Jan
29
Free Backup for Social Media
January 29, 2010 | Leave a Comment
If you have a lot of social media accounts, you may want to consider backing them up. I recently came across a useful twitter post that introduced me to Backuptify, a (currently) free online social media back up service. With over 5,000 photos on a pro Flickr photo storage account, I thought it was worth a try.
Social Media Backup Plan
There are a bunch of popular social media sites that Backuptify supports; WordPress, Twitter, Photobucket and Facebook to name a few.
Jan
7
Why it Makes Sense for Companies to Allow Telecommuting
January 7, 2010 | Leave a Comment
An increasing number of businesses are getting on board with a teleworking program, letting employees work from home full time or at least a couple of days per week. While the benefits of teleworking are obvious for employees (and the environment) there are also benefits for the businesses that allow telecommuting.
- Everyone benefits from teleworking
Photo by: Wrumsby on Flickr
Benefits of Letting Employees Telework:
- Employees avoid wasting time they could otherwise devote to their work
- Commuters face significant increases in traffic congestion in all 437 metropolitan areas in the United States. According to the Texas Transportation Institute’s Urban Mobility 2009 study, the average metro Atlanta commuter wastes an average of 57 hours a year stuck in traffic.
- This gridlock costs Atlanta commuters almost $3 billion in time and fuel—roughly $1,257 per commuter, per year. Forget raises, Atlanta employers can save millions on salaries by simply implementing a telework program –considered by many employees to be a raise in itself. (Not to mention the lives that can be saved by not contributing to traffic accidents.)
- Employees working remotely can carry on in the event the headquarters gets shut down by the unexpected such as hazardous weather, a natural disaster or man-made disasters like a terrorist threat.
- The corporation can reduce overhead expenses by paying less for office space, supplies, coffee, etc…
- Happy workers are better workers. Employees with the option of telecommuting are generally healthier and more content with their jobs than otherwise. And they will be
- Flexible schedules allow employees to schedule doctor visits and other personal appointments without taking time away from the days that they are in the office interfacing with co-workers.
Will Employees Goof Off if They Work From Home?
Traditional employers may be worried that “out of sight out of mind” means less productivity if not kept under the watchful eye of supervisors. This doesn’t necessarily hold up to closer scrutiny.
Employees are capable of goofing off anywhere –especially at work. There are just as many distractions in a corporate office -if not more- than there are in a private home office. Also, most employees who work from home do not want to lose the privilege of telecommuting and may work even harder at their jobs to prove their value.
How Do Businesses Measure Productivity of Remote Employees?
There are many ways to measure the work remote employees. Employers and workers can establish performance goals and benchmarks to ensure desired productivity and the actual work gets done. Most people (who don’t live in a cave) are immediately accessible through cell phones and chat clients if co-workers or managers need them.
Resources:
www.telework.gov/
Resources for business, managers and employees who are engaged in a telework program.
http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=44465
Teleworking gains popularity with government agencies.
www.workingfromanywhere.org
WorldatWork is committed to advancing telework – the ability to work from anywhere – as a tool to attract, motivate and retain talent. In 2005, WorldatWork acquired ITAC to form the Telework Advisory Group of WorldatWork.
Cleanair Campaign
Facts on environment, traffic congestion and teleworking.
Sep
7
Online Photo Editor -Beautifully Simple
September 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment
I couldn’t edit a png file in Gimp. Fireworks and Photoshop were on my other computer. So, after a quick search, I found this great online photo editor called pixlr.com.
No registration and no annoying ads -just upload your photo and edit away. The Flash based interface looks a lot like Photoshop so it is easy to navigate. You can even open multiple files for layering.
If you need to edit to a WordPress header image but don’t have a program that will read png files, or you need to clean up a photo quickly, give pixlr.com a try.
Aug
10
Posterous Saves Time with Auto-posting !
August 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Okay, if you haven’t guessed it by now, I’m a big fan of blog syndication. Post it once and share it ten-fold –or more. I found a great blog site that multiplies my efforts. All I have to do is post it once via the web, or even in an email and it automatically gets posted into the other sites below. Its called Posterous.
