Six Reasons Why Your Website Is Not Helping Your Business

A business website is one of the most crucial parts of online marketing success. It provides a platform where the business can provide value and influence its customers, as well as build a long lasting relationship with them. However, if you find that your website is not generating leads or helping you acquire new customers, then this is an indication that you are doing something wrong. These six reasons could be why your website is not helping your business.

1. Your site is messy

If your website is full of affiliate links, advertisements and many other distractions, your bounce rate will be much higher. Bounce rate refers to how fast someone leaves your website. You should instead have a clean home page that gives visitors a variety of options.


ALSO READ: What Every Good Host Has to Offer


2. Your website is not responsive

This simply means that your website is not compatible with mobile devices. People are moving away from desktops to portable devices because they prefer to access information while they are on the go. If your website is not optimized for smaller screens, then you could be losing potential customers.

3. Your website does not have social media links

Social media marketing is a great tool for attracting more visitors to your website. If your website does not have social media links, your business will not have followers or fans. When you write a blog post, for example, you should be able to share it with your customers via social media. This way, you will be able to engage with your customers, which is important if you hope to create a loyal customer base.


4. Customers cannot contact you on your website

Sometimes customers may have questions regarding your products or services but they cannot ask you because you do not have a contact form, an email link or a phone number that they can call. Businesses should have their contact information listed on their homepage where customers can find it easily. In addition, having your contact information on your website may open up other opportunities such as partnerships from big companies.

Recommended: Tricks To Boost Your Blog Post Rapidly


5. Your website is not search engine optimized

If no one can find your website, how will they know that it exists? This means that you have to drive traffic to your website through onsite optimization, keyword research and creation and submitting content to free directories. These steps are necessary if you hope to increase the visibility of your website and SEO rankings.


6. You do not update content on your website

Your customers will stop coming to your website if they find that you have nothing new to offer them and this will decrease your chances of making a sale. Think about it. It is just like subscribing to your favorite magazine and receiving the same content every month. You will eventually get bored and cancel your subscription because it has nothing new to offer. In a nutshell, if you update content on your website regularly, optimize it, ensure you have contacts where customers can reach you, include social media links, make it mobile friendly and organize it, it may just help your business increase sales and generate more leads.

READ: Principles Of Building A Website

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Essential Tips On How To Integrate Social Media Into Marketing Campaigns

We all know what social media is, but what exactly is a marketing campaign? At a very basic level, a marketing campaign is a plan of promoting your business, that is strategically placed to guarantee a certain percentage of return on investment. In other words, random publicity that may or may not get tangible results is hardly a 'campaign', leave alone marketing.

To put things in perspective: you have a company page on Facebook and a certain number of subscribers to that Page. This is good, since it allows a regular audience engagement and maintains your presence online. However, apart from building goodwill (which is important) and generating a certain number of leads, the normal Page activities are not doing anything that you can either measure or predict. It is time to put together a campaign, in that case. The campaign, let us assume, will consider Facebook as its locus and use whatever resource necessary to bring the plan into fruition. 

The Game Plan
 
Let us hope that you have a distinct presence on at least three other social media sites: Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus. Let us also hope that you have a dedicated team for social media management. We have chosen Facebook for no particular reason (although we would prefer it to Twitter which offers relatively less scope for interaction). The strategy is two-fold: lead generation and lead nurturing. The second will obviously include your existent leads and a focused email marketing strategy. The first will take a little more planning.

Stage One: Conceive and Lay the Foundation
 
Who is your audience and what do they like? It may not be easy to have all the answers, but it appears that videos work well to generate a buzz especially if they are short ones (6 - 10 seconds work extremely well). There is no need to reinvent the wheel: just create the most brilliant video you can think of and post it on YouTube. The only difference is to prominently advertise your Facebook Page inside and below the video and mention what else awaits there (something must, else, why would anyone click through at all?).

Stage Two: Plan Your Personal Timeline
 
You can blast the Internet with your videos and place them on all social media and video sharing sites at once, but that is a strategy more commonly used by Affiliate Marketers trying to promote a newly launched product before anyone else can. For a company marketing campaign, you want the interest to stay alive, you want people talking about your product for a long time. Try to recall a few products, if not brands, that have faded into oblivion and yet, were most talked about when they were launched, and you will remember quite a few. The takeaway: phase the campaign - move from one site to another, always with social sharing and follow / subscribe options to keep the buzz alive. The Internet is a huge playground, and not everyone will notice your video even if the number of viewers and 'likes' reach sky high on a single site.

Stage Three: Follow the Timeline
 
A sample plan would be: YouTube > Google Plus > Other Video Sharing Sites >Twitter > LinkedIn. Your LinkedIn Company Page should contain more than just the video - you should put in something extra: photographs, interviews, anecdotes and so on. Ditto for Google Plus (but updated over a few days, at least, not all at once).

So where is your Facebook Page in all of this? If you placed a Facebook link in all the places your posted the vid, you must have received a lot of visitors to the Page and a lot 'likes' as well. What did you do with all that? Let your dedicated social management team handle it, of course. They answered all the queries, monitored all the conversation and hashtags, diffused tension, provided information and updates and kept the topic alive. Every potential customer wants to know about after sales service. Prompt replies to queries are a great confidence builder for them.

Stage Four: Time to Reflect
 
The only reason Facebook (or a single social media platform) was chosen was so that we could get everyone in one place - drive them to a Page from where they could be driven further down the sales funnel with offers and sales pitches combined with pre-sales social activity. Once you have your data after your stipulated time (allotted to the campaign) is over, rinse and repeat on Google Plus. Analyze LinkedIn responses (which are going to be different from that of other networks') and consider publishing something informative and professional (and linking to your other social profiles).

Why make things complicated? Because it is not necessary that a person active on Facebook will have equal interactions on Google Plus or even an account there. However, Google +1s reportedly have more impact than Facebok likes. If you phased your campaign right without the need for instant gratification, your popularity, leads and conversion should each show a steady upward climb for a very long time. This happens because people keep talking about your in various sectors and circles, spread the word, and your first point of interest, in this case the Facebook Page, continues to gather fans who in turn publicize you more.




