MyTypes XoomPad Vipin Singh and MyTypes.com on Reputation Management

MyTypes & Vipin Singh, Reputation Management of Mytypes.com and Vipin Singh

March 13th, 2008 at 01:24 pm by Admin in MyTypes

It’s kind of sad that I am blogging to knock off the top 6 blog results when people search for MyTypes.com. This is being done, because someone malicious goes out and spreads lies about me Vipin Singh and MyTypes.com our company. I am not going to take part in the negative nature, boy do I feel the urge to do it though. I could totally destroy his reputation, be just telling people the truth about his behaviors and lies. If he was telling the truth, I wouldn’t care as much. It’s that he is going above and beyond, lieing, and making stupid/nasty claims. The dumb thing is the more he writes negative malicious comments, the less likely I am to pay him. So words to the wise, don’t write negative stuff about people who owe you money. They will not be motivated to pay you. It’s only children that whine and say negative stuff, and the negative energy they sent them selves. Regardless, I am bothered enough, and will deal with it, by knocking him off the top 10.

So why should I care, mainly because his lies end up as #6 on search results pages. I guess, I taught him something about SEO, which he has learned. I can’t reward his dumb behavior by paying him before we pay any of our other company debts. We are super excited of paying debt to 5 different parties, and making a huge dent in our debt. Things are going really well here, and we are excited about the future prospects of MyTypes.com.

Reputation Management is starting to become a big part of SEO, and blogging. We started to see this trend a few years ago, but didn’t care to talk about it in our SEO blogs or do any kind of work on it. So in reputation management, and in staying positive, we just have to remember, that we can’t get caught in people’s negative energy. About a year and 3 months ago, someone said malicious things about us, on his websites. He is a notorious web and SEO person, we stayed positive and actually got clients out of it. I plan to chalk this experience up again as way to help me grow professionally.

For reputation management, when writing blogs to SEO yourself, I recommend staying above the negative chatter. Also, use the name of your company a couple of times, or your name a couple of times. The title of the post will help to create a Search Engine Friendly URL, which is one of the most important SEO factors. We have been making the connection and leading to b2b and business to business marketing from an SEO perspective. And, also in the process of creating a small business resource center as well as business social networking site. We are currently working on the branding and design lay outs. Here is our SEO blog from the Blog Templates and blogging coach section, where I write every day. But, you already knew that:-).

Photoshop vs. Illustrator, the Alt ego of web designers

Photoshop vs. Illustrator

Which one is better for web designers, I am sure comes up a lot. Read the above resource, of the two amazing tools, it’s a great explanation. I have had web designers and technical people answer this question for me, but after reading that source, it finally makes sense. A lot of you maybe web designers trying to learn about SEO, others maybe marketing people. I am not a web designer, I work with our tech web designer Keith all the time. He takes care of all our tech issues, and I have been asking him for the last few days the difference between Photoshop and Illustrator. I love design, and I am thinking about getting in to web design, to develop some pages for our b2b marketplace and business social networking site. It’s funny, I have been wanting to get in to some sort of a web programming or something technical. And it’s clear to me, I am going to get in to Illustrator and maybe Photoshop later, for web design and blog templates for Wordpress Themes. I am excited about my first project being a real one for our b2b social networking. So what does all of this have to do with SEO, well web designers need to learn SEO and employ that in their web design and technical Meta Tags etc.

They too often don’t think about SEO until after a marketing or advertising executive tells them that they can’t see their own website on Google. This is too common of a theme, this is where our SEO blog templates are such as great tool for web designers. Use our base and SEO guide to make sure your Wordpress Themes are SEO’ed. Also as a tip for today, don’t forget about Alt Tags, they are great tool for SEOing your site, but you have to use proper keywords in your Alt Tags. Alt tags, as most designers know, are used to describe pictures or images, even text especially within links. But web designers in my opinion often don’t link enough for SEO, and especially good web designers don’t use proper keywords for SEOing their site. Why is that? Could be that designers as a whole have Alt egos? I think so, designers and probably web designers on the lesser end are a unique bunch. I have said for years, that good or great web designers are harder to find, than actually technical people. I am probably suited to be a web designer more than I want to admit. And, that my friends is not speaking highly of my personality traits, which proves the Alt Ego scenario?

