BOSS Blog Hawaii

How to set up a google local business listing

2010-02-24T16:22:00.001-08:00

Here is a step by step on how to set up or edit your local business listing. Remember it is FREE!!

Benefits of reciprocal linking

2010-01-27T23:38:00.000-08:00

Reciprocal linking is a way for website owners to share each other's traffic, a simple "let's trade links" deal that can help to widen your web audience.

Swapping links can also help you with your search engine traffic. Some search engines calculate the number of links to your site from other sites and use it to determine your ranking. Better position equals more targeted traffic!

Another way reciprocal links can benefit you is by drawing repeat traffic back to your website. If you offer a high- quality list of relevant links, visitors will return often because they know that they can quickly find what they're looking for.

PROACTIVE LINKING METHODS

One way to approach reciprocal linking is be proactive. You actively search out websites that would complement your own, and send a note to the owner asking to swap links.

This is actually a very time-consuming task. It isn't as easy as purchasing a list of "targeted" and "willing" email recipients (also known as SPAM!) and then blasting out a link swap request.

It requires research, pure and simple. To find possible link partners, visit any of the major search engines such as Google < http://www.google.com/ > to find websites that can offer valuable content to your visitors.

Then visit each website individually. Take a few minutes to look around and see what type of information it offers, and whether or not it can add value to your own site. Don't worry that linking to other sites may make your own seem "incomplete" - it doesn't. No one website can cover everything, and a high-quality links directory benefits your visitors by saving them from searching the web.

Keep in mind that website owners may get several link requests every day. To make yours stand out - and to convince him that you're not spamming - be sure to personalize your link request.

Include the site owner's name. Comment on something you've seen on her website. This shows that you have actually visited the site and taken the time and effort to look around. Personalized requests are far more likely to get a positive response.

PASSIVE LINKING METHODS

You can also take a passive approach to reciprocal linking. That is, you basically sit back and wait for others to approach or link to you. This passive approach gives you an obvious time advantage. Some ways to encourage passive links include:

Put a link on your site that says, "How to Link to Us". Provide the text, banners, buttons, and HTML to make it as easy as possible for someone to think to you.

Offer a content-rich site. You'll be pleasantly surprised at how many websites link to you just because they like what you have to offer.

Personally, I prefer the passive approach, as I'm sure most of you do. I only actively request links when I happen across an excellent site that I know my audience would appreciate.

But like with all things online, there isn't one "right" way to do things. Success depends on doing a combination of things well. Reciprocal links are one way to steadily build targeted traffic and add value to your site.

courtesy of linking101

A new type of theft. Is someone stealing your website traffic?

2010-01-06T08:43:00.000-08:00

With the increasing popularity of the internet there have been many new opportunities and resources for businesses to market their services. This has also created opportunities for thieves who have discovered ways of using these resources to steal traffic and sales from other businesses. We have recently seen an increasing new trend where competitors steal or claim online business listings of another company and direct traffic to their own websites, a social media marketing expert has warned.

Daniela Stolfi, co-owner of the interactive marketing firm BOSS Hawaii, says "We have recently seen a major increase in Online business listing hijacking not only from competitors, but in some cases even a companies own employees. And the scariest thing is that you don't even have to have a website to be hijacked. In fact you are more a target for not having a website."

There are many online marketing resources for businesses to utilize. The most popular is search engine local listings and map listings which is websites version of the yellow pages. Google, Bing, and Yahoo allows businesses to take ownership of the listings, and this allows a business to show up in search results with a map next to it. There are also countless websites offering free directory listings with links free that do not check to see if the person submitting the information is authorized to do so.

Stolfi explains that your business can log in and either create or change a business listing with details about their business.

"The problem is that a competitor, or even someone with malicious intent, look for for people who have not claimed their listings as an opportunity to claim the listing as their own, update the contact details to their own business and take traffic to a competitor's website. So if someone finds your business online and clicks the link, it would go to the thieves website."

These thieves are getting very clever Stolfi explains. "Even the ones we have caught and have fixed have found new ways to continue." For instance, Stolfi's company recently discovered that someone had hijacked the local listings on Bing for one of their clients, a popular hotel chain. "It was pretty clever. The hijacker created a wholesale account through Expedia's where you can make a commission on bookings and redirected the traffic for specific hotels to their expedia account. Someone looking to book at the hotel, click the book now button and was led to this expedia account. The customer is able to book the room so nothing seems wrong. But instead of it going to the hotels booking link, it went through the thieves wholesale account where they make a commission ranging from $3-75 per booking. And, because it is going through a 3rd party, there is no way to track who it was. It could have been a competitor, it could be an employee. There was no way to know. And because the way the system is, it took weeks for us to change it back."

Other situations can involve employees. An employee has access to the mail and phone where they can receive the pin numbers required to claim listings. Companies whose owners and managers either do not utilize internet marketing or who do not have websites are at a greater risk. "We recently were hired by a client to design a website and assist with a supporting social media campaign. The office manager was really very hostile to us and clearly not happy about us being there. We weren't sure why at first. But as we started building the campaign we discovered that they already had listings all over the web directing to a website. After investigating we discovered the employee created a website and unlisted url and directed all the traffic to her own website."

The most disturbing thing is, companies that don't even have websites can be victims and in fact are even more susceptible because they have no web presence, giving the thief even more control. Because of the opportunities to become wholesellers or reseller for a business, the thief can make a very good living doing this anonymously with no cost, no inventory, no legitimate business or no knowledge even of the industry with very little work involved. "Think about it. You can become a reseller for Amazon, art, baby products, hosting services, just about any business you can think of. A thief only need go out and create free reseller accounts then go and claim local listings for popular businesses selling those products, especially those who don't even have websites. The are using your company to make money. They just sit there collecting commission checks. Even if the company figures it out, there is no way to catch them and it takes weeks sometimes months to fix the listings!"

Thieves are taking advantage of the companies who are not aware or not monitoring these listings. This trend of hijacking listings is so new that not even the companies offering the listing services have been able to keep up with ways to prevent it from happening. Until they do it is very important that businesses become proactive and learn how to monitor it. Businesses need to keep checking listings on the web regarding their business and make sure they are up-to-date. "If not", Stolfi says, "vital traffic and sales could be lost. One client whose listings we reclaimed we tracked over $130,000 in internet sales in the first 3 months we fixed it just from Bing, Google and Yahoo. The hijacker was most likely making up to 30% of that for close to a year. It is really quite shocking."

Unfortunately, Stolfi says unless you have someone monitoring this, businesses may not recognize they have been hijacked until a customer notifies them of the attack, or if an employee happens across the listing by mistake. And because there are so many places that offer listings, it becomes a challenge of finding out what other listings the thief has claimed.

"There's no real way of it being stopped at this point, once your listing has been hijacked it's very difficult to get it back. The only way to prevent and reverse it is to either hire an interactive marketing firm like ours who offers this service. What we do is we go and claim all these listings for our clients and we create listings using up to 1000 directory websites. Establishing this presence removes you as a target not to mention increases your ranking and traffic."

For small businesses that do not have the budget for this service, you can do this yourself Stolfi points out, by going in early and claiming and creating your own listings. Then keep an eye on your listings from time to time, click on the links and make sure they go to your website. If you aren't tracking your website traffic, you need to. Set up Google alerts . There are also sites like Alexa.com where you see incoming and outgoing links so if you find someone has hijacked you, track their website and see what other sites have a link to see where else they may be listing. If you have been hijacked, you can contact the webmaster and request the listing be reverted back."

Resources for non profits on Facebook

2009-12-10T06:27:00.000-08:00

A great way to market our cause it to utilize Facebook.

FIRST Create a face book business page in the non profit section. Read my blog on how to do this: How to create a business page on Facebook
* Create a CAUSE on facebook that will allow you to apply as a non profit partner and people can raise money for your cause: http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/internet/page7416.cfm
* More info

To get started using Causes, apply to be a nonprofit partner by filling out the application at www.causes.com/partners/new You’ll get all the tools mentioned above as well as our monthly nonprofit newsletter. And, good news, it’s free! Then, don’t forget to start your cause. The cause is your community of supporters on Facebook – it’s what you use to recruit supporters, create community, fundraise, post videos and picture, and more. To start a cause, go to the Causes application at http://apps.facebook.com/causes and click Start a Cause under “Find Causes.” Your nonprofit can start multiple causes around different issues you work on, for different communities of supporters you have, or to see which ones take off!

Important of Social Book Marking and SEO

2009-12-03T09:43:00.000-08:00

Social bookmarking is defined by Wikipedia as a method for Internet users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages on the Internet. If you have ever posted your link to one of your blog articles with Digg you have social bookmarked it.

You can take a couple of simple steps to maximize the effectiveness of a blog article. In this article we will talk about seo tips that include social bookmarking your blog article to improve the results it gives you.

Today it's easy to bookmark your blog articles to multiple social directories with one click. For example OnlyWire dot com or Social Bot that allows you to join numerous social directories and then bookmark your blog article by logging into your account and posting your title, description and tag keywords.

