BrightSurfer

Many people create websites to help their customers work with their business in some way, whether it’s for selling products online, providing an online service or application (as in “computer program”, not “submission form”), or just announcing what the business does off-line and how to contact the staff for service.

It’s difficult to make your online marketing strategies work if many of your customers are not online, though. Many people have Internet access, but some rarely use it. In some cases, you may have a customer base that largely does not subscribe to any type of Internet access; in certain communities where online access is a new thing, some of those people cannot think of any good reasons to use the Internet. So give people reasons to use your website, and maybe they’ll come around!

Ideas, creatively speaking:

• Use your website with your face-to-face marketing efforts. Offer coupons on your website, and put out a clear announcement as to where people can find those coupons. Then, if you have anything you want people to see, you can easily post it online with the coupons (or linked from that particular page). Also, insert your website address into all your printed stationery, business cards, and newspaper/magazine ads.
• Offer something useful on your website that has something to do with your business. Perhaps publish a list of links for resources on information for your work industry, products, or local community. You can link directly to your local newspaper online and include a syndication feed of their headlines on your site if they offer it. You can start a blog and simply entertain potential customers by talking about your business, or by talking about anything, really. Publish an events calendar for your business or your local community. Publish a “favorite websites” list and keep it up-to-date, so that you have a reason for people to actually use a computer to check it out and revisit often.
• Start an email list for announcements. Include coupons or promotional offers in the mailings, and let people know that in advance so that they have a great reason to sign up. Use this list to announce a great new product or service when you begin to offer it.
• Once you’ve joined a professional network or social network online, you can let people know that you exist on the Internet and that you’d love for them to add you to their network. And if they’ve never done anything like that before, well then you would be their first contact!
• Talk about your favorite websites to your current and potential customers/clients. Then when they ask, “Do you have a website?”, let them know…
• If you run a shop or a place where people may wish to sit down and hang out, look into having a secure Wifi connection installed so that people can use the Internet on your business’ premises, if they bring a laptop that can make the connection. It’s a big bonus if you actually have a computer that can be hooked up to the Internet for public access. In either case, make your website the homepage. Caveat: don’t do anything like this without really looking into it at first, because the pitfalls can be rather ugly. Also, avoid this if it doesn’t make any sense for the type of business that you run. Copy shops and cafes usually have Internet terminals with great success. It would probably not mesh well with an antiques shop, however.
• Offer to take digital pictures of your customers when it’s appropriate for them and for your business. Upload them to your website. Tell them where the pictures will end up…
• Do you have a voicemail greeting for your business? Make sure that it includes your website address!
• Do you hand printed receipts to your customers? Set your cash register or receipt printer to include the address of your website.
• Any other creative suggestions? Feel free to leave a comment on this post!

It seems crazy that everyone online wants to be connected nowadays. Everyone wants to know one another! Indeed, social networking has been one of the most popular applications on the web over the past few years. But did you know that you can use social networking to help your business?

As an individual, it can’t hurt you to set up free accounts with all the major social networks (MySpace, Friendster, Orkut, and even Flickr and YouTube) and include the address of your primary website in your public profile. Just be careful with the amount of information that you share publicly, and make sure that there’s nothing listed that would embarrass yourself or degrade your reputation (or your business’ reputation). Avoid publishing crazy or bizarre images, obscene jokes, excessive personal information, etc. Use your best judgment when building profiles on social networking sites. Once you have your profile online, feel free to seek out friends and family to add them as friends - as a personal tip, this will help you stay in contact with many people easily via message and announcement features, reducing the time it takes to communicate with people and allowing you to send out any message you’d like quickly and effortlessly.

Now that you have your social networks setup, it’s time to set yourself up with professional networks. The best place on the web for professional networking is LinkedIn. Their site is very well designed to appear mature and businesslike. The major functions of the site work very well for people connecting with their professional networks, and the site has a very good reputation among professionals (who generally find MySpace and communities like it a bit juvenile for their tastes). Here, you can connect with all of your professional friends and family, and it is highly recommended that you use this site to connect to your clients, vendors, and major customers as well. You cannot go wrong with offering a connection, and you can benefit tremendously from using LinkedIn to keep track of people, their skills, their professional experience, and their business preferences.

