Away Marketing - Small Business Marketing and Technology

Quickbooks Online vs Quickbooks Desktop 2010

2011-03-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

So, I recently tried to switch a client from Quickbooks Desktop 2010 over to Quickbooks Online and it didn't go really well. The tax settings in QB Online are very minimalist. Luckily, they only do a service that's taxable once a week or so, so we may still be able to get it to work for them. Anyway, if you are thinking about making the switch, thoroughly investigate the tax configurations to make sure it will work for you. Personally, I've been using Freshbooks, and I've loved it. The only down side is that they are not really geared up for accounting on a large scale yet. I think when they get there it will be a great product and everyone will be making the switch.

Favorite Software for Small Business

2011-01-10T06:24:00.000-08:00

Google Apps, free edition, for email, contact management, calendaring and online.
Freshbooks for accounting. (still in the testing phase, but so far I really like it!)
Google Voice for all of the phone features and savings that you've been doing without all these years.
Google Analytics
Google, Microsoft Search Engine Ads to replace those Yellow Pages ads, billboards, and radio jingles.
Picasa for editing, uploading, sharing photos.

Photo by ShaneGlobal

Progress of Gilberthomes.com

2009-07-25T10:40:00.000-07:00

Well, I just submitted gilberthomes.com to Google a couple of weeks ago and so far I've had 30 search engine hits. My best performing keyword is "gilbert homes," followed by "gilbert homes for sale," and "gilbert az homes." For whatever reason, Yahoo is giving me really good listings for those terms, while Google is putting me further down the page for those keywords that I'm really going after. Google has, however, listed me high for queries related to information about the Town of Gilbert, Gilbert schools, Gilbert recreation, and things of that nature. My plan of attack for gilberthomes.com is two-fold:

Exchange links with local, Gilbert-based companies and non-Gilbert-based real estate companies.
Build a lot of good content. To do this, I'm lining up bloggers (I've found a mortgage broker to write) and I'm writing positive articles about local businesses

Anyway, I've got a long road ahead because I'll probably have to start getting 30 search engine hits per day before I start getting any real leads. Initial results are promising though, and the good thing is that realtors love to exchange links, so that should be the easy part. Initially, I thought it would take me 90 days to start getting leads, but now I think it may only take 30 more days (I guess that makes 50 total).

Gilbert Homes for Sale

2009-07-13T09:30:00.000-07:00

So my latest project is selling real estate. I have been working hard since October of 2008 to acquire a good domain name, and I've finally settled on, and acquired the domain name "gilberthomes.com." According to Google, the term "gilbert homes" is queried 74,000 times per month. Other interesting facts about Gilbert:

As of July 13th, 2,228 houses have been sold in the town of Gilbert, Arizona
The average sale price in Gilbert this year has been $221,923
A 3% commission on a $221,923 home sale in Gilbert is $6,657.69
There are 1,670 homes on the market right now in Gilbert, Arizona

Anyway, the point is that if I can just figure out a way to dominate the Gilbert market on the internet, I can't help but sell some houses, and that can only be good for my pocketbook. So I went to real estate school, got my license (that's about as hard as applying for a bus pass) and activated with M & B Realty in Gilbert. Now I have my keycode access, a few leads, and a lot of ambition.

Useful Phoenix-area Resources

2009-07-10T22:18:00.001-07:00

Entertaining Vacation Site: Here's a fun site started for people who have recently found themselves out of work: My Economy Vacation My Economy Vacation.com is a website dedicated to helping bring a smile to those who are unemployed, laid off, job searching or living life on a budget. Read economy survival stories and gain access to a shared resource of tips and tools to survive the current economic crisis.

Email Marketing Seminars

2009-06-10T15:25:00.000-07:00

Check out Ron Cates' excellent email marketing seminar right here in Phoenix if you get a chance.

Google Analytics is one of the best analytics tools available.

