond to your other calls to action. It is the combination of good development, superior design, effective SEO, and persuasive writing that will make your blog capture customers and sales in the end.
The Advantages of Customized BlogsWe use a customized version of WordPress, which is the number one blogging software. It is user-friendly software that can be easily optimized for search engine indexing. We monitor and deploy core WordPress updates and the most important features coming out of the open source community, carefully evaluating and testing them. You should be less concerned about blog technology than you should be about blog content. Let us worry about the technology.
The best blogs are those that are customized to enhance the special features of your business and increase the power of exposure in search engine results. All of the following must be considered to maximize the effectiveness of your blog:
The customized blog:
The Bottom Line on Business BlogsThe true competitive advantage in blogging comes not through a concern with blog technology but rather through a focus on blog content and its syndication and the ways in which it gains attention for your business by posting interesting and enticing blogs, which the main search engines single out.
All in all, blogs are powerful advertising tools when used to their full potential. They increase your advertising visibility for a potentially unlimited number of topic keywords and phrases, while reducing traditional advertising costs.
We are pleased to provide you the insightful comments contained herein. Please contact us at CompuKol Communications for further discussion on how we might be able to assist you and your team.
With new Internet businesses launching daily, newcomers – and even seasoned e-merchants – have to be smart and quick on their feet. They have to separate themselves from the pack by using innovative marketing tools and platforms to share their opinions, perspectives and experiences.
For those unfamiliar with Web 2.0, it is a term referring to the second generation of web development and design. Included are tools which are facilitating communications, securing information sharing and interoperability, as well as promoting work group collaboration on the Internet.
Actively participating in online promotions is vital and if you agree and want to jump onto the virtual business high speed train to success, use some of the following Web tools.
Blogging rocks!
A “weblog”, better known as a “blog” is a website created to post regular entries of commentaries, descriptions of events, business activities, or other material such as pictures, graphics or video. Blogs can be personal or hosted by a corporation. The amount of blogs posted around the world is mind-blowing. In fact, search engines tracking specific activities on the Internet estimate that the results hover around several hundred thousand new ones every single day.
With so many blogs hitting the virtual world, blogs have to stand out and be spiced with personality, wit and appropriate and relevant content. They also have to be consistent. Do not disappoint your readers by skipping several days or weeks without explaining ahead of time why you will be absent (e.g. holiday, sick leave, or inventory). If your followers feel neglected or unappreciated, they will abandon you and get their information/entertainment elsewhere. With the amount of bloggers, available on the Web, you will be replaced in no time.
Blogs represent your private line of communication with your customers. Your written compositions can help you describe your products and services, explain why they are part of your business, what your objectives are and what prospects you have for the future. You can also offer advice and even insert mini-tutorials, which will definitely grab your readers’ attention and encourage them to come back. It’s also great for SEO.
If you are interested in getting online quickly and have several blogs ready to be launched, your best solution would be to subscribe to a blogging service. They are affordable (some are even free), the set-up only takes a few minutes and they are easy to use. The most popular blog hosting services are Blogger, Typepad, WordPress and LiveJournal.
Online Publishing tools
Despite the convenience of the Internet, some business owners still prefer to publish content in a more traditional way. That is no problem, as there are many independent publishing marketplaces on the Web for the inspiring digital do-it-yourselfer. Outsourcing the publication of paper books, DVDs, CDs, brochures, flyers or calendars is easy. Just upload your documents and files to the publishing company and they will print or press as many copies of your work as you’d like. Some publishing services will even promote and distribute your work for you.
Twitter away!
One of the newest communication tools used today is Twitter, a free social messaging utility for staying connected in real-time. Known for its motto “what you are doing?” this service is more than a phone messaging device between friends. Businesses can also take advantage of this buzz to distribute short notes about business updates, special offers and new merchandise. It may not be the most efficient method to promote your venture, but it will surely help!
Networking events
Countless business owners, who are probably unaware of the possibilities Web 2.0 tools have to offer, pass up the opportunity to announce their upcoming events virtually. There are numerous Web-based networking sites where individuals, or entire communities, can connect and promote their events for free or at a low cost.
