Many consider the American dream as something where you start small, and grow big enough that you become a household name. Starbucks, Walmart, all sorts of chains have become national and multi-national concerns from a very small core business. Sounds like the ideal result for your small business, and for your company, right? Yet, when you ask people about big-name chains they very rarely have anything good to say about them. These companies have lost something, and even though they may give you a good price, they get nearly as much backlash from the ones that won’t even enter their stores. What did they forget? What did they give up? Well, the simple answer is that all of these companies have lost the concept of Customer Service.

Many companies these days have confused Customer Service for convenience, the two are not one and the same, and in some cases, are diametrically opposed. Mistaking customer service for convenience means that your prices are low, but when it comes time for a purchase, no one can help you. Convenience may mean thousands of products in one place, but no one that can answer a simple question about any of them. More people rely on reviews and information from online reviews and descriptions, simply because they can’t get anyone in the store to talk to them and work with them to find the best choice for their purchase.

What does this mean for you? Well, that’s even more simple. Every industry, and every type of business has a niche, and these days what can help you fit into your niche is customer service. You can be a very successful small business, competing against thousands of other small businesses, or you can be an online seller, competing with millions of other developed web-based vendor, but you can carve out your niche, by carving out and developing successful relationships with your customers.

It doesn’t matter what you offer, there will be others willing to offer the same product at a lower price, or with more convenience, so perfecting that lost art of customer service is what keeps you in business. When you have a core groups of customers that adore you so much that they don’t even bother looking at other options you know that other business can come and go, because you will still be around.

These days, it is hard to establish a relationship with a customer, especially when in web-based sales. People are clicking through your site so quickly that they may never stop to take a look at how your site differs then others. There are a few methods you can do that will help a customer find you, and help them figure out that you want their business, and you are willing to offer the service they crave:

Make it obvious that you encourage questions and comments on your service. Yes you will always get a few trolls that love to bad-mouth everything, but when your customers talk to you, you can prove that they absolutely want to buy from you, because you want them as a customer. Not once, not twice, but every time they go for a product you offer, they visit first. Some consider this good salesmanship, but in many cases, this is only the first step, because you have to:

Maintain the relationship! Ok, you sold them something. If you are an artist, or a crafter, or are selling something you made, check in another time and ask them how the product works for them. Find out if they would like any changes in the future. In short, keep them thinking about you, and the product they bought from you. When you show them that excellent customer service, you end up stuck in their heads, so they think about you more often. As a web-vendor, this should be easy, especially if they gave you their email. How long does it take to write a short ‘how’s it going’ email?

If you are a small business, or store-front, you all ready have a somewhat easier time of it. After all, on the web people will click by a storefront as soon as they can to find what they want. You actually have a person coming into your store. You have one up right there! Make sure that the entrance to your store is open and welcoming, and gives you enough space so that you can both greet the person, and in a brief turn, take in the majority of your store. This gives you the opportunity not only to ask them what they like or need, but you can actually help them find it before they’ve even gone a dozen feet from the entrance. It gives you the chance to set up a rapport with your customer, which is the first step to keeping them, long term. That should always be your goal, and the purpose behind good customer service, you provide something that others do not, and people will come back for that again and again.

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Every webmaster knows that link building is essential to the growth of a website. Not only is it supposed to increase page rank but it could also lead to a boost in traffic, if you find the right linking partners.

Over the years webmasters have found it easier to just pay for links rather than personally do the hard work of researching and identifying potential linking partners and then approaching them for link trades. While this approach worked for a while, Google, the top search engine most webmasters rely on for traffic started catching up on the trend and eventually changed its algorithm to identify and exclude any websites engaging in the paid link networking practice.

Identifying websites utilizing paid services was easy because most link network websites featured all their clients’ link right on their home pages which left an obvious foot print for Google to follow. Additionally since link networks are notorious for using spun content and dropping links in batches, they unintentionally exposed their clients to the wrath of the search engine gods.

Over the years, a lot of link building networks have gone out of business due to Google de-indexing their clients’ websites. The casualty list is long but the most popular and recent victim of this Google change is Build My Rank, a very successful link building network that was forced to shut its doors and chose to announce to the public why they were going out of business.

The Build My Rank concept was simple – people paid a monthly fee and contributed articles that would then be posted on one of their networks. The articles ofcourse included a link back to the author’s website. The concept worked very well until Google de-indexed all their sites. This left them with no option but to shut down. While they lose financially, their clients are also losing a lot here especially if their whole livelihood depended on this one company. That is just one very good example as to why it’s never a good idea to rely on paid link building networks because if they go down, they take you and your whole network down with them.

