THE BAND WAGON JUST GOT FULLER
It did!
As a small business owner, entrepreneur, et al, you’re like a lot us—looking for ways to market your business and, in the process, gain new prospects and customers.
The latest “fad,” a good one at that, is to “use video” to promote your business. After all, the “spiders” like Google love to feast on them and are inclined to place video highly in their analytics rankings.
So with that incentive alone, you decide to “jump on the bandwagon,” too.
But wait just a minute!
Because marketing with video has become the new “Rubik’s Cube,” or the new “Cabbage Patch” doll, or the new “t-shirt that says ‘I Google myself regularly,’” if you actually do intend to get on the bandwagon, there are a few things to consider.
What is your plan? (It seems everything leads back to a plan.)
Getting your video ready and “taking it to market” is one of the latest Internet trends. Many entrepreneurs, marketers, and even large business owners will focus on the “how-tos;” the how-to of what to say, the how-to of how-to upload the video, or the how-to of where to place your upload.
The important thing is to not just toss some video shots together; the end product will be disappointing to your visitors and to you. Just like your Web site, your video presentation is a reflection of you and how you do business. Thus, it’s better to take your time to produce quality work. Someone has already been first, so now it really doesn’t matter if you come later with better.
Like putting together any worthwhile efforts, you first come up with a list of things to do when producing a video. However, there are also several things to NOT do in your video marketing. And they are the focus of this piece. Such as:
Forget about “safety in numbers” this one time
If you want to attain the most success with your video efforts, you have to go it alone. Sometimes when a person is going to be in a photo or a video, they may be camera shy or feel “more is better;” suddenly, they want someone in the show with them. This is a really HUGE error! The point of your video is to acquaint your visitors and customers with YOU, perhaps your product or service, and with what you represent. Your brand! In fact, in the video you become your brand.
So when your pals are in your video, they are distracting and take the viewer’s eyes away from your product or service, your message, and you. And unintentionally, they may show you up!
In essence, then, your fireworks just fizzled!
It’s time for your commercial
Have you ever wondered why or how sponsors of TV shows pack so much information about their product into 30 seconds of more often than not annoyance? It’s because they realize they have so little time to grab the viewers’ attention before they’re off to the kitchen or otherwise taking a break. Or worse, changing the channel!
Internet frequenters are somewhat infamous for running away from Web sites
How often have you gone to a Web site then quickly scooted away because the page loaded slowly? Your distraction meter kicked in and impatience got the best of you? This seems to happen more and more as Internet surfers tend to lose their tolerance to wait, or they’ve found other diversions that steer them away from what they thought they wanted in the first place.
This means you’ve got to have a video or graphics and audio that will capture your visitors’ attention. NOW! But it’s not good enough to just grab them; you’ve got to have something to keep them there long enough that they realize what you have is something they can’t live without.
You need a P-O-W!
So that as your video begins the first words out of their mouth or the first visual they see must be something concise and compelling. You know, what’s it in it for them?
Do you know the “who” for your marketing
Since you have a target market, it’s best to market your video to that particular audience. Of course, others will navigate to your site and may even stay to view your video. Or maybe not! Those who stay will be interested in learning about your product or service. How you dress, your narrative, your language, how you present yourself in the video should all be geared to the audience you want to pull towards you, the niche you’ve identified for your service.
You can be a star
With a little bit of practice, this reminder and the “how not tos” outlined here will be enough incentive and encouragement for you to be the star of the show as you were really meant to be.
The Power’s Out!
Do you want him?
He WOKE.ME.UP! to tell me “we don’t have any power!”
And then the rains came, and came and came!
This, after we’d spent the day wondering if the many tornadoes spotted on the weather radar were going to touch down on us, or how high the water would rise.
We happen to live in an area of the country that is unfortunately being ravaged with an over-abundance of rain. Flooding and the inability to use water for drinking, bathing and other bathroom needs, as well as for washing clothes, for who knows how long are compromised. Restaurants have been shutdown by the health department for “hygiene’s” and “safety’s” sake, and city-imposed curfews during the overnight hours manage to cause pretty much of a hardship all around.
