Eisenhower.me Puts New Spin on Productivity Apps

Eisenhower.me Puts New Spin on Productivity Apps
Why Most Small Businesses Still Aren’t Ready to Hire
Brad Geddes On Paid Search, Analytics and Affiliate Marketing #AMDays
3 Things You Can Recycle But Probably Don’t
5 Things to Avoid When Using Stock Photography
TARP Squeeze Threatens Business Lending

Posted: 12 Sep 2012 01:00 PM PDT

There are plenty of productivity apps out there to help people get more done. But at times, users can find that these apps mainly just help them organize and grow their to-do list, rather than cross things off. Now a new app from Eisenhower.me aims to put a new spin on the old concept, to actually help users complete important tasks and set reasonable deadlines for the rest.

Using the Eisenhower Matrix time management principle, Eisenhower.me allows users to create new tasks and separate them by deadline and importance. If you're unfamiliar with this method, users evaluate tasks based on whether they're important or unimportant and urgent or not urgent, and then put tasks into different quadrants accordingly.

So for example, an important project that's due today would be put into the important/urgent quadrant, but an equally important project that is due the next week would go in the important/not urgent quadrant. Busy work and time wasters would go in the not important/not urgent quadrant, and thus would be either delegated or just crossed off the list altogether.

Using the Eisenhower.me app, users can actually set a timer to accomplish those important/urgent tasks and set deadlines for the important tasks that are not quite as urgent. It also allows them to assign tasks to others when the task isn't important or quite as urgent as other things on the to-do list.

For businesses that need help prioritizing, staying on task, and even delegating, this type of app is supposed to help you actually manage and keep your to-do list in order, rather than just watch it grow. Though it's not created specifically for businesses – owners, managers, and other professionals could definitely benefit from such an app.

The Web app is free and has been available for use for some time. But the new iPhone app is designed to work in essentially the same way, and can even be synched with the Web app so that all your tasks match up. The mobile app costs $1.99 in the App Store.

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Why Most Small Businesses Still Aren’t Ready to Hire

Posted: 12 Sep 2012 11:00 AM PDT

Although MarketWatch is theorizing a hiring boom may soon be in the offing, small businesses are likely to stay on the sidelines—at least, according to Office Depot's latest SMB National Tracking Survey. The monthly poll of small business sentiment finds 80 percent of small business owners have no plans to hire in the next six months—a figure that has stayed pretty consistent throughout the year.

help wanted not

Just 12 percent of the small businesses surveyed plan to hire in that time period, while 8 percent plan to let staff go. Again, both numbers have remained fairly consistent throughout the year (in this survey; other surveys have indicated nearly opposite findings).

However, the ho-hum hiring news is not all bad. For one thing, of the companies that are hiring, 50 percent say it's because business is improving, and 47 percent say it's because they're understaffed. In other words, some small businesses are seeing growth that's significant enough to prompt hiring.

On the other side of the coin, the companies not hiring mostly say they already have sufficient staff in place (58 percent). "Economic uncertainty" was cited by a far smaller number (30 percent), and just 18 percent of those not hiring say it's because their businesses were in decline.

Overall, small business owners' top concerns are "making more money" and "saving money." Not hiring is one way they're cutting costs; 65 percent of those surveyed cite "hiring less" as a money-saving strategy. By comparison, just 10 percent say staffing is a top concern right now.

But there's a bit of a disconnect here. The number one priority small business owners are planning for in the next 12 months is "business expansion"—and to expand, you're likely to need staff, right? Yet, at the same time they're planning to grow, just 10 percent say they're planning ahead for staffing.

I recently discussed the difficulty businesses are having finding qualified hires—so if you're planning to expand, the wait-till-the-last-minute approach to hiring may not be the smartest.

Clearly, small businesses remain in wait-and-see mode. Asked whether they think their businesses will be in better shape at the end of 2012 than at the beginning of the year, about the same number say it "will be better" as "it will be about the same," while relatively few expect it to get worse.

Despite that seeming confidence, there's widespread worry about a double-dip recession, with the majority of small business owners either "very worried" or at least "slightly worried" about the possibility.

Will the upcoming presidential election make a difference in small businesses' hiring plans? All we can do is wait and see.

No Help Wanted Photo via Shutterstock

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Brad Geddes On Paid Search, Analytics and Affiliate Marketing #AMDays

Posted: 12 Sep 2012 09:30 AM PDT

Welcome to this interview of Brad Geddes, one of the world’s leading paid search experts, Founder of Certified Knowledge, and author of “Advanced Google AdWords.” At Affiliate Management Days East 2012, Brad’s keynote speech will focus on: Building a Brand When No One Cares Who You Are.

* * * * *

Question: What are the major challenges you see your paid search clients struggling with these days?

Brad: One of the major challenges these days is legacy structure and decisions. These two items often hamper their ability to take advantage of new paid search opportunities.

Many companies did a great job of setting up and managing PPC five to ten years ago. However, accounts continue to grow as new products and promotions within a company occur, or new paid features are released. Many companies used a path of least resistance with these changes to their account. As a result, their accounts have grown unwieldy to easily manage or gain insight into the overall changes to their profitability.

Taking a step back and looking at the big picture can help you get a better direction in how the account, or even the paid search teams, should be structured and can help save a lot of time and gain new efficiencies.

The other area where we see a lot of people struggling, and others absolutely succeeding, is with Google's display network. There is so much inventory, so many options, and a lot of bad advice about display that we often see huge gains in accounts on display once an actual plan is put into place.

Question: What are the most frequently overlooked opportunities?

Brad: Display is definitely the most overlooked opportunity. Many companies struggle with it and abandon it. They aren't taking advantage of what is there.

The other is segmentation of the ad serving. Each company's segmentation will be different. But if they were to examine their data by device (mobile, tablet, desktop), geography (metros, states), and date information (hour of day, day of week, etc.), often there are new ways to increase the targeting effectiveness.

Another mistake and overlooked opportunity is sitting in someone's abandoned analytics account. Often, PPC managers just look at conversion stats in the search engine or their internal systems and don't examine the analytics. Analytics can give you so much insight about traffic, regardless of the source, that most companies have information sitting in front of them that they could analyze to make better decisions.

The last one is having a good testing methodology. Many companies know they should test, and many do. But having a system for testing and analyzing the results at scale can increase how much impact the testing really has on the account.

Question: When it comes to affiliate marketing through PPC, I’ve found averages to be most dangerously misleading (as for example EPC). Can you give us 5 other metrics that shouldn’t be taken at face value (and why)?

Brad: I think the worst offender is average position. I see companies bidding to a position when they are measuring the data on revenue per click. You should always use metrics that are in line with your end goals. Average position and cost per click are more or less linear and if you bid more than you are making per click just to keep a high position then you will end up going out of business.

Another metric that is often overanalyzed is Quality Score. While Quality Score is very important, it should not take precedence over revenue. Having a 10 Quality Score just means Google likes you, it doesn't mean you are making money. Once you test, you will often see that having a 5-7 Quality Score can be more profitable than a 10.

Conversion rates are often given too much weight. Especially on display or with ad testing. With display, the costs per clicks can vary so widely that you are better using a CPA bid model.

While conversion rates are extremely important, you should use a PPI (profit per impression) or CPI (conversion per impression) testing method for search ads and not just straight conversion rate. If your conversion rate is exceptionally high, but no one clicks on an ad, then the scenario can lead to less profits than if you have a lower conversion rate ad but one with a higher click through rate. That's where measuring from the impression gives you better insight into your ad tests.

Bounce rates is a metric that is useful. But you need to be careful with it. A bounce in Google Analytics is just a one page visit. If someone gets to your site and calls you, clicks on your PayPal buy button, or clicks on a merchant's link and leaves your site from page one – these are all bounces. They are good bounces, but they are bounces.

Bounce rates is a great metric if you have made sure that the above situations aren't recorded as a bounce – but few companies have configured analytics to measure good one page visit scenarios.

The last metric that I think a lot of people struggle to give weight to is view through conversions as it can lead to a lot of false information. Many systems do not dedupe view through conversions. Therefore, you might have 3000 view throughs but only 10 sales. If the data is deduped and used correlationally, then it can be very useful. When used in isolation as a bid metric, it can lead to a lot of bad bids.

