To give you a taste of the possibilities, here are 15 cool promotional gift ideas for under 10 bucks:

Fruit Infusers. Create flavor infused beverages on the go with this handy gift. Average price: $9.90

Filter Water Bottles. Great for eco-minded promotions. Average price $8.00

Food Storage Containers. This category includes compartmentalized lunch trays and lunch bags Average price: $7.00

Tumblers and thermoses. New designs and durable construction make these items a perennial favorite. Average price: $9.00

Mobile Accessories. Mobile devices are everywhere, and many users would appreciate a handy accessory to accompany them. Numerous products sport cross-device functionality, and the best part is that many these items even sell for less then $5. Here are a few good examples:

• USB Car Charger. Target the traveling salesperson or constant commuter with this handy charger

• Mobile Phone Holder. Keep recipients’ phones and your brand in sight.

• Screen Cleaners. We all know how quickly those touchscreens can get dirty.

• Laptop and Tablet Sleeves. Essential protective gear for mobile computer users.

• Branded Stylus. A useful item for mobile touch screens

• Custom USB Flash Drives. A useful item with many design options and storage sizes

• Retractable Earbud Pod. Who couldn’t use a spare set of headphones?
• Retractable Ethernet Cord. Ideal for students and those on the go

• Tablet Stand. This foldable items are easy to adjust for optimal viewing angle and often come with non-slip feet.
• Custom Portable Speakers. These mini speakers come in various shapes and styles available for MP3 players and smartphones.

Image Credit: www.inkhead.com/

Whether you are running a home-based business on the side or a full-fledged company, the bottom line is that you should be approaching online security in the same way that you would approach the physical security of your home or business. After all, if you are buying and selling online, then your livelihood, your reputation, and even your assets may depend on the security of those transactions. But how can you help prevent breeches, theft, and fraud online while running your small business? This is where SSL encryption comes in.

How Does SSL Encryption Work?

SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer. It is a technology that establishes a secure connection between the visitor’s web browser and your website in which all communications transmitted through this link are encrypted. The mechanism behind this process is a small piece of code called an SSL certificate. This code has two specific functions:

1. Authentication and Verification. The SSL certificate helps to verify certain details regarding the identity of a person, business or website, which it will display to visitors on your website when they click on the browser’s padlock symbol or trust mark. Visitors to your site will be able to tell that the website is secured by three characteristics: Its address will start with https rather than just http; the address bar will (in most cases) be colored green; and visitors will (in most cases) see a padlock symbol at the bottom of the screen.

2. Data Encryption. The SSL certificate also enables encryption, which means that the sensitive data exchanged via the website cannot be intercepted and read by any other party other than the intended recipient. In other words, SSL provides us with a way to padlock our information, encrypting or shuffling it so that it cannot fall into the wrong hands.

When Would a Business Owner Need to Use an SSL Certificate?

You will need an SSL certificate if you are doing business online, and you wish to submit data securely. Otherwise, everything that you do online- the information that you send, store, and manipulate- is fair game for fraudsters and hackers. Some common uses for SSL certificates among business owners include:

• Securing the connection between your website and your customer’s Internet browser.
• Securing information between servers.
• Securing information sent and received via mobile devices.
• Securing email communications sent to and from your network

The Three Main Types of SSL Certification

There are a number of different SSL certificates on the market today.

Self-Certification. The first type of SSL certificate is a self-signed certificate. As the name implies, this is a certificate that is generated for internal purposes. It is a DIY version, and as such, it is the least secure SSL option, since it is not subject to vetting or external evaluation.

Domain Validated Certification. Domain Validation Certification ascertains whether a person/company actually does own a specific online domain. It is considered an entry-level SSL certificate and can be issued quickly. But, no additional checks are done to ensure that the owner of the domain is a valid business entity.

Fully Authenticated SSL Certification. This third option is the most comprehensive given that it involves a screening process and checks which allow a company/individual to reassure customers/users that it really does exist, it really does own the domain, and it really is legitimate, all of which are evidenced by the fact that it has been awarded the SSL certificate. It is the first step to true online security and confidence building.

Other SSL Certifications

In addition to the SSL options mentioned above, here are another three popular choices that may be appropriate for your business’ web properties:

Wildcard certificates. If your domain name is used with a number of different host suffixes, you may employ a Wildcard certificate that allows you to provide full SSL security to any host of your domain

Code signing certificates. These are specifically designed to ensure that any software being downloaded was not tampered with while en route.

Extended Validation (EV) SSL certificates. EV SSL offers the highest industry standard for authentication and provides the best level of customer trust available. When consumers visit a website secured with an EV SSL certificate, the address bar turns green and a special field appears with the name of the legitimate website owner along with the name of the security provider that issued the EV SSL certificate.

In closing, just as you would extend protection to your physical assets, make sure you secure the online business you are working so hard to build up.

About the Author:

Symantec offers a wide-range of online security solutions. For more information on SSL certificates, please consult the following guide which contains a wealth of information on the topic: https://www.staysecureonline.com/ssl-evolved/

But over the past few years, as platforms such as LinkedIn gain in reach and prevalence, many have been quick to proclaim that business cards will go the way of the dinosaur. In an effort to cut costs and avoid looking out-dated, many small business owners may wonder if they should bother spending precious money on business cards, or for that matter, other printed marketing materials, such as brochures and fliers.