Much worse for some than others!
I heard on the news yesterday that people in a neighboring state saw a dog “sucked up into a tornado funnel cloud, tossed around and then set down—or dropped is more like it”! City officials of the city in a town near us recently struck by a tornado have described how they’ve spent considerable time searching “around the town” for the City’s computer hard drives so they could begin to resume City business!
All this aside, the “searching for a hard drive after a tornado” comment really resonated with me, enough to get me wondering how my business would fare if I were to experience a natural disaster such as that. The flood waters rose so fast and so high here, those in the flooded areas said they had no time to grab anything other than maybe a change of clothes. One man did manage to snatch his insurance papers.
Tornadoes often swoop in during the night when most everyone is asleep. Again, not a great scenario for gathering computers, printers, or the office books! Families–kids and pets—are more apt to take precedence.
Many of us have our Plans: a Business Plan, Marketing Plan, Operations Plan and the like; I hope we’ve also thought to include a “back up” plan that specifically consists of a “disaster plan” targeted toward natural disasters.
Making arrangements to have someone assume a stand in, lead position in your business in a “vacation” role or at the time of an “unexpected illness” is a fantastic idea. But regularly backing up your files to an external hard drive, thumb drive or disk is an even greater action not to be overlooked. Of course, it’s necessary to make sure it’s in your plan and that that’s what goes with you first, after the family and pets are accounted for and out the door.
Prior to these recent natural disaster incidents any thoughts I entertained about “back up” plans were only associated with computers that might crash, not computers that fly up and away ala Mary Poppins or ET.
Because of the rude reminder that in natural disaster events there is often no time (or even no thought) to grab essentials, office or otherwise, I’m convinced now more than ever that my purchase and use of Carbonite (www.carbonite.com), an internet backup service, was an excellent decision. They say, “It is easy to install, set up takes just one minute and it’s completely automatic. As soon as you add or modify a file Carbonite automatically backs it up to their secure servers.”
You may remember I commented on Carbonite a month or so ago. However, with the nation-wide recent turn of weather events, it just seemed like this is one of those things that begged to be repeated. In fact, because I’ve experienced this first-hand, it resonated closer to home more this time than it might have at another time.
Experience is the best teacher!
I do feel that with Carbonite on my computer, if I’m unexpectedly awakened to another “the power’s out” missive, I will, of course, be concerned initially. Because I will wonder if the food in the refrigerator will be all right. But I’ll quickly go back to sleep knowing my “business and files” are in good hands.
And easy to get to when I’m ready!
10 Tips to Get Repeat Website Traffic
1. Update the pages on your website frequently. Stagnant sites are dropped by some search engines.
2. Offer additional value on your website. For affiliates and partners you can place links to their sites and products and ask them to do the same for you. You can also advertise their books or videos, if these products relate to your industry and are not in competition with your own product.
3. You can allow visitors to ‘opt in’ to get discounts and special offers. Place a link on your site to invite visitors to ‘opt in’ to get a monthly newsletter or valuable coupons. Two places I highly recommend for autoresponders and newsletter distribution is 1ShoppingCart and Aweber.
4. Add a link to your primary page with a script ‘Book Mark or Add this site to your Favorites’. A great Book Mark script is available here.
5. Brand your website so that visitors always know they are on your site. Use consistent colors, logos and slogans and always provide a ‘Contact Us’ link on each page.
6. Create a ‘Our Policies’ page that clearly defines your philosophy and principles in dealing with your customers and visitors. Also post your privacy policy as well so that clients know they are secure when they visit your site.
7. Create a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page which addresses most of the doubts and clarifications about your product or your company that are likely to be asked. This helps to resolve most of the customers doubts in their first visit to your site.
8. Ensure that each page on your website has appropriate titles and keywords so that your customer can find their way back to your site if they lose the book mark.
