Search Engine Optimization Intro

There is a lot to search engine optimization, so I am going to cover some basics and leave it at that. First let’s go over some key parts to SEO. Keywords are words that people use on the search engines to find your website. These keywords can help determine your rank on the search engines. This is why keyword research is a great way to assess which ones to use and which ones would be too difficult to rank with. There are some great tools out there for this research. One of the best to use is Google AdWords Keyword Tool, if you are looking for a free resource. If you are willing to pay for more options that will assist in this you can use SEOmoz’s Pro subscription. These keywords should be used in several different places such as: images, categories, header tags, title tags, URL, meta tags, and on your pages. These need to be specific to each page and need to be relevant. You don’t want to just be stuffing these keywords in and not having them at all related to what is on the webpage. The search engine crawlers will not be happy if you do this and this will result in you not ranking well. These crawlers are programs that will scan the web in a mathematical fashion and assess sites for where they rank. A great thing to add to your website is a sitemap plugin that will auto generate your sitemap. This gives a great road map to your website for the web crawlers to use. This shows that your website is search engine friendly.

An important fact to emphasize is that content is king. Your content is very important to SEO. You must be a resource to your website readers providing quality content, not just writing the content around the keywords. This is not to say that you cannot write the content with keywords in mind, but you must not make the keywords come before the quality of the content. If you write with the notion that the content is king, you will provide a great content for your website and therefore rank higher in the search engines. Another great way to be a resource and provide quality content is to provide information through social media. In other words, write articles, blogs and social network posts that provide useful tips and information to your audience. If you do this on a consistent basis and your followers share this information, you will become a well respected site and will in turn rank higher on the search engines. I cannot emphasize enough that consistency is very important.

It is also important to measure and track the stats of your website to assess the results of your efforts. This is done through installing analytics through a tool such as Google Analytics. This will give you demographics, keywords used, sources of traffic, repeat versus new visitors and so much more. Let me state that SEO is not a quick thing. It takes effort, patience and careful study to see results. But when the results happen, it is worth every bit of effort put into it.

The End Of Business As Usual: Rewire The Way You Work To Succeed – A Brief Summary

In The End of Business as Usual, author Brian Sola explains the sea change in business caused by the advent of social media, Sola poses quite a challenge to those of us who have not yet joined the Facebook, Twitter and Linked-in revolution. He got my attention with the statement that 65% of the Millennial generation born between the mid-seventies and late 90’s are disconnected while awake less than one hour per day! Less than that “creates an unnerving sense of disconnectedness”.

Taking Seth Godin’s concept of Permission Marketing even further, Sola claims that it’s not about companies connecting with customers, it’s about customers deciding whether they want to connect with the company now and over time. The internet explosion required that successful email marketers must earn the permission of their reader via the recipient’s optin- agreement to receive the ad; a far cry from the intrusive and aggressive Madison Ave type advertising classically seen on television. Over the last ten years, we learned how to integrate permission marketing into our offers and our over-all marketing campaigns. And we found that we were adaptable and willing to change.

Guess what? It’s time for more change if we want to compete in the 21st century. Here is why.

The Millennial purchaser is not just interested in giving permission to the companies they want to hear from: they expect to partner with them, claims Sola, More than simply a business relationship, these younger purchasers expect to like the company they do business with so that they can share and post their purchasing experiences with their friends and networks, estimated at an average of 130 for each Facebook user. When they have a problem, they are not interested in dealing with your customer service departments, they expect to hear from someone at the top.. Aged from 17-32 as of 2012, this group comprises 25% of the on-line purchasing population.

Both In 2010 and 2011, Facebook outranked Google as the primary search term-people are increasingly more interested in other people and relationships. The results?

Americans are looking to different sources for our information. Television viewers are declining, subscriptions to traditional newspapers dropped by 9% in 2010, even more in the last couple of years. The combined subscribers of the New York Times, Wall St. Journal and USA Today have less than 5 million subscribers while Facebook houses more than 750 million residents and over 200 million people are using Twitter as a primary mode of communication. Interestingly the isolation predicted by the increased use of internet during the nineties does not seem to hold in the twenty-first century: surveyors find that over 50 percent of respondents feel more connected now than they did prior to the emergence of the social networks. The increased sense of “connectedness” is apparently more than a virtual phenomenon.

