What Determines My Site’s Trust Rating?

February 13th, 2012

When you are trying to make money online, one thing that will be important is that you understand as much about search engines as you can – and as you start to dig a bit deeper (beyond just the things that you will usually come across in regards to SEO), one thing you will come across is the concept of “trust rating”; quite simply, your trust rating is a search engine’s measurement of how trustworthy they deem your site to be, and although you will not be able to see your trust rating yourself, you can know the things that will help you improve your trust rating.

How old your site is will be the first thing that will have an impact on your trust rating; of course, this might lead you to believe you can do nothing but “sit around and wait” in order to take advantage of this aspect of trust ratings, but one thing to realize – if you are setting up websites for search engine marketing purposes – is that you can actually buy expired domains and inherit the majority of the trust rating boost that domain gets from its age!

The second thing to be aware of is the fact that inbound links will go a long way in helping out your trust rating – but unlike your placement on SERPs, where inbound links will be weighted based on quality, inbound links in regards to trust ratings are largely based on quantity; gather more inbound links, and you will do more for your trust rating!

Learn absolutely everything you need to know about making money through SEO!

In an exploration of trust rating, the third thing to look at is your outbound links (which, unlike the first two, is something you can control directly!); if you are linking to sites that search engines have deemed to be lacking in quality, this will have a negative effect on your trust rating, but if you are linking to sites that have a high level of respect from search engines, this will cause your site to appear more trustworthy as well.

And finally, the content of the website itself will have a lot to do with your trust rating; if your site has lots of pop-ups and pop-unders, you are going to lose points on your trust rating – which means you will have to work that much harder in other aspects of SEO in order to overcome this!

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Live
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace

Successfully “Work From Home” By Working Away From Home

February 5th, 2012

Working from home can be a dream come true for many people – until they actually start to do it, and find it is more difficult than they thought! You have to be disciplined when you work from home – which is one of the most difficult parts of the job! After all, if you do not focus when it is time to work during the day, you may end up working well into the evening trying to get this work finished! And if you begin working at home, you may actually find that not being home is sometimes the best way to “work from home.”

Work From Home Opportunities!

You will need to make sure you go to a place that has internet when it comes to picking from all the available places that are good for working. After all, if you are doing work that allows you to work from home, chances are pretty good that you will need a connection to the internet.

Finding internet is not usually the problem, as there are plenty of places – such as Panera, Borders, and Barnes & Noble – that offer internet; but you should always test the internet out. Oftentimes, the internet can be unreliable at these places where so many people can use the internet at once. What you will probably find is that the best internet connection is at such places as Panera Bread Company or Atlanta Bread Company – during the time of day not considered “peak hours.” “Peak hours” usually come right around lunch time – between about 11 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. Considering that this is right in the middle of the day, this might seem inconvenient, but it is actually perfect! After all, you can end up in the same “work rut” if you work in the same place every day, all day as you could end up in at home!

Work From Your Own Home Office!

When you work from home, you should typically try to work from home as much as you can. But you should know which places around you have good internet – and should know what time of day they have good internet; this will allow you to “escape” to these places whenever it gets tough to focus at home!

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Live
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace

Staying Visible Online

January 24th, 2012

One of the most important elements that will contribute to the success or failure of your business will be your success or failure in staying visible online. After all, more and more people are spending more and more of their time online, and if you are not “where the people are,” you will fail to remain in their minds – and of course, without remaining in customers’ minds, you will no longer be relevant to them!

The most important thing to realize about staying visible to your customers online is that you need to be consistent in your online activity; this means that you need to update your website regularly, and you need to engage your readers in conversation through such tools as Twitter and a company blog.

A lot of companies make the mistake of only Tweeting and providing content that relates to the business, but the last thing your customers want to do is hear about your business all the time; instead, you need to create the sense that your company – as an entity – is a “friend” of your customers, instead of being just a company, by engaging them in topics that are of interest to them.

Internet Marketing Software

A great idea is to post weekly polls on your website that only vaguely have anything to do with your company (or that have nothing to do with your company at all!), as people will enjoy visiting your site each week to vote on the poll.

Another great idea is to inject humor into the places your customers are regularly visiting – your blog, your website, your Twitter, or your facebook page – as this will keep a semblance of levity in your business dealings.

Once you get into the habit of “staying visible online,” you will find that you are able to accomplish this in only a few hours of work each week – and these few hours of work will pay huge dividends for your business down the road!

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Live
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace

Tips For Managing Upset Customers

January 22nd, 2012

When you run a business, one of the keys to reaching success will be making sure that you know how to manage customers who are upset, or who have a complaint about the way they have been handled by you, your employees, or your company. When a customer is upset with you, they will be able to ruin some of your business prospects if their complaint is legitimate, and if they share their complaint with others, but when you are able to fix a situation with an upset customer, they will often be so impressed with the way you handled things that they will end up sending more customers your way!

Regardless of whether you feel their complaint is legitimate or not, the first thing you need to do is to acknowledge the problem; when you acknowledge that their complaint and convey that you understand the complaint, you will be on the right path to making the situation better.

The next step is working to resolve the problem – but the mistake that many people make when trying to resolve a problem with a customer is that they allow the customer to dictate the terms of the resolution. It can be difficult to maintain the balance between keeping the power in your hands and still being helpful, but this is an importance balance to maintain – otherwise, you may end up with a customer who is not satisfied no matter what you do.

And finally, you need to recognize that there will, in fact, be customers who are not going to be satisfied no matter what you do; these are the customers who tend to complain with every company they deal with, and the best way to deal with such customers is to do the best you can and then send them on their way!

Managing upset customers is not always easy, but it is one of the most important aspects of keeping your business in good shape – and when you can start to do this effectively, you will maximize the positive news that customers spread about your company.

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Live
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace

Knowing Where To Advertise On The Radio

January 20th, 2012

Advertising is one of the most important ways by which you can turn your small business into a thriving, money-making machine. And even though radio advertising is one of the best ways to advertise, it can also be one of the most pointless ways if you do not know what you are doing. One of the most important things – when it comes to “knowing what you are doing” – is to know what your target market is if you want to advertise successfully.

Even though there are a lot of resources that will help you know which demographics are listening to which stations, you will need to know which demographic you should go after before this will help you. For instance, if you are thinking of advertising on the radio and you are a dentist, you might think that advertising on a sports radio program is a good idea. After all, men are always listening to sports radio, and you have just as many male patients as you have female patients. But once you start paying closer attention, you might find that you are actually better off advertising on one of the stations the women listen to, as it is often the women who are calling to make these appointments for the men.

Even after you narrow things down to the demographic you hope to target with your ad, you will need to make sure you know how to appeal to them. Many people try to create their own radio ads, and then they wonder why the ads end up being completely ineffective. But just as you are an expert at what you do, there are people who are experts at crafting radio ads that are both catchy and effective. Rather than trying to take the radio advertising into your own hands, you will be much better off hiring such people and ensuring results.

Finally, rather than having someone in the back room of your business try to distribute the ads, hire an ad agency that specializes in accomplishing this task. These ad agencies will be able to track the number of times your ad was played, the times of day your ad was played, and the response; in this way, radio advertising can become a truly effective tool!

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • Twitter
  • Technorati
  • Live
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace