In this episode we discuss some different networking and marketing tips. From using toastmasters to meet other people to find out that our bank has monthly networking events.
A tip is to keep trying different types of marketing. For example internet radio ads didn’t produce results for us and neither did impression advertising.
Sponsoring different groups has produced results and more than just new customers.
Maybe you should try offering an affilate marketing program. How much would you pay someone for a successful lead? Can you help another company who in turn can help you?
Can you get free products to review for companies?
Advertise on other web sites, try PPC (pay per click advertising) your ads can show up today.
Craigs list is free so that is something to try!
Have you setup a retargeting campaign to show ads to people who have visited your site? Want to learn how to setup a retargeting campaign then watch this video:
In this episode we discuss the benefit of creating your own business being its value because you built it. You can sell your business after X number of years. What can you get after working for someone else. What job can you get with a pension? More than likely you are not going to find a job that provides you a pension. Owning a business is also creating a nest egg for your retirement. So I’d say if you are asking “How to save for retirement?” I say you should own a business. You can start your own or buy an existing one.
Maybe you can buy a business to get a jump start here is one site that lists businesses for sale. You might also buy a business to grow your business.
Can you turn your hobby into a side business? Custom buildings? Tax returns?
Do you have a passion you can turn into a business?
Are you someone who posts a lot on social sites? Maybe you should start a blog or website of your own. Example maybe you are into documenting your race car work. Start posting all your photos and how to information on your own site or blog. Then you can advertise on the site with something like google’s adsense or affilate links etc.
You can offer your services on craigslist.com today for free!
Action is key so take some action!
If you know someone who owns their own business and you think they would make a good interview let me know.
This is our first interview and I’m honored that it is with my dad. I’ve been wanting to add interviews to this podcast to get insight into others who work for themselves. My dad is an work from home accountant. He spent 27 years in other fields before he decided to work for himself. Having a dad who worked for himself made me realize that I to could work for myself. So if you don’t have a parent who did that accept my dad as proof that you can work for yourself.
We explore what he does for companies, what it takes to work for yourself as well as what he sees in successful businesses along with a bit of history of his journey.
If you have thought about wanting to be a self employed person check it out. If you are an accountant or know one who might enjoy working for themselves share this interview.
My dad continues to get new clients without a website!
This episode covers the importance of small business customer service. I believe it has been a key to retaining customers. Do you provide your customers a way to contact you or someone else in case of an emergency? I was up at 3:30 the other morning when a client called because their website was down. I like to sleep but I also like my clients to be sleep so I’m willing to help them.
Are you giving your clients your contact information in every email you send? How about on every invoice you send?
Should you use a call center to ensure a person will always answer the phone and route the emergency calls to your or a team member?
What are on page SEO items? The content on your webpages which you or your web designer controls which includes the text that shows up as well as the text that makes the page that you only see when you view source. Text you see includes the title of the page as well as the ‘alt’ tags you see (in some browsers) when you place your mouse over an image. How do you think google knows how to show you images of barns or apples? Probably from the meta tags on those images.
Not discussed here are links to your site. Quality links are helpful beware of buying ‘junk’ links to your site. As of early in 2012 the search engines no longer count those links and may punish you for them.
See more below
Overview
Search engines read text, so focusing your text on each page to the keywords or phrases you care about is key. Search engines do not read text on pictures/images so make as much of your text on your site actual text.
How to view the competition and your own site
How to View the Source Code of a web page
Firefox: Right Click on text on the webpage and select “View Page Source”
Internet Explorer: Right Click on text on the webpage and select “View Source”
Now that you are looking at the source code look for search for the following items.
How to view the metatags – Look for <meta….
View Meta Keywords – Look for <meta name=”keywords” …. Your site should have this
View Meta Description – Look for <meta name=”description” … Your site should have this
View indexed pages – for Google.com enter site:RiptideHosting.com
Another handy plugin for Firefox is: Quirk SearchStatus Thanks JackSpirko.com for the tip to install the Quirk SearchStatus. Visit Jack’s site for great podcasts on business.
The items I mention below should be on all of your pages.
Each of your pages should be focused on a group of keywords/key phrases.
Metatags
Keywords
Description
Page Content
Page Title (The text that shows at the top of your site)
<H1>, <H2> or <H3> Tags for your main sections
Image “alt” tags example <img src=”/img/one.jpg” alt=”Description of image”
You want to add relevant content on your site that visitors will like or find helpful. Search engines like content so the more content you can add the better. Adding content on a regular basis will keep the search engines coming back to look for the new content. The better the content the more likely other sites will link to your site.
Today I talk about the experience I gained by working for small companies. I think working for small companies really helped me gain the know how and experience to start and run a small business.
Seeing what the business owners were doing and not doing gave me the confidence to try it myself. Working for many small companies will give you more flexibility to start you own business on the side.
I bought my first rental condo around 2002 and since then have added another. Along the way I started a real estate company with my best friend in Texas where we have flipped and house, bought quite a few pieces of real estate and added more rentals.
I’ve always liked the thought of owning a lot of land and still check what is for sale most days. Zillow.com is one of my favorite resources.
I share what has worked and what has not worked for us. As always you will learn if you take action. We sure have and have survived to buy another day.
Topics covered:
Flipping a home and getting rich quick
Rentals – condo’s vs. homes and can you get 1% or 2%+ for rent? All about cash flow
Buying tax foreclosures or any real estate in this market – it is all about your purchase price (we like 50% of tax value)
Paying year 2000 or previous prices in today’s market
HOAs – the draw backs (the positive they cover things like insurance and maintenance on the structure)
Leverage – getting a loan to cover most of the purchase amount
Selling your home every couple of years if it appreciates because you can keep $250,000 (single person)or $500,000 (married) TAX free.
Using Zillow.com to track pricing
Diversifying by adding real estate to your holdings
At this point we are focused on property we can rent vs. property we can flip – very much like “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” recommends.
Repeat after me “Rental income is Residual income”, “Rental income is Residual income”….
I co-founded and have run a web hosting company (RiptideHosting.com) for more than 10 years. Today I cover some of the topics of how to compare web hosting. I do not cover shared hosting but rather how to ensure you are getting the redundancy necessary to ensure your site/application is up and running all the time.
Today I review how you compare complex web hosting options such as:
Data center comparison (redundancy N+1) Power,Internet Connectivity, Cooling
Monitoring – are you monitoring to make sure your website is online and available?
Backup – do you have your files backed up, what if the data center or web hosting company disappeared?
And much more
I forgot to talk about support – depending on your level of expertise you may need technical help but at a minimum I suggest you look for the following
24/7 onsite support – is someone there at all times to physically look at your server in case there is an issue with the hardware and something needs to be replaced or maybe your server needs to be turned back on.
Does someone answer the phone when you call? With smaller companies like ours the customers get to talk with the same people for sales and for support.
Once you find a data center / web hosting company that can keep your server online it is up to you to secure it so as a hacker does not take your server off line.
