The Web
Business’ Barrier Entry
If you’ve run or worked at a brick-and-mortar business, you’ve probably come across procedures or regulations involving accessibility. These usually relate to things like doorways being wide enough to accommodate wheelchairs, or making sure bathroom sinks can be reached by folks with physical challenges.
Some small business owners I’ve heard of become frustrated with these rules and regulations. They complain that they can’t afford the expenses involved, that they don’t have the time to do the necessary updates or that they just don’t like being told what to do.
Politics aside, there’s something here these business owners often miss: these kinds of accessibility accommodations are good for business. If someone in a wheelchair can’t get through your front door, she can’t buy your products. Regulation or no, it’s just good business sense. You want people to get through the doors. You want to remove what experts call “barriers to entry.”
Happy New Year 2009
Happy New Year 2009
Constructing A Press Release That Gets Attention
Press releases have always been a great way to get not only visitors to your web properties but also backlinks. The problem is, most people have no idea how to write one. It’s not that difficult at all and I will give you an outline and some of the things you should do and shouldn’t do.
Firstly, ask yourself whether your news is actually newsworthy? If you think it’s not don’t worry, it doesn’t take much to make it look newsworthy. Here is the biggest no-no of a press release. Don’t use it simply to make a sale or sell something.
A press release needs to be toned down. It needs to answer the who, what, where, when and why of whatever it is you’re promoting.
Here are a list of DO NOTs:
- Don’t make your press release sound like an advertisement. If it does then go back and tone it down and remember the four “Ws.”
- Never write a press release just to mention an opening or a launch. They are a dime a dozen and these type of press releases will usually get turfed.
- Always avoid hype and don’t fill it with fluff. It needs to be direct and straight to the point.
- Avoid exaggerations and over the top claims. The Journalism profession is one of skepticism. I know because I’ve spent my career working in news rooms around the world.
- Avoid too many exclamation marks. This is definitely a no-no…!!!!! I would not include them at all.
Neverblue Ads: An Affiliate Marketing Marketplace
Neverblue is a premier global performance-based affiliate network that brings together choice affiliates and quality online advertisers as partners through carefully monitored, custom advertising.
Lead Generation and Online
Marketing Experts at Your Service
This are the opening lines of NeverBlueAds.
Affiliate Marketing Made Easy
With so many different affiliate deals out there to consider, it can be pretty hard to decide which deal would perform the best on your website. It can also be difficult to find those elusive diamonds in the rough, so to speak, that pay the big bucks for each referral. NeverblueAds makes this a heck of a lot easier, because they act as an intermediary between the affiliate (that’s you) and the advertiser.
After you sign up for an account, you gain access to a marketplace filled with literally hundreds of different affiliate deals, spanning just about every topic area imaginable. They’ve got automotive affiliate campaigns, debt relief, education, beauty, technology, entertainment, business opportunities, and more
How To Bring Interactivity To Your Blog
This post was guest blogged by Jamie Harrop, a blogger of five years who at Jamie Harrop Dot Com writes about blogging, life as a young entrepreneur, self improvement and travel.
Blogs can often be two dimensional. The author writes a post. The reader writes a comment.
That’s all well and good, but it’s now very cliche and old.
Over the last six months the blogosphere has seen a huge influx of new media interactivity. Video and audio has been at the forefront of that effort.
Going Beyond Video and Audio
Everyone had spoken at length about the ever growing importance of video and audio in blogs and Web sites in general, so today I want to go beyond that. Today, I want to find new ways to bring interactivity to your blog. New ways to entertain your readers. New ways to ensure your readers feel an integral part of the community you are building. Here are four Ways to make your blog more interactive
Offline Marketing Techniques For Online Business
When it comes to promoting your blog, things like social media, comment marketing or article marketing naturally come to mind. While these are tried and true ways to promote an online business, you may not have considered the fact that off-line marketing can often be as effective, if not more effective, than on-line marketing.
Why off-line marketing is important ?
Why is that? Why does off-line marketing often have a bigger impact on your online business? There are several reasons:
Off-line marketing is portable. If you run a small ad in a weekly flyer, a reader can rip the ad out and take it with him. A banner ad on a website is there only while the reader is on the site the ad is located.