After all, there are many ways to exchange that data virtually at a fraction of the cost it would take to design and print those materials. Why bother with fliers and posters when you can install a digital sign, or send a mobile advertisement, and why not just cut the whole business card thing out altogether and rely on the fast-growing crop of data sharing mobile apps? Just bump phones or just scan in their, ahem, business cards and you’re done. Besides, you’ll save a few trees in the process.

The answer of course is that business cards et al. aren’t going anywhere anytime soon and with good reason. Though the argument can be made that exchanging marketing material and contact information electronically is more efficient, it at the same time creates a kind of disconnect- which is the exact opposite of what we’re trying to do in a marketing or networking context. Think about it. The simple act of physically passing a personal business card or some branded, promotional item to another person creates a connection. It’s a tangible thing in our increasingly virtual world that can be seen, remembered, and, yes, held onto.

Moreover, for those who are creatively inclined, the business card in particular can also be a powerful expression of identity and brand in a way that can simply not be transmitted via contact information alone. Just do a little research if you haven’t seen this for yourself first-hand. You’d be surprised by the design versatility of that little piece of cardboard. Finally, if you still crave the convenience of an electronic exchange you could always incorporate a QR code or something equivalent into your card that would take mobile users directly to your public LinkedIn profile.

In short, don’t expect business cards to make a disappearing act. They are a vital, real element in an increasingly virtual world.

Together with a business partner, I started my own online store in 2013. She takes care of dispatch and customer service, and I’m responsible for the marketing and updating of the website. This means I’m constantly hanging out on Google Analytics, looking at how people find our site and what makes them leave again, and trying and testing SEO strategies for our various product ranges.

While getting an ecommerce site up and running is easy, the process of optimizing and tweaking it is never-ending. I’m constantly surprised at how small tweaks can vastly improve our search engine rankings.

Ecommerce sites are indexed slightly differently to normal websites, and they are also more difficult to optimize. The nature of a large product catalogue means e-commerce sites contain a lot of duplicate content, which the search engines don’t like. This means it’s even more important to correctly optimize your ecommerce site.

Here’s what I’ve learned about optimizing an ecommerce site through my (sometimes disastrous) experiments:

Tidy Up Your Domain. Is your store http://awesomeshop.com or http://www.awesomeshop.com? What do you mean, “it’s both of them.” Are you sure? Many search engines treat these as two separate URLs, thereby making your entire site guilty of duplicate content.

Eeep.

The easiest way to deal with this is to choose which option you prefer, then create 301 redirects on all the URLs coming to your site from the wrong URL. And while you’re there, make sure all URLs pointing to your front page are http://awesomeshop.com and not http://awesomeshop.com/index.html or something like that.

Use Unique Titles and Meta Tags. A huge part of your goal as an e-commerce site is to find shoppers who are using Google and other search engines to search for specific items. That means every time you show up in a search engine, you’re given a little free advertising. So you should use that search engine listing to the best of your ability. Keywords appearing in URLs will also be given greater weighting than random strings of numbers, and they look prettier, too!

My store is built in WordPress, so I use the built-in SEO editor to create custom URLs, titles and meta descriptions for all my pages. Each product is optimized for particular keywords and the description is targeted for different customer profiles. It does take a little extra effort when adding products, but I’ve noticed a 22% increase in conversions since I started doing this.

Create Interesting Content. Another way to increase your visibility in the search engines is to add unique content. The first thing to tackle is your product descriptions. Never use the descriptions from the manufacturer – come up with your own unique way to describe your products.

I spend a lot of time thinking up quirky and creative descriptions for our products (we sell socks and hosiery). I don’t focus so much on keywords in these descriptions – I ensure I give the customer all the information they need to make a purchase.

I also created a blog for our online store and started adding articles related to our products. This content is totally unique and allows me to focus on writing for particular customer groups. I can create blog posts around seasonal themes and other events in the sales calendar, as well as creating content to target particular demographics (teens, professional career women, men, mothers). Think about how you might use blogs, DIY tutorials and other types of unique content to add to the user experience on your site.

Create Quality Backlinks. Backlinks from other authority sites will help your ecommerce store rank higher. Unfortunately, there are also the hardest links to get! Here are a few of the techniques I use to gain backlinks:

• Add your store to review sites like Amazon, Yelp and Epinions. These sites will give you inbound links and will help build customer trust.
• Guest post on blogs related to your store’s niche – DIY tutorials are a great way to start out in guest-blogging.
• Collaborate with bloggers to create unique campaigns. For fashion-related ecommerce stores like mine, this means sending bloggers products for review and hosting giveaways on their blogs.
• Submit your product coupons to aggregator sites.
• Add your store to web directories.
• Encourage customers to share your product photos, posts and content on their own blogs and social media profiles.

Allow Customers to Review Products. Allowing product reviews on your site can be scary, but they bring several advantages – chief among them being a constant influx of new, unique content. Encouraging customers to leave reviews will help you to keep new content up on your site. Don’t worry too much about negative reviews – a few bad reviews can actually help you sell MORE products, as seeing negative reviews shows customers that you’re not faking your reviews.