The time where milkmen or bakers drove their cart from door to door to sell their goods is long gone. Today’s economy is driven by an entirely different force, expanding business territories far beyond familiar neighborhoods. Modern-day entrepreneurs have to be more aggressive than their ancestors and have to use tools their forefathers would not even be able to envision. Web marketing tools, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and blogs would all be words lost in the wind to them, yet to today’s businessman, they mean a lot. Actually, they signify so much that, using them or not, may make the difference between failure and success. Just think about that!
Reason no. 1 – Wider Potential Market
For the first time, you, as an individual, can reach a worldwide market.
Billions of people are surfing around everyday. And a rapidly increasing number of people around the world use Internet to purchase items they can’t find locally or just don’t care where the product is shipped from, as long as they want it.
If you’re fast on your feet, you have the opportunity to make some of them your customers. Think about it. The Internet provides a small business the opportunity to be a global player, with little expenditure except time given to learning. Isn’t it exciting?
Reason no. 2 – Lower Costs
If you are talking about setting a full-fledge website, typically, $100-200 is what you need to start an online business from scratch. But there are some free host around too. You can start your blog with free host like blogger.com and wordpress.com.
You don’t have to pay for office or equipment. You don’t have to employ anyone until your business has grown to sizable revenue.
Reason no. 3 – Earn Passive Income
Nearly everything can be put onto autopilot for an online business.
From product presentation (the site itself), information enquires, price quotation, to payment processing, order fulfillment, customer service, just to name a few. Even the profit will go into your bank account automatically!
All these can be done while you are sleeping or enjoying happy time with your family at beach!
This is rather impossible for off-line business.
It then translates to more leisure time, more time and opportunities to develop your next online project. Therefore, more money ahead.
Reason no. 4 – Multiple Income Streams And Unlimited Profit Potential
Automation frees up your valuable time and makes it possible for you to repeat the success time and time again. Over time, you will be able to build multiple web sites selling different product lines.
Even if one of them couldn’t pull in orders after some time due to saturated market, you can rest assured that you have other income generators still making money for you.
A worldwide market enables you to exploit varies product ideas. Your imagination is the only limit.
Twit coupons· Increase sales for your business by giving exclusive coupons to your followers· Use http://twtqpon.com/ to distribute coupons via Twitter· Get your tweets indexed in http://cheaptweet.com/ by using cheaptweet hashtag and increase exposure for your dealsTwitter promotion· Now you can run sweepstakes offers via Twitter to create brand awareness, increase sales, etc.· Set the objective for Twitter promotion· Make sure that there is no bias in your promotion and be transparent in what you offer· To participate in the offer, ask users to include hashtags in their tweets· Track the performance of your campaign using this trend-tracking tool:http://www.trendrr.com/· Make sure that you do not spam your followers and avoid sending too many tweets about your sweepstakes offers· Calculate the ROI of the campaign by breaking it down into: Number of new followers gained, products sold, new visitors to the websites, etc.Blog sync· Increase traffic to your blog by using this auto-feed tool, http://twitterfeed.com/· Tweet the comments in your blog using this wordpress plug-in: http://www.jonbishop.com/commentwitter-plugin-page/· Include your Twitter conversations in your blog using this wordpress plug-in: http://www.paulmc.org/whatithink/wordpress/plugins/twitter-friends-widget/· Include a retweet button in your blog to spread it virally using Twitter. You can install the retweet button from here: http://tweetmeme.com/about/retweet_buttonFacebook sync· A Facebook page is a marketing channel for most brands. A marriage between Facebook and Twitter will initiate greater engagement and conversations· Integrate your Facebook page with Twitter using this Facebook application: http://apps.facebook.com/twitter/· Avoid spamming your fans in your Facebook page with too many Twitter updates· Use this application: http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=115463795461 to post selective Twitter updatesPress Release Optimization· Get more exposure for your Press Releases (PR) by sharing them on Twitter· Use keywords in the first 30 characters of your PR tweet for SEO· Ask your followers to retweet your PRs to spread them virally· Use hashtags to track the PRs· Deliver your PRs to top journalists on Twitter using this paid service: http://muckrack.com/press_releases· Analyze the number of tweets your PR receives using: http://www.trendrr.com/Direct messages (DM) for direct marketing – DMâs are new way to market your product via Twitter· Avoid sending DMs to all of your followers· Analyze the interests of your followers before sending them DMs· Customize your offering in DM based on followersâ demographics· Avoid using automated tools for sending DMâs· Always maintain a human touch while sending DMsBrand monitoring· Monitor real-time conversations about your brand in Twitter to understand customersâ linguistics· To