Believe it or not, sometimes the best way to increase your site ranking in Google is not to list it in Google.  There are hundreds of free (and hundreds more paid) directory sites where you can have a small blurb and link to your business placed on their website.  This post goes through how you can boost your google ranking and how I saw results in just 8 minutes!

What you will need

To make sure you use your time most effectively you’re going to need to have a few bits of information at hand.  Firstly have your ABN, some of the sites below require you to prove you’re a business so it will be useful to have this upfront.  Secondly you need to have your ad “copy” ready.  Your copy should be a snappy headline plus a paragraph or two of content.

What kind of text should you include to boost your rankings?

To get the most out of directory listings you’re going to have to be fairly consistent with the text you use and you should have an idea of the type of keywords you want to target.  So before you get too carried away with your quill and ink, think of keywords your potential clients are going to be likely to type in.  If you’ve got google analytics installed, have a look through there for what keywords people are already finding you with and use google’s keyword tools to find what people are not finding you with. For AutoCarLog, the keywords I want to target are:

• mileage log book
• tax return
• vehicle log book

The headline will draw people in, it should be enough to explain what you do but entice people to want to read more, think your elevator pitch in one sentence or less.  Try and include as many of your keywords without sounding silly.  For AutoCarLog, the headline I choose was:

Maximise your tax return with an automatic vehicle mileage log book by AutoCarLog

Next is the body copy.  The body copy should be one – two paragraphs, some of the sites only allow a short text so keep this in mind.  Ideally you want to have your key words

One of the most efficient ways of getting your business-related vehicle expenses back from the tax department is with the logbook method. AutoCarLog is the easiest tool to keep your logbook up-to-date, a tool which could save you thousands!
AutoCarLog is an automated vehicle mileage logbook which you keep up-to-date using SMS. To use it, simply SMS your mileage at the end of each trip and at the end of the year, AutoCarLog automatically calculates your allowable tax deduction.

20 free sites to list your business

Armed with this information, now it’s time to visit each of the sites below and add your business.  This list isn’t exhaustive, there are hundreds more – if you think one deserves to be added, add a comment below and I’ll be sure to update the list.

1. Google Local Listing
   (you will need to set up a Google Account, you can use your current email address to do this)
2. True Local
3. RAYV
4. Hot Frog
5. Easy Biz
6. Australian Local Search
7. Gumtree
8. DLook
9. Aussie Directory
   (Not for everyone, needs a reciprocal link on your site)
10. Live Pages
11. Our Patch
12. Local Business Guide
13. AussiePages
14. SearchMySuburb.com.au
15. StartLocal
16. Aussie Local
17. Aussie Web
18. Street Corner
19. I Need To…
20. Web Find

And the result….

I have a google alert setup to trigger whenever google indexes a new site.  Within just 8 minutes of adding AutoCarLog to HotFrog google had indexed it and already my business was one step easier to find.

Google Alerts for AutoCarLog

Anthill Smart 100

AutoCarLog, the business, or by-product, of the start-up-in-seven-days series, has been nominated in Australian Anthill Magazine’s “smartest 100 companies of 2010“.

The “Smart100″ awards was setup in 2008 “to identify and rank Australia’s 100 most innovative products, proving to be one of the largest surveys of its kind in Australia.”

So AutoCarLog has made the list and a team of judges will spend the next few weeks “ranking” the list from 0-100.  In addition, Anthill have introduced a “reader’s choice” award, where the nominated service with the most votes will win.

The voting system is a little quirky, and somewhat open, but you can vote for AutoCarLog (and other smart innovations featured) by retweeting via the built in link, clicking the Facebook “Like” link or adding a comment in the provided text box (scroll right down to the bottom for this)

So please, head on over to http://anthillonline.com/autocarlog-smart-100/ and vote away!

