Blog O’ Obscurity

Every time I’m at a conference, or volunteer, or start a new job, or even go to some safety training, I seem to come home with some sort of trinket or swag with the company logo on it. They range in usefulness from fun or clever to useful and indispensable. If you want to be remembered or have your company remembered, it never hurts to give out merchandise with your logo or slogan on it. These promotional products will be well remembered years later, and often even used to give your company a call back.

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If you’re looking to start a new business, but you want to reduce the risk that this venture causes, a franchise may be for you. If you’re looking for a franchise opportunity, then this is the site for you. It lists out many different franchise options for almost every type of business imaginable. Using the blueprints for business that others have already shown to be successful is a great way to reduce risk and give yourself the best possible chance for success.

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Incontinence. We’ve all heard about it, read about it. And we all say that it can’t happen to us. I’m sorry to have to be the one to bring this up, but it can happen to you, and it will eventually happen to you. Stay on this blue and green globe long enough and eventually the plumbing starts to leak. Don’t think that the need for an adult diaper will pass you by. It may just be you in seventy years that has to surf the internet (or whatever the net evolves into) for some sort of futuristic incontinence product.

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If you have a web site, you probably know how important Search Engine Optimization (SEO for short) is for your web page. It can mean the difference between success and failure since the earlier you show up in an engine’s results, the more likely people will be to come to your web site. Who do you know who keeps clicking till they get to the 10th page just to make sure they’ve got the most relevant site? MAYBE 1. And what if you’re on the 100th page?

Building an audience for your site can be difficult to do on your own - should you buy links or try to sneak them into another site? How can you make sure your edu links are relevant? Finding a partner to help you may be the best step you can take to help your site achieve it’s goal. After all, you didn’t build a site just for your own entertainment - you built it to get information out to people.

There are many companies out there to help just about anyone build their search engine results, but EduTextLink.com caters especially to domains that know the value of an .edu link and is the first of its kind to do so. Since incoming edu links are often more valued by the search engines this can go a long way toward you attaining optimum utilization of your site. On top of that they also will help you make sure your keywords are effective by comparing them to those of your competitors. They will make sure your site is search engine friendly by not overpopulating it with links. They will allow your site to show a pattern of natural growth that search engines find appealing.

Don’t waste your time trying to buy text links on your own that may end up doing you no good. Allow EduTextLink.com to help you get the most from your site by having them find edu links for you.

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So you’re looking for a little advertising juice in this crazy, mixed up economy. But you don’t want to spend a lot of money on it. That is to say, you’re NOT planning on spending more than a million dollars on 30 seconds of time during the Super Bowl telecast.

You don’t have to.

There are tons of ways to get the word out about your business or product in the internet age that people are just now starting to tap into.

First and foremost, if you don’t have a website then, for pete’s sake get one. This is a form of advertisement. And make it useful. Getting a website the just lists the phone number they can call for more information is pointless. Everyone still has phone books - they could have looked up the number on their own. Make your website stand out. Include details about what you’re selling and resources that can be helpful to your customer.

Second, get the word out about your website. Make sure it is listed by the various search engines out there. Go to different forums that discuss products like yours and talk yourself up. Tell people about your website. This is FREE advertising for you.

Third, find new and innovative ways to spread the word about your business. The world is just getting introduced to the concept of a BLOG (short for ‘weB LOG’) but blog writers already wield power. One person writes about something and others read about it. The readers may then in turn write about it and then their readers find out about it. It can (and has) gone on like this for quite some time. The information spreads by word of blog, so to speak.

But how can YOU get in on this? Do you start your own blog? No. You find someone who already has a well read blog and you convince them to write about it for you. SocialSpark.com is a company that will allow you to get in touch with these bloggers so that you can start your viral advertising campaign. You can sponsor just a single post or you can sponsor an entire blog for a time which will allow your banner ad to be on their site for as many days as you sponsor them.

Get started with these ideas and see where they can take you and your business.

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You may not need it that often, but occasionally you may want to look up the phone number that just called you to find out who it was. It happens to me a couple of times every year, when I get a call, and want to find out who it was. A Reverse Cell Phone Lookup is a handy little tool to do this very thing. If you’re concerned about your name getting out in one of these directories, look into a National No Call Registry.

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I’ve been toying with the idea of getting some really slick looking business cards to go along with this blog and some of the other random stuff I put together on the computer. In my clicking around the net I found a site that specializes in logo design and business cards. In less than five minutes I had designed the card below using their quick and easy to use online design tool. They have hundreds of logos that can go on the card and dozens of choices during the creation process.

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The best thing a business can do to help preserve itself during tough economic times is to find ways to save money. Since payroll is usually the largest expense of any business, this is where money saving comes into play most often through a decrease in staff.

For small companies or those just getting started that don’t have a lot of staff to begin with, this often isn’t a possibility since there is little fat to cut out of the payroll budget. For these companies, people have to get creative about how they reduce expenditures without compromising the core values of their business, whatever they may be.

It turns out Journyx has an opportunity right now for companies to take advantage of a creative way to save money. It begins with a free trial of their Journyx Timesheet software. For 45 days, your business can benefit from the chance to try out software that allows you to track time spent on different projects and estimate the time till completion, help you create invoices based upon this information and even aid in completion of payroll.

It continues when you realize that Timesheet is capable of handling everything from notes on projects to mileage employees need to be reimbursed for. It seems to cover all the bases!

Help make your story one of the Timesheet success stories by signing up for the free trial today.

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Earlier today I found a great website that will compare many different companies that offer auto insurance and give you all sorts of information to make the best decision as to which auto insurance company to go with. There are so many commercials out there today trying to get you to change your car insurance, when what you really need is more information, not talking ducks, lizards, or cavemen.

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One thing that I think every respectable company needs from Fortune 500 to the smallest of small businesses is a pen with the company name and logo on the side. Don’t advertise for the pen companies when you hand a client a pen, advertise for yourself. And while you’re at it, get some markers and highlighters with your company name and logo on it too. You can really put your company name on anything from a hat to a stadium, but start with personalized pens.

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