Tag: business

10 Best Features of iOS 4 for Business

This is a guest post by James. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

The business features of iOS 4 will make your iPhone the most valuable tool in your arsenal. With new features like multitasking, VPN connectivity and enterprise solutions, individuals can leave the office and still be connected. Here are ten of iOS 4’s best business features.


iphone-ios-4-1


1. Multitasking
You are now able to perform limited multitasking with your iPhone. You can read your mail and have music playing in the background. With the addition of more applications that use this feature, your mobile device will gain more functionality.

2. Organize your applications into folders
You can place up to twelve applications into a folder to keep them safe. If you have different types of apps, the folders make it easier for you to find them. Your home page will have to find other ways to be cluttered.

3. Unified inbox
With a unified inbox, you can combine all of your email accounts within a single application. You do not have to be concerned about missing messages or tasks. You can also thread your messages, making your inbox easier to read.

4. Internal Spell checking
No more worries about misspelling words within email and applications. IOS 4 introduced a spellchecker that is usable through third party applications. You still have to proofread your documents.

5. Geolocation and Digital Zoom
Using the GPS function on your mobile device, iOS 4 allows you to tag the photos that you take on a map. This is another great method for categorization. The digital zoom feature will let you take close ups of your favorite employees and locations. You also have the ability to use zoom within your videos.

6. Messages are improved
You can search through your text messages and see a timeline of the messages that occurred. All of your typed messages are recorded for speedy search and recovery. There is also a character count feature which you can activate to get a better idea of the text limits of the platforms which you’re working with.

7. Photo resizer
The resizer will crunch the photos that you plan to send via email. When you are emailing pictures, you want them to be tiny, clear and easily transmitted. This is a great way of handling the need to have smaller file sizes in the email.

8. Enterprise applications
Your email can be encrypted and sent to employees within your company. You can obtain mobile device management on your server which gives you the ability to let all employees download iPhone apps without having to go through the Apple store.

9. Easily add events to iCal
Times and dates in your email have links which you can easily add to your schedule in iCal. There is no need to leave the program that you are in, it is fully integrated. This feature is great for people whose itinerary is constantly changing.

10. VPN Connection
Connect to your VPN from anywhere through your iPhone using this feature of iOS4. The passwords are more secure for all applications with this operating system. Business professionals can be more efficient with their iPhones because they can now connect directly to the office.

The features of iOS 4 can make you more productive with the use of the iPhone. With the organizational features and the tiny tweaks that Apple has done, you can take your iOS 4 with you to the next level.

James works for a UK-based store offering ink supplies for businesses. He spends much of his time reviewing hardware like the Epson T0715 as well as posting on their blog when time permits.

7 Ways To Get Traffic – Before You Need It!

One common question we all hear, and at some point of time have asked – How to get traffic to our new blog?

Here are some examples of how I got my first 500 – 800 visits per day in my initial days of blogging:

build-it-before-you-need-it

I started it before I actually needed it:

1. Commenting on other blogs: I had spent some time in selecting a domain name(even though I din’t have much knowledge about selecting a good domain name at that time). And started participating in comment section of various blogs – niche which I was interested in. And included the URL of my blog in all the comments(not within the comment section).
Tips: Do not leave your new website blank. Atleast have a single introduction page, or better if you can have atleast 10 good articles published.

2. SEO benefits: As I already had the blog up, most search engines had already crawled my blog and was visible in results page for some keywords.
Tips: If you know your niche, then have atleast 10 good articles published – which are fully concentrated on your niche. Include keywords related to your niche and take time to carefully optimize those 10 articles, so that you rank high for some keywords.

3. Put up the email/rss subscription options on your blog: Even though I had a single page on my blog – where I wrote about myself(profile kind of), many people subscribed to it! I had 30 – 40 subscribers when I started blogging – when my first real article was live.
Tips: Put a big and highly visible(yet not annoying) subscription link on your blog. I guess people who signup for your blog updates in the initial stage are email subscribers, so make sure you put email subscription option and highlight that its a free service.

4. Include your blog link in any social networking site you use.
Tips: Have conversation with like minded people, who are interested in the niche your blog falls in. This strategy would help in more conversion rate, and you will enjoy the social networking as you communicate with like minded people.

5. Participate in forums: Forums are good place to meet like minded people and to share your knowledge and to gain knowledge from other participants. Use your blog link in the signature area of the forum and in your forum profile.
Tips: Do not try to promote your blog in any ways. Because you don’t have an active blog yet and that may act against you. So be genuine in helping as many people as you can. This increases your credibility and builds a community around you before you actually need it.

6. Write Testimonials: As you probably read some books, attended some course, used some online services before you started your blog. Send your testimonial to those people, if you really like them and recommend them to other people. Again be genuine and don’t do it just to get a link back.
Tips: See previous testimonials. If the owner of the product is linking to the person who gave the testimonial, then you can expect a link back, if he thinks your testimonial helps his business.
Take time and form a very good, real testimonial. Do not make it over hyped inorder to get through.

