Google | Small Business Tips

June 13, 2010

How To Start A Small Business Part 2

Filed under: Small Business Tips — Tags: Amp, Business, Claude Hopkins, Computer Geek, Computer Problems, Confidence, Find People, Freelance Career, Good Chance, Google, Google Search, How To Start A Small Business, Like Minded People, Niche, Part, People Running, Philosophy, Scientific Advertising, Slovakia, Small, Speeding Up Computers, Start, Start A Small Business, Surety — admin @ 8:36 pm

Continuing from my earlier article. If you haven’t read the article then I highly recommend you to do so. These tips will help you launch your freelance career or your small business with more confidence and surety.

# 4. Learn to Sell Yourself: if you are anything of geek like I was 9 years ago. selling, negotiating and marketing might sound like an alien words. But trust me, if you learn how to sell yourself, you’ll make 10 times of money you are making right now… Again, I can’t give justice to a topic like this in small list so I’ll write another post on it.

So far Here’s my advice to you. Go to Google and search for “Scientific advertising” by Claude Hopkins. Download this book(it’s free) and read it from cover to cover at least 10 times. It’s an old book, but it’s philosophy still applies and it’s universal. Doesn’t matter if you are from India, Slovakia or United states.

# 5. Network with like minded people: I so regret not trying networking when I was starting out. Find people who are freelancers in your niche. Get to know them and ask them if you could help them.

There’s good chance of someone giving you small projects from their own.

# 6 No Work is Small: Don’t mind doing small work like “assembling someone’s computer or speeding up computers performances”. Its better than sitting and doing nothing.

# 7. Think Obvious: Now too many people try to think out of the box. Trying to think different. Its not bad thinking different. But also think about the obvious. Lets say you are a computer geek and want some work.. What’s the most obvious thing to do?

You know what? Find people who have computer and solve their problems.

What’s the next obvious thing to do? Find people who own a small business running on computers and solve their computer problems.

If you don’t get people like these what’s the next obvious thing to do? Well, leave your card with all the people you found above & giving them assurance of fixing their computer even if its 2 am.

Are you still trying to be different? You better not.

# 8. Be frugal : If you are just starting out as a freelancer. The only money you need to spend is on your business card. Everything else like office space, fax, copier etc etc are just expense you don’t need right now.

Don’t make the same mistakes I did. If you don’t mind doing some grunt work, you might see yourself working on good projects in no time. Now print this list out and paste with your mirror. So that you slam these points in your mind.

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June 9, 2010

Local SEO Tips for Small Businesses

Filed under: Small Business Tips — Tags: Brand Promotion, Business Name, Business Owners, Businesses, Endless Hours, Google, Google Yahoo, Inclination, Local, Local Search, Local Searches, Nuances, Pediatric Dentist, Plumber, Reliable Sources, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engines, Search Visibility, Small, Small Business Owner, Small Businesses, Sole Focus, Telecom Directories, Tips — admin @ 5:26 am

Let’s face it; the average business owner has neither the time nor the inclination to learn the nuances of search engine optimization. When I was first introduced to the concept of search marketing, I spent endless hours researching forums and blog trying to separate the signal from the noise. There’s no shortage of information and advice for business owners out there in theinterwebz , but finding trustworthy and reliable sources is another monster entirely. I would estimate that I invested hundreds of hours researching reliable sources ofSEO and SEM information, and I am thrilled to this day when I discover new ones. This can be a daunting prospect for a small business owner, regardless of their current level of marketing knowledge. I know when I was trying to grow my first small business, I barely had time to eat and sleep…much less surf the web for hours on end.

The real key to local search visibility is to recognize that your location is your brand. In most cases, searches with local intent rarely reflect brand terms. In the research I have seen, most local searches are industry and/or service based with geographic qualifiers. For example, “boston emergency plumber” or “san diego pediatric dentist” are more likely to be searched for than “city name + your business name”. If people are searching for your business by name, that’s great! You’ve done a great job establishing your brand! But if your sole focus is on brand promotion, you are missing out on some great opportunities to develop relationships with new customers in your area. Recent research has shown that almost 40% of allinternet searches are local in intent. If you want to maintain a lead over your competition, now is the time to take action. The following short-list of actionable items will help get you started:

1. Get listed at all of the major local search engines and telecom directories. Start with Google Local and Yahoo Local. There are also services such as UniversalBusinessListing.org which facilitate your submissions to such sites for a minor fee. If you don’t have the time to manually submit your listings, this is an excellent option.

2. Get links from related local sites, industry associations, and the chamber of commerce. One thing to keep in mind is the importance of anchor text; the clickable words that link to your website. Ask your business partners to link to your website using the phrase you want to rank for as anchor text (ie. “boston emergency plumber”, if you are a plumber in Boston). You could even incentivize your suppliers to link to you in exchange for a discount, as the value of the links gained will far outweigh the short-term costs of discounting.

3. Get reviews from customers and/or suppliers. If you go to Google and do a search for “your industry +reviews”, you should come up with a decent list of sites that contain reviews of businesses like yours. Naturally, some industries are more popular than others. If you don’t find one related to your industry, consider it an opportunity and start your own review site To continue with the discount idea noted above, why not give your customers a discount for a favorable review? Note that businesses can be given reviews directly on Google Local, but you also want your reviews to appear on reputable third party sites like Yelp.com (for restaurants), TripAdvisor.com (for hotels, etc.) or RateItAll.com (for general consumer products).

4. Consider the impact of universal search. Universal search refers to the use of non-traditional media in standard search results. Search engines generally serve up hypertext search results. With the introduction of universal search, Google now serves up video, photos, news, etc. in addition to hypertext. Get your geeky nephew to help you produce a video for Youtube. Take some funny photos of the hijinks in your office and upload them to Flickr. Ask one of your industry bloggers if you can contribute an article to their site. Submit a press release. Write an article like this and syndicate it. The opportunities are endless, if you are motivated.

Jacob Davidson is happy to share his new found knowledge of search engine marketing with other small business owners. When he is not trying to stay abreast of the latest marketing and advertising techniques, he spends his time exploring the local yellow pages for new business leads.

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May 12, 2010

Small Business Email Marketing Free- Interesting Roadmap

Filed under: Small Business Tips — Tags: Business, Business Email, Careful Note, Creative Endeavor, Email, Email Lists, Email Promotion, Free, Google, History Books, Interesting, Major Search Engines, Marketing, Marketing Agency, Marketing Information, Marketing Software, Marketing Strategy, Money In The Bank, Promotion Tip, Promotion Tips, Real Estate Marketing, Roadmap, Small, Term Success, Viral Marketing, Wilbur And Orville, Wright Brothers — admin @ 8:36 am

Are you searching for information related to small business email marketing or other information somehow related to real estate marketing strategy, or newsletters lists? If yes, this article will give you helpful insights related to small business email marketing and even somehow related to viral marketing software and email marketing agency that you might not have been aware of.

There is really only one way of recognizing and identifying genuinely useful best email promotion tips and that is to do exactly what the Wright Brothers, Wilbur and Orville did to develop and create one of the most important inventions of all time. They simply moved from the known to the unknown and got their way into the history books. Two kids who barely finished high school changed the world using this powerful technique.

The way people actively seek clients to buy online is the same way that each site owner should aggressively be harvesting email addresses. It is an email promotion tip worth taking careful note of that a large opt-in email list is better than money in the bank. There are many online entrepreneurs who make a good regular income with nothing else other than their opt-in email lists. Of all email promotion tips, you will ever come across, constantly building your opt in email list is the most valuable and powerful.

Not only is good email promotion necessary for the long-term success of your company, it’s also critical for keeping you on track in the short term. Consider it a creative endeavor, and you’ll soon discover that it is actually quite a lot of fun.

