May 19th, 2012
It was challenging to get most of the takeaways from this presentation given there was no PowerPoint on the screen. However, here are my takeaways from Audrey McClellan’s prsentation on expanding your online presence offline!
The more you expand your platform the more you will be valued.
Find ways to take what you are doing online and bridge it offline.
Five ways you can Expand Your Blog Offline are:
- Spokesperson: You are the expert. Work with brands for money making opportunities.
- Events: Audrey started a local Facebook group called RhodyMommas to tap into her local mommy community. She puts on a local event for this group that brings mingling moms together. The group gets 20-30 women together, and Audrey gets a paid sponsor. This helps you connect with others who do not blog.
- Publishing: You can write a book.
- TV: Try getting segments to bring exposure to your blog.
- Consulting
Don’t go after the money. Go after the bliss. – Tiffany Romero
Audrey recommended checking out her Digital Moms’ Handbook as well. There were several tweets highly recommending this book during #BBCPhilly.
A big thank you to Judee Albazi of www.glutenfreematters.com for allowing me to sneak a peak of her notes to complete this blog post!
About The Author
Dali Burgado, also known as “The Dali Blogger” teaches creative entrepreneurs how to carve a web presence that connects with their Inner Guru and their target audience. Her first online marketing love is SEO. She’s an avid connector on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. When she’s not coaching or teaching, she’s tweaking sites for Search Engine Visibility, working on her PHP and Javascript coding skills, Singing Opera, or learning about gardening. Circle Dali on Google+
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May 19th, 2012
Takeaways from The Business of Blogging Presentation with The SITS Girls #BBCPhilly
Tiffany Romero, Laurie Turk, Allison Tallamantez, and Danielle Liss got together at #BBCPhilly to discuss the Business of Blogging and share some of their successes on blog monetization and Public Relations.
Laurie Turk’s Tips on Monetizing Your Blog
- Work on your traffic.
- Have an Ebook – Be personable in your voice. Win them over.
- Product Endorsements
- Tribe Collaborations - If you don’t have the traffic, find someone who does and write about a topic they need content for.
- Companies will pay you to link on their Facebook page.
- Affiliate links
- Hosting live events – Example Laurie had Best Buy sponsor a Techware party where she invited local folks.
- Newsletter Sponsorships
Tiffany Romero’s Blogging as a Business
- Focus on no more than 3 things
- Treat yourself like a business
- Even if you’re nervous, say yes
- If you’re going to go into a partnership, partner with no more than one person
- Form agreements with other companies
- Collaboration is wonderful. However. Be careful who you hook up with. Have contracts. KNOW the people you are in biz with
- Buy your domain name i.e. yourname dot com and your kids’ names
- Saying “no” is okay
- Be your own best advocate.
Tiffany Romero was on a roll with business success quotes! Some of them below:
“Where you put your attention is where you get your results.” – Tiffany Romero
“I don’t know the key to success but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.” - Bill Cosby
“Business opportunities are like buses. There is always another one coming.” – Richard Branson
“Fake it… till you make it.”
“The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.” – Vidal Sasson
Allison Tallamantez’s Public Relations Tips
- Know thyself. How do you stand out from the crowd? Know this.
- Know your audience
- What do you have to offer a brand?
- Where will your sponsored content live?
- Why are you worth the investment? And is this investment worth something to you?
- How often are your readers open to sponsored content? There has to be the right balance.
- What, listen and learn. Whois on your brand wish list and why?
- Brevity is welcome in email.
- Media kits are useful, but phone calls are better. It’s a lot of information for someone to digest.
- Email, phone, email (switch it up).
- Don’t accept a no from someone who can’t give you a yes (If they don’t have the authority to say, “yes,” then disregard the no).
- How an you be a brand’s hero? - Ask them what they need from you that their boss will praise them.
- Have a pitch calendar
- If Plan A fails, remember there are 25 more letters
Contract Law with Danielle Liss
Who do bloggers enter contracts with?
