The Legitimacy of an MBA Online
One of the biggest concerns for prospective students is the legitimacy of an MBA degree online. Nothing could be worse than spending your finances, time and effort on obtaining an MBA online just to have it dismissed as an illegitimate degree by prospective employers.
Survey Says
In a 2001 Vault survey conducted to gauge the general perception of online degrees versus traditional degrees, 61% of the participants rated online degrees as having less credibility than traditional degrees but still being generally acceptable.
Such a lukewarm response may put certain doubt in your mind about the legitimacy of an MBA online. However, genuine online MBA programs are now held to high educational standards to provide new business students and experienced professionals looking to boost their careers with legitimate online MBA degrees respected by employers and recruiters alike.
How MBA Online Programs Become Legitimate
Employers conduct job position interviews and sift through countless resumes to check the legitimacy and accreditations of prospective employees. They want to know who you are, where you’ve been educated and who can vouch for you. Online institutions require the same type of accreditation in order to be considered a serious and genuine MBA degree program.
Institute accreditation is achieved with the help of third party agencies who effectively investigate the program’s education and business processes before the organization can become accredited. Naturally, it’s easy to think that an online MBA program could become accredited under false pretenses by simply hiring an accrediting organization to give them the rubber stamp of approval. The truth is that accreditation mills, who offer accredited status for a mere fee, are as common and worthless as online degree mills.
The prevalence of degree and accreditation mills online makes the task of finding a legitimate MBA online program that much harder. However, there are genuine accrediting agencies and organizations that strive to improve the legitimacy of online degree programs.
Genuine Accrediting Agencies
The Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) is the leading US based organization. The council is essentially designed to recognize the highest quality accrediting agencies available. They keep track of approximately 60 accrediting organizations, including the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) – a highly regarded accrediting agent for business schools.
There are over 500 accredited members in AACSB and over 18,700 programs that hold recognition from CHEA’s rigorous standards or the US’ Department of Education so there is no shortage of legitimate online institutions to choose from.
Most importantly though is the fact that online only MBA programs are quickly being joined by long established traditional universities interested in offering their MBA programs online. Universities such as Duke, East Carolina, Texas A&M, Houston Victoria, Oklahoma State and several others all operate online MBA programs and there is little doubt about their legitimacy and reputation.
How the Job Market Views Online MBAs
Online MBA programs have made leaps and bounds over the past decade but receiving an MBA degree through distance learning or online programs is not universally accepted in the business world.
Top tier business sectors such as venture capitalist, hedge funds and other Fortune 500-centric fields still give priority to MBA degrees obtained from full time in-residence at a renown university. Human resources departments for business specific companies will know whether an MBA degree comes from a traditional MBA program or an online program and may readily prefer the former.
However, this leaves plenty of job sectors and opportunities where legitimate online MBA programs are looked upon as solid career building tools. According to a Vault’s 2001 study on online degrees, job industries embedded into the online world such as Internet media, information technology and high-tech sectors have much greater acceptance ratings for online degrees like an MBA when compared to the more traditional medicine, law and marketing industries.
The Choice is Yours
Ultimately, the true legitimacy of an MBA online depends on how serious you are about obtaining a quality level of education that carries academic prestige. Top tier accreditation agencies for business degrees make sure that your online MBA is worth its financial value and won’t be dismissed by employers and recruiters who truly know the difference between legitimate online MBAs and phony degrees.
About the Author: This article was written by Anthony Benedict who helps run and maintain OnlineMBA.com, which is a website that directs people to the best ways of obtaining an MBA on the internet
Photo Credit: opensourceway
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Entrepreneurs in a Box – 4 Creative Businesses Doing More with Less
If you ever want to see a microcosm of humanity, try working in self storage.
Our units are rented by people in all walks of life, many of whom are creatively making their way in the world using the resources that they have — no matter how minimal those resources might be.
I am especially amazed by people who are nearly out of money, who have nothing but a few scant possessions and a set of skills, who nevertheless see no reason why they should not go ahead and start their own businesses.
I was skeptical at first, but I’ve learned that I need to be more openminded. Statistics from the Small Business Administration say that about half of all new small businesses fail within the first five years.
That might be true for small businesses, but I am not convinced that it is true for tiny businesses, businesses that fit inside a self storage unit — businesses in a box, I always call them. The entrepreneurs who start tiny businesses with just what they have are simply too good at keeping their overhead down and riding out the dry spells. You can do that when you don’t need much to begin with.
What are these tiny businesses? Some of them are Craig’s List- or eBay-based retailers, or other online businesses. But I have to admit that the businesses that really go to my heart are not the online businesses but the truly creative ones.
