Is Your Company's Brand Well Represented on the Internet?

Consumers today are much more sophisticated and savvy about researching information on the Internet about what they want to buy and where to buy it. With the rise in popularity and power of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, the consumer now has even more ways to assess information about what they want to purchase. People across the globe use social media very vocally to convey their likes and dislikes - meaning that it is really important to ensure that your brand is well represented on throughout social media.

This means that linking up with Facebook and Twitter is not really enough. To ensure that you are well represented in this important arena, you need to expand your horizons to include other social media outlets like Flickr, LinkedIn, and even YouTube to name a few.

It requires the attention of someone within your company on a routine basis too. You can't just "be there" and not interact...that can cause problems for you. It is not just good enough to provide links with these social media platforms - you must also ensure that you interact with people properly so that it has the positive effect you are seeking. You need to take advantage of the opportunity to provide quality communications that will prove to be effective rather than just get your brand linked randomly with no thought to the process.

Social media platforms should be selected carefully to ensure that you are using the ones that are most advantageous to your brand and the type of interaction that you want from them. Therefore, it means you need to research which ones will produce the positive effect you are looking for and use the highest quality of content that will attract the customers you want.

In addition to social media, you should monitor what folks are saying on other websites as well. Blogging is not dead - in fact the rise of social media has bolstered many bloggers and created additional traffic to their sites. Engage in the conversations on these blogs. Do you have a blog for your company? If so, invite guest bloggers to write for you about their experience with a particular product or service. Get engaged - this will provide you with loads of crucial marketing data that you can't get through traditional means.

These are just a few ways to ensure that your company is well represented on the Internet. We will feature more ways and tips in future articles. Do you have an idea that we should explore? If so, feel free to let us know via a comment or email.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative business card websites, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding cheap business cards design or online business cards management.

Groupon - Can It Be Good for Your Company or Products?

Groupon has become one of the success stories that everyone loves to hear. With an amazing growth rate in less than two years, it has been able to link people's needs with businesses that want to sell its products. Groupon is able to help retailers who need the sales to remain in business or to bolster their business. Customers love the service because they think they are getting a bargain - and in many cases they certainly are.

For a business owner, it is a different way of advertising and one that can be very effective. Groupon uses the social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, along with traditional email marketing, to spread the word and get the customers who are always looking for a good deal to purchase on of their deals of the day in specific geographic areas. Local business owners see it as an alternative to traditional advertising and are signing up in droves to get in on this popular selling tactic. Check out "What's the Secret Success of Groupon" for more information on their success and their incredible growth.

Groupon knows the value of social media and uses it to the advantage of local businesses that sign up with them. New businesses today are much more in tune with the social media concept than older, more established businesses so they have the advantage of understanding the power of this platform for marketing. It is really a simplistic approach to marketing that can transform your business if used correctly. Simply Zesty has a great article discussing the use of social media and the Groupon.

For businesses today, the world of the future includes the Groupon advertising concept that is really simple: involve local business, provide people with what they want, and give them a bargain at the same time. Everyone loves to think they got the best deal for something they buy. Why not try it?

Groupon offers businesses virtually everywhere across the United States the ability to "Get Featured" and "Run a Deal". The beauty using their service is exposure for business owners to their targeted geographic area. This is especially attractive to new start up businesses with products and services to offer. Through the use of the Groupon, a new business can get a one time, major "shot in the arm" publicity campaign that is really unrivalled. There are many case studies out and available on

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative business card websites, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding business cards design or online business cards management.

The Importance of User Generated Content

Nowadays when people get ready to make a major purchase (television, appliance, furniture, automobile, etc.) most people go online to do a little research to see what other consumers have to say the products that they're interested in purchasing. Sometimes people already have a particular model in mind and want to see how it performs or other times they are just looking for suggestions as to what to buy. Either way, potential customers are searching the Internet looking for reviews and referrals.

What people look for primarily when reading consumer reviews is for the reviewer to tell them whether they really like the product or not - and the reasons why it was liked or disliked. Google has come to value this user generated content or UGC and has been incorporating it into its Search Engine Results Page or SERP. UGC is therefore impacting search engine results meaning that the social content generated by customers does benefit (or potentially adversely affect) those businesses.

What this means is that your company needs to ensure that it incorporates the fundamentals of social media into its business model in order to tap into this important resource. The bottom line is that everyone is looking for the best product at a reasonable price. They also want rapid delivery and a checkout process that is easy to navigate. As a retailer you can win simply by being a site that has a good product at the right price that is deemed reliable by your customers and is easy to use.

Customer reviews or UGC is extremely important for consumers so any retailer should ensure that they have ample reviews on their site and that they are easy to find. The reviews should summarize the highlights of what people like and dislike and show an average rating for the product. Have your reviews be easy to generate so that the customer can get it done quickly. One of the masters of this approach is Amazon. Every single product on their site has the ability to be reviewed and rated by people who purchase it. Over the course of time, this rating/review system can give potential buyers a great snapshot overview of other customer's experience with a particular product.

Using these easy steps at your site will generate more UGC or customer reviews that will in turn yield a better customer experience on your company's website and over time it should increase traffic to better overall site ranking as UGC gets indexed and ranked.

Do you currently allow customers to review products on your site? If so, please let us know how that is working for your company. We would be interested to hear from you.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative business card websites, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding cheap business cards design or business cards management.