In 2008, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, introduced a formula later known as “Zuckerberg’s Law” when he explained that social networking is simply about connecting with people we know and predicted that with each passing year, people will share twice as much information.Think about that for just a moment; a doubling of shared information each and every year. According to Nielson, Americans in 2011 spent a quarter of their waking hours on line networking and Facebook measures more than 700 billion minutes per month spent “Facebooking.”

These numbers are staggering and the implications for marketing profound for those whose products are shared, liked and posted.

Gaining a Competitive Advantage With Mobilised CRM and SMS

These days, having a customer-relationship management (or CRM) system is often seen as an essential tool for businesses as it enables them to monitor their sales, marketing and customer relationship objectives. A business’ customer relationship management program acts as a central repository of customer information, and can be used to improve customer service, to identify sales opportunities, target marketing initiatives and to develop better business processes. A CRM will allow businesses to pull together data on their customers from throughout the company that can then be analysed, enabling it to organise and refine its everyday activities so that it is dealing with its customers in the most effective manner. What we find is that a CRM system helps businesses to monitor and target their external strategies, plus it can also be used to improve staff productivity, including front-line personnel.

As you can well imagine the effective exchange and collection of information is a vital element of any CRM program, and this is where mobilised CRM can pay real dividends. Increasingly, companies are realising that a mobilised CRM system will help them gain competitive advantage by facilitating real-time data collection and distribution, which creates a more effective sales force and increases customer satisfaction. For example, a mobile customer-relationship management system can improve staff productivity by:

  • Enabling remote sales staff to input sales information through their mobile phone and SMS.
  • Allowing account managers to text in customer updates via 2-way messaging, rather than waiting until they are back at their desk, so that information is available immediately.
  • Sending information on potential leads from support departments to sales staff so that they can follow-up straightaway.

Customer relations can also be handled more effectively with mobilised CRM system. For example:

  • Businesses can reward customers through a loyalty programme offering discount vouchers.
  • A reminder SMS can be sent to customers regarding an appointment, a sales event, or even a subscription renewal.
  • A mobile CRM system can send updates to customers’ mobile phones, such as an estate agent sending out information about newly listed property.
  • Even delivery updates can be sent to customers with a mobile CRM system.

It is also worth noting that a business can add even more value to its mobile CRM system if it also incorporates 2-way messaging, so that customers and staff can receive and send information. Two-way messaging, as part of a mobilised CRM system, will let businesses interact with their recipients. This means that they can share information, as well as gather it, and so provide a more efficient service. A CRM program with 2-way SMS messaging:

  • Is a highly efficient way for businesses to ask customers for feedback, so they can monitor and improve their performance.
  • Allows customers to respond to information, such as replying to a text from an estate agent to booking a viewing of the property.
  • Facilitates the internal collection of accurate real-time sales, stock or performance figures.

Of course, businesses looking for a mobile CRM system (especially one that incorporates 2-way messaging) will need to ensure that the SMS gateway provider used by the system is first-rate, with a secure, reliable and comprehensive network, as well as providing around the clock support. They will also need an easy to use messaging system, one that seamlessly integrates with their CRM system, so that using the SMS interface is straightforward. Only by ensuring that their mobilised CRM system is supported by an experienced SMS gateway provider will businesses be able to gain the competitive advantage offered by this business tool.

What You Can Expect From A Good Productized Service Software

Productized services are simplified and focus the business marketing operation into a more predictable model that is easier to sell. The services are packaged in such a way that they are more like products which sell easily. Most service providers are productizing their services because of the various benefits they come with including:

  • Increased revenues
  • Improved company cash flow
  • Reduced stress in managing and running the business
  • Improved scalability of the business

Whereas there are different ways of productizing your services, getting software designed for such can make things even easier for you. When you take your time in finding the right software you will enjoy lots of benefits. If you are just getting familiar with productized service software option, here are some of the things you can expect to enjoy when you get a reliable one for your business.

