Four Trends in Technologies for Growing Your Business

Now’s a great time to set your goals for 2007, and these technologies can help you meet them.

The new year is an excellent time for small businesses to look both backward and forward. In looking back, take stock of how your business changed over the past year. Did you meet your goals? If not, why? Did your business grow? Has your market changed?

When looking forward, now's a good time to set your goals and objectives for this year. Decide exactly how you want your business to evolve next year. Do you want to enter new markets? Target new types of customers? Respond to new competitive pressures?

Once you’ve set your business's goals and objectives, the next step is to map them to the technologies that can best help you meet them. In this month’s column, we’ll look at four network-based technologies that can help small businesses achieve their goals, whether it’s increasing productivity, improving customer satisfaction or reducing costs.

Video Conferencing

Video conferencing provides real-time, face-to-face communications with partners, clients, contractors and employees over a broadband network. With a video camera at either end and a robust network in between, you can see as well as hear others during a conference call.

Video conferencing promotes greater communication--and thus, understanding--in several key ways. For one thing, you can see the nonverbal signals you’d otherwise miss in a traditional phone call. A video conference also allows you to present far more information than during a phone call. For instance, you could demonstrate a new product as you explain its benefits to others on the call--a much better way to convey that information than standard conference calls allow.

Video conferencing can also save you time and money by eliminating or reducing the need for you and your employees to travel. And your employees can take advantage of training courses via video conferencing that they might not otherwise be able to attend.

Until recently, video conferencing was really only available to large businesses, which had the necessary financial resources as well as dedicated video conferencing rooms. But today, video conferencing is financially within reach of smaller businesses. You can opt for basic video conferencing solutions, such as those offered by free or inexpensive plug-ins for the Skype voice over IP service. Managed video conferencing services over a converged IP network is another affordable option.

Extension Mobility

Many workers today frequently travel between offices or job sites. They need to be mobile--and so does the information they require to do their jobs. Wireless and mobile technologies increase efficiency and productivity by extending the footprint of your office, delivering information and applications to your employees when and where they need it.

Extension mobility is among the newer developments in wireless and mobile technology. In essence, extension mobility lets you allocate work spaces to employees on an as-needed basis, which can significantly reduce the costs associated with permanent office accommodations. For instance, instead of assigning offices, cubicles and desks to individual employees, several different employees can share the same space on a rotating basis. Extension mobility also boosts productivity, as employees have full access to all their telephony features regardless of their location.

For extension mobility to be effective, you need the flexibility of an IP network. An employee can configure any IP phone on an IP network with their extension, along with all their individual phone and voice-mail settings. In effect, any IP phone becomes the employee’s own while he or she is at that particular location. When they’re done, they simply log off and the phone is available for the next mobile employee. This reduces both the cost and complexity of moving employees around as well as enables mobile workers to be productive regardless of where they physically are.

Customer Relationship Management
In essence, CRM technology helps improve customer satisfaction by enabling a business to better understand its customers, their habits and their needs. CRM software is particularly useful when connected, via software plug-ins, to a small business’s IP telephony system. For instance, when a call comes in, an IP telephony software plug-in automatically links to your CRM system. A pop-up window of the customer contact record appears on your employee’s IP phone screen, their computer screen or both. This gives the employee access to essential data about the customer who’s calling before the employee even picks up the phone. CRM technology can help your business improve every transaction with its customers. That often leads to more satisfied customers, which, in turn, means improved sales and revenue.

Unified Messaging
Despite all the various means of communications at our disposal today--e-mail, fax, instant messaging, cell phones and such--you’d think it would be easy to get in touch with someone whenever necessary. Unfortunately, in our hectic business world, that’s often not the case.

Unified messaging is a solution that streamlines business communications, enabling employees to send and retrieve their voice mail, e-mail and fax messages from one device--either their computer or an IP phone. In addition, it can notify you on any or all your devices (phone, cell phone or computer) whenever a message is received.

Unified messaging consolidates your various mailboxes (voice mail, e-mail and fax), giving you one single point of access for all your messages. With anytime, anywhere access to all your messages, you can be more productive, save time, and improve customer relations and satisfaction.

So what do you need to take advantage of these four innovative technologies?

• A single, intelligent IP network. Solutions such as video conferencing, extension mobility, CRM applications and unified messaging require the same foundation: a single, intelligent IP network capable of handling voice, video and data. Such networks are robust enough to handle today’s applications, flexible enough to meet tomorrow’s needs, and scalable enough to grow along with your company.
• Top-notch security. Security threats today are more widespread than ever. And they can spread quickly. The infamous Slammer virus infected 55 million hosts per second at its peak. A secure, easily adaptive network is especially important for smaller businesses that may not have the support of an in-house security resource.
• Proper planning. As always, discuss any technology plans with your trusted adviser before making an investment. A well-planned and executed technology investment gives your business a solid foundation for growth today, tomorrow and years to come.

The Profit Engine Of Your Online Business

The most valuable asset to any business are your customers.

The relationship between a supplier and a customer is the lifeline of your business. The respect and trust that you will gain form your customer is so important, as it builds loyalty and credibility that is irreplaceable.

Reputation counts!

With that trust gained, not only will your customer support you directly, but indirectly as well, by 'Word of Mouth' referring friends, relatives, or their customers to your business. That's free advertising.

Take for example, one of the biggest recognized soccer club in the world, Manchester United (not a supporter). With one of the biggest fanatic following, the heart of the club is its supporters and members who drive the turnstiles weekly.

They are the fans who follow the club weekly to different venues, countries to support the soccer club.

The club knows it has the brand and support, but in order to generate more revenue, it's the recruitment of new members and retaining them is a priority. Club members are the customers who take up the club's sporting packages, sponsorship packages, souvenirs, merchandise, memorabilia, etc that are promoted to them!

It's the benefit and product that the members want. Without the loyal following, the club cannot exist.

So even if you have a great product and great location, without customers there will be no sales, no cash-flow and NO money!

Without a doubt, the most valuable asset to your internet business is your email list, the heart of your success.

If you do not know where to begin and you want to make real money online, start building permission based email list (an Opt-In list) to your internet business.

It should be your primary objective.

One big benefit of an email list is, your subscribers will be more responsive as they are your target audience.

The reason why people subscribe; you have a valuable and unique product and service they are potentially looking for.

Although everyone who visit your site will not become a customer, they must have some interest in your product, or service that led them to your page.

Therefore every visitor is a potential lifetime customer.

Potential customers are much more likely to become a customer if you make an effort to keep in touch with them.

It requires several communications to gain that trust for a sale.

That's where an "Opt In" form and a simple communication tool such as an email helps.

With today's low cost web marketing technology such as a web host, an auto-responder and email, it is easy to develop a permission based email (opt in) list.

Start creating an opt-in list to capture customer's and prospect's contact details such as email address, first name, surname, telephone number, etc.

Take control of the list.

Once you have the email addresses, send personal messages with the latest important update, latest product or offer, an e-course of your related topic that can solve and benefit your list.

Be an adviser.

Use auto-responders to automate all the follow ups with your opt in prospects, you will have one, three, eight or more tries to generate sales for a product.

Without opt in prospects, you only have ONE shot at a visitor.

When you start building credibility and trust with your Opt In prospects, they will have less fears of doing business with you!

This can only give you a good chance of converting them to a customer at some point, and some will go on to purchase multiple products from you.

You can make profit, and sell your own product or someone else's, or sell advertising space.

With a simple program, it can be that easy and effective!

If you don't know by now, 'The money is in the list'.

The key to earning serious money from your opt-in list is cultivating your list. Build up a relationship and stay in touch with them on a regular basis.

Let them know who you are and show your personality. Address your opt-in list by their actual names and provide VALUE to your articles with good offers.

Keep them interested with up to date info-solution that is of value. Offer discounts, the latest products, useful freebies that they can benefit from.

Put yourself in their position, and think what they are looking for. Help them.

Build your product into a credible brand for people to trust!

The more they know you and what you have to offer, the more trust gained and the more result you'll have.

Plan to develop a permission based email list, one list of customers who purchase, and the other a list of prospects (leads) who have given you permission.

Let me repeat, owing an email list is essential, it's like owning your very own goldmine; without it you don't have an internet business.

Give your visitors information

People search the internet for information, not to be sold something. They do not want to read a sales pitch.

You want to give each visitor to your home business site as much information as possible. When you take the time to educate them, you build credibility. Make your online business web site a valuable resource for your customers by giving them free tips and tools. This helps build your reputation while making your site one your readers will come back to, time and time again.

This will help establish you as an expert in your field, knowledgeable and trustworthy. And once they trust you, they will buy from you!