The advantage of doing this is you can quickly develop backlinks to your blog articles for the search engines and for readers to find. When you write your blog article and bookmark it you can also help yourself out by utilizing basic search engine optimization techniques.

To keep it simple what you want to do is choose a specific keyword phrase for the article you write about. You increase the odds of ranking higher on the search engines if you target longtail keyword phrases which are phrases of three or more words.

The easy way to set this up is to include your keyword phrase in the title of your blog article. You should then also include it in the first and last paragraphs of the article when you publish it.

To place additional emphasis on it you can bold or even underline that keyword phrase. This helps the search engines know exactly what your blog article is about.

When you go to bookmark the article you want to tag it around that keyword phrase. You should include those again in the title and in the description for additional emphasis.

Search engines are spidering large social directories such as Technorati, StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit, Simpy and others all of the time. By bookmarking your article in these directories you are creating valuable back links for your blog.

You are also bringing the search engines to your blog more regularly. This allows your blog URL to rank highly for your targeted keyword phrase and possibly settle in on page 1 of Google.

This is the things that most Internet marketers dream of. A high ranking for a targeted keyword phrase can bring you free traffic on an ongoing basis. It is something anyone can do utilizing social bookmarking and these SEO tips.

credit-Suzanne Morrison http://www.3stepstosearchenginesuccess.com/

New Google Desktop Widget...simply awesome!

2009-12-03T09:22:00.001-08:00

My new favorite thing from Google. Access your facebook, twitter, calendar, even a to do list right on your desktop. http://desktop.google.com/

Desktop search
• Search your computer as easily as you search the web with Google
• Find and launch applications and files with just a few keystrokes

Sidebar with gadgets
• Add Google Gadgets to customize your desktop and iGoogle
• Get news, weather and more anywhere on your desktop

About Trademarks - Should you trademark your logo or tradename?

2009-12-01T09:36:00.000-08:00

A trademark includes any word, name, symbol, or design, or any combination used, or intended to be used, in commerce to identify and distinguish the goods of one manufacturer or seller from goods manufactured or sold by others, and to indicate the source of the goods. In short, a trademark is a brand name.

A service mark is any word, name, symbol, design, or any combination, used, or intended to be used, in commerce, to identify and distinguish the services of one provider from the services provided by others, and to indicate the source of the services.

There are many requirements for registering a trademark which are all satisfied if the trademark application is properly prepared. The following are the requirements and steps to getting a trademark.

1. The first requirement for a proper trademark filing is the name and address of the applicant for correspondence;

2. Another necessity for registering a trademark is a properly formulated listing of the goods or services provided with the mark. Trademark assistance from a trademark lawyer is invaluable at this stage, for you want to draft to product description to reflect the product, but also use language that is different from a similar trademark to help you get a trademark;

3. Registering a trademark also requires that if the mark has been used, the date of first use anywhere in the world and the date of first use in interstate commerce (it is best to document and preserve evidence of your dates of first use);

4. The cost to register a trademark is $335 for each class of goods or services is also a prerequisite to register a trademark. The cost to register a trademark is a small fee compared to the many benefits of registering a trademark;

5. A final need for registering a trademark is that the applicant provides a clear drawing of the mark and a specimen of the trademark.

The "drawing," which is a depiction of the applicant's trademark, must show the mark as it is actually used, i.e., as shown by the specimens. In the case of an application based on a bona fide intention to use, the drawing must show the mark as the applicant intends to use it.

A specimen is a real-world example of how the mark is actually used on the goods or in the offering of the services. Labels, tags, or containers for the goods are considered to be acceptable specimens of use for a trademark. For a service mark, specimens may be advertising such as magazine advertisements or brochures. Actual specimens, rather than facsimiles, are preferred. One specimen is required for each class of goods or services specified in the application.

Specimens are required in applications based on actual use in commerce, but are not required for applications based on the owner's future intention to use the trademark

Forms for filing these documents are available at http://www.uspto.gov/teas/. For further information on maintaining a federal trademark registration, please contact the Post Registration Division at (571) 272-9500

ONLINE TRADEMARK FILING SYSTEM http://www.uspto.gov/teas/e-TEAS/index.html

How much should you pay for a logo?

2009-11-29T22:32:00.000-08:00

Pricing a logo
This logo information page was inspired by the absolute confusion I see when it comes to online logo creation. I've searched dozens of logo web pages and have found that there is no consistency and more confusion than information. This page is strictly about the creation of the logo alone, no stationary package or implementation guidelines would be included.

I feel the price of a logo should be based on three criteria:
1. Experience of the logo designer
2. Size & budget of the company using the logo
3. Scope and length of the logo usage

I use the three criteria above assuming that the logo design is a standard type of logo. One other factor might come into play if a client were to request a very detailed and complicated logo design that bordered on being a technical illustration. You would have to factor in the extra time to create this type of design.

Below are my further thoughts on the subject and a guide as to what you should look for in an online logo designer.

Cheap logo design
They're all over the Internet - logo designs under $150! I've seen $99 logo designs, $75 logo designs, $49 logo designs and even lower! You will easily find a wide range of prices for logo design on the Internet. Unless you are a non-profit and have worked out a special deal, stay away from anybody offering logos that cheap.

With these cheap logo design offers, some designers may use clip art. A logo design that includes a royalty free piece of clip art cannot be copyrighted. Any company in the world could use the same piece of clip art as part of their logo design. Be sure and check out the designers portfolio. At $49 each, do their logos all look the same? Do 80% of them have block lettering and a swoosh?

Some logo designers charge one flat fee for a logo with no questions asked. Can you imagine Pepsi purchasing a logo design for $99? What a deal! Or how about Bob's bait shop paying $750 for a logo. There goes the budget! All companies are not equal in size, budget and scope.

The confusion doesn't stop there. Some logo designers charge additional costs for extra colors, extra modifications and extra preliminary designs. You have to get your calculator out just to figure the final cost of your logo. Do you really know what you are paying for?

How much is a logo really worth?
How much is a logo design really worth? Ask Coca-Cola, Polo, Nike, The Hard Rock Cafe, Hallmark or any other company that relies on their logo as their number one spokesman. Not every company is as large as these but every company should have a logo that is easy to identify and stands for the integrity of that business.

A logo design is more valuable to a company than a single spot illustration. An illustration is normally used once or used for a limited campaign, whereas a logo is used for years and is placed on business cards, letterheads, envelopes, web sites, vehicles, buildings and products. Do you see the difference in value to a company? A logo has more value than just the hours spent on creating it. It becomes the companies identity.

With that said, shouldn't a logo be worth more than just the time involved in creating it? Professional graphic design rates average anywhere from $30 to $75 per hour. If you see a logo design priced at $125 and that designer charges $50 per hour for design work, do you assume that they spent 2.5 hours on your logo? That price would include the time spent to contact you, the research done on your company and competition, the preliminary ideas, the changes, the finalizing of the logo, the file prep for each different format, sending the logo, billing and allowing you to have all rights to the design. So how much time was actually spent creating your logo?

My conclusion is that a logo is much more valuable to a company than a standard illustration so the price should reflect the added value. Many professional graphic designers would be hard pressed to create a top notch illustration for under $150 let alone a creative, well designed logo. So beware of logos priced under $150, you may get what you pay for.

Added charges
I personally do not believe that the cost of a professionally priced logo design should be influenced by the list below. These factors are a part of logo design and should be kept under control by the logo designer.

Logo Modifications - If a logo designer asks the right questions, does the research and stays in close communication with the client there should be no need for major changes during the creation of a logo design. Be a good communicator and explain to the logo designer exactly what you want your logo to be saying about your business.

Do be aware though, that there will be those clients that will pick, pick and pick at the design. As a logo designer I do sometimes see the need to limit modifications but it will all even out in the long run. Some clients will need zero changes while others may request ten.

Extra Colors - Printers charge more for extra colors. If a logo designer charges more for a two color logo than they do for a three color logo, get a detailed explanation as to why. It only takes the click of a mouse to add an extra color.

Preliminary Designs - A few choices is good, to many choices is overkill. A logo designer should be able to decide for you the correct amount of preliminary designs it will require to create your perfect logo. Be leary of eight, ten and more initial designs. How much time could actually be spent on each design? If you don't like your first two or three designs you can easily request two or three more.

If you are on a committe or a board, I assure you, you do not want to present ten logos to ten different people. You may never get down to a winning design.

If you need an additional presentation of logos due to a complete change in direction on your part, you should be charged an extra fee. An example would be asking for a yellow duck logo design and changing your mind to a red dog design once the logos are presented to you.

Adding an identity program to your logo is a legitimate cost. Designing the business card, letterhead and envelope layouts are normally a higher priced package. You should receive camera ready files for each design.

A fair logo price
There is a standard reference for pricing graphic design and corporate identity projects. It is Pricing and Ethical Guidelines, published by the Graphic Artists Guild. Any logo designer can purchase the book. A professional graphic designer would have a tough time supporting a family and a studio designing all of their logos below $200.

