What Is A QR Code And Why Do You Need One? We all know that one of the keys to great SEO is making sure you keep your website updated, new and fresh. Whether you do this with a blog, or you change your homepage with new offers, coupons or new products, it serves to show Google that your site is “alive.” For many small businesses in particular, this is a real challenge. So you already have great, fresh content on your site—what’s next? Have you heard of QR codes yet? What Are QR codes? They look like this: They come to us from Japan where they are very common. The reason why they are more useful than a standard barcode is that they can store (and digitally present) much more data, including url links, geo coordinates, and text. How does the cell phone read the code? The cell phone needs a QR code reader, like this one from Kaywa. How do you generate a code? You can easily generate a QR code using a site like Kaywa.com or you can use the Open Source code to generate codes for you if you have a smart developer on hand.
Business Ideas for the Self Employed Several years ago, I had a lovely long-term consulting assignment which kept me both busy and solvent. One morning I woke up and realized that it was coming to an end and I had nothing lined up. After a few moments of panic, I decided to get serious about creating my next income source. Over time, I’ve learned that there are other benefits to this simple technique. There’s an old saying, popularized by Robert Schuller, that goes, “By the inch, it’s a cinch. You can begin implementing the $100 Hour even if you now have a job or other commitments that clamor for your time. A word of warning is in order here. To show you how easy this is and to get you thinking along these lines, I’ll give you some of the $100 ideas that have appeared on my lists and those of others who are joyfully jobless. Every single one of these ideas can be started easily and inexpensively, so there’s no excuse for not getting your own $100 Ideas List started. . . Many people think of concierges as miracle workers.
QR Codes - Understand the User Profile and Best Practices QR Codes seem to be at the center of the questions that I received this week. I felt it was time to explore best practices and how to utilize this marketing tool so that it is efficient and effective in your marketing plan. QR or "Quick Response" codes have been around for awhile, but seem to be interesting those owners of small and medium size business as of late. It's important to keep in mind that QR codes are just one type of 2D Barcodes, but at this time seem to be the most popular. My guess is the majority of you come across at least one QR code daily. The benefit of a QR code is that it gives business owners and marketers a way to get a prospect to take immediate action - easily! Who are you trying to reach with your QR code? A recent webinar done by Merkle and Webtrends created the following profile of those that use QR codes: Between the ages of 25 to 54 Mostly male with a baseline income of $50k Customer uses an iPhone or Android Smartphone What can you use a QR code for?
29 Ways Small Biz Can Do Big Things With Technology, Brains, Innovation, Passion and Smiles. Small businesses have very big challenges. It’s hard to obtain financing. We have limited resources to call upon – hence we’re up until the wee hours of the morning and waking up a few hours later. We have to make decisions about things we know little about (law, real estate, hiring, and more). However, even with these things in mind, I’ve found in building my own business that with technology, brains, innovation, passion, smiles (and a bit of good luck and prayer) small businesses (very small businesses) can do VERY BIG THINGS. Ramon’s 9 Rules of Business Success outlines 9 of the “non-technology” ways that small businesses can succeed, so I won’t list all the rules here, but I will mention one tip: 1 .Smile Small business owners ask so much of their clients, vendors and employees but they don’t take the time to have a great, positive, smiling attitude when they make a request. 2. Passion is so important when growing your business. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21.
The rise of the “persocial” web What do Pandora for music, Zite for news, or Amazon for shopping — along with many Silicon Valley startups I’m meeting these days — have in common? • They are all offering the user a personalized experience by leveraging his/her social network. • They also provide a social experience in line with every single user’s personal taste and identity. Overall, there’s an increasing focus on the person and his/her environment versus the simple social media aspect. These are only the premises of what I would call the persocial web — a new generation of digital products and services where personal and social dimensions melt together to put every person at the center of the game. A Socratic revolution A similar kind of re-focus on the individual is physiological for humanity. In general, the fluctuation between holistic and individualistic eras is also very familiar to the history of ideas. From the PC to the Social Media era. Then the Internet came. Towards a persocial news experience?