One great way to provide information and establish credibility is with a free newsletter. Spinning graphics and neat colors will not sell your service or product---your copy will. One of the most important factors in determining the success or failure of your online home business is well-written, compelling copy. This will determine the success or failure of your online home business.

And Never Imply

If you have an online home business, you should never imply what you want your visitors to do, rather you should explicitly state it. This is hard for some because they do not want to impose their wishes on anyone, they prefer to be polite. But unless you are blunt with your visitors, you will see only mediocre or downright poor results.

Tell you visitor exactly what you want them to do, whether it be...

* Read an article

* Buy your product

* Subscribe

* Enter a contest

* Join your affiliate program

* Fill out a survey

* Click

Make sure you let them know!

Marketing experts have proven you will increase your home business sales by at least 80% simply by asking for the order.

10 Ideas to Grow Your Homebased Business

When the status quo just won't do anymore, these 10 ideas will help you take your homebased business to a new level.

Small is beautiful.

Slow and steady wins the race.

Inch by inch, row by row, that's the way my garden grows.

While such homespun wisdom might be fine for common folk, it can be awfully frustrating for an ambitious homebased business owner determined to take his company to the next level of growth and profitability. Sure, a thriving one- or two-person service business with no inventory, rent or employees can seem like an easy way to make money at first, but when the phone starts ringing off the hook and customers keep coming back for more, homebased business owners who fail to plan often fall victim to their own success. Either they burn out trying to juggle everything themselves or they spend so much time and money hiring people to help them that their profits go down the drain.

Fortunately, there are some ways to take your homebased business to new heights without sacrificing your business's profitability or losing your peace of mind.

Follow these 10 steps to grow your homebased business into the personal and professional success it was meant to be:

1. Focus on a single product or service, and then market it, sell it, promote it-do everything you can to increase sales of that one product or service. While it's tempting to swing for the fences and try to be all things to all people, it's often less risky and more profitable to pick a product or two that you can execute really well and just try to get on base.

Richard Roy, a Sparta, New Jersey landscaper, started a homebased dog-waste removal business called Dr. Pooper Scooper when he got tired of picking up the dog poop from his customers' lawns. Instead of splurging on a retail storefront or an expensive Yellow Pages ad, Roy decided to use his truck as his primary advertising vehicle. Says Roy, "I decorated the truck as a Dalmatian, used full signage and put magnetic business cards on it. By using the truck as my moving billboard, by joining community groups and through word of mouth, I've turned what was once my nightmare into a thriving business serving 100 customers and making 1,100 pickups a week."

Thanks to Dr. Pooper Scooper's success, Roy is now planning to phase out his landscaping business and focus on his new venture full time. "When I scoop the poop, I do it 12 months a year and never have to fix or replace equipment," Roy says. "It's also three time easier than landscaping, and I can do it until I can't walk anymore."

2. Expand your product line to offer complementary products or services. Once you've hit on a product or service that customers really like, don't miss the opportunity to bring out related items to diversify your product line. Not only does that give your customers a wider selection, but it also makes your products more appealing to retailers who typically like to stock a line of products as opposed to a single item.

Meredith LiePelt, who runs a company called Contemporary Baby out of her home in Dublin, Ohio, started off making colorful burp cloths for newborns. Now she's expanded her line to include such "go along" products as receiving blankets, bibs and gift baskets. Says LiePelt, "Our retail customers have enjoyed having more gift-giving options, and our wholesale clients are able to offer their customers a wider selection to choose from."

3. Find ways to increase sales to your existing customers. It's a lot cheaper than finding new ones. Even if you can't expand your product line, you can boost revenues by selling more of your existing product or service to the clients you already have. One easy way to do this is through volume discounts. Especially if your products cost little to produce, offering your customers the chance to buy, say, two T-shirts for the price of one lets you ring up additional sales without sacrificing much profit. Another common practice is to reward loyal customers by giving them a punch card that entitles them to a free product or service for every 10 items they buy. This technique is common at hair salons, car washes and arts-and-crafts stores, but homebased businesses can use it, too.

4. Hire someone to help you out-an employee, a freelancer, an intern, an independent contractor, even your kids. Not only does this free up cash flow by adjusting your expenses to the level of work you bring in, but it also enables you to cultivate a large network of talented people you probably couldn't afford to hire full time.

Marc Kirschner, a neighborhood directory publisher in New York City, employs 50 to 75 writers-all of whom are freelancers-to develop his directory's content. This way, Marc saves on payroll taxes, medical benefits, employer liability insurance and all the other costs of hiring full-time staffers. There are other benefits, too. "Bringing in outside help gives you someone else to bounce ideas and strategies off of," Kirschner says. "It prevents you from feeling you're going it alone."

5. Create a Web site to advertise your company or sell products online. Thanks to the Internet, it's no longer necessary to open a store to reach retail customers. For marketers of specialty products like rare books, collectibles and gourmet foods, a Web-based boutique lets you reach millions of shoppers around the world without paying for rent, utilities or garbage collection.

And while creating Web sites once required a big investment and the skills of an experienced Web designer or programmer, do-it-yourself Web sites are now available for less than $30 a month with no technical knowledge required. Typically, the companies that help you register your domain name (Web address) will provide online templates you can use to build your site, host your Web pages on their server and provide you with multiple e-mail addresses as well. E-commerce capabilities can often be had for an additional charge. You can also set up low-cost Web sites through Web hosting companies and search engines.

6. Join forces with another business to promote your company. Partnering with a company in a related industry is one of the cheapest and easiest forms of marketing that you can employ. If you make spa products, for example, you may be able to convince a local health club to carry them in its store by offering a discount to its members. Likewise, you can send a free, one-day health club pass to anybody who buys your lotions and scrubs.

Nancy Tamosaitis, a homebased publicist, says her New York firm, Vorticom, has partnered with a graphic design firm to provide creative services such as Web design and brochures to her corporate PR clients. From time to time, she also joins forces with specialty PR firms to assist clients in fashion, finance and other industries. "Now that I'm working from home, my clients receive infinitely better service and results-at much lower cost-than when I managed a $3 million profit center at a top PR agency," Tamosaitis says.

7. Target other markets. If you sell to teens, start marketing to college students. If you sell to working moms, maybe your product will work for stay-at-home moms with a few modifications. Another strategy is to take a retail-oriented product or service and sell it wholesale. For example, a homebased catering business that specializes in cakes, pies and other tasty desserts can contact local bakeries to sell its goods on a wholesale basis. While the price you get from the bakeries will be lower (because the bakeries need to mark it up to their customers to make a profit), you'll sell more products and generate consistent cash flow that you can bank on.

8. Find new and different ways to market your business through e-mail newsletters or by doing guest-speaking gigs or by teaching a class. Marketing your homebased business doesn't need to involve spending big money on newspaper ads, Yellow Pages listings, or TV or radio spots. Grassroots marketing techniques cost far less and are often much more effective. Most chambers of commerce and community groups are more than happy to provide a forum to a local business owner who's willing to share his expertise at no charge. Sending out a weekly newsletter is also a great way to get your name out in front of new and potential clients. Thanks to the Internet, you can send out your newsletter via e-mail using online templates and automated delivery systems.

9. Expand to another location. That could mean renting "virtual" office space in a business center or by sharing office space with another growing business. Brad Taylor, a CPA in Springfield, New Jersey, spends most of his time at home preparing tax returns, developing tax-planning strategies and revising his clients' QuickBooks files. But when he needs to come to New York City for a meeting, he sometimes rents space at a Manhattan business center operated by HQ Global, a national provider of temporary office space.

For a monthly fee or a la cart, business centers like these offer everything from conference rooms and receptionist services to remote-access voicemail, high-speed Internet connectivity and tech support, offering homebased business owners as much or as little outside office services as they need. Taylor pays just $10 an hour to use the space and is able to bill the cost to his client. "While I still want to run my business from home, this has allowed me to pursue new opportunities and network with other professionals," Taylor says.

10. Think about turning your business into a franchise or business opportunity. While most homebased businesses remain small, yours may have the potential to hit the big time through franchising, licensing or wholesale distribution. The key question to ask yourself is if your business can be converted into a business format that somebody else could operate (a franchise) or if you have a standardized product or service that someone could resell multiple times (a business opportunity). While you may think that expanding your business requires raising capital, hiring employees, buying equipment and leasing office or warehouse space, it's often more profitable-and less risky-to license your product to a big corporation with manufacturing capabilities and an existing sales force to do the work for you.