9. Never spam a client, who has opted for newsletters, with unsolicited emails. Later if they decide they want to ‘opt out’ of the mailings, be sure you honor their request and take them off the mailing list. They may still come back if they like your products. But they will certainly not come back if you continue to flood their email box with mails they no longer wish to receive.
10. Blog about it. Blogs are naturally search engine friendly. The key is to set up a self-hosted WordPress blog. If you don’t know how to install a blog go to Desperately Seeking WordPress and if you’re looking for blog customization, the Selon Group would love to hear from you.
Recently Added to the Download Section of the Rev….
- We’re continually adding things to the Rev that are not available anywhere else or things that you’d have to pay for elsewhere.
Recently added are:
- Adding RSS Feeds to Wizz RSS (Firefox Addon) — Video Tutorial — 7.5 minute flash based video giving a quick and easy tutorial for adding RSS feeds to Wizz RSS which is a FireFox add-on. The video tutorial was done by Becki Noles for one of her clients, but Rev members can benefit from knowing about the add-on as well.
- 15 Quick Blogging Ideas — Not knowing what to blog about is one of the most common ailments for bloggers. For some, this has caused them to abandon their blog. Others are afraid to start a blog because they fear they won’t have enough to share. To help you jump start the process, here are 15 things you can blog about.
- 21 Strategies for More Response From Your Email Marketing
Yeah, we’ve all heard it.
“The money is in the list.”
“The money is in the list.”
“The money is in the list.”But that’s really only part of the story and here is the real truth:
“The money is in a targeted list of people that you create a trusted relationship with and successfully sell stuff to.”….and none of those 3 things (building a list / trusting relationship / selling) are that difficult to do because:
a. You don’t need a huge list to get a great response.
b. Gaining trust is as simple as being honest and having your audience’s best interest in mind.
c. Using the strategies in this guide will show you that selling is a natural thing.To help you reach that ultimate goal, here are 21 strategies that you can use every single day.
To access these files, simply log in and download!
What? Not a member? Why not join today and get these files as well as many more, worth far more than your $25 monthly membership!
Until next time…
Heather
I can sleep tonight!
I did something completely outside the box…for me. But it took a few major “boos boos” before I managed to “get with the program!”
More is always better right? Un unh!
That’s a NO!
Over the weekend I ran into “issues” with my anti-virus software, anti-spyware, internet security-ware and some other stuff relative to opening and closing my browsers and programs. Somehow, I had all my anti-bad guy software so that none of it could talk to itself or to each other, and do the job right. Because, among other things, several months ago I tried to uninstall one software application.
But, it didn’t go away. After all!
Consequently, I experienced a whole litany of computer ills; including the almost demise of Firefox. It would not open. I also spent an inordinate amount of time trying to correct the problem by turning my computer on and off. Then my Outlook wouldn’t open, nor would Word. Or if it did, it wouldn’t load properly. When an internet page would open, it wouldn’t load entirely.
And the “error” messages I received looked like a cross between Japanese, Chinese and chicken scratcheese.
Oy!
So the big questions became how do I get this fixed? Do I take my computer to a computer fix-it person? Or do I call someone to come in to take care of it? In either scenario, how do I choose someone? And do I really want to clean house to get my computer fixed?
In one of the rare moments when I was able to get Firefox to open–by the way, IE didn’t work so hot either–I decided to do a search of computer repair/tech shops in my local area. In the process, I eventually came up with a really great idea that worked for me!
I decided to choose a company that provided “remote assistance,” having found two specific places that I felt could fit my needs and my pocketbook. I called one of the places Monday morning, although I could have completed the transaction without a call, via the web. The technician connected with me remotely and two hours later (give or take a few minutes) with my “tutelage” (I watched him work the whole time—it’s one of my fun things to do on a Monday morning), my programs and browsers were working. The offending “bad guy” software was gone and a few other adjustments were made to things I had done over the couple years since my computer had been in my ownership. Things I didn’t even know about!
