Best way to grow your business online

Best way to grow your business online

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Millions are spent every day and marketing and advertising and people believe that are away on TV advertising or something like 5 to 1 however the best return you can get is investing in yourself and building a platform that is sustainable and becomes the authority in the space so you can take a panic of the three .5 billion search is a day that happen on Google and take back some of that $2 million an hour Google is making to help your business grow… If you’d like to learn more about this process or join a platform that can help you win online, add your business to TopLocal.org.

Have a great day.
Jeff Cline

February 21, 2018 |

Tips for Appropriate Workplace Relationships

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Ok, this post is not going to be a happy one. But, it needs to be written.

I’ve owned businesses, and been self-employed, for a long time. I always got too close to my employees, make friends too quickly, and craved the kind of comradery that coworkers had. I almost always worked out badly. As a boss or manager, you can’t have friends at work. You can be friendly, but you can never truly open up and be friends. This really also goes for coworkers, even if you’re not the boss.

Why?

Lawyers and opportunistic people!

It’s that simple. The only reason you can’t truly make friends at work is the unfortunate part of human nature that makes people try to get ahead by pulling other people down.

So, you open up and tell an employee or coworker about your life. It will come back and bite you. They will either use it against you or tell someone else who will.

This is truly unfortunate because of the countless hours you spend with the people at work. Most of your life is spent with people who wouldn’t be your friend outside of work. I can remember many people I thought were friends. But, when they left the company, we never talked again.

Then, one time I overheard my staff planning to go out for drinks after work. They invited others on my staff and I was really looking forward to it. But the invitation never came. I realized then that I shouldn’t have even considered going, even if I was invited. The closest thing I could have is to invite them to join me after work, keep it light, and pay the check.

I think you can have friends at work, but they are your work friends. Eventually, after a long time, you could perhaps become true friends. But it takes a while and you’ll need to test it by meeting outside of your job, while staying very cautious.

My wife knows I crave friendship and tells me to just get over it and realize they are coworkers…not friends. I wish things were different but they aren’t. So, keep workplace relationships simple and be careful about what you share. Leave open the possibility that you can develop a real friendship, but don’t be upset if it doesn’t happen.

Remember the old advice to keep business and personal separated. That advice came from experience.

If you work so much that you don’t have time to cultivate other friendships, you’ll just have to wait until you have more time. Reach out to old friends. Try to get together with them and I think you’ll find they have the same problems at work.

As for me, my wife, son, and daughter are my focus and that’s where I spend most of my free time.

February 2, 2018 |

Does Stupid Advertising Really Work?

Comments Off on Does Stupid Advertising Really Work?

As I drive to work, an hour each way, I listen to stupid advertising whether I like it or not.

It makes me wonder if stupid advertising works or not. My wife says that it’s memorable but doesn’t make her want to buy anything. So let’s take a deeper look at the psychology of stupid advertising.

The first thing I wondered about was, “Do these businesses know their ads are annoying, or do they really think they are actually good”? The former would be smart and the latter just makes me sad.

I saw a story about a really stupid lawyer ad on YouTube and read the story. The recent graduate set out to make a stupid video, making fun of the current stupid lawyer ads we see on TV. So, he did it and, to his amazement, it worked! His video went viral and he got tons of business from it. Now, this guy did it right. He went above and beyond the usual annoying antics on purpose.

In fact, many of the stupid advertising I see is for accident lawyers, used cars, guns & ammo, carpet cleaning, building supplies and the like. So, this taught me that stupid advertising works when the prospective audience will respond correctly. However, if the ad is for a CPA, investment adviser, psychologists, etc. I don’t think it would work the same.

Or would it?

Time out…let’s talk about social media for a minute. Serious business advertising really doesn’t work on social media. For things to be shareable, they need to elicit an emotion. Social media posts need to make the reader say, “awwww, oooooo, OMG, boo hoo, or DANG!”. A serious business could advertise on social media with something on the fringe, slightly goofy or fun without going too far. That may make their ad more shareable. Nobody will share something serious unless its sweet, or mushy. Perhaps more serious businesses should focus more on tugging at heart-strings and stay far away from stupid, goofy, annoying, etc. After all, you don’t want to hire a CPA if he acts like an idiot in his ads.

So, explore the fringe. Create something fun and lighthearted, or deep and mushy. Think Hallmark. Do something different and make yourself stand out. Give it a try. Your prospective clients are people too.

February 1, 2018 |

What Can I Do To Market My Business?

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“What can I do to market my business?”

This is the top question I get when meeting a business owner, or independent salesperson. As soon as I mention what I do for a living, inevitably people want free advice. So, I decided to put together some guidelines that helped me market my business.

