Internet In Depth

How to use Twitter in your business

noreply@blogger.com (Graham Jones) — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 06:02:00 +0000

Twitter is a "micro-blogging" service that allows you to make posts of no more than 140 characters (including spaces). This allows you to send very short messages to people and therefore has a range of useful business applications.

Initially, when Twitter was launched in October 2006 it was seen as a method of updating people with your current personal activities. So, it quickly became populated with messages such as "I'm just going down to the shops" or "Had a bad day, off to bed now". These mini messages are called "Tweets" and their random and personal nature has meant that Twitter has not been seen as a serious business tool; but it is.

There are several ways in which Twitter can be used positively within businesses and organisations of all sizes. For instance, the Los Angeles Fire Department has its own Twitter account to alert people about current emergency situations; that could save lives. The University of Texas is using Twitter to pass on useful information to students. Hewlett Packard is delivering press release headlines via Twitter and the BBC is using Twitter as a breaking news service.

Clearly, there are plenty of organisations and companies using Twitter in innovative ways. But how can your business benefit from this micro-blogging tool? Well, the first thing to do is ignore the notion that it is just for people who seemingly want to tell the world they've just fed their cat, or made a cup of tea. Instead, think of all the kinds of short pieces of information a business needs to pass on. These could include:

Staff in/out status
News headlines
Emergency information
New staff appointments
Event listings
Price list announcements
Stock availability
Share price index

There are literally dozens of different types of short pieces of information that every business provides already - perhaps via phone messages, on web sites or in person. Twitter merely provides an extra delivery mechanism - and the means of automating existing ways of getting short items of information out.

The 140 character limit for Twitter is there for a reason - it means your Tweets can be sent via SMS (text messages) on mobile phones. Your customers, for instance, could choose to have your Twitter information sent to them on a mobile, or as an RSS Feed, or via email. As a result, Twitter can deliver short pieces of information in exactly the way your users want.

Twitter as a PR tool
As an example, consider the delivery of press releases to journalists. At the moment, it might come as a surprise, but almost no press releases ever get read by journalists. They are far too busy to read the millions of words that are sent to them each day. But what if your business had separate Twitter accounts for the, say, four groups of journalists you would like to keep in touch with. They could subscribe to your specific set of Tweets relevant to their interests. They would be able to read the 140 characters and only then look at any more in depth information if they are interested. The "old" way of delivering the news meant that journalists were presented with the in depth material first - and this put them off right at the outset. The Twitter way of PR means increased engagement with the media. And this is just one possible way of using Twitter.

Twitter as a sales promotion tool
As another example, consider how you currently let customers know about price reductions or special offers. You might change your web site, or send emails, or print special promotional leaflets. Whichever way you choose, your customers either need to come to you or your web site to get the information, or you need to send them the information which makes them feel "overloaded" and hence it gets ignored. Now, with Twitter, you can update selected customers with a Tweet for each individual price change all via SMS or an RSS feed. In either case, customers only get the new price information they need, in a short bite-size chunk, making it much more acceptable.

Whatever kind of short pieces of information you send out already, Twitter will provide you with a way of making that material more accessible and more acceptable. Without using Twitter for short pieces of information, your business will start falling behind the competition which will be using Twitter as a business tool.

Using Twitter in business
How do you start? Firstly, draw up a list of all the kinds of short pieces of information you currently produce or could produce. Then, write down all your separate audiences you would like to reach. With both of these lists you can then decide on the specific Twitters you can set up.

Having got your target audiences and sets of information organised, go along to Twitter and set up your free account. You will need one account for each target group you are aiming at. Once your accounts are set up, click on the Settings link for each one and then on the Notices tab and add a mobile phone account. This will allow you to update Twitter by adding Tweets from your mobile phone when you are away from your desk or don't have Internet access. You can also add a picture and change the design; you may want to do this if you have several Twitter accounts so that you can distinguish between each one.

You should also get a Twhirl account organised as this will allow you to manage your multiple Twitter accounts in one place. Twhirl is a desktop computer program, so it is only of value when you are at your PC; even so, it makes using Twitter much easier if you have several Twitters for your business.

Another multi-Twitter tool is Tweetlater. This allows you to arrange Tweets in advance. You could, for instance, programme in a series of price reductions into a price promotion Twitter that were automatically added over a series of days, or weeks.

One more essential tool is Twitterfeed. This allows you to automatically post items to a Twitter account from an RSS feed. So, going back to the press release example, you could publish the entire press release on your web site but use Twitterfeed to submit just the headlines to your interested journalists. That way, all you have to do is write the full press release on your web site and let the combination of Twitterfeed and Twitter do the rest.

Join the Twitter Club
The Twitter Club is a useful source of information and help for anyone using Twitter. There are plenty of other Twitter users there who provide ideas and support; join in the discussions to find out more. There is also an active blog and discussion about Twitter at Twittown that is worth reading. You should also check the Twitter Fan pages to find a long list of downloads and services which can all enhance Twitter.

Twitter is not something you can ignore; there are increasing ways of using Twitter and every business can benefit from having at least one Twitter account. There are over 100 competitors to Twitter and Google has recently bought Jaiku. However, it is likely to have an uphill battle because of the vast number of Twitter users alerady in place. Google's argument is they don't need the Twitter users, as they already have millions of their own. What Google is forgetting is that Twitter is currently integrated with virtually every social networking site around. Adding members to Jaiku might be straightforward for Google; but disconnecting Twitter from the networks will be much harder. So, even though Google is currently working on the micro-blogging boom, using Twitter is a pretty safe bet. Besides which, if you don't start using Twitter, your competitors will.

Making it easy to write articles that boost your Internet business

noreply@blogger.com (Graham Jones) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 06:32:00 +0000

Whether you run a business totally online, or you operate a bricks-and-mortar business and have a promotional website, you should consider “article marketing”. If you aren't marketing your business with articles, you're missing a huge chunk of the marketing pie. Let me give you a few reasons why.

Firstly, article marketing is low cost. Every business owner knows that advertising isn't cheap. Every newspaper or magazine ad you run costs you dearly. By spending just a little extra time writing and submitting several articles each month, you'll save quite a bit of money. And writers are often less costly than paying for a team of advertising “creatives”.

Branding your business
Article marketing also helps to brand your business. Have you ever wondered how some businesses seem to become so well known in such a short amount of time? They're getting their name out there. They're giving away something of value for free to their potential customers. Your articles will brand your business and make it a well-known name.

For this reason, article marketing makes you, or your key employees, an expert. If you write articles about the subjects you know well, you'll quickly become known as an expert in your field. Do you run a website on bird watching? Writing and submitting fifty articles on bird watching will show people that you know what you're talking about.

When you do submit articles, they create back links to your website. Without getting into the technical details of this, back links to your website are good and you'll want lots of them. Back links help boost your rankings in the search engines, thus gaining more exposure for your website.

Remember that article marketing isn't the cure-all answer to advertising your business; it's one piece of the pie. It requires persistence and patience. You should plan to spend a certain number of hours each week writing and submitting articles to promote your business. Pencil in this time faithfully and stick to it. Within a few months (maybe even a few short weeks!), you'll begin to see the results of your hard work pay off.

Making article writing easy
Many people I speak to equate article writing with onerous tasks such as writing school or university essays. The memories of the pain involved in this form of writing can take time to fade away. The good news is that after learning a few simple steps, writing your own articles isn't as hard as it appears.

Once you have decided on a general area, a good way to narrow the topic down is to focus on the problems that people have. Typically, people read articles because they want to be entertained or they want information. Writing entertaining articles is a particular and more difficult skill. However, writing informative articles can be as simple as sharing tips that you have learned.

You will probably already know the common problems that people have in your particular field, but if not, a good source of information is to look at related online forums and note the most common questions asked. If you don't have all the answers a small bit of research can assist. Often the answers are readily available with a Google search which the readers could do themselves. However, you are adding value and convenience by providing a range of answers in a single document.

Articles online can also be as short as 400 words long, so they aren’t as onerous as school or university essays. If you break the article into an introduction, a small number of sub-headings and a conclusion you may only have to write about 100 words in each section, making it even easier to write.

The first draft should be for your eyes only. Don't try to produce a final copy as you write. It tends to be much quicker to get your thoughts down and come back to edit later. The final step in the writing process is to proofread your article making sure that the writing flows and would be interesting to the reader. Ask yourself, 'does the article provide information the potential reader is looking for?’ It can also be helpful to have someone else proofread the article. This is also the time to remove spelling and grammatical errors.

Once you have written your article you should add it to your own web site, as well as submit it to article directories. Article submission can be a tedious process, but software and websites that can submit to multiple directories in one go exist to make the job much easier.

After writing your first few articles you will find it is not as daunting as it first appears. You never know, you may even want to offer your services as a freelance writer on the Internet as a way to make some extra income...!

Generating ideas for article
So just how do you come up with ideas for your next article? Here are several suggestions that may help...

Hang out in online forums. Watch what people are talking about. Look at the questions they are asking. The topics that are bringing the greatest number of visitors would make for an excellent article.

