There is no better time to review a web page than while it is still in development. Often, changes are resisted after a site has found its way to the web.

The problem is that, even late into their development, many sites seem to be selling something called “Lorem ipsum dolor” that doesn’t do much more than “sit amet.” In other words, the site template design has neared completion, and the content is still filler. This can be trouble for sites that want to generate leads or sell something.

According to Fun With Words, the “Lorem ipsum dolor…” filler is a “pangram” from a passage by Cicero written in Latin. It is used by designers as place-holder text because it has lots of different letters and the word length is representative of typical English.

Fun with Words claims that there isn’t a direct translation. I have one:

“Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, diam nonnumy eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolo…”

“He who labels the bottles without knowing what they will contain will have many unsatisfied customers.”

Tell me what is in your site, and I’ll tell you how well I think the design will best communicate it. This is the heart of conversion marketing.

If everyone does it this way, can it really be wrong? I asked my friend Jenny Magic, owner of Austin, TX-based content strategy firm Better Way to Say It. We were talking about how “Lorem Ipsum” is a good signal that your conversion rate, and probably your budget, are in trouble well before the site has launched. Jenny is a content strategist, and gets passionate about saving web projects that have no real strategy for the content; the “Lorem Ipsum” projects.

Brian Massey: Why do you think so many sites end up with Lorem Ipsum filler text so late in the process?

Jenny Magic: Because content is hard! For the client, delivering content is one of the most challenging parts of the process. There are so many stakeholders, so much old content to wade through, so many pages of beloved – but outdated – content that someone won’t allow the team to edit or delete. It’s usually a mess. Not to mention that picking colors, layout, and widgets is more fun. So content gets pushed to the bottom of the project schedule.

Unfortunately, the site isn’t going to launch without content, and without a site launch there’s no paycheck. So the web firm goes ahead with the design phase and just inserts filler text where the “captivating headline” and “compelling call-to-action” should be. It should be no problem to just drop the text in later, right? Wrong.

BM: So this method gets some projects in trouble?

JM: Oh yeah. First, even if the web firm is working hard, the original site launch date comes…and goes, because the company is still messing with the content. Now you’ve got an angry CEO who doesn’t want to hear why it’s late, he just wants it done.

So the marketing director, feeling the heat from his boss, starts scrambling. He schedules a few boardroom content sessions with the cross-department committee, and finally sends over approved content. The only problem is it’s too long (or short) for the approved design by about half. And it’s frankly just bad – anything written by a committee usually isn’t too compelling.

BM: OK, so how does the web firm get the client to revise the content?

JM: Unfortunately, since it took something like three weeks and 14 hours of meetings to get them to agree to this version, the web team is instructed to “just make it work.” At this point, whatever enthusiasm from the start of the project has long since dried up. Everyone just wants to be done. It’s back to the drawing board to make the approved content fit what was already an approved design.

The development website often requires some pretty significant code changes at this point. And that angry CEO is not eager to pony up for a larger fee. So the website finally launches, late and over-budget. The less-than-stellar content doesn’t lead to conversions, which means no new sales which means…a really angry CEO. Don’t even think about asking this client for a referral.

BM: I take it there’s a better way?

JM: There is. And you’d be amazed how straightforward the process can be when a team understands that planning for great content is in the best interest of not only the client, but the web firm, too.

Once a firm figures this out, the first person they send to meet with the client is the content strategist, who deciphers what the client means by “a better website.”

The content strategist doesn’t just ask about form and function. It’s their job is to get clarity about the client’s larger business goals, key performance indicators, conversion metrics, and existing content resources. Content resources might be existing content we can work with, staff responsible for content, or both. The strategist’s job is to plan for and create great content.

Working together, the web designer and content strategist create a sitemap, produce and revise draft content, and insert approved content into wireframes for final review before a single line of the site is coded.

What surprises most clients about this method is that the first design is often the final design, or very close – the web project is much more likely to come in on time, under budget, with high conversion rates thanks to well-planned content. Now you have a happy CEO and a happy web firm.

BM: Sounds like a no-brainer. Why wouldn’t everyone do it this way?

JM: Mostly habit, I think. It can be hard to make a case to the client for content strategy in an already expensive project budget. And until the web firm realizes how much margin can be saved by not redesigning the site a half-dozen times, they often don’t want to give up a piece of their profit.