I'm not going to give exact prices for a logo design because each logo designers circumstances are different. Amateur logo designers charge much less to get their feet wet, but they should slowly increase their rates as they gain experience and creativity.

The standard logo design rates are based on two major components, company size and application or distribution size. The majority of logo designs created over the Internet are created for small companies and individuals with limited application and distribution uses. Fortune 500 companies normally pay much higher logo design rates and use advertising agencies.

An individual or small company with small to average uses should be prepared to pay anywhere from $300 to $1500 for a top quality, professional logo design.

Negotiate
If you have a small budget but like a more professional logo designer with higher logo rates, try to negotiate a better deal. Explain that you are a start up company or that you cannot pay the full amount until a later date.

Providing an exact idea of your logo with sketches might also save you a little money. If you can help the designer save time, you may be able to save money. A very simple text only logo might also be negotiated for a lower price.

If you have the budget and you like the logo designer, pay the going rate. Logo designers rely on top paying clients to make a living. Once established, a logo designer can then begin to negotiate and help smaller mom and pop businesses.

What's included with your logo?
The worst part of paying for a cheap logo is finding out that you were not sent the correct file formats for printing and web. You will then have to pay another graphic designer or printer to create the correct files. Be aware of what file types you will be needing and ask your logo designer what file types are included in their price.

The most common file types needed are AI (Illustrator) and EPS for most professional print jobs. These are vector format files. These files should be in a CMYK color format. Vector art allows you to reduce or enlarge a design to ANY size without losing detail or clarity.

For home use and some print jobs you will need TIFF and BMP files. These are pixel files and should have a DPI (dots per inch) of at least 300 dpi. 600-1200 dpi is best for professional printing. These type of files lose their detail when enlarged but can be reduced.

The last file types you will need would be JPEG and GIF. These are pixel files and are used for web design. They should be in a RGB color format. Be aware that not all colors translate well on the Internet, especially GIF files. Ask if the logo designer used web safe colors. You should receive crisp 72 dpi files for the Internet. A GIF file should be transparent if you do not want a white box around it when displayed on your page.

Be sure and ask your logo designer about your logo colors. Ask them for the Pantone PMS color numbers for each color. You will need this information each time your logo is printed. This insures that you get the exact same colors with every printer that you use.

Will you get your files over the Internet or will you receive a CD? Try to get a CD, it is much easier to take that to your local printer. Ask your designer how long they keep your logo on file in case you lose your versions later down the road.

You should also receive all rights (copyrights) to your logo. Since a logo is a companies identity you will need to own all rights to get a trademark. Ask for this in writing if you have any doubts. When it comes to a cartoon or character logo some designers might negotiate fewer rights or usage's to your logo to help save you money. You can renegotiate all rights and usage's at a later date when you can financially afford it.

Ask for the background on the logo designer you choose, you should at the very least know their name. Do they have a degree? How long have they designed logos? Is this their profession or a hobby? Where is there portfolio? Can you contact their other clients? Can you speak to them directly? With the amount of software available today and the invention of the Internet, any sixteen year old kid can start his own logo design company.

Final Thoughts
In closing let me say that the information above is my own personal opinion and is taken from years of searching logo design web sites and reading books on graphic design. Some logo designers will disagree with my thoughts, especially the $49 logo designers. The prices and information I have explained here only pertain to the work of graphic designers, not advertising agencies. An advertising agency handles logo design on a larger scale and incorporates an entire corporate identity service. Their logo design rates are many times higher than a graphic designers.

Written by: Curtis D. Tucker - http://www.curtoons.com

Your first website. How to prepare and save money too

2009-11-22T03:09:00.001-08:00

Many small businesses are afraid of getting a website because of the cost involved. But there are many options available and many ways to cut costs.

Doing it yourself
As much as I am for helping small businesses and finding ways to cut costs, I have learned from experience that your website is not something you want to do yourself. There are far too many affordable options these days, and being that your website is the first impression some get of your website, it needs to be professional, functional and effective. But if you just have no budget at all, and you need something quick I suggest getting a website tonight account with godaddy or signing up with wordpress. Keep it simple, just one page with your basic information and logo if you have one. Don't go crazy, don't add a bunch of widgets or add ons just because you can, don't go crazy with fonts and colors. A simple black or white background with an image and your information. Website tonight even has a template for a coming soon page if you don't want to deal with it. Get a domain name, and set it to forward to wherever you have your page. Whoever you get your domain from can help you with this.

What you can do to in the meantime While you are trying to find a designer or raising the money for a website, you can do a couple of things to prep.

1) get your domain name. It is very important that you select the right name. Not just to make your site easier to remember but to make it easier to find. There are many elements involved in this process that need to be considered. Here is a great link that can help you. http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/domainname.shtml

2) Since you are getting a domain you can choose your host. Hosting accounts is the space where your website will live. Getting it yourself can save time to the webdesigner and also give you control of your account. Some places like http://www.gowahine.com sometimes offer a free domain or $1.99 domain with the purchase of a hosting account. Just get the very basic hosting plan, you can always upgrade later.

3) Get a logo. In most cases a web designer can design one for you. But again, if you are on a budget and you need to save money you could check out something like. Template World who offers logo templates. Again, I strongly encourage that this only be a temporary thing because this is the branding of your business and should be done professionally. But some of these logo templates can offer a nice temporary solution. Keep in mind using these templates, you run the risk of someone else having the same design as you.

4) Work on your content. The better you are prepared with your content the easier and sometimes cheaper it will be to work with your designer. When you meet with a webdesigner he/she will base their quote on how much time it will take to build your site. IF you come in unprepared, the designer looks at that as additional work they have to do. Coming to the table with everything ready to go, will help keep your cost low.

5) Local listings and social media. I have some other articles here that go into detail about this. You need to get prepared to market your site in a cost effective way. There are local listings you can get yourself listed on, (google maps, local.com, bing, yahoo maps etc.), there are business pages for facebook and yelp. A Twitter account is essential. Be sure to add your new domain name to everything you do online.

CURRENTLY DRAFTING, COME BACK SOON!

Your web site is not about you

2009-11-15T22:10:00.000-08:00

As the old saying goes: You never get a second chance to make a first impression. That statement is especially true when referring to a business website. One of the worst things you can do is have a website out there that harms your business.

I have come to learn that the people who control their designers to make the site how "they" want it, end up with sites that do not properly convey the message of their product or service. It is very important when your designer is making your site to Listen to and work with your designer. We’re all aware of the phrase “the customer is always right.” If you insist on something, more than likely we will comply even if we feel it’s detrimental to your site. Remember that it’s part of our job to guide you, to look out for the best interest of your site, make suggestions, provide solutions and advise you of what might be a serious mistake. However, we can’t force you to follow our advice. The final say-so comes from you. We’re not perfect, but if you don’t listen to us and your site doesn’t do as well as you’d hoped, you don’t have a leg to stand on when you blame the designer. Let us do the job you are paying us to do! Don’t try to micromanage. If you absolutely must do it yourself, please do. Don’t waste your money and our time by paying us to do what you feel you can do better on your own.

The best thing you can do when going through this process is not looking at the site as a reflection of you. Unless the site is about YOU personally, the site should be designed for the target audience. We do not pretend to know your business but we do know how websites work, and even though you may not like something personally, there may be a very good reason the designer has designed it for you, and you are best to try and stay out of the way and allow them some creative freedom. You wouldn't like someone coming to your business and telling you how to run it. The same concept applies.

This doesn't mean you can't have what you want, just try to keep the BUSINESS and the AUDIENCE in mind. Most when reminded, realize that they aren't doing this, and it is a very important rule to keep in mind.

So you are getting a website?

2009-11-15T21:54:00.000-08:00

What’s With All the Questions?

During the process of dealing with a web designer I can promise you that , you (and the designer!) may become frustrated with all the questions we ask. This generally results in a back and forth “20 Questions” (sometimes 40 or 50 questions!) discussion between you and the designer while the designer tries to determine exactly what it is that you’re after for a final outcome. Think of it this way … you’ve hired us, you’re paying us … we want to give you a web site that you like and that works for you and your business. We simply cannot do this with a simplistic “I want a web site with a shopping cart” description from you. We don’t know you, we don’t know your likes and dislikes, we don’t know your business. It’s our job to create a web site for you that you’ll be pleased with and that functions the way you need it to. We can't see the future, so we have to ask questions. If we didn’t ask all these questions, most likely you’ll not be happy with the end result. The better you are prepared the sooner you get your website and the happier with it you will be.

I’ve found that what goes into developing a successful web site is quite often much more than the client might ever imagine. Web sites are complicated, and they are not properly put together in an overnight session unless you are using a “do-it-yourself” web site or “out of the box” software program. Yes, you can get a web site that way, but it takes more work than you may realize to develop a good web site. This work is not just on the part of the designer either! That’s right — it also takes your participation and plenty of it! The better the participation on the part of the client, the faster and more efficiently your web site will become reality.