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This is like a perpetual energy machine - with a subtle push from your side. If this appears too good to be true, Google for 'Dumb Ways to Die' , 'Nike #findgreatness' , 'Granata Petfood, Foursquare' , and 'Tippex'. Each of the campaigns was hugely successful and utilized a cross-platform strategy with single aggregating points to generate and maintain interest.

The Email Marketing Part
 
This is so simple that you may have ignored it completely, but it doesn't hurt to keep follow and share buttons in your emails. You'd be surprised at the CTR when you trust your leads to be the lazy bums that they (and we all) are: keep a button to click, and they will click it, if not for any other reason than to feel that that is all the work they have to do! No, seriously, even clicking a button takes a lot of willpower, and when your already gathered leads click, you can be sure they mean business. Include a call to action line with the buttons (Come visit us at Facebook), add a carrot (...for the latest offers and discounts) and you've pretty much got them hooked.

Concluding Words of Wisdom
 
Why include Social Media at all into marketing campaigns? Because people are lazy by nature. Instead of making a careful research into some product and its efficacy, we tend to find out how many others have used it prior to us and say to ourselves ' so many people can't be wrong!' And not surprisingly, this is a line that a lot of companies use with much positive effect.

When you use social media, people talk, refer, complete a full circle of sorts and you get maximum word of mouth publicity which an 'unsocial' marketing campaign cannot generate. The only thing to remember is : Sustenance. Your campaign will be of no use if it behaves like a comet and fizzles out soon after it catches everyone's attention. Build it, maintain it, nurture it and with the proper social media integration, you can keep it alive for as long as you don't come up with the next biggest idea.

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Looking For A Phone That Looks A Little Bit Special? Check Out The HTC Sensation

You would think there were only a few different ways a touch screen smartphone could be made to look, given most of what you see is just screen, but it is clear when you look at some of the devices on the market that there are definite winners and losers in the aesthetic design category when it comes to mobile handsets.

The HTC Sensation is a phone that has been around since mid 2011, and has been noticed by a lot of reviewers and consumers for its stand out looks. Here we take a look at what makes the Sensation stand out.


Stunning Curves

While iPhones have become progressively less curvy and more hard edged, other manufacturers like HTC still retain curvier, smoother lines in some of their models. The curves on the Sensation by HTC even look like the glass itself is curving into those smooth shapes around the front, giving this handset an unbelievably sleek look. The shape and design also makes what is actually a pretty large phone look smaller and less bulky, and makes it feel very comfortable in your hand. If you are someone who likes to do most of your phone tasks one handed, this is one of the few larger devices where this is easy enough for most people.

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Cool Back Design

One of the most interesting parts of the HTC Sensation's design is the styling on the back of the handset. This comprises three shades of grey, two made of plastic and one of metal, with some chromed details. This looks cool and also gives the phone a sense of quality – the plastic and metal feel well made and well put together, and if you remove the back to access the card slots and battery it comes off and goes back on easily, without that sense that something might snap or crack that you get with cheaper phones. It is a good looking but subtle phone, which looks really nice and differentiates itself from other models, but doesn't look like a quirky style statement.

Great Screen

When it comes to the screen itself, the size and quality are both excellent. The HTC Sense interface, which is already very good, looks absolutely fantastic on the large, clear screen, and you will find watching video, viewing pictures or reading to be a joy on this device. Speaking of pictures, the 8 megapixel camera on the Sensation is also extremely good, with a great LED flash that works very well when photographing with minimal natural light.

All in all, if you are conscious about how your phone looks and want one that is attractive but doesn't give too much away with bold colours and unusual design decisions, the HTC Sensation is a great choice, and the screen, camera and other hardware features are all of a really great standard. If you want a new Android phone at a price that won't break the bank then you should definitely consider this model when you are choosing.

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AUTHORS BIO:

The post by Laura Ginn, who is a technology and mobile phone writer, takes a look at the smart HTC Sensation Android smartphone. Laura loves testing and reviewing all of the best offerings from big names in mobile tech like HTC, to help readers find the best products for them.

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What Every Good Host Has to Offer

Choosing a hosting plan is a crucial step for a successful online presence. If your company has a website, then you surely use a certain hosting plan. And if your job is related to web development, then you probably buy or change hosting plans often.

And still, how you can understand if the host you have chosen is the best one for you? Here are some basic tips on how to choose the optimal hosting plan for you, according to the requirements of your business

Know your needs

You need to be aware of your personal needs and requirements in order to select the best plan for your company website. Consider how your company relies on the website – is your business entirely based online, or the website is a rather representative and a more static one. You also need to keep in mind the size of your business and whether it will affect the speed of the website, too. You also need to determine what is important to you – the traffic of the hosting, the volume of the disk space, the CPU time, the number of add-on domains or the extras that most hosting companies offer along with some web hosting plans.


Shared hosting, VPS or Dedicated hosting service

This is the first thing you need to look for when checking the offers of a hosting provider. Of course, you need to have a clear idea of whether you need a VPS hosting, a dedicated hosting service or a shared hosting. Have in mind that no matter if you represent a large company, a small business or a personal project managing a not particularly visited website, Shared hosting is a very good solution at a reasonable price. It is also appropriate when it comes for medium websites and applications designed to work with some standard components.

However, if your business is relatively small, but there is a chance for a rapid development and you need to rely on your website, then you should look for a hosting provider that offers a VPS or Dedicated server. They are the best solution for you if you want to use any specific application or want to have better control over the server.


CPU time

It is unrealistic to expect a low-cost solution when it comes to a website that consumes great CPU resources. Consider choosing a more expensive shared hosting plan or dedicated server, which may be virtual or hired. Remember that best hosting providers should be fully-aware of the fact that your online presence is not just a business card for you, and the application that makes your website “alive” is a complex and multifunctional system. So, you should consider the CPU load, the traffic generated to the database and also the productivity at a large number of simultaneous visitors.


Disk space

You should try to determine what disk space is required for each of your websites. The best hosting providers will offer you a great variety of hosting plans you can choose from.


