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Get #1 position on google in five easy steps, using Google Local

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If you own a brick and mortar business, then you should use Google Maps optimization to make it easier for you customers to find you. Plus this is the easiest way to achieve top ranking on Google.

Google is now give strong marks to correctly formatted Google local listing entries. It’s free and takes less than 15 minutes. Of course we are always available if you should have any questions.

“70% of US household now use the Internet as an information source when shopping locally for products and services” (Kelsey Group)

Your first step is setup your your Google Local account with your basic information.

 

However, it’s important to follow the 5 key points:

 

1: Make certain to fill out all the basic information, address, web site, email hours of operation, etc.

2: Create a well written description that uses key  words a potential customer would use when searching for your company.

3: Fill out all five categories, this will increase your chances of top ranking.

4: Include at least 5 photos and ideally a video is you have one.

5: This is the MOST important one. Encourage your customers to write reviews. Do not create fake reviews. Ideally you want one new review a month. This will catapult your rankings to the top.

Facebook to charge users to "promote" posts to their friends

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Facebook is experimenting with a new revenue stream, paid personal posts, but the idea could backfire. “I don’t think the average user will pay to have a post promoted unless it was in some way related to business or advertising. When asking our fans if they would be willing to pay, the general response was a flat-out ‘no,'” said Lauren Formalarie of SayItSocial.

Facebook wants you to advertise … to your friends.

The world’s largest social network, which announced Thursday that it has crossed the billion-user mark, has struggled to make money from its enormous pool of users. The solution: Turning individual users into advertisers.

“I thought it was a joke at first, to be honest,” explained Cameron Yuill, founder of digital media technology company AdGent. “Now they’re going to charge me $7 to tell my friends something?”

Facebook announced Wednesday that Joe Sixpack will soon be able to ensure that you’re reading his messages, thanks to an expansion of the Promoted Posts program, which lets businesses pay anywhere from a few dollars to a few thousand to ensure that hundreds of thousands of Facebookers see your posts.

I toyed with the idea of “paying” to promote this post, then I realized Mark has enough money and doesn’t need any of mine to promote his new ideas.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2012/10/04/facebook-to-charge-users-to-promote-posts-to-friends

Richard Branson 5 Tips to Start a Successful Business

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Richard Branson author of “Screw Business as Usual”

Five great tips for Richard Branson on  how to simply start a successful business.

 

1. Listen more than you talk

We have two ears and one mouth, using them in proportion is not a bad idea! To be a good leader you have to be a great listener. Brilliant ideas can spring from the most unlikely places, so you should always keep your ears open for some shrewd advice. This can mean following online comments as closely as board meeting notes, or asking the frontline staff for their opinions as often as the CEOs. Get out there, listen to people, draw people out and learn from them.

 

2. Keep it simple

You have to do something radically different to stand out in business. But nobody ever said different has to be complex. There are thousands of simple business solutions to problems out there, just waiting to be solved by the next big thing in business. Maintain a focus upon innovation, but don’t try to reinvent the wheel. A simple change for the better is far more effective than five complicated changes for the worse.

 

3. Take pride in your work

Last week I enjoyed my favourite night of the year, the Virgin Stars of the Year Awards, where we celebrated some of those people who have gone the extra mile for us around the Virgin world. With so many different companies, nationalities and personalities represented under one roof, it was interesting to see what qualities they all have in common. One was pride in their work, and in the company they represent. Remember your staff are your biggest brand advocates, and focusing on helping them take pride will shine through in how they treat your customers.

 

4. Have fun, success will follow

If you aren’t having fun, you are doing it wrong. If you feel like getting up in the morning to work on your business is a chore, then it’s time to try something else. If you are having a good time, there is a far greater chance a positive, innovative atmosphere will be nurtured and your business will fluorish. A smile and a joke can go a long way, so be quick to see the lighter side of life.