Once you have your account on LinkedIn established, you can use the web to find the professional groups and community websites for your working industry, and you can see what they have to offer for online membership and networking, as well as offline membership and events. Example: for media workers, Mediabistro.com is an extremely valuable resource for news, job listings, community forums, and their AvantGuild subscription network.

Now that you know where you can find everyone online, remember to tell people about your social networking profiles, along with your website and marketing materials. Keep your communications brief, to-the-point, and as infrequent as possible. Use your social and professional networks as a megaphone for your company’s message, and watch your business soar!

By now, we’ve all heard the word “Google” used both as a noun and a verb, immediately bringing to mind the huge and incredibly effective search company online. Yes, Google is somewhat of a holy oracle when it comes to finding information, not just because it is the most inclusive search engine (it is, but there are others that tend to find different things on the web) or because it offers the most cool applications of any site on the web (it does, although many of those applications are either not ready for prime time, and some are a major distraction for someone looking to run a small business), but because of the power of its queries. And it’s likely that you don’t know much of what you can do from a Google Search query input box.

I have just the page to get your started: Google Help : Basics of Search. Once you’ve mastered the search basics, you can also look into Advanced Search. Then save the Google Cheatsheet to use as a handy reference. (Did you see how you can use Google as a calculator? That’s quite handy!) Things that you can look up directly in Google that could provide handy information: zip codes, area codes, phone numbers, package tracking numbers, street addresses, words for definitions, product make and model numbers, domain names (for when you want to see which sites link to a particular site), stock ticker abbreviations, and much more.

You can become even handier at finding information through Google by knowing which sites have information about certain topics, and including them in the search. While it’s true that you can restrict a search to a given site by typing site:www.website.com (with the correct website info plugged in), it’s quick shorthand to just type the title of a directory site (or the domain name) or useful service as the first word in a query. Examples: for the weather in Bryant Park, type weather 10036 or weather Bryant Park. Get a recipe for BBQ pork by querying recipe BBQ pork. Use Wikipedia for encyclopedic information (and sidestep their own website search, which is slower than Google) where it’s useful, like looking up biography information about the author Michael Crichton - that would be a query for wikipedia michael crichton. (note that capitalization/case is irrelevant for simple searches) If you’re looking up information about a movie (like, say, The Godfather) and want to use the Internet Movie Database to find it, query for imdb The Godfather. This is especially useful for getting the correct link first because The Godfather is also a book, a video game, a movie entry on Wikipedia, and an item for sale on Amazon.com. Looking for a profile of a baseball player? Query espn Albert Pujols. Looking for a review for a digital camera? Query cnet Canon SD700. You can try that with virtually any online resource and get relevant results quickly.

One more thing you should know about Google: there are quite a few applications that Google (the company) has released for end users, and they include Google (the search engine) inside the product. Although not all the same query fields are available across each application (some support more queries than Google Search, and some leave out certain Google Search capabilities), it may be worth looking into adding or replacing certain tools on your computer with Google products. Gmail, in particular, has very powerful search and filtering capabilities based on queries and tagging. Google Desktop Search is another amazing application, as it has the capability to index everything on your computer and make it all available for search through your own web browser! Google Desktop Search also offers the capability to store your local search index in your Google Account online, viewable only by yourself, for use anywhere in the world, but you can disable this function if you don’t want Google to have your local data in any form. Also, Google Desktop Search never publishes your local search index on the web for other people to see; your computer is the only one who has access to the data.

Finally, although this post has so far been The Google Show, it’s a good idea to remember that there are other search engines out there. While no resource could provide a complete list, you can start with the most frequently used search engines other than Google - Yahoo!, MSN Search (now called Windows Live Search), Dogpile, and Ask.com. Those sites also have a rich set of query command options, and it is possible to find web pages indexed by those sites that may have been skipped by Google. The most complete search effort involves using as many search engines as possible to look up the data you seek, so always remember to look in more than one place - even if that one place is an incredible place to look for things.