Don't Expect To Earn Fast Money Online

I've spent the last three years working towards actually earning money online. In most of that time period though, the money has been leaving my wallet faster than it has been coming into my wallet.

"EARN MONEY FAST OPPORTUNITIES"

In my first year online, I tried all kinds of "earn-money-fast opportunities" --- everything from MLM to turnkey websites. I hate to admit this, but if I didn't make any money the first couple of months after I had signed up for one of these programs, I just gave up and moved on to the next opportunity.

Then I would begin the whole process all over again. I found a new site that promised to all who joined, that they would earn a lot of money fast, and they would earn their money without hard work.

I know the truth now, it was just another line of bulls**t!!!!

Twelve months later, all I had to show for my first year online, was many wasted hours and lots of wasted money.

THE MAKING OF A WEBSITE

As I began my second year, I realized that I had to make my own website. I didn't know anything about HTML. And, I knew nothing about where to find a hosting company, or even why I needed one. So the first six months of that second year, I was learning the basics of how to become a webmaster. I read through all the forums about web-mastering and SEO that I could find on the Internet, and tried to build a website that finally could make me some money.

I finally got my website up and running.

For the first 8 months that I had my website, I did not earn any real money for all of my hard work. The worst thing that could happen to a person began to happen to me... I began to lose hope. I began to believe that making money from the Internet was just a far-fetched dream that I could never attain on my own.

I was not alone. Hundreds of thousands of people have met or will meet this same crossroad in their Internet careers. Some will take the easy road and walk away from their dreams. Others will push on, not willing to let their dreams die.

I decided to push on.

I added new pages of content to my website every week. I exchanged links with other websites as often I could. Slowly and steadily, the visitors were starting to come to my little corner of the internet to browse and buy.

In the early stages, I had 30-50 visitors each day. Then, I began to see 100-150 a day. And soon, the first small amount of money was earned through my website.

Now it's 4 months after my first payday, and the traffic is still getting higher each week. Even though I'm not earning a whole lot of money now, I believe it's just a matter of time until I can leave my day job.

THE FIRST LESSON LEARNED

Looking back on these last three years, I have learned a few things that I would like to share with you today.

First of all, you should never join any of those scam sites that claim you will make a lot of money fast without working hard.

The cold, hard truth is that there is no way that you can make money online unless you are willing to work hard!

The next time you read about an opportunity where the promoter is telling you that you will not have to work hard to be successful, Stop! Stop and ask yourself "how hard this person is working" to part you with your money?

What about that email opportunity you are reading, where this anonymous person is telling you that you will not have to send other people email in order to make money? If he is being honest with you about the nature of his business, why did he have to send you an email to get Your business? If his way is best, why is it that he is not practicing what he preaches?

You have to approach new programs with your eyes wide open! Be willing to read between the lines to see if the promoter is lying to you to part you with your money. Be willing to research on the internet what other people have said about the program that you are looking at. Be willing to discover and separate the people who are trying to sell the program, from the people who are giving you an honest appraisal of the program, from the people who are just complaining about everything to hear themselves talk.

In the end, it comes down to this. If you get involved with one of the myriad of scam opportunities floating around out there, you will end up spending all of your money with zero rewards in your pocket for your time or effort.

THE SECOND LESSON TO BE LEARNED

Find a niche product to sell or promote. And then make your own website. If you don't know anything about how to become a webmaster, use Google to find forums about the subject. Or, you can buy a ebook about web-mastering.

Don't expect to earn much money the first year your website is online. Look at it as your learning period. Be persistent and don't take any shortcuts. It takes time to build a money making business, whether you make your business online or offline.

And finally, try to have fun while you are working on your website. It's much easier to become successful if you like the work you are doing.

Infopreneur: No risk entrepreneurship

Dark site of running an internet business

Are you considering the life of an Internet business owner? Well before your eyes gloss over with dreams of endless free time and images of sitting on your couch with your laptop clicking away earning you thousands let me show you the reality of the situation.
A certain image has been promoted of the Internet business owner. It’s often glorified as the great dream, leaving your old job, with the long hours and annoying boss in exchange for a flexible lifestyle that you are in control of.

Well let me tell you - it’s all true!

Well sort of. It’s not by any means easy to do and you lose many things you might have not realised you valued in your old secure job. Let me point out the things you lose that you might want to think about before quitting your job.

1. Say good bye to a reliable and predictable income.

No job is 100% secure and there is a good argument that being in control of your income via your own small business is more secure than a job (you’re not at the risk of downsizing etc) however it doesn’t feel like that, especially when you start out. Even the oldest most established business cannot be certain sales will keep coming. From week to week you go up and down and are never sure when or where your next sale will come from. You can have great months and bad months and the only constant is unpredictability. A steady pay cheque feels a lot more secure than the ups and downs of your own business.

2. Your business is your life.

When you leave work you leave work. Most small business owners live and breath their business so they don’t ever really leave work. Now I’ve got it pretty good at the moment because I love what I do and I don’t *have* to work much though I choose to work online a lot. That being said I am trapped to checking my email day in and day out, 24 hours a day, which is not ideal. Chances are when you start your business you won’t be working 9-5 or even 8-6. Early on you will most likely carry the show and until you can justify hiring others your hours will be long and you won’t have a weekend. However if you are smart, set realistic expectations and remember life is a balance, then running your own business can definitely be less work than a normal job, if you choose it to be.

3. You may never make real money until you sell your business.

An unfortunate situation in many small businesses is that the owner often doesn’t make much more than an average salary, sometimes less. Now if you are evaluating starting a small business based purely on financial rewards then you might want to change your assessment criteria. Many small business owners don’t make a big windfall until they sell their business and often by the time they are making the sale they will be using the money for retirement. Although it is also true that the only way to become really, really wealthy, besides inheritance and lotto, is by starting your own business.
The reality is that only a small percentage of businesses make their owner really wealthy, the rest stumble along earning an average wage. Of course many of those business owners earning an average wage love their lifestyle and only work as hard as they want to. Running your own business has the greatest potential to make you rich and may never make you rich, but here is the important part, your own business is very likely to make you a happier person if you keep your goals simple and aim for lifestyle over riches. Anyone can get rich but the contented people are rich without material wealth.

4. There is no superannuation, paid leave or sick leave.

You may not think about superannuation very much but it’s nice to know that when you have a job your employer is planning for your future by contributing to your superannuation. As a business owner your employer is you and besides looking after your employee superannuation you are also in charge of your own retirement. This is an added worry that you don’t have when you are working for another business.
Having time off is a concept not familiar to many business owners. Being paid when you have time off is like a dream for a business owner. There are some common myths about business owners working 7 days a week even when sick. If you do things right your business should still function without you when you need time off because of illness or even if you dare to take a holiday. However that being said most business owners find themselves as the most critical wheel in the business system and if you remove that wheel things fall apart. The important skill to learn is that the business owner should work on the business, not in it, but that’s easier said than done and especially early on when funds are tight it’s very like you will be working in the business. Don’t expect a paid holiday.

5. Workmates

There are no work mates for the solopreneur. You can hire employees that may hopefully become friends but the dynamic is always you the boss and them the employees. If you have been used to working in a busy, lively, talkative office full of peers that share the same perspective as you, with Friday afternoon drinks, group functions and shared time complaining about the boss — you can kiss all this goodbye.

Okay, that’s not entirely true.

Things are definitely different from working in someone else’s business but I’ve seen many small businesses that have great working environments. The difference is as the boss you have to create your own socialisation. You can do this by creating an amazing business culture where all employees are mates and the office is like a party that happens to get work done too. Of if you do not require employees then it’s your job to make sure you don’t turn into a lonely home based business bum. This means flexing your socialising muscles and organising events with other business people (if that’s whom you like to associate with), making sure you stay actively involved in groups and clubs and that you leave the home office now and then to interact with real live people. Much like everything else with running your own business, you are in charge of your social life too.

When search engine starts to generate traffic to your site

Search engine optimization (SEO) or search engine marketing is the practice of developing your website so it appears high up in search engine result pages. This topic is by far one of the most frustrating issues for online marketers for one particular reason - it takes time. Patience is not a common trait among business people and coming to grips with the amount of time it takes to get good natural search engine results can be painful. I still have difficulty dealing with it myself.

Why is there such a long wait?
Because the search engines, especially Google, deliberately set things up to work in a manner that rewards long term growth and no matter how great your website is if it only launched last month you won’t be getting much search traffic.

Google doesn’t want brand new websites with no history at the top of the results. Instead Google rewards websites that are well established and grow over a long period of time. Long in Internet years is as little as 12 months but we are better off talking in years, not months.
Consequently everything I’m going to teach you is sound practice as a long term SEO plan, don’t expect big results tomorrow, or even next month, you are going to have to be patient.

