JBCR Virtual Solutions - Internet Business Developer Blog

Michael Jackson's Branding

2009-07-01T21:55:00.000-07:00

No I am not trying to jump on the band wagon of getting hits for using the name 'Michael Jackson". What I wanted to do was show you just how important branding is and how Michael Jackson was a master. Let me give you an example.

When you hear the phrase 'moon walk' do you think of:

1) Neil Armstrong
2) Michael Jackson

Of course you think Michael Jackson.

When you hear the phrase 'glove' do you think of:

1) OJ Simpson
2) Michael Jackson

Of course you think Michael Jackson.

It's not just because of his recent passing, it's because he was a Master at branding. He knew that everything about him was a brand. Everything from his voice, hair, face, clothes, to his Howard Huges eccentricity was a brand. Make no mistake he knew what he was doing. RIP MJ

What does that mean to you - pay attention to a master (as is Gene Simmons of KISS & Family Jewels fame).

What you may think is over the top, in branding you and your business, may just be what you need to bring your brand to life.

To read more articles like this click here.

Let's Think 'We' Not 'Me'

2009-06-21T21:28:00.000-07:00

This video is so funny, you just have to look at it. But before you watch it, I just want to say that I feel most of us, if we are really, [ really ], honest with ourselves, will admit to having been on either end of this equation at one time or another. The lesson to me here is; show respect the other person, whether you are the client or the service provider. Both sides need to respect each other's need to survive and even flourish if possible. Both need to respect the other's valuable contribution to their lives. The value of the work and of the person. It's not supposed to be a battle of getting the better of one another. We should instead work together for the benefit of each other.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2a8TRSgzZY

Did You Know Facebook Has Secrets?

2009-06-17T21:02:00.000-07:00

I was reading an article today about Facebook and there were a couple of points I wanted to pass along to you.

1. Facebook limits the number of new invites that can be sent in a day, or week. The exact number of invitations that are allowed is a Facebook secret (apparently), but according to my research, if you exceed this secret amount you can get booted.

2. Facebook permits only 5000 friends (from my research). If you go over that a waiting list will be created. However, they can always become a 'fan'.

So do go out and prosper at Facebook, but do keep this in mind.

Jan

WeFollow

2009-06-03T14:45:00.000-07:00

From the title of my last blog post you would think I knew about "WeFollow", but I just bumped into this today.

I was on Facebook today and a poster mentioned wefollow so I decided to check out what it is.

WeFollow is a Twitter directory that has just been launched - still in beta they say.

You can register for free.

You fill in 3 tags that describes your interests and people can find you. You can also find folks with similar interests.

In your 'What are you doing?' box, type in @wefollow as the first thing you type, to bring it to their attention. Then you type in a hashtag - the # symbol, immediately followed by any keyword you want to be listed under.

Currently there are no help pages on WeFollow but if you want some good info on it check out Danny Sullivan's post here:

http://searchengineland.com/wefollow-new-twitter-directory-16940

Check it WeFollow here:

http://wefollow.com/

p.s. I added myself as webdesigner, graphicsdesigner, entrepreneur
Come Follow :-)

Have Bing - Will Follow?

2009-05-30T21:03:00.000-07:00

Bing (aka Live Search) is the new Microsoft search engine. Is it going to be major competition to Google - certainly not at this point.

When I checked it out myself I only got a "Coming Soon" and a video. So I can't test it yet to give you my views.

You can see the video here:

http://www.decisionengine.com/Default.html

Seems some have been offered the beta version as I found a few articles on the differences between Google and Bing. Here is one article I found that I recommend you read if interested:

http://searchengineland.com/microsofts-bing-vs-google-head-to-head-search-results-20006

Apparently it goes live next week - so stay tuned.

Use Twitter - Who Follows

2009-05-29T12:31:00.000-07:00

I came across an article on Twitter use and they had a link to a site that allows you to quickly see who is following you on Twitter and not following you back and visa versa. Thought you might be interested.

http://friendorfollow.com/

Happy Friday!

Jan

Mercury Retrograde and Business

2009-05-24T14:14:00.000-07:00

Do you know what Mercury Retrograde is? A basic definition of retrograde is:

"When a planet goes retrograde, it appears to be moving backwards."