Watch TV. Take a look at what information is being broadcast on TV, radio, newspapers, and online. This information is usually a hot topic.

Read blogs. What are people posting about? What kind of comments are they leaving? What questions do they have? Blogs are the hot internet marketing medium right now and you can literally find them everywhere on any topic. This is an excellent source for your next article idea.

Take polls. Survey your current customers or website visitors. Ask them what kind of article they would like to see in your next ezine or published on your website.

Check bookstores online. What are the top sellers? This can be a good way to come up with an article that catches the attention of what people are reading.

Be seasonal. Write about what is going on that time of year. Holidays, festivals, sports, graduations, etc. all make for an article that someone will want to read.

Be fashionable. Write an article about a current fad. There is always something that is hot at the time and could make for interesting reading from you.

Take notes. Keep track of what your customers and prospects are asking you. If you get an email or phone call with a question this may make for a good article. Others may have the same question, but are afraid to ask it.

File things. Start a swipe file on what others are writing about. If it is of interest to you it will probably be of interest to others. Never plagiarise the work of others, but you can certainly get good ideas this way. The biggest benefit of a swipe file is having it handy to refer back to over and over whenever you are ready to write your article and are not sure what you want to write about.

Hopefully this will give you some ideas on how to come up with your next article. The online business that has interesting articles has a huge leg up on their competition. If you can master this strategy you will be amongst the top of your profession or industry.

How to choose and use domain names

noreply@blogger.com (Graham Jones) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 20:55:00 +0000

Your web site's "domain" name is important - it is the address which people will type to get to you. A "domain" name is made up of three parts - "www", telling us it is on the "world wide web" rather than on any other part of the Internet, such as usergroups (Usenet). The second part of the domain name is the descriptive part, such as a company name. The third part, which might be "com" or "uk" is known as the "TLD" or "top level domain" which is an indication of either the country, or of the type of web site (com = commercial, org = non profit organisation, for instance).

Many people visit web sites as a result of typing in the domain name. Or the domain name may be mentioned to them, by friends, or they hear it on the radio. So, your domain name needs to be memorable and short, as well as being descriptive. Here are some handy hints on how to select the right domain name for your online business or organisation.

1. Ensure your web site is focused
Far too many businesses try to put everything about their business on one web site under one domain name. But imagine your business is a hotel. Your guests could include people looking for a short break, a father looking for a special place for his daughter's wedding or a business owner hoping to organise a meeting. If the hotel domain name is "berkshirehotel.com" there is no reason for any of these potential visitors to remember it. But if the domain name is "shortbreaksinberkshire.com" or "greatberkshireweddinghotel.com" or "bestberkshirebusinesshotel.com" the individuals are much more likely to recall the names. However, it means that the hotel itself needs several, highly focused web sites, each devoted to specific groups of customers. It makes domain name selection much easier if this approach is taken. It also has significant search engine benefits.

2. Think like a web site visitor
Before you start considering potential domain names you need to be sure you are thinking from the perspective of your likely visitors. Often they will use different words to you for the same thing. For instance, real estate companies will often use the word "property" whereas their customers will use the word "house". If a domain name uses words that are less familiar to your potential audience, it won't work as well. If you don't know what words are those which your audience uses, then sign up for Wordtracker and do a search on the keywords people use. Then use the popular words you find to start your thinking.

3. Collect a range of ideas
Use the Wordtracker results, as well as discussions with your colleagues, friends and potential web site visitors, to produce a range of potential domain names. You may need to engage in some "brainstorming" or to use creativity software to help you come up with ideas. You also might like to use domain name creation web sites like Nameboy, which help you produce a range of ideas, using your keywords.

4. Buy all the top level variants you can
Once you have settled on a good domain name, it's a good idea to buy all the variants, such as "com", "co.uk" and so on. They can all point towards the same material, or you can produce country specific versions of the web site, for instance. But if you leave obvious variants of your domain name "on the shelf", other people can buy them and that could impact on your business. Similarly, you could buy variations of your domain name that include hyphens and non hyphens, such as "bestberkshirehotel.com" and "best-berkshire-hotel.com". The hyphened variation and the non-hyphened one can both point to the same material, but the version with hyphens are more appealing to the search engines. The non hyphened version is easier for us humans to remember and type.

5. Keep an eye on things
Constantly monitor your web site traffic and what's going on in your business world. Trends change, words change and the kind of domain names that worked one year, might not work the next. Hence you may need to change. You may also need to separate good performing parts of your web site into individual sites that will be more attractive to potential visitors under an even more specific domain name. You could also buy a domain name that is merely redirected to a particular page on your web site, to take advantage of new trends and ideas.

6. Final tip - be careful of the name you choose
Be aware that when you combine words into a domain name, they can have different meanings. For instance "penisland" is "pen island" not "penis land", or what about "therapistfinder"? This is actually for "therapist finder" not for "the rapist finder". You can find some other unintentionally weird domain names at Independent Sources.

How to get even more links for your web site

noreply@blogger.com (Graham Jones) — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 16:04:00 +0000

Links from one web site to another can be useful - but they can equally be destructive. Your web site needs links in order to boost traffic, but it needs the right kind of links. Otherwise all your good work on your web site could be to no avail.

There is a powerful reason why your web site needs links. If someone is reading information on another web site and that web site links to you within the main text of the article it is like a personal recommendation. We value personal recommendations, so links within the articles we read have particular worth.

However, for recommendations like these to be of real value they need to be personal. In other words, they need to be highly focused for the individual readers - not just links that "might" be useful, but which actually are of value.

Therefore getting links on any page - such as a web site run by a friend - is of no help to you. This is because there is no value in such a link to the reader. For example, let's assume you have a web site about business consultancy and your friend the florist also has a web site. So, the florist puts a link to your web site on theirs. In theory, sounds great. In practice, not so good at all. Why to people go to florist web sites? To find out about flowers and, perhaps, to buy them. No-one visiting a florist web site has in their mind at that moment the need for business consultancy; hence if there is a link to the consultancy on the florist web site, it has no appeal - it no longer has the same feel as a personal recommendation.

However, imagine your friend's web site is still that florist's web site. And let's pretend for a moment you have written a book about displaying flowers. Aha...! You see, there is now a much more obvious reason for a link.

Now I know this all sounds rather obvious, but far too many people chase links for links sake. Being able to say you have a thousand sites linking to you is impressive - but how many of those links make sense psychologically? If the links don't make any real sense to the visitors to the sites where those links appear, then you may as well not have the links in the first place.

Link Strategy - Step One
The first and most important step in gaining links is to ensure you find the right pages to link to you. What you are looking for are pages that have content that is directly related to what you want linked. So, for our florist example, having a link to your book on flower arranging would be no good on a page that was about pot plants. Equally, if you have several books, linking to the catalogue of them is no good either, because people will have to search for something of relevance - and they won't. So you need to find specific pages within your web site that you want to link to specific pages on other people's web sites. Appearing on a general "links list" has no human value since people rarely go trawling around lists of links - they go to Google instead which has far more links than any other web site.

Hence, you need to find suitable pages that could be linked to specific parts of your web site, or to particular content. One way of doing this is to choose an article or something you wish other people to link to. Then use Google or your favourite search engine to find related content. After that, contact the owners of that web site and point out to them that you have some content of value to their readers. They will then want to link to your content in order to improve what they offer to their marketplace.

You can semi-automate this with programs like Axandra's IBP and Arelis combination. This helps you locate suitable pages where you could gain links to your material. It also lets you email the page owners to offer them the opportunity of linking to your information.

Link Strategy - Step Two
Having found suitable pages which could contain your links it's time to move on to the next stage of ensuring you have good links. This is ensuring that your links are "contextual". Contextual links are ones that make sense to someone reading the text. Links that say something like "click here" or "more" don't help the reader because they don't tell them what the link is about. The link earlier in this paragraph makes it clear to you that the information you will find is about "contextual links" - links that make sense to real readers.

To ensure you get contextual links you need to prepare the HTML code for people who could potentially link to you. By doing this you are controlling the way they link to you so that it makes real sense to people reading the page where the link is going to be based. As a result, it helps boost your traffic more effectively. Here is the basic code you can use. Just swap "yourdomain" for your actual domain and "context words" for the words you want to trigger the link.

<A HREF="http://www.yourdomain.com">context words</A>

This simple line of HTML code is all you need to provide people with. They can then include this in the middle of articles and in places where it makes human sense to use the context words.

If you provide the traditional coding of a title, followed by a link and then a description of your site, it leaves the user of your code only one place to put the link - in a links directory, which is the last place you want it to be.

Link Strategy - Step Three
Although this is the third step, it is in fact the most important as the previous two steps are dependent upon it. You need to keep adding valuable content to your site. Otherwise sites that could link to you will have no reason to. Simply linking to other sites adds no real value to the site where the link is based. However, referring to useful articles and resources does add value. Hence the more content you add to your site, the more links you can generate.

