Self-Publish or Traditional Publish A Book: #BizBookAwards Chat |  |
- Self-Publish or Traditional Publish A Book: #BizBookAwards Chat
- Vine Tweet Report: Analytics Tool for Twitter’s Vine App
- Small Business Book Awards: Nominate Through March 3, 2013
- David Adler: Legal Risks Facing Affiliate Marketers Today #AMDays
- You Can Now Teach With WordPress
- Happy Grasshopper Email Marketing Hops Toward The Million Dollar Club
| Self-Publish or Traditional Publish A Book: #BizBookAwards Chat Posted: 19 Feb 2013 04:21 PM PST
Topic: Self-Publish or Traditional Publish A Book – Which is Best?For authors, entrepreneurs writing a book now, or those planning to write a book — we’ll be discussing the pros and cons of traditional versus self-publishing. Should you go the traditional publishing route by seeking a contract with a traditional publisher? Or should you self publish your book? And if you self publish, should it be an ebook-only format, a print book, or both? What are the pros and cons of services and platforms such as Lulu, Book Baby, Smashwords, CreateSpace, eJunkie, ClickBank and others? And what about some of the cutting edge approaches such as using Kickstarter or other crowdsourced platforms to finance your book? Book club regulars and book lovers, we’d also like you to weigh in. Do you think traditionally-published books are better, or do you like self-published books? Or do you notice any difference today? Who will be thereThis is an open chat. EVERYONE is welcome to join in. Let’s make it a party! Confirmed guests include:
Special giveawayWe will be doing a giveaway of Ramon Ray’s new book, the The Facebook Guide to Small Business Marketing (read a review). For a chance to win, just follow along and share great tips and insights. How does one participate? It’s easy. Just log in at Twitter.com. Then do a search on Twitter for the hashtag #BizBookAwards to see what is being said. To join in and be heard, just add the hashtag “BbizBookAwards” to the end of your tweets during the hour. PS: This chat is in honor of the Small Business Book Awards. Now accepting nominations through March 3, 2013. The post Self-Publish or Traditional Publish A Book: #BizBookAwards Chat appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Vine Tweet Report: Analytics Tool for Twitter’s Vine App Posted: 19 Feb 2013 01:00 PM PST Since Twitter launched its Vine mobile video app in January, many users including brands have signed up to create six-second looping videos to share with their social networks. But since the platform is still so new, it may seem difficult for brands and businesses to measure exactly how their creations on the Vine app are received and how they might impact current and potential customers. Now, free analytics report provider Simply Measured has released a new tool to help brands make sense of all the noise surrounding Vine. The analytics report shows which Vine app users are interacting with your videos, as well as your brand's top influencers, and how your network engagement on Vine compares with engagement on other social platforms.
The photo above shows a sample user analysis, which includes the amount of posts your brand has made on Vine and other media such as YouTube and Instagram, and how the engagement on each of these platforms stacks up against the engagement your brand receives on Vine. It also shows your brand's top followers and influencers, based on interactions with tweets that contain Vine videos. You can also choose to filter your analytics results by city or country, and see which of your Vine videos has gained the most views and has the most potential for impact. There's also a section called "Your Vines by the Numbers," which shows the number of total users your Vines have reached, how many times users engaged with your Vines, the potential reach (the number of users who have interacted with your Vines and their total combined followers), and the potential impressions (the potential times your Vines could have shown up in users' feeds). Twitter’s Vine app is still a very new tool that brands are using to reach social audiences, so there haven't been many ways for these brands to actually measure engagement and figure out if posting these six-second clips can actually be worth it. But analytics tools like this one have become a big part of social media strategies for many companies that use other social media platforms, so it was only a matter of time before such tools became available for Vine app users as well. Simply Measured was first introduced in 2010 and has helped to track more than 173,000 social media profiles on various sites including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and more. The different free reports offered by the company can cover anything from followers to traffic sources. The analytics tool for vine is the Seattle-based company's newest offering, launching just about a month after Vine app debuted in the app store. The post Vine Tweet Report: Analytics Tool for Twitter’s Vine App appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Small Business Book Awards: Nominate Through March 3, 2013 Posted: 19 Feb 2013 11:00 AM PST
