Business Online

Recent Interactive Website Launches

noreply@blogger.com (Business Online) — Tue, 6 Dec 2011 09:34:00 +0700

www.vtseniorliving.com

Bullrock originally designed their sites for Otter Creek and Shelburne Bay with Union Street Media in 2008. Three years later, with a renovation in the works for The Shores at Shelburne Bay, they recognized the need to update both sites to accommodate changes at their facilities and to stay ahead of their competition on the web. Design revisions would focus on a more modern layout with updated color schemes to match changing print marketing materials and larger, more recent photos of both facilities. Updates to navigation would combine keyword research with revised phrasing to more successfully highlight the personality of both communities: upscale and high-end but personal and welcoming.

www.joanheatonarchitects.com

Joan Heaton Architects is located in Bristol, VT and has been specializing in quality residential design for new construction, addition, renovation, and historic restoration projects since 1996. A long time client of Union Street Media, Joan recently wanted to update her site to keep the design and content fresh and engaging for prospective and returning customers alike. Through the redesign, she was also looking to increase the SEO value of her site and provide her customers with new projects in her portfolio.

http://www.vtbenefits.com/

Northern Benefits is a full service benefits brokerage that specializes in employee benefits and operates in six states throughout the northeast. With a growing regional presence and service offering, Northern Benefits wanted to build a website that distinguished their business in every state they operate in. The redesigned website delivers easily accessible state specific content for offices, services, team bios and more. The new site is built in our content management system which provides a site structure and platform for simple content management and is easily adaptable as they expand services and locations. www.artisaneng.com

Artisan Engineering, located in Charlotte Vermont, is a professional structural engineering studio, providing traditional and specialty structural engineering services. With a wide variety of current clients that include business owners, architects, designers, engineers, constructors, fabricators, and product vendors, Artisan Engineering prides themselves in offering creative and innovative building design, investigations, specialty structures, and structural systems services based on their client’s unique needs. A hands-on approach assures each client a quality design and thorough project coordination with all members of the design team.

www.expressionsvt.com

Expressions, located on Church Street in downtown Burlington, VT, is a women’s boutique clothing store that carries an extensive collection of Eileen Fisher items as well as the latest pieces from designer brands such as Christopher Blue, NYDJ, Kinross Cashmere, ISDA, Three Dot, Chan Luu, Hobo, Spanx and the list goes on. Expressions approached Union Street Media to help them create an online presence. They developed the Style Blog to provide the Expressions staff with a tool to keep the site updated in a fun and easy way. Posts about recent fashion shows they’ve attended and new designers they’ve picked up provide new content for the site and keep visitors engaged.

Tags: Business Websites, Recent Client Launches

This entry was posted on Friday, December 2nd, 2011 at 2:22 pm and is filed under Our Clients, Website Launches. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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What Is The Consequence Of Identity Theft

noreply@blogger.com (Business Online) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 08:57:00 +0700

14th July 2011

by Alex Rodriggueez

Identity theft happens when a person assumes your identity to commit a crime. It could have considerable consequences on your lives, and could also result in job loss, or even your marriage could be adversely affected. It really is a considerable breach of your privacy. In today’s political scenario, identity theft may very well be carried out to aid terrorism, in addition to spying, illegal immigration, and also a permanent alter of identity.

You’ll find a lot of approaches we succumb to theft and we’re completely caught off guard and astonished at the holes we’ve left open. More not long ago thieves have sought out new identities so that you can secure prescription drugs get access to visas and prevent criminal prosecutions. Daily someone seeks to make use of an individual else’s identity still as opposed to it becoming a severe proactive endeavor we often wait until
it “somehow takes place to us.”

Do not let other people have access to your private accounts. That suggests that when you are online, you must only access your accounts when you are on your private pc. Possess a strong anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall installed. Also, if you are using any kind of router, you must be sure that it really is password protected and change that password monthly to keep potential hackers guessing.

Persons committing identity theft are extremely resourceful and get information and facts from diverse sources. One quite uncomplicated way is by stealing wallets and purses carrying identification and credit cards or by stealing private data out of your house straight.

In an identity theft the thieves fraudulently obtain your name, address, cellphone numbers, bank and credit card account numbers, driver’s license and social security number (SSN). It would appear that Identity Thieves are using this as a profession and are really skilled in what they do. They are able to use quite a few low and high tech methods to acquire access to your personal identifying data.

If you are very much interested in doing online business then you should use this Identity guard software to protect your credit card number,ssn etc.
You can use this Identity guard’s software software to make secured online purchases.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 14th, 2011 at 2:58 pm and is filed under Security - Insurance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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What Makes A Publication Attractive

noreply@blogger.com (Business Online) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 08:53:00 +0700

20th March 2011

by Jerico Anderson

Good consistency on the”dark” and the “light” aspects of the publication makes it more interesting as lighter part is able to neutralize the former. Variety of characters in a publication in terms of its content can make it more noticeable to the readers.

Good layouts and well harmonized “light” and “dark “are some of the characteristics of high-impact publications. These types of journals generally draw so much attention from the readers.

Not all publications need to be full of contrast; some are better presented if even combination of neutral colors is used. Example of these publications is academic journal and newsletters.

Contrast and the content are important aspects in a publication but the presence of colorful photographs or videos can also help attract readers to read the publication.

Uniformity is not a good idea to employ if you want your publication to gain interest from readers. A good example is to avoid using similar text font size all throughout the whole publication. The readers will be confused where to find a single line in your publication which can tell him the overview of the publication.

Putting more emphasis on a more important aspect of the publication can easily convey the readers the significance of the publication. This will also lead to a more balanced and less uniformed lay out of the publication.

A publication that is constructed with the right contrast stays the same no matter how you view it. In addition, a good publication can simply be viewed and understood by how it looks and how it is designed.

Different fonts and sizes of visuals such as photographs create attractiveness to a publication. More emphasized title headings and less emphasized sub title headings make it easier to read and understand.

Graphic design in a publication or advertisement should be able to attraction attention to the readers. This is possible if it is done with all its components arranged in agreement with each other. In addition, its contrast should be well proportioned.

Aside from publications, the author additionally frequently shares writing about the perfect optimizer and
rocket piano.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 20th, 2011 at 1:55 pm and is filed under Article marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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What The Implications Of Google Farmer Update Means For You

noreply@blogger.com (Business Online) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 08:49:00 +0700

by Jon Harwokey

Google’s February Farmer/Panda update has every internet marketing company taking a hard look at which article marketing strategies are still going to be affective. This new algorithm change was in direct response to the increased rankings of low quality content farms that provide very little if any benefit to site visitors. To gain positions within specific searches, these content farms would generate cheap, keyword heavy copies once they figured out what the most popular search terms were. Providing their search engine results pages with the highest quality and most relevent sites is the basis of Google’s business model.

These low quality “content farms” seem to have been on Google’s radar for some time now. And though they will not admit it, this change seems to be directed at these sites. On a consistent basis, Google will change the algorithm for its search engine. These changes are usually so small that few people other than internet marketing companies notice. With about 12% of the US search results affected, this recent update is different.

Sites with copied, “scraped” or low-quality content and those that have a low ad to content ratio are the ones that Google has penalized, and that is the best thing about this update. This tweak is designed to fix the problem of search results that have had an increased number of low sites, something Google has been criticized for in the past. Google spokesman Gabriel Stricker said in a recent blog, “Our goal is simple: to give users the most relevant answers to their queries as quickly as possible”. In the long run this should benefit internet marketing companies that focus on helping their clients build trust and authority by providing visitors with high quality, original content. Unfortunately, there is always collateral damage in situations like these. And no different is Google’s Farmer/Panda update.

Links will be worth less than before, and the article could have been de-indexed all together by posting useless content with hyperlinks that have been labeled as a Content Farm by Google, especially if you are an internet marketing company that, as part of the link building campaign, uses article marketing. Since these articles have probably seen a substantial drop in search ranking, you have most likely noticed the drop if traffic is your goal. So what should you do? Here are some suggestions.

