Web Content and Social Networking Experts

A good photograph for the online world is important. Here's how to take a good one.

There are lots of photos online. Many are lousy. Sorry, but that's the truth. If you want yours to be good, get it professionally done. Failing that, here's what to do.

• Use a high quality digital single lens reflex (DSLR) camera, not your phone.
• Focus on the subject's eyes. They must be critically sharp.
• Use plenty of light. Many photos are far too dark.
• Tripod mount the camera.
• Edit your best image. If you don't have a graphics editing program, download The GIMP (http://www.gimp.org) (Graphics Image Manipulation Program. It's an excellent product that is free of charge.

Here is a video we did for Tim Becker, Creative Images Photography in Manchester, Connecticut. Tim is an excellent portrait photographer his tips are well worth your time.

Are you using games as a marketing tool?

People love to play. doesn't make any difference how old they are. Games have existed for thousands of years and are still going strong. Using games - not to be confused with gambling - are great fun and will keep your audience coming back again and again. Better yet, they will tell their friends. To us this means more friends, buzz, and business.

One of our favorites is The Treb Challenge. We also like Angry Birds.

Facebook

As Facebook is the number one social networking site, you will likely want to put a game on your page. Here the top nine games of 2011.

Top 9 Facebook Games of 2011

1. Slotomania-Slot Machines
2. Empires & Allies
3. Bingo Blitz
4. Words With Friends
5. Indiana Jones Adventure World
6. DoubleDown Casino
7. Cityville
8. The Sims Social
9. Gardens of Time

Have fun. No pun intended.

Is your Website a good employee, or just a hole in your wallet? Here's how to find out.

Your Website must be more than a pretty face, it absolutely must be a business tool. Literally a good employee. With a job to do and demonstrated success in doing that. If your Website was designed by anyone who is not a professional Web designer than it is very possible that you have a site that looks acceptable, but does not address your business needs.

• Does every major page of your site tell the reader what you can do for them?
• Does your Web site include a media page with media releases?
• Does your Web site's Contact Us page provide your phone, fax, and E-mail for sales, customer service, and other pertinent departments? Or just a form to be filled out?

Your Web Design

So, when you design your Website, be sure to take into account the business needs that your Website is responsible for, and treat it like any other employee.

So, to find out if your Web site is a good employee take our 30 second test.

When your clients are not online, use a cheap cell phone for their feedback.

Okay, you know by now that we believe in the net, the Web, and social networking. However, what do you do if your clients are not online? A cheap cell phone, that's what.

Your Cheap Cell Phone Solution

To gather customer feedback using you main phone is folly. These phone calls you do not need to take, they only need to be recorded. You can follow up later, or not at all. Up to you.

It Works Like This

1. You buy a cheap cell phone. Something like a TracFone will do nicely. Cost? Ten or twenty bucks plus another hundred or so for a year's worth of minutes. Why? This "protects" your main phone number as you do not need to take these calls. So, you are not bothered as you go about your business day. Just check the phone when you feel the need. You leave it at the office as there is no reason to carry it. It is not your main phone and is only used for voice mail.
2. You use direct mail. Yes, it's pricey, but remember your clients are not online. So, you use the mail to ask for comments, and publish the number of the cheap phone. Tell them that this connects to voice mail. Hopefully, this is likely cheaper than returning a questionnaire by U.S post. If not, just use return mail.
3. Your clients use the published number to inform you of what's good, and what can be improved. You can even leave a short ad on your voice mail.

Your saying, "But, but but . . . ." I know, we get it. This is far from perfect. Yet, it does give business people, with a clientele that is not online, an affordable way to gather client feedback, and stay in touch. Not perfect, but better than nothing.

As you may be using direct mail. Your feedback may be a postage paid card that accompanies your packet, but that gets expensive. You will need to cost it out, and see which is better.

Please let us hear from you on this. Just click the title of this post to write a comment.

Note: We mentioned TracFone because we've used their products for years. They are inexpensive and do the job nicely.

Does your business need social networking to succeed?

 

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This question is difficult for me to answer because I do a great deal of social networking, writing for the Web, and provide support to authors and business people. Much of my support involves social networking, Web sites, and the online world.

