Back up your stuff

Back up your files. Do it now, do it often, do not put it off until your hard drive suddenly and unexpectedly perishes or until your laptop is stolen from a cafe when you run to the bathroom.

Everyone will have different backup needs, but for the most basic computer backups there are a few basic options. You can use an external hard drive or a cloud service. There are services like Carbonite, which will automatically back up photos, music, documents and emails for an annual fee. If you have an Apple computer, turn on Time Machine and it will backup your files to the drive of your choice in the background.

You also can use a cloud storage service like Dropbox or Google Drive to save a copy of select files. A nice Dropbox feature is that it can automatically save new photos from connected cameras or smartphones to the cloud.

Organize your passwords

Still lost trying to log into any site you do not use often. Try choosing about three passwords and stick to them. be careful though some sites that or not secure enough can get hacked a long with your password. For that reason it’s good to change it every 6 months or so. Another nice trick is to think of the password as a code that you cut and paste rather than a word or memory.

Scan old photos

We all have them. The stacks of old photos hidden in boxes under the bed or collecting dust in basements. If you don’t have digital copies of these gems, stop stalling and start scanning. Natural disasters, floods and fires can wipe out film memories in an instant. To scan your images, get a flatbed scanner and place multiple images on the bed at a time. You can crop and retouch individual pictures later.

If manually scanning in each old photo sounds like too big (or boring) of an undertaking, you can hire a company to do it for you. Many local camera stores offer bulk-scanning services and will return your originals along with high-resolution TIFFs or JPEGs on a CD or hard drive. And you can store copies of your photos online in case your laptop crashes (see resolution No. 1).

If you’re comfortable sending your photos away, the best option is using a company that specialize in bulk photo scanning. They’ll even do light retouching and repairs for older pictures, videos and slides. Check out ScanDigital.com or ScanCafe.com.

Step away from the smartphone

Love this one, please people come back to the world.

If you spend most of the day with your nose buried a smartphone, tablet or computer, make an effort to break out of the digital world and interact more with the humans around you in 2013. Don’t habitually check your online social networks while hanging out with your flesh-and-blood friends. On a date? Don’t even think about texting. (Unless the date is going horribly and they’re in the bathroom and you need to arrange an emergency extraction.)

Attempt to live in the moment instead of just documenting the moment on Instagram. Yes, that sunset will look stunning with the Valencia filter, but it will look even better through your own eyeballs.

There’s a time and a place for texting and e-mailing and checking Twitter. But this year, let’s try to leave the screens in our pockets and bags more often and engage with the world around us.

Read the TOS and check privacy settings for your social networks

Terms of service are long, boring documents filled with impenetrable legalese. But before you upload content or share personal information with a site, take a few minutes to read over its terms of service — and any privacy agreements — so you have a better idea of who owns your data and what the company can do with it. Start with the biggies you’re probably already using such as Google, Facebook, Instagram, Yahoo and Twitter.

Next, take a trip to your privacy settings. Even if you had your settings just the way you wanted them a year ago, the company could have updated the controls and left some of your information exposed.

Learn something new online

Tech resolutions aren’t all preventative measures to avoid doom and gloom. You can also embark on fun, self-improvement projects. Quality classes are free and plentiful online. There are courses for every age, interest and attention span, from major universities and organizations.

Pick up a language, learn how to code at Codecademy or just be inspired by the best Ted Talks. Apple’s iTunes U is stocked with videos and podcasts of classes, as well as supporting materials like worksheets and ebooks. You can access them from a computer or download the ITunes U iPad or iPhone app. The YouTube Education channel has instructional videos on math, business, language and the other usual suspects, including fun experiments you can try at home. Check out the Spangler Science channel and prepare to simultaneously mess with and impress your kids.

Coursera offers free college courses from big name universities including Princeton, Emory, Stanford, Johns Hopkins and Columbia. Get the knowledge without the student loans (or course credit, unfortunately).

Getting inspiration for entrepreneurs is like getting gas for a car. Without it you can’t can’t anywhere with a new start up yet a growing business. There is thousands of ways to get new ideas but without inspiration they will just spin in circles. Here is ten recent must see great business documentaries all business owners and entrepreneurs should watch at least once.