1. Write better content. What gets read is high quality content. High quality content also gets linked to. Content that gets linked to and read is what Google sees as authoritative and relevent.

2. Promote your content better. If people don’t know your articles exist, they don’t get read. It’s your job to get your content noticed. This means implementing a good link building strategy, guest blogging and using a variety of social media outlets.

If the Google Farmer Update has taught internet marketing companies and search engine optimization specialists anything, it’s that SEO is ultimately about people. Don’t get me wrong, you have to take into consideration what Google wants to get good search rankings. People will like you if you write what they want to read with quality content, find quality inbound links and utilize the language used by them when searching. And Google will like you too.

The importance of an internet marketing company in today’s technological world is crucial to maintain a strong internet presence. Something that Jon Harwokey, a software developer, knows that can do wonders for a company is getting the best search engine optimization specialists.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 25th, 2011 at 3:33 pm and is filed under Search Engine Optimization - SEO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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What Type Of Questions Should Be On A Company Marketing Survey

noreply@blogger.com (Business Online) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 08:40:00 +0700

by Casey Trillbar

When a business provides the public with a company survey, the business is looking for an inside view to how the consumer reacts to the products and services the company provides. Gaining this insightful knowledge is the key to staying in business and to operating at a level of profit. These company surveys provide as an effective marketing research strategy, and the best results can be achieved by putting the correct questions on a company survey.

Depending upon what sort of services and products your business provides, you have a wide range of questions available to put on your company survey which can greatly benefit your business. Questions should focus on what the customer looks for in the type of business you have. What can be improved about customer service? What can be improved about the product? Is there a new product that they would like available to them?

Other questions that can be beneficial to include on company marketing research surveys offered to the public should ask the customer how often they purchase specific products, how much the commonly spend on a product on an average basis, and how often the product is used at home by the consumer. Receiving answers to these consumer survey questions will greatly assist a company in identifying who is purchasing their product and how often the product is purchased, as well as things about the product the consumer would like to see improved Learning what the consumer desires is the first step in meeting consumer needs and wants. It is impossible to achieve success as retail or service business without being able to meet the needs and expectations of the consumer. Small businesses can especially take advantage of the fact that many people in their local communities are willing to fill out surveys in exchange for discounts, free products, samples, and coupons. The small investment it costs to distribute these rewards is minute in comparison to the valuable information that can be gained to better the business and how it serves the public.

Many consumers are willing to fill out company marketing research surveys because they are aware that they are helping the companies to better serve them. Surveys that ask consumers questions about how they would like to see products improved and what new products they would like to have available to them greatly help businesses to exceed consumer expectations and this leads to gaining customer loyalty.

Once your company gains customer loyalty, these customers will pass information along about your business to their families and friends, and soon, your business will begin filling orders in more abundance than before. Simple questions that center around what the consumer desires, money that consumers are willing to spend for a product, and functions that the public would like to see added to certain products all provide businesses with an opportunity to excel and to reach their fullest potential and to please the customer, therefore, improving the bottom line.

101waystomakemoney.com is a website aimed at supplying articles, information and resources to people looking for ways to make money online including affiliate marketing, building websites, paid online surveys etc.
For more money making ideas visit: http://www.101waystomakemoney.com

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011 at 1:50 pm and is filed under Sales - Pricing - Customers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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What you must learn about Internet content writing

noreply@blogger.com (Business Online) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 09:32:00 +0700

by Jessica Montoya

Many readers on the web are always in a hurry. This is because by visiting the web, they are determined to get certain information. Subsequently, web content readers just skim or scan a text instead of reading word for word. If a web page does not provide the information they need, they just move on to another page.

As such, good web content writing requires one to understand why people choose to read or ignore some web content. Studies reveal that reading from a computer screen is more tiring than reading a printed text. Due to this, people are 25 percent slower when reading web content than when reading printed material. As such, web content should be shorter than print even when relaying similar information.

Hence, it can be important to know that web content readers are impatient and have no time for complex and obscure text when writing. They also have no time to scroll down the whole text in search of satisfying content. It can be also critical to understand that there are millions of websites which can provide content similar or almost the exact same to the 1 you’re offering. Thus, in case a reader does not get pleasure from
the content you’re offering, he/she will move on to another page.

Hence, web content writing demands that a writer develop content that captures the attention of the reader and retain it all through the entire content. This is very challenging as the writer has to come up with content that will grab the reader’s attention in just 10 seconds. Inside this time, the reader will need to be conscious of the firm you might be writing about and the items or services it gives.

This really should be performed in an objective manner so as to gain the reader’s credibility. Numerous readers are skeptical about what they read on the web. Working with meaningful headline and subheads is quite critical in capturing the reader’s interest and developing credibility. It can be also essential that a writer keep away from exaggerated or advertising and marketing jargons to create the web content simple for the reader to realize.

To make the reader interested in reading your content observe the following;

Use shorter words, sentences and paragraphs
Use simple words
Make your text concise
Single concept in every text
Use inverted pyramid style of writing starting with the most significant
Use bullets and highlighted text in your text

Making your text simple and attractive will make your readers more interested in going
through your entire text. Therefore, it is important that web content offer readers
flowing information bit by bit making it easy to follow and understand.

Want to find out more about Web Content Writing, then visit Jessica Montoya’s recommended site on how to choose the best Web Content Writing for your
needs.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 16th, 2011 at 1:21 pm and is filed under Article marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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Wholesale Dropshippers – Taking All the Hassle Out of Selling Online

noreply@blogger.com (Business Online) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 09:28:00 +0700

by Jake Sabey

The internet has revolutionized our lives, both our social lives and our business lives. From a business point of view it has brought home the reality of being able to start up your own online company working from home. As is often the case when a new technology like the internet comes along, you get a whole load of new enterprises starting up as people see the potential for new opportunities. Wholesale dropshippers, and dropshipping companies in general are a fine example.

One of the biggest problems an online business faces, (particularly one working from home), is storage space. If you are in the business of stocking product for resale, then you have to have a storage area, and for most people working from home, space is always at a premium. This is where wholesale dropshippers can be of huge benefit.

What is Drop Shipping?

Dropshipping is a concept that allows you the facility of working with dropshipping companies whose purpose is to dispatch the goods that your clients have ordered direct to the client from their factory or warehouse. The immediate benefit is of course obvious – that of dispensing with the need for costly or precious storage space. But there are other advantages too.

As well as getting rid of the need for storage space, using wholesale dropshippers also means that you don’t have to spend all of your hard earned time picking orders from stock, packaging them, and organizing dispatch. Also, if you were considering having to take on staff to fulfill these functions for you, you no longer have to. This can be a very real savings, as employing staff is not just an increase to your running costs, it is also fraught with other disadvantages such as employment law, health and safety, and staff training. Using dropshipping companies means that you no longer have these worries.

How do I Know Which Dropshipper to Use?

There are lots of choices when it comes to selecting which wholesale dropshippers you want to work with. Most of them will be very happy to let your join their network. But in fact that huge swath of choice can work against you. How? Well, with so many to choose from, (and not all of them are as good as they profess to be), how do you know which dropshipping companies to team up with?

As we said earlier, as soon as a new online demand becomes apparent, there are always bright business people ready and eager to step in and fill the void; and so it is with the complex task of choosing which wholesale dropshippers to work with. There are a few excellent companies that specialize in giving you the information that you need in order to make the right decisions. They not only give you the information of literally thousands of dropshipping companies, they do so much more!

Top dropshipping companies actually provide you with a list of products that you can sell. They also provide the integration to your website or other marketplaces like eBay and Facebook. All you have to do is to select the items you want to promote on your website or other marketplaces and away you go. You can even customize the catalogue for your own unique website.

By bringing the wholesale dropshippers service to your very own website, these companies have opened up the potential for you to make lots of money without ever seeing the goods.