As a bonus for you, I am going to include another blog below today. Especially, as I had to go off topic from our usual b2b and marketplace topics of such as things as Barter, and online businesses, and tying them to SEO. I had to get to the basics of web design, and actually designer alt ego’s. Enclosed is a blog by our previous blogging coach, can I repeat we miss her great writing. I added the photos, just to add more color, photos Jazz up your blog as usual. I only wish I could write as well, enjoy:

Long Tail Searches and SEO

You’ve probably heard the phrase “long tail” before, especially in regard to business and marketing. Essentially, the long tail is the tail end of a demand curve - there may be lots of people who buy the latest #1 single, but there are many more people buying all sorts of different, obscure albums - the total number of the people buying the varied music is much greater than the people buying the #1 hit. The long tail is part of the reason why companies like Amazon are so successful - they offer tons of different niche items. The inter-connectedness and global scope of the web has made the long tail and catering to niche markets a viable business strategy.

However, the long tail is also relevant to SEO. Very significant percentage of searches are “long tail searches”, that consist longer, more specific queries that naturally tend to yield fewer results. For instance, if you’re looking for a newly built condo in Chicago’s South Loop neighborhood, wouldn’t you type “Chicago condominiums South Loop real estate new construction” or something similar into the search box? After, you’re much likely to find what you’re looking for that way than by just using “Chicago real estate”. Long tail searchers are looking for something very specific. This post on Search Engine Watch’s blog has excellent visuals illustrating long tail searches.

So how does this apply to your blog? Think about your niche and your own unique skills and characteristics. Narrow down your keywords - instead of only using “Chicago real estate agent”, make sure to write about the particular neighborhoods and types of properties you specialize in, for example. Or if you’re any kind of retailer (chances are if you’re an online retailer, you’re already very familiar with niche markets and the long tail), write constant posts about your products. Try to create the most detailed descriptions possible, and aim to be your readers’ source for the latest information about new products in your niche.

Targeting the long tail may end up benefiting you more in the long run - after all, long tail searchers tend to be looking for very specific information, and if you fit into their desired niche, they are that much more likely to bookmark your blog and/or become clients or customers someday.

**A little note from this best of all SEO Consultants blogging here, Moi the main writer here, Vipin Singh. Just kidding, I am the only one blogging here who works as a SEO Consultant right, therefore, I am I give my self all this great credit for my failures as well:-). Long tail kewyord phrases are also a great tool for SEO each individual keyword within the phrases. For example if we SEO for the Keyword “Silver Cross Rings“, we end up SEOing each keyword, “Silver” and “Cross” and “Rings”. And, we end up SEOing for each combination of keywords such as Silver Cross, Silver Rings, Cross Rings, Cross Ring. Don’t forget that all the major keywords which include our focus keywords such as “Silver Jewelry”, they benefit because the word “Silver” is being used in our “Silver Cross Rings“. Does this makes sense, I don’t think it’s too complicated, but most people don’t think of this Long tail SEO stuff. That is why so many Long tail keyword searches are used very often by all smart SEO Consultants, especially yours truly. This also includes writing contextually when blogging, and linking to appropriate keywords. We have done the same with our Barter, B2b marketing, and Online Marketplace for B2b and small business marketing strategies. As long as the topics are all related, go ahead and use them together.

Top 5 Technologies for Small Businesses

Before we start telling you about these top 5 technologies, I want to make it clear these are my opinion, and not based on research institute of small business administration or the US Chamber of commerce. Last week I read the state of the small business report from the US Chamber published recently, and it was too long and not helpful. I think small businesses like all businesses have similar challenges of efficiency, lack of financial resources, lack of people resources and lack of time. If technology could help them, they would love to use it, but if it’s not easy to use, they will not! We think every one should use technology to help them, not just online businesses.

They are not usually very tech savvy, and don’t have huge corporate arms training them on the latest version of Powerpoint, word or the sales force automation tools. If you don’t know this, large corporations spend billions of dollars a year training their employees on technology tools. In my professional opinion small businesses have a major disadvantage here. I use to work for Gartner Group’s learning division where I have 2 years of experience in the online business and corporate technology training area with large and small organizations. Bottom line is that today, small businesses can compete with large companies because of simple technology initiatives and tools available. You no longer need to work for a large company to have similar online tools, or be an online business. Look at Google, they just announced a suite of applications for small businesses, read the Boston Herald articled linked at the end of this blog. But here are the top 5 technology tools all small businesses should utilize to grow, why not use the advantages that online businesses use?