Earlier this year the folks at the Content Marketing Institute asked their contributors for their Content Marketing Social Media predictions for 2012. Even though there’s clearly a ton in store for both content marketing and social media, I felt like the biggest shift would be the importance of content for web firms:

“I believe 2012 will be the year when brand managers finally realize that the highest ROI marketing activities are the ones where content truly guides design, rather than the other way around. Planning for great content means that the first design is often the final design, keeping efforts, under budget, on schedule and focused on conversion. Specifically, I predict any web developer who doesn’t fully embrace the role of content in the design process will become persona non grata for savvy brands.”

If you find yourself wrestling with issues like how to add video to your site, you are feeling the symptoms of “Lorem Ipsum” design. Start you site development with the content and I think you’ll find your designers will get better at what they do best.

Article source: ClickZ

 

About 52% of all businesses are run from home. The number of teleworkers is growing annually.

It’s good to know that some tax savings can result from this work arrangement.

A portion of personal expenses for your home can be turned into a business deduction — if you meet certain rules.

To claim a home-office deduction, you must use the space in your residence as a principal place of business, as a place to meet or deal with customers on a regular basis, or as a separate structure used for the business.

You also must do the above regularly and exclusively for business.

If you’re an employee, you must use the space for your employer’s convenience and not for your own preference. Working after hours at home rather than staying late at the office is probably your own choice and not for your employer’s convenience.

Usually, “employer’s convenience” means that the employer does not have space for you on the company’s premises.

But while the home-office deduction rules are written in black and white, there are some uncertainties that could affect your home office deduction. Think of them as gray areas.

One is the meaning of exclusive use. Clearly, the space must be available 24/7 for business and cannot be used by you or your family for personal reasons at any time during the day or night. Thus, if you use a TV room as an office during the day and your family watches TV there in the evening, you fail the exclusive-use test.

But what about walking through a room? The Tax Court has said that even occasional use of space, such as using a bathroom by family or guests, means your business use is not exclusive. However, the court has also said that incidental use of space, such as family members walking through the office to get to another part of the home, is minimal and won’t cause you to fail the exclusive use test.

What’s the difference between occasional and incidental use?

This is a gray area, but it seems that passing through is not equivalent to using the space.

Storage of some personal items in a space claimed as a home office won’t violate the exclusive-use test. The court has allowed a home office deduction for a garage in which some personal items were kept. So, people, no. Things, yes.

A common belief is that claiming a home office deduction is a red flag to the IRS, practically inviting an audit. There is no IRS data to support this belief and, unfortunately, the belief may be responsible for some taxpayers forgoing the deduction needlessly even though they are otherwise eligible for it.

The best course of action is to talk over your personal situation with a tax advisor to make sure you meet the home office deduction rules.

Keep good records of all expenses related to the home office, and take a photo of the space used as a home office. The photo can help in case the IRS questions your return after you’ve stopped using the space for business.

To learn more about the home-office deduction rules, see IRS Publication 587, Business Use of Your Home.

Article source: Wall Street Journal

 

After getting laid off from an architecture firm in 2009, Margot Broom tapped her savings to open a yoga studio in New Haven, Conn., called Breathing Room.

But when she was forced to relocate the business two years later, Ms. Broom couldn’t afford to renovate the new space she had in mind—until she discovered crowdfunding, the practice of securing small amounts of money from multiple contributors online.

Using a crowdfunding service known as Peerbackers.com, Ms. Broom raised $10,000 from more than 100 contributors in just 45 days—with average contributions of $15 to $50. The 27-year-old is now using the money to turn an empty tattoo parlor into her business’s new home.

Ryan Snook

Need start-up capital—and fast? You may want to try crowdfunding, a money-raising strategy that’s become increasingly popular in recent years.

A number of web services, including Peerbackers, IndieGogo.com, Kickstarter.com and RocketHub.com, provide platforms for entrepreneurs to get funding from various contributors, often friends, relatives and members of their community. The funds don’t need to be paid back because they’re not loans. However, many entrepreneurs give their contributors some of the products or services their start-ups sell as a way to show appreciation.

To be sure, crowdfunding initiatives take effort and don’t always pay off. Entrepreneurs need to convey why they’re seeking financial support and hope contributions will come in during the timeframe allotted, which varies from service to service. Also, the crowdfunding sites typically take a small percentage of the funds that entrepreneurs raise.