Here are a few examples:
- Green cleaning: One of my tenants had started a working part-time cleaning houses. But the chemicals that she used were exacerbating her asthma. She decided to get her green cleaning certification. But that meant changing out the equipment and supplies that she kept in her unit. She uses a lot of steam cleaning equipment now, and she replaced her old chemicals with cleaners that are approved by the EPA as green. To finance the change, she decided to sell her cleaning van, which had been brand new. I was surprised — I think most small business owners would decide that this was a calculated risk, and would take out a loan and go into debt. Not this tenant. She told me, “No way — I would be a slave to that debt for the rest of my life!” She decided to rent a truck twice a week from the storage facility instead. That way, she saved money on the insurance, and she simply made a point to schedule all her cleaning appointments on the same two days. I know she schedules her appointments in the same part of town on the same day to save money for gas and the truck rental, but I think it’s awesome that in the process of doing that, she also reduces her business’ carbon footprint by reducing her emissions from transportation.
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- An old-fashioned trading post: This example may really be one of a kind. I traveled to a small town near Fairbanks, Alaska, to help open a new storage facility. I was fascinated to find that one young entrepreneur, a 19-year-old fur trapper, chose to share a storage unit with his grandmother, an elderly Athabascan woman who made a living skin sewing (making mukluk boots, hats, mittens, and in some cases ruffs for parka hoods, out of moose skin and bits of fur from rabbits, wolves, wolverines, foxes, and the like). People heard about the couple through word of mouth and would come to buy furs or mukluks, or to trade with them, much in the style of trading posts in the Old West, which still seem to exist in Alaska in some places. I was fascinated to see barter still being used in a business context (one fellow brought them a freezer full of frozen salmon and traded it for mukluks for his three children for the winter). This wasn’t the world’s most lucrative business, and it will never be a Fortune 500 company, but it doesn’t have to be — it’s supporting the people who depend on it.
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- Leatherworkers: At the same facility, a leatherworker opened a workshop. He didn’t opt for a very big space. “I don’t need it,” he told me. While in the Southwest and Southeast I often saw leatherworkers (sometimes in self storage units) making custom handmade chaps to use for horseback riding, here in Alaska this leatherworker was concentrating on sheaths for large buck knives (used for gutting and cleaning an animal during a hunting trip, I’m told), scabbards for rifles, and even pouches to hold things like shot shells or cartridges. In that small space, this highly skilled worker looked as though he would be in business for a long time to come — he was booking custom leatherworking assignments six months in advance. A waiting list like that is almost like having money in the bank.
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- Jewelrymaking: At the other end of the country, the Southwest, I met an Arizona jewelry maker one day. He did not do much work on the jewelry itself in his unit — he had a lot of equipment in his garage at home, he told me, and he usually needed a torch, which would be a fire hazard in a self storage unit. “For the longest time,” he told me, “I only made a few pieces of jewelry at a time — just what I could fit inside my little safe in my house.” He didn’t feel that his garage was a secure place to keep valuable jewelry or the gems that he was planning to work with. When a self storage facility opened up near his home, he came over and checked the security very carefully. Once he was satisfied, he rented our smallest unit — it is just five feet square — and he uses it to store finished pieces of jewelry, along with gems and materials that he was planning to use to make other items. He also kept a traveling jewelry case there. Every so often, he would go to visit jewelry stores and sell a few of his pieces, which were very original. Sometimes he took his jewelry to arts and craft fairs, or drove to visit people who had called him to ask about having a piece custom made. When he was done for the day, he would come back and stow everything securely. “It’s a weight off my shoulders not to have to worry, especially about the more expensive pieces,” he told me. “I certainly didn’t have the money to open a store and install an alarm system!”
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What fascinates me is that many of these entrepreneurs are making a living out of skills that I did not know were salable: skin sewing, hunting and trapping, decorating artistic leather cases. I would have called those things hobbies. These entrepreneurs didn’t need capital (aka debt) to start their businesses. All they needed was one passion — one hobby or art that they were good at, a little creativity, and a space the size of a closet. That’s ingenuity for you!
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About the Author: Art Gould is a division manager with Self Storage Company, which operates a group of websites, including a California self-storage locator. Though busy, Art enjoys meeting new people and clients when traveling to sites, like San Francisco or the Los Angeles self-storage center.
Photo Credit: getinet
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5 Essential Things You Need to Know About SEO to Have an Effective Website
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a hot topic right now. Everyone is wondering how to get a website to “rank”, to be one of the top results when someone enters a term in a search engine. Most small businesses need a web presence of some kind. A healthy web presence is essential so that your customers or potential customers can find you. The higher you rank, the easier you are to find (people really just don’t scroll down past the top results!).
SEO can be complicated, but understanding these essential truths about SEO will go a long way to helping you to maximize your website for search.
