© Christophe Baudot | Dreamstime.com

The answer I’m hearing the most often now is that high-quality original content will win. Do I believe that alone will do it? Honestly, I don’t know. My experience designing and running websites goes back to the early 1990′s. Back then, a good site got traffic and brought the small businesses onto level footing with the big companies that had always had the budget to reach further for customers. Affiliate sales were relatively new, and Internet users eagerly looked for good quality and useful content.

Then, with the advent of more technology and paid links and black hats and white hats, not to mention blogs and plug-ins that do it all for millions of repetitious sales sites, the small businesses have slowly been sliding back down that hill. Facebook requires me to have 30 Likes to see my stats and 25 followers to get rid of the ugly number and get a real name for my page. That’s clearly designed to give priority to established businesses that already have a base of supporters. What happens to the new fellow on the block?

Many of the social media give a heavy advantage to those who can afford automated software. Individuals and small businesses work long hours and struggle to keep up. Some type of Internet connective device has almost become a required appendage. Although, social media is a different area that’s undergoing change, I have to point out that no one can read or follow 10,000+ tweets or followers. It’s clearly only a numbers game, unless you happen to be a movie star with a zillion followers. Do commercial companies really buy those figures when they look at your platform and statistics?

I hope they are smarter than that. The reality is that many of those rather strange looking followers follow you and then cull names and sites from your list of followers. Your followers’ profiles usually list websites, which have an email address or other information, if they want their readers to find them or buy from them. It’s a complicated world. In a very short time, it’s become just another venue to exploit. For people trying to do business, you can’t live without it and you can’t let it run over you or your followers. Personally, I vet my followers and block most of those. They aren’t real readers or followers anyway.

The final answer that evolves will depend on whether the new search criteria helps level the playing field again, as it’s purported to do. In the current economic climate, many small business people and individuals, such as authors and craftspeople, feel they are fighting a losing battle. They are tired of the pressure to keep up a dozen social media sites. They are tired of fighting spam and hackers. They are tired of working long days at their craft and long nights to maintain their web presence. They can’t maintain that type of schedule indefinitely. What’s more, they aren’t seeing a benefit to doing so. Does paying for help pay off?

Again, the answer depends on a number of things. In most cases, it helps marginally. Sometimes, it helps enough to recover the investment, but that’s all. The benefit in those cases is that the site is cleaned up and perhaps, the owner or a staff member learns how to do routine maintenance and updates without ongoing payouts. Other times, a business needs to make an investment in keeping quality content available and current, and they can’t produce their own and run the business. That’s when there’s a payoff to making a reasonable investment in ongoing marketing help.

If you aren’t one of my Twitter followers, I recommend you give it a try. Many of my tweets are about the technical side of social media, websites, and blogs. I try to select the majority of the material for an audience who isn’t highly technical. However, even if you aren’t a techie and never want to become one, you have to understand what happens behind the scenes. How else will you know whether an SEO person or website developer is ripping you off? How will you know what your publisher means when he tells you you need to add keywords to your blog posts? Even if you don’t do the work yourself, don’t be a sitting duck for a ripoff because you don’t understand the basics.

The most recent discussions of the Google search changes promise to change the landscape in many ways. One of the areas that could be hit very hard are the bloggers, most of whom aren’t techies and just do what everyone else does. Mommy Bloggers grew at astronomical rates, and many of them make a decent income from their blogs by reviewing products and services. Blog Hops are one way to get links and traffic that’s become very common. Unfortunately for the bloggers and the vendors, there are signs that those who participate by posting lists of links and different hops every day may fall victim to what’s being called “over linking.” Only time will tell, but watch your stats.

Another area that may be hit are syndication sites. Why? Because those sites usually have a lot of duplicate content. Some sites also require payment. Payment is still a very uncertain area in the new search algorithms. There’s no consensus yet of when it’s OK or when it counts against you. Even the tech professionals haven’t been able to sort it out and agree. Therefore, I won’t try either. The search engines are looking for the first time an article was published, the source. If your material is reposted to several different places, you may hurt your site’s ranking without intending to do so.

