Article Contributed by Roxanne Emmerich
What accounts for the difference between “Oh crap, it’s Monday” and “Thank God it’s Monday”? It’s your happiness. And, for your own emotional and mental health, you need to feel happy at work.
It all boils down to seven habits that can change everything about the culture of your workplace.
1. Show up fully and commit with all your heart
At work, we think of home. At home, we think of work. Time to stop that. The first step toward a TGIM workplace is being present and accounted for at work. Thinking about being elsewhere leads to resenting where you are.
While you are at work, commit to work with all your heart. This is what I call throwing your heart over the bar–committing 100 percent to the moment and task before you.
2. Communicate clearly
Use powerful and positive language about what you will do and the attitude you expect from others. If a TGIM workplace is your goal, take the time to make your communications clear on every level.
3. Go beyond the job description
Going beyond the job description happens when you pitch in and help others at work without expecting reward. Willingly share the load. If you’re caught up on your tasks, help someone else who is crunching for a deadline. Instead of feeling like it’s an extra burden, you will actually feel like you play a bigger role in your company than you ever did before.
4. Don’t tolerate dysfunctional behaviors
Establish a zero-tolerance policy for talking behind another person’s back. Then give each other permission to address conflict head-on, out loud, courageously and honestly. Create a trusting and open environment and watch the dysfunction ebb away.
5. Clean up your messes
Relationships are built on trust. Without that foundation, there is no basis for a relationship. We breach the trust each time we don’t do what we said we would do. But here’s the thing–that breach can be healed quickly IF you come back and clean up the mess. Acknowledge that the results are not okay then make a commitment to make things right and prevent a recurrence.
6. Live a life of profound service
Once you place yourself in the service of those around you–your family, your colleagues and your customers–every moment becomes imbued with purpose and significance. You will feel GOOD.
As you drive to work, begin thinking about how the work you do is serving others and contributing to their success and happiness. This is the essence of true service, and the key to a workplace that draws you happily back, Monday after Monday after Monday.
7. Celebrate
Every project consists of little steps and little victories along the way. Recognize and celebrate them in both large and small ways. Build a system of celebrations and rewards–quarterly, weekly, daily–and follow through like your company’s life depends on it. Because, (psst) it does.
Acquire these seven habits and spread them through your workplace. Then be sure to notice the first Monday your hand reaches for the alarm–and you smile. You can love your job and feel happy at work if you follow these 7 secrets.
About the Author
Roxanne Emmerich is renowned for her ability to transform the “ho-hum” attitudes of leaders, executives, business owners and entrepreneurs just like you into massive results-oriented “bring-it-on” attitudes. To discover how you can get motivated and love your job again, check out her new book – Thank God It’s Monday. Now, you can get a free sneak preview at: http://www.thankgoditsmonday.com/preview_the_book/
Author: Pamela Swift
Can Microsoft compete with the search engine giant, Google? It may have looked doubtful before when looking at Microsoft’s Live Search, but things are looking good with the new release of Bing, Microsoft’s new search engine, aka “decision engine”. It was released on June 3, 2009 and has an extensive marketing campaign in place, estimated to be at nearly $100 million. Major television ads are running promoting Bing.
Bing’s simple interface with a colorful background mimics that of Google, but with a more ambiance t it. The background is always changing with hot spots that are clickable. Luckily, you can always go back to a past image and find the hot spots, in case you saw something important there. It does not make much sense to have these hot spots and they can be quite confusing, especially since they are constantly changing. There is no warning of when and where these hot spots are until you scroll over them. Then a question related to the image appears with a link to click on, usually answering the question proposed.
When comparing Bing to Google there are more similarities than dissimilarities. For starters they both have a simple interface with a large search bar in the middle of the page. They both display Images, Videos, Shopping, News, and Maps on the homepage. The difference is Google also has Gmail and Bing has travel. The big difference is that Bing has changing images, where as Google has a changing logo against a blank interface.
Bing has decided to market itself as a decision engine, rather than a search engine. What this means is that Bing incorporates ecommerce websites search bar into a fully functional search engine. Microsoft believes that searchers are ready to move beyond the search stage and Bing will help them make better decisions. The search engine results are categorized to make it easier to find results.