Submit your sitemap. By submitting your sitemap to search engines, you ensure that all your pages are crawled and indexed. For ecommerce stores with a huge product catalogue, this is a vital step to ensuring all your products end up indexed.

With SEO for my ecommerce store, I find the best method is to do a little every day, and focus on building organic traffic through the creation of high quality content. Whatever you do, if you’re running an ecommerce store, SEO should definitely be a vital part of your marketing strategy.

Do you run an ecommerce store? What are you doing to improve your SEO?

Author Bio: 

When she’s not running a successful online sock empire, you’ll find Steff Green brewing homemade wine and writing for various blogs around the web (often at the same time). Learning more about SEO has really helped her own store flourish, and she’d like to help you learn the same techniques through a range of SEO training courses.

“Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” -William Penn

Time is an incredibly powerful thing. Sometimes it flies by us so quickly that we don’t even notice that it went; other times it’s slower than a snail in molasses. Time is elusive, it’s mysterious, and it’s the one thing small business owners never seem to have enough of.

The Time Trap

According to a recent survey by eVoice, time is the one thing in short supply for many small business owners. So, how many of us really want to make the most of this most valuable asset? Now, a show of hands please, how many of us really do?

Let me tell you a secret: You can’t manage time. Time just marches on whether you’re watching or not. Yet, I bet many of us try to do precisely that.

Then a strange thing happens. The more the clock moves, the more accomplished we feel. We can end up using time as a metric for success and forgetting those essential tasks on our to-do list!

When time becomes the focus of our productivity, we can lose our clarity and confusion sets in. In the end, we have no clear direction or goal for what we’re trying to accomplish.

Tasks that Lead to Nowhere

One “side effect” of letting time steal our focus is that we tend to spend an inordinate amount of minutes and hours, days and weeks doing things that have no real bearing on the overall goal or vision of the business we’re trying to build. We’re just way too busy trying to cram everything into our work day. All this “busy work” may keep us busy indeed and may even make us feel accomplished, but we can be left with very little real progress at the end of the day.

Stop trying to race the clock! Instead, take a moment to a whittle down your to-do list to those essential tasks that bring real value to your business. Everything else can either be given to another person or left out entirely.

The Case of the Chronic Clock Watcher

Everyone looks at a clock now and then, but if you’re a chronic clock watcher, there’s probably something that lies at the root of your compulsion. The fact is you probably do not enjoy what you’re doing. Passion makes time completely melt away. When I’m working on my business and then suddenly look up and realize three hours have passed, I know I’m doing something I love.

It’s pretty normal to go through periods where it feels like your passion went on vacation (and didn’t look back). In that case, you just need to find ways to rekindle the spark. But when those downs are frequent and prolonged, that typically means the issues are deeper, and you’ll need to stop and re-evaluate the direction your life is going in to see where you can make changes.

When Value Becomes the Focus

When you give time less prominence and instead focus on those tasks that will bring the most value to your business, your whole perspective will change. Instead of trying to be the next superman or superwoman who can scale enormous to-do lists in a single bound, you’ll focus where focus is most needed. And you what to know something: not only will the quality of your work improve, but you’ll be so much happier, too. Let your shorter list of accomplished tasks be the measure of success, not how much time you’ve spent on it.

In closing, it’s important to remember that the greatest measure of success should be the actual tasks you’ve accomplished and not the time it takes to get there. This will lead to a richer work experience where time becomes irrelevant. You’ll begin having fun and the hours will fly by.

Author Bio:

Matt Boyd is co-founder of Sqwiggle, an app designed to make remote working a more collaborative experience. Follow him and his journey as a productivity blogger, remote worker and distributed team builder at http://blog.sqwiggle.com or http://www.twitter.com/mattboyd

Here are the top 3 mistakes we see:

Choosing the wrong materials. Although a sign can be created from almost anything, there are very specific cases where one material is superior to another. The most common mistake that a small business can make when choosing a material is going with the cheapest just because it’s well…cheap. The need to save money and cut costs is understandable—nowhere is this more evident that in a small business. But, just because a material is inexpensive, doesn’t mean it won’t cost you in the long run.

Before purchasing a sign, make sure you identify where the sign will be installed. Will it be exposed to the weather or high traffic areas? How long do you want the sign to last? A great example is foam board. This material is great for temporary point-of-sale signage, window displays or event directional signs. But if you are looking for something permanent, it tends to disappoint. Foam board can be very brittle when it isn’t handled properly. How devastating would it be to install a beautifully-designed sign only to have the wind blow it down and it break in half? A better alternative would be to install a solid PVC sign or composite sign, like Alumilite or Dibond. These materials are made for exterior use and will last years, even in poor weather conditions.

Choosing the wrong location. Unfortunately, we don’t get to help many of our customers install their signs, but if you take a quick drive down your local main street, you might notice that some signs could have used a little help when it came to placing them in the proper location.

There is this great little Chinese restaurant very close to my house. It sits between a frontage road and a major highway. I noticed yesterday that their main illuminated sign is not facing either. In fact, it is installed on the front of the building, which can only be seen by drivers heading in one direction. To compensate, the owners placed 6’x3’ banners facing the road and the highway. The banner facing the road is fairly easy to see but in between the building and the highway is an empty lot, probably 100 yards across, making the second banner almost impossible to read.

