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Is your business on an empty street?

20120629-073556.jpg You can get up each day and go to work. If no one calls or comes into you business you are not getting far. If someone in your local area is looming for you and can’t find you again no business. No life.
So each day get up with a purpose. Decide it is going to work today. In my life I worked very hard for a long time 7 years. There were times I thought it was going to work and others I just wanted to give up. It was not until a major life change that I took a step back and let it happen. Now we are on a great road work is coming and I have people to help. Sometimes we just push too hard and get in our own way.
So get out of the way, make your business what you want it to be.
Find your path, find the way to make it work for you.
Have a peaceful day. I am going to start my yoga.
Bob

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Seed your web content all around the web.

20120524-072856.jpg If you want food in the late spring and summer you need to start planting now. It is the same with your Internet Marketing it take time to grow.
You must engage you visitors get them talking about you products. Don't try to plant too many messages into any one email. It will only confuse the message. Keep your message free from weeds and extra words.

Above all just get out there, read, create content, take pictures, comment on other blogs. Get involved
in the conversation.

If you put yourself out you will be surprised at the. Creating content on your blog the Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and the new one pintrest. Are all good.
Get up and do it now!
Have a peaceful day.
Bob

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Find a community in the fog.

20120523-062358.jpgOver cast, gloomy you wake up in the morning and look outside. That is what you see. In life we all have choices we can look at the fog and wish the sun would be out or we can see that the fog give water and life to nature. It serves a purpose. We really don't need to know what that purpose is. Just accept it.
Life throws many things at us every day. Live your life with an open heart and open eyes and you will know what to do.
In a few weeks we are going to start a weekly Internet workshop. It will be a place to ask those silly question. Meet with others in the community to talk about SEM, Content Creation, Design, credit card acceptance, email marketing. All that and more. We will build our online community with support of our physical community. If you are in Great Barrington stop by. June 4th between 5-7 at Fuel the coffee shop. Bring you laptop be ready to give and learn what we have to offer.
The coffee and tea will be hot and the support will be strong.
If you are not around here. Find some other businesses in your community to meet with. Allow your physical community to support your online community.
Have a peaceful day.
Bob

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Love what you do and it will grow.

20120522-053020.jpgIn my life and travels around the world I have seen many religions, many ways of life. The one thing that they all had in common at their core was love.
I think that is a strong driving force. It is one of the things that gets us up every morning.
Our companies need love too. They demand time and energy. If we want them to grow we have to take steps to make it happen. I was talking to a marketing director of a local non-profit yesterday. She said we can't afford you and I'm the only one to make this happen. In that situation you have think outside the box as they say. Ask the question. "what can I do to make a difference?"
I believe more every day the Internet is the way, to teach, to reach, and to bring people, real people together. And for those non-profits out there bringing people together create power and excitement for you organization.
Love what you do. Enjoy it, but remember you can't do it alone. If you don't have the money to pay then ask for help. See what happens. Find a way to make it work. To use the Internet to make your organization grow! You have to make time and take that first step. Now start you day with love and peace. See where it brings you.
Have a peaceful day.
Bob

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We live in the Berkshires…

20120517-061244.jpg We live in the. Berkshires of Massachusetts. We live here because it is beautiful, fresh, good food, local food, good local Artists, and theatre. We live here to raise our children. It is not so easy to make a living. If you are not depending on second homers, and tourists. You are supporting a company that does.
The Internet is a way out of that. It allows us to do what we want and still live here. To live in a small community you must work together to build your business.
Starting on June 4th we are going to have a new way to work together, build each others company and outs all at the same time. We will meet at Fuel coffee shop in Great Barrington MA. To support and work on our web presence together. Using the power of our local community to build community on the we web!
Join us, bring your laptop, net book, and come to work with us. We will be there from 5 to 7 starting Monday June 4th. Make a difference in you life and you community.
Have a peaceful day.
Bob

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Energy to get it done.

