Local listings and classifieds – Create your business listing on as many relevant business directory sites, like Merchant Circle or CitySearch to ensure that consumers searching for nearby businesses find yours. Some listings allow you to promote offers such as sales and new products. Customers who review these sites are usually locals looking for a good deal. Customer review sites are basically local directories similar to Yelp that allow your customers to express their opinions on your products/services.
Tag: Internet
Basics on Blogging
Made the following presentation to the 3×2 Networking Group this morning on the basics of blogging.
Many customers, friends and family ask me all the time for advice on how to get started in blogging. While I could go on and on about everything one could do to successfully blog, it could prove to be overwhelming. So to make it easy, I will start out with some basic information and add to it from time to time.
- Decide what you’re going to blog about. Keep in mind that there are literally 100s of millions of bloggers worldwide. If you’re going to attract the right readers you best know what you’re talking about and be passionate about it.
- To host or not to host – You need to decide if you’re going to sign for a freebie blogging site such as blogspot or blogger.com or if you want to set up an independent blog on a web server where you pay for the hosting services. I pay to have this blog hosted. It cost around $6-$7/year. With a freebie site you have to be prepared for two things: one, you don’t own your domain name. Your domain becomes something like this “blogtitle.blogger.com”. Should you decide at some point you want to strike out on your own, you will lose all the content you spent perhaps years building up. And you have to let your audience know where you went. Second, you have to put up with their ads. Frre doesn’t really mean free.
- Host your own – Offers more flexibility because you “own” the turf. You can monetize the site (topic for another time), your content is your own and your audience stays with you (so long as your good). It costs money, but its money well spent.
The best software when hosting your own blog is WordPress in my humble opinion. The hosting company I use set up my site with the software already installed. When inside the admin part of the site I can set my theme and a variety of other configurations. I will discuss these at a future blog post.
Watch for more tips and tricks to help you get started. Mike and I also conduct seminars through the Illinois Small Business Development Center at McHenry County College.
Reasons Why A Blog Doesn’t Work
I was setting down to begin writing a new topic for this blog site and was pondering why it doesn’t work as well as I would like for it to work. I know I’m not the greatest writer in the world, but I’m certain I’m not the worst either.
Then I started to wonder if I’m the only blog writer out there wondering why their blog isn’t working. Not likely: after all, I’m not the only person in the world who likes spaghetti.
So I thought about it for awhile and I came up with the following reasons and hopefully you will find these insightful enough to help you. Also, I’m sure I’m not the only one to come up with these same reasons:
- It’s not all about me – I have come to the realization that most readers of a blog could care less about the person writing the blog. Face it people, the most important person to the reader of your blog is…the reader. He couldn’t care less about you. Is what you’re writing going to solve his problem a fill his needs? That is what is important.
- Quit trying to sell something to your readers – I’m certainly guilty of that one. From now on I’m cutting back on the ad space.
- You don’t cite other sources – When it comes to an article where you did a good deal of research and the ideas belong to someone else (are there any original thoughts anymore?), give credit where credit is do. I read a lot of different sources for my material, but the thoughts on what they wrote are my own.
- Your writing is BORING – You need to spice it up, make it interesting and make it relevant. Come on, I know you have something to say. Spit it out and quit trying to be fancy. Be you cuz there ain’t no one like you and everyone wants to see that person, not some fool you’re pretending to be.
- You’re not making it easy to share– Put an RSS feed on your site. Add a Follow me on Twitter button, Post to Facebook button, a Like button. Anything you can think of to let folks share easily. I know with WordPress there are plugins that allow your readers to share your content. I use WP-Social-Bookmarking which adds on links to all the major Social Media sites.
- You’re not letting others talk – You need to engage people in a conversation. That may mean having to go where they’re at since they are coming here. Go to other similar blogs and comment on what they wrote. This allows folks to get to know you and what you’re all about. It may make them stop by for a visit now and then.
- As number 6 said: Give them a reason to return. And they will if you’re not boring, you engage your readers, make it easy to share you and you’re providing useful information.