Avoid this dilemma by identifying where your traffic is coming from, what type of sign will be large enough to grab customer’s attention and whether your sign should be illuminated or not. In the end, you might end up with a combination of different types of signage, but at least you will know that what you do install will have the greatest impact.

Choosing the wrong design. We see a lot of great sign designs, but we also see our fair share of bad ones. Having a poorly-designed sign is far and away the biggest mistake we see small businesses make. There are numerous factors that go into whether a sign is designed properly or not, but even the simplest things may have a huge impact on how the sign is perceived by others.

The biggest offenses usually involve trying to cram too much information into a sign, using the wrong color combinations, making bad font choices and providing poor-quality images.

When creating a sign, there is a tendency to want to convey many different messages. Small businesses owners think, “We are having a sale but we are also pet friendly, so maybe I should add a picture of me and my cat to soften it up.” Or, “We need our email, phone number, physical address, web address and Twitter handle on our sign.” Unfortunately, they are trying to get all this information into a 24” x 18” yard sign that will be installed out near the street where drivers are trying to read it while driving 55 mph. When in doubt, go simple. Focus on one really important objective and do it well.

Also, choose a font or fonts that aren’t too scripty or fancy. Choose colors that contrast for text and backgrounds. The best combinations are black on yellow, black on white and yellow on black. Finally, if you are going to use an image or picture in your sign, make sure the resolution is at least 200 dpi. Depending on the size of the sign, your image may need to be 300 dpi, but at 200 dpi, you can pretty much guarantee that the print will be clear. How can you tell what the resolution is? Just right click on the image, select “properties” and click the details tab. Another way to know is where the image originated from. Anything found on the Internet is usually too low a resolution to use when printing a sign. So, please don’t copy your Facebook profile image and slap it in your design. I promise, if you do, you won’t be happy with the outcome.

So, the next time you create a sign for your business, keeps these common mistakes in mind. If you do it right, signage is a great way to display your company’s brand and attract new customers.

Author Bio:

Daniel Royer is the Communications Director for Signs.com Signs.com is a leading maker of custom made banners, yard signs, decals (windows, walls, vehicles) and other printed signage. Daniel has over 6 years marketing and corporate communications experience working in the signage, print and graphics industry.

Of over 27 million businesses in the United States, 2.3 million are owned by Latino entrepreneurs. According to Hector V. Barreto, chairman of The Latino Coalition, Latino enterprise constitutes the fastest growing segment of American small business, generating over $500 billion in annual revenue.

But Latino entrepreneurs still face significant challenges in expanding their businesses. In particular, the success of Latino small business owners offers an important incentive for immigration reform and the naturalization of migrant workers—specifically those from Latin America.

Through increased legal immigration, entrepreneurs would not only enjoy a greater supply of legal workers to meet market demands, but also decrease salary competition among wage laborers. Though the degree of its impact is uncertain, one thing is known for sure: immigration reform would generate economic growth, and economic growth leads to the creation of jobs.

There are other challenges as well. The Latino Coalition, a non-profit organization dedicated to the research and promotion of policies relevant to Hispanics in the United States, is actively working to improve the prospects for Latino-owned businesses. The Latino Coalition Chairman Hector V. Barreto cites the limited ability to secure contracts, healthcare, access to capital, and business regulation as the chief obstacles to the growth of Latino small business. Through a recently launched partnership with Biz2Credit, The Latino Coalition seeks to address at least one of these issues. By increasing Latino entrepreneurs’ access to sources of capital, the organization hopes to facilitate the expansion of Latino small business in America.

As the continued success of Latino entrepreneurship will be largely impacted by the restructuring of American immigration policy, the topic of immigration reform merits further discussion. From April 29 to May 1 in Washington D.C., Latino business owners will convene at American’s Small Business Summit sponsored by The Latino Coalition and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Small business leaders will discuss the relationship between small business and immigration, along with questions of healthcare and global business expansion. The Latino Coalition will also host a B2B National Procurement Matchmaking event at the Summit to allow Latino small business owners to network with government agencies and Fortune 500 companies with the goal of facilitating new contracts and business relationships.

The role of Latino business owners in reforming American immigration policy has yet to be seen. But, it is evident that the growth and success of the Latino business community will continue to encourage conversations about how willing policy makers are in creating an environment where small businesses of all stripes can thrive.

Author Bio:

Liz Jacob is a writer and editor living in New York. She is a writer for Biz2Credit, the #1 online credit resource for start-up loans, small business loans, equipment financing, working capital and other funding options. Biz2Credit has secured $800 million in funding for small business owners in the U.S. since 2007. Visit www.biz2credit.com and follow @biz2credit on Twitter for company and industry updates.

Can you identify with this? Did you ever wonder why your online marketing efforts just aren’t working out? Where are you going wrong?
Before I go on, let me offer a bit of a disclaimer for anyone who’s coming to this site for the first time: I’m not an Internet marketing expert. There are plenty of people out there who can help you with your online marketing strategies (and I’ll point you to a few really good ones in the post below). But, at the same time, I can’t help but see certain patterns.

I’ve found that the vast majority of the time, business owners fail to make money or generate quality leads online because they are making one simple mistake, and this is a mistake that is common to businesses both big and small. But, once you understand it and recognize it, it will change your whole perspective, and you’ll have the key that will help you beat even the big boys in your niche.

