From disparate beginnings, Christmas has become largely a cultural celebration for my generation - one meant to bring people together and place our focus on the people we love.

It has also become an uber-brand that represents intangible, un-buy-able values (peace, love, joy, family, selflessness) simultaneously with supreme commercialism.

I love Christmas: hot cocoa, a roaring fire, home cooking, decorated trees, lit up streets, friends around, and the overall heightened consideration of other people (which really should be more present year-round). And of course, the unavoidable and remorseless spending of money we don’t necessarily have.

I like shopping as much as the next red-blooded woman, and I love choosing gifts for people I care about, BUT I loathe the chaos that is the holiday shopping experience. Firstly, running a fully booked design firm means I am impossibly busy, and it’s hard to find time to brave the traffic, find parking, and wait in obscene lines at the counter. So I shop for a lot of gifts online, which doesn’t seem particularly festive to me. Something is lost.

Smart online retailers are starting to catch on. In the same ways that a brick and mortar store would decorate their shop for the holidays, internet based companies are learning to create a more festive atmosphere for their customers. We all know that emotion sells. And the experience you’re providing for your customers online can be just as lucrative as one you might create in your physical store.

Now, my own customers aren’t looking for the same thing as holiday shoppers. You’re business folk, and it’s not likely you’re going to hire a corporate designer as a gift for a loved one. But, I still felt like I should give a subtle little nod to the holidays, so I created a festive holiday variant on our website logo.

Read More

As we enter the month of December, I can’t help but look back at the year that was. The thousands of new businesses started, the people we’ve profiled, and the technology applications that have made our lives complete. In no particular order of preference, I give you my top 5 technology applications of 2008.

1. Basecamp – the backbone of the business. This project management software helps us keep on top of things. By logging in, the team can see the status of each client and contribute to future projects. It saves on sending group emails and files and keeps your thoughts and intelligence in one place. To clients, it makes you look super-organised.
   Cost: $49 per month (£32)
2. Skype – our virtual water cooler, video conference system and podcast production kit. Yes, we do lots with Skype! It’s a versatile product that, at its most basic level offers an instant messaging service. Taking it to the next level allows you to connect with customers by webcam or group calls.
   Cost: Free to download. £20 for basic hand phone or headset. 
3. Twitter – a perfect way to show off your expertise .. and, yes, see what your friends had for lunch. Twitter has had a bad rap for being ‘lightweight’ and ‘a form of virtual stalking’ but anyone who uses it will know it’s no such thing. Twitter is a tool that is low maintenance, yet powerful. It provides an outlet for your expertise as you tweet in less than 140 words on your thoughts and motions of the day. To be sure, there is a social angle to this neat application but that’s what home business is all about; business mixed with life.
   Cost: Free
4. Surveymonkey – take polls and run Awards with this cheeky piece of software. Our 2008 Home Business Awards were managed by surveymonkey.com - it was a delight to use and is also cost-effective.
   Cost: Basic package is free.

Read More

Driving traffic to your site is great, as far as it goes – but it’s not enough.  You need proven ways to convert prospects into buyers.

When your site is primed for search engine optimization (SEO), you get tons of traffic coming to you for free.  Great, right?  But many small business owners make the mistake of just concentrating on traffic and search engine optimization. They get the traffic, but it doesn’t convert into buyers. What good is a ton of traffic coming to your site, if it doesn’t improve your sales?

You’ve ultimately got to look at your bottom line. If you’re spending tons of cash, hours of your time and all your energy on driving traffic to your site with SEO, but not making sure it converts into buying customers, you’re just chasing your tail.

Remember, you’re not after “clicks” – you’re after sales! Here are 3 basics that you MUST ensure happen on your site in order to convert visitors into customers and increase your sales:

Craft an Effective Message.
First, you need an effective sales message that grabs your surfer by the mouse, turns them upside down, and shakes their credit cards out of their pockets! Recent studies have demonstrated that you’ve got less than 8 seconds to capture the typical Internet surfer’s attention.

Address desires directly. Tell your story right up front – what does your company offer? What sets you apart from your competitors? Make sure this information is prominently displayed on your home page.

The key to converting your visitors is to find out what they want – and the easiest way to find that out is simply to ask them.

Read More

E-mail marketing is a tremendously valuable tool for small and large companies that do business online. However, some companies find that there are a number of challenges that get in the way of their e-mail marketing campaigns.

In part, this is because many of your customers and prospects take advantage of Spam filters that have been built into their e-mail software. These Spam filters scan each message received for keywords that are often associated with scams or unsolicited marketing, and often direct any mail deemed questionable into a Spam, bulk or junk folder rather than the recipient’s inbox.

Just as many e-mail programs have Spam filters, many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) block some e-mail messages. An ISP-content filter may be set to block all mail that is addressed to more than a certain number of recipients. Similarly, ISP blocks can occur for messages that contain images, excessive links, as well as words and phrases that are frequently used by spammers.

If too many of your company’s e-mails are identified as Spam or deemed to be unsolicited, you may find your IP address – the address from which you send e-mail – on a blacklist. When your IP address is blacklisted, many of the e-mail marketing messages that you send will be returned to you undelivered.

Similarly, some ISPs have Greylists. Greylisting happens based on the way that the server sending the e-mail behaves rather than the content of the messages themselves. When your messages are greylisted, e-mails that you send will be bounced back; the e-mail will need to be re-sent. Though servers can be configured to re-send the e-mail automatically, if the server responds too quickly or too slowly, your e-mail marketing message may be identified as Spam.

In response to Blacklists and Greylists, many e-mail users are being asked by their ISPs to create e-mail Whitelists.

Read More

When was the last time you performed an online search for your company name on your favourite search engine? Give it a try. Add quotation marks before and after your name for more precise results - this ensures that multiple search words are place in an exact order; as in your company name.

Your website should show up in the first position of the search results. Following this, you may see news, press releases, articles, and directories that highlight your company’s profile or information about something new you have done. As you move further down the search results list, you may start to see reviews, forums, or even social network content related to you. Ideally you want to find and read about references to positive interactions from people who use, recommend, or have questions about your goods or services. Along the way, you may also stumble on some negative and potentially damaging information about you or your firm.

A company’s integrity can then and there be compromised if prospective clients come across questionable comments and reviews. Something as trivial as an employee posting a reference to your company name on their social profile pages, may inadvertently create unwelcome exposure. Depending on how much of this information you don’t mind being public or what your company’s policies are regarding employee disclosure, you may decide that you want this information removed. You can attempt to talk to the employee, or anyone who has posted negative information about you, and try to reach an agreement with them to take it off. Another option is to contact the website owner and ask them to remove the content. However, reviews, forums, and other social websites are unlikely to do so. You’re not ready to hit a dead-end, so what else can you do?

This is where online reputation management (ORM) services comes into play.

Read More