Question: If a merchant is running their own paid search and also has an affiliate program, what advice would you give them to ensure that the latter doesn’t cannibalize but compliment the other?

Brad: That really depends on how sophisticated the merchant is at paid search. Personally, if the merchant is good at paid search, then I have a tendency to be more restrictive in how they handle affiliates than if the merchant is not very good at paid search. If the affiliates are better than the merchant, then give your affiliates a bit more room.

Sometimes, this isn't the merchant's paid search teams fault – it's a legal one. Some merchants have all their offers go through legal before they ever go live. In this case, your affiliates can be more flexible than you can be, so leverage that flexibility. The other aspect is how much the merchant wants to dominate results versus have the best ROI.

For instance, I see a lot of companies letting affiliates bid on lots of terms, but the merchants will either restrict the ad position or the max CPC so that their ads are always above their affiliates to help promote their own brand. I know one company who, every Monday, gives bids to their top affiliates based upon the previous week's conversion rates and EPC. If a merchant is good at paid search, then making sure your ad appears in the top positions is a good idea and lets your affiliates have the rest of the traffic.

In fact, I find that a lot of merchants do not want affiliates to bid on any brand terms. I think this is a mistake in many cases. The more ads that lead to your site or your affiliate's sites, the more total traffic you will have. I'd recommend, instead of not allowing affiliates to bid on your brand terms, to just make sure they are not above your ad for brand terms. This allows you to make sure you really dominate the ads.

The one exception to this rule is if your brand terms have no other ads on them. In this case, you are the only ad and the top organic (hopefully) result. Therefore, you might want to restrict affiliates in that case. Of course, to do this well, you often have to help with landing pages so they are unique for the affiliates.

I find that some merchants will give their affiliates template landing pages so that the affiliate can bid on a term and send it to their site to get around Google's ad serving policies. However, if these templates become very common, then sometimes Google steps in and groups all the affiliates together so that only one can ever serve the second ad.

You are better off giving affiliates help, ideas, and advice in how to make their pages unique from your other affiliates so that these pages have different experiences and Google doesn't lump your affiliates together rather than just giving them templates. This is obviously more work, but when you do this, your affiliates bring in more sales through having different messages on the various sites.

Question: Finally, give us one good reason why etailers and affiliate managers should attend your closing keynote session at the upcoming Affiliate Management Days East 2012.

Brad: Building a brand is difficult. Consumers have so many options. For most brands online, standing out and building brand loyalty or even a social following can be extremely difficult.

However, when you have a semi-recognizable brand (it does not have to be a top brand), then your click through rates for both organic and paid go up, usually your conversion rates increase as well, and you receive more traffic from a larger variety of sources. This is how you build a sustainable and growing business – by not just being good at paid search or organic or social – but by building a brand through these channels.

I'm going to talk about a company that no one cares about (consumers care about their products and services – but not them) who still managed to build a brand that has had positive impacts on all of their marketing channels.

* * * * *

Affiliate Management Days takes place October 9-10, 2012. More information about Affiliate Management Days being held in Ft Lauderdale, can be found here. Or follow the hashtag #AMDays on Twitter. Register using code SBTAM150 to receive $150.00 off your pass.

Be sure to check out the rest of the interview series from #AMDays.

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3 Things You Can Recycle But Probably Don’t

Posted: 12 Sep 2012 08:00 AM PDT

If you haven’t noticed, just about anything can be recycled these days. Think about what items land in your trash can (and then the landfill, of course) and whether you can find an eco-friendlier home for them. Chances are you can — as long as you know where to turn.

recycle phones

Here are three commonly tossed items and how to give them a new life:

Foam Peanuts

Foam peanuts and other plastic-based packaging and shipping materials often get tossed, because they're not generally recycled curbside. If you can't reuse them yourself, many pack-and-ship stores accept and reuse used packaging materials.

Not sure if there are any such stores in your area? The Plastic Loose Fill Council has a "Peanut Hotline" (800- 828-2214) that you can call to find foam peanut drop-off sites in your area. (You can also use its online search form.) You may be able to find a home for other types of plastics using the search form on PlasticMarkets.org.