From $32 to $115,000 Dollars an Hour

Several years ago, The Washington Post conducted an experiment in perceptions. On a cold January morning in the middle of morning rush hour, a nondescript man carrying a violin case entered the L’Enfant Plaza Station in Washington, D.C. Among the bustle of people heading to work, he found a place against the wall in the main plaza, took out his violin, and threw a couple of bucks into his violin case- seed money. For the next 43 minutes, while over 1,000 people hurried by, the musician skillfully played some of the most exquisite classical pieces ever written.

When he had finished, he bent down to count his earnings- $32.17 in total. That not may seem so notable except for the fact that merely three nights before he had earned over $115,000.00 per hour.

The musician was actually Joshua Bell, a world-renowned virtuoso, who three nights prior had sold out over 2,300 seats at Boston’s Symphony Hall- seats that cost on average $100 dollars a piece.

The Washington Post was interested in knowing how many people would put a pause on their morning rush to listen as well as how much Joshua Bell would earn for this impromptu performance. The article itself is pretty long, but take a look at the videos. Hardly anyone stops. Only at the end does he manage to draw a “crowd” of about four people.

The question is why didn’t more people stop?

I know that Neil Patel from QuickSprout uses this story to illustrate the concept of “frames.” That in the frame of a world-renowned violinist, Joshua Bell is able to make over hundred thousand dollars an hour. But as a street musician, he is only worth 32 bucks.

I want to take it from a different angle, though.

Humans are coded in such a way that we immediately zone in on the things that are important to us, while filtering out all the noise and distraction. If we didn’t do this we would just be overwhelmed by all the sights, sounds, smells, and other sensations that enter our range of perception at any given moment. The problem is that these days there’s a tremendous amount of noise clamoring for our attention, and as time goes by it’s getting worse. The result is that people have to work extra hard to zone in on the things that matter the most to them. It’s a survival reflex.

A Matter of Focus

Imagine for a moment that you are looking through a lens. When you peer through a magnifying glass, a pair of binoculars, or a microscope, you are focused only on those things in a very defined visual field. It’s not that other things outside of this area aren’t important. It’s that you can’t really physically see them- everything else is in the periphery

So why didn’t those people stop? Because they were too focused on getting to work or going about their day; it’s not that they didn’t have the ability to appreciate Mr. Bell’s performance (in fact, according to the article, many probably did); it’s that they couldn’t. His performance was in their periphery. On the other hand, those who laid down $100 for a ticket at Symphony Hall were already committed to listening. They are specifically showing an interest in his talents. In other words, they had their lenses trained on him.

The take away here, is if you want to be seen online, then it’s more than just physically putting yourself or your message in front of X number of eyeballs; you need to put yourself within the areas that they are already focusing on. Once you’re there, once you’ve gotten them to take notice of you, then you can point them to other things. (It’s why building up an engaged subscriber list is so important. These people are already invested in you and will thus be more receptive to anything you have to say. (See Danny Iny’s Firepole Marketing for more information on doing this properly.)

If you truly understand this then it will totally change the way you market online. The goal then becomes finding out what things your target audience is focused on, and making sure that you are talking about those very things, and doing it in the places and the mediums where these people will be the most receptive to them. Most people trying to market their business online leave out one or more of these elements.

Here are some examples of what I mean…

• What good will it do your business to have an ad that get tons of impressions, if the majority of the people passing by are only vaguely interested in what you have to say or offer? Sure, you may actually get a few clicks in the end, but at the same time, such an approach is inherently wasteful.

• What will it help to create a professional-looking video campaign or write compelling blog content, if your target audience wouldn’t be interested in videos on this topic or read such blog posts?

• What if you put your ad or a call to action in a place that prevents visitors from seeing something that they are specifically searching for or trying to get to? Unless you are very thoughtful and deliberate with this, in many cases, doing so will be ineffective at best and can hurt your business at worst. (As an aside…Just a few words about pop-ups: I know a lot of people are all gaga over pop-ups, but you have to be very careful where and how you use them or you can quickly end up alienating your audience.)

Realize that there is a growing ad blindness epidemic affecting just about any form of online advertising there is. According to Peter Sandeen, even things like the guarantees you offer on your products and services are susceptible these days.

It’s a fact that you can probably see in your own surfing habits.

But, how do you combat it?

You Can’t Just Work Hard Online and Expect to Succeed; You Need to Also Work Smart

This may sound counter-intuitive, but the fact is that the biggest A-list bloggers and online experts, the most successful affiliate marketers and e-business owners in any given niche aren’t necessarily those who know the most about their topic. They don’t necessarily have the flashiest ads, the slickest websites, the most original ideas, and they don’t spend gobs of money buying traffic, either.

What they all do have though is a knack for putting the right content and messages in the right places. They know where to go to get highly targeted traffic to their sites and landing pages, as well as what content should greet these people when they get there. They recognize that to succeed online you need to know how to get the right kind of people to your site. It’s not just about numbers, it’s the quality of those numbers that matters more.

Knowing this you can understand why so many people talk about building and leveraging online relationships and guest posting on other sites. What you are really trying to do is squeeze yourself into the lens that these top bloggers and business people have already built around themselves or their business. Once people start to take notice, then you can go about giving them reasons why they should continue to look your way.