Freakonomics The Movie (2010)
Startup.com (2001)
Steve Jobs: One Last Thing (2011)
Beer Wars (2009)
Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001)
The Call of the Entrepreneur (2007)
Ayn Rand: In Her Own Words (2011)
Standing in the Shadows of Motown (2002)
Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos (2006)
We Live In Public (2009)

No household making more than $1 million each year should pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than a middle class family pays. This is the Buffett Rule—a simple principle of tax fairness that asks everyone to pay their fair share.

The Buffett Rule Explained

What’s the deal with our current tax system?

Under the current U.S. tax system, a number of millionaires pay a smaller percentage of their income in taxes than a significant proportion of middle class families. Warren Buffett, for example, pays a lower effective tax rate than his secretary, and that’s not fair.

A full 22,000 households that made more than $1 million in 2009 paid less than 15 percent of their income in income taxes — and 1,470 managed to pay no federal income taxes on their million-plus-dollar incomes, according to the IRS.

And, the very wealthiest American households are paying nearly the lowest tax rate in 50 years— some are paying just half of the federal income tax that top income earners paid in 1960. But the average tax rate for middle class families has barely budged. The middle 20 percent of households paid 14 percent of their incomes in 1960, and 16 percent in 2010.

What is the Buffett Rule?

The Buffett Rule is a simple principle that everyone should pay their fair share in taxes. No household making more than a $1 million should pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than middle-class families pay. For the 98 percent of American families who make less than $250,000, taxes should not go up.

How would it make sure everyone pays their fair share?

The Buffett Rule would limit the degree to which the best-off can take advantage of loopholes and tax rates that allow them to pay less of their income in taxes than middle-class families.

Anyone who does well for themselves should do their fair share in return, so that more people have the opportunity to get ahead—not just a few. And at time when we need to pay down our deficit and invest in the things that help our economy grow and keep our country safe—education, research and technology, a strong military, Medicare and Social Security—giving tax breaks to millionaires simply doesn’t make sense.

1. No written plan. Don’t believe the myth that a business plan isn’t worth the effort. The discipline of writing down a plan is the best way to make sure you actually understand how to transform your idea into a business.

2. Slim or no revenue model. Even a non-profit has to generate revenue (or donations) to offset operating costs. If your product is free, or you lose money on every sale, it’s hard to make it up in volume. You may have the solution to world hunger, but if your customers have no money, your business won’t last long.

3. Limited business opportunities. Not every good idea can become a blockbuster business. Just because you passionately believe that your product or service is great, and everyone needs it, doesn’t mean that everyone will buy it. There is no substitute for market research, written by domain experts, to supplement your informal poll of friends and family.

4. Can’t execute. When young entrepreneurs come to me with that “million dollar idea,” I have to tell them that an idea alone is really worth nothing. It’s all about the execution. If you’re not comfortable making hard decisions and taking risks, you won’t do well in this role.

5. Too much competition. Having no competitors is a red flag — it may mean there’s no market — but finding ten or more with a simple Google search means your area of interest may be a crowded. Remember, sleeping giants can wake up. So, don’t assume that Microsoft or Procter & Gamble are too big and slow for you to worry about.

6. No intellectual property. If you expect to seek investors, or you expect to have a sustainable competitive advantage against giants in your industry, you need to register for patents, trademarks and copyrights, as well as enlist non-compete and non-disclosure agreements to protect trade secrets. Intellectual property is also often the largest element of early-stage company valuations for professional investors.

7. An inexperienced team. In reality, investors fund people, not ideas. They look for people with real experience in the business domain of the startup, and people with real experience running a startup. If this is your first time around, find a partner who has “been there and done that” to balance your passion and bring experience to the team.

8. Underestimating resource requirements. A major resource is cash funding, but other resources, such as industry contacts and access to marketing channels may be more important for certain products. Having too much cash, not managed wisely, can be just as devastating as too little cash. Don’t quit your day job until new revenue is flowing.

9. Not enough marketing. Having a slick word-of-mouth marketing strategy isn’t enough to make your product and brand visible in the relentless onslaught of new media out there today. Even viral marketing costs real money and time. Without effective and innovative marketing across the range of media, you won’t have customers — or a business.

10. Giving in too early. In my experience, the most common cause of startup failure is the entrepreneur just gets tired, gives up and shuts down the company. Despite setbacks, many successful entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs and Thomas Edison kept slugging away on their vision until they found success.

The obvious conclusion to changing the name of your website is that it will lose it’s popularity quick.

“You are going to lose traffic,” a SearchEngineLand blogger warned would-be name changers in 2009. “That is a fact. Even if you only perform a domain change and preserve the exact same site structure and content, you will lose some traffic.”

If that’s true, it spells bad news for MSNBC.com, which on Monday changed its name and URL to NBCNews.com following a split from Microsoft, the technology giant that had partnered with the U.S. news network to produce the website.

But maybe that assumption is outdated?

NBC, for its part, said it doesn’t expect the move to affect traffic. All existing URLs, including those linked on social media sites, will still work or will redirect to the new NBCNews.com URL, Vivian Schiller, NBC News chief digital officer, said in a conference call with reporters Monday. (The MSNBC cable channel will launch a new website in 2013 as an extension of its on-air brand, NBC News said.)

If you take a look at a few of the sites that have changed their names — it’s really rare for a site to do so, by the way — you see that many of them not only survive a name change but are able to thrive after it. Or maybe because of it.

Here’s a look at a few that have come out better on the other end of a URL switch:

Facebook: If you’re under 30, or if you saw “The Social Network,” you probably know that Facebook used to be called thefacebook.com. The company officially dropped the “the” in August 2005. That’s universally regarded as a good move, but it’s worth pointing out that the switch occurred before Facebook was a household name.

IMDB: The Internet Movie Database, now super popular and owned by Amazon, started in 1990 as a USENET group with the domain rec.arts.movies. The site then was hosted by Cardiff University before it migrated to IMDB.com, according to a feature in Total Film.

PerezHilton: The pop culture and gay news blog started out as PageSixSixSix.com, a reference to the New York Post’s gossip column. Now pretty much no one (except a friend from HLN’s website, who sent this reference) remembers the previous blog.

Overstock.com: The Internet retailer changed its name to O.co in 2011, but switched it back, as CNET reports, because of brand confusion. Consider this the warning for NBCNews.com, although NBC is already a recognizable brand in the United States. O.co, by the way, still redirects to Overstock’s site.

PayPal: Elon Musk founded a site called X.com in 1999. The next year, it would merge with Confinity to become PayPal, the well-known online payment system. According to PayPal’s official blog, the “X” was a reference to that “universally recognized programming variable” — a reference to innovation and creation. This may be the only example of a site’s URL actually getting less cool because of a change.

Twitter: The micro-blogging site launched in 2006 as Twttr because a “bird enthusiast” already owned the URL for Twitter.com, according to CNNMoney. Six months later, the company had enough money to buy some vowels.

Ask.com: Remember that fashionable digital butler from the ’90s? Ask.com began in 1996 as AskJeeves.com but fired Jeeves in 2005 to become Ask.com.

So simply put YES it can help and in some cases in needed to get over whatever plateau you may be at right now. I would suggest that you make sure the name can be remembered or catchy and is somewhat short. Unfortunately any domains like this will cost money, most likely lots of money.

Most people surveyed recently were just as likely to turn to the internet, as they were to ask for personal recommendations about local businesses. For business owners, this is a good indication that now more than ever, it’s important to have a strong online presence. We’ve highlighted a few key takeaways from the survey below:

1) “There has been a significant jump in the number of consumers using the Internet to find local businesses, and the regularity of their ‘searches’ has also increased.” In fact, only 15% of consumers surveyed have not used the internet to find a local business in the past 12 months. This number is down from 21% in 2010.

2) The majority of consumers surveyed use online reviews to make spending decisions. 27% of consumers are regularly reading online reviews, while another 49% are occasional readers.

Local directories like Business Faves is a great place to get a free business listing to help SEO for your business and to help local customers find your business on the internet.

1. Appeal to your followers desire
2. Truly believe in what you are saying (evolved leaders get the trust of their followers by being part of the crowd)
3. Have humility (ghandi, martin luther king) The best leader is the one that has been said to lead rather then someone who seeks it.
4. Have simplicity, be organized, and focused.
5. Never confuse passions with authority, don’t use emotion, people want someone stable.
6. Never raise your voice or lose control.
7. Be respectful to everyone. This gives you charisma

Internet Traffic

The first part of the equation, internet traffic, is possibly the most fought over and hardest part of affiliate marketing. It is best summarized as the quest to get those elusive surfers to your site. Traffic is the foundation of e-commerce and no website is successful without it. There are two fundamental ways people can find you online. The first and most popular is through a search engine.

Search Engines

When most consumers go online to find a product or service, they use a search engine. Popular search engines include Google, Yahoo, and Msn to name a few. Generally, the consumer will go one, maybe two pages deep in their search for a website they’d like to visit. Logically, the better your rank in a search engine, the more consumers that will come to your site. Because surfers won’t go 10 pages deep in a search engine’s results, site ranking is VERY competitive.

SEO

There are two ways to get ranked with a search engine. The first is referred to as SEO (search engine optimization). This is by far the most competitive (and profitable) route. Google, for instance, places a great amount of emphasis on your website’s links. The more links you have going out and coming into your website from other “like” websites, the more “relative” your site becomes. Consequently, the more relative your site is, the higher your page rank. There are numerous other ways to optimize your site for SEs. Our team will be happy to give you with this and point you to more resources.

Pay Per Click (PPC)

The second method by which a website can get ranked with a search engine is using a pay-perclick (PPC) campaign. Above, you can see the PPCs on the right side of the google page. Instead of competing for page rank, these listings pay to get listed here. PPCs are beneficial, because the owner of the ad ONLY pays when someone clicks on their listing. So you’re only paying for surfers to come to your site who’s interests were sparked by your ad.

Most PPCs allow you to write your ad and bid on different keywords of your choice. For example, if you are running a penis enlargement review site, you might choose keywords like “longer penis” or “penis extension”. You could then bid on the keywords, specifying that you’d be willing to pay $0.20 per click. Submit your ad and away you go. Again, a word of caution. If done poorly they can take you to the cleaners. A good rule is to make sure you get sales before buying PPC.

Alternative Traffic Marketing

There are virtually no limits to where you can get traffic for your website. You can set up reciprocal links with other like websites and trade traffic (this also helps your SEO). Email campaigns, as long as they are targeted and are not spam, can work well. Snail mail mailers, flyers, and traditional advertisements can also work. Just like building your site, be creative in its promotion. This helps you stand apart from the crowd and will lead to more traffic to your site.

Product Promotion

So once you have the surfer in your site, what do you do with them? Your task is to get them to want to click on the links to our sites. Different affiliate programs have different ideas on how to do this. A lot of it depends on the products or services that they offer and the site having call to actions done correctly.

Product Matching

A big part of affiliate marketing is matching the products you promote to the site you run. If you can do this well, you can convert well.

The Informative Site

The second and more successful way to market a product is to build your website around it. An example of this is a review site. This kind website is devoted to giving the surfer as much information as it can. It gives information about the different types of products available and then reviews the different products that are out there. It will usually pick one of the products (the product with the best website – OURS!) to be its number one pick. Surfers will come to your site, become educated on the subject and move on through your link to buy a product.

This type of site is successful for a few different reasons:

1) People like to shop around. This site gives them the opportunity to shop around without ever having to leave.

2) Information builds trust. The more information you have in your site, the more the surfer will perceive your site as an authority. Trust = conversions

3) Penis Enlargement, for example, is possible. However a lot of people don’t believe it. Yet, they are still perusing your site in the hopes that it is. The more informative your site is, the more likely you’ll convince them that they CAN enlarge their penis. This will lead to more sales.

