Archive for December, 2011

If there is one thing alot of small business owners have in common, it’s lack of capital. There’s also lack of time, but that’s a whole different post, even though it is a huge roadblock for many when it comes to blogging.

There are many different ways to attract business, but blogging can be one of the most cost effective forms of small business marketing. Blogging levels the playing field. It doesn’t matter how small or large your business is when it comes to a blog…it’s all about content and content is king on the Internet.

What is a blog?
A blog is a series of articles, stories, posts, tips, ideas and any other information that will help visitors understand how your business BENEFITS THEM. Its a way to educate the public, create relevant and searchable content for search engines. It’s articles that will help people use and understand your product, no matter what it is.

What a blog shouldn’t be:
A series of posts and advertisements about your business… The ME…ME…ME should only be sprinkled in….lightly.

What should I blog about?
Your blog should include helpful information about how to use your products, articles that have to do with your product. It should allow people to get to know you. If your a Realtor, you would write blog posts about the real estate market, possibly mortgage tips, area comps, homes for sale, how to choose a Realtor, why marketing includes open houses, how to stage, how to determine the listing price, etc. etc.

Dentist, chiropractors, doctors can use blogs as a way to grow their practices by providing information on health and wellness. Why check-ups are important, patient stories, (with patient permission) with examples of how people have changed their lives, gotten healthy or are staying healthy. It allows people to get to know you as well. What you care about, who you are as a person and why people would want to do business with you.

A few tips for your blog;

Don’t assume because you created a blog post, Google will automatically find your site. You must invite Google to crawl your site by submitting your site and your “site-map” to Google. There are tools in Word Press like “All in One SEO Pack” that can make this process pretty simple and I encourage you to add them to your blog as soon as possible, to get Google invited to the party.

Your blog should ALWAYS include a way to reach you, follow you, like you, etc. Including an RSS feed and encouraging people to subscribe is also important. Having a “Contact Me” form is a must. You have to make it easy for people to reach out to you in the way that works best for THEM, if you can accommodate that method. Giving options meeting people where they are…how can that be a bad thing?

I hope you’re encouraged to find time to blog. It’s a way to share your passions and what got your business started, what drives you and how you can help. Blogging needs to be part of a weekly routine and scheduled in, so it always happens. It’s as important as keeping the phone lines or the lights on.

P.S. Thank you for taking your time to visit and hope you find the information useful. I hope to help you learn everything you want and need to know about blogging. I welcome your questions (site specific is good) and definitely your suggestions. I hope to answer your questions before they come up or when you find that you have one. By clicking on the Orange RSS Feed button on the left side of the screen, you will be automatically updated of new information available without having to "check in" to see what's new. It's the easiest way to keep up to date. Thanks again for stopping in, I value your time!

In December, it is traditionally a slow time for us as PrinterBees. It seems the normal online printing business we usually enjoy, appreciate and are so thankful for comes to an abrupt halt during the holiday season.  It’s a trend we now recognize, but what to do, what to do, what to do.

 

I still have people, vendors and expenses that need to be paid and I don’t like not being profitable. I am not a big risk taker when it comes to finances and a small dip in the red FREAKS ME OUT! Okay..I said it!

 

Now, I need to figure out what to do to compensate for our lack of steady business printing during what is the busy season for most, the holiday season. With a big duh! I realized that we need to print more holiday cards, after all that’s what people are printing in December. We need to beef up our designs to appeal to the “consumer side” of our B2B customers, with the thousands is clients we have, there has to be a portion of them that print holiday cards! These clients already use us for printing, they know the quality is awesome, but they think of PrinterBees as a business printer, not a holiday card printing site where you print holiday cards that are sent out to family.

 

We are a bit late to the party, but I’d rather be late than not show up at all. After looking at the collection of holiday cards available on Vista Print, that have been there for years, I have determined that we will be able  we will be able to use the collection of holiday cards for years to come as well.  We are adding about 50 new holiday card designs to the site today. It was a design frenzy, which will happen when so late to to the “Holiday Card Printing” party. I feel really good about the new designs we have and only hope we aren’t so late to the party that it doesn’t help.

 

Time for lots of praying and I hope you will stop by the PrinterBees site tomorrow when the new cards are launched. They really are very nice and our prices are better than most. Wish us luck!!!

You know you’ve had a rough day when the pain of having your muscles stretched as far as they can possibly be stretched feels better than just sitting with the constant muscle pain. I have been stretching my shoulders, back and arms all day and it does little to help. It’s like a muscle spasm that won’t go away, it burns, its painful and It’s super aggravating, I try really hard not to be a whiner and more than anything, not to allow this stupid jacked up “syndrome” have one more moment of my life.

