A good website is not cheap and should take a lot of thought and consideration. Before you even begin developing a website ask yourself these questions:

• Who is the website for and why will they be using it?
• What goals does my business need to accomplish with the website? ​
• What business image do I want to convey?​

There are a few key mistakes many businesses make when they decide it’s time to build a website. Do not do these things:

• Decide what you want the site to look like before hiring a website developer and/or designer.
• Let someone’s kid build it for $300.
• Decide that you need a flash site (don’t decide what type of site you need actually, leave that to the professionals after you tell them your businesses needs).

Once you decide your business needs a website it is important to hire a quality website designer and/or developer. There are many people out there that will eagerly offer to build your website for a few hundred dollars. This may sound like a good idea because you may be thinking, ”my business only needs a cheap simple website.” Your business needs more than a ”cheap and simple website“. Hiring the wrong designer in the begining can cost you more money down the road. Designers are notorious for being unreliable which makes the good ones worth the money.

When you meet with your web developer they should be ask you about your goals, business image and existing marketing strategy, what type of customers you have, how you interact with customers, and other questions that may not directly relate to design.

A designer should never ask, ”What do you want the site to look like.” The designer is the expert. If they just copy what you tell them to they are not using their expertiece. If you know how your customers behave on the web (how they navigate, what they want to find, etc.) then share this info with your designer, but don’t tell them exactly where everything needs to go and what it should look like. Remember this site if for your customers not you, so let the professionals do their work.

During the website development process there are a few things you want to avoid doing as well:

• If a developer asks for information don’t wait weeks to give it to them.
• If you do procrastinate giving information to your developer don’t expect them to be done the next day, and possible not on time either.
• Assume that one person is an expert in all things web. There are several practices in web development including: design, SEO, usability, several types of coding languages, content management, and other fields most people aren’t aware of.

Originally posted on PenguinSpark

I’m impressed.

Sharon played Empire Avenue but deleted her account to focus on a major project. When she finished the project she returned. To help her get even more momentum I sent out a shareholder mail telling everyone she was now back and available. I told my shareholders about her numbers before she quit and that I expected them to double their money by the end of the week. She gained 22 new investors in less than 10 minutes. Her price went up almost 2 eaves in about 20 minutes. Fortunately she kept me honest and more than doubled by the end of the week.

The first thing you must have is a goal. There are many things that can be accomplished. Here are some goals I have gone after with my mail:

• Get traffic to a blog post.
• Get comments on a blog post.
• Help a friend promote their ebook or other product.
• Help a friend sell shares.
• Get people to join your #EAv community.
• Get people to tweet out a link to an event or something special.
• Get people to follow/friend/like etc. on other social networks.
• Create new partnerships for guest blogs and affiliate promotions.
• Simply get likes/comments on the mail
• Enhance engagement with your shareholders

The trick to a successful shareholder mail is simple: provide value. A while ago I started the #EAv lottery. I give away up to $50 to Amazon every 2 weeks based on the number of shares they own. Of course people love to win money so they bought me up. When the first Empire Avenue Lottery winner was drawn I actually posted who it was in a blog post so I could get traffic to my blog. Then I wrote a mail that was titled Lottery “Winner and Tips.” I started the mail by telling people a few things I do to increase my dividends and connect on #EAv. People clicked on the link because they wanted to see if they won. I got traffic by A)providing tips and B)giving away money.

Not everyone is doing this for a business though so giving money doesn’t make sense for most players. I continue to conduct the lottery but I have done several other incentives to create a successful mail.

• Ask people to leave a link to a blog post, video, or photo they would like a comment on.
• Commit to buying shares if someone comments, tweets, or does something else you would like them to do.
• Ask people to leave links to a social network sites so you can make sure you are following them.
• Simply provide tips for playing Empire Avenue or links to articles that you find helpful.

Originally posted on PenguinSpark

Small businesses should not create a QR code and send people to the front page of their website or about page.