Flexibility of services offered

Your Business is a dynamic structure – it is being developed, and it grows and may be reorganized. This means that your needs change, too. Therefore, before choosing a hosting plan, you should consider whether you need a more flexible business solution – a flexible hosting plan with an easy migration. Check the options that are offered to you by the web hosting providers and try to choose the one that suits your personal needs and requirements best.


Prices of web hosting plans
It is good to know which hosting plan offers what its prices includes. You should compare a couple of hosting plans carefully, and make sure that you get exactly what you need.

The proper choice of a web hosting provider that can meet all your needs and requirements ensures the optimal functioning of your website. And finally, remember that a good hosting plan will save you a lot of problems in the maintenance of your website.


Author Bio: 
Rose Finchley is passionate freelance blogger and tech geek. She works as a manager of deep cleaning NW London and she loves her job. She has a lot of experience with internet and loves to share it.

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Tricks To Boost Your Blog Post Rapidly

While some folks are sure that blogging is on its' death bed, others continue to make giant strides in promoting their blogs and dramatically boosting each blog post they write.
Actually the truth is that it is not a difficult as one may think. All that is required is for you to know exactly what you must do.

Quality researched facts

There is no way you will succeed promoting a blog post that is of poor quality. Folks are usually in a big hurry online and will hardly spare the time to labor through a hopeless trashy piece.
When you are careful to use researched facts in your post you can be sure that the interest will multiply many times over and it will become easy to get hist and pick up new readers to boost your blog traffic.

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Be unique, write what only you can write

Do not copy or imitate what you have seen in other blogs. Be original and unique and try to find a style that is entirely yours. That is how the big popular bloggers have succeeded.

Get Personal With Your Readers

There is nothing like personal experiences and stories to turn an otherwise dull topic into something really interesting. Never shy away from sharing personal and intimate stuff with your readers because it is an extremely powerful weapon that is capable of boosting your blog posts tremendously.

Do round up posts

Make life easier for your readers by doing round up posts where you research a topic of interest and gather all the information, links and resources and put them all in one post and one page. Not only will this prove to be popular with your readers but search engines also love this kind of content and it is easy to rank very highly and get tons of traffic directly from leading search engines.

Your headline

A catchy headline will boost your blog post enormously. A poor one will kill it. The headline is the first thing most of your readers will see and they will instantly have to make a decision whether or not to click on it and read your article. Create headlines that grab them by the neck and force them to read your content. You can learn a lot about writing headlines from leading tabloids.

Let your passion shine through

If you take the time to study really successful bloggers you will quickly notice that most of them have one thing in common. And that is their passion shines brightly in their writing and they are not afraid to share personal intimate stories that have helped shape them into who they are.
You too can greatly boost your blog posts by doing precisely the same thing. Let your personality and passions leap out of your post and you can be sure that you will have the attention of lots of readers who will always grow in numbers.

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Conclusion

For you to be really successful in promoting your blog posts to larger audiences, you will need to identify what you are going to do and then you must do it consistently for maximum effect.

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The 5 Best Free IPhone Apps Of 2013

The age of long distance, expensive phone calls are over as 5 of the best chat apps are free right now not only for audio but also for video chat and messaging within and across continents; which makes keeping in touch so fun and simple. Download the following apps to keep in touch in real time with people close to you.

• Skype
• Viber
• Whatsapp
• ZinzzChat
• eBuddy

Skype

There isn't a person in the world today that hasn't heard of Skype or isn't using it. It is one of the best downloadable apps for free video chatting and voice calls as well as video messaging. However, this does not mean that Skype is completely free. While it is free to download, calls and messages to mobiles and landlines across the world as well as group video calls with up to ten people are not free but are offered at very low prices.

Skype requires a webcam, microphone and internet connection to work and can be used anywhere- at home, work or on the go. It can be downloaded to you PC, any windows or android mobile as well as iPhones, BlackBerry‘s and tablets.

Skype takes chat innovations one step further with Skype ready home phones, on which you can make Skype to Skype phone calls or cheap calls from Skype to other mobiles or landlines. You can now also purchase TV‘s which come Skype ready or purchase TV cams and blue ray players which make it possible for you to use Skype from your television and connect with people all over the world. If that isn't enough you can now also download Skype to your PlayStation and iPod touch over 3G or Wi-Fi connections.

Viber

Viber can be used to connect with people worldwide without the need for invitations, passwords or registration. Viber allows you to sync your mobile phone with your PC so you can start a conversation on your mobile phone, transfer it between devices and continue it on your PC. Viber offers high-definition voice and video calls as well as group conversations and text, photo and sticker messages.

Once you download Viber it automatically identifies others on your contact lists that are using Viber and informs you about new users. Viber is compatible with Windows, iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Bada and Nokia through 3Gi'4G or Wi-Fi connections. If you are a fan of Viber then you may join in on popular Social media sites which are also free chat forums such as Facebook or Twitter.

WhatsApp

WhatsApp is one of the most popular real time messengers which allow you to keep in touch with or contact friends and family in real time across the world for your daily dose of gossip or simple casual conversation. It is free to download and its monthly or weekly use is usually covered by your mobile internet plans. WhatsApp is available for BlackBerry, Windows phones, iPhone, Android and Nokia phones and you can send messages across brands for example from BlackBerry to iPhone.


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WhatsApp also makes it possible to send unlimited images and audio (voice notes) and video messages as well as create group chats. Through WhatsApp you may update your status so that your friends know if you are busy or unavailable. You can post personalized messages that you want to share and you can also upload a display picture which appears in the messenger window. WhatsApp is free and can be downloaded to your PC as well and it frequently informs users about new updates.

ZinzzChat

ZinzzChat is available for iOS and Android phones and is group chat enabled; the latest version of ZinzzChat allows you to chat with friends by scanning a QR code and you can backup and save your chat history for up to seven days. ZinzzChat also supports video calling between cellular devices and you can share photos by selecting "Moments". Users can also record and share voice messages and can web chat as well.

ZinzzChat offers a wide range of emoticons so that you can express your feelings in new and funny ways and its "shake" option allows your phone to be matched with others who are "shaking" next to you or across the world but Shake will need to access your location and personal data to be used. ZinzzChat also incorporates new and innovative options such as Look Around and Drift Bottle.