#1: You Can’t Trick the Algorithm, Google is Smarter than you
Search Engine Optimization is a collection of strategies designed to help you to rank higher in searches. SEO strategies are usually divided into two categories; White hat, or good strategies which can take a long time and are based on understanding how people search, and Black hat, or strategies which attempt to trick or manipulate search engines. Black Hat strategies, in addition to being shady and dubious, also DON’T WORK. If an idea seems sneaky, or too good to be true, or in any way dishonest, then don’t bother. Such strategies include: hiding superflous keywords in white text (so they aren’t visible to the naked eye), link farms, link exchanges, anything that you don’t earn by providing a quality product or content. Not only is Google smart enough not to give you credit for these sneaky tactics, this kind of behavior can actually get you banned on google, which means your website wont show up at all.
#2: Pick Good Keywords
Choosing SEO keywords is all about understanding how people search. Imagine I am someone who wants to find you. What would I enter in a search box if I was looking for you? Imagine a circumstance where I am looking for something, find your website and then become completely ecstatic that I found you… What keywords would I have entered? Understanding how people search is the heart of white hat SEO. Your keywords are the root of that understanding. Using only your keywords, could people understand what your mission is/what your business does? SEO is all about helping people find you, and knowing what they are searching for is the first step for SEO.
#3: On Page Optimization requires a professional web designer
Any tactic worth doing is worth doing right. SEO On page factors are those factors that live on your website which you can control. Things like meta tags, URL structure, site directory navigation, and anchor text. If you don’t know what these things are, you are not alone. These are not simple, do it yourself, concepts to implement in a web page design. There is a reason that people go to school and get degrees in computer science and engineering to be able to build websites. Get a professional to set up your site so that it’s done right, the first time.
#4: The most important place to put your keywords is in the title in the <head> tag
In fact, this may be the most important text on your entire website. If you don’t know what this means, see #3 above.
#5: At the end of the day, SEO is all about inbound links
When you talk about search engine optimization it’s important to understand that the Search Engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing want to provide the searcher with the best results for their search query.
That’s their business. And how they compete is by providing people who search for them with the best possible results for their search.
How do they decide who’s site is “the best”? Google was created by two Stanford grad students. They based their evaluation of websites on the same structure that thesis papers are evaluated.
Let’s say 2 people write graduate theses on the same subject. One get’s referenced/cited (essentially “linked back to”) 1,000 times and the second is referenced 10,000 times, who’s is the best? The obvious answer is the second one. The one referenced the most is better, more relevant, higher quality etc. The foundation of most search engines is the idea that the one gets referenced or on the internet, linked back to, more is “better” and should therefore rank higher for that search term. Now that you have your keywords, you need to focus on getting inbound links. The more links the higher you will rank.
But not all links are created equal. What you really want are links which point from that keyword to your website. This is quite possibly the most important step people miss when they start looking for links. If possible you want that outreach to get you a link that looks like this: accounting software… not this: Workingpoint (you should hopefully already rank for your own name!).
With these 5 essential pieces of knowledge, you should be ready to start thinking about developing an SEO strategy for your website. SEO doesn’t produce overnight results, but when done right, can be an important and cost effective alternative to pay per click advertising.
About the Author: Dena Stern is the Community Resources and Marketing Manager at WorkingPoint, a financial accounting tool for Small Businesses. She is responsible for community outreach and is a frequent contributor on the subject of technology trends, social media, SEO and marketing on the WorkingPoint Blog.
Photo Credit: Igor ™
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A Fool Proof Guide To Setting Up A Sale
Working in sales is one of the hardest jobs you can do. Although it doesn’t require any formal qualifications you need to have the right attitude. In today’s market place selling is more important than ever especially when anyone can buy anything they want online.
Any good business should be customer lead and sales driven. You need to be able to identify exactly what your customer wants and how you can deliver it to them.
So how do you succeed in sales?
Dispel the Negative
First off you need to dispel any negative connotations that sales has, whether you’re based in a corporate office or selling door to door you should be proud of both what you’re doing and the product your selling.
When it comes to your product (or service) you need to make sure you understand it inside out, you need to know the history and everything your product has ever been involved in. This in-depth knowledge could well be what sets you apart from your competitors. This will help you install faith and trust in both you and your brand. Once you have this knowledge you’ll be able to identify your unique selling point (USP).
Who are you Selling To?
The first thing you need to identify is who you’re selling to. You will never be selling to a company you will only ever be selling to an individual. Even if you have a room full of people you’re pitching too the decision to buy will untimely come down to one person.
This means you need to identify that one person before you do anything else. You need their name and not just their title; an email, phone call or letter addressed to ‘the head of marketing’ is going straight into the junk folder.
