Small businesses today have many more options for web hosting than we used to. Of course, you have to make the decision about what is best for your situation, but here are a few alternatives to consider.

Shared Hosting - This is basic web hosting. The downside to shared hosting is that it is the least secure and least expensive kind of hosting. Most small businesses will do fine with shared hosting, but it isn’t for every one. If you feel that you may need more space or tighter security then you should discuss your options with a hosting expert.

Dedicated Hosting - Dedicated hosting is more secure. You can opt for managed or unmanaged hosting. If you go with unmanaged hosting you’ll have to provide the resources to manage the servers. That will save you money, but if you don’t have an IT department, network administrator, or access to personnel to manage your servers for you then you should go with a managed hosting service.

Dedicated hosting is more expensive than shared hosting. Managed is more expensive than unmanaged hosting. But the security is much, much tighter.

Cloud Computing - Many companies are now starting to use cloud computing, which is essentially a decentralized way of storing data. Small businesses can benefit from this type of computing, but it too has its disadvantages.

One of the main advantages to cloud computing is that it opens up opportunities for small businesses to take advantage of some of the same resources that large companies have enjoyed for a long time with minimal cost. You pay as you go for the services that you use. This way you don’t have to pay for huge packages of services that you have no need of. It can be less expensive than dedicated hosting or more expensive depending on the services you need. Security is often not as tight as it is with a dedicated server, but if you shop around you can find an adequate service provider with excellent security on its servers.

There are other options as well, but I’ll leave a discussion of cluster server environments for another time. These are perhaps the best options for most small businesses. If you think you may need more options beyond your basic shared hosting plan then call an expert and get a professional opinion.

While readers of this blog will know, I don’t specialize in helping people find jobs … but I DO specialize in helping business owners use LinkedIn and other social media tools to find new clients and grow their sales.

That’s why I wasn’t too surprised when the Science Museum of Minnesota’s Computer Education Department asked if I would conduct a training session in mid-May on using LinkedIn for finding a job. It’s not really that different than using it to find new clients (which I do every day).

The Science Museum is GREAT to work with - so professional, and training is what they do every day, so I also wasn’t surprised to learn that they were going to video tape the entire 2-hour workshop. AND, they are making it available for FREE on their website - so even if you missed the 2-hour workshop I gave to TWO sold out crowds last month, you can still take advantage of this great information.

Go here to watch the video (broken down into 4 parts so you can take breaks!) and let me know what you think and how you are using social media to find clients, new customers, or a new job.

Caroline
Back to the Small Business Mavericks Blog

Small business marketers can always do a little more even if they have a little less. Here are 4 online communication tools that you can use for greater efficiency and profitability:

• Skype - Skype is a free communications tool that allows you to call other Skype users through the Internet or to call from your computer to a landline for a small fee, usually less expensively than it would cost you to call long distance from land line to land line. This tool will allow you to conduct customer service and sales calls more efficiently and less expensively. Put your phone number on your website and Skype users will be able to click the phone number and call you directly. Include your Skype address and you save them money.
• Webcam - You don’t have to be a porn star to use a webcam. This tool, which you can acquire for just a few bucks, will allow you to speak directly to your website visitors and build solid trust and credibility with a 30-second presentation. There are so many powerful uses for a webcam that it should go without mentioning, but too many small business owners fail to tap into its power. In just a few minutes you can produce a solid video presentation that closes sales.
• Live Chat - Did you know you can allow your website visitors to chat with you live at the click of a button? This is one of the most underused small business tools online.
• Teleconference - Teleconferencing used to be available only to big corporations and it cost a fortune. Not any more. For just a few dollars you can speak to thousands of people all over the world using one of several online teleconferencing tools and take your small business to a new level.

Now it’s your turn. What online communication tools do you use that other small business owners don’t take full advantage of?

Many small business owners and entrepreneurs are using Twitter as a marketing tool. It is a powerful marketing tool, but that is not the only function the application can perform. One British rail company is notifying its passengers of train delays. This is a great example of how you can use Twitter to better your customers service.

Twitter can make a great customer service tool. You can use it to send out specific notifications to customers regarding your service, billing information such as changes to policy, packaging and shipping notices, and any of several other customer service functions.

What makes Twitter so unique in its nature is the simplicity model for mass communication. While Facebook and MySpace both allow users to send out mass communications to fans, that’s not their primary purpose or function. It IS Twitter’s primary purpose, which means that your followers follow your stream precisely because they want to receive your mass communications. And that’s what makes Twitter a useful customer service tool.

In your print materials - on your invoices, bills of laden, stationery, e-mails, and other marketing collateral - you can include your Twitter account and encourage current customers to follow you. Then you can simply tweet your changes and updates or write a blog post and link to it from Twitter. You can even take customer questions on Twitter.

Where Twitter will be in 5 or 10 years is anybody’s guess, but where it is today is a new mass communication tool with flexibility and simplicity. With Twitter, customer service is a lot better for a lot of companies.