Now, I will say that if you are exceptionally remarkable then there is a chance that people will stop to pay attention to you even if you haven’t fully optimized your message nor put yourself in the most opportune place. But while I believe that we are all remarkable in our own way, it may not always be apparent on the surface. You’ll have a much easier time trying to put yourself where they are already focusing, and make a targeted and valuable offer, rather than trying to pull their attention from other things.

How to Beat the Big Boys

One last point… Realize that many of the big powerful brands, don’t get this. They carry out extensive campaigns on Google AdWords, make efforts to get the top results of popular keyword searches, or put their ads on sites that are getting tons of traffic. Many even have social media profiles. But they’re really just playing the numbers game: get in front of enough eyeballs and some people are bound to become customers. It’s not efficient, but they have the resources to do it this way. Here, however, is where they are vulnerable. Because, at its essence, this is still old school advertising on a platform and in a generation where many of the old school rules have changed.

If you understand the principle mentioned above and you figure out how to make your target audience see you, then you can end up with a much more engaged and focused following for only a small fraction of the cost and resources that your big business competitors are expending.

In short, successful online marketing is a matter of focus and perspective. You don’t necessarily have to hit people over the head with your promotions and other material, but you do need to speak their language in a way and in a place that they can hear it. Otherwise, you’re just wasting precious time and money.

(Image Credit)

Some Points to Keep in Mind…

Before I get to the nitty gritty of these two platforms, I want to clarify some confusions that many small business owners have when they start their search for an email marketing solution:

Your email marketing software is a key ingredient in your email marketing success. Choosing a email marketing platform is a big decision. You have to take into account the company’s feature list and performance level, and match them up to your needs. What’s important to you? A high successful delivery rate? Ease of use? Advanced reporting? The look and feel of your newsletters and email blasts? The cost of services? And don’t think that you can so easily go with one platform and just change later because…

Changing platforms is hard! For example, if you switch from Mailchimp to AWeber then all your subscribers will have to opt in again. This could mean loosing several of them. The transfer process is also made more complicated by the simple fact that different email marketing platforms have different setups. Bottlom line: the bigger your list, the more variables and changes (read: headaches) you are going to have to deal with to move it from one provider to another.

You have to think about your long-term business goals. Realize that your business can (and mostly likely will) change over time. As your business grows, develops, and on occasion, changes course outright, your email marketing needs will grow and change with it. Furthermore, keep in mind that even if cost is an issue now, it may become less of an issue in the future.

Take all reviews with a grain of salt. One last thing that I want to point out over here is that AWeber has an extensive affiliate program (that I, myself am a member of), while MailChimp briefly started one, only to significantly retract it later on. Why is this important? Because, the vast majority of the reviews that you’ll see out there are from people who are affiliated with the product. The bigger the name and the bigger their following, the more money they stand to make when people signup from their site. Now, obviously, if they are using AWeber themselves it does say something, but at the same time they are biased. Just keep this in mind…

The Low-Down on the Real Differences Between MailChimp and AWeber

I am currently using both MailChimp and AWeber (for different projects). One thing that I’ve seen, having used both platforms myself and having read many of the reviews, is that there are a lot of misconceptions floating around. Here are some of the big ones:

AWeber is the more robust platform. In terms of both basic and more advanced features such as, setting up autoresponders, segmenting subscribers into multiple lists, creating custom forms for your email list, performance reporting, spam filter testing, and split testing, both platforms are pretty equal for the vast majority of users. Each one has strengths that the other doesn’t, and each one has its limitations.

MailChimp does not allow affiliate links. A lot of the confusion in this area has to do with the unclear wording of their TOS- something that they have openly admitted themselves. The bottom line is that they do allow “thoughtful” and “useful” affiliate links; they just are not catering to the dedicated affiliate marketing crowd. But, as you can imagine, there are a lot of grey areas with affiliate marketing, and trying to draw the line between what is considered ok and what isn’t is in practice challenging. As a result they’ve received a lot of bad press- especially among top bloggers… who happen to also be top affiliate marketers.

MailChimp is the cheaper option. It’s actually not.  Beyond MailChimp’s free plan, it’s significantly more expensive than AWeber. See the pricing lists below:

MailChimp’s Price List

AWeber’s Price List

So where do the real differences lie?

MailChimp in the Blue Corner

The forever free plan. The reason why many people think MailChimp is the cheaper option is due to the fact that it has a forever free plan, which entitles you to a list of up to 2,000 subscribers, and 12,000 emails per month. Almost all of the advanced features are included in this plan, with the exception of its autoresponder service and its spam filter checker (which helps you to know before you send out an email if it’s going to be marked as spam or not.) Aweber, on the other hand, technically doesn’t even offer a free trial option.

The cool factor. It’s very clear that MailChimp has spent a great deal of effort on the usability, design and the funness of its platform. MailChimp just looks and feels cool, and that’s definitely something to note. Though both platforms are designed to accomodate non-technical people, my opinion is that Mailchimp is a bit easier to learn and use. It has better online tutorials as well.

Aweber in the Red Corner

Big time endorsements. AWeber has the overwhelming support of many top bloggers and online business owners. This is an obvious plus. If they are all happily using it, then it can’t be bad.