Make Contact
Now you’ve got your name you need to make contact. The best way to go about this is with an introductory email (or letter). You address your recipient by name and introduce yourself, your company and your product. This is just an introduction so you’re not selling anything at the moment.
You need to make the letter as personalised as possible. A generic letter that could apply to everyone will be obvious straight away. At the end of the letter include a brief sentence explaining you’ll follow up this letter in a few days. This gives them time to think it over and proves you can keep a commitment. Anything longer than a few days and they’re likely to have forgotten about you.
Follow Up
Once you’ve sent this letter or email you’ve made your first contact and you’ve got your reason for the next contact. When you call them up you can ask for the person specifically. You’ll probably get through to a receptionist or secretary initially and you’ve got to get past them. Ask for the name of the person you need with confidence like you speak to them all the time.
When asked for your name give your first name as this gives a connotation of familiarity, only give the name of your company if you’re asked for it. Avoid doing a well rehearsed introduction as again this makes you sound like a sales call.
Get the Meeting
The purpose of this phone call is just to get a meeting. Like the letter you’re not going into the call with the thought of making a sale in the back of your mind. If you can promise to offer them something at a cheaper price or more efficiently than they’re currently getting, now is the time to shine. You’re not there to waste their time you’re simply enquiring as to how you can fit into their business structure to provide a business benefit. Try to take this phone call standing up and with a smile on your face. If you’re slouched over a desk with the Monday morning blues it will come across in your voice.
About the Author: Kim works for Real Asset Management who are experts in fixed assets.
Photo Credit: LoopZilla
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Shipping In-House versus Shipping through Companies
Technology has come a long way over the years in allowing businesses to get the best deals possible on shipping. There is so much competition for shipping that other companies outside of the regular posts have started offering bulk rates for businesses.
These rates allow businesses to charge less on shipping which will gain more clients as well as provide better savings to the business.
While there are many benefits to getting deals on shipping, there are some pitfalls to watch out for which might put your shipping squarely back in the hands of the government supported posts.
Shipping In-House
Many companies swear by the postage meters they use. One of the biggest advantages you get as a company when using these meters is the ability to use only the amount of postage necessary to ship the package. Buying postage in bulk offers the ability to have savings in the fact you will never have to pay anything more than what is necessary to ship your packages of other posts. Additionally, you will not have to worry about packages being returned to your office because of lack of postage.
One of the main disadvantage of the shipping through the use of postage scales is there can be no discounts for bulk shipping. Whether you ship one package or a hundred, you will pay the same amount for the actual package. While this price will most certainly be passed along to the consumer, it can have a negative effect on the amount of purchases consumers will make from your company. They will simply go with a company which can offer them a product which is comparable and at a better price.
Shipping Out of House
The main alternatives to shipping through out of house means are FedEx, UPS and DHL. These companies are not only in hot competition with each other. They are also in hot competition with the government supported posts. They are willing to cut deals on bulk rates as well as offer drop shipping and fulfillment. All of it translates to better savings for the company and the ability to attract more people to your business.
The biggest drawback to shipping through these means is the fact it is necessary to weigh out each package. The packages will have to be scheduled to be picked up so they can be delivered. It is possible to set up a business account in which packages will be shipped without having to weight them, but then you will have to trust the technology used by the company to charge you the correct amount. Some companies have made arrangements and put their trust in shipping companies only to find the packages they have been shipping have been charged more than they should have been.
The shipping solution right for each company is not always the same. It is important to look at all of your options to make sure you are getting your shipping needs covered at the right price.
About the Author: Resource Nation provides free tools, tips, and purchasing advice for business owners and entrepreneurs in over 100 business categories ranging from postage meters to credit card processing. Whether it’s connecting businesses with local and national pre-screened vendors, or offering easy service comparisons on postage scales, Resource Nation empowers business decision makers by providing the information they need to make smart choices.
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Digg, Gap, and The Fad Syndrome
Everyone knows the classic business story of Coca-Cola and their decision to make “New Coke.” The company decided that their product could be improved, changed it, then responded to the public outcry and went back its Classic formula.
Modern Day “New Coke”
In the past month, several companies attempted to update their own products. What happened next is a great example of what is increasingly known as “The Fad Syndrome.”
Digg’s New Design
First, the popular website Digg unveiled a new design. Their website was updated to reduce the influence so called “Power Users” had and to promote social network use.
Updated Gap
Gap released a new logo, the word Gap with a small blue box on the upper right corner. The idea was to be more hip and capture the new spirit of consumers.
Twitter Makeover
Twitter also changed its approach recently. It changed the layout of its site to include more content, increase user participation, and even adopt a “Golden Mean” circular structure.
What happened in each of these cases?
Digg’s traffic dropped by more than 25%. Strong reaction by users forced the CEO to apologize and decide to reverse some of the changes.