2009-05-29T16:38:00.000-07:00

And it's free!

http://analytics.blogspot.com/2009/05/top-ten-myths-about-google-analytics.html

Google's Exciting New Release

2009-05-29T11:02:00.000-07:00

My prediction is that Google Wave will become the one-stop shop for all forms of online communication and collaboration from social networking to project management. It was only announced and demo'd yesterday, and won't be released until later this year, but it is a very exciting product. Check out the creators on this video:

http://mashable.com/2009/05/28/google-wave-guide/
http://mashable.com/2009/05/28/google-wave/

Association Memberships

2009-04-15T18:59:00.000-07:00

I just found this amazingly insightful article on how to make association memberships work for you by Wendy Nelson Kenney, and wanted to share:

http://23kazoos.com/2009/04/12/how-to-profit-from-association-memberships/#respond

Partnering with Constant Contact

2009-04-14T11:18:00.000-07:00

As of April 13th, 2009, Away Marketing has become a partner with Constant Contact. The main advantage of this partnership is that it allows me to more easily manage your email campaigns. It also makes higher levels of training and information available to me so that I can more fully accomodate my clients. If you are interested in getting started with email marketing, Constant Contact is by far the best email marketing firm out there. Remember, though, that Constant Contact is not a spam company. They won't sell you email addresses and they won't let you use email addresses unless you have a prior business relationship with the addressees. The purpose of email marketing is to keep in touch with your customers and potential customers to produce new business and referrals. It's meant to keep them from forgetting about you.

E-mail Marketing

2009-04-09T16:18:00.000-07:00

Today I attended a lecture by Ron Cates of Constant Contact, and it was very informative. If you don't know, he's basically the chief email marketing guru at the biggest, most established email marketing firm in the world. If you get a chance to go to one of his seminars it could really change the way you do business, especially when it comes to dealing with your customers. Fortunately for us, he happens to live here in Phoenix so he often makes himself available to smaller groups, whereas he normally lectures to audiences of several thousand. This guy is the expert at keeping a dialogue with your customers that will lead to return business and referrals in abundance.

A lot of people don't know that buying and building lists and sending emails to people you don't know is actually considered spamming, not email marketing. Interestingly, spamming is illegal, and you will be blacklisted for doing it. Email marketing, on the other hand, is the process of sending your customers and business contacts informative newsletters and special offers in an effort to generate return business and referrals. When done effectively, it can be 20 times more cost-effective than direct mail, and it can lead to a lot of business. The most important thing is that you maintain a relationship with your customers, and don't lose them to other vendors who are constantly competing for their attention. The bottom line is that if you are hesitant to ask your customers for their email addresses and you don't want to send them emails, we need to talk.

Climbing Trees on News Channel 3

2009-04-02T08:24:00.000-07:00

It's always good to see a client in the news, and one of my clients, Dan Stevens, of Living Tree Service, Inc. has been getting more than his share of press lately. The thing I've noticed about reporters is that they want a story; they're not there just to give you free advertising, so you have to be creative. Dan's press appeal comes from the fact that he not only trims trees, but he is a world-class tree climbing competitor, having won the Arizona state competition twice, and having come close to winning the Western Chapter competition a few times. Here is a link to his News Channel 3 interview, and here is a link to all of his press and competition stuff.

These competitions have been really good for their business. They started their tree service in November of 2007, and it's been one of the few businesses I know of that has thrived in this downturn. People take notice when you care about your work and your customers, and they know when they're dealing with the best. It's a pleasure to do advertising for a company with such a great story to tell.

Right now my main concern for them is making sure they have a plan for growth and are able to meet the demand during summertime, the busy season for tree companies, because they are already slammed, and it's not nearly in full swing.

Altitude Content Work & Ad Campaign

2009-04-01T22:59:00.000-07:00

When Altitude hired me, they already had a website, and had sold some product, but hadn't been really successful online. Their site was actually pretty difficult to find, and it was hard to tell from the site exactly what they were selling.

