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	<title>CompleteBizSystems.com - Complete Business Systems provides a ready-to-go branding package for your company, including website, logo, business cards, and letterhead. Project the best online image and showcase your company with a professional look that accurately reflects your unique product, service and company philosophy.</title>
	<link>http://www.buildyourownbusiness.biz/author/index/1032/Joanne-Pele.php</link>
	<description>CompleteBizSystems.com - Complete Business Systems provides a ready-to-go branding package for your company, including website, logo, business cards, and letterhead. Project the best online image and showcase your company with a professional look that accurately reflects your unique product, service and company philosophy. - Latest business
news &amp; management advice on how best to build your own business -
Free, independent business articles on Strategy, eBusiness, Change
Management &amp; much, much more.</description>
	<language>en</language>
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	<pubDate>Tue, 07 Sep 2010 12:35:16 +0000</pubDate>
	<managingEditor>admin@buildyourownbusiness.biz</managingEditor>
	<webMaster>admin@buildyourownbusiness.biz</webMaster>    
	<item>
      <title><strong>How to Get Traffic to Your Site Without Paying Through the Nose!</strong></title>
      <description><![CDATA[When we started our business, we had a tiny marketing budget and really couldn’t afford traditional advertising. How did we gain clients? We got them through website visitors. When we started out, we knew we needed to attract people to our website. More importantly, we needed to keep them on the site once they were there.

Here are the main ingredients we cooked up for our plan:

   1. Keyword research. We decided which keywords we needed for our online business success and then we wrote keyword rich content for the site.
   2. We named specific pages/url’s for those keywords
   3. We wrote meta tag descriptions for those pages
   4. We submitted our site to major search engines and directories
   5. We installed Google analytics and signed up for a webmasters account
   6. We added a sitemap to our website and one to the webmaster account
   7. We wrote articles with subjects that included our keywords and updated our sitemap with each new article
   8. We began passing out business cards and posting them whenever we could.
   9. We printed bookmarks with our company information and placed them in libraries and bookstores in books relevant to “Starting Your Own Business”
  10. We posted ads on free classified sites
  11. We wrote press releases and distributed them to online wire services (hoping to get picked up, which they were)
  12. Once we verified that Google had crawled and indexed our content, we began submitting our articles to article syndication sites.
  13. We sent out emails to friends, family, and past business colleagues to let them know about our new business. We asked them to refer us to anyone in need of our services.
  14. We created a MySpace page and began social networking (albeit slowly, as we were busy running our new business)
  15. We joined the local chamber of commerce (well this wasn’t free, but it didn’t cost but a drop in the bucket)
  16. We started a blog (again, we were really busy in the beginning an ..]]></description>
      <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.buildyourownbusiness.biz/post/index/42/3154/How-to-Get-Traffic-to-Your-Site-Without-Paying-Through-the-Nose.php">http://www.buildyourownbusiness.biz/post/index/42/3154/How-to-Get-Traffic-to-Your-Site-Without-Paying-Through-the-Nose.php</link>
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	<item>
      <title><strong>Top 7 SEO Mistakes to Avoid</strong></title>
      <description><![CDATA[You've got your new site up and you’re ready to get it optimized for search engines. Where should you start? There are plenty of articles and advice on the Internet on how you should go about it and there's a lot of information to absorb. When applying your SEO practices, make sure you avoid the following no no’s:

1. Omitting the Title, Description and Keyword Meta tags. I’ve seen it first hand many times – potential clients contact me interested in a re-design because their site has been up for over a year and they have no traffic or page rank. I check their source code and sure enough, they don’t have any tags. If you go to Google Webmaster Help Center, you’ll see they encourage you to have title tags.
   
2. Leaving “Under Construction” on your pages. You want your site to be seen as something that is evolving and continually changing so people will come back? Don’t put up “under construction” or “continually under construction”. The search engines will ignore you.
   
3. No Links! This is a must for your website, you need to have them. Link to relevant sites from your site and have some incoming links from relevant sites too.
   
4. Keyword stuffing. Cramming your pages full of keywords is going to shoot you down in the SERPs. You need to do research on keyword density and keep your pages within those ranges.
   
5. Hiring a dishonest SEO service. You get what you pay for. If you want to have legitimate results, hire an expert service and expect to pay anywhere from 2-5 k per month. Do your research and make sure to check references by speaking to the former clients personally over the phone. If you hire a service that “guarantees” top placement, you are most likely getting ripped off.
   
6. Using important text in images. The robots and spiders don’t recognize the text in an image. If you have something important you want shown on your page, use text!
   