  1. Make a List
    You must know who your potential customers are. So, make a list of everyone you know, everyone you’ve done business with, buy things from, family, friends, past clients, etc. Use a spreadsheet and capture all the basic details. (name, address, city, state, zip, phone, email, relationship, and notes). Add to this list every time you meet someone new, or make a new sale. Get into the habit and never stop doing this.
  2. Communicate with your List
    This is where most people scratch their heads. Communicating with your list is easy, but must be done effectively. This depends on what kind of business you are in. First, you want to get an email system like Outstand. I’ve loved this service ever since I found it, many years ago. Once you load all of your contacts, you create categories and just check mark them for each contact. Once you do that, you can segment your messages for any occasion. Personal holiday greetings, business proposals, announcing a new service, everything! Email is a great start, but a letter and phone call may also be good if you are in sales. Just remember that people want to be treated like….people. Not wallets with legs. So, just keep everything light and friendly.
  3. Get LISTED
    This is where a few services come in. Yelp comes to mind. It’s a great directory listing online, with reviews. Google Business is next. Then, TopLocal.org will top it off with a dynamic local referral network and an online listing. TopLocal is not a directory. It’s a way for businesses to work with each other, per zip code, to help promote each other. The directory is just to help. The real power is the monthly guides that each member prints and distributes. It’s like warm market referrals, put into the hands of paying local customers, every single month. This can have a huge impact over time. Members will distribute tens of thousands of local business guides each year, in every active zip code.
  4. Get CONNECTED
    Join the local Chamber of Commerce. It’s a must. There you will meet other business owners, attend functions, meet local politicians and influential people. These are colleagues from your own industry as well as others. Get active with the Chamber and volunteer.
  5. Treat People Right and Ask for Referrals
    Don’t be afraid to ask for referrals. But, you must earn it first and make it known that you value referrals from your favorite customers. Tell them you need help spreading the word about your business. Don’t wait until after the sale. Ask during the sale. Remember, people love you best while you are helping them…not after.

These are the basics and the firm foundation upon which to build your business. Do these things consistently, no matter what comes up. It helped me market my business and it can help you too.

January 29, 2018 |

How to Use Siri to Dictate Blog Posts to Your WordPress Website

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How to Use Siri to Dictate Blog Posts to Your WordPress Website

So you want to know How to Use Siri to Dictate Blog Posts to Your WordPress Website. You’ve come to the right place. And, I’ll make it easy for you.

As I wrote in a previous article, blogging regularly is important to your website rankings. You need to make writing posts as easy as possible.

When a good friend of mine shared his blogging method with me, I was intrigued. I love using Siri but I didn’t know how to use Siri to dictate blog posts from my phone.

Initially, it was easy to find how to use Siri to dictate blog posts to a Mac computer, and even directly on the screen inside the New Posts area of WordPress. But, how to use Siri to do it from my phone took a bit more creativity, which is where my friend Jeff really shines. He’s the most creative person I know… next to me of course.

So, here’s basically how it works.

How to Use Siri to Dictate Blog Posts to Your WordPress Website:

  1. Log in to your WordPress website admin dashboard and go to Settings > Writing

    How to use siri to dictate blog posts to your wordpress website

    Keep this tab open while you go to the next step. Now would be a good time to make sure you have a good default category to select for your posts. If not, just leave it for later.

  2. Create a special email address. You can do this anywhere but I used my site email.
    Use a difficult name like [email protected] and get the pop settings written down, along with your password. It should be port 110, but make sure to find out your pop port for incoming mail. Set the default mail category and make sure to save these settings.
  3. Enter your new email address, password, and incoming port from step 2.
    So, now you have the basics set up.
  4. Now, get on your phone and create a new contact. Under the business name put your <website name> blog. I set mine up for Top Local Blog. I separated TopLocal so it would make Siri commands more simple. I then entered my new special email address and saved the contact.

Now for the good part!

Open a new email to <your special email address>. It’s easy because you entered that really complicated email address into an easily identifiable contact.

Make the subject your new post title.

Now, when you’re ready with your thoughts, hit the microphone icon and start dictating.
use siri to dictate blog posts

You can say a variety of commands that will help you keep it formatted right, or you can do that later. I want my posts as clean as possible, so I use these to help:

  • New Line
  • New Paragraph
  • Cap
  • Space Bar
  • Period
  • Dot
  • Comma
  • Quote & End Quote
  • Exclamation Point
  • Question Mark
  • Ampersand
  • Asterisk
  • Open Parenthesis (or ‘left paren’)
  • Close Parenthesis (or ‘right paren’)
  • Dash (adds a space between)
  • Hyphen (no spaces between)

Keep in mind you only have 30 seconds to say what you want. Then, you need to hit the microphone again until you’ve finished your post. It’s not a much of a nuisance as I thought. Actually, it helps me collect my thoughts into 30 second bursts. The apps that let you dictate longer really don’t work as well and they’re kinda buggy. Plus, Siri is much more accurate than the ones I tried, like Dragon etc.

Now, when you send your email it will get posted to your site. You can then go in and edit it, adding pictures, tags, and optimize if you like.

See, wasn’t that easy?

I used this method to write this article. Then, I went back and edited for your benefit. You don’t need to edit unless you have time. Google likes new content, so anything is better than no post for the day.

Happy Blogging!

January 11, 2018 |
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