The planet Mercury rules communication, travel, contracts, transportation, education.

Retrograde periods are often problematic.

Whether you believe in this or not, have you noticed that communication between clients / customers has been difficult lately? Have you noticed that projects are not going as smoothly or as planned? Have you noticed unresolved issues have returned or people you have not had contact with for quite some time have returned?

Understanding when Mercury goes retrograde can actually help you in business as you are more prepared and more understanding when communication is difficult, etc.

On May 7th this Mercury retrograde started and won't go direct until May 30th. However, everything won't straighten out until June 14th.

Read more articles here:
http://www.jbcr-virtualsolutions.com/tips-and-articles.html

Online Shopping

2009-04-15T11:44:00.000-07:00

Most web sites use a shopping cart for online shopping. There is a feature in the product area that I use with clients that I wanted to mention because it is usually used for an upsell feature, but it can also be used to help finalize a sale. This feature is "Top HTML for Checkout". The checkout page is where your customer will add all their information to make their purchase.

What the "Top HTML for Checkout" feature can be used for, in this case, is confirming what the customer is purchasing. You can put a picture of the product, price and shipping (if applicable). What this does is immediately confirms to the customer what they are agreeing to purchase. This gives them confidence in the purchase process.

The "Top HTML for Checkout" feature can be straight text or html.

Do you know what long tail keywords are?

2009-03-19T20:07:00.000-07:00

I have been reading a lot about long tail keywords lately. In truth, maybe the phrase is new but the concept is not.

When you think about it, would you search for "car" if you were looking for a car? I doubt it. You would probably type in car, model, color, features, etc. That is basically what long tail keywords refer to.

So why use them? The best description I read is:

"The core idea of long tail keywords is that there is less competition for them, so it's easier to get good search engine rankings. As well, people who search certain long tail keywords are much more likely to be potential purchasers. By optimizing your website and delivering content to match these search queries you will be attracting visitors who are searching for specific (my note: specific is important) service/product information."

So, for example, if you are a coach, don't just use coach, or career coach, as your keywords, use something like "coach to help with career goals" or "need a coach to help with career goals". But - but- take it one step further, for example, "coach to help with my career goal as a published author in children's books". Now that is long tail!!

Read more here:

http://www.jbcr-virtualsolutions.com/SEO.html

Jan

Authority Sites and FAQ Pages

2009-03-14T22:05:00.000-07:00

In previous blog posts I have explained to you that authority sites are what you should be striving for if you are interested in top positions on the search engines and a few key things to do to get you there. In a new post, one item I read about today (which I do on my own site) is a FAQ page.

FAQ page content answers real user questions about your products or services. One page may work but you also may want to look at having multiple FAQ pages if it fits your products/services.

In a recent WebProNews post Chris Crum states "Web businesses may benefit by creating FAQ content that is targeted at answering real user questions about their products." Read more here:

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/03/05/why-faq-pages-could-boost-your-google-rankings

Check out my FAQ pages here for the basic idea of FAQ pages:

http://www.jbcr-virtualsolutions.com/faq.html

Jan

Business in 2009, The Feng Shui Way

2009-01-30T22:12:00.000-08:00

I subscribe to many newsletters to keep up to date of what is going on in many areas of the virtual world. One newsletter I received this week struck a cord with me and I wanted to share it with you.

This is from Feng Shui Truth:

There heading is "BUSINESS in 2009 is "Collaborative, Mindful and Proactive" ENERGY, that serves the greater good of All."

Sounds a lot like what is going on with the newly elected President, Barack Obama.

They go on to say, and I will quote:
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lesson #1: Companies and entrepreneurs who build reliable teams, “vendor networks” and strategic alliances accelerate the growth of their businesses faster, better and with less effort.

Lesson #2: Companies and entrepreneurs who willingly accept "feedback" from their target market accelerate the growth of their business faster, better and with less effort.

Lesson #3: Companies and entrepreneurs who “honk” at their team members, staff and vendors with "encouragement," accelerate their personal productivity and business growth, exponentially ... FAST.