Furthermore, if you publicise your new content using blogs or RSS feeds, or perhaps press releases as well, you will automatically gain publicity for your new content, thus attracting other web site owners towards it. Creating a piece of link code at the end of the article will allow other people to quickly link to your article once they have read it. You'll see at the bottom of this article a "permalink" to it which can be copied and pasted into any web page. I've also added a "context" link at the bottom as well, to show you what can be done. However, neither of these additional links to this web site would be possible without extra content.

Link Strategy - Conclusion
What you need is plenty of fresh new content that makes it appealing for people to connect to your site and recommend your articles and content to their own readers. You can make this more likely by providing the relevant code for other web site owners to use. Plus you can find relevant web pages that would benefit from the addition of your content to spread the word. Publicising your added content also helps attract potential link partners.

Seeking links in this way means that a site may provide you with several different links to your web pages, rather than a single link in a "links page". This adds significant benefits because it means you get much more exposure. Plus there is a further boost - via Google.

If Google sees plenty of links to your web site, it rates it as more valuable to readers than a site that has few links. Equally, if those links are in context, on a page that is relevant to the linked material, then they also get bonus points. Indeed, being in a simple links directory on a web site can do you more harm than good because your link could easily be associated with negative words or competition.

Adopting a strategy where you are seeking links to specific items of content in your web site is by far the best way to go. It adds more links to you, they are in human context, which coincidentally works best for Google as well, so it all adds to a search engine benefit.

Here is the code you can use yourself to link to this article:

<A HREF="http://www.grahamjones.co.uk/indepth/2007/10/ how-to-get-even-more-links-for-your-web.htm">links strategy</A>

7 steps to generating trust in your web site

noreply@blogger.com (Graham Jones) — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 21:34:00 +0000

Your readers need to trust your web site. They want to be sure that what you say is honest and accurate. They will believe your web site if they trust it.

Generating trust is relatively straightforward, providing you do the right things. So, what are the “right things” and how can you use them to boost confidence in your web site.

1. Get the look right
Online trust is gained or lost within fractions of a second. If your web site looks good and appropriate right from the first millisecond it opens you are on the right road to building trust. But how many untidy, scrappy, poorly constructed web pages have you seen? And how many of them did you instantly trust? Appearances can be deceptive, I know. But the immediate visual impact your site has can make or break the trust connection.

There are two immediate aspects to the visual appearance that people focus on. Firstly, the colour strikes them. Your colours need to be appropriate and complementary. For instance, if your web site is about gardening people expect greens and browns. If it’s about cars, the current “fashion” for cars is silver. Use the “wrong” colours and you reduce the likelihood of trust.

The second visual element is navigation. Web page readers expect to see navigation either down the left hand side, or in a menu on the top. Put your navigation elsewhere and your visual impact is lessened, reducing the possibility of engaging trust.

2. Get the feel right
Many people will be affected by how they feel when they open up your web page. Does you page make them feel positive, supported, helped and generally engaged? If, for instance, your web site is about business consultancy, yet it provides a feeling of being “jazzy” you are less likely to gain trust as people will “feel” it isn’t right, no matter how much they like the visual impact it creates.

Your web site needs to have the appropriate style, layout, typography and imagery to create the right feel for your particular kind of industry and your specific audience. If your web site doesn’t “connect” in this way, you will lose trust. Audience research is essential to get the right “feel” for your web site. Don’t simply fall in love with particular web site designs or be led by your web developers – be guided by your audience. If they feel right about it, you will gain more trust than going for the latest design trend.

3. Get the sound right
Your web site has a sound. It is the sound that people hear in their head when they read your web pages. The way we read involves turning the images of the text on a page or screen into sounds (in technical terms the “phonological loop”). If your pages are written in a stilted, business-language way, that’s the sound of your web page. Is that what you want people to hear? Or do you want them to hear something that is approachable and chatty. Neither is right or wrong per se. What you need is the right sound for your particular audience.

If your web pages do not sound right, you will lose trust because you will lose the connection between your site and your readers. The sound, just like the feel and the look, are important components in helping your readers connect with your web site. The more you can connect them, the more they will trust you.

4. Get the words right
What you say on your web page needs to be “professional”. People will trust you more if your text is well edited, has been spell-checked and proof read prior to publishing and has been through an obvious editorial process. If you use writers and editors, name them. Make it obvious if you use people to help you put your web site together. That way your readers can see the effort that goes into the writing process - and that helps build trust. If you write the web site yourself, it’s always useful to get someone to read your material; they may see errors you would otherwise miss. The more mistakes you can rectify before they reach the web site, the more trust and confidence you will gain from your readers.

5. Get the backing right
Everything of substance in your web site should have some backing. By that I mean it needs some justification. This could be in the form of examples, quotations or references. Equally you should link important statements you make to other reference sources so people can verify what you say. If you give your readers the ability to check up what you say and get third-party confirmation of your information, they will trust you even more.

6. Get the footnotes right
The footnotes to your pages should include contact information including phone numbers and addresses. If your readers can see that you exist in the physical world as well, they trust you even more. Ensure also that your page footnotes include links to privacy information as well as the logos of any security systems you use. Doing so helps reassure people that you will look after them and their personal information they submit to you. This further boosts the confidence they have in your web site,

7. Get the interaction right
People trust organisations they can interact with more than faceless, distant, monoliths. If your web site does not allow any kind of interaction it means that your pages will engender less trust. Having blog comments, or social networking features enabled in your web site will allow people to take part. Web forms on contact pages also help, because it means people have an easy way of getting in touch. Making your web site searchable is another interactive feature that helps boost confidence in your web site. If your site is static, does not allow any kind of interaction and is all “one-way”, you will not gain as much trust as a competing site that includes interactive features.

These seven steps will go a considerable way to helping people trust your web site and have confidence in what you publish. The more they trust you and have confidence in you, the easier it will be for you to sell your services and products. Trust is an essential component in sales transactions; building trust into your entire web site plans will help your business sell more.

How to make social networking work for you

noreply@blogger.com (Graham Jones) — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 13:28:00 +0000

Social networking is clearly taking off. Indeed, Facebook is getting around 150,000 new members every day of the week. Add to that MySpace, YouTube, Bebo and specialist sites like Ecademy and you can see that before long the whole Internet world will be in some social network or another.

Why you should join social networks
Although many social networks appear to be frequented by music loving teenagers, in fact there are several places in these networks for business people, the older generation and anyone with a specialist interest. The average age for people on MySpace is reportedly 43. So, social networks are not just for teenagers - they are for all of us.

However, for those in business, social networks provide a rich source of market research and potential customers. Social networks also help businesses build reputation and brand awareness. Being outside a social network is rather like a business being separated from where the action is. If you have an online business and you are not participating in some way with social networking, there are potential dangers for your business.

What if you don't take part in social networks?
If you don't use social networks in one way or another you will be less likely to keep up to date with current views and trends. This could have damaging consequences as your business may quickly offer things which are considered "old fashioned" or out-of-date. Furthermore, the social nature of these networks mean they can increase popularity for particular products or brands. If you are outside social networks you lose the potential power of "viral recommendation", making what you sell more popular. Therefore if you don't take part in social networking sites, there is a potential downside.

Which social networks should you join?
If you are in business there are four essential social networks. These are LinkedIn, Fastpitch, Facebook and Ecademy. Each has different features and benefits. For instance, LinkedIn allows you to contact people who you have never met before, but effect an introduction through someone they know and who you also know. This means that the contacts are more trusted as they come from people who you know.

Fastpitch is another business-focused social network that helps find people who match you in several ways. This helps automate the process of bringing you into contact with other business owners who could help you, or even be a customer. Fastpitch also provides a way of publishing your press releases.

Facebook has the advantage that it is huge. People from all walks of life are on there, plus there are countless specialist groups on everything from abseiling to zoology. This means you can find people who are interested in what you are selling or who could provide you with advice, support and research in your niche area.

Ecademy is the smallest of the networking groups, but for anyone in business it is a good place to go because it is a network of business people who all support each other and provide ideas and leads for one another. There are also several specialist clubs within Ecademy to focus on specific areas of business.

Finding other social networks
Although the main social networks will help your business, there are plenty of others around that can also provide useful contacts. A good place to look is in the Yahoo Directory of Social Networks or in Online Community Management. Also, take a look at Ning. This has a whole range of specialist social networks; indeed if you can't find a network to suit your needs, you can even start one up using the Ning system.

What to do on social networks
Once you have joined the social networks that are relevant to you, what should you do? Take part, get involved, be visible. An online social network is similar to a traditional meeting. Say you were invited to an evening meeting with drinks and sandwiches where a wide range of local business people were going to be there - hundreds of them. If all you did was cuddle your drink and not speak to anyone all evening it would be a complete waste of your time. You would obviously start chatting to people. Cautiously at first, probably, you would chit-chat before getting on to more serious stuff.

It's the same with online social networks. Just start chatting to people. You can either do this randomly, as you might at that imaginary evening meeting. Or you can talk to people you already know. So, search for your existing contacts to see if they are in that social network. If not, all of the main social networking sites have tools that allow you to invite your existing friends and colleagues to join in. You can even import your contacts list in many instances. Facebook, for example, will trawl through an existing contacts list and see if any of your contacts are already members, if so, connecting you.

