Below are 10 head-smakin’ reasons to small business owners should blog

In order to get the article noticed by the right people it is important to have the right structure as well as the proper content.  A good story that is easy to understand will do more to catch the eyes of reporters, magazine editors and website managers.

Here are some guidelines for preparing a Hudson Valley press release.

Press Release Content

There is an old rule of thumb that applies to every press release.  Tell the people the nuts and bolts of the story and skip the sales pitch or the self serving drivel.  The content should clearly answer the who, what, when, where and why about the service, goods or company.  If all of that is not communicated clearly the story stands no chance of getting attention.

Writing a Headline for your Press Release

People should be able to glance at the headline, read the introductory sentence and have a clear idea of the entire story.  The rest of the writing is basically supporting details and explanatory information.  Above all else, the headline needs to reach out and grab the audience.

Necessary Press Release Items

In order to make the proper people aware of a press release it should have the following items:

• The slogan “For Immediate Release’
  
• Contact data – Company name, primary contact’s name, email, website
• Headline – Keep the length to 150 characters or less.  Use proper punctuation and lower case letters as appropriate.  All upper case turns people off
• Secondary headline – Two short sentences that offers a summary of the entire story.
• Current date along with the city and state where the story originated.
• First paragraph – In the first paragraph the essential items need to be covered.
• Second and subsequent paragraphs – The remaining paragraphs can provide any relevant quotes, comments from happy customers, a background of the story, and any important figures.
• Company or personal data – This is where the detailed information about the focal point of the story will go.  This is the type of information that will appear immediately before the finishing point of the press release.
• Symbol Use – When you have finished the press release use this symbol, ###, to notify the reader they have reached the end.
• Stick to the Facts - Always use verifiable facts.  Stay away from lengthy opinions or adjectives.  Hype has no place in a press release.
• Be Energetic – Write with action tense words, not passive.  This makes the release sound more energetic.

Using these suggestions as a guideline makes sure that the entire release does not go longer than one page.  Send it out to as many sources as possible and reap the benefits of a well designed press release.

Develop a Solid Community Network

One way to start meeting new clients and partners is to attend one of the many network meetings going on in the area.  Meeting new people and learning more about the individuals around you can open up a wealth of opportunities to find a new client, peer or even a mentor.  Several websites are devoted to helping people find like minded individuals and form a focused group.

Stake Your Claim on the Web

A website is the single best way to let the world know all about your unique abilities and the passion you have for a particular cause. Through updated videos and photos, as well as a consistent blog, your target audience can get to know you and understand what makes you tick and how you can help them.  Let everyone know about your website: friends, co-workers, relatives and peers should all be on your list of folks to email on a fairly regular basis.

Try Out New Strategies and Tactics

When you are marketing online it should be enjoyable.  And nothing makes a task more interesting than to see a little success along the way.

Register an account with Google and investigate their Adwords tool.  Put together a tiny campaign and see how it goes.  You can read up on New York SEO strategies and work on getting one website to rank at first place for a set of keywords.

Stay Up to Date with New Methods

Do a little research and find the big names in the world of online marketing.  Then follow their blogs and read up on any recent published material they may have.  This gives you a chance to learn from the best in the business without spending a fortune.

As with any new endeavor, keep a positive attitude.  Staying focused and looking at the bright side of each new development will help you to increase your knowledge and make your tasks much easier.

Using a Website Design Company

When using a website designer, the company will look at the big picture of your business.  The idea is to understand what goods and services you currently offer and how you may look to expand in the future.  From this foundation the designer can explore the traits and habits of your ideal customer.  Having a firm picture of the ideal customer helps the designer implement the right attributes to the site in order to please the customer.  It also provides information that can be used in a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy in order to keep the sit ranking high for particular searches.

Selling Through the Website

One of the greatest advancements in the internet is the evolution of commerce.  People can easily buy almost anything their hearts desire through the web.  When you are talking to website developer, make sure you have the capability to handler orders through your site.  Whether it is a tangible product or a service, providing a way for people to give you money, 24 hours a day 7 days a week is an excellent way to boost revenue.  If you offer an assortment of goods you will want to display the different items on your site along with a description, details about shipping and the cost.  If you offer a service, such as commercial cleaning, you can provide a chart for your different prices, a contact form for people to request an appointment and even a miniature contract where customers can pay a retainer fee to hold your services for a particular time period.