The decision engine has been creating tons of search engines ranking for many of my clients with a lower bounce rate than the other major search engines. Does this mean that Microsoft has succeeded with an advanced algorithm that is superior to the major three’s? Or is it a fluke that the bounce rate is visibly lower than the other search engines.
The big question is how do we optimize our websites for Bing? We all want to be ranked at the top of a new search engine, which has the potential to take on the other major search engines. It is simple, do what you do for the other major search engines. From my observations domain age plays a big role. Bing wants to see websites that are established and have been around for a long period of time.
The decision engine, Bing, seems to like websites with tons of original content on the landing pages. Make sure your page titles are keyword rich and appropriate for the subject matter. Bing loves titles with keywords searchers are using. Make sure to have a good, unique title for all your websites pages. Unlike other search engines, linking out seems to be favored. This means linking to other sites from your own site is good for ranking. This may show to Bing that your site shares useful information with its users. This is not to say reciprocal linking is good, but linking to sites that your users may deem valuable is a good idea.
Sign up for an account with Bing and manage your analytics and start a pay per click campaign with them. Their PPC rates are significantly lower than other PPC campaigns because there is not as much competition and keyword dilution occurring. In a few months to a year PPC costs will begin to mimic those of the other search engines, but for now the prices are superb.
SUMMARY: The new decision engine from Microsoft, Bing, is sure to be a major competitor with Google and the other search engines. Since it is brand new many of you are wondering how their algorithm works and how to get to the top organic search results. It seems like Bing looks at back links more than it does at a pages actual content. Read other observations and advice here.
About the Author
Brandon Leibowitz is a professional search engine optimization and search engine marketing consultant with over five years of industry knowledge. Read news, tips, tricks, and anything else related to search engines in his SEO and SEM Blog.
Article Contributed by Joseph Sommerville, Ph.D.
In challenging economic times, buyers look for value. The more you provide, the more likely you are to become the provider of choice. Presentations offer excellent opportunities to provide that value at different stages of the business development cycle.
5 Ways to Create More Value in Your Presentations
1. Solve a problem instead of peddling programs.
People know when they’re being sold to and it makes them uncomfortable. Prospects invest their time in attending or listening to a presentation because they believe it will benefit them in some way. They don’t attend to hear a thinly veiled sales presentation.
Violating those expectations by promising one thing and delivering another constitutes a “bait and switch” that quickly turns prospects off. Prove to them they’ve made a wise investment by placing your focus on education instead, and you’ll find a more receptive audience.
When you can solve a problem or remove some pain, you’re positioned as a resource instead of a vendor. The problem you address should resonate with the audience’s experience. That means you need to do some audience analysis as you prepare the presentation. Think about:
– What questions does your target market ask most frequently?
– What three challenges do they regularly face in business?
– What are the top mistakes people in similar situations make?
When you have the opportunity to survey the audience in advance, you can customize your message even more and give them solutions that are immediately actionable.
2. Provide value-based marketing materials.
The typical presenter hands out colorful brochures, slick flyers and glossy postcards about himself and the services he offers. These provide no value to the audience. That’s why these materials have an extremely short shelf life.
Instead, distribute white papers, special reports, published articles, checklists and tip booklets. These serve as resources the audience will use and keep. They also provide top of mind awareness after the presentation. One of the pieces I circulate includes a four-page resource guide on creating and using visuals. It contains a step-by-step guide to creating effective visuals, examples of different types of charts and an article on how to avoid the most common errors with PowerPoint presentations. I’ve seen it in client’s offices five years after they received it. You add value through these collaterals when the information helps the audience save money, increase their available time or perform a task more efficiently.
3. Get your presentation accredited to count for continuing education units.
Many professional organizations require continuing education to maintain professional designations. Partner with one of them to develop a presentation or course that meets these requirements. It provides value to the members of the organization and increases your demand as a speaker. Conduct some research to determine which courses are mandatory and which are electives. Focus on the former so your course development efforts provide information people must have. Since most organizations require a certain number of professional education hours annually, this can help you develop ongoing repeat business.
4. Offer a complimentary initial consultation for attendees.
If people aren’t quite willing to hire you yet, but will take the next step, an initial consultation can serve several useful purposes. First, it provides an added benefit from attending the presentation. You’ll be giving audience members another reason to believe they’re getting a good return on their investment of time. Second, it provides an opportunity for each of you to explore the other’s approach, working style and personality. You can probably determine during that initial conversation whether you can work together productively. Third, it gives prospects the opportunity to “try before they buy.” It can increase their comfort level in hiring you and move them further along the sales process. Limit the offer to the first ten
to respond. That way you can set boundaries for yourself and increase the sense of urgency. Don’t worry about “giving too much away.” Prospects will recognize your generosity and you’ll build a relationship of trust.