Massive outcry forced Gap to change its decision and return to the old logo almost immediately after decision to change.
But Twitter’s changes were accepted with little reaction and have been veiled out to all of its hundreds of millions of users.
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Why was Twitter able to undergo a significant change while Digg and Gap were forced to reverse themselves, much like Coca-Cola?
The answer lies in the phenomena of “The Fad Syndrome.”
This syndrome is what happens when a company is tempted to follow a fad and in doing so abandons its core values.
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Successful companies form strong emotional bonds with their customers and users. When you use a product repeatedly, you attach emotions and ways of using it to it. Companies, however, don’t always realize the value of this attachment.
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It’s taken for granted and is not a growth area anymore. Sometimes they see a market trend and feel like they are outdated or need to change to meet it.
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When they do so by changing the elements that made them successful in the beginning, this can outrage loyal users.
A Clear Lesson
What Twitter did right was its change did not fundamentally alter the user experience or abandon any principles/branding that had made it popular. In contrast, Digg redesign insulted its most loyal users, and Gap’s change abandoned an iconic logo with great emotional significance.
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The lesson is clear. Avoid “The Fad Syndrome” by recognizing what components to your company are important to your users. If you do feel the need to change something, make sure to minimize that which could evoke strong emotional reaction from loyal users.
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About the Author: David Gurevich has three years of SEO experience and a case study is taught at a popular Ivy League business course on a website he started. At the moment, he is working on a book on business, possibly to be cowritten with a founder of the #1 MBA program for women.
Buzz him up at dg_writing@hotmail.com with any questions or thoughts you may have.”
Photo Credit: Sabrina Campagna
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What Role Does Leadership Play in a Small Business?
Some leaders are born; others assume responsibility and take to it like a duck to water when it is thrust upon them; and yet others work towards earning leadership through their efforts.
Large corporate organizations are built around leadership – they thrive under the vision and able guidance of one or more leaders. However, when it comes to a small business, there’s not much structure or clear definition to the roles that its employees play.
Very often, one person is in complete charge, and all employees work across the company doing whatever needs to be done. So in such a situation, how does leadership come into play?
Autonomous Control
Some small businesses are autonomies – the owner is in complete control and any decision has to be taken only after explicit approval from its single-entity owner. In such organizations, success or failure depends on how effective the leadership is – if the leader has a clear vision and if he/she treats their employees well and is able to gain their trust and loyalty, then the business does well.
Family Owned
An offshoot of this is the family-owned business where there are a few partners who have equal rights – however, only one person emerges as the leader and it is he/she who actually calls the shots.
Success here depends on how well the partners get together and how minimal the strife between them is. If there are internal wars between them, then the leadership is not effective and employees start taking sides based on the partner they favor.
In such situations, unless one person is able to emerge the clear leader and assume control, the company suffers terribly.
Clear Hierarchy
Small businesses that have structure and a clear hierarchy as far as the pecking order is concerned do the best in terms of sustaining existing operations and building new ones that generate profit. Each person’s role is clearly defined, and even though it’s a small business with a single or small group of owners and a small band of employees, responsibilities are clearly crafted out and understood by those who are supposed to carry them out.
The leadership is so good that employees work with the minimal supervision, they know what to do when things go wrong, and they feel a kinship to the company rather than thinking of it as just a place where they work. This is the kind of leadership all small businesses must aspire for, whether they have a single owner or a small group of owners. If they can achieve such a setup, then there’s nothing to worry about.
About the Author: This guest post is contributed by Carrie Oakley, who writes on the topic of online colleges . Carrie welcomes your comments at her email id: carrie.oakley1983(AT)gmail(DOT)com.
Photo Credit: pedrosimoes7
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The 5 Major Pitfalls of Business Start-Ups and How to Overcome
Entrepreneurship demands the ability to understand, appropriate and make use of risk. Successful entrepreneurs are those men and women who can develop a gut feeling, hunch, instinct or curiosity into a tangible project. Among the obstacles facing entrepreneurs, one must include self-doubt, hesitation and the inability to make wise decisions. New entrepreneurs in particular can be faced with a particularly powerful kind of doubt, one that suggests that an entrepreneurial idea “cannot be done”.
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An entrepreneur must engage in intelligent, proactive risk-taking in order to succeed in a new start-up. Paying attention to the process involved is crucial, and this article explains five major pitfalls and how to overcome.
1. Failure to Transform an Idea into a Sound Business Plan
Entrepreneurial success begins with two key factors: a good idea and its subsequent development. However, having a good or unique idea is not enough to form an entire business or launch a project. Your idea must be analyzed for its weaknesses, its strengths, and how it will unfurl into a marketable and potentially profitable project.