In most cases, crowdfunding services require entrepreneurs to set a goal for contributions and will hold the pledges that come in until that goal is met. If the campaign falls short at the end date, some crowdfunding sites will return the funds to the donors or take a larger cut than if the entrepreneur’s goal had been met.

“You need to work hard because not all campaigns are guaranteed success,” says Slava Rubin, chief executive officer of IndieGogo.com. The San Francisco-based crowdfunding service releases funds regardless of whether a user’s goal is met, but the service takes 9% of the total from campaigns that come up short, compared with 4% for those that don’t.

Mr. Rubin’s advice for a fruitful crowdfunding effort: “Have a good pitch, be proactive and find an audience that cares.”

Ian Gaffney and Samantha Abrams launched a campaign on IndieGogo.com earlier this year for their start-up, Emmy’s Organics, a maker of allergy-free snack foods in Ithaca, N.Y. They asked for $15,000 so they could buy packaging materials that would allow them to ramp up production.

“We got to a point where we weren’t able to keep up with orders,” says Mr. Gaffney, 28.

Mr. Gaffney says he learned about crowdfunding from his musician brother who, along with several bandmates, had used the strategy to raise funds to cover the cost of recording an album. To bolster their plea for financial contributions, Mr. Gaffney says he and Ms. Abrams created a video and posted it to their campaign page on IndieGogo.

“We just talked about who we are and everything that we do and why we were doing this fund-raiser,” he says.

By the conclusion of the 30-day campaign, the entrepreneurs had surpassed their goal by $326. The average contribution was $100, though one person, who requested anonymity, pledged $5,000. “We were shocked by what some people were giving,” says Mr. Gaffney.

Among the contributors were some of his former colleagues from a marketing company that had laid him off in December 2008. The termination was what prompted him to start Emmy’s Organics with Ms. Abrams the following month, he says.

Mr. Gaffney says they thanked contributors by giving the group about $1,000 worth of products. The more money people pledged, the more free goodies they received.

Though the initiative went smoothly, the entrepreneurs don’t plan to participate in crowdfunding again—at least not anytime soon—because they say it would send the wrong message to their supporters. “If we asked for more money, that would be far-fetched,” says Mr. Gaffney. “We don’t think people would donate twice.”

In addition to being able to raise money via crowdfunding only so many times, entrepreneurs say another caveat is that some people find the tactic offensive. Others say would-be contributors aren’t always comfortable sending money through crowdfunding services.

Ms. Broom, the yoga entrepreneur, encountered the latter problem. “Some people were worried they’d get put on a mailing list,” she says.

But a few offered a simple solution without her even having to ask. “They said they would rather send me a check,” says Ms. Broom. “And some did.”

Article source: Wall Street Journal

 

Last week, Google announced that it would begin rolling out “Search, Plus Your World,” which is an integration of regular organic listings, PPC and social updates via Google Plus from your inner circles. For those people who thought social networking was going away any time soon, think again. This update is a bold statement by Google to say that social is here to stay; maybe more-so than ever.

Marketing people can almost instantly see the value in this update. For example, let’s say I’m a consumer shopping around for a new digital camera, more specifically, a Canon. If I type Canon digital camera into the search engine, not only will listings from CNET, Best Buy and Amazon come up, but any status updates from my inner circle that mentioned those exact keywords. Notice from the screenshot below, that social listings find their way to the top, this is no mistake. Social listings are more trustworthy sources than a random organic listing. Think of it as a referral.

In the image below, I used “brandon laws” as the keyword in Google, and it brought my Google+ page plus and any updates that mentioned “brandon laws.” These are identified with a little blue icon to the left of the listing that looks like a person. It actually reminds me of the original Myspace logo.

This biggest problem with this update is that Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter are not included. The adoption of Google+ was huge early on, but all signs are pointing to the fact that people just aren’t using it. A Facebook integration is much needed in the future if this new update is going to be successful. There is no doubt that the potential is huge though.

Article source: Search Engine Marketing for Small Business

 

It’s one of the first questions we ask almost every client – “What is the value of a customer to you?” Only a small percentage of otherwise sophisticated clients can muster an answer. Most of even those who do answer are simply estimating based on a guessing game in which our team plays game show host. Would you consider an acquisition cost of $X to be a win? Why? If you don’t groom your clients at all, what is their spend rate per year? If you do communicate with them, does it increase? By how much? What can you tell me about the different kinds of customers you service and their impact on your profitability? How has this changed over time? The list of questions can go on forever.

