Blogs By Heather

Using Twitter with your Business (by SiteProNews, Anton Pearce)

2010-03-15T13:52:21-07:00

Here is an article I received in my email from SitePro News (MAR. 15, ISSUE #1360) by Anton Pearce. I thought many of you would benefit from it so I wanted to share it with you here. Again, these are not my words but an article by Anton Pearce in its entirety:

Here are four tips to use your Twitter account effectively. Following other Twitter accounts that are in your target demographic will help you get an idea of what the conversation is. Then you need to post updates about your company, brand or product. As with any online medium, you want to be very careful to not spam any of your followers. Lastly, make sure that you follow successful online marketers, and look for other participants who are in your industry.

First Build an Account for Twitter Marketing

The first thing that you should do is to set up your Twitter account and populate it with several interesting Tweets, which are Twitter posts. Then begin following people who are also using Twitter, and you will find that most people will follow back. When your entire Twitter feed has blanks, though, most people will not bother to follow you. Once you start a micro blog post, you can get on with following any target demographic, and this can be done in either of two different ways.

1. Go to Twitter.com and do a search by typing in keywords that relate to the demographic that you are targeting. For example, if you are trying to sell an application for the iPhone, you would enter the keyword 'iPhone' or 'iPhone app' or anything that may find people who own an iPhone. It's easy to follow people. If your posts are interesting and relevant, you will probably pick up some followers this way.

2. Locate Twitter accounts that you want to follow by clicking the 'Find People' option. Then enter your keywords, related industries, locations or other defining detail to locate followers, and begin following them.

Twitter Marketing Uses Current Information

By adding news that is interesting and relevant about your services or product, you can keep your Tweets current. You can also add information about related news for your industry to keep Tweets interesting and informative. For example, if you sell cooking gadgets, you may want to post news about food and recipes.

As you work on developing your targeted demographic, you need to keep your followers engaged, so you will want to tweet, or post, often. Make sure to retweet relevant tweets from other Twitter followers. This is another great way to pick up new followers, and when they start to follow you, you also are plugged into their followers. Retweeting is one of the fastest ways to build your following or network.

By checking with search.twitter.com frequently you can look for brand names and see what customers are saying. You can follow these Twitter accounts and thank them. If you see customers who are angry or dissatisfied, you can follow them as well. Then you can retweet them and solicit solutions to the problem. Your customers will be thrilled with the feedback from you, and even more thrilled when you rectify the situation. Twitter makes it easy to grow a 'word of mouth' reputation virally.

Twitter Marketing and Spam Do Not Mix

Spam in any electronic media is the kiss of death. If you begin spamming your followers, they will drop you like a hot potato. Spam activity would include only posting information on your products, retweeting the same URL repeatedly, obnoxious Twitter handles, and frivolous tweets. Twitter followers are savvy consumers, and anything deceptive or patronizing is going to leave a bad taste in their mouth.

Twitter Marketing Can Assess the Competition

If you want to build a quality following, then follow quality people on Twitter. There are many online marketers that are experts on Twitter like Dave Peck, Chris Brogan and Guy Kawasaki, and they should definitely be included in your list on Twitter. Also look for corporations that are active on Twitter. They are blazing a trail with their marketing, and you can get good marketing information from them.

Do not forget to look at what your competition is doing. See how they are going about increasing their own following on Twitter. If you want to be a smart marketer online, then you need to constantly be aware of what your competition is doing out in cyberspace. You have a huge marketing opening if they rarely post on Twitter, don't retweet, or attend to negative posts.

Twitter Marketing Requires Patience

When you are using Twitter as part of your Internet marketing plan, you need to give it time to work. Twitter results take a while to appear, because it is one of the more long-term strategies. You will have to build up your networks and following, and if you use the correct strategies, it will happen in a timely manner. However, do not start a Twitter campaign if you are not going to see it through to completion, because an unattended Twitter account is worse than no account at all.

Once you have built a good Twitter following, then you want to market with a gentle touch. Instead of using 'in your face' marketing tactics, pose a question where your product or service is the answer. Tweet that there are updates on your company's blog instead of trying to cram the information into your tweet, and people that want to know more will click through to your blog.

Always respond when your followers tweet you. If you do not keep up with your following, it will begin to crumble. If you have too large of a following to maintain, then outsource your retweets or assign an employee to monitor and reply to your followers.

Twitter is an interactive marketing tool, and because of this it is valuable in two ways. While it is instrumental in getting your message out, it is also hugely helpful in taking the pulse of your customers. So make sure that your Twitter marketing efforts start strong and more importantly stay strong.

About The Author
For more advanced guidance, sign up for Anton Pearce's 'Clients on Tap' ezine. It's absolutely free and will show how to implement systems that generate all the clients you need for your professional practice. This ezine is essential reading if you want to get your marketing online systems set up right without wasting a lot of time and money. Visit www.antonpearce.com

I hope you enjoyed his article!