Look Around will need to access your location and tells you how many people nearby are also using ZinzzChat while Drift Bottle allows you to record and thrown out a bottle containing a voice or text message and you must then wait to see who picks up your message, this is a classic mobile app spin on bottle messages left by someone stranded on a distant island hoping to be rescued.

eBuddy Messenger

eBuddy Messenger combines all your favorite messaging apps in one place without having to register with them all separately such as- Yahoo Messenger, ICQ, Google Talk, My Space, Facebook, Windows Live Messenger, Hives and Aim. It is free to download and you can keep in touch with your friends via messages and video chat regardless of which instant messenger they are using. The eBuddy Messenger is both Web based and Mobile compatible. The Web version requires only an internet connection and browser. If you have a smartphone then you can use eBuddy on your cellular device, and is a Java based software.

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The mobile software allows you to set an avatar as well as nudge offline friends and send offline messages. It can also be used on Android and Nokia devices and eBuddy Lite is specifically engineered for iOS devices such as iPhones, iPad and iPods. Users are also required to create an eBuddy id which will enable them to look into a series of IM accounts.

AUTHORS BIO
Murray founded of The Mail in 2013 an angel funded start up publication covering marketing.

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3 Reasons Why Social Media Marketing Is Easy and Accessible

One of the greatest things about social media is that anyone can use it for the promotion of their business or website.  Most popular services are free to use, and it does not take long to build a profile, post updates and begin the process of developing good online relationships with current and prospective clients.  But, social media is not a set-it-and-forget-it platform, and it will require a hands-on, consistent and engaging pattern of interaction in order for it to effectively work.  Good use of social media involves locating and targeting your niche or audience as well.

You Don’t Need To Be A SEO Genius

The good news is that you don’t need to be a SEO or Internet marketing genius to get started.  The whole aim of using social media is to, well, be social, and it provides the perfect way for any website, business or organization to interact with their followers, customers and interested parties.  It can be used to generate interest about a product or promotion, or perhaps as a way to do some market research before embarking on a new campaign.  Social media can be a powerful customer service and problem solving tool.  However, the main purpose of social media marketing is to create brand and name recognition and to establish yourself as the leading authority in your niche.

You Can Remain Relevant and Current

Good use of social media involves being relevant, interesting, engaging and non-annoying.  Posting consistent content, updates and information that is meaningful or helpful to the viewer can only help to expand your reach as well as your bottom line. On the other hand, if people are annoyed by frequent spamming or nonsensical posts, they can just as easily delete you from their news feed.  Using this medium is a game changer for almost anyone who has a company, organization, product or service to promote.  It provides fast, free and innumerable opportunities to reach a targeted audience and keep them in the loop.

Making Mistakes Is Not Expensive

Using social media is an evolving art from unto itself, and it takes time to nurture and develop a good online following.  The first real hurdle is to build an audience and following in addition to locating them so you can focus your efforts.  The second hurdle is to produce content that keeps them interested and coming back for more.  It may take some trial and error or working with professionals who can help to kick start your social marketing endeavors, but it is well worth the investment.  

There has never been a medium so accessible, so affordable and so easy to use for the promotion of almost anything. But, you need to be careful with how you put it to work for you and your overall goals.  Start building your reputation and expanding your horizons with social media today, and you will quickly discover why this platform is the most powerful and revolutionary resource out there today.  It only takes a few posts on the right services at the right times to drastically improve your reach as well achieving your goals.

AUTHOR BIO
Social Dragon Marketing provides social media in London Ontario to help businesses of any size grow their customer base and increase their bottom line.

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Business benefits of Google+ when it comes to SEO

Google+ has a strong impact on Google search since it is a product by Google and also because of the particular construct. While Google+ is serving as a social media at the same time it helps to improve search engine results. It enables to capture rich data of the internet users such as age, gender, location etc to streamline the Google search results.

Furthermore, when your website appears on search engine rankings, even the users who are not members of GooglePlus can view your content. When GooglePlus content is put up, there is a guarantee that it will be lurking around for a long period of time gaining and giving page ranks and appearing on results page of search engines. Research also shows that even with posts that are over a year old on your GooglePlus profile, the page can still rank on top of SERPs.

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How To Set Up A Website To Boost Your Business

How To Set Up A Website To Boost Your Business

Moving on, if you have GooglePlus authorship, search results will give you a higher visual profile. You can validate your profile on GooglePlus with sites that you’re regularly publish and this will enable your image to be seen next to your ranking, as a result, attracting more visual attention on search engines. Content authority is a concept that is very closely linked to that of GooglePlus authorship.By giving authority to certain profiles, Google is keen on giving you a higher profile in search results. If someone posts interesting content on your page and this content is shared and liked by many, your profile will achieve higher authority. Statistics show that when GooglePlus authorship is obtained, your company’s search performance is consequently improved.

The social layer that exists in the GooglePlus network consists of many different social signals which improve your content’s social media optimization and your SEO. Unlike other social networks, this concept is not just about the number of follower you have. GooglePlus takes into consideration the level of interaction between your company and the content on your profile page in comparison to others of a higher authority. Therefore, if someone with higher authority shares content from your page, your authority will improve.

If you are a member of the GooglePlus network, your social signals will be used to determine page rankings in search results. This is because social signals are a better way of eliminating the ‘noise’ in order to improve quality of search results. This trend is likely to continue in the future because it is a better way to understand the real needs of people, which in turn is one of the founding principles of search engines such as Google.

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If you are not effectively using GooglePlus, you are just losing out on high quality SEO techniques. Hopefully, after having read the above reasons, you will re-consider being a GooglePlus member and look further into social media optimization as a strategy for successful SEO.


AUTHORS BIO
Sophie Taylor is an experienced copywriter, she has been writing articles for almost 3 years and still enjoying it, other than writing she enjoys reading books, gardening and listening to music. Currently she’s writing article about SEO

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Manage Your Business Blog with the Simple Steps

As a small business owner, you have to handle a myriad assortment of tasks.