1. Mobile email device, such as a blackberry is a must. You shouldn’t have to go back to your computer and go check email, you should be busy spending time with your customers, employees, and suppliers. Do not check email back at the computer, and waste your time. Instead Save time, by using a blackberry or something similar, check email and send email from any where any time. I am a blackberry user of over 7 years now, there is nothing better, yes I have tried Plam and Treo products. It’s important to remember, You don’t have to check your email all the time, or respond to all of your emails all at once. Have some self control folks! You should be out and about doing your business, and check it when you have a moment. Do not set it to buzz every time you get an email. Control your time, save time, and be connected, not be a mess. There is no better tool for small businesses or actually any online business or not, than a mobile email via blackberry.
2. Having a business blog is a must! And you should be using a free business blogging system such as Blogger.com, Wordpress.com or MyTypes.com, as those blogs get indexed by Google every day. What does that mean, and Why you say? This whole website and company is based on blogging, and we wanted to develop a business blogging platform that had built in SEO for you. Blogs are the #1 way to promote your businesses on line, because search engines such as Google consider them news, you need to blog about your specific products and services and generally what is going on about your businesses regularly.

3. You need a website ( or blog site ) with a custom Domain, that has your professional representation with a custom design for you. First thing we recommend is that if you have the money, you hire a custom html web designer and have it done. Next best thing is for you to find a industry based solution, one with templates already built in for you. For example in the real estate or mortgage industry there are specific solutions, and there is so much specific content and application tools, that one really has to consider those solutions first. Next for a blogsite, in addition to your website or within your URL. For example: blog.MyWebsite.com, Great place to start is Wordpress.com or Wordpress.org. Ask your tech person for help, if they don’t know about these tools, have them take a look for find another tech person.

To find a tech person, If your needs are custom and complex you may want to look at Joomla.org or Drupal.org to find a great solution. These systems have thousands of programmers that know them very well, and they are totally free to use, you don’t have to pay in licensing fees at all, or give them your code. Chances are you are not very technical, so go to one of those communities websites and hire a programmer for about $2k or less you should get a full Joomla or drupal based site custom designed for you. All of the tools such as blogs, templates, shopping cart, and online business needs should be there for you. Best of all they are free, this new wave of Open Source technologies really is changing the world.

4. Learn about SEO (which stands for Search Engine Optimization), Online business marketing. It’s not just about mail marketing with news letters, SEO, blogs and Google Adwords based Search Engine Marketing are key to help you target key customers. Again there are many great resources on the web, including our SEO blogs and main blogging and SEO blogs coaching areas from the front page of our website at MyTypes.com.

5. Join an online businesses community such as a Barter system at ITEX.com. Why should small businesses join any online business communities, especially active one’s like Barter networks? No man is an island, neither is a women, or are any businesses. We all need each other to succeed, businesses need customers, suppliers, employees, not just owners:-). There are number of challenges and situations that you may want to get advice on. The chances are there are owners of businesses out there that have dealt with those issues, and often times they want to help you. You may have some advice that may help them, this is what online businesses communities do in an efficient time saving way. Barter services company like ITEX also have an online marketplace, such as eBay. eBay has been immensely popular due to it’s online business community of checks and balances of buyers and sellers. It almost forces you to have references, and that gives businesses credibility, and makes them more successful.

Bonus technology advice, you probably use Quick books to manage your books via your accountant already. If not, you should have a book keeper accountant do that, but you should use the online version of QuickBooks, not just the desktop. This way, your accountant can work remotely, yes you can just mail them your receipts, save time, save hassle!

Technology usage to grow your small businesses is not just about being efficient, it’s about saving you time so that you can spend it with your clients, employees, friends and family. Remember relationships are usually the most important things in life, especially the friends and family kind. If you treat your customers and employees like family, which most successful businesses do, you will succeed. And, our technology advice above is catered to help you do just that. Yes you can!

Here is Google’s free applications article promised earlier:

Google releases new online software for businesses in latest swipe at Microsoft - BostonHerald.com

How to Attract profitable customers?