I’m not saying not to repost. Just don’t do it for every article and don’t put the same material on several sites. Be sure your site has unique content, and lots of it. When you want to spread your words, use an excerpt and link back to your site to read the article. Whatever you do, repost as little as possible. Write different content for other sites and get people interested in coming to your site. It’s harder, I know. People like to read a lot of blogs in the same place, and I have no idea how the blog aggregators and linking tools will fare when the dust settles.

Guest blogging is still a great bet, as are blog tours. Each site will have new writers, new visitors, and new content to offer. With some good posts, you can entice people to come and read more of your writing. For authors, writers, and people selling services, such as book cover design and consulting, this is great. I’m not as sure it will be great for vendors who’ve grown used to using bloggers to showcase their products. Of course, if it’s not good for the vendors, it won’t be good for the bloggers who’ve build blogs totally around selling products either. Many of the bloggers depend on rafflecopters and blog hops to draw traffic. Pages of links on dozens of sites and visiting other blogs is part of the business.

Good bloggers stop, visit, and leave appropriate comments. They aren’t spammers. The pros integrate their link into their signature or avatar too. Although, it’s perfectly permissible to leave a link in the comments too, as long as it’s relevant. However, it’s still a business. A few other bloggers probably become regular readers of a blog or two they find that resonates with them, but it’s a bit like selling your books only to other writers. Unless you offer writing advice, that’s not your target market for your mystery series. Why? Because those people will get tapped out. They can’t buy a new book from every author that belongs to their group indefinitely. If you write mysteries, you need to connect with mystery fans.

That’s where the Mommy bloggers got it right. They are largely moms or grandmas. They use the same products, which makes the other bloggers part of the target market too. The vendors know that and count on the bloggers and their circle of friends to buy long after the giveaway is over. Their kids aren’t going to be out of diapers tomorrow. It’s a special niche, and it works for this group. However, they may be facing a challenge with the new search algorithms. Only time will tell.

I’ve seen a few bloggers who manage to write quality content and sell products or services at the same time. My hat is off to them. I enjoy reading many of their posts and don’t care that they are being compensated for writing about that product. After all, that’s what marketing and advertising is too. People get paid for writing about products and services. These people often include wonderful content on their sites and write posts that are clearly not paid content. They give the readers a break from the constant sales pitches by offering other information of value, whether it’s recipes, kids games, or business tips. Regular posts count too, but today quality counts more, whatever your subject.

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•             No one takes you seriously without a website.
•             Everyone gets rich as soon as they put up a website.
•             Everyone sells more when they have a website.
•             You can make easy money with affiliate links.

These are all popular beliefs, and there is at least a morsel of truth in the first one. However, the other three statements are myths. So how does a writer make a website work for them? And, what can you really expect? The answer lies in the purpose behind your website. Work through the ten steps listed below to develop a website that is as well-focused as your writing

1. Are you selling books and services? Or, are you promoting yourself to build brand recognition—in this case, your name? Analyze the purpose of your site content carefully. If you intend to do both, you need two sites or at least, two clearly defined areas on your website.

2. Who is the audience? Is your product designed to target a specific type of consumer? Are you showcasing a resume? Are you marketing services to other businesses? Define the market you intend to serve.

3. What is your budget? Do you have money to hire professionals to keep a large site up to date? Are you doing the work yourself while you build your career? More writers fall into the latter category. If you are one of them, you can have a great site using very simple tools that are available for free. Just don’t try to compete with major magazines and pros that hire professionals. A few pages that look nice are much better than a site that doesn’t work.

4. Consider your personal time and abilities? If you love the techie world and want to learn HTML, you can build a wonderful site on your own, and it probably won’t take you long to maintain it every month. Of course, WordPress is even simpler. Although, it’s a bit more limiting. If this description doesn’t fit you, don’t worry. Site pros don’t recommend using complicated flaming logos anyway. Your resume doesn’t attract more business by appearing in hot pink with ballerinas dancing around your name.

5. Stay informed. Keep an eye on changes in all areas related to business. Writing is only the product. You don’t sell writing without sales, marketing, packaging, equipment, and communication. Over time, trends change and savvy business people change the product to suit the customer.