Along with preparing the business plan, accumulating funds, manufacturing or acquiring the products, providing the services, managing the finances and other core tasks, you also have to pay attention to marketing your business and building your brand.

Blogging works as a favorable way to create the voice of your business. The only problem is that you are too hard pressed for time to include it on your daily schedule. How do you overcome this time trouble?

Here are a few simple steps that can help you manage blogging with ease.


Understand your objective

Creating engaging content for your blog establishes your authority over your niche. It helps readers understand your expertise in the niche you do business in and builds credibility.

Apart from occupying the readers’ attention, the content of your blog also offers another advantage. Once your blog becomes an archive of excellent content, search engine optimization becomes much easier. You cannot let go of such benefits.


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Maintain an idea file

You never know when you get an idea for your next blog post. Once you have a brainwave, it is important that you make a note of it immediately. Otherwise, it would be lost in the crowd of thoughts.

Whether you maintain an online repository or a simple notebook to jot down the ideas that come to your mind or that you come across, make sure you have a specific place to do this. You can always go back to them before you write.


Map out the schedule

You don’t need to write five posts a day to create a great blog. Even a post a week can do the trick. It all depends on what you can manage properly. If you can only write a post of 500 words a week, do it.

Don’t try to overdo things. You may manage to squeeze time from your busy schedule to write five posts a week. And even the next. But you would find it increasingly difficult to keep up at this pace. Bite off what you can chew.


Tap into existing resources

You don’t need to invent everything new for your blog. At best, you may need to re-invent what you already have. A sensible idea is to use the online and offline materials you possess.

How do you do it? Suppose you own a restaurant and your blog is all about food. When you are too busy, you don’t really need to come up with something absolutely novel. Why not share a recipe with your readers? It will be quite welcome!


Enlist help

Taking up the entire blogging thing on your own isn’t a clever idea, especially when you have to handle hundreds of things alongside. Incorporate guest blog posts on your blog to make things easier.

Ask employees, vendors, customers and associates to create content. Also, let related businesses contribute posts. These will keep things moving. Just make sure someone evaluates the quality of the content before you post it.


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It’s part of your job

Don’t forget, blogging is part of your task as a small business owner. While you may feel more comfortable working on the finances or managing employees, this responsibility requires your attention too.

Don’t neglect this; a good blog can be a major draw for people looking for information about the niche your business is in. It would also be a great way to establish yourself as an expert in what you do.


Enjoy blogging

Even if you are more interested in the ‘core’ business, you wouldn’t find blogging to be boring. You just need to find out which things you love to write about. Maybe writing on the ‘core’ business would be a good idea for you.

Along with writing the posts, or getting others to write them, you also need to keep track of the comments you get. It is important that you reply to these. It would help you create communication between you and the readers.


Author Bio
Colins is a passionate about online marketing and he is currently associated with Rope-Barriers.com, UK’s most trusted supplier of executive posts.

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Try Out New And Exciting Hairstyles With These Four Apps

There are plenty of reasons why you might wish to consider a new hairstyle: an important job interview, a new date or simply a change of routine can all be common reasons for a new hairdo. In years past, we had to take ourselves directly to the salon in order to find out about all the different hairstyles available to us based on hair type and length, but technology has made it possible for us to take care of this step before we ever visit a cosmetologist. A variety of mobile applications in particular have made it possible for us to browse hundreds of different hairstyles without making any commitments. Below, we will discuss four of these apps and how each one can offer great benefits to you.

Hairstyles With Their Hands 

Anyone who wants to create dozens of beautiful hairstyles, braids and bonnets without the need for visits to the salon or costly accessories will appreciate the Hairstyles With Their Hands app, which is available for download on the Android Marketplace. The hairstyles are divided into two categories – daytime hairstyles and evening hairstyles – which helps users find the perfect do for social or professional occasions. A favorites section is included, which allows users to quickly add their desired hairstyles to it for future reference at any time. The Hairstyles With Their Hands app is a free download.

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Hair Design

Displaying all the latest fashions for 2013 is the Hair Design application, which can be found on Android devices and is a free download. More than 500 different designs have been included in the Hair Design app, and each includes a tutorial on how to achieve the do in just a few steps. News and events about the latest hair trends are also available via the application. A wide selection of hair products is also covered, which can help users find out which ones are best for their hair and used with select hairstyles. Perfect for do-it-yourself types, the Hair Design app helps you save money and time on visits to the salon.

ALSO READ: The 5 Best Free IPhone Apps Of 2013

The 5 Best Free IPhone Apps Of 2013

How to Make Your Hair Look Fab

This comprehensive application will help users find the perfect hairstyle for their needs – and there are more than 300 of them included! The How to Make Your Hair Look Fab application for Android devices includes videos, tutorials and tips for daily maintenance and styling in order to ensure that your hair looks exactly as intended. Whether you wish to use organic products or create a rocking hairstyle for the nightclub, there is a tutorial included that can help you achieve it. Currently available for free via the Android Marketplace, the How to Make Your Hair Look Fab app truly is a 'fab' solution for hairstyle variance.

Weaving Braids

In the past couple of years, big, luscious braids have become all the rage: the Weaving Braids app for Android smartphones may be the best app out there to help you achieve this look! Once downloaded, users can peruse more than 60 different braiding techniques in order to find the perfect one for their needs. Pictures, step-by-step instructions and additional tutorials for a variety of hair care regimens are also available via the app, which is a free download via the Android Marketplace.


AUTHORS BIO
Anna Baker is a salon manager who writes for Truly You, a professional hair care clinic providing extensive products and services related to hair care and treatment. Her other hobbies include skiing and martial arts. Read more about her company by clicking here.

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Top Tips To Make Your Blog Content A Success

There are literally thousands of different reasons, subjects and interests that compel you start your own blog. Many people do it to promote information regarding something they have a passion for, others do it to help their business giving information regarding products and services they provide to engage customers and increase SEO ranking. However, no matter what the reason may be, success for all blogs is going to come down to one thing; creating content that people actually want to read.