Set up a group or club
To get yourself noticed, set up a specialist group on Facebook or within Ecademy, for instance. This will associate your name with that particular interest, helping establish your reputation within the network. Invite people to join that group, advertise it using the tools within the social network and encourage discussion within the group itself.

If a group or club already exists, join it and become one of the regular contributors. You want people to associate your name or company with the topic. That way when other people discuss things in the network, they will probably refer to you.

Make social networking part of your routine
The best way to ensure you get the most out of social networking is to make it a daily activity. Whether you do this first thing in the morning, over lunch or just before bed does not matter. What matters, though, is making it a habit by doing it so regularly it becomes second nature.

Just log in, read any messages, check in to your groups, start a discussion and search for new contacts. That would be a good start to each session with your main social networking groups. Then, take a look round the other groups that are associated with your particular business area. These will be rich sources of market research, information and useful links and ideas to help your business.

Depending on which social network you are working in, you can also post adverts or marketing listings, special events and press releases. However, the key activity you should be doing within each social network is taking part - rather than just reading. Most social networking members are "lurkers" - they simply stand on the sidelines and read what is being written without actually contributing. This means the other people don't know they are there. Being visible in a social networking site will dramatically increase your reputation and brand awareness. To do this you need to be an active member of each network you join.

Build your network
Part of your daily routine in your social network should be to build your network. Find people you can connect with, who share your interests and ask them to connect with you. The more people you connect with, the more influence you can have, plus the more viral your messaging can become. If you give some advice or an idea to one of your contacts they can often pass it on to their friends. But if you have few contacts in your network, you are limiting the impact of your information. The more contacts you have, the more widely your reputation can be disseminated.

So, social networking can be a real help to your business, either in finding new customers or conducting market research. But neither of those things will happen unless you make social networking a real business activity; you cannot "tinker" at it, you need to do it properly.

A useful blog post on social networking can be found at the Digital Biographer.

10 ways to get your web site noticed

noreply@blogger.com (Graham Jones) — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 05:39:00 +0000

With billions of web pages it can sometimes be hard getting yourself noticed. What can you do to stand out from the crowd? How can you get your web pages highlighted and sought after? Here are 12 ways in which you can get more attention for your web site.

1. Fill your web site with content
Your web site visitors are not interested in you, they are more concerned with their own world, their own problems, their own difficulties. If your web site is full of information that can help them cope in their world, remove their problems, or ease their difficulties, they will appreciate you. So, focus your web site on the content you provide. There are several ways you can do this. One is to provide a blog as part of your site, though you will need to update this at least daily if it is to have any real impact. An alternative is to have an articles section where you include more detailed information than you might have in a blog. You could also have in-depth reports that people download directly from your web site. However you do it, just focus your strategy on providing content - and lots of it. But the content must be practical, useful material that your readers can directly benefit from.

2. Use the words your web site visitors use
Whatever your web site is about, it will only attract attention if it is using the language of your target audience. If, for instance, you have a web site that offers "take-away foods" it is not going to get much attention in parts of the world where they call such things "carry-outs". In other words, your content must match your audience. Don't use the words and jargon you might use in your business, but use the words your potential customers use. If you don't know what they are, ask them. Also make sure you check the words that people will use to search for your site using Wordtracker.

3. Have a design that follows the standards
People have become used to certain online conventions - links in blue, underlined, for instance. Even though it may be tempting to appear different or unique, if you do not follow the standard conventions your web site becomes less appealing to people. So this means, for instance, having the navigation down the left hand side of the page, or along the top. It means having a footer on each page with your contact details. It means using the conventional colours to signal links, emails and so on. If you try to do something different you confuse your visitors meaning they are less likely to return and even less likely to tell their friends about your site.

4. Get your site listed in directories
People often use directories to find appropriate web sites. You need listing in all the relevant directories to your business. To find specific directories that you can get listed in, use a program like Internet Business Promoter. This helps you locate subject specific directories and manage your submission to them. Also, get yourself listed in DMOZ - it might take some time, be patient, but a listing here is helpful as many other directories and search engines use data from DMOZ. Getting a listing in the Yahoo Directory is also worthwhile paying for. Within seven days you could be listed on one of the most popular online directories.

5. Gain benefit from Wikipedia
One of the most popular online resources is Wikipedia - the online encyclopaedia edited by volunteers. Contributing content on your areas of expertise will help bring attention to you and your web site. You cannot simply put up a Wikipedia page all about your business - that would be considered "spam". But adding to existing pages, including your links where appropriate to relevant content on your web site, would be valuable to readers of Wikipedia and to your business.

6. Get links to your site
Having other people link to your site is essential. It shows that they trust you and like you enough to recommend you. Don't look for any old link; have a strategy to gain links from relevant sites that are also respected. A link on a relevant and respected site is worth many, many times more than a link on someone's site just because you happen to know them. So, if you are selling lawn mowers, get your site linked on gardening sites, web sites about grass growing and so on. Another way of generating useful links is to get your site bookmarked in del.icio.us and on Digg. Look for other social bookmarking sites like these in your specialist field. Try also StumbleUpon and ReddIt. To find useful sites to link to your web site you need Internet Business Promoter's Arelis feature.

7. Get involved online
Take part in forum discussions, Google Groups, Yahoo Groups and other discussion sites. Contribute also to Yahoo Answers. In doing so you bring attention to your expertise and also you get the opportunity to add a link to your web site or some of your appropriate content. Also, be on the lookout for blogs to which you can add comments, again showing your expertise and adding links to your web site, bringing it even more attention. To find suitable blogs use Google Blog Search.

8. Use traditional Public Relations
Many web site owners focus all their efforts online, forgetting that the "offline" world is a great way to publicise their web site. Indeed, the owners of Google did a considerable amount of PR to get their venture up and running. So take a tip from them, get as much "offline" publicity as you can. Get yourself listed in Expert Sources - journalists use this to find people to interview. Also make sure your web site has a "media" page that has all your contact details, examples of the kind of media exposure you are available for, links to articles about you, radio programmes you have featured in etc. Also, your web site media centre will need a selection of high resolution photographs of you and your business as well as a short business and personal biography. Your media centre should also include your press releases, if you have them. Journalists look at your web site and if they see a media centre they realise you are "friendly" towards the media and therefore are more likely to approach you. You can also distribute press releases automatically using Press Equalizer.

9. Take part in social networking sites
Use sites like Facebook, MySpace and Ecademy to bring attention to your expertise. On Ecademy you can become a "club leader" for your particular topic and on Facebook you can set up specialist groups on your area of expertise. By contributing to these sites - and others in your specialist area - you bring even more attention to your web site. Furthermore, you make it easy for your online contacts to mention your web site to other people online, thus further promoting your site. For a list of sites you can work with go to this list of social networking sites.

10. Take up public speaking
Every day there are thousands of business meetings that need speakers. All sorts of meetings are taking place from Chambers of Commerce breakfast meetings to lunchtime seminars to workshops and conferences. All need speakers. By offering yourself to business organisations as a speaker on your topic you can promote your business and gain further attention for your web site. In your talks all you need to do is mention your web site and some of the additional content you have available. Give everyone in the audience a handout or business card and they will all go to your web site as they have heard you speak and already have a relationship with you as a result. If you are nervous about speaking in public get some advice or training in presentation skills.

So, there you have it, ten ways you can get your web site noticed - and you didn't have to go near search engine optimisation!

How to set up an e-newsletter or ezine

noreply@blogger.com (Graham Jones) — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 06:34:00 +0000

Readers of online newsletters are seeking information. There are thousands of people eager to soak up material on their favourite topic. If you have knowledge or expertise on a specific topic you should be publishing an e-newsletter of "ezine".

What is an ezine?
An ezine or e-newsletter is information sent out on a regular basis via email. The material you send in an ezine can be designed to look like a web page, or it can be straightforward text like a traditional email. There are many different kinds of ezines as there are varieties of printed publications.

First, choose your topic
A general ezine is unlikely to be successful. Focus on a specific topic, rather than seeing an ezine as a means of publicizing your business in general terms. In fact if you see the ezine merely as a promotional tool, you won't get many readers. Your e-newsletter needs to help your readers in a practical, problem solving sense. Find something they are interested in and write about that. If you don't know what to have as an ezine topic go to Wordtracker and check out what people are actually searching for. This should help stimulate your ideas.

Decide on a newsletter structure
Having settled on your topic you then need to work out a structure for your newsletter. What sections will you break it up into? Will you include news or will it just be opinion? Will you have "how to" articles? Case histories? Tips and hints section? You need to consider all the items and kinds of things you would like to include. You also need to make sure you are going to have enough supply of the kind of information you wish to include. For instance, don't include a tips section if you can only come up with a handful of such tips - your newsletter won't last long that way! Once you have decided what items to include, work out the order you think they should go in. You want to produce a "format" that your readers will easily identify. For instance newspapers often start with major news, then local news, then world news, then features, then the TV section, then business and then sport. It's a regular formula they use day in, day out, so that readers always know where they are. You need to produce a similar formula for your ezine so that your readers always know where they are in your newsletter.

