I came across another interesting article today on Hubspot and thought I would share it with you. Now this comes pretty natural to me because I have worked for internet development and software engineering companies, so I have known these tricks for years, however if you have problems finding what you are after in the search engines or would like more specific search results, then read on.

This article describes briefly terms you may or may not have already heard about and will give you some quick tips to finding information that is useful and accurate on the search engines (well of course that depends on the quality of the content but we have no control over that)

Now, I know this article is a little old and there are probably newer and more comprehensive articles out there, but I believe it will still help you a lot . Read it

Do you find search engine optimization daunting, here is some SEO definitions to help you.

I read this article on Hubspot and thought I would share it with you. It offers great advice to small business managers and owners on the value of meta data on your website and a little about what it all means. Of course there is a LOT more too it, but it will get you started.

After you have read it, I would love you to post your comments on this page. If you need more advice I would be happy to help, just email me.

Cheers
Michelle

I was going to write an article about why the customer is not always right, and that is coming shortly, however this was on the top of my list so thought I would punch it out first.

This article is about dissatisfied customers and should get you thinking about whether you have existing customers that you’ve been ignoring, therefore, you are missing out (in more ways than one). So bear with me, there is a point to all this.

I am one very dissatisfied Foxtel customer, which pains me no end because my favourite shows are on Fox 8. Anyway, this is about my experience as a customer and how Foxtel seems to focus on the NEW customer and FORGETS their current customer (unless of course they are after money).

I believe forgetting about your existing customers is a huge mistake for any business, and Foxtel is likely losing business because of it.

So here is my gripe(s).

My husband and I have been a Foxtel customer for nearly 10 years. In that time we have noticed some key differences in quality and value:

• Foxtel fees keep going up and up and it is hard to justify the value, and they offer NEW customers the opportunity to purchase for nearly 1/3 of the price we are (were) paying
• Too many repeats, where are the new shows in the series.
• We were paying $1300 a year for repeated shows with constant ad interruptions. So on a typical half hour show, we regularly noticed 15 mins of ads

It is just not acceptable for PAY TV! Didn’t the whole PAY TV concept originate by pushing the fact there was ‘no advertising’. I don’t know about you, but I think that is double dipping. Foxtel gets paid by the customer and the advertiser, and we are getting less and less value for our money.

Then there is the issue of lack of variety. With the same shows being repeated 3 or 4 times and hardly anything new to watch. Most of the repeats recently on Foxtel are now also on free tv (granted a little behind but nonetheless, for free). Correct me if I am wrong, but shouldn’t Foxtel be showing the latest in a series?

Of course, sometimes we are happy to pay over the top prices for a quality product, if you feel you are getting what you pay for!

Now here is the clincher…

My hubby rang up to cancel the account, because we believed were not receiving value for money, plus received a letter from Foxtel threatening to cancel the account (we were less than one month behind, oops). So we paid the $96 owing but then the customer service rep offered us a $10 week deal if we stayed on as a customer. What the!

Now you wouldn’t be human if you didn’t think that was a good deal, but why wait until we threatened to cancel the account before showing they value us as a customer. If they had asked if we wanted to do that a month before we would have jumped at it; now we are beyond pissed and really don’t want anything to do with them.

Foxtel, it is just not good enough, you need to start looking at your existing (long term) customers and start giving back. Plus, get rid of the ads and put some new shows/updated series on.

So now we have a set top box, yes we miss our favourite shows, but the kids are playing more on the trampoline, running around, and we go to bed early instead of sitting up all hours catching up on taped shows.  Yes, there are a lot of times I/we miss it, especially on the weekends when all that is on ‘free tv’ is sport (yawn), but that is a sacrifice we are willing to make.

It is amazing to me how Foxtel continually advertisers great bargains for new customers, but I would like to hear from any existing long term customer that has received a special offer at random (no particular reason) that has reduced your monthly cost. We never received it until it was too late, have you and do you believe you should? Let me know your thoughts.

Hi everyone

I have returned after a lengthy illness and am writing to say thank you for your lovely comments and to look out for a new article in the next few days.

There is a comment from a reader that has prompted me to write about dealing with dissatisfied customers (The Customer Is Not Always Right), a problem most of us have come up against at one time or another. So look out for it in the next week.

Please let me know if there are any specific business improvement/marketing topics you would like me to write about and don’t forget, if you have a legit, legal and non-offensive business I would be happy to advertise your business for free on my partner page. Check it out

Have a lovely day

Sincerely
Michelle

PS. I am writing another ebook on operational business systems, now is your chance to receive advice. Please email your business system setup/improvement questions related to operational processes and I will do the best I can to help you gain a better understanding!