Doba is the trusted source for all of your drop shipping needs. With over 1.5 million products available from hundreds of dropshippers, Doba really does take the struggle out of selling online. Their latest innovation is a Facebook application that allows you to sell your Doba products on your Facebook page.
When you’re ready for online success visit http://www.doba.com

This entry was posted on Friday, March 4th, 2011 at 2:31 pm and is filed under Sales on eBay - DropShipping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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WordPress Blogs: How to Stop Spam

noreply@blogger.com (Business Online) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 09:28:00 +0700

by Lambert Klein

It’s a fact, if you have a WordPress blog with open comments, then you will get spam postings.

Almost 90% of comments on blogs are spammers. Sad but true.

People often add comments to blogs just to get back links and visitors to their own blogs. They may not have any interest at all in your post. Some of these commenters will try to camouflage this while others blatantly comment away without a care in the world.

Of course there are readers who sincerely want to make valid comments on your blogs. They want to add their contributions or clarify a point or two. They want to add value to your blog.

The problem is how do you weed out the quality commenters from the… well… less quality ones. Well, you will be glad to discover that there are indeed ways to accomplish this without pulling your hair out or actually closing comments on your blog completely.

WordPress has some built-in tools that will help. They won’t solve the problem completely, but they will make it manageable.

To set up these tools, login to your WordPress blog. Go to Settings, then to your Discussion Panel, Moderation.

Close older post comments Settings > Discussion Panel > Other comment settings

Check the tick box “Automatically close comments on articles older than 60 days”.

Many spammers and bots will target these older posts. By blocking them, you will discourage the spammers and save yourself the time of digging though all of your older post.

Limit the links allowed in comments Control the number of links allowed in comments. I suggest setting this to one link to lessen spam.

Settings > Discussion Panel > Comment Moderation

Spam Words

When a comment contains any of these words in its content, name, URL, e-mail, or IP, it will be held in the moderation queue. One word or IP per line. It will match inside words, so “press” will match “WordPress”.

Settings > Discussion Panel > Comment Moderation

Comment Blacklist

When a comment contains any of these words in its content, name, URL, e-mail, or IP, it will be marked as spam. One word or IP per line. It will match inside words, so “press” will match “WordPress”.

You want to be careful not to put simple words in here also.

Settings > Discussion Panel > Comment Blacklist

You may want to moderate all comments to be on the safe side. If you do, then your visitors may wonder why their comments haven’t shown up and try again. You will have to decide how this works out for you by trial and error.

You can pre-approve old commenters to cut back on confusion and give them more control.

Using CAPTCHAS can prevent spam, but not totally. Keep in mind that some valid commenters will get annoyed and may be discouraged.

There are plugins that use math to put off spammers but these too are not without issues. You will have to decide if you want to go through this route or not.

Here are a few plugins that can help you manage spam on your WordPress blogs:

Akismet

This is the most popular plugin to fight spam. It is free for everyone except those that make over $500 per month with their blog. In that case, the fee is $5 each month.

It works by comparing comments submitted to your blog to all other spam ip addresses, email, text and links and can usually recognize spam.

You will need an application key to run this plugin. Visit WordPress.com to get the key. Register if you don’t already have an account.

Look in the Akismet panel to find false/negative where legitimate comments are flagged as spam

Why not to use Akismet?

It could repeatly block regular users Algorithy made need changing

You have to see how it works for you then decide for yourself.

The AVH First Defense Against Spam

This plugin gives you the ability to block spammers before any content is served by identifying them at the Project Honey Pot, a local blacklist or the local IP cache. Visitors trying to post a comment are checked at stopforumspam.com. Stop Forum Spam is not used to check before content is served due to the amount of requests, which overloads their infrastructure.

Block Spam By Math Reloaded

This plugin protects your WordPress 3.x login, comments, and new user/new blog signup process against spambots with a simple math question. This plugin adds an extra layer of protection against comment spam and spam blog creation bots. While nothing is 100% fool proof the concept has been proven many times in various forms in the past. Block Spam By Math Reloaded combines the features of WPMU Block Spam By Math and the original Block Spam By Math into one plugin that supports the WordPress 3.x and Buddypress 1.2.7 platforms.

User Spam Remover

User Spam Remover is a plugin for WordPress that automatically removes spam user registrations and other old, never-used user accounts. It also blocks the notification e-mail that WordPress normally sends to the administrator whenever a new user registers (annoying when that registration is spam!) and logs it instead.

The plugin adds a configuration panel so that all of these options can be turned on or off, and it logs and fully backs up all user accounts that it deletes, so that you can restore them if you need to.

Features:

Automatically deletes user registration spam and other orphaned, never-used accounts.

Very simple, enable and go! It does not interfere with the normal user registration process in any way. So, it doesn’t add captchas or activation or anything else — you’re free to use it alongside a plugin that does, if you like.

Blocks notification e-mail that WordPress normally sends to the administrator every time a new user registers (instead, logs this event).

Fully configurable, with grace period for new accounts and optional username whitelist.

Fully logs all actions and backs up all user accounts that it deletes so that you can seamlessly restore them if you ever need to.

For more information and installation instructions, please go to: http://lyncd.com/user-spam-remover/

Now you have the knowledge and tools needed to fight spam. When you allow visitors interact with your blog you build a community. This strengthens your blog appeal and success.

You have the power to attract people to your blog and succeed in your endeavors. So blog away without fear.

WordPress Power Guide will show you how to succeed with your blog. Get a jump start with this powerful information.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 2nd, 2011 at 2:18 pm and is filed under Internet marketing Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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WordPress Plugins Important To Your Online Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Business Online) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 09:16:00 +0700

By Tom Lee

WordPress certainly seems to be one of the website applications of choice for online marketers, today. That shouldn’t be a shock to anyone who really understands what’s going on. This content management platform is free to use, easy to install and even easier to manipulate. You don’t need to have a degree in computer science or programming to use it. You can find a plugin to do just about anything you would ever need. By using plugins, you can make your site do almost anything and look almost any way you choose. Plug-ins are easy to install, especially if you download them right from the WordPress Codex. Continue on to discover some WordPress plugins that will help your online marketing be easier and more effective.

And online marketers have discovered this and often use it for sales pages and affiliate blogs, etc. It’s even used as a straight squeeze page, or landing page, and other marketing applications. Customizing WordPress is stupid simple, and you could spend years just looking at themes there are so many out there. Beyond that, with the right plug-ins, you can make WordPress perform however you want it to perform. Ok – we want to talk about several highly useful WordPress plugins important to IM marketers.

No question about the value of social bookmarking, and you’ll find the plugin ShareThis to be great in that area. It’s simple and just installs a small link box at the bottom of each page, or end of each post. Readers can submit your site to networking/bookmarking sites of their choice using ShareThis. So, they can easily submit to very popular sites like Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, and even chatting apps like AOL IM. So of course you know the purpose of bookmarking, it’s to spread the word about your site. If your site calls for using a lot of images, then SEO Friendly Images is for you. Hopefully, you’re aware of the need to do SEO on your text content, etc. It will also help if you optimize all the images on your website, or blog. Well, SEO Friendly Images will make it easier to assign Alt tags and Titles to your images. This handy little plugin will sense if your image tags are not in place, then it will alert you and you can tell it what to use. So if you’re going to use images heavily, then this will help save you some time.

If there was a plugin that can benefit any internet marketer, it would be Google Analyticator. This is a WordPress plug-in that allows you to track your website visitors without having to install the tracking code into the code of your website. There’s a lot of consensus that claims the most accurate stats for your site are provided by Google Analytics. But please be sure to read these reports because it will help your business.
It’s critical that you use code for tracking, so it will work properly for you. But guess what – the Google Analyticator makes all that mess go away because there’s NO code to install!

Millions of bloggers and marketers have discovered how powerful and versatile this platform really is. Every day, week, and month there are more online marketers who are getting involved with WordPress in their businesses. It’s possible that many consider the WordPress platform as something for bloggers only. Not even a little bit of truth to that statement.

What ever your goals, you can figure out a way to get it done with this platform, for instance adding WordPress review plugins for product review blogs. How ever you care for it to perform for you, it’s possible when you see the vast array of available plugins.

