A Smart Business Email is like a 'Smart Phone' for your business

Today, there are over a million reasons why you would choose a smart phone over a traditional mobile phone. The million Apps available on market places of Android and iPhone does make your life easier and more fun.
But, what about your Business Email, can it become Smart like your smart phone?  yes, it can, and it has been there for a while now, and are being used by many successful start-ups, micro businesses, SMBs and enterprises alike.

How to get a Smart Business Email?    Let us first try to understand why is it called smart!

Why is it called 'Smart' Business Email?

     To Qualify as 'Smart' a business email need to be
     a) Apps - Can i integrate productivity apps like Invoicing, Time tracking and CRM right into Email, as and when i need them in the future?
     b) Powerful Search - Can i have a powerful Search, so that i never miss an email sent by some one whose name also i don't remember now- how about a google like search for your inbox?
     c) Chat, Video with my employees - How about instant chat built right into my Email Inbox- so, i can decide to chat or write email, to improve efficiency?
     d) Does it work like a charm on the Cloud, without me worrying about up-time, spam mails, infrastructure issues, IT personnel cost
     e) Can it support shared Calendar with all my employees, so that i can setup meeting more easily and even knowing their schedule? and can it send a SMS/Text message alert for my meetings?
     f) Able to go Social, and collaborate (read Google+ business integration with Google Apps) and create bonding and effectiveness, within your office employees?

    If your answer is "YES" to all the above points, you need a 'Smart' Business Email.

    Getting a Smart Business Email is simple and will not even cost you the price of your morning news paper!
    So, It makes sense to get one.

What are the Smart Business Email options available today?     

     There are only very few options if you are really interested in a Smart Business Email
      #1 Business Email Powered by Google Apps
      #2 Business Email Powered by Office 365 (with Exchange Online)

How to get a Smart Business Email?  

Sign-up with Google Apps or office 365 yourself, if you can handle the DNS changes and Domain verification and Setup yourself.

You can alternatively contact Service Providers like Toboc.Biz or others, who will set it up free of cost.

Sales Process simplified for Startups and Small Business

No matter what you're selling, the process of converting your Leads to Customers require a process/structure.

In order to succeed and thrive in sales you would need to master each one of these below steps.

 1. Choose a Sector/Industry to focus

The product or service that you are offering is probably needed by the whole world. But, don't target the whole world yet. Choose one or two sectors with sufficient study done via channels like Surveys, Personal interview with potential buyers, Advisory board, Social Media, Blogs etc...

2. Convince yourself about the product or Service that you sell.

You can't convince a prospect effectively without knowing all about your products and services. If you don't understand the product or service OR if you are not convinced yourself, you cannot expect someone else to buy it, simple!

3. Understand your target audience 

After the step1, and once you are convinced about your products and Services, the chances are that you may start focusing too much on your brand and your products, while communicating with your audience - there is a big trouble here, as your target audience is more interested in knowing how the product/service will solving their problems.

4. Create and Manage Leads well

To succeed, you must make sure not a single lead is ever missed!, and to do that, you have to ensure that, the Leads generated through various marketing activities are seamlessly flowing into an central platform like CRM tool. Remember, setting up this integration is not a rocket science, and there are many firms that can help you get a usable and working CRM tool up and running for your small business for as low as Rs 500 ($10) a month!
While setting up CRM tool, please ensure that the 'Contact us' form and 'Request for quote' forms are bringing the data straight into the CRM Leads database. To learn more on top CRM apps for startups, micro and small business, click here

5. Identify the "Prospects"

The 'Potential' qualification stage usually takes place at the appointment itself, although you can also qualify briefly during your initial contact. The idea is to confirm that your prospect is both able and potentially willing to buy your Product or Service.

6. Set an Appointment

It's time to use those leads you collected in step 4. Many salespeople prefer to cold call over the phone, but you can also call in person, send one on one email or even use e-marketing activities to targeted Lead.
Use the right cloud based tools like Skype or Zoho meeting, which allow you to meet the prospect over a web meeting, which will help you minimize the cost.

7. Presentation(s) to Prospects

Presentation to the Potential customer is a key step. Do mock trials with a group of colleagues or friends. Personal branding and flaw-less presentation of your product/service with sufficient eye to detail is essential to generate and sustain the interest from the prospects.

During the presentation, you do get to deal with your prospect's concerns. the most common being "I may have to think about it” - prepare well to tackle this as an 'answer' during your presentation itself.

8. Ask for the Sale, Close the Deal

Once you've made your presentation and answered your prospect's questions and concerns, it's time to ask for the sale and close the deal confidently.

Ask for referrals, with or without a successful sale with your prospects, add them to Leads database of CRM, continue the process from step 5 onwards.

Hands-on review of CRM Apps for Startups and Micro businesses

A WOW for your business on web is a 3 step process

1. Web Incubation 

Website with SEO features and Content Management System on cloud
Learn more on how to incubate your (existing or new) website on web towards creating a successful business presence on Web and Mobile

2. Inbound Lead Generation 

Digital Marketing activities, Social Media and SEO activities, Outbound Marketing
Click here read my blog on 15 smart tips on Inbound lead generation

3. Conversion of Lead to customer, and retaining the Customer 

 The third step is using a the right tools for Lead Conversion and Retention.
 For example a website's contact us and request for quote forms can be powered by forms created using CRM Leads and CRM Opportunities engine, so that you get to act faster and in a more structured way.

Also, in the blog below, i will be providing a hands-on review of Top 6 CRM Apps (To simplify, don't even call this tool as CRM tool, call it a 'Lead to Customer Conversion' Application!) aimed at Startups and Micro business. I am also going to provide my recommendation which may help you make the right choice for your business.