4) If you slap an enlargement banner ad on a website that has no relation to penis enlargement at all, the majority of your click-trough’s will come from surfers satisfying their curiosity, not because they are genuinely interested. The informative site mitigates this and ensures only quality surfers get through.

An informative site can be built for ANY product out there. It may take a little more time than throwing a banner up on your site, but your effort will be amply rewarded.

The Psychological Sell

The following tips are meant to help you sell your surfers on the products you are reviewing. The more you pre-sell them before they get to a product site, the higher your conversions will be.

1) Identify your audience
Ask yourself who are they? Most importantly, why are they at your site? What are their fears and what are they hoping to accomplish? The answers to these questions will enable you to write your site’s text with your specific audience in mind. The more your text speaks to them, the more likely they are to buy.

2) Identify your audience’s problem and exploit it
It may sound bad, but you want to foster a feeling of insecurity in your surfers. You must include a section on the problem your surfer’s are there to fix and it’s hazards. Highlight what happens if the problem goes untreated and its detrimental affects. Convince you surfer that it is imperative that they fix this problem.

3) Assure them that their problem is treatable
Fairly self-explanatory, but let them know there is help on the way.

4) Include as much info as you can get your hands on.
The more in depth you go, the more the surfer will trust you as an authority and get lost in your site’s information.

5) Include specific information about each product you review
Again, gains trust.

6) Build their confidence
Once you have selected a product as your #1 pick, include information about it’s guarantee, the company’s reputation, etc. Shout from the rooftops why this is the best product out there. A word of caution – do not bad-mouth any product. It’s negative, amateur and unprofessional. Read “Website Development” for more website tips…

PPC Campaigns – Product Promotion the Easy Way

Reviews.

The benefit of this new system is that instead of having to build your own informative site, we’ve done it for you!
This system is now available to you to use in any way you wish. If you are using a PPC campaign, you can plug your affiliate code and special link directly into the PPC ad’s url. Surfers will click on your ad, go to our feeder site, move on to our product site, make their purchase and you will always get credit. You can also use our feeder sites as supplements to your own site. Add a link or menu option on your site and link it to our feeder. Our site will do all of the work for you by educating your surfer on our HUGE range of products. You’ll get credit on any product they buy.

Website Development

There’s no arguing it, there’s a lot that goes into developing a quality website. Hundreds if not thousands of books have been written on the topic. Here, in a “do’s and don’ts” format, we’ll give you a few of the most important features your website should incorporate.

Do’s

1) What is your mission? Every company has one and so should you. It doesn’t have to be complex, just figure out what you want to accomplish through your site. If you want to promote ClearPores with an information site, your mission could be something like this –
“Create a website that will inform consumers in a clear and concise format about how sleep works, causes of insomnia, the detrimental effects of losing sleep and include reviews and suggestions of products that are available that can help cure sleep disorders.”

2) Just like writing a paper in college, map out what you want to do first. Get a good idea of the layout of the site, where buttons and images will be located, and how you’re going to organize your information. Once you have an idea of this on paper, move onto doing the html.

3) Make information easy to get to and organized logically for your surfer. One word – usability. Nothing is more frustrating than being on a website and not knowing where to go.

4) Check out other product websites, including your competition, and see what they are doing well. The best places for website ideas are other websites.

5) Spend time on your text. Anyone who is interested in your website and wants to use it as a source of information will read your text. Make sure you spell check, grammar check, and use your words to your advantage. The text is what will sell your surfers on trusting you and using the products you recommend.

6) Post your site on forums and let other take a look at it. You’ll get some great advice on what you could do better.

Don’ts

1) Do not use too many colors. The more colors you use, the more amateur your website looks. Amateur = no trust = no conversions.

2) Do not use too many fonts, same reason as above.

3) Do not make a website that is one looooooooong page. Again, amateur.

4) Do not have HUGE blocks of text. Break up your text with key points. Use headers, bulleted points, etc. for the major statements you don’t want your readers to miss. Surfers will skim through looking for your main points and will be more likely to read your text if you spice it up and make it look interesting. Besides that, breaking up your text makes your site look better.