start with, use a simple tool like Twitter public search· Monitor various keywords associated with your brand using this tool: http://monitter.com/· Manage multiple Twitter accounts and brand monitoring using one single tool: http://splitweet.com/· Paid tools like Radian6 provide many insights along with real-time brand monitoringCustomer support· Sometimes your brand will get punkâd in Twitter and customer support plays a vital role to protect your brand from crisis· Monitor your brand in real-time and respond to various customer tweets before a brand crisis occurs· Assign different queries to employees in concerned departments usinghttp://cotweet.com/· Set up a 24/7 automated response for customersâ tweets by using this tool: http://www.localbunny.com/· Analyze the number of issues solved via Twitter to measure ROITwitter Insights· Measure your Twitter performance using parameters like retweet rank, Click Through Rate (CTR) of your tweets, follower count etc.· Find your retweet rank using: http://www.retweetrank.com/· Track the CTR of your tweets by using short URL services like: http://bit.ly/· Analyze your web traffic from Twitter by adding UTM parameters in each tweet link using this tool: http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55578· Analyze your follower count at: http://twittercounter.com/· Find which tweets help you gain or lose followers, using: http://www.tweeteffect.com/· Measure your share of voice by using tools like Radian6Security tips· Never use third party Twitter applications that do not support Oath authentication· Use strong passwords to protect your account from hackers. Use this tool: http://strongpasswordgenerator.com/ to generate strong passwords· If any security lapses occur on Twitter, change your password immediately· Do not click any links in DMs from strangers.
Content Management Systems (CMS) are easy-to-install and use software, which have been tested by an appreciable number of users and hence are most often free of bugs and errors. CMS have a number of advantages, the most important being that it makes your site up & running in just a few minutes.
Most of the CMS available are open source and hence available to you at absolutely no cost. Only few are paid ones and that too are available at fairly low cost. These open source software can easily be migrated from one server to another and are compatible with most databases.
Using a CMS is quite advantageous and can help businesses come up with some great web solutions. Some of their main advantages are enumerated as below:
Easy Customization: A CMS enables the users to customize the website. Normally, a webmaster is entrusted with the task of managing a website, keeping its track and makes every minute change required. However in the absence of webmaster, the CMS stands at your service enabling you to make any & every change in text, images, links as & when required. Any user with basic Internet knowledge can even make use of CMS to customize the website as per requirements.
Efficiency Boost: A CMS give tremendous momentum to your efficiency by making tasks easier for you so that you can finish updating, editing or deleting the content fast and concentrate on other entrusted job responsibilities, This way your efficiency receives a boost and you’re able to deliver better results.
Streamlined Workflow: As more and more interference is there in the management of a website, the results are most often not up to the expectations. So a CMS makes the task simplified and worth to be handled by fewer hands. A manager can make all the required changes by himself in just a few minutes time. Hence, the work gets done fast and chances of mistakes are also very few since the job passes through trusted hands.
Money & Time Saved: As CMS simplifies the task of managing a website, you need not outsource all the work and can do it all on your own thereby saving a considerable amount of time. You can utilize these resources for other core business objectives.
As said previously, there are a number of content management systems freely available in the market such as Joomla, Drupal etc. There are some good web hosting providers, which support joomla Hosting , Drupal hosting etc such as LimeDomains, FatCow, HostGator etc.
So what are you waiting for? Start using a CMS for your website today!
“Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.” ~ Abigail Adams
I think one of the hardest things for Internet Business Newbies is digesting all of the information that they find, read, watch, and hear. Just getting started can be a task when you are not even sure what half the stuff you are reading even means. One of the things I always recommend to anyone starting out with Internet Business is to take a few weeks to learn as much as you can and become familiar with some of the big players and the common terminology used. Just getting the basic vocabulary down will help you tremendously and will make it so much easier to locate more information and useful tips that you can apply to your business.
Where To Look
There are so many great sources of information out there on Internet Business and some not-so-great sources. Luckily for you, I have wasted all my time weeding through it so you don’t have to. Here are some places you can go to get started on your lessons.
1. iTunes – iTunes has some really great podcasts on Internet Business and Marketing. Even if you don’t have an iPod you can still listen online. If you do have an iPod even better! I use to have an hour drive back and forth from work and I would use this time to listen to the podcasts I had found in iTunes. It made my commute fly by and I was learning as I drove! Win/Win!