The upside if you keep working for many months is that eventually you will enjoy a steady stream of targeted visitors coming from search engines that you don’t have to pay for. It will also be hard for you to lose your top rankings because you have the advantage of time compared to all the new websites coming online.

How To Optimize A Brand New Website - Niche Phrases
Most website owners have two or three key phrases that they would love to be the first result for in the search engines. This simply won’t happen for a brand new website and likely will never happen for businesses operating in highly competitive industries. Unless you have very little competition online your best hope is to initially chase secondary key phrases, or drill down your key phrases to match your niche exactly.
Take for example the phrase “marketing consultant”. This is a highly competitive term that will be very hard for a new business consultant to rank competitively for in search engines. The solution is to break it down further into phrases that refine the niche.

“small business marketing consultant”
“Sydney marketing consultant”
“chiropractic marketing consultant”
“Sydney chiropractic marketing consultant”

Being the first result for “Sydney chiropractic marketing consultant” could easily be achieved in the first few months of launching a website because there are not many other websites that optimize for that niche phrase.
Targeted Traffic
The traffic coming from secondary search terms won’t be significant but if you choose your niches carefully the traffic will be targeted and therefore much easier to convert into customers. Over time as your website matures you will start to make inroads into the primary keywords that will bring in waves of traffic, but that traffic will likely not be as targeted as your refined niche traffic, so will have lower conversion rates (it will be harder to get customers from that traffic).

How To Generate Keyword Phrases
If you have trouble coming up with key phrases for your business website try some of these techniques -
• Ask your friends and family what they would put into a Google search if they were looking for what you offer.
• Use wordtracker, a tool that monitors keywords people use when they search the web. It’s not a free service but worth the $10 if you what some reliable empirical data.
• The Overture/Yahoo! keyword selector tool can show you how many people are searching for certain phrases. It’s a free service but only shows what people are searching on the Yahoo! search network, not Google.
• If you have a handful of phrases but you don’t know which are the best to target use the Overture tool to get the numbers for the past month’s worth of search and pick the best three. Remember don’t pick the really popular terms just because you are tempted by the hundreds of thousands of searches being done. You definitely won’t be the only one optimizing for that term if there is so much traffic available.
• Use the Google keyword selector tool in AdWords. Your data from any AdWord Pay-Per-Click campaigns (see the previous part of this course on PPC advertising) is great for your SEO as well because any phrases performing well in AdWords Ads are worth targeting in your organic search marketing efforts too. If you pay for a phrase and it works well, getting it for nothing from free search traffic is even better.
• Find a competitor’s site and see what keywords they are using. In particular check what is in their title tags (that’s the name of the site in the top bar in the browser window). Don’t copy them blindly however as they may not be having much success with their website either - just use the key words for inspiration and head to Overture, Google or Wordtracker to figure out which phrases are working the best.
• If your site has been online for at least a few months check your website statistics. Most website hosting packages come with a statistics package (if you have no idea, ask your IT person or website hosting company) and in there you will find the keyword phrases that people have already used to search and find your site.
Search Engine Optimisation Techniques
Once you have selected the 2-3 key search phrases you want your website to target it’s time to start putting into place sound SEO techniques. SEO is a complicated process that no one can ever be 100% certain will provide the results sought after. The reason is that the search engines don’t reveal their inner workings. SEO experts know a lot because they have tested and tested and tested to compete their way to the top of the search engines. There are endless materials you can study online, but you should trust only those that have proven results. There are a lot of claims being made online by people without proof of results.

How to beat techno-Down’s syndrome

Undoubtedly some of you feel the technical requirements just make it too hard for you to make use of online marketing. I have no doubt after reading this article you will at least have a better understanding of how the web can work for your business if you can get all the technical things set up, including a website, a blog, autoresponders and pay per click advertising campaigns.

You Have Options
To put it simply there are two ways you can approach technical barriers -

1. Knuckle down and learn how to do it yourself.
Teach yourself everything as you go, build your website, publish your blog, set-up your autoresponders, write all your content, manage your advertising campaigns - everything. If you already use computers and the Internet, trust them, love them and respect them, then I have no doubt this option is the best way to go for you. Somehow I expect if you are reading this course this probably isn’t the case.

2. Pay others to do it for you.
There are hundreds of people very willing to take your money in exchange for helping you with your online marketing. The trick of course is finding good people and clearly communicating your needs and objectives.

Balance - Know Your Strengths

I recommend a combination of both option 1 and 2. Do as much as you can efficiently and effectively yourself and hire help to do the rest. Study and learn how to use software, maintain websites and how the web works but every time you face something that requires skills that you will never be great at or don’t have time to learn, outsource.

Running a business is about leveraging your strengths at all times and it’s smarter to pay someone else to do something you are not good at. Then you can devote your time to the activities that you are good at and produce income for you.

Personally web design is not my strong point so I hire people to design websites for me. I’m also not good at programming so I hire people to develop software for me on the rare occasion I need something. The basics I can do all myself so on a day-to-day basis I have no problems steering the ship.

The real secret in my case is how I leverage my strongest skills to maximum effect. Writing and teaching are my passions and that is how I make my income. I deliberately devote my time to those two tasks. Whenever something comes up that I can’t efficiently do myself or quickly learn I have no hesitation to hire someone to do it for me. I’m not afraid to pay thousands of dollars for good work either, I’ve learnt too many hard lessons trying to “get a bargain” and I know quality is worth the price.

Outsourcing
Finding talented people is not easy and often when you do find the best they are not cheap. When you find the holy grail - affordable talent - nurture that relationship, it will be a powerful asset for your business.

Never go for the cheapest because in the web industry the old adage “You get what you pay for” holds true. Better to pay a little more to get good results rather than throw money away because you try and cut corners. I once wasted $500 on one of the first programming jobs I outsourced because I hired two very inexperienced students who were not capable of producing what I required.

Checklist For Selecting Contractors And Freelancers
When it comes time to hire talent go through the following checklist -

1. Ask your friends and contacts if they have a reliable person with the skills you are after. You can’t always be 100% certain a personal referral will lead to the right person but it’s by far the most reliable way to find talented and honest people.

2. If that doesn’t work check with contacts that work in a similar industry to you. In my case I have met a lot of other bloggers so I often go to them for referrals. Most people that do online marketing will have hired a programmer or designer at some point and you can draw from their experiences by emailing them for a referral recommendation when you need some work done.

3. If you know no one online the blogosphere is a fantastic place to recruit talent. For example if I’m looking for a blog design I surf around blogs and find a design I like and ask the owner who created it. Just look around and send a few emails, you will get results quickly because there are always people looking for work in IT.

4. Try online forums and communities where web designers hang out. Good examples include Webhostingtalk, Sitepoint and DigitalPoint. Many professional IT people frequent these forums so usually all it takes is a post that you have a contract job available to get a list of applicants. Always ask for credentials and examples of past work before agreeing to a contract.

The most common error in outsourcing projects is poor communication so be certain to very carefully explain your needs and then double check with your contractor to make sure they know what you want. Use an official contract if it’s a big project, but don’t waste time with contracts if your job is under $5000. If it is a big project, break it down into milestones so you aren’t committed to spending all the money at once.

5. The web is full of opportunities to “try before you buy” so try out all the free courses, ebooks and articles given away as samples before deciding to buy.
Let’s say you want to hire someone to handle your Pay-Per-Click advertising campaign on Google AdWords - if you do a search for “AdWords Course” or similar you should locate plenty of people offering free advice. You may find after educating yourself you can now do the work yourself, if not, ask the author of the course/book/website if they are willing to handle your campaign or know a good person for the job. This way you can experience the quality before paying for the skills.

6. As a last resort you can try freelance sites like RentACoder.com, Elance.com or do a search for a freelancer in Google. It’s not hard to find people but gauging how good they are is difficult. Elance provides a feedback reputation meter that allows you to review testimonials from other people that have hired the freelancer.
One word of warning with outsourcing from freelance websites - beware the lure of bargain prices from cheap overseas labor from places like India, Pakistan, Russia and other eastern European locations. While you certainly can find great talent from these areas at a fraction of the costs of local talent, it can be difficult to communicate your needs due to language barriers and time differences. If you have a complex requirement, or you prefer to work face-to-face look for suppliers near you.
7. You can ask me. I know quite a few talented people that do work for me that I would be happy to recommend to you. They aren’t necessarily the cheapest in the business but they are reliable and produce good output, by far the most important qualities. Feel free to contact me.
How To Build A Website
So you have decided to build a website and start marketing online, congratulations! Here are your best alternatives to get started if you aren’t already technically proficient yourself.