7. Dead links. Make sure you check your links frequently. I ..]]></description>
      <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.buildyourownbusiness.biz/post/index/35/2906/Top-7-SEO-Mistakes-to-Avoid.php">http://www.buildyourownbusiness.biz/post/index/35/2906/Top-7-SEO-Mistakes-to-Avoid.php</link>
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	<item>
      <title><strong>Branding...It's Not Just for Cows!</strong></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Your company logo isn’t the only thing that makes up your brand. The service that you have provided to your clients, and your reputation are part of your brand as well.

If you think of your current customer base, how many of your clients or customers were referred to you by your past clients? If you answered “None”, you’re not cutting the mustard!

One of our clients has done a terrific job of building his brand name. He makes sure to include his company brand in everything he does. He’s consistently involved in local charity events, as well as donating his time to give back to his community. He passes out custom made T-shirts, hats, pens, and even branded butter mints (yum). People who don’t even have a backyard in which to place one of his products know about his company. You can almost guarantee that when they do purchase their new home, they’ll be headed over to pick up a firetable or Big Green Egg to place in their new backyard.

I was on the phone with a friend earlier this morning, and he was praising our company for being ahead of the times in our town by being in the branding business. We were discussing that there are still many people who aren’t quite sure what branding is. Eric summed it up perfectly by using the example that he gives to people when they inquire about it:

He asks them, “When I say jeans, what comes to mind?” their response? “Levis or Wrangler”. Branding in a nutshell!

Be consistent with your branding. Everything you put out should have your brand on it! This includes the employees working for you. (No, I’m not suggesting that you literally “brand” them with a hot iron.) Are they consistently giving the best service to your clients and staying on course to grow your brand?

Two free branding steps you can take today:

1. Create an email signature with your company logo and website url

2. Add your website url to your on hold music or voice mail message

Do it today – build your brand!]]></description>
      <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.buildyourownbusiness.biz/post/index/50/2905/BrandingIts-Not-Just-for-Cows.php">http://www.buildyourownbusiness.biz/post/index/50/2905/BrandingIts-Not-Just-for-Cows.php</link>
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      <title><strong>What is Hosting?</strong></title>
      <description><![CDATA[If you have a website online, you have a hosting account. As I’ve mentioned in previous articles, hosting is similar to paying “rent” on the Internet. In order to be visible, you’ll need to be on a server.

I decided to write about hosting today when out walking this morning with a friend. We were discussing how many companies are still paying a hefty monthly price for hosting when it really isn’t necessary.

Some companies went out and got their website in the early stages of the Internet. They were cutting edge by being up on the latest trend and getting involved early. However, since that time, they haven’t updated their site, optimized it for the search engines or even looked at the numbers in quite a while.

If you fall into this category, you may be surprised to know that you don’t have to pay $100.00 a month for your website hosting. You can get hosting for less than $10.00 a month for your small website.

In addition to hosting, if you are wondering whether or not your site is optimized for the search engines, try doing a Google search using your keywords for the products/services you are selling. Do you come up within the search engine results? If not, then you aren’t optimized for search.

Another exercise you can try is to Google your company website (domain) name. Are you the first result? You should be – this is your business! Most likely if you aren’t coming up, your site was built using the old methods and you really could have so much more visibility on the web and more success as a business owner if you were to opt for a site re-design.

I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to continually update your site with fresh content. If you are stuck with your old hosting company/website design firm and they haven’t contacted you to help your business grow – you are throwing your money away every month.

Steps you should take:

    * Do some research and see how much companies are charging for domain name ren ..]]></description>
      <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.buildyourownbusiness.biz/post/index/35/2557/What-is-Hosting.php">http://www.buildyourownbusiness.biz/post/index/35/2557/What-is-Hosting.php</link>
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	<item>
      <title><strong>What is Web 2.0?</strong></title>
      <description><![CDATA[   	

What is Web 2.0?

The buzzword “Web 2.0” has been floating around for a couple of years now. Some define the term as a general description of the second generation of the web – moving away from “brochure type” websites through the use of interactive technologies. Other people use “Web 2.0” to mean a certain “look” for website elements, including 3D tabs and buttons, more cutting edge graphics, and a less boxy or grid-based website layout.

The attempt to clarify the exact meaning of this now ubiquitous term has caused quite a bit of disagreement between groups.

Whether you are gung-ho for Web 2.0, not too enthusiastic about embracing the concept, or have no idea of what it is — read on, so you can weigh in the next time it’s brought up at a business luncheon.

The term stems from O’Reilly Media in 2004. It suggests a new version of the WWW, yet doesn’t refer to any update of technical specifications – only to the ways the developers and users will use the web.

Technologies included:

    * Blogs
    * Mashups
    * Social Bookmarking
    * Wikis
    * Podcasts
    * RSS Feeds
    * APIs (Application Programming Interfaces)
    * Online Web Services


Many more technologies are included.

Characteristics often include browser-based programs, which allow :

    * Interactivity
    * Participation
    * Syndication


Many people today are requesting website design that is Web 2.0 compliant. Often what they are referring to is a “look”. Examples are gradient boxes, shiny floor effect, and bright shiny plump logo design, rather than any specific functionality.

In a nutshell, the term “Web 2.0” means different things to different people. Like abstract art, it’s what you want it to be. Since there aren’t any set standards, you are free to interpret what it means to you and whether to apply the principle to your website design.]]></description>
      <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.buildyourownbusiness.biz/post/index/56/2437/What-is-Web-20.php">http://www.buildyourownbusiness.biz/post/index/56/2437/What-is-Web-20.php</link>
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	<item>
      <title><strong>Learning Search Engine Marketing (SEM)</strong></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Wikipedia defines Search Engine Marketing as a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs).

I could go into the technicalities of SEM, algorithms, robots, etc. However, if you’re reading this article, you probably aren’t interested in me stuffing a bunch of technical terms down your throat. You would rather learn about search engine marketing and how it can bring you more business.

I chose this topic today based on a couple of conversations I recently had with new clients.

One of our clients had embarked on a small ad campaign with Yahoo before coming to us. He mentioned that when he was spending the money on Yahoo, the traffic to his site was much higher.  When I asked how many sales he garnered from the advertising, he replied that he didn’t know. Website traffic and conversions to sales are two completely different things, with the latter obviously being more important. It’s crucial to keep track of your ROI (Return on Investment), if you are going to invest in online advertising. Make sure that you have the tools within your company—whether it’s your own database for tracking sales, or another form of tracking system—before you spend your first marketing dollar.

Another conversation I had with a client involved a Google Adwords campaign.  He was bidding using every keyword under the sun.  He had a huge CTR (Click Through Rate), but again, nobody was buying.  At the end of the day, his budget was gone and he didn’t have anything to show for it besides lots of traffic and an empty bank account.  Until I explained to him that he was paying for people to come to his site and quickly leave, he didn’t “get it”.  Having the right keywords in your campaign and your ad copy, that are relevant to your product or service, will get you qualified click through to your site.  You don’t want people to click on your ad, only to find that your site doesn’t ..]]></description>
      <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.buildyourownbusiness.biz/post/index/50/2436/Learning-Search-Engine-Marketing-SEM.php">http://www.buildyourownbusiness.biz/post/index/50/2436/Learning-Search-Engine-Marketing-SEM.php</link>
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	<item>
      <title><strong>Link Popularity</strong></title>
      <description><![CDATA[What is link popularity and how can you build link popularity to help your business?

Link popularity plays an important role in the visibility of a web site among the top of the search results.

[URL=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_popularity]Wikipedia[/URL] defines link popularity as a measure of the quantity and quality of other web sites that link to a specific site on the World Wide Web.

There are all kinds of website design and search engine optimization terms out there that can be confusing especially when you are just getting started with your small business website.

Lets break down some of the definitions for easier understanding:

Link Popularity
Link popularity is the measure of the number of hypertext links coming into a website from other websites on the Internet. Although you obviously want to have several links incoming and outgoing, but it’s important to pay attention to the quality of your website inbound and outbound links.  For instance, if you have several incoming and outgoing links to sites that aren’t relevant to your website, your links aren’t quality links.  When browsing the web and you stumble upon a site with great information and you click on their resources, would you rather be directed to more information about the subject you originally searched for and related items, or links to widgets?

Anchor Text
The anchor text is the text that you click in a hyperlink.  Many times you’ll see “click here” to view our pricing.  Using click here rather than a keyword such as “widget pricing” takes away from your natural search engine optimization.  The search engine algorithms use anchor text and can get you better ranking if you are using it correctly.

Reciprocal Links
Reciprocal links are two-way links from one website to another.  Basically, you place a link on your website to the other company website and they in turn place a link on their website to your website.  Often times you are allowed to include yo ..]]></description>
      <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.buildyourownbusiness.biz/post/index/46/2211/Link-Popularity.php">http://www.buildyourownbusiness.biz/post/index/46/2211/Link-Popularity.php</link>
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	<item>
      <title><strong>Business Branding</strong></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Business Branding

Whether you are just starting a new company, or have been around for a while and need some marketing tips, branding your business should be on the top of your list.

Marketing your business by building a brand name isn’t just for large companies.  Branding your business is essential for growing your company, no matter what size it is.  Repetition, consistency, and visibility are the key to success in achieving brand power.

What is branding?

[URL=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand]Wikipedia[/URL] defines brand as  including a name, logo, slogan and /or design scheme associated with a  product or service.

If you are in business today, it’s imperative that you brand your business first-rate including logo, website, business cards, letterhead, print ads, television, radio and signage.