On this project I ended up rewriting 100% of the copy, re-shot all of the photos, and set up search ad campaigns. They already had the flash banner at the top of the site, but I did end up building the navigation menu from scratch to match the site a little better than the old menu. I think the menu does a lot to tie everything together.

With the content work, I felt it was really important for us to show exactly what they do on the first page. I didn't want people to have to click through the whole site to figure out what they're selling. Also, the site focused more on the benefits of simulating altitude conditions than it did on the benefits and attributes of this particular product, so I changed the site to focus more on the product. Naming the product was a big thing, too. It didn't have a name before so I ran some tests to see what name did the best and the result was "High Altitude Simulator." My clients didn't like that so they went with "Altitude Generator," but that didn't keep me from running the name that worked the best in the ad campaigns.

Anyway, they started getting leads right away and are selling machines even though we've only spent about $300 on ads to date. I'm hoping to expand the ad campaigns now that we know they work. I will keep you posted

Blogging for Business

2009-01-26T19:42:00.000-08:00

In this economy, everyone is looking for cheap or free methods of advertising, and a blog is one of the best things you can do to get leads and retain them. People love to read them and follow them, and Google loves to index them (ie, they show up in the search results). There are two main categories of business blogs, with quite a bit of overlap between the two.

The first category is the corporate news blog that shows news items and press releases about your company, and may also include some interesting tidbits about new developments in the industry. These blogs are good for keeping your content up-to-date, and showing your customers that you are still doing business as normal during tough economic times. This is comforting to customers who are becoming accustomed to reaching disconnected numbers of prior service providers who have closed up shop. This blog should be integrated into your website so that customers can read recent news items on the homepage, and when they go to the articles page, they don't feel as though they are being redirected to another website.

Authority Blogs. The second type of blog, and in my opinion the more effective type, is the authority blog. An authority blog is one in which the author is an expert in his field who is freely sharing his hard-earned knowledge to benefit the public. This author could be an expert in anything that people may want to read about. When customers read your articles with your name and picture by them, it makes them feel like they know you a little better and actually builds trust. This type of blog should probably be separate from your company website, though it links back to it, and should have its own look and feel with its own domain name. If you can gain enough of a following on this site, you may even be able to sell advertising.

I recently convinced a client of mine to start blogging with a very simple blog that you can see at baripatch.com, and she quickly started making sales on an underperforming website that hadn't gotten a single order in the whole year since it had been built. Blogging has become so popular because it works. It helps you stay connected with your customers and business associates, and it introduces you to new business leads and opportunities.

Cyber Monday

2008-11-25T14:43:00.001-08:00

Everyone knows that the day after Thanksgiving is black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, but what you may not know is that the Monday following Thanksgiving is Cyber Monday, the biggest day of online shopping all year. A few tips to prepare for Cyber Monday:

1. Make sure you turn up the limit on your ad campaign

2. If you are already having problems with your site being slow, you may need to quickly upgrade your server or hosting package to allow for the additional traffic

3. Do some research on shipping times, and be honest and up-front with your customers about whether it will get there in time for Christmas

4. Try running a holiday promotion in your search engine ads

Good luck and happy selling!

Google's New Keyword Tool

2008-11-24T13:10:00.000-08:00

Google has added a great new keyword search tool that looks at your website, and gives keyword recommendations based on your site content:

New tool in beta form: http://www.google.com/sktool

The great thing about this tool is that it only recommends keywords that you don't already have in your AdWords campaign. This way you can easily add them, and start tracking their effectiveness.

Google's original keyword tool is probably still more valuable, but I recommend trying both out.

Original keyword tool: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Getting to the Top (of Google)

2008-11-19T20:43:00.000-08:00

Every business owner wants the same thing: free advertising provided by Google search results. Where your website falls within the search results depends on two things: 1. How relevant your site is to the search query, and 2. How high Google ranks your site (known as Pagerank).

