Category: Tips

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Social Bookmarking Not My Favorite Way to Boost SEO

I do like social bookmarking for some clients as a way to build one way inbound links, but I feel that there are better ways for other clients. Social bookmarking works great to build links for website and blog content that is timely, well written, and a hot web topic.

For the majority of business sites that focus on their own services, more mundane topics (although they could be of interest to a specific audience), social bookmarking may simply be too much trouble for the results that it generates. One big caveat is that if you have a well developed social bookmarking profile and many followers, you may have much better success than just opening an account and starting to bookmark away.

I find that if you are going to really invest time in building links a faster more sure way is to write article pieces and syndicate them on newsletter and content sites for others to grab while keeping in your bio block and link information. Even better is to see if you can guest write for a professional organization in your industry. The key here however is that any article you provide must be informational in nature and not focused on your own particular services.

Do I feel that social bookmarking has a place? Yes, absolutely, but it is labor intensive and best used for certain topics, content, and specific clients.

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Our November e-Newsletter is Posted

We’ve published our November e-newsletter and wanted to share it with you. Topics in this month’s issue are:

Preview of Facebook Business Pages Demystified for Business Owners

I have been working hard on a new white paper that helps business owners understand how to get the most from Facebook Business Pages. My new easy to understand guide titled “Facebook Business Pages Demystified for Business Owners” is previewed in advance of syndicated release to you, our newsletter subscriber. The paper won’t be syndicated until later this week. Read more…

Yahoo as We Know It Was Retired in October

If you go to Yahoo.com there is still a search engine there, so what do I mean when I say that in October Yahoo was retired? Although there is a “Yahoo” still there, the search results and sponsored ads supplied are all being delivered by Bing.com and Microsoft adCenter. The final change over took place at the end of October.

This means that there is no longer a Yahoo algorithm that drives search results – it is a Bing algorithm. There is no longer a Yahoo advertising control panel – now you use the Microsoft adCenter control panel to place, bid, and change ads that appear on both Yahoo.com and Bing.com. It also means that Google finally gets some real competition when it comes to advertising and that is good news for you! Read more…

Inflating Your Daily Budget to Force Clicks on AdWords Can Get You In Trouble

You may say this never happens, but as I review all AdWords accounts that are running when a new prospect comes to me looking for a new account manager, this happens fairly frequently. Personally, I do not recommend this action.

What I am speaking of is when an AdWords account is in trouble and an account manager cannot get clicks for the client. The account manager sometimes gets desperate and tries to force clicks. Here is the common scenario. The actual client wants to spend $1,000 in clicks a month. They typically will be in a business that has a high click cost auction. The acting account manager has decided not to set the cost per click in the account to a level that Google will consider the account in the AdWords auction and so as a result AdWords serves the ads infrequently. The client may be then spending only $200 or so of a $1,000 click budget. Read more…

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Improve Your Cash Flow With Policies

I have found that by creating policies that we state in our standard letter of agreement for every customer that we do business with, that we have improved our cash flow and nearly stopped bad debts. With a bit of forethought you can create scenarios where you are not required to provide services for clients that receive credit card declines or routinely do not pay on time.

Although these recommendations will not work for every business, these have worked for mine.

  1. All clients pay in advance for the month for blogging and Google AdWords services. We have found that once AdWords services have been provided or blogs installed that the client, in some cases, does not feel compelled to pay if they have run into money problems. The services that we provide are not tangible (hold in your hand products) and so our payment in a financial dry period may be deferred. While not to our liking, this is the reality of the situation and why we now request payment up front.
  2. When a client has received a credit card decline for services, we immediately stop services. We have found by continuing services hoping the situation will be resolved we have sometimes allowed the client to dig a deeper debt hole. By stopping immediately we lessen our potential debt damage and push the client to resolve the issue quickly.
  3. Once a client has had a credit card declined but then paid, we move them from paying on the 10th of the month, if they are an auto-billing client, to payment or at least credit card authorization on the 27th of the month prior to us starting services on the 1st. If their credit card is not declined for three months, we move them back to paying on the 10th.
  4. Self pay clients who consistently pay late are requested to move to auto-billing services. If the problem continues, we will stop providing services as it is too time consuming to chase a payment from one client. Sometimes a phone call and discussion on helping us to keep our prices low is in order or sensitivity to a personal situation and adjustment in writing frequency is in order, but we do not write without payment regardless of the circumstance.

These policies have been crafted over years of experience working with blogging and AdWords clients. Although our model may not work for you, we have seen our slow payers really drop off, our bad debts move to almost zero, and our monthly cash flow become more dependable.

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Why I Love Live Messenger For My IM Application

I use Live Messenger for collaboration and quick access to my employees and independent contractors. I find it one of the easiest to use Instant Messaging tools and much better than AIM, Skype, or the myriad of other Instant Messaging applications – Why?

For me, I am a busy person, I don’t want to take time to learn a new application. I see the value of being connected, but don’t want a clumsy interface, too much set up, or difficulty in using the application. Additionally, I work with many writers, some of whom are writers only and not tech savvy at all. I needed, not only for me but my team, the simplest application to use, but one that was powerful as well.

I have been using Live Messenger for years to communicate immediately with my team and other teams for whom I myself provide contracting services for. Live Messenger is easy to install and set up. Options are not confusing, in fact unless you want to, you don’t even need to set them up, just use the default settings, and the interface is very simple and easy to use. Way easier to use than AOL’s AIM.

When my team is online I know they may have a question about a project and so I am always on Live Messenger. With team members all over the United States and some as far flung as Thailand and Sri Lanka, having instant access is wonderful.

But you don’t need to be out of the city to use Live Messenger. My new assistant works at a computer in another part of my office, not in my same room. With Live Messenger we can chat about any item without having to get up or phone. This is one terrific tool.

Here are just a few ways you might want to use Live Messenger:

1. Have your entire office be on Live Messenger, you get a call to check a credit balance for a customer IM your accounting department and get an answer while you are still on your phone call.

2. Working off hours? Got a question? Check to see if a team member is online, and ask it right then. You’d be amazed at how many people are still online after work and don’t mind a quick nudge.

3. Working in your home office? Your kids are in another part of the house, are they doing their homework or need to know the time for soccer practice? IM them on Live Messenger.

4. Want to stay in touch with your family around the country. It is fun to make an Instant Messaging appointment for everyone to logon at the same time and share information or stay in touch.

Instant Messaging is fun, fast, and a great tool for business. Now it’s time for you to check it out at www.Live.com go there and you can get the free download too.

P.S. I am not being paid for this review, just love the application and wanted to share it with you.