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For this to happen, you must transform your idea into a disciplined and thoughtful business plan. Your business plan outlines the execution of your idea. It takes the abstract aspects of an idea and transforms them into something tangible. Your business plan must include a cost analysis, a timeline of potential growth with various benchmarks, the expertise required to launch your project, and an analysis of the risks involved.
2. Failure to Overcome Fear
Fear is healthy and understandable but do not let it cripple your potential success. The obstacles you face are not yet mistakes! They are simply challenges.
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For young entrepreneurs, facing the rounds of self-doubt can be particularly daunting. Consider your status as a uniquely affirmative one: you are a maverick and not a wallflower. Act as such and you will start to believe it.
3. Failure to Find the Right Mentors
As you create a business plan and conquer self-doubt, be sure to surround yourself with people who complement and enhance your project. You cannot accomplish everything on your own. Recognize where your expertise lies and where it does not and form alliances with those who add what you do not have. This can include hiring experts in finance, negotiation, marketing, business strategy, law and tax. Engage such experts from the start to optimize your project’s potential.
4. Underperforming by Over Committing
Part of recognizing where your expertise lies involves recognizing what you can and cannot do in terms of personal resources, time and effort. As a new business owner you may also have an active family life, which may include raising children, running a household and holding down a job. These responsibilities will not lessen. Understand early on how to balance entrepreneurship with the rest of your life, or else both your project and your family life will suffer.
5. Overexposure
Whether male or female, first-time entrepreneurs run the risk of encountering untrustworthy individuals who are prepared to rob you. In your business start up you may face additional hazards because some may assume that you are a novice when it comes to business negotiation. Careful preparation of your business plan and your projected capacity for work and growth should help limit your exposure to swindles and scams. However, taking a small amount of time each week and reviewing the trust you have invested in certain people, companies, facilities and practices is crucial. Do this on your own or with your most trusted advisor. The key is to weigh the risk you are taking when dealing with any person or company.
About the Author: Alex Papa is an investor and owner of several offline and online businesses. He often helps people find new business ideas, build their own small businesses and enjoy the lifestyle they desire. In his blog he also offers a business start-up audio CD course and the latest Norton 360 Coupon Code.
Photo Credit: Michael | Ruiz
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Top 4 Ways to SEO & Link Build with Your PR
As PR professionals, there are a number of activities which we have a heavy hand in that affect the SEO of a website OR the SEO of an organization (brand) via the content that is distributed online in their name.
If your content includes a link to your site and it gets syndicated or picked up by another publisher it will (hopefully) also contain your link which is a popular link building tactic. SEO is basically a set of methodologies that make it easier for search engines to find, categorize, index and ultimately rank web content. One popular SEO tactic is to build links to your site using the distribution of relevant content that links back to you site with the desired anchor text.
Many of your PR efforts can benefit from the integration of some simple search engine optimization tactics and a basic understanding of how search engines work. Most PR professionals create press releases, letters to the editor, corporate blog posts, white papers, compelling web copy, newsletters, and journalistic interviews for their clients: all of which are published online. It’s important to remember that to get the most bang out of these efforts you must look them over with SEO and link building principles in mind to make sure that search engines will find, index, categorize and RANK them well.
That beings said, let’s go over the top 4 simple things that you can do to your PR copy before it goes out the door which will help search engines find your content easier:
Keywords, keywords, keywords!
Remember that keyword phrases are the core of search engine optimization. Make sure you understand what keywords the client wants to focus on. It can often be as simple as asking the client what related keywords they use for PPC or SEO purposes and making sure that they are incorporated in the copy.
What Search Engines See
Keep in mind the search engine is just a robot and simply can’t “see” images, videos or slideshows. Don’t let this deter you from adding these things to your content. Instead, just keep it in mind and know that search engines CAN see alt tags and descriptions that you associated with your video, image or other supporting material.
Onsite SEO
Again, search engines are limited by the fact that they are just programs so understanding the basics of onsite SEO of a page can be really helpful in this process. The most important places to put keyword phrases are: title, summary/description, first paragraph, and last paragraph, no matter what type of content you are composing.
Hyperlinks and Anchor Text
This might seem very elementary, but don’t overlook the fact that search engines see hyperlinks and anchor text used within content as a sort of recommendation for the site they are directing the reader to. If you use a link in the copy, do your best to use an appropriate anchor text with the hyperlink instead of saying something like “click here” or just listing the website address.
Simple Changes – Big Results
Integrating these simple steps into your public relations writing practices can profoundly affect the results of your efforts. After all, the fundamental benefits of optimizing news content makes it easier for journalists researching stories to find yours, expands the organization’s brand and online footprint, contributes to a proactive search result reputation, as well as assists in fueling the sales pipeline.
