May 19th, 2008
This is a follow up to the extremely popular post regarding using website tracking software. I would love to know if you are using any software of this kind. Feel free to express your view in this polll or check out the post here.
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May 16th, 2008
Companies take out insurance policies to protect themselves against fires, theft and acts of God. They make sure that their employees are well looked after and try to keep employee retention high. When you consider all the effort undertaken to protect these important assets of the company, then the question must be asked… “Why don’t companies look after their reputation?”
If you think your building or your employees are important to your business, then you are correct. A financial or natural disaster can really affect a company negatively, but it is very possible to recover from these, however, a reputational disaster is almost impossible to recover from. There is plenty of evidence to support this and many companies have been ruined due to bad reputation management. The purpose of this post is to help business owners to understand that money is not everything and that sometimes it is more important to make sure that the reputation of the company remains intact even if it means that you have to go above and beyond what is expected from the customer.
By making sure that your image and reputation are intact and that your company is actually investing in the improvement of its image you can make sure your company is on track to success. Yes, I did say investing… I said investing because it will require effort, time and sometimes money to build your reputation. A good reputation does not guarantee financial success but there is no reported incidence of a good reputation having a negative effect on a company.
You need to make sure that everything you do and say does not harm your reputation because a single bad move can ruin the image of your organization, built up over years and years. A fantastic innovation by an interent marketing company called Quirk is called BrandsEye which is sophisticated software which tracks your online reputation and how your brand is perceived on the internet. If you want to monitor your online reputation then I highly recommend checking out BrandsEye.
I hope that this information is useful to you and that you found it interesting. If you have any opinions or would like to comment, please feel free to do so.
May 14th, 2008
I have been using Google analytics for my websites for over two years and I have to say that it has been an extremely useful tool. It is enormously powerful in that you are able to view just about any statistic you can think of, regarding your site.
You may ask why you need to make use of a service like Google Analytics. Well, the simple answer is you don’t have to use it, but I would highly recommend using it if you are serious about being successful in your business venture. You can always achieve better results, in any business activity when you are able to receive feedback. Now, in a bricks and mortar environment, if you wanted feedback from clients you would need to send them a survey or give them a call, but for us in the online world this process can be vastly simplified through tracking your website.
If you are able to see how many people are viewing your website and for how long, as well as from what countries, you can serve your customers better. You can identify problems or weak spots on your website and then fix them. Imagine that you sell apples on your site and that you are tracking your visitors. You notice that many people reach the checkout page and then do not complete the sale. Obviously this is a problem because something is stopping them from completing the sale, you then need to look at improving or streaming your checkout page to make it easier for customers to buy your apples. Now, if you weren’t tracking your visitors and analyzing the data, you would never have know that there was a problem with the checkout page and you would have continued losing valuable business!
That small example above is the essence of the argument for using website tracking software. I recommend Google Analytics because it is extremely comprehensive and it is free, plus it can be integrated with a Google Adwords campaign. If you would like to recommend a different website or give a give your opinion, please feel free to leave a comment.
(Images from Google Analytics)
May 12th, 2008If you’re thinking of starting your own business but lack the skills to do the design, programming or anything else you might need, you may want to think of outsourcing. I have come across some really great websites which I have used to great effect.
ScriptLance is an excellent example of an IT Outsourcing website where you can find just about any skill that you need. What’s great about this website is that you get relevent experts to bid on your specific project and then you can choose who you think has the best skills to complete your project. It’s a great website to use if you are on a budget.
Elance is another example of a very good outsourcing website, it covers a quite a bit more than just IT, you can have business cards designed, pamphlets and most other design elements you might need. This site caters more for individuals with a greater budget and more specific requirements.
Well, those are just two examples of the types of websites out there. If you know of any other great sites out there and would like to reccommend them, just let me know or add a comment below.
May 6th, 2008
Starting your own business can be a rather daunting affair, but with the right kind of guidance and motivation, it’s not as difficult as it seems.A lot of your success will depend on your approach it this new venture of yours. First of all, will it be something that you really enjoy doing? Secondly, do you have the necessary skills to make a success out of it? Thirdly, do you have a plan?
This second point I made is not as vital as the first because as you might know, wherever a good idea is, skills and money will follow, but planning is key to your new venture. If all your plans are up in your head, that’s great…but get them on paper as soon as possible. Almost 90% of new businesses fail within in their first year; this is mostly due to a lack of planning.
Ok, so you are passionate about your idea, you have the necessary skills and you have done some extensive planning, now what? Well, you might say let’s go out and do it, but there are still quite a few things you need to cover. Having a plan is great, but is your plan good enough? The only way to find out is to ask someone. If you need some help or just a little bit of advice, feel free to check out what I have to offer. Services.
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