7 Important Tips for Proofreading Your Copy

In today's fast paced world, people do not put as much emphasis on punctuation and grammar because they are always in a hurry to get the message out, the proposal to a client, or an important letter to a customer. But in a world where texting is commonplace with all of its misspelled and condensed words, it has become almost routine to put the niceties aside and just get the job done regardless of whether or not it is readable or whether it makes sense. It is still extremely important to slow down a bit and ensure that what you send out - particularly to a client or potential customer - is factually correct, and readable. More importantly, the communications and content you generate should accurately reflect you and your company. Do you want unprofessional content that is poorly written, full of mistakes to be what people use for the basis of their impression of you and your business? Of course the answer is no. Unfortunately, in many cases, the copy created and disseminated is routinely full of mistakes that somewhat tarnish the professional image that business owners and managers are working so hard to build and protect. Here are some tips to help ensure that your copy is always correct when it goes out:

1. Homophones (Homonyms) - Pay attention to homonyms such as complement and compliment or accept or except as these words have such different meanings that they can really send the wrong message. An excellent list of homophones can be found here: http://www.mcwriters.com/2008/05/29/homophones-and-spell-checkers-don’t-mix/. 
2. Punctuation - Ensure the usage of periods and commas are correct and in the right places. Do not capitalize a word that shouldn't have a capital letter.
3. Apostrophes or Contractions - Don't use an apostrophe for plurals such as winner's instead of winners. Pay particular attention to words like its and it's or your and you're to ensure they are used correctly.
4. Concentrate on What You are Doing - Oftentimes in a busy office there are many distractions like phones ringing, people interrupting you, or televisions and radios blaring that can disrupt your concentration so that you do not pay attention to what you are doing.
5. Watch the Numbers - When using numbers in a message or a proposal one less or one more zero can make a huge difference in what you are trying to say - such as $20,000 instead of $200,000 or vice versa.
6. Read It Out Loud - Sometimes just reading it out loud will tell you right away that you have made a mistake even if your eye didn't catch it.
7. Print It and Proofread It - Print it out so that you can see what you have written. Many times you can see a mistake immediately just by looking at it. Better yet, let another co-worker or trusted resource read your work prior to sending it. These are just a few ways to help you in your quest to properly maintain your company's professional image as you write and produce copy that will be read by customers, potential clients, and the general public.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Print Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding online business cards design or business card management.

Facebook Ads - Do You Use Them? If Not - Should You?

Business owners are always looking to optimize advertising and use the best locations on the Internet. Ultimately, they need to measure whether the time and effort - and the money spent are worth it. Facebook is one of those prime Internet sites that is emerging as an attractive location for advertisers. With over 500 million active users - that makes Facebook a force to reckon with - and probably one worth considering for advertising your company's goods and/or services.

Let's take a look at the dynamics of advertising on Facebook:

• First of all, it is a social media network that is made up mostly of family and friends so the information profile that is tied to each user should be fairly accurate. That makes it an ideal source to tap into targeted groups: by location, by age, and by gender.
• Targeted advertising can also be done based on users "Likes" or "Interests" because that is part of the user profiles. This makes it easy to target specific groups such as those that like basketball or ballet. This can be useful but don't get caught up in the restrictions of just focusing on those who picked a particular "Like" or "Interest". Targeting age groups and locations can be just as effective. Regional advertising options are available to companies who don't offer national services.
• You can enhance the social recommendations from a Facebook ad by having your brand link with a Facebook page. This highlights that you value the Facebook ad and increases the exposure when friends purchase something from your brand. Facebook will display when your friends "liked" the page. This will only help to make your brand more desirable. Maintaining an up to date Facebook page for your company also displays a willingness to engage with customers, fans, and potential customers. Keeping on top of a company Facebook page adds credibility to your advertising campaign.
• Keeping your Facebook ads simple is important because the best ads have been those that extend special offers or calls to action with simple text that grabs people's attention. Too much information will lose people quickly.
• Be creative and different. Test a variety of pictures and product ads to come up with the one that works best. Imaging is important and essential for you in order to gain people's attention quickly.
• Facebook has an ad format called Sponsored Stories that will turn people's "Likes" and status updates into ads to their friends. It is, therefore, important to ensure that you keep up with Facebook formats and ways of advertising to ensure that you are the one that is always one step ahead.

All of this being said - should you advertise on Facebook? Absolutely! Why would you turn down an opportunity to advertise to such a large audience that is just waiting to hear from you! If you are not a Facebook advertiser - you should be.

Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding professional business cards design or business cards management.

7 Tips for Better Email Marketing

In this fast paced world of ours, everyone is trying to gain a foothold on your business via e-mail. It is becoming more and more difficult to ensure that the e-mail from you is read and not tossed directly into the SPAM file or simply deleted. With the advent of social media sites, e-mails have become more prevalent and the practices have become trickier to get business owners to open them and read them. Here are a few tips that may help you improve your open rates in your email marketing program:

1. Subject Line - Imagination is the key here in getting someone to open your email based on the subject line. Often people make the subject so long that you get bored just reading it or it is too dull and lacks appeal. The trick is to use something unique that will stand out in a crowded inbox. The best approach is to be creative while maintaining relevancy to the content of your email.

2. Who It is From -For those with a name brand like Apple, you should use Apple in the From line rather than a person's name that may be unknown to the email recipient. This is one of the most important aspects of getting your email opened. If someone doesn't know the person that is sending the email, the chances of it being opened are much lower. Try something unusual or use your company name (unless your name is Steve Jobs - I imagine his emails get opened very frequently).

3. Less is Better -Don't overflow with words that lose the recipient. Say it and get it over with. Less is always better. You can send another message later with more information. Remember the KISS approach (Keep It Simple, Stupid).

4. Images Turned Off -Often someone will not turn on images unless you have tweaked their interest. Therefore, make sure that the message will still be delivered without the images being turned on. This is usually a step in the review process if you use an email management system such as MailChimp. Don't skip this step - make sure it works.

5. Provide the Ability to Control Frequency of Messages -If you grab the interest of a recipient, don't spoil things by inundating them with messages every hour or every day. Give them a break and control the frequency and the types of messages so that they do not get upset and run to your competitor instead. This also lowers the risk of email recipients labeling your email as spam and reporting it as such. Send emails out just frequently enough that potential customers keep your name and products in mind; but don't flood them with too many emails. Balance.

6. Personalization -Many times the personalization of the subject or even the body of the message generate more interest from the recipient.

7. Develop a Mobile Version - With the frequent use of Smartphones, you need to ensure that your message is viewable on a mobile device. Make sure folks can view your email properly from their smartphone or other portable Internet accessible devices.

Email marketing has had ups and downs over the past few years. However, it's an accepted method of marketing and will remain in use for many years to come. Hopefully these tips will help your email campaigns work their way through obstacles and help you get your emails opened and read.


Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Print Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding online business cards design or business card management.

7 Ways to Measure Social Media Effectiveness for Your Company

The advent of social media and its integration into our lives has turned traditional marketing techniques upside down, but it has also given us many, new and unique ways to market that are creative and innovative. In the good old days you ran a marketing campaign and knew how much you spent and where you spent it and how much revenue was produced from it. But today the world moves a little differently. Social media marketing is here to stay and is, at times, difficult to measure as far as effectiveness is concerned.

Just as you have an Internet marketing strategy, you also need a social media strategy as more and more companies are getting on the bandwagon of advertising via social media. What you do with the data gleaned from your social media interactions is extremely important. Social media includes Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Foursquare to name a few. So, how do you measure success or effectiveness within the social media realm? Here are a few methods to gauge how you're doing.

1. Awareness of Your Brand - Building awareness of your brand is one of the most important aspects of why you're engaged in social media. Ultimately, you can measure your awareness by how many followers you have, the number of searches for your brand name, the number of site visits tracked through links, and the number of keywords or phrases searched for. You need to be able to trend this and track it.
2. Honest Discussion - The online discussion that you will get can have mixed blessings as it will be unfiltered and completely honest. This means you will get good feedback, neutral feedback, and at times, bad feedback. It's often referred to as share of voice and it reflects the number of times your brand was mentioned in a conversation. You should use a monitoring program to track both your feedback as well as those of your competitors.
3. Sphere of Influence - Signals of influence can be found with the number of inbound links to your site. Microblogging sites like Twitter and social networks like Facebook. LinkedIn, YouTube, or Foursquare might have people that have made comments and Liked your brand or product. This is then shared with friends and others and the conversations continue. Measuring these social media tweets or likes can provide you with information about why they like the brand or why they don't.
4. Signs of Interaction - The interaction between people and your site and your brand are important to see how interested people are in what you have to say or offer. This means the ratings given to your brand, the number of mentions good or bad, retweets, photos, video views, and the number of new pages of Facebook likes.
5. Popularity - This is really the number of people that subscribe to your email or RSS subscribers, followers on Twitter, members of LinkedIn groups, and number of people who like your Facebook page or other social media sites. Other places to track include industry hang outs or content communities like Flickr or YouTube.
6. Use Monitoring Tools - Seeing lots of activity on Facebook likes or Twitter tweets does not mean much if you don't measure, monitor, and track the information that you are getting from these social media sites. Google Analytics and Measure Map are two tools that can be used to track and analyze the data so that you know exactly how people react and what you need to change in terms of advertising.
7. Listen and Learn - Pay attention to the feedback that you receive from the social media sites not just the positive feedback but the negative or neutral to see what you can learn and possibly change if necessary. Be proactive about tracking the data and USING it to make necessary adjustments to your ads or your way of advertising. Listen carefully to what is being said, make some suggested modifications, and you will be successful.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Print Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding online business cards design or business card management.

Marketing Your Company Should Involve Every Department

Marketing in every organization is an important department that has a huge responsibility in ensuring that your company's products and services continue to sell and be used. If you ask the people in marketing what makes a good creative piece, they will come up with their normal practice of good ad placement, timing, and getting the professionals in on the creative process early on. This was all well and good in the past, but in today's fast paced world of social media, quick response codes, immediate customer reviews online, etc., traditional marketing needs to be replaced by sound judgment that takes a different approach - one that uses information gleaned from every area of the company and beyond.

With so many poorly designed ads seen every day on TV, on our computer, and in print, marketing needs to still be creative - but in a more innovative and - well - smarter way. This means that everyone in the company should have some involvement even if it is in a small way. The truth of the matter is that most people are a member of social media group and everyone has an opinion that should count. This is because ads are meant to appeal to all ages so the marketing people should solicit input from every area that they can. Brands cannot keep churning out the same old type of marketing just because it did well in years past. No company today can rely on old habits to continue to thrive and grow. Otherwise your brand becomes stale and boring as evidenced by many of the terrible ads seen today.

Get a head start on your competitors and be on the leading edge of turning your brand into the winner it should be. Creating the brand is not just about writing a few lines of creative text and putting your logo next to it. You can have digital or other types of marketing that sometimes might be a little uncomfortable because it is not what you are used to. But that doesn't mean it won't work. You have to be willing to take a chance and to listen to what people are saying. After all, people buy a brand because they either need it, want it, appreciate it, or buy it simply because they always have. But you need to continue to cultivate new customers that will be willing to experience your products and services.

Social media information should also be analyzed and listened to - opinions count and if lots of people are saying they don't like a brand or product, the bad news can spread quickly. Follow up on bad reports and listen to what is being said. Do thorough research if the feedback you are getting is negative and learn from this and turn it around so that the feedback starts to turn positive. Provide regular reports of data to the marketing department. Focus groups are a great way to refresh your ideas and get some inspirational creative juices going from a cross section of your own company. Just because someone works in accounting doesn't mean they don't have an opinion about the product or have heard something that might be important to the marketing department.

Investing in your employees by giving them a chance to voice their opinion or make suggestions can be a plus for them (shows you value their opinions), but may help shed light on how to strategically reach your audience in a better fashion. It will help them feel more like a part of a "team" and be a win-win for everyone in the company - especially for your company's products and services.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative business card websites, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding cheap business cards design or business cards management.

5 Ways Companies Benefit When Employees Work from Home

With the lagging economy today, companies are looking for ways to cut costs while continuing to provide the same level of services that they have in the past to their customers and their employees. For years, many companies have allowed employees to work from home. In return, these companies seem to enjoy a higher employee satisfaction rate and employee retention rate. The work from home scenario provides a win-win for both the company and the employee and it is becoming more and more popular. If your business model will allow you the ability to have employees work from home, here are a few reasons to consider implementing this feature into your company:

• Reduction in Costs – Employees working from home saves on office space and parking as office space alone costs an estimated $10,000 per employee. Employees spend less in gas and maintenance on their vehicles due to reduced mileage driven. Lower costs for employees translates into happier employees since they are spending less money to get to work and will have the ability to use those funds as needed in other areas of their personal finances.

• Reduction in Absenteeism – Many employees are off work when a child is ill or due to inclement, unsafe weather conditions that preclude them from driving to work. If they worked in the office they would have to take a personal or sick day to attend to a child who was ill. Offering the ability for employees to have what is commonly referred to as "flex time" will allow them to stay at home, tend to their sick loved one or stay safe at home due to weather conditions and still get things accomplished for your company.

• Enhances Employee Productivity – Studies have shown that employees are more productive when working from home because there are fewer distractions or interruptions from meetings and less socializing with co-workers.

• Balances Work/Family Life – It provides better balance between work and family life since much of an employee's time is spent at work or traveling to and from work giving them less time with the family. By allowing them to work from home, you are giving them more time to provide attention to family by eliminating commute time.

• Increases Employee Retention and Loyalty – Employees are happier when they are able to work from home without the added stress of commuting, dealing with rising fuel costs, expensive automotive repairs, etc. Employees who work from home tend to be more content with their jobs and thus more willing to work hard for your company.

Allowing employees to work from home, even for one day of their week, is something important to consider for your company. There are a lot of details that need to be worked out and discussed with your management team. However, if you're able to do it, most experts say that you will see a rise in productivity and job performance will increase as well.

Do you currently allow employees to work from home? If so, let us know what your experience is with offering this to your employees. What kind of impact has it made on your business? Overall do you see it as being beneficial to your company? We look forward to hearing from you.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Online Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding business cards design or business card management. Be part of the professional business cards company.

7 Ways to "Green Up" Your Company's Office

Everyone has become more and more conscious of the need to be more earth friendly both at home and in the office. It really is amazingly simple to start making some minor changes that really don't require a lot of extra work or effort, yet yield some great results for our precious environment. In order to get started with some eco-friendly changes in your office, it's simply a matter of educating your employees on how to "green up" and help our planet and offer them a few tool needed to properly implement your new earth friendly changes.

Here are 7 easy steps that your office can take to "green up" the work place:

1. Use Recycle Bins – One of the easiest first steps is to invest in some recycle bins or just put labels on regular trash bins: PAPER ONLY or CANS ONLY for all the soda cans that are used in an office.


2. Replace Incandescent Lights – As lights burn out replace them with the efficient lighting CFL bulbs also known affectionately as the "twisty" bulbs. Ensure that all lights are turned off at the end of the day or as you leave a room to save on electricity.


3. Economize on Paper – If you do not need to print something – DON'T! But if you do - then print it two-sided for office use to save on paper. Also start buying recycled paper. Did you know that the EPA estimates that 700 BILLION sheets of copy paper are used in the USA alone each year? That's a lot of trees! Recycling paper, working to reduce the amount of copies you make and purchasing recycled paper all work together to save trees and reduce landfill waste.


4. Eliminate paper coffee cups and plates – Utilize reusable mugs, plates, and glasses or ask employees to bring their own. If you do not have a dishwasher, then each employee should be responsible for cleaning their own. If you must use disposable dishware for an event, consider using products made from sugar cane and corn. Not only are these produces made from abundant, renewable, sustainable resources, they also break down in landfills in no time flat - without any negative side affects.


5. Install Water Flow Restrictors and Aerators on Faucets – If these are installed on toilets and faucets it will save thousands of gallons of water. Not only is it a good conservation tactic - this can be a long-term money-saver for your business too.


6. Use Old Stationary for Scrap Paper – When you order updated stationary with a new logo or address, use the old paper for scrap or test printing so that it is not wasted.


7. Use Green Cleaning Products – Ensure that whoever does the cleaning in the office uses green cleaning products. Reducing chemicals that make their way into our water is an important step that should be taken by every business and everyone in their own home too. There are many great cleaning products out that use safer, natural cleaning ingredients and still do an excellent job of cleaning and deodorizing your office.

These are just a few simple things that can be implemented without too much work and financial investment on your company's part. Rally your employees to make a conscious effort to adhere to the green guidelines that you create for your office. Help them understand why it's important and then...get to it!

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Cheap Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding online business cards design or business card management.

Google's New +1 Button is a Cool Way to Make Recommendations

A great new tool that has been introduced by Google is the +1 Button that makes it extremely easy to make recommendations about a new restaurant or the best choice for a dog groomer in the neighborhood. This excellent little referral tool can be used on your website or on your Google Account so that friends, clients, and folks who visit your website can essentially give your website or even a particular page on your site the "thumbs up".

For companies who depend heavily on their exposure on the Internet, the +1 system is simply another way to get site visitors to engage and involve themselves with your website. Do you routinely post new articles in a company or personal blog? If so, you should consider integrating the +1 feature onto individual posts/articles so that readers can visually share their agreement with everyone simply by clicking the Google Plus One button.

The way a +1 button works is this: you first have to have a public profile with Google and your +1's are all kept in a tab on your Google profile. It can be kept private or made public – all depending on how you want to manage it. An individual might like to just have his or her +1's sent to friends and contacts while someone who is looking to expand his business would want it kept public.

So…the next time you want to give a rave review about your dog Cocoa's new groomer or relate the best place to go fishing, you can use a +1 button to let everyone know you were impressed and highly recommend these places.

While the positive "bump" that a Plus One vote gives your site, page, or article may be minimal for search engine results, the visual results for visitors and readers is greater. When folks see that you have obviously made an impression with your article, they are more likely to read your post and vote themselves.

So, it's my opinion that Google Plus One is worth looking into and integrating into various places on your own site. Are you already using it? If so, please feel free to comment and let us know your thoughts and opinions on this new referral/recommendation system.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding online business cards design or business card management.

A Successful Home Page Is a Link Rich Page

Recently I read an article about the rise and success of link rich home pages over the past several years. After reading through it and processing the information, I thought it would be a good idea to highlight some of the ideas that were brought forth from that article. It's especially useful for business owners since we rely heavily on our websites ranking and position in order to generate consistent traffic.

"Nobody starts their design with the objective, "We need our home page to be as complex as we can possibly make it." On the contrary, everybody wants to build simple designs. Yet, somewhere along the line, simplicity translated into "Provide as few links on the home page as possible."" - Jared Spool, User Interface Engineering

This quote sums things up well. It also targets exactly what we need to do to make a site successful for the end users. This is one of those cases where we need to ensure that our focus is on what is best for the site users. It's a complex negotiation between what you envision as the optimal website while at the same time ensuring that the end user has a website that will work well for them too.

Is your own home page link rich? Are you providing your site users with relevant, beneficial links that will potentially take them deeper into your site and further showcase your company's products and services? These are important questions to mull over when thinking about the function, style, and format of your website's home page.

News websites have long understood the need to provide multiple links on their home pages. The majority of news sites are loaded with links designed to deliver in-depth information to users. CNN, Fox, the Drudge Report, and many major newspaper sites have hundreds of links displayed on their home page. How many is too many? Take a look at the sites listed below and check out their standings.

Website / Google Page Rank / Alexa Ranking

Yahoo.com / 9 / 3

CNN.com /10 / 16

NYTimes.com / 9 / 28

LATimes.com / 8 / 74

FoxNews.com / 8 / 40

BBC.co.uk / 9 / 42

Bls.gov* / 7 / 1491

Craigslist.org / 7 / 9

*The Bureau of Labor and Statistics website isn't a news site. However, it is a good example of a home page that is comprised almost entirely of links. While this site is very narrow in its appeal, it is heavily used as you can see from its rankings. The same holds true for Craigslist - its homepage is comprised completely of links.

Judging from the rankings shown above for these link rich sites, it's a good choice to include many links on your homepage. However, my advice would be to take a look at the manner in which links are displayed on these sites. With the exception of the BLS site and Craigslist, most of these sites display links in a tasteful, organized manner. So essentially what I'm saying is that you can still maintain the simplistic design approach while at the same time creating a 'link rich environment' which will perform well for the end users of the website.

This is also good reference material for you to use when discussing site creation with your web designer. Please feel free to use the information in this article to point out the need to create a great looking, link rich home page on your website. Hopefully this information will help them understand just how important it is for them to allow you to create a home page that will grab a user's attention and provide them with a wealth of information at the same time in an easy to use, easy to navigate format that is beneficial for your company.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Print Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding online business cards design or business card management.

Seven Inexpensive Ways to Boost Employee Morale

In today's difficult economy many small businesses are operating on thin to non-existent profit margins. With it being difficult to just stay afloat, it's important to get creative when it comes to maintaining employee satisfaction. So with that in mind, here are several effective and affordable ways to make your business a place where your employees are dedicated to a common goal and happy to be working with you.

1. Say Thank You. Seriously. Make it a point to single out employees when they do a good job and say thank you. Be genuine and sincere. If you have a client or customer who thanks you for your services, be sure to pass that on to your employees too. Publicly recognize them for their role in satisfying that customer's needs. If a customer or client singles out a particular employee, send a thank you note to them at their home praising their good work and efforts. Send out a tweet or Facebook post acknowledging that employees contributions.

2. Be Accessible. Take breaks with your employees or eat lunch with them. Do more listening than talking. By spending time with your workforce, you will be able to glean more ways to take care of them in practical ways.

3. Use Gift Cards. Employees always welcome gas cards, grocery store cards, big box store cards, coffeehouse gift cards, and even movie tickets. These are nice, relatively inexpensive rewards to use when money is tight, yet you want to say thank you in a tangible way that they'll appreciate.

4. Support Community Involvement. Provide company time for employees to serve a meal at a local shelter, help out a local food pantry, adopt a family for a holiday, or raise money for a common charity. This not only serves as a great team building opportunity by engaging in something your employees are passionate about, it also creates a positive public image for your business.

5. Free Drinks or Ice Cream. Open up the office soda machine and give out free drinks occasionally. Make arrangements on a hot summer day to have an ice cream truck stop at your business, have your employees choose their favorite item, and you pick up the tab.

6. Free Food. Announce that you're bringing in coffee and bagels or donuts for your staff the next morning. Find out what bagel or donut is their favorite so you will have it for them. You can do the same with lunch by bringing in pizza or other take out foods.

7. Fun and Games. Put a foosball table, pool table, or air hockey table in the break room. Let people have fun with them during breaks and lunch. Challenge one of your employees once in a while (hopefully you'll win a few games).

These are a few inexpensive ways to build morale and keep your employees motivated during tough times. It's important to foster a culture that shows you're going the extra mile for them. Don't forget...it's not the dollar amount that matters, but the thought you put into it that will have the greatest effect on your employees.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Online Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding business cards design or business card management. Be part of the professional business cards company.

Keeping Your Readers Interested

Creating Copy that Engages: Keeping you readers interested in your content is critical to the success of your company's website, marketing materials, and newsletters. If you lose your readers' interest after the first paragraph on a webpage, you are not going to get the click-throughs to your "money pages" (those pages where customers order products or services) and you are basically throwing all of the money that you spent on site development and management out the window. To catch and keep your reader's attention, and inevitably direct them to your money pages, you need to develop content that is powerful, useful, creative, and practical to your target demographic.

Crafting Content for Your Target Demographic: One of the first mistakes of content development is that the information written about is simply not interesting to the site's target demographic. For example, if your website's focus is on selling remote control vehicles, you don't want to invest in articles about doll collecting. While this seems like an obvious point, it is often overlooked. When a visitor lands on your page from a keyword search or an in-text link, they expect to find subject matter about a very specific topic. If that topic is not covered in your post or article, they will leave your page after reading nothing more than the page title or headers.

To craft enticing prose for your target demographic you first need to identify what they are looking for when surfing the Internet. You will then want to base your efforts on keywords that are commonly used by your target demographic to find information on your site's topic or theme. By focusing your content on those keywords you will be able to create articles and blog posts that interest your target audience and it will improve the chances that they will navigate their way through your site using your in-text links to money pages or by using menu links to other site pages.

Powerful Content Creates Interest: Powerful content creates a dialogue or reaction from your readers. This is not your average stock information page - it's a well-researched and well-written page that takes a position on an issue or that challenges the norms of a specific industry standard. The purpose of powerful content pages is to create controversy in an attempt to attract more people to your website. To achieve this goal you will need to set up your pages as a blog or interactive page where people can post their comments, views, and responses. To increase the value of these power pages you will want to include in-text links to your money pages or target pages where you want to direct your visitors.

Useful Content Keeps Your Reader's Coming Back for More: While attracting a reader once can lead to a sale/conversion, you are much more likely to make a sale on your website or through your newsletter if the same reader returns to your website multiple times. One way you can accomplish this is to develop useful articles that the reader can use as a reference for a specific application, activity, or project. For example, "how to" articles are generating huge revenues on many sites right now simply because they provide useful information in a step by step format. This format keeps the reader's interest because in order to complete the given task, they have to read the entire article. If you are able to create useful content on a regular basis, you can set up a library that will attract both new visitors and return visitors.

Creative Content Entertains While Educating: An article or blog post that is entertaining is another strategy that you can use to keep your readers interested. Creative content is fun to write; however, not everyone has a knack for it. It is because of this that your creative content needs to be handled by a writer who is skilled in entertaining, but informative, writing styles. In addition to using creative prose you can also enhance the readability of your web pages by integrating interactive features such as streaming elements, video, and widgets. These elements will keep your readers engaged in your article or web page by giving them a way to interact with it and to manipulate it to meet their needs.

Keeping Your Readers Interested: Internet success is elusive, but not unobtainable. The key is quality content created by skilled writers. It needs to be developed around topics that make sense for your target demographic. It needs to be powerful, it needs to be creative, and it needs to be useful. While many online success strategies have come and gone, the utilization of quality content is one strategy that remains a viable, productive strategy for search engine optimization and site performance enhancement.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Online Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding business cards design or business card management. Be part of the professional business cards company.

Stock Photos, Custom Photos, or a Blend of Both?

