So your online business is doing ok. Your brick-and-mortar business of course is driving all of the sales, and the site is merely an online advertisement and you’re lucky to get one or two online sales a month. That’s a huge waste of time, you know. You can do so much more with your website and your not even utilizing your site’s potential to the hilt.

You can try promoting your products on social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, all while placing a link to your website for online sales. It doesn’t hurt if you have an online checkout/shopping cart solution in place already. Submit your site to an Australia Business Directory as well, that will work wonders if your site’s located in Australia. If you’re somewhere else, it goes without saying that you just need to look for your location’s business directory.

The problem may also be because your possible customers may be having a hard time to find your site online. Have you tried googling for your product? Did your site land in the first page of results? Then a bit of search engine optimization may be needed. It’s expensive, it will take a lot of time before you see results, but yes, it works and has great results in the long term.

Your website isn’t something you just create and put on the web and just expect people to come and visit it. It needs to be constantly tweaked and updated and promoted for you to maximize it.

When creating a new website for your business, the layout of the overall site and each visual page is key both in creating an attractive outlook and driving customers to particular points within your site. With an interesting and professional layout, you have ensured a solid foundation on which to develop your website. There are a number of factors to consider in order to optimize the appearance of your site.

The main elements that go into web design are headlines, navigation, images and text. It may sound simple, but the primary point to remember is that your company logo should be clearly displayed at the top of the page and each page within the site should have a bold and informative headline explaining the content underneath. More →

Often, it seems only the rich get rich. It can be quite unfair in the world of finance. In the world of the internet, where ‘rich’ has a different meaning, getting rich may just be the thing your site needs to get an edge on the competition with this useful SEO tool.

Of course, we’re not talking about getting rich financially here, depending on what your site is all about. We’re talking ‘rich’ in the resource sense of the word, as in ‘rich snippets’ of information doled out by Google.

Every so often, Google updates its search presentation in a way that is of great benefit to the site owner. A recent change has promised just such a benefit. Since early last year, Google began to include ‘rich snippets’ of information for its listings for certain searches. Quite simply, the search engine changed its algorithm to take extra snippets of information from web pages and including it below the main listing for that page. For example, a PuppyCo.com.au site might have a puppy costumes page. In the former state of things, Google would simply display the page’s title tag, description and address:

PuppyCo – puppy costumes at discount prices!
We fill all of your puppy costume needs with loving care. Try our puppy Halloween costume, puppy Christmas costume and puppy Easter costume range.
www.puppyco.com.au/pupcostumes.htm

Should anyone desire to search for such a thing as a puppy costume, the listing would tell them a fair amount of what they need to know.

With Google’s rich snippets feature, however, further information is supplied:

PuppyCo – dress your puppy in style
*1 review – Price Range $$$$$
Spend your hard earned dollars on glorious puppy costumes here at PuppyCo!
www.puppyco.com.au/puppywear.htm

Now, if anyone was thinking about making a purchase from PuppyCo, they can easily see that it’s an up-market store. They can make use of this information when making their decision whether to click or not.

Google warned on the new feature’s release that it would take a while before the rich snippets were used across the board. As with most new features, Google has integrated this extra feature into its algorithm slowly, and there are still millions of searches for which the snippets don’t appear. Part of this may be due to site owners failing to take advantage of rich snippets when performing SEO on their site.

Part of the trouble with rich snippets is that they’re one of the few areas in which a site owner has to be really proactive. Rich snippets don’t happen on their own, and they may be worthwhile adding as part of your search engine optimisation campaign. Talk to our experts at www.seoconsult.co.uk when thinking about adding rich snippets to your code.

If you’re looking to further enhance your listing in the search engine results pages, it might be a good idea to look into adding rich snippets to your pages. Google does warn that simply adding rich snippets will not make them appear, so don’t be disappointed if they don’t show at first. Like everything else in SEO, this area will require patience.