Optin forms. Once you get in the subscriber list game, the ability to create multiple optin forms that look good and can convert your visitors to subscribers is extremely important. Here’s where AWeber and MailChimp diverge. AWeber allows you to both create and embed your form anywhere on your site using a built in form creator and editor. Their templates aren’t the greatest, but some of them are usable. MailChimp, on the other hand, does not allow you to embed your custom signup form on your own website. Instead, to see the form, you have to get your visitors to click a link that takes them to MailChimp’s own site.

If you know html and css, Mailchimp does allow you to embed a generic form on your website that you can then customize. But, if you have to put more than one form on a page, I’ve personally found that it doesn’t work properly. You can get around all this by using a slick app called OptinSkin that does all the work for you (more on this below).

Delivery success rate. AWeber is said to have the best delivery success rate. My personal experience has been that MailChimp has issues with Gmail (some emails are sent to spam, are delayed by several hours, or are not received at all) while Aweber seems to struggle at times with Yahoo accounts.

Better support options. Only AWeber has live chat support as well as a toll-free number you can call to speak with a customer service representative. MailChimp only provides email-based support with an average turn around time of 24 hours. This is a very big downside to using MailChimp, especially if you are a newbie or you are in need of urgent support.

The Take Away: Each Platform is Targeting Different Users… Where Do You Fit?

So, which email marketing platform is right for your business? The truth is that each platform is better suited to different businesses and models. Obviously, if you are into affiliate marketing as a primary income stream or if you know that you’ll often be including affiliate promotions in your mailings, then stay away from MailChimp You may also want to avoid getting started there if you know that you are really going to need that live customer support.

On the other hand, if you are not expecting to grow your subscriber list past 2000 subscribers, and you’re looking to keep your overhead as low as possible, then MailChimp is definitely the way to go. (One tip to keep your subscriber numbers low is to go through your list every 6 months to a year and delete those people who never open your emails.)

I do want to say, however, that you should avoid just signing up for MailChimp’s free program without first considering what your needs are and where you are heading. As I said above, it’s a real pain in the you know where to switch later on.

Whatever the case, if you’ve chosen to work with MailChimp or if you’re using another productivity program that only plays nice with MailChimp (in other words, you’re stuck with it), then I strongly suggest getting that WordPress app called OptinSkin I mentioned above. It will allow you to put multiple, professional-looking optin forms throughout your site, and it offers several customizable templates and reporting features that are by far more superior to anything you’ll get with these email marketing programs. Even if you’re an AWeber customer, you should still get this plugin, and it’s perfect for beginners. Since I started using this plugin, my subscriber opt-in rate has increased 50%.

Another notable plugin that’s been around for a while is OptinCrusher. This a free plugin creates a slick slide-up optin form that displays at the bottom of your site.

The Many Concerns Business Owners Have About Using an Overseas VA

A while back, I wrote up a short guide for business owners looking to hire their first virtual assistants. Though I discussed working with overseas VAs over there, I wanted to delve into the topic more deeply.

For many business owners looking from the outside in, the thought of working with a VA located in a foreign country (especially a developing one) brings up many questions like:

• Is this exploitation or opportunity?
• What are the people like to work with over there?
• What can an overseas VA do for me?
• How much money can I expect to save by hiring an overseas VA?
• Can I really expect quality work from someone who is getting paid only $2.15 an hour?
• How do I choose the right candidate?
• What is the best way to train an overseas VA?
• Where are the best sites to go to get hire a VA based overseas? 

… and many more.

If you know where to look, there are several sites that clearly and sufficiently provide the answers to these questions. To get you started, I’ll mention several great resources throughout this post that will do just that.

What does seem to be missing, however, is a side-by-side comparison of the main countries supplying overseas VAs to business owners. Many business owners wonder how these countries differ culturally and where their competencies lie. There is also the question of when hiring a U.S.-based VA may be your better option. In this post you’ll be able to see at a glance some of the overall strengths and weakness each group of people brings. Now, obviously, I’m going to be making some generalizations here, and not every individual will fit the bill, but at least it will give you some perspective, and maybe help you to narrow down your search. I’ll also include a list of sites that specifically target each country.

The Philippines Vs India Vs Pakistan Vs The U.S.: Where Should You Hire Your VA?

That said, here is a breakdown of how each of the countries mentioned above stack up as a source for VAs:

The Philippines

The Philippines is definitely one of the rising stars in the overseas VA industry. The country has been getting a lot of press lately thanks to some high profile promoters, such as Chris Ducker. There are many reasons why the Philippines has become one of the top outsourcing destinations:

• Filipinos are a bit more fluent in English compared to other countries like India.
• Many Filipino VAs are highly skilled. It’s certainly possible to find a good Filipino VA qualified to do jobs in technical areas, such as web design, programming, and graphic design.
• Culturally, Filipinos tend to be loyal, trustworthy, value work, can easily comprehend instructions, can work lengthy hours, and pride themselves on delivering the desired results.
• Though you can certainly hire on a contractual basis, they seem to be particular suited to longer term positions or assignments.