Over the past few years, the stock photography market has exploded and expanded exponentially. Iconic stock giants such as Getty Images, Corbis (privately owned by Bill Gates), Alamy, and Jupitermedia, Inc. (parent company of Jupiter Images) dominate high end publications and websites. Unfortunately, most of the images available from the companies listed above are simply too expensive for most small businesses to purchase for their web use, advertising campaigns, and media related ventures. Many times you'll see images owned by these companies used in highly publicized magazines and websites such as Time, Sports Illustrated, CNN, and many others. So, how do small businesses locate quality stock images that they can use effectively to promote their business and/or products?

The answer lies within the microstock websites. This emerging group of sites (such as iStockPhoto, BigStockPhoto, and Dreamstime) allow customers to purchase high quality images at much lower prices. Each site has certain licensing options and distribution restrictions for images, but most of the time a customer can purchase the desired image and the necessary license for a relatively low price.

For most companies, finding a good, applicable image isn't a problem. Just between the three stock sites listed above, there are over six million images. Yes, some of them are duplicates, with the same artist creating galleries on each site. However, there are still several million different images available.

A word of caution though when you are selecting an image to use - try to stay away from the most popular images. Why do I say that? Well, they are popular due to being sold and downloaded more times. Why do I caution you against using popular images? Because you don't want to create branding material for your company or product that is being used elsewhere. Your business is unique...your product is unique...it may not be in your best interest to use an image that has been sold hundreds or perhaps even thousands of times.

What am I talking about? Well, perhaps it's best to just use some visual examples. I came across this blog post which shows how three major electronics companies used the same image in various promotions. Check it out for yourself (link provided at the end of the article).

Better yet, here's a nightmare scenario that you would never want to have occur for your company. Can you imagine the constant explaining that Design Matters has to do regarding their (lack of) association with Vagisil? You see, they both used the same image of a young teen girl in their promotional materials. Unfortunately, the link to the Vagisil ad is no longer active. The Wall Street Journal also featured an article on this dilemma several years ago that is still worth reading (link provided at the end of the article).

These examples are the risk that you run when choosing to use stock photography for your business. I am certainly not telling you to abandon the use of stock photography for your business! Please don't misunderstand. However, I am recommending that you proceed with caution. There are very valid risks to consider. The customer's perception of your business is on the line. David Ogilvy said, "Always give your product a first-class ticket through life." This incredibly important concept is applicable to not only a product, a brochure, or your website - but your business as a whole. Is purchasing an image for a buck or two really the best route to take? It can be if you navigate your way through the process wisely.

• Choose a photo that matches up with your purpose. Don't just choose one to "fill space." Rather than use a potentially risky or dull photo, fill that space with great content. Or, at times...empty space might be the best option. Space is good.
• Be Creative in Your Choice. Instead of using a picture of a man or woman, (who isn't employed by your company), perhaps a graphic of some sort will convey the same message just as effectively. Or better yet, hire a photographer to take pictures of your actual employees. It may be slightly more expensive to choose this route, but the end result will certainly be more genuine. An example that comes to mind for me was a Sear's sales flyer that I received in the mail not too long ago. It completely missed the mark with me. I flipped through it until about page 3. On that page, I finally realized that every person in every picture had well placed smudges on their faces. (The flyer was geared toward outdoors/construction clothing and accessories.) I even saw painters with paint on their hands and face...however, their painting clothes were spotless. I also wondered why the "architect or engineer" in the picture seemed to have a big muddy smudge on his cheek when there wasn't any mud around in that particular picture...he was standing on a nice, dry concrete slab. The pictures were a complete bust for me. I didn't look at anything in the catalog with the mindset of "hey...I wonder what's on sale"; instead, I was just looking at the ridiculous pictures. In my opinion, the whole catalog was a ridiculous attempt to get me to purchase something...and it didn't work.
• Always remember your message. Do the images you're choosing really help you convey your message to potential customers?

Another interesting possibility (at least to me) is to make direct contact with a stock photographer. Let's say you find an image that you like, but it just isn't quite right. It's close, but not 100% on target. I say that you should contact the photographer or designer directly. Ask them if they might be able to create just the image you are looking for. Many times, you can have this accomplished and it will still be relatively affordable. Most of the stock photographers and designers that I know are more than willing to work with a customer to create an image that is perfect for their particular needs. Also, most of them are generally fair in their pricing for such custom requests. The other bonus with going this route is you can generally eliminate the possibility of someone else having the same image.

I think it's well worth the extra dollars spent. This is by far the route that I would choose over anything else. I see myself using the stock sites to locate an artist or photographer whose style fits well into the advertising or promotional concept that I am building. I like working with people…not just using people's work. I would much rather contact them and establish a relationship with them that will result in photographs or designs that will give my business or product that "first-class ticket through life."

http://www.brianbehrend.com/archives/2004/09/more_stock_foot.php

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB116467838729434053-j1YX6tWZ7hTQ_MqzLcRfX2utcSE_20071127.html

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Print Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding online business cards design or business card management.

Creative Brilliance and Logo Design

David Ogilvy, who's widely considered the father of modern advertising, focused heavily on creative brilliance - the BIG IDEA (which he always wrote in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS) was of extreme importance to him. In his opinion creativity and originality were useless unless they brought results for clients with whom he did business. When presenting something in an ad, it had to be functional and relevant. "Unless your advertising is based on a BIG IDEA, it will pass like a ship in the night", he preached over and over again.

Thankfully, his emphasis on the BIG IDEA doesn't need to translate into complexity. Simplicity, especially in the area of logo design is something we can still adhere to while following Mr. Ogilvy's advice. So, with that in mind, I'd like to offer a few thoughts for those of you who are just starting the process of thinking through a logo design for your new company.