After all, we consider the target audience first and foremost when we are writing. In this case, if your content will be distributed online take the time to consider the search engines. Search engines are one of the prominent audience members, so paying attention to link building and keeping this in mind will put you well on your way.
About the Author: Elise Redlin-Cook (AKA @redlincook) is the Content Strategist at Vertical Measures, an internet marketing company in sunny Arizona providing services ranging from link building services, to social media marketing, content development, and advanced SEO. She’s fully immersed herself into the world of content and is loving it!
Photo Credit: Mykl Roventine
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Steps to Success with SMS Mobile Marketing
Ever since the first caveman discovered he had an excess of buffalo meat and created a painting on the outside of his home to attract others to barter for his wares, the art of advertising has been a key element in our lives.
As brilliant and innovative as many marketing campaigns have been since that early caveman, there has been one problem that advertisers have constantly struggled to overcome: getting their adverts to the people who may be interested in their products.
Just like the poor caveman who may have missed out on some winter furs because everyone interested in his buffalo meat walked around the other side of his cave, today’s advertising executives know that however great a product, however superb a campaign, if it does not reach the right people at the right time success will evade them.
For this very reason, the ubiquity of the cell phone has created a unique platform on which to deliver focused and almost-individual advertising to customers who stand a high chance of being receptive.
Success with Mobile Marketing
There are a number of ways that this level of success can be achieved:
Identifying a customer’s goals
This can be done by using user trend information to gain a picture of habits and interests. This can then be used to formulate targeted advertising by use of premium SMS, as well as intelligent marketing.
Using the actual product as a signifier
Advanced cell phones such as the Droid tend to have a typical user. Unlike television or the newspaper, it is possible to be much more precise in identifying a user.
For example, a user of the latest Droid is unlikely to be a teenager or an elderly person. It is therefore unlikely that a campaign featuring children’s characters or knitting supplies would be a success. On the other hand, a campaign featuring a new gadget would stand a much better chance of success.
Making it Personal
Although everyone has received mail that is obviously part of a large coordinated mail shot, the personal nature of a cell phone means that any message received is more likely to be perceived on a more intimate level.
Just as SMS billing is seen as a direct communication between service provider and service user, targeted marketing via SMS can create a sense of intimacy that other mass media platforms cannot hope to match.
Value in the Data
The whole process of mobile marketing is one that has already proved successful, but has so much more to offer the advertiser (as well as the user).
Using more specific data and individual data, the marketing can not just benefit the advertiser but crucially help develop a relationship with the user. The reason for this is that as the marketing is much more focused, the user will come to trust the messages and even if they do not act on every one, they will be confident that that each message is worth investigating.
They will know this because previous experience will have shown them that the messages they receive are relevant to their lives and may well contain information and/or a product in which they may well be interested.
In Closing
Utilizing mobile marketing is an innovative way to approach advertising and will almost certainly produce better results than older methods. The focused and personal approach helps gain buy-in from customers who will be confident that the message may well include something that may be of use to them. Building this relationship will mean that advertiser and user will develop a more symbiotic relationship that will prove to be mutually beneficial.
When does the future of mobile advertising start for your company?
About the Author: Vera Mosley is an expert in mobile marketing. She is also a blogger and freelance writer for a premium SMS company. Additionally, Vera loves to spend time outdoors with her family.
Photo Credit: Esther Gibbons
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Eight Great Video Marketing Tips to Help Your Video Go Viral
There are tens of thousands of new videos uploaded to the Internet every week. Competing with these for a slice of viewers’ attention is difficult, but if you market your video properly, you can take advantage of huge viewer interest. Many companies ignore video marketing because they’re intimidated by the thought of filming a video or they don’t have the experience, but this is a mistake. More than 150 million people view videos online every year, most of them ripe to hear your business’s pitch if you produce and market your video effectively.
Tip #1: Prepare your video properly
You may have the world’s funniest video, but if no one can find it, it’s useless. Be sure to create a great meta description and title tag. Remember, you want to get their attention, not announce that your video is an advertisement. Use catchy, funny or even slightly misleading phrases that will intrigue visitors to YouTube and other video portals. Keeping it short also helps – 30 seconds or less is ideal.
Tip #2: Don’t advertise
Yes, the end result should garner interest in your product or company, but the initial goal of your video is simply to capture attention. Either educate your viewers or entertain them. Funny and shocking videos tend to go viral quickly, so produce content that will capture the imagination. You can blatantly tout your brand at the end, but don’t start off that way.
Tip #3: Take the time to submit your video to lots of video sites
YouTube may be the Holy Grail, but it isn’t the only site that can pump up the number of views for your creation. Submit to several sites, including heavy hitters like YouTube, Hulu, and Vimeo as well as smaller, niche sites.