A designer puts in many hours in every phase of the development process. In some cases there are significant hours expended that you’ll never know about nor be billed for. I’ll briefly go over some of the steps it takes to bring a web site to life. This by no means is a complete description just the quick and easy version and very generalized.

First we perform a “pre-site research and preparation.” This is where your designer attempts to determine “what do you want in a web site?” and what is it going to take to get you there. This step is necessary to develop your estimate and proposal. In order to make this phase as quick and painless as possible, many designers use what’s commonly known as a web site planner. The more thorough you are, the more you know about what you really want, the quicker this phase will go.

The Proposal Phase

If you need a proposal vs. just a simple estimate, we prepare one which outlines the project specifications and the estimated cost. Many changes can occur during the production of your web site which may mean adjustments to the final cost become necessary. We don’t just give you a figure and that’s what you pay, so your final cost may be somewhat higher or lower than the original estimate. This is another reason your preparedness is important. If you’re truly ready, alterations to the “game plan” will be probably be minimal. If you aren’t really ready, it’s likely there will be many changes. I’ve known this step of the process to take anywhere from a few days to several months to complete.

Why the big time difference? Most, if not all designers, have proposals and contracts on hand that they edit on a per-job basis to meet each site’s individual needs. For the average site and a prepared client whose web site is a priority with them, this doesn’t usually take too long. If a client is truly ready to begin, they’ve been able to portray to the designer what their goals are and are eager to sign and return the documents. If a client isn’t ready or if their web site is not a priority, this process takes much longer. I’ve found that many client’s tend to ignore deadlines which may be spelled out in the proposal or contract. This can wind up costing you more money as some designers may offer a discount for proposals or contracts returned prior to a written deadline. If you wait to long you chance an increase in the designer’s rates and miss out on one way to help keep your costs down.

The Design Phase

Once these documents are received your site will go into what’s commonly known as the design demo (or mock-up) phase which is where your designer will create a design and send it to you for your approval. A demo is generally one page and non-functional and shows you what your site will look like. Speak up now if you want changes. There are numerous ways in which designers allow for changes to the demo. There is generally a limit as to how many and what kinds of changes can be made before additional cost is incurred. If you were successfully able to give the designer what they needed, the demo probably looks pretty much how you envisioned it and there probably won’t be too many changes.

**It is very important to remember, when you meet with designer during the mock up phase be sure to be very clear about what you want. Once you have discussed what you want the designer will now go and design the mane structure of your site. Of course subtle changes can be made after this point to the content, but any major design changes after this will result in a tremendous amount of work for the designer who, has to go back and rebuild the structure. You will get charged for this.

Upon approval the next step is to set up the database or install the CMS (if your site will be using either of these). Once that’s complete it’s then time to create the pages and to begin inputting content and the list goes on. If your site will not be database driven we will jump to the page creation and content input. You as the client, should be required to preview every page of the site in progress. The client is responsible for checking everything! After all, you know your business best. This stage of development can become a costly affair if you are not ready with your text content. If your designer has to continuously edit and re-edit the content, your bill will add up fast!

The Take It Live Phase!

When all of the following criteria has been met …

* The look and feel is what you want …
* The pages are in place …
* The text content has been added and edited to perfection …
* Most of the bugs have been worked out — and there will be bugs! …
* The site look and pages have the client’s stamp of approval …
* Pre-live testing has been completed …

It’s then time to take it live — where there may be even more bugs! This can be a smooth transition, a nightmare for any number of reasons or fall somewhere in the middle. There is no way to tell until the site is actually live because the server it’s going on may cause some bugs to crawl out of the woodwork. There always seems to be those last little details that need attention or that for any number of reasons, perhaps can’t be handled until the site is actually live.

A good designer will do everything in their power to make the transition go as smoothly as possible. But … not only are we only human … we are dealing with a huge world wide network of machines that we have absolutely no control over. A glitch in the works should be expected. If it doesn’t — it’s a bonus!

There are things you yourself may need to participate in when going live such as form testing, reviewing, checking pages and more. One of the big things is if you’re switching registrars or hosting companies. To accomplish a successful live site, quite often your designer will need login information to various places that you yourself or someone else may have previously set up. If you don’t have these handy it can delay your site live date for a little while or way too long. Your designer will be thinking ahead for this and may have asked you previously for this or other information. Don’t wait until it’s time to let the world see your new site to get this information to them. It will only delay things. Good communication and cooperation is essential.

The Art of Communication

The bottom line is that there is quite a bit of communication that needs to happen between you and your designer. Most designers I know either keep their eMail open the entire time they are working or they set aside several times a day to check it and respond. Now, that doesn’t mean you’re going to get an instant reply as designers must prioritize things if we’re going to get any work done! What it does mean is that our clients and their web sites are a priority with us.

Reasonable and timely communication in addition to cooperation between you and your designer is absolutely essential to develop your web site within a sensible, realistic time frame. If you are one to check your eMail on an infrequent basis or you are not prompt to respond to your designer’s inquiries, this is definitely a habit you need to change if you want to see your site progress in a timely fashion. If you currently fall into this category, eventually what may happen is that your site will go on the back burner and your designer will “get to it when we get to it”. If we’re waiting long periods of time for you to respond to our needs to complete your web site, you can’t blame us if we’re not likely to be in a big hurry to get the job done.

Is Your Website a Priority for You?

Most people lead busy lives. It takes time and effort on your part to venture into a web site. To be quite honest with you, if you are not ready to make your web site a priority, you’re not ready for a web site.

A designer may have any number of ongoing projects at any given time. Clients that consider their web site a priority and communicate with their designer on a regular basis are those that get the priority work time. It pretty much boils down to the cold hard fact that if you are ready for a web site, then you are ready to put in the time and effort it takes to get it done. If your site is not a priority with you — is there some reason it should be a priority with your designer? If your site is not progressing the way you wish it would, take a look at your participation (or lack of!) and communication before you complain to your designer. I’m not saying you won’t find a lemon in the designer’s basket because like anything else, they’re out there, but unless you have looked at your own participation — don’t immediately and automatically blame the designer if things aren’t going as fast as you’d like them to.

*thanks to digital mouse for a great breakdown!

7 Reasons why you should create a Facebook Fan Page

2009-11-14T22:06:00.000-08:00

Here are 7 reasons you need to make a Facebook page for your website or company now.

1. Pages are public. Most of Facebook require you to login to see, preventing search engines from indexing. However, most Fan pages are not behind a login and thus search engines can index the page. Hopefully, people will stumble on the result in SERPs, visit the Facebook page, and then get to your site via the link.

2. Pages include links!! Because the pages are public, you can get some nice facebook.com link credit. You can’t use an anchor text, but hello, it’s free!

3. Send “updates to fans”. One of the greatest features is that you can send “updates” to fans whenever you want. It’s a nice way of building a database of interested users. Send messages about new products, updated website, events, photos etc.

4. You control the page. Making the page before a Fan or a competitor is critical. You want to be able to send the messages, edit or remove sections, and control the information to an extent.

5. News feed. When a someone joins a Fan page, it’s published in their News feed for all their to read (unless they have turned this off). It makes someone joining your Fan page somewhat viral.

6. It’s free and easy. Making a Fan page takes just a few minutes (see my other blog about how to do this)– add some information, URL, and upload the logo and you’re done.

7. With the new Twitter applications you can link the account to Twitter and have it automatically update via twitter or automatically update twitter via Facebook.

ABOUT SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

2009-11-03T07:24:00.000-08:00

One of the drawbacks of being a small business in Hawaii is the lack of a marketing budget. If your business depends on your website to draw customers, you will need a search engine optimization specialist to constantly monitor your website and make changes to keep you ranking high on the search engines. We build our websites as search engine friendly, meaning they are meant to start you off in a good position in the local market. If you do not have a budget to employ a specialist, you can watch your ranking yourself however what happens if you see your position falling? There are several factors that can affect this positioning at any given time.

1. Monitor search engine rankings - there will be many fluctuations in your search engine rankings. This may be due to search engines changing their ranking formulas, or competitors trying to get ahead of you. More sites are added to the web each day so you need to monitor your search engine rankings to be competitive. We can create monthly ranking reports on where your site is currently ranked for each of the major search engines or we can offer training to show you how to run your own reports.

2. Traffic Monitoring - it's essential to know where most of your traffic is coming from so you can make adjustments to your marketing strategies. For example if most of your traffic is coming from one particular page, you may want to place your best products on that page to get more sales. When something happened we can analyze your site statistics to check how much traffic you are receiving, where is it coming from and what keywords are being used to find your site.

3. Keyword research - web sites are being added to the web every day, therefore keywords that once got high rankings may no longer work. You may have high search engine positions for your most important keyword phrases but if you are not receiving any traffic from those phrases, you will need to evaluate the keywords that you have used. Attaining a number 1 ranking for keywords that no one will search for, will not increase your traffic.