This may be the most important question any business has to answer. But in my opinion it’s not enough, it’s important to have profitable customers. Some of you SEO for clients, some of those clients I am sure you wish you could fire? And if you had enough profitable clients, you probably would. I learned that lesson long time ago when I worked for a large company, but as a small business owner, it’s been hard for me to deal with. But, as I have fired a client or two, the key is to not worry about firing bad clients. It’s getting enough profitable customers, so you have a successful business. How do you do that? Well SEO is a great way, probably one of the best ways, so is Barter, but we are biased. As, we seek active buyers as SEO consultants. We never push via email or calling or bothering people, read the Barter article below, but here are my 5 points on attracting profitable clients:

1. Make sure you have more than enough clients, this will always help you price high, as you will never ever be desperate, easier said than done. But, SEO well, Design well, and sell, sell, sell, or advertise, advertise, advertise.

2. Charge a lot, be known as the best, always charge a lot, this will make sure you will make money, and take care of your clients.

3. SEO, well Duh, but SEO for specific keywords, research your keywords well maybe even do some Google Adwords SEM.

4. Get more customers through testimonials, provide information, join an online marketplace like eBay it almost requires you to get Testimonials, focus on one to many marketing not just one-on-one, this will drop your cost of sales.

5. Automate your selling process, join eBay, didn’t we already say that, well we like eBay! Not the other Seattle online marketplace, starts with an A–they are terrible and too expensive. These marketplaces will promote your products, Oh yeah blog on MyTypes.com and Blogger, oh on Wordpress.com too..Blogging as you know is the #1 key to online marketplaces right now, why, they all want to build communities, even FaceBook!

As some of you know that this small business blogs and blogging company recently partnered with ITEX, a Barter system. We are also helping to create an online marketplace for them/us to help small businesses sell and buy products on line. Well to my SEO surprise we got ranked #54 for online marketplace, in our first 2 weeks of focusing on this wonderful keyword, well maybe 3. I love the speed of our SEO, but I have been waiting for this for a while. Some times we have to be patient, as the results do come, especially with very competitive keywords. Our goal for the online marketplace is not just to help b2b companies but to help them create the best online marketplaces and sell more goods and services, in an easy and beautiful system. Well more on this online marketplace and small business community of ITEX later, here is the blog and an article on How a Barter System can help you attract more customers. It’s all about exposure isn’t it!

“Barter system can help attract new customers:”

I wrote a blog article earlier on how Barter can help you increase profitable sales. it got erased, we are moving servers and databases today. Upgrading for all the increased traffic that we have been getting. Increasing your profitable sales can happen, when you follow the secrets of the successful small businesses. They know that no matter what, they have to build a reputation that their customers adore and their friends recommend their small businesses. The article below shows how a professional Barter network can help you attract new customers. It’s an old article, but barter has been around for centuries, and it’s as old as business it self. By the way, the article mentions a Barter company called Bxi, you may be wondering what happened to Bxi, well Bxi is part of the ITEX barter company. The key to any barter network is the size of it’s business marketplace and the number of barter items available. If you check out our online marketplace by going to our new marketplace, you will love it. But, let’s get you to read the article on how to attract new customers first. We will discuss online marketplaces and barter items you can check by visiting our marketplace by clicking here.

Bartering system can help attract new customers - Pacific Business News Honolulu:

Small Business SBA blogging tips

from our My LIFE on a Pier blog series:

In case some of your are new to this series of blogs, we are comparing being on a pier to being out on a Limb (*where we are out on our own, taking risks, waiting for our ship to come in, trying to catch fishes, basically being an Entrepreneur). When I am out on a Pier, I am looking out, waiting to catch a boat, usually a fairy, I do live in Seattle:-). So this tip is about SEO blogs and Blogging, why do we do, how you can do it, and how to best promote your businesses. So here are top 10 reasons why all businesses should be blogging and must have blogs for SEO!

1. Blogging is a great way promote your message, and your businesses. Especially for SEO, as Search engines love blogs content as each post has a time stamp on it.

2. Blogging and blogs help you add content to your website easily, most blogs are very easy to use, and websites are very hard to add content too.

3. Blogging regularly adds up-to-date information about your products, your supplies, your customer testimonials, or whatever you want to communicate.

4. Blogs are the best way to create community around your store, your marketplace, and your customer base.

5. People can comment on your blogs, unlike your comments, and you can control your comments, which is better than forums.

6. Make it multi-media, most if not all blogging platforms all you to add photos to your blogs, and It’s very easy to add videos from YouTube etc.

7. Blogging platforms such as Wordpress, Typepad and Blogger all have the best Site Structure and follow W3c standards. As mentioned before many times, Site Structure is the most important first step for SEO.