- Brands
- Ad networks
- Hosting companies
- Employers
- Other websites/bloggers
- Guest writers
- Independent contractors
- Consultants
What Makes a Contract?
(Offer + Consideration + Acceptance + Performance) = A Contract
- Consideration is what you are going to be paid.
- Term - Whatever period the contract is going to go for. Always get modifications to contract in writing and signed by both parties.
- Confidentiality – Don’t share confidential information. Nondisclosure agreement = do not tell other people.
- Non-Disparagement – Don’t talk trash.
- Non-Compete – Blogger will not work in similar position for x amount of time
- Choice of Law – (missed this due to multitasking …)
- Indemnity – Defend and hold X from any and all suits, judgements
- Exclusivity – Can be a good thing.
Have a termination clause because if it doesn’t turn out well, you’ll have a way to get out.
About The Author
Dali Burgado, also known as “The Dali Blogger” teaches creative entrepreneurs how to carve a web presence that connects with their Inner Guru and their target audience. Her first online marketing love is SEO. She’s an avid connector on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. When she’s not coaching or teaching, she’s tweaking sites for Search Engine Visibility, working on her PHP and Javascript coding skills, Singing Opera, or learning about gardening. Circle Dali on Google+
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May 16th, 2012
Beginning a small company can appear more difficult than it truly is. People make it to be considered a highly demanding and heavy problem that may simply be handled with a couple of individuals in community. However, the reality is that any customer turns into a company person. Obviously, you will find certain requirements that should be dealt with but beginning a small company isn’t a huge task. One needs to possess a perspective, a concept and also the mean to complete the goals. Listed here are a couple of factors that should be regarded before beginning a small company.
People form the heart of any business. One has to understand the importance of people in the success of their business. When it comes to people the customers are the focal point of a small business. One has to understand that if you keep the customers happy it will give your business free publicity. Word of mouth is a free but potent marketing tool. If your business is able to cater to the needs of the customers then they will spread the words around. Within no time you will find your customer base widening.
The term people also reference the employees, providers and companies from the business. You have to produce the work to ensure that the workers comprehend the business delivery demands. The employees are the types that get connected to the clients and so are useful by way of sourcing customer experience additionally to deliver the products or services. The providers and companies need to be saved happy and small-business entrepreneurs should always keep a friendly connection with each other.
The next most crucial aspect is to formulate a pricing strategy that reflects the purchasing power of the target audience. One has to make sure that the price for the product or service is decided keeping the end customer in mind. The price of your goods or service can be determined by ascertaining the value that it creates in the customer’s mind. If the customers find that your offering is giving them high value then they wouldn’t mind paying a tad bit extra.
Hence entrepreneurs who wish to start a small business have to take the above mentioned parameters into consideration. Customer happiness is vital for the business, then one should most definitely concentrate on the similar.
Jerry Stepp is a business man who put up a small business with the help of small business ideas. So if you want to commence a business try taking these ideas to start a small business of your own.
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May 16th, 2012
World-wide-web marketing and advertising is actually a incredibly diverse niche with a large number of elements. For those who’re just starting out, the landscape will be overwhelming initially glance. The question is, wherever do you start? The basis for any very good online marketing and advertising campaign is material. Content creation certainly is the single most significant element in identifying your on the web achievement or failure.
Ok, that is a considerable amount of strain to place on you especially in case you are brand new. The fine news is that content creation won’t have to be that complex. Having a strong game plan you possibly can be making excellent content that may maintain your audience coming back for an increasing number of. To setup your game strategy you might be going to must brainstorm and ask on your own some issues.
To begin with, you wish to recognize who that you’re likely to be making this material for. Comprehending what niche you might be going after will get started to plant the seeds for the style of content material you are likely to produce. Following, inquire oneself what exactly are my audience’s needs and challenges? Finally, do a bit exploration around the demographics of your target audience to locate out how the like to consume content material.