Researching new keywords is essential to maintain good rankings. We can analyze the current keywords used on your site and research and add new ones. Once the keywords have been chosen, the content should be updated to reflect them. This may include subtle changes to the meta tags, page titles and text headings; or it could involve adding additional sections to the site, rewriting content and reorganizing the web site's structure. It all depends on the specific requirements of the site and market.

4. Competitive analysis - an integral part of search engine optimization is determining what keywords your competitors are using. We analyze where your competitors are currently ranked for the same keywords you are using for your web pages. We also check how many competitors you have for each of the major search engines. If there are too many competitors for a particular keyword it may be better to use less competitive keywords for your web pages or use them in conjunction with the most popular ones.

5. Adding new content - web sites that continuously update and/or expand their content, usually experience higher rankings than stagnant web sites. New keywords should first be researched before adding new content. This will help boost your traffic and rankings because visitors will have more ways to land on your site based on the keywords they entered in the search engines. One great way to achieve this is to add new articles to your site on a regular basis.

6. Web copy analysis - getting a lot of traffic to your site does not guarantee sales. It primarily depends on how effective your web copy is. You want to convert visitors into sales. I analyze how your web copy is structured on the page, what words you use, if it is written for your visitors plus check it for spelling and grammatical errors.

7. Boost link popularity - this refers to the amount of other quality web sites that have links pointing back to yours. The more quality links there are, the better you will rank on the major search engines. If you can find other sites related to yours and we can add or exchange links with them. This may require a links/resources page to be added to your site.

8. Tweaking web site structure and navigation - if visitors are having a difficult time navigating your site, reading the content or experience broken links, then we will repair the site to make it more suitable for your visitors.

BOSS Hawaii offers basic SEO services. If you closely monitor your positioning and contact us when you see a change, we will go in and make changes to get you back on track. If we are aware of any major changes made with the search engines that could affect your website, we will notify you.

**We only offer these services for local companies marketing to specific local markets. If you require more specialized SEO services on a larger scale we can refer you to someone who specializes in this area.

Writing off start up costs

2009-11-01T12:21:00.002-08:00

*Please be sure to always consult with a tax professional.

One questions we get asked a lot is about write offs and tax deductions. What is a write off, what can be written off, etc etc. We are surprised to find that a lot of small businesses are not taking advantage of write offs/deductions. The term write-off describes a reduction in recognized value. In accounting terminology, it refers to recognition of the reduced or zero value of an asset. In income tax statements, it refers to a reduction of taxable income as recognition of certain expenses required to produce the income.

Here is the deal, for the most part, You can write off a percentage of anything that cost you to make money in your business. That includes your website, webhosting costs and of course a service like BOSS which is considered a business development or start up cost. When in doubt, save the receipt anyway. In the end your accountant can sort it out. Saving receipts is a good habit to get into not only for taxes but to track your expenses.

The IRS publication number 535,says: "You can deduct Internet-related expenses including domain registrations fees and webmaster consulting costs. If you are starting a business you can amortize these expenses as start-up costs." So Calculate all of your start-up expenses, including your website. If your start up expenses are less than $5,000 you can deduct them all at once by entering the amount on lines 48 and 27 of IRS form 1040 Schedule C.

For start up costs over $50,000 you can amortize the expenses over a 15 year period, as long as the amount that exceeds $50,000 is deducted from the first year. For example, if your start up expenses were $53,000 then you can deduct $2,000 the first year and amortize the rest over the next 180 months. Consult a tax professional for advice if this sounds confusing. otherwise, read chapters 7 and 8 of Publication 535 for a more thorough explanation.

These deductions are reduced if you have more than $50,000 of either type of expense.)Once you've written off that first $5,000, you can still get a tax benefit from other expenses. However, those costs will have to be written off, or amortized, over 15 years.Sound like a long time to have to wait to get the full benefit of a startup deduction? It is. But for most small startups, these rules are an improvement over what was in place before the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 was signed in October of that year. Until then, all startup and organizational costs could be deducted over 60 months — but none could be simply written off.

I want to start my own small business. What do I have to do to keep out of trouble with the IRS?
Start by learning a new set of '3 Rs' -- recordkeeping, recordkeeping and (you guessed it) recordkeeping. IRS studies show that poor records, not dishonesty, cause most small-business people to lose at audits or fail to comply with their tax reporting obligations, with resulting fines and penalties. Even if you hire someone to keep your records, you need to know how to supervise him -- because if he goofs up, you are the one held responsible. Consider using a computer to keep your records if you aren't already in the electronic age.

Keep all receipts and canceled checks for business expenses, and keep them organized and in a safe place. Separate the documents by category, such as:

* auto expenses
* rent
* utilities
* advertising
* travel
* entertainment, and
* professional fees.

Put your documents into individual folders or envelopes. If you are ever audited, the IRS is most likely to zero in on business deductions for travel and entertainment and car expenses. Furthermore, the burden will be on you -- not the IRS -- to substantiate your deductions. If you're unsure how to get started or what documents you need to keep, consult a tax professional familiar with small business recordkeeping.

I have been operating my own business for several years, but I'm still often confused as to what is -- and isn't -- a tax-deductible business expense. Can you help me?
Just about any "ordinary, necessary and reasonable" expense that helps you earn business income is deductible. This term reflects the purpose for which the expense is made. For example, buying a computer, or even a sound system, for your office or store is an "ordinary and necessary" business expense, but buying the same items for your family room obviously isn't. In the latter case, the computer and stereo would be non-deductible personal expenses. The property must be used in a "trade or business," which means it is used with the expectation of generating income.

In addition to the "ordinary and necessary" rule, a few things are specifically prohibited by law from being deducted -- for instance, a bribe paid to a public official. Other deduction no-nos are traffic tickets, your home telephone line and clothing you wear on the job, unless it is a required uniform. As a rule, if you think it is necessary for your business, it is probably deductible. Just be ready to explain it to an auditor.

If I use my car for business, how much of that expense can I write off?
You must keep track of how much you use your car for business in order to figure out your deduction. (You'll also need to produce your records if you are audited.) Start by keeping a log showing the miles for each business use,always noting the purpose of the trip. At the end of the year, figure your deduction by using either the "mileage" method (you deduct a certain dollar amount, 34.5 cents for each business-related mile you drive in 2001) or the "actual expense" method (you can deduct the total you pay for gas, repairs, plus depreciation -- according to a tax code schedule -- multiplied by the percentage of business use). Figure it both ways and take the method that benefits you more.

Can I claim a deduction for business-related entertainment?
You may deduct only 50% of expenses for entertaining clients or customers, no matter how many martinis or Perriers you swigged. (Yes, this is a change. In the old days you could write off 100% of every entertainment expense, and until a few years ago, 80%.) Qualified business entertainment includes taking a client to a ball game, a concert or dinner at a fancy restaurant, or just inviting a few of your customers over for a Sunday barbecue at your home.

Parties, picnics and other social events you put on for your employees and their families are an exception to the 50% rule -- such events are 100% deductible. Keep in mind that if you are audited, you must be able to show some proof that the expense was either directly related to, or associated with business. So, keep a guest list and note the business (or potential) relationship of each person entertained.

I've heard that you can deduct 100% of some types of business supplies and equipment in the year they are purchased, but that you must deduct the purchase price of others over several years. Is this true?
Current expenses, which include the everyday costs of keeping your business going, such as office supplies, rent and electricity, can be deducted from your business's total income in the year you incurred them. But expenditures for things that will generate revenue in future years -- a desk, copier or car, for example -- must be written off over their useful life. Usually that period is three, five or seven years, according to IRS rules. There is one important exception to this rule, discussed next.

Trust them or Fire them!

2009-11-01T12:21:00.001-08:00

I have had first hand experience working for large and small companies who don't trust their employees before their are even any real issues. It is alarming how many bad managers their are out there, and how many miserable employees. I am still in communication with several of my former employers, and it is really quite amazing that some things haven't changed. Successful management requires trust. And when you have bad managers and unhappy employees your are losing money. That is all there is to it. Lets look at some office trends and how the affect y our business.

COMPUTER ACCESS-Blocking Social Media

Twenty-five percent of businesses have their IT departments block access to social media sites like Facebook, MySpace, Youtube, etc.

That represents a huge number of companies putting their organizations at a large disadvantage. This is largely due to misinformation, and fear of letting their business into the world of social media. If I managed a hedge fund, I’d sell short a basket of stocks of companies that block social media and buy stock in the companies that encourage use of these new tools.

Here are some reasons these companies block access:

• If my employees are on forums, chat rooms, and blogs they are not doing "real work."

• My partner told me it is a security issue within the company computer systems because when people are logging on to sites outside the corporate firewall they are endangering our computers.

• People may harm our image or it is a liability if they reveal too much information.

