Posts Tagged ‘b’
July 30th, 2009
by Deb Powers
Every blogger has dreams for their little corner of the Internet. Achieving those blogging dreams is not just a matter of luck. The blogging fairy won’t just sweep down upon your latest post some night and grant it a million views. Or maybe she will. There’s an element of luck and happenstance in getting a single blog post to jump the hurdle and become a most-viewed post for 24 hours, but if you want consistent success and regular readers then it will take a little work. Why not take the energy of the New Year and pick a few New Years blogging resolutions to apply to your blog this year.
1. Evaluate your blogging goals–or make one for the first time.
Setting goals for yourself is always the first step toward achieving them. What do you want from your blog? Take a few minutes to think about what you hope to accomplish with your blog. Is your plan to make extra money? Create a niche web site? Promote your business? Build your readership? Become famous? Once you know what you want your blog to accomplish, you can make a targeted plan to achieve your goal. (hat tip to Melanie Nelson at Bloggingtips.com)
2. Post more regularly to your blog.
One way to increase readership to your blog is to post regularly. Readers build certain expectations based on your posting frequency, but frequency isn’t as important as regularity. If you can only manage time to put up one blog post per week, resolve to post it on the same day each week. Consistency is key–when your readers know what to expect, they’ll become more engaged. (hat tip to Nate Whitehill at NateWhitehill.com)
3. Learn how to write fast posts.
Fast doesn’t mean low quality. If you can learn to write your blog posts quickly, you can write more blog posts, right? There are many methods to help you pull your thoughts together and put them out as a fun-to-read blog post, but the basic process is the same. Keep a running list of ideas, learn to pre-write posts in your head, learn to write straight through and ignore distractions. (hat tip to Alisa Bowman at Problogger.net)
4. Evaluate your posting frequency.
Are you posting enough or too much? The ideal frequency for blog posts varies according to the kind of blog and type of posts you usually write, but there are ways for you to evaluate whether you should write more or scale back on your blog posting. Once you find your ideal rhythm, stick to it. (hat tip to Darren Rowse at Problogger.net)
5. Pick a remote blogging tool that you like.
Blogging is easy, and you can make it even easier with a remote blogging editor. Being able to pull up an editor and blog from where ever you happen to be on the web lets you write and post blog posts on the fly, while the information is still fresh in your mind – or right in front of you on the page. Top picks: Windows Live Writer and Scriberfire. Scribefire also includes an ad network that you can drop right into your blog.
6. Be a good blog community participant.
Interactivity and community are the two things that make blogs stand out against other writing and advertising platforms. Making the most of your blog means building and/or becoming part of the blog community. Attracting people to your blog starts with reaching out to other blogs. Read, comment, share and link to other bloggers who write in the same niche as your own blog. Get some more tips on building your blog’s presence in the wider community from JohnTP at johntp.com– it may be an older post, but the tips are still worth the reading.
7. Write an About Me page.
Yes, you! People who read your blog do want to know who you are, and why they should listen to you. An About Me (or About this Blog) page should be a total requirement for every blog. Your About page should tell your readers who you are, why you’re qualified to write about this subject and what they can get from reading your blog. (Hat tip to Jeff Atwood at codinghorror.com for this one. It’s another older post that’s well worth reading–the whole list of 13 blog cliches)
8. Comment on at least one other blog a day – and be sure to link your name back to your blog.
Commenting on another blog is an excellent way to increase your own readership. Most blogging platforms allow you to include your own blog URL which will be linked to your name when you post the comment. An interesting response will almost guarantee that some readers will follow the link back to your blog to read more of what you have to say, or find out about you. At the very least, the blogger you comment on will check you out– and may even link back to your blog.
9. Slim down your blog’s look.
It’s tempting to widgetize your blog with every new gadget out there, but all those widgets can quickly become overwhelming to your readers. Go through your “toys” as the new year starts and decide which of them are actually serving a useful purpose and which are just loading down your page with clutter.
10. Find the balance between proviiding and promoting.
With a special hat tip to DJ Francisat onlinemarketingblog.com, take this reminder that there is a balance to be found between promoting yourself and providing something unique with your blog. If you find that you’re spending more time promoting than writing, or if you’re collecting friends for the sole purpose of raising your rankings, take a step back and re-evaluate your 2009 blogging goals. Remember that no matter how much promotion you do, your blog is only as good as your content but no matter how good your content, no one will read it without promotion. Find the balance, and you’ll have the best of both worlds and hopefully, a wildly successful blog.