Settle on a format
Now you have your outline plan for your newsletter sorted out, you need then to consider the format. Will it be like a web page (an HTML newsletter) or will you use a text-only format? Will you simply send out a short email with a link to a newsletter on a web page? Or will you make your newsletter available via a blog? You could also consider will the ezine be distributed as a PDF file, or will you also make it available in printed form? You need to consider all these aspects for your particular market. Only when you have decided the overall format should you continue with other aspects of ezine production. If, for instance, you decide to produce a text only newsletter, this won't look good if you later think you should distribute via the PDF route. That would mean a complete overhaul of your newsletter. To avoid that scenario, work out at the beginning what you would like the ezine to look like in overall terms. Only then should you proceed with any designs.

Design a template
After you have worked out your general format for the newsletter you need to produce a template. This will provide the look and feel of each issue. Even if you are only producing a text-only newsletter you will need a template that would include the way headings will look, the page footer and so on. For HTML newsletters or those in print your template should include graphics such as headers and picture positions, headline size and format as well as the basic text layout of each item of your ezine. If you want some inspiration you can get free newsletter templates from Templates Box. You can produce your template in a web design program, or a specific ezine production system such as Constant Contact.

Plan your first few issues
Now you have a good idea what your newsletter will look like so it is much easier to think about it as a "real thing". That's the point where you can start planning. Don't be tempted to rush into producing the first issue. The best publications are well planned in advance. Try to organise the list of articles you will write for the first six issues. Then each time you produce a newsletter plan the one six issues ahead. You will always have a rolling production line of ideas and material you can use in your newsletter. That way you will not run out of ideas at the time you need to publish. Ezine publishers are often frustrated by the fact they have little to write about just when they need to go "to press". However, with a six issue production plan, you will always be organised.

Work out the frequency of publication
With your ezine now well organised you can work out how often you can sustain the publication. How hard was it to come up with ideas for the newsletter? Could you do that every day, every week or each month? Also you will need to consider how frequently your readers will need your information. If, for instance, you are writing about investing in the stock market you will probably need a daily newsletter as stock and shares change each day. But if you are writing about painting and decorating you might only need a monthly newsletter. Consider, though, that anything less than monthly rarely gets reader loyalty because your ezine is too easily forgotten. Twice a month is good, weekly is excellent, but monthly will do if you simply cannot produce your newsletter easily.

Set up a production schedule
After you have done all the initial planning you need a schedule. You should insert dates, deadlines and timetabled working periods into your diary. Considerable numbers of ezines "bite the dust" because their owners fail to adequately allocate enough time for all the research and writing. It might only be an hour or two each week or month, but if you do not timetable it, there's a chance it won't get done. That means you will miss your production deadline and your readers will start to lose faith in your publication. The only way out of this is to set yourself deadlines for research and writing and then stick to them.

Get writing!
Now that all the planning has been done, you can get writing - or get a freelance writer to do the writing for you. Your planning will be helpful to a freelance writer and will also save you money as they won't have to do any organising for you. Stick to the outline of your newsletter, slot in the articles scheduled for your first issue and get it published! You are away - your first ezine is available and you can start benefiting from it.

How to manage multiple blogs

noreply@blogger.com (Graham Jones) — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 07:54:00 +0000

While some bloggers may focus exclusively on only one blog at a time, there are many bloggers who manage to maintain several different blogs concurrently. However, not all bloggers do this successfully. Some bloggers compromise quality of content as well as quantity of content by trying to maintain too many blogs while other bloggers have the ability to keep several blogs up to date and interesting to visitors. There are a few key elements to maintaining multiple successful blogs. This article will discuss some of these elements including keeping content original, keeping blogs up to date and budgeting time to work on each blog.

Keeping Content Original
Bloggers who maintain multiple blogs must be careful to keep the content of each blog original. Even if the blogger maintains several related blogs it is important to ensure each of these blogs has original blog postings. This will help to prevent blog visitors from feeling as though the information they are receiving is not original. It will also help to prevent readers who frequently visit one or more of the bloggers blogs from deciding to start only visiting one of the blogs because they feel the postings are redundant.

Bloggers are also advised against stealing posts from other similar blogs. This is not only illegal but is also not likely to help the blogger much because dedicated readers of the original blog are likely to realize the new blog is simply stealing content from a more successful blog.

Keeping Each Blog Up to Date
Bloggers who maintain multiple blogs are also advised to ensure each blog is kept up to date. This means they should take care to post on each blog regularly. Doing this will help to avoid problems which stem from blog visitors feeling as though the blogs are stagnant. Even the most interesting and informative blogs can lose traffic quickly if the blog visitors do not see new content on a regular basis. The Internet is continually evolving and updating. As a result Internet users can afford to be finicky and are not likely to remain dedicated to a blog which does not post new information regularly because they can likely find other blogs available which do provide updates on a more frequent basis.

Finding Time to Work on Each Blog
Bloggers who maintain several blogs are also tasked with the dilemma of finding time to work on each blog. However, this is very important because bloggers cannot afford to neglect one or more of their blogs. Doing this can result in a marked decline in blog traffic. Therefore bloggers who wish to maintain multiple blogs must budget their time carefully to ensure they are dedicating sufficient time to each blog. This time management exercise may start out by assessing the needs of each blog.

Some blogs may require a great deal of time and effort each week to keep the blog functioning properly while other blogs may require only a small amount of time for the same purpose. In general blogs which require a great deal of research will require more time and energy of the blogger than blogs which are based on the bloggers opinions and feelings and are therefore not as research intensive. Once you have determined how much time it will be required to maintain each blog, you can schedule his time accordingly. However, you should plan to evaluate how well each blog is operating and may have to make adjustments to the schedule as needed. Additionally, you may also need to make a decision to eliminate a blog or enlist assistance in keeping the blogs updated if necessary.

One particularly important factor in successful time management for blogging is the production of an "editorial schedule". This is a plan for what you will write about in each of your blogs. Get this plan set up in advance and you will find it easier to think about what to write. Newspapers, for instance, always divide their pages into sections meaning they always know what to find for each part of their publication. If you do the same for your blogs, planning what to write becomes so much easier.

How to make sure you have the right web host

noreply@blogger.com (Graham Jones) — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 07:23:00 +0000

Your web host needed to be reliable, capable and affordable. But what features should you look for in a hosting company? Here are some ideas.

Reliability and Speed
Often "hosting companies" are actually resellers. This means they own nothing other than the web site where you sign up. What you want is to deal with a company that owns its own equipment and can guarantee 99% or better availability of your web site. That means you can count on your site being live virtually all of the time and that you will have access to it and your email. Being able to guarantee that type of reliability will generally require that the host have back up server capability. If you're not sure, check before you commit. Resellers can be a good thing if they bring better and more knowledgeable support to their resold services. Unfortunately, many resellers do not really have the resources or knowledge to adequately support you.

Easily accessible customer support
Look for both web-based and telephone support. One or the other should be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Web solutions may include both email (or an email-based support ticket system) and live chat. You'll also want the support to be intelligent, reliable, and friendly. In addition, it will be helpful if they offer help files you can download or access online. Actually try their support and see if they respond quickly enough for your needs and if their support staff is helpful and knowledgeable.

Operating Systems
Do they use a standard operating system configuration that they keep updated on a routine basis? If they do not, you may have trouble getting newer scripts to work. They should offer both Linux and Windows servers for greatest flexibility.

Multiple domain hosting
If you never plan to create more than one website, this feature may not be important to you. But for most businesses, this is an important consideration when choosing a web host. Most web hosts today offer cost-effective options for hosting more than one domain on an account. Some even offer unlimited domains for one low monthly (or quarterly) rate. See www.hostseveralsites.com for a good example.

Email
How many email accounts do they provide? Are they POP email accounts? Can you add forwarders and email aliases? Look for web mail access as well. The better the service, the more options they will provide for email.

User Control Panel
Look for a comprehensive user control panel that allows you to manage your hosting account. There are many control panels than these so take a look at their demo system if they have one so that you can test it out.

Storage space and bandwidth
You want to plan for future growth of your site, both in terms of the size of the site itself, and in the amount of traffic it attracts. Ideally, you'll sign up with a web host that won't penalize you for your growth, at least not for a long time. 1Gb is a good minimum, and if necessary you should be able to easily upgrade your space without having to switch hosts.

Language and Database Support
They should support the key programming languages and databases that are used by web site scripts and should keep these up to date as well. On Linux you should look for PHP and Perl at the least. For a database, look for MySQL. You should be allowed at least one database. You should have your own CGI Bin. On Windows systems, look for MS Access at the least and MS SQL Server for power and speed. If you want to use the Microsoft .NET framework, your hosting will need to support that.

FTP Access
Many inexpensive hosting services do not provide File Transfer Protocol (FTP) access. You will need FTP access if you plan to add much material to your website or if you need to install scripts on your website. Also check that you can change permissions on your files via FTP or through SSH.

Domain Names
You should be able to register your domain names through the web hosting company. Otherwise you will find it difficult to administer things and set up sites. So check they do domain registration. There should be no restrictions on sub-domains.