These days, a lot of tempting and unique propositions and decision making prowess when it comes to work, interaction and deals are expected to come to the way of most people. People are usually torn in this process, sometimes looking at only one side and leaving out the whole benefit from doing the right thing. Everyday we encounter various problems and the manner to which we can be able to make the final decision shall always pose as the main problem.

Money is perhaps the most pinpointed vice of all. It alters the stable mind and makes a person think of lots of things, most of which cannot be attained since the greedy souls inside of people get the better of them, making them hallucinate of various things even if the actual medium is not yet within their grasp. The principles to which they live on are totally forgotten and what matters most to them is moving forward and attaining things that are usually impossible for them to reach.

The sad part is that people do not think long term. Most people would grab any given opportunity at a moments notice to enhance their financial capacity and maybe their career growth. However, the underlying marks should also be weighed out, the pros and cons of which should be detailed and analyzed properly. A sole decision can go a long way. This can also mean the difference between failure and fulfillment, and prior to the final decision making process, such points for consideration should always be taken under consideration and let money come naturally in the course of their existence and growth.

Links and References:

• PERSONALITY IS NOT SET BY 30; IT CAN CHANGE THROUGHOUT LIFE, SAY RESEARCHERS
• Making Better Decisions – A Tutorial
• Driving Personality Makeover
  

Among the requirements of most companies for all applicants is the fine line that says “should be a team player”. Ideally, this is normal for jobs relating towards customer service work, sales work and operations. Overall, this pertains to how a person can be able to adapt to the total manpower of a company, how he or she would fit in and relate to them in a way where there is a harmonious working relationship for better operational results.

The presence of people who many would not be able to get along with is only natural. These are people who have their own beliefs and principles and rarely can anyone change them into something that they should be. While there are some who successfully shift and change for the better, there are also some who refuse to change and would fight for what they believe in. Well, naturally, this would be something that would pose a problem among working employees. But to cross the line and go head on with your superiors is like committing suicide.

The verdict? Well, obviously he will be terminated and with the various inputs coming from his different co-workers, there is no recourse but to part ways with this person. Despite issued memorandums, it seems there is no hope for people like this. The work performance can easily be identified as far as enjoying and being more productive. Sad to say, all of these are academic and seen by the superior themselves.

It is never easy to terminate an employee. But to cross the boss is certainly something that would make it easier. Here is an article that emphasizes how hard it is to terminate employees.

One of the things I like most about the Internet is that you get a lot of information without it costing you a single cent! With the technology widely available, you can easily embark on a self-improvement journey. These days, one of the best sources of information are the free webinars that you can find online. Some webinars require a fee, but there are a lot which are offered for absolutely free!

One webinar that is coming is Cold Calling Live. It is a project that spans about 6 weeks of training and will be launched in April 13, 2010. Sponsored by Weiss Communications, the project includes a free webinar, which will be held on the 30th of March, 2:00 PM Eastern time. Here’s more information from the press release:

Sales professionals, business owners and entrepreneurs who want to ‘try out’ Cold Calling College Live 2.0 will have an opportunity to do so on Tues., March 30th at 2:00 p.m. Eastern. At that time, Ms. Weiss, will deliver a free, information-packed, preview webinar of Cold Calling College Live 2.0. She will be sharing some of the tools, scripts and strategies that will be available to participants in the program. Those who attend the preview webinar will also have the opportunity to submit their questions ahead of time or ask questions live during the webinar.

For more information and/or to register for the information-packed, free, Cold Calling College Live 2.0 preview webinar: visit the Wendy Weiss website.

Even if you’re not planning on enrolling for the whole program, this webinar might help you!

There are a lot of marketing strategies and techniques available to the business owner. The trick is in being able to analyze and make educated guesses as to which activities will yield the best results. Of course, there really is no perfect guarantee that the conversion rates will soar, but with observation, testing, and critical analysis, you are bound to get the results that you want.

Web presence has always been a popular term. It means that people know that you exist and that they can find you online easily. One way you can achieve a strong web presence is by exposing your content to your audience.

What do I mean? You have a web site, right? You want people to visit it and see what you have to offer. This means you might have to engage in activities such as paid search so that your site will come up as a sponsored link (such as in Google). This is one way to go about it.