You can draw attention to your online communications and get your message across more effectively if you add images, audio, and video to your documents, presentations, and web site. Here’s how you can do that:

Working with Images - Hire a graphic designer to create a logo for your business, stationery templates (print and online), and slick web pages. Use a stock photo agency like iStockphoto to obtain images that illustrate your message clearly on web pages and presentations. Use your own digital camer to take pictures for your business image library, to save on stock photo licensing fees. You can also use Google Image Search to find images on the Internet, but beware of copyright and licensing issues. For websites, use your webhosting account or a free image hosting service to store the images you use – it constitutes bad manners to include an image hosted from someone else’s server without permission. For editing images, you can use Paint.Net or The GIMP to edit your images on a budget, but I highly recommend Adobe Photoshop Elements for casual image users, and Adobe Photoshop (the original, full featured program) if you use graphics extensively.

Remember that images for use on the web should be relatively small - the typical size for a web photo is 640×480 in pixels, set at 72 dots per inch (approximately 6 1/3″ x 9″ on a computer screen). Images for printing need to be very large - an 8″x10″ photo should have at least 150 dots per inch, which requires a 1200 x 1500 pixel source image, and professional printing with photo quality is usually set at 300dpi, requiring 2400 x 3000 pixel images (more than six megapixels). Since you can always size an image down with no quality loss, make sure that the images you use are as large as possible if you think you’ll need an image for both online display and print use.

Working with Audio - You can use an audio mastering program to take any input - including a microphone plugged into your computer’s sound card, or a digital voice recorder’s WAV/MP3 files transferred over USB - and make an audio program from it. You can also use your CDs or purchased music online to create soundtracks for your offline presentations. Right now, the big thing in online audio is the podcast. Anyone can make a regularly-scheduled audio program using RSS and uploaded sound clips. Perhaps you can use a podcast to draw listeners to your business and get your message out there.

Take major caution, however, in obtaining explicit permission in using audio files in your work, especially for music distributed by major record labels. Licenses are required for online distribution of music (separate from the license you receive when you buy music for typical personal use) and the record industry’s official group organization (the RIAA) has come down hard on people who are not careful with work written by or performed by their artists. Original work is generally okay for use if you purchased or obtained permission from both the original songwriter(s) and the performing artists. If you don’t know much about copyrights, I’d advise that you avoid publishing anything online that you did not create yourself from scratch.

Working with Video - You can use video clips to really capture your audience’s attention, both in presentations and on the web. And just like podcasts, vlogs (short for videologs) are regularly-produced programs that have gained a lot of attention on the web in recent months. Video can often be downloaded from a late-model digital camcorder to a computer using a transfer cable or a DVD-ROM (check your camcorder’s instructions - older camcorders that record on non-digital tapes are unfortunately unable to do this). Even mobile phones and pocket digicams, if they have recording features, can be used to record video for the web! Many video-sharing services online can host your video and share it with millions of people, plus provide code snippets to insert into your web pages so that the video can play directly in your own website. YouTube is the most famous of the video sharing services, or you can use Veoh or Vimeo if you prefer. Again, copyright violations are pursued aggressively online, so make sure to get the copyright owner’s permission before using any recorded clips that you have not produced yourself.

I covered basic IT concepts for small businesses previously, and one of my main points was that data and equipment should be kept secure. Here’s how you can do that as a small business owner:

Equipment - As a small business owner, you shouldn’t have much to keep watch over. But do make sure to keep all of it secure and protected from harm. Desktop computers and office equipment are not easily stolen or vandalized. Still, make sure you know how to operate everything, be sure to maintain it and use it properly, don’t tinker with anything that you don’t really know how to fix, and keep equipment away from environmental hazards such as liquids, heat, and physical impacts (those are all universally bad for digital equipment). Also, keep your business equipment away from people who shouldn’t be using it, including inexperienced users, strange people, and potential data thieves. Keep an office insurance policy so that everything can be replaced in case of a catastrophe.