I tell you all of this so that you do not think my answer biased. I've met people who run successful businesses with no online presence. None. They do not even have a Web site. That these people are running a successful business, using only a free email address, cannot be denied.

So, do you require social networking and the online world to be a successful business person? No, you do not, but look at what you're missing.

The net offers you an around-the-clock marketing machine that cannot hurt you. Further, it will cost you the time it takes to use it. This is like me giving you a new Rolls Royce, a Cadillac, and a Lexus - totally free of charge forever. All you need do is keep the tires inflated. That dollar amount pales when you consider the cost of the Internet, the Web, social networking sites, search engines. You can use all of that, and more, at no charge.

If the above disclaimer is not enough to show you where I stand let me say this, I believe in the net. I know and see what it can do for any business, that includes your's.

Soon, without a Web presence people will wonder if you are real. Soon being online will be needed because that is where clients will find you.

To use social networking or not is your choice. One way or the other we wish you the best of good luck now and forever, but it takes more to be and stay successful.

If you need no more than a phone to do the job, read tomorrows post where we discuss how you can use a cheap cell phone to collect customer feedback because some companies deal with clients who are not online.

    Tomorrow: When you clients are not online, use a cheap cell phone for their feedback.

 

 

Six simple ways to generate buzz, and make your business more successful.

Promote other people's products.

We do this with products that we believe in and have first hand knowledge of only.

1. See these posts published on:
   • January 26, 2012
   • January 24, 2012
   • December 9, 2012/
2. Run a contest with lots of precontest buzz. Be sure to give away something of acknowledged value, and make winning a prestigious event.
3. Have an online scavenger hunt.
4. Give free lectures.
5. Collaborate with a complementary company.
6. Engage in cause marketing.

What do you think?

Your success requires tenacity and mental toughness. Watch this free video to discover how to take your business to the next level.

Marketing. Sales. Customers. Clients. Email. Social networking. Where does it end? It doesn't. Don't lose heart. It's all part of being in business.

Here's a link to a video titled Mental Toughness by Courtney Taylor. She tells it like it is. We like that.

Sell yourself and you sell your products.

What do your customers want to find in your social networking campaign? You. They want to know what you know. You are an expert in your field. Share the expertise.

Your competition can provide similar products. However, no one can provide another you.

Sell you, by giving away your knowledge, your expertise, your experience and you will sell your products. While it seems counter intuitive, actually it seems downright crazy, but you can make a lot of money giving away your knowledge. And there's no where better to do that than your social networking campaign. See our December 28 post below.

Don't recite specifications on your products unless those specs are required in the buying process. To do so shows your ignorance, and forces the customer to learn why one product is better for them than the other. That's your job.

For example: do not simply say, "This machine has 8 Gig of RAM. That one has 6 Gig of RAM." Show the customer why the 8 Gig machine is better for their needs, if it truly is. Should the 6 Gig machine do the job, show how you saved them money with a less expensive machine. This builds loyalty by showing that you are not out to maximize their expenses, but are a valuable member of their success team. Who do you think they will call next time? And the time after that?

Concentrate on what value your products and services provide. Differentiate yourself from the competition with your experience. When your customers buy your products they are also buying you. Sell you and you will sell your products.

Customer questions are a gold mine. Answer every question in your social networking campaign. A blog and Twitter are superb tools for doing that.

Make your knowledge, and your in-depth expertise indispensable to your customers. Do you remember the line in the movie Ghost Busters? "Who you gonna call?" Who do you think your customers will call? A salesman, or someone with brains and expertise who saves them money? Who would you call?

Do you Tweet? Here's a video we made on how to change your background, or add a custom background.

Judging from the fact that a Saudi prince just invested 300 million dollars in Twitter it will be around for a while. So, we thought you might like to know how to change the background image on your Twitter account, or add you own custom graphic of course. This is particularly valuable for your business.

Here's a video we did a couple months ago.

Click the title of this post to leave us a note. Love to hear from you.

Add video interviews and testimonials to your online marketing efforts.

Integrated marketing is interesting and effective. Video fits right in. Use it for:

1. testimonials from your customers
2. interviewing other businesses that compliment yours
3. instruction and training on your products and services
4. how you use video in your marketing efforts.