I’m so tired and sore by the end of every day and it is a constant interruption of the things I need to get done and frankly, it pisses me off the. I don’t have time to not feel well! Probably wouldn’t bother me too much if I was the type to be able to sit still. But, I’m not and this is making me crazy.

 

When I feel like this, I really just want to lay in bed all day, but won’t allow it for myself to do that as an option. I so afraid to cross that line, the line in my own mind that would allow me to go to back bed or allow myself to be unproductive for a day. I feel scared that I might like it too much. I’m afraid that if I break my own routine and give in to my pain, my constant discomfort, I will end up stuck there. To allow myself to have a “new normal” that includes ALOT of resting or too much downtime is frightening, it isn’t remotely close to what I see for myself at the young age of 45. I really wish I had a better understanding of how to find and KNOW what the right balance is between being productive and getting stuff done or that of listening to my body and the rest I know I need because I ache everywhere.

 

I recently started seeing a massage therapist to see if it will help. They have admitted to me that I am the worst patient they have. I know it sounds horrible, but it was a relief to hear, it offers additional validity to my aches and pains. At least I know I’m not crazy. I’m continuing to see the Massage Therapist (MT) weekly to see if it improves my situation. I have my fingers crossed.

 

I feel the MT is making a difference, but not quickly enough for me. If you suffer with Fibromyalgia, first of all, I really do feel for you. I really do! It’s simply exhausting to be in pain all the time and know that you still need to get your stuff done. It’s difficult to know how you will feel by the end of the day…like crap! It’s also difficult because the people who are closest don’t necessarily understand. There is no blood, no stitches, no vomiting or fever, even doctors have a hard time defining it. There isn’t one symptom that can be “seen”, so how can it be real? I deal with this all the time, but have found a little relief with Flexiril. If you have Fibromyalgia, and haven’t tried Flexiril yet, you may want to. I had taken the other medications like Elivil and it didn’t work like this does. They are in the same family as I understand it (I am no specialist though) and it really is helping with my muscles loosening up a bit. It the ONLY relief I have found in the 11 years I have been suffering.

 

I would love to hear from you if you have any tricks up your sleeve on how to feel better. I will not be anyone’s lab rat and take the new medication on the market. That just scares me too much. I will stick with medicines that have been around for awhile and tested.

 

Well, I guess I got that off my chest and should get some sleep now. Right, sleep…what’s that? With Fibromyalgia, sleep is always disturbed by pain. I’m on my way to getting the best possible sleep I can. Wish me luck! Thanks for listening to me vent.

 

I’ll keep this short and sweet. I have had hard drives crash before, I have lost data like family photos and baby pictures. It’s like missing chapters of my life. I have learned my lesson the hard way and had to let go of those memories because I wasn’t about to spend what could have been thousands of dollars to restore my data. Even if I was willing to, I likely couldn’t have afforded it, I felt defeated, upset and super pissed off at myself. There was a time in my career that I sold “back-up” solutions, believe me, I knew how important it was.

Not having important data backed up is simply stupid in this day and age. I don’t mean to be rude, but I do mean to get your attention. Don’t become a statistic. Backing up your data is way easier than you think. Now days, it’s totally automated once you set it up.

If your the “statistics type” (like myself), I located some stats from a data recover company. My Managed Back-Up

• A hard drive crashes every 15 seconds
• 2,000 laptops are stolen or lost every day
• 32% of data loss is caused by human error
• 31% of PC users have lost all of their PC files to events beyond their control
• 25% of lost data is due to the failure of a portable drive
• 44% of data loss caused by mechanical failures
• 15% or more of laptops are stolen or suffer hard drive failures
• 1 in 5 computers suffer a fatal hard drive crash during their lifetime

Are you at risk of losing your files? Onsite backup is not enough. Choose the MyPC Backup Online Backup Service!

It’s super affordable to protect your data, which is your greatest asset as a business owner. To protect it costs less than $10 a month, to restore it if have a hard drive failure without a back up…THOUSANDS!

This should not be on your “to do” list…this should be on your “completed” tasks list because there really isn’t anything more important in your business than protecting the data that makes up your business. Not to mention all the personal items you keep on your computer, which can’t be replaced. Just do it, you’ll feel so much better once you do. Trust me!

This article originally appeared on Real Estate Marketing Guru