Experienced and Qualified

All of this points to the fact that you need a qualified website builder who understands not only how to make a site but also how to maximize it for money making potential.

Your Hudson Valley Business Blueprint

There are numerous books covering the subject of preparing a well designed business plan.  This is the first thing that the loan officer will review.  They will want to see what kind of business you plan to start, the goods and services that will be offered, the structure of the business, plans for developing a base of clients, how you will obtain the goods for sale and much more.  If you are unsure about how to prepare this type of plan you can hire a professional who can walk you through the process and prepare a plan for you.

Requesting the Loan

After you have finished the business plan you can apply for the loan.  The lender will ask that you complete a loan proposal.  This information will cover several areas.

• General information about you, including experience
• The amount of the loan
• How the funds will be used for your business
• Your proposed schedule for repaying the loan
• A backup plan in case your initial strategy does not work

Fulfilling the Application Form

Most lenders will ask that a prospective new business complete a full application.  This is a form that is a requirement for the lender’s bookkeeping purposes.  In the event that the lender is audited and a question arises about a loan offered to you, the lender will need to offer proof that the loan was processed in a similar manner to all other loan applications.

It is important that all questions on the application are answered completely.  Provide any explanatory details to help clarify items in your past or information on your credit that may cause concern from the lender.  A truthful and upfront account will go a long ways towards proving your character with the lender.

Financial Records

For people that are starting a brand new business, a good rule of thumb is to approach the lender with your personal bank records from the most recent 24 months as well as the last two tax returns that you have filed.  This will demonstrate to the lender your financial responsibility and reliability.

If you have an existing company, you should include the records mentioned above plus the last two tax returns for the actual company.  Having all of this data organized and ready to go will make the process much easier on the lender.  The tax return will prove to the lender that the company is currently operating at a profit.  The personal records will show that you are the beneficiary of the company’s profits.

Personal Resume

Although not usually a requirement for a business loan, it can be a real boost to your overall presentation if you provide a detailed resume.  This can be especially helpful if you have considerable experience working in a certain industry and you have made the choice to start a new company in that same industry.  Along with your experience your resume can also show your accomplishments in various areas whether it is sales, management or any other business associated task.

Just like the Boy Scouts say, “Always Be Prepared.”  The more preparation you put into your loan application the better off you will be.

• Have all of your documents in an easy to understand order and nicely organized.
• Respond quickly to any request for more information or clarification of data.
• Dress like the successful person you wish to be.
• Do not spend a lot of time or effort worrying about a misplaced document or a forgotten item.  Explain that you will locate the necessary item and forward to the lender either by fax, email, or in person.

Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union Business Loans

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The service provided by the website designer will play a much bigger role in how your site is used, how many people can find it, and how much money it generates.

When dealing with a new website, the old adage “you get what you pay for” springs to mind.  People that are content to pay a cheap price for an average website will likely get cheap results.

Here are 10 items to consider when choosing a website designer.

1. Search Engine Optimization – The primary reason people have a website is to make it easier for customers to find.  A competent designer should understand the basics of how search engines work and what factors will contribute to a website ranking higher in searches.
2. Content – The information found on a website has a greater impact than other item.  Pretty graphics, instructional videos and keywords are nice.  But nothing compares to solid content that is useful to the user.
3. Social Media –Without a doubt the social media websites are the most popular items on the web today.  These types of sites can help spread the word about a company in a short time and increase awareness to a brand.  The website designer should be aware of this and take advantage of the different social sites in order to increase traffic.
4. Ease of Use – A site needs to be easy to use.  Customers want to find information or buy services and products with ease.  A site that caters to the desires of the customer will have a better reception among the targeted audience.
5. Documented success – You want to work with a website designer that has successfully developed multiple sites, not someone that is working on his first site.  Investigate the other sites the designer has developed and see if they have the qualities you are looking for.
6. Design process – Designing a site can take time.  In order to ensure that the work is progressing at an acceptable pace the designer should have a method that allows you to monitor the work and make sure that milestones are being met along the way.
7. Support – Computers occasionally have problems.  That is just a fact of life.  You want to be sure that when there is an issue with your website your designer is there to answer your questions and get things up and running once more.
8. E-commerce – Being able to accept payments from customers online is growing by leaps and bounds almost daily.  People enjoy the convenience of purchasing online and many people will switch to a different provider if their chosen provider does not accept online payments.  Having a web designer proficient in e-commerce is crucial for modern websites.
9. Design team – The people that design the actual features of each part of every page of the site should have considerable experience in the type of site that you want.
10. Development team – the team that takes the design and puts it together in a cohesive, workable site needs to understand your needs and preferences when putting everything together.