If as related to small business email marketing as this article is, and it still doesn’t answer all your needs, then don’t forget that you can conduct more search on any of the major search engines like Google to get more helpful small business email marketing information.

Your email should also urge the reader to do an action. If your email sent is not doing this, then you might just be wasting your time and your customers. Urge them to go and purchase your product.

Personalize your emails with the subscriber’s name. This is usually easily done with the auto responder service’s built-in personalization feature. By putting their name in the email, you’re giving it an added personal touch, and they’ll be more likely to open and read your email.

Create an Email List- An email promotion program will be successful when you send the emails to a targeted email list. Create a targeted email list for your email promotion program.

It might interest you to know that lots of folks searching for small business email marketing also got information related to another email marketing newsletter , real estate advertisement, and even email marketing research here with ease.

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April 22, 2010

Sample Promotion Campaign for Small Business: Hidden Secrets of Facebook Ads

Filed under: Small Business Tips — Tags: Advertising Campaign, Adwords, Business, Campaign, Facebook, Fan Page, Freight Train, Friend Family, Golden Opportunity, Google, Hidden, Hidden Secrets, Large Group, Leaps And Bounds, Loyal Customers, Online Marketing Strategy, Personal Account, Pizza Hut, Promotion, Promotion Campaign, Sample, Secrets, Small, Small Business Owners, Smaller Company, Social Networking Site, Starbucks — admin @ 1:01 pm

Advertising your business on Facebook is something you may not have even considered. Most small businesses are still mainly using Google Adwords for online promotion. However, once you take a look at a sample promotion campaign for small business that targets Facebook users, you’ll probably want to immediately make some changes in your online marketing strategy.

The chances of you knowing someone who uses Facebook as their main social networking site are pretty high. Whether or not you have your own personal account, someone you’re close to like a friend, family member or business associate most likely has a profile. Facebook is the unstoppable freight train that is growing by leaps and bounds – about 250,000 people sign up for a new account every day.

The face of social networking is rapidly changing and Facebook is the new leader. They now have an incredible 400 million active users. Many of these users are searching for the kinds of products and services your business offers, without leaving the site. This means that there’s a golden opportunity for savvy small business owners who want to establish a more direct connection with targeted buyers.

Big companies like Pizza Hut and Starbucks already have a Fan Page set up to attract new and loyal customers. But, of course, it’s easier for them to market practically anywhere because of their huge brand name.

So, what about the small businesses who don’t have huge advertising budgets?

The good news is that the Facebook advertising platform makes it easy for your smaller company to find a large group of targeted people who would be interested in what you have to offer. While it’s still a Pay Per Click (PPC) structure, the huge advantage that you get with a Facebook advertising campaign is having access to very specific buyer information.

You can target all types of demographics that isn’t possible with Adwords. Sure, Adwords is targeted, but you don’t know much about the person that clicks on your ad. All you know is that they are somewhat interested in a specific product or service. On Facebook, you’ll have a bigger advantage over your competition because you’re able to target the demographic group that is most likely to want what you sell.

If you’re working on a tight budget, this type of advertising is perfect because you’re not wasting money on mystery clicks that will never produce any results. With social networking style advertising, you’re going to be able to build a loyal customer base that will become your enthusiastic fans, and once they do, they will tell all of their friends to go check out your Fan Page.

Are you beginning to sense the power of this?

Yet, the majority of your competition is in the dark about it. Oh, one day they’ll find out all about it and jump into the mix, but that could be months, or even a year or two down the road. Meanwhile, you’ll be quietly winning over new customers and making a nice profit.

Sounds great, but what about the costs?

Because it’s PPC, you’ll set up an advertising budget that’s similar to Adwords. Remember that any kind of advertising is risky, so you should do your research first to find out how to set up a successful Facebook ad campaign.