Happy Tweeting!

Alternative to Google Docs (4Shared)

2010-03-13T13:19:28-08:00

Many of my customers have stated that Google is now forcing people to create a Google Account when opening a Google Doc. So I will be posting a few alternatives. Here is the first one, 4Shared.

Go to www.4shared.com
Click Sign Up.
Enter your email, password twice, select plan (FREE).
Click Sign Up.
You will get a box that says "registration complete."
click OK
At the bottom notice the Upload Files area. Notice the max file size (200 MB) and there is a max storage use at 10 GB.
Click on Browse to upload a file to your account to share.

Then Open (so it's selected and appears in the little box).
Then click on Upload.
You file has been successfully uploaded, click OK.
Here is a link (sample - http://www.4shared.com/file/231509082/d9f9b1dc/DormantUS.html)
Then a little window appears with the link or HTML code that you may then use on your blog or website.
You're done.
Continue to upload files or Logout

I found this application easy to use.

Google Site Submisson

2010-03-10T05:35:52-08:00

Many clients always want to know how can they rank higher on the web. I'll throw in a few tips here and there. Here is a location to add your site to Google.

http://www.google.com/addurl/

It does not guarantee ranking, etc., but it doesn't hurt to add your listing!

Other tips:

Post often and use your keywords in your posts (http://www.contentblog.net/?p=688).
Make sure to add Keywords to your posts (meaning, not only in the content of the post, but at the bottom of the post editor screen under Keywords and Technorati Tags).
Reciprocate links on other people's blogs. The more sites you have link back to yours the better the possibility of increased traffic to your site.
Make sure to include your link to your blog in all email signatures and when you post to online groups.
Make sure to join online groups and participate in them. So people get to know you, your work, and your blog.
Integrate your blog with Twitter and Facebook (tutorials on this coming soon).
You can pay for a service as well to submit your site to search engines monthly.

Happy Blogging!

New Banner and Graphics for Wendy Hawkinson

2010-03-10T05:27:30-08:00

Again, although Michelle Laycock does MUCH of the design work for my customers, occasionally I do a few. Here is one for Wendy Hawkinson. Her inspiration was from the Designer Series Paper in the Stampin' Up! Occasions Mini Catalog.

Then we based the banner design off of that and those colors. I think we did a good job! LOL.

I also created a matching post signature for her.

Click here to visit Wendy's blog.

Thanks for visiting!

Using Google Checkout as an Alternative to PayPal

2010-03-05T06:47:05-08:00

Although I use PayPal, some people have experienced problems. So Google Checkout is an alternative that you may want to consider using.

To create buttons for selling YOUR products or services

Sign In at http://checkout.google.com/sell
If you don't have an existing Google Account, then you will be brought to another screen to setup a Google Checkout account for business.

Otherwise, click to use your existing Google Account for Google Checkout.
Then you are brought to a screen about payment options and contact information.

Complete the form and then Complete Sign Up button.
When complete you are brought to the main area to create your buttons.

Go to this page to learn how to create typical Buy Now buttons:

http://checkout.google.com/support/sell/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=39011

NOTE: YOU can specify a location for PDF or other document for digital download.

Go to this page to learn how to setup Google Checkout Shopping Cart:

http://checkout.google.com/support/sell/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=113025

Additional Note: STORE SETUP

Click here to learn more about setting up your Google Store which is similar to a PayPal Store (Includes features like tracking inventory (using Google Spreadsheet):

http://code.google.com/apis/checkout/developer/Google_Checkout_Store_Gadget_How_To.html

Happy Blogging!

For SU Demonstrators - Your DBWS Now Has a BLOG Feature!

2010-03-02T17:02:36-08:00

For all my customers that are Stampin' Up! (SU) Demonstrators, the new BLOG feature is now available on the DBWS.

Login to DBWS.
Click Manage My Site.
Click on Blog Manager.
Go to Preferences and set the Title and Tag Line.
Save settings.
Then when you are read to post, click on Create & Edit.
Then add some Categories under Categories. It is good practice to give your posts (entries) a Category.
Click on New Entry.
Enter information and insert images using the toolbar options at the top (very Wordpress-like).
Enter a Publish Time or choose Publish To Blog.

Your CUSTOMERS can find your blog under the ABOUT ME ("My Stampin' Blog").

Adding a PayPal Button

Follow this tutorial (http://www.blogsbyheather.com/2009/01/adding-a-paypal-button-to-a-post.html) and then go to Source (1st button on top in the toolbar) to enter the HTML code.