1. Go through the steps above and find someone talented to do it for you. As I mentioned above I’m happy to provide assistance if you are stuck.
2. Use SiteBuildIt. You may not have heard of SiteBuildIt. It’s the brainchild of Ken Evoy and the most widely used website hosting and building tool available to the average, non-technical webmaster. SiteBuildIt is a “do it yourself” website kit that doesn’t require any coding or technical knowledge. If you can browse the web and email then you can use SiteBuildIt.
The best thing about the SiteBuildIt system compared to other standard website hosting packages is that it’s designed for building traffic. Ken has a principle he calls the
C T P M (Content -> Traffic -> Presell -> Monetize) system that is the fundamental key to online marketing.
SiteBuildIt provides everything you need to host and create your website provided you are prepared to create content. If you don’t have content then you don’t have an online marketing strategy.

The only discouraging issue about SiteBuildIt is the price. Remember how I said you get what you pay for? This is a prime example. You pay for quality, resources, tool and advice with SiteBuildIt, but it’s definitely more expensive than just buying space to host a website. In exchange for your cash you get a system that “holds your hand” as you create and popularize your website.
To find out more about SiteBuildIt visit - http://www.sitebuildit.com
3. Start a Blog. More on this below.
Blog Software
Blogging services are abundant and targeted at different levels of user. Here are my top picks to consider -
Blogger.com - http://www.blogger.com/
If you are technically deficient then a blog on a free host such as blogger.com is a good start, but only a start. I would use this as a test to see if you can produce content. It’s free and will teach you the blogging basics, but it really is a beginner tool more for fan-blogs and hobby sites. If you run a small business I wouldn’t recommend it.
Typepad.com - http://www.typepad.com/
Typepad is a more professional blogging tool that keeps things very easy to use. You have to pay for Typepad with the prices between $5 USD and $15 USD a month. This includes hosting so that’s all you will need to pay. There are quite a few good templates and shortcuts within the Typepad system making it a popular choice as a one-stop-solution to host a business blog.
WordPress.org - http://wordpress.org/
WordPress is my favourite blogging software. It’s a robust tool, completely free (you need to host and install it yourself though) and there are hundreds of templates and plugins available for free that increase the functionality of your blog. I recommend you aim to be on WordPress eventually, even though the technical barriers may stop you initially. If you are serious about blogging get someone to install WordPress for you and then learn how to use it, you won’t regret it.

Website Hosting And Domain Names
Website hosting involves a few different elements, including selecting a domain name (URL) and determining how much space and bandwidth (traffic) you will consume. These are reasonably technical issues that people can often become confused and frustrated with.
If you are planning a small business website with text and images nearly all hosting packages will provide more than you need and offer room to grow. Hosting should cost you between $10 and $100 per month, anything more than that and you are definitely being overcharged. Try not to pay less than $10 a month either - you get what you pay for remember!

Domains names should cost between $8 and $50 for a year depending on what type of domain you select. Try and get a .com domain, but chances are you won’t find anything suitable because most .com domains are taken.

Search engine Honeymoon Period

I have no doubt this topic has been discussed on many SEO forums before but I’m going to give my take on it based on what I have experienced.
The “SE Honeymoon” as I call it, is the period 24-48 hours after producing a new web page where it first ranks in the Google search index. In my experience for the next 2-4 weeks the page will rank particularly highly and then drop back to whatever is normal for the website.

When I first publish a new article in this blog I generally receive a first page rank for the keywords in the title and possibly the tagged internal keywords too. Generally if the search term isn’t uber-popular I can hold the number 1, 2 or 3 position for a few weeks and then it drops to somewhere around positions 4-10. Bear in mind this blog has a high PageRank and good authority so it ranks quite well, what is considered normal for your blog or website might be pages 3-10 with a brief stint on the first or second page during the “honeymoon”.

For periods of time I’ve had top three rankings for terms related to the articles I have recently published, including keywords such as Mike Filsaime, Butterfly Marketing and Rich Schefren, clearly keywords that have some competition if not from the guys themselves than other Internet marketers.

You SEO fanatics can correct me if I am wrong but I believe the honeymoon period occurs so Google can collect data on how relevant your pages are for those keywords. If during the honey your pages are clicked often and the visitor hangs around for a while (doesn’t click back and choose another option from the search results) then your drop after the honeymoon isn’t significant. The logic being that your page offers a good answer to the question being asked. If your page doesn’t get many clicks or people don’t stay around then after the honeymoon you can expect your page to drop further in the index.

As I said I’m only speculating on this, but the pattern definitely occurs for me on this blog. It’s certainly fun to watch initially while the honeymoon is on and I’m happy with how well my site ranks in general, but it’s always a bit of a let down when you lose a first position ranking. By being aware of the honeymoon you can at least understand why you might suddenly lose your rankings, though of course it’s foolish to ever believe you can be 100% certain of what Google is doing.

The Internet Search revolution

As an independent professional, a self employed freelancer or a small business owner one of the most challenging tasks is marketing. You know how to do what it is you do really well, you know you can offer value to people, you just don’t know how to locate people (prospects) and convince them to use your services or products (become customers).

One of the most powerful techniques in marketing is to step into the shoes of your ideal client and brainstorm how they would find your business. This helps you to refine who exactly your target market are and what would be the best marketing methods to communicate your message to them.

I bet right now if you used this technique on your business one of the first things you would think of is the yellow pages. Most people automatically go to the yellow pages because that’s how people find businesses. Coaches, counsellors, plumbers, bookkeepers, financial advisors, consultants - any need can be met by ‘letting your fingers do the walking’.

The Internet Search Revolution

The Internet is fundamentally changing how people find things. The physical Yellow Pages, the big yellow book, is becoming superseded by web search. People use websites like Google, Yahoo! and MSN Search to find answers, buy products, and locate professional service providers. Not to be left behind, the Yellow Pages have reacted to the shift and have worked hard to make a web version of their directory available. It’s quite clear that the future is online and you can’t risk being left behind.
Thankfully it’s early days and most small business are reacting slowly or badly, either not bothering to have a web presence at all or not thinking things through. It’s very common for a small business to slap a poorly conceived website online, hoping that somehow people will find it and become new clients. This is an opportunity for individuals that take their time and use smart tactics to create a purposeful website focusing on a specific niche.

I would hazard a claim that for many small businesses, including yours, the web could become the only marketing tool needed to acquire more clients than ever before – more clients than you can handle on your own.

Why am I so confident? Because right now I use the web to generate all my business and I know of many others that do the same. For example, my mother is a counsellor and she uses the Internet to get nearly 100% of her new clients. She focuses on the Brisbane, Australia marketplace and faces almost no online competition. Hence whenever anyone searches for a Brisbane counsellor her website is in the first page of search results. I could tell you a similar story about a bookkeeper and a mortgage broker that both dominate a geographic demographic and face little competition online.

It’s Not Too Late To Get Into Online Marketing

There is no good excuse for not initiating some form of online marketing. Even simply having a website listing your contact details is a start and should be leveraged using other marketing methods, such as including your web address on business cards, letter heads and brochures. The real power comes when you use the web as a marketing process to help generate a constant stream of eager clients just dying to purchase from you. While this is not a straight forward process the principles behind it are quite easy to follow and merely draw from the skills you already have.
The important thing to understand is that right now is the best time to start building an online marketing system. As mentioned already, many online markets are not crowded and it is easy to find a niche you can dominate. I guarantee there are people out there searching the web for what you offer.

The Internet rewards people who maintain a web presence for a long time with regular updates. This means that over time as competitors come into your marketplace you can remain the leader because you have first mover advantage. You established your website first and enjoy the constant flow of traffic that comes from having a long standing web presence.

Let’s Make Things Easy

If all this sounds a little confusing and abstract don’t worry, I’ll be explaining all the main principles to make the Internet work for you as a marketing tool. This is the first article in a seven part series aimed to teach independent professionals and small business owners the process of establishing a website that sells and how to build a client base using just online marketing.

Making money isn’t the core issue of your business

For a long time I thought that business simply existed to make as much money as possible. While that’s still true, I believe that it’s only part of the story. The impact a business has on society is fundamental. It employs members of the community, drives the housing market, and fuels an enormous support organization of small businesses (grocery, dry cleaning, banking, insurance, etc…). Now that I’m a little older, I realize that making money isn’t the core issue. What you do with the money is the real key to happiness.