Put these videos on YouTube and link to them or place their object code on your Web site. The object code creates a graphical image of the video and looks great on your Web site..

Equipment

Simple equipment will do just fine. A camera, a tripod, and a microphone.

Practice your interviewing skills and open every video with your name, your company and who you are interviewing. Mention their company. Talk for no more than 90 seconds and then wrap it up. Done properly your opening and closing comments will eliminate the need for post production.

Upload the video to YouTube and ad title text laced with keywords. Then email the Web address to your customers and post it on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Google has updated how they rank your site. Guess what? Fresh content is highly rated. Yes, once again, content is king.

The Google algorithm, that's geek-speak for how Google ranks your site, has been updated. They do this every know and they. This latest update gives more weight to fresh content. To you that simply means update your Web site and keep the fresh content coming.

Here is a link to a terrific piece at the New York Times. Why is Google doing this? It is a move to keep you using Google to find out what's going on right now, tather than Facebook or Twitter.

To you and I, and everyone else with a Web page this means we all need to keep fresh content on the site. So, you may want to look into a CMS, Content Management System, so you can upload frexh content. Speak to your Web master about this.

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"If you don’t pay attention to the needs of your audience, they won’t pay attention to you."

Read, Shift World,
Dark Fiction at it's Best.

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Want a zillion Facebook Fans? Here's a way to get them.

Fans. Facebook Fans. Here is an excellent technique to get your more, lots more.

Set up your Fan page so that it takes phone calls. Instructions Here.

This technique is expecially powerful if you are a speaker, or instructor.

In our case you would text like WebContentRx to 32265.

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"If you don’t pay attention to the needs of your audience, they won’t pay attention to you."

Read, Shift World,
Dark Fiction at it's Best.

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Use your Web site, and social networking campaign, to exclude people who won't do business with you.

No one, tells you this, but you can use your Web site, and social networking campaign, to exclude people who will never do business with you. This is right, proper, and the correct thing to do because to prequalify prospects only saves everyone's time. And, as time is money, it saves money too.

Consider a pizza restaurant

Let's say that it is located in downtown Hartford, Connecticut. That restaurant, and most all pizza shops, service clients within a 15 or 20 minute drive. So, out shop owner does not want calls from Hartford Illinois, or from any other city named Hartford.

So, their Web site plainly lists Hartford Connecticut at the top of every page. the shop's telephone number also plainly shows the area code of 860. This also a visual queue that they are in Connecticut. Why? Well, folks are not going to travel from Illinois to Connecticut for a pizza. So, the Web site is designed to exclude them from even calling.

You, too, can use this technique. If your clients have some sort of qualification, are from a particular geographic area, make that information plainly visible. Taking phone calls, or email, from people who will never do business with you only wastes everyone's time.

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"If you don’t pay attention to the needs of your audience, they won’t pay attention to you."

Read, Shift World,
Dark Fiction at it's Best.

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Do you want online success, but don't know where to begin? Do this. Then do it again.

You've heard about the online world, but are a babe in the "cyber woods." Don't feel rained on. We all are or were. Here's your map out of the land of the lost. This only takes 15 minutes. So, no more excuses.

Give yourself 15 minutes. It will do your business a lot of good. Just 15 minutes. That's all. You will create an account at Twitter. Go to http://twitter.com. Make an account. It's free and will take maybe 5 minutes. Likely less.

• Make you account in your business name. If it's not available get as close as you can.
• Your Tweets will all be 140 characters in length, or less.
• Tweet about your business. what you are doing, what's new, Tweet about your products, sales, anything you wan the public to know about.

You don't like Twitter? No problem, make your account at LinkedIn, http://www.linkedin.com. All business men and business women belong on LinkedIn. It is the place for you. You will make contacts, contribute to others success, and they will contribute to yours.

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"If you don’t pay attention to the needs of your audience, they won’t pay attention to you."

Read, Shift World,
Dark Fiction at it's Best.

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Want your own TV show? It's yours. Screencasting has arrived.

Television had always been the province of large studios and expensive equipment. No longer. Now, you can have your own Internet TV show. Here is an excellent video, Screencast Live: How To Make Your Own Web TV Show.

