Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Small Business Survey

From SB Cal -

Last week I sent you our annual survey and the response has been a bit slow as we have just under 100 responses. Please take a few moments to complete the survey and forward to other small business owners. This is our chance to tell legislators and the Governor what small business is thinking and what are our concerns.

The results of the survey will be sent to every legislators and the governors office. It also sets the agenda for Small Business California.

Please help us help you.

http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/survey-intro.zgi?p=WEB228QR44U46V

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Thursday, January 22, 2009

Small Business Advocate

We recently had a chance to sit down with Scott Hauge - President of Small Business California.

Mr. Hauge has been a leading advocate in paving the way for small and medium sized businesses. He has introduced government legislation that has affected business on local, state and national levels. He is considered one of the insurance industry’s leaders in setting guidelines and has received numerous awards and countless commendations for his efforts. Most recently Mr. Hauge was named Small Business Advocate of the Year 2007 by the National Small Business Association (NSBA).

Scott Hague - Small Business California

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Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Is your website working?

The web design is pretty - but is there anyone visiting? Do you know your bounce rate? We can help.

Send an email for a free 10 point analysis

info@
dohertyassoc.com

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Wednesday, January 14, 2009

January Update

Back in September, we promised to update you as to what we were doing to the site and its impact on our ranking.

At the time (9/22), Dohertyassoc.com has a traffic rank of: 3,740,178. In October, it had a traffic rank of 1,969,422, and currently Doherty's traffic rank is 1,183,946.

In the last month or so, we went through and updated the look of the site. Doesn't matter what the site ranking is, if the site itself is outdated or there is no new content. First and foremost, would you want to visit your site? Is the content fresh, relevant?
  • We transferred our Business Articles out pdf formats into html files and optimized the new pages.
  • Created a new SF Business Services page on a WordPress format to optimize the SEO friendliness of the blog format and its tagging.
  • Updated the sitemap with google.
  • Created a Twitter account and created a tweet feed from The Art of Doing Business Blog - if your on Twitter say hello - FitBizTools.
Most of what we did was clean up prior to launching a serious SEO push. And now the fun begins . . .

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Thursday, January 08, 2009

SF Business Services

We recognize that it takes much more than financial support to get a company off the ground, thus we provide assistance in every aspect along the way allowing you to develop and grow a profitable business. Our team offers basic business services including bookkeeping, notary public, inventory management, e-Commerce solutions and more.

SF business services

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Sunday, January 04, 2009

We do it so you don't have to . . .

OK, actually we do it so that we can pass along our experience to you -

We tweet, there we said it. First step is acknowledgment, right? I like Twitter. It allows us to post links and messages when we update the blogs. We can be found there as FitBizTools.

New to Twitter - these Ten Top Twitter Tips should help you get started.

It seems to be the "gadget" of the moment - MySpace is so 2007! Passing fad? Internet Revolution? We wanted to know what you thought and here is what you told us -
  • I used twitter for a few months, but I ended up deleting my account. I don't mind a bit of social networking, but Twitter, as someone else said, seems far too invasive and high-maintenance. Posting once a day, sure, but then I want to post something meaty. Posting 20 times a day with 140 characters strikes me more of a waste of time, or at least a non-significant method of information propogation. "At work. Have coffee!" "Accident on way home. Avoid I-40." etc. just isn't what I'm looking for -- or giving out -- as far as my interests are concerned.
  • Some people have said that "old-fashioned" (can something be "old fashioned" if it's only a few years old?) blogs are dead, but I love them. Give me a good blog any day, rather than Twitter, Facebook, or Myspace.
  • I love Twitter! If you want to find out more about it and what it can do for you, I suggest you follow @guykawasaki. He is really sharp, and has great articles about promoting yourself or your business, as well as posting links to some funny or interesting articles or websites.
  • Totally! I'm always looking for new and interesting things in the world blog about.
  • Twitter is like going to a party and walking around. Some people never stop talking, some say one interesting thing as you pass by, some are just Oscar Wilde witty or down right funny (a nice break in information flow), some make you stop and chat for a minute. I follow some people for fun, some for sustainability, some for marketing, some for technology, etc. Most, including me, tie it to other networking sites. It is a tool to be used in networking, not an end unto itself. It keeps me up to date with a group of people, and I can look into their blog posts if I like, email them for more info, and keep them abreast of what I am doing. If you are doing something cool, you are likely to get more attention from your twitter group that a press release. For it to be of benefit, you have to keep your end of the conversation going and tell other people when you see one of your group doing something great-otherwise you are just the wallflower at the party that everybody wonders about. As we see the death of print media, and the rise of web 2.0, those on the cutting edge of things like twitter are leading the way, and coming late to the game will force you to play catch up. Additionally, twitter has connected me with some great people, whose calendars would have made a meeting impossible.
  • I have used Twitter professionally and currently use it personally. On the professional side, I found Twitter to be a useful tool in promoting website content. Build a strong network of following and followers in your topic area. Write witty and interesting one-liners with links to the content. Track your referral hits to that content to evaluate how effective your tactics are. Twitter takes little time and effort to use in this manner and every little bit of traffic helps!
  • I think Twitter has its place and there is a growing community of people who want their information in bite-size (140 characters max) pieces. I tweet, but not for professional purposes, more for the challenge of making short interesting observations. I have only done it for a month and a half and, already, total strangers are finding me and following me. You can also control how many people you want to follow, keeping it manageable. I think there is potential here.
  • I'm not sure what it will add to my networks. It seems rather invasive. Although my friends tells me I'll be a confirmed user at some point, but I need some down-time from the constant flow of information. But then again, I just use my cell phone as a phone!

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