With just one blog post through Posterous, I can auto-fill the content to the following 11 blog sites and social networking sites. All of these accounts are free.
Of course there are still some sites which require me to post manually (ehow, articlesbase, ezinearticles, etc..) and I would not use this method for exclusive content (as a guest blogger or a featured article), but for those daily blog posts and business articles, auto-posting is a real time-saver!
Aug
10
10 Noteworthy iPhone Apps For Goofing Off
August 10, 2009 | Leave a Comment
There are many useful iPhone apps out there. But sometimes you just need to kill time. Whether you are waiting in an airport or you are stuck in a mind-numbing meeting or lecture, these iPhone apps will make the time you spend in boredom purgatory a little more entertaining.
#1 Rag Doll Blaster
This game is simple in concept, but not so easy to master. Superbly designed by Backflip Studios, you’ll be astounded with the real physics used to measure the distance, power, and angle to shoot rag dolls across various obstacles. There is a free version called Rag Doll Blaster Lite ($2)
#2 iStooges
Includes 72 motion-activated sound effects and voice clips from your three favorite knuckleheads, Larry, Moe and Curley. Amuse yourself a “nyuk nyuk”, a “slap Ooh”, or a “soitenly.” (Coming soon in the app store)
#3 Trace
What a time-killer! With this quarky iPhone app, you can draw your own paths and erase lines you made by mistake in order to get through moving obstacles and reach the destination. It’s really easy to play but gets tricky and keeps you playing for hours –and if not, at least several minutes. (free)
#4 Paper Toss
This is the iPhone version of the original office game of tossing the scrunched up paper into the basket. This version throws some extras in the mix to make it interesting such as fans and other interfering objects. (free)
#5 Madlibs
Just like the game you used to play when you were a kid. Type in a series of adjectives and nouns and you get a crazy story cranked out with the words you used. (Free)
#6 Dream Dictionary
Interpret what your dreams mean with the dream dictionary. If you and your friends have a lot of crazy, random dreams, you will be sure to get a lot of use from this application. If not, at least a lot of laughs. ($1)
#7 Chimp Adventure
In this game, you have to memorize numbers and several humorous missions that appear only for a few seconds then press them in the right order after they get hidden. This is a productive time killer as it trains your memory. ($1)
#8 Face Melter
Morph your photos into freaky works of art. By dragging your finger across the screen, you can elongate exaggerate, and warp your friend’s faces. ($2)
#9 The Moron Test
This game features a collection of more than 100 brain-teasing puzzles that challenge you to see how many you can solve in record-breaking time. Scores range from moron to genius. ($1)
#10 iDoodle
This simple drawing tool allows you to draw any number of lines, polygons, circles, and squares in an array of colors. The iDoodle app also lets you to set up an online gallery where you can share your mini-masterpieces with the world. ($2)
Did I mention that I write for San-antonio.apartmentguide.com?
Jul
26
When Online Worlds Collide
July 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment
“My worlds are colliding, Jerry!” says George Costanza on Seinfeld.
The internet has never been easier to test Seinfeld’s theory of colliding worlds. Our public identities are mixing with our personal identities as we add bosses, co-workers, and clients to join us on social networking sites. Most people are not really sure about the etiquette either. Will it be reflected poorly if you choose not to add your employer as a friend on Facebook or if you block a co-worker from following you on Twitter?
Welcome to my personal life.
It may be easy for many people to draw the line and separate their online lives. But for those of us with jobs based around SEO copywriting and online marketing, it gets really tricky. Take for example the recently posted job from Best Buy. Best Buy was looking to fill the roll of “Sr. Manager – Emerging Media Marketing Job.” In addition to the basic social networking experience and criteria, one of the requirements for applying to the job was that the “applicant must have 250 or more followers on Twitter”. Could that be his personal 250 friends and family members or, do they want 250 strangers? And does it even matter what the Best Buy applicant twitters about? Apparently not -at least, not according to the job post.
Ready to be an online spokesperson?