Office Supplies

Used paper clips, folders and other common office supplies often get tossed in the trash with little thought. But many of these items can be used multiple times, if someone takes the initiative to save them.

If you have employees, set up a spot where employees can leave extra used supplies and encourage other employees to check that spot first before picking up new ones. Once you do need to throw out worn or unusable supplies, most of them can be recycled.

Personal Gadgets

Manufacturers of popular smartphones will often take back your old gadgets for free and make sure they’re responsibly recycled. (Apple, for instance, will recycle used iPhones and other Apple products .)

But other companies, such as Gazelle and NextWorth, will even give you money for old smartphones, digital cameras and other devices and pay you for them. Have a mass quantities of old gadgets to toss (30 or more)? Project Kopeg will recycle them all and cut you a check. (Keep in mind that some nonprofits will also take old gadgets and give them away for a good cause. You might then be eligible for a tax deduction.)

If you have a miscellaneous array of things to get rid of and can’t find a good home, check out Freecycle.org. This site helps match you up with people in your community looking for something you no longer want. (Also don’t forget about Craigslist.)

Of course, before you give away or recycle any old technological device, make sure to thoroughly clean the hard drive. You don't want your personal or sensitive business information getting into the wrong hands.

Recycle Photo via Shutterstock

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5 Things to Avoid When Using Stock Photography

Posted: 12 Sep 2012 05:00 AM PDT

As a blogger, I love stock photography. I mean, I really love it. It's become a staple in my diet as a publisher because it allows me to quickly convey a message, catch a reader's eye, and to easily (and cost effectively!) add more life to my site and/or content. As a small business owner, you probably love the wide assortment of generic image sites too, and I get it. However, as with most things, there are ways to do stock photography well as a small business, and there are ways to do it not so well.

Below are 5 things to avoid when using stock photography on your small business Web site:

1. Selecting Boring, Lifeless Images

How many times have you landed on a Web site and instantly recognized the stock photo model you were looking at? She probably had her head resting ever-so-gently on her hand as she stares off in the distance? Or maybe she was wearing both a big smile and a phone headset? Or maybe it was that generic handshake we've all seen to many times?

Point is, we've seen it already.

Just because you're using stock photography doesn't mean the photos you choose have to be boring. Spend time hunting through a site's photo inventory to find images that will convey the right message and attract your target audience. This may mean dedicating more time to image selection or even spending more money for better images, but it's an investment into the quality of your site. And a worthy one at that!

Pictures that command attention will ensure that your message isn't ignored and that users notice them. With the high number of quality photo sites out there, there is no excuse for boring photography.

2. Using Visually Pretty, But Completely Unrelated, Images

We've all been there – searching through the photo gallery only to find a photo that makes us break out into giggles or something we think looks really, really cool. The only problem is, it has absolutely nothing to do with the content we're pairing it with. Hmm, what do you do?

Do yourself a favor and grab another photo.

Get more from your stock photography by selecting images that relate to your content and which will provide strong visual connections to the message that you're trying to deliver. That's when stock photography works the best – when the paired text and image compliment one another.

Talking about your client successes and pairing it with scowling faces isn't going to be effective. Nor will using a photo of blue skies and rainbows on your About Us page. There's no connection between the image and the text and, as a result, it makes the message harder for a reader to understand or may devalue the larger message.

Even if you love the photo – it doesn't match what you're trying to say, don't use it.

3. Choosing Models Over Your Own Staff

Your staff may not be made up of supermodels (whose is?), but I bet they're all unique, qualified people who your business would be lost without. And even if you don't have a state-of-the-art office, it's probably an environment that you love and that enables you to serve your customers in great ways, right?

So show it off!

When possible, avoid using stock photography on things like your About Us page, your Contact Us page, or any other time when your own pictures would actually do a much better job telling the story. We talk a lot about how important it is that small businesses use their sites to create trust, and showing off your staff or your office space is a great way to do that because it brings people in and lets them know what they'd "see" if they were talking to you in person.

Save your stock images for articles, emails newsletters or billboards on the side of the road. When you're talking about things that are unique and personal to you – use your own photos. These are often the tie-breakers we use between one company and another.