Following these tips as a reference will ensure that you choose a competent website developer that can understand your needs and put together a site that will ultimately make you money.

Links

Blogs are a prime source of new links that point to a particular site.  Search engines use these links to gauge the popularity of a site.  A blog that has useful content and provides good information to the readers will draw a loyal following over time.  The links that direct the visitors from the blog to the main company site will draw a lot of traffic to the site and help it rank higher among Google, Yahoo and other similar search sites.

Setting Up the Blog

Getting back to the topic for discussion, there are hosted sites such as WordPress or Blogger that offer a free spot for people to start up a new blog with just a few clicks of a mouse.  The other option is to download a blogging type of software onto a web server to use on your domain.     There are different ways to accomplish this strategy.

1. Create a new website domain for the blog (www.yourblog.com)
2. Place the blog in a subfolder of your primary site (www.companysite.com/yourblog)
3. Place the blog in a subdomain (blog.companysite.com)

Of the three options, the separate website domain for the blog is the best.  This will act as a completely different site that sends new links to your main company’s website and will generate the largest number of new links.

Subfolder is Second

Between the other two options, the subfolder is the better choice.  The links from the blog in the subfolder will add up in your primary site’s total link popularity, improving the ranks and ability for people to find the site.  The blog gives you the opportunity to build multiple links to multiple pages of your site.  This is a great way to have the entire site ranking well since each page is getting plenty of traffic from numerous links.

Avoid Two Blogs

Some people think that having a blog on a free site along with the blog on their own domain is best.  After all, this would mean two blogs sending multiple links back to the site, right?  However, do you really want to come up with two new and different blog posts every time you want to communicate with your customers?

1. Community Pride – Generally speaking, most local businesses like to lend their support to other local companies.  This attitude often leads to referrals among local companies making the community strong with commerce.
2. In person contact – Dealing with a local company gives you the chance to see the person face to face  and get to know them better.
3. Continual support – If your site is going to be in need of support on a monthly basis it may be a good idea to use the services of a local web designer.  The knowledge that the company will be there for you and that they are easily available makes the business dealings a lot more comfortable.
4. Help for the technically challenged – For those individuals that do not enjoy working with computer technology it can be a real challenge to put together a website.  By using a local company to produce the website, and keep up with the ever evolving changes in the technology field, business can take one more worry off their plate.
5. Knowledge of the area – Dealing with a design company in the area means that they will likely have information and knowledge of local trends and preferences.
6. Connections to the community – Working with the local website design company will give you access to local connections which could become important as you develop and grow your business.
7. Stronger business relationship – Working face to face with a local company fosters a stronger business relationship.

Working with a local company obviously is not the only available option.  However, for developing good relationships and fostering more connections in the local area it is one of the best options available for small business owners.

Today, there are millions of reporters, writers and experts that comment daily on almost every topic under the sun.  With so much information available it can be a daunting task to stay on top of everything.  And thus, the RSS was born.

Origin of RSS

The Really Simple Syndication (RSS) was first introduced by the company known as Netscape.  The idea was to capture the important headlines from across the web and list them as the news broke on their own sites.  Netscape originally wanted to delve into the portal industry but they abandoned the RSS when the portal business did not turn a profit.