Obviously if a user is visiting a niche blog, it is going to be because something has compelled them to do so. It could be a call to action through a social media campaign or email or as simple as they have entered a search term into Google and your blog is one of the results that came up. No matter what the reason, now that you’ve got them there, it’s up to you to actively engage them through your content and make sure that they aren’t just a one-time visitor, but a regular reader.  So how do we actually do this? Well there are a number of different ways.

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How To Promote Business Events On Facebook

How To Promote Business Events On Facebook

How To Promote Business Events On Facebook

How To Promote Business Events On Facebook

How To Promote Business Events On Facebook

How To Promote Business Events On Facebook

How To Promote Business Events On Facebook

How To Promote Business Events On Facebook

Be Topical

When deciding what to write and who to write it for, make sure that you are picking a subject that is topical in the sense that it is prevalent to modern day society and something that people would really be interested in reading. This could be something that is currently trending in media, an environmental situation or even an insight into current society and life in general. Like I stated at the start of the article, there are so, so many different subjects you can write about, it’s just up to you to choose something that people will be interested. While it has to be topical, there is nothing wrong with you putting a modern twist on a historical subject.
Many people enjoy looking back out of interest as well as to also create some kind of a retrospective insight and comparison between then and now. Catering to this audience allows you to not only create topical and interesting content, but something that is still going to be engaging somewhere down the line.

While topical content is popular, this upside is also the one drawback in the sense that although people reading it in the present will be interested in the content, in the weeks, months or years down the line people aren’t going to be as interested as it will be past subjects with very little present relevance.

Stay Ahead of the Curve

Although topical content is good, major success within blogging comes in the ability to get ahead of the curve. By this I mean creating content on a style and subject that has not yet become common place. Basically, while a topical subject is good, the fact that it is good means that countless blogs all over the world will also be taking advantage of this subject to create their own content and engage their audiences. This then begs the question, if a user reads content somewhere else, what is going to make them read your posts on a similar subject?

Even though putting a different spin on the subject could do the trick, you are going to see much more success if you actually come up with something innovative and new. Now, I know this is easier said than done, but it is achievable for any blog. It doesn’t have to be some worldwide breaking news that would get people from all corners of the globe visiting for this exclusive, it could be something simple such as news from your local area, information regarding your business or something personal to you. It could even be looking at something from a different perspective or your own point of view. The idea is just to create something unique, that helps your blog stand out on its own and something that people are going to be interested to visit.

ALSO READ: 3 TIPS FOR CREATING AN EFFECTIVE BLOG

3 Tips for Creating an Effective Blog

3 Tips for Creating an Effective Blog

Follow Your Audience

While the majority of people will visit your website because they are interested in you and what you have to say, once you have built up a strong following, there’s nothing wrong with you playing to this audience. By this I mean if you know what the vast majority of your audience likes, there’s nothing wrong with styling your content in a way that you know your readers will enjoy. This ensures that those followers you do have are always going to return to read your latest posts. However, you don’t want to rely solely on this. While it will be of interest to your dedicated followers, it may not appeal to other people, reducing the potential for any new followers. The best way to solve this is to create a balance in your styles, catering to new and dedicated readers. To create this contrast in writing styles, many blogs either have numerous contributors as well as offering a number of guest blog positions. While people may not like some of your posts, if the vast majority of your articles appeal to the vast majority of your readers and new visitors, you are going to create very successful and appealing blog.

AUTHORS BIO
This article was written by John Johnston. John is part of the marketing team for Workwear Express, one of the leading suppliers of branded workwear, t-shirt printing and winter workwear.

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Social Signals: Maximizing Social Networks

If your idea of a social network is Friendster or Multiply, you are definitely living under a rock. Perhaps it’s time for you to join civilization for you to see that social networks has grown by leaps and bounds. Fact is, it has gone a long, long way from Friendster.

Gone are the days of social network sites that only promote online friendships. Fast forward to today and you have social networking stalwart names such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram - and the list has just become endless. Trust me when I say that we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg. The effects of social network had gone so deep and wide that we fail to see it beyond what is visible to the naked eye. This is the reason why a lot of individuals and business establishments are maximizing the use of social networks.


Creating Social Signals

The minute you link your social network profiles with other web pages, you are creating a social signal. That easy! It's not as technical as you would imagine. When readers or customers begin to hit other buttons such as 'Like,' 'Share,' 'Retweet,' or 'Repost,' another string of social signals are created. They act as alarms to others if what they saw are worthy reads or buys. It opens up the marketing channels for those trying to market their stuff with constant upload of materials such as photos and videos.

RECOMMENDED: How To Promote Business Events On Facebook


Going Beyond Virtual Friendships

Instead of just gaining a following through these social networks, the business-minded groups have used it as a platform to catapult their businesses. Be it through link building, SEO, sharing, it enables businesses to be virtually visible and probably accessible to all across the globe. You are practically introducing your product on a global scale and not just confined to your storefront windows. This is actually more viable in terms of expenditures as you won't have to spend a lot on physical branding or signs. Indeed, the benefits of social networks have gone beyond exchanging notes and promoting communication despite distance.

Properly Optimized Website

Social signals are everywhere online. But you won't be such a magnet if your site is such a drag. You have to keep it fresh and updated. If you're trying to promote a business through Facebook, you should keep your loyal fan base’s attention glued by constantly uploading photos of whatever product or service that you offer. Update statuses every now and then to keep them in the know. Otherwise, you will fall out and eventually lose your ground to others who are maximizing the potentials of their social network accounts.

Smart Phones and Tablets

These days, you can even be marketing your business through phones. The emergence of smart phones and tablets nearly shoved computers away with ease in accessibility. What you have in your pockets is a gateway not only for communication but for constantly promoting your business. A recent photo uploads on photo-sharing site, Instagram, will ignite your followers' attention and prod you for more details. If they like what they see, there's a very good chance that you've got a sale going on right there. And you happen to be in the middle of the interstate. Yes, transactions happen even in the middle of nowhere and you don't have to constantly flip the 'Open' and 'Closed' signage that you used to have for your physical store.

ALSO READ: What You Need To Know When You Set Out To Buy Twitter Followers.