Log files and statistics
You'll want to evaluate your site's performance over time, once it gets going. So having access to free statistics software and web logs will help with that analysis. Does the hosting service include a statistics program so you can monitor your website traffic?

Bandwidth
The main difference between the basic and expensive plans of any hosting service is the amount of bandwidth allowed per month. To figure how much bandwidth you need per month, multiply your visits per day x page views per visit x average page size x 30 days.

Example: 100 visits per day, 5 page views per visit, with a page size of 45 kb: 100 x 5 x 45 KB x 30 = 675,000 KB = 675 MB.

Try to get as much bandwidth for your money as possible, but beware of web hosting services that offer unlimited bandwidth. Read the fine print and their terms of use carefully. There is usually some kind of restriction that you will need to be aware of. Make sure you read up on how they charge you if you exceed your monthly bandwidth and what upgrades they have available.

Backups
There should be some sort of plan for backups with your web host. Ideally, they'll include it in your price, but you may have to pay extra. All companies, though, should be doing some sort of backing up as a routine security measure. Find out, too, what is backed up, e.g., files, databases, server settings, etc.

eCommerce
If you plan to run a shopping cart or secure payments or data transfers on your website, you need to make sure that the hosting service supports SSL.

Additional thoughts
You pay for what you get. If you find free hosting or very cheap hosting expect very cheap levels of service. You are asking for trouble because they probably do not make enough money to adequately support their equipment, systems or you.

Windows servers are usually more expensive than Linux servers because the Windows operating systems are not open source. The hosting company has to pay for using them.

When you are comparing plans, keep in mind that you are getting a better deal at £14.99 per month for ten domain names than £3.99 per month for one.

When you are looking for hosting don't be afraid to ask questions. Good hosting services have no problem directing you to helpful information or answering your questions in a way that you can understand.

Go virtual
A virtual dedicated server lets you run your sites as if you had your own "dedicated" server, except it is cheaper because you are really just using part of a server that has been split into multiple virtual dedicated servers.

You will find virtual dedicated server accounts starting at just £14.99 a month. You'll get a much larger chunk of bandwidth compared to shared hosting, and none of the problems that go with a shared host. You can also get multiple IP addresses that are exclusive to your sites.

So what's the catch? Not much. You'll probably spend a bit more on hosting each month. The main disadvantage of upgrading to virtual dedicated hosting is that you will need to be more technically proficient so that you can administer the server.

This requires a bit of time learning the necessary skills to make sure your server runs smoothly.

Many hosting providers will have a "premium" support offering that includes a bit more hand holding - this is definitely recommended if you don't have much experience with Linux, or are new to virtual dedicated hosting.

With the increased speed and bandwidth that a virtual dedicated host offers, and none of the shared hosting headaches, the move is one you will never regret. So, the question now becomes, are to ready and willing to take-on the challenge of virtual dedicated web hosting and save yourself some hard earned cash?

Keep your email messages short

noreply@blogger.com (Graham Jones) — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 08:01:00 +0000

Sometimes email messages can get quite long, especially when you quote much of the material that has been sent in previous emails. Also, emails often get long if you have a lot to say or you need to give a comprehensive overview of a particular business situation.

Most people tend to find that the letters and emails they receive that are short are the ones they responded to most positively and had the best feelings about. Long letters do get a positive response - however, almost invariably, long communications are only given a positive rating if we have a very close and warm relationship with the person who has written to us. We rarely feel positive towards acquaintances and people we do not know, who send us long letters or emails. This has important implications for people using email in business. The vast majority of your emails at work are going to be sent to people you do not know or have only the slimmest of relationships with. Hence anything other than a short email is likely to lead towards a negative feeling in your reader. Play safe; keep it short!

This is all very well in theory, of course, but in practice, particularly at work, you need to include a lot of material. The answer is to treat the email as though it were a covering letter. Then attach the main text as a separate word processor document. All email programs can attach files to them, yet vast numbers of emails are sent without using this facility. The advantage of putting your main material in an attachment is that your recipient immediately views your message in a positive light because it is short and to the point. You should summarise the content of the attachment in a sentence or two - in that way your reader can gain all they need to know, without having to open the attached file. However, if they need more depth you have provided it for them.

One technique you can use for shortening your email is to write the main message in your word processing software, with all the detail you need. Then take a break, do something else and later on, read through your text. Now try to summarise it in a few sentences - that summary should be the main part of your email. Trying to summarise something you have just written is difficult as all the detail will still be in your mind. That's why taking a break can help you as you leave your mind uncluttered and make summary writing much easier. Your summary email, together with the word processor document as an attachment is much more likely to please your recipient. This means there is considerable value in taking time to construct your email properly, rather than just dashing something off.

Another way in which you can be sure of keeping emails short is to avoid "quoting" vast amounts of previous emails. One of the benefits of the "reply" button on email programs is that you can quote the previous email. In this way the recipient can easily see what you are responding to. However, since many emails go back and forth between various people, the message can quickly become very long indeed — even though most of it is material from previous messages. The answer to solving this is to only quote what you need to send someone in order to make your reply understandable. By all means, press the ‘reply’ button to quote the original email, but then go through the quoted text and delete everything that is irrelevant to what you are going to write about. Doing so is seeing the message from your reader’s viewpoint - they don’t want to wade through the original text (their own!) just to see which point you are commenting on. It is much easier from their viewpoint if your reply is clear. In other words, only use selective quoting - not wholesale quoting of emails as is the most common practice.

An additional reason why some emails are so long is because the author is trying to cover various topics. They are almost ‘brain dumping’ everything they can think of that is important or relevant to the reader. Meanwhile, the poor recipient has to work their way through this mess to try and find out what is important. Good communication, particularly to people we don't know, is focused communication. That means, in essence, that each email should be about one topic and one topic only. A hint to this is given in the email software itself where you have to type a "subject" for your email.

If your emails are about more than one subject - stop! Each email should only be about one subject. Your recipient will react far more positively if you sent four separate short emails about four subjects than trying to cram all the material into one, inevitably longer message. Also, when these separate messages get replied to, the quoted material is shorter. Hence, think always, one message - one email.

How to increase the content of your blog

noreply@blogger.com (Graham Jones) — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 13:51:00 +0000

Daily posting in your blog is essential if you are to get visitors. Think about it from the readers' perspective for a moment. They come to your site because your information is valuable to them. But like readers of newspapers they expect more than just an occasional snippet of information. Newspapers get readers because they come out regularly and because they contain several items of information.

A newspaper does not come out only when the writers can think of something, or "every now and then". Newspapers come out every day, or every week, even if the writers get stuck. The space gets filled no matter what. The reason behind that is psychological. If your favourite newspaper changed its publication schedule willy-nilly or changed its format - two pages today, 22 pages tomorrow - you would soon give up because of the lack of consistency. And so it is with blogs; if your blog does not come out on schedule you will lose readers. So too will you lose readers if you don't write enough.

New analysis of web site traffic suggests that the best sites are publishing around 25 posts per day. That might be too much for you to manage, but blogging multiple times each day is now essential if you wish to gain high traffic levels. Yet, this sound difficult if you are only using blogging as a promotional tool. However, it can be done. Here are several strategies you can use.

1. Set up a production schedule
Instead of blogging when you feel like it, blog to a schedule. Consider how many posts you want to make - say 10 a week. Set up a schedule that works with your other commitments. Perhaps one blog every day of the week and then five on Sunday, perhaps. It doesn't matter too much exactly what you do, but by setting a schedule with deadlines you are more likely to achieve the multiple posts you need.

2. Develop theme ideas for your blog
In your planning for your blog, divide your subject into several themes. For instance, my blog, has seven themes, one for every day of the week. Monday it is about running a business online, Tuesday is blogging, Saturday is Internet shopping and so on. By establishing themes for your blog, you will find it easier to write. For instance, on Tuesdays I know it is "blogging" day, so I have to think about writing about that subject, rather than waiting for inspiration to write on any subject.

3. Set up Google Alerts for your themes
Go to Google Alerts and set up daily reports for your themes. By setting up these alerts, Google will send you an email, together with appropriate links for any new web sites, news items, or blog entries on your particular theme. That way you get notified each day about new information that could stimulate your blog writing. All you then do is look at your theme for the day, then go to your inbox and pick out the Google alerts on that theme and then see what you can write about.

4. Personalise your Google Home Page
Set Google as your home page but use the "personalise" option to add all sorts of relevant news services to it. In this way your browser will always show up to date information, blogs and other useful resources on your desired subjects. Blogger Personalised Home also allows you to set up "tabs"; you could have one for each of your themes, providing you with even more resources to trigger your writing.

5. Allow others to contribute to your blog
No matter which blogging software you use, it is possible to allow other people to contribute to your blog. By giving a trusted partner access to your blog you can get them to add content, thus increasing the value of your blog. Give your contributors themes, deadlines and word counts to achieve. That way you are sure your blog will not get repetitive, plus it will contain valuable content, rather than a one-liner and a link.