6. Affiliate marketing rarely makes anyone rich in today’s market. The benefit of affiliate marketing is the ability to offer customers related products and to draw more people to your site. Customers like one-stop shopping. Of course, exchanging links within a specific market also offers exposure to more potential customers without additional cost.

7. Affiliate programs for your products offer more value in terms of branding and promotion than they do in income. These are market tools. Income is a bonus, but not something you should count on just because you sign up or set up a program.

8. Keep it simple. Learn and grow as you go. Messy sites with links that don’t work lose visitors instantly. The competition is fierce, and your visitors have no reason to stick around if your site doesn’t work properly. One page that works is worth ten pages with errors and bad graphics. Just like a neat, professional business letter, a clean website that works correctly makes a good first impression.

9. WIFM, or what’s in it for me? Those are the first words marketing students learn to answer, and they are the words every customer asks. If you answer that question, you make sales.

10. Everyone says you need a newsletter or mailing list. Well, maybe. There are more newsletters available than blades of grass on a lawn. If you market a service, newsletters are a good venue. They are also very time-consuming. Unless your primary product is service, spend your time writing and selling your writing to the people who will pay you. Recognition has limited value in terms of earning power when those people are not your primary buyer. Many people make the mistake of marketing to their own industry and not the public.

So build your website to showcase your work, and advertise yourself well with fresh, simple content. But, don’t let your website become a full time job if your goal is to write, design custom quilts, or make widgets.

© Alex Kirichenko | Dreamstime.com

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I could have sat on hold with customer service for a couple more hours the next day and tried to understand the person on the other end of the line, most likely without a better result anyway. By then, I may have had a couple more problems to untangle due to late fees and interest rate changes. Unfortunately, I also had to make another payment–this time to the correct account, which wasn’t in the budget. All of that brings us to the subject of customer service, which I get very nicely at my credit union. However, I’m caught in the middle because they don’t offer everything I need.

After several bad experiences with the “big bank”, I’m serious about shopping for a community bank or credit union with the services I need. My hang-up is that our household uses Quicken to handle our bookkeeping. That means all of my payments and accounts are already set up, and I can pay or download with the push of a button. To use an online banking program, I have to input that information again. Those of you who have cars, kids, insurance policies, homes, petsitters or babysitters, utilities, and a business, understand that the number of transactions add up.

There are limits on the number of transactions at some of the smaller financial institutions. At others, there’s a fee for each transaction over a specified number. In addition, I haven’t found one that I can connect with by using Quicken for the upload and payments, at least not where I live. My credit union only downloads the transactions and balances. What happens if I spend the hours required to find and input all of the accounts on their online system and that relationship doesn’t work out?

As a sole proprietor, I do everything I need to do with the basic Quicken program. I don’t need business accounts or credit card accounts with additional heavy transaction fees either. PayPal serves my needs when a customer wants to use a credit card, and I don’t pay a fee unless there’s a transaction. My system is simple to use and maintain. My goal is to get my banking simplified too. The big bank games and fine print wear me out. That one misposted payment could have cost a lot more than an extra payment, and I only found it by accident.

Worse yet, when I went online to review the accounts, the due dates didn’t match for the same account and payment on two different pages of the bank online system. Yet, I can’t get them to correct a mistake, and I have to spend hours of my time to try to prove they made a mistake. The last time I was in a branch, the manager couldn’t do anything I can’t do online. What’s the point in having a manager?

At this point, my advice is to keep it simple and realize that no relationship will last forever. It takes time to shop for new services, but you probably won’t have to do it more than every few years. However, the time you save by getting better customer service will pay off. The last problem made me realize that I’ve put this decision off too long. We refinanced our home over a year ago through the same bank, and it was a nightmare. The odd part is that they already held the loan–shouldn’t that make it easier?

Customers vote with their wallets, and it’s time to vote more often and sooner. After all, isn’t that why some of your customers come to you? Do you keep going back to a place that doesn’t treat you well? What about you? Is your bank holding you hostage because it takes too much time to start over?