CRM for start-ups!

"CRM for start-ups??" - is this what is going in your mind? well, i was amazed to hear some of the very successful startups were well organized from the word go, using simpler versions of tools like CRM. Agreed, no startup would like to invest thousands of dollars on CRM tools, but there are now robust Cloud or Software As a Service (pay as you go) options available that gives you the power to take on established larger businesses.

The simplest of a CRM tool that exist today could be SohoOS, but there are plenty of other options available, especially if you are running your business on Google Apps. (As i have said in my previous blogs, if you are not with Google Apps, you are really loosing out on some very good productivity tools and features, that too almost at negligible cost, which will really allow you to take on mega-businesses.)

The CRM options below are arranged below in the order of maturity they possess, starting with SohoOs which works best you are a 1- to 2 person firm, all the way to Oracle CRM recommended for small and medium businesses with over 200 employees.
As you move down my list, you will find that options get more expensive, more feature rich.

Customization is a big factor in chosing CRM, and as you go down the order, you will find that option 6 is most customizability and option 1 is least customize-able of all. But that doesn't mean that, option 6 is better option than the others. It all depends on your scenario, employees you have, the money you would like to spend in CRM, the growth you are fore-seeing in the next 6 months to 2 years etc...

Remember, most of the CRM tools does allow you to import and export of data, and hence moving from one CRM platform to another  after  a year or two is an option available, so when your business is smaller, start small which will allow your employees to "use it". The more complex and feature rich CRM tools can wait until your business grows slightly bigger.
Now, let us get the review started!

1. SohoOS.com

 SaaS based, Simple yet great, works best when you are running your micro business or startup, all by yourself or have may be one or two partners/employees. SohoOS has a built-in hand holding or walk-through that even my 6 yr old daughter may find it easy to use! you must try it, even if you don't have a plan to organize your micro business operations yet.
Biggest drawback is, you can have only one user as Agent/Administrator of the SohoOS account.
Recommended for young startups in the initial years

2. ZOHO CRM

 SaaS based,Typically recommended for Startups, Micro Business and Small Business teams of up 20 to 50 members. This option is cheaper and works quite well, when used along with Google Apps. ZOHO has huge collection of other productivity apps, which can sync well with ZOHO CRM, e.g. you can create a contact us form from ZOHO, publish on your website, and bring all the leads, right into your CRM lead view, as the customer tries to contact you.
If you have just 3 users using ZoHO CRM, it is free forever, which is found to be very attractive and i have  not seen this aggressive pricing in any other CRM apps.
Recommended for startups and micro-businesses with more than two sales personnel 

3. SugarCRM

I never used it myself, but sugarCRM does have a huge fan following due to its open source roots. The point to remember is that, you will have to setup and host the software yourself. My recommendation to small business would be to NOT TO get into hosting sugarCRM or any other CRM, as you will loose the focus from your core business, and will end up dealing with infrastructure issues. There is an on-demand version of SugarCRM, but it has not been very successful and proven yet.

4. SalesForce.com 

Sales force pioneered SaaS based CRM offerings on the cloud, truly a legend of a product, but somehow does not work well with Google Apps!, my favorite platform for startups and micro business. Also, SalesForce.com is little more expensive when compared to ZOHO CRM.

5. Microsoft CRM 2011

Organizations which is having larger than 100 employees, Dynamics CRM is a good option, especially if you have existing investment in Microsoft .NET or SharePoint technologies. Yes, as you move up in the value chain, it gets more expensive.
On-Demand version of MS Dynamics CRM also does exist, but if on-demand is what you are opting for, it is rather better to go ahead with salesforce or ZOHO CRM

6. Oracle CRM on Demand

Powerful solution meant for medium to large business. Works better for small business above 200 employees. Strong SLA suppported service, most expensive of all options listed here. 

If you are interested in learning more on setting up a Website, Google Apps Business Email and ZOHO CRM for your startup, micro or small business, please fill up the form below>

15 smart Inbound Lead generation tips for Startups and Micro businesses

Jump start tips for Inbound lead generation for Startups

1.  Pick a name that sync with your business.  Needs to be simple, memorable and unambiguous. Either a “.com” or ".biz" or ".in" domain should be available, for the name you have chosen.

2. Get a Business Email, preferably on Google Apps, on your own domain - Why Google Apps? for now, just get it done, you will surely thank for this advice later!
(Quick tip: If not opting for GApps, get a Gmail account, it helps in having G+ profile, Youtube Account, Your contacts, leads, all managed centrally via a single account)

3.  Put up a Good website.  The goal is to put enough content on the site to get your pages indexed.  Make sure to use a decent content management system (CMS) and not Dreamweaver or FrontPage, but a Joomla, Drupal, DNN, Wordpress. Wordpress would be a good choice due to sheer number of paid and free themes available. Go for Cloud hosting, it is cheap, and can grow when your business grow.

  Make sure your site is working on Mobile and all other devices, you should ideally opt for RWD+CMS+HTML5 website. For websites, you could end-up spending nothing or thousands of $$, but what you get is what you pay for. So, free website can only take you thus far.

4.  Get some links into the new startup website.  If you have a personal website or a blog, link to it from there as well. Also, ask your friends with websites and blogs, to link to your new site. Ask your close friends who participate in Answers / community / forums. Ask them clearly not to spam and instead, let them spent time and answer to queries/content if related to your site - and when they are answering via such forums, they can link it to your blog or website as a "source"

5. Create Company listing on directory portals. Look up for good b2b portals and local directories and list your company there.