Let’s break down the key elements for branding your business:

Logo

An effective logo should reflect your business.  If you examine successful brands that have achieved instant recognition, you’ll notice they all have one thing in common – simplicity.  It’s important that your logo design can be used in many different forms, not just on your website design, letterhead and business cards.  Think of how you may want to advertise in the future – will you want to place print ads?  Will your logo reproduce well in black and white, and in varied sizes?  What about apparel? Will your logo hold up when printed on the t-shirts you’ll be passing out at the next trade show?

Website

Your website is your online business card.  Your logo should be presented on each of your website pages.  Your website design should have intuitive navigation, clear navigation and valuable content.  Once your website is up and ready to go, you should promote your site online via press releases and business networking sites.  Don’t forget to register your site with Google and most importantly, your contact information should be visible on every page – especi ..]]></description>
      <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.buildyourownbusiness.biz/post/index/56/2210/Business-Branding.php">http://www.buildyourownbusiness.biz/post/index/56/2210/Business-Branding.php</link>
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	<item>
      <title><strong>New Business Website Help</strong></title>
      <description><![CDATA[Congratulations!  You've started your new business and now you're ready to have your new website built.  It's an important step in your business success.  Naturally, as this may be new territory for you - you have some questions.  We're here to help you!

Whether you've decided you'd like an online business card or catalogue, or you'd like to open an online store (Ecommerce website) - it'll help if you understand the basics of the Internet and websites and how it all works.

Once you understand the basics, it's not complicated at all.  For simplicity, I like to use the analogy of your home to describe how websites work:

    * Website: A website is your &amp;quot;home&amp;quot; on the Internet.
    * URL: A URL is your &amp;quot;address&amp;quot; on the Internet, and it includes your Domain Name.
    * Hosting: Hosting is your &amp;quot;rent&amp;quot; for being on the Internet.

Where to start?

First you'll need a domain name.  What is a domain name? Your domain name, or URL, is your “address” on the Internet, with your website being your “home”. Take your time in selecting a domain name, as it will be a reflection of your company and its offerings, as well as instrumental in directing people to your website.

Next up, you'll need to find hosting.  Many web design firms are now offering hosting in addition to website design and you may be able to find a designer that can help you with all four of your requirements:

   1. Domain Name
   2. Hosting
   3. Website Design
   4. Website Maintenance

Finally, you'll need to work on your website layout in order to communicate with your web designer what you'll require for your website.  We've listed the basics for you:

Decide what type of website you'd like to have:

    * Brochure:  A website that showcases your products or services with images and descriptions.
    * Educational:  A website for people to read information about your company or services.
    * Ecommerce:  A website where you can sell your prod ..]]></description>
      <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.buildyourownbusiness.biz/post/index/56/2165/New-Business-Website-Help.php">http://www.buildyourownbusiness.biz/post/index/56/2165/New-Business-Website-Help.php</link>
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      <title><strong>What is a web Content Management System (CMS) and why do I need one?</strong></title>
      <description><![CDATA[In a nutshell, A web CMS is a tool that allows you to update your website yourself without having to learn any complicated programming.

Case in point:

You just paid a pretty good chunk of money to get your website designed.  You've secured hosting, you have your website up on the Internet and are open for business.  A few months later, you decide you'd like to add some updated content to your website.  What does that entail?  You'll have to go back to your original designer or hire another designer to make the changes for you.  Additionally, you have to wait for them to make those changes and then upload them to the Internet.  Again, you have to shell out more money for this work.

With a CMS integrated into your website you can easily make those changes on your timeframe and publish them to the Internet yourself without eating into your profit margin.  You're in business to make money, not lose it!

Another advantage to using a CMS is fresh website content.  Search engines not only rank pages upon relevant content, but by fresh content as well.  Using your CMS, you can publish to your blog, add articles, inbound links and more, to easily achieve that goal.

There are many Content Management Systems available; finding the right one for you or your organization is a matter of choice.  Some CMS are extremely easy to use, just like a word processing program.  Others can be quite complicated; you may have a hard time figuring out how to use them and may up needing to hire a designer to make the changes for you.

There are website builders such as SpinSite which have the CMS integrated into their website building program and are easy to use for the novice.  There are also open source CMS programs such as Joomla and Drupal which you can have your designer implement into your site.  Additionally, there are CMS you can use with your blog such as WordPress.

Before making a decision as to which CMS you want to use with your website, make sure it's right for y ..]]></description>
      <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.buildyourownbusiness.biz/post/index/56/2013/What-is-a-web-Content-Management-System-CMS-and-why-do-I-need-one.php">http://www.buildyourownbusiness.biz/post/index/56/2013/What-is-a-web-Content-Management-System-CMS-and-why-do-I-need-one.php</link>
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