1. Site Relevance. Google needs to know what your site is all about if it's going to list your site for a query. For example, if I type "web design in Arizona" into the search engine, Google will look for sites that feature content about web design and Arizona. Since Google uses software programs called "bots" or "spiders" to read websites, many sites are miscategorized by Google. This is because all Google can do is read the code and text that's available and interpret it based on their algorithm. Sites can definitely be optimized so that Google can easily figure out how to index them. This is a process of cleaning up the code and text to better reflect the keywords you may be targeting.

Your URL, or domain name is one of the biggest factors Google uses, and the name "webdesigninarizona.com" would get huge preference from Google for the query "web design in Arizona" because it's a dotcom address that exactly matches the query. This is the reason why simple domain names, such as "marketing.com" are so valuable. They get preference for all of the millions of queries for the keyword "marketing."

2. Pagerank. Pagerank is mainly determined by external links and time. Older sites get preference and there is a lag between the time you've optimized your site and the time that Google decides to recognize these changes. Other websites linking to your site will bring your Pagerank up if they are relevant and reputable. If your site is about web design and marketing in Arizona, the majority of the links to your site should also be about web design and marketing or Arizona. A low-ranking site about landscaping in Alabama linking to your site about web design in Arizona would do little or nothing to help your Pagerank. Also, unrelated links may confuse the Googlebots and they may miscategorize your site. You definitely want good links that are high ranking sites with content related to yours.

Knowing this, many site administrators work hard to set up link exchanges with other site owners. These quid pro quo setups are easily identified by Google and the links often cancel each other out. Google is actually looking for sites that are so awesome and so informative that everyone wants to link to them, without any form of incentivation. In other words, the best way to achieve a great Pagerank is through building an awesome site with tons of great content that everyone wants to link their blogs to.

Final Analysis: If you want free advertising from Google, you have to give Google something worth advertising -- an awesome site with many loyal users.

Google Local Business Results

2008-11-17T10:22:00.000-08:00

Google has been adding Local Business Results to the top of search results pages since 2007. On November 17th, 2008, when I typed in "marketing gilbert, az," Away Marketing came up in the number one slot (see below). It is also coming up high for various other search terms, including "marketing az" and "web design gilbert, az" These results are actually pulled from the listings in Google Maps. If you don't know, due to their phone-friendly nature, Google Maps is becoming a large player in the local search industry.

Now that this prime real estate is more available to local companies, the question is how to take advantage of it. While these results may seem arbitrary, remember that nothing with computers is arbitrary. You should also realize that Away Marketing is a relatively new company that has floated to the top in a sea of tough competitors in the advertising field. Also realize that your position on the page could change at the drop of a hat because of something Google does on their end.

Since these results are pulled from Google Maps, the first place to go to optimize your position is Google Local to check out your profile (or create a new one). While Google has not released a definitive explanation for how these rankings are done, we can gather clues based on how our competitors are positioned. All of the clues seem to point to a few common factors:

1. Proximity to city center. The closer your business address is listed to what Google recognizes as the center of the city, the higher you are likely to rank. To identify the Google center, do a search for the name of the city you are targeting in Google Maps. Google Maps will drop an icon right on the center of town.

2. Completeness of profile. The more complete your profile, the more likely you are to get a high rank. Also, since Google searches all local directories, it's a good idea to have very complete, consistent profiles in all the major local directories (do a search for yellow pages, and start filling out profiles). I have noticed that Google tends to favor BBB listings.

3. Reviews. A review or two on Google Maps is likely to give your placement a boost as well. Google also pulls reviews from many other sites, so you may already have reviews there. The way I feel about reviews is that you can almost always use more. Make sure they're good reviews, though. Phony reviews are easy to spot and they ruin the integrity of the review system.

A final note: Google Maps results are becoming more and more visible. Don't get left behind on this one.