To consider separately: laptops and PDAs. Portable computers are much more easily damaged, stolen, and misplaced. These devices should be treated very, very carefully, but you should still plan for contingencies. Insure your portable equipment against loss or theft, try to secure your data from unwanted access on these devices as much as possible, and use shock-protective casing (even if just a padded bag) whenever possible. Encryption products can be really helpful, as well as monitoring software that checks in with location-based data.

Data Storage - Backup, backup, backup! I’m not just repeating the word for impact - nowadays, data storage and data bandwidth is so cheap that you should keep at least three copies of your important data at all times. Your original copy is the only one that needs to be instantly accessible, so feel free to consider solutions that create complete backup copies on a daily or weekly basis (depending on how fast your data changes and how sensitive your most recent data is for your business). One backup copy can be kept on-premises, either on your network, a spare hard drive, or on a detachable device. Additionally, you should aim for a solution that keeps a second complete up-to-date backup in an external, secure location. The reason: should a drastic emergency event fall upon your office, like a theft, fire, or flood, you have recourse for retrieving your data. (Office insurance can replace damaged equipment, but it can’t bring back an obliterated data storage device.) Your backups can be uploaded over the Internet frequently, sending only the most recent changes following the last total data backup, to backup providers who keep your data secure - and backed up even further!
*Tip* - one thing you do not have to backup frequently is your software programs. You should have installation disks for software available in case of loss, and the programs themselves do not change. Most modern computers offer to store data in separate locations from your installed programs, and that is generally a very smart idea to follow.

Network Security and Malware - Nowadays, backup services and equipment insurance cover most of what you’d need for loss prevention strategies. That said, you don’t want your data to be stolen by vandals, and you do not want the nuisance of having your computer equipment hacked and exploited (or, less commonly nowadays, fried). Today’s computer hackers are very good at infiltrating computer networks for their own illicit business uses, and modern infective software tends to prefer throwing pop-up at viewers and stealing personal data rather than wiping out hard drives. However, these issues can still lead to data loss, and more often can cause you to waste time and equipment resources. The good news is that it’s not all that difficult to secure your network from intrusions, and many products exist to scan your PCs and remove malware and viruses. Use firewall software on PCs (it now comes with Windows PCs) and enable a firewall on your incoming Internet connection. Make sure each computer has an up-to-date virus scanner, pop-up blocker, and malware scanner. (These tools can be found for free on the Internet) Also, keep all of your software up-to-date with the latest patch programs, and check regularly for the release of software patches - program upgrades usually fix know security holes, reducing the accessibility of your computer to hackers. It also helps to avoid untrustworthy software and potentially malicious websites, because the chance that you’ll pickup an infective software program from a reliable source (such as a large corporation or a responsible vendor) is somewhat rare.

Backup Software:
Retrospect Home and Office Products from EMC
SyncToy
Instructions for using Microsoft Backup
Bacula

Virus Scanners:
AVG (also includes anti-spyware)
ClamWin

Malware Scanners (for Windows systems):
Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool
Ad-Aware
SpyBot
ewido

One of the most daunting challenges for a small business owner looking to integrate computer technology into their business is figuring out what to buy and how to appropriately fit it into your business. Information technology is such a vast field of rapidly-evolving products that it is very difficult for the casual or time-pressed consumer to reach a clear understanding of available hardware, software, and services.

You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to make appropriate decisions on IT, however. All you need is a little guidance.

Don’t buy more than you need. The typical small home business does not require tens of thousands of dollars in equipment and software for productivity. (There are a few businesses that do require specialized equipment for production purposes, of course, but that’s not part of your IT strategy.) As your business moves to mid-size, you will generally need appropriate networking products to allow company-wide collaboration on projects and services. Regardless of the size of your business, it is important to avoid over-expansion and overspending. Your business goal is to keep your productivity tools as simple and effective as possible. With more that you have to learn and maintain, your IT budget will go higher and your employees will need to spend more time figuring out how to use it all.