It’s not just an issue for e-commerce marketers. All marketing has the ultimate goal of finding, securing, retaining, defending, or growing the value of customers. This holds true whether or not you get the immediate feedback of an online sale or are tracking leads from a long-term, considered purchase online or off. It seems self-evident that you would need to know what an average customer and a good customer are worth to your business to have any hope of logically planning your marketing strategy and expenditures toward increasing that value. With all the talk of metrics and ROI in digital marketing, this basic but critical information seems to be missing far too often, resulting in lots of measurement and little logic in the decision-making those metrics are intended to support.

Let’s take a look at the impact of marketing informed by lifetime value (LTV) across a spectrum of marketing goals.

Finding Customers

New customer acquisition is not about gaining new customers at any cost. It is about finding those customer segments that bring long-term value and profit to your business and that can scale sufficiently to support your short- and long-term goals. Certain channels, messaging approaches, and media plans return those right customers. Knowing how to define them is the starting point for a deliberate, sustained testing program that will continue to refine your approach and results.

Securing Customers

For most categories (that aren’t insanely loyalty bound), you can create trial with new potential customers if you offer a new or intriguing experience or if you discount deeply enough. Sure, some customers will never pan out or will only buy on promotion, but some may become good customers if you continue to offer them a good value and a good experience. You need to be able to model out the expected long-term return on that discount-driven customer in order to justify the investment in what could be a negative margin initial sale. A key input in that calculation is the value that the customer is likely to provide over their life.

Retaining Customers

Long-term customer relationships are about brand-building and relationship-building activities that reinforce the value you provide customers and remind them you exist and can fill a need for them. More valuable customers should be provided with more value, more often. That value can be delivered in many forms including increased or priority access, special content or tools, or many other perks such as price incentives or rebates. All of the monetary and non-monetary value that you provide costs money and it’s impossible to know how much it makes sense to invest if you don’t know the value of your customers.

Defending Customers

The flip side of retaining customers is competitive defense. All customers have a choice and will be presented with other attractive options unless you are in a monopoly business. Stay focused on retaining those customers, especially the more valuable customers that were so hard-won. Knowing the lifetime value of your customers will help you plan your response should an aggressive competitor come into your territory. Are they after your prime customers or the marginal ones? You won’t know what to counter with or what level of spend makes sense in response unless you know your customers’ value, preferences, and responsive areas.

Growing Customers

The definition of a good customer is going to vary widely by company, category, industry, segment, maturity, and many other factors, but all other things being equal, we definitely want customers who buy in greater quantity or more frequently. We also want those customers who spread positive news about us. Through social media and other digital measurements, we can track how frequently customers engage or interact with the brand, how often they recommend the brand, or the scale of their sphere of influence.

Growing customers across any of these measures takes time, resources, and investment and can shift the way you might determine the LTV of a customer. Should you invest in growing a customer from a once-a-month buyer to a twice-a-month buyer or instead invest in grooming all buyers who have broad influence and/or are strong advocates in social media? The power of social media has changed the metrics that define LTV forever.

Despite all our cross-channel tracking capabilities and optimization proficiencies, LTV remains an elusive, if critical data point on which vital decisions depend. It’s not easy and it’s not a one-and-done proposition, but if you can’t articulate what your customer is worth to your business today, then you won’t know how to build, defend, or grow your business.

Article source: ClickZ

 

Survival has been the operative word for small businesses these past few years. Many of us hope the worst is behind us.

During the past several months, I’ve been on a nationwide book tour, which gave me the opportunity to speak to thousands of small-business owners. I was happy to hear cautious plans for growth in 2012 from some entrepreneurs, but most remain nervous about what lies ahead.

Now, usually at this time of year we all start thinking about New Year’s Resolutions. We pledge to make changes personally and professionally to enhance our success.

Faced with continued economic uncertainty, it’s tough to know what those resolutions might be for our businesses. So let me suggest that as business owners we resolve to run our businesses smarter this coming year. Let’s make well-thought-out decisions so we avoid making mistakes.

Here are a few common errors business owners make:

Not Hiring Smart

There are indications that small businesses will start to hire again this coming year. After working with little or no staff, many entrepreneurs find themselves in need of an extra set of hands to grow to the next level.