“That’s what I want them to see.” This is the death of any marketing campaign, especially ones that require action by the consumer. For commercials and product placement the logic is to get attention and hope people remember something about your brand. It’s a very passive “hey look at me” way of marketing. When you go from passive marketing to engaged marketing it’s not “hey look at me,” but “hey look what I can do for you.” Ok, you’ve been told to plaster codes everywhere, but what the heck are they good for if you can’t tell someone your small business has “premiere service,” “dedication to customer service,” and a bunch of other stuff I expect from a business?

Youth Football, Basketball, Baseball, and other League Sponsorship’s

Sponsoring the local little league team is nothing new. An employees kid just signed up for teeball so they hit you up to buy the shirts. You begrudgingly say “ok” like you do every year and send the logo and phone number to the print shop. Now people that are on the team and probably very familiar with your small business get to see your logo all the time. You got a little awareness but why not kick it up a notch? Make your logo really small, or leave it off completely. Put a big ole QR code on the back of the shirt. What do we know about people watching little league games? They are probably into sports, most likely 25-45 males and females, might be bored from watching 8 year olds miss fly balls, and probably have to feed their kids after the game. Now that we have an idea of what these people are into we have an idea of how we can provide value. How do you provide it?

• Print “Scan for MLB scores” and send them to a page with your logo that has a score update feed. Maybe have one of those little things pop up that tells them how to bookmark the page.
• Create a webpage with a simple game on it. There are many simple games that translate well to smartphone’s. Not too into the game? How bout a little Sudoku.
• Try “Scan to order pizza & 10% discount.” Mom is sitting there thinking, “what am I going to do about dinner.” It would be very convenient if they could scan one of the 30 kids running around so dinner is ready on the way home and they get a discount.

Replace car magnets

My cheesy photo

Realtors, insurance agents, and anyone in the personal service industry wants to get their face and name out. These tend to be the worst violators of the “hey look at me” marketing system. Sorry dude, don’t really care who you are, what can you do for me? These days it’s easy to get an iPhone or web app to search real estate. There are several 3rd parties that are good and affordable. I don’t know about you, but I’m never going to look at a car magnet and think “I need to write that number down right now. I mean, the guy has 50 different acronyms after his name, a couple of Facebook and Twitter chiclets, a nice cliche tagline about how they’re the best with some play on words about homes or something, a company logo, 10 colors, 4 fonts, and a big ass picture of them in a dark suit with a white background where they’re leaning in a little with head cocked to the side and plastered smile from 10 years ago (like my picture on the right.” However, that car magnet has the company name, a QR code, and “Free home finding app,” I’m probably more inclined to pick my phone up and scan it while I’m sitting at the light.

Pique Curiosity

Where do people get bored? Standing in line at the supermarket, riding an elevator to the top of the building, hanging out at the DMV. An idle mind is your play toy. Someone standing in line at the DMV probably owns a vehicle. Our local DMV has advertisements everywhere. An advertisement with a QR code perhaps offering a chance to get car washes for a year? Maybe you could work out a special promotion with the supermarket. Place an ad so it’s easily seen and scanned from the checkout line. “Scan here for the daily coupon,” and make it a coupon involving an impulse buy they can get in the checkout isle. Candy bars and sodas are what I’m talking about here. Maybe even throw a free soda in randomly?

46 percent of people who said they had scanned a QR code said they did so to get a discount at a retail store, while 43 percent had done so out of sheer curiosity. – Lab42

The QR Formula

When you implement QR codes there is a very easy formula you can use. In fact, you can use this for almost all your integrated marketing. Who do you want target? Where can you find these people? What would they find valuable at that very moment in time? Continue to ask yourself these three questions and your mind is going to open a world of possibilities. One last bit of advice: Direct your QR code to an address on your website that you can forward anywhere. This way if you find out the current method isn’t working you can change it all up simply by redirecting the URL you used. No more loosing money because a failed ad is under contract. Freshen it up whenever you want.