Focus on your running your business and not on running a well-funded digital toy collection. The complexity of IT can become a distraction, as well as the excitement of running all the latest, cutting-edge applications. Budget your time as you would budget your spending. You can look up much that you’d like to know through consumer magazines like Fast Company and eWeek, as well as online resources like CNet, but remember that you can’t learn everything at once. Learn some of what you need to know at first, and then put a couple of hours each week or month into additional news reading. If your understanding of IT is still rather weak after your initial attempts at research, you could benefit heavily from an IT consulting service to provide the IT services that your business needs. In any case, don’t allow yourself to obsess over the details of your computer equipment; you have a business to run, and you have customers to serve.

Make your equipment and data secure. A computer-related catastrophe can destroy your business in a number of ways. Make sure that your data is always backed up (more than one backup strategy does not hurt) and always protected by the latest anti-virus software. Use applications and network services that are mature products and are proven stable, so that downtime does not interfere constantly with your business. Make sure that your network and computer terminals are operated in a secure manner and are protected from intruders both inside your company and out on the Internet. Keep all of your software up-to-date with the latest versions released from their vendors. Never forget that people who you trust can, accidentally or purposefully, wreck your computer equipment; make sure that your employees are trained to use your systems appropriately, have your personnel policies reflect your security goals, and keep unnecessary access away from those who do not need it.

That’s really all there is to it. As I said above, it’s best not to obsess over the details if you’re not in the IT business. The particulars of IT change constantly, and products generally get easier to use over time, not harder, so you have much to look forward as your business grows over time. Remember that the goals of new technology are to make your business simpler, easier, and more efficient. Keep your IT plans manageable and maintain your assets responsibly, and you will surely achieve those goals.

Staying competitive in today’s economy is becoming highly contingent on your mastery of your business productivity. There are thousands of resources online for business productivity and helpful applications, which can earn you an advantage over your competitors and help you serve your customers better. The problem is that there are thousands of resources! It’s hard to wade through all of them even if you know what you’re looking for, and most often small business owners need a little guidance to begin to know where to look for these tools. So, let’s help you fix that right now!

Accounting and Bookkeeping: Use Quicken to manage your accounting. Use TurboTax to do your tax filing (or, if your taxes are extremely complex, use the Yellow Pages online to look up a CPA or tax-preparation firm)

Finance: Talk to your bank about online banking programs and small business applications. Citibank and Bank of America have programs for small businesses to help them with common financial tasks such as payroll, check ledgers, and loans.

Word Processing and Spreadsheets: Google Docs and Spreadsheets make a fine replacement for Microsoft Word and Excel, although Google’s applications are not as feature-rich as the Microsoft Office Standards. However, if you’re composing simple documents and lists, the big advantage here is that you can store unlimited documents and data online, access those files anywhere an internet connection exists, and output the results into files compatible with Word and Excel when you’re ready! (This entry is being typed in Google Docs & Spreadsheets right now!) Documents and spreadsheets can also use online collaboration features that you could only get previously through a complicated networking setup for Microsoft Office, and it works great for project management over the web from remote locations.

Invoicing: Blinksale makes your invoicing easy and professional.

Office Supplies: Don’t poke through a printed catalog. Go to Staples.com

Communications: Use Google Apps for Your Domain to install Gmail and Google Talk on a hosted account. Gmail uses an extremely efficient email client over the web, accessible anywhere, and also has the ability to connect to your preferred email client software. Google Talk is a simple but efficient messaging application.

Marketing: visit marketing blogs such as Marktd to get ideas. Use a diagram application like Gliffy to visualize your strategies. Use Paint.NET or The GIMP for your graphic design. Use Google Docs and Spreadsheets for your copywriting. Use ConstantContact for email marketing services.

Research: if you ever need information, it’s Google, Google, Google! Also, check out Wikipedia when researching a topic (Wikipedia is open to be edited by anyone, so it is recommended that you use Wikipedia articles to gain a starting point only for information on an in-depth topic) and look on About.com for practical everyday information. And if you want to be more thorough in your searches, you can use search engines at Yahoo!, MSN Search, and Ask.com.

Have any other small business resources to share? Post them in the comments section!