If you are not familiar with locating podcasts in iTunes, Butterscotch.com has made this quick tutorial which can walk you through the process. If you don’t already have it, you can download iTunes for free HERE.
One podcast that I highly recommend is Internet Business Mastery. This is run by Sterling and Jay who have both escaped their cubicle and designed their dream lifestyles. They offer many great business tips and their podcast is one of the most professional ones I have found. Look around and you will find there really is some great content on there.
NEWBIE TIP: Be sure to check the dates of the podcasts. If you see that one has not been made in awhile, you may want to avoid it. The content may be old and have no current relevance or it may just be poor content.
2. Blog Talk Radio – BTL has created a format that makes it very easy to set up and distribute podcasts. This is both good AND bad. Good because it gives many talented people a platform to showcase their wares and get their information out to the world. Bad, because it makes it very easy for ANYONE to upload content. I would proceed here with caution and follow the same rule as above. If the content is old, just look for something a bit more recent. You can find their site HERE. Some good hosts are Bob The Teacher, Willie Crawford, and Steve Weber. Just look around. There is quite a bit of talent on there.
3. YouTube – I am the type of person that learns much faster by watching than by reading. I think that is why YouTube is one of my favorite places to gain new information. There are literally millions of videos on there that can show you everything from setting up a new blog to creating a eBook. YouTube has probably been one of the most useful learning tools I have found for myself on the web. I highly recommend it and I hope you will take some time to use it as well. You can link to it HERE.
4. Blogs – Blogs are great for so many reasons. They are so versatile and you can find one on just about any subject on the planet. If you want to find some really good Internet Business tips and information check out some of the blogs at WordPress and Blogger. These are two of the bigger sites and will hold most of the content. Just so a quick search for Internet Marketing or Internet Business and you will find a host of blogs to search through.
I think that should get you started. Check back often for more great tips and make time each day to learn a little more than you know today! Soon you will be on your way!
Ancora Imparo! Deirdre J.
Creating a membership site can be a great way to have a business based upon topics that you love and love to teach to other people. Membership sites can be extremely lucrative and, if structured correctly, easy to run especially if you tie it together with a content management system like WordPress.Many people think of WordPress as just a blogging platform but with the thousands of developers that work on it, for more details visit to www.member-site-manager.com WordPress can be so much more. One of newer applications of WordPress is to use it as a membership site. There are a number of new companies creating WordPress membership site plugins but they are not made equal. When deciding whether one of the available options is right for you, be sure to filter your choices using the criteria below: 1. Membership Levels & Types – Having the ability to create multiple levels of membership gives you the flexibility to have special promotions or have higher membership levels where you give people access to more in-depth information if the pay more. Also having the ability to have levels that are free, subscription based, and one-time payment options is crucial. 2. RSS Feed Encryption – You want to make sure that any content you want to designate for members only doesn’t end up broadcast through the RSS feed. If it isn’t encrypted for members only, anyone can subscribe to your feed and get some or all of your content without paying for it! 3. Content Teasers – This allows you to have a portion of content available for casual visitors of your site. For instance, you can set the first paragraph of a post to be free for all to see. For someone to read more they would have to click on a link that says “more” or “continue reading”, etc. Once they click on that, for more details visit to www.member-site-manager.com the visitor would get a message saying that they have to subscribe to get the rest of the information. 4. Sequential Delivery – If you have a membership where you are training people or just want to make sure that people get access to certain content on a monthly basis, you need sequential delivery. If you don’t have this, someone could have access to all of you content from day one. What will keep them as a member if your membership has a monthly fee? 5. Payment Gateways – Some plugins work only with Paypal, which is a major limitation. You want to have the ability to work with virtually any merchant processor you want. 6. Training & Support – Having a strong customer service function is important for any business. If you don’t notice an easy way to get in contact with the developer of the plugin then you should be concerned! Also, there should be training manuals or videos that teach you how to use the plugin. 7. Guarantee – Does the developer back their work? At minimum there should be a 30 money back guarantee with no strange and complex rules to get a refund. Beware if you have to jump through a bunch of hoops to get your money back if you aren’t satisfied with their WordPress membership pluginhttp://www.member-site-manager.comhttp://www.secure-member-area.com