None Shall Pass: Prevent Hackers with Strong Passwords
February 17, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
Fans of the popular Monty Python film, Monty Python & the Holy Grail
For those who may not be familiar, consider picking this up from your local video rental. You’ll find a brief overview of the scene I’m referring to here.
Wouldn’t it be nice to know you had the Black Knight, (or his digital-password equivalent) protecting your website?
The Dreaded Dictionary Attack
Today, even modest computer users can easily have as many as a dozen passwords to remember, and it can be difficult to manage. Despite this, resist the urge to use the same password for all of your accounts. Similarly, avoid using a word that would be especially simple to remember. Among the most common words used, according to the experts in Inc. Magazine, are “password and “password1.” Still others use a common date.
Unfortunately, these types of passwords are simply no match for a dictionary attack. Automated password-cracking tools can check more than a million password variations in 28 hours — imagine how quickly they could breach your website when you don’t fortify the gates properly.
None Shall Pass!
Passwords composed of random strings of upper and lower case letters, numbers and punctuation can usually withstand an attack, but they are hard to remember. Consider keeping a list of your passwords in a secure place (not next to the computer!), so that you can refer to them when needed.
Additional strategies that will help you create difficult-to-break passwords that are easy to remember include:
- Two words connected by a number can withstand many attacks.
- Take the first letter of each word in a phrase and add a number or symbol and a capital letter. or “Mary had a little lamb”: Mhall#72.
- Try strengthening an abbreviation by swapping a symbol or a number for each a or e in the abbreviation. “salesman” becomes “$@lesm@n.”
Follow these tips, and your adversaries will quickly move on for more vulnerable opponents.
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February 14, 2010 by admin · 2 Comments
For all of the interpersonal discussion that surrounds social media, the core itself seems strangely devoid of any real person-to-person interaction. One comment I hear from clients again and again is, “how do I rise above the noise?”
The internet, and specifically the rise of social media, has made it even easier for folks to pursue ruthless ambition to succeed online. Blogging isn’t a major financial draw for most people, but “getting rich blogging” is certainly a goal that shines bright on far too many people’s annual resolutions. The rat race, a phenomenon that social media is supposed to avoid, has merely moved online, with everyone desperately competing to end up one follower ahead, one blog comment up from their competitors, with online bragging rights as the primary (if not sole) payoff.
If you want to utilize social media responsibly, working out who’s worth it and who isn’t should be one of your first priorities. These tips can help you navigate the waters and distinguish the masters from the wannabes, and should form the basis of your online contact strategy.
It’s not just about numbers.
Some of the world’s biggest spammers have hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter, while there are bestselling authors that may only have a couple hundred. The numbers don’t tell the whole story, and they shouldn’t be your sole basis for determining influence. This is a strategy that’s sure to end in disappointment and frustration. Instead, look for traffic that’s valuable – the type of readers and followers that take action, rather than the type that merely skim the content and move on. Further, you should focus on engaging those followers by being genuine in your communications, showing interest in others, and providing content of value.
Self promotion knows no bounds online.
A major part of online success is being able to see through the smoke and mirrors that many personalities put up around themselves. With the internet making anonymity and disguise so simple, many people set up illusions that simply aren’t themselves. I like to compare this to the classic 70s game show, “The Dating Game.” It’s easy to sit behind the partition and try to impress the “contestant” with how charming and clever you are. But sooner or later, they will step around the partition — that’s the moment of truth. Will they be surprised with what they find?
If you want a true indicator of someone, contact them directly, and try to look through the self promotion that’s often visible in tweets and blog posts.
Thought leaders often dominate traffic leaders.
Blogger and author Tim Ferriss made this distinction during an internet conference. The online writers with the most readers aren’t always the most powerful, or even the most valuable. Those that have the most powerful audience are always the most powerful. Think about it this way: if you were marketing B2B products, which audience would you prefer? 10,000 regular consumers, or an audience of 100 CEOs of top firms, each with a massive budget for inter-company products. Pick the audience by strength, not just by size.
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February 2, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
According to a recent study from ABI Research, North American sales made via smartphones added up to about $544 million in 2009.
The fastest-growing activity on cellphones is shopping directly from the handset. Retailers in every niche — from Amazon to CVS have launched software applications that enable shoppers to browse many products and buy directly from their iPhones and Blackberrys.
Gartner Market Research reports that retailers are getting the applications right — shoppers are able to place orders and either pick them up, or have them delivered to their home or hotel without ever having to deal with crowds or salespeople directly.
Some apps deliver even more value. At book retailer Barnes & Noble, users can snap a picture of a book with their iPhone, and bring up reviews on the handset’s screen. Stores report they have seen increases in both reservations and purchases in stores, as well as purchases from the iPhone app.