So many small businesses pay a service to create their website, and they think they can place a big check list beside that to-do item and never think about it again. So wrong. Everything online is a process, and thank goodness it is. You can always update your site, add content, tweak your profile and improve your Google rank.

The good news is that there are some great online tracking tools that can help you improve your site, draw viewers, and know which of your webpages draws them in–and which ones are tanking. Knowing your bounce rate can make all the difference.

What’s a bounce rate?
It’s not how fast you can jump on a trampoline–it’s when someone visits your site and literally bounces in–and bounces out. They don’t go any further. They’re a one page wonder. Usually that means they either thought your site was about something else, or you didn’t hold their interest.

When measuring your bounce rate on Google Analytics, be sure to check several things:
Your Page Visits
Time on Site
New Visitors
Each tells you something different. For example, if a new visitor comes to your site, stays less than 30 seconds to a minute and leaves, you’ve got a bit of a problem. It may be in your title, your keywords, or with the graphics of your site, lack of content…in other words, you failed to hook your viewer. Consider making some changes.
If a new visitor comes to your site and stays more than a minute, you can consider this somewhat of a success. Even if they didn’t click to other pages, you held their interest. Perhaps they’ll revisit later. I call this “circling the camp.” Oftentimes, a visitor is itchy–they’re not ready to commit, they want to know what else is out there, but they did circle the perimiter–they know who you are and where you are. Success.

How to improve your bounce rate?
Make sure you page is navigable. Can they find where to click through easily? Are you links underlined and a contrasting color? Is your site too jumbled? Has it been a while since you added new content?
Try improving just one of these areas and watch your bounce rate for improvement.

Be sure to check out your content report and analyze every page of your website. Chances are, you’ve got a wink link. Find out where you’re losing your viewers, and you just figured out where to start implementing a few changes.

Attracting quality visitors to your small business website isn’t easy, and you won’t always know what exactly worked–but your efforts will garner results if you’re tenacious. I bet you thought I was going to say patient, but patience isn’t enough. Dogged determination and hard work are just the beginning and the key to your success is in setting goals, making plans to get there, and then tracking your results so you know when you’re doing something right.

What are your initial goals for your website? Do you want to shoot for sheer volume to start off? Or would you rather judge the online presence of your success by sales? Both are valid.

The first step most website owners use is to sign up for Google Analytics. You need to watch your traffic for about three months to get a good idea of how you’re doing. Are there certain days that traffic spikes? Is it after you send out an e-newsletter or email promotions?

There are two kinds of visitors: one time visitors and repeat visitors. Both are important, and knowing how long they visit, how many pages they view, and how often they return is very helpful to understanding what you’re doing right and what you can improve. The more people who know about you, your products and your services, the more you build your reputation–and this approach will eventually lead to sales.

A couple of great features on Google Analytics you might want to check out are the Visitor Trending section and the Average Pageviews section. Get familiar with this portion of Google Analytics because this is where you learn the most about your visitors–how long they stay, how many pages they visit, and over time, you want to improve your average.

Next, visit the New vs. Returning Visitors section. Here, you’ll learn everything from bounce rate, unique visitors, and time on site. It’s like having a webcam showing you which items a customer picks up, and which ones they bring to the register to purchase. You won’t begin to understand it until you’ve let some time pass as you track your website’s visits.

As you get comfortable with Google Analytics, you can begin to make form a solid plan of action. You can brainstorm about ways to build viewer loyalty and gain those wonderful return visits, as well as reaching out to new viewers that help spread the word about your business and business website.

Something great happens as you continue to build your online presence. You become proud of what you’ve accomplished. You set goals and then get to celebrate achieving them–and every small success cheers you on.

You were told to Twitter, to get a Facebook and a LinkedIn account, to join a few business based social media sites and create a social media campaign to get your name out there. So you did–and now you’re overwhelmed. People want to be your “friend,” they keep answering you, asking questions, inquiring about your small business and you feel obligated to write them back. But there’s that business thing you’re running that’s getting in the way of your social media life! How to manage it all? Create a social media desktop.

A social media desktop will help you keep track of all your posts and who comments at one central place. It will also help you keep track of what’s going on with other social media sites who are also focused on your topics and keywords. What makes it so easy to track is RSS feeds. That’s Really Simple Syndication, which will allow you to follow many sites and keep them in a single place.

Which sites would you like to follow? Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, blogs and news updates from Google or MSN are good choices.

Why is this important? Because a social media desktop will help you start to know how your efforts are paying off. You will get to see a running commentary of what people are saying to you, about you, and your business as well as what’s happening in your field.

The major RSS services are iGoogle, MyYahoo! and Netvibes. You can set up an iGoogle, MyYahoo! or Netvibes homepage, and once you do this, you can list websites, blogs, or social media sites you’d like to follow–and many of them will have an RSS feed icon, which all you have to do is click on it and it will be added.

Your social media desktop can help you streamline your online efforts, but once again, so RSS feed every site you like or you’ll be right back to being overwhelmed. Only list the ones you are compelled to visit again and again. Enjoy viewing them all at once, and at your convenience. That’s online marketing and networking at its best.