The 2013 Small Business Book Awards celebrate books for entrepreneurs, small business owners, CEOs, managers and their staffs. This is the 5th year for these community Awards. In the past, almost 100,000 votes were cast by the community. Winners receive publicity and the right to display winners’ insignia on books, websites, brochures and elsewhere. Ten overall winners and 5 winners in each category will be named. Nominating is fast — and free. What’s New for 2013In 2013 there are more categories than ever before — and more opportunities to be recognized. This year features 10 book categories, along with a new non-book category. Business books may be nominated if published in 2012, relevant to small businesses, and covering one of these topical areas: marketing, technology, social media, management, economics, startup, self-help, leadership or personal finance. There’s also a category for business classics, which is for all-time favorite business books published prior to 2012. Be sure to check out the overview of some of the new book nominations so far in this year’s Small Business Book Awards. The non-book category is for publishing resources such as book publicists, ghost writing services, author apps (such as Story Tracker and the Write or Die app), and similar resources. So if you know any good author apps, copywriters, publishing platforms and other resources, nominate them! Welcome Namecheap, Our SponsorNamecheap is showing its commitment to the small business community through its generous support as Presenting Sponsor of the Small Business Book Awards. Namecheap is an ICANN accredited domain name registrar and Web hosting company managing 3 million domains with more than 800,000 clients. Authors, if you need a website for you book, look to Namecheap, which offers some of the most affordable domain names in the industry, full-featured Web hosting packages, SSL certificates and more. Thank you, Namecheap! DetailsWho: Anyone can nominate. Authors, feel free to nominate your own books. Book lovers, nominate your favorites. Publishers and editors, also feel free to nominate your books. What: 2013 Small Business Book Awards When: Nominations end March 3, 2013 at 11:59 pm Los Angeles, California time. Once nominations end, voting starts immediately thereafter and runs through March 26, 2013. Where: Visit the Small Business Book Awards site. Or jump directly to the nomination form . The post Small Business Book Awards: Nominate Through March 3, 2013 appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| David Adler: Legal Risks Facing Affiliate Marketers Today #AMDays Posted: 19 Feb 2013 09:00 AM PST David Adler, a partner at Leavens, Strand, Glover & Adler, LLC, and a seasoned lawyer focused on counseling businesses across the interrelated areas of intellectual property law, media & entertainment, information technology and corporate law will be speaking at Affiliate Management Days SF 2013 (April 16-17, 2013) on the topic of “Managing Risk: Legal Issues for Merchants & Affiliate Managers.” This is a pre-interview with David. * * * * *
David Adler: As a lawyer, I consider affiliate marketing to be fairly "high risk," if not done properly. This is due to several factors related to ease of setup, creation and use of marketing content, marketing tactics and lack of oversight. First, it is relatively easy and inexpensive to get into affiliate marketing. Therefore, it can attract unsophisticated, misinformed and unscrupulous people looking to make a fast buck. The speed and ease with which websites and landing pages can be launched, taken down, and relaunched elsewhere leads to a never ending game of "whack-a-mole" for companies trying to protect their products and brand from illegitimate or unscrupulous marketers. Second, the purpose of affiliate marketing is to drive traffic to a sales channel. This works best when marketers use compelling, eye catching content that attracts visitors. This means using trademarks, keywords and content that people are seeking. Affiliates frequently use a network of landing pages with content customized for different audiences. The risk is that, often, the responsibility for creation and use of such content lies with the affiliate. Unscrupulous affiliate marketers have been known to use text, photos and videos of others and even "celebrity endorsements" without permission. The most notable case involves the unauthorized use of Dr. Oz in connection with efforts to market acai berry health products. Third, marketing channels such as email and social networking pose risks as well. Again, since the goal of affiliate marketing is to drive Web traffic, it only makes sense to go where the users are. However, many affiliate marketers are unfamiliar with state and federal laws that regulate the use of email for marketing purposes. Likewise, many social networking platforms have terms of service that directly address not only marketing, but affiliate marketing specifically. In addition, marketers must stay within the bounds of truth-in-advertising laws, privacy disclosure requirements and tax laws. Lastly, Affiliate Marketing depends on thin, almost anonymous relationships with third parties. Because companies often have no direct relationship with the affiliate marketers who are promoting their products and brands, it is difficult to police these marketers activities to ensure that they are not creating an unreasonable risk of liability by using unauthorized content or improper methods. Question: What steps can an online advertiser take today to avoid some of the key problem areas, minimizing risk and liability? David Adler: The first step that anyone in the affiliate marketing ecosystem should take is to do "due diligence." This means checking out the publisher network