phone

Creative Ways to Use QR Codes for Your Small Business

What are QR codes? Glad you asked. Quick response codes, or QR codes, are quite similar to barcodes in that they can be printed on virtually any surface. They originated in Japan and were seen on the sides of buildings, in brochures and even on public transport. The little codes became so popular that other countries wanted to cash in on their popularity. Why use a QR code at all? Many times consumers may want to know more about an advertisement, but they don’t have pen or paper while putting information on your phone can be time consuming and a hassle. So QR codes truly are the perfect solution. To put it mildly, QR codes are quickly becoming local internet marketing’s best assets

See more here: 
Creative Ways to Use QR Codes for Your Small Business

phone

Zappos suffers major data breach

In what’s seen as the first major cyber-attack of 2012, Amazon-owned online retailer Zappos has fallen victim to a data breach affecting as many as 24 million users. “We were recently the victim of a cyber-attack by a criminal who gained access to parts our internal network and systems through one of our servers in Kentucky,” said Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh in an email to employees. It is believed that the hacker was able to access customer names, email addresses, billing and postal addresses, phone numbers, as well as cryptographically scrambled passwords and the last four digits of customers’ credit card numbers. To combat customer data vulnerability the company said it expired and reset customers’ passwords and would be sending an email with further instructions to all 24 million of its customers. The full nature of the hacking incident is yet to be determined, but in the meantime the Zappos website is currently “not accepting international traffic ,” according to a notice on the site. The company is cooperating with U.S

See the rest here: 
Zappos suffers major data breach

phone

10 Ways to Boost Your Online Mailing List

One of the most powerful ways to build a successful online business is by creating relationships with your visitors so they can begin to trust you and feel comfortable ordering from you. One way of building these relationships is by having a mailing list so you can keep in contact with your subscribers. This helps form a bond and will start to build that foundation of trust and credibility. Sending out weekly online newsletters or mailings is a great way to solidify the trust relationship. But who do you send it to? Taking the time and effort to build a responsive email list is not easy but it certainly can be done. The ten tips below will help you get started building that all important list of names and email addresses! 1.

See the original post here: 
10 Ways to Boost Your Online Mailing List

phone

The Explosion of the Mobile Web… Is Your Website Ready? – A SPN Exclusive Article

Just a few short years ago, it was a good bet that you would read articles like this one on your PC or laptop. Today, it’s just as likely that you are reading this article on a smartphone or tablet computer. So what’s changed, what happened? The mobile web happened, that’s what – and the Internet will never be the same. So, what’s the mobile web? Loosely defined, the mobile web is a way of accessing the Internet via a wireless network, using a handheld mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet computer

See more here: 
The Explosion of the Mobile Web… Is Your Website Ready? – A SPN Exclusive Article

phone

Lack of Communication is Unacceptable in a Virtual Work Environment

A virtual work environment is not an uncommon one, given today’s increasing we-are-a-global-village scenario. As employment spans geographical boundaries and employees working for a single organization could be doing so from anywhere in the world, the shifting nature of work does present its own set of challenges. One of them, and arguably the most pertinent of all, concerns the sticky issue of communication. A virtual work environment is another form of outsourcing and communication can be said to be the lifeline of any Outsourcing success. Which brings us to the crux of the matter – lack of communication is unacceptable in a virtual employee environment. This refers to both parties involved – the outsourcing service provider as well as the virtual employee who is working for the client. Lack of Communication from the Vendor The choice of an outsourcing partner plays a crucial role in determining the success of any outsourced venture

View post:
Lack of Communication is Unacceptable in a Virtual Work Environment

phone

WWW Birthday – A SPN Exclusive Article

The 21st birthday of the World Wide Web is on December 25, 2011. This ‘coming of age’ WWW birthday marks the maturity of the first generation that was born with the Web and has always known it as an ordinary tool of life. This immeasurable gift to the world was created by Tim Berners-Lee (Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee) while working for a physics research center in Geneva, Switzerland. CERN, The European Organization for Nuclear Research, approved Berners-Lee’s request to work on a system which would facilitate collaboration among researchers via the Internet. “I invented the Web just because I needed it, really, because it was so frustrating that it didn’t exist,” said Berners-Lee in a 2009 interview with the BBC.

View original here:
WWW Birthday – A SPN Exclusive Article

phone

10 Things to Look for in a Web Host

A web hosting service allows you to make your website accessible to the world wide web. You generally upload your site files via FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to your host and they go “live” and become a part of the internet. There are free web hosting services for personal sites but if you have a business site, you will want to pay for a better hosting service. There are countless hosting services on the web but there are things you need to look for when shopping for a good host. Below are ten things you might want to check before choosing your host. 1. Support System – One of the most important things to look for in a host is a good customer support system. When you are having problems you don’t want to wait days for answers

Read the original:
10 Things to Look for in a Web Host

phone

10 Questions for New SEO Clients

Hello Jill, If you could only ask 10 general (non-industry-specific) questions of your new SEO customers, what would they be and why would their answers help you help them? Thank you, Andrew ++Jill’s Response++ Hi Andrew, Great question! I have a variety of different questionnaires that I send to clients, depending on the type of SEO consulting that I’ll be doing with them. For any SEO service, the more information I get from the client about their business and website, the better I can help them with their SEO. Here’s a selection of some of the questions I ask and why they’re important to the overall SEO process: 1.

Read more here:
10 Questions for New SEO Clients

phone

10 Questions for New SEO Clients

Hello Jill, If you could only ask 10 general (non-industry-specific) questions of your new SEO customers, what would they be and why would their answers help you help them? Thank you, Andrew ++Jill’s Response++ Hi Andrew, Great question! I have a variety of different questionnaires that I send to clients, depending on the type of SEO consulting that I’ll be doing with them. For any SEO service, the more information I get from the client about their business and website, the better I can help them with their SEO. Here’s a selection of some of the questions I ask and why they’re important to the overall SEO process: 1. What Web Analytics Program Do You Use, and Can We Have Access to It? Web analytics are the key to measuring the current level of SEO success (or lack thereof). They’re also the key to determining whether any future SEO implementation is helping to bring more targeted traffic. Therefore, it’s critical for me to have access to this information regardless of the level of SEO service I’m providing.

Read the original post:
10 Questions for New SEO Clients

phone

4 Ways to Make Sure You Beat the Competition in Local Search – A SPN Exclusive Article

Google Place Search (formerly known as Google Places) rules local search. Just try it. Go to Google and type in “Personal Injury Attorney Your City.” The first seven listings in the “natural search listings” are all Google Places pages. Since 20% of searches are local and the majority of their over $30 billion in revenue comes from small businesses, Google has decided to go hard after local small business advertising. They started by creating 50 million Google Places pages using aggregated data from online directories and the Yellow Pages. These pages are mobile optimized and attached to Google Maps. Only about 8% of local businesses have actually claimed their Google Place Search page. Even less have fully optimized their pages. However, this is changing fast

Read the original: 
4 Ways to Make Sure You Beat the Competition in Local Search – A SPN Exclusive Article

Next Page »