Need help setting up a code? Read my post on how to set up a QR code quick and easy.

Bus stop photo courtesy Nic221

Originally posted on PenguinSpark

1. Go to your portfolio view
2. Decide how you would like to sort your portfolio
3. Paste this funny looking line of code in the navigation bar: javascript: psearch_cursor(‘portfolio’,50, ‘normal‘)

As that is written it will take you to your standard portfolio view and show you numbers 50-100. You can change the number to anything you like. For instance if you need to go to the last page, and you have 175 shareholders, you would put 150 instead of 50. That takes you to numbers 150-200 on the list.

You can also use this for any portfolio view by replacing the word ‘normal’. Here is a list of words that can be placed there and the type of portfolio view it corresponds to:

• last_trade = this sorts from highest price to lowest price
• change_desc = this sorts by the largest shareprice gainers
• change_asc = this sorts by biggest losers of the day
• daily_earnings = this sorts by the highest earnings for that day
• shares_owned = sorts by the amount of shares you own
• dividend = sorts by highest dividend for the previous day
• purchase_time = sorts from last trade you made to the very first

There are several reasons you would need to use this trick. I use it to find the worst earnings shares I own by sorting by earnings and going to the last page. If you know any other portfolio tricks I would love to hear them.

For more ways to make Empire Avenue more efficient check out 5 tips and tricks for Empire Avenue

Originally posted on PenguinSpark

1. Short links

I’ve noticed I type the address to my Empire Avenue stock a lot more these days. I found out through #SocialEmpire there’s a way to create a shortened version of the link. The standard way to link to your profile is simply adding your ticker to the end of the domain like so http://EmpireAvenue.com/PenguinSpark. However, there is a way to shorten this by replacing EmpireAvenue.com with e-av.me to create http://e-av.me/PenguinSpark. Go ahead and try it in the comments and I’ll click through and buy some shares.

2. Reply with tabs

If you’re at all active on Empire Avenue you are all too familiar with the flood of notifications. I personally like to reply to every shout out and it was getting very frustrating. You have to reload a page for every reply, then back to notifications wait for it to load, scroll down, click on shout, etc. etc. etc. All the loading takes forever. Solution:

1. Go to notifications (the actual page, not the popup window).
2. Sort by shout outs.
3. Right click shout, open in new tab. Don’t go to the page.
4. Repeat this process for every single shout in your list.
5. Go to each tab, reply to shout out, then close tab.

This reduce the amount of time it takes to reply to shout outs considerably. It’s also a good way to sort out and see which mentions or shout outs were in the same threads so you don’t waste time clicking back and forth to a thread with several of the notification comments in it.

3. Pod101′s Grease Monkey Script

Greasemonkey is a Firefox extension that allows you to customize the way webpages look and function. – Greasespot.net

This is a script titled “EmpireAvenue Daily Dividend ROI” is developed by Paul Houstion (e)Pod101. I love it because it shows the div% in the list view. It makes going through your portfolio a lot easier. You have to use the old style portfolio to use it however. To use the old style portfolio go to settings. On the bottom right you will see a section titled “Portfolio settings.” Set it to old style and go to your portfolio to check out the awesomeness. It works on Firefox and Chrome, I’m not sure about other browsers.

4. TeamZen.org

Team Zen was started by Frédéric Dénommé, aka (e)Zen. Zen’s goal was to reach the top 10 wealth, which he has accomplished, and he started Team Zen to share his knowledge and help other people amass wealth. It quickly became one of the fastest growing and most engaged communities on Empire Avenue. I highly encourage you to check out their Facebook group or Empire Avenue community for hot stock tips as well as tips for increasing your returns. The latest element to the group: TeamZen.org. This simple website merely analyzes (e)Zen’s portfolio and ranks influencer investments according to his scale. If you want an easy way to find good investments quickly, this is it.

