Category Archives: business

Design Time On Facebook And Other Sites

September 13, 2008 Editor

Lots of sites have gone through a redesign process this autumn. None more so than Mashable, and they are also hosting a debate over the new design of Facebook. It appears to have been done without users consent apparently. The bigger story is that with more than 100 million users, it means that 60 million – according to Facebook’s own numbers – still haven’t even tried the new site heading into its rollout. While one can accept the necessity for product development I am not sure if they have got it right. With a larger percentage of their users being female. Is it really necessary to make this change? Possible you run the risk of alienating your biggest market. If it isn’t broke than why fix it? What are you thoughts about the user interfaces and which are your favourite?

Catch the story here:

http://mashable.com/2008/09/10/new-facebook-launches-2/

business, ideas, Relationship

Setting Boundries and Scoring Points

September 9, 2008 Editor

There is always a list of things one should do online if you are using web 2.0, but none our more important than developing your own site. It is easy to caught up with all the tools/options and forgot why it is that you are doing it. Set clear boundaries and stick to it, only now and than going over it, if it is something off particular interest.

I found this fascinating quote today give an insight in social networking:

Social Messaging – Twitter, Plurk, Friendfeed, Pownce…. (add your favorite micro blogging/social messaging service here). Each can suck up your time if you don’t get focused and put some boundaries around them.

Social Bookmarking – many bloggers become somewhat obsessed with writing posts for and then gathering votes on social media sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, Yahoo Buzz, Reddit etc

Social Networking – building profiles and interacting upon Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace etc – all useful in building a brand and profile as a blogger, but potentially a distraction.

Blog Design – blog design is important at creating a first impression but when you find yourself tweaking it, reworking it, planning your next one more than actually writing content for your blog you might be in trouble.

SEO – like blog design there always seems to be something you could do a little better when it comes to optimizing a blog for search engines. It can be worth your time to do some of this, but one of the most effective ways of doing SEO is to write content that hits the spot with readers.

Reading other Blogs in Your Niche – yet another great use of time, but many bloggers spend so much time on other people’s blogs connecting, leaving comments and even writing about them that they fail to write anything unique on their own.

Reading about How to Blog – this might seem strange coming from a blogger who writes about blogging, but from time to time a blogger comes to me for advice on how to improve their blog who has done so much learning about blogging that my encouragement to them is simply to stop reading about it and start doing it.

Guest Posting – I am a big fan about using guest posting on other peoples blogs to expand your profile and grow your readership – however the best way to utilize guest posting is to have great content on your own blog for the new readers you engage with to see when they come visit.

Interacting with Readers – this is one that I hesitate to write about because I’m a firm believer in allocating time to spend one on one with readers – however as a blog grows it gets more and more difficult to do. There comes a time where most bloggers need to decide how to strike a balance on this front – boundaries and processes can really help.

Networking with other bloggers – another great way to build brand and traffic to your own blog is to connect with other bloggers in your niche – however there are millions of blogs ‘out there’ and it can be an endless task.

Monetization – finding and testing ad networks and affiliate programs can take a lot of time. Then optimizing them for your blog and tracking the results and extending your earning potential by finding private sponsorships and ad sales can really eat up even more of your time.

Starting New Blogs – diversification is an important and worthwhile part of the journey of many bloggers development, however I come across some bloggers who start too many blogs too quickly and don’t give their early ones time to get going and develop before they branch out.

Analyzing Stats – one of the biggest potential time suckers, that many bloggers become distracted with at different times, is analyzing your stats. Sure, you can learn a great deal from looking at who is coming to your blog, from where they come and what they do when they arrive – but at times, when you do it all day everyday, it can be a habit that takes you away from your blogging.

Projects/Competitions/Memes – many bloggers wanting to run a competition or project on their blog don’t realize just how much work it can be to manage (or how hard it can be to get them working). They can bring a lot of life to a blog, but they can also be suck you (and your readers) attention away from your core blogging.

Dealing with Trolls and Trouble makers – it is SO easy to get drawn into passionate (yet pointless) arguments with other bloggers and readers that can leave you emotionally drained and having wasted hours upon hours of your time. While at the time it seems to important to respond – many times it’s best just learn to hold it in.

Tracking down copyright violations – unfortunately in the medium we operate there are people who scrape the content of others, whack ads on it and call it their own. While it can be important to track down these copyright violations down – the statement ‘how long is a piece of string’ comes to mind and some bloggers spend so much time tracking splogs down, issuing DMCA legal notices and attempting to get the content removed that they have little time for much else.

Darren Rowse, 16 Important but Potentially Distracting Blogging Tasks, Sep 2008

You should read the whole article.

business, fun, Management, Personal

Channel The Information – The Question

September 4, 2008 Editor 1 Comment

This is part of a series called – Channel Internet Information.

It was predicted and it did deliver. The information highway (the internet) has more information than many of us had every imagined. At the press of a button we’ll find documents relating to family history or how to bake tart or pay our bills. Ten years ago you used the yellow pages and now you Google it. What does all this information mean to you and me? And more importantly, how are you going to make the best of it?

The internet in all its diversity can be overwhelming. A lot of intelligent and not so intelligent people just switch off to it because they can not to decipher all the information. What are your thoughts about using the internet?

The next post is posted here – Eight Point Plan to Channel Internet Information

business, Consultancy, E-Commerce, money, Relationship, work connexions

Online Shop and how much should it cost. Retail Versus Online

September 2, 2008 Editor 1 Comment

In hard times people get a little bit more creative about making money. As there is less money to go around one wants to insure that what one has can go a long way. One might be tempted to visit markets and a sell some products or maybe open an online shop. As Owen, a friend of mine, pointed out that online businesses or websites tend to be seen as a cheap option. no rent, no expensive layout costs, staff recruitment cost. Is that so?