When you are thinking about methods to find the top ranked WordPress review plugin, it helps to select the right vendor that offer review plugins. review plugins for WordPress is readily available when you know where to look.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 22nd, 2011 at 1:46 pm and is filed under Internet marketing Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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Writing Killer Headlines – Getting the Job Done

noreply@blogger.com (Business Online) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 09:07:00 +0700

28th June 2011

by Shane Lewis

It hasn’t taken long for Facebook to become the go-to internet location for Internet Marketers who want to be creative with their promotional strategies. There are so many ways that you can use Facebook but operating your own fan page (particularly if it is successful) is a great way to send lots of visitors back to your website. A key thing that you need to do is create posts that will keep your fans updated about what you are up to.

If you’d like to learn a few things that you can do to get better results from your Facebook posts, keep reading this article. Everybody knows that the first impression should be your best. When you put an update into Facebook it is important that you ensure your punctuation and grammar are perfect. This is because fans are always on the lookout for mistakes and will point them out to you. In addition to that you want to
make sure not to confuse your fans. Using proper punctuation helps you look professional. End your sentences with periods and use commas correctly.

These are very basic elements that can make a bad impression. Putting together a message for an entire group of people is a faux pas. Instead of speaking to many people, you can direct the post to just one person. Despite the fact you are speaking to all of your fanatics, you shouldn’t actually address them as a whole, but rather one on one. The reason for this is that just one person will be reading your post alone and not the entire group all together. This invokes a better response from your fan base because it seems like a personal approach. And people really like it when the posts are one to one.

As someone doing IM on Facebook, you need to remember lots of things when it comes to posting content. One of them is typing your post all in caps. This is a definite no-no because when you type in all caps it looks like you’re yelling and may even look rude. The main goal here is to pass on your message in a compelling way without stooping to all caps to make it happen. You can emphasize on a few words by making using the caps, but that’s about it.

You don’t need to do any more than that. Besides that, don’t you know that alienating your fans is never a good idea? All in all, from the above article we come to understand how easy and effective it can be to write good posts on Facebook and actually have people respond to them. Facebook does not require the knowledge of a rocket scientist. You just have to be aware of your target audience and give them what they need. It is just part of a social strategy that you can leverage to gain the trust of your fans, build up your business.

Curious how marketers create a targeted email list of people interested in writing, and use it for their business? Be smart and go read this article about Business Insurance Leads and get some tips from the pros.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 28th, 2011 at 1:51 pm and is filed under Article marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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Your Customers Will Love Effective Help Desk Software

noreply@blogger.com (Business Online) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 09:03:00 +0700

by Judy Hendershot

Many businesses who supply consumers with an online website have begun to see the importance of help desk software programs. Online websites allows consumers to view product information and receive service support right from the comfort of their own home.

Help desk software helps a customer receive fast responses to inquiries, and allows them to receive personal attention when seeking information about a product or service. The best thing about customer support software is it is affordable, easy to use, and ensures customer satisfaction, which in most cases leads to an increase in sales and company profit.

IT help desk software also helps reduce the amount of call centers a company must operate and manage, which lessens staff member counts, or allows staff members to focus their attention on other important business matters. Productivity of staff members is typically increased as they are able to focus on identifying and managing issues related to products and services offered by their employer.

IT helpdesk software also includes a feature which allows consumers to provide their feedback. Feedback is absolutely necessary in ensuring customers are staying satisfied, as well as seeing which parts of a business consumers like and dislike.

Effective and productive knowledge based software provides many benefits to not only consumers but staff personnel as well. To help better serve consumers a company can set up a FAQ feature section within their website, which in most cases answers consumer inquiries. Automated features are also available through help desk software, allowing a business to save both time and money by enabling consumers to search for answers for any questions they may have.

In some instances there are customer inquiries that cannot be answered through the FAQ section of a website. Whenever this occurs advanced technical support options can be clicked on by the consumer, allowing them to talk live with a customer support representative.

Also if a person does not feel comfortable chatting with a representative online, they can submit an inquiry to the appropriate department and receive a response, most times in less than 24 hours. These inquiries are easy to track, record, and manage through help desk software.

Web based IT help desk software is a valuable tool that all businesses should implement. Not only does this kind of software keep customers happy, it increases their desire to continue business and allows them to provide feedback that other potential customers are able to view. Positive feedback often leads to the recruitment of new customers.

When IT help desk software is not used many managing programs within an organization become overwhelmed with emails and support calls. All businesses understand their most valuable resource is their customers, which makes it all the more important to keep them happy. Without customers a business cannot succeed.

Wasp customer support software provides a user-friendly, robust method to manage help desks for all your organization’s departments and groups whether they are internal or external. The built-in knowledge base allows you to answer commonly-asked questions and provides web-based IT help desk features.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 12th, 2011 at 3:25 pm and is filed under Sales - Pricing - Customers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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7 Tips For Selling On Amazon

noreply@blogger.com (Business Online) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 14:13:00 +0700

By Amanda O’Brien

Selling stock on Amazon is a great way to earn some extra cash, or even to make a full-time living. If you want to maximise your online potential then these 7 tips for Amazon selling will help.

Choose the right seller account

Before starting to sell on Amazon it is important to register for the right seller account. You will have two choices:

- Standard account. All you need to do to start selling is create a basic Amazon account, but you will be charged a fee for every item that you sell, on top of the percentage of the sale that Amazon keeps.

- Pro-merchant account. The extra fee per sale is gone, but for this account you will need to pay a monthly fee. This does allow you to create new listing if the goods you want to sell don’t already exist on Amazon though.

Think about the account that would be the best for your situation, and remember that it is easy to switch between them.

Never stop researching

You will need to research Amazon as you start to decide what to sell online. Using tools such as the Bestsellers list in the categories relating to your niche market will help you to know where to start. Even when you have found your first product to sell though, you should continue to dedicate some time every week to researching new items, and ensuring that your existing goods are still selling successfully.

Find the right category

Don’t try listing any old item in any old category; it will be removed! Amazon is an easy website to navigate, with a very well ordered catalogue. Spend some time going through it and make sure you know exactly where your stock should fit. You don’t need to create new product listing pages if the item you are planning to sell already exists on the website.

Be honest

There is absolutely no point in trying to pretend than an item is new if it’s obviously tatty and falling apart! Be honest in your descriptions of the condition of the items you have for sale and your buyers will respect it. Continue to twist the truth and you may find your products removed from the Amazon website.

Be competitive

Pricing your products is a difficult skill to master. You don’t necessarily need to be the cheapest seller to make money; with accurate product descriptions and great customer service people are often prepared to spend a little more. Despite that you do need to make sure the price that you insert into your listing is competitive. Do some research on other websites and see exactly how much your goods sell for on a range of different sites; this will improve your perspective when it comes to filling in that all important figure.

Value customer service

Feedback might not be as important on Amazon as it is on eBay but that is no reason not to make customer service your highest priority. Make sure you always respond to questions and queries quickly, and dispatch your items as fast as possible. These little touches will make a customer feel appreciated, and therefore more likely to buy from you again should they require a similar product in the future.

Understand Amazon

Amazon is your friend. The more money you make the more money it makes on fees and, as such, the help system is very good. Don’t be afraid to ask questions of the Amazon helpdesk and the seller community; they could help to set your mind at ease about an issue, or simply offer advice to get your online selling business off the ground in no time at all.

Amanda O’Brien is a successful eBay Powerseller and author of best-selling home study courses. Want to learn more about starting a business online or simply want to improve your eBay sales? Claim your free eBay Selling Secrets Report at Powerseller Pod.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 4th, 2011 at 12:05 pm and is filed under Sales on Amazon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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6 Marketing Mistakes Real Estate Agents NEED To Avoid!

noreply@blogger.com (Business Online) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 14:07:00 +0700

by Helen March

Avoiding these real estate marketing mistakes will not only help you know where your business is going, it’ll also enable you to attract the right set of core prospects and customers, so helping to ensure long term supportable expansion of your real-estate business.