Your liberation is complete. Never again will you need to seek approval to publish your information. Those days are gone.  

For some time, we've said that social networking is the most significant advancement since the printing press. When you include Web search, Internet Radio, Screencasting, social networking, e-mail marketing and other services running on the Web it is an around-the-clock marketing machine par excellence.

 

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"If you don’t pay attention to the needs of your audience, they won’t pay attention to you."

Read, Shift World,
Dark Fiction at it's Best.

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How's your bottom line? Want an around-the-clock marketing machine? Get yours here.

What is the success of your business worth? What's it worth to get your message into the world? To get your organization known? To gather donations of money and volunteerism?

Never in the history of Mankind has this been possible. Always, your message had to pass the filter of editors, censors. That is no longer the case.

Social networking is the key, but not the only one. Your marketing machine's tool box includes these sites, activities, and opportunities.

1. Web search engines like Google and Yahoo
2. Your Web site, the crown jewel of your social networking campaign
3. E-mail marketing
4. Social networking sites like,
   1. Facebook
   2. LinkedIn
   3. Twitter
   4. A Blog
5. And offline activities as well.
   1. Asking for recommendations
   2. Attending conferences
   3. Public speaking and presentations  
   4. Sending Christmas cards and Thank You notes
6. Press releases

Here are many of the pieces of your "marketing pie." Of course, there is much more, but the point is that you can have before you, literally for the cost of using it, the most advanced marketing machine in human history. Use it. Embrace it. Do not waste it.

An easy way to get started is to use LinkedIn. It is prefect for business people, for your career, your company, or organization. LinkedIn requires no technical skill, is free of charge, and will do you a lot of good.

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"If you don’t pay attention to the needs of your audience,
they won’t pay attention to you." Wise words.

Read, Shift World,
Dark Fiction at it's Best.

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Do you want your social networking campaign to be successful? Here 'e how.

To be successful your social networking needs to do only one thing: Provide what your audience wants. What do they want? They want value. What's value? It's what your audience thinks it is, not what you think it is.

Then

So, okay, you've give them value. Good. There's good news and some bad news. Bad news first, you're not done. Good news, now you get to tell the world that your social networking campaign exists and what's in it for the viewer. Your social networking campaign needs, and must provide, several things to be successful. At the risk of a little repetition, we list them all.

1. An audience.
2. It must provide value to the audience.
3. It must meet your professional goals. Meaning that because your audience finds it helpful, informative, or entertaining, they follow it, enjoy it, and because it provides value, they follow it, read and interact with it, and do business with you. Do you see that the value you provide is the attractor? If you sell mortgages, explain them. If you sell hot dogs on Main Street show your hours and where you are. If you're a pizza restaurant list hours, location, menu. Run a contest. Put discount coupons online. Include a map, a game. Make your social networking campaign a fun place that people tell their friends about. In the words of Seth Godin, "Be remarkable."
4. Your audience must know it exists, what's there, and how to find it. For this you can use an e-mail campaign, billing insert, a sign in your store, an insert in bags, adding your SNC's information to all business paperwork, informing all employees, and anything else you can thing of. Totally interconnect your social sites online. Link everything to everything else. Speaking of employees, do you have a social networking policy that tells them what they can do? Don't waste what your employees can do for you. Believe me, they can do you a lot of good. If you let them. So, let them.
5. Your social networking campaign must be there before you tell anyone about it. It is the kiss-of-death to send people looking for your social networking campaign when it does not yet exist. Good intentions mean nothing. When you get comments that your Facebook page is not done yet, or your Twitter feed is empty. It's too late. Do not do that.
6. It absolutely must have someone tasked with the job of keeping your social networking campaign up-to-date with fresh meaningful content. If you blog, then blog at least once per week. It you Tweet, tweet daily.

To sum up. Find what your audience wants. Give it to them. Tell them where it is and what it contains. Do that and your social networking campaign is the goose that lays golden eggs.

"If you don’t pay attention to the needs of your audience, they won’t pay attention to you."

 

When you emphase quantity, not quality, your content and social networking campaign lose.

