Business Practices | Creative Juices Graphic Design Studio

Archive for Business Practices – Page 2

How to Make Money Online in 5 Easy Steps

I have been a graphic designer and writer for over 30 years. Creative Juices was born in 1981. And in spite of the changing design field with the introduction of e-lectronics and computers, starting a business of any kind takes lots of hard work and perseverance. But with that said…

Starting your own online business is as easy as starting a blog.

This will not make you rich overnight, unless you get lucky. But you can bring in extra cash with a little effort by following these 5 simple steps.

Start a blog in a niche you love. Make sure it is something you’re passionate about. I highly recommend using WordPress.org to create your blog. Because it’s self hosted you have complete control.
Create unique, killer content. By killer I mean highly relevant and helpful content that people will search out and read.
Sign up with Google for their free analytics, AdSense and keyword tools.
Apply for affiliate programs like LinkShare or Commission Junction and sell other people’s products by placing ads on your site or reviewing products.
Create your own products or services and sell it on your site and through affiliate programs. This could be anything from eBooks to T-shirts. Also check out Zazzle and Cafe Press to create products for sale. It’s free to sign up.

See how easy that was? Again, you will not make millions doing this. But some people have been know to make six figures a year with their online businesses.

If you have any ideas on making money online the easy way, let me know.

And don’t forget to sign up for my semi-regular newsletter for fun and helpful tips on marketing your new and small business, online or otherwise.

For Email Marketing you can trust

08 Jun

Advertising Campaigns Should Be Truthful and Easy

Truth in Advertising

Not only should your ads tell the truth, but what you are offering should also be fairly easy to accomplish. Whether you are giving something away or having a sale, you should make it very easy to do.

Here’s an example of what not to do. Ralphs and Shell have been advertising their 10 cent deal for quite some time.

I visited Shell and saw no place to scan or enter a Ralphs club card. A big sign said bring in your receipt to Ralphs for double rewards points.

I did so, but the checker at Ralphs says the receipt was missing the proper numbers. The manager said the same thing.

“Go back to the Shell station to get the proper receipt”. Yeah, I’m going to go out of my way to do that.

The result: this blog post. Bad karma for Ralphs and Shell. It probably won’t have any real effect but I feel better and I got a post out of it.

Back up your claims

If you run a small business, the best thing to do is to back up what you advertise. Even if you lose a little money, it’s better to make a customer happy than to have them bad mouth your company online for all the world to see.

The Results of Bad Advertising

I will continue to go to Ralphs because it is convenient and I’ve been going for years. Overall, I like the store and it’s products and prices.

But unless it’s an emergency, I will avoid Shell. Why Shell and not Ralphs? Not only did this Shell not have the proper receipt, but they advertised one price for cash on their big sign, and another price for credit on a little sign I did not see.

Plus they put a tiny little notice on their pump saying the cheaper price was for cash only. Not a good idea to tick off your customer. I will not be back. At least not at that Shell station.

These Days It’s Best Not to Upset Your Customers

Social media is everywhere. With places like Twitter, Facebook and Yelp to voice your opinions of companies, it’s always best to follow through on your promises and don’t tick off your customers.

Advertising Business Practices Marketing 101

03 Mar

You Will Lose Your Data Unless You Backup

Hard drives crash and burn

It’s inevitable. You will lose all your data unless you regularly backup.

It’s happened to me. There I was, sitting at my computer when whoosh, the hard drive crashed. On my iMac. Can you believe it?

You think restarting will fix the problem. Sometimes it does. This time it didn’t. The only recourse was to spend hundreds of dollars to try and recover the data. And buy a new hard drive.

There are many backup options.

Since then I take every precaution to back up all my data.

Every project I work on I store in a folder I named “backup”. Clever and informative. Whenever I have chunk of time free I regularly back up all this data onto DVDs and then file them away.
I have a 1TB external hard drive. Being a Mac person I use Time Machine. I set this up to run a backup every hour. It’s come in handy a few times to rescue lost files.
I subscribe to Carbonite. It’s an online, off-site storage company, for both Macs and PCs. There are other options, but Carbonite has a free iPhone app where you can access all your online files. It regularly backs up all the data on my hard drive and stores it offline. Then if something happens to my home, external hard drive and backup DVDs, I’m covered. They do have earthquakes in California, you know.
I also subscribe to MobileMe. Big changes are coming soon, I hear. I use this service to backup my QuickBooks for Mac and Quicken.
I also use MobileMe to backup my home data, contacts, calendar and mail.
My music and photos are also backed up online, through Time Machine, on DVDs, Carbonite, iPhone and iPad.
I use Todo to store all my todos online with the Appigo sync service. I’ve also got all my todos on my iPhone and iPad using the Todo app. If only I would do my todos I wouldn’t need to store them.
I bought 1Password for my iPhone, iPad and Mac. This stores all my passwords and sensitive info. It’s a great program that asks you if you want to store login info whenever you log into something online.

Am I paranoid about losing my data? You bet. It’s happened. And it’s not unusual.

I highly recommend you look into some form of data backup. Better to be safe than regret losing data or memories permanently.