Not knowing exactly how to find the right employee, many owners resort to hiring a friend or a family member. (Big red flag!) Typically, your family and friends don’t have the skills, experience or dedication you need to really grow your business. If and when it doesn’t work out, it can ruin the friendship and harm family relationships.

Friends and family members often have good intentions when they want to join your team, but it is difficult for them to set the personal relationship aside. You’re still their buddy, BFF, cousin or sister/brother.

And, as the business owner, you trust them with a handshake and a smile, as opposed to following good operational practices. That’s where the problems begin.

Rob Lewis, founder of U.S. Equipment Sales Inc., a used construction, recycling and demotion equipment sales company in Tampa, Fla., is still dealing with the aftermath of hiring a friend of more than 17 years who needed a job.

Mr. Lewis was familiar with noncompete agreements but says, “I decided it wouldn’t be very best friend-like to make my friend sign one.”

At first, everything went smoothly. But as time went on, the friend’s attitude and work ethic changed. “He was spending days at home instead of working and would lie about visiting or calling people,” Mr. Lewis says.

When the friend’s sales fell completely flat, Mr. Lewis got suspicious and discovered his friend had started his own company and was funneling customers to that business.

“Among my biggest mistakes, I showed him how to essentially keep ahead of the competition while spending a small fraction of what they do,” he says. “I’m still torn between the possibility of losing half my customers or having to resort to litigation.” The business does a little under $2 million in revenue and this friend was Mr. Lewis’s only employee.

Always remember, business is business and friendship is friendship. It you are thinking about hiring this year, make sure you hire smart. Find the person who has the right job skills and experience to help your business grow.

Failing to do Your Homework

One of the first steps any business owner should take before launching or expanding a new business, or product or service offering, is to research the market. Success depends on analyzing the opportunity to determine whether there is a viable opportunity. You simply can’t force the market to embrace your business no matter how fabulous you think your product or service is.

Fourteen years ago, serial entrepreneur Nathalie Ekobo moved to Phoenix from Paris to live her dream of creating a French restaurant and pastry cafe. She opened her venture in a tiny strip mall on one of the most famous streets in the Phoenix area — Camelback Road. The problem was you couldn’t actually see the posh eatery from the road or parking areas.

“People had to park their cars and walk a few feet to finally see us. We got angry cell phone calls from people in their cars saying, ‘We cannot find you!’ ” Ms. Ekobo says.

Europeans consider it charming to walk through neighborhoods to find out-of-the way, hidden treasures, Ms. Ekobo says. But in Arizona, where temperatures can reach 110 degrees, you don’t want to get out of your car if you don’t know exactly where the restaurant is located, she says.

The restaurant managed to survive for four years as a result of major marketing efforts. But after the September 11 attacks, Ms. Ekobo says she couldn’t hold on any longer.

This is a perfect example of an entrepreneur failing to take the time to analyze the market and to seek additional feedback. If Ms. Ekobo had done her homework, she might still be open for business.

Playing Banker to Your Customers

No business owner wants to badger a client or customer because of late payments. You want to maintain your relationship, yet the bottom line is you need to get paid. After all, you aren’t the bank or a charitable organization.

If you permit a customer to fall months and months behind, then shame on you. You’re putting your entire business operations at risk. Once a customer starts falling behind you need to address the situation immediately. In fact, if the customer is having serious financial difficulties, you may need to make the decision to stop doing work until the customer catches up.

I know how serious this is because I made this mistake myself. When I owned a marketing firm, I failed to confront a very large client about long-standing unpaid invoices. Our relationship was positive and I assumed the client would catch up quickly. But the firm filed for bankruptcy before I was able to collect a dime. Because this was my biggest customer, I couldn’t sustain the loss and closed up shop. Don’t let this happen to your small business.

These scenarios are just a few of the mistakes small-business owners make that could be avoided by taking the right steps. The economy is out of our hands, but we can control the decisions we make. So this year, resolve to make smart choices for your business. Take time to get the information, advice and resources you need to succeed.

For questions or concerns, please email smalltalk@wsj.com.