6.  Setup a Twitter accounts.  Name of the Twitter account should preferably match your company's domain name.  Link to your Twitter account from your website and to your website from your Twitter account.

7.  Add a business e-mail subscription.  Allow interested people to sign-up to get an email about your product or service.  A simple email sign-up form is sufficient.

8.  Get a nice logo plus branding colors and fonts .  What looks just OK is not OK. So, please take professional help here.

9.  Setup a Facebook business page for your start-up.  You may not get many fans in the early months.  That’s just fine for now.  Just add a simple description of your startup, link back to your website, add photos of your business partners, videos if any. Do upload the logo created in step #8
 Refer the strategy to achieve Social Media Goals, refer this link  http://slidesha.re/13JGo1k
 Remember to have genuine, human touch and be yourself, share the updates about your firm, share the next big project, photos of your workforce, office etc...one share/post per week is good to start with.

10. Setup a blog. If you have a created a CMS powered website in step#3, it would have been easier to create a blog setup, but nevertheless, you can use one of the free hosting tools (like blogger.com), but not in their domain instead have it like blog.mynewsite.com but never make it mynewsite.blogspot.in.  The reasons are many, don't bother for now, i will tell you the reasons later, but you can quickly refer my other blogs (visit techbizmarketing.blogspot.in if you need the answer right away)

11. Write a blog article describing your goal and challenges you are facing as your are setting up your start-up website, twitter account, blog etc...please put it up in your own language, and DO NOT copy!
Being honest works,

12. Update your LinkedIn profile.  Mention your new Startup company's vision, and add a link to your new website. 

13. Get business cards printed. Please remember to keep the logo and branding picked in step#8 is maintained throughout.

14. Setup Google Analytics (GA) for your website and see where the traffic is coming from, and from where it is not coming.  How is it growing?  What keywords people are using to find your site?
Do spend daily at least 30mins on GA, this should become an addiction, hope you know what i mean. When you see the numbers picking up, you will get addicted for sure!

15. Device a Pull with Content Vs Push Advertisement Strategies, Content with pull works in the long term.
      You might still need Push Strategy (read Adwords PPC Ads. FB Ads, or Email Marketing in the short term to generate sudden surge of right set of audience)

For more details and for a jump start on startup incubation on web, there are plenty of trusted options like Microsoft Startup Accelerator Program and TobocBiz's Startup Starter package

Small Business Incubation on web to WOW on Cloud

From Small Business Incubation on Web to WOW on Cloud

Terms like Incubation on Web to 'WOW on Cloud' may sound like a marketing buzzword!. But, i could not find any other way to sum up the experience and process that a traditional small business CEO or a startup founder goes through.

Using a three step process, let me explain the process of getting the right incubation on web, on the social web, all the way to what i call as 'WOW on Cloud' which is the phase of 'optimum productivity' and 'optimum efficiency' resulting in increased business from web and customer delight.

This structured process provides a controlled environment for business on web from the time the first customer enters the web site until dominant rankings or thriving customer conversions happens

Why should your company go for 'Incubation on Web' than just getting started?

It is much like a curriculum for kids. For a grown up and successful adult, the curriculum might look simple and very obvious things to do. But for a kid, getting the ideal launch pad is the key to better performance in life and career ahead.
Yes many firms, may skip the 'Incubation step' or professional help, making assumptions and inputs received through their friends and colleagues. Remember, many of them have not started a company (nor they have experience running a firm)so they could be totally wrong. Here is where professional consulting will help.

A structured incubation from thorough professionals or reputed internet firms is strongly recommended to avoid wastage of precious time involved with miss-steps.

Who should get Internet Incubation?

 1. If yours is a traditional small business company, looking for the right start on web.
     Or
 2. If yours is an Internet company which is about to get launched.

   How to get your Small Business Incubated?

   To make sure, basic steps are done right, you need a certain level of consulting and due-diligence from Gurus of Web development and Web Marketing. First and fore-most is to find a right firm who can do the consulting at a reasonable cost.
   Well, here is the catch. It is very easy to fall prey to sharks on the web, who are just out there to make money. Just like in any other field, make sure the firm you choose (e.g. Company A) are able to do a due-diligence for your company at a reasonable cost without any upfront commitment for the Incubation to WOW project.
 Ask for previous sample due-diligence reports that Company A or B has prepared in the past.

 It is must be clear that at the outset that, based on the output of the due-diligence meeting or report, you might decide to get the actual action items done through another firm. So, with this model, Company A who is chosen for due-diligence, will be motivated to provide an accurate Study and Action Items + Next steps with right costing and time-line.

  Due-diligence report is the key

  Most small businesses require a 1/2 day session with Web Gurus, to understand your core business, challenges, your process. Make sure you assign the right personnel to assist the Web Guru, so that the process goes smoothly and gets concluded in a day.

   Due-diligence report prepared during incubation process, may contain a variety of action items.

   1. It could be as simple a 5 page html website that is much cheaper to setup, OR on the end the recommendation could be, a highly customized website including payment gateway supported in local currency.
   2. A business email with traditional hosting could be recommended OR on the other hand, a Google Apps or Office 365 powered may be recommended.
   3. How the hosting should be, and where to host etc, could be another item covered.
   4. It might have recommendation on what kind of SEO tuning or services are required by your firm
   5. The action item may contain how to improve the productivity using cloud bases Apps, interact real-time with your largely social customer base.
   6. Sometimes, the first action item could be signing up for particular listing directory

  

 We cannot afford a due-diligence report now, what can be done?

  Well, that is what head of most companies may feel. I strongly recommend you to get the report done, but if it is still a resounding NO, the next best strategy recommended is to go through the 3 step process to reach from Incubation on Web to Incubation on Social Web to WOW on cloud!