Also check out How to Backup Your Data & Installation Discs from Gigaom’s Apple Blog.

Have you got backup horror stories? Share them here.

Free Marketing Tips

Apps Business Practices Helpful Hints Technology

01 Feb

What Everyone Ought to Know about E-mail and Content Marketing

What is E-mail Marketing?

Simply put, e-mail marketing is sending out regular e-mail to your current and potential customers. They need to be consistently reminded that you exist. Write from your own voice and don’t copy other people. Once people get to know the real you, chances are they will want to do business with you. You’ll become more than just a symbol or logo.

What should I put in my e-mails?

You could create a newsletter with helpful tips relevant to your business. For instance, if you have a landscape company you could write about how to prune roses.

You could tell a little bit about yourself and what you’ve been up to. How about promoting a new product or service and explain the benefits. Reviewing other people’s products can also be helpful.

What is this Content Marketing thing?

Content Marketing is not new, but is becoming very big. It often takes form in a blog. A brochure type website no longer cuts it. Creating a constant stream of new content on your website makes it popular with search engines like Google as well as site visitors. People love information they can use. Gear all your content toward helping the reader. They want to learn about something useful. Teach and inform and you won’t go wrong.

Can I do anything else with all my new content?

Certainly. Once you have a collection of informative and helpful content on your website, you can reuse that content in many ways. For instance, why not send your great content to your customers in your regular newsletters. Update and rewrite it to make it new even for those who view your blog regularly.

Organize your blog and newsletter content into an e-book. You can sell your e-book and add to your income. Advertise your e-book on your blog and in your newsletter (and Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn). Sign up with an affiliate service and let others sell your e-book too.

Sign-up for your newsletter

Don’t forget to add a sign up link or form on your blog/website for your newsletter. Collecting a list of email addresses for your mailing list is a powerful tool to gain and retain happy clients.

And don’t forget to sign up NOW for MY fun and informative newsletter.

Free Marketing Tips

Plug for Constant Contact

I’ve been using Constant Contact for many years and recently signed up to be an affiliate. I like promoting a service I’ve enjoyed using. Constant Contact is a great way to stay in touch with your clients.

Place a link on your website for subscribers to your mailing list and you will soon receive a bunch of e-mail addresses you can use to send your newsletters to.

E-mail Marketing from Constant Contact is the perfect fit for small businesses, associations and consultants. It doesn’t cost much, starting at only $15.00 per month. It doesn’t take a lot of time. And it’s effective.

Constant Contact makes it fast and easy for you to create and send high-impact, professional-looking email newsletters and promotions. They have a wide variety of pre-made templates which you can customize with your own brand image. And you can track your results and monitor your success, to see how many people opened and clicked on your email communications. Plus there’s a great iPhone App so you can keep track of your stats anywhere.

As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.

Business Practices Helpful Hints Marketing 101

19 Oct

Why Your Website Should Be a Hub of Information

Websites Are No Longer Just a Showcase

The days of showing pretty pictures and awesome special effects are over. People want information and they want it now. A good way to lose your audience is to have them wait for a Flash splash page to download.

Make your website a hub of useful content

Today it is important to fill your website with “useful” information. Write about what you know. Show your voice and passion. Explore how to do something in your field. Comment on related news events. Review products. Create a links page that points to related sites your audience might be interested in.

Include a blog on your website. This will allow you to regularly post information related to your business, product or service. Writing a series of articles greatly enhances your search engine optimization. People, and Google, like to know the site you have is current and relevant. Plus this is a great way to get people coming back to your site.

Easy to Navigate

Your website should have an easy to understand navigation system. The look of your site should be clean and simple. The text should be large enough to read clearly and should be on a white or light background. Did you know white type on a black background is difficult to read? It strains your eyes. A lot of people click “next”.

Link to your social marketing efforts

Twitter is a great way to send out mini blasts of information. Facebook is great for social networking and letting people know about you and your business. LinkedIn is also a good place to have a business presence. YouTube is great for video tutorials and product reviews.

But all social networking should lead to your main website. This is where you have room to show what your business is all about and teach new things about your business.

Branding Business Practices Helpful Hints Marketing 101 Website Design

13 Sep

Blog your way to Business Success

Blogging is a great way to promote your business

One of the most popular parts of the new Web 2.0 or Social Media is blogging. Using the format of blogging to help promote your business is a powerful way to reach new clients. The whole purpose of writing a blog is to constantly create new content. All search engines, such as Google, Yahoo and Bing, love blogs because they pick up on the new content, especially if it is optimized correctly. This is a great way for your blog to be listed high up in search results.

Blogging Tips

How does this relate to your business and it’s success? Just follow these simple steps:

Create content that people want to read. You want to be a useful resource, so make sure whatever you’re writing about is something people will learn from.
Include keywords, but make sure the copy is easy to read, short, to the point and useful.
Bulleted items and lists are very helpful for those who skim.
Make sure to include a link to your website (unless your blog is your website). Don’t include too may links to your website as search engines may interpret that as spam and reject your site.
If you do link to your website, it’s best to link to a specific “landing page” that covers the topic of your blog.