Visibility for Local Arizona Service Businesses

2008-11-15T21:43:00.000-08:00

If you own a service business in Arizona, you are likely looking for ways to increase your exposure to the public and get more leads. A common question is where to buy ad space to maximize your exposure. One helpful indicator in determing where to buy ad space is usage volume statistics on local directories in Arizona. Interestingly, Dex dominates local searches in Arizona, much more so than in other areas, where Dex is a minor player. Notice in the graph below that Dex (DexKnows.com and Yellow.com) gets about 1/3 of local directory searches:

Note, however, that AOL Yellow Pages uses Yellowpages.com results, so it's bound to get a little more traffic than advertised here, and there are countless other directories that couldn't be included in this survey because their traffic volume was too low, or the information is unavailable for other reasons (Yahoo!, Google, and Mapquest all get a large portion of local search volume that couldn't be measured here).

It's also important to remember that the greater majority of searchers just go to Google and type in what they are looking for. That's why it's important to have a good Google AdWords campaign, and nowadays, it's important to have a really good listing with Google Maps, since Google is running its Maps results at the top of the page for local search queries now.

Graph provided by Google Trends.

"AZ" beats "Arizona"

2008-11-15T20:08:00.000-08:00

In my never-ending quest to find the right keywords to get maximum search engine exposure, I noticed an interesting trend: "az" has overtaken "arizona." Back in 2004, the term "arizona" was typed into Google about 150% more often than the keyword "az," meaning that if you had optimized your website and your search ad campaign with the term "arizona," you'd get way more hits. However, earlier in 2008, "AZ" surpassed "Arizona" as the dominant term, and its share continues to increase. Apparently people have realized that the two terms are equal, and they've gone to the more efficient abbreviation "AZ" as they've become more and more proficient with Google searches.

What does this mean for the future of search? I would say that you should definitely focus on "AZ" as a keyword over "Arizona," but continue optimizing for "Arizona" as well. For example, if you are a realtor who is hoping to sell homes in Queen Creek, Arizona, use the term "Queen Creek, AZ." The difference is subtle, but it may get you a few more hits. In all reality, though, Google knows that "AZ" and "Arizona" are pretty much equal, so I wouldn't expect a huge difference. If, however, you are setting up a Google AdWords campaign, make sure you use broad search, or if you use exact search, use both "az" and "arizona."

Information from Google Trends

YouTube Pay-per-click Ads

2008-11-12T16:27:00.000-08:00

Today, Google announced that it would begin selling ad space on YouTube. Similar to Google's search results, advertisers will be able to bid for position and pay per click.

Known as YouTube Sponsored Videos, this is advertising program will enable all video creators -- from the everyday user to a Fortune 500 advertiser -- to reach people who are interested in their content, products, or services, with relevant videos. Anyone can use Sponsored Videos to make sure their videos find a larger audience, whether you're a start-up band trying to break out with a new single, a film studio seeking to promote an exciting movie trailer, or even a first-time uploader trying to quickly build a following on the site.

So how does Sponsored Videos work? Easy-to-use automated tools allow content owners to decide where they'd like their videos to appear, place bids in an automated online auction, and set daily spending budgets. Then, when people search for videos, YouTube will display relevant videos alongside the search results. These videos are clearly labeled as "sponsored videos" and are priced on a cost-per-click basis. (You can learn more about these tools in the video below.)

YouTube Sponsored Videos

Google Now Uncovers Scanned Documents

2008-11-03T07:45:00.000-08:00

Scanned documents such as academic papers, or government reports used to be off limits for the Googlebot. That's because when scanned, the entire paper appeared as a giant image, instead of text.

Now, using Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Google is able to turn these documents into text and will begin including these files in its search results.

Previously, Google was only able to search the filename and limited meta data associated with these files in order to include them in search results. Google's new technology now turns the scanned "images of text" into computer readable text itself.

As with traditional PDF files, when you encounter a scanned document, you'll be able to view the original version, or the text only version Google has created. To see the technology in action, try the search repairing aluminum wiring (the first result should be a scanned document).

This type of technology has been around for a while now, but the scanning accuracy has always been a problem. Some words would get jumbled or miss spelt, so it's impressive that Google has found a solution that's accurate enough to be used for their search results.

What does this mean for SEO?