and the products being offered to make sure they are established and reputable. For brands, this means doing "background" checks on the proposed marketing partners and making sure the legal risks outline above, such as intellectual property rights and approved marketing methods, are addressed in the parties contracts. Question: What do you see as the main challenges for affiliate managers and advertisers with affiliate programs? David Adler: The biggest challenges that I see facing the industry are two-fold. First, the rapid adoption of mobile technologies means that marketers must address this platform. In addition to traditional laws and regulations, the mobile platform faces additional hurdles from industry groups issuing their own guidelines in an effort to preempt ever more government regulation. Second, privacy and security of information gathered and shared on and across mobile devices has heightened concerns among consumers and lawmakers alike. The challenge to marketers is connecting with mobile consumers using content optimized for a smaller screen and driving consumers to make purchases. Marketers now have access to a wide range of personal information never before available. How they choose to access, store and share that info will affect both individual marketers and the industry as a whole. The upside, of course, is that unlike desktop computers which are stationary, consumers with smartphones are able to make purchases any time, any where. Even with the increased challenges, there are increased opportunities. Question: What do you think 2013 holds in store for us abd how do you expect the legal landscape to change in relation to e-commerce and online advertising? David Adler: As the mobile platform continues to mature, the risks and uncertainties will continue to shift. For e-commerce and online advertising, I see new developments in two fronts, privacy and consumer protection. First, state and federal government agencies are keenly aware of the privacy concerns raised through use of mobile platforms, such as location data and access to information like contact lists and photos. This year will continue to see FTC and state enforcement of privacy policies, and violations of those policies, by all parties in the mobile advertising and commerce area. Second, be on the lookout for more actions in the name of consumer protection that are aimed at unfair or deceptive business practices, particularly with respect to how marketers gather, cross reference and share consumer information for more targeted advertising or behavioral advertising. * * * * * The Affiliate Management Days conference, where David Adler will be speaking on managing risk in affiliate marketing, takes place April 16-17, 2013. Follow @AMDays or #AMDays on Twitter. Early bird registration runs until February 22, 2013. When registering, make sure to use the code SBTAM250 to receive an additional $250.00 off your two-day (or combo) pass. The rest of the interview series from #AMDays may be found here. The post David Adler: Legal Risks Facing Affiliate Marketers Today #AMDays appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| You Can Now Teach With WordPress Posted: 19 Feb 2013 07:00 AM PST
I am also going to explain how this tool can be beneficial for the everyday business, not just those that teach or train others. Sensei's WordPress Learning Management Plugin OptionsThis learning management plugin offers you the ability to create an online course for in-house use or you can offer a paid course for others. With Sensei you can:
This Tool Can Be Beneficial for Any BusinessObviously this is a great tool for someone like me that trains businesses. But when I saw Sensei, I immediately started thinking of how my clients could use it as well. Here are some examples of how you can use this tool: New Employee Training Many businesses have a set of rules and procedures they want new employees to learn, but how can you really be sure they have learned what they need to know? Create lessons and quizzes in Sensei. Before the employee can begin working they must be able to pass the tests you have created and to do that they have study the lessons. New Training for Current Employees Do you have a new system you want your employees to learn, but you’re not sure how if everyone has paid attention? Well, this could be your answer. Create courses for current employees and set a required percentage on quizzes for them to pass. With training and tests in place there is no excuse for mistakes. Restaurants It is critical that all of your staff knows the menu well and can answer questions appropriately. In fact, it can be a matter of life and death when it comes to allergies your customers may have. With Sensei you can make sure your employees know your menu like the back of their hand by offering them a fantastic teaching tool and required tests. There are also a variety of checkout systems restaurants use to monitor sales and money. With Sensei, you can make sure everyone knows how to use your system and there are no "I didn't know" excuses. Businesses with Required Procedures Many businesses need all employees to follow a defined list of procedures and when procedures are missed, the quality can be minimized. Why not teach new employees your step-by-step procedures with an online course? You can also create a course for current employees as a refresher. Safety All businesses have safety procedures in place, but some have more than