8 Simple Steps to Making Your Website More User-Friendly
The most important function of your website is to allow your customers to place their orders and receive the products or services they’re interested in. So make it as easy and hassle-free as possible.
You know how frustrating it is when you have to make a U-turn or take a detour when you could have been given fair warning beforehand. Don’t make your customers jump through unnecessary hoops to complete their purchases.
READ MORERental Real Estate 101: 4 Ways to Battle the Landlord’s Arch Nemesis
Just as The Joker is to Batman and Dr. Evil is to Austin Powers, rent control is the landlord’s enemy. Supporters of rent control claim that without it many people couldn’t afford housing. But what happened to the basics of economics? The law of supply and demand should determine what your rental unit is worth, not the government.
READ MOREThe First Step to Getting Funding for Your Business
One of the most commonly asked questions we get at ETR from would-be entrepreneurs is: “How do I get money for my business idea?”
We’ve answered it before, but it’s worth answering again because the question keeps coming. Let’s start with a bit of harsh truth: It isn’t easy.
READ MOREA New Tool for Aspiring Online Marketers
Now, there’s a very easy way to get your online newsletter started. Yahoo has a component called “group publishing” that allows you to start your own e-list and publish to that list whenever you want. For free. It’s so user-friendly that even someone with very little technical knowledge (like me) can set it up without any assistance. All you do is go to Yahoo and click on the “groups” link. It’s self-explanatory from there.
READ MOREThe Wall Street Journal Gets It Wrong
The Secrets of Marketing in a Web 2.0 World,” announced the front page of The Wall Street Journal business section. Sounded promising, so I took a gander. What I found left me scratching my head:
READ MOREMake Your Site More Popular With “Link Juice” Power
You already know how powerful links can be when it comes to your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. As Alexis Siemon pointed out in her article “Become a Killer Link Builder“: “A link is a shortcut to quickly get you from one website to another. If you can harness the power of the link, you can make your website a force to be reckoned with. That means higher search engine rankings, more traffic to your site, and, eventually, more customers and more money in your pocket.”
READ MOREThe “100 Thing Challenge”
Michael Masterson has been encouraging ETR readers to simplify their business lives for years. “If you think it will mean making less money, enjoying less success, maybe even being less effective as a businessperson,” Michael told us, “think again. It’s about having more – not less – of the good things. More productivity. More passion. More meaning, love, friendship, and serenity.”
READ MOREIs This the World’s Most Profitable Business?
I’m an entrepreneur, and I’ve been involved in at least a dozen profitable enterprises over the years. But the business I’ve been in for the last five years is by far the best. Let me give you an idea of just how powerful this business is. After the costs of creating and selling my products, I am still able to bring in a 95 percent profit. What’s more, this business has proven to be successful… even in a struggling economy. (In 2008, though the economy was crumbling, mine continued to bring in about $12,000 a month.)
READ MOREA Little Personality Goes a Long Way
Getting people’s attention is a big part of success in the business world. As Internet marketing expert Yanik Silver says, “If you want people to remember [you] and keep coming back again and again, [you have] to project a unique personality.”
READ MOREA Commonsense Approach to Getting Free Publicity
Of the many channels of marketing, public relations is one that no business should ignore. And because PR is nearly free, that makes it an ideal channel for small and start-up businesses.
READ MOREFinding True Wealth (in ANY Economy)
I just spent a week with family – mostly my sister’s boys and their wives and kids.
I was sitting in my sister’s living room, watching the grandnieces and grandnephew play (ages 2, 4, and 6) with rambunctious glee… and I realized that all the adults were reading books.
READ MOREWhat a Theme Park Can Teach You about Business
Say what you will about theme parks. (Too expensive! Too cheesy and artificial!) But at least some of them get one thing right: They bend over backward to make the customer experience as good as it can possibly be. Take, for example, a few conveniences for visitors with young children that I noticed on a recent trip to an unnamed park in Orlando. (Funny … I never even saw these things until I had a little one of my own.)
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