Digital Business Views

One of the best ways to make your company website work for you is to make it useful. Only useful websites are going to get high search engine rankings, for several different reasons. For instance, only useful websites will get lots of inbound links, which is one of the ways search engines determine a website’s ranking.

For example, say you are a surgeon specializing in hair replacement surgery. Think about what your clients need — in this case, it’s probably help making up their minds as to whether they want to go through with the surgery. Therefore, articles on hair replacement and information on hair replacement cost will help to make your website valuable to potential clients.

Likewise, think about a move that both Amazon.com and eBay.com made, which was to provide user-written reviews and guides on their websites. This enables customers to research a product and help them make their decision whether to buy without even leaving the website. This keeps customers on the site and prevents them from finding their way to another seller’s site while looking for information about the product.

What other ways can you think of to make your website valuable to customers?

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I work as a freelance writer and blogger. A lot of the people who learn this think that I have an easy job. I can’t tell you the number of people who have asked me to explain to them how to earn money from blogging. Most of them believe I can explain it over a short cup of coffee. The think that this work is easy since you do it from home. They don’t seem to understand that it requires a variety of different skills to be able to make a living doing freelance writing from home.

I complain about this problem sometimes. When the recession started hitting home, a lot of my friends turned to me to get advice about how to start doing what I do. I found myself getting snappy with them because I was offended by the fact that they thought my job required no real skill.

However, I know that I’m guilty of making this assumption about other jobs as well. How many times have I looked at a job and thought “oh, I could do that”. You see jobs that look simple - selling food at a farmer’s market, doing diploma framing - and you think that they’re easy enough for you to handle. The truth is that most jobs require some sort of skills and those skills might not be as natural to you as you think at first.

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I spend a lot of time researching different home businesses. I am particularly interested in businesses for crafters and artists. Anything related to sewing, scrapbooking or homemade materials catches my attention. Lately I seem to be seeing a whole lot of shops opening up for repurposed clothing.

Repurposed clothing is clothing that someone was going to get rid of but has instead turned into a new item that is worth wearing. The most common repurposed item to see is the T-shirt. Old T-shirts can be turned into a number of different clothing items if you know what you’re doing.

You don’t have to limit yourself to T-shirts when repurposing clothes though. I recently saw someone make a really cool new shirt out of an old maternity skirt. I wouldn’t be able to do this myself but someone with some talent at sewing could probably do this fairly easily.

These home businesses that sell repurposed clothes are doing really well right now. They are green businesses since they’re recycling old materials. Everyone loves a green business! They are artsy, crafty and generally run by smart business women. They’re a cool new addition to the home business scene and I hope that they continue to develop over time.

Technorati Tags: maternity skirt

I frequently do my shopping online. To do this, I make use of the search engine tools online to locate the items that I want to shop for. Normally this works just fine. However, there are some times when I need to look for synonyms for my products to find exactly what I’m looking for.

For example, I was looking for some marine parts to give as a gift to a friend of mine who is very interested in sailing. Whenever I would type something like “marine parts” into the search engines of the different stores I was shopping at, I would get a bunch of unrelated items that I didn’t want to buy. These items were related to the marines that are part of the armed forces rather than the type of marine parts that I meant.

I was getting really frustrated until I thought of the idea of using synonyms to find what I wanted. Instead of looking for marine parts, I started looking for boat parts and nautical parts. This gave me a bunch of online shopping options that were right up my alley. The search engines can’t help it if they don’t always know what you want. Give them better information and you’ll probably find what you need.

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Sometimes I think about the idea of starting a business with some of my family members. Everyone in my immediate family is self-employed. We all like starting new ventures. We all have different skills and talents that could probably assist one another in a business setting. However, I’m hesitant about getting involved in a family business.

It just seems like a mistake to mix your business life and your home life too much. I’m afraid that the pressures of a business situation would end up causing problems in our relationships with one another. We don’t have any problems now. We serve as the reprieve from one another’s problems. I’m not sure that I want to take the chance on changing that.

Then again, sometimes I think a family business would bring us even closer together. I’ve heard of these family-owned businesses like Bernardaud that have been in the same family for four or five generations. I love the idea of creating a business that can be passed down through the future of our family. I like the thought that each family member could bring something new to it and to change the original vision of it. I’m just not sure if I’m someone with enough vision to get it all started.

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Many people don’t worry about the cost of business trips, because technically they are business expenses, and can be deducted from your gross income. This lowers your tax liability, and therefore saves you money on your taxes.

However, you still need to be able to pay for the business trip up front, which means that unless your business is very successful, you probably will want to try to save some money on the cost of your trip.

One way of doing this is by looking for the best hotel deals available. You can usually find some pretty good deals online. Just be sure that you also call the hotel to ask what your total bill will be — there are a multitude of fees tacked on to the nightly rate, and you’ll need to take those into account when planning your budget or comparing prices.