About the Author:
Deb Powers is a dynamic and truthful writer on the topics of work at home and business building. If you would like to learn a secret step by step proven successful method for making money from home don’t hesitate to checkout
The Niche Blogger Review.
March 29th, 2009
by Tyson Daniel
What is a dial worth to your company? What percentage of calls do you schedule for appointments? And could you sell more if you saw more prospects? While most of us see the inherent value of a phone call as a potential lead, if we cannot sell the appointment, we might never get the chance to tell pitch product benefits. Understand that you have an open line of communication between you and the prospect, so be prepared when a live one picks up. Call Center Training can help your organization tackle any challenges you may have been experiencing with respect to caller dropout or dissatisfaction. This article attempts to cover the basic premises of phone etiquette and how to deal with difficult customers and situations through preparation and good customer service training.
The number one piece of advice you will hear during any good call center training workshop is to KNOW your purpose on any given call. Ask yourself, “What are my intentions for this phone call?” Is it your first call with the caller? If so, you’re only goal should be to set up an appointment to discuss the finer details that are MOST important to them. As such, you should only highlight the product benefits, not cover them in great detail. Most call center training research will tell you that the objective of the first call is to introduce yourself, your company and the product – THEN ask to follow up with another call. Yet, most businesses don’t hear their employees doing this. Instead, they are tyring to close the deal in one call. While this may be possible with the elite phone salesman, it is certainly not the case with phone novice. Just get the appointment. After greeting them, state your purpose immediately. Call center training research indicates people tend not to pay attention more than a few seconds. Again, keep these maxims close to heart: keep it brief, friendly but concise. Good customer service training will show you the only way of accomplishing this is to practice, practice, practice. Every call should begin, “Hello, the purpose of my call is”
Have a snappy and catchy slogan or claim. Speak for thirty seconds on the product benefits and then ask the caller to respond in some way. This keeps them involved, not just zoned out. Start the call with “Have you heard about the Widget from any of your friends yet? We were mentioned in the news recently and I just wondered if you had seen usThe purpose of my call is basically to familiarize you with this new widget and see if it might be a good fit for you..” This is exactly what you will hear during call center training workshops. The biggest task is piquing their interest without giving away too much. If a customer is really interested right away, he or she may drill you for hours on the minutia that ultimately never sells anything. But if you know this customer’s social style, which is probably highly analytic, you’ll know that by appealing to this person’s intellect and pride, in some cases, is usually the best approach to closing any deal, according to most customer service training experts.
Presenting alternative choices always gets better results, so always wrap up every call with an Alternate Choice Close. To ask for an appointment, say something to the effect of , “What’s better for you, morning or mid-day? And would Thursday or Friday be good?” This prevents them from simply saying “NO”. This is why call center training consultants recommend we always use open-ended questions, because limiting one’s choices tends to aggravate most people. Show that you are considerate of their time and you appreciate the thought they are giving the matter by assuming that they are, in fact, giving the matter some thought. Customer service training from the pro’s will help your personnel drastically improve the firm’s top-line results.
Get the best objections out of the way by preparing for them upfront. KNOW your rebuttals. I’m sure we’ve all seen Boiler Room a thousand times over, and the advice is so true. You have to be able to predict what the customer will say before they say it. By doing this, you calm the prospect and ease any fears they may have that you don’t “know your stuff”. Call center training experts can teach you these vital skills because most have had years and years of experience addressing objections – some with merit, and some without. And even customer service training courses teach you that oftentimes using simple analogies or metaphors can assuage any fears they may have, even when they do not relate directly to the product or situation: people like stories.
What’s your “aura”? Good customer service training tells us you must always sound professional. Use the prospects name and know the name they like to be called. Take care of your voice and project a positive confident “aura.” Speak just a little louder, a lot clearer and just a little faster. Call center training experts agree that if you use the phone a great deal for your work, exercise your neck regularly. Drink water without ice cubes, (cold water constricts the voice), breath from your abdomen, avoid dairy products and heavy meals prior to calling time, and most of all be sure to smile. Prospects will welcome enthusiastic, energetic positive people that have a planned call.
And any experienced call center training professional will tell you that you must get “to” the Gatekeeper vs. “past” the Gatekeeper. Too often sales rep’s try to get past the gatekeeper. Make them your ally. Get their name. Ask for that gatekeeper on the second try, and ask them when you should try back. Chances are they’re more likely to remember you, and if you can leave a good impression, this can only open up the lines of communication. They may even recommend you the next time their tasked with a project by their manager. Hopefully these customer service training tips can make your calling time more productive and your bottom line results more profitable.
