Email Fraud
October 31, 2005, 9:06 amInc.com offers key traits and tell-tales signs of phishing scams. Learn how to recognize and protect yourself against these fraudulent email requests that often lead to identity theft. From May 2004 to May 2005 about 1.2 million unsuspecting Americans lined the miscreant’s pockets with $929 million bucks. Read up.
I’m back, sorta
October 21, 2005, 8:46 amWow! I have been incredibly busy. Things have exploded in business and on levels that are more personal lately. It’s all good, but as a result, time for regular posting here escaped my schedule. That’s my excuse (and I’m sticking to it!) for lack of posts, anyway. I’ll resume regular posting as time permits.
Give Under Construction Pages a Job
July 15, 2005, 9:01 amToo many businesses are missing opportunities to build a prospective client base when the company website is under construction. You’ve seen the dreaded “Future Home Of…” pages. In the design business, I see it often. Many times the domain owner has already begun passing out their business cards including the “under construction” address. It’s also common for business people to begin communicating from their business domain during pre-launch phases. If that’s the case, remember that savvy Internet users pick up your website from your email address, too.
Go ahead and get your business cards and other materials printed to include your domain name. After all, you don’t want to wait until the last minute, and the prospect of being stuck with possibly hundreds of useless business cards isn’t very attractive either. Begin communicating from your domain name, even if you’re not quite ready to launch your website. Those free email and personal accounts are less professional than communicating from your business, anyway. Just be prepared for prospective customer visits, otherwise you’re dismissing potential opportunities.
You can put your domain to work for you while you’re constructing by creating a temporary website page. Your temporary page, at a minimum, should include the company logo, your contact information, and a phrase that goes something along the lines of “thanks for your patience while we update our website.” Notice I didn’t state the dreaded “under construction” phrase. A website is always changing, or at least it should be, and constantly under construction.
Some tips to add value and get your temporary page working even more:
Remember that first impressions are lasting. Your company will look more professional and begin working for you by including even the minimum of information on a temporary page. That’s a much better option compared to the image of the otherwise dismissed “future home of” page.
Business Blog Rules
July 12, 2005, 4:52 pm
I am not big on rules. It’s all relative - in life and online. Just because something works for one person or business doesn’t necessarily mean it will work for another. Even so, a funny thing happened while I was scouring posts from my test blog to see if there was anything worth sharing. My mission was to find relevant, useful, levelheaded, and engaging posts. (It is a private blog, written more like a journal, so just about everything imaginable is in there.) I wrote myself a checklist to rate the posts and stay on task… Then it hit me. Right there in front of me - R…U…L…E… it was so Simple! Here you have it - my blogging ah-ha moment for the day…
Blogging Rules
R – Be relevant. Be relatable. Be real. Be regular. Be respectful. Be resourceful. (Don’t be rude.)
U – Be useful. Be unique. Be understanding. Be U. (Don’t be unprofessional.)
L – Be levelheaded. Be legitimate. Be literate. Be linked. ( Don’t be lying.)
E – Be engaging. Be effective. Be (an) expert. (Don’t be empty-headed.)
S – Be sociable. Be simple. (Don’t be superficial.)
…So much for staying on task!
New to the blogosphere
July 9, 2005, 9:36 pmWelcome to Net Moxie, Sandy Gibson’s Net-Wit Weblog (thanks to Mr. Gibson for his lovely (if not bent) little twist on that hook, tag or whatever you’d like to call it. Er, um - now that I think of it, it was probably a jab… hmmm – can you guess who’s sleeping on the couch tonight?).
I’ve been dragging my feet about launching this business blog for too long – not unlike a good portion of the business community. That’s only part of my excuse, though. It’s a time thing. Mostly. I’m also raising three wonderful all-boy boys, running a thriving business, sporting an adventurous schedule, and I have an enthusiasm for hitting the ATV trails in the better months. I live in Northern Maine so the better months are short.
Not so recently, I had a conversation with Debbie Weil, an expert on corporate blogging. I recall Debbie mentioning the commitment level and time involved in keeping up with a blog. Keep it personable, fresh, relevant, useful, and just do it – I get it. Debbie has a can-do attitude and I just love that about people. She also mentioned setting up a private blog before going public. Ah, finally, the solution this chronic researcher needed to hear. Shortly after our conversation, I installed the already outdated copy of WordPress on my local testing server. The posts began … privately, but I was posting!
Even though I’ve been semi-privately - that’s another story - journaling for years, at first, I was a bit slow about getting the writing muscle to do what I wanted it to do. After awhile, the writing came more natural with greater frequency. Now, several months later (I told you I was dragging my feet), here we are.
My goal and hope for this blog is that you’ll find practical, timely tips and resources to help grow your business. I’ll do my best to keep the rants down to a minimum and stick mostly to posting thoughts and perspectives on mindful-marketing, ebusiness, and such topics, which is my professional passion.
If you’ve been thinking about running your own blog, take Debbie’s advice and start working that writing muscle. Spend some time scouting the blogosphere to get a feel for the various flavors and styles out there. If you have opinions, share ideas, takes notes, enjoy conversation, and interact with others, the chances are good you’re already blogging! Maybe not in the Weblog forum, but you’re “blogging.”
Here’s a short list of helpful blogs to get you started (in no particular order of preference):
Here’s to you!
34 North Street Suite 2 Presque Isle ME 04769
(207) 764-1010
powered by WordPress