Advertising online can be very similar to advertising in traditional forms of media, with some key differences. Advertising, after all, is the process of communicating your business to potential customers. Just as in print, online media includes forms of widespread messaging through ad products in mass-media publications; targeted advertising using customer databases; and viral communication schemes such as publicity efforts and grassroots campaigns. There is nothing novel about the message; a direct email campaign is not much different from a direct mail campaign. However, you should certainly take advantage of the nuances of online media applications that make them so much more powerful than traditional media advertising products.

To advertise online effectively, you should use the power of networked computing resources and databases. With computer networks, many communication pathways are already established, and it is much simpler for readers and viewers to spread your message. With databases, you have a resource that can hold incredible amounts of data which can be efficiently output for bulk automated use or mathematically transformed into useful statistical figures. Many business owners can use these advantages of online communications to spend advertising budget dollars with a much greater efficiency than their traditional media counterparts.

For many business owners, though, online advertising is not a total replacement for existing traditional media advertising products. Many leading business experts advise that you cut your overall advertising budget! It is generally good practice to shift away from print media and outdoor advertising in favor of web banner ads and search engine contextual advertising, which are generally very cheap. But you should see it as a diversification move, just like you would diversify a financial investment portfolio. Overall, online ads are more efficient (although not as widely viewed by particular demographic groups) and allow you to trim your budget or reach more viewers. I would advise, personally, that you aim for efficiency, because advertising is generally not effective enough for you to build a successful business in modern times - not on its own, anyway. Concentrate on referrals for communicating messages, and build your products so that they sell themselves. Keep your advertising budget modest, focus on research before executing an advertising plan, and aim for high efficiency rather than wide reach (wide reach will end up making you pay for talking to people who don’t need or can’t use your services).

One more piece of critical advice: always be presentable. Do not settle for lowbrow media and shady techniques. Sure, it’s tempting to go with a spammer who may put your message in millions of email boxes, or sign up with a pop-up ad provider, or include your message on high traffic websites amidst ads for gambling and pornography. Those options look very attractive to the non-discerning entrepreneur. My advice is for you to stay away. Stay far, far away. Closely review any sites which may host your advertising to see if there are offensive or unprofessional messages within. Do not degrade your brand and your products to a mass audience in any way by dealing with unsavory advertising products, because the damage is near irreversible. If you have a quality business offering, be confident that, through traditional online (and traditional media) advertising products, it will sell itself.

The online world may be fast-paced, but many of the advanced users are taking the time as writers to sharpen every nuance of their communications… and many readers are acutely aware of those nuances, especially when someone makes a mistake! Your compositions and communications represent you and your business at all times; it may sound intimidating, but perfection is expected! Your emails, published articles, promotional materials, stationery, podcast dialogue, design mockups, legal documents, reports, proposals, help requests, and interoffice memos (virtually any form of communication) must be presentable and well-composed – and perhaps doubly reviewed and proofread before they are published or used – or your credibility and brand will suffer. Here are things to which you should pay particular attention:

• Spelling and grammar: Casual mangling of the English language has been tolerated over the years, and with good reason; in the past, it was hard to correct mistakes. Also, perfect diction and spelling used to be exclusively reserved to English teachers; the rest of us could always guess what you meant without snarking at the fine details of usage and accuracy. This, however, no longer applies in the age of the word processor. All work should be proofread to be grammatically correct and perfectly spelled. Fortunately, most everyone has access to a spell checker + grammar checker in Microsoft Word, and those who don’t can find free alternatives on the Internet.
• Capitalization: along with proper use according to English grammar, overuse of capitalization has an additional context in modern communications: shouting at the reader! UNLESS YOU WANT TO SHOUT AT THE PERSON READING YOUR COMPOSITION, it is best to be mindful of your use of the Caps Lock key.
• Brevity: as a sufferer of extra-fast-mouth syndrome, I can tell you that it can hurt to be long-winded. Keep your communication points brief and your details spare whenever possible.
• One way you can improve the quality of your writing is to generously use images, photographs, and data charts to represent key points, saving awkwardly long explanations. Plus, it breaks up your work for the reader, making it easier to digest. Finally, some ideas are simply better expressed visually.
• Don’t forget the power of the Internet! Share links to information resources in your work to provide citations, cut down the length of your own explanations, or simply to provide a service to the reader.