How to Self Publish Your Book: From Idea to Bookstore (And All the Steps In-Between) - CBS MoneyWatch.com Last Updated Sep 29, 2011 3:47 PM EDT Empowering a child's imagination through reading is one of life's greatest gifts. As colorful illustrations leap off each page, a bedtime story can send kids to far-off destinations, on wondrous adventures, and through magical journeys. If you've every dreamed of becoming part of the magic and writing a children's book, the process may seem complicated and confusing. Do you have an idea you've been dreaming of turning into a book but don't know where to get started? Robert: How did you go about finding someone to print your book? Listen to the full Megan Meyer Interview now on Richer Life Insights! Are you ready to create more money, time, energy, and passion in your life? Get the "Achieving Peak Performance" ebook and video now! © 2011 CBS Interactive Inc..
The Best Time Investments You Can Make | Living Frugally | Psychology Of Money We all agree that time is more valuable than money. At least, that’s what we say. Then we turn around and spend hours watching bad TV we’re not even that interested in. Or 45 minutes on the phone with customer service fighting a $5 charge. Or years in a relationship or friendship we stopped feeling fulfilled by long ago. But I’m convinced it’s not for a lack of good intent that we often end up treating time as our most fungible asset. I’ve been thinking about time as a tangible asset not unlike money in many ways, and about ways to invest our time to yield higher returns—better memories, more hours well spent, even minutes that nourish us instead of fly by. 1. Investing time in caring for your health is an obvious one that will certainly yield you more time, literally—in days, months, if not years tacked on to your life. 2. There’s a little saying that goes, “A stitch in time saves nine.” 3. 4. Where Do You Get the Best Return? 5. 6. 7.
How to Use Social Media For Better Customer Acquisition The Digital Marketing Series is supported by HubSpot, an inbound marketing software company based in Cambridge, Mass., that makes a full platform of marketing software, including social media management tools. A user's clickstream — the trail of clicks she leaves behind while surfing the web — has to end somewhere, so why not on a place where that surfer can become a customer? That's the thinking behind web-based customer acquisition. Until fairly recently, that was a relatively straightforward proposition: Just run some banner ads and search ads and then continue the conversation through email. Social media adds some complexity. Nowadays, a tweet might lead to your Facebook Page or maybe a detour to LinkedIn. Not everyone has successfully navigated this new terrain. With more variables comes more opportunities, though. However, Brian Solis, the principal analyst at Altimeter Group, says the modus operandi for most marketers is still twofold: Solis isn't alone in making this observation.
5 of the Best Free Writing Software and Tools for Aspiring Novelists EmailEmail Whether you’re the next Jack Karouac or the next NaNoWriMo dropout, any novelist who takes the craft seriously is going to need the right tools to write. And let’s face it: Microsoft Office can spit out a decent business letter, but the thought of launching a full-blown office suite to do some creative work is a little… depressing. Most ordinary word processors are also priced out of reach of the starving artist crowd. If you’re looking to hammer out a lengthy manuscript, and you’re not looking to drop a single dime on software, read on to discover the best free writing software and tools for novelists. 1. The best thing a writer can do is write. Best of all, Notational Velocity can automatically sync in the cloud with the free Simplenote service. 2. As with any large project, the hardest thing about writing a novel is getting started. This unit of work and a break is called a œPomodoro, and every four Pomodoros calls for a longer break of about twenty-five minutes. 3. 4. 5.
13 Tips for Increasing Your Company's Google Rank Scott Gerber is the founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council, a nonprofit organization that promotes youth entrepreneurship as a solution to unemployment and underemployment. The YEC provides young entrepreneurs with access to tools, mentorship, and resources that support each stage of a business's development and growth. It goes without saying that entrepreneurs know the importance of search engine optimization, and how to boost their Google search rankings. Right? Or is SEO a foreign language that you haven't quite mastered? Google rank is critical to a business’s success in this digital age. Instead of letting your Google rank get you down, apply these tips and techniques from a group of successful, young entrepreneurs in order to boost your company's SEO results. 1. You'll want your content to take the top slots for your name and various keywords and phrases, so you'll want to have high-quality, authoritative content. - Colin Wright, Exile Lifestyle. 2. - Logan Lenz, Endagon. 3. 4. 5.