Social networking, like good writing, takes time. time to do it right. And time to get known and followed by your audience. Your content, whether it's words, videos, pictures, must be worth of the time your audience will spend viewing or reading it.

Time

Time is what good writing, and good social networking is all about because the time people will spend with your content means everything. You see, the content in your social networking campaign must compete for people's time. They won't waste one second of it if you don't provide real meaningful value.

Value

Value is not something we can quantify exactly because it is different things to different people and to different needs. Ask what your audience wants and give it to them. Let them tell you what they want. They are telling you what your value is to them. Listen to their needs, be guided by their wants. Provide what they want and need. And don't rush it. you will be using social networking, online and offline, forever. so, there is ho hurry. Just get started and keep going. You won't be sorry.

Copywriter's bible. We all sell something. Whether you write for the Web, for print, or for anything else, read this.

Copywriting marries the technical, aesthetic to motivate someone to do something. Copywriting is not easy, takes as much time as it takes, and when done well is literally worth its weight in gold because if it's not, well, there is no gold.

Here are some ways to make your copywriting better. There are lots of others, of course. Questions are more engaging than statements because people do not like unanswered questions. Also, is is far more powerful and effective when the reader answers the question than when you tell the answer.

Focus on results, not process. Benefits, not features.

1. Tell stories, not concepts
2. Stay in touch with your clients with newsletters, eZines, and invitations to presentations to keep information flowing.
3. Tell people what they will get, not what you do.
4. Talk about the client, not about yourself
5. Do not talk about we do this, we do that, we, we, we. This, marketing consultant Mac McIntosh describes it as "we-we-weing all over yourself.")
6. WIIFM - What's In It for Me? Answer this simple question or you and your copy are toast.
7. Be a solution, a resource to your clients.

Words to use

• yes
• love
• hate (you will hate yourself for .....)
• How much (would you like to one, be, have ... )
• How would you (solve this problem)
• This (is the way)
• Only
• Sale, 2 for 1, 50% off
• FREE is the most powerful word in any language,

Five words never to use

1. Buy. Use, claim or invest.
2. Learn. Use, discover.
3. Tell. Use, reveal.
4. Things. Use, tips, tricks, and techniques
5. Stuff. Use, insider secrets.

Need a job? Looking for work? Help is as close as a can of soup.

You never thought that a can of soup was like a resume and cover letter? Can't imagine why.

Take a look at most any soup can. Campbell's soup comes to mind. On the can's label you will find two things.

1. What soup is in the can, (let's call that your resume)
2. A recipe (think of that as your cover letter) showing you how to use what's in the can.

When you apply for a job never send only a resume. It does the reader little good to see your skills and background without knowing what you can do for the company. your resume and cover letter have a job to do; to get you hired.

Your resume's job is to show your skills, background, expertise, accomplishments, education. To show the reader what you've got to offer.

Your cover letter shows the reader what you can do for the company. Don't force the reader to figure out what you can do for the company. no one knows this but you.

• Your resume; no more than two pages.
• Cover letter short and to the point.
• Make a folder on your computer and keep your resume and cover letter there in text format, Word, and PDF format.
• Without informing the reader of what you can do for that particular company, throws your future to the wind because it forces the reader to determine where you fit in.

               

Sign your blog posts with a signature block. Here's how.

A signature block solves a lot of problems.

1. Is is prewritten and spell checked
2. You don't inadvertently leave out important material
3. It is quick and simple to use

What's in your signature block?

Your name, company, contact information, blog address, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn accounts and your Web address. Don't hesitate to include a few words about what you can do for the reader. something like this:

Here's one that I wrote

Wayne English is a Web content and social networking expert, published author and writer. He is the founder and president of Web Content Rx. His first book Web Content Rx is a Top 5 Business Title in Leadership Books at The Washington Post. Wayne teaches and presents seminars on social networking, writing for the Web, and on how to find a job using social networking and Web search. Download his Nine Steps to Social Networking Success.

Web: WebContentRx.biz
E-mail: info@WebContentRx.biz
Blog: blog.WebContentRx.biz                  

Notes:

• Write out your full e-mail address so it can be copied and pasted into Web mail like Gmail, HotMail, and others.
• Indent your work. Studies show that indented text has a better chance of being read.
• Test and verify that all links work as advertised.