 

5. Rip it up and start again

If you are an entrepreneur and your first venture isn’t a success, welcome to the club! Every successful businessperson has experienced a few failures along the way – the important thing is how you learn from them. Don’t allow yourself to get disheartened by a setback or two, instead dust yourself off and work out what went wrong. Then you can find the positives, analyse where you can improve, rip it up and start again.

LinkedIn Basics

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Linkedin as quickly becoming a very powerful prospecting tool. Facebook is starting to fade and many are recognizing the unique power of Linkedin. Below is a basic overview that should help get you started.

 

  1. Create your account: It very easy and LinkedIn will even track your percentage of completion and list missing sections. (Note: Brokers and others in regulated industry, should double check any guidelines that may govern your use of social networking tools.)
  2. Build Your Contacts: This is easy and you can quickly build your list of contact or “connections” . You can simply let LinkedIn compare who’s in your address book with other Linkedin members. Just click on the green Add Connections link in the upper right-hand corner of any page on the LinkedIn site. You can then “Import your desktop email contacts” to get the process started. LinkedIn will then send emails to members of your address “inviting” them to join your network.
  3. Thank your new Connections: Depending upon the number it would be great to send them a short thank you note. You could also start laying the ground work for a sales call.
  4. Track your activity across your network: That’s what the “All Updates” section on your LinkedIn home page is for. You can now watch new people joining and connecting. You also can post “status” updates informing others of recent changes with you and your company or post relevant articles.
  5. Connect with your Connections: Networking is a contact sport. Linkedin is great but it doesn’t work well in a vacuum. Scan people’s profiles and start looking for good connections and follow up on them.

 

“The more things change the more they remain the same” LinkedIn is changing how business is conducted but it still relies on the old concept of making and cultivating connections.

Today with LinkedIn it’s just a heck of lot easier.

 

 

 

Google Maps Goes Underwater

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Dive into the Great Barrier Reef with the first underwater panoramas in Google Maps

We’ve added the very first underwater panoramic images to Google Maps, the next step in our quest to provide people with the most comprehensive, accurate and usable map of the world. With these vibrant and stunning photos you don’t have to be a scuba diver—or even know how to swim—to explore and experience six of the ocean’s most incredible living coral reefs. Now, anyone can become the next virtual Jacques Cousteau and dive with sea turtles, fish and manta rays in Australia, the Philippines and Hawaii.

Supercharge your WordPress site

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WordPress speed testGoogle is always trying to improve the users experience. This is the reason they add page load time their algorithm in ranking sites. Everybody is in a hurry, nobody wants to wait for a slow loading site. With more and more sites using WordPress it’s important that your fully optimize your WordPress for speed.

Fortunately, there are some basic rules and techniques to follow that can improve your website performance and increase the quality of your viewer’s experience.

Here’s my top five:

1 Optimize your images: I love to use sliders with 3 to 5 pictures on the home page and many others load up images on your home page. Images grab attention and quickly tell the “story” of your company. However, make certain you resize the images to the appropriate format before uploading them. If the image size is large, make it smaller to improve your page loading speed. Here’s one of our site’s with a couple of 870 x 400 images in the slide show, each image is less than 100K. Smaller images should be even slower. This is perhaps the fastest and easiest way to improve load time.

2: Upgrade your software: This is also important for security. WordPress developers are always working to create a better and faster versions of their software. So upgrading WordPress, your themes and plugins is important.

3: Install W3 Total Cache: This plugin is easy to install and works great. It reduces page load time and improves overall site performance.

4: Limit Number of Post on Home page: Optimize home page: Don’t over crowd your home page with numerous posts. Fewer posts also improves the look of your site. Limit number of posts to 4-6 and show excerpts only instead of full posts.

5: Use a good hosting provider: Ooops here comes the self-serving plug. All my sites are hosted on my dedicated server at RackSpace. This provides the fastest possible hosting since I am not a shared server with other “unknown” sites that could be sucking up the bandwidth. However, there are many good reliable providers out there. Here’s a good link to test the speed of your site.