5. Partner with non-competing professionals that serve your target market to create an educational seminar.
For example, an attorney and an accountant might co-produce a seminar for small business owners on “10 Strategies To Collect Accounts Receivable in Tough Economic Times.” A business broker and a banker might organize a seminar on “5 Essentials You Must Know Before You Buy a Business.” Such cooperation allows you to share expenses, combine the power of your individual lists and leverage different perspectives on the same topic. You’ll need to agree on the desired outcomes and make sure the project is mutually beneficial.
You’ll have to invest some time to incorporate these benefits into your presentations. It will require some thoughtful audience analysis, creativity in designing materials and determined follow-through with accrediting agencies and partners. But the return on that investment can be significant. When you add value to your presentations, you pull business in, rather than pushing it on, prospects.
About the Author
With his new book Rainmaking Presentations: How To Grow Your Business by Leveraging Your Expertise, Joseph Sommerville, Ph.D. helps professionals, small business owners and entrepreneurs including accountants, attorneys, engineers, executives, financial planners add influence to their expertise and make more money during challenging economic times. Now, you can download the first chapter for free at http://www.RainMakingPresentations.com
Pay per click (PPC) advertising is a huge market, especially for new companies that have not yet established themselves in the organic search engine rankings. The downside is that PPC can be quite an exhausting and overwhelming task when it is really broken down. For the most part you can enter your keywords and create ad variations, but there is so much more to PPC than just that.
In these tough times you want to make sure your bottom line is at optimal conditions, and PPC can assist in these goals. Specified will be some tips and tricks to help you increase conversions and reduce costs. In essence, you want to persuade the buyer that you have the highest quality item for the lowest price compared to the competition.
1. Research Competitors Ads
There is a wealth of free, valuable information out on the web waiting to be used. PPC ads are shown on most, if not all search engines and can give you some insight into how your competition is advertising and what ad text they are using. If you want to go deeper than this you can purchase tools that show you what your competitor’s keywords are, what they are bidding, their ad text, and much more. With this information you will have a good starting point for your PPC ads.
2. Explore Keyword Variations
It is imperative for any successful PPC campaign to search for keywords, look at competitor keywords, and use proper keyword matching. It is important to know what keyword matching is and understand the difference between broad, phrase, and exact keywords. Each has a different effect and using the wrong one can ruin your entire ad campaign. Broad match keywords allow your ad to show up on similar phrases and relevant variations. Phrase match keywords allow your ad to show up on searched that match the exact phrase exclusively. Exact match keywords means that your ad shows up for that exact phrase exclusively. Negative match keywords are used to prevent your ad from showing up on specific keywords.
3. Focus on Low Cost Keywords
Overpriced keywords can cause a leakage in your PPC marketing budget. If you sell a product or service with a low profit margin then you need to do everything in your power to avoid high cost keywords. You cannot afford to pay $1 per click when your profit margin is only $0.75. Some keywords can cost over $5 a click! You do not want to spend this much unless your profit margin is large enough and you know you can compete with the competition. For the rest of us internet advertisers we want to look for highly searched keywords that are not overly priced. This can be done by looking at the competition. Do a search for your keyword in your desired search engine and look at how many paid, or sponsored, listings appear. The fewer, the better off you are.
4. Avoid Hyper-Competitive Keywords
Keywords with a large search volume may be a viable keyword choice, but if the competition is too high it may not be the best choice, unless you have an extraordinary budget set in place. The greater the competition level for keywords, the more you will have to pay per click. There are tons, both free and paid that can show you a keywords competition level, monthly traffic, and cost per click. A reliable, free tool is Google’s keyword tool. It is an effective medium for discovering profitable keywords that have not been tapped into yet.
5. Make your Ads with Consumer Savings
People love to see words like sale, save discount, free, promo, buy 1 get 1 free, etc. when looking at paid search results. The more you use these words, the greater visibility your ad will have in the consumer’s eyes. The bigger the savings, the more likely you are to obtain a click through and ultimately a conversion. Make sure to include good values, low prices, and timely promotions in all your ad groups. This is especially if you have a product or service that is being marketed to highly price sensitive shoppers.