Internet Incubation for Small business

From Incubation on Internet to WOW on Cloud

Terms like 'Internet Incubation to WOW on Cloud' may sound like a marketing buzzword!. But, i could not find any other way to sum up the experience and process that a start-up founder or a traditional small business trying web.
Experience and process of going through the early months of getting a presence on the web - all the way to becoming an established player on web with huge business volume driven via internet is surely the crux of this blog.

  What is Internet Incubation (or Web Incubation)?

 Internet or Web Incubation is a structured process of consulting and guiding a company in the initial period on the web world.

A more detailed help on incubating your small business on Web/Internet is articulated in my next blog

   

Hands-on Review of top 5 Business Email options for Start-ups, Micro and small businesses

Most reliable business email options - A Hands-on review about Cloud based business email options

For Small business, getting a business email is clearly a right step towards achieving success online. 

Establishing an in-house email hosting infrastructure is not at all recommended for Small businesses. Managing this kind of infrastructure will be very costly, and plus it takes your focus away from your core business. Therefore, many businesses look for smarter options like cloud based email hosting. If you make the right choice, it can save you and your company a lot of money from increased likelihood of virus infection, spam, increased expenses, and regular software/hardware problems.

Below is a hands-on reviews about cloud based business email options available today for Start-ups, Micro and small businesses

1. Google Apps Business Email (A Smart Cloud ready Business Email)

    - Easy to setup, secure and have excellent uptime
    - Very powerful Gmail engine with excellent search
    - Tags instead of folders, familiar gmail interface,
    - Opens the door towards smarter Google Apps deployment
    - Excellent integration with Android smart phones with Contacts, Calendar sync and more.
    - Highly recommended for start-ups, micro and small businesses. Learn more?
    - Many times more powerful than ZOHO Email/Yahoo Email/GoDaddy Email

2. ZOHO Email Hosting

     - Works on similar model like Google Apps when it comes to pricing, i.e. /user/month pricing
     - Less powerful mailbox features compared to Google Apps/Office365
     - Woks well with other ZOHO productivity apps like ZOHO CRM and many more

3. Yahoo Small Business Email

     - Gets 100s of email addresses
     - A bit expensive, if having less than 5 business email users
     - Less powerful mailbox features compared to Google Apps
     - Unlike ZOHO and Google Apps, there are limited or NO productivity improvement integrations available if you choose Yahoo, and hence not a smart option. But if you need large number of email addressees, this option can be considered.

4. Office 365/Exchange on Cloud (A Smart Business Email)

     - Powered by MS Exchange Server
     - Excellent integrations with MS platforms, MS Office and Windows phone devices
     - Opens the door towards enterprise grade collaboration platform on cloud
     - Highly recommended for mid-size businesses to large enterprises.
     - Costlier than Google Apps, so not recommended for SMEs

5. GoDaddy
     - Lot of negative reviews on the net.
     - Not expensive, but support is not up-to the mark
     - Not recommended in general, consider only if opting for Godaddy hosting as well, and only if the cheapest price is non-negotiable.

Startups and SME's, do not think twice before adopting Google Apps

The more you learn about Google Apps, you and your business will become a bigger fan of Google Apps. Startups/SMEs need not think twice before adopting Google Apps. Yes, office 365 can still achieve some of the features as well, but the costs are higher and between the power of Google Vs power of Microsoft, currently Google is the winner at SME space.  Here are some of the top benefits of Google Apps Gmail for Business provides 30 GB of storage per user, spam and virus protection, fast, intuitive and advanced web mail, BlackBerry and Outlook interoperability and 99.9% uptime SLA - Google Business Email Inbox-es are having 2 to 10 times the Inbox Size, than other email hosting options. Employees will spend less time deleting emails. Google Apps Email Inbox has built in 'Google Search' for your emails  - Now, you will get 'that' email which you were never able to track and locate in outlook Google Apps Email Inbox Saves time by filtering out SPAM and protecting you from Virus. Hope, you won't miss those productivity killing spam mails  :) Google Calendar provides a rich web-based interface along with BlackBerry and Outlook interoperability, free/ busy searches, shared calendars, multiple calendar overlay and SMS meeting reminders Large Numbers of Apps in the Google Apps market place, that are deeply integrated with Google Apps Email Manage Organization users and their access to Emails, Documents, Sites and more.

Google Drive allows a cost-effective way to store everything and share anything. Store files on the cloud with 5 GB of free storage and access files from anywhere using PC, tablet or smartphone. It also features file version-ing and fine-grained sharing controls.

Online documents with real-time collaboration- so you can keep your team on track. Technology is supposed to make things easier, but too many attachments can get complicated. With Google Apps, there is a single online copy of each document. So, everyone knows that they are working on latest version of the document or excel or presentation

With Google powered business email, your company will be 2.8 times more productive while mobile

Access your files and emails from any place with Internet.

Google Business Email works very well on Macs, PCs, Linux. Android/iPhone/Windows Phone/BlackBerry phones and Tabs. It is compatible with Outlook too

Google+ connects your employees and their ideas. It can be used for meetings while you are traveling, and allows your administrator to set individual user controls to ensure your company's data stays safe

Keep your emails and Chats all in one browser with no extra software, not to mention all the sweet emoticon options

Voice Chat is not just from one email account to another, so cut your phone bills and keep operating your business without leaving your browser

Video Chat-So, now you can have face to face meeting, from anywhere in the world, because somethings just need to be discussed.

Save huge on data recovery services. By going with Google Apps, you pay nothing extra to deal with natural disasters and hardware crashes.