Lesson #4: Companies and entrepreneurs who protect and educate their teams' and clients' in challenging times, "grow" their businesses even during economic down-swings.

Lesson #5: Companies and entrepreneurs who show COMPASSION and SUPPORT the companies and people they serve, will survive and thrive (like Geese) in this "new world order" of collaborative CO-CREATION.
~~~~~~~~~~
There is more but I highly suggest you actually sign up for this newsletter. It is always full of powerful energies (and no, I do not get anything out of this other then the joy of sharing).

Here is their link: http://www.fengshuiparadigms.com/

Jan

Have You Watched Your Searches In Google Lately?

2009-01-25T22:11:00.000-08:00

What you/searchers select from search results shape future queries based on your choices. Have you noticed when you search for one thing and then another that you are shown options? These options that may be of interest but may be way off the mark of what you are looking for? Yes, they are following your preferences and this will happen with your potential visitor as well. This, in fact, could actually make it harder for searchers to find what they are looking for.

So what can you do to help searchers find you?

The best organic SEO is content (Content Is King!)

Bob Massa put it well:

"I believe anyone can be successful at online marketing or even traffic generation and search engine placement specifically, if they just stop looking for ways to trick machines and instead look for ways to connect with humans".

The need for quality, engaging, and usable content is becoming more important than ever.

I didn't "Knol" until now!!

2009-01-16T22:31:00.000-08:00

For those of you 'in the know' Google Knol may not be new to you but I just came across it tonight.

Knol is "authoritative articles about specific topics, written by people who know about those subjects.

As stated on the Google Blog:

~~~~~~~~~~~
The key principle behind Knol is authorship. Every knol will have an author (or group of authors) who put their name behind their content. It's their knol, their voice, their opinion. We expect that there will be multiple knols on the same subject, and we think that is good.
With Knol, we are introducing a new method for authors to work together that we call "moderated collaboration." With this feature, any reader can make suggested edits to a knol which the author may then choose to accept, reject, or modify before these contributions become visible to the public. This allows authors to accept suggestions from everyone in the world while remaining in control of their content. After all, their name is associated with it!

Knols include strong community tools which allow for many modes of interaction between readers and authors. People can submit comments, rate, or write a review of a knol. At the discretion of the author, a knol may include ads from our AdSense program. If an author chooses to include ads, Google will provide the author with a revenue share from the proceeds of those ad placements.
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Looks like a great place to share your knowledge. I'm going to check it out, want to join me?

http://knol.google.com

Jan

News On The Remote

2009-01-15T22:40:00.000-08:00

So we found the remote but it did not work for the TV. We had to hook up the cd player for the remote to work. Well that in itself was a major event!

Got the cd player hooked up. Yep the remote worked with the cd player. Hooked the cd player to the TV. Tried the remote for the TV - no go.

So we are still at "is it your turn to get up and change the channel".

Moving sucks LOL

p.s. If you follow this blog you know we are web designers, scripters, graphic artists. Can you believe we have such a problem!!!

Back To Pioneer Life In a "Remote" Location On The West Coast

2009-01-10T22:39:00.000-08:00

Even if you don't live in the West Coast of Canada, many of you may have read about the massive snow falls we have been having here. Yes, our mild 'lotus land' climate 'went South' big time this winter and we are looking like the stereotype 'Great White North'.

But with the primitive instincts of our pioneer ancestors, we knew we must be prepared... We watched the weather reports, stocked up on wood and food ahead of the storms and hunkered down.

But wait...

We recently moved and found ourselves with a TV but no remote control. What??!!

Ok, forget about building a fire, the task one was figuring out how to 'manually' turn the TV on. After a few tries we did manage that. Next, changing channels. Next, volume.

Later that night we sat down to watch and, oh no, where is the remote? Ok, have to get up and turn it on. Sit back down, hmmm, not the right channel, where is the remote? Ok, get up and change the channel. Program over, where is the remote. Hmmm ok, so who's turn is to get up and change the channel this time.

Now most of us can relate to the 'olden' days' of having to walk miles, through huge snow drifts. to get to school. But no remote, now THAT IS roughen' it.