Do you have two markets with different needs? No? Are you sure?

Institute of Technology & Business Development at Central Connecticut State University in downtown New Britain, Connecticut. They had a panel discussion that I was fortunate to be a part of. It was a wonderful experience that I enjoyed very much.

Marketing is an interesting thing and sometimes we can get side tracked into thinking we are marketing our goods to the right people when we aren't. Who do you market to when your product is used by one person by paid for by another? This situation occurs in education, elder care, child care and in other industries as well.

Students need to know about academics, occupational outlook, dormitories, food, and the college experience. Do not neglect that. Kids at top schools speak of 'the - fill in school name - experience."

Yes, they do. They actually talk like that. They know what an opportunity that have before them and enjoy every minute of it. Smart people get that. Yse it to your advantage. Sell the experience. Appeal to the emotions, and the dollars will follow.

Students also want social life, not to be confused with social networking. Parents want a safe place that will prepare their child for success in the world. Mom and dad want a real investment for their money. The education, contacts, job prospects, availability of internships, job market are all important sign posts on the road to somebody's check book.

So, we ask you, who are you marketing to? High school seniors go to college, but mom and dad are the ones likely paying the bill. Private high schools are in the same boat. How about elder care? The consumer of those services is very likely not the one who is paying for those services. There's a message there.

We ask because you have two markets, not one. Market to both groups because the consumer of the product has different needs from who is paying the bill.

Hour homework

Find out what your market, or markets, want. Address their needs with superb content, videos, testimonials from esistin and past clients. Video testimonials are powerful statements when done right.

Social networking offers you an unparralled opportunity to create an around-the-clock marketing machine. Use it to inform your future clients and make them your current clients. Use your current clients to attract future clients. See how this works?

Want a hand?

Down load our Nine Steps to Social Networking Success.

               

 

You're out of you mind. You're crazy. Have you heard that? I hope so.

If there is any one statement that tells you that you are on the right path. that's it. Don't like those words? How's this? You're crazy. Like that better? Means the same thing. You are on the right path. You are creative. You are going where you friends and family have not gone before.

Not going anywhere different? Then you are buying something. In my case it was a camera system. A Hasselblad. Expensive. Very expensive. Very good. One of the best in the world. NASA flies Blas on the shuttle, or they did when there was a shuttle.

When you hear people tell you that you're crazy, smile. You're on the right track. Keep going,

View our videos on YouTube.com/WebContentRx/ Listen to us most Friday's on The Business Buzz, 4 p.m. - 5 p.m., WESU 88.1 FM with Jeffery Sherman.

Writers use the word correlate all the time, but sometimes, it just doesn't correlate.

 

The definition of correlate at Dictionary.com states: to place in or bring into mutual or reciprocal relation; establish in orderly connection: to correlate expenses and income.

Correlation means that things are related positively (mutual), negatively (reciprocal), or not at all. Writers use the word, correlates, to mean a positive relationship. Meaning that when one thing doing this, it causes the other thing to do that. Using the word "correlates" this way is sort of right. So, it's also sort of wrong.

Why? Well because all things correlate. Correlation is expressed in numbers from minus one (-1) to plus one (+1). That number is a measure of how just related those particular things are.

A Correlation of Minus One (-1)

A correlation of minus one (-1) means that the relationship is reciprocal. If you compare two things X and Y. When X goes up, Y goes down. They move in opposite directions, a reciprocal relationship.

A Correlation of Plus One (+1)

A correlation of (+1) means the correlation is directly related. Here's an example. Let's say that we have two things. We'll call them A and B. When A goes up, B goes up. That's a correlation of (+1) because when A moves B moves in the exact same way.

A Correlation of Zero (0)

Now, consider two other things, totally different from the examples above. Let's use a boat and a teaspoon. When the boat is tied to a dock. The spoon is in ice cream. Correlation is zero. They have absolutely no relationship between them because what the boat does does not affect the spoon and vice versa.

