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3 Essential (and FREE) Google Tools for Successful Site Owners

By: admin on: May 11th, 2011 2 Comments

Any and every small business needs a web presence, and competition to win the attention of potential customers is tough.

So I wanted to share 3 totally free tools from Google that you can use when you are starting out. Nothing new or ground breaking…but if you aren’t using these already, take the time to get them set up today.

1. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a tracking tool that can tell you all kinds of useful information about the visitors to your site. It can tell you what part of the world your visitors are from, what browser and operating system they are using, how many visitors you are getting, how long they are staying on the page, and how they got to your site (referrals). It can show you visual statistics that you can analyze and compare. All this information can be extremely useful in planning your blogging strategy.
www.google.com/analytics/

2. Google Keyword Tool

The Google keyword tool is an excellent resource for improving your SEO (search engine optimization). The keyword tool allows you to search for keywords and keyphrases to see what other people are searching for. Google will show you a detailed breakdown of how many searches are being performed, both locally and globally, and what kind of competition you are facing for your chosen keywords. This information can be used to help you plan which keywords to use in your blog posts.
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

3. Google Alerts

Google takes your alert terms and monitors the first 20 (or so) pages of it’s search engine results and sends you an alert when one of those websites are updated with new content.

If you are closely monitoring your competition, a google alert is a great tool to inform you that your competitor has made changes that may or may not affect their search results (relevant to the keywords you want to emphasize).

It also might not be a bad idea to more frequently update pages from your site that do rank higher for certain search terms. This way any of your clients (or potential clients) may receive alerts from your site more often. Of course, the caveat is that your competition may also receive them as well!
www.google.com/alerts

A Peak Into Entrepreneurial Life- Part 2

By: admin on: March 7th, 2011 5 Comments

The insane pleasures…

Of being profoundly superior to all the morons and mere mortals surrounding you. Yes, it is immensely satisfying to know so much that they do not know. To watch the highly educated MBA’s and lawyers on ‘The Apprentice’ who couldn’t run a lemonade stand in the real world. To look at big, dumb corporations and revel in their self-destruction.

Of firing a client or customer. As hard as they are to get, you might think there’d be no pleasure in this. And usually, there isn’t. But being able to, there’s enormous pleasure in that.

Of taking a Wednesday or a week off. Or enjoying coffee on your backyard deck while all your neighbors are climbing into cars and crawling into a bumper to bumper commute. Or having neighbors wonder about you – what is he anyway?

Of alchemy. Making money materialize out of thin air. Conceiving some offer or promotion or ad or mailing from scratch, bringing it to life, and watching money pour in. I wonder, what is more satisfying than that? I know for fact that Gene Simmons gets more satisfaction from filling the arena, the ticket sales, the merchandise sales than he does from performing, just as I did from speaking. Hell, anybody can play rock music. Few can make millions. The making of anything from scratch is uniquely satisfying.

I used to try and imagine what Rich DeVos thought as he drove over to the giant, sprawling, multi-million dollar Amway complex linked to millions of distributors, just down the road from the abandoned, leased gas station he’d started bottling soap in. When I see 500, 600, 700 people at a SuperConference, when you see customers streaming into your store’s event, or your book or gadget or bottle of goop on a store shelf, your commercial on TV, your ad in a magazine – you’ve got to FEEL something special, because you’re doing something comparatively few have the guts to do. Most everybody wants to. Few do. Haven’t got the guts.

Of resiliency. Oddly, successful entrepreneurs relish their war stories of disaster and recovery even more than their outright successes. Maybe not so oddly. Unlike anyone else, the entrepreneur is totally in control of his own redemption. There’s pleasure in that.

Of wealth. Well, of course. To quote, I’ve been poor, I’ve been rich, rich is better. It isn’t perfect. You don’t have $500 problems anymore; you have $50,000 and $500,000 problems. Still. It’s better.

Lessons From Mickey Mouse

By: admin on: August 3rd, 2010 3 Comments

In my last post I pointed out how you can win the battle of building your business by understanding the importance of Customer Service Diplomacy and the effect it has on word of mouth advertising.

One of the organizations that really understands and stresses this is Disney.

The Disney Parks, Disney Land and Disney World benefit tremendously from repeat business and from word-of-mouth advertising because of the exceptional job done by everyone involved in customer service diplomacy.
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How Many Mailings is Enough?

By: admin on: June 1st, 2010 6 Comments

We talked about creating an offer in the last post and the thinking and factors that needs to go into them in order to gain a high response.

Now here are some idea starters… just a quick list of possible offers for all sorts of businesses. Hopefully some will spark some good ideas for you.

Insurance – a free review of your coverage. A free home safety booklet just for setting an appointment. A booklet of ten free car washes when we write your auto insurance. Guaranteed handling of your accident claim in five days or a 10% cash bonus on the settlement.

Real Estate – a free home appraisal. One hundred heavy duty moving cartons and boxes free when we list your home for sale. Buy your home from us and we’ll get its carpets steamed cleaned free before you move in.
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Social Bookmarking in Your Small Business Marketing

By: admin on: May 26th, 2010 6 Comments

Building traffic to your web site is a continuous process and an ongoing job. Social media has recently gained a lot of attention for traffic building.

While social media tools like Twitter and Facebook can definitely build web site traffic; what about social bookmarking tools like Digg, and Del.ico.us? Is social bookmarking an effective way to build site traffic?

One way that social bookmarking helps build traffic is by getting your link out to networks of people that have similar interests. It stands to reason that if someone bookmarks your site, they very likely know other people that are also interested in the same topic.

Social bookmarking gives you a way to reach those users by getting your links exposed to networks based on interest, profession, and other demographics.

Another benefit to social bookmarking is that your link will likely be grouped with other related content. This helps you build traffic by associating your site with other related sites. Users are then able to find groups of sites that are relevant to their interest. This helps build traffic by including your site among others that are related and helps new visitors discover it.
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How Successful Leaders REALLY Manage People

By: admin on: October 27th, 2009 12 Comments

One day, while personally wandering the park, then-CEO of Disney, Michael Eisner instantly and summarily fired the entire chorus line of one of the shows.

Why?

“Because they didn’t have ‘the Disney smile.’”

It takes COURAGE to manage that way, but it is the only way to really manage if you understand how linked and co-mingled your small business marketing is to your rank ‘n file employees’ routine interaction with customers and prospects.

First, there has to be a “Program” — fully enunciated and frequently and repetitively presented expectations about behavior, right down to the smile.
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