To learn more on How Google Apps Email stack upto other Email hosting options, please read this blog

Wondering, why to get a business email?

Wondering, why to get a business email? here are the top 5 reasons


1. An address like hmbakers@gmail.com looks amateurish, whereas yourname@hmbakers.com is much more professional. 

2. In today's world , not having a business email is similar to not having a phone# of your own!

3. Most of the directory portals and websites like e-bay does not allow you to mention your website address, so having a business email is a clever idea to tell your target audience about your Company's identity.

4. If you intend to do email marketing to promote your business, using a personal email is just going to make you more susceptible to spam filters of the world.


5. Also choosing business email powered by solutions like Google Apps or Office 365, allows you to effectively control the tons of spam emails you and your employee see daily.



But if you are wondering how to get a business email setup for free, please read further

How to get a Business Email?

The biggest put-off for businesses and consumers dealing with you on web/mobile, would be to find that you don't have even a 'Business Email' - Getting a working business email is quite easy and not so expensive and is the best first step towards carving your success on web or mobile. But, getting a powerful business email that increases your productivity need some research and below tips should help you.

How to get a Business Email?

 1. You need to own a domain. And for that, get an account created with domain registrar's like goDaddy and Enom or their resellers.
 2. Email is generally provided as an add-on when you buy a domain, but if you would like to have a powerful solution powered by Google or Microsoft, you might want to check out Google Apps or Office 365. Both these options provide excellent integrations with your mobile phone as well. So, if you would like to have your emails checked on the go, having a business email powered by Google Apps or Office365 makes sense.
3. Yahoo also provides Business Email for Small businesses. If you require more than 50 email addresses, choosing yahoo will be considerably cheaper than Google apps and office 365.

Learn more on how to choose best email option for small business? click here, which should help you to make the right choice.

Toboc.com is now offering powerful Cloud Jump Starter package, along with the annual TradePlus membership. Google Apps powered Business Email is just one of the many features bundled with this package.

Hands-on reviews about top website building options available today

    Hands-on reviews about top website building options available today

Remember, there are more than thousand options for building websites, but below is a quick review that should help you make the right choice from the few good short-listed options.

Broadly i have classified website building options into two categories. SaaS based and Custom.
Cloud based will of-course be cheaper, but less customize-able, whereas with on-premise, the development and maintenance costs are higher but allows you to have great custom features and complete control of the website.

If your intention is to make your website, a full fledged e-commerce application with features like Inventory and Order management, Shipping and Payment management etc...it would require a different strategy than what is described below. I will be covering that on another date on another blog.

A. SaaS based: Building a business website using, online or cloud based Website builder tools

1. Using Google Sites
         - Very easy to add forms, Geo-location and many other Google widgets
         - There are few limitations on customizing the look and feel (e.g. Google Site provided footer cannot be customized);
         - Standard edition is Free and easy to setup, can expect high uptime if signing up for Google Apps for Business
         - Good content editing features, low maintenance costs
         - Cannot easy add non-google social media plug-ins and scripts (e.g. Facebook like button cannot be added!) 
         - Customizations like payment integration to a custom payment gateway supporting local currency won't be possible

2. Using Office 365
        - SEO Friendly (Search Engine Optimization features help you promote your site, click here to learn more on how to promote your website, the more popular your site, better chance of earning money through your website)
        - Fully customizable
        - Excellent content editing features, including staging and authoring
        - Slightly buggy compared to Google Sites and Yahoo site builder
        - 6$ per month, expensive if you are not interested in Intranet and business collaboration suite that comes with Office 365.
       
3. Yahoo Small Business
       - Limited Site templates to choose from
       - Cheap, and can get a lot of email addresses for free along with hosting.
       - Works for small business, but limited customization compared to other platforms
       - Yahoo is losing out the market to others- hence risk involved.
       - Hosting support is primarily for PHP or Plain HTML sites.
       - Customizations like payment integration to a custom payment gateway supporting local currency won't be possible

4.  Zoho Sites
       - Free version is pretty good, but will come with zoho watermark on footer
       - Integrates well with Google Apps, but ZOHO itself is a completely smart solution for apps
       - Can create website Blogs easliy as part of your website
       - Very good Mobile Support including Mobile preview, which is not found in other site building options
       - Very Good content editing features, low maintenance costs
       - Customizations like payment integration to a custom payment gateway supporting local currency won't be possible easily

5. Tools like Weebly, Wix, DoodleKit, Tumblr, BigRock - using their free Website Builders
       - Typically much easier to setup the site, cheaper too
       - Much less customization possible, but makes it for ease of use with content editing features.
       - Risk involved, as these companies are not big enough to last all seasons!
       - Limits on number of pages are likely
       - Not meant for SEO features,
       - Customizations like payment integration to a custom payment gateway supporting local currency won't be possible

       All of the above cloud based website builders, advertise their product saying that, you can set up a website easily, and you don't require HTML knowledge etc.. Yes, it is true, you don't need programming skills to work with any of the above. But if you are looking to create some elegant website that attract and retain visitors, that speaks for itself, you would still need the help of User Interface (UI) Designers and Developers.
        My recommendation would be to choose one of the above cloud options, and get your website spruced up using the help of a UI Designers and Developers.

B. Custom: Building a business website using, custom development efforts (with/without using a CMS platform).

1. Plain Simple HTML websites (without content editing features) on Amazon S3
      - Requires a UI Developer
      - SEO friendly
      - Limited feature set possible, but best for one page sites or for hosting your email campaign's etc...
      - Will work out very cheap to run, and can still expect high uptime
      - Cannot have even simple features like Contact Us form
      - Not recommended, unless it is a single page website.

