Lead Generation Training Calls

I ran across some training calls from Moon Advertising Solutions tonight (umm...so they'd been in my inbox since June). Moon Advertising Solutions is a lead generation company which has 5 training calls online. Bootcamp 1, 2, 3 of 5, (I wonder where 4 and 5 are :-) ) Q & A, and Quick Tips for Prospecting Leads. I haven't listened to them all yet - it's not a good idea to navigate away from the website while you are listening to them.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Duplicate Content

I got a great article in a newsletter yesterday.

Then today, I got the exact same article, in a different newsletter. I'd just signed up for the second newsletter, and it's the first newsletter that I got from them, so I'm really disappointed. Not only did they take someone else's article, and make that their entire newsletter, they pretty much stole the name of the article for the newsletter. That shows me that these people put about 5 minutes of thought into their newsletter, and into their customers.

Now I don't mind using other people's articles..but to mail it out in a newsletter the day after the original person mailed it, is a bit much. If they had written, "I ran across this article by so and so yesterday" it would have been a little bit better. But they didn't. They wrote "I ran across this article recently, check it out." So I went ahead and clicked on the link, and found the same article I'd read yesterday - only now it was full of google ads :-(

In addition to this I noted that although most articles that are available for reprint say something along the lines of "please feel free to reprint this as long as you leave this resource box at the bottom" there was no resource box on this page. I even looked up the original article, and although I couldn't find it, all the other articles that were available on the original author's website, had a resource box, and a message at the bottom saying that you could reprint the article, as long as you included the resource box, and emailed a copy of the reprint back to the original author.

So not only was I reading the same article I'd read yesterday, the second newsletter writer had effectively stolen all of the traffic and interest that the original author worked so hard for, by failing to include the resource box.

Now I don't mind using articles that are available for reprint on your website, or even in your newsletters, but if you are going to use those articles, there are some things to consider.

First, you must abide by the conditions the author put on that article. If the author says you can reprint this article, just make sure included the resource box, then by all means reprint the article, and make sure you include the resource box.

After all, the author has spent time and energy writing that article, and if they are willing to share it with you, and help you provide interesting material for your users, then by all means give the author some credit!

If you don't, you might risk losing more than a few clicks on your site-you might risk losing the credibility of your business, and of yourself. After all, if I can't trust you to do something as simple as copy an entire article, resource box and all, to your site, how can I trust you to give me good advice about business? How can I trust you to accurately describe the items you are selling? How can I trust anything you say?

Second, if you are going to use articles from other sources to place on your website, you need to add your own information to those pages, so that you don't risk being penalized for duplicate content by the search engines. In the same vein, if you yourself are writing articles for dispersal, you need to make sure that there is enough extra content on the page that your articles are on on your website, so that you don't get banned for duplicate content either.
After all, the point of sharing articles is to help bring more traffic to your site, and if your site gets banned from Google, than those articles will be doing the exact opposite of what you intended.

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Telecommuting post

Hi! I put up a post about telecommuting at Mystical Beauty's Musings since a lot of people had questions about how I got my telecommuting position.

I hope you enjoy it!

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Recycling Packing Peanuts

If you’re like me and you have a ton of packing peanuts lying around, but you feel bad throwing them away, check out the peanut hotline.

You can find drop off sites, sign up to be a member of the hotline for $30 a year, and learn more about recycling efforts and peanuts, or loose fill packaging, as peanuts are officially charged.

Although $30 can be an expensive amount for some businesses to spend, there are benefits to becoming a member-not only do you get packing material for free - and that stuff can be expsensive! You also get free advertising from the loose fill council, since your results will show up when customers look for drop off sites in their areas.

So go ahead and check out the peanut hotline. Whether you accept donations, or just donate your unwanted peanuts, you will be helping the environment, and you will have a great answer when people ask you "What is your business doing to help the environment?"

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

More Free Banners

How could I forget ad designer when I was listing the free banners and buttons?

Although I wouldn't use this for long term professional use, because it does have a note on the bottom that says free ad by addesigner.com, I would use it to get an idea of the type of banner I want, and to play around with designs, animations, colors, and sizes.

If you need a banner quickly for a top sites list, or something of that matter, where you have to have a banner now, this would also be a great way to get an attention getting banner up until you can get something more professional looking!

Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah

Wanna know what your website looks like on a MAC?

Have you ever wondered what your site looks like on a MAC? It's important to know how your site appears on other computers, and in other browsers, because if your site doesn't show up clearly, and if it isn't easy to navigate, people are less likely to stick around and explore your site, and if they don't explore your site...they aren't going to buy your products, so you are losing business.

At the screenshot generator, you can choose to view a screenshot of your website on Safari, Mac Internet explorer, Camino, and Mozilla for Macintosh. This is a free service, but you can make a donation if you like.


Best Wishes For a Prosperous Business,

Sarah