Using paid services to accumulate back links also has another ugly side effect. As if risking getting penalized by Google isn’t bad enough on its own, using link building sites also exposes your marketing strategy to people who could potentially turn into your biggest competitors because not only are you revealing what areas your business is focusing on but you’re also revealing the keywords that are crucial to your business.

The best way to avoid getting caught up in the whole link building failure mess is by focusing on link building methods that have stood the test of time and will help grow your sites for years to come. These methods are simple and while it takes a while to see some results from them, if you persist and are consistent in applying them, you will reap the benefits.

The link building methods that won’t get you flagged and banned by search engines include utilizing social networks. Social networks are the rage these days and the trend is only going to grow stronger. Set up pages for your website on sites like Facebook, Pinterest, Google Plus and Twitter and post your site content to your pages for instant back links. Also upload videos to video streaming sites like YouTube and make sure you include your website URL in the video and in the video description area. This will get you traffic and a back link from one of the most popular sites.

Another tried and proven method is guest blog posting. This is actually the best way to get quality back links because it not only helps you reach your target audience but also increases traffic to your website and establishes you as an authority in your field – after all, most blog owners just don’t let anyone write a guest post for their valued blogs. Guest blog posting is free which saves you money and it also gives you a chance to target the long tail keywords of your choice in the author bio section of your post.

Those are just two of the link building methods you can use to ensure that your site doesn’t get caught in the link building crumble. You can also utilize press releases or engage in article marketing which are both free but require a bit more work and research than the two methods mentioned above.

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A solid rule of business online should be to never get used to any one particular method of getting traffic to your site! Why? Because things are constantly changing online and Google, being the biggest search engine, is often behind those changes.

As they are now. In the past, online businesses have relied on search engine traffic to get a large portion of views to their site. SEO was king. If you understood SEO you were good.
Now, Google is changing all of that with Search, Plus Your World. In the past, when you searched for a topic in Google, you would be searching among the countless numbers of web pages that were created mostly by people you didn’t know. You might have to spend some time digging before you found something relevant or to find your own items or those of your friends. Not anymore.

With Search, Plus Your World you will be able to find not only information published by random strangers but information, news, videos, and more that are published by people within your networks – more specifically, your Google+ networks.

There are three ways that you will be able to personalize your search results. Personal results will show you information that you have shared on Google+ and information that has been shared specifically with you. Profiles in Search will make it easier to find the people that you are connected with and the people that you could be interested in connecting with. People and Pages will make it easier for you to find the profiles of people that are related to topics you talk about and business profiles in your area of interest. It will also make it easier for you to connect with them in just a couple of clicks.

What does this mean for you? It means that as more people start personalizing their search results it will become more important for you to have a presence on Google+ and to make connections with people. Although SEO will still be important (because let’s face it, not everyone in the world is going to use Google+ to connect and interact so not everyone will be personalizing their results), being on Google+ will become an integral part of business marketing.

Are you glued to your current traffic generation methods? If you are, you might be glued to the spot, too! If you want to have an online business that moves forward and finds new successes, it is critical that you keep up-to-date and be ready to change your marketing strategies to match current trends. Right now, that mean getting on Google+ and developing a new search strategy!

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One of the things that have always mystified webmasters is Page Rank. Page Rank is difficult to define and no one is completely sure why they want it – they just know that they do! In the simplest of terms Page Rank defined is a reflection of how important Google thinks your site is. High Page Rank sites are more likely to show up first in searches. But figuring it out – that is the tough part and it is no wonder since Google themselves have said that there are more than 500 million variables that go into determining Page Rank.

One of the commonly accepted ways of raising your Page Rank is backlinks. In order to increase their Page Rank, webmasters try to get links back to their sites. The more relevant the site that links back to them the better. For instance, if you have a site about coffee, a link from another site about coffee will hold more value that a link from a site about video games.

Another factor that comes into play with backlinking is the “nofollow” attribute. When you attach a “nofollow” attribute to a link it is like telling Google that the link should not be considered for purposes of Page Rank. You are not giving them your “vote”. The original purpose of this was to prevent people from using places like forums to spread their link around. The majority of message boards have “nofollow” links.

In the past couple years, Google themselves have resisted making statements about Page Rank defined. They have moved away from putting importance on Page Rank by removing the Page Rank checker tool from their Webmaster Tools resources. You may also notice that it is not available on Google Chrome. The reason for this is that Page Rank is not the only factor and Google wants people to focus on providing quality content – not just putting out loads of backlinks to increase their Page Rank.

page rank

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Choosing graphics for your site or blog’s header, footer and page as well as advertising banners is important. It is the first thing that will be seen on your page and right away needs to pop out. If you have a company or product logo, then go ahead and incorporate it into your header design. It is important that your branding remain in the mind of the perusing reader. It is that lasting impression that will remind readers to come back.