From that point the company UserLand Software acquired the existing version of RSS and began using it.  The improved over the original versions several times while a non-commercial company began adapting RSS for different needs and eventually introduced the RSS 1.0.  However, UserLand did not appreciate the competition so they went to work on really putting their own design stamp on the software and ultimately introduced RSS 2.0.

How RSS Works

RSS is simple to use and it works extremely well for keeping in the loop on any topic.  This is the basic workings of RSS.

1. RSS is composed of XML, a mark up language used to prepared documents for the internet.
2. Every document has the <rss> element first.
3. After the rss element is the <channel> element that holds the data of the RSS
4. The <title> element may be the title of the actual document or it could be a title for the whole website.
5. The URL for the web page is listed in the <link> element.  It might be a link to a website or just one particular item.
6. The description of the RSS feed is provided in the <description> element.
7. The <item> element is where you see all the important stuff.  The links, headlines and descriptions are in the item and show up in the feeder system.

It is possible to use this list to create an RSS feed of any site.  However, this can include a tremendous amount of work.  A tool, like Weblog, can simplify the process and make it easier and automatic.

1. Keyword Research – This is the leg work of finding out what terms people are using to find a particular site.
2. Keyword Usage – Once the proper phrases and words have been determined it is important that those words are put in the title tag of the webpage and a couple of times in the content listed on the page.
3. Links – Once the keywords are placed in the proper places it is necessary to get more links from other sites to your web pages.

Here are 9 tactics that website owners can use to also help increase their SEO rankings.

1. Content – Providing good information that is easy to read and helpful will do a lot to improve the chances that people find your site.  It is important to understand your target audience and focus on them with appropriate phrases.  This will allow you to get more traffic from a niche search.  People that are looking for information in a niche are more informed and likely more prone to purchase.  For instance, the term “dogs” is a broad category that can encompass a whole world of information.  However, the phrase “Teach your dog to sit and stay” is much more specific.  Someone that types in this phrase obviously understands the information that they need and is more likely to pay for that information.
2. Avoid hyped up scenarios – Some SEO experts will claim that they can submit a website to hundreds of different search engines.  In all honesty there are just a couple of primary companies: There are other search engines out there but none of them really stack up to the big two/three.  The promise that thousands of new search engines will be used to flood your site with a drove of new customers is just a lot of empty promises.
3. Don’t be a copy cat – In the computer world some people have learned tricks and tips of copying a website to make their site look very similar to a site that is ranking high among the search engines.  This tactic is called Black Hat and can be costly.  Once the major search engines realize your site is a copy of another’s then your site will be removed from their searches all together and nobody will ever be able to find your site.
4. Optimize everything – Search engines are becoming more sophisticated.  Instead of just looking at the title of the page, the searches look at the title, the page content, captions for photos and descriptions for video.  Everything on the website should be designed so that any piece of a site ranks well in the engines.
5. Using Video sites and photo sites – The video site Youtube has been a great boost in helping a site rank high in searches.  Humorous, odd and just plain quirky videos of 2 or 3 minutes are a great way to make a lasting impression on people.  The videos can be made with almost any video camera or even a digital camera that has a video option.  Be sure to include a link to your site in the video and in the description as well.  Photo sharing sites like Flickr, Photobucket and Snapfish can accomplish the same goal.  Putting up photos of products with a humorous caption that includes your website can help people find you as well.
6. Wikipedia is a friend – Post a detailed article about your company and list it on Wikipedia.  Many people have begun using this resource as their “go to” spot for finding information quickly.
7. Proper titles – The title of your main page should not be the name of your company.  Instead, use the key words that were found in your research.  People don’t know the name of your company when they are searching for a product or service.
8. Make sure variations on your website name point to the right direction – Sometimes different websites have what appear to be identical titles.  For instance, http://www.yourbusiness.com looks a lot like http://yourbusiness.com.  However, the search engines may see these as two different sites and accuse both of them of copying the other.  This will get the site banned to no man’s land.  Make sure both variations point to the right place to avoid the confusion and potential harm.
9. Build referrals – Make it simple for people to tell their friends and online connections about your site.  Social site bookmarks and referral links are a great way to spread the news about your company and build up new clients with ease.