8. Blogging tools have many many features to enhance the web experience for users, which most companies cannot develop on their own.

9. Blogging platforms such as Wordpress which are Open Source, usually have an amazing number of blog templates available for free and for purchase. We are talking thousands here folks, and the can help you personalize your website easily.

10. Blogging is like journaling and it’s fun, most people who blog often love it! The community of bloggers is an amazing force that is not only driving our businesses, but our political campaigns and decisions. The blogsphere and blogs are the #1 tool for most web 2.0 applications, and Social networks.

***As always this blog is sponsored by our small business community of ITEX, the Bartering System and b2bmarketplace. Also, Comfortzone Infrared Heaters which are better than most Eden Pure Heaters, and lastly Cross Jewelry by LoveRelic.com. And as always our true passion from small business blogs of MyTypes.com blogging platform.

Small Business Tip #3 by Vipin Singh of MyTypes.com

I write these small business blogs and inspirational blogs, I thought to promote on this blogging platform by Google. Why not right? I use the material from my main blogging site at MyTypes.com. We are also creating an amazing set of free small business tools at our online market place. Check it out and let us know how we are doing, enjoy the tip below:

My Life On A Pier: #1 Key to Success “being Nice” by Vipin Singh of MyTypes.com

January 22nd, 2008 at 03:25 pm by Admin in small business blogs

I wrote this blog yesterday, so this one is a little older, the one for today will come out tonight. I don’t know how to catalog these small business inspirational blogs, but I guess since we are the blogging people, we will figure this out.

My Life On A Pier: #1 Key to success–being Nice, by Vipin Singh of MyTypes.com

There is nothing worse than a whining looser, or an ungracious winner. While I love and appreciate the under dog, as I rooted for the Giants yesterday, I am always looking for a champion with gracious attitude. I do find that so many of the winners actually are nice and grateful people. In my experience of watching almost all championship matches, I have seen many more nice people than mean and selfish whiners I will call them.

Why is it important to be a nice person, that is being genuienly kind, rather than being a politically correct polite person. Some of you know that I live in Seattle, a place I call very polite, but not necessarily nice. People from other parts of the country, usually comment on this Seattle trait. Jill my wife and I were shocked at the lack of kindness, and often selfish/self centeredness of this rainy depressed city. We came from Minnesota, a place known for it’s compassion and kind nature. The Minnesota nice is actually a genuine caring kind, and a lot of people from Minnesota and Wisconsin have settled here, so there is plenty of kindness.

You see being nice does not mean being a push over at all. Some times being nice actually requires having courage enough to do the right thing, and be a little angry, but in a compassionate way. So be honest, be kind, conflict is ok, but try to be graceful and kind. Being nice means often to do the compassionate unselfish thing. I find that no great person ever succeeded alone, especially in business and politics. We need each other, especially if we are going to accomplish something significant. Usually successful people want to help others, and they are looking for the leaders of tomorrow to nurture and show the way. Being nice to all people is just One Of The Most Important Ways to get their attention.

Go ahead be nice on your way to the Top, you will make more friends on the way there, to party with!

**As always this small business blog is brought to you by the kind folks who choose to help us pay our bills, the cross rings folks of Designer Jewelry @LoveRelic.com, the Online Marketplace of the bartering system ITEX.com and lastly the folks at Comfortzone Infrared Heaters, which are significantly better than Edenpure Heaters.

Posted by Admin in small business blogs

SBA, stands for Small Business Administration

Small Business Administration @ Sba.gov is my favorite government website and in my opinion the best small business resource. If you need help growing your small business, you should definitely visit it, and see if you qualify for one of it's SBIC research grants. What are the three most important things you need to focus on to grow your small business?

Answers:

1. Grow Sales, what ever it takes you have to have sales, growing them to make enough profits to cover your cost is the key.

2. Keep Costs low, especially Cash Flow, conserve cash to pay your suppliers and make sure you not only have enough profit margins built in, but you conserve cash until your income keeps up with your costs.

3. Stay focused, have a great support team, even if they are contractors, and don't worry be happy. You need to have a great team supporting you, that means a local small business lawyer and a small business accountant, a part time book keeper and an admin are great to. Don't try to do every thing your self, paying someone to come in once a week to do your books is money well spent.

Lastly besides the above, what is the best thing you can do to grow your small business? You can and should join a professional barter network such as ITEX Barter. Why, it will help you sell your products and services in an active business community.