With that you want to find images that relate to your products or services. I wouldn’t necessarily use a specific photo of a single product unless that is the sole purpose of your site. Otherwise stick to more generic and appealing images that allow the web surfer to make a connection between the image and what you are offering. For example; if you are offering recipes for healthy meals or smoothies you should display images that show healthy food and/or healthy active people. Direct the imagery to the concept of the product offered. Just don’t make it too cookie cutter.

Now deciding on advertisement and banner graphics is very similar to the process of choosing a header and page graphics. The only difference is the amount of time you have to appeal to the viewer. As you have seen online in many places, a lot of animated banners only last for about 4 seconds of which they are shifting every 1 second. This is because most people only see them out of the corner of their eye and in that short time you have to get their attention.

What you show and what you say has to grab them in an overpowering way to the point where they will click on it to find out more. Positive and intriguing imagery with powerful phrasing will drive them to want to find out more. Leave them with something to ponder so they come to find out the answer.

Beyond all the actual images themselves comes the choice of resources. You can either have a graphic designer do it, you can pull together graphics from the multitude of stock image sites already out there, or you can do it at no cost and design them yourself. Briefly detailed below are your pro’s and con’s for each:

1. Choosing a designer will give you that edge you may need to get captivating graphics for your site. You can usually find a freelance designer at reasonable cost that will allow you some revisions and usually will give you great turnaround time. They will also have more working knowledge on web requirements depending on where you are hosting your site and what service is placing your ads.
2. Working from stock image resources will guarantee that you have solid images that will work with your product. The downside is that they are typically very generic and may require resizing depending on the requirements of your site. They can also range in prices and can end up costing you as much as having a designer do the work.
3. Designing it yourself, if you have the ability is about as beneficial as hiring a designer. Obviously there would be no cost other than time and you have a lot more control over relaying your idea onto paper. The downside to this is that as individuals we are not always critical enough of our work and may end up with something that only you find appealing.

In the end you have to weigh your options and determine what the best option is for you.

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Everyone is looking to attract more visitors to their websites. Whether they write blogs, show off photos, or just are looking to sell something, your goal is to get as many people looking at, and staying on your website for as long as possible. What people sometimes forget is that all of the bells and whistles cannot replace good old-fashioned quality writing. Pictures dazzle, movies thrill, but writing engages your audience and keeps them on your site, or coming back for more. You want to make sure that you have quality writing backing your site, and you can do this a couple of key ways.

 

Pick a message and stick to it, because your viewers are going to get confused easily. Mixed messages will frustrate them, so will complicated language. Find your point and sharpen that point as well as you can. This will help you focus your message on something simple, straight forward, and something the reader will find useful, it will also allow you to write unique content for your site. Why does someone want to read the same thing on your site they can find in thousands of others? They won’t, and they will quickly move on.

Don’t forget your visitor’s point of view! Does your site seem professional? Have you double checked it for spelling and grammar mistakes? Triple checked it? Had someone else check it as well? If you missed something, you will be sure that someone browsing your site won’t. Then all of your efforts are pointless because that will become the sole thing that the person will focus on. Don’t let these essentials get away from you, so you can keep viewers coming back to your sites.

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If you have an online business, the importance of SEO (search engine optimization) cannot be ignored. SEO strategies help an online business gain more visibility in the search engines, which helps you get traffic that is targeted to the subject of your site. It helps web sites show up in higher positions in the search rankings.

When people search for information online they receive a list of sites that match their search terms. There are several search engines that Internet surfers might use but the words that are used to search will always determine which web sites the surfer is presented with. As a web site owner, your goal is to have your site show up on the first page.

Think about your own searching habits. When you search for a web site which link that is provided to you by the search engines do you click on? Do you surf through ten pages or more before you click on a link? No. You likely clicked on a link from the first page. If you didn’t find what you were looking for on the first page you might have continued on to the second or third page or maybe even the fourth or fifth pages but not usually much further. If you didn’t find what you were looking for by the fifth page, you likely went back to the search engine to try a different term.

If other surfers have used a similar strategy (and many studies have shown this to be true), you can see why the importance of SEO is a matter that is on most business owners’ minds. Learn as much as you can about SEO and implement a SEO strategy. If you do not feel that you are able to do this, consider hiring someone who is trained in the techniques of implementing SEO strategies for better business.