others. Make sure every employee you have knows safety procedures perfectly. For many businesses, proof of education of employees is a factor in insurance and workman's comp. Use Sensei as part of your safety training and with the course analytics, you have proof of employee grades. Every time your safety procedures are updated you can create a new lesson or course for them to use. What You Need to KnowSensei is a plugin for WordPress, meaning without a WP site the tool will not help you. Right now the introductory price is $79 for one site, but will go up to $99 soon. There are also prices for multiple sites and unlimited use as well. You can integrate WooCommerce into Sensei for course payment options. This first version of Sensei is just the beginning. While it offers a lot now, it will offer more in the future. You can find more information at Woothemes. The post You Can Now Teach With WordPress appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Happy Grasshopper Email Marketing Hops Toward The Million Dollar Club Posted: 19 Feb 2013 05:00 AM PST
Further influenced by the works of Tony Hsieh and Gary Vaynerchuck, Dan shifted his work to addressing the challenges of creative content in email marketing campaigns. In October 2010, Dan launched the Florida-based Happy Grasshopper, an easy-to-use email marketing solution. As, according to Dan, salespeople: ". . .don't know what to say, when to say it or how often it should be said." The company provides a team of writers and an automated means to staying in touch. Writers create timely, interesting message content that guarantees a response. Customers simply choose a new message once every three weeks, make any desired changes, and appropriate it for delivery. Happy Grasshopper offers five services to sales professionals:
Their "one size fits all" solution is applicable to numerous industries. Dan's two year focused acquisition effort has lead to over 3,000 customers in the real estate vertical. The choice to focus on the real estate industry has been an important one for Dan and the team. It has brought them the opportunity to cater to the needs of the vertical, as well as gain reputation and visibility as a key player offering a compelling solution within the segment. Unlike competitors Constant Contact and iContact, the service is not intended to teach users how to create and manage their own email marketing campaign. Happy Grasshopper avoids overwhelming customers with such choices. Instead, they provide friendly, engaging message content to take the place of industry related marketing content. Their message open rates, at just over 30%, are 198% higher than Constant Contact. In addition to a clear advantage in content, the company outranks competitors in ease of use, network reach and pricing. Customers currently pay between $19-39 per month for services, based on the size of their network. The plan also includes real time monthly reports on message deliverability and open rates. This scaled plan, covering up to 5,000 contacts, provides greater value to an individual customer. Happy Grasshopper's successful customer acquisition has resulted in numerous customer testimonials, and a "Cool Tool" accolade in REALTOR magazine. The release of an imitator service by a real estate media company was, Dan says, admittedly distracting. But the launch only provided further validation, as Happy Grasshopper continued to capture market preference. And despite external pressure from the real estate community's status quo, the company's user base continues to grow. Happy Grasshopper was formally incorporated in March of 2011. Their focus has since turned to leveraging the success of their user base to form partnerships with tech providers, brokerages, associations and the like. In 2012, Dan initiated a partnership with Virtual Results, a company delivering profit through Internet marketing. Happy Grasshopper ended the year with approximately $300,000 in revenue. Dan, a multiple-time Inc. 500|5000 honoree, continues to stress the importance of conversation. The fully bootstrapped company is expected to reach the $1 million revenue milestone in 2013. Logo Photo via Happy Grasshopper The post Happy Grasshopper Email Marketing Hops Toward The Million Dollar Club appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
Join the Small Business Trends team and guests for a text chat on Twitter.com – Wednesday, February 20, 2013 from 3 to 4 pm Eastern (New York time zone).
Go ahead – make an author’s day. Nominate your favorite business book in the 2013 Small Business Book Awards. The nomination deadline is March 3, 2013.
Question: It isn’t unusual to hear one describe affiliate marketing as a “risk-free channel?” Looking at it as a lawyer, wouldn’t you say that it should be called a “high-risk” industry? 
With a new tool it is now possible for you to teach by creating a course or class within WordPress. Woothemes is now offering a WordPress learning management plugin called 
After selling his Customer Relationship Management (CRM) firm in 2010, serial entrepreneur Dan Stewart was looking for a new project. His next venture was prompted by a marketing focused teacher and former customer who emphasized the importance of "fun, relationship building, conversation starting" email messages.| You are subscribed to email updates from Small Business Trends To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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