I get emails from people who want to know if Start Something Today accepts guest posts. The simple answer is yes but we are very selective. These guidelines are just that – guidelines – if you have an idea then e mail me and we can discuss it.
As a general rule I will only publish one Guest Post a week. So the next question is – What kind of content do we accept?
The general principle is that it has to add value to our readers. Things that are related to doing business – we even let you occasionally promote your own business. It can be related to business ideas, creative ideas, blogging, Internet marketing in general, and it can also be derived from your own personal experiences. There is no minimum length for your post, but usually the guest posts have over 500 words.
Guidelines
- Your post must be original and must have never been published before on the Internet
- You agree to not publish the post anywhere else (i.e., in your own blog or as a guest post in other blogs)
- You can include up to two links in the byline, which will be displayed at the bottom of the post
- You can’t use SEOd anchor text for your links
How do I submit my guest post? We prefer to set you up as a contributor or possibly an editor but that all depends on your content.
If you have a post that meets the guidelines above, you can send it to me on the email paulatstart-something-today.com – if you click on the guest writer image that will take you to my e mail. Usually within 48 hours I will reply stating if we will accept the guest post or not. If I reject your post, you are obviously free to use it in your own blog or to propose it as a guest post to some other website.
I’ve been in business for several years now and have the privilege of working alongside some of the brightest minds in business.These are people who have real experience of doing things that lead to success. I remember one lady Louise Fowler, who I worked with for 2 years and who to my knowledge built 2 £1/5 million businesses, who said “the fortune is in the follow-up” and it took me a while to really grasp what she meant. Follow-up is often talked about as part of the marketing process but in reality it is far more about building relationships and enabling people to trust you.
Follow-up can be broken down into two areas Active and Passive:
Active Follow-up might include:
- picking up the phone and calling a prospective customer/client and asking some very un-sales like questions like: “How are you doing”? If they’ve been on holiday ask them how the trip went. If you know that they had a daughter getting married ask how the wedding went. Don’t try to sell them anything – just ask them some open questions. Just find out what they like doing – kite surfing, flower arranging, extreme sports – just find out what they like doing. Continue Reading…
OK those of you who know me, and I mean really know me, know that there are some things that I really love. Apart from food and wine and beer I love things that are free and help people communicate and develop relationships. I started using Skype about 8 years ago in its early days and immediately fell in love with the concept – free communications over the internet. I hated spending money on phones and calls and Skype seemed to be a gift from God. Today Skype is much more than a simple way of making calls over the internet – it allows you to build relationships in business, in family and all sorts of other really neat ways. In fact I’d go so far as to suggest that if you are in the business of talking to people then Skype is probably the best way to go. By the way I don’t just use Skype – its just that i love the way it allows you to see when people are on-line and that helps build relationships.
Let me give you a real example that occurred just yesterday (names changed to protect the innocent). I have a friend and business colleague in a middle eastern country who suddenly dropped of the scene, I knew she was moving house and she had 4 children so had her hands full. The months went by and e mails were returned and then – she popped up as on-line on Skype. A quick text message via Skype and we are back in contact – she’d changed her e mail as well. In my book the ability to see when someone is on-line is priceless.
Needless to say Skype is a cornerstone of our business and personal lives and helps us keep in contact. By the way I love Twitter but thats another story.
on this morning’s call we talked about the Niche Market phenomena – any successful company today is operating in a niche market. In fact I would go so far to suggest that any company holding it’s own or growing in this current environment must be operating in a niche market. Find me one that isn’t and I’ll eat my words. A few examples of company’s operating in niche markets being:
- Shelia’s Wheels – women’s insurance
- Swift Cover Insurance – low risk motoring cover
- Lidl/Aldi – low cost food shops
- Maplins – hobby electronics
- Coast – well styled semi formal women’s wear
- Coca Cola – young people’s image soft drink
- Top Gear TV programme – petrolheads
- Lakeland – active and passive gadgets for the home
- Primark
What Niche are you operating in – if you don’t know what your niche is – better find out fast.
Secondly we talked about how to get customers/potential customers to stay on your sites for longer and a few ideas came up in discussion:
- pictures – especially of real people
- bright and clearly presented sites – not confusing
- video
- audio
- address – preferably physical – with picture if possible
- telephone number
- e mail contact form – avoid the use of e mail as often harvested by spam bots
- live chat facility – one free option that works is from Voluvision – for a live example see www.pabarton.com
By the way this is not difficult to set up and it takes less than 10 minutes.
Ok – now I know that to talk about business cards might seem a little like teaching granny to suck eggs but there is far more to having and using a business card than you might at first imagine. So what should your business card have on it:
- your name – not you and your partners – just your name
- your contact details – telephone and e mail are the best
- make sure your e mail is not paul@freeserve.net but use a domain name
- use a freephone number – it improves the response rate by 100%
- what you do – particularly important if your business name doesn’t give a clue – Mclune Associates
- bespoke accounting software
- importer of designer label childrens wear
- business start up advisor
- health coach
- software retailer
- IT Wireless Networks
- A Tag Line or Memory Hook
So take some time and make your card work for you. One last tip never give out your card without getting one first!
Vista Print do some of the best cards you can get and very often all you pay is the postage
Paul Barton
‘helping you create what matters’
Microsoft has announced that the latest version of its web browser, Internet Explorer 8, will be available to download at noon EDT (which is 5pm GMT) today.
The main improvements being flagged up by Microsoft concern speed, ease of use and security. The latter improvement was prompted by a study indicating heightened concerns about online security in US consumers as a result of the current economic climate.
“Customers have made clear what they want in a Web browser – safety, speed and greater ease of use,” said Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft. “With Internet Explorer 8, we are delivering a browser that gets people to the information they need, fast, and provides protection that no other browser can match.”
Here are some of the key new features, according to Microsoft:
Security - Blocks two to four times more malware attacks than other browsers.
Accelerators – Accelerators make it faster and easier to perform common tasks online by making Web-based services such as ESPN.com, Live Search and Sina available for use directly from the page people are viewing. Users can simply right-click a word or phrase and instantly map, e-mail, or share it.
Web Slices – Web Slices in Internet Explorer 8 makes favorite information from sites such as Digg, Yahoo! Mail, OneRiot, and eBay instantly available wherever someone goes on the Web.
Visual search suggestions – The Instant Search Box in Internet Explorer 8 enables rich, real-time search from sites such as The New York Times, Amazon.com and Wikipedia, as well as sites from people’s own Favorites and History, complete with visuals and detailed information that saves time.
Microsoft will be showing IE8 off at its MIX09 web developer conference today.
HEXUS