2. Use Content Management System (CMS) platforms like Wordpress, Joomla or DNN, and have the site hosted on shared/dedicated Cloud hosting providers of the above CMS platforms
     - Requires developers, better still to go ahead with an IT firm. To learn some cool tips if getting your website custom developed, please click here
     - Customizable, Plenty of Adds and Themes available with out losing the content editing and SEO features
     - Many extensions and integrations possible in the long run
     - Pricing may be tricky, and depends on offerings and modules or Add-Ons that you choose.
       Wordpress based option is highly Recommended , since you get tonnes of Website themes, off the shelf for a nominal price.

3. Get the Website custom developed from scratch using CMS platforms (like Wordpress, Joomla or DNN), get it hosted on Cloud on your own cloud servers(e.g. on Amazon EC2)
      - Costlier to develop, and unless you are very clever you may not get what you want.
      - Can make it an as intelligent a site as possible when it comes to feature, look and feel and SEO features.
      - High maintenance, but gets almost complete control over the content and features of the website
      - Cost of setup could be high
      - Better option, if planning to sell online and make your website a e-commerce website.
      - Low hosting charges on cloud, and easy to scale in case of huge sudden traffic on your site.
     - Customizations like payment integration to a custom payment gateway supporting local currency will be possible as it is open source and can make changes

4. Get it custom developed from scratch with out using CMS platforms, get it hosted on Cloud on your own(e.g. on Amazon EC2)
      - Smarter website developers with no experience on cloud hosting knowledge could advice you on this option.
      - For developers, it is very easy. But, for you, it can become a night-mare as for even the silliest of changes, you have to depend on the developer.
     - Cost of setup can be high, based on your level of ignorance about development costs!
     - Low hosting charges on cloud, and easy to scale in case of huge sudden traffic on your site.
     - Very limited feature set, and also you won't have CMS features for content authoring etc...

5. Get it custom developed from scratch with out using CMS platforms, get it hosted on traditional hosting servers
      - This option is what majority of the neighborhood website developers will advice you.
      - For developers, it is very easy. But, for you, it can become a night-mare as for even the silliest of changes, you have to depend on the developer.
      - Cost can be high, based on your level of ignorance about development costs!
      - Higher hosting charges, Not easy to scale in case of huge sudden traffic on your site.
      - Very limited feature set, and also you won't have CMS features for content authoring etc...
      - Not recommended

        Remember, with any of the above options, you still may have to write quality content and design compelling Logos and Images, and have stunning cool features to attract and retain visitors.

To learn more on structured approach to promoting your business on the net, click here
Looking for some personalized help, drop me a comment

How to make money from your website or blog

 Do you have a website or blog, and are seeing good number of visitors, but not sure how to monetize it?

There are some do's and don't when it comes to promoting your website and

I. Google Adsense

Setup Google AdSense and put it on your website. Please be extra careful to follow Google Adsense guidelines. If you don't do this, you might get banned by Google, and there is generally no easy way to bring back Ad-sense on your website.

II. Free Trial display of Ads

1. Display Banner advertising Ads on your website itself with a 'Free Trial display of Ads', if the click rate is good, Advertisers will continue to come back and be even ready to pay a fair amount. Advertisers are ready to trust Google, not your website, so you have may have to provide the trial feature to entice interest.

2. Target and accept only Ads that are relevant for content of your website.
3. Allow a simple sign-up form for Free Trial Display of Ads

III. if trial goes well, display a full size stunning banner that says 'Advertise Here' , with contact details

IV. Keep a 'Donate' button, if your site is giving a lot value to the visitors for free

Placing a “Donate” link or button on a website can be yet another efficient way to earn money, especially if your blog or website is on a niche where visitors learn and gain value from your content.

V. Allow users to buy from website! (Please do it only if it fits your website content)

E.g. If your blog is about food, allow users to buy an e-book

VI. If you are using the right platform for your running your website, turning it to an e-commerce website, won't be difficult. Trust is everything when it comes to e-commerce and if you cannot deliver, don't commit! that is the simple mantra. But if you can deliver, and have a tie -up with a logistics firm, go ahead and start few items on sale on your website. Look out for items that are unique and not available easily with large retailers and this way, you are not in direct competition with giants. Targeting your locality than the whole world first is another good strategy to get started.
     - Becoming resellers of Amazon or Companies like Infibeam are other options in the e-commerce model

Last but not least
1. Find more ways to promote your website, be active on forums- the more the number of visitors, more attractive your 'Banner Ad Space' will be.

2. Do display honest stats about visitors per day on your site. better still, if you can display real-time stats on current active sessions.
3. Participate actively in local events-which are relevant to the content of your website, and advertise  'Trial display of Ads'. Soon your website will be seen and will be recognized as platform for reaching out.

Creating a website for your business? - Tips for business owners

Creating a website for your business? - Tips for business owners

If you have decided to take developer help or the help of an IT firm, to create a stunning and powerful website for your business, this blog will help you make some decisions.

If you believe,  creating website is very simple and cheap, chances are, you may and may end up 'paying for it' forever. So, if you don't have all the time and money in the world to pay for what you want as a website, multiple times, please read further!

There are tons of ways to get yourself a website.

And even if it is website with a few simple web pages, there could be lot of cost and quality difference, depending on what you specify as your requirement, and what you communicate to your developers, and how the requirement is understood by the development team and how the solution is built.