For those of your going through the same predicament we will provide an instruction video on how to operate a TV without a remote.

:)

Jan

Looking Forward to 2009

2008-12-24T21:00:00.000-08:00

I live on the balmy west coast of Canada, which I can tell you is not balmy right now. We have had almost 3 feet of snow in the last few days and more to come. What does this have to do with "looking forward to 2009"? Well, as I looked at the claustrophobic snow piling up I realized that in all things it is time to do more with less.

So for 2009:

- take a look at your website and see what pages may not be working any longer. Maybe it is time to redirect them to a page on your site that you can cover the same topic(s) and not just bulk up your site.

- take a look at your content, especially the index page. When was the last time you changed the content? Is your content outdated?

- take a look at the keywords / key phrases that you are using. Are they relevant for today's market? Are there more keywords/phrases then you need - probably more targeted words will work better?

- take a look at your linking. Are there links that no longer work for your site? Are there links that no longer work period?

- take a look at your visual web design. This may be listed last but certainly not least! When was the last time you updated your website (2-4- or more years?) Are visitors coming in and seeing the same-old-same-old?

Look ahead to 2009. It is a new start and you can do more with less and succeed - YES YOU CAN!!

Jan

Happy Happy and Merry Merry

2008-12-23T22:00:00.001-08:00

Wishing you a joyous holiday season and dreams come true in the New Year.

View our card online here:

http://www.jbcr-virtualsolutions.com/SeasonsGreetings08/

How to Recognize Places to Optimize on Your Website

2008-11-23T12:25:00.000-08:00

I read a great article at Web Pro News called "Is Bounce Rate a Google Ranking Factor?" by Chris Crum. Here are a few points.

Pay attention to Bounce Rates. Maybe the page content is not good or maybe the keywords in the content are not good.

Analytics evaluation tips

1. Set up goals

2. Pay attention to the Geographic stats.

3. Pay attention to what visitors are typing in to find you (they are saying here's what I want to find).

This article also has a video on personalized (subjective) search results. This is very interesting and well worth the few minutes to watch. Briefly Google search is determining what you are looking for based on what you previously searched for.

Should You Stop Blogging? A Great Article by Chris Crum

2008-10-26T11:36:00.000-07:00

I read an article today by Chris Crum at Web Pro News. He mentioned an article posted by Wired "Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004" which has created quite a stir.
Chris says:

"I would even go so far as to say that they're just getting started. Yes, there is plenty of worthless content out there. I would personally say the same thing about television, but do I think television is dead as a medium? No (Granted, I do think there is some big change coming for TV courtesy of the online video revolution, but that's another discussion entirely). "

He goes on to say:

"One reason why blogs are in no danger of extinction, is that their content is entirely "on demand" - meaning if you don't like a blog, you don't have to read it, and you can move on to another one that you do like. You can subscribe to the ones you enjoy and get all the content you want, and if you don't like the content from one of those at any point, you can simply unsubscribe and stop reading it. If you have any complaints about a blog, then you have the choice to go elsewhere. Why is that a problem? Why would that signal the extinction? Because "elsewhere" could be Twitter or Facebook? I don't think so."

To read the full post and the many comments here is the link http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/10/21/should-you-stop-blogging

Webmaster Tools Update - This Is Very Helpful!

2008-10-16T20:13:00.000-07:00

Matt Cutts has a post on his blog about an update on their webmaster tools that will be very helpful for folks who work web sites and for folks working their own site.

Before I send you off to his blog to read about this I have to tell you that this information helped me to find some issues with my site that I did not realize were issues. So, if you do not deal with this directly have your web master check it out for you - it is worth it.

Here's Matt :)

A brief from his blog:

"I can’t believe a new feature from Google isn’t getting more notice, because it converts already-existing links to your site into much higher quality links, for free.

When someone comes to your site’s webserver and asks for a page that doesn’t exist , most web servers are configured to return an HTTP status code of 404, which means that the page was “Not Found.” If someone links to a page on your site that doesn’t exist, most webservers give a pretty sucky experience: visitors usually land on a pretty useless page, and search engines might not give you full credit for those 404 errors. "

Read more here: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/free-direct-text-links/

I just touched on this briefly today so will get back to you.