6. Be upfront with your Ads
I cannot stress this enough. This is the biggest mistake advertisers can make when placing participating in pay per click advertising. You do not want to lie, or fluff up your ads, in hopes of making more sales. This actually has the opposite effect, in which people will click through expecting what was outlined in the ad and come to see that it was false and misleading. This may get more clicks in organic rankings, but it will still result in an extraordinarily high bounce rate. They will leave the site in frustration that you mislead to them to your site, and you lost money for the cost of a click. Now image this happening on a daily basis for months at a time. How much wasted money can there be before someone steps in and says, “STOP, you are doing this in the complete wrong way!” You need to be upfront and honest to prevent excessive click from searchers expecting something else.
7. Make your Ad Groups Targeted to the Landing Page
To get the best quality score for your PPC ads you will want to make sure the keywords and the ad text relate to one another. You also want to make sure the landing page, where the searcher is taken when clicking on your link, is highly related to your keywords and ad text. This will get you the best results and ensure searchers do not get taken to the wrong page. Do not bunch all your campaigns together; rather separate them into appropriate categories. Then create pages on your website specifically designed for PPC users to land on. You should not send PPC ads to your home page, but rather have targeted landing pages specifically designed for each PPC campaign. These pages should have a call to action inducting the searcher to perform some sort of action that is beneficial to your business, whether it be a email address, or an actual sale. Your end goal is to have the user do something. This will reduce the bounce back rate and increase the chances of converting leads into sales.
8. Review and Analyze your Ads Performance Overtime
This seems obvious, but so many people do not take the time to sit down and really analyze each campaign to see what is succeeding and what is leaking money. Once this is discovered you will want to fix the problem ads and leave the successful ads be. This seems so obvious, but is not done often enough. I encourage reviewing your pay per click campaign once a day. If this is too much, then at least 2-3 times a week. This is your money and you do not want to see it wasted with no returns.
9. Refine your Ad groups to Focus on High Performers
After you have run your PPC campaigns for a few weeks you can analyze the results and see what the top performers and failures are. To make sure this is an accurate representation make sure to use many different ad variations and have them set to rotate evenly at first. This will give you an idea of what selling points are working and which are draining your funds. Look at cost per conversion and make sure this does not exceed your profit margin. If so stop the ad or make some major modifications to it. If an ad group has a low cost per conversion keep this running and let it rake in the money. Refining your ads should be done on a regular basis to avoid failing campaigns and focus more on successful campaigns.
10. Look at the Bottom line
Conversions are king for PPC, just like content is king for organic rankings. If you are doing all of the above and still are not converting sales then it may be time to take a step back and contact a professional to review your campaign and look for any flaws. If you do not have the budget to do this, then pause your ads and just focus on refining one at a time. This will ensure you do not use your entire budget and can spend more time figuring out why you are not succeeding. Once you figure out why one campaign is failing it is much easier to spot other trouble campaigns.
About the Author
Brandon Leibowitz is a professional search engine optimization and search engine marketing consultant with over five years of industry knowledge. Read news, tips, tricks, and anything else related to search engines in his SEO and SEM Blog.
Categories
How To Make More and Work Less
Have you ever wondered how any business leader can transform a business or corporate department into a super efficient machine – a machine that will provide the freedom and income everyone dreams of? You might want to find out more from Sam Carpenter, author of the new book, ‘Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less’.
Winner of the “Best Non-fiction Book of 2009” at the New York Book Festival. this book is based on hard-and-fast reality in real life situations and describe an achievable plan for making more minutes count and freeing up more time for the meaningful things in your life.
You’ll pick up many useful tips on how to envision, design and implement new plans in your business and personal life so that you can regain control and not be always at the mercy of external forces.
Through a partnership with GetEntrepreneurial.com, Sam is pleased to offer all our readers the entire book in PDF format for free. To obtain your free copy of ‘Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less’, simply visit the book website at http://www.workthesystem.com and visit the promotional box or email info@workthesystem.com. Use the promo code “getentrepreneurial” in the email subject line to get your free copy now!
Be sure to also check out Sam’s online social networks; you can follow Sam Carpenter on Twitter or join the Facebook group here for some thought-provoking discussions.