There are many logos that can be highlighted as examples of accomplishing the BIG IDEA while remaining simple at the same time. There are many global companies who adhere successfully to this:

3M

AT&T

Adobe Systems

Caterpillar (CAT)

Citi Group

Dell

Electronic Arts

Verisign

UPS

SnapOn

All of these companies have simple, yet incredibly effective logos that identify their companies. These companies are industry leaders and well known around the world simply through their logos. Several of these companies have created incredible revenue streams just through the marketing of their logos. Many of these companies sell apparel and other merchandise that displays their logos, which in turn generates millions of dollars in additional revenue for their companies. They are simple, yet extraordinarily successful logos.

Logo designs for some recent corporations would easily fall under the same, simplistic design parameter. Some examples would include such company logos as:

Aflac

GoDaddy

Apple

Monster Worldwide

Google

Yum! Brands

Yahoo!

Several of these companies are focused solely on the Internet. Google, Yahoo!, GoDaddy, and Monster Worldwide are primarily web based companies. However, their branding and logos are universally recognized symbols for them. Yum! Brands is an internationally recognized company. Not only is their logo simple and easily recognizable, but so are the restaurants it owns: Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Long John Silver's. Aflac's logo is simply a combination of their name and the primary character of every advertisement...the duck. However, every time someone sees it, they immediately recall the last advertisement they saw, they say "Aflac" in their best duck voice, and they recall the type of insurance services they provide. Their logo is simple, yet exceptionally valuable to their mission as a company. Their logo is the pinnacle of creative brilliance and sums up the BIG IDEA for Aflac. In fact, every one of these logos functions the same way for each of these companies. Their logo completely fulfills the mission of their BIG IDEA.

As we mentioned earlier, most of these companies generate millions of dollars in additional revenue for their companies by simply selling items that display their logos. Think about NASCAR, the NFL, and the myriad of other places where advertising reigns supreme; these companies are all present there. They have created an additional product by simply creating a recognizable symbol for their company that people want to purchase. The consumer is interested in attaching themselves to a company and identifying with them through the usage of their logo on apparel, stickers, and additional products.

The power of exercising creative brilliance and generating the BIG IDEA for your company logo is so amazingly important. This is the reason that virtually everyone recommends seeking professional help in designing a great logo for your company or new product. There are two very poignant quotes from David Ogilvy that sum up the importance of designing your logo correctly. Ogilvy said, "It takes a BIG IDEA to attract the attention of consumers and get them to buy your product," and "Unless your advertising contains a BIG IDEA, it will pass like a ship in the night."

So, what's your BIG IDEA and how are you implementing it into your logo design?

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Online Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding business cards design or business card management. Be part of the professional business cards company.

Are You Creating the Right Stuff for Your Clients?

This is a funny video and it conjures up various feelings in everyone who watches it. However, it also highlights some major flaws in true, reliable, customer service. As a business owner, are you truly meeting the needs of your customers? There are tons of blog posts and articles on the Internet from business men and women going on and on about nightmare clients and their sometimes ridiculous demands. Many of them are valid rants. However, there are also many of them that may be the direct result of failures on the part of the business owner. This shouldn't be a shocking revelation, but business owners and upper management aren't always innocent. Failure is a part of every occupation, every business, and every person. To deny it would be ridiculous. Knowledge and implementation of knowledge is what reduces the frequency of those failures. As people who are heavily invested in the success of our own companies, we need to make sure that we are doing all we can to properly meet the needs of clients (our customers).

How is your company using the Internet to its advantage?

"The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow." ~Bill Gates

Using Mr. Gates' quote as a focal point, what part of the 'village' are you gearing your products and services to? This is an essential element to consider when creating your marketing and advertising plans. Make sure that your website operates in a way that your customers will "get it" and understand why they should choose to use your services or purchase your products. If customers can interact with your site in a positive way, then your website will be successful.

What's being said about your business on the Internet? Have you looked at Yelp and other review sites to see how people gauge their interaction with your company, your employees or how they perceive the value of your products/services? If you're not checking for those "word of mouth" referrals or unfortunate negative reviews, then you're missing a critical component of being able to provide the "right stuff" to your customers. If you're not listening to them and unwilling to take a look at your internal policies/procedures and quality control standards, then you should just stop reading this article right now.

David Ogilvy, who is considered by many to be the father of modern advertising, always stressed the importance of the "BIG IDEA". He always capitalized those two words in order to make them stand out. Are you doing your best to ensure that your company's customer service, reputation, and quality standards are an integral part of America's economic, political, and social life? What is the BIG IDEA that drives your business? By listening to your clients, understanding their wants and needs, and adapting, you are better able to refine your customer service procedures and better produce the products and services your customers desire. In doing this, you'll be able to convey your company's BIG IDEA in an easier, more effective way.

This isn't an easy task. There isn't one tried and true formula to achieve this - it's more of a mindset and method of operating. In some ways this might seem a bit obtuse and nebulous. The beauty of it though is that this method of operating is one of the major facets of what you'll see when you study the successful models of companies such as Amazon, Dropbox, Google, and others who do a great job of listening and interacting with their customers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heSudg-tfIk.

Color Card Administrator is the parent company of PrintBusinessCards.com and several other innovative Real Estate Business Cards website, we're eager to share with you what it is we do. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com for Cheap Business Cards. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding online business cards design or business card management.