Hopeful this proves to be somewhat helpful. If anyone out there has some other thoughts please share them with us so that others may learn too.
Reasons to Blog
A recent study by eMarketer shows that 53.5% of Internet users read blogs. That translates into 122 million plus people. Need I say more.
On-Line Video
Advertiser are shifting funding from standard banners and rich media to online video because it’s bringing major benefits to their companies. But they’re still advertising on television making online video a compliment to TV rather than an alternative to it.
A study by Brightroll is showing that at least 85% of the ad agencies said spending was moving from other types of advertising to online video. Moving funds from television, though, wasn’t happening as one might expect, with less than 65% of all agencies doing so. Companies that were pulling funds from TV were doing so in much smaller increments.
Many companies in the survey agreed (91%) that targeting capabilities are an important consideration when buying online video. Behavioral targeting is clearly viewed as beneficial, even though still not a wide spread practice. Only 40% of those responding indicated they would use the practice when leveraging their advertising.
I found it interesting that 96% of those ad agencies responding in Brightroll’s survey saw research as something of value their clients, yet only 35% actually conduct research for them. When asked which area of online video advertising one would to see an increase in research done 29% said performance vs television advertising, followed by 28% saying they would like to see increased research in the “Change in purchase intent or brand lift”. Audience profiling research cam in last with only 4% wanting to see increased research done. Research provides invaluable insight into how well a campaign performs and allows for improved optimization of future campaigns.
Media buyers are predicting that this year online video will see the largest increase in spending with mobile video following closely behind and social media coming in closely in third place this year. Display, search and tv advertising followed with dismal expectations of any kind of increase.
Overall, I think online video is becoming a clear winner in the advertising expenditure race this year and will likely surge further ahead for the foreseeable future. There are many services out there offering top notch technical product and knowledge, so it should be relatively easy to either DIY or have find a qualified professional to help you.
Change
Have we changed all that much? Some are claiming a transformation has, or is, taking place in the way that we relate to one another. Perhaps they’re right. The way we create relationships sure seems different. The way we create dialogue with potential clients is changing. The way we deliver messages has most certainly changed. But other things seem to be regressing.
Newspapers used to control the message. We saw the world through their eyes. Our thoughts were formed around their thoughts. History shows the first published newspaper was in Rome in 59 B.C.
Newspapers would reign supreme until 1906 when the first radio program was broadcast by Reginald Fessenden from Ocean Bluff-Brant Rock, MA. 
Even though the telegraph system was an earlier precursor to radio, it didn’t have the same effect that radio would have on how people got the news of the day.
Radio, though, would operate under the same premise as newspapers whereby the listener was as dependent as the reader on which someone had to produce the broadcast. And delivery of each was no small matter either. Newspaper and radio station require major financial resources. Newspaper distribution is a very labor intensive business, from the reporter to the newspaper boy we would be looking at hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people to get that newspaper to your hands. While radio would begin a sea of change that allow the distribution of the news over the air waves, it still required a fair number of people to operate. But all one needed to listen was a radio and electricity. These two requirements would mean that initial growth of radio would be very slow. But, as we shall see, not as slow as newspapers. We would hear the first news program, sports radio and entertainment radio in 1920. Many of these stations are still around today, hopefully using much better equipment.
And coming up fast…Television can trace it’s beginnings to 1873 when Willoughby Smith discovered the photoconductivity of selenium, to the invention of the scanning disc in 1884 by Paul Nipkow and John Baird’s demonstration of televised moving images in 1926. Regular broadcast TV would begin in 1946 and by 1953 color TV was available nationwide. 
But producing a TV show cost a bundle and it required a television set as well as electricity. The user was still dependent upon others to receive the news of the day. Everyone was dependent on reading, hearing and seeing information that was based on what someone else deemed news worthy. As such we didn’t get to read, hear or see everything, only what someone else decided for us.
That would soon be changing.
Next: The big change
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The Market is Changing, Are You Listening?