A real world Analogy.
  Consider this "I need a place to stay, and be able to call it a home". This specific requirement can be understood in many different ways. Because, it is not very clear whether you are looking for Buckingham palace or a shack!.
That may sound like an exaggeration. let us talk about a more real- example. Consider this "I need a house in city, which is pretty similar to some of my friends" 
 Which city? New-york or Cochin?
 Apartment or Independant House?
 Sq ft, Area? What all ameneties needed?
 Any special needs? Swimming pool? a resto-bar?
 The list of questions can go on.

Hmmm... i am trying to scare you? No,
But, your website or your house/office is an address that people can find and about you/about your firm. Creating a website may look like a very simple task to achieve, unless you are with the right set of people, and unless you are getting the right set of questions regarding what sort of 'website' are you looking for? you may be in a big shock, when finally the 'developers' deliver the website to you.

How to proceed?

1. Clearly articulate and document your requirements.
2. Provide a sample site
3. Ask questions on whether features requested is likely to work in all browsers and devices without additional tweaking and downloads
4. Check if you have the need to do Authoring of content on your site, yourself

Hope this useful. For more in-depth, step by step help on promoting your website and business on web and mobile, please click here

When to go for a free Listing and when to go for a paid listing for your Company or Products and Services

  Choosing between Paid Listing and Free Listing in Online  directories

A. Most online directories are free for basic features:

B2B or B2C directory listing are generally free, and it would have basic features using which you can create a business profile your company, and could even add few product or service offerings listed.
If you are offering a product or service, which are very unique and there is not much of competition!, a paid listing for your company nor your products/services is generally not required.
But majority of us have, product or service offerings that are not so unique or are perceived as similar to other offerings from many other companies in the market. So, how do you create awareness about your products and company? one easy way is to register your company and products with online directories.
But then, should i go with a paid listing or free listing?

    B. So, it is important to know, when to go for a free Listing and when to go for a paid listing for your Company or Products & Services 

Directories usually offer paid membership in addition to paid memberships, so how do they differentiate between the two? Simple, if a potential customer is looking for business similar to yours, the paid ones are sure to come first in search. Yours will be listed way down, and you may loose out. If you have more demand than supply, you could survive without a paid listing. but, if you are interested in high growth, a paid listing is likely to fetch you more inquiries and business opportunities.

  C. But customer searches for Products/Services and not for your Company!

Why would a customer search and find your company, rather they may be interested in finding products/ services, that you may be offering, so they are more likely to search for product or service in the directories.

Here is why you should opt for directories that offers 'Featured Listing' of your Products/Services.

With such directories, you have better control and you could decide when to go for Paid listing of your company Vs Featured listing of your products/services

  D. Paid listing for my company profile or paid listing for my products and services?

Remember,

1) Paid Company listing for your company is generally expensive compared to Paid listing of Products/Services.

2) Check if Paid  Company listing portals are also offering you the ability to have free unlimited featured (paid) listing of products/services - this will be useful if you many products/services to sell/promote.

3) If you have less than 10 products/services, a paid Featured product/service listing will be work out better than a Paid Company listing

 'Nothing comes free!',  so the moment you start digging more to the features of directories, you will find that, it will ask you to pay right at the time you want to get more value out of the listing.

So it becomes very important to know how to choose the right b2b directory.  Once you decide on registering your firm with an online directory, the next question would be ' How to choose the right directory' - which is well explained in some of my blogs about choosing b2b directories and b2c directories

                   

How to to choose the right b2b directory for listing

Sometimes, it does hurt to list your company on many b2b directories, your time (or your staff's efforts) is money. So, it is important to have this focused on directories trusted by world

How to to choose the right b2b directory to post your company details?
 Easy answer is: Find the top few websites that comes up on your google.com search for 'b2b portal'.

Here is a quick help on two few business listing directories in the world
1. Alibaba.com - For Large companies; Strong Chinese focus; paid listing is very expensive
2. Toboc.com - For Small and Medium businesses - Strong in China, India, Brazil, US and Europe; Trusted world-wide

Alibaba incidentally is one of the biggest b2b portal, where as Toboc.com is world's most trusted b2b portal, probably due to Canadian roots and social mission. Indiamart does have a very strong presence in India.
If your Company is a large firm and can afford to have Premium membership with Alibaba, please go ahead. if your is a small and medium company, Toboc.com's pocket friendly affordable pricing of membership may work out better. Also, with Toboc.com. you may also have the option to a free profile, but still have paid, featured listing of products that you would like to Promote.

3.  Indiamart - Small and Medium businesses; India focused 
4.  EC21 - Strong Korea focus


Traditional businesses and companies always had the trouble in understanding where to start, when it comes to promoting their business using the power of Internet - especially now in the age of Social Media and Mobile. How much should i spent? and more importantly where to start?

If you are an entrepreneur and are looking to spend every penny wisely, Please read 3-stage approach to promoting your business online.

Step 3 - Go Apps , WOW On cloud for small business

 Step 3 - Go Cloud Apps, WOW On cloud

Traditional businesses and companies always had the trouble in understanding where to start, when it comes to promoting their business using the power of Internet - especially now in the age of Social Media and Cloud Computing. How to strategize? How much should i spent on marketing? and more importantly where to start?

If you are an entrepreneur (with limited understanding on doing business online) and are looking to spend every penny wisely, below is a ready reckoner that can act as a step-by-step guide to help you get started. Please read How to promote my business Step 1 (Internet Incubation) and  How to promote my business (Step 2 - Social Incubation) if you have not read it already

If you have completed Step 1 and Step 2, i.e the first 6 weeks successfully, and since you are reasonably happy with the response received online, time it to take to the next level.

  1. Get Online trust seals by getting your factory/premises audited. Many b2b portals provide these services for a nominal fee. Trust Seals like Dun and BradSheet (DnB) has high value.