Article source: Wall Street Journal

 

Squeeze 6,000 travel professionals into a conference center and what you get–besides a big-league bar tab–is an accurate snapshot of their industry. The news that emerged from the Global Business Travel Association summit, held in Denver in August, was upbeat for airlines, hotels and anyone who owns their stock. Travel is up, and prices with it. That means small-business owners and their teams will need to spend even smarter in the coming months. Here are some ways to do it:

Hotels
The 12 percent surge in hotel occupancy since last year is that sector’s strongest rebound ever. New properties are in the pipeline, but most won’t open until 2014, so demand will remain high. Smith Travel Network’s Jan Freitag notes that with occupancies sitting at 70 percent, the average 50 percent figure for Sunday nights means that midweek (when most business travelers are on the go) “must be pretty rockin’.”

Savings can be found by booking in advance as much as possible. You might not know who’s going to next year’s convention, so you can’t buy a plane ticket, but you can reserve rooms and switch names later. And try to avoid New York City, which weighed in at nearly 80 percent occupancy and an average rate of $223 a night.

8.4 Percent — boost in business travel spending in 2010, after a drop of 7.8 percent in 2009¹

$758.7 Billion — amount spent by U.S. business travelers in 2010, an increase of 7.7 percent over 2009²

Sources: ¹The Global Business Travel Spending Outlook 2011-2015 study, sponsored by Visa; ²U.S. Travel Association

Airfares
Airlines in the U.S. earned some $6 billion in ancillary fees in 2010, charging for everything from a first checked bag to trail mix to pillows. “They’re here to stay,” says US Airways CEO Doug Parker. What isn’t, necessarily, is the selection of flights leaving your local airport. Airlines continue to trim schedules, eliminate unprofitable routes and downsize planes.

To avoid airline add-ons, it’s imperative to attain elite status on your favored carrier. (In some cases, that’s as easy as getting an affinity credit card.) For cheaper fares and a wider selection–or, in some cases, any selection at all–get accustomed to flying out of more distant airports on one or both ends of your journey, such as accessing Madison, Wis., via Milwaukee or Chicago. Since you’re loading the car anyway, it may occasionally make sense to drive all the way to your final destination. At least you know your bags will travel free.

Rental Cars
As auto sales rise, manufacturers aren’t eager to sell to rental car companies at their usual discounted rates. Or they’ll replace an order for small cars, a hot ticket now that gas prices are up, with harder-to-move SUVs. As a result, Hertz, Avis and the rest are holding on to their fleets longer than ever–up to 40,000 miles. And since older cars are more expensive to maintain, they’re passing that cost to you.

The green light at the end of the tunnel is Enterprise, which bought National and Alamo in 2007 and has been integrating its customer service model. If one of their brands doesn’t have a car in the category you selected, or if you’re dissatisfied with the selection, employees are empowered to find options elsewhere in their fleet, the industry’s largest, or to offer a pricier vehicle at the same price. That won’t help your bottom line–but if you’re going to pay $70 a day for a car, it might as well be a Lincoln.

The good news is that the health of the travel industry nearly always mimics that of the economy. So if the cost of travel is increasing, it could mean your business prospects are on the upswing, too.

This article was originally published in the November 2011 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Up and Away.

Article source: Entrepreneur.com

 

Those who are unfamiliar with SEO practices should know one thing: It’s all about keywords.

While SEO is complicated from start to finish, most marketing professionals understand that linking strategies, both inbound and outbound, are one of the most significant factors in search engine optimization.

Linking a website to another is not as simple as it may seem. Getting links is one thing, but using it as a keyword strategy is a skill in and of itself.

SEOs use anchor text to link a website to another. When you create a hyperlink out of a word or a string of words, that’s called anchor text, and search engines, such as Google, factor that into their search algorithm.

Imagine every time one website links to another. To a search engine, that’s like a vote of confidence, thus building up a reputation of having valuable content. However, if a website can link to another using anchor text with a main keyword relevant to their website, it helps search engines define what the page is about based on the keyword and the link to the page.

For example, a lot of people use anchor text by simply writing, “click here.” I say take it one step further and use a main keyword that is on the linked page. For instance, if this article is specifically about relevant content for small business websites, then link that string of text (as shown) to another webpage within the site that contains the keyword string. However, obtaining a back-link that contains anchor text is much more difficult since it’s controlled by another webmaster.

Marketing professionals who are taking over the SEO strategy for their small business website should undoubtedly begin by creating an anchor text strategy. Define main keywords and landing pages then consistently link to those pages using the same keywords. Gradually search engines will begin to notice the defined keywords and links to the pages, which enhances the relevance for keyword strings.