More on SEO

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The creation of a successful marketing plan has many steps. Obviously you must properly and professionally present the product and/or service you are providing via a website or some form of internet promotion. The next important thing to really reel in the clientele is a quality follow-up. A continued display of interest in a potential customer along with providing more information about what your offering can go a long way, especially if you present it right.

One of the things you have to consider when looking for a good service to use when implementing this method of marketing is what features are offered and how do they compare to other services. There are a few specific things you should want in your decision. Without these certain features you may end up being disappointed with your choice, and in turn will affect the profitability and flexibility of your marketing plan.

First thing is first, how many people do you intend on attracting and responding to in the course of a month? Many services offer free service until you reach 500 or 1000 subscribers while others will allow you unlimited subscribers but will charge whether you have 5 or 50,000 contacts on your list. But, on the opposite end, those may not have highly customizable or user friendly interfaces or may charge you per template.

This leads to the next aspect of your decision making process. How many options do you have when creating your auto-responder templates? This part of it is important. Especially if you are not highly skilled in HTML, you will definitely need to find a user friendly service that allows you to do higher level coding at the click of a button. The more appealing and interactive your auto-responder is; the better. As in any advertising, the obvious attention to detail will show your target market that you take time and care in doing business.

As a final note, you want to make sure that the service you are looking into offers everything that you are looking for in an auto-responder service. Obviously you may not find one that has EVERYTHING you need but boil your needs down to pure necessity and then work up from there. Finding a service that offers what you need with and easy to use interface and also allows you to reach your maximum potential, will guarantee that with the right amount of time investment and attention to detail will bring in the business that you need.

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One of the more obvious things about programmers usually missed is that their main job is not the typing of code or even the order of its chaos. The larger part of their work day is spent reading, deciphering, and correcting code. It is this reversed approach that requires you to look at hiring one from a different perspective. As if to reverse engineer who you interview as opposed to building them up.

A considerably high ranking skill that a programmer needs is the ability to be highly productive, adapt to change, and have absolute knowledge of what they are looking at. It is the confusions and hurdles that make or break a programmer. They have to be able to answer questions quickly and correctly without too much thought process. Programming takes long hours and efficiency of time is king.

Quite frankly, attention to detail is next in line. One tiny missed error can cause hours of searching through line after line in the attempt to resolve an error. Something small that could have been missed all together with someone that has a heightened sense for the obscure and commonly overlooked.

Another vital feature to a quality programmer is the ability to think outside the norm. When faced with a problem, sometimes the standard way of dealing with is isn’t the correct way, or the best by any means. The ability to think outside their training and tap into other resources to get the answer will not only reduce time and stress, it may also better improve whatever it is you are having designed.

Focus and honest interest in their craft is definitely something you want. A sincere curiosity in their work and its attempt at perfection will assure you that any level of indefinable errors will probably not cross their paths. As with any industry, the best are the ones who truly immerse themselves in the knowledge of what they are doing and it is that true desire to be good at it that will make for the best choice in programmer. They are very acute individuals and taking the time to investigate these characteristics will only strengthen your ability to rely on them to deliver.

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Creativity, flexibility, tenacity, and ability. These are the things you need to attain when looking to hire a designer. On the surface it is cut and dry, but with a little digging and explanation you will find how this further research into these attributes will better aid you in finding the best designer for your needs. If you can find someone or a company that embodies all of these traits you will very likely find the person or unit that you are looking for.

Creativity; the ability to think outside the box yet still adhere to the standards within. You want someone who can think on the fly a spout out good ideas with a level of ease. They can then take these ideas and put them into fruition quickly and intelligently. Given the project you are looking to hire for, how does the potential designer match up. With this creativity, does their experience reflect their ability to design in the industry and market you are targeting? You wouldn’t want to hire a logo designer to do advertising design if they have never put one together before.

Flexibility and tenacity; the ability to switch gears, change pace, and do it without skipping a bit. This is greatly important ass most people know that projects quite often do not go as they are initially planned. You may think of a better idea or direction and want to be able to make those changes without overshooting your deadline requirements. Also within this point lies the need to be available when the job requires. If they can’t be around when needed then it is likely that your plan will be offset.

Finally, you want to make sure they have the ability to do the work. If you need a logo designer, find someone who can do a logo for you in a minimal amount of time with a maximum of quality and flexibility. Check their background experience and the various industries that they have worked in. This variety is not only good for determining flexibility in design intents, but also support that they have the creative ability to maneuver from one style to another.

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