7. Public Speaking & Presentation: If you get a public speaking opportunity and/or you have to give a public presentation for a social cause, then at the end its not a bad idea to show your blog Name and URL along with your Name and designation or whatever. This will give people a way to follow up with you, in case some one is very much impressed with your presentation and want to get more from you.

Caution
At this stage do not try to promote your blog in any ways, because it may have an adverse effect. Just enjoy the benefit of having a blog before its actually fully active.

Do not keep postponing the date to start blogging actively. no time is perfect time.
Imagine, if you are planning to have a blog and never actually taking your first step to find a good name, register it and write atleast 10 good articles – you would miss a lot of opportunity. You will have to leave comments on other websites/blogs as an anonymous guy, you will loose the SEO benefit etc to name some.

Do not plaster your blog with ads when you’re not yet blogging consistently, because this may give people a wrong impression.

I am not saying that – If you don’t start your blog/business now, you will loose money. But you will surly loose some benefits of starting it early enough. You will loose all the extra benefits I have talked above.

Finally
Its a good idea to take some time out of your busy life and find a good domain name(which is the only thing probably which will take some time), register it, and try to write atleast 10 quality articles concentrating on your niche.

Often times we get a brilliant idea for a blog post, but only to know that – “It would have been great, if I had started a blog”. Let that not happen to you, start a blog early and learn along the way.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race. Stop thinking about all the details, just start a blog/business. You are bound to stumble along the way, but you will figure things out as you move along.

It would be better to make a mistake while blogging than to never start the blog. Learning never ends and if you are thinking of starting a blog or a business after learning everything, then take it from me – You are not going to start your blog or business. Because learning is a never ending process.

Interview with Young Entrepreneur: Neil Patel

Today we have a young entrepreneur, who is an inspiration to many people around the world.
Neil Patel is the co-founder of 2 Internet companies: Crazy Egg, and KISSmetrics. Through these 2 companies he has helped large corporations such as AOL, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard and Viacom make more money from the web. By the age of 21 not only was Neil named a top 100 blogger by Technorati, but he was also one of the top influencers on the web according to the Wall Street Journal.
Neil Patel
Here is the interview:

1. Please introduce yourself and your companies to our readers.

For those of you who don’t know me, I am a entrepreneur, writer, angel investor, and a marketer. Overall, I am just an average Joe. I am currently 24 years old and I am the owner of 2 .com companies: KISSmetrics and Crazy Egg.

2. Why did you choose Online Business?

I got started in the business world when I was 16 and at that time there wasn’t too many businesses I could get into other than on the web businesses. So in some way I didn’t have any other choice but to get into the online business world if I wanted to be an entrepreneur.

3. Your advice for people who want to start a company?

Stop thinking about all the details, just start a business. You are bound to stumble along the way, but you will figure things out as you move along.

4. Risks in starting a company and its remedies.

The biggest risk is that you are going to lose money. There really isn’t any remedies for this. But don’t let this stop you, sometimes you just have to roll the dice and take chances.

5. At an age of 21, how could you manage to get the money and support to start your own company? What was the motivation behind starting the company?

Borrow money from friends and family because it is the easiest way to get it.

6. Your advice for people who want to start a new blog or online business or online company and are still in schools or college (around the age of 20 – 21).

Just start a business. The younger you are when you start a business the better because you don’t have to worry about feeding a family and providing for someone else. Plus the younger you start, the more time you will have to succeed.

7. Your advice for new bloggers.

Write great content. This is the main way you are going to be able to build your readers is through good content. What I mean by this is write content that isn’t short, but instead descriptive. Don’t just write on the news, write on things that provide value to your readers.

8. Some of the strategies that you use to help your clients get more traffic and link baits.

Yes, I did use linkbait. I would write detailed blog posts such as how to guides, submit them to Digg, and push them hard until I got them on the homepage.

9. Order according to your preference – Stumble Upon, Digg,Delicious, reddit, Yahoo Buzz etc.

Digg
Reddit
Del.icio.us
Twitter
StumbleUpon
Yahoo Buzz

I am ranking them in order of link importance. Yahoo Buzz can be great, but most people will never get on the homepage of Yahoo.

10. What is your opinion about Twitter and Facebook, for marketing our blog/business. Which one do you think has more potential to drive more traffic/conversion?

Although Facebook has more users, Twitter has been more effective in driving traffic and conversions. This is mainly because Twitter is public, while on Facebook only your friends can see your profile.

11. I have seen many good articles going nowhere on DIGG. But a small piece of content submitted by a power user has more chances of getting to the front page. Don’t you think its highly unfair part of DIGG? Do you have any solution for this (other then telling us to be power user 🙂 ).

