Featured, Genreal

Easy Advertising Techniques for Online Businesses

If you start a business you need get the word spread around. If no one knows you’re there, you’re not going to make any money. Online businesses are the same, except that if there is no hyperlink to you then the chances of a person even stumbling across your website is almost non-existent. This is why online businesses utilize expensive SEO and SEM methods to make sure that they appear on the first page of a search engine’s results.

However not everyone can afford to lay down the cash necessary to get an expert to do this for them. Learning how to do it and then putting it into practice is also a long process and may not be an option. So for those types of people, here are some easy ways to get some advertising done.

1. Use a free online classified service. There are plenty out there, just go an list your website on all of them. A websites like Craigslist, which has huge amounts of traffic, will surely get you lots of exposure.

2. Talk to the local media. Try to get the local newspaper to run a story on you and try to get the local radio station to give you some free endorsements. Don’t be afraid to play the sympathy card – “Hey, help a small business out. You know how it’s a struggle” etc.

3. Use the resources you currently own. Plaster your car with material promoting your website, put up signs on your windows, email your friends and tell them about your website, etc.

4. Get your family and friends to help you promote your business. Word of mouth is very strong and everyone can forward your email to everyone they know.

5. Try to find someone who is willing to cross promote your product. If you specialize in doing Flower Arrangements, then talk to the nursery and get them to promote your business. In return you can reciprocate on the web.

6. Attend local networking events and trade shows and network with others and exhibitors. Most cities have Chamber of Commerces, which usually host monthly meetings. Usually the entrance fees for these type of shows are very minimal, between $10-$30.

Genreal

Motivation For Women Returning To College

It is not always that you decide to go back to get some education or training. Such decisions are made once in a while and usually after a lot of deliberation. Most of the women returning to college have a lot of worries which they have left behind at home. Fear and concern regarding the new atmosphere, concern regarding the ability to cope with the rigorous schedule of college are some of the fears that these brave women have decided to win over. Getting a certificate and thereby increasing the prospects of landing better paying jobs with some possible perks may be the motivating factor for these women.

Scholarships for adults returning to college are available in Alabama. The criterion is that the adult who is applying for the scholarship should be a widow or a spouse of a war veteran. This particular war veteran must have at least 90 days of uninterrupted service in the military. The death or disability should have resulted from active duty. Further the person who applies for the scholarship should agree to enroll in an educational institution in Alabama.

The reason for older women going back to school is not always related to furthering their career prospects. Many a times older women just want to develop a particular skill or get a particular training, merely for the sake of personal interest or as a hobby. What ever be the aim, there is no dearth of courses available both online and in the real brick and mortar colleges.

Genreal

Three Basic Strategies for Link Building (Part 2 of 2)

Once the Reciprocal link building system fell through, another more ingenious system was put into place by developers. Called the Three Way, this system was essentially reciprocal link building; but it required a little bit more co-ordination. Here is how it works: website “A” links to website “B”, but “B” does not link back to “A”. Instead it links to website “C” which links to “A”. In this manner the line can grow almost infinitely, with the only person at risk being website “A”. That is because the last person in line needs to link back to “A” and if they don’t do that, “A” does not get anything out of this.

Unfortunately for the developers, Google cracked this method as well. Chain linking is fine, as long as it does not curve back on itself and complete the circle. But once again, this is a decent method of drive traffic to you website.

The third method is currently the best and does not involve any trickery. This is, perhaps, what Google wanted from the start, as it is a decent measure of a website’s popularity. This method is called One Way linking.

A one way link is a link that points to your website from another website. You should not have any links going back to that website or else your PR will suffer. This is where your SEO, Social bookmarking, article marketing etc plans start having an effect. Having plenty of sites outside your domain pointing back at you will get Google to place you higher and higher. In fact it is possible to get to the top of a search result page purely on PR alone. This is the method you should be concentrating on from now on.

Genreal, Social Media Marketing

Using Twitter as a Marketing Tool

Twitter is a fantastic medium to get through to a wide spectrum of people. While it started off as micro-blogging tool which was to let people stay in touch with each other and let everyone know what they were doing, it has now turned into an excellent marketing tool. Users from all walks of life like politicians, musicians, authors, internet gurus, etc use it to promote themselves.

The important thing to note here is that the smart ones will never ever say “do this because I say so” or “buy my album – it’s great” or any such thing. Twitter marketing is about being subtle. The celebrities are using it simply as a way to keep their name in the top of people’s minds. For example it’s a long time since Soleil Moon Frye did anything big, but she constantly Tweets and therefore people still remember her.

If you want to push your product using Twitter, you have to understand that it is a gradual process that has to be carefully attended to. For example if you are selling Red Roses, you should search with the keywords that are relevant to that matter – like “red roses”, “flowers”, “fresh flowers”, etc. Then pick the people with the largest amount of followers – these are your base accounts. Now start following the people who are following your base accounts.

From this point make your Tweets interesting. Any reference to the fact that you sell flowers should appear somewhere down the line. For now ask questions, post links to interesting plant & flower articles and most importantly reply to other people’s Tweets and engage them. The key thing here is to build relationships.
Now you can slowly start dropping in a Tweet about your business activities. Perhaps one in 5 or more Tweets is the best way to go about it.

For those in need of professional social media marketing services, iClimber offers Twitter Marketing & Promotion services.

Business Services, Genreal

Rates and Fees traps in Merchant Accounts

If you are thinking about getting a Merchant Account, one thing you must know is that the process is not a simple one. Of course the actual submit details-get the account process is relatively simple but the process of identifying the right provider is long and tedious. This is because you have to put a lot of research into the selection process to avoid any hidden clauses or costs.

Start your research online. A good place to start is a representative of the provider. Listen to this person very carefully; don’t take anything they say for granted. This because a representative will always say what they have been trained to say and that is all the good things about the service and the company they work for. What you should do is read between the lines and try to identify the points that they are avoiding talking about.

For example, vendors may advertise processing rates but this could only cover Debit card transactions. For you this would mean an extra cost when Credit cards are used, because processing rates for those would be different and possibly cost more. There is also the fact that different cards have separate calculation methods associated with them as well, so this is another matter you will have to consider as well.

What all of this means, is that you should never be a victim of misinterpretation. Always strive to clarify each and every clause that is in the agreement that the vendor gives you. Don’t jump at the first vendor you find or even the first vendor that appears to have everything that suits you. Shortlist the best ones and do thorough research before you commit to a Merchant Account provider.