Another way is to push your web site content to other locations which receive more traffic. Let us say you have videos on your web site. What is the first web site that comes to mind when I say video? I bet it’s YouTube. The idea is to publish this video on YouTube as well. The chances of people discovering that video through YouTube are way higher than if you let the video remain on your web site alone.

The same principle applies to other context such as text and photos. You have to figure out which sites aggregate various content and make sure that your content gets in there.

Social media, social networking, social web sites – we hear of these things practically all the time now. Employees from all sorts of industries have various social networking accounts that they use, even at work! Many employers are quite concerned, especially since these sites may eat up bandwidth that could be used for more “productive” purposes.

The question remains, however, of whether these social media platforms can be made useful for business purposes. The truth of the matter is that IF you want your business to stay competitive, you NEED to engage in social media activities. What are the reasons for this? There are several, but the main thing that I can think of is the fact that social media platforms serve as an alternative means of communicating to the outside world; a means which is practically free; a means which reaches out to a much wider audience.

Let’s look the reaching out part. I don’t have hard numbers, but I can say without doubt that a huge majority of people in the WHOLE WORLD are engaged in social media activities. Facebook and Twitter are only a couple of the most popular platforms today, and a lot of businesses have already set up their own accounts. Why? Because they know that they can communicate with existing and potential customers through these sites; customers which they may not reach otherwise.

Of course, there is the FREE part. No need to pay consultant fees. No need to pay for the account – unless you want to upgrade. You can have someone in your staff to maintain the account, or you can even do it yourself!

So yes, social media should be an important part of marketing your business.

Your business has been on the internet for some years and you’ve suddenly realized customers are not coming back. Why, well maybe your site is getting too much traffic it can’t handle it anymore. That is one of the most common mistakes businesses make, failure to regularly assess their businesses status and strategy over the internet. One simple check would be to go to the web site itself and try to see if your existing design is working for you and similarly for your customers. Ever heard of the suggestions box in your site, it might be overflowing with mail of suggestions of customers your staff may be failing to take account of. As business managers/owners, you need to be on top of things that other people may have overlooked thus ensuring all bases are covered and your business grows with your customers. Remember, as more and more customers try to get into a site, your current set-up may not be enough to handle all the added load so a thorough review and status report of your site traffic and other statistics might be in order.

Too much traffic, consider getting a dedicated hosting service so you get ample resources dedicated to you and your customers all the time. Much is the disdain of customers for sites that fail to load or cannot handle the traffic, for small to medium businesses this can prove to be a killer. Hosting is one of the best ways to save on equipment and other supporting hardware for they are so expensive and costly to maintain you might not be able to handle the costs. That’s why hosting services abound and that’s why you’re earning money, or are you? Better take a look to find out!

Now, more than ever, businesses are feeling the crunch of the times. It was so easy to be overly optimistic in December, when the year was ending. The rationale of many people was that, a new year brings new beginnings. Things can only get better, right?

But did you see Circuit City closing? How about Timberland? Not to mention many other smaller companies closing shop because of financial reasons.

This does not mean, however, that your business has to close as well. In fact, you can even bank on the economic troubles as part of your selling point. Instead of painting the prettiest picture you can come up with, you might want to stick closer to reality and use that picture to convince people to buy. When doing so, however, you should bear some things in mind.

One, do not lay it on too thick. Everyone knows how hard the times are but it does not mean that you should dig too deep to make a connection between “recession” and your business or product. If your business is related to the financial sector, then yes, you cannot avoid talking about the recession but let’s say you sell meat products – you really can’t go around using big words such as financial planning and relate it to what you sell. Don’t force it.

Two, find the right approach. This is to counterbalance the first point. Going back to the example above, the meat products store…instead of throwing around big financial terms, why not stick to something that your customers will understand? Something like value for their money? Make your sales pitch revolve around this idea and cash-strapped people will flock to your store.

Got any other sales/marketing ideas banking on economic woes? Why not share them with us?