There is a growing trend in business to give back to society in a more measurable way than mentioned above. Businesses are no longer just in the business of business. There is more to success than shareholder value. They can leverage their knowledge of supply chain, communication, productivity gains to leave the world a better place. They can affiliate with causes that are complimentary to their mission that enable profitable growth and societal influence. And guess what, consumers love it.

Today’s consumers are savvy. They are looking for more than just the next widget. They understand that we live in an increasingly smaller world, and want to do their part to make it better. Companies and organization that take advantage of that desire will grow. Product (Red) has taken this approach to new level. Spearheaded by Bono, Product (Red) isn’t asking anyone to change their buying behavior by purchasing conflict-free diamonds or fair-trade coffee. They make a fair assumption that given a choice of the same pricing and availability, consumers will buy “Red” products over non-Red products. For instance, if you’re in the market for a new iPod, chances are that you’ll buy a “Red” iPod over a regular iPod once you understand the value proposition. And a percentage of each product goes to anti-viral AIDS medicine in Africa. Even though the campaign is new, Red products seem to be selling well.

The University of Oxford, Harvard Business School, and Columbia Business School now have programs for entrepreneurs that want to be profitable and make a difference. The latest report from McKinsey says that 87% of global executives surveyed “agreed that their companies should pursue not only shareholder value but also broader contributions to the public good”. Conversely, according to PRWeek, 87% of surveyed consumers believe that it’s important for companies to support causes and charites. Fast Company magazine give away Social Capitalist awards.

My question to you is what are you doing to make the world a better place? It’s easy to come in and slave away at strategy or the latest marketing campaign. But are you really making a difference? Are you really standing out from your competition? Do you stand for something more in the eyes of your customers?

There’s more to business than business. It’s all about finding a way to the hearts of your audience. It’s about elevating your brand above your own widgets. It’s about standing up for the people that cannot. And I believe your customers will stand with you.

Nick Rice

Third world entrepreneurs will be receiving some VC funding this Christmas… in the amount of $100 from the Micro VC Maddy Fund.

Kiva.org is a microloan site that lends money to third world entrepreneures to help their businesses and grow markets and economies. So…
I’ve decided to facilitate this process and hopefully my daughter and I will learn from and teach each other something along the way.

My daughter will be receiving a gift certificate for $100 to invest in entrepreneurs who need access to capital. My expectation is that these tiny loans will be repaid and that I’ll provide Maddy with $100 next year to ad to her Micro VC Maddy Fund. Then we’ll sit down and have a talk about expectations and responsibilities. I think of this as a kind of ‘Pass It On’ project’. Maddy will be posting about on her blog at Pony Tail Club.
During the week between Christmas and New Years Madison will be responsible for using the Kiva site to find 4 receipients to loan $25. She will have to report to me why she chose this individual over all the others.
One of the most important in my mind is that she understands this act.
Loaning money to one person means that you’re not loaning money to someone else. Maddys decisions will carry repercussions for individuals that she needs to consider and not take lightly. She’ll be put in the position of choosing one business / individual over another. I think she’ll learn something about herself from this. (But perhaps I’m overly optomistic.)
My goals in doing this are:
• I believe in the Kiva mission and want to support them.
• I believe in my daughter and her sense of justice.
• I want my daughter to realize exacltly how privledged she is and respect those who are less fortunate.
• I want my daughter to feel the joy of successfully helping someone.
• I want my daughter to learn something of decision making and repercussions.
I’d encourage anyone who thinks this is a good idea to comment, do it themselves, or blog about / link to Kiva.org.

When you can call your site a success

In another post google as a Black Box Giacomo proposed that we talk too much theory and not enough application of it. So, lets skip the theory and get to what I know works from time proven methods on google. I know the following system works 100% of the time with google to attain rankings across a wide range of keywords. This is what I do with clients to build a successful site and has worked every time. The level of success will depend largely on the subject matter, it’s potential audience, and it’s level of competition on the net.

The following will build a successful site in 1 years time via google alone. It can be done faster if you are a real go getter, or everyones favorite a self starter.

A) Prep work and begin building content. Long before the domain name is settled on, start putting together notes to build at least a 100 page site. That’s just for openers. That’s 100 pages of real content, as opposed to link pages, resource pages, about/copyright/tos…etc eg: fluff pages.

B) Domain name:
Easily brandable. You want “google.com” and not “mykeyword.com”. Keyword domains are out - branding and name recognition are in - big time in. The value of keywords in a domain name have never been less to se’s. Learn the lesson of “goto.com” becomes “Overture.com” and why they did it. It’s one of the most powerful gut check calls I’ve ever seen on the internet. That took serious resolve and nerve to blow away several years of branding. (that is a whole ‘nother article, but learn the lesson as it applies to all of us).

C) site Design:
The simpler the better. Rule of thumb: text content should out weight the html content. The pages should validate and be usable in everything from Lynx to leading edge browsers. eg: keep it close to html 3.2 if you can. Spiders are not to the point they really like eating html 4.0 and the mess that it can bring. Stay away from heavy: flash, dom, java, java script. Go external with scripting languages if you must have them - there is little reason to have them that I can see - they will rarely help a site and stand to hurt it greatly due to many factors most people don’t appreciate (search engines distaste for js is just one of them).
Arrange the site in a logical manner with directory names hitting the top keywords you wish to hit.
You can also go the other route and just throw everything in root (this is rather controversial, but it’s been producing good long term results across many engines).
Don’t clutter and don’t spam your site with frivolous links like “best viewed” or other counter like junk. Keep it clean and professional to the best of your ability.

Learn the lesson of google itself - simple is retro cool - simple is what surfers want.

Speed isn’t everything, it’s almost the only thing. Your site should respond almost instantly to a request. If you get into even 3-4 seconds delay until “something happens” in the browser, you are in long term trouble. That 3-4 seconds response time may vary for site destined to live in other countries than your native one. The site should respond locally within 3-4 seconds (max) to any request. Longer than that, and you’ll lose 10% of your audience for every second. That 10% could be the difference between success and not.

The pages:

D) Page Size:
The smaller the better. Keep it under 15k if you can. The smaller the better. Keep it under 12k if you can. The smaller the better. Keep it under 10k if you can - I trust you are getting the idea here. Over 5k and under 10k. Ya - that bites - it’s tough to do, but it works. It works for search engines, and it works for surfers. Remember, 80% of your surfers will be at 56k or even less.

E) Content:
Build one page of content and put online per day at 200-500 words. If you aren’t sure what you need for content, start with the Overture keyword suggester and find the core set of keywords for your topic area. Those are your subject starters.

F) Density, position, yada…
Simple old fashioned seo from the ground up.
Use the keyword once in title, once in description tag, once in a heading, once in the url, once in bold, once in italic, once high on the page, and hit the density between 5 and 20% (don’t fret about it). Use good sentences and speel check it Spell checking is becoming important as se’s are moving to auto correction during searches. There is no longer a reason to look like you can’t spell (unless you really are phonetically challenged).

G) Outbound Links:
From every page, link to one or two high ranking sites under that particular keyword. Use your keyword in the link text (this is ultra important for the future).

H) insite Cross links.
(cross links in this context are links within the same site)
Link to on topic quality content across your site. If a page is about food, then make sure it links it to the apples and veggies page. Specifically with google, on topic cross linking is very important for sharing your pr value across your site. You do NOT want an “all star” page that out performs the rest of your site. You want 50 pages that produce 1 referral each a day and do NOT want 1 page that produces 50 referrals a day. If you do find one page that drastically out produces the rest of the site with google, you need to off load some of that pr value to other pages by cross linking heavily. It’s the old share the wealth thing.

I) Put it Online.
Don’t go with virtual hosting - go with a stand alone ip.
Make sure the site is “crawlable” by a spider. All pages should be linked to more than one other page on your site, and not more than 2 levels deep from root. Link the topic vertically as much as possible back to root. A menu that is present on every page should link to your sites main “topic index” pages (the doorways and logical navigation system down into real content).
Don’t put it online before you have a quality site to put online. It’s worse to put a “nothing” site online, than no site at all. You want it flushed out from the start.
Go for a listing in the ODP. If you have the budget, then submit to Looksmart and Yahoo. If you don’t have the budget, then try for a freebie on Yahoo (don’t hold your breath).

J) Submit
Submit the root to: google, Fast, Altavista, WiseNut, (write Teoma), DirectHit, and Hotbot. Now comes the hard part - forget about submissions for the next six months. That’s right - submit and forget.
K) Logging and Tracking:
Get a quality logger/tracker that can do justice to inbound referrals based on log files (don’t use a lame graphic counter - you need the real deal). If your host doesn’t support referrers, then back up and get a new host. You can’t run a modern site without full referrals available 24×7x365 in real time.