Large companies, in the race to outrank their competitors in Google searches, are trying to find creative ways to take advantage of social media. Coca Cola, a company renowned for its marketing genius, is among thousands of companies inviting people to become product fans on Facebook and follow them on Twitter. Not surprisingly, it doesn’t always work. For all the Coca Cola lovers in the world, there are only 4,505 Coca Cola Twitter followers as of the date of this post (I’m sure that there are at least that many employees worldwide). Tweets like “Coca Cola wishes you a happy weekend” and “Coca Cola loves you the way you are” can only go so far. Many people may like to drink Coca Cola, but why would anyone want to be bombarded with marketing messages? Of course there are always giveaways and contests, but you still have to get the word out.
In order to really pull off social networking to its full extent, companies must rely on professionals who, not only master social networking skills, but who also may have access to a large audience. In some cases, employees are expected to act as online spokespeople on behalf of their company. While this makes sense for those who own their own business, it gets tricky for freelance copywriters and full-time internet marketing employees -not to mention the companies who hire these people and trust them with the integrity of their brand.
Mixing content and double dipping…
Writing online content is the easy part, but when it comes to link building and SEO, the most important part is online publishing. Most blog and article syndication sites require writers to have a personal profile. So, do you use your own name and bio or do you come up with a name that reflects the company you are writing for? There are advantages and disadvantages to both. To be on the safe side, I like to use my real name and also give credit to the company. “April Lentini writes for Apartmentguide.com“. (Cha Ching, yet one more backlink for my employer -and I’m not even on the clock!)
If you use your real name on personal blog accounts, is it okay to post other articles for other companies on the same site? (Again, there are advantages and disadvantages to both.) Also, some article sites like associatedcontent.com or eHow.com allow you to earn money for your articles. Technically, if you are writing these articles on company time, should you be allowed to keep the money? Opinions vary, and in many cases, companies who hire SEO writers have not yet thought through these details.
It’s an exciting time for online copywriting. There are so many creative opportunities for branding, internet publishing, networking, and buzz marketing. SEO writers are not just writers, we are also online publicists pushing keywords, social networking, and link building. But as the lines continue to blur between our own professional image and the brand we are paid to represent, we must all proceed with caution.
Feb
13
Mozilla Add-ons for SEO Geeks
February 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment
One of the reasons that I love using Mozilla Firefox is because of its add-ons. If you manage a website, you are probably interested in how you (and your competitors) show up in organic Google searches, if your site is being tracked properly by Google analytics, and how your site is linked.
SEO Quake
In the search engine query, this add-on tells you the Google Page Rank, number of indexed pages within a website, and the number of links pointing to the page. It also has an option tool bar that goes a little bit more in detail with Yahoo page rank results as well.
Google Preview
This is another add-on that lists popularity ranks of web sites into the Google and Yahoo search results pages. However, it comes with a significant bonus feature. Search results in Google come with a thumbnail preview of websites. I find this visual reference a real timesaver –especially when I’m looking for a website that I’ve already visited but don’t remember the domain.
Alexa Sparky
This highly rated add-on shows up on your status bar. It provides SEO information including popularity, Reach and Rank, and related links for each page.
Feb
5
Keyword Research For Web Sites
February 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Writing for a corporate blog is not exactly the work of artistic prose. In fact, web writing is very calculated. You need to hit on strategically placed keywords while making the content flow with a friendly, un-staged tone. Well, I guess you can get creative with that last bit…
Here are two web sites that will help you stay on track of key word content and find out what people are typing in Google:
Google’s Adwords Keyword Generator (Free)
Type in a key word and Google will give you dozens of related search words and term. It also ranks the keywords in popularity.
http://keywordspy.com/ (Not so Free)
I’ve been told by SEO gurus that this is site is a “must have” for web writers. This is heavy duty key word research that allows you to see what words your competitors are using.
Jan
30
Digital Design on a Recession Budget
January 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment
As the only marketing person hired by my company, many times, I’m also the graphic designer. Designing brochures, flyers, web pages, and html email is fun. But, it can also be challenging if your marketing budget does not allow you to purchase full-blown graphic software used by industry professionals. Fortunately, I’ve found some alternatives.
