Content Marketing, Dedicated Servers and More

Content Marketing, Dedicated Servers and More
World Famous Graffiti Artist Sells Poorly in Central Park
Announcing Our New Site Design!

Posted: 02 Nov 2013 02:30 PM PDT

small business weekly news

It’s time for another community news and information roundup here at Small Business Trends. It’s that time we go out and search the Web for the very best small business news and advice our community has to offer each week.

We think we’ve got the best small business community in the world here at Small Business Trends. Here’s what some of them had to offer.

The Trouble with Content Marketing. (Content Confidence)

Marketers embrace content creation these days as a major tool for spreading their messages. Great content brings visitors and potential customers. But it also requires a process. Here Neil Henry explains one approach.

Blogging Isn’t So Hard. (Mike Hale)

Speaking of content creation, are you making things too hard on yourself? Mike Hale claims you learned most of the basic skills you need for great blogging back in seventh grade. Tell us what you think of his assessment.

Basic Backlink Strategies. (LauraRaisanen.com)

This post looks at some of the basic tried and true backlink strategies that have always been part of a traditional content marketing campaign. But a conversation at the BizSugar community raises the question: are they as helpful as they used to be?

The Return of the Digg Effect. (Marketing Land)

It’s a blast from the past that could make you nostalgic for a time when MySpace was still a major social network and mobile carriers still sold minutes. Digg may actually be sending traffic to your website again! Matt McGee has more.

Become a Part of Your Customer’s Life. (Talk 19 Media)

Let’s face it. If you stay in your customers’ lives just long enough to make the sale, there’s no guarantee they’ll come back in the future. But if you market to them non-stop, you’ll be labeled a spammer. And rightfully so! Fortunately, there’s something in between.

Does Your Business Need a Dedicated Server? (Karl Hindle)

We talk a lot about cloud computing these days and about outsourced Web hosting. But here, Braden Ellis guest posts on a totally different subject, dedicated servers. This is when your business leases an entire server instead of sharing space with others. Here are some reasons to consider this option.

Five Ways to Think About Products More Effectively. (Leading Like A Champion)

The idea of selling benefits instead of features is nothing new for businesses. But in this post, Wole Ososami looks at why this works, and gives you five reasons it remains an effective strategy.

Great Sales Questions You Should Consider. (Entrepreneurs Questions)

Sales coach S. Anthony Iannarino insists there is no best question you can ask a prospect on a sales call. But there are best questions you should consider, he says. Here are some of the things you’ll want to get answered.

Multi-tasking is Overrated. (Rhonda’s Virtual Office)

Yep, as a small business owner and entrepreneur, there are many things you’ve got to do in a single day. As tempting as it may be to tackle them all at once, here are some solid arguments against it. What do you think?

Learning to Fall Down the Stairs. (Joyous Joys)

Kate Forster, president and “joy expert” of Red Currant Media, tells the agonizing story of her interview for a very important internship and how she lived to fight another day. There’s a lesson here about learning to laugh at yourself and keep going.

Would you like to get involved in the next community news and information roundup here at Small Business Trends?

If you’ve got an idea we should include, email us at sbtips@gmail.com or share the story via the BizSugar community and we'll consider it for a future post.

Reading Photo via Shutterstock

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World Famous Graffiti Artist Sells Poorly in Central Park

Posted: 02 Nov 2013 11:00 AM PDT

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Marketing is everything. Just ask the graffiti artist known only as Banksy. The spray painting activist infamous for his distinctive stenciled images and slogans left on public surfaces all over the world, may be unpopular with authorities.

But to celebrity buyers like singer Christina Aguilera and renowned auction houses like Sotheby’s, his work is worth tens or hundreds of thousands.

Still, on a recent trip to New York City, Banksy claims an unadvertised art sale in Central Park made him just $480 — even though each piece was authentic and signed.

See the video he posted to YouTube and his website below:

Banksy Sells Paintings for Starving Artist Prices

So what’s going on here?

Well, we could assume that Bansky was just laying low. After all, city officials had already made their feelings clear. A few days later, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg warned the artist against any further, er…impromptu exhibits, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

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But it’s more likely Bansky was trying to make a point. And it’s one even regular old law abiding entrepreneurs should probably pay heed to as well.

What Entrepreneurs Can Learn

First, the artist didn’t even bother to promote the sale. He not only failed to mention it ahead of time on his website. He made a point afterwards of telling fans the sale would not be repeated.

Failure to promote the first event pretty much guaranteed few, if any, of Banksy’s die hard fans, including celebrities and big auction houses, would be on hand. And by refusing to repeat it, he even passed up the opportunity to capitalize on the buzz he had created.

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Second, though Bansky did sign the paintings, few people who passed the art sale that day may have had any idea who the artist was.

Since the paintings were labeled at $60 a piece and peddled in Central Park, certain expectations about the value of the work were established with passersby.

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Banksy was, no doubt, trying to make some kind of statement about celebrity in our culture or the difference between labels and actual value. But anyone who’s spent a little extra for an iPhone understands the principle. Market a product to the right customers who know and love your brand and your story and price are no longer the issue.

And by the way, watch out. That story and brand can also be exploited by others, if you’re not careful.

For example, a week after Banksy’s unpublicized sale, a New York-based artist set up a similar sale with Banksy look-alikes, reports CBC Radio — and sold out in under an hour!

Are you making sure your marketing efforts are reaching the right customers?

Images: Wikipedia

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Announcing Our New Site Design!

Posted: 02 Nov 2013 09:33 AM PDT

I am delighted to introduce our new design here at Small Business Trends. Starting this weekend we are phasing in the new design.

You will immediately see a cleaner, lighter design with countless visual improvements, including a different size and style of font and improved layout.

We also added expanded navigation to make it easier to find content in the site. Small Business Trends is over 10 years old, and has over 10,000 pages in it. However, finding some of our best content has sometimes been a challenge — information and articles will be easier to find with the improved navigation.

Over the coming weeks you will see even more changes, including:

A responsive element that adjusts automatically for different size devices
New added functionality and features
Improved navigation beyond what we’ve already phased in
A rating system for our reviews (products and book reviews)
Tweaks to various pages to improve intuitiveness

And we’ve done it all for you. There’s been months of work behind the scenes to make this happen. We’ve invested substantially in upgrading our systems.

We need your help, too. Over the next few weeks, if you see anything that doesn’t look right or any error messages, please leave a comment below. Or send us an email at: admin@smallbiztrends.com.

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