4. Sharing Images With Your Competitors

Before you place an image on your Web site or use it in a direct mailing, do some due diligence to make sure it's not currently appearing on your competitor's Web site. You might laugh, but you'd be surprised at how often this actually happens when companies offering the same services perform the same searches on the same photo sites. Before you know it, the same models are appearing on both of your sites!

You don't have to scour every site on the Web, but do give a glance to the sites you consider yourself most competing with.

5. Using The Wrong Size Photo For Your Needs

Most sites will provide you with several resolution options for the images that they offer with varying prices. Pick the resolution that is right for your needs, even if that's not necessarily the cheapest option. If you can't find the photo you want in the correct resolution, find another image.

I've seen many SMBs think they can save a few bucks by purchasing low resolution images and then simply "stretch" them to make the image work. Doing so will not only sacrifice the quality of the image (making it pixelated and unattractive), it will also sacrifice the integrity of your brand if it's appearing on your Web site.

This is one reason why it's important to know where your images are going to go (on your blog, on your site, in a presentation, on a poster, etc) and have a plan beforehand so that you can make sure you purchase the right size image from the very start. There's nothing worth than selecting an image, only to discover later it doesn't work for your needs.

Stock photography can be incredibly helpful to a small business owner or consultant, adding quick interest on a shoestring budget. However, it's important that small business owners think carefully about how they're using images to make sure they're getting the most from them.

Image credit: basel101658 / 123RF Stock Photo

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TARP Squeeze Threatens Business Lending

Posted: 12 Sep 2012 02:30 AM PDT

As the U.S. Department of the Treasury wraps up its Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), rolled out in the dark days of 2008 at the height of the subprime mortgage crisis in an effort to prevent the collapse of the banking industry, critics worry the end of the program may unintentionally threaten small business lending. Here are some predictions about the difficulties businesses seeking financing may face and how entrepreneurs can weather the storm with some simple strategies.

Payback

Brother, can you spare a dime? Small businesses that have traditionally relied upon community banks for loans or lines of credit may be especially hard hit as these banks try to repay TARP money, writes blogger Maria Valdez Haubrich. Either the banks will cut back on business lending to meet their obligations, or if they have not taken TARP money, will be inundated with loan requests from business owners whose banks have cut them off to pay back the federal funds. Network Solutions

Squeezing the little guy. While many bigger banks have already repaid the TARP money with interest, an estimated 300 small community banks still must repay those funds. Community banks face a perfect storm: unable to raise the money on the public market, they must raise their capital ratios to meet new federal regulations and pay not only dividends on the Federal money, but principle and interest. Inc.com

Belt-Tightening

Where there’s a will, there’s way. Fortunately, bank lending isn’t the only or even the preferred way for entrepreneurs to finance the startup or expansion of a business. Some of these options include private sources of capital like outside investors, crowdsourcing, or money borrowed from friends and family. SBA.gov

Got to admit it’s getting better. The state of small business and entrepreneurship in the U.S. can be hard to gauge, no matter how many statistics are examined. Attorney, author, and small business advocate Barbara Weltman has looked at the numbers and finds strong entrepreneurial spirit, hard struggle, and some failure in a tough economic climate, but no simple set of stats that captures the state of small business today. Free Enterprise

When Times Get Tough

A family affair. Several factors make a family business better adapted to flourish, even in tough times and without outside financing. As Lauren Harvey observes in this guest post, family businesses often save money on salaries, with family members simply taking a share of the profits. Investment is also more flexible, with families putting money into the business only when the market and financial conditions warrant it. Small Biz Diamonds

By any means necessary. Sometimes greater investment in costly marketing and advertising isn’t necessary to grow your business. In tough economic times less expensive approaches like blogging and other social media marketing can also be hugely effective. Here are 11 examples of business blogs that attract and retain customers. Web Marketing Today

Little big man. Small businesses are often fiercely proud of their scrappy “little guy” reputation and suspicious of the bureaucratic best practices of big business. Still, business consultant Geoff Vincent believes small businesses can have it all, with operational and structural sophistication that can improve performance and efficiency in tough times. bizCompare

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