There are plenty of Realtor marketing ideas but, when you’ve gone to the trouble and expense of a marketing campaign, you’d hate to find out that you have made a mistake that’s costing you in terms of leads, not to mention advertising dollars. So what are some examples of the things you need to avoid?

Marketing Mistake 1

One main mistake is to do the same as every other real estate agent. You glance at the competition and think they appear to be successful, so you copy them. Real blunder! There are numerous Realtors out there. They all want to list and sell property. If all but one look and sound the same …and that one is you, guess who the shopper is going to notice? So dare to be different. Stick out from the crowd. Then give the customer value by addressing their issues, not just making an attempt to sell yourself.

Marketing Mistakes 2

Another marketing mistake that you will need to avoid is telling the customer how clever you are at selling property. Certainly, you have to be clever, but you do not need to inform them. “Show, don’t tell” is a good motto for Realtors. Showing the buyer how you handle a difficulty, letting them see you in action is considerably better than umpteen pamphlets declaring how smart, clever and successful you are.

Marketing Mistakes 3

Another mistake that Realtors can make is to be dependent on one or two sorts of advertising at the cost of others. Use all of the technology that you can get. The majority of people who need to purchase a home now, search on the Web first. They do not read the papers first. Sure, it will take time and effort to get a website active, (and to maintain it), but many tasks can be automated these days. Why leave a gold card on the table?

Marketing Mistakes 4

Only half-using technology. If you want coaching, go get it. The disappointment of trying to do something you aren’t familiar with how to do, may give you an ulcer. Besides, if you train to do it properly, you’ll save cash and time and your broker will adore you for it. He might even pay for the coaching.

Marketing Mistakes 5

You have designed a great real estate postcard or poster, advertising everything in just the correct way, and it’s even got your telephone number on it. But no mention of your web site address. Research shows that people remember names far more easily than numbers. Names mean something to them. If you have got a web-site, you need to certainly have the address on all your advertising.

Marketing Mistakes 6

Another mistake is to be inconsistent. You don’t follow up a lead as you had a lot of resistance that day and this will be the same. Know that feeling? Keep positive! On the law of averages, it should turn out to be a gold nugget.

Working with right real estate marketing resources can certainly mean the most significant difference between a really expensive, quickly tossed together promoting plan and true laser centered strategies. For those having an interest in bettering the perceived value of their real-estate services, make sure to visit and go through many of our picks and ideas.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 13th, 2011 at 2:15 pm and is filed under Real estate marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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6 Essential Social Media Marketing Tips

noreply@blogger.com (Business Online) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 14:07:00 +0700

By Brent McCoy

When you go about marketing your online business through social media, there are a few basic guidelines you should aim to follow. These can be applied to forming connections in social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter, as well as in social bookmarking services like Digg, StumbleUpon or Reddit – although, perhaps to a slightly lesser extent.

Being a success through social media is all about leveraging connections, and giving in to the fact that no website is an island. If you are completely self-absorbed and only socialize with others for your own benefit, then you will have a hard time building a loyal following. These next few tips will help get you moving in the right direction, so you can grow your network much faster by using social media.

1. Get To Know The Culture: Before you get too trigger-happy and start sending friend requests or following people all over the place, get comfortable with how people interact in your chosen network. Find out what people respond to and get a sense of the language and etiquette people use when communicating to each other. Generally people will sense a spammer from a mile away, and most often it’s because spammers don’t interact in the same way as normal people do (or most times, not at all). If you want to avoid looking like a spammer, then learn to follow this communication etiquette.

2. Don’t Grow Your Network Too Fast: Another thing that could make you look rather bad is attempting to grow your friend or follower count too quickly. Having 10 followers when you follow about 500 will make people think twice about what you’re on the site for, and they probably won’t want to know you. If you grow your friend count at a more natural rate then it’ll look a lot better, and you’ll get many more people interested in connecting with you in the long run. Also, another key to being successful with social media is having a good quality following – not just quantity. Having 50 friends that you’ve taken the time to become closely acquainted with (and turn into loyal followers) is better than a few hundred that only serve to clog up your list.

3. Show Interest In Others: One way you can grow your network really quickly is to simply show that you’re interested in what others are doing – not by sending out a stock email, but by reading a person’s profile, visiting their website and sending them a personalized message to show that you care about their ambitions. This will get the majority of people you send requests to accepting them, or people you follow to follow you back – hence, avoiding too much of a hit-and-miss approach for growing your network.

4. Respond To Comments: If someone writes on your wall, or mentions you in a tweet, take the time to write back to them. This reassures people that there is an actual person sitting behind your account, and helps grow the trust that followers have in you. Obviously it can become a little difficult to keep up with everyone once your network gets really big, but in the initial stages you should try to do what you can to make each of your followers feel extra special.

5. Share Content From Other People: Re-tweeting or sharing content that other people post can do a lot to increase the trust and interest that your followers have in you. Firstly, it indicates you are on the site to participate as a normal person would, and are not just there to send people to your own web links. Any relevant content you share adds value to those you share it with, and most of the time they will love you for it as much as if you had created the content yourself. Secondly, it hints to your followers that if any of them created a quality piece of content, then there’s a chance that you might take the time to share that as well.

6. Learn From Others: If you are still unsure about what you should be doing to succeed in social media, then one of the best things you can do is take a look at those who are already successful to see how they do it. Visit the people in your niche who have loads of friends or followers and watch how they interact with their network. Get to know the various techniques they use and you’re likely to find a way you can use them to grow your own following as well.

Millionaire Studio is an online entrepreneurship blog that features articles on online business as well as advice on the best email marketing companies.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 16th, 2011 at 2:12 pm and is filed under Social marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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5 Ways To Maximize The Value Of Your Joint Venture

noreply@blogger.com (Business Online) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 13:55:00 +0700

by Christian Fea

Joint ventures are a popular way to build small businesses today, but unfortunately, some companies enter into a joint venture that doesn’t produce the way they had hoped. All successful joint ventures begin with a plan, and by doing your homework and taking the time to set up it up properly, you can greatly increase your odds for success. This article will provide five ways to maximize the value of your new JV.

Choose Wisely

The first step in ensuring its success is to choose your partner wisely. The company should be in a related industry with a similar target market, without directly competing with your goods and services. It should also bring unique assets to the table that will compliment your company’s assets perfectly.

Write a Contract

Once you have a partner and a general agreement, get it in writing. A formal contract protects the interests of all parties involved in the joint venture and ensures that everyone does their part to make sure the agreement is a success. There are plenty of online templates for joint venture contracts, but you can also consult with an attorney that specializes in such agreements.

Use Technology

There’s plenty of technology at your disposal to make the most of your marketing strategy, including eZine articles, autoresponders and backlinks. Learn everything you can about these online tools so you can market your joint venture as effectively as possible. Compare notes with your JV partner to determine his strengths in the advertising department and then lend your own expertise to the process to maximize your marketing strategy. If necessary, hire a consultant in Internet marketing to get advice and information about the best marketing options for your needs. The more you advertise your joint venture, the more successful it will be.

Stay in Touch

Like any professional relationship, your joint venture will need to be properly nurtured if it is to grow. Plan to meet with your JV partner on a regular basis, whether it’s monthly or quarterly. This gives you the opportunity to assess the current state of your partnership and brainstorm ideas to improve the process. It holds both partners accountable, so you can rest assured that each business fulfills its obligations to the agreement. This also gives you the chance to dissolve the relationship in a timely fashion if you determine it isn’t working after all.

Prepare Your Staff

A joint venture is designed to increase your customer base, which could mean busier days for your customer service representatives. Make sure your staff is ready to handle the extra load with proper scheduling and staffing. Offer additional training, if necessary, to empower employees to handle customer questions and complaints as efficiently as possible.