And now I’m good to go
Moral of the story is two-fold. I really don’t have to have every piece of anti-spyware, anti-virus software made, and when I don’t want to clean house, look for online solutions.
What in the world is RSS?
What is RSS?
And why should I care?
Good questions. First, here’s why you should care.
Unlike getting website updates or ezines by email, RSS feeds give you absolute, 100% complete control over the situation.
You don’t have to reveal your email address. If you want to stop receiving content, you don’t have to request to be “taken off the list.”
One click, and poof… the subscription is gone.
Plus, since there’s no email address involved, there’s no way a publisher can sell, rent or give away the means to contact you.
That’s right… no more spam, viruses, phishing, or identity theft. And best of all, no reason to put yourself at the mercy of the publisher’s intentions.
You won’t need to suffer through the legalese in the privacy policy (if there is one) looking for loopholes that will send you deeper into that inbox pit. No more setting up dummy Hotmail accounts “just in case.”
Again, if you don’t like the content, you can make it disappear as fast as you can change a TV channel. With just one click.
Pretty cool, huh?
That is cool! Umm… What the heck is RSS?
Alright! Now we’re ready to get to that part.
RSS is simply an Internet technology standard allowing busy people to receive updates to web-based content of interest.
You might have figured that much out by now. But basically, that’s the essence of an RSS feed – you subscribe and then receive new content automatically in your feed reader.
If you actually want to know how RSS works, click here.
What in the world is a feed reader?
You may already be using a form of feed reader, and not even realize it. If you use personalized home page services like My Yahoo or My MSN, you’ve got RSS capabilities built in. That’s how syndicated content like news, weather and stock quotes appears on your personal page. You can also add content from any blog or other site that uses RSS to provide updates.
Other web-based tools are primarily dedicated to feed reading only. One of the most popular web-based feed readers at this point is Bloglines, and it’s also free and easy to get started with.
If you use the Firefox browser, you can also receive RSS feeds from your tool bar by using the Live Bookmarks function. The newer version of Internet Explorer adds this feature as well.
Finally, there are desktop-based feed readers. These function somewhat like an email program for feeds. Examples include Newsgator and Feed Demon.
If it sounds complicated, it’s really not. And things will get even easier when the next version of Outlook integrates feed-reading capabilities. So, you’ll have the same convenience that email subscriptions offered in the old days, without any of the terrible consequences of giving out your email address to potentially unscrupulous characters.
Sounds good. So how do I subscribe to a Feed?
First of all, look for the subscription or feed options (some bloggers make this difficult for some odd reason). You might see a variety of buttons (amusingly called chicklets).
If the site you want to subscribe to uses FeedBurner to aid in the subscription process (like we do here and many other popular sites), you’ll likely see the standard RSS icon. This link takes you to a page that will give you an array of the most popular feed readers so you can select yours, and you’ll go from there. This is the new standard RSS icon which we use in the top right area of this blog:
Sometimes there will be a chicklet for your particular reader right on the blog that will take you to the appropriate subscription page. You may see these (among others):
Finally, you may also see little orange buttons that say XML or RSS. Often these chicklets will take you to a page that looks like code gibberish. In this case, you simply cut and paste the page URL from your browser window and manually paste it into your feed reader subscription box.
Hopefully this last method will soon disappear, never to be seen again.
In summary: RSS solves BIG problems.
So there you have it… RSS is being adopted at a phenomenal rate, because it’s a good thing for everyone.
The benefit to readers is obvious. And it’s good for publishers too, because we want to make sure that people feel comfortable subscribing, and that our message is not nuked by an overzealous email spam filter.
If there’s anything here that is confusing, or you have a question, please contact me and I’ll be happy to help!
Thanks to Copyblogger for a helping hand with this tutorial.
I’m fickle!
There, I’ve said it!