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We’ll start by defining what I mean by payroll service versus a PEO, and what they do. Payroll services and PEO companies are not usually on-site in small businesses. Often, they don’t even have a local office. That leaves you to determine when to call for help from a professional and frankly, that’s usually after trouble arises. If you contract for payroll services, they process payroll. They don’t deal with other HR issues. A PEO handles a full range of HR functions, but the services are often from a distance. On-site help may be an option, but the fee will be an additional expense too. What’s often missing completely is the area most of us know as an employee assistance program (EAP).

The majority of employee problems start subtly with people avoiding dealing with a specific person or an employee that always eats mints. Someone on-site who sees the staff regularly is in a position to notice changes and patterns. For example, eating mints may be because she had garlic for lunch, or it may be because she’s drinking during the workday. One is a problem and the other isn’t. Someone on-site is in a position to watch for changes in behavior and attitude that may indicate inappropriate use of alcohol or other drugs, or an attitude that may cause others to avoid dealing with her. Are watery red eyes from allergies or a hangover? A few subtle questions can often clarify the issue. However, this is just a simple example.

It gets more complicated when the employee with a problem is a supervisor or manager, especially over the HR area. It’s important to always have more than one avenue of trusted communication. Do otherwise good employees, contractors, or vendors keep quitting or getting let go for some reason? Could it be because they may have a valid professional opinion that you hired them to give, but a manager doesn’t want to be wrong? Or, are they leaving because they have no way to voice their problem because their supervisor IS the problem? Do customers give vague excuses for not doing business with you? Does a vendor avoid going to lunch if a specific employee will be present? If there’s a repeat pattern, it may be a people problem and not a product problem. Don’t be naive and miss patterns that tell you when you have a problem.

The most serious problems develop over time. For the same reason family members are usually the last to see a problem, co-workers and employers may not see a problem, unless it’s very visible, and by then, it’s visible to the public too. Why? Perhaps, it’s because that person has been there for years and never had a problem in the past or the individual has learned to cover it well. People change for a number of reasons. Other times, there’s no apparent reason that a social habit slowly grew into an addiction. Think about high profile individuals with money and power who party too much, treat people horribly, and think they’re above the law. Many of them die from overdoses or eventually kill someone in a DUI accident. Other stars and entrepreneurs develop charitable foundations. Success can breed charity  and growth or self-destruction. In either case, the changes don’t happen overnight.

Whatever the cause, your company is liable for many actions of the employees. (Please, tell me you carry liability insurance.) An employee who has an accident in a company vehicle will sky-rocket your insurance. Of course, it will be even worse if that person is transporting vendors, customers, or other employees. That’s not when you want to find out that she’s driving while impaired. Other times, the problem may cost in different ways. What if she gets annoyed when a customer says no, or she refuses to listen to the expert you just hired in another department? A bad attitude, arrogance, or poor social behavior alienates people. Some customers and employees won’t tell you their problem. They’ll make up an excuse and move on. In any of these cases, the person who may have been a great asset at one time has become a liability.

One of the key components of HR management, and general office management too, is communication. HR establishes consistent policies and communication standards, complete with form communications, documentation, procedural manuals, and time-lines for specific events. Consistency keeps you out of trouble and out of court. HR also establishes rules and procedures for the progression of key events, such as disciplinary actions, and even what the company does in the event of the death of a co-worker or a local disaster. Some of these things can’t easily be designed to fit your business and integrate with your work-flow from a distance. Employee assistance is not included and most companies don’t have anyone on staff that’s qualified or trained to deal with that type of problem. Therefore, the tendency is to use a loose top-level outline and ignore the rest.

Really small businesses usually flounder for alternatives to help bridge the gap between getting started and wimping out on the whole HR and EAP process. What can you do that you can afford? One solution is to find a good office generalist who can wear many different hats. Some take on duties as diverse as dog walking without a problem. Many experienced administrative assistants also handled HR extensively, before it became a duty that was outsourced. Other times, you can get a student from a college who’s studying HR management and wants to hands-on experience. This doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the student’s first job or that they don’t already have substantial HR experience. It varies with the student and where they are in their educational process, and he or she can organize the procedures and educate you too.

