June 2010

Tire-Cover Company Pledges Loyalty to iePlexus After Experiencing Great Success

Two weeks – that’s all the time it took for Cindy and Jerry Jackson to witness a booming success with their web business after signing up with iePlexus.

“Right away we noticed an increased and steady flow of traffic to our website and, by the end of the first two weeks, our sales had nearly quadrupled,” Cindy recalls.

In June 2008 the couple embarked upon their enterprise, www.BreezeByYou.com, and was just staying afloat with an average of three sales per day. Now, with the professional support of iePlexus, the business averages 10 to 12 sales daily.

“I’ve already burned up one printer, and am almost through another, with all the orders I receive. My drop-shipper even struggled to keep up with my order requests; they had to hire more help just to maintain our commissions,” she said.

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Keys to Successful Business Blogging

Blogging about how to blog may seem like a conceited task, but the truth of the matter is that most people who blog aren’t utilizing the medium to its full potential. According to statistics complied by Technorati, there are an estimated 175,000 new blogs created everyday. Albeit a considerable number of these blogs never make it past the first few posts, that is still an astronomical amount of competition. So the challenge all bloggers have to confront is how to get their voice heard through all of the static. Here are some tips to help you do just that:

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Nipping Spam Comments in the Bud

Blogging is an indispensable tool for disseminating information, cultivating multilateral communication and promoting your business. But even if you are simply blogging for fun, we all like to know that are voices are being heard, which is why getting comments on your blog is such a rewarding feeling. And while it would be nice if only well-intentioned people interested in expounding a topic commented to your blog, the fact of the matter is that the vast majority of the feedback you receive will actually be spam comments.

Any blogger knows that creating a blog and writing fresh, relevant content is a time-consuming endeavor. And, not surprisingly, there are people out there looking to take a piggyback ride on your hard work. Instead of creating their own blog, other website owners will add a comment to your site with a link back to their business page. Not only is this a bastardization of the purpose of the comments section, it also can have a negative impact on your blog. As we mentioned in our previous post on search engine algorithms, your inbound and outbound links are a crucial component in search engine algorithms. So if you have a surfeit of spam comments linking to shady sites, it doesn’t bode well for your blog’s ranking in the various search engines.

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Making the Most of Social-Media Marketing in 10 Minutes Daily

As an entrepreneur of a new, online business it can sometimes seem like your daily to-do list is substantial. What may have originated as a foolproof plan for simplistic, home-based sales can quickly amount to a handful of responsibilities as you set up your content, pictures, products and so forth.

Fortunately, among the often hefty list of must-haves that every successful web store demands, there is one key area that can be cultivated in just 10 minutes a day. Social media is a new-age marketing platform that allows online-business owners to connect with a worldwide audience of consumers.

Below you’ll find three fundamental ways – courtesy of SocialMediaExaminer.com – to create the ultimate social-media experience for your consumers.

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Getting to Know Search Engine Algorithms

Anyone looking to rank highly in the search engines needs to know a little bit about algorithms. I know, this sounds like some sort of esoteric calculus equation used exclusively by astrophysicists, but it is actually the heart of all search engines. Although there is some discrepancy as to the precise definition of an algorithm, it’s basically a method for solving problems using a precise sequence of instructions. Flowcharts provide a good analogy.

When you go through a flowchart, you are asked a series of questions and eventually led to some resolution. This is essentially of microcosm of an algorithm. Each search engine uses dozens of “signals” to comprise their algorithm, including variables such as a website’s speed, content and inbound links. As you can imagine, sites like Google, Bing and Yahoo! are constantly updating, augmenting and refining the signals used in their algorithms to ensure users are presented with the most pertinent information.

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Differentiating Your Business Using Social Media

By now you are (hopefully) well aware of the immense benefits social media integration can bring to your business. But since social media is free in most cases and information is readily available, chances are that your competition is attempting to implement the same marketing and networking tactics. The question then becomes how to differentiate yourself and your business. Here are a few tips for getting your voice heard on the social networks:

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Examining the History of Blogs to Celebrate Milestone of WordPress – 200 Million

More than a decade ago, the concept of blogging originated as an innovative approach to traditional forum, allowing individuals to express their thoughts, ideas and opinions with a worldwide audience. Today, the dynamics of this interactive, web-based platform have exploded with popularity and continue to climb exponentially.

However, with the incessant rise in the number of active bloggers in recent years, how many people actually know how blogging came to be?

According to eHow.com, Jorn Barger coined the term weblog in 1997 to condense the original expression, web log. Later on – five years to be exact – Peter Merholz coined the word blog accidently when he broke up weblog in the sidebar of his blog page to read we blog, which evolved into blog shortly after.

In 1999 the website Blogger.com emerged as a quintessential hub for anyone to set up a personal blog. And today, the number of blogging sources has reached the hundreds, if not thousands.

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Building an Online Reputation through Social Media

On Monday we touched on the importance of establishing your small business on the various social networking sites and in the blogging community. But setting up your accounts and creating new, unique content is only half the battle. Once you have the tools in place, you must be proactive in order to grow and expand your presence on the internet.

According to a recent Nielsen study, users spend 22% of their time on the internet engrossed in social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. And remember, this isn’t just users in the United States—this is on a global scale. In addition, three out of every four people who go online will visit a social network or blog. If you take just one thing away from these statistics, it should be that people are increasingly turning to social media.

Although social media was originally viewed purely as a source of entertainment and interaction, it has morphed into a perceived source of reliable information. (more…)

Herbal Supplements Rejuvenate Health and Happiness with help of Interactive Blog

Roger Kern remembers the aches and pains of a time when he used to get the flu and a lung infection each year, like clockwork. Fortunately, those days are long gone and his health has grown strong and unwavering to ailment for three years now.

Naturally, the first question most people have when they hear of Kern’s story is, “What is responsible for such a miraculous change?” Well, listen closely because the secret to his transformation isn’t an everyday remedy or cure-all, it can’t be found in a drugstore and it didn’t involve a shaman. The key to unlocking his newfound wellness was nothing more than a few simple changes in his diet, a switch from nutritional neglect to a meal plan that was heavily focused on herbal supplements.

“After several failed attempts with other popular solutions, I discovered the Herbalife program and dropped 30 pounds within the first three months,” Kern said. I’ve felt great and energized ever since; it was the exact boost I was looking for.”

In fact, Kern was so impressed with his results that he decided to become an independent distributor for Herbalife, launching www.HerbalWiseSupplements.com in October 2009. Here, healthy-living seekers are invited to browse an extensive selection of herbal-based supplements that promote basic cellular nutrition, weight management, core nutrition and targeted health, energy and fitness as well as a variety of products that deliver personal skin care and outer nutrition.

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Effectively Using Social Media to Market Your Small Business

Despite its unequivocal position as the latest fad in business marketing and an immense legion of business execs and media sources touting its merits, a recent study shows that small businesses aren’t capitalizing on social media. While large, well-established corporations have jumped on the social media bandwagon with unbridled abandon, small- and medium-sized businesses appear reluctant to adopt this marketing trend.

According to the 2010 Business Monitor United States report, just 24 percent of small and medium businesses have generated sales through social media, and less than 1 percent cited social media as the dominant factor in promoting their business. Instead, companies have continued to utilize somewhat antiquated means of attracting customers, including old-fashioned word of mouth, networking events and traditional advertising. This aversion is quite surprising considering the ample amount of information and resources for implementing social media advertising  currently available to business owners. (more…)

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