Joint ventures can be an effective way to boost your profits, if you use them wisely. By choosing the right partner, making the most of the marketing tools at your disposal and preparing your staff for increased customer load, your joint venture will be much more likely to meet your expectations for success.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability. To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 18th, 2011 at 3:18 pm and is filed under Joint ventures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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5 Questions To Discuss Before Setting Up A Joint Venture

noreply@blogger.com (Business Online) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 13:44:00 +0700

by Christian Fea

A joint venture is an excellent way to escalate profits with little upfront cost as long as the joint venture agreement you create is a beneficial one. Unfortunately, too many joint ventures begin without adequate thought or preparation, leaving them floundering dismally in no time at all.

To help you and your JV partner set yourselves up for success, we have five questions to discuss before anyone signs on the bottom line.

Who is Your Partner?

You may think you know a potential partner well enough, but until you have performed a thorough background check, you should avoid any sort of formal agreement. Find out if your potential partner has any type of criminal record, individually or in his business dealings.

While most business owners are on the up-and-up, those who are not just might be looking for a joint venture to legitimize their own company.

Who is Your Customer Base?

Joint ventures are most successful between businesses that offer related products that are not in direct competition with one another. This ensures you are catering to a similar target audience and that the advertising dollars you put into the joint venture benefit both partners equally.

Take the time to fully analyze the customer base of both businesses. You want to know that the target audience is similar enough for the venture to be successful.

What are Your Goals?

Joint ventures may come with different goals each partner is hoping to achieve. This could make it difficult to define success in the relationship. Ask a potential partner what he wants most out of his business, and what he plans to do to achieve it. Make a list of what each of you hope to get out of the joint venture. Look for similar goals up front before launching into an agreement.

What are the Rules?

Nobody likes to talk about rules; they squash creativity and limit the scope of the endeavor. However, rules are absolutely necessary in a joint venture to ensure the interests of both parties are adequately protected.

The rules to which you agree for your joint venture should be clearly spelled out in a written contract. If you aren’t sure what the rules should be, talk to an attorney that specializes in the specifics of a JV.

How long wills it Last?

Some joint ventures are open-ended, while others have a set date to disband. Even if you don’t want to put an end date, it’s a good idea to set a date when you will review your partnership and determine whether it should continue at that time. By creating a definite time frame, you avoid a problem with one partner wanting out while the other is still benefiting from the agreement.

Joint ventures are highly successful methods for growing businesses, as long as they are used with the best interests of both companies in mind. By taking time to establish the parameters of your agreement up front, there will be fewer misunderstandings and a greater likelihood of success.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 5th, 2011 at 1:12 pm and is filed under Joint ventures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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4 Ways Joint Ventures Power Up Your Marketing Campaigns

noreply@blogger.com (Business Online) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 13:31:00 +0700

By Christian Fea

If you are looking for a way to amp up your marketing efforts, a joint venture may be just what you are looking for. These strategic alliances provide an additional boost from another company that brings its own wealth of resources, talent and customer lists to the table.

Joint ventures offer exponential returns on your advertising dollar because you are multiplying all of your efforts times two, or the number of JV partners you end up with in your entity.

We have four ways joint ventures can add the oomph you need to your marketing campaigns.

Two-for-One

Let’s say you are planning to use backlinks as part of your online marketing strategy. These carefully placed links provide prospective customers with a direct connection to your company’s website, as well as SEO benefits. Of course, backlinks are not free; you usually need to provide cash and possibly text to post your backlink on other websites.

When you have a JV partner, you can double your backlink potential by utilizing all of your partner’s resources, as well as your own. In addition to backlinking on each other’s websites, you can work together to produce content for e-zines and other resources to drive as much traffic to your online business as possible.

Endorsements

Larger companies will often agree to endorse smaller businesses for a portion of their profits. While this might seem costly up front, the value of an endorsement can rarely be beat. When you get another company to recommend your business, you immediately establish customer confidence that is challenging to produce with online businesses today. Every customer that is satisfied with the products and service they receive from your JV partner will be much more likely to try out your business as well.

The Art of Sharing

Even small businesses have customer lists early in their operation. Just imagine what can happen if you exchange your customer list with another business that offers a related product or service to your company. You immediately explode your customer list with a long line of potential customers who are already interested in the goods or services you are selling. Joint ventures are target marketing at its finest, costing little up front, but providing a wealth of returns in the long run.

Pooling Resources

There are many great methods for online marketing today, but all of them are guaranteed to take a major bite out of your relatively small advertising budget. When you partner up with another business, you combine your advertising dollars and your talent to get maximum impact with a minimal upfront investment. You instantly gain the ability to diversify your marketing strategy, with enough money and resources to enable a variety of advertising techniques.

Joint ventures are the perfect solution for small businesses to maximize their marketing potential without much time or cost up front. For those that have little advertising money to grow their customer base when business is just getting started, joint ventures offer the opportunity to make the most of the small advertising budget available. By pooling talent, resources and customers with another company, you instantly power up your marketing returns for better business and a healthier bottom line.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 17th, 2011 at 4:13 pm and is filed under Joint ventures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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4 Steps To Protecting Yourself In A Joint Venture

noreply@blogger.com (Business Online) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 13:25:00 +0700

by Christian Fea

A joint venture is a strategic partnership between two businesses, designed to broaden the target market base and subsequent profits of both companies. While joint ventures are an effective marketing tool widely used today, all parties involved must understand the process of creating a JV.

To ensure your joint venture efforts meet the expected benefits, take the proper steps to protect your individual interests within the partnership.

Look at the Big Picture

Before entering into any type of joint venture relationship with another company, consider how the agreement will specifically impact your business. Since the ultimate goal is to increase your customer base and profits, determine whether an agreement with the specific company you are considering will actually meet this purpose.

The best joint venture partners are those who cater to a similar market base without directly competing with your products or services. The partner company should also have similar goals and plans to ensure you’re working toward a common end throughout the process.

Get it in Writing

Secure joint ventures put the details of the agreement into a legally binding contract that protects the interests of everyone involved. A legal contract will include the purpose of the joint venture, specific instructions on how profits and resources will be divided, and a set term for the partnership to exist.

Both companies should sign and date the agreement to make it legal and binding. You can create your contract through templates found online or through an attorney’s office that specializes in this type of business relationship.

Use Every Tool

Because joint ventures primarily revolve around marketing techniques, educate yourself about the various marketing tools at your disposal prior to creating your JV partnership. When you are knowledgeable about the different types of online marketing tools at your disposal, you’re in a better position to negotiate for the resources that will advertise your business most effectively. Once your joint venture is official, be prepared to use those marketing tools to your fullest advantage to ensure your JV is a profitable success.

Re-evaluate as Necessary

Once your partnership is established, evaluate the status of the agreement regularly to ensure it is still working in your favor.

If the joint venture begins to lose its luster, communicate with your partners in a timely fashion to rectify the contributing problems or dissolve the partnership completely if necessary. If you did your homework up front, your JV contract should also contain information about steps to take if the joint venture ceases to be profitable at a certain point. Nothing can drag your business down faster than a joint venture that no longer works to your advantage.

Like any business dealing, it’s important to protect the interests of your company when heading into a joint venture agreement. By following the steps listed above, you can rest assured your joint venture will work for your company to its fullest advantage.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.
To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011 at 4:19 pm and is filed under Joint ventures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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4 Critical Reasons Why You Should Review Your Privacy Policy Right Now

noreply@blogger.com (Business Online) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 13:12:00 +0700

by Chip Cooper

A periodic review of your privacy policy is always a good idea, given the significant increase in privacy regulations beginning in 2009. However, at least four developments in the last six months provide an impetus for an immediate privacy policy review. Do it now to avoid significant legal exposure.

Reason No. 1 – Preliminary FTC Staff Report”

Last December, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued its Proposed Framework For Businesses And Policymakers. In it, the FTC stated in no uncertain terms that the current privacy policy model, known as “notice and choice”, is not working as intended.

These statements taken from the Staff Report make it clear that big changes are ahead:

* “Specifically, the notice-and-choice model, as implemented, has led to long, incomprehensible privacy policies that consumers typically do not read, let alone understand.”