20120515-070640.jpg A coffee shop with the name Fuel is one of the places I go to have client meetings. I is a nice place to talk have a tea and just work done.
Finding your pace is important. To everyone, we thing of runners. But it really applies to business owners also. How do I get all done and still have time for myself? The first change is to think of yourself first and give your clients real expectations. Decide what you need to do for yourself first!
Yes I have said it twice. It is the core. When you are running a business it is a multi year marathon. If you burn yourself out too soon you will fail. Make a plan or have a clear vision. How do you get to the point where you can have someone else doing the work for you so you can focus on growing your business. If you need help planning, get the help! There many resources around the help you manage your planning.
Just like your web site you business is always changing. If you have been doing things one way for a long time, look around, are there news ways of doing it? In less time? Less cost?
Bottom line if you feel like you are in a rut need a change. You are! Get up look around what’s you gets you fired up. You don’t need to work 18 hours in a day forever.
Again start with you, find out what you need. Then you will be in a better place to help you client, employees, and vendors make you business sing,
Have great and peaceful day.
Bob

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As the rain brings life, content brings visitors.

As I looked outside this morning I saw a Robin on the lawn looking for worms.  I remembered the saying "the early bird catches the worm".  That is not always true. Recent studies have shown the best time to put up your post is between 1pm and 3pm EST weekdays.

20120514-073540.jpg It works for me to write posts in the morning before the phones start ringing and my day starts.  Should I post them later?  I think we give it a try and find out.  Will more people see it?  I know a few things.  It will go off of Facebook and Twitter faster.  It is when people take lunch, more to the point when they get back from lunch and check Facebook.  I also know that my sites ranking has steadily going up.  I have been getting more Twitter followers, and more Facebook friends.  It is starting to work.  Also if you have not guessed by now I have for the most part been posting from my phone.  It is forcing me to keep it short, sweet, and to the point, although the spell check can be a challenge.  Try it, post every day.  Talk about you and your company.  Do it for the health of you business.  Do it for the future.  Do it now!
Have a beautiful and peaceful day.
Bob

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A place to work your on your web presence and talk SEM.

Come one, come all.  Every Monday night starting in June.  Look for times in the next few weeks.  We are going to meet at Fuel in Great Barrington, MA. to talk Internet Marketing, SEO, Blogging, and whatever you need to get help on.

20120513-062458.jpg it will be a place for networking in the real world.  We all work together to succeed online.  If all you do is create one post a week that will be more than most and you will see you web site rise in the ranking.

It is something that all businesses need but just don't have the money to pay for.  This will be a drop-in workshop to work on your web site at you pace.  There will be no stress, no hassles.  Just support to get you on you way.  Come down join your friends and community to build a strong online presence for the Berkshires. I will talk about it more the closer we get.  Have a great and peaceful Sunday.
Bob

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Gardens need tending, and so does your web site.

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A garden needs to be prepared. It must be plowed, the rich soil needs to be exposed to bring the nutrient to the surface.
Your website and web presence is the same: you must turn up the keywords that will feed the searches that your potential visitors make.
To do this you need to do the research.  Keyword research is the plow.

Look at your stats, what words are visitors using to find you?

Are they the words that you want to be found for?

Once you have made these lists use a tool like Googles keyword tool to identify the right combination of word that are the most searched.  Add those words to your content and you will be found in more places on the web.  Using the correct words can make the difference between bringing the right visitors to your site or to to your competitor's sites.
People that want to learn more, buy, our give your organization money.  Or the people that don't really care, look for a moment and raise your bounce stats.
It can be the difference between success and failure.
Learn about keywords.  Read on the web or call us we can help.
Have a peaceful day.
Bob

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Like day over coming night, SEO can over come low rankings.

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Every morning the earth turns and night becomes day. As sure as that is we have to get up and tend to our web sites. If you had a brick and mortar store you would not expect anyone to buy anything from you if you did not open your doors. It is the same with your web site. If you don’t open the door and put out the sign that says “OPEN” no one is going to find you.
Are not doing everything you can to make it work. Are not putting in 100%. These are questions that we have to answer for our-self’s. We are the only ones that know if we are putting in a 100%. Honestly it is not anyone else’s job to tell us. If our business is struggling then it is up to us to make it work. Even if we are doing fine, can we say that we are getting comfortable with what is going on.
Are we ready if we get blind sided in the future? Look back at the 90s. Everything was going great. Then the world changed. Blame who you want but it is up to us to control our lives and make our businesses grow. We are the only ones that we can depend on. The Internet is alive with the minds of everyone on it. Just trying to do what they feel they should. We can make a difference.