Ease of building order forms – Traditional shopping carts can be complicated, but with the tight software for your productized service, you can design one page form for selling the services. On the form you can create an easy process that covers everything to do with orders.

Track payments – Good productized service software will log all payments, whether they are one time or recurring so you can keep track of them. With such a feature, it becomes easy for you to know when customers are billed, when payments fail and even when subscriptions are canceled.

Ease of delivering orders – Any good and reliable software will offer access to the order management system so you are able to keep your contractors, virtual assistants and your company team all on the same page. This way, you can see order status, all messages related to it and who is working on the order. It is a more streamlined process of delivering the orders compared to other processes.

Customization abilities – Using the right software will make it possible for you to customize everything you need to including email notifications, messages and navigation items. It requires a templating system that is reliable to achieve this so you can create a client panel that is appealing in every sense.

Ease of collecting project information – The truth is that customers do not like those lengthy forms they are asked to fill during a checkout. The forms can actually be lots of confusion and even end up negatively impacting sales. But by getting right productized service software, you will make it possible for clients to place orders and give you the other details you need later. Giving them the freedom of submitting details when they are ready is better than frustrating them with forms when they really need a service from you instead.

Improved user experience – When customers are in a position to manage their own order, download services and even keep track of their subscriptions they feel part of the process improving their experience of working with you greatly. Your good software should be able to give them such features so they feel confident working with you and in turn become repeat customers.

Traffic Generation Beginner Guide # 3 – How to Use Viral Marketing to Generate More Website Traffic

Viral marketing is a marketing strategy that spreads like a virus to get website traffic. It works by asking a current subscriber to pass on your information to another person. Because it works based on the willingness of people, it goes straight to the inbox of potential buyers and not to the trash or spam folder. If you run an online business and you have not yet tried the power of viral marketing, this article will help to guide you in increasing traffic to your site by taking advantage of the power provided by internet promotion.

Incentives

Providing incentives are one of the greatest motivating factors for a client to forward your ideas to a friend. By receiving incentives, a buyer will guide other potential customers to you and thereby increasing traffic to your site. Incentives may come in the form of discounts or bonuses, free subscription to newsletters, e-books, or free article reprinting or publishing. With these freebies in mind, your visitors will want to help increase your email list and spread your news like a virus.

Informative

Even with the best incentives, your visitors will not risk their reputation by referring useless information. Because people are innately social, they will want to refer information that is highly substantial, relevant and attractive to their email list. Since after all, they act like an endorser by putting their credibility on the line. If you want to guide traffic to your site, you need to create a marketing plan that is compelling and worth sharing. If your plan makes noise or creates a buzz, your idea will spread quickly like gossip in the internet world. The commotion you produce will guide online searchers to your website and generate huge traffic for you.

Publish in Blogs and Social Networks

Blogs and social networks are the lifelines for the interacting online community. By posting your ads in these sites, you can be certain that traffic will go straight to your website. Interacting with people is contagious especially if you have established a brand to your name. Once you make yourself an authority in the field, visitors will be coming to you and you guide others as well to increase your traffic.

Viral marketing employs the idea of spreading word of mouth marketing of your products or services. Like a real virus, it creates noise in the online community and makes your product known. With the generation of more traffic, you then guide your clients through your site. If they land on a compelling website, your enormous traffic can easily turn into sales.

Grow Your Ability To Gain Wealth In Business

Right Motives For Business

We have all discovered that a compelling vision and highly functional mission statement will launch a successful business. Our motivation for performing business has many facets. As business owners, we desire to develop creative solutions to meet the needs of our specific market. That is a noble pursuit! We must also grasp the crucial concept that we need to make money, and lots of it, to grow a successful business.

Growing our ability to gain wealth in business is an extremely noble facet of our driving motivation to succeed in business. Without cashflow, reserves, investments, profitability, resources, etc. our businesses can not function, not to mention, thrive, expand, multiply, or fulfill the needs of an escalating global market and population. In short, it is “good” for us to aim to make loads of money in business!