You can also find some good deals on airfare online. These tickets often carry a risk, though, because your money cannot be refunded if your plans change. But if you are certain of your plans, go for it, and save some money on your business trip.

Finally, there is a lot of opportunity to save money on the meals you eat during your trip. One big thing is to eat cheaply unless it’s a meeting with a client or a networking event, where you need to impress someone. If it’s just you, though, there’s no reason why you can’t eat for under $10 per meal. If you are not into fast food, try buying food at the grocery store to keep in the hotel room. Many hotels now have at the very least a mini fridge and a microwave. Use them!

By a little bit of careful planning, you can really reduce the cost of your business trip. Of course, this means less to write off as a business expense later on, but if it means you can better afford the trip, why not?

Technorati Tags: Atlanta hotels, business expenses, business trips, hotel deals

Do you have to work in a cubicle? Many people find it depressing to spend their days sitting inside of their own little cube. The best way to combat this feeling is to personalize your cubicle. Make it your own little space.

Great easy ways to personalize your cubicle include:

- Get a funky chair. A really unique office chair can change the feeling of the space.

- Use a fun screensaver. Make your computer a fun thing to look at by using a screensaver that you enjoy.

- Put up photos. These don’t just have to be the usual family photos either. Hang up silly photos that make you laugh.

- Hang bold jewelry on the walls. Necklaces and earrings are light enough to hang on cubicle walls without weighing them down. They add texture and color to your space.

- Write out favorite quotes on colorful paper. Song lyrics can also be written down. Tack these up inside your cubicle.

- Get a toy or stuffed animal. Put a little bit of playfulness on your desk.

- Grow a plant. Having a living thing growing in the cubicle can make it feel a lot better!

What other tricks and tips do you know of for making a cubicle space a bit more personal?

Technorati Tags: jewelry, office chair

The Denver Parade of Homes has been changed a little bit this year.  Now, instead of going to one new development of luxury homes and seeing all the latest, they have travel around the whole Denver Metro area to visit a couple here and a couple there.

I don’t know if this is better or worse, but I would love to go to check out the fancy furnishings like Wall fountains right in the house!  I’ve heard of garden wall fountains, but I’ve never seen one in a house-just restaurants and hotel lobbies.  I especially want to check out what’s new with cabinetry, since mine is just plain old oak, and we’re thinking of just replacing the doors instead of the whole cabinet.

My husband found a great place to buy cabinets and doors, and I think I like the maple and knotty pine offerings, but I want to see the very latest.  I have a knack for decorating with stuff that’s just ABOUT to go out of vogue, unfortunately.  I also want to check out the tile, and any other master bathroom amenities, since we need to do that, too.  I especially want to see if those vessel sinks have gone out-I want to see what’s “in”-since my husband hates those.

Technorati Tags: Denver Metro, garden wall fountains, Wall fountains

Every year I try to come up with something interesting to explore in-depth on my travels. I feel like this adds a unique new dimension to my travel experiences. It gives me a focus for my adventures and introduces me to neat things during my trips.

Last year my focus was diners. I really love diner food (even though it’s bad for you!) and I also really love the experience at diners. I love the people that you meet there, the music on the jukeboxes and even the different menus that you see when you visit a lot of diners.

This year’s focus is going to be pawn shops. I’ve only visited a few pawn shops on my travels but the experiences were always interesting. It seems that people tend to sell different types of items in different geographic locations. You also learn a lot about the culture in the surrounding area by visiting pawn shops; the Las Vegas pawn shop culture is particularly interesting!

If I just wanted to visit pawn shops to get a good deal then I’d probably look at online pawn shops. However I really want to get the experience of seeing what these places are like in different parts of the nation. That’s this year’s travel plan. I’ll have to let you know how it turns out!

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I wanted to stay at an all inclusive resort with my husband.  We had been through some recent tough times and we needed to take a vacation to reconnect with each other.  I did some research online and found a perfect place to go - Fiji.  There was a Fiji inclusive resort available.  We opted to go with an inclusive resort, instead of just a Fiji hotel, because we wanted to be pampered and taken care of.  The resort was an absolutely beautiful place and the service was impeccable.  My husband and I really enjoyed being there.

Some of the incentives to stay at a resort such as this was the fact that everything was included.  We did not have to go hunting for other places to go and visit while on vacation.  There was no stress; everything was available to us at the resort.  If we wanted something we could get it, without worrying about anything at all.  The employees of the resort were an excellent representation of the beautiful people of Fiji and we learned a lot about what the people of Fiji were all about.  IT was a trip of a lifetime.

Technorati Tags: Fiji, Fiji hotel, Fiji inclusive