Today, I am weighing in on my small business and how it all began.  In April, 2000, I got started in natural spa products after leaving a micro-managed job to pursue something on my own but what that was, I didn't have a clue. Natural bath and body products were an interest and I was curious as to how they were made. I started selling/making natural soaps for a company in Seattle that was in need for independent reps. Later, the owner was no longer interested in the business so I decided to create Cactus & Ivy. Now, here I ...

Are you attracting a lot of “fish” to your small business website but not catching them? Think of your website as a fishing rod and online marketing (Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click, online advertising, etc) as your bait. Online marketing attracts fish to bite your bait. But what reels them in? Leave that to page optimization or website conversion techniques. What are conversions?  Conversions are the action of a random visitor “converting” to a lead, sale, phone call, or registration. Conversion rate is the metrics used to determine how often visitors turn into sales or leads. Conversion rates vary in every ...

Many people are starting to discover the phenomenon of online backup. What is it? How does it work? Is it secure? How much does it cost? Let’s dive into this from the top down. Data storage, over the past few years, has seriously come down in cost. Many companies have since invested in creating data centers with massive storage capacity and with this capacity they offer companies around the world, that have a high speed internet connection,  the ability to use this storage space for secure off-site data backup. Is there an upside to this or does this make sense for ...

In today's world, the internet is just as important as electricity, heat, AC, food, and water when it comes to running any kind of business. The size of your business ultimately affects how you shop for an ISP (Internet Service Provider). Now keep in mind that there are several different kinds, sizes, and shapes of businesses so I am going to have to keep this topic broad. Let's break our business categories into 3 different choices, small, medium and large businesses. The first option to review is small business which could be run out of an office or a home office. ...

You must be so relieved. You FINALLY have a website. It looks hip. You’re getting lots of compliments and the content that took your spouse over a year to write is pretty good. So why isn’t your phone ringing? Well, first of all, your website is NOT the field of dreams. Remember the movie where the ghost whispers, “Build it, they will come.” A better title for your website would be “Build it, and it will get lost amongst 2 billion other websites.” But don’t get frustrated, because getting targeted traffic to your website may not be as overwhelming (or ...

In a conversation with a musician the other day I was posed a hypothetical question that made my mouth drop open: "so the internet is where things are moving, huh?"  Shocked, I politely declared that this is the year 2008 and the internet has been "where things are moving" since before the freak-out of the Y2K end-of-the-world hilariousness. Obviously, taking your business to "where things are moving" starts with some kind of company site.  The question is - How do you use this site?  Or, even more pressing, How do you leverage the vastness of the web to bring people back ...

Listen up folks, newspapers are piling up unread on your kitchen floor, and yellow pages are best served as a booster for your 2 year old at the dinner table. So how are your customers going to find your local business? Well, most of your prospects are spending their time nuzzling their laptop in front of the boob tube watching the Olympics (is synchronized swimming really a sport- c'mon!). And in between reading blogs on albino sea horses, people might actually be searching the internet for YOUR services. My question for you is, if someone goes to Google and looks ...