When you see a particular site, link or photo that has a massive amount of shares or likes to it, then it only goes to show that it earned tons of social signals. Perhaps it's a good material to read or something that is definitely a good buy.


AUTHORS BIO
This post is written by Steve Kaplan who works with marketmongoose.com, which provides link building strategies and content marketing to websites online.

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I Need Money Now!-Make Money Online With Your Blog

Some many people are saying to themselves I need money but don’t actually know what to do to make money. You are so broke right now and you want to do something fast to bail yourself fast from poverty and you don’t have an idea of what to do to bring money fast. I have a solution for you.

Blogging is a sure way of making money if you really need money in a short period of time. Blogging is very lucrative and so many bloggers like +Linda Ikeji has been able to buy a car, build a house from blogging alone, and that’s why they are so many blogs online today because everybody wants to take advantage of it and start earning a living from it.

I will show you how to start making money blogging, but before I start let me explain what the word blogging means so that I can carry everybody along.

What is a blog? A blog is a website where an individual or group of people write articles and publish for other people to read. Blogging is the act of writing articles and publishing on your blog for people to read and maybe post their comments. So it’s all about writing about your thoughts and anything that interests you. With this little explanation, am sure you know now what blogging is all about.

I need money-How do I start blogging?

Yes, I need money! Am in a hurry right now and all I want is jump into blogging right now and give it a try. It does not work like that. Rome was not built in a day. There are some few questions you need to ask yourself before you start blogging and those questions are: can you write articles? Do you enjoy writing article? And if the answer is yes the next question is: what do you like writing about? Because you have to enjoy whatsoever you are doing before you can really succeed in it.

Once you are done answering those questions and you are sincerely ready to start blogging, all you have to do is to choose a blogging platform e.g. www.blogger.com or wordpress and create a blog with a good template of your choice. Write good articles but don’t ever copy people’s articles because it will affect your success. Once you have written up to 30 articles we can now go to the next stage, which is monetizing you blog so that you can start making money from it.

MUST READ: Earn Real Money From Gaming Currencies


How to monetize your blog

I have a blog now with good content and I need money from it. How do I start making money from my blog? They are several ways you can earn money online with your blog but I will focus on monetizing your blog with Google adsense.

What is Google adsense and how does it work? Google adsense is an advertisement program run by Google. They display adverts on your blog and they pay per click and per impression. So all you have to do is to register with them by visiting www.google.com/adsense and sign up, once they approve your account, then you are good to go.

ALSO READ: How To Make Money Selling Used Cars


The next step is to place google adsense on your blog. Place your ads on strategic places on your blog where your blog readers can easily see it and click on it. But don’t ever ask your blog readers to click on your ads. The fact that you need money is not enough for you to get it the wrong way because you telling people to click on your ad, will make Google ban you from ever using their program again.

After setting up ads on your blog the next thing to do is to draw traffic to your blog. Traffic is very important if you really need money from your blog. There are so many ways to get traffic but the best source of traffic is through search engines, also known as organic traffic.

To get organic traffic you need to build backlinks for your blog and do good search engine optimization for your blog. It’s very easy, just make a little research on it or contact me and I will tell you how to go about it.

Conclusion

With this little information, I believe you will stop saying to yourself ‘I need money!’ and start putting what you have read into practice to earn money for yourself and be financially free.

If you have questions or contributions to add to this, use the comment box below and don’t forget to follow me on TWITTER, GOOGLE PLUS and click my like button on FACEBOOK to get more information on how to make money online.

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Things You Can Do To Protect Your Blog Images From Being Stolen

Creating images for your blog is something that usually takes a lot of time effort and hard work. Therefore, it can be pretty annoying and very upsetting when you one day discover that somebody has stolen your images and posted them elsewhere as their very own. In fact, if you are not careful some people may just end up thinking that it is you who stole the images and it may not be easy to prove otherwise.

Fortunately, with just a little effort, there are ways for you to protect your work. Most people are not aware of them but there are combinations of techniques you can use to protect your blog images from being stolen.

Ask them to remove it:

The most obvious first step that you can take is contact sites where you find your photos and images and ask them to remove them. You will be surprised how many times this simple easy to implement step works. It is the easiest thing to do and it will certainly not take up too much of your time to simply send an email to the image thief site.

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Make Use Of The DMCA Digital Millennium Copyright Act:

If your polite request has been ignored, the next thing to do is file a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) notice. You will need to provide detailed information, which is part of proving that the image actually belongs to you. The notice will also include a statement swearing that what you are saying is true and that the image actually belongs to you. Details of the site where your image has been republished will also be required.

A DMCA take down request arriving at the hosting company that hosts the offending site is usually enough to do the trick because legally the host will have no option but to remove the image.

The only down side here is that if you have to do this frequently it can easily end up being a lot of time-consuming work. Therefore, what you need are deterrents that will stop the image thieves in their tracks.

Will disabling the right click option work To Fully Protect Your Images?

Some sites disable the right click option to protect their images. However, this will also end up inconveniencing other visitors to your site who use this facility in other ways, and who no intentions of using your images elsewhere. Besides there are easy ways round this obstacle meaning that you will be annoying your visitors while not fully protecting your images. It is a better idea to use other available tools and techniques as deterrents.

Break up your images:

There is a technique known as slice and dice which is pretty effective. The image will still look okay on your blog but the minute somebody tries to copy it, they will end up with just a part of it and not the whole image as they would have expected. While it is possible to copy and assemble all the pieces it is usually not worth the time or effort for those out to quickly copy images from other sites and so the most likely thing they will do is try their luck elsewhere.

Mark your images:

Watermarks on your images also work extremely well. Not only does this discourage thieves but also in the event that somebody still uses the image it still works in your favor because what they are doing is advertising your blog to their audiences. Another advantage here is that putting watermarks on images is fairly easy.

Shrink wrapping will annoy image thieves:

Imagine a situation where when image thieves download your image they find that it is actually the wrong image. They repeat the same process with a different photograph and the same thing happens. All this is made possible by a process called shrink-wrapping. Again, a simple process can go a long way in protecting the images on your blog.