6. Invite "guest bloggers" to take part
Have a look around using Google Blogsearch for bloggers writing on the same subject as you. Then, invite them to write a "guest" entry for your blog. Give them a deadline, a topic and a word count. Tell them that all they need to do is email the text to you and that you'll post it on your blog within a day or two. Also, let them have a link to their own blog. You could also suggest you write a guest posting for their blog too, to help promote your blog.

7. Use articles from directories
Go to Ezine Articles and search for articles on your themes and topics. Copy the articles and add them to your blog, crediting the author. Contact the author and let them know you have done this - they may become a regular guest blogger or commenter for your blog.

8. Edit material from "private label" sites
Private label sites provide you with text you can use that you call your own. It's like having a permanent "ghost writer" on your team. Private label sites, such as Infogoround or Private Label Monthly allow you to take articles written by other people and include them in your blog and put your own name to them. Although this sounds great, the problem is that thousands of other web site owners do the same. This means if you use the private label content as it is, your blog will not be unique and this will help you lose ranking in search engines. However, if you take the private label material, edit it and adapt it to make it unique, your blog will benefit. Often editing material is quicker than generating it from scratch, so private label sites like these do have a place.

9. Hire a ghost writer
Get someone else to write some of your blog entries. Go to Elance and post a project for someone to write blog entries for you. You will get offers from all sorts of writers and you will be able to select the best one for your particular needs. Prices vary according to what you want, but someone who writes around 150 words a day, every day of the week for you should cost around $175 a month.

10. Pre-write your blogs
TV soap operas have their storylines set up for many months in advance. Indeed, TV schedulers will now what is happening two to three years ahead, otherwise the programmes could not be commissioned and prepared. Their way of working could be your way of working too. Devise a "schedule" of your blogs for the coming three months, say. Then spend a couple of days just writing all the blog entries you will need for that time span. All you will need to do in the coming months is copy and paste each blog entry as and when it is needed - you could even pay a junior assistant to do that for you.

So, as you can see there are several ways you can dramatically increase your blogging output. Follow these ideas and the content of your blog will rise dramatically and that will, in turn, have a significant impact on your traffic.

How to set up a rapid response email system

noreply@blogger.com (Graham Jones) — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 08:14:00 +0000

Your business needs a rapid response email system. Without such a service your company or organisation will lose reputation as well as custom. In other words if you do not have a rapid response email system in place, you will lose money and could damage the entire future of your business.

Research suggests that customers want you to respond within one hour of their email. They find that waiting any longer is annoying and is deemed rude. So if you do not reply within the hour you are damaging your reputation and storing up negative feelings about your company within your audience.

So how do you organise a one-hour response system? There are two difficulties that you will face however you do this. Firstly, you may work alone or in a small organisation where one-hour responses are difficult to organise as you have so much else to do. Secondly, your business may be so busy generally that you cannot cope with the volume of emails you receive and that need answering within an hour.

The first step to take is to analyze the kind of emails you receive from customers. Do they ask similar questions? Are they on recurring topics? Who are they addressed to? What are the most frequent things you are asked about?

Once you have done some analysis of your emails you can then work out what to do with them to reduce the volume that you need to handle, but also to ensure that people get a reply within the hour. The best way of doing this is to publish several different email addresses that will focus on the specific areas your customers want to contact you about. Then each email address should be set up as an autoresponder so that an immediate response is provided.

An example of a rapid response email system
Here is an example that will help you see what you can do to improve your email response.

An Internet marketer sells information in a subscription-only membership site. The members of the site contact the owner for several reasons including:

Payment issues

Navigation problems

Information suggestions

The company has set up three email addresses, one for each of these areas:

payments@companydomain.com

website@companydomain.com

suggestions@companydomain.com

Then for each of those email addresses they have used Marketer's Choice to establish an autoresponder. So, as soon as someone sends a question to 'payments' for instance an email is sent out which says that a detailed response will be provided soon, but in the meantime 'here are the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions we get about payments'. In this way, anyone asking about payment information is provided with a personal response, immediately upon sending an email. If they subsequently respond to that autoresponder email (because their question is not covered in the FAQs) the reply is diverted to another email address which alerts the Internet marketer with an SMS text message. In that way they know they have an urgent email which requires immediate response.

My own example
In my case as a single Internet marketer I have found that most of the emails I get from customers relate to issues at the final stages of the buying process. Things like not getting the download link, or the non delivery of a receipt are the kind of things that most people ask about. Often, the answer is simply that their spam filtering system has blocked the emails. So, I have set up a "support@" email which goes out to anyone requesting support.

Using the Marketer's Choice system means an immediate response goes out. I then get a message telling me who is looking for support. I also build up a mailing list of people who asked for support, which I can then use for further contacts or market research. If I used my ISPs autoresponder system I would not have any of these advantages.

By having this immediate response I have found that people trust me and like my business more than similar businesses. The people who have emailed my "support@" email address tell me they were impressed by the quick response and that they found the FAQs in the email very helpful. Indeed, only a handful of people have needed further help. What this has all meant is that I have provided rapid response to emails from my customers, keeping them happy and enhancing my business reputation. In addition, it has reduced my email workflow, freeing up time to work on the business.

Other options
Your volume of emails, of course, may be greater. Or you may have a kind of business that needs a more individual response. In this case you could delegate much of your email answering to a call centre. Many of the online 24/7 call centres will now also answer emails for you. The basis for each response can be provided by you in the form of templates. But these email centres mean you can respond to customers within an hour, even if they need an individual response and you are asleep.

Whatever you do to arrange rapid response emails, though, you need to ensure your system can respond to customers quickly. Otherwise you will lose their income and they will start telling other people how bad you are.

How to generate traffic for your web site

noreply@blogger.com (Graham Jones) — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 18:48:00 +0000

Putting up a company would of course require a lot of things, to get straight to the point, you need a capital. To make money requires money as well. But of course, with the versatility the internet offers, there are many ways you could find that could help optimize the potential of your site or business in generating traffic.

While there are ways to jumpstart your traffic flows, many sites don’t have the resources that others have to generate more traffic for your site. Well, you don’t have to spend a cent; all you need is the proper mindset and a lot of eagerness. You also must have the drive and perseverance to do hard work and research to generate more traffic for your site.

How sweet it is to have more traffic for your site without spending a single cent. Now it’s a sure thing that many sites have articles that offer tips and guidelines in how to generate traffic using only free methods. Because it is possible, you don’t need to speed a single cent, it may take time, to say honestly, I’m not going to beat around the bush with you. You get better chances by paying for your advertisements, but at least you get a fighting chance with some of these free methods I’m about to tell you.

Take advantage of online forums and online communities. The great thing about forums and online communities is that you can target a certain group that fits the certain demographic that you are looking for. You can discuss about lots of things about the niche that you represent or offer. Another great advantage is that you know what you are getting into and you will be prepared.

With online communities and forums you can build a reputation for your company. Show them what you are made of and wow them with your range of expertise about the subject, with that you can build a reputation and build trust with the people in your expertise and knowledge.

You can also make use of newsletters. Provide people with a catalog of your products and interesting and entertaining articles. If you make it really interesting and entertaining, more people will sign up for your newsletter and recommend it to other people. The more people who signs up for your newsletter, the more people there will be that will go to your site increasing your traffic.

Another great idea is trading links with other sites. You don’t have to spend a cent. All you have to do is reach an agreement with another webmaster. With exchanging links, the efforts both sites do will benefit both sites. Every traffic that goes to the site could potentially click on the link of your site and visit your site as well. This works well especially when both sites feature the same niche.

Write articles that could pique the attention of people that have interest in your product. Try writing articles that will provide tips and guides to other aficionados. Writing articles that provide good service and knowledge to other people would provide the necessary mileage your traffic flow needs.

Many sites offer free submission and posting of your articles. When people find interest in your articles they have a good chance of following the track by finding out where the article originated. Include a link or a brief description of your company with the article and there’s a great probability that they will go to your site.

Write good content for your site. Many search engines track down the keywords and keyword phrases your site uses and how they are used. It is not a requirement that a content should be done by a professional content writer. You could do your on but you have to make content for your site that is entertaining as well as informational. It should provide certain requirements as well as great quality. Generally, internet users use search engines to find what they are looking for. Search engines in return use keyword searching in aiding their search results. With the right keywords, you could get high rankings in search engine results without the costs.

All of these methods and more will drive more traffic to your site for free. All it takes is a bit of effort and extended man hours. Learn all you can about the methods depicted here and you will soon have a site with a great traffic flow without the usual costs that come with it.

Choosing the right keywords

noreply@blogger.com (Graham Jones) — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 17:59:00 +0000

Search engines are the vehicles that drive potential customers to your websites. But in order for visitors to reach their destination - your website - you need to provide them with specific and effective signs that will direct them right to your site. You do this by creating carefully chosen keywords.

Think of the right keywords as the Open Sesame! of the Internet. Find the exactly right words or phrases, and presto! hoards of traffic will be pulling up to your front door. But if your keywords are too general or too over-used, the possibility of visitors actually making it all the way to your site - or of seeing any real profits from the visitors that do arrive - decreases dramatically.