Open source is the way to go. There are a few powerful OS programs out there that can do what you need them to do. Here are four programs (completely free!) that have proven useful for my basic design needs:
Photo Manipulation
Don’t want to pay 700 dollars for Adobe Photoshop? Try Gimp. This open source software has many of the features that Photoshop uses. Cropping, adding text to photos, and creating images from other graphics. Gimp is very user-friendly and intuitive -especially if you are already used to Adobe products.
Vector-Based Drawing Tool
No everyone can afford to blow their marketing budget on Adobe Illustrator. However, Inkscape is a powerful vector-based graphic program that will probably do the trick for the marketing needs of most small to medium businesses. Inkscape opens and saves .EPS files -a useful feature when you work with professional printers.
HTML Editor
When I was a web designer, Dreamweaver was my program of choice. Not much of a code person, I like the visual WYSIWYG platforms. A nice little compact mini version of Dreamweaver is called Nvu. Like Dreamweaver, Nvu lets you alternate between source code view and user-friendly WYSIWYG view. This program has come in really handy when I need to create a web form or even a quick html email newsletter.
Blogging / CMS
Of course, don’t forget about good old WordPress. This is one of my favorite blogging software programs and its completely free and very powerful. If you are looking for a news blog for your company web site, there is no need to pay your web designer for a custom-built version. WordPress blogs are increasingly SEO friendly and provide you with the capability of creating an entire web site.
Aug
26
Why Your Business Web site Needs A Blog
August 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Remember when blogging was for whiny, tormented souls who poured their hearts out into personal digital diaries? Bloggers were, (and some still are) ridiculed for their lengthy rants, endless opinions and poor writing skills. So who would have thought that respectable businesses and large companies would be looking for bloggers to provide content for their business websites?
Business websites have long surpassed the electronic billboard commercials of the 1990′s. If you found this blog post, it’s because you already know that your business web site needs dynamic content in order to be successful. Internet users read blogs to get all sorts of information and that is why big companies are taking their blog sites seriously.
In fact, corporate blogging has become so main stream that Coca Cola, Microsoft, Walmart, Proctor and Gample, and General Motors are a few of the big companies who founded the Blog Council, a community of senior executives in charge implementing online social media for their businesses.
Whether you run a big business or own small company, here are five things to consider before starting a business blog:
- CMS (Content Management System)
You will need blogging software for your website if your web designers do not already have something set up. Open source software is a popular way to go. WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla are three popular OS programs that you can taylor-design using themes, modules, and widgets. You can create an entire website usings these programs (like I did,) or you can taylor design your site to match the look of your current website.
… - Define Your Content Plan
So who is this blog for and what do you want to talk about? What information do you want to share with customers, potential clients, or employees? Will you have photos, videos, or other media? How often will you add content? Large companies may have a team of full time blogger “experts” offering advice on various topics. Some companies hire writers to provide engaging articles related to their business. You should have a clear idea of the kind of content you will provide on your site as well as how often you want to keep it updated.
… - Developing Style and Personality
The web tends to be more relaxed. For a blog, even the stuffiest of companies can expect to carry a more casual tone. (That doesn’t mean that you don’t have to be professional.) Just remember that when you are writing for the web, you are speaking directly to the reader as your friend. You just need to decide what kind of friend you want to be. For example, do you want to be the “know-it-all” friend, the “tell-it-like-it-is” friend, or the “observant” friend? Whatever personality or tone that you choose, it’s important to remain consistent.
… - Handling Responses, Comments & Discussions
Many business blogs do not allow comments on their posts. Others believe that comments are a good way to measure the success of their blog. If your business blog encourages responses to articles or discussions, it’s important to keep up with them. If not, you could end up with all kinds of embarrassing spam, inappropriate comments, or unanswered questions left by attentive readers.
… - Promoting, Tracking and Monitoring
If you want readers to find your blog posts and articles, you need to promote your site. SEO friendly blog posts are helpful, but there are are many ways to direct readers to your site. Blogging networks like Technoroti, Digg, and Zimbio can help you get exposure. Tracking your blog’s pages is important because it can help you determine what posts are popular and what readers want to know about. You can do this with Google Analytics or other tracking and monitoring services.
April Lentini -Content Specialist
I produce engaging content for web pages, blogs and online publications.
Click here for an interview.