Alright, now you’ve got the basics. There’s a lot to know about this business and always something new to learn. It’s a dynamic marketplace and those who survive, learn to roll with the punches. Learning, changing and adapting are the keys to making it. If you’re trying something and it’s not working for you, stop, get some advice and try something else.

The interview may be over, but your chance to make an impression is not. Here are 10 strategies to continue boosting your candidacy.

1. Show that you’re still interested

Leave no doubt in the interviewer’s mind about where you stand. Ask for the job at meeting’s end with a phrase such as, “I would really like to contribute to this company and am hoping you select me.”

Also, don’t leave the room without a clear idea of what will happen next in the hiring process. Will select applicants be invited back to meet other people? By what date do they hope to fill the position? Such questions demonstrate enthusiasm for the job, and knowing the hirer’s timeframe will help keep you from panicking if a week has passed without a phone call.

2. Set the stage for further contact

Nobody wants to be a pest, but could your silence as days pass be misinterpreted as indifference? Avoid the guesswork by finding out before heading home what the employer prefers in terms of checking in. Lizandra Vega, author of “The Image of Success: Make a Great Impression and Land the Job You Want,” suggests asking the recruiter about her preferred method of follow-up communication and whether it would be okay to touch base again.

3. Be punctual

If you tell the interviewer you’ll send a list of references tomorrow morning, make sure you do it. Keeping your word and answering requests in a timely manner speaks volumes about the type of employee you might be.

4. Know when to sit tight

If an interviewer requests that you follow up by phone in a week, respect her wishes. Calling the next day can be construed as pushy and desperate.

5. Send a prompt thank-you note

A positive, nonintrusive way to stay on an employer’s mind is to send a thank-you note. Vega recommends emailing one within 24 hours of the interview, then following up with a handwritten note that arrives one to three business days later.

6. Send each interviewer a personalized, powerful follow-up letter

This piece of communication is another chance for you to shine, so don’t waste space with generalities. Ford R. Myers, a career coach and author of “Get the Job You Want, Even When No One’s Hiring,” recommends including specific references to each person you met and tying your accomplishments directly to the company’s stated challenges.

You also can use the letter to introduce achievements that didn’t get discussed and to elaborate on interview answers that you felt lacked punch.

7. Address one of the company’s needs

Another effective way to follow up is to act more like a consultant than an applicant. “During the interview, you learn a lot about a company’s weaknesses and/or areas where the company wants to expand,” states Linda Matias, president of CareerStrides.com and author of “201 Knockout Answers to Tough Interview Questions.”

“Consider creating a proposal on how you would address one of those areas. Doing so will demonstrate that you have the knowledge and also the enthusiasm to make a significant contribution.”

8. Keep thinking and learning about the company

Be prepared for additional interviews or follow-up phone calls by continuing to research the organization and the field. Gain new information about a topic brought up in conversation. Think of additional questions you’d like answered. These actions show the hirer that you didn’t stop caring about the company after the interview was over.

9. Leverage outside resources

Networking should never stop. “If you have contacts and connections with anyone who might influence the hiring decision, or who actually knows the interviewer, ask her to put a good word in for you,” Myers says.

10. Accept rejection with grace

Finally, keep emotions in check and don’t burn bridges if someone else gets hired. One never knows what the future might hold. The accepted candidate may not work out, or a different position may open up.

“If you are rejected, the first thing you should do (ironically) is send a thank-you note,” Myers says. “This will help distinguish you from other rejected candidates and put you in a positive light.”

Check out our new twitter updates page for CEO’s. Have a favorite CEO you want added? Contact us here

The new page at MarketingSpot.com allows you to see all of the listed top CEO’s Twitter posts all at once. It also filters out the replies and junk so you just get wind of the good stuff. “This is a fun page to leave open on a second screen” Says DWHS Inc. President, Charles Yarbrough. You can get lots of great information in real time without running a full program or getting stuff you don’t need from other Twitter update sites.

Check out the new Twitter CEO Posts here.

We will also add a link at the bottom of each page.