After watching a few episodes of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares series, K pointed out to me that Ramsay pretty much follows a six sigma process for business improvement in every episode.  In case you’re not familiar with Six Sigma, it is essentially a formal process to follow to identify problems, implement changes and measure the effectiveness of these changes.

From wikipedia:

Six Sigma seeks to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects (errors) and minimizing variability in manufacturing and business processes.

Although six sigma is often thrown around the boardrooms of large corporations wanting to cut costs, the premise it is built on is very sound and can be applied to all small businesses with little more than a basic understanding of how it works.  The six sigma process follows five steps: Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve and Control.

Define the problem (and not the symptom)

The first part of a six sigma process is to define the problem.  The first question Ramsay asks the would-be-restauranteurs is “what is the problem” and they invariably answer “not enough clients”.  No! This simple response just shows how many people confuse the symptom of a problem with the actual problem.  In Kitchen Nightmares, the problem is usually bad quality food, poor management, or lack of direction. “not enough clients” is the symptom, or result of one or many of these.  It is therefore vital that if you want to improve an aspect of your business that you carefully (and honestly) identify and define the actual problem before you continue.

Measure (how will you know you made a difference?)

You need to measure what the problem is causing, or the extent of the problem before you can asses if the changes you implement make a difference.  Kitchen Nightmares is primarily focused on restaurants, so Ramsay measures the effects of his changes by quantifying the number of covers a night, the amount of profit, people served, number of complaints, number of dishes sent back.  This is usually the second thing he asks, eg “how many people do you have booked for dinner?”.  For other businesses, you could measure number of visitors to your site, number of orders, number of conversions on a site, number of hourly phone calls etc. Remember to document these before continuing.

Gordon Ramsay analysing a Chef at work

Analyse the problem (and find some solutions!)

The analysis step is very important to the six sigma process. It is very important to analyse the process or system prior to implementing any changes to fully understand how the system is (or isn’t!) working.  You shouldn’t dive in with a solution without taking a good hard look at the problem, or you might be addressing the wrong one (“not enough clients” is not the problem remember?)  On the first night in Kitchen Nightmares, Ramsay always watches a dinner service in the background to analyse how the kitchen and staff run the business.

Make an improvement to the business

After analysing the process you can identify areas of improvement.  In Kitchen Nightmares Ramsay implements small changes to address the problems he picked up during the analysis part.  If the problem is slow service with dishes coming out hourly and the chef is competent but struggling with the variety of choice then an improvement would be cutting down the size of the menu and using simpler dishes.  For web based businesses, improvements could be cutting clutter on the site, implementing a call to action button on every page, using basic SEO techniques or offering part of your business for free.

Control the change (and make sure it sticks!)

The Control part of six sigma is to ensure the improvements you’ve implemented stay and you don’t revert back to your old ways.  In Kitchen Nightmares, the control part is often overlooked however Ramsay often implements it through a variety of ways, including bringing in a consultant chef for a period of time to supervise, or simply by encouraging the owners to change ways.  Unfortunately, some stubborn owners who are reluctant to change slip back into their old ways rather quickly.

So there you have it, the next time you want to change something in your business or improve a process, have a look at Kitchen Nightmares and follow the steps Ramsay makes.

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Kitchen Nightmares

I must admit I’m a little bit into Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares series on TV and have been watching an episode a night for a while.  Apart from a thoroughly entertaining and confronting show, there are also great business lessons hidden throughout.
As I watch, I make note of the key reasons each business has failed and the techniques that Ramsay introduces to make them work.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, there are only a few reasons these restaurants are failing.

Keep it simple

Many of the restaurants were failing because their menus were too big, one even had over 180 items! Ramsay’s first task was to cut this down to less than half.

As well as being difficult to prepare, an overcomplicated and large menu means there is less chance for consistency and quality.

I’ve taken these lessons on board, in my Digital signage business we’ve reduced the number of systems we offer to facilitate production.  In AutoCarLog, I’ve reduced the number of packages to reduce confusion.

