Coming to a TV near you. Check this out. Soon your online advertising dollar might be heading to TV. I’m really excited to see how all this works. Soon you will be able to watch TV, surf the web, watch online content, search for your TV shows, movies and more. It’s been tried before, lets see if Google can make it work.
August 31st, 2010
August 23rd, 2010
If you have a new website or one with no inbound links you should start a link building campaign. Why? Google and other search engines are not just looking at site content, and meta tags, they are looking at “relationships” between your site and others. Link building is now an important part of SEO. Without quality links your site may struggle in the search engine rankings.
Building links is not necessarily about quantity but more about quality. Search engines look to see if links are coming from sites known as “link farms“ whose main purpose is to link to other sites to increase their link popularity score. These may be considered spam. Links relevant to your site, and links from sites with rich content are quality links and carry a lot of weight with search engine rankings.
So how do you start getting quality links?
1. Have a website people will want to link. It should be professional looking, easy to navigate, contain good useful information and have frequently updated content.
2. List your business on sites like Google Places, Yahoo Business, Yellowpages.com and dmoz.org (open directory project). It is important to choose the right category for your listing and to follow the submission guidelines. DMOZ can be pretty selective and it can take up to two weeks or more to review your submission.
3. Ask business associates to link to you.
4. Establish relationships with non competing businesses in the same field. Look at their website and get a sense of who they are before you ask for a link.
5. Write good quality articles on topics related to your business and submit them to sites like ezinearticles.com and other trusted article sites. Blog and participate in forums and write content that people find useful and will value as a resource. Interact with people in your industry and they’ll start linking to you.
Link building requires time, creativity, dedication and persistence. The natural growth of your site with good traffic and referrals along with link building may just help you move up in the search engines. Remember content and links are king and queen. Which is which? Seems it’s a matter of opinion.
August 19th, 2010
Are you getting traffic to your website, but the sales or contacts are not there. Then you need to work on Conversion Optimization. Google has a great tool which allows you to have two or more alternate landing pages. If you set up two, half (or whatever number you choose) will see one landing page and
half the other. You can make the pages completely different or use minor changes, maybe in the headline or a special offer.
Sometimes you will be amazed at the difference something small can make. If you can increase your conversion ratio from 1% to 2%, you have doubled your online business! If you keep testing, you might get your conversion rate to 3% or more. Yipee!
Google provides this as a free service. You can find out all about it at Google Analytics.
August 17th, 2010
If you are looking for ways to increase your business website traffic, you might have overlooked registering your website and business with the Google Business Center.
Google is the most used search engine in the world. By registering with the Google Business Center, you can list your hours, what you specialize in, methods of payments accepted, and much more. You can also post pictures and videos of your business. This also gives you a chance to respond to negative reviews your company might have received. 
Registering is fairly simple. You request to register and Google will either phone you with a Pin Number to enter, or they will mail it to you.
To find the Google business center, just search “Google Places”.
June 4th, 2010
“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.” Those are the words of Warren Buffet. I think most people would agree he knows a little about business.
If you ask someone what they look for when they compare a product or service they’d probably say value. Especially in the current economy. Value however means different things to different people. Why? Because its a matter of perception. 
So what exactly is the value of a product? To some it is the bottom line. The Price. They want or need something now but have limited funds. To them, at that point in time, the price is the value they are looking for. To others it may be:
1) Quality 2) Friendliness to the environment 3) Usefulness 4) Free shipping 5) Free samples 6) Prompt delivery 7) Instructional video 8) Convenience
What is the value of a service? It may be:
1) Satisfaction guarantee 2) Friendly staff 3) Hours of operation 4) Testimonials or referrals 5) Ability to meet deadlines 6) Personalized service or 7) Going above and beyond
As you can see, value can mean a many number of things depending on how you look at it. If you have a website, just because your prices may be a little higher than the competition doesn’t mean you aren’t valuable to the customer. Savvy customers know that price isn’t everything and cheaper isn’t always better. Let them assess your product or service. Once they see your cost may be a little more but you offer the most value to them, they’ll be on board.