Article source: Search Engine Marketing for Small Business

 

David Meinert, owner of Big Mario’s Pizza in Seattle, has been giving free pizza to Occupy Wall Street protesters. While many small-business owners, like Mr. Meinert, share the movement’s anger at the Wall Street banks, they should be wary. Occupy Wall Street is no friend of Main Street.

To start with, small-business owners should consider who is supporting the movement. The big labor unions are firmly in the Occupy Wall Street camp, and small-business owners and the unions don’t exactly sing from the same hymnal. The National Federation of Independent Business’s continued efforts to protect small business from the power of the big unions are testimony to this fact.

The Occupy Wall Street movement has very different objectives from most small-business owners. Doug Schoen, a political pollster and Fox News analyst, recently surveyed 200 protesters and concluded that the majority of the movement’s members want higher taxes to redistribute wealth and heavier regulation on the private sector. But most small-business owners have been calling for less regulation and lower taxes to get the economy going again.

Moreover, most small-business owners believe in the capitalist system, while Occupy Wall Street expresses some anti-capitalist views. Take a look at some statements made in the movement’s first official release. “Corporations … have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions…. have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ health care and pay…. [and] have spent millions of dollars … to get … out of contracts in regards to health insurance.”

What about views of health care? According to CNBC, most of the movement is calling for universal health care. And to the extent that Occupy Wall Street opposes the health-care reform legislation passed in 2010, it’s because the new law wasn’t extreme enough. David Maris, a health-care equity research industry analyst, wrote on Forbes.com that he spoke to 50 of the protesters and found that 49 of them believe that health care should be free. By contrast, a January 2011 Discover Card survey shows that the majority of small-business owners want to repeal the new health-care law, and only a little over a third want to keep it.

If the protesters get their way and Wall Street is more heavily regulated, small-business owners will bear the cost. Like it or not, small businesses need the banking system because that’s where they get the credit they need. As regulators have tightened their control over the banks in recent years, the lenders have become very conservative, cutting back dramatically on small-business lending. If Occupy Wall Street succeeds and the government exerts even more control over the banks, the end result will be even less small-business credit.

While small-business owners, like most U.S. voters, are likely to avoid extreme groups on either side of the aisle, if forced to choose, their interests are better aligned with the Tea Party than with Occupy Wall Street. As I have argued elsewhere, the Tea Party movement has called for three changes most small-business owners favor: cutting taxes, repealing health-care reform laws, and cutting government regulation.

So Mr. Meinhart, how about some pizza for the Tea Partiers? No need to give it to them for free, though. They believe in capitalism, so if their actions are consistent with their views, they would pay for it.

Photo: Flickr user Carwil

Article source: Entrepreneur.com

 

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “A good leader inspires people to have confidence in the leader, a great leader inspires people to have confidence in themselves.” But, becoming a great leader isn’t easy. Successfully maneuvering a team through the ups and downs of starting a new business can be one of the greatest challenges a small-business owner faces.

Leadership is one of the areas that many entrepreneurs tend to overlook, according leadership coach John C. Maxwell, whose books include The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership (Thomas Nelson, 1998) and Developing the Leader Within You (Thomas Nelson, 1993).

“You work hard to develop your product or service. You fight to solve your financial issues. You go out and promote your business and sell your product. But you don’t think enough about leading your own people and finding the best staff,” Maxwell says.

It turns out, the skills and talents necessary to guide your team in the right direction can be simple, and anyone with the determination can develop them. Here’s a list of 10 tips drawn from the secrets of successful leaders.

1. Assemble a dedicated team.
Your team needs to be committed to you and the business. Successful entrepreneurs have not only social and selling smarts, but also the know-how to hire effectively, says leadership trainer Harvey Mackay, who wrote Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive (Ivy Books, 1995). “A colossal business idea simply isn’t enough. You have to be able to identify, attract and retain talent who can turn your concept into a register-ringing success,” he says.

Related: What’s Your Leadership Style? (Quiz)

When putting your team together, look for people whose values are aligned with the purpose and mission of your company. Suzanne Bates, a Wellesley, Mass.-based leadership consultant and author of Speak Like a CEO (McGraw Hill, 2005), says her team members rallied around each other during the worst part of the recession because they all believed in what they were doing. “Having people on your team who have tenacity and a candid spirit is really important,” she says.