Find what the market wants, change, and give it to them

In many cases the restaurant was an extension of the owner or chef’s ego, who refused to change.  And in many cases the restaurant had completely lost touch with what their market wanted – and they wondered why they had no customers!

With Crystal we’re about to launch a very exciting new product which we believe will go crazy, but before we do, we’re going to conduct an extensive market survey.  We want to know if the market really wants it, how best to position it in the market and how best to sell it to the market.  At the end of the day, we’re not selling to our selves, so our opinions don’t really matter!

Set and maintain high standards

It goes without saying that fresh food is one of the cornerstones of the restaurant industry, yet many of the “nightmares” had this as a common problem.

To have high standards in a business, you first have to set them and then you have to maintain and manage them.  I’ve thrown myself in to systemising my business where I document every little process.  This is a very effective method to ensure the high standards we set are consistently reached and maintained.

Now I wonder what I can learn from Iron Chef…

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The full article and video published at Anthill Magazine

Free Content

Giving away details on how to do it yourself

A little while ago I blogged about a few pages I put up on bluechill which deal with the rather nerdy subject of Cemtex ABA batch transactions.  Now unless you’ve dealt with these files, you’ve probably never heard of them. But if you have ever had to do a batch bank transaction in Australia you’ll understand what a pain they are and what limited information exists online.

To address this I put up a series of pages which describe the format in detail, provide tips on how to write your own and even built a free online ABA file generator.

In just one month these three little pages collectively account for 30% of visitors to the site.  This resulted in four “goals” being achieved (people filling out the contact form) and we have sold software services to two of them. It has also opened the door to an additional passive revenue stream (online excel to aba conversions) which will be formally released soon (currently available by inquiry only).

Not bad for just publishing what I already had documented anyway.

So why does free content work?

Well to put it simply, we all love a freebie.  However in the online world, we’re drawn away from sites that shout the word FREE about, in email subject lines it’s even considered a SPAM word punishable by filtered death.  (At the risk of being filtered myself, think “free penis enlargement pills”)

The approach above deals with this by providing useful content for free. Content which people can actually use without feeling like they’re being sold something.  After using the content, the consumer is in the power seat and can choose whether to engage your services, they’re in control which is why it works.  In the case of the ABA file format pages, the content also has the upshot of showing just how damn confusing the files can be!

Giving away AutoCarLog

After seeing the success in bluechilli’s free offering, I decided to offer something for free on the AutoCarLog website.  Rather than giving away the actual service, I decided upon publishing a complimentary product, a free to use and downloadable excel car mileage logbook.  It’s early days, but it’s received 150 people since google indexed it a few days ago, and we’ll just see how well this does in conversions!

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Freeloading generation

The general feel in the press is that Gen Y are “a bunch of freeloaders.” Gen Y want career advancement, Babyboomers want stability, so it is natural that they feel threatened by the young whipper snappers vying for their management jobs and biting at their entrenched heels.

I recently attended a NSW Department of Industry and Investment “round table” session on Gen Y entrepreneurship.  The round table event was the last in a series of seven events where government representatives sought ideas from entrepreneurs aged 18-35 (well 16-35 as it turned out) on how better to reach and support this demographic in business.

We want mentors… with experience!

The consistent message that came out, was that Entrepreneurs in this age group are desperately seeking mentors.  And specifically mentors from experienced business people.

Baby Boomers should therefore stop feeling threatened by pro-active gen y ‘kids’ and instead assist them in pursuing by being part of their dreams.  Passing on knowledge and seeing someone else prosper with it is a very rewarding thing to do.

In return, Gen Y should stop treating baby boomers like dinosaurs blocking their promotion and instead treat them with respect and seek their advice and direction.

Babyboomers and generation y working together

Imagine what would happen if every up-and-coming Gen y entrepreneur had experienced business direction from willing mentors in the babyboomer age group!