ALSO READ: 3 TIPS FOR CREATING A EFFECTIVE BLOG


Conclusion:

You can use a tool called TinEye, which will enable you to quickly find sites that have used your images. When you combine this with two or three other deterrents described in this article, you will be able to make your images virtually copy-proof. It is well worth the small effort in putting in place measures to protect your work.

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Make money through contract positions: Get the facts straight

According to a recent survey involving more than 3,000 hiring managers as well as human resource executives, conducted by Harris Interactive and CareerBuilder, it was found that over one third of the American companies are opting for contractual or temporary labourers in 2013.

So, if you want to be a part of that workforce, then there are ample opportunities or many easy ways to make money and take advantage of.

Short-term contractual jobs

Here are some of the options to make money through contract positions:

* Web strategist - When speaking about the websites, these have become one of the most important tools of promotion for almost all the businesses in the world. Moreover, they act as a public relations platform for the organizations.

Prospective customers are always on the lookout for a company on the web to conduct business without even picking up the phone. So, a budding entrepreneur will always want to get an expert on board his marketing team to leverage his/her expertise in finding out the loopholes and ways to grow both web as well as social media presence.

At this juncture, you may be the right person to fill up that post of a web strategist who can do it all from scratch. Even the pay isn’t that bad at near about $36.37 per hour that can go up as high as $80, depending upon the level of expertise you have.

* Sales representative - Both marketing and sales are mainstay of any small business. However, with gradual expansion of the business, things tend to become tricky and more complicated.

Moreover, if the business owner is too busy with all his or her priorities, then he or she may struggle to devote ample time to acquire fresh business and then follow up with those leads. However, for an energetic sales person, the job of cold-calling, networking with the clients and retaining the existing ones to keep the company’s revenue rolling will seem to more of a fun than an actual job.

As a result, the owner gets to provide undivided attention to bigger and more important issues. So, you may well work as a sales representative and earn to the tune of say $27-30 per hour for that.

* Bookkeeping and accounting - A lot of business owners usually do this job on their own, but when they get overwhelmed with all the other business obligations, then they want this particular job to be done by someone else.

Essentially, you may have to deal with huge piled up bills that are in backlog and must be cleared off at once. Moreover, you may also have to reconcile some old bank accounts and things like that.

Traditionally, bookkeeping or accounting jobs are given out on a part-time basis, for instance, for a day or two in a month. For that, you may get paid around $25-35 per hour for some basic bookkeeping work.

In case, you are a CPA or CFO, then expect to get compensated by around $45-70 for every hours of labor that you put in.

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Protecting Your Business Reputation Using These 5 Simple Steps

Any business thrives on goodwill and trust. And almost any business will face controversies that threaten its reputation. Fortunately, it is possible to preempt most threats and secure your business reputation online if you follow these 5 simple steps.

1. Be completely transparent

On the Net, you have only a few words and a couple of photographs about you and your business instead of your live, dynamic personality to charm your way into people's circle of trust. List your real name, address and contact details along with your brand so that you show up as both real and reachable. Put up a profile pic that shows off your best traits - in the context of your business.

It wouldn't help to show yourself in a party mood if you are not a professional clown. Put up also photographs that display your business. Make people acquainted with your staff and your office environment. Add real testimonials, videos, if possible, to prove your track record. In addition, have a dedicated 24-hour support staff ready because you will be catering to people all over the globe with their own time zones.

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Prompt response to customer query is one of the indispensable tricks of the trade that secure your reputation anywhere.

2. Have a social media plan:

Doubtless, you will want to draw customers from social sites. However, the keyword in social media marketing is 'social'. And that means, you must choose well. Decide which sites (and their regulars)are the most appropriate for your business. Further, narrow down your target audience profile. Decide upon the kind of exposure and publicity you are aiming for.

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Random posts on random sites will show you as a random presence, to be dismissed without a second thought. There must be a complete strategy regarding what you are going to promote and when. A product launch in your store or website should, ideally, be done in concurrence with social media event announcements.

Similarly, your plan should include having a social media team ready to reply to queries immediately. If you disappear after making a post, visitors will likely find a series of unanswered queries and decide they are better off without you. You should factor this in also when deciding upon how much time you can afford to spend, and on which sites. Your presence must be constant and committed to build an equally dedicated network.

3. Monitoring conversation:

There are several methods to use if you wish to hear about yourself, and you should use them without hesitation. Controversies can erupt out of innocuous comments, and you will never know what hit you if you were not listening in. The methods include using Hootsuite and Google Alerts, but there is much more, and you should take the time to properly investigate your options and put a plan in place.

4. The Reply Policy:

You should actually have a policy regarding how you reply to criticism and particularly nasty comments. After all, you will not be doing everything personally, and one wrong reaction from your support staff to a single irate customer can do serious damage to your reputation. Actually, negative remarks can be a goldmine of opportunity to display yourself to your target audience and to people in general.

Your policy should emphasize upon not getting personal while replying. A polite reply that gets to the point as well as gets the job done (if there is a job to be done) is better than trying to talk down an admittedly impolite customer. If the fault is yours, try to post a reply with an apology and have a plan to somehow compensate the customer for their trouble.

This could be a small gift or a huge discount - it is, indeed, the thought that counts, and the fact that others can read about your thoughts as well.

5. Build the Brand:

If you decided to expand, you could give your business to your children or spouse - you could even want to sell the business and settle down for an early retirement. The brand reputation matters most, in most cases. You must focus on exhibiting a group effort, leaving aside the urge to show off that you are the person behind all the success.


When you are good, people will know - you don't really have to try so hard! Build your brand, instead, and focus on key-points that are your hallmark. Let people know what to expect from you, and always deliver.


Display the kind of services you provide - as also the types of problem you solve. Make your brand a specialist - the only one that people will approach in case of certain specific problems to be solved and services to ask for.

That's about it, and the rest will come to you in bits and pieces as you move forward. Be committed and have a plan to show your commitment: that's more or less all you will ever need to secure your business reputation online and stand out amongst your competitors.

Author Bio:

Cally Greene is an online consultant for JoeyGilbertLawattorney. She likes blogging about Legal issues, Business law, Family Law and Social Media.

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