• It is a bandwidth issue

What is boils down to is this is an issue of trust. It is just excuses. Someone in power is naïve and scared and if these people don’t really understand social media themselves (and don’t use it for business in their jobs), they just slap on controls. I remember working for a firm where the administrator instructed the IT guy to block access. We were using yahoo and a few other programs to share music while we worked, help each other with work related issues, and even watch tutorials on youtube that helped us with things we were working on. The administrator would sneak up behind you and assume you were goofing off. The problem was, she had no real understanding of how powerful of a tool these resources were for us. Not just for help but for stress levels. It was really quite apparent that she didn't understand the internet and it was no secret she did not like computers period. (she used a typewriter because she said she preferred it) She had the firm shareholders totally convinced she knew what she was doing, she would record either myself or the IT guy when we had conversations and make notes so when she went in to talk to the shareholders she sounded like she knew what she was talking about. I think back to how much money she was spending on using the paid support services to set up and execute basic projects and functions, and enormous wasted money on the IT guy who was there way more then he should have been had she admitted her lack of understanding for technology. Of course the shareholders were old school and they all thought it was totally normal. I remember her talking to the shareholders once about how she blocked access to the latest socializing program called SpaceBooks and MyFace. She didn't even have the names right. At one point, one of the partners came to me for advice. She was on to this administrator and looking for support. She asked me to be honest. I was. I submitted a detailed report that showed a $35,000 loss in 6 months due to her lack of experience. She got wind of what we were doing and managed to set us both up as bad guys to discredit our efforts. I ended up quitting, and months later I heard they finally caught on to her and fired her. They saw my report finally and called me to take her place. Funny how things work.

The point is, if you trust your employees, they might surprise you with the ways they promote your business on social media sites. But if you don’t trust them, you end up with only the miserable corporate dregs who don’t mind working in an organization that won’t let them communicate with others in the ways that people are using today, and who are costing you money in sick leaves, taking twice as long to do things, and mistakes.

My recommendation is simple: Develop guidelines about what employees can and cannot do at work. Hold employees to a measurable standard for performance on the job. But don’t issue a total and unilateral ban on all social media technologies. The guidelines should include how you communicate in any medium, including face-to-face conversation, presentations at events, email, using social media, commenting on sites such as online forums and chat rooms, and other forms of communication. Rather than focus on putting guidelines on social media (the technology), it is better to focus on guiding the way people behave. The corporate guidelines could provide such details as employees can’t reveal secrets, can’t use inside information to trade stock or influence prices, and must be transparent and provide their real name and affiliation when communicating—guidelines that will guide an organization through a lot of potentially sticky situations, not just internet-related ones.

As long as your employees get their work done satisfactorily, there should be no need to micromanage their behavior. You don’t regulate how often people can use the restroom, when they can chat with a colleague in the hallway about their kids, or mobile phone use while taking a cigarette break. (and if you do, you need to stop) So why regulate when people can and cannot look at an online video? If there are individual cases of people not getting their job done in a satisfactory manner, deal with the people issue of that. Fire repeat offenders as appropriate. Remember, in most situations we spend more time in our work environments then with our own families. It is sad but true. Most good, educated people with a history of being trusted and hard workers, can be trusted to do their jobs and maintain an acceptable level of appropriate socializing and mental health breaks. Allowing them to manage their day by how the feel not only takes some pressure of them and shows them you trust them, but is makes them want to work harder for you and they will be more efficient.

I remember a situation where a co-worker I knew used to come in early because of her ride share program. She was a hard worker and like me, did twice as much work than the average person. Quite honestly, if we sat and worked the whole day through, we would be done by noon. And most companies don't gauge your work day on when you get your work done, they have the set hours you come in no matter what. So, she would start a half hour early every day off the clock but throughout the day, she would take little 10 minute breaks from time to time to check on her kids, email her family, make some calls she couldn't do after work. At 2pm she took an extra 30 minute break to make up for the time she came in early because she was diabetic and that was the time she got really tired and needed a 10 minute power nap in her car. This schedule allowed her to complete her day in the 8 hours she was required to be there. She was very good and managing her day that way, worked the hours she was paid and some, even taking projects home to help out and her work was exceptional. However, the administrator didn't see that, she only saw the little 10 minute breaks and the extra 30 minute break at 2 as a negative thing. She didn't care that she came in early and that she was often expected to stay late by her boss. She labeled her as a slacker and targeted her until she quit. Never mind the replaced her with someone who came in from 9 to 5 but did half the work. (incidently she replaced her with someone that cost less, this brings me to politics, a topic for another day)

If you’re an employee who works for a company like this or that blocks access, I suggest you become an agent of change. Give your bosses a copy of this column. Share the idea of creating guidelines that encourage and celebrate participation in social media instead of focusing on the perceived negative sides with executives. If they still refuse to open up, I suggest you quit your job and work for a company that embraces the new world. You’ll need to find a new job anyway, because your company won’t be around in a few years as the smarter competitors take away your business by reaching buyers on the web.

BAD Management
Employees never feel comfortable under a boss who doesn't trust them or whom they don't trust. In the absence of mutual trust productivity falls as the employees get into politics, covering their backs and other counterproductive activity. Not trusting each other affects morale, which leads to a deterioration in customer satisfaction, your employees health and more as the focus shifts from the business needs to internal wrangling.

Here are some qualities a manager must possess to develop trust.

1. Effective Communication

A manager must communicate well to build strong relationships with their people. In difficult times, employees might think no news as bad news, so a manager must keep in close touch. Lack of communication reduces trust; being open with information creates it.

2. Trust Others and They Will Trust You

A manager must develop an ability to trust others and create an environment of trust throughout the workplace. Really, it is better to assume the trustworthiness of employees to start with, rather than waiting for them to earn it. Team members find it much easier to trust their manager if they feel trusted themselves.

3. Honesty In Everything

Being open and honest is a key ingredient for generating trust. When you are open about your vision, actions and intentions, you will usually generate strong support. Both good and bad news should be openly shared, reducing gossip and internal politics. By admitting mistakes and not trying to cover them up, shows any manager to be a normal human being, just like everyone else!

4. Establish Strong Business Ethics

Managers should create a moral value system for the workplace. Teams which have a common ethics are healthier, resourceful, adaptable and productive because of the common root of their consistent value systems.

5. Keep Your Word

By making actions visible and fulfilling commitments, managers become trusted. Failing on promises is insincere and causes tensions. A manager needs to deliver actions visibly, to ensure everyone is aware that they can be depended upon.

6. Be Consistent

In the process of building trust, being consistent and predictable is very important. If the behavioral pattern changes from to week to week, trusting it becomes difficult. Your people get twitchy and uncomfortable when plans and expectations change too much.

7. Be Easily Available

Your team members need to able to get to you when they need to. Whilst there may be times when, for purposes of doing your own work, you need to remain undisturbed, there needs to be a balance. You are the manager and they will need you for specific involvement in day to day activities.

8. Maintaining Confidences

Employees who you manage must be able to confide in you sensitive information, express concern and share problems. People need to know that you can keep this confidential when they need you to. Sometimes these can be personal matters and in such cases this becomes even more important.

9. Language Matters

Watching your language is crucial. By avoiding using the "us" and "them" figures of speech and sticking with "we" wherever possible, your team will bond better with you. Your language should be clear and simple, because everyone interprets what is said differently - so you need to speak plainly for everyone to understand.

10. Creating Social Time

Having informal social interactions with the team enhances the trust building procedure. In context, social interactions are a big opportunity for success for any good manager.

If you own a company, and your turnover is high, then your manager is doing something wrong. They are not hiring the right people and they are not managing them correctly. Even employees who are slacking can be turned around with the right management skills. To make a team which works together efficiently, requires the abundant presence of mutual trust. By consistently thinking of and working on trust building, any manager will reap long-lasting positive benefits.

Website mistakes and misconceptions & What to look for in a designer.

2009-11-01T12:20:00.001-08:00

The last few weeks have really revealed a lot about what people understand about their websites. I met with Will of Page Marketing and Ernest of First Friday Hawaii, and each of them really reminded me about some serious misconceptions people have about what they need and what they get in their websites. Each of these guys have a lot of experience with databases, SEO, and coding. So when they speak, I listen carefully. SO I thought I would share my revelations with you.

The reason Leslie and I decided to add website services to our portfolio because we found that was one area that clients really needed help with. The biggest issue was that most of our clients had already been ripped off by a designer that took advantage of an excited new business owner with start up cash. By the time they come to us for help, it is too late, and they have already shelled out the cash for something they either can't use or is not meeting their needs. I couldn't find anyone to help them because no one was going to build a website for the amount they were left to work with. And because we were already providing services for them, and I am a designer and have experience with creating websites with a zero budget, I found myself "helping out". But one site, led to two and then ten and then twenty, and now we offer it regularly. We have gotten quite good and getting people sites up fast and affordably. We do a lot of non profit work and we take on one pro bono a month. However, all of this work has really made me aware of several problems with the way small businesses look at their sites. As I tell all my clients, just getting that website up is not enough. This leads me to my first point.

