Someday, maybe I’ll have time to be at the forefront of all the newest trends. But, for now, I’m satisfied with keeping up with the people who are and I want to thank them for keeping me apprised of all the latest technology trends and how to use them. I’ve been hearing a lot about Foursquare lately, and I just read this great post on how to use it for my business.
My colleagues at Geek for Hire, Inc. recently sent out an update to remind us all about the importance of changing our passwords on a regular basis. In referencing a recent question posed in The New York Times entitled “Password Unprotected“, Geek for Hire reminds us all to change our passwords regularly and make sure to change them to something that is not easy to guess.
For some of you, this might seem pretty obvious, but I’m guessing that many of you reading this a) use the same password on multiple accounts including credit cards, bank accounts and social networks; b) don’t think to change your password regularly because it seems like a pain to change and remember a new one; c) don’t think that anyone knows you well enough to guess your passwords or that the people you might have shared passwords with would never use that information to betray you or cause harm.
The reality is most people choose passwords that are easy to guess. Fortunately, many systems, e.g. Google, now help you to know if your password is weak or strong. That being said, do yourself a big favor and change your passwords today. And, if you work with clients who’s accounts you have access to, ask them to do the same.
It might seem like a hassle, but it will save you a lot of pain and frustration in the long run. I’d rather have to remember a new password than rebuild my savings accounts or help a client rebuild their entire website or e-commerce system.
Have you heard of PageRank™ but you’re not sure what it is. Are you like me and at first glance, you assumed it was just how high your page comes up in search results? Well, guess again. When I got “schooled” in PageRank, frankly, I was surprised by what I didn’t know. So, I thought I’d share some of what I’ve learned over time with you.
Without getting too technical PageRank is unique to Google and it refers to their “link analysis algorithm”. Huh? Exactly.
Well, to make it as simple as possible, if you think of the web pages that make up the World Wide Web as a group of voters in an election, then each hyperlink to another page counts as a vote. And, the more votes you have, the higher you will score in PageRank. Additionally, if your page or website is linked to from a site that has a high PageRank itself, then that will also improve your score. So, what’s the bottom line? If you have no links to your site from other sites, you will not score in the PageRank system.
(Just a side note here… PageRank actually refers to the name of its developer Larry Page, rather than the idea of a “page” as the name suggests.)
So, what do you do about your PageRank? Well, first of all, find out what it is. There are tools all over the internet that let you check your site’s PageRank. Here’s one I’ve used called PageRank Checker at http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php. Type in your website address and then wait a minute as it calculates your PageRank.
You’ll receive a score from 1 – 10, the highest being a 10. The score is an assessment of how popular your page is, based on the feedback (i.e. links to it) from the rest of the web. And, it’s also an assessment of how popular the sites that are linking to your site are. So, if you have a lot of links to your site but the sites that are linking to it don’t have high PageRanks, that all gets calculated using a complicated algorithm that I won’t try to understand or explain here.To give you an idea, Yahoo and Google have really high PageRank scores.
So, what can you do if you have a low score? Well, I certainly don’t have all the answers on this one and I”m trying to figure it out for myself and my clients too. But, here are some ideas:
1. Make sure your site is optimized internally, meaning that you want to make sure the content that you have is really relevant to the audience you are seeking.
2. Make sure your site is optimized externally. What that means is that you want to spend time developing relationships with other websites so they’ll want to link back to your content. No, I don’t mean that you should start pummeling social networks with links to your website. But, I do mean that you should think strategically about networks you can connect into — those that are relevant to your industry or expertise. And, spend some time on those sites and if possible, engage in conversations with the site’s owner or moderator. Find ways to develop partnerships and share information or link back and forth to one another. Like the development of any relationship, this takes time and you want to do it intelligently. So, plan it out first and then start connecting in to the appropriate places.
3. Become an avid writer. Think about where you can share your blog posts or where you can contribute articles and other content related to your industry or expertise. Then start writing and write a lot. Or, if you’re in a position to do so, hire someone to help you with writing and submitting your content. With article submission websites, you have the opportunity to add links to your website. And, the more content you write and the more people like reading what you write, the more popular you will become on those sites. And, more than likely you will start to see an increase in traffic back to your website.
All in all, PageRank in and of itself is interesting but should not become the bane of your business existence. Instead, put forth the effort to improve your PageRank and in doing so, you’ll be implementing a strategic marketing strategy to promote your website and more importantly, your business. Getting the word out about your products and services not only makes you more “popular” but it will help expand your business.
This month, I had the privilege of interviewing two inspirational young mompreneurs and I’m excited to share the interview with you. Kate Windram and Tara Shagawat, co-owners of Baby Smartz Baby Planners LLC spoke with me and shared some powerful insights about starting and running a business and leveraging the internet and social media to expand.
I think you’ll enjoy this interview as much as I did. I know that I walked away with a lot of great information and advice on how to expand my business online. Thanks, ladies!
This is a question I get asked a lot. Most people are familiar with Facebook as a tool to network and reconnect with old school friends or colleagues. However, most people are still learning the ropes on how to use Facebook as a tool to promote your business. I’ll be sharing more information on this topic over time, but in the meantime, here’s an article by Susan Payton that provides some basic steps to getting started: HOW TO: Set Up a Winning Facebook Fan Page.
Jason Alba, creator of JibberJobber.com and a LinkedIn expert, recently wrote a blog post that I found really helpful. As a mompreneur, it’s easy to get discouraged, I think, when you’re working on your own, trying to build a business and sometimes asking “What am I doing?”
“Sometimes I think I’m nuts. Even though I’m more sane than others. But seriously, what am I thinking, doing my own business? Where’s the safety net in that??
Sometimes I think I’m dense. Even though I got a hecka lot of education, and feel like I’m rather witty. This “dense” thing comes mostly when I compare myself to others.
Sometimes I’m lonely. Even though I have a terrific wife and family support, and thousands upon thousands of people who read my stuff in my blogs, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. But when I’m sitting in my office, all by myself, with hours to go in the day, wondering which thing I should do next, I wish I had a team working with me.” Read more…”