Copying and Pasting Information from your "Other" Blog

You can also go to your other Blogger, WordPress or Typepad blog and open an existing post.
Then go to Edit HTML, select the code.
Then go back to your Stampin' Up! blog, create a New Entry, then go to Source and paste in the code.

Happy Blogging!

Creating and Adding a Favicon in Blogger or Typepad

2010-02-11T04:00:00-08:00

While re-designing or creating a blog, you may want a matching favicon. What is a Favicon? It's that small image in the address bar you see when you visit your own or someone else's blog.

Michelle Laycock wrote a tutorial here:
http://laycockdesigns.com/typepad-tips/favicon-favicon-favicon/

But I'm just adding to it and use this other site as well:
http://www.animatedfavicon.com/

Creating the Favicon

Go to http://www.animatedfavicon.com/ and then click the Browse button to locate the image you want to use from your computer.
Then click the Create Favicon button.
Then you can see a preview below.
Click the Download Your New Favicon button.
It is a Zip file that you can either open or save to your computer (to later open and extract).
In the zip file the only file you need is the one named "favicon.ico". That is the file you need.

In Typepad

Go to the File Manager (Library, File Manager) and you are at "Home" by default. Then go to your blog's folder (such as mine is blogs_by_heather). So the address would then read "Home\" such as Home\blogs_by_heather.
That shoud do it (if not you can also put a copy in the Home directly).

In Blogger

Create and use an existing Photobucket account (www.photobucket.com) or other online image storage application. Upload the image and get the URL of the image you just updated, favicon.ico. In Photobucket it is the "Direct Link" you want to later copy. Leave Photobucket open.
Then go back to Blogger.
Go to Layout and Edit HTML.
Find the Page Title area:
<data:blog.pageTitle/>
and copy and paste this information beneath it.
Then go back to Photobucket and copy the Direct Link for the favicon.ico.
Then go back to Blogger's Edit HTML and in the code above and replace the "your image file URL" by pasting in the Direct Link from Photobucket (or other image storage source).
Save and you're done.

Happy Blogging!

For Typepad: Creating Dropdown Boxes for Categories and Archives

2010-02-07T04:00:00-08:00

Unlike Blogger, to create the dropdown lists in Typepad is more difficult (but of course doable). There are two ways to go about this:

1) using a Notes Typelist and manually entering the values;

2) using Advanced Templates and copying/pasting code one time.

Using a Notes Typelist

Create a Notes Typelist and copy and paste this code and you will get the drop down boxes you see listed in one of my test blogs: http://heatherporto.typepad.com/testing2

<html>
<body>
<form>

<select onchange='location=this.value;'>
<option value=http://heatherporto.typepad.com/testing2>Select By Category</option>
<option value=http://heatherporto.typepad.com/testing2/family/>Family</option>
</select>

<BR><BR>

<select onchange='location=this.value;'>
<option value=http://heatherporto.typepad.com/testing2>Select By Archive</option>
<option value=http://heatherporto.typepad.com/testing2/2009/01/index.html>January 2009</option>
</select>

</form>
</body>
</html>

You would have to continue each list enter new values respectively for each month/year and for each category.

Converting to Advanced Templates

One way to accomplish this functionality is to switch and convert to Advanced Templates. However, this choice should be not be one that you just jump to since it does change the way you maintain your blog and does require the $14.95 Pro Level package (now called Unlimited) in Typepad.

This is the code you will have to put inside one of your Sidebar Modules (a Notes Typelist):

First, find this line of code:

And replace with:

<div class="module-content">
<ul class="module-list">
<form>
<select style="width:150px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 5px; font-family: verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;" onChange="document.location=options[selectedIndex].value;">
<option value="">archives by month</option>
<MTArchiveList archive_type="Monthly">
<option value="<$MTArchiveLink$>"><$MTArchiveTitle$></option>
</MTArchiveList>
</select>
<select style="width:150px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 5px; font-family: verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;" onChange="document.location=options[selectedIndex].value;">
<option value="">archives by category</option>
<MTArchiveList archive_type="Category">
<option value="<$MTArchiveLink$>"><$MTArchiveTitle$> (<$MTArchiveCount$>)</option>
</MTArchiveList>
</select>
</form>
</ul>
</div>

To view a sample, see another one of my developmental blogs (testing area):
http://heatherporto.typepad.com/testing/

Best wishes,

Blogger Now Has PAGES!!!!!

2010-02-06T20:14:43-08:00

Oh my GOODNESS!!!! This is GREAT news for all Blogger Bloggers!!!! This is a feature Blogger users have been waiting for.

For Stampin' Up! demonstrators, you would use "Pages" for selling Tutorials, Card Kits, Handmade Items, Planners and more, where you could create a separate page for each type of product you are selling.

For other business owners, this may be to use a "page" to describe each service you provide or each type of product you sell.