May 3rd, 2010
Imagine you are shopping online and you see something you think you want to buy, but you just aren’t sure. You look at the picture, read the description but you are still undecided. Wouldn’t it be helpful if you could see a demonstration or hear an explanation? Or maybe you are looking to hire someone to provide a service for you. Wouldn’t it be favorable to see who they are and hear how they can help you?
Research says yes. A video on a website helps people decide and can help increase sales. It attracts more visitors and influences buying. It provides an easy way for people to share information about a product or service with others. A video pre sells. How?
A video with an inviting introduction that is friendly and a bit entertaining will entice people to watch. Video brings a product or service to life! Images are great but video adds a new dimension. Video lets the viewer see and hear the features but more importantly the benefits of a product or service. What does it really look like? How does it work? How will this make my life better or easier? If I hire this company who would I be working with and how can they help me? Video answers these questions and more without having to read a lot of text. It saves time. Who doesn’t like that! Video can convey excitement and passion.
So, try a video. It requires a little thought and time but it is an inexpensive marketing tool that could make a big difference in sales.
May 3rd, 2010
“One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. “Which road do I take?” she asked. “Where do you want to go?” was his response. “I don’t know,” Alice answered. “Then,” said the cat, “it doesn’t matter.”"
– Lewis Carroll, author
April 21st, 2010
I am sure everyone would agree it is easier to build trust with customers when they can see who you are and where you work. It’s reassuring to them to see your office or store, where its located, how it’s run and see the employees who work there .
But how do you build trust with customers when you are one of millions of businesses online? When you are online that physical presence isn’t there so you have to find other ways to earn their trust. How do you do that with your website?
A lot of people are skeptical about what they see on the internet. The first thing you need to do is show you are a real person and business. Right upfront it should be clearly presented that you are a business with solutions to their problems, and that your services or products will benefit them. Information should be meaningful and easy to access.
Show you have nothing to hide by providing your contact information, a place for comments or feedback, and add testimonials and a list of your accredited affiliations. When asking for information from customers ask only for information you really need. If people are asked to give too much information they get suspicious and leave.
The best way to earn customer trust is to have an online presence that lets them know you are there to help them. Customers are smart and know if you can’t give them what they want or need they can go to a competitor. When they trust you they are happy customers, who will come back. They will refer people to you which will add more visitors to your site and the more visitors you have the better chance for conversions. Trust is everything.
April 21st, 2010
If making money successfully on line were quick and easy everyone would be doing it. It isn’t quick and it isn’t necessarily easy. Succeeding online can take a lot of time, money and effort. Let’s face it. Thats why many people are not doing it.
Here are some important qualities that could help you be successful with an online business.
1. Commitment - You have to be a self starter. No one will be looking over your shoulder telling you to get to work.
2. Organization, disipline and focus. Stay on task.
3. Willingness to spend some money to get the tools, education to get started.
4. Knowledge- Research then use that knowledge and take action.
5. Patience- Most success doesn’t come immediately. It may take awhile. You have to keep trying, testing, adjusting, monitoring, and continue learning. Things change and advance quickly on the Internet. Keep up to date.
6. Never get passive. Be persistent, stay motivated and be pro active and your business will start to prosper.
So, remember the 4 P’s. Persistence, Patience, Pro-active =Prosper
April 9th, 2010
I received an invitation to attend a conference today for Stores On Line. Naturally I wanted to research them and see what they are all about. Wow, talk about negative press, they get a ton. I found several websites dedicated to berating them. Also there have been news reports. Once I followed one of the news reports to You Tube, I found several more.
Here is the news report: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX3GBrl2IRk
I also found a website that had several reviews: http://www.storesonline-reviews.com/
While going through these, I noticed that many of the people were paying up to $8,000 to get started and then support fees on top of this.
My advice, stay clear.