About the Author:
Customer Service Training fulfills an important role in the success of any business, online or otherwise. But nowadays
Call Center Training is yet another facet of this constantly growing field of professional development that, if ignored, could result in a rather lackluster performance by your employees.
March 21st, 2009
by Amy Nutt
Whether landing a job that is permanent or temporary, you must have a resume that fits the position so that you can land the job. If you are one of those individuals who seeks out just temporary positions, then using the same resume for each job is not going to suffice. Some very important points can be missed in that resume, so it is important that you know how to write resumes for temporary jobs.
Here is how you are going to construct your resume:
Use a high quality paper. Office supply stores and department stores carry resume paper, which is of a higher stock and very professional.
Make sure you understand the job description. You need to point out the areas in the job description that you are qualified to do. So study it well so that you can apply what you read to your resume.
Go ahead and lay out your resume, starting with your objectives, your past job experience, your educational background, skills, volunteer experience, any licenses or publications, and references.
Now youre going to fill in the gaps. Your objective is what you hope to accomplish by acquiring the position. Your skills are about any skills that you have acquired, such as computer skills and customer service skills. If you have ever volunteered for anything, make sure you include that because it shows how diverse you are. Adding references is also a great way to add to your credibility.
When it comes to the work experience section, this is where you need to be careful. This is where you are to take what you evaluated in the job description and highlight what you have done in past jobs that apply to the job description. You want to emphasize that you are able to do the job that you are wishing to acquire.
In the education section, you want to record your education. If you were in clubs or involved in certain activities, make sure you list those things to add to your qualifications. Youll be surprised how much this can help.
When you package up the resume, make sure you dont staple it or paper clip it together. It is very important that the resume remain in perfect condition. If you must mail the resume, make sure you put it in a manila envelope and remove the closure prongs because the postal service will make you remove them anyway.
The goal of creating such a resume is to show the employer that you are the best candidate for the job. Imagine submitting the same resume to every possible employer and how you could be missing some very valuable points on your resume. Unfortunately, this is a mistake that nearly everyone makes. They simply put everything they possibly can on the resume in hopes that something will stand out to the potential employer.
It is important to realize that employers scan resumes before they fully read them. They are looking for something that stands out to them and its not so much fancy fonts and pretty borders. They are looking at the text of the resume to see if there is a skill or qualification that you have that will really get the job done for them.
Although this seems like a lot of work, make sure you put in that time. That is how you are going to be able to land your temporary jobs almost every single time. In the end, the time you put in is worth it. Youll be doing a great temporary job in no time and youll have a lot of fun doing it.
March 21st, 2009
by Chris Channing
Web design has many means of being developed, thanks to a wide array of technologies. One in particular is Macromedia Flash, a type of technology that allows for some astounding benefits that the average web design is devoid of.
By using Macromedia flash, a web designer is able to include flashy animations and effects within their design. This can lead to an increase in leads generated from a website, since the extra animation can be used to focus attention to a specific aspect of the website. This is great for a business website that is trying to sell its services, or sell the services of another website.
Flash only requires a plug-in to work properly. It is independent of both the operating system and the Internet browser used by the Internet user, so it is a great tool to make a compatible design among all types of systems. This is usually a hard task to achieve, since static web designs are susceptible to changes in different Internet browsers such as FireFox or Internet Explorer. Using Flash almost completely erases and problems with cross-platform compatibility.
When making the average web design, a designer will likely have to code the back end of the application separately from what he or she uses to make the design of the website. Flash essentially melds these two things together, by allowing for a itself to act as both the front-end and back-end with its scriptin elements. Flash can do just about everything popular development languages such as PHP do- and in some cases even more so.
Businesses that incorporate a certain amount of Flash into their website will also notice that they have a higher sense of credibility than websites that do not. This is due to the fact that Flash is able to create a much more stunning layout than a regular web design that is considered static. This shows to the user that the business is serious in its web design- and is not afraid to go a step further to attract new types of business.
Macromedia Flash allows for a lot of functionality, but it does have some downsides in using it. Since it requires a Flash plug-in, some may not have the plug-in and won’t be able to view Flash contents. Obviously this is bad if the entire website is in Flash! Designs that use Flash also load slower, since there is typically a lot of animation or scripting to load by the client computer.
Final Thoughts
Web development companies would be a good option for those who aren’t sure how to take advantage of what Flash has to offer the average website. Shop around and ask for samples before you decide on a company, so you are satisfied with the price and the end result.