Where to Find Pages

1. Login and from the Dashboard go to Layout, then Page Elements.

2. Add a Gadget and choose the 1st one, Pages (NEW!).

3. You can rename the title, such as "For Sale" or "Services".

4. For most, leave the "automatically add new pages when they are published.

5. As you develop more pages, you can come to this gadget and order the pages, using drag and drop.

6. Notice the TIP, you can use Pages as a Navigational Bar (like the Nav Bar in Typepad). GREAT tip!!!

7. Click Save.

8. Keep in the side, or drag at the top under your banner. Click Save.

To Add New Pages

1. From the Dashboard, go to Posts or Edit Posts. Then you will see "Edit Pages".

2. Click "Edit Pages" and there you can create a new page.

3. You can add up to 10 (TEN) Pages!!!

4. Click on NEW PAGE and then create a page just as you would a post.

5. Publish/post options at the bottom.

6. When ready, Publish and you are on your way!!!!

I'm so excited to share this news!!!

Happy blogging!

Comparing Newsletter Services

2010-02-05T04:00:00-08:00

Many of us use a newsletter service to communicate with our customers.Constant Contact is probably one of the largest email marketing applications and why I have a custom Newsletter Design Service for that.

However, after partnering with Debbie McNeill of CraftyPerson Products, I researched a bunch of other email marketing/newsletter programs briefly and made some notes I wanted to share with you.

MailChimp

Website: www.mailchimp.com

Features:

· FREE up to 500 subscribers..

· Can send up to 3,000 newsletters (1 subscriber = 1 newsletter, so if you had a 500 subscriber mailing list, you could set up to 6 newsletters a month).

· Great to use with CraftyPerson Production Newsletters Service – easily and quickly copy and paste HTML and Text versions.

· User-friendly interface and easy to design Sign Up form for your blog or website.

· Make as many contact lists as you want.

· Easily import contacts using Excel, delimited files.

· Has autoresponders.

· Email Tracking and Analysis.

· Schedule newsletter delivery.

· Click here for more details on all the features: http://www.mailchimp.com/features.

· Click here on how it compares to Constant Contact and iContact: http://www.mailchimp.com/features.

Constant Contact

Website: www.constanctcontact.com

Features:

· Pricing starts at $15/month (up to 500 subscribers, unlimited emails).

· Fully customizable at many levels, including the Visitor Sign Up Form.

· Create many contact lists.

· Has autoresponders (limit of 5).

· Email Tracking/Analysis.

· Schedule newsletter delivery.

· 400+ templates to choose from but the “Create Your Own” is not so obvious but it there to copy/paste CraftyPerson Production Newsletter Service HTML and Text files.

· Known to have excellent training, coaching, help, and live help.

· Charges for Archiving ($5 a month) - – although I have a tutorial, work-around for this.

· Charges for Image hosting (only allowed 5 free images to be uploaded, then $5 per month) – although I have a tutorial, work-around for this (see HOW TO: Constant Contact).

· Click here to learn more: http://www.constantcontact.com/email-marketing/features/index.jsp.

My Newsletter Builder

Website: www.mynewsletterbuilder.com

Features:

· Pricing starts at $10 /month (up to 500 subscribers).

· Great to use with CraftyPerson Production Newsletters Service – easily and quickly copy and paste HTML and Text versions plus the content can be modified after import.

· Email design tools.

· Autoresponders.

· Audio & Video support.

· List management tools.

· List segmentation.

· Unlimited image hosting.

· Email Tracking/Detailed campaign reports.

· Tools to build your lists.

· Custom subscription forms.

· Free Webinars.

· Free live support.

· Email Knowledgebase.

· Click here for pricing: http://www.mynewsletterbuilder.com/pricing/.

iContact

website: www.icontact.com

Features:

· $14.00/month up to 500 contacts ($9.95 up to 250).

· Email Tracking.

· Spam Check.

· Bounce-back handling.

· Newsletter scheduling.

· Autoresponders.

· Easy to Use WYSIWYG Email Editor.

· 500kb image hosting/storage.

· Survey tool and other advanced FREE features.

· Click here for more info on features: http://www.icontact.com/features.

· Click here for pricing: http://www.icontact.com/pricing.

Vertical Response

Website: www.verticalresponse.com

Features:

· $10 / month up to 500 subscribers.

· Email Tracking.

· Measure sales from your email.

· No technical expertise required.

· Opt-in (Sign Up) form for you blog or website.

· Free image hosting.

· More info on pricing: http://www.verticalresponse.com/pricing/

Lastly, for Stampin' Up! Demonstrators, I would recommend MailChimp. Debbie McNeill also recomments MyNewsletterBuilder. But I can work with any of them if you need assistance in using a newsletter/email marketing system to send monthly newsletters as a SUN Member. Click here to learn more.

Wishing you continued success!