Interested in creating an iPhone app for your business? This self-service solution may be just what you are looking for. For those who may prefer to have someone design an app for you, check out this service.
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January 18, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
In this Issue:
- Popular Stories at ESB Journal
- Cleaning up Twitter Clutter
- Save Face with Wall Backups
- 31 Days to a Better Blog
- See Your Site as Visitors Do
- Google Sidewiki
- Engage & Connect with Sprout Buzz
- Weebiz Business Community
- 2010 Top Small Company Workplaces Competition – Deadline is approaching!
I don’t have a problem with caffeine — I have a problem without it!
Popular Stories at ESB Journal
Here are a few of the most popular stories at Entrepreneur & Self-Employed Business Journal:
- Ten Steps to Create “Ready-to-Buy” Customers
- 5 Small Business Tax Tips for 2010
- Get Off the Perch with New IPEVO USB Camera
- Small Business B2B Marketing Trends for 2010
Cleaning up Twitter Clutter
If you are tired of spammers among your Twitter followers, or are just plain feeling overwhelmed, help is on the way. I recently c ame across a free tool that analyzes your Twitter followers, and creates a report of those who you may wish to consider unfollowing. You can then either remove those folks yourself, or have Twit Cleaner handle it for you for a nominal fee (starts at just $5.00).
- Analyzes all the people you follow
- Finds time wasters, spammers, the boring, bots etc
- Creates a detailed report of everyone you’re following
- Increases the integrity & authenticity of your brand or personal image
- Clears up the ‘background noise’ of Twitter
- Enables you to focus your time & energy
Save Face with Wall Backups
Facebook has over 300 million users currently — there is a very real possibility that information could be lost if their server were ever to crash. Items like user photo albums, friend lists and profile data could potentially be lost. If you are using Facebook for business, you may even have more to lose.
A new tool called SocialSafe allows you to back up your Facebook friends, photos, profile data and wall status updates to your own computer. The process takes literally seconds to do, and the application is currently being offered for just $2.99. Check out the video below to see how it works.
31 Days to a Better Blog
If you have big dreams for your blog but have been putting improving it in the “one day” basket – you’re not alone.
31 Days to Build a Better Blog is a downloadable e-book designed to help you revitalize your blog by giving you 31 tasks that will all help to turn it into the page view powerhouse you’ve always dreamed of.
Each day in the project contains:
1. A Task – something to DO that day.
2. Teaching – each day you’ll be given great instruction on both the WHY and HOW of the task of the day.
This two-pronged approach is designed so that you come away from the challenge having not only learned how to build a dynamic a blog but you’ll have actually DONE something with the knowledge.
Who is this Workbook for?
31 Days to Build a Better Blog is for bloggers at different stages of their blogging including:
- those who have just started a blog but who don’t know what to do next
- those who have had a blog for a while but it’s stalled in its growth
- bloggers with bloggers block and lacking inspiration
This workbook is NOT designed for bloggers yet to start a blog (PreBloggers). It doesn’t cover setting up a blog.
By the end of the 31 Days you’ll have:
- written a variety of different types and styles of posts
- learned techniques for coming up with new post ideas
- promoted your blog in a variety of ways
- built relationships with readers
- reached out to and developed working relationships with other bloggers
- developed an editorial calendar for your blog going forward
- discovered ways to be more connected to your niche/topic
- designed a plan for the next month of your blogging
All in all the daily tasks are 31 steps to transform you blog into a valuable online asset. Download Your Copy of 31 Days to Build a Better Blog for an Investment of $19.95 This 94-page resource (actually it’s 188 pages as there are two pages on each page really) is ready for your download right now.
“In Seattle, you haven’t had enough coffee until you can thread a sewing machine while it’s running.” – Jeff Bezos
See Your Site as Visitors Do
Are you struggling with your home page layout? Ever wonder where the prime real estate is for items such as multimedia or advertisements?
A new study released by The Poynter Institute observed 46 people for one hour as their eyes followed mock news websites and real multimedia content. While the study was limited in scope by typical standards, it does offer insights that webmasters can implement now to begin enjoying higher conversions on special promotions, CPA offers and affiliate links.
Combined with other site metrics already used by news website managers — usability testing, focus groups, log analysis — the Eyetrack III findings could provide some direction for improving news websites. To read more about homepage layout, visit this link.
Google Sidewiki
Google Sidewiki is a new add-on for Firefox and Internet Explorer that enables users to leave comments and information about any webpage. Users can comment about service that they receive on websites via the Sidewiki, and then share their comments via email, Facebook, or Twitter.
