November 9th, 2010
How to Kill Your Business with One Email
It is possible to kill your business with one ill-informed email. This post has 5 lessons you can learn from this business owner’s mistake.
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November 4th, 2010
7 Tips to Name Computer Files so You Can Find Them Again
In order to find what you’re looking for, you need a system for naming and organizing files and folders. In this blog post, I focus on how to name files so you can find the one you want. In the next blog post, I’ll show you how to organize your folders so you can remember where you saved your well-named files.
Read more »Tags: data, files, naming, organizing
Posted in Managing Data | 2 Comments »
September 8th, 2010
How to Alienate Potential Customers on Facebook: A Cautionary Tale
The following post is a cautionary tale about the importance of knowing how to use a social network. It includes lessons you need to learn to build your business via Facebook.
I like jewelry. I’m not a big fan of diamonds and gem stones but I love Venetian glass jewelry. Kind of like the dahlias I grow in my garden, Venetian beads come in an amazing array of colors and complexities. Each bead is its own little world you can get lost in. That’s why when an ad for Marco Polo Designs*, popped up in Facebook, I checked out their page and became a Fan. For those of you not well versed in Facebook, this means I clicked on the “Like” button on their Facebook Fan page. Now their updates show up on my Facebook home page.
MPD’s Facebook updates have largely consisted of promos for a series of contests where you can win a piece of jewelry. Cool! I’d love to win a piece of their beautiful jewelry so I was ready to enter the contest. Keep in mind, I rarely enter contests. I closely guard my privacy online and it’s more important to me to…
Read more »Tags: Facebook, social networking
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August 25th, 2010
Who’s Tracking You Online?
Many people don’t realize that when they use the internet, they leave a trail of bread crumbs behind them in the form of their search history. Figuring out how to sell you stuff online is big business and there are hundreds of companies gathering information about you so they can do just that.
The Thursday, August 19th edition of Fresh Air on NPR had Julia Angwin, a senior technology editor at the Wall Street Journal, talking about the companies that track you online. Angwin explains how consumer surveillance works, how users can disable the tracking software — and how advertisers are continually evolving to keep up with the data they receive.
The staff at the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) did a series of articles where they took a look at the 50 most popular websites and what kind of tracking software these websites installed on visitor’s computers. WSJ’s research identified more than 100 tracking companies, data brokers and advertising networks collecting data — which are then sold on a stock market-like exchange to online advertisers.
Important Points from the Show and the Series:
If you don’t have time to listen to the 40 minute show, here’s a rundown of the…
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August 4th, 2010
FAQ: What’s the Difference Between a Home Page and a Landing Page?
A home page is the page people land on when they go to your main URL such as www.yourdomain.com. A landing page is the page people land on when they click on the link in an online advertisement and the URL is something like www.yourdomain.com/landingpage1.html. While your home page is the same regardless of how people find it, you can have multiple landing pages crafted for specific purposes or target markets. When running an Adwords campaign, it is highly recommended that you point searchers to custom landing pages instead of your home page. Doing so will increase your sales and reduce your Adwords expenses.
Read more »Tags: Adwords, FAQ, home page, landing page, saving money
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August 3rd, 2010
Watch out for This Sales Newsletter Scam
Talk about a crappy way to start a Monday! I checked my messages this morning and had one from a collections agency looking to collect on a past due invoice for $94.50 assessed against my business. At first I figured the phone call was a scam to get me to call her back so she could give me a sales pitch because I KNOW I don’t owe anybody anything. The vast majority of my expenses I pay via credit card and the only things I pay by check are sub-contractor invoices.
So when the collections agent explained that I signed up for a sales newsletter and it was in collections because I hadn’t paid any of the 5 invoices this company sent. I vaguely remembered getting a call some months ago from a sales guy trying to get me to sign up for a sales newsletter. I remember him because he was kind of obnoxious and wouldn’t take no for an answer. I think at some point I sad “You can send the free one if you want but I’m signing up for it.” Apparently he took that as authorization.
I’d be less inclined to think it’s a scam versus…
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July 20th, 2010
HARO Part II: 5 Not So Well Known Uses for HARO
You’ve probably read an article in a magazine or seen a news segment on TV that featured a company similar to yours and wondered “How’d they get that spot?” They got that spot because they came to the attention of the right journalist.
It used to be that if you wanted to get featured in a national magazine or on TV, you had to spend several thousands of dollars on a public relations firm. Since the vast majority of small businesses don’t have that kind of marketing budget, it seems like the only way to connect with journalists is to bump into them in line at the grocery store.
That’s where Help a Reporter Out comes in. Help a Reporter out (HARO for short) connects you with journalists writing on your area of expertise. In my last blog post, I described how HARO works. In this blog post, I will show you some of the other ways to use HARO.
1. Forward HARO Requests to Clients and Colleagues
I’m a natural born Connector. I love to put people in touch with other people and resources I think they’d like to know about. So, when I…
Read more »Tags: Blog Talk Radio, content, HARO, Jill Konrath, PR, public relations, Selling to Big Companies
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June 23rd, 2010
How to Use HARO for Publicity & More! (Part I)
Need publicity but can’t afford to hire a PR agency? Help a Reporter Out is the tool for you. In this post I explain what it is and how to use it. in my next post, I’ll show you some ways to use HARO for research and relationship building.
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March 21st, 2010
How to Find Your Customers Online: A Case Study
The hardest part of building an online audience is getting in front of new people. Tapping the existing audiences of websites, bloggers and experts is probably the easiest way to get in front of new people. That’s why I’m constantly telling prospects and clients “You need to figure out where your target markets hang out online and be there.” People quickly see the wisdom of this approach. But, the hard part is figuring out exactly where people are hanging out online.
A few weeks ago, I did a seminar about the basics of internet marketing. In it, I asked the attendees to define their target markets. One target market that emerged was stay at home Moms and it was news to most of the group that “Mommy Bloggers” are a serious force to be reckoned with online. Just a week later, the New York Times had an article “Honey, Don’t Bother Mommy. I’m Too Busy Building My Brand” about a Mommy Blogger boot camp.
Frankly, if I were trying to reach stay at home moms and new moms, I could build a marketing campaign off this article alone. By doing some data mining, I was able…
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March 15th, 2010
My Two Cents: Even if you think a client is pissed, COMMUNICATE!
It might be hard to do but communication will go a long way to soothing an annoyed client.
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