* “In recent years, the limitations of the notice-and-choice model have become increasingly apparent. Privacy policies have become longer, more complex, and, in too many instances, incomprehensible to consumers. ”

* “Too often, privacy policies appear designed more to limit companies’ liability than to inform consumers about how their information will be used.”

After stating these concerns about the effectiveness of privacy policies, the FTC expressed clearly what it expects in terms of privacy policies going forward.

* “For instance, although privacy policies may not be a good tool for communicating with most consumers, they still could play an important role in promoting transparency, accountability, and competition among companies on privacy issues – but only if the policies are clear, concise, and easy-to-read.”

* Thus, companies should improve their privacy policies so that interested parties can compare data practices and choices across companies.”

So, there you have it. Your privacy policy review should begin with a view to how you might restate it in “clear, concise, and easy-to-read” plain English.

Reasons 2 and 3 – FTC’s Google Settlement

On March 20, 2011, the FTC announced its proposed settlement regarding Google’s BUZZ online service. This settlement provides two additional reasons for an immediate privacy policy review.

First, the FTC announced that there is a new type of sensitive information that’s risen to the level of personal information in term of privacy protection. It’s called “covered information”, and it includes location data, screen names, and lists of contacts.

To be legally compliant, privacy policies now must disclose how “covered information” is collected, used, shared and disclosed.

Second, in its proposed settlement with Google, the FTC hammered home a theme that’s not new, but one that bears repeating because it’s a big area of concern by the FTC. This is the big gotcha to be avoided at all costs: Collection, use, or sharing of personal-covered information in a manner that is materially different from, or contrary to, the stated purpose in your privacy policy.

This is an easy trap to fall into inadvertently, and Google did just that by collecting personal information for use with its Gmail service, then transferring the Gmail customers to its new BUZZ service without permission.

So, when you review your privacy policy, see if you have made a material change regarding your stated purpose for collection, use, or sharing of personal-covered information. If you’ve made a material change and you haven’t received permission from the affected persons, get permission immediately.

Reason 4 – Google’s AdWords Announcement

On May 17, 2011, Google announced a new policy for participation in its AdWords program. Non-qualifiers will be banned from AdWords.

These are Google’s new requirements for privacy policies to be eligible for participation in AdWords:

* Clear, accessible disclosure how information is used,

* Option to discontinue direct communications (email, phone), and

* Use of Secure Socket Layer (SSL) to protect transmission of financial and personal information.Note that these new requirements are consistent with current FTC policies expressed in its Proposed Framework.

Conclusion

Given these aggressive new privacy initiatives by the FTC, an immediate and thorough review of your privacy policy is a must.

Failure to keep up with these and other developments could result in substantial liability.

Leading SaaS attorney Chip Cooper has automated the process of drafting Website Legal Compliance documents with his MyLegalFirewall website legal documents generator. Use his free online tool – Website Contracts Determinator – to see which documents your site needs. Discover how you can draft near-custom website legal documents, even if you have no knowledge whatsoever at DigiContracts.com

This entry was posted on Monday, June 20th, 2011 at 12:11 pm and is filed under Laws US laws - Taxes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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3 Must Read Reasons Why You Should Sell on eBay AND Amazon

noreply@blogger.com (Business Online) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 13:00:00 +0700

By Amanda O’Brien

When you take your first steps into the world of online selling it makes sense to target one website. You might choose to sell a few bits and pieces from around your house on eBay, or maybe to shift some books that you picked up in the local charity shop on Amazon. Using one website is a nice gentle introduction to the art of making a living in this way, but soon you should start to consider branching out to sell on both eBay AND Amazon. These two enormous websites are both excellent earning opportunities, and when you combine them both into your selling strategy you will be well placed to maximise your profit.

But why? Why should you bother to sell on eBay and Amazon?

It allows you to sell the right product on the right website

Some collectible items will never sell better than in the setting of an eBay auction. As your potential buyers become desperate to get their hands on what they are offering, they will offer more and more money as the clock ticks down to nothing. The vast majority of goods bought online however, are bought when they are needed. In these instances people don’t always want to sit around to see if they can scoop a great deal by waiting for the end of an auction; they simply want to pay a set price, knowing that they will receive their ordered item quickly and reliably.

It allows you to target several different customer bases

There are always exceptions to every rule, but in general the customer base that more frequently purchases from Amazon is also more likely to spend more on the same item than those customers that only ever shop from eBay. eBay shoppers tend to have something of a bargain mentality. This can be very useful when you have some goods to sell on for a low price, particularly if you only have a limited quantity to ensure you can spur the viewers of your auctions on to action. For products that you have a lot of however, you may want to consider the more reliable and loyal Amazon fan base.

It allows you to support yourself through the hard times

As in every business, an online selling career will go through ups and downs. For example, you may find that a product that was selling incredibly successfully has suddenly stopped enticing your customers because of a newer model, or perhaps because of a rival that has undercut you in price. These moments in your selling career can be extremely disheartening, which is why it is so important to spread your earning potential over a range of different products, but also over different websites. That way when your eBay auctions aren’t as successful, you still have your Amazon income to tide you over, and vice versa.

It might seem easier to focus your efforts on either eBay or Amazon, but by considering both of these straightforward websites you could soon see your profits start to soar.

Amanda O’Brien is a successful online seller, ebay and Amazon expert and skilled product sourcer. She is also the author of many best-selling home study courses. Want to learn more about starting an eBay or other online business or simply want to learn the secrets and improve your sales? Claim your free eBay Selling Secrets Report and get free information here: Powerseller Pod.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 17th, 2011 at 12:36 pm and is filed under Sales on Amazon, Sales on eBay - DropShipping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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3 Joint Venture Errors to Not Make

noreply@blogger.com (Business Online) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 13:00:00 +0700

by Jason Drohn

Every top Internet marketer will swear by joint ventures because this is the method that can help you get to the top of the ladder. Even though you’ll find a number of ways to promote your products on the web and actually make sales, joint venture marketing is still the fastest way to get the ball rolling. The only catch about JVs is you have to bring something good to the table, and that has a way of ruling out a lot of people. Today we will cover three common joint ventures mistakes so you will know what to avoid.

Avoid getting so excited that you mail the entire list before doing certain things, first. You must always do a test mailing to see if everything’s okay.

It is all about improving your conversion rates through testing and tweaking your copy. You want to save as much of the main list for the final mailing as you can so your profits will be higher. All highly successful businesses on the web will tell you that testing is critical.

You will find your conversions are higher when your customers have multiple ways to pay. Said another way, during a JV deal you want to put as many different ordering options out there as you can.

Most people by now are not necessarily expecting to see 800 order numbers, however if you have one then that will only help. You most certainly can cause orders to fall by not having strong and trusted payment choices in place. Do not be afraid to switch to a more robust and better provider if you feel you must do that. You may not have to get your own merchant account, and seriously it is usually not necessary considering all the other options on the net.

Always remember to check your promotion emails with a really good spam checker. This is because, you obviously don’t want your email to get trapped in the spam filters. This is why it’s necessary to take responsibility of the situation upfront. You have to be ready and be determined to get past all spam filters and get your emails delivered to your recipients. Joint ventures do not grow on trees and not being able to take advantage of one because of silly mistakes like these is a bad thing. You need to take every precaution that you can to get your endorsement email delivered. All in all, joint venture marketing can be seen as one of those promotional techniques that can yield big results in a short amount of time. There are a lot of internet marketers that still need tradition ways to get traffic such as article marketing and video marketing, which are slow for results. Although you may not have worked with joint ventures in the past, it still will not be a problem. The ground is wide open to experiment and learn, so take your first step and you’ll be able taste success soon. Some of your early efforts may fail, and you may find it difficult to really grasp the whole concept, but eventually, it will work out in your favor.

For more information on creating profitable joint ventures, check out this Joint Ventures Exposed Review. In it, you’ll find good information about how to get affiliate partners, joint venture partners and know how to structure deals so that they’re profitable for all parties.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 8th, 2011 at 2:49 pm and is filed under Joint ventures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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Content for Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Business Online) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 16:31:00 +0700

After seeing the value of using Twitter, what about the content? Even if it is only 140 characters per tweet, coming up with content every day can become a chore. Here are some solutions for keeping tabs on news worthy items, compiling interesting ideas, and organizing the content for effective timing.