With the advent of Sidewiki, you may no longer be able to control the conversations about your brand; in fact, the possibility exists for competitors to utilize Sidewiki to bad mouth you. The tool is very new, and there are likely to be similar tools introduced in the future. In the meantime, downloading Sidewiki and building a strong presence can help to eliminate potential problems, as well as allow you to monitor conversations about your brand.
Engage & Connect with Sprout Buzz
Sarah Prout is the director of Sprout Publishing, an award-winning entrepreneur, author, publisher, business coach, online socialite and mother of 2 little darlings.
Sarah knows more than a thing about creating buzz. At age 14 she was labeled ‘Hallmark’s Youngest Designer Worldwide’ when her vibrant gift wrap designs were available in all major department stores around Australia and New Zealand. At 19, she founded her own greeting card company which is when the SPROUT brand first emerged. At 22, Sarah won a major prize from the SHELL corporation for writing an award-winning business plan that funded the first print run of SPROUT products. Today, Sarah is an author, online socialite, and entrepreneur that has helped many other business owners follow in her very-successful footsteps.
Her Sprout Buzz eCourse has been specifically designed to give you 30 days of publishing tasks that will rapidly improve your level of exposure online. Each day give you an exercise to complete or contemplate that will form the backbone of intense content proliferation for your business and your brand.
Other Topics Covered in Sprout Buzz:
- How to create a press kit
- Affiliate marketing secrets
- Social media tools, tricks and tips
- Writing killer sales page copy
- Blogging ideas and monetization
- eProduct concepts
- Plus much, much more in 75 jam-packed pages of information.
Save $5 at checkout when you enter coupon code “SUCCESS.”
Weebiz Business Community
Think of a business fair and picture it with all the capabilities of an online social network, that’s Weebiz. Register your company and you will instantly have access to an easy and free tool to find business partners or clients, share valuable industry information or promote your products and services.
Instead of simply waiting to intercept a good opportunity by chance, Weebiz places companies at the center of a hub where opportunities converge. Best of all, it’s free to join!
- Create your own community of business relations
- Interact in a free and permanent business expo
- Promote your business
- Sell your products and services and find new ones
- Find business partners and opportunities
- Promote and evaluate your products
- Manage business contacts
- Stay up-to-date on news about your market
2010 Top Small Company Workplaces Competition
The research is clear and compelling. Organizations that build great work environments deliver better business results. Organizations that invest in the success of their people have employees that are invested in and committed to the success of the business.
Winning Workplaces and Inc. Magazine are seeking compelling examples of organizations with outstanding cultures for our 2010 Top Small Company Workplaces competition. The winners will be featured in the June 2010 issue of Inc. Magazine.
The application deadline is January 22, 2010.
Share the Love
As I close out this issue, I’d like to ask you to do me a solid — click on the little green button below, and tweet about the Marketing Espresso to your friends and associates. I sure would appreciate it.
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January 1, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
Now that the hype, heartburn and hoopla of the holidays is just a fond memory, it’s time to get back to business.
I know, you’re probably not quite ready to emerge from celebration mode just yet. Sorry about that — just call me Ebenezer.
We all know that without customers, a business won’t survive. That said, it stands to reason that we have to do more than just court them with clever advertising — we must convert them into customers and keep them. Finding customers isn’t exactly rocket science — especially if you’ve done your market research beforehand (you DID do that, right?). The part that can get a bit dicey is in keeping the customers you manage to get, and maintaining an excellent business relationship with them.
So, folks — here’s your mission, should you choose to accept it. Court those prospects — tempt and woo them. But once those prospects hand over their hard-earned cash to you and become an actual customer, be prepared to treat them like your business depends upon them.
Because it does.
Making a List, and Checking it Twice
Santa knows a thing or two about making a list, and so should you. Don’t let the thought of creating a customer database be daunting to you, though. Open Office has a spreadsheet component to it that is compatible with Microsoft Excel, and it’s free. You don’t have to keep elaborate records — simply keeping track of their names and email addresses will enable you to send off the occasional mailing to keep in touch.
I Have a List…Now What?
So glad you asked. Here are a few tips to maintain those customers, and encourage them to use your products or services again:
Keep in Touch
Your customers are just like you — they get busy with day-to-day life, and may not always think about revisiting your site to check out what may be new and noteworthy. It’s your job to service those customers, and keep them up to date on how you may be of service to them. Whether it is a new software upgrade, accessories to an original purchase, new companion products or sales announcements, you can create a simple ezine to share this information with your customers.