Remove Your Limitations & Be Happy

Find out:

• your life’s purpose
• how you can live a happier and healthier life
• how to manage your life and go in your preferred direction
• how to stand up for yourself
  
• and so much more

“This Man Was Told He Would Never Read Or Write…. Now Travels The World Helping Thousands With His Phenomenal Life-Changing Programs” read Dr John DeMartini’s story here and watch the video for insight into a amazing 2 day event coming to Sydney & Brisbane, Australia

This man is amazing, I have listened too his story and was blown away by his experiences and what he shares with the world. This is a 2 day free event that could just change your life FOREVER. See you there!

Below is a small list of little things you can do to start increasing traffic to your website. Once you have a product to offer or some useful information you can start attracting more attention. Have you implemented all these marketing strategies. I am still working on some of them:

1. Create useful content. Nothing else is important (hopefully I am starting to do that for you)
2. Update your useful content regularly. Today’s web audience expects to see fresh material, and having regularly updated content will keep them coming back (don’t forget to sign up for my blog)
3. Build sticky and interactive pages on your website including discussion boards, comment capability and anything else that helps build a community (include sharing buttons)
4. Seek out partnerships with other people with email lists to promote your website (would you like to partner with me, if yes, please sign up to my blog and email me. I am currently developing an awesome product for family and small business that you might like to be part of)
5. RSS feeds are a great way to keep visitors informed of fresh content on your site. For an explanation of RSS feeds, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGssU and how easy it is to receive up-to-date information from your favourite sites
6. Create an affiliate program to promote your products and services (working on that one myself)
7. Use SEO techniques to get listed naturally at the top of Google, Yahoo and other search engines (I achieved this on 2 sites)
8. Podcasting is a great way to build a regular audience and keep them coming back, see http://www.feedforall.com/videos/what-is-podcasting.htm
9. Invest in PPC advertising (ie. Adwords) to drive targeted traffic to your website, see http://www.google.com.au/intl/en/adwords/webinars/index.html
10. Create a blog with fresh content that builds a regular audience. Use the following tool to find out which blog software is right for you http://www.weblogmatrix.org – I use Wordpress or Blogger
11. Build profiles on popular social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Use your profiles to connect to others with similar interests and send them to your site, see http://www.linkedin.com/in/michellepavel and http://twitter.com/bestbuys and http://www.facebook.com/?sk=welcome#!/profile.php?id=100000072687878
12. Invest in other forms of free and cheap advertising including banner advertising – visit http://www.fasterprofits.com.au  for a full list.

This post concept was courtesy of David Riklan, Self Growth. Links and info has been updated

Do you have areas in your life that just don’t seem to be working the way you would like?

If you seriously want to be rich, famous and respected… then have I ever got a deal for you.

You can read this story or skip and go to the videos on this site and in the next 48 hours you will receive information that Bob Proctor gives out in his $12,000 seminars - absolutely FREE. 

START NOW

I’m about to tell you a story that will make you afraid. Probably very afraid!

But more importantly it has the potential of making you a bucket load of money, by helping you to remove blockages and start making positive changes in the areas of your life that you believe aren’t working for you.

Imagine what you can gain by learning from a world renowned expert such as Bob Proctor? A man that practices what he preaches.

Read carefully and be prepared to shed a tear at the end, I did!

A woman living in downtown Ontario, Canada came out of her house and saw 3 old men with long white beards sitting in her front yard. She did not recognize them. She said “I don’t think I know you, but you must be hungry. Please come in and have something to eat.”

“Is the man of the house home?” they asked. “No”, she replied. “He’s out.” “Then we cannot come in”, they replied.

In the evening when her husband came home, she told him what had happened. “Go tell them I am home and invite them in!” The woman went out and invited the men in. “We do not go into a house together,” they replied. “Why is that?” she asked.

One of the old men explained:

“His name is Wealth,” he said pointing to one of his friends, and said pointing to another one, “He is Success, and I am Love.” Then he added, “Now go in and discuss with your husband which one of us you want in your home.”

The woman went in and told her husband what was said. Her husband was overjoyed. “How nice!!” he said. “Since that’s the case, let’s invite Wealth. Let him come and fill our home with wealth!”

His wife disagreed. “My dear, why don’t we invite Success?”

Their daughter was listening from the other corner of the house. She jumped in with her own suggestion: “Would it not be better to invite Love? Our home will then be filled with love!”