 2. Run Email Marketing Campaigns - Email Campaigns typically are more complex than you think it is, and it is important to NOT To be labelled as Spams. Many b2b portals provide these services for a fee. There are self-service options also available, but you can do that after a couple of successful marketing campaings from Email Marketing experts.
    - One important point to remember is, Email marketing Campaigns has an inherent risk element, email campaigns has a likely-hood of resulting in black listing of your company and your domain/Email. Hence use it with extreme caution, and that too with limited number of emails going out from your business account, preferably to a known list.

 2. Create a simple survey form to get much needed feedback about your business, and understand what customer is thinking - This is not a big deal to do, you can use sites like SurveyMonkey or even Google Sites and create a free survey form easily and put it up on your own website and on b2b profile page, all by yourself. (This is where the content editable (CMS powered) website created in Stage 2 will become really useful)

 3. Go for Mobile advertisements - SMS advertisements are not allowed as per regulations in many countries and the same is the case in India as well. So, look out for more innovative Push Notification service providers like AirPush.com. You can also tie up with Apps manufacturers for Before Start and After Exit Ads. Mobile banner advertisement has not really proved its value, and hence don't spend money on that that yet.

 4. Set up a toll-free number with an auto SMS response using Services like ZipDial.com. This helps in collecting the phone numbers and also it helps in providing a prompt response, increasing the customer confidence.

 5. Build Facebook Apps, Mobile Apps for your website - Expensive proposition, but you are anyway having significant success by stage 3

6. Just like the real world, there are lot of scary elements (called hackers!) who are trying to hack your data or destroy your online presence, especially when you are successful. (I will be soon writing another blog on how to be secure on web - with targeted information for small business)
  

Watch out this space, book mark this link and come back if you have liked the article.
I would really appreciate your comments as well.

Step 2 : Social Web Incubation, creating the right social foundation Small Business

Incubation on Social Web - creating the right social foundation for Small Business is the Step 2 towards reaching a WOW on cloud for Small Business 

Small Business Companies looking to reach WOW on cloud, i recommend you to go through Stage 1 i.e. Internet Incubation before going through Stage 2 called Social Incubation

  Step 2- Social Incubation:

Traditional businesses and companies always had the trouble in understanding where to start, when it comes to promoting their business using the power of Internet - especially now in the age of Social Media. How much should i spent? and more importantly where to start?

If you are an entrepreneur  (with limited understanding on doing business online) and are looking to spend every penny wisely, below is a ready reckoner that can act as a step-by-step guide to help you get started. Please read Internet Incubation (Internet Incubation, creating the right webaddress for your business), which is the Step1 in the process if you have not read it already

4th Week - Set up your own Company website, which allows you to make quick changes.

Time to create a dedicated web address (www.yourcompanyname.com) that is registered on your name (if you have completed Stage 1, you already have a domain and business email);

If you are looking for practical tips before you get your website created, read this blog


   1. Approach your trusted b2b portal again, have a live chat possible, and find if they can create the website for you. You can do a google search and look for Website builders with content editing and SEO features.
      -- Good examples are Weebly.com and OLX.com
   3.  Google itself provides very simple solution around this called Google Sites, which is free. But the catch here is that, if your looking for some heavy customization and some stunning pages, it will he harder. But, there are many Certified Google Apps Resellers, who may help you in setting the website up with a custom design or template.     
   4.  Whether it is Google/solutions from your b2b portal/others, opt for a Website solution that are having powerful features for Content Editing and SEO. You may not use all that in fourth week or second month, but rather than doing a lot of costly re-work later, better to act smart and spend wisely here.
   5. Google Sites is Free, but you may have to spend around 5-10K for UI face-lift/to add the right content.
   6. Ensure your company website is working well on Smart Phones, Tablets/iPADs, and PC browsers like IE, Chrome and FireFox.


5th Week - Go Social in a small yet elegant way.

 1. Create a Facebook page for your company and link it your website
 2. Link your website from b2b portal listing that you have done in Stage 1
 3. Enter the b2b profile URL in Facebook.

 4. Open a twitter account for your company, and post some interesting facts about your company on twitter with link to your b2b profile and own website.
 5, Use YouTube to promote your business, upload some self made videos to youtube

6th Week onwards - Increase you advertising spend, wisely
 1. By now, you have made some serious investments of time and it is important to support that effort through a long term paid subscriptions from b2b portal and also look for banner advertisement with top sites that catches lots of eyeball, this will bring steady and quality visitors to your company profile and from there to your own website.

2. Also consider setting up pay per click or Google Adwords Campaigns (Look for a firm that can manage and run Adwords campaign for you, if you do not have the right personnel or time)
3. Even Facebook provides, pay per click advertisement options, try that too - Remember, Social Media sites like Facebook allows you to do some serious filtering of visitors, and sometimes allow you to get to the exact target group, so you only pay for Visitors that are from your target group.
4. Divide your total advertising bucket equally into Google Adwords, Facebook Ads and banner Advertisements.
 Create a free account with Google Analytics and analyze which channels above are fetching more visitors (Facebook Ad Vs Direct google visitors Vs Google Adwords paid visitors)
5. Monitor and analyze which advertising channel is working out better, do this analysis via trial and error for a couple of months. For more detailed Social Media strategies, you can refer this link in future

After 6thrd week, check in which page of Google Search, your company is appearing, for a given text (keywords) that mentioned in your Company or Product descriptions, and make a note of it. Started seeing some positive changes already? In any case, it does make a lot of sense to move to Stage 3 and get to the next level

Step 1 - Incubation on Web