5 Principles For Gaining Wealth in Business

Business growth can be an elusive target for many entrepreneurs, especially if cash is lacking. Wealth creation proponents express the need for growth in two areas, the heart and the head. We need to believe that wealth is easy to possess and secondly, we need practical ideas, information and keys to corral money and herd it into our accounts.

The following principles address heart and head areas which dictate wealth creation in business.

1. Consistent Business Inspiration & Information

Entrepreneurial insight, management, team building, leadership, organizational systems, direction, etc. are common words mentioned in market place vocabulary. To expand our bottom line in business we must first expand our wealth vision and mentality. Readers are leader’s because they ingest knowledge at a rapid rate; as their business vocabulary is expanded so is their capacity for gaining wealth. Book reviews point us to the best books in the least possible time so we can have the right inspiration and information fast!

2. Consistent Business Success & Solutions

Success breeds confidence and a winning environment. A healthy business is a wealthy business. A healthy business growth environment will release owners, managers, and employees to produce creative answers and innovative solutions to accelerate growth further. Health promotes greater productivity and progress in a business. Simple, practical success ideas will ignite passion and provide tools for workers to create and build!

3. Consistent Business Money & Marketing

Understanding the sociological and psychological aspects of specific markets will connect products and services with customers and clients. Making money in business is governed by a simple formula: Serve the customer with what they want & your business gets what it wants! Consistent, up to date marketing reports will give advice and access to the hearts and heads of the communities our businesses serve, to increase transactions.

4. Consistent Business Questions & Answers

Millions of business professionals, globally, have experienced previously untold challenges and have success stories of how they overcame! As we find ourselves in the midst of unknown waters in various stages of business growth, wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a lifesaver throw us a lifeline of hope for a quick rescue. Entrepreneurial interviews answer our pressing questions as business leader’s give their experiential answers.

5. Consistent Business Potential & Opportunity

The greatest business solution for overcoming crisis is having an experienced mentor who thinks as we do and knows exactly how we can come through. I have seen that it is easier and quicker to learn from someone else’s mistakes than from our own. A mentor is like a coach of a prize fighter. They are in your corner of the ring watching, calculating, encouraging, challenging, refreshing and inspiring the fighter towards victory.

The Evolution of Internet Marketing

Internet marketing is characterized as effectively leveraging your online advertising so you can get a target market that responds to your advertising positively–e.g., purchasing products or availing of services from you. There are some important factors that are critical in the success of internet marketing. These are marketing and promotion, web development and web design.

There are actually many kinds of internet marketing. Search engine marketing refers to advertising your products in search engines such as Google, MSN, and Yahoo. E-mail marketing, on the other hand, provides product or service information to consumers through e-mails or subscription to mailing lists.

One of the most popular Internet programs, affiliate marketing, means commissioning small businessmen to carry your product line in exchange of percentage of sales. Interactive advertising is done through setting up of blogs and forums where you can encourage people to say their opinion about your product or service or even about your company in general.

Viral marketing uses social networking communities to market their products. Such sites have large audience reach, found in different parts of the world.

Internet marketing relies on some known business blueprints. This includes P2P, B2B, and B2C varieties. The first model, peer to peer, entails people to exchange information and even merchandises among themselves. B2B, or business to business, is made up of companies that are making business transactions with each other. Lastly, B2C refers to direct sales to consumers.

PPC or pay per click advertising is one model known to generate big revenues through ads. With this scheme, advertisers will only have to pay every time the user clicks on the ad to drop by their website. The bidding is based on keywords that advertisers think are most searched by their target market in search engines, especially if they’re searching for a particular product.

Every time the user’s keyword directly matches with that of the advertiser, their ads will be featured in the Search Results page. Majority of these search engines make use of this scheme, as evident by MSN AdCenter, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and Google AdWords.

PPA, or pay per action, is similar to PPC, since it also dwells on ads. However, with PPA, an advertiser only gets to pay when there’s an action undertaken by the user, such as a click on the ad, filling out a survey or questionnaire, or through purchase of a product. eBay, AdContext and Google AdSense are some of the classic examples.

