Creating an HTML sitemap and a XML sitemap for your website could be the easiest thing you do to improve your exposure on the web. For those of you who pay close attention to the search engine optimization (SEO) of your site, this could be the one thing that gets you onto the first page of Google's results. For those who don't devote too much time on the SEO of their site - this is a good place to start. By submittíng a sitemap to various search engines, you are telling them that you exist and what pages your site has to offer the World Wide Web. There are two types of sitemaps, HTML and XML. An HTML sitemap provides a useful directory of all the pages that are in your site. While XML sitemaps play an important role in helping the search engine "crawl" the various pages of...

Continue reading Sitemaps and SEO

Sincerity: The 'Secret Sauce' for Effective Marketing A couple years ago, I was talking with someone who was, for me, a very challenging client. I'm all about cultivating relationships that result in opportunities to sell. This particular client seemed allergic to cultivating relationships for reasons I didn't ever really understand. I remember one such meeting, I was trying to explain to my client the wisdom of first creating trust and credibility before trying to get a sale. And my client was blocking me at every turn with reasons why relationship development would not work for their business. It was maddening. Finally, I cried with exasperation, "Well, why the heck do you want to keep working with me since my approach doesn't work for you?" "Because you're sincere," the client replied. "Who cares" I thought to myself since it didn't seem to be to helping my client grow their business....

Continue reading Sincerity: The 'Secret Sauce' for Effective Marketing

The social media movement has expanded the number of people we can reach and connect with on a personal level. The new relationships and connections we create with people all over the world can have a profound effect on our personal and business growth. We learn about cultures and nations that we were, perhaps, previously ignorant of. None of this is a new concept, but what may be is how quickly you can destroy your business by using social media incorrectly. Transparency is a Utopian Concept Not too long ago, Michael Fortin wrote an article titled Don't Be Transparent, Be Authentic Instead. That article is an important read for any social media wrangling business blogger and you can search for it online. That article is the tip of the iceberg in the concept of 'transparency' being too Utopian to work within the jaded confines of our society. Of course,...

Continue reading How You Use Social Media Can Kill Your Business