It is fair, it is how Digg is intended to work. If everything got on the homepage of Digg, no one would be using it. As for getting on the homepage a lot of it has to do with the content you are writing. Things like “Top 10 lists” are getting old, you need to be more creative with your content.

12. What are the main requisites for youngsters starting a company?

There is only 1 requirement, they need to have a passion for whatever it is they want to start.

13. How big or small are your companies?

My companies are very small. They make enough money for me to live off of, but none are making large amounts of money.

14. What about the programming aspects of your sites. Do you outsource them or you do it on your own?

I outsource all programming and design on my blog. As for Crazy Egg and KISSmetrics, we do everything in house.

15. What were the major mistakes you did on your blog and business?

I have a lot… you can find them all here:
http://www.quicksprout.com/2009/02/15/15-things-i-wish-i-had-known-when-i-started-my-first-blog/
http://www.quicksprout.com/2009/01/25/7-reasons-my-first-business-failed/
http://www.quicksprout.com/2009/01/14/7-business-mistakes-that-nearly-made-me-go-broke/

16. How do you define Success?

If you are happy with your accomplishments, then in my eyes you are successful.

17. How could you manage to get big clients in the beginning days of your company ?

I managed them through project management systems like Liquid Planner. This helped clients see what I was doing and it made communication easier.

Some Personal questions:

18. How you spend your day?

I spend most of my day in meetings, responding to emails, and working on KISSmetrics.

19. Personal hobbies and interests?

I love watching basketball games, movies, and hanging with friends.

20. Some of your life’s ambitions?

I want to become a billionaire one day. I don’t know if I will get there, but I’ll try.

21. How about your contacts with the outside real world (other than blogging life)? Do you meet and talk to people often or will you be busy almost all the time infront of your computer?

I meet people everyday. I try to get to as many networking events as possible. And when I can’t I try to meet new people through the web and my blog.

Hope you all enjoyed the interview.
I would recommend everyone to read all the blogs run by Neil Patel, we follow most of the article each day and all of them keep inspiring us. All his blogs deliver a lot of value to the readers.

Somebody’s gain should not be your loss – atleast in blogging

This is a common perception in the minds of many amateur business people. They always concentrate on the loss and gains of others. This is a good practice if you are investing in share market. But it’s bad, if overly done in any other business. We must concentrate more on our loss or gain.

Loss and gain in Blogging:
It’s the beauty of blogging that, some one may think something as a loss but the same thing may seem to be a gain for the other. It’s all how we think.
For Example:-
If you are running a blog and one of your friend also starts a blog with the similar niche as yours. In such a case different people think differently. Some may think that his friend will be his competitor in the future. And some other may feel happy that you may get a business partner in the future.

Situations where someone’s gain is not and should not be your loss:
1. Linking to other bloggers: Be generous while linking to other bloggers. Do not hesitate. Just make sure that you are linking to the relevant content that your readers will be benefited with. There is a big SEO advantage in linking to the relevant content.
Never feel that, if you link to other blog, you will loose the visitors, to the linked blog! This is not true. Your visitors will surly comeback if you provide value orelse they will surly not, even if you don’t link to others.

2. One click on other blogs CPC ad, is not a click less on your blog:-
I have seen some people guiding wrongly about ad placement. They think that one click on others CPC ad will be a click less on his ads! It’s too foolish to think like that. If a visitor finds something interesting and useful in those ads, he will surly click on it, irrespective of the website he is in. And you may think, if he visited your site and saw the same ad before, he might have ended up clicking on your ad. This argument seems to be true, but remember everyone has an abandoned interests, needs and wants. Have you ever seen a normal person with no interest, needs and wants? Probably not. So I don’t think one click on others CPC ad, is one click less on yours.

3. A newbie gets more subscribers then yours:
If a visitor likes your site he will surly subscribe otherwise surly not. It has no connection with other blogs. If you are able to win the heart of your visitor by providing value or by solving certain problem, then you can surely expect to get some loyal readers. Now a days there are some simple, effective and powerful tools like Google Reader, where reading hundreds of blog contents is so easy and less time consuming. So need not feel any other blog as a threat to yours, as long as you provide value to readers.

4. Sharing your idea’s with others, will reduce your chances of success ? :
“If two people exchange 1$, both will have 1$ each. But if they exchange 1 idea, both will have 2 ideas each”.
By sharing ideas you become more accountable – Share your ideas liberally. The benefits from accountability and feedback outweigh the risk that someone steals your idea!
*But be careful with whom you are sharing your ideas with. Do not share with people who specially exist to harm you! Discuss your thoughts and ideas only with trusted people.
By sharing your ideas, you will get valuable feedbacks. Sometimes you may come to know that, what you thought as an innovative idea is infact a crappy idea and would lead you to failure and loss. More about benefits of sharing ideas @ Link Love for Commentators.

Blogging should always be enjoyable. If we do not enjoy blogging, then there is some problem to be addressed! All bloggers or the bloggers in similar niche should get united and support eachother in getting success.