2. Overcommunicate.
This one’s a biggie. Even with a staff of only five or 10, it can be tough to know what’s going on with everyone. In an effort to overcommunicate, Bates compiles a weekly news update she calls a Friday Forecast, and emails it to her staff. “My team is always surprised at all the good news I send out each week,” Bates says. “It makes everyone feel like you really have a lot of momentum, even in difficult times.”

3. Don’t assume.
When you run a small business, you might assume your team understands your goals and mission — and they may. But, everybody needs to be reminded of where the company’s going and what things will look like when you get there. Your employees may ask, “What’s in it for me?” It’s important to paint that picture for your team. Take the time to really understand the people who are helping you build your business.

“Entrepreneurs have the vision, the energy, and they’re out there trying to make it happen. But, so often with their staff, they are assuming too much,” says Beverly Flaxington, founder of The Collaborative, a business-advising company in Medfield, Mass. “It’s almost like they think their enthusiasm by extension will be infectious — but it’s not. You have to bring people into your world and communicate really proactively.”

4. Be authentic.
Good leaders instill their personality and beliefs into the fabric of their organization, Flaxington says. If you be yourself, and not try to act like someone else, and surround yourself with people who are aligned with your values, your business is more likely to succeed, she says.

Related: Tips on Loyalty and Leadership

“Every business is different and every entrepreneur has her own personality,” Flaxington says. “If you’re authentic, you attract the right people to your organization — employees and customers.”

5. Know your obstacles.
Most entrepreneurs are optimistic and certain that they’re driving toward their goals. But, Flaxington says, it’s a short-sighted leader who doesn’t take the time to understand his obstacles.

“You need to know what you’re up against and be able to plan around those things,” she says. “It’s folly to think that just because you’ve got this energy and enthusiasm that you’re going to be able to conquer all. It’s much smarter to take a step back and figure out what your obstacles are, so the plan that you’re putting into place takes that into account.”

6. Create a ‘team charter.’
Too many new teams race down the road before they even figure out who they are, where they’re going, and what will guide their journey, says Ken Blanchard, co-author of The One-Minute Manager (William Morrow Co., 1982) and founder of The Ken Blanchard Cos., a workplace- and leadership-training firm. Just calling together a team and giving them a clear charge does not mean the team will succeed.

“It’s important to create a set of agreements that clearly states what the team is to accomplish, why it is important and how the team will work together to achieve the desired results,” says Blanchard, who is based in Escondido, Calif. “The charter provides a record of common agreements and can be modified as the business grows and the team’s needs change.”

7. Believe in your people.
Entrepreneurial leaders must help their people develop confidence, especially during tough times. As Napoleon Bonaparte said, “Leaders are dealers in hope.” That confidence comes in part from believing in your team, says Maxwell, who is based in West Palm Beach, Fla. “I think of my people as 10s, I treat them like 10s, and as a result, they try to perform like 10s,” he says. “But believing in people alone isn’t enough. You have to help them win.”

8. Dole out credit.
Mackay says a good salesperson knows what the sweetest sound in the world is: The sound of their name on someone else’s lips. But too many entrepreneurs think it’s either the crinkle of freshly minted currency, or the dull thud of a competitor’s body hitting the pavement.

“Many entrepreneurs are too in love with their own ideas and don’t know how to distribute credit,” Mackay says. “A good quarterback always gives props to his offensive line.”

9. Keep your team engaged.
Great leaders give their teams challenges and get them excited about them, says leadership expert Stephen Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Free Press, 1989). He pointed to the example of a small pizza shop in a moderate-sized town that was killing a big fast-food chain in sales. The big difference between the chain and the small pizza joint was the leader, he says.

Every week he gathered his teenage employees in a huddle and excitedly asked them: “What can we do this week that we’ve never done before?” The kids loved the challenge. They started texting all their friends whenever a pizza special was on. They took the credit-card machine to the curb so passing motorists could buy pizza right off the street. They loaded up a truck with hot pizzas and sold them at high-school games. The money poured in and the store owner never had problems with employee turnover, says Covey, who is based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

10. Stay calm.
An entrepreneur has to backstop the team from overreacting to short-term situations, says Mackay, who is based in Minneapolis. This is particularly important now, when news of the sour economic environment is everywhere.

“The media has been hanging black crepe paper since 2008,” he says. “But look at all the phenomenal companies and brands that were born in downturns, names like iPod, GE and Federal Express.”

Article source: Entrepreneur.com