A authentic globe illustration of this is as follows. You decide you choose to go into small business on the net during the golf market. Your specialty (niche) is going to be youth golf. You recognize that youth golfers need affordable tools, appropriate spots to play, and instructors geared towards younger golfers. Their most important demographic is between the ages of thirteen and eighteen.. These are extremely involved with social media and love to observe movies.
As you can see, material creation is just recognizing your audience and providing them good quality specifics inside the format they want. The format you choose is significant and needs to be geared towards your target audience. It can be written text, photos, audio clips, videos, or maybe a mixture of no matter what you’re feeling will greatest convey your content. There isn’t any point writing extended, drawn out, technical articles for youth golfers as this basically is just not the way they consume facts.
Now which you know what content creation is, in which do you put the media that you simply establish so it can be located? Starting up your individual website certainly is the simplest, most successful way for new marketers to have recognized. That you are in a position to publish written info, images and movies straight on your weblog supplying you with the potential to reach any niche you wish. A site is also the easiest way to suit your needs to create your brand by social networks.
Guide directories also serve as a superb vehicle to get observed. They are restricted in comparison to private blogs but simply because of your sizeable level of many people that depend upon them for information, the will be a really successful type of advertising and marketing your content. Like article directories, social video sharing online websites are also a fantastic way for you to get exposure. Uploading your video clips to these online sites puts you in front of countless possible shoppers from across the world.
Essentially the most successful marketers around the world-wide-web use a combination of blogging, short article writing, and creating movies to attract like minded many people to their sites. They use these mediums to create trust with their audience as a result developing a following of individuals which have been considering the merchandise they’ve to market. The bottom line is that virtually anyone can use content creation to attain achievement over the internet. It takes some time and practice similar to anything at all else but once you master it, you will have an invaluable skill set which you can use in any organization.
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May 13th, 2012
Small businesses operating their own online stores have to use SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to drive traffic, convert visitors into customers and make money online.
But, most traditional small businesses don’t have the time or resources to implement a sustained SEO campaign, or pay a good SEO company to drive traffic on their behalf.
Without a steady flow of qualified traffic (that comes from SEO, social and Internet marketing), operating an eCommerce (online store) site may not be financially sustainable.
Regardless of whether your comapny has SEO experience or not, the following five easy-to-implement SEO tips will ensure that potential customers find your content and start buying. These great SEO techniques can be used by any type of business to drive more web traffic, whether you’re a butcher, baker or candle-stick maker.
1. Add content. Add content. Add content.
I regularly come across business people who are frustrated with the Internet as a medium for business. “Why does a defense attorney need twitter followers?” “I have to work on my actual business. Why should I waste time writing online?”
The answer is this:
Adding content increases online visibility. The more people who happen across your content, the more likely you are to make a conversion and gain a sale.”
Sure, there are other considerations, but that’s the basic formula.
What drives traffic? Content. Lots of relevant and engaging content. Make sure that your blog content is setup to guide people to your store or products so that they can convert into customers and generate revenue for your business.
SEO Tip: Try and get everyone in your company to add content to your website on a regular basis. It could be relating the story of how you satisfied a customer’s need, it could be a story of how you had to drive across town to get some mushrooms for a special dinner (if you’re a caterer). Whatever. So long as you keep adding content.
2. Personalize SEO content with Google Authorship
By implementing Google authorship, you give a face to your content. That’s important for consumer trust. It’s not just another article by someone ‘out there‘ – it’s by Joe from “Joe’s Deli“, or Alice from “Alice’s Wheel balancing“. You get the picture.
One of the most important factors in getting people to buy from your online store, is credibility. I am far more likely to buy from someone I feel I know, or know something about, than a faceless unknown business.
To implement authorship:
- Create a Google+ account
- Link your Google+ profile to your content
Authorship may take a while. Google is pretty slow on showing author information next to its results. Don’t hold your breath, but keep checking every week or so.
3. Improve your online store’s technical SEO performance
Do you know how fast your web pages are being served? Did you know that Page speed is an important factor in Google’s PageRank algorithm. Are your pages cached? Is your CSS compressed and aggregated? Are your JavaScript files compress and aggregated?