Why are blogs appealing? When they’re done right, they give you great information, insight and direction. You can read a blog in five minutes or less–and then go on with your day. Small businesses are perfect for blogs. Why? Because you’re a customer expert. All you do all day–online or in a brick-and-mortar store is talk to, sell to, and think about customers. You are driven to be effective. You already have that natural tone, candor, and appeal customers are looking for.

Secrets to Writing a Great Blog:

By creating a clear, dependable writing style, your blogger gets to know and trust you. You can still show personality, tell a crazy story, and be personable with your audience. Blogs are long enough and have enough content for you to express who your company is and what you have to offer–and that it’s more than just hard sales–it’s a relationship.

Emails are the number one feature used by people who own or work on computers. Even more than surfing the web, email is a simple and effective online tool. The key for small businesses is to maximize how they use emails and e-newsletters–and the first step is to make sure your emails get read.

Email layouts are crucial now. You’re competing with so many other emails that the best way to stand out is to have a brand look that is professional and delivers the message of who you are and what you have to offer–every time.

Using quadrants and columns are a great way to present information that allows your viewers to digest your message in bite-size pieces. But don’t stop there. Images, also referred to as graphic files add a finesse to your email.

Want to use a logo that’s a graphic or a photograph? Turn it into a JPeg, (or JPG), a GIF, or a PNG. These are the easiest graphic files for a computer to store. Be sure to keep your file size down to 50K. Keep your resolution down to 72 dpi–or 300 if your email or e-newsletter will be printed.

Remember not to embed your images in your email as a file or attached file. Why? Because you’ll wind up in junk email folders. Instead, create an image reference line of HTML. Another way to handle this is by using your ESP (email service provider). You can store your images on the server and upload them as needed.

Speaking of HTML, make sure your text is written in HTML, but sent in plain text. Sounds crazy, I’ll give you that, but an email that’s doesn’t have HTML design elements is going to come off stilted–boring and difficult to read. But most emails come in plain text so that various computer speeds can read the emails easily.

The rest is common sense:

Emails and email newsletters are still the best way to reach your viewers. Do all emails get read? We all know the answer to that–but if your email is a pleasure to look at, easy to read, and contains great content, then yours is likely to be marked “read.”

All of us get business emails. Typically, they come in plain text and we convert them so we can read them easier. Colors, images, and text come in place. We orient our eyes and scan the boxes and rectangles that hold bite-size pieces of information. We figure out what the email is about–what they’re offering, teaching, providing–and we do this effortlessly. Within seconds we decide–save the email, click through, order, or delete…

It only takes seconds to scan a good email, and at any time you could lose your audience, or you could glean a connection or a sale. Email layouts make this entire process easier, more efficient, and hopefully more effective.

Ever heard of heat maps? EyeTracking.com, FaceLAB.com, and Eyetools.com are just some of the tools used to track eye movements, pupil size, eyebrow and other facial changes that occur when people view online sites, landing pages, and emails. Major companies have utilized this innovation and have improved their connections and sales dramatically. What these tools have shown is that there’s a pattern to how we view online material, and the basics, such as user-friendly layouts can be used by anyone to optimize their site and increase sales.

Great Email Layouts Include quadrants that make it easy for the reader’s eye to follow.

Viewers usually start in the left hand upper quadrant, then go one of two ways–straight across, or straight down. The bottom right quadrant is always last. So make sure that your most important message or content is in the left upper quadrant.

What makes a viewer go across–or down? It depends on what you have anchored. A good visual is more appealing than text, usually, so if you have something important to say, consider using a graphic to accompany it.

You don’t have to divide your email into exact quadrants. I also get rectangles across the top or down the left side, (so that you are forced to read straight across) as well as other configurations. Figure out which layout you like by checking out other business emails, e-newsletters, and websites. Determine what goes best with your message.

Most important: Get a look, (colors, layout, graphics) a logo, a name, and identifiable contact information and stick with it. This is branding in a nutshell. Make sure that this information is always in your left-upper section/quadrant.

Your next most important task is to deliver something. Let your viewers know what this email, landing page, website is all about. If it’s an email or e-newsletter, make sure it’s in the subject line. Mention it again within the body of the email and make sure it’s near the top where the eyes tend to land. Be clear about what you want them to do–click through, call, learn about a promotion or a sale, inform them of something important to read or know about a product or service update are all important messages you want your viewers to know about.

Make sure you reference the purpose of this email in that left hand quadrant and tell them where to go to retrieve it. Give them a place to click or tell them where this information is listed within the body of the email or on your website. Make it easy for your viewers and don’t bury it in too much text.

These simple techniques make your email, e-newsletter, and even your website viewer friendly. Don’t you enjoy getting an email from a trusted business that you appreciate and respect? When you open that email you know what to expect–quality services or products and helpful information. You trust them to deliver good content again and again. Don’t you want your emails and your website to be anticipated?