See for Yourself

Correlation = (-1)

Correlation = (0)

Correlation = (+1)

Here are three graphics for you. They are from the Neag School of Education at UCONN on the Follow this link for an interactive Correlation Coefficient graph. At the destination of the link you will see an interactive graph where you can change the correlation coefficient. The three graphics you see here are from that link. There, you can watch the data reorient itself as you change the correlation coefficient. Wow, is that cool or what? From a geek perspective, of course.

This link opens in a new window, so you can keep this post and the graphic on your desktop at the same time. Now, use your mouse to change the correlation number.

• As the correlation number changes the data (the dots) becomes more and more related.
• At (-1) the data runs from upper left to lower right, "downhill."
• At a correlation of zero, the data are scattered. There is no relationship.
• At (+1) the data runs from lower left to upper right, "uphill."

So, when you say that this correlates to that, what are you saying? Not much.

The only correlation that really maters to us writers is the correlation between our words and the understanding of your readers. When that correlation is (+1), you're golden. Yes you are. Factoring in your check book doesn't hurt either.

View our videos on YouTube.com/WebContentRx/ Listen to us most Friday's on The Business Buzz, 4 p.m. - 5 p.m., WESU 88.1 FM with Jeffery Sherman.

Site search and SEO. Having you own site search capability will do you a lot of good. Here's one we've used for years.

One of the things you can do to make your Web site easier to get around is to provide you own site search capability. Here is a link to a site search engine that we've used for years. So, yes, it's a little old. For newer products Google free web site search.

What we like

This search engine is easy to install. You can update it whenever you wish.

The advantage of using site search capability that is not a major search engine is that you can update it whenever you want to. When you use Google, or another search engine, new material can not appear in a search until the search engine rescanns your Web site. Until, you get rescanned, Web updates can not appear in a search. so, if you updates need to be found after they are made, we suggest having your own search capability.

Site Search capabiity with Fluid Dynamics Software Corporation.

View our videos on YouTube.com/WebContentRx/ Listen to us most Friday's on The Business Buzz, 4 p.m. - 5 p.m., WESU 88.1 FM with Jeffery Sherman.

The two most important questions in the business world.

1. What are your goals?
2. What are your problems?

Ask the equestions. Learn what the client needs and then help the client. There is no better to find out what the client needs than to ask. Then shut up and listen.

Don't sell, but provide needed services.

That's it. That's all. Do that and you're golden, busy, booked solid. Don't and you're not. what could be simpler?

View our videos at YouTube.com/WebContentRx/ Listen to us most Friday's on The Business Buzz, 4 p.m. - 5 p.m., WESU 88.1 FM with Jeffery Sherman.

Cheap marketing tricks. And we mean cheap.

The only thing better than marketing is saving money. What say we combine our two favorite things and do some cheap marketing. For this you will use the online world and the offline world. Not much of a surprise there. Here are some things you can do on the cheap.

• Invite your customers over for a free lecture, or a lecture series, at your place of business. Talk about something interesting to them.
• Write and send a press release about the meeting you're having. Send it to every paper within a 50 mile radius. If you do business nationally send it country wide. If you are have national or international clients, do a Webinar series, and look into Web TV, or an Internet Internet radio show. Please don't get all jammed up in the details. The thrust here is to provide a service to your customers that they can take part in.
• Run a contest. Give away something like an iPad, a tablet computer, or other prize of acknowledged value.
• Partner with another company that has complementary products. Think ice cream and the ice cream cone. Those products made money for each inventor and everyone else in the chain of events from manufacturing to sales.
• Write a social networking policy for you employees that tells them what they can do on company time. Do not tell people what they can't do. Smart management takes advantage of all that free training and knowledge. You do that too. Let your people Tweet, Facebook, and blog your products. They know the online world and your products and services. A perfect combination. Think ice cream and cones. Don't waste it the opportunity.
• Have a party. Don't wait for the holidays, but don't neglect them either. Businesses in trouble have used a party to garner enough work to keep them afloat. Have the party at your place of business. It works. Invite us, we love parties.
• Use Cause Marketing. That means you get together with a cause you believe in and work together for each others mutual goals. You now have a joint advertising partner. Each of you now have access to each others customers, contacts, online and offline marketing, and advertising activities. Look around. Pick a cause you believe in. Help each other and work together.
• Give free lectures, programs, seminars at your local library. Speak at networking events, Chambers of Commerce, The Better Business Bureau. This is an excellent way to meet people and make business contacts. We know this from personal experience. Very, very effective.
• Establish yourself an expert in your field by speaking, publishing articles in newspapers, magazines, blogs, and e-zines. Write and give away handouts at all your public appearances. And please, please use both sides of the paper because that wasted space could be marketing for you, selling for you. We do this, in face on November 10, I'm on a panel discussion at Central Connect State University in their Institute of Technology & Business Development. Please attend and say, "Hello."
• Promote community involvement by your employees.
• Promote high quality presentation skills buy joining Toastmasters. Also, attend networking events to keep your 30 second speech sharp.
• Speak at major business events near you. This pays vast dividends as you are seen by thousands of people from hundreds or thousands of businesses. We do this too. In June 2011 I was on a panel discussion at the CT Business Expo in Hartford, Connecticut.
• Put videos on YouTube. As you can see below, we do that too.