Every day there are newer schemes employed when it comes to marketing products. Soon they’ll attain such prominence enjoyed by PPC or PPA. And the evolution of internet marketing will never put to its final rest.

How To Stand Out From Your Competition – Say Thank You

Hectic schedules and busy workdays eat away at our time. They eat away at your prospect’s time, too. When you land a meeting or a phone call, the most important thing you can do is say “thank you for your time.” Here are a few tried and true methods for saying “thank you” that will keep you fresh in your prospect’s mind:

1. Send a quick “thank you” email. The secret is in the system. Save the text of your “thank you” email as a draft so you can quickly copy and paste it into a new email composition. This way, you can quickly send out emails to prospects after phone calls or face to face meetings. You want to sound polite and grateful, and you also want to remind your client about why you’re qualified to do the job. Here’s the email I send out after phone meetings:



Hi {{NAME}},

Pleasure talking with you today; thanks for your time. Keep me in mind if you need informative copy written in an engaging, accessible style. Experience working in the marketing and creative departments of a software promotions firm, as well as my years of experience as a copywriter means I understand audience and have a strong command of language. Please view some samples of my work at: http://www.wonderworkingwords.com.

I look forward to working with you down the line. Best of continued success.

2. Follow your email with a “thank you” card. Pick a card that’s eye-catching and artistic. A lovely card is more likely to hang around your prospect’s desk space or be displayed on a tack board; learn to think of a card that’s not immediately thrown away as free advertising. Handwritten cards are best, as are hand addressed and stamped envelopes. Details like this tell your prospect you care.

3. Follow your “thank you” card with a phone call. Remember, anytime you send your prospects something in the mail, you have a ready made excuse to make yet one more touch and keep you and your product or services fresh in their minds. Did they receive what you sent them? Do they have any questions you can answer? You communicate your availability while creating a positive experience for them to associate with you.

Employing these few tips, you’ll be leaps ahead of your competition…and that much closer to making the sale.

4 Important Tips on How to Create Wealth

Everyone wants to live and enjoy an abundant and fulfilling life. Well, there is no better time to build wealth than now. It is not for certain individuals but everyone can share in the wealth of the world. Wealth is not an event but it is created and accumulated over a period of time. This comprises of an abundant life, one that has got what you want in life. It includes health, peace, money, properties, joy, and all that you need in life.

The purpose of this article is to outline some tips that can help you start creating wealth for yourself and your loved ones.

1. Now is the time to create wealth.

Some people think when they are young or old they cannot accumulate some wealth. Those who are young say it is for the adults. Those who are old say it is now late to start accumulating wealth. The starting point is to start saving whatever amount of money you can. It does not have to be a big sum of money that you save. For example, $10.00 in 12 months gives $120.00. That is good money for someone who has less disposable income. You may calculate what you can save according to your affordability. So you do not have to wait.

2. Start your own business

Whether you have a full time job or not, you can start your own business. It can be an offline or online business. Off line, you can start retail, construction, consulting, and other many opportunities. When it comes to online businesses, there are also many ideas and opportunities. One of the opportunities online is affiliate marketing programs whereby you do not have to own your own products. Instead, you promote other people’s products or programs and earn huge commissions. You can create wealth from the commissions. It is advisable to have your own website to promote affiliate programs. After you have mastered affiliate products, you can go an extra mile and start developing your own products.

3. Choose an appropriate investment plan

After you have saved and accumulated some money from any source, you can choose other types of investments. You can invest lump sums or join monthly subscription plans, which will result in big money after a certain period of time. Avoid rushing for debts when you are in need of money. The money you pay to service debts on monthly basis should be money you are saving or investing. Wealth is yours, you deserve it, just tap into your inner being for ideas or just visit the internet to check for ideas that can suit your situation.

4. Enjoy your wealth

Remember that wealth is for enjoyment and helping those who are in need. As you create wealth, you should not struggle or suppress yourself. After you have accumulated it, enjoy it. Do not suffer having money. Live the life you want. Learn to balance up life. This includes the physical, spiritual, emotional, and intellectual aspects.