“Let us heed our daughter’s advice,” said the husband to his wife. “Go out and invite Love to be our guest.”

The woman went out and asked the 3 old men, “Which one of you is Love? Please come in and be our guest.”

Love got up and started walking toward the house. The other 2 also got up and followed him. Surprised, the lady asked Wealth and Success: “I only invited Love, why are you coming in?”

The old men replied together:

“If you had invited Wealth or Success, the other two of us would’ve stayed out, but since you invited Love, wherever he goes, we go with him. Wherever there is Love, there is also Wealth and Success!”

I heard that story from an amazing person, Bob Proctor. He went on and told me this:

“Most people don’t have wealth or success in their lives and that’s probably because they don’t know how to love. Whether you want just wealth, success or love in your life… I can help you achieve it.”

I believe 100% in Bob Proctor. He can help you achieve great success in your life. But there’s one condition…

You’ve got to give him 6 minutes of your life everyday until the day he helps you achieve your goals. Is that a deal? Okay, then as a first step, go to this website right now and don’t forget to come back and let me know about your experience:

http://www.sixminutestosuccess.com

Make sure you read all the way through to the end. There is a HUGE secret hidden within the website.

http://www.sixminutestosuccess.com

Cheers
Michelle

For some it is a struggle to come up with a unique or slightly different business idea.  It can all depend on your experience, confidence, qualifications, creativity and more, before you will ever consider going into business.

If that is you, don’t let those limitations stop you from being your own boss, realising your dreams, and doing something different.  If you have the desire to work for yourself, and want to do something different I suggest you do the following to get the ideas flowing.

Look around – I mean really look around at your surroundings.

Search: Lets say you live in/near a city, you catch the train everyday to and from your 9-5 job. As you look out the window take in the buildings, area, people, signage etc.  See if any ideas pop out at you. For example:  Notice how unsightly the buildings are facing the rail line, they are covered with grafiti or just plain ugly.

Solution:  Start a business that provides three benefits: Continue Reading »

Delegating tasks to your staff or hiring a consultant may help you with tasks that will free up your time to work ‘on’ your business rather than ‘in’ it… but you need to ensure the person carrying out the task knows everything required to complete it to your satisfaction – upfront!

Working ‘on’ your business allows you to:

• look for new ways to attract customers
• improve your business system
• monitor staff performance; ensuring your values and guidelines are being followed
• find new products
• analyse and beat the competition
• create new marketing campaigns
• enhance your business image
• find business partners
• and the list goes on

Of course, if you don’t want to work ‘on’ your business, and prefer to work ‘in’ it doing what you love, then delegation is great for handing out the tasks you despise. You may even have staff that would love to do that task and be better at it.

Each task you delegate should be briefly assessed against your employee’s level of skill and ability to carry it out to the level required; you will then feel confident the job is going to be done properly and/or professionally and your employee won’t feel overwhelmed. Make sure you provide ALL the information necessary to perform the task properly, skipping vital bits of information can cause problems and disagreements. Take the time to show your employee what needs to be done. You may think, “Well I might as well do it myself”, but when they get the hang of it, you won’t need to do it anymore, which is one less thing for you to do.

Staff are usually more willing to assist and more capable than given credit for, plus they may feel they are actually contributing to the business  and their  job satisfaction levels will increase, which turn, may produce better quality outputs and customer service.

Delegating helps your business in so many more ways than just giving you time to play golf or go to the gym. Continue Reading »

What if the reason why we are currently experiencing an economic crisis is because there are too many ‘get rich’ schemes ripping people off or products being sold that are not quality or do not provide value? How can they get away with it? Maybe it is time for those ‘advantage takers’ to step back and realise they now need to provide value and quality or they won’t get the droves of customers they were getting a 1-3 years back.

Have you noticed all the ‘deals’ that seem to be popping up lately, like ‘buy xyz car and get $000s cash back’; and that’s not all, you also get a set of steak knives (just kidding). If you are in business that provides a product that is ‘not’ of sound quality (unless you are a bargain shop), what do you think is going to happen to that business down the track. In recent months I have purchased several items through online wholesaler sites. The items were for personal use mostly, but here’s the thing, most of the items have either been thrown out or just not used at all because they were not of the standard I expected.

Here is the other thing, most customers will NOT complain, they will just NEVER return to buy from you again and will tell their friends not too. Frankly, if I had seen the same items in a retail store, I would have thought they weren’t worth the money, unfortunately the Internet makes products look very inviting and can easily cover up any imperfections.

Here is a classic example: Continue Reading »