It wasn’t but six months ago that I was all excited about “Mozy,” an online backup system. Well, move over Mozy, I’m now going steady with “Carbonite.”
I think it’s the colors! No, seriously, the colors!
Dots on files and folders show you the status of your backup at a glance:
- A green dot on a file means the file is backed up.
- A yellow dot means the file is pending backup.
- No dot means the file is not selected for backup.
If you’ve not used Carbonite, you can take a test drive for 15 days.
“By default, Carbonite backs up everything in your Documents and Settings folder, including documents, photos, email and data files from applications, such as Quicken, Money, etc. Once a subscription is purchased, music is also added to the list. The default backup does not include programs, system files, temporary files, videos, or individual files greater than 4GB.
And, you can manually add files to your Carbonite backup.
When your computer is idle for some minutes or so, Carbonite will automatically backup files that have been changed since the last backup. If you’ve changed a file and want to back it up before the auto backup begins, you can mark the file as “back up as soon as possible.”
Carbonite is only $49.95/year per computer no matter how much you need to back up. No hidden fees. No limits on backup storage capacity.”
Here is the URL so you can find out more about Carbonite: www.carbonite.com.
I’m just awfully thrilled with this backup system.
This month!
Moving a WordPress Blog
Sometime or another, it will happen to you. A client wants to change web hosts or perhaps you are changing web hosts yourself. There are a lot of things to keep straight and a certain order to do those things for it to be a smooth move.
Blog Pieces
To understand all you need to do in the move, it’s important to realize a blog is in a couple of different pieces. When you ftp to your web host, you may see the blog directory. This is where a bunch of files live — most likely with the .php extension. If you were to copy all of these files to your new host, you would not be copying your blog. These files are WordPress application files.
The main part of your blog — your content, pages, titles, categories, tags, seo information, etc — is actually stored inside a database. This database is brain of your blog. It gives WordPress the words to display on the screen.
Where to start
The first place to start is with the new web host. Do they have a one-click install for WordPress? If so, I highly recommend that you use it. Install a brand new blog on your new web host. The main reason for this is to get it in the new web host’s system that you have installed WordPress. This will allow for an easier time upgrading in the future through the new web host. If you copied the WordPress files from your old host, the new host would not know you had WordPress installed.
Things to copy from your old web host
Now, files to get from your old web host. You will need to get a copy of the database the blog has been using. The easiest way to do this is to load the WP-DBManager Plugin. Once you have loaded and activated this Plugin (on your old web host/WordPress install), you can go to Database -> Backup Database. Do not select the GZIP compression and select Backup. It will show you the file name of the backup and will put it in the directory /wp-content/backup-db. You will then want to ftp to your old host, copy the .sql file to your computer, and then upload it to your new web host.
While you are in ftp for your old web host, grab a copy of the theme that you are using and any Plugins you have installed. You’ll copy these over into the new installation for WordPress. The theme will copy over the look of your site. The Plugins may need to be updated, but with the newest version of WordPress, Plugin upgrades are automatic.
Things to do at your new web host
To import your database to the new web host, access the new database created in the installation process through phpMyAdmin. You can select the database that the new installation is using and click on the Import tab. Under File to Import, click the Browse button to locate the .sql file that you ftp’d earlier. In most cases this will run smoothly, but in some cases where the old blog has been running awhile, the database may be too big.
After this import, WordPress may tell you it needs to upgrade your database. Let WordPress do this. Copy over your theme and activated it. Check your Plugins for any that need to be upgraded for the newest version of WordPress.
Hopefully this gives you an idea of how to move a WordPress blog from one web host to another. If you have any problems with these steps or have questions, please feel free to email me.
Lisa B.
Open Source Maven
Have you planned for contingencies?
We have all done it. Been so busy researching and being caught up in the planning and startup phase of our businesses that it doesn’t cross our mind to plan for unexpected issues and for when things go wrong. Let’s face it, life happens and usually happens to the best of us, but unexpected issues only become a problem in the smooth management of any business when it is not planned or allowed for.