Keeping tabs on news worthy items to feed your followers or respond to can be time consuming. Here are three tools that make it easier to find news worthy content:

Google Alerts: Google Alerts makes it easy to get updates on particular keyword phrases. If you are new to Google Alerts the easiest way to start is by brainstorming search phrases, checking the results until you are happy, and adding the alert.

Twitter Search

Google Blog Search: Use some of your best search term ideas to perform a Google blog search. Look through until you find 3-5 blogs that have content relevant to your niche and useful to your followers. Subscribe to these via email or RSS feed. You can tweet the post in full, ask a question, or make a point referencing the post.

Twitter Search: Twittersearch used to be the go to resource for searching Twitter but has since been purchased and become a part of Twitter. It is still a very effective search tool for finding content and items to retweet.

Having interesting fun facts and figures makes it easier to be re-tweeted by your followers. Fifteen to twenty minutes of looking online should yield a good list of facts. Infographics are rising in popularity for every type of online niche and are fun to share. Try to mix up posts that require the reader to follow through to read a blog article with those that provide complete facts with a quick reference. Here are examples of each:

Unlocking the Mysteries of the Title Tag http://j.mp/nVXUegNearly 2/3 of US Internet users regularly use a social network (EMarketer Feb 2011)

The real key to using Twitter effectively is to set a time for compiling material around your schedule. It is easier to sit down in larger chunks of time to compile your material. You are also able to organize your ideas more effectively. Using a tool like Buffer allows you to then coordinate when the material will be tweeted. Each online niche can have slightly different times for effective tweeting however you can start with some general times that have proven effective according to Hubspot.

9-10 am in the morning12-1 pm over lunch4-5 pm in the evening

Initially have your tweets sent at these times, at least once or twice a day. After awhile you may want to update these times based on how your audience responds.

Twitter is an effective medium to use. The tools and tips above will help make Twitter manageable. If you enjoyed and found this post useful, please tweet about it!

Tags: Google Alerts, Google Blog Search, Social Media, Twitter, Twitter Search

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 12th, 2011 at 9:00 am and is filed under Internet Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Don’t Miss Agent Reboot Boston – Oct 26th

noreply@blogger.com (Business Online) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 16:19:00 +0700

85% of the agents we work with tell us that they need to get better at social media and technology tools.

I am super excited to be bringing Agent Reboot back to Boston this year. We have been traveling around the country, bringing Agent Reboot to 24 cities this year and the feedback has been phenomenal.

Agent Reboot Boston
October 26, 2011
Hynes Convention Center

Agents are thrilled that Inman News comes to their backyard, and teaches them practical tech and social media skills that will generate more leads and more business right away.

If you are thinking about coming to Agent Reboot, but haven’t signed up yet, I highly encourage you to do it now!

I can guarantee you won’ t regret it.

Here is a video that Chris Smith (our program emcee and Chief Evangelist at Inman News) and I did about the top five reasons to come to Reboot Boston:

This program in Boston is special to just Boston only!

Check out the killer program!

See you soon!

——-

Katie Lance is the contributing editor of InmanNext, and the Social Media Director for Inman News. She is passionate about all things social, from the direct impact it can have on an agent’s success, to the powerful community social has enabled in real estate.

Facebook: http://facebook.com/InmanNext
Twitter: @InmanNext

Tags: Agent Reboot, Boston, Inman News, Social Media

This entry was posted on Monday, October 17th, 2011 at 11:00 am and is filed under Conferences, Real estate, USM News, Web 2.0. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Essentials to Getting Fans on Facebook

noreply@blogger.com (Business Online) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 16:15:00 +0700

Having your business on Facebook with a fan page is essential to staying competitive. Once you have a Facebook fan page, it is time to start looking at best practices to an effective page. One of the first questions to ask is, when visitors come to your fan page, are they seeing a consistent message that will get them to become a fan? When a first time visitor’s first impression is from a random wall posting, you have less influence over how they will perceive your business. You can change all of that by providing a consistent message via a custom landing page.

A customized landing page provides a consistent, branded message to the first-time visitor. When someone lands on your fanpage, instead of seeing a random posting on your wall, they get content and images that are specifically designed to convert them into liking your page. Once a visitor likes your page, your wall then becomes the default view.

If all you want is one custom landing element on your Facebook page, there are many free Facebook apps available. Some of these options require you to use code but there are others that have pre-formatted versions with default background images. Here are some to consider:

WildfireWoodboxPagemotoGoso Click for Larger Image

Some of the Facebook apps above do have what is called a “Fan Gate” option (having the element show only to first-time visitors), there is an easy setting in Facebook to make this work. While logged into the page go to “edit info” and then “manage permissions” and choose “default landing tab” and your newly created page (most name this Welcome), then save changes. Click image on right for larger view.

Although the ultimate goal of the content is to get visitors to like your page, it doesn’t hurt to have them click through directly to your website. Keep this in mind when writing your content and provide keyword rich links within the text back to your site where it makes sense. Take a look at other Facebook fan pages for inspiration in combining content and images. Simple images, clear content, and requests or calls to action offer the best option when it comes to converting visitors to like your page.

Customizing your Facebook page with a landing tab is worth the investment in time. It provides consistent messaging and overall greater likes to your business page. Give it a try! If you like this post, please share it via Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, or other social media. Thanks!

Tags: Facebook, Facebook Apps, Facebook Fan Page, Goso, Pagemoto, Wildfire, Woodbox

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 5th, 2011 at 8:54 am and is filed under Internet Marketing, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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How Often Should I Blog?

noreply@blogger.com (Business Online) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 16:11:00 +0700

“How often should I write a blog post for my website?” has been The Question to ask since blogging began. The answers to this question vary and should because it really depends upon your goals and the niche or audience that reads your blog. Most that ask the question just want a quick answer and there isn’t one. Ultimately the question is asked because the person wants their blog to be successful. There is a certain logic in thinking that if I produce X amount of good quality blog posts then my blog will be successful. There are many factors that make for a successful blog and, combined with the updates to search engines and online social landscape, the success of a blog becomes somewhat of a moving target. Although there is a core structure to effective blogging, some of what worked in 2006 for bloggers isn’t going to necessarily work today. The good news is there are guidelines below that will help get you on the right track with how often you blog. By using the points below as a guide and then adjusting to your specific audience, you can determine an effective answer for how often to blog.

The easiest answer to this question is if you can blog at least once a day, you should. Most don’t have that much time to dedicate to blogging and yet do want some success. To measure success, at a very basic level, a blog is effective when it brings in the right traffic. (A quick side-note: you shouldn’t expect that just because you write enough blog posts you will automatically get traffic, it will still need to be optimized and promoted). There is also a nice balance between enough content and other time commitments in your work week. To get and maintain a steady stream of readers, you will want to write at least once a week. If you write more, you will see additional benefits but if you write less, your blog won’t generally be a strong addition to your overall online efforts (whatever they may be).

Image via Wikipedia

The harder question to ask is, why are you blogging in the first place? What are your goals? To write just for the sake of writing won’t get you were you need to go. When you review those goals and the benchmarks for their success, you may find an entirely different answer than the one above. To get an idea of how much blogging some of the professional bloggers do (such as those behind Wired, ProBlogger, Gizmodo, Engadget, etc.) take a look at the book Blogging Heroes by Michael A. Banks. Banks does an interview with 30 of the world’s top bloggers and the answers are not only insightful but contain over-riding themes (such as how often they blog and how much online content they read). Consider the varying perspectives from Hubspot, SEOMoz, ProBlogger, and Gigaom that offer quick answers to the same question of how often to blog.

Tags: Blogging, Blogging Heroes, Gigaom, hubspot, Problogger, SEOMoz

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011 at 8:53 am and is filed under Blogging, Internet Marketing, SEO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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