Tip #4: Visit social media sites and generate interest
Facebook, Twitter and MySpace are famous for generating viral video marketing, but don’t neglect social media that are also business related, such as BetterNetworker or LinkedIn. Target your demographic and post comments with a link to your video to get people excited about the video. People visiting social media sites tend to forward and share quickly.
Tip #5: Post your videos on your company blog
If you don’t have a company blog, it’s time to start one. A properly maintained blog allows you to create your own content, creating buzz for your videos and giving you a platform to shape customer opinion on your own turf. It’s also a great way to create links to your website.
Tip #6: Visit other blogs and leave comments with a link to your video
This is a great way to quickly generate interest if done properly. Don’t simply post comments that say, “Check out this cool video!” on random sites; you could be removed by the blog’s moderator, or visitors may feel cheated when they click through and find something that’s of no interest to them. Choose blogs, post wisely, and keep the comments timely and relevant. If even one in twenty visitors to a blog click through after reading your comment, you’ll see an impressive spike in video views. You may also benefit from more incoming links to your blog when other blog owners check out your site. It’s a beautiful thing when your marketing efforts get your noticed on more than one front.
Tip #7: Generate controversy
This can take a bit more time, but the potential payoff is impressive. Create multiple accounts on video websites so that you, your coworkers, and friends can post comments, and then get a lively discussion going. Everyone loves a bit of controversy. Criticize the video or post a provocative observation and viewers will quickly want to join the fray, naturally leading them to check out your video marketing creation.
Tip #8: Get creative with visuals and sound
If your video makes viewers think, “Cool! I wonder how they did that?” it will quickly take on a life of its own, which is, after all, the goal of video marketing.
About the Author: Vern Marker has been in the marketing industry for more than 10 years. He is also a freelance writer for a HD camera company. When he is not working or writing, he loves to travel around the world.
Photo Credit: woodleywonderworks
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3 Reasons you should switch to a CRM for your Small Business!
Customers and vendors are a small businesses most valuable resource. Do you use a paper address book? Do your business contacts live in a paper rolodex? Do you search by hand for client details, flipping through sheets of paper on a call trying to find the answer to someone’s question while frantically flipping through pages of notes? When was the last time you had a paper cut? Well those days should be behind you.
With the rise of the age of technology, your clients and customers expect you have instant access to their detailed information. Lost pages and delays are not good customer service and they reflect poorly on you and your business. The good news is that customer relationship management (CRM) is now cheap, easy to use and accessible.
Most small businesses just don’t need something big, expensive and complicated. Your biggest priority for your CRM should be to quickly and easily access up-to-date information about the people you do business with. Small business contact management software should do two things: help you organize and track information about your contacts and help you track your interactions with them.
3 Reasons you should switch to a CRM for your Small Business!
Reason #1:
An address book just stores information on how to reach a contact, a CRM track your interactions with your contacts. An address book just doesn’t allow you the ability to really include thorough, easy to find notes about your clients. And a paper address or filing system really isn’t easily sortable.
Having this data stored with your contacts information makes it searchable, sortable and easier to deal with. It allows you to track not only the contact information, but when you talked, what you talked about, when they were billed, when payment was received and any other data that you learn while you are talking (birthdays, complaints, how those complaints were resolved).
Reason #2:
In addition to contact and billing info a CRM stores miscellaneous details about your contact that you can refer to later. With detailed notes, plus all of their billing/receiving info at your fingertips, the information you need is at your fingertips.
Telling someone, “Hold on, let me look that it up…” just does not have the same impact as “Of course, last time we talked you mentioned your birthday was this week, happy birthday! I know your last bill was sent out on 8/17… how can I help you?”. Not only does having searchable, detailed notes save you time, it enables you make your customers feel important! Using a CRM allows you to seem as if you “remember” their account information and to avoid leaving out important details when you are interacting with people.
Reason #3:
Using a CRM which links to your bookkeeping syncs your billing/ordering and inventory to your contact records and allows you to easily aggregate important business metrics, like sales volume.
Tracking this data gives you invaluable access to data about your customers purchasing habits, allowing you to study patterns in ordering, predict and meet future demand, pull reports automatically and automate processes that would otherwise be tedious and time consuming. You’ll be able to pull out trends from the data in ways that would never be possible with other filing systems including insight into your customers’ purchasing habits. This data is organised in your CRM so you can look for and capitalize on sales trends by product, location or season. Identifying these trends can also be a valuable tool to refine your marketing to reflect these trends!
About the Author: Dena Stern is the Community Resources and Marketing Manager at WorkingPoint, a financial accounting tool (with a CRM) for Small Businesses. She is responsible for community outreach and is a frequent contributor on the subject of technology trends, social media and marketing on the WorkingPoint Blog.
Photo Credit: whiper
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