L) Spiderlings:
Watch for spiders from se’s. Make sure those that are crawling the full site, can do so easily. If not, double check your linking system (use standard hrefs) to make sure the spider found it’s way throughout the site. Don’t fret if it takes two spiderings to get your whole site done by google or Fast. Other se’s are pot luck and doubtful that you will be added at all if not within 6 months.

M) Topic directories.
Almost every keyword sector has an authority hub on it’s topic. Go submit within the guidelines.

N) Links
Look around your keyword sector in googles version of the ODP. (this is best done AFTER getting an odp listing - or two). Find sites that have links pages or freely exchange links. Simply request a swap. Put a page of on topic, in context links up your self as a collection spot.
Don’t freak if you can’t get people to swap links - move on. Try to swap links with one fresh site a day. A simple personal email is enough. Stay low key about it and don’t worry if site Z won’t link with you - they will - eventually they will.

O) Content.
One page of quality content per day. Timely, topical articles are always the best. Try to stay away from to much “bloggin” type personal stuff and look more for “article” topics that a general audience will like. Hone your writing skills and read up on the right style of “web speak” that tends to work with the fast and furious web crowd.
Lots of text breaks - short sentences - lots of dashes - something that reads quickly.
Most web users don’t actually read, they scan. This is why it is so important to keep low key pages today. People see a huge overblown page by random, and a portion of them will hit the back button before trying to decipher it. They’ve got better things to do that waste 15 seconds (a stretch) at understanding your whiz bang flash menu system. Because some big support site can run flashed out motorhead pages, that is no indication that you can. You don’t have the pull factor they do.
Use headers, and bold standout text liberally on your pages as logical separators. I call them scanner stoppers where the eye will logically come to rest on the page.

P) Gimmicks.
Stay far away from any “fades of the day” or anything that appears spammy, unethical, or tricky. Plant yourself firmly on the high ground in the middle of the road.

Q) Link backs
When YOU receive requests for links, check the site out before linking back with them. Check them through google and their pr value. Look for directory listings. Don’t link back to junk just because they asked. Make sure it is a site similar to yours and on topic.

R) Rounding out the offerings:
Use options such as Email-a-friend, forums, and mailing lists to round out your sites offerings. Hit the top forums in your market and read, read, read until your eyes hurt you read so much.
Stay away from “affiliate fades” that insert content on to your site.

S) Beware of Flyer and Brochure Syndrome
If you have an ecom site or online version of bricks and mortar, be careful not to turn your site into a brochure. These don’t work at all. Think about what people want. They aren’t coming to your site to view “your content”, they are coming to your site looking for “their content”. Talk as little about your products and yourself as possible in articles (raise eyebrows…yes, I know).

T) Build one page of content per day.
Head back to the Overture suggestion tool to get ideas for fresh pages.

U) Study those logs.
After 30-60 days you will start to see a few referrals from places you’ve gotten listed. Look for the keywords people are using. See any bizarre combinations? Why are people using those to find your site? If there is something you have over looked, then build a page around that topic. Retro engineer your site to feed the search engine what it wants.
If your site is about “oranges”, but your referrals are all about “orange citrus fruit”, then you can get busy building articles around “citrus” and “fruit” instead of the generic “oranges”.
The search engines will tell you exactly what they want to be fed - listen closely, there is gold in referral logs, it’s just a matter of panning for it.

V) Timely Topics

Nothing breeds success like success. Stay abreast of developments in your keyword sector. If big site “Z” is coming out with product “A” at the end of the year, then build a page and have it ready in October so that search engines get it by December. eg: go look at all the Xbox and XP sites in google right now - those are sites that were on the ball last summer.

W) Friends and Family
Networking is critical to the success of a site. This is where all that time you spend in forums will pay off. pssst: Here’s the catch-22 about forums: lurking is almost useless. The value of a forum is in the interaction with your fellow colleagues and cohorts. You learn long term by the interaction - not by just reading.
Networking will pay off in link backs, tips, email exchanges, and it will put you “in the loop” of your keyword sector.

X) Notes, Notes, Notes
If you build one page per day, you will find that brain storm like inspiration will hit you in the head at some magic point. Whether it is in the shower (dry off first), driving down the road (please pull over), or just parked at your desk, write it down! 10 minutes of work later, you will have forgotten all about that great idea you just had. Write it down, and get detailed about what you are thinking. When the inspirational juices are no longer flowing, come back to those content ideas. It sounds simple, but it’s a life saver when the ideas stop coming.

Y) Submission check at six months
Walk back through your submissions and see if you got listed in all the search engines you submitted to after six months. If not, then resubmit and forget again. Try those freebie directories again too.

Z) Build one page of quality content per day.
Starting to see a theme here? google loves content, lots of quality content. Broad based over a wide range of keywords. At the end of a years time, you should have around 400 pages of content. That will get you good placement under a wide range of keywords, generate recip links, and overall position your site to stand on it’s own two feet.
Do those 26 things, and I guarantee you that in ones years time you will call your site a success. It will be drawing between 500 and 2000 referrals a day from search engines. If you build a good site with an average of 4 to 5 pages per user, you should be in the 10-15k page views per day range in one years time. What you do with that traffic is up to you, but that is more than enough to “do something” with.
http://www.searchengineworld.com

How To finally Start your business online

With this article I hope to help you move from the “I want to start a business” category, to the “I am running a business” category.

I Have A Business Idea (or several)

If you fall into this category and you already have ideas for Internet businesses but you haven’t actually started one yet, then I have some very simple advice for you - just do it! Put something into action, get some results even if the result is no result (that’s a result still!) so you can actually start to move forward. Stop dreaming/planning/thinking and start doing.

If you have several ideas and you don’t know which one to run with, pick the one that you can best leverage your existing skills, contacts and resources and do some testing. You may think one idea has “more potential” or you might earn more money from it, but that probably also means you face more risk and a longer learning curve. The thing with long learning curves is that if you don’t already have the chutzpah to even start a business a long learning curve is just going to be, well, too long for you. You don’t have the motivation or the courage or the experience or the conviction or whatever it is to push you through the slow process of failing that you must go through in order to succeed.

If you choose the perhaps less grand idea or the less risky business in the short term - the one that you can best leverage what you already have - you won’t face such a long learning curve and will earn results quicker. This will give you positive reinforcement and experience earlier - it will build up your chutzpah - and then, if appropriate you may be able to start up your original riskier or unique idea since you will have the confidence from the success you have already earned.
Think of it this way - a software programmer could have some amazing Web 2.0 idea which she could start, or she could do some software consulting as a self employed business owner. One business model is clearly riskier but potentially much more rewarding. However in almost all cases the low-risk consulting job will bring in financial return and positive reinforcement a lot quicker, while the end game with the Web 2.0 might be a huge superstar company, resources will be consumed (money, time) long before rewards start coming through. Obviously it comes down to your unique position and personality, but if you are having trouble even getting started then the path of least resistance is probably best for you - at least for now - you can still dream big for the future.

I’m not saying you can’t chase the biggest, baddest, craziest idea right from the start - some of the best entrepreneur stories start like this - but often the character behind the idea has some special qualities, those pure, somewhat deluded concepts that hardcore entrepreneurs have where they “just know” they will succeed no matter the odds against them or the reality of the present situation. That sort of blind faith motivation usually leads to one of two outcomes - tremendous success since the person never gives up, or tremendous failure since the person never gives up. It’s a fine line.

I Don’t Know What Business To Start, if only I would pick one of those Information Products Full of Ideas!

Ahh, the serial information product purchaser. I love you guys. It’s you opportunity seeking folks that keep the online marketers pockets laden with money - your money. They keep coming up with ways to make money online, release ebooks, videos, DVDs, courses, seminars, mailing lists, membership sites, all promising riches, and you lap it all up - all of it!
Yep, you are a crazy lot but there is one clear thing about you - you are not afraid to put money down in order to make money and you believe in education, either that or you are a sucker for a good sales page!
If this is you, you need to stop buying info products. Honestly, stop it now. If your computer and bookshelf is laden with online business ideas, all of which you have studied with enthusiasm but never gone much further than one or two steps into actually implementing something before you snap up the next “great online money making concept”, then you have to break the pattern.
Here’s what you need to do. Stop buying products, look at what you have already, what you have learnt and where you think you could best leverage your skills. If you like writing content and setting up blogs or websites then perhaps AdSense is the way to go.

If you have something to teach other people and that doesn’t have to be in the Internet marketing arena, it could be any niche, online or offline, then maybe setting up a membership service or writing an ebook is the way to go. If you don’t want to bother with making a product yourself but you like the idea of selling products then perhaps drop shipping or affiliate marketing will be good to you.