Follow the four outlined tips for creating wealth and you will have your share. Wealth is not for certain individuals, but for everyone. You have to start from somewhere, and you can have it. It is your right to have it. Start today and avoid postponing.

Learning Management System (LMS) Vs Learning Content Management System (LCMS)

E-learning brought to an organization learning options that are not only less expensive, but are more flexible than classroom training. Although e-learning would never replace “a human touch” that face-to-face training is privileged to, it is de facto that current technologies allow creating e-courses that are relevant, engaging, participatory, and with “a fun element”.

As a growing number of organizations utilize e-learning or “blended learning” (a combination of e-learning and classroom instruction), more organizations face questions of choosing the systems that are best fit to their environment. Larger organizations are on look for the systems that not only deliver and track e-courses, but also allow integration of performance reviews and development plans. The needs of smaller organizations may be more succinct and limited to training delivery. So, what do we consider when choosing the best e-learning program? Let’s look at the differences of the two main e-learning systems – Learning Management System (LMS) and Learning Management Content System (LMCS).

LMS is a software application that is most often web-based and is designed for the administration, documentation, tracking, and reporting of e-learning programs and training content. LMSs, such as WestNet, Halogen, Flextraining or Mindflash require importing a content that is built externally using Microsoft programs, or e-learning development software such as Adobe Captivate or Articulate. Many LMSs offer monthly subscription for a fee based on the number of active users (training participants). Some LMSs offer one-time licensing, and charge annual fees for software upgrade and technical support, which can from 10% up to 25% of the licensing fee.

We have knowledge of at least 210 different LMSs with a range of features offered: from simple content delivery and reporting to sophisticated integration of learning management and social media platforms. Similarly, the difference of subscription and hosting fees is vast, ranging from $3,000 to over $23,000 annually for a thousand users.

In comparison, a Learning Content Management System (LCMS) is content-centric software for creating and managing of e-learning content (Xyleme, Exact Learning Solutions, Kenexa). Instructional designers and trainers can re-use e-learning content. As a result, it requires less of resources and saves time needed for course development. Rather than re-creating entire courses, LCMS provides the ability for courses to be modified and published for various audiences maintaining past versions. E-training elements that developers can manipulate include media files, assessment items, simulations, text or graphics. LCMS technology can also be used to deliver and track courses (as LMS), or as a standalone application for learning initiatives that require rapid development of learning content.

Thus, the main difference is that LMS does not allow creating and manipulating courses; it cannot reuse the content of one course to build another. The LCMS, however, can create, manage and deliver not only training modules but also manage and edit all the individual pieces that make up training modules. The subscription or license of LMCS is usually pricier that of LMS.

So, what does an organization need to consider when choosing the best fit e-learning system?

– An amount of training content to be developed and delivered. If an organization develops and delivers a great amount of training – either because of internal or external requirements – then LMCS may be a better choice. LMCS will be able to save instructional designers’ time by reusing training content that’s already had been created.

– Long term training and development needs. When an organization plans to grow and expand, it means that training and development needs will be growing as well. Thus, even when an LMS might seem a better fit today, considering long terms an LMCS may be the best fit. That way, an organization will avoid additional resources and confusion of switching from one system to another.

– Training audience. Larger organizations that employ workers nationally or internationally would experience a greater need for training modules being updated – because of local regulations and cultural preferences. Thus, LMCS might be of a benefit in this case.

– The plans to integrate e-learning into organizational social platforms. A few LMS and LMCS allow integrating organizational social platforms such as Intranets or wiki’s. Though these systems are usually pricier, this emphasis on learning encourages workers to participate in more training, and increases their engagement.

– The needs to utilize e-learning systems for performance management. Selected LMSs and LCMSs may perform performance management function by allowing managers to track employee performance (incorporating learning application results of completed courses), and by providing employees with an opportunity to create development plans based on performance reviews.

E-learning is a powerful learning platform. When an organization chooses “the right” system, such system can be not only a cost saver, but it can also enhance learner engagement and learning retention.

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