Fortunately, there are already small business people like yourself that have been learning the ropes of how to promote a business on this popular networking site. You can save a lot of time, money and frustration by looking over someone’s shoulder and watching exactly how they go about it.

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April 6, 2010

Small Business Marketing Tips

Filed under: Small Business Tips — Tags: 6 Years, Business, Business Marketing Tips, Business Owner, Business Profits, Cash Flow, Doubt, Drivel, Google, Gov Uk, Hype, Information Technology Age, Marketing, Marketing Success, Mini Series, National Statistics, Online Marketing, Profitability, Recession, Shocking Statement, Small, Small Business Marketing, Small Businesses, Tips — admin @ 6:15 pm

Small Business Marketing Tips

Did you know 62.8% of all business fail within 6 years (source National statistics.gov.uk)

Ok shocking statement but true if you don’t want to be one of those statistics then read on because I will show you by utilising social media marketing how not only to keep your business going in a recession but to actually make it more profitable.

Despite all the hype about social media marketing small businesses on the whole have for some reason failed to take hold of this medium or simply don’t understand the power of social media marketing.

Its hardly surprising in this information technology age because as a business owner your time is limited and there is so much information out there it s easy to suffer from information overload .Worse still the majority of so called expert opinion on this subject is sheer drivel.

In this mini series i am going to share small business marketing tips which will explode your business profits

Today I am going to concentrate on just one element of online marketing that if you get right is guaranteed to increase your profitability by up to 100%

Imagine being able to do this in only three weeks , what difference would that make to your business and your life?

How much difference would increasing your cash flow by 100% make to you right now ? Would that relieve some of the pressure? would that give you more time to actually run and develop your business instead of worrying about keeping it.

I am going to share with you now the number one secret to online marketing success for any business.

First id like you to think of a search engine you might use to find a product or service online, chances are your thinking Google, and quite rightly so Google is without doubt the most used search engine online.

So now I want you to think like your customers, what would they typically type in to search for your particular product or service, now imagine this what if the page that Google shows them has your business ,not only in the number one position but 5 out of the first ten list your business. Do you think that might affect your bottom line?

Of course it would.

Being on the first page of Google for your relevant business or product offering to searchers is the most vital aspect of online marketing. So just how do you get Google to list your business on those coveted 1 to ten spots?

The trick is in knowing exactly how Google works. And here’s the rub SEO companies have made millions trading on the knowledge that they alone know how this works. Well my friends we are about to let the secret out of the bag.

Drum roll please…… Google looks at three things on our website in relation to a user search term or query..

Content on your page, internal links on your website and confirmation of authority from other sites, period that’s it.

Umm doesn’t sound very complicated or secretish does it well..

The devil as usual is in the detail and as a business owner you probably haven’t got time to learn all this stuff nor should you that’s our business. What you want is to be that business on the first page, because that’s where you are going to make the most money.

As a fist step in your social media marketing strategy I can place your company on that first page.

In fact I try to get you more than one listing out of the top ten practically eliminating the competition, imagine that whenever someone searches for the product or service you offer your company is the only one to show in google?

Can you see the massive potential for increasing your profitability in this.

However as this is a marketing training program Ill show you how to do it yourself.

1. Local search.

Have you seen how google now throws up a map with businesses matching your search terms listed you need to be there.

So first things first make sure your company is listed with Thompson local directories it’s a free service and its very important that the information they have about your company is accurate. Google uses this to compile its listings

When you have done that its time to head over to google local business centere

sign in using your gmail account and follow the on screen instructions its painless and quick.To speed things up before you get there make sure you have already written a business description and have some photos or video to upload as well.

The last step involves verification and that can be done over the phone you simply enter your number and google rings you then you input the pin number they gave you.

That’s it and voila about 48hrs later you should have your local listing.

The neat thing about google business local is its reporting statistics where you can see how many times your listing has been displayed and more importantly what they were actually searching for when they found your business tremendous value.

So stop reading here go to http://www.google.com/local/add and setup your company listing,

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