Here’s the important part though - whatever idea you finally pick, you have to stick to it from start to finish. Complete every step in the course/book/tool you bought. Every step and then evaluate your position. And I can tell you, if you truly did complete every step that a quality information product teaches you to do then you are almost guaranteed success. Why most people don’t succeed is because it takes time and energy and let’s face it, unless we see money coming in immediately most people have a hard time sticking to something for longer than a few weeks - at most!
Realistically if you were to follow Internet business information products and implement all the steps you are looking at months and months, even years of work before you really can say you did everything well. That usually means completing long term search engine optimization on your website(s), setting up, testing and tracking a comprehensive pay-per-click advertising campaign, implementing other traffic strategies, networking, forming relationships and doing joint ventures, testing and tracking conversion on your website(s), writing content, blogging…there is so much to do to truly have success online.

While it might be nice to blame the information product and accuse it and the author of being all hype and no substance - most reasonably good info products really do teach good stuff, there’s just a lot of work involved to do it all successfully - so the only person to blame for failure is you. It’s harsh, but it’s true.
Next time you buy an information product in the hope that it will be THE big idea for your online business (like all the others that have gone before it) be absolutely certain that you are prepared to implement everything it teaches, otherwise you shouldn’t buy it. Go back and implement the techniques in the other products you bought but never got around to using properly first.
Best of all, if you actually do implement well and create a business, you can then buy all the great info products that come out, write them off as an education expense in your tax and know full well that you will be capable of implementing the nuggets of advice you learn, increasing your income by leveraging the success you already have in your existing business.
Positive habits tend to reinforce themselves. Once you start implementing and getting results you will find that you want to keep doing it. The experience you will gain will give you confidence and awareness of the long term benefits of implementation and replace your old “get rich quick” opportunist thinking mentality, where you bought products because you were caught up in the promises being made and did not consider the reality of the effort required to make things work.

I Have Too Many Commitments - I Can’t Quit My Job To Start My Dream Business
Okay, you may be right, you have a lot of commitments and pinning your financial requirements on a new enterprise is too much to handle. My advice - don’t do it, do both. Start your business and keep working your job. In this case you need to have great time management and structure your life well so you maximize your work efficiency (of course this is a good strategy for anyone, but it’s particularly important for someone who wants to transition from working a job to running a business where the short term involves doing both at the same time).

Let’s think 80/20 rule. If you get 80% of the outcomes from only 20% of your efforts then you really only need to focus on a core few functions to handle this situation. You need to keep working your job so a good chunk of your day is gone to that. Then you have all the other “life things”. In my case that realistically probably leaves about 2 hours per day of real productive time for your new Internet business. You could start sacrificing sleep to get more hours but I’m not known to do things like that - you might be.

Two hours, you may be surprised to learn, is more than enough to get your business going, if you are 100% productive during that time and that two hours is spent on your 20% core productive functions - those things you need to get done in order for your business to start generating cashflow. After all it’s dependable cashflow you require so you can reduce the amount of time you spend at the job office and increase the amount of time you spend at the home office. Most people don’t spend much more than two productive hours in an eight hour working day anyway so you will be ahead of the curve if you can stay focused on your 80/20 activities for a full two hours.

From that point on you juggle. You balance your activities with getting your new business running and slowly change the ratios so you do less “job” and more “business” until that great day when you have enough business cashflow to finally quit your job. Of course that’s only the beginning of building your business, but at least you are past that not-really-that-scary-yet-it-stopped-you-for-so-many-years period where you were afraid of not meeting your commitments without your job.

It does take a leap and definitely a commitment but to be really honest with you, the only real obstacles you face are psychological, they are not reality. You don’t believe you can start a business because of all the fear that your commitments generate, which are tightly linked to your job income since it currently keeps those commitments at bay. Since you believe that it becomes your reality. Once you lose the fear and take action you realize the reality of the situation is not that scary and with some time and efficiency management anything is possible - you just got to believe and take action kid!

Do Something

Reading over the paragraphs I just wrote above it’s pretty clear that there is really only one piece of advice you need to follow to finally start your online business - you need to take action and do something. Everything else boils down to the way you think and the way it causes you to act but generally as long as you are taking action to move your business forward (and start something in the first place!) your outcomes are always good because you are learning and gaining experience, which all lead to greater motivation, better decisions and more taking action - a guarantee of success!

So go do something already!

Checklist for efficient read and effective website

Here’s a quick checklist for anyone in Internet business who want their websites to sell - try and avoid these issues.
1. State what the website is aiming to achieve in the space “above the fold”. Above the fold is the area that a person sees without scrolling down. In this space it should be obvious why your website exists. Is it to educate? To sell? To have someone enter a sales funnel? What is the niche you are targeting? All this should be clear in one very quick glance. You can’t solve someone’s problem if they can’t even figure out what it is you do.
2. Use large fonts with lots of white space. This is a no brainer. You want your website to be read by as many people as possible so don’t use tiny fonts, don’t use clever fonts, just keep it simple, double spaced and big. You wouldn’t whisper your sales pitch to a potential customer in real life, so don’t do it online.
3. Don’t get fancy. Graphics are secondary to text. The words on the page are primary. Graphics should only be used to enhance the presentation of text and never hinder or distract the visitor from what they are supposed to do at your website - read it!
4. Use headings and bolds and lists, etc. This is something that must be drummed in over and over again - break up long towers of words into nice manageable blocks with headings and highlights. Combine this with the aforementioned large font and your website will be an efficient read and effective at getting your message across to as many people as possible. You want as many people as possible reading your website right?
5. If you are limited in skills and resources, just use one nice text-based page. You can have tremendous success online by using a webpage that is just a simple letter format. Follow the rules above and tell your story using just words. If you can’t do website design yourself or can’t afford it, you can keep things simple and still have a very effective message. It won’t be pretty, but like I said, pretty doesn’t sell - the words do.

Tips for Growing Your IT Blog

Ok, we brought up some of the things we've seen or heard were working for many of IT-bloggers. These are the best practices or "Tips for Growing Your Blog" we're sharing with new bloggers as they get started in the community. Consider this the beginning of the evolving list and as you gain your personal insights you'll update these items in your mind by adding or revising points.
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Aim to provide quality content
Your blog is a resource for industry peers, publishing content that is professional and vauable will help you gain attention and respect.

Regular publication schedule
Users must be able to anticipate how often updates will occur. Whether it's daily or weekly updates that work best for you, pick a publication schedule and stick to it to keep your most loyal readers engaged.

Write descriptive post titles
Post titles represent your blog in external contexts (article listings, search engines, RSS feeds). Headlines that stand on their own, make it clear what the post is about, and integrate topical keywords are likely to generate interest and connect you with your target audience.

Tag posts with relevant keywords
Good keyword tags, similar to subjects or categories, will help you gain exposure through blog aggregators and searches by indexing your blog and individual articles under relevant topics.

Get involved
The blogosphere is filled with discussions on topics similar to those you're writing about. Establish your presence by getting involved with related blogs and, when appropriate, sending a trackback or linking to your own articles.

Actively promote your blog
Be entrepreneurial in building your following. Tactics such as recommending your blog to acquaintances,adding a link in your email signature, and linking your blog to other blog sites will help you maintain consistent reader growth.

Interact with your audience
One of the most rewarding aspects of blogging is the discussions that take place around your posts. Encourage participation by inquiring about reader perspectives and, when they do comment, make sure to respond and continue the discussion.

Provide a detailed bio
Readers want to know who they're dealing with - it's a simple matter of trust. Having a bio that outlines your credentials and reason for enthusiasm on certain topics will give your writings much more credibility. Having a photo available is also important for making a personable impression.

Avoid sensitive information
You should always be comfortable with the possibility of your co-workers, boss, clients, and other affiliates reading what you publish in your blog. When detailing sensitive experiences, use faux names for people, locations, companies, or industries as necessary.

Stay on topic
Keep to the subject matter your blog purports to cover. While humor and interesting anecdotes are great for adding personality to your blog, straying too far from the blog's topic could alienate key readers.

Be yourself
Establish your own voice and style -- don't try to mimic someone else just because they're popular, or blog on topics you don't really know just to get some hits. Be yourself and you're more likely to be consistent and you'll last a lot longer.

Do it for the right reasons
Becoming popular shouldn't be your goal. If you're in it to share a bit of yourself and what you know with others, and maybe help someone or yourself along the way, you're more likely to find satisfaction and enjoy the blogging experience.


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