MISTAKE ONE-TRUSTING THE PORTFOLIO: I enjoy building websites. The design aspect anyway. I get excited at the beginning of everyone. But when it comes to any technical work or SEO work, not so much. What I have found is their are really great designers out there with no technical experience. Then there are the "techies" who have poor design skills. That is why you will see all of these gorgeous sites out there performing poorly, and crappy looking sites performing well. Rarely do you see both and if you do, chances are it was a high dollar site made by a company with separate departments. One for design and the other for databases and SEO. So looking at someones portfolio is not enough. As Ernest pointed out that a webdesigner needs to have experience in all areas to really serve their clients. I totally agree. Sadly this isn't usually the case. I can't tell you how many really great sites out there I have come across, where the person made some very obvious mistakes or who completely did no SEO work at all. Most clients I talk to thought they were getting this either because they were promised or they thought it was an automatic thing. I dont' know if the designer doesn't know what they are doing, is lazy, or they just don't care. I would tend to think it is that they don't know how. Because It is really shocking to see sites that look professional from designers who don't even know html. SO when interviewing a designer, you want to ask what they are experienced in. The best designers are the ones who can do it all such as designing your logo or brand, your website, photographing your staff, writing your copy, hosting and domains, designing your supporting marketing materials, converting or editing your videos, editing photos, SEO, assist with business listings and linking, and more. Basically they take it a step further than just getting your website up so they can charge several thousands of dollars and then leave never to be heard from again.

MISTAKE TWO-THINKING IT ENDS THERE: People tend to think that once they get their website up, it ends there. It doesn't. That website has to be maintained. It should be updated at least monthly. This is where the SEO guys come in handy. All they do, is keep an eye on your positioning and make sure your site is performing. Most designers are not equipped to do this full time because it is really job all by itself. Search engine optimization is complex. To move up in the listings on Google and other search engines, you may want to hire a professional, especially if your business relies heavily on generating business from the Web. When we do a site, we do get you started by adding keywords, submitting you to the search engines, making sure your content is stacked right. But unless you are paying someone to maintain this (do not confuse this with your hosting fee) then your site is dieing on the vine. Usually this is a budget issue. So it is important that when budgeting for your site, that you consider this service. Not only is content time-sensitive, so is format and design. There will always be new tools available to make Web sites better looking and better performing. It is not cost-effective to create a Web site and let it sit. Update content regularly and take advantage of (appropriate) new technologies to make the site look better. Will at Page Marketing has a great section that explains all about SEO. http://www.pagemarketing.com/seo/index.html

MISTAKE THREE-IGNORING STATISTICS: Detailed reports of visitor traffic are available for your Web site. This service may be offered by your hosting provider or obtained through a third party. By monitoring your statistics (such as visitors-turned-customers, users on broadband, etc.) you can tailor your marketing and design toward those who visit most or find weak spots based on who you are not attracting. We use google analytics and add this as a part of all of our webdesigns for free, and we show you how to use it. I would say only 20% of our clients actually use it though. Will has an impressive portfolio he is tracking. And it works for him.

I am not going to pretend to be some kind of internet marketing expert. But I would say I have a pretty good grasp on the overall picture. Everything I know is from my own experiences and the people who I pay attention to who I do consider experts. I would say I am a good artist and graphic designer, a great marketing person, writer and photographer, and therefore I make a fairly well rounded web designer, offering a little of everything, willing to go above and beyond and still excited to go to work everyday. I know that for what we charge, we offer more than most, and if something is out of our range of experience, we will pass the work on not try and do it ourselves. We generally help new businesses, small businesses, artists, non profits, sole proprietors, basically people who need to get as much as they can for a reasonable rate. And in return we can sleep at night knowing that we are charging fair rates, (not like a certain designer who I have had to clean up after who is charging people $150 a month for a domain name!!!!!). When I replace a website that is better than the prior one for half of what they paid, I know I have done what I set out to do... Provide an ethical and useful service for the small business owner. And as I get more experience, I will probabley start charging more, but I think I will always have a soft spot for the little guys...after all I am one!

How much do websites cost in Hawaii for small businesses

2009-11-01T12:18:00.001-08:00

This is the questions we get the most. It really depends on designer to designer. But here is the hierarchy of what is available out there right now: (this relates to small businesses and non profits)

$100,000 plus This is a solid budget for most large websites. Very sophisticated web applications or huge sites could certainly cost more (potentially much more!), but for $100,000 you could hire a top internet consulting firm to create a robust site, one that does non profits prefrabley. At this level, your consultants can also help guide you through decision making, and shepherd decisions through internal politics and disputes - you're getting a strategic partner in addition to just someone to implement a site.

$50,000
A lot opens up in this price range. This could be a fairly sophisticated site from a small firm, or a straightforward site by one of the top firms in the country, with some substantial strategic guidance.

$15,000
We're now getting into the realm of solid, scalable, strategic websites. It would cover an independent consultant, a team of consultants working together, or a small firm, in building a site on a solid infrastructure (like a content management system) with some strategically chosen features beyond simple text and images. It also might cover a very simple, basic site from a top consultant or firm - something very small but expertly crafted and designed. The budget would now cover some up-front help from the consultant in figuring out your needs.

$2500-$5000
At this level, you could get a jack-of-all-website-trades independent consultant who makes a living building website to build a simple site tailored to your needs. It might cover a simple, custom graphic design, and potentially one or two simple features (like a simple event calendar). There still wouldn't be a lot of time for strategy or feature definition, but you could expect a bit more customer service from the consultant. Note that a jack-of-all-website-trades consultant is likely to be, as the aphorism says, a master of none. Top quality websites are typically designed and built by a team of people - perhaps a graphic designer, a navigation expert, a content specialist, a design implementer, and an serious programmer. A jack-of-all-trades isn't likely to be an expert in all of those things, but they might have just enough experience in each to do a decent job, so it will be important to see a portfolio to judge their skills in the areas important to you. In this economy you can also get some flash elements to your site at this level and most good ones will offer marketing and SEO.

$1000-$2500 This is about the low end average for small businesses in this economy. At this level you might get someone with a couple of years experience, that has a few solid websites under their belt and probably who has recently taken their business to the next level. If you are careful, you could get a real deal here with the right person. Most likely you would get a 5-10 page site, with some custom graphics, a map and contact form to email. If you are getting someone to offer more than that such as logo work, some basic marketing, social media and SEO services than consider yourself lucky.

$500 and under This is around the lowest market rate you're likely to find, and it won't buy you a lot. At this price, you might be able get an independent consultant, probably with very little experience prob. a student or a friend, to whip out a 5 page site, based on a templated graphic design and a very straightforward navigation scheme. You won't get something very branded to your organization, and you'll likely have to define precisely what you want up front, as this price wouldn't cover time to help you work through your needs to any substantial degree. You may well have trouble finding someone to work at this low end.

Why I don't trust people who come to work early

2009-11-01T12:17:00.001-08:00

I don't trust people who come to work early. People who are early for work are not Over achievers They something to hide. Employees who know they are making mistakes, know that if they come in early it will hide their incompetence. It's true! Being early is like getting a key to the city, a lifetime hallway pass, a ticket to first class!

Yes I am kidding but only slightly. The point I am trying to make really comes to a common mistake that employers make valuing reliability over production.

Example, Joanne would come in early every day. The bosses knew they could always expect to see her bright an early in her chair sometimes 30 minutes before her shift. She was pleasant, and always had the coffee made. But, she was slow and often burdened her co-workers with questions she should have known. She was not computer savvy and often couldn't do certain things that were part of her job description, which would be passed down to someone else by the administrator with no repercussions. She turned her phone off at 5 and made it clear that she doesn't work weekends and didn't stay late even if that meant others had to come in and complete a time sensitive task. Co-workers complained but nothing was ever done. In fact, management defended her.

Now Sue usually arrive on the dot and sometimes a few minutes late. She was a fast worker and often picking up the slack. She would stay late when it was required of her, and would come in on weekends or take work home off the clock to get things done. One day, Sue was asked to stay late and said she couldn't. She was written up for it and was also warned about not being on time or taking longer lunch breaks. Why did Sue get in trouble for not staying late and not Joanne? Because the bosses looked at Joanne as a better worker and more reliable simply for being early. It allowed her to set her own boundaries. It didn't matter that Jackie does twice the work.

It is very common for employers to value an employees reliability over production. There are positives and negatives to this thought process. Yes reliability means less turnover, reducing cost to the company. However, poor productivity can counteract that benefit. Ideally the best case scenario is someone who is both early and a productive worker but that is rare. So what is the better employee to choose? I would choose the productive worker over the punctual one. Why? Because with the right encouragement, you can always work with punctuality. But you can't teach people to be multi-taskers or to be productive even. You either are or you aren't. Employers often forget to simply ask an employee how they feel about their performance and their schedule. What they would likely find is that these employees that put the extra effort, are simply feeling under appreciated. Or they may be simply trying to manage their schedules due to the extra hours. Employers may not consider things like, when the employee stayed late the day before, she missed an appointment or couldn't get to the bank. So the next day they try to do it at lunch and end up late coming back. OR, an employee put in 2 hours additional work that was unpaid, and when no one noticed they felt that coming in a few minutes late would be ok. By talking to them and working out benefits for these employees and discussing their frustrations it not only acknowledges the extra work the employee is doing, but it encourages productivity and can prevent misunderstandings in schedules.