You might also look for an HR professional who doesn’t want to work full time because of small children or an elderly parent. It isn’t necessary to be in the office five days a week to see problems and documentation work can be done remotely. However, that doesn’t make the person a trained counselor who will resolve the problem on their own. The key is to have someone available who can tactfully and maturely guide a person with a problem toward help. Whatever you do, don’t be blindsided with a costly problem by ignoring the need to address this area.

For additional information and resources about HR issues, check out the previously recorded webinars and information at this link. If you want to know more about what an EAP does, this is a good link.

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Of course, there are legitimate internships which offer college credit or CEUs (continuing education units) in lieu of dollars. In essence, there is a form of payment with ongoing value to the individual. The majority of the situations are jobs for companies that don’t want to spend money. However, they want your skills. You may be reluctant to demand pay or decline because there are dozens of people in the market who will take the chance, regardless how slim, that a paying job might materialize.

Let’s look at where this leaves you though. First, your time and resources are spent without compensation. You can’t look for another job. You can’t spend time with your family. You can’t further your education. And, you spend money out of your pocket for clothes, food, paper, ink, gas, and more. You support their business, but they don’t support you. In addition, you can’t put it on your resume. Why?

If you receive unemployment, it will be viewed as making you unavailable for a real job. You lose the unemployment check if anyone finds out. If you are asked what you made, stating there was no salary makes you look like a fool or devalues your work, depending on the viewpoint of the employer. The other possibility is that a potential employer gets the impression you don’t really need a paying job. Therefore, you won’t have much incentive to work. See how this can backfire?

What about the old school chum or neighbor who wants to start a business and just needs a little help? It sounds like fun. Remember, all of the things I mentioned above apply. You spend time and resources without return. That may be fine in the short term. However, when the time comes to pull out because it’s costing too much or your situation changes, you may find yourself in the position of losing a friend too.

Alternately, you may begin to feel put upon if your business partner assumes you’ll work for free indefinitely. Casual business arrangements often turn into a major headache and develop complications no one expected, like projects that depend on you when you want out, professional bridges burned, lost friendships, and possibly even legal ramifications.

This isn’t high school folks. If you want a hobby, find one. If business is your passion, volunteer for a local non-profit or school business program. If you want to make more money, find a second job that pays. Society is litigious and friendships seldom rise above covering one’s own backside.

In the writers’ world, there are tons of “jobs” that pay only when the work is accepted or want a writer to write hundreds of words for a pittance. The problem is that time is spent producing work that may never earn a dime. Then, there are the job applications with skill tests that send every candidate ten pages to edit. When the “tests” are returned, the project is finished and no one gets hired. It’s an old scam. Spend the time to hone your skills, seek individual writing assignments, and develop a portfolio of high-quality work that fits a market you want to break into.

Other times, a company interviews a well-qualified candidate and offers an “opportunity” to work a few weeks on a special project to see whether it’s a good fit. Everything sounds professional and on the up and up. However, chances are there won’t be enough money to hire you after the time is up. They will be terribly sorry. You’ll be first on the list when they can squeeze it into the budget. They’ll assure you that you have great talent and they’d be happy to provide a recommendation–maybe.

Reread the paragraph above about working for free and how it can backfire. Meanwhile, you may have turned down interview opportunities, spent money for gas, and lost time that should have been spent on your job search. I’m sure someone someplace may have gotten a real job this way, but the odds are much higher that it won’t happen.

There’s no doubt the economic situation is rough, but don’t let desperation overrule common sense whether you are the employer or the employee.

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According to a recent blog post by Interns Over 40, a paper published last year by Kate W. Strully, a sociology professor at the State University of New York at Albany, states that people who lose a job experience 83 percent greater chance of suffering stress-related health problems. Such problems include diabetes, arthritis or psychiatric issues.

Job Loss Can It Kill You is an excellent article for employers and employees. Awareness and preventive actions are the first steps toward lessening the chance that a job loss will have unintended consequences.