If none of this means anything to you, then it is likely that you can improve your SEO performance by upgrading your performance related SEO. You will probably need to speak to someone with web development experience who also knows SEO.
SEO Tip: Read this article entitled “Improve your SEO and compare the SEO of five leading SEO sites”
SEO Tip 2: Don’t be seduced by promises of instant SEO magic. Subsequent to Google’s Panda and Penguin updates, businesses that use cheap, unethical SEO contractors are paying the price by disappearing from search results.
4. Localize content for better SEO performance
Google has started to favor local results over more general ones. To appear higher up in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) for customers in your area, you have to make sure that your content has localization information.
If the majority of your store’s sales come from a specific location (i.e. a town or county), then you’ll probably want to implement these three super SEO localization techniques:
- Target users in your area using Webmaster tools. Select the relevant option from “Site configuration Settings Geographic target“
- Use localized SEO keywords in your content. Instead of writing an SEO page heading like “Baking the best muffins“, you could write “Baking the best muffins in New York City“
- Add your business to Google maps
- Use “Location coordinates” META tags in your page content (This is slightly more technical, so you might need to get in touch with a good SEO consultant or firm to help you out)
5. Implement regular SEO and ROI analysis
SEO is nothing without the ability to monitor the results. Ensure that your website is integrated with Webmaster tools and Google analytics.
Without analytics it is difficult to improve your store’s ROI (Return on Investment). Analytics will allow you to see precisely which content is driving traffic, what customers are doing on the site, and give insight into how you can maximize conversions and traffic going forward.
Check out these two quick ROI calculator apps:
SEO Tip: Use analytics to see which keywords are driving traffic to your website. If these keywords are driving traffic that is converting, keep using them. If not, think about other keywords that might drive interested customers and start using those in your online store’s content.
This article originally appeared on Site prebuilder – Social. SEO. Marketing. Development. Business. and has been republished with permission.
Find out how to syndicate your content with Business 2 Community.
Article source: http://www.business2community.com/seo/five-money-making-seo-tips-for-small-business-online-stores-0174533
Tags: ideas, Money
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May 13th, 2012
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May 10th, 2012
Whatever your business, product, or service, credibility is key. It’s also true with your personal reputation. On that note, the information that appears, or doesn’t appear, whenever your name is searched on the Internet is a litmus test of your personal and professional credibility. It’s called G-cred.
To help with that G-cred, here are 9 things you can do:
1.) A maxed-out LinkedIn profile: Lots of folks have a LinkedIn profile, but few have a LinkedIn profile that’s fully completed for maximum impact. Is yours?
- Don’t just have a short job title, tell folks as much as possible in that title space. The more key words, the better.
- Have a bunch of recommendations? No? Then here’s a tip: If you want more recommendations, try giving some.
- Be sure you include all your website links and a Twitter feed.
- Is your profile Summary awesome? Is it filled with juicy keywords?
- Got videos or SlideShare presentations? Add them with the SlideShare app.
- If you want you can even display your reading list.
- Lastly, be sure your latest blog posts and Tweets are being displayed in your LinkedIn update feed.
A LinkedIn profile is usually one of the first things that comes up in an Internet search. Be sure you have a great one.
2.) A blog: It’s easier than ever to create a blog. Not only will it help with G-cred, it’ll help position you and your business as a leader in your field.
3.) A great Facebook business page: Your business won’t be taken seriously without one. It will also allow you to leverage the many social media benefits within the Facebook ecosystem.
4.) A great website: Nothing new about this.
5.) Articles: For the same reasons that a blog is good, published articles highlight your expertise. E-Zine Articles is one place to submit them.
6.) Videos: Studies continue show that video use is growing In fact, a recent Cisco study says, “video currently represents a quarter of the web’s traffic, but could be as high as 90% in only three years’ time.” Enough said.
7.) Slideshare presentations: Slideshare allows you to convert your PowerPoint presentations into an online post. And, it’s free. How cool is that?