View our videos at YouTube.com/WebContentRx/ Listen to us most Friday's on The Business Buzz, 4 p.m. - 5 p.m., WESU 88.1 FM with Jeffery Sherman.

 

E-mail marketing is copywriting, Web content, and lucrative. Here's how to get it right.

A few things to consider

1. Keep your e-mail subject line short and sweet. Forty characters is plenty. Make it interesting, provocative, use those 40 characters well because they will be largely responsible for your success, or failure.
2. Write to, and for, your specific audience. For more on how to do this see chapter 3 in Web Content Rx. A Quick and Handy Guide for Writers, eBayers, and Business People.
3. Write in a light and upbeat manner that highlights the benefits of ownership. Do not try to sell your products with a listing of their specifications. Let the emotional side of the reader convince the logical side.
4. Write as though the reader has already bought the item.
5. Be sure to tell the reader where your product can be purchased. Best is to include a link that takes the reader to a Web site where your product can be bought and paid for right then and there.
6. If you use a statistic(s) tell the reader what it means in relation to your product and why it is significant. Never use a statistic(s) without telling the reader what it means to them. Do not allow the reader to draw a conclusion. You must tell the reader what you want him or her to know.
7. If you use photographs, be sure that they are critically focused and that your product dominates the picture. Always include a caption, so that the reader knows what the photograph represents and why it's there. Much more on this in Chapter 11, Web Content Rx.
8. Before you send a zillion emails contact your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and verify that your account can handle the number of e-mails you will be placing on it. Should you find that your ISP can not handle the traffic, look for a service that caters to your needs. There are many to choose from, or , or you can send your e-mail in groups that your ISP can handle.

Good luck.

Facebook is building a server farm in the arctic. Why? It's cold up there.

Facebook's first server farm to be outside the United States may be on the arctic circle to take advantage of the temperature. In the town of Lulea, in northern Sweden a serber farm that will use more power than a town of 50,000 people. Some power will come from sustainable resources on the Lulea river, which makes more power than the Hoover Dam. That's a lot of power, believe me.

Believe it or not, locating server farms near, or in, the arctic is an ongoling trend. Microsoft was rumored to be looking into a server farm in Siberia, but nothing came of it. however, Google began a server farm in Finland in 2009.

Is the future of server farms to be the arctic? Look's like it.

The two most important questions in the business world. And the ultimate follow up.

Ask your clients

"What are your goals?"

"What are your problems?"

And your ultimate follow up? "How can I contribute to your success?"

The client's reply?

"Wow, are you tuned in?"

"This guy/he/she get's it?"

Yes you do "get it" and the client knows it because you are smart enough to ask what their problems are. Then you be quiet and listen. Not many people do that. Do you?

Want more clients? Want more customers? To sell more products and services? Book more time? Grow your business?

Of course you do. We all want that. Heed those questions, and get them answered and you will be known as someone who is "tuned it" to the client's needs.

That's it. That's all. Do that and you're golden, busy, booked solid. Don't and you're not. What could be simpler?

View our videos at YouTube.com/WebContentRx/ Listen to us most Friday's on The Business Buzz, 4 p.m. - 5 p.m., WESU 88.1 FM with Jeffery Sherman.