If you've got any scanned documents on your site, for example press releases, newspaper articles or research papers, this now gives your business more chances to appear in Google's results. By giving more content for Google to index, you'll improve your chances in coming up for queries related to these documents!

P.S. If you're hiding any information on the web by keeping it as an image, you may want to consider removing those files now :)

Google AdWords Changes to Quality Score

2008-11-03T07:35:00.000-08:00

The Google 'Inside AdWords' blog has announced changes to how they calculate quality score and rank ads. The changes will remove the bias of ad position in calculating your quality score and also tweak how ads are promoted to spots above the search results.

Quality Score Update: Google have confirmed that click-through rate (CTR) remains the most significant component of the quality score, because it directly indicates which ads are the most relevant to their users. However, they've now removed the influence of ad position on this calculation.

This is because ads higher on the page are more visible and usually get more clicks over those in lower positions for this reason alone, not necessarily because it's a more relevant ad. In an effort to show the most relevant ads, Google will adjust its calculations to remove the influence ad position has on the CTR.

Ads Above Search Results: Google have also tweaked for formula to determine which ads are displayed in the yellow section above search results. Previously, ads displayed in this area had to meet a certain quality threshold, and if the first listing didn't have a high enough AdRank (quality score x CPC), no ads were displayed in this section.

Now, Google are allowing ads in position 2 and 3 to leapfrog over position 1 and appear in the yellow section if they have a high enough quality score.

Overall, the changes appear to be placing less importance on how much your bidding, but rather what your quality score is.

For those of you who are unsure, quality score is Google's version of PageRank for AdWords. It takes into account a range of factors to rate the quality of each keyword in your ad group/s.

These enhancements will be released shortly by Google, so keep an eye on your ad position, spend and performance over the next few weeks!

"I don't need ten blue links — just give me the answer!"

2008-10-30T10:32:00.000-07:00

There are really just two types of searches:

Browse and seek We want to browse for our best fit when we type "I want to learn how to speak Spanish."
Tell me now I just want my question answered when I search for how tall Mount Kilimanjaro is or who the 31st president of the U.S. was.

We've been working hard on the "Tell me now" type of search, or as we Live Search boffins call it, "instant answers." Instant answers show up at the top of your search results, offering the most relevant information we have to answer the direct or implied question in a query. We have quite a few currently on Live Search. Have you tried any of these?

Encyclopedia Search for an encyclopedic fact, like "How tall is mount Everest," "When was Lincoln born," "What is the GDP of Poland," "What's the population of Georgia," "Who won super bowl 30," or " What won best picture in 1998." You ask, and Live Search will return the exact answer to your question. And for you trivia fans, they are: "8,850 m / 29,035 ft," "February 12, 1809," "$303,228,550,000 (2005)," "4,630,841 (2008 estimate)," "Dallas Cowboys, NFC," and "Shakespeare in Love."
Traffic Just type "traffic" in the search box at Live Search and see a map of your area with green, yellow, red, and black highlights for the major highways. WOOHOO! Live Search won't make the traffic go away, but at least it can tell you when it's time to stay late and work on those TPS reports so you won't waste time idling in the fast lane.

Horoscope Just type "horoscope" and your zodiac sign to get your daily dose of direction. I guess I need to "take my situation step by step and before I know it my problem will be solved."

Theo Vachovsky, Product Manager, Live Search

Google Releases Advanced Segmentation Tools for Google Analytics

2008-10-23T08:38:00.000-07:00

Advanced Segmentation enables you to isolate and analyze subsets of your traffic. It is true on-the-fly segmentation of visits so that you can create powerful filters with a few mouse-clicks. Select from predefined custom segments such as "Paid Traffic" and "Visits with Conversions" or create new custom segments with a flexible, easy-to-use segment builder. Then, you can apply one or more of these segments to current or historical data, and even compare segment performance side by side in reports.

Learn how to create an advanced segment in this help center article:

*Also, Avinash has just posted a blog on how to use Advanced Segmentation which is a must-read to quickly learn how to take advantage of this powerful feature.