I just finished reading an article on Hubspot’s blog written by Dave Clarke of Hologram Publishing where he talks about reasons to create an on-line presence. Change is inevitable and it is continuous he says. Dave quotes Isaac Asimov “Continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.”
Yet many SMB’s will inevitably ignore this sage advice realizing they should have gotten involved while they’re looking for a job after their business failed. Many of them will make an attempt to try to develop their websites themselves. This usually leads to an immense amount of frustration due to the high learning curve. It also means neglecting their core business, something they’re were already good at. Many SMB’s will try to go the cheap route, not realizing that the true cost is the sales you won’t get because you didn’t seek professional help.
Many of these same businesses will continue to try the old tried and true methods of advertising…thats right…the phone book, newspaper ads, cold calling and radio. How’s that working for ya?
Dave makes a good point that there is no newspaper on the face of the earth where 600 million people go for hours at a time, every day. 111 million people watch the Super Bowl…for one day while there are 140 million tweets posted per day, 1 billion sent per week. There is probably more people playing fantasy football than watch the Super Bowl.
His point is that there is no publication, no tv show, no radio show, and certainly no phone book that gets as much traffic as the Internet. FaceBook alone gets 12.5% of every 8 minutes spent on-line and 64% of those 600 million people have become “fans” of a business page. The telephone book ends up in the recycling bin. 
The Internet will be a tough world in which to compete. It brings our society back to when your customers really knew you. If you didn’t provide quality products and service everyone in town knew about it. I recently had a former customer, one we dropped because he didn’t live up to the hype he wanted us to deliver. He was one of those who thought it was a waste of time to put in the hard work that marketing can be. He figured a web site would be enough to bring them in. We had listed his company on the local search engine business directories for Google, Yahoo, Bing and other industry directories. But he wouldn’t make any entries into a blog nor participate in any Social Media beyond setting up an account. Since he didn’t live up to his own hype, we dropped him as a customer.
About a year after we dropped him he contacts us by telephone. He wanted to know how to remove some negative comments that were posted on Google local listings by an irate customer. Instead of dealing directly with the customer, he wanted to know if removing his web site from the Internet would remove the negative comments too. After I quit laughing I told it wouldn’t. Then he wanted to know if I could remove the comments from the Internet. I told him no. Needless to say, he didn’t take my advice. The comments are on-line and they’re the only comments on-line aside from his website.
That former customer is a classic example of someone who simply isn’t listening…he just doesn’t get it. Many SMB’s do so to their own detriment. Hopefully they will open their eyes and their ears to reality, sooner rather than later.
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It’s about traffic
Ok, the big question I get from my customers is how can I get more of the right kind of traffic to my website. A very good question. I certainly don’t get someone asking me to lessen the amount of traffic to their website.
Here’s what I do to attract more customers: I consistently try to put engaging content on my blogs, on my website and on my Social media sites that relates to what I do and to who I am as a person. I figure that I love what I do and so I know I’m going to be very passionate when writing about it. I also enjoy a number of others things in my life and I like to write about those subjects, too.
I have a great girlfriend whom I live with. We love taking care of each other.
I enjoy hiking in the local county forest preserves in the area. 
I love to take long bicycle rides. I like reading, watching a good movie on the TV. We’ll go out to the movies only to watch a flick where it has to be viewed on the big screen…like Avatar for instance. I enjoy BBQ on warm summer days sipping on a long tall cool imported or micro brewed beer with friends and neighbors.
I am very passionate about politics. You will likely see a few posts here where I wax poetically about the issues of the day. I think it’s important that we all are involved. After all, you may have the answer to solving this mess we’re in.
I love to garden. You can see how my garden progresses each year by viewing my Facebook page. I’ll talk more about this subject in the very near future.
Anyway, to get more traffic I know I need to add other things to the mix along with the good content. You see, everyone is saying you have to have good engaging content.
Really? Hmmm, imagine that.