And the truth is, there are some employees who have figured out that being early will hide their incompetence in other areas. Its true. During an evaluation, we came across a girl whose typing speed was almost half of her coworkers, had less responsibility because her file notated she did not have the skills required to take on more work and who was clearly warming the desk more than 20 hours a week. She flat out told us that she knew that she wasn't as up to par but that the management "loved her" because she was always on time and had coffee and donuts ready for her bosses when they got there.

Employers need to remember that their employees spend more time in the office than they do with their own families, and that being understanding that they need time to take care of the home and personal priorities and appointments that can only be done during office hours, will get a more loyal employee who will want to work harder for you.

Me, I personally don't want desk warmers. There are employees who have made it an art stretching out an 8 hour day when the work is done in 4, simply to collect a bigger paycheck. I would rather someone be honest and tell me they finished their work and give me the option to send them home early or renegotiate their salary so that both win. If they save me money like that, I wont forget it come bonus time

Making Snap Judgements

2009-11-01T12:16:00.001-08:00

Talk about snap judgments! Did you know that people decide whether another person is trustworthy within a tenth of a second?? This is based on the results of a recent Princeton study. This personally makes a lot of sense to me. I have recently come into contact with a few people who I could tell in the first few seconds had made up their mind about me. Some liked me right away, and some clearly didn't. Even though I presented myself the same way.

"If given more time, people's fundamental judgment about faces did not change," said Princeton University psychologist Alex Todorov. "Observers simply became more confident in their judgments as the duration lengthened." It all suggests snap judgments are common and totally vary based on the individual.

"The link between facial features and character may be tenuous at best, but that doesn't stop our minds from sizing other people up at a glance," he said. "We decide very quickly whether a person possesses many of the traits we feel are important, such as likeability and competence, even though we have not exchanged a single word with them. It appears that we are hard-wired to draw these inferences in a fast, unreflective way."

Meanwhile, he has no clue what we look for.

"We still don't know the physical features of a face that lead to a particular trait inference," he said. "We know generally what makes a face attractive, such as its symmetry, the proportions of its parts and the like. But what is it about a face that makes you think its owner is an essentially competent person? That's the subject of another study, one that needs to be done."

Great, so we don't know how or why some people make these snap judgments yet? Hmmmm, and I think I do it to. Today I met a manager of a hotel. Had I walked away in the first 5 seconds of our meeting I would have said she wasn't someone I would be friends with. But after an hour of talking, I realized she was really great.

We have nothing but our perceiving to base judgment on. Thus, we must judge people on our perceptions of them. There really and truly is no other choice. If your preconceived concepts of people get in the way of your understanding them, this is a bad thing. But preconceptions are quite different from perceptions. Our perceptions may indeed be imperfect. But an imperfect understanding still beats random guessing by a long shot.

Perception is only as good as the perceiver.

Do your own Web Site Promotions

2009-11-01T12:15:00.001-08:00

1. Get your business listed with Google maps (free):
https://www.google.com/local/add/login

and YAHOO Maps free: http://listings.local.yahoo.com/basic.php

2. Get your business listed with SuperPages.com (free and fee options): https://my.superpages.com/spweb/products/business-listing

3. Update your business listings with infoUSA.com and Acxiom (find out why you should here): http://list.infousa.com/dbupdate.htm
and http://bcb.acxiom.com/start.pl

4. Get a listing in Best of the Web in their regional section (fee):
http://botw.org/top/Regional/United_States/ (click submit site at the top right of the page once you find your proper category)

5. Get a listing with Yahoo Local (free and fee options):
http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/local/business.php

6. Find the category that matches your business and get listed with Dmoz.org (free): http://www.dmoz.org

7. Get listed in MSN local via localeze.com:
http://www.localeze.com/manage/

AND Bing https://ssl.bing.com/listings/ListingCenter.aspx

8. Get listed with citysearch.com (also powers the Ask local search) for a fee: https://selfenroll.citysearch.com/

9. Get listed with local.com (free and fee options):
http://www.local.com/advertise.aspx

10. Get listed with yellowpages.com (free and fee options):
http://www.yellowpages.com/sp/advertise/

11. You might be able to save yourself some time with RegisterLocal.com:
http://www.registerlocal.com which offers to keep your business profile information up to date with various yellow page, local search providers and data companies who provide information to various local outlets.

12. Register yourself with the local search engine over at BOTW: http://local.botw.org (free for basic profile, upgrade enhancements available for a fee)

13. Talk with friends, family, businesses you have partnerships with that have websites and any associations you may belong to (such as a chamber of commerce) to see if they would be willing to link to your website to help promote your business.

14. Be sure to utilize local free event and calendar listings like the Honolulu Weekly, Hnlnow.com, Hawaii Events Online, the Midweek, Hawaii Magazine online, and more!

Remember to promote your site by mentioning it on all your marketing materials and to current customers. Add it to the footer of emails and in on your letter head. Open social media accounts and talk about it there.

How to make a FAN PAGE for your business on Facebook

2009-11-01T10:26:00.000-08:00

In Facebook, you may have seen our 'fan page'. If we have been helping you with web marketing I probably have directed you here to set up your how. Remember that, a fan page in face book can increase your value on the web. It would also helps you to connect with your customers.

INSTRUCTIONS

1.Log into your facebook account. (or create one if you don't have one yet)
2.Go to the Fan page of BOSS Hawaii and Join as a Fan http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kailua-HI/BOSS-Hawaii-LLC/97164684736?ref=mf
3.After joining, just run through the page, you may see your profile pic on the Fans List
4.Below this, you will see the recent posts and just below it, you can see a 'Create a page for my business'
5. Choose your category and it will walk you through the rest.

If you have a website, you can also create a page for your website.

NOW WHAT?

Now you need to market your page.

1. Add a “Find us on facebook” link or button to your website, email signature or anywhere else you think people who may find your content useful will be looking. You want to make it as easy as possible for an interested party to “become a fan” of your business.

2. Add Your Logo. Make sure your main picture or photo is a high quality image of your logo, this is great for brand recognition and getting your logo seen.

3. Add Pictures / Photos. Adding pictures of current promotions, marketing materials or photos of a recent events creates interest. People are visuas and adding pictures is a good way to get people coming back to your page where they will find other useful information & links.

4. How to add administrators (people who can update your page)Sometimes you may want more than one staff member to be able to update the page to keep the fresh content coming. To add an extra admin - click on “Edit Page” just under your main page picture (logo).

On your setting page you can find “Admins” at the bottom of the right hand side column.

Click “Add” to ad a new admin from either your friends list or via an email address. Note if you invite someone via email who doesn’t have a facebook page they’ll need to sign up before being able to edit the page.

5. Add upcoming events so people know what you’re doing! On the menu for your page you will see Wall, Info, Photos, Boxes etc and a plus (+) sign. If you don’t see events on the menu, click the plus sign and then click events on the pull down menu that is displayed.

You will see a grey button called “+ Create Event” click this to create an upcoming event.

Enter all the details for your upcoming event and click “Create Event”.

Enter in the name and details of your event.

In the next step you can add photos to the event and if you want to hide the event from the general public so that only the people you have invited can see the date, time location etc. You can also set the permissions of what people can do with the even, like post comments, photos, videos etc, if you want total control its best to set each of these to “Only allow admins to post links” / upload videos / photos etc.

Click save when you’re done setting up the event.

6. How to delete events:

Click on the “Events” tab the menu toward the top of your page.

You can “Cancel” a created event by clicking “Cancel Event” in the right hand side options.

You will be asked to confirm this action before the event will be canceled, click “Yes, I’m sure”.

7. Adding information on past events and news to a facebook page

You can either do this by using your status updates or notes. If you can’t see the notes tab on the menu click the plus (+) icon and select “Notes” from the pull down

Click “+ Write a new note” to add a note.

Put the title of the news article (and date if you wish) into the “Title” field. And paste the news item / article into the “Body” field its up to your if you want to include the date of the article in the title or the body.

If you’d like to include a link to the article on another website or your own site you can add “To read this article on our website, please click the following link:” and then paste the URL (website address) of the page you want them to visit.

You can also use this technique if you just want to display a snippet of the article and want “fans” of you page to end up on your site to read the whole article.

If you have any related images to go with the news article you can add these by clicking “Choose File” under the body field.

Once you’re done, scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Preview” You will see a preview of what your note will look like and if you are happy with it, click “Publish”

And you’re done!

**If you are a small business in Hawaii, be sure to become a fan of our page and we will return the favor. http://www.facebook.com/#/pages/Kailua-HI/BOSS-Hawaii-LLC/97164684736?ref=ts

Good luck!