8.) Interviews & press: Nothing helps your online cred better that third party endorsement. So, seek out every opportunity for it and, if you get some, be sure you have it posted.
9.) A great email signature: To be taken seriously all professionals should set up a professional email signature including relevant links to your site, LinkedIn profile, Twitter profile, etc. If you don’t have one, it’s an easy thing to set up.
While most of these can be done by yourself, some will definitely benefit from the perspective and active support of a marketing professional. So, don’t hesitate to ask for that help.
After all, there’s nothing more important than your professional credibility and if you don’t have Google credibility, you don’t have credibility.
Internet Search Photo via Shutterstock
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May 10th, 2012
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May 7th, 2012
 Imagine Getting More Fan Engagement for Your Facebook Page
Well, you finally created that Facebook page for your business and have been posting status updates about your products or services and how wonderful YOU are…but seems like nobody cares. Nobody pushes the “Like” button, nobody leaves comments, no one shares your posts with their friends…NADA! Maybe you need some inspiration to help you get the most out of your page. Today we wanted to share some tips and tools you can put to work that will get those fans active!
 by Herb Lawrence, ASU Small Business and Technology Development Center. ”Liking” small businesses from the Delta to the Ozarks.
Do you keep posting to your small business Facebook page, but your fans don’t seem to be responding? If so, you aren’t alone!
Remember Facebook is a “SOCIAL” media so… you want to create a channel for 2-Way communications. That means your posts need to encourage fans to push the “like” button, leave comments, or share your posts on their profiles.
The problem is if you are using Facebook as just a VIRTUAL BILLBOARD to hawk your products or services your fans will not feel like responding or worse…they will leave your page completely.
So how can you get fans engaged? Here’s a few easy tips:
- Questions: Ask simple questions, like: “What’s your favorite holiday destination, and why?”.
- Fill-in-the-blanks posts: Posts that will encourage your fans to fill in the blanks to complete a sentence, such as “(Fill in the blanks) _______ is my favorite BMW”.
- Post photos and ask a Question: such as “Where do you think this picture is taken?”
- Post a video and ask about a specific moment in it, such as “What do you think that guy is doing at 1:43?”
- Talk about the news: Select something that’s currently getting a lot of conversation especially if you can tie it to your industry, community or something of interest to your fans, and invite discussion on your page.
- Ask for likes: Simply post updates such as “Like this if you can’t wait for the weekend to begin!”
- Caption contests: Post a funny photo and ask fans to give a title.
- Ask hypothetical questions: , such as “One-way flight anywhere you choose. Money’s not an issue. Where do you go?”
Try these types of status updates out on your fan page, and see how it will improve fan comments and likes (which increases your Edgerank and thus your visibility). NOTE: Like anything in marketing… repetition is important! Don’t try it once, then if you don’t get the kind of response you wanted stop doing it… Make it a part of your normal posting schedule for an extended period of time to get your fans used to seeing it.
For more ideas check out our Storify collection of tips for industry experts with ideas that have worked for them and easy tools (most free) you can bring to your Facebook page to get those fans engaged!
[View the story "Get More Engagement on Facebook" on Storify]
A big challenge for many businesses on Facebook is getting fans engaged and active on the page. Why does engagement matter? Engaged Fans are also more likely to become customers! Engagement also “FEEDS” Facebook Edgerank…critical to making sure your posts show up in your fans Newfeed,
Storified by Herb Lawrence · Sat, May 05 2012 12:04:55
Did you like these tips? If so leave us a comment. Better yet, join us on our Astate Small Business Facebook Page and leave your tips there. We love to get our fans involved.
If you are a small business in Northeast or North-Central Arkansas and would like to learn how to maximize your Facebook marketing efforts, contact our business consultants, Laura Miller or Robert Bahn and find out about our free, confidential consulting assistance. Call the Astate SBTDC at (870) 972-3517 or email us at asusbtdc@astate.edu to set a time to discuss your marketing needs with our professionals.
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May 7th, 2012
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