It is common misconception that online stores are cheap and easy. It can be best be summoned up by you get what you pay/put in. For example Ebay provides excellent e-commerce facilities. The only down side with it is the cost. All our clients that use that service are trying unsuccessfully to get away from it. They are tired of Ebay taking their percentage. Unfortunately building up customer trust on there own website is proving difficult. But that need not be the case with the right planning and investment.

This is where the shop comparison comes in. If you would spend ten thousand pounds setting up out high street retail shop, you will need to spend at least that on an internet retail business to make it successful. There are few shortcuts that really work. If you want to create a successful business you will need to either spend the money to employ somebody to set it up for you in the way that create positive sales, or you will have to spend the time yourself. If you thing that just buying a domain name and putting some e-commerce software purchased for a couple of hundred bucks is going to create an online business, I have news for you. It ain’t going to happen. Pity you may say, but the good news is that with the right tick sheet you can solve many of the problems.

Before you’ll begin you may want to think about the following:

Customer registration and account management, News letter signup, Automatic email confirmation, Search feature, Secure user login, User behaviour statistics, Varied Payment options, Email to a friend

Or maybe not, How about this:

1)Target Audience:
Who is your website directed at? Other businesses, older people, all age groups? It is important to understand who you are talking to and what goals you have for the site.

2) Number of Pages:
Do you know the number and types of pages and how they relate to each other? You don’t need to know the exact details but try and think about what types of pages you should have.

3) Content:
This means the text inside the pages and it is the most important part of the website. The rest of the site builds what we call in the industry rapport, but the contents are what sell your product or services. In fact if your site looked horrible but had great content it could still be successful, but not the other way around.

4) Design:
Do you know what colors you would like or the type of graphic contents? Do you have logos ready to be used? Your site can be graphic heavy as we say or it can be clean and sparse. It is your choice and is very much a personal decision. If you don’t know what you want, you can surf the internet and find some sites you like.

5) Images:
Do you have all the pictures for the site and are they in a digital format?

6) Forms:
These pages are the ones that collect information from your visitors and then send you this information as an email. You can contact us to discuss your options. We will guide you through the process, one step at a time.

When you have considered this you will then need to discuss with an expert in this field who can help you and guide you through this market.

Advertisement: At Wcx we know social media and online business, we know what works and what does not. We have the expertise and contacts to create a site that will fulfil your Gaols. Take a look at www.WorkConneXions.com or our company Site www.http://web.web.http://web.wcx.me/ for more information.

business, Consultancy, Marketing

Is Your Blog/Business Getting Noticed – Your Internet Plan Part 2

August 27, 2008 Editor 2 Comments

This is the second part of the internet Marketing plan, from here:

http://blog.wcx.me/2008/08/is-your-blogbusiness-getting-noticed-your-internet-plan

In the months 4 to 6 you will have to think about the following:

Links

• Using www.linkpopularity.com follow the links for popular sites similar to yours and submit pages from your site to those sites as suggested links.

Discussion groups

• Research the most active discussion boards in your area for sales, and other relevant topics and visit the top half dozen or dozen once a week to participate.
• Subscribe to two new discussion lists and participate regularly on favourite lists in a way that helps promote the newly released products.

Web site and infrastructure

• Add excerpts or long explanatory copy for products and services that don’t yet have that.
• Make changes in the wording of key pages to attract traffic on relevant keywords that I have totally missed.
• Check outbound links for accuracy and remove dead links.
• Change or add to the sample makeovers/upgrades at my site.

Marketing Plan Months 6 – 9

Search engines

• Continue to monitor the amount of daily traffic, which search engines are sending you visitors and which keyword phrases are bringing people to your site.
• Register new pages or features in the free search engines and directories.
• Research appropriate keywords for promoting new products, services or informational pages.

Publicity

• Distribute at least one press release this month designed to produce more web site traffic and more Marketing Minute subscribers, customized for each of the target niches.
• Distribute at least one press release tied to sales or marketing information form the company.
• Brainstorm with other professionals on ideas that can be implemented.

Direct mail

• Send Marketing postcards to old, not-used-in-two-years mailing list.

Product development

• Create two more audiotapes based on feedback from distributors
• Lay out and prepare for printing the anthology of your site
• Create and polish viral marketing tool and post at my Web site.

Posting content

• Convert this month’s press releases into articles and post at free content sites.
• Post your Marketing articles at free content sites.

Links

• Follow the links for intriguing sites I’ve recently come across and submit pages from my site to those sites as suggested links.

Discussion groups

• Visit the top half dozen or dozen discussion boards once a week to participate.
• Subscribe to two new discussion lists and participate regularly on my favorite lists in a way that helps promote my newly released products and services. Web site and infrastructure
• Complete and launch a new blog type web site on related topic.
• Offer services and inter link to the new web site.
• Consider design or technical improvements to boost site’s perceived professionalism.

Summary

The outline above covers a nine month periods where effectively one would begin again and re-apply the plan in one form another. May be by bring a niche information site online to help drive sales or by working together with partners/distributors.

One notable point with this blog post is that there is no cost attached. How much time would it require to implement a plan like this depends. A basic rule of thumb can be applied. The more time spent on carrying out the related tasks the more effective the results. To reasonable implement this plan one would be looking at 2 – 3 days (16 -24 hours) per a week for the duration of the plan.

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