Your keywords serve as the foundation of your marketing strategy. If they are not chosen with great precision, no matter how aggressive your marketing campaign may be, the right people may never get the chance to find out about it. So your first step in plotting your strategy is to gather and evaluate keywords and phrases.

You probably think you already know EXACTLY the right words for your search phrases. Unfortunately, if you haven't followed certain specific steps, you are probably WRONG. It's hard to be objective when you are right in the center of your business network, which is the reason that you may not be able to choose the most efficient keywords from the inside. You need to be able to think like your customers. And since you are a business owner and not the consumer, your best bet is to go directly to the source.

Instead of plunging in and scribbling down a list of potential search words and phrases yourself, ask for words from as many potential customers as you can. You will most likely find out that your understanding of your business and your customers' understanding is significantly different.

The consumer is an invaluable resource. You will find the words you accumulate from them are words and phrases you probably never would have considered from deep inside the trenches of your business.

Only after you have gathered as many words and phrases from outside resources should you add your own keyword to the list. Once you have this list in hand, you are ready for the next step: evaluation.

The aim of evaluation is to narrow down your list to a small number of words and phrases that will direct the highest number of quality visitors to your website. By "quality visitors" I mean those consumers who are most likely to make a purchase rather than just cruise around your site and take off for greener pastures. In evaluating the effectiveness of keywords, bear in mind three elements: popularity, specificity, and motivation.

Popularity is the easiest to evaluate because it is an objective quality. The more popular your keyword is, the more likely the chances are that it will be typed into a search engine which will then bring up your URL.

You can now purchase software that will rate the popularity of keywords and phrases by giving words a number rating based on real search engine activity. Software such as WordTracker will even suggest variations of your words and phrases. The higher the number this software assigns to a given keyword, the more traffic you can logically expect to be directed to your site. The only fallacy with this concept is the more popular the keyword is, the greater the search engine position you will need to obtain. If you are down at the bottom of the search results, the consumer will probably never scroll down to find you.

Popularity isn't enough to declare a keyword a good choice. You must move on to the next criteria, which is specificity. The more specific your keyword is, the greater the likelihood that the consumer who is ready to purchase your goods or services will find you.

Let's look at a hypothetical example. Imagine that you have obtained popularity rankings for the keyword "automobile companies." However, you company specializes in bodywork only. The keyword "automobile body shops" would rank lower on the popularity scale than "automobile companies," but it would nevertheless serve you much better. Instead of getting a slew of people interested in everything from buying a car to changing their oil filters, you will get only those consumers with trashed front ends or crumpled fenders being directed to your site. In other words, consumers ready to buy your services are the ones who will immediately find you. Not only that, but the greater the specificity of your keyword is, the less competition you will face.

The third factor is consumer motivation. Once again, this requires putting yourself inside the mind of the customer rather than the seller to figure out what motivation prompts a person looking for a service or product to type in a particular word or phrase. Let's look at another example, such as a consumer who is searching for a job as an IT manager in a new city. If you have to choose between "Seattle job listings" and "Seattle IT recruiters" which do you think will benefit the consumer more? If you were looking for this type of specific job, which keyword would you type in? The second one, of course! Using the second keyword targets people who have decided on their career, have the necessary experience, and are ready to enlist you as their recruiter, rather than someone just out of school who is casually trying to figure out what to do with his or her life in between beer parties. You want to find people who are ready to act or make a purchase, and this requires subtle tinkering of your keywords until your find the most specific and directly targeted phrases to bring the most motivated traffic to you site.

Once you have chosen your keywords, your work is not done. You must continually evaluate performance across a variety of search engines, bearing in mind that times and trends change, as does popular lingo. You cannot rely on your log traffic analysis alone because it will not tell you how many of your visitors actually made a purchase.

Luckily, some new tools have been invented to help you judge the effectiveness of your keywords in individual search engines. There is now software available that analyzes consumer behavior in relation to consumer traffic. This allows you to discern which keywords are bringing you the most valuable customers.

This is an essential concept: numbers alone do not make a good keyword; profits per visitor do. You need to find keywords that direct consumers to your site who actually buy your product, fill out your forms, or download your product. This is the most important factor in evaluating the efficacy of a keyword or phrase, and should be the sword you wield when discarding and replacing ineffective or inefficient keywords with keywords that bring in better profits.

Ongoing analysis of tested keywords is the formula for search engine success. This may sound like a lot of work - and it is! But the amount of informed effort you put into your keyword campaign is what will ultimately generate your business' rewards.

Why you need an ebook

noreply@blogger.com (Graham Jones) — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 17:55:00 +0000

It's not true that everything that has been said has already been written. Since that unfortunate axiom came into use, the whole universe has changed. Technology has changed, ideas have changed, and the mindsets of entire nations have changed.

The fact is that this is the perfect time to write an ebook. What the publishing industry needs are people who can tap into the world as it is today - innovative thinkers who can make the leap into the new millennium and figure out how to solve old problems in a new way. Ebooks are a new and powerful tool for original thinkers with fresh ideas to disseminate information to the millions of people who are struggling to figure out how to do a plethora of different things.

Let's say you already have a brilliant idea, and the knowledge to back it up that will enable you to write an exceptional ebook. You may be sitting at your computer staring at a blank screen wondering, "Why? Why should I go through all the trouble of writing my ebook when it's so impossible to get anything published these days?

Well, let me assure you that publishing an ebook is entirely different than publishing a book in print. Let's look at the specifics of how the print and cyber publishing industry differ, and the many reasons why you should take the plunge and get your fingers tapping across those keyboards!

Submitting a print book to conventional publishing houses or to agents is similar to wearing a hair shirt 24/7. No matter how good your book actually is, or how many critique services and mentor writers have told you that "you've got what it takes," your submitted manuscript keeps coming back to you as if it is a boomerang instead of a valuable mine of information.

Perhaps, in desperation, you've checked out self-publishing and found out just how expensive a venture it can be. Most "vanity presses" require minimal print runs of at least 500 copies, and even that amount will cost you thousands of dollars. Some presses' minimal run starts at 1,000 to 2,000 copies. And that's just for the printing and binding. Add in distribution, shipping, and promotional costs and - well, you do the maths. Even if you wanted to go this route, you may not have that kind of money to risk.

Let's say you already have an Internet business with a quality website and a quality product. An ebook is one of the most powerful ways to promote your business while educating people with the knowledge you already possess as a business owner of a specific product or service.

For example, let's say that you've spent the last twenty-five years growing and training bonsai trees, and now you're ready to share your knowledge and experience. An ebook is the perfect way to reach the largest audience of bonsai enthusiasts.

Ebooks will not only promote your business - they will help you make a name for yourself and your company, and establish you as an expert in your field. You may even find that you have enough to say to warrant a series of ebooks. Specific businesses are complicated and often require the different aspects to be divided in order for the reader to get the full story.

Perhaps your goals are more finely tuned in terms of the ebook scene. You may want to build a whole business around writing and publishing ebooks. Essentially, you want to start an e-business. You are thinking of setting up a website to promote and market your ebooks. Maybe you're even thinking of producing an ezine.

One of the most prevalent reasons people read ebooks is to find information about how to turn their Internet businesses into a profit-making machine. And these people are looking to the writers of ebooks to provide them with new ideas and strategies because writers of ebooks are usually people who understand the new cyberspace world we now live in. Ebook writers are experts in Internet marketing campaigns and the strategies of promoting and distributing ebooks. The cyberspace community needs its ebooks to be successful so that more and more ebooks will be written.

You may want to create affiliate programs that will also market your ebook. Affiliates can be people or businesses worldwide that will all be working to sell your ebooks. Think about this? Do you see a formula for success here?

Figure out what your subject matter is, and then narrow it down. Your goal is to aim for specificity. Research what's out there already, and try to find a void that your ebook might fill.

What about an ebook about a wedding cake business? Or an ebook about caring for elderly pets? How about the fine points of collecting ancient pottery?

You don't have to have three masters degrees to write about your subject. People need advice that is easy to read and easily understood. Parents need advice for dealing with their teenagers. College students need to learn good study skills - quickly. The possibilities are endless.

After you've writtten your ebook
Getting your ebook out is going to be your focus once you've finished writing it, just as it is with print books. People will hesitate to buy any book from an author they've never heard of. Wouldn't you?

The answer is simple: give it away! You will see profits in the form of promoting your own business and getting your name out. You will find affiliates who will ask you to place their links within your ebook, and these affiliates will in turn go out and make your name known. Almost every single famous ebook author has started out this way.

Another powerful tool to attract people to your ebook is to make it interactive. Invent something for them to do within the book rather than just producing pages that contain static text. Let your readers fill out questionnaires, forms, even crossword puzzles geared to testing their knowledge on a particular subject. Have your readers hit a link that will allow them to recommend your book to their friends and associates. Or include an actual order form so at the end of their reading journey, they can eagerly buy your product.

When people interact with books, they become a part of the world of that book. The fact is just as true for books in print as it is for ebooks.

That's why ebooks are so essential. Not only do they provide a forum for people to learn and make sense of their own thoughts, but they can also serve to promote your business at the same time.