(e)Zen has written the code under open source. If you’re interested in working with the script contact him.

5. P3 Pirillow Power Pack

A lot of people are already aware of the P3 Empire Avenue extension, and a lot are not. It is an extension for the Google Chrome browser. There a few extensions out there but this is the most well rounded one. When you view a stock it tells you what your return is based on price, dividends, or both. It will also turn any ticker name on Twitter into an EAv link to their portfolio. This EAv extension is spear headed by Chris Pirillow and developed by members of his community. They are receptive to feedback and every update helps polish the extension.

The major downside to this extension is it requires your name and password for Empire Avenue to function. Currently EAv doesn’t offer o’auth. O’auth is basically what lets you log into a website with your Facebook, Twitter, Google, and other 3rd party accounts.

There are other tips and apps out there that I’m not aware of. I always like to learn about new ways to do things. If you have a suggestion please leave it. Drop your EAv ticker in and I’ll pick up some shares too.

Originally posted on PenguinSpark

1. Keep track of valuables

Have you ever lost your smart phone, lap top, camera or other digital valuables? This is a great time to use QR codes. A year ago I got out of my car and my iPhone fell to the ground as I walked into a store. I didn’t realize it was missing until it was too late. Fortunately the person that found it actually called to give it back. However, when I got it back the browser had been to many porn and spam sites. All my contacts and emails were also exposed. I turned pass codes on to secure my info but that created another problem: if I lose the phone people can’t find my contacts.

Recently I generated QR codes to retrofit my business cards before gong to SXSW. I had way more stickers than I needed so I was looking for other ways to use them. I looked down at my iPhone and over at my luggage. They are all now adorned with QR codes generated in about 1 minute. There are already libraries using QR codes to keep track of things.

2. Protect your vehicle

Ok, you can’t actually “protect” your vehicle with a QR code, but it can help identify the owner. When someone runs into a parked car they (hopefully) leave a note on the window with their name and information. If you generate a QR code for you car someone can scan it and instantly contact you. This way you can take care of a small accident right then rather than trying to contact someone after the fact. It can also be helpful if someone needs you to move your car and isn’t sure who the owner is. In 2010 the EPA was already talking about adding QR codes to vehicles, albeit for other reasons.

3. Organize storage

My basement is full of boxes. Boxes for Christmas, Halloween, old stuff I haven’t seen in years, and a rather random assortment of things. I can tell you what’s down there but I might not be able to find it very quick. Imagine if each box in your basement has a QR code on it. You scan the code and a list of everything in the box pops up. I wish these codes were around when I was moving but it’s never too late to start.

There are a few QR generator camera phone apps. Download one that allows you to generate a QR code from text. Type in a list of what’s in the box, generate the QR code, and email it to yourself. Then just print it off and stick it to the box. Viola, your cluttered storage area is now slightly more organized.

What else can I do with QR codes in my every day life?

Originally posted on PenguinSpark

That’s correct. You can actually backup everything you have uploaded or posted to Facebook. Follow this quick guide and sleep better knowing you won’t lose anything if something happens to your Facebook account.

First click your account tab.

Next click “Account Settings”.

On your Facebook account settings page you will see a line that says “Download your information” with a link to the right that says “learn more”.

After you click learn more you will see a page telling you about security that has a download button at the bottom.

After clicking that Facebook will let you know that it will take a while to gather all your photos, posts, messages, etc. from Facebook. Click the download button once again.

You’ll then be presented with a message telling you to expect an email. The email can take a while depending on how much stuff you have on Facebook. Mine took about an hour to arrive.

You will get an email from Facebook with a link to the download page.

You will be taken back to the download backup page you saw before except this time there will be a box to verify your email address.

