Ideas for Business

Small business marketers can always do a little more even if they have a little less. Here are 4 online communication tools that you can use for greater efficiency and profitability:

• Skype - Skype is a free communications tool that allows you to call other Skype users through the Internet or to call from your computer to a landline for a small fee, usually less expensively than it would cost you to call long distance from land line to land line. This tool will allow you to conduct customer service and sales calls more efficiently and less expensively. Put your phone number on your website and Skype users will be able to click the phone number and call you directly. Include your Skype address and you save them money.
• Webcam - You don’t have to be a porn star to use a webcam. This tool, which you can acquire for just a few bucks, will allow you to speak directly to your website visitors and build solid trust and credibility with a 30-second presentation. There are so many powerful uses for a webcam that it should go without mentioning, but too many small business owners fail to tap into its power. In just a few minutes you can produce a solid video presentation that closes sales.
• Live Chat - Did you know you can allow your website visitors to chat with you live at the click of a button? This is one of the most underused small business tools online.
• Teleconference - Teleconferencing used to be available only to big corporations and it cost a fortune. Not any more. For just a few dollars you can speak to thousands of people all over the world using one of several online teleconferencing tools and take your small business to a new level.

Now it’s your turn. What online communication tools do you use that other small business owners don’t take full advantage of?

There are two generally recognized types of SEO: On-page and off-page. Link building is typically considered off-page SEO. And it’s a very important aspect of SEO at that.

Google started counting back links to websites back in 1998 when it became the major competitor to Alta Vista, recognized as the leading search engine at the time. It was a revolutionary way to consider a website’s authority but the thinking was that if a website linked to another website then it was considered a vote of quality. After all, no one would link to a site they didn’t think was worth visiting or recommending. Therefore, Google introduced the idea of inbound links as a measure of quality.

Since then, link building has grown into its own industry. Google has taken the link valuation standard to new levels by introducing the idea of anchor text value, domain age value, relevance, and several other factors as well. Where before, link measure was largely a process of counting the number of links, it has since become a process of measuring the quality of links. It is the combination link quality and link quantity that determines, to a large degree, the effectiveness of your off-page SEO campaigns.

Link building is important because without it you may not be able to achieve the best rankings for your targeted keywords. But you may also not be able to maintain those rankings. Links are still considered a measure of authority by most of the major search engines. Until that changes, link building will be an essential part of your SEO strategy.

Company Brand Name Reputation is one of the most important factors to create and foster with online advertising. When people are talking about your product or services, you can be sure that others are reading or watching those comments and forming an idea about your business.

So what do you do when an unhappy customer posts a negative review of your business or product? Keep in mind that negative reviews are detrimental to your online reputation, but if it managed correctly, you can negate some of its worst impacts. The best way to manage a negative online review of your small business is to take moment to collect yourself and then investigate the situation before you reply.

Researching a Negative Online Review of your Small Business:

Your first course of investigating should of course revolve around the facts listed in the negative review.
Was the review about service? Find out when, where, and who, and then interview that employee to understand what happened.
Was the review about a product? Look into the product and the complaint to find out if that particular product had a flaw that caused an issue.

If the negative review is legitimate, because of a bad employee or a fault in the product, reply back that you have or are addressing the situation, and how. Many negative experiences can be turned into positive ones if the company takes the time to take action. If the negative review is factually incorrect, ask for a removal or a retraction of the post, and explain why.

Online Reputation is important, and even a negative review, when properly handled, can be turned around. 

As I work with our clients on their link building projects, I am often testing out new tools to make the process more efficient. After meeting with Lee at PubCon South in March, Jeremy Bencken - one of the founders of BuzzStream -  followed up with Lee for the opportunity to demo and test out their link building tool - BuzzStream for Link Building. Lee requested that I take a look at this tool, and I was glad for the opportunity.

For many webmasters, managing link building campaigns can seem pretty daunting. Identifying a link building strategy is one key to success. Another is ensuring link building efficiency and follow up. Identifying processes and tools to help increase this efficiency can greatly increase the amount and value of links you achieve.

BuzzStream is one such tool. Developed by the creators of ApartmentRatings.com, BuzzStream helps identify sites from which to request links, and makes this link building process efficient and human. The BuzzStream for Link Building tool works in 4 key ways: Identifying contact information, managing communications, managing link opportunities and link request sent, and monitoring backlinks achieved.

When searching for link building opportunities, BuzzStream’s BuzzMarker can help quickly identify contact information and website information to easily categorize within your BuzzStream Dashboard. By pulling this information automatically, BuzzMarker helps save time, rather than the link builder spending minutes searching for a contact email address or documenting content categories. Then, when this information is placed in the BuzzStream Dashboard, you are able to sort by a variety of factors, such as PageRank, date found, type of link, and contact status.

BuzzStream also allows you to easily manage communications between themselves and the website’s owner or writer. BuzzStream identifies Tweeting between your accounts, as well as emails being sent back and forth. This communication monitoring helps you, as a link builder, begin a relationship with this webmaster, and build it over time. The website own is more likely to link to a person they know, so these relationships matter.

Once the link request is sent, BuzzStream catalogs this request to easily be found later. You can search by requests sent within a particular timeframe, requests sent to sites with a PageRank of 5 or higher, and many other sorting factors to make documenting and reporting these request simple and efficient.

The main objective to all of this opportunity documentation and relationship building is acquiring the link. BuzzStream keeps with its efficiency trend and employs a backlink checker which automatically runs each week to detect the achievement of a link from the link requests you’ve sent out. This information is then automatically documented in your contact dashboard, allowing you now to easily sort by which link you’ve received. On top of that, the backlink checker also identifies if any links were taken away, if the links were NoFollowed, if the anchor text changed, or if the page that holds your link all of a sudden becomes populated with spammy content. Because of this, you can also easily see the value of each link you’ve achieved, and you know how to request updates if necessary.

BuzzStream does an great job of streamlining the link request process, and the automatic documentation of it all is incredible. With affordable price points for up to 20 different users, BuzzStream can be an effective linking asset for individuals starting their own link building to agencies looking to automate some of their processes.

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