Off-line marketing is personal. Personal marketing techniques – from passing out business cards to putting up a flyer at the library – tend to connect with people on a different level than online marketing techniques. In the offline world, people know there’s a real individual behind that business card. Online, there’s just a computer.
Managing a Multi-Author WordPress Blog
More and more blogs seem to be transitioning to multi-author set ups and as they do I’ve been asked increasingly for information on how to manage these types of blogs.
If you have a multi-author WordPress blog then you’ll want to check out a great post at Hongkiat - 35 Tips Tricks To Manage and Handle Multi-Author Blogs.
The post is packed full of useful tools and plugins that will help make the task of managing more than one author on a blog a lot easier - enjoy.
What Twitter Tools and Services Do You Use?
Over the last year there seems to have been a tool or service released for Twitter users every few days. There are:
- Twitter desktop clients (I’m a fan of Twhirl and TweetDeck)
- Twitter Applications for iPhone (I’m a user of Twittelator Pro)
- Twitter user ranking services (like Twitterholic)
- Visualization tools (like TweetWheel)
- Tools to import RSS feeds to your Twitter account (I use Twitterfeed)
- Tools for setting tweets to go off later (Tweetlater)
- Metrics tool (TweetStats - Twinfluence)
- Tools for sharing pictures on Twitter (Twitpic)
- Services to tweet to groups (GroupTweet)
- Twitter Directories (Twellow)
- Tools for finding new people to follow (Twubble)
- Tools for helping you to track Twitter Conversations (Tweet2Tweet)
- Trend Tracking tools for what’s hot on Twitter (Twitscoop)
- Tools to help Twitter integrate with other applications (TwitterCal - which lets you add items to your Google calandar by Twitter)
- Services for groups to tag and organize tweets (HashTags)
- Twitter updaters (Ping.fm - which allows you to update status on multiple sites like Twitter)
- Twitter backup services (TweetTake)
- Services to let you track which links people are clicking on in your Tweets (TweetBurner)
These are just some of the tools services I’ve used in the last few weeks and they only scratch the surface at the hundreds of Twitter tools that are released.
Creating Cyber Buzz for World Diabetes Day
World Diabetes Day is celebrated every year on November 14 (that’s today). The date was chosen because it marks the birthday of Canadian Sir Frederick G. Banting, who, along with Charles Best, is credited with the discovery of insulin in 1921.
World Diabetes Day is a global event. It brings together millions of people in more than 160 countries to raise awareness of diabetes, including children and adults living with and affected by diabetes, healthcare professionals, health care decision-makers and the media. World Diabetes Day unites the global diabetes community to produce a powerful voice for diabetes awareness.
Buzz Bishop is celebrating World Diabetes Day by helping to build a Diabetes Community online. In addition, his employer, 95Crave, is auctioning off some items on eBay to help raise money for Team Diabetes Canada. I think I’ll make a bid on the movies for a year package.
Indian Media Goes Gung Ho On Obama Victory
The Indian media can’t seem to have enough of Barack Obama - elected the first African American president of the US. Thursday morning saw larger than life photographs of Obama splashed across all major Indian newspapers with his words - which seem to have become quotable quotes by now - sufficing as bold headlines.
“Change has come to America,” said the Hindustan Times newspaper, quoting Obama’s now famous words. Beneath the bold headline were two simple but heavy weighing lines - “Let’s say it straight: Barack Hussein Obama can change the world”.
The Indian Express’ lead photograph of a sombre Obama smiling at the cheering crowds and waving at them with his left hand held high was accompanied with his words written in bold:
“Tonight let’s ask ourselves, if our children should see the next century, what change will they see? This is our chance to answer that call. To reaffirm the fundamental truth that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope; and where we are met with those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can”.
The Statesman reiterated Martin Luther King Jr’s dream of racial equality and beneath the headline “As the World Rubs its Eyes…Dreams Come True”, it said: “Forty-five years after Martin Luther King Jr laid out his dream of racial equality in America, President-elect Barack Hussein Obama smashed through the ‘colour line’ to be elected USA’s first black, and its 44th president.”