How do you fit? Who are you talking to? Where are they? What do they need to know?
What do I want my visitors to do on my site? How can I collect emails? How do I build community around my site?

These are all questions that we need to answer, over and over again. I am going to talk about each of these over the coming days. But even before I do what are the answers for your business?

Take some time have a cup of tea or coffee. Think about what you need your site to do for you. Make a plan and and take it one step at a time. Do it from a mindful place. In other words take each task one at a time. Put 100% of you into each task! This will help you succeed. This will get you where you need to go and you will be proud of the results. Don’t get me wrong this is not an easy thing to do. If it was everyone would already be doing it. But you are special, you are a business owner. As President Obama says “Small business is the back bone of our Country”
Sometimes we need to kick ourself’s in the pants to get going. Do it now! Make a difference in your business today! Keep reading and we will take this journey together. One day at a time. One step at a time. One post at time.

Keep the faith in yourself and have a peaceful day.

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The more we do, can be a thing…

20120504-062238.jpg Every day we get we wake, get out of bed. Just like billions of other people around the world. What makes us different, unique? That is something you have to find in yourself . By your spiritual practice or through looking inward. As it becomes clear you need to act, make a move, start down that path. Then make course correction along the way. Almost every morning I wake up make time for myself and the write the next post. If you read back you will see how I have been fining my focus. No matter hard we try to put on a face, we are all learning every day. Sometime we don't want to hear or see it, but it is there. Right in front of us. If we just open our eyes, take the time to smell the flowers. We will find that path for us. When it comes to Internet Marketing, SEO/SEM. We need to find our path there also. Look at your work/business see what parts of it you Love find a way to talk about it. Like you are talking to friends. It is OK to make mistakes, that is life. Own up to them and move on. If you want to make a change in the life of you internet presence you just need to start. Start looking at the stats on your website, Facebook, LinkedIn, what are people doing on you site, what are they reading? How do you use what you feel passion about to change people's lives? Take some time right now. Think about it. Close your eyes make a difference. If we all work each day to be our best self the world will be a better place. Thanks for letting me in to your life. Have a peaceful day.

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Lighting a fire.

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Each day when I light the candles I find the wicks buried in a little wax. Once I light them the wax melts and they start to burn bright.
We need to make marketing our service or product the like that candle. We need to melt away the things that are holding us back. Get on track and work out a way to achieve our goals.
Reaching out to Facebook friends and asking a question is one way. Start the conversation. Then be involved and lead it. This will not only establish you as an authority but set you on a path to allowing your visitors/clients to get to know you. That will help them to buy your service. Everyone wants to buy from a friend.
Have a peaceful day.

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The weekend find time to post for the week.

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Finding a few hours on the weekend to create posts for you web site can be a great way to deal with a busy week.
Wordpress allow you to schedule you posts to go up all week.
Sit down make a cup of tea think about the last week of you work. What questions did people ask, what did you learn new. Those are the kinds of things that will feed others in their quest for knowledge.
Help the world grow. Give back and you will receive.
Have a great day.

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Overcome the storms

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Every day I get up and say that I am going to start marketing my business/web site. Everyday life happens. It seems like there is always something that stops me.
Today I looked at the sun trying to get through the clouds. The sun that warms our planet. The Internet is a lot like that solar system we are in. It is hard for us to wrap our heads around how big and powerful it is. The Internet is made up of tens of billions of pages. How am I going ever be seen.
You don't have to over come all of them just the one that , like the cloud blocking us from our visitors. It might be that you have a personal business like yoga or you sell propane to your local area. You just need to be seen by them . And you can do this by creating information/ content that will help those people, the real people in your area to live a better life.
Your clients will read it on Facebook or your web site tell their friends and that will help your business grow.

Remember it is the fund drive for WBCR this week. So listen to Computer Therapy today at 10 am and give to the station. Help us keep it going.
Have a peaceful day.

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As the sun comes up every day…

As the Sun comes up in the east we see the new day. We need to think about our business, our clients, and our goals. Focus can give us a clear mind to get our name out, sell our product/service. Each day we need to find the best way to reach out.
Keyword research is important in your writing. Using the right words can make all the difference in the search engines.