But good and engaging content to one person falls flat to another. For example, my girlfriend hates computers. She uses them, but when I try to explain something technical to her she gets all glassy eyed and tries to change the subject to something else. I do the same to her when she tries to talk about a subject I have no real interest in.
So my subject matter has to be pointed at the right kind of traffic. Someone who is interested in what it is I do.
Getting attention can be easy. Charlie Sheen has been getting tons of attention. But as you can see from his traveling show, some audiences love him and some just think he’s stupid.
In my case, or at least I hope so, I want to attract attention that builds my business. I have to address those interested in what I do by showing them I know what I’m talking about. I have show why I’m the subject matter expert in my chosen field. And do this in a way that provides value and is entertaining. If my writing is boring then people will not read it.
All this means that I have to know who my “A” customer is. My “A” customer is the one I really enjoy doing business with. And it’s not the guy from across town who just wants to pick my brain all the time. Him I need to drop him like a hot rock.
Your “A” customer is the person/company that can afford your product, who will benefit from it, that is eager to buy from you. Those customers make being in business a pleasure.
So, write to your “A” customer.
What I’ve Learned About What Google Loves
As many years as I’ve been developing and programming websites I always realize that what I really love about what I do is…I’m always learning something new and challenging. I’ve been reading Evan Bailyn’s new book “Outsmarting Google” and it’s fantastic. And it validates much of what I tell our customers everyday…to rank high on Google you need to be the most popular guy on the block. If people think you’re important, so will Google.
And those customers ask the same question, every time. How do I do that? How do I become the most popular kid on the block, the one everyone goes to to answer the important questions when it comes to what they’re good at doing?
Well, first you have to realize that in order for people to think of you as the subject matter expert, you’re going to have to do a lot of hard work. This is not a if I build it they will come. Doesn’t happen on the Internet, hell, it doesn’t happen in life. So if you’re not willing to put in the time and effort than don’t expect anyone to do it for you.
So when you read or hear that content is king that is exactly right. And it best be original content. Copying someone else’s content is fine so long as you give proper credit. But Google doesn’t give it as high a score as original content. See, your content has to actually show your expertise. You can’t merely say it. You have to prove it. This fact is what makes the Internet the level playing field it is. Even the newest of us can become a recognized popular expert in a given field that drowns out the so-called credentialed expert who doesn’t publish on-line. It’s all about perception. So some kid could outshine a professor with a degree any day of the week and twice on Sunday if he’s been out there sharing what he knows with everyone around the world. And all those folks will be linking to the kid because he’s the only source in town who’s talking. Thus Google likes the kid because everyone else likes the kid.
Tomorrow I’ll start sharing what I’ve learned about building expertise on the Internet. I will be alternating between my personal blog and my company blog at Yellowbird Marketing Solutions.
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5 web apps that make life a little easier
From our friends at Mashable:
Have you ever tried to open a file only to be stymied because you have to download software or even upgrade the latest changes to it? I know I have and it is a royal pain. Zamzar offers a handy tool to convert text, audio, video formats into a format you can open. Simply upload the file, tell them what format you want it converted to and they e-mail the finished copy to you. That’s cool 🙂
GE.tt is offering easy to use way to share files in the cloud. It’s free so long as what your storing is temporary which makes it good for quick transfers that regular email can’t handle.
Ninite offers a quick and easy way to re-install all the applications, from browsers to messaging and more, that you use regularly. Just check off all the browsers, readers and media players you use and it downloads them via an automated installer. It even eliminates all the extra crap that generally comes along with a single install. Now I like that idea because I have no need for a half-million tool bars on my desktop.
LucidChart offers a free (up to 2 users) way to create impressive charts, diagrams, and graphs that you can draw online. You can create flowcharts, wire-frames, network diagrams and more. I plan to start using this one regularly.
I used to have a copy of special characters on the side of my file cabinet so I could remember which alt key combos I needed to use to create whatever character I needed. Now I can go to copypastecharacter and just simply copy and paste what I need.
Hope the above prove to be useful. If you have more, let me know and I will post them here.
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