Even with all of those qualities, here are some things to watch out for:

• Depending on where they are located, their Internet connectivity may be spotty
• Just because they are proficient in English, it doesn’t mean they’ll be perfect. In fact, expect that the vast majority of Filipinos will make small, but noticeable grammatical errors.
• Filipinos may not take criticism (even if it is given over pleasantly) so well. They respond best to encouragement. Start off with simpler tasks and work your way up to more complex ones as mastery is achieved.
• The VA business is booming in the Philippines, and that means that the price to hire a good worker over there is slowly, but surely rising.

There are many places online to go to hire a VA from the Philippines, and the best option will really depend on your needs.

• You could try freelancing sites, like Odesk.com, for contractual work.
• You could hire a Filipino directly on sites like, Best Jobs Philippines

• If you would like some help sifting through candidates as well as training them to work with you, you should consider hiring through a virtual staffing firm. The initial price tag will be little higher, but it can save you a tremendous amount of time and money spent on hiring mistakes. Depending on the organization you go through, you’ll get varying levels of help. You could try out Agents of Value or OnlineJobs.ph which offers varying levels of service, starting with offering you the ability to post a job on their boards for a set fee. Offering much more robust packages are companies like Chris Ducker’s Virtual Staff Finder, which conducts in-depth testing and interviewing, in order to present you with candidates who are a close match to your needs. I also recommend checking out Chris’s free ebooks. Though some of them are specifically written for those hiring Filipino VAs, there’s a ton of really useful information that you could really apply to any VA setup.

India

India has been a popular source for overseas VAs for several years now. There are a few reasons to specifically seek out an Indian VA:

• They have good proficiency in English
• The country has a strong educational focus on science and mathematics which gives them an edge in the Information Technology fields.
• Another advantage that keeps India on the top of the list is its reliable bandwidth systems and its continuous development in their high speed communication technologies.

That said, there are several additional points you should take into consideration:

• Even though they can speak and understand English, most Indians tend to have a thick accent
• Do not expect a high level of initiative from an Indian VA. You need to make a good effort to plan out every task and explain exactly what needs to be done.
• Do not be surprised if your workers seem ready to agree to most things – it is difficult for Indians to show direct disagreement. Your workers will tend to tell you what they think you want to hear. So, watch how you phrase your questions.
• Bottom line: Good micro-management is the key to success

There are several sites you can turn to if you would like to specifically hire an Indian VA:

• My Tasker- Provides both personal and virtual assistant services
• Brickwork India -A virtual Office, providing Remote Executive Assistance (REA), Research & Consulting and IT services.
• GetFriday - Global virtual assistance services for small and mid-sized businesses
• Tasks EveryDay - Virtual staff solutions from virtual assistants to web designers and programmers

Pakistan

Pakistan is perhaps the least well-known source of VAs in this bunch. But, it’s definitely a country to consider. Here are some strengths:

• English is widely spoken and understood in the major cities
• People from Pakistan are hard working and used to working overtime or on weekends. Just keep in mind that they appreciate and sometimes expect to be recognized and rewarded for their hard work.
• I’ve found Pakistanis to be pretty intuitive at times. You still need to offer clear instruction, but many are good at problem solving and filling in any gaps

That said, here are a couple of things to watch out for:

• Though Internet and mobile connectivity is decent in the big cities, the infrastructure is still relatively weak in more rural areas. More importantly, the Pakistani Government has a penchant for blocking out whole websites, and there is often speculation of an Internet-wide ban.

• The other important point to keep in mind is that as a culture, Pakistanis tend to use indirect communication peppered with a lot of hyperbole and similes. Consequently, a seemingly straightforward question does not always receive a clear answer. So, here again, pay attention to how you phrase questions.

If you would like to specifically work with VAs in Pakistan, the best service I’ve seen is Efficise.

The U.S.

Finally, here are some reasons where a U.S.-based worker would be a more attractive option than an overseas VA:

• There are often social, cultural and language barriers that make business more difficult to transact for overseas VAs.
• While English is pretty prevalent in the countries mentioned above, it’s a situation where your mileage will definitely vary. For basic communication or content production where quality and perfection is not important, such a setup could work out just fine. But if you require high caliber content or sales copy and the like, then you’d be better off using a native English speaker (or at least hiring one to edit any content written be an overseas VA.)
• When you’re working with people who are literally on the other side of the world, it can be incredibly difficult to manage their work load. If a task is done early, a virtual assistant can wind up clocking out long before you wanted him or her to. If there’s a problem, it can take a full day to receive an answer to your questions.
• VAs are generally responsible for their own internet connection and computer. For an individual living in India, internet is certainly available, as I mentioned above, but it may be too skittish for you to handle. You also have to consider outside circumstances like typical extreme weather conditions or political maneuvering that can knock out your VA’s access to the Internet for a significant time.
• Finally, it’s no secret that many small business owners are specifically drawn to overseas workers because the wages are significantly lower than those for U.S. based VAs. But, be aware that prices have been steadily creeping up over the past few years. When you take into account the extra time and effort needed to get around some of the obstacles mentioned above, your actual savings may be pretty small.

In closing, there are definitely a lot of benefits to working with overseas VAs regardless of the country (or countries) you choose. There are many, many highly experienced, skilled, and competent workers out there. But, the success of your particular setup will really depend on the amount of effort you put into understanding, embracing, and accommodating both its possibilities and its limitations.

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