TIP: Don’t make your newsletter an in-your-face sales pitch. Spice up your mailing with tidbits like seasonal observances and holidays, tips, resources of interest, or other morsels that will make readers look forward to receiving your mailings.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Without subjecting you to my lackluster Aretha imitation, you get the general idea. The art of old-fashioned customer service is nearly non-existent these days — on the rare occasions that a customer receives a thank you note or email, it makes an impression. Make your customers feel valued and appreciated, and they will consistently seek you out for their future product or service needs.
Big Things from Small Packages
Everyone likes to get free stuff. While this may not be an earth shattering revelation to you, it may be something you haven’t considered. Drop a promotional pen, business card magnet or notepad into an outbound shipment, along with a “thanks for your order” note. You don’t need to go crazy ordering lavish items; but, you do need to make sure that any token you offer includes your name, logo and contact information on it.
Give Me a Break
Discounts are always welcome. During these challenging economic times, a discount on a future purchase may well encourage a future purchase in a timeframe of 10-30 days. You may consider setting up an autoresponder series that mails recent customers a promotional offer to encourage a future purchase — or you may use your regular ezine to send out these offers to your “preferred customer list.” Again, this all goes back to making your valued customers feel valued.
Turn Customers into a Commissioned Sales Force
There is no stronger endorsement than that of a satisfied customer. If we’ve learned anything from the boom of social networks, it is that consumers will seek out the advice and feedback of their peers before making a purchase decision. Turn your customers into brand evangelists by offering them a discount or free gift when they refer a friend that makes a purchase. Most shopping carts allow you to add a custom field for data collection during the checkout process — this provides a simple way for shoppers to give credit to the friend who referred them.
Make 2010 the year that you skyrocket your site traffic, and convert those prospects into paying customers!
Download your FREE COPY (no registration required) of the Promo Diva’s 2010 Profit Boosters Tool Kit — featuring helpful tips and resources to help you start the new year right.
Click here to claim your copy!
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December 2, 2009 by admin · 2 Comments
Unless you’ve been living in a sandtrap, you’ve no doubt heard of Tiger Woods’ recently publicity nightmare involving his alleged infidelity.
While I am no golfer, (unless we’re talking Putt Putt), I did see a marketing lesson among the headlines. Only time will tell if Tiger can regain his “golden boy” status — but in the meantime, here’s a few reputation management tips you can garner to improve your own game:
Take responsibility right away. I really think that Tiger dropped the ball (I couldn’t resist) by not coming clean right away. There were too many things about the much-publicized car crash that just didn’t add up. Among them was my personal favorite — that Elin smashed in the back window of the vehicle in order to get Tiger out. Call me skeptical, but a much more likely scenario is that while she may have gotten him out of the car, Elin took a “slice” out of Tiger in the process…back window be damned.
Tiger has enjoyed years of fame, and millions of dollars from his talents. Sponsorships account for more than a small portion of his income each year — and those sponsors count on the celebrity cache of Tiger’s brand to help sell their products. In addition, Tiger’s style and personality have won many new fans for the game — including throngs of young fans who look up to him as a role model. True, he’s only human; but for those whom society has placed on a pedestal — and are richly rewarded as a result — shouldn’t they be held accountable for their actions, just as anyone else would?
Give sincere, heartfelt apologies. In this instance, you can’t settle for par. Family should obviously come first. Then, reach out to your fan base, and extend them an apology for your behavior. Finally, look toward those sponsors whose brands may have suffered as a result of your actions. They may drop you, and that is certainly their prerogative. Be that as it may, they are no less deserving of an apology.
Rebuild your image. Just as a caddy would advise you on how best to make that perfect shot, you must surround yourself with people, products and services that can help restore your good name. Tiger must demonstrate that he is committed to his family, and intends to put an end to his philandering. The status of his marriage is still uncertain — however, he has children that will be directly impacted by his actions. Making his wife and children his first priority will earn him support among his fan base. They won’t immediately forgive him, but they will be willing to do so in time.
Many celebrity athletes have been disgraced at one time or another, (names like Michael Vick, Pete Rose, and Tanya Harding come to mind), and while not all of them have recovered, some of them have. Michael Vick’s highly publicized dog fighting ring sent shockwaves through the NFL, and incited both fans and non-fans alike. However, in a very controversial move, the NFL allowed Vick back in. He is currently the quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles.
In golf, business and in life, the same rules apply. If you make a mistake, the best thing to do is get out in front of the situation and take responsibility. Apologize when you make a mistake, and make sure the apology is sincere. Finally, take steps to prevent any reocurence of the mistake, and work to win back trust and support.
Hopefully Tiger will emerge from this situation a better man. In the end, strength of character will trump athletic ability.
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