You’ll once again see a download button. This time when you click it your Facebook information backup will be downloaded. It will be a .zip file that has the following Facebook information backed up in it:

• Photos (.jpeg format)
• Videos (MP4 format)
• List of your events
• List of every friends name
• List of every private message conversation (this is a really long one)
• Notes
• All of your personal profile information
• Everything on your wall (mine goes back a couple years, it’s extremely long)
• A lot of technical files like CSS and HTML that won’t be very useful to most people

Originally posted on PenguinSpark

Scan This

QR codes are the hottest rage. A quick Google search will tell you a million and one reasons why. Once you figure out what a QR code is and how it can help you may think, “how the hell am I supposed to do this?” It’s easy to add QR codes to your marketing strategy, and here’s how:

Setting up your QR contact information

The first thing you need is a place to send people to when your QR code is scanned. The easiest way to start is to simply send contacts to a site with all of your contact information. From there they can find you on any social networks, your blog, website, phone number, or any other contact information you want them to have. Fortunately there is a free website that makes it easy to create a virtual business card.

Hubze.com offers a free service that allows you to create a virtual business card. You can add your photo, contact info, and any networks. From there it is easy for your contacts to find you on whichever social network they prefer. You will need to create a free account and then you will go through a quick walkthrough to pick your background, modify colors, upload your photo, and add your contact info and social networks. Your end product will look something like this:

Now that you’ve created your card you need to copy the url. It will be hubze.com/*username you chose*. You can also highlight the url in the address bar at the top, right click, then click copy.

Creating your QR code

Now that you have the info you want to share you need to generate your code. There are a lot of free services to generate you code, here’s a QR generator that’s very easy to use. You will notice that you can create a QR code for several things. For this virtual card you want to choose “url” in the drop down box. Simply paste the URL you copied of your business card page and hit generate. That’s it, you’ll see your code on the right.

If you want to use this code click the link that says download.

Adding your QR code to existing marketing materials

At this point you may be thinking, “That was easy, but now I have to redo all my business cards and brochures.” That could be expensive. Instead I offer a simple solution that will save you tons of money and allow you to easily change your codes in the future: mailing labels. I prefer the 1 1/’ x 4′. You can get two per label this way. Simply cut and add to your business card, brochure, suitcase, or wherever you want people to find it.

Do you have any suggestions for creating QR codes? Perhaps a favorite app for your iPhone or Android phone?

Originally posted on PenguinSpark

Go to one of your pages and make a comment. It will make the post as with your personal profile. This doesn’t work with the mobile Facebook site or if you upload a picture. I have not tried it with any other applications. Let me know if another application works for you.

Originally posted on PenguinSpark

1. Foursquare

If you don’t already have a Foursquare account get one. You don’t have to use it anywhere else but a conference is the best place to start. All you have to do is check in at the conference then look at who else is checked in. Go through the list and add invite all these people. This exposes you to them and creates an opportunity for them to look at your twitter profile.

2. Hashtags

Every conference has a hashtag if it has tweeters. It is usually the name or truncated version. For example: Nardisgras is #Nardigras & 140 Conference is #140conf. Find out what it is and create a twitter search on your smart phone (if you don’t have a smart phone get one). Save the twitter search and look at it every now and then. Respond to what other people have tweeted and retweet anything interesting. You also need to send out tweets with the hashtag in them. Share the experience of whatever you’re doing. If a speakers says something you really like quote it, if you see an awesome gadget on the floor take a picture and tweet it. Remember to put the conference #hashtag on everything!

3. Tweetadder

TweetAdder(affiliate link) is an automated Twitter follower/following tool. TweetAdder allows you to search for users in many different ways and then load them into a list to be followed. Use the keyword search ability and search for the hashtag for the conference. Add the search to the automated search list. TweetAdder will slowly follows these users. You can also set TweetAdder to unfollow people that don’t follow you back after the conference is over.

Using these three tools people have the potential to see you in several places. The more places they see you the more likely they are to follow you. When you get home from the conference you can go through your following list and get rid of anyone you don’t like. What else do you do at conferences to gain followers?

Originally posted on PenguinSpark