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This is an idea that’s time has come. Like a lot of  “we’ve always done it that way” or “we have to do it that way for … reasons”, there comes a time when change is beneficial and necessary. Employees in large companies often go their entire first year of employment without having any idea what their goals  are or how their performance is being measured, right up until they have their first review. How does this help the company or the employee?

Small businesses are often in a position to implement such changes more easily. In addition, small businesses feel improvements more quickly. Yes, it’s necessary to keep records and document counseling. However, it doesn’t take any longer to do it now than it does to write a note, file it, and try to figure it out months later, after the incorrect behavior becomes ingrained. Riegger’s idea is timely and right on.

Meanwhile, since this idea may not get widespread implementation in the near future, employees need to be encouraged to ask for feedback and take constructive criticism with an open mind.  Improving the working conditions benefits everyone. Therefore, encourage your employees to be an active  part of the team and take time to give carefully considered advice when you first notice a problem.

It’s time to nix employee reviews

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• 105,779,710 registered users of Twitter
• Approximately 55 million Tweets being sent daily
• 180 million unique visitors monthly
• Signing up 300,000 new users daily
• Twitter’s search engine getting 600 million searches daily

That’s a lot of potential exposure. Will everyone get tons of new traffic, a new contract, or a new job? No. Do you increase your possibilities? Yes. Just the sheer numbers say you have to cross in front of at least a few more people who can help you, hire you, or buy from you.

There’s a growing amount of research that also says people don’t support businesses that aren’t current, and that means being present on Twitter and Facebook and having a website that looks like you update it regularly.

By the way, updating your website means more than just adding content. It has to have a current look, feel, and behavior. If you don’t have the time, money, or skill to do a major update, choose simple and modern over out-of-date and huge. Then, get you Twitter and Facebook badges on it too. Let the world know you are available.

Read more and link to additional studies from the article, The Truth About Twitters Promoted Tweets.  There’s a lot more info in this article than just what Twitter has planned for the future.

My current project is to help a small business build their presence and connect their website with social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter), as well as to set up their tweets and a simple, easy maintenance plan because they don’t have time or dedicated resources. It can be done.

Link back to PennyLeisch.com for more information.

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1. Employers, you need to give yourself ninety days to assess a new employee.

2. Employees, you need to be aware of what the employer is looking for during your initial period of evaluation.

3. Job seekers, you need to be aware of what you are saying and where some of the employer/interviewer questions are leading.

4. Take some advice from this article and don’t operate in panic mode if you are already unemployed.

How to Hire New Employees During A Recession

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Some postings are obviously written by people for whom English is a second language. Even so, if a person isn’t fluent in the language they are using–especially if that is the language used in the media and audience they are addressing, they need to get help. In other cases, I can’t decide whether what I see is carelessness or poor skills or both. Spelling and typing errors run rampant. Posting for discussions in professional groups on Facebook or LinkedIn isn’t the same as throwing together a quick email to your friends. You won’t make points with the agent who happens to read your post if your work looks like it was written by a first grade student.

Another issue is blatant disregard for the group rules and the annoyance of the group members. There are new marketing “gurus” that teach people how to use the groups to market themselves. The problem is that most of what they are teaching can get you banned. It may work for a while. On the other hand, it may annoy the members so badly that the only responses you get are a lot of angry comments. I’ve seen it happen. Some groups are very proactive.

These groups are set up to discuss professional issues and offer helpful information. Admittedly, some of them are not well monitored. In those cases, people tend to drop out or just turn them off. Obviously, you can’t sell something to a group that isn’t reading your posts. All members need to take responsibility for abiding by the guidelines.

One other issue I see a lot is misdirection. If you want to sell your skills in investment writing or your expertise in restoring antique cars, you need to belong to groups where you will find customers. For example, peer groups of other writers are for learning the trade or asking for advice about resources. They are not your target audience. In fact, some of them are likely to be your competition.

The wide variety of media that’s growing daily is confusing. It’s also widely misused. If you misuse it, you waste time that can be used to grow your business. Slow down and read some tutorials. Take it one step at a time and don’t go overboard initially. A presence is good. However, all visibility is not equal. Poor choices can hurt your image and take a long time to overcome. Move cautiously.

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