Jan

Google Analytics - Set-up For Your Client - Blow Yours Off!

2008-10-03T20:43:00.000-07:00

Ok so the title may sound a bit strange but let me tell you what happened.

First, anyone that works in my field no doubt has set-up Google Analytics for clients and put coding on their pages. Usually they sign-up and give you their account information so you can enter the domains and inset the code - right. That's normally what happens with me.

A couple of weeks ago a client wanted me to set-up his analytics. He wanted me to do this through his Adwords account. In order for me to do this I had to get admin privileges. That was fine and I set up his sites and put the coding in. No problem, all worked fine. Except when I went to check my own Google Analytics for my sites. Guess what happened - yep!

I went to sign into what I thought was my account and instead I was now signed into his. No sign of my sites. Nada.

Luckily my partner had originally hooked up the account so I could get in and check to make sure everything was working. It appears to be, though many of my pages now have no bar and even my overall page rank has dropped. Does this 'mix-up' have anything to do with that, I don't know, not yet.

I have signed up for a new Google account and have permissions on my own analytics now. I also have a support ticket into Google.

The moral of the story - if you are going to set up Google Analytics for a client always use THEIR login and password information - not yours.

I'll keep you posted on what Google says.

A bit wiser this Friday...

Jan

Locked Bios - Chuckle for the Day!

2008-08-12T14:11:00.000-07:00

As readers of my blog you know that I am a member and fan of WebProWorld forum. Today there was a question from a man basically asking how to unlock his bios password. His wife locked the bios so now the computer won't boot. There were several response but I thought this was the best one. I wanted to share :)

The response is from "krisidious". His site is: http://www.aboveallhouseplans.com/ (I want him to get credit for this).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
remove the power cord
open the case
remove the CR2032 battery
use a screw driver to short the circuit or connect the bars
wait 1 minute
put the battery back
plug the cord back in
the Bios should be reset.
set new passowrd to "mistress"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you would like to read all the responses click here.

Jan :)

Google Is Retiring AdSense Referrals

2008-07-06T11:04:00.000-07:00

Yes you read that right. This will be happening at the end of August. Here is a brief of what they have stated:

If you currently use referral ads, either to promote Google products or offerings from AdWords advertisers, AdSense Referrals code will no longer display ads beginning the last week of August. We encourage you to take the following steps before the product is retired:

Remove the referral code from your site(s): Please take a moment to remove all referral code from your sites before the last week of August, so you can continue to effectively monetize your ad space.

Run and save all referrals reports on your desktop: Create and save all reports related to the referrals program on your desktop, so you continue to have access to your valuable campaign information.

Click here to read more,

WordPress Spam - No Solution :(

2008-06-11T20:49:00.000-07:00

Further to my last post the spam continues. It seems to only come in once a day, at this point, but certainly a huge amount of links and writes to the blog itself. It starts with:

"u style="display none" News......

Anoyone know about this?

I certainly do get the benefit for them - does hurt us doesn't it.

I am running out of ideas - Comments are very welcomed.

Jan

Update on WordPress Spam Solution

2008-06-08T19:47:00.000-07:00

I am almost concerned to post what we have done here in case spammers read it. So I am going to add the last thing we have done. 24 hours later there has been no spam in the header or footer - but - it's not enough time to consider ourselves out of the woods yet but this last installation of a plug-in seems to be helping.

It's called WP Ban: http://lesterchan.net/portfolio/programming.php

Ban users by IP, IP Range, host name, user agent and referrer url from visiting your WordPress’s blog. It will display a custom ban message when the banned IP, IP range, host name, user agent or referrer url tries to visit you blog. You can also exclude certain IPs from being banned. There will be statistics recorded on how many times they attempt to visit your blog. It allows wildcard matching too. By Lester 'GaMerZ' Chan.

Best way to get info on potential IP's to ban is to check your server log files and then type a few of the suspicious ones into your fav search engine then check the results. When we did this we found forums and blogs with ready to copy ban lists. We also went to Spamhaus and got a list of the top spam host addresses.

If anyone else has info please do pass it on for all of us.

Jan