Why not write a new blog post every day?! It’s a great new habit that will pay you back with more people interested in your business. It doesn’t have to be very long. Just interesting.

Want more information? Call Chuck at 310-791-5803.

Blogging to promote business. Branding Business Practices Helpful Hints Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

01 Sep

10 Reasons an iPhone 4 is a Great Business Tool

Having used a Mac since desktop publishing took over the graphic design industry I am a big fan of all things Apple. I consider my iPhone more as a mini-computer than a phone because it’s so versatile.

These are just some of my favorite business related apps. If you’re on the go a lot, an iPhone is a great way to keep productive. It’s also great while sitting on the sofa in front of the TV.

E-mail: The iPhone syncs with your iCal and MobileMe account seamlessly.
Facebook: Stay in touch with all your friends and clients.
Twitter: Set up your favorite list and keep up to date.
Bam Analytics: Set up your Google analytics and keep track of how your websites are doing wherever you are.
Lynda.com: If you have a spare moment you can watch a video lesson on the latest software applications. Check out a FreePass today.
iBooks: A great way to catch up on your business reading. Even load up your own pdf files and e-books to keep up to date.
Go Daddy: Find and purchase a domain name or check your mobile mail.
Lucy Phone: Never wait on hold again. Find a company, call it up, and your phone will ring you when the call goes through.
NetNewsWire: Keep up with the latest news feeds. Syncs with Google Reader. It’s my favorite news reader as it is quick and there’s a convenient Mac app too. Great on the iPad and iPhone.
Instapaper: Save a web page or newsfeed and read it later in Instapaper. A great way to catch up when you have a spare moment.

There are many more useful business related iPhone and iPad apps, but these are my favorite, so far. What are yours?

Business Practices Helpful Hints iPad iPhone

15 Jul

Promote Your Brand the Twitter Way

Custom Twitter Backdrops

Any kind of social networking involves sharing your “brand” with the world. You want to present your best image and you want people to recognize your company wherever you are.

So if you’re into twittering for your business, you really need to create a custom backdrop. It is the first thing people will see before they decide to follow you. So at the very least you should have your company logo and design/color scheme that matches your website. (What, you don’t have a website? Contact Chuck at Creative Juices immediately.)

Always Build Your Brand

Besides building on your brand, your custom twitter backdrop also allows you to give more contact information on yourself and your company, beyond the 160 characters twitter allows. That’s 20 characters more than an ordinary Twitter post. This is a great opportunity for you to show how professional and creative you really are. And it’s all free. Unless, of course, you hire someone to utilize their creative juices and create an outstanding twitter backdrop for you.

Branding Business Practices Helpful Hints Logo Design Marketing 101 Website Design

02 Jul

Dropbox is a great way to sync a file

If you have an iPhone, iMac, iPad or any other iThingy, Dropbox is an incredibly easy way to sync a file from your computer to other computers or devices. It’s only a matter of opening an account with Dropbox online, adding an app to any of your iDevices and dropping a file or two or even more into the “box”. In an instant that file is available for viewing on all linked devices.

Dropbox allows you to view documents, spreadsheets, photos, videos and presentations. A neat feature is that you can snap a photo with your iPhone and save it to your Dropbox direct. You don’t even need a MobileMe account.

And the great thing is a Dropbox account is free and comes with 2 GB of storage space. For most people that’s quite a lot of space. If you have a lot of heavy duty files you can purchase a Pro plan up to 100GB. I am not an affiliate of Dropbox but I do find it worth looking into if you haven’t already installed it on your iStuff. Dropbox is also available for non-Apple-ites, who use Windows or Linux.

Business Practices Helpful Hints iPad iPhone Software Technology

16 Jun

The Importance of Keywords

Just how important are keywords in getting people to find your website? Very.

Keywords are the actual words and phrases people put into the search engine to find what they’re looking for. When you are optimizing a page you will use keywords in the title tags, as well as meta tags. Keywords will be in the copy you write for the page as well as in “alt” tags on photos (which are hidden). And those keywords will depict the very essence of your page. It is what people are looking for and it’s how you will get noticed.

You need to be as specific as possible. If you just use the most popular keywords related to your page you will be one among millions of results, and the chances of getting a high ranking are slim to none. Of course there are many things that go into a page’s ranking, including links to your website, social media (Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In) and continually adding new copy to your site that people will find helpful such as in blogs. But keywords play a very important part.

Analytics also plays a big part in finding out who is seeking your site and what keywords they use to find it. Sign up with Google and insert their analytics code into your site so you will be able to keep track of your visitors. The more information you know, the better equipped you’ll be in optimizing your site.

Check out Google‘s free Keyword Tool to help you find the best words that suit your site. And remember that each page should be optimized as a separate unit with it’s own specific keywords relevant to the copy on that page. The goal is to use keywords that are the most relevant and specific to what your web page is about and have the least competition. You do not just want to have people look at your site, you want people that will convert to clients or sales.

Blogging to promote business. Business Practices Marketing 101 Search Engine Optimization (SEO)