So as a responsible business owner, what can we do?
To begin planning for contingencies, it is important to write your very own Policy and Procedure Manual. Without considering it further, some people would say that having a Policy and Procedure Manual in a small business is unnecessary but I beg to differ. Having a Policy and Procedure Manual for any business type and structure has a number of advantages. These include:
* Assists in creating clear standards for organising information both internally and externally
* Becomes a training tool for casual employees or subcontractors
* Takes into consideration and allows for future growth within your business
* Details exactly how you require particular tasks to be completed and why
* Assists you in meeting legislative requirements (if any for your business structure type)
* Aids in branding your business
* Aids in presenting a professional outlook to your customers and suppliers
* Helps to prepare you for when problems do occur, because you have already thought about them and allowed for procedures to be followed if and when they occur
We won’t be able to stop contingencies from occuring. We can only control how we deal with them and the lasting effects on our business. Take the first step today!
Written by Kylie Short, owner of Tilda Virtual Services.
Browsing the Web — The Open Source Way
How are you surfing the web?
My guess is about half of you reading this are using Internet Explorer to browse websites. While this is ok, you might actually have a better experience with Firefox. Not only can you have a better experience, you can also be more productive. The following is a list of extensions I use to help me be more productive when surfing on the web. Don’t get me wrong, I still get lost reading too many sites. If you have any self-discipline tips for that, let me know 
Built-in
Before I get to the extensions I use, let me highlight some of the wonderful built-in features of Firefox. If you have never used Tabs when browsing, you are truly missing out. Once you tab, you’ll never go back! There are a couple of different ways to open a link in a new tab. First, you can right-click on any link and select Open Link in New Tab. My favorite way is to hold the Control (CTRL) key down and click on a link. This will open it in a new tab and allow you to keep your place on the page you were browsing.
Firefox gives you full control over your RSS Feeds (those orange feed icons that allow you to read all your favorite blogs in one place). You can subscribe to feeds using Firefox’s built-in Live Bookmarks or you can add the feed to another feed reader you use.
Extensions
Because Firefox is open source, there are a ton of ways you can extend it — personalize it for you and how you work.
- Do you do a lot of research on the web? You have to check out ScrapBook. ScrapBook allows you to capture whole web pages, little snippets of information, or an entire website. It allows you to add notes to what you capture and to organize it in folders for different research projects. When I say capture — it actually downloads the web page (images and all) to your computer. When you look in your ScrapBook, you are viewing the page as stored on your hard drive. It stores the information for the original site if you need to go back and see any updates.
- Do you blog? Do you blog at more than one blog? Then you need ScribeFire. In ScribeFire you store your account information for various blogs (or possibly your clients’ blogs!). While you are browsing, you might come across something you want to reference, link to or quote. You can open ScribeFire from within Firefox (it’ll appear at the bottom of your screen). You can still browse while you are filling in your title and content. When you are finished, be sure you have the right blog selected that you want to publish to — then click Publish! You can also assign categories here, save drafts or just make notes.
- Do you find yourself getting into the more technical aspects of design or development for your clients web pages? Then you need to have the Web Developer’s Toolbar. Maybe you need to know approximately how big a graphic is on the screen. You can show the ruler from the Toolbar and change the size to measure anything on the screen. Maybe you are checking for missing images? If you select the Broken Images option, it will give you a list of the images that are missing. There are many, many tools on the Toolbar so go check it out!
- Have you ever need a picture of a web page? Download Screengrab! You can grab an entire web page (even the parts you’d have to scroll to see) or just the part you can see in your window. You can include your browser window or not — it’s up to you. When you grab a web page, you will save the picture as a graphic file. This is great for showing a portfolio of projects you’ve worked on or simply to show someone how to do something.
This is just the start for Firefox extensions. Take a look around the Firefox website and find out what other cool things you can do with Firefox.
Happy Browsing!
Lisa B.
Open Source Maven
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