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Second Place

Or how I thought I had an original idea

Read on an article on Anthill “Aussies won’t pay for digital info“, I was somewhat unsurpised at the statistics surrounding the number of Australians who use the internet.

The latest instalment of Australia’s contribution to the World Internet Project finds that Australians are still flocking to cyberspace, with 80 per cent having used it in a recent 3-month period – up from 73 per cent in 2007.

I was unsurprised as this increased web savviness comes at a small price – which I found out when I was excited at coming up with a great idea.

A keyword sms service that’s easy to use

I had a fantastic concept for an SMS based service with wide appeal and a novel business model: an automated keyword reply service to disseminate information, People would login to my website and setup a keyword (for free) and attach a short ‘reply’. Then anyone who texts my number would get this reply for a 55c SMS.

Sounds like a great idea doesn’t it? And it is, as since Australia is such a web-savvy and online community, someone has beaten me to it. (By a few years too!)

I think it’s fantastic that Australia has such a large uptake of the internet, and even though we don’t have the sheer numbers of the US, this does create an exciting marketplace for Australian based online innovation – but it does have a slight drawback!

So have you ever had an original idea only to find out you’ve been beaten to it?

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Hammer

• http://www.dropbox.com
  Drop box is a great file sharing service and is elegant in it’s implementation. Each user connected to your dropbox “sees” the same folder on their desktop. They can manipulate files directly and when they save, all other users files are automatically updated.
• http://www.google.com/calendar/
  I use google calendar a lot.  I share it with people I work with so that they always know where I am and I can check in what my staff are doing.  You can even sync it with most desktop applications and smartphones.
• http://www.google.com/analytics
  Google analytics is a fantastic free service to monitor traffic on your site(s).  There is a great tool within it that allows you to monitor how people navigate through your site.
• http://www.skype.com
  Skype is VOIP (Voice Over IP) made easy, video and phone chat over the internet.  I use Skype and GoogleTalk when I want to have a face-to-face with someone and can’t directly visit them in person.
• https://www.zoho.com/
  A swathe of tools, the one I’ve just started using is their project management tool.  A friend of mine (who lives on the other side of Australia in Perth) and I are collaborating on a Twitter project and are using this to share ideas
• http://www.business-widgets.net (public site coming soon)
  My own set of tools, starting with my CRM (CRAM) and building on this with a custom built finance application.  But there are a heap of CRM systems out there, mine is due for public release shortly.
• http://www.dimdim.com/
  When ever I need to give a presentation or demo of a piece of software to someone quickly in a remote location I setup a DimDim meeting. I can share my desktop with them, setup video conferencing and take them through an application.  It’s great for post sale support too and the best thing it’s free and web-based.

What tools do you use?

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I’m pretty excited to be shortlisted for Australia’s Most Inspiring Young Engineer by the body of Engineers in Australia.  Below is an extract from the press release:

Young Engineers Australia put out a call late last year for Australia’s Most Inspiring Young Engineers, as part of the 2010 Year of Engineering Leadership.

“We are looking for motivated, inspirational engineers who display technical excellence, creativity or innovation; exceptional leadership or mentorship; or have made an outstanding contribution to the profession or society. The search will highlight the breadth of talent of Australia’s young engineers and celebrate their achievements.”

*snip*

Young Engineers Australia is pleased to announce the shortlist for the list of Australia’s Most Inspiring Young Engineers:

• Andrew Bagnall
• Andrew Botros
• Ashley Kingsborough
• Darren Loman
• Jillian Kilby
• Julian O’Shea
• Kathryn Smith
• Kim Axworthy
• Kimberley Clayfield
• Michael D’Onofrio
• Rachel Ann Coxon
• Salma Farouque
• Sebastian Eckersley-Maslin
• Steven Lindsay
• Suzanne Morris

source: http://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/yea/inspiring/

I find out in a few weeks if I’ve been selected, and I’m heading up to the awards night in Brisbane.