Hello Blog World Attendees!

Okay, so as I’m sure you heard me say a thousand times when we met, I’m sorry there’s not more up here right now for you to see!

My intentions were to get this up and running for a “launch” of sorts this past weekend, and it didn’t work out that way, due to computer issues and all sorts of other things, so for that, I apologize and simply implore you to subscribe to the feed so you can be the first group to watch this company grow from the beginning.

I’ve got a lot of things set up behind the scenes that I just haven’t had time to get here on the site, but just in case you’re thinking, “Well who is this chick?” I wanted to point you to my first startup, Anubis Marketing. That company’s been around for almost three years, and has had me working with fantastic people like Darren Rowse from ProBlogger fame. (You might recognize me if you’re a fan over there… I do a lot of comment moderation and other admin-y, virtual assistant type stuff for him.)

In any event, I do promise that Ginkgo Consulting will be here for the long haul. We’re in the process of migrating things over from Anubis to here, as this company is sort of an “evolvement” of Anubis Marketing. As with anything you do in business, you have to be willing to grow – and I’m so glad we are!

Thanks again for stopping by to check out the site – I look forward to staying in touch with you all! Check out the contact page for some of my social networking accounts so we can connect there, if you like!

~ Lara Kulpa

Quick, Fun Newsletters – Free!

LetterPop is a free online newsletter creation service that makes “drag-n-drop” an understatement!

It’s free, whether you sign up or not, but signing up has its advantages. You can have up to 10 newsletters published at a time, for one thing. The newsletters are hosted by LetterPop, and you’re given a URL once you publish your newsletter (for posting on a website or email) and the option to email the newsletter out right from the site by creating or uploading a mailing list.

Right now, they’re in beta – which means everything’s kind of limited. As quoted from the site:

Coming soon, you will be able to upgrade your account to a premium membership that lifts many of the limits of your free account and adds a lot of useful features. Need to send more newsletters? Need a bigger address book? Want access to a wider selection of templates? It’s all coming.

It’s not a new concept in terms of creating newsletters online – however it’s really easy to do, and if you’re not too picky about templates (as of right now, there are only 14 available, and there aren’t many fonts to choose from either) or photos (the site doesn’t allow you to resize or crop them, so you have to have them done up the right way beforehand), it’s a good way to get started writing newsletters for your site visitors. It’s a habit that’s not always easy to get into, but is definitely a good practice to put in place!

“Good” Free Directories

After the success of “Write a Directory Submission that Gets Accepted“, it’s time I post a list of some of my favorite free directories to submit to.

Once you go through this list, and are ready to jump in and submit your site, please make sure you read the aforementioned article first – there are things that will work, and things that definitely won’t – so it’s important that you’re aware ahead of time.

I’ll be consistently updating this list as time goes on, not only adding, but removing directories that no longer prove to be useful or free.

• MavicaNet – Drill down to the category that best suits your site, and wayyyy at the bottom of the page you’ll find a link that says “Add Site” – click it, fill out the form, and you’re done. Pages are carrying Google PageRank and give direct links (not CGI redirects) to the sites listed. This is a multi-lingual directory.
• Verizon SuperPages.com – Your business could very well be listed here already, but if it’s not, you need to get it in there! (also offers paid upgrades in addition to free listing)
• YellowPages.com – Similar to Verizon’s, but this directory is just related to the Yellow Pages. (also offers paid upgrades in addition to free listing)
• Local.Com – Offers free and paid listings, and will categorize your company based on industry and location.
• DMOZ – There’s lots of buzz around the internet as to whether or not it’s even worth your time anymore to submit to dmoz because there’s no guarantees your submission will ever be seen, or that it really holds any water anymore. I tend to believe that it does, and it is very much worth taking the time to read the submission guidelines if you don’t know them and making a submission.
• All The Websites – This directory’s been around for three years and as all the other “good” directories do, passes along PageRank in the form of direct web links (not cgi redirects or cloaked URLs).
• Gimpsy – Offers paid and free options – the free option is (at the time of this writing) under a delay of about six months. The next step up is only $25 US and might be worth it if you’re feeling like you’re in a rush. Otherwise, just do the free submit.

As would be expected, finding good directories to list your site in, be they free or paid, takes time. If you’re not up for hiring an Internet marketing company to do the work for you, my only suggestion would be for you to be patient, dilligent, and make sure you read the submission guidelines thoroughly for each and every website you choose to submit to.

Article Writing – How and Why

I encourage all of my clients to write articles about their field. “Post them on your site and let people use them if they link back to you.” I often find myself getting either dead silence, or an instant argument.

“I’m not going to just GIVE away information! That’s what they need to PAY ME FOR!” is a typical response. Often followed by, “And you want me to let people USE this information on their OWN sites as well!? You’re CRAZY!”

Crazy? Maybe. Stupid? No way.

Why you need to give away free information…

Think of it this way: Let’s say that you sell rubber bands of all shapes and sizes. Now, you happen to think that rubber bands are the coolest thing on the planet, and what they can do for people is just amazing. You’ve gone through the steps of getting a domain name, buying the hosting, having a site built and marketed for you, and you think to yourself, “Okay, now the money’s gonna roll right in here!” Right? Maybe.

But let’s say it does. And in your first 3 months of operating your site, you’ve sold a thousand orders for rubber bands. GREAT! Your profit’s hit an all time high, and you’re rolling in it. But you’ve also noticed something else, an increase in “support issue” phone calls and emails. You’re debating on hiring someone JUST to handle your buyers’ questions on why their technique isn’t working, or how to make it work better. Amidst these phone calls are questions like “Can it do _____?” and “How do I make it _____?”

So, you’ve written up a canned response email for questions like this, and you’re still flooded. You’ve got 3 people on a “creative team” developing new ways to use your rubber bands, and they’re furiously writing up MORE canned responses “just in case” the questions come up.

Sales are still skyrocketing, as are the questions. You never imagined the general public would try to use your rubber bands for so many purposes! They have the ideas, but they need your help in making them work.

So why not take their ideas and create a database in the form of articles to show everyone how to use rubber bands? You could write an article on using the really large bands for exercises. You could write another about how a rubber band ball is a great toy for kids, but also holds all your rubber bands in one place for easy retrieval when needed. How about an article on making a musical instrument for a child by using rubber bands of different lengths and thicknesses – like a guitar of sorts? See where I’m going with this?

Articles can give your customers ideas…

What if someone buys a package of your rubber bands, with the sole intention of just using them to bundle things together? They discover they have far too many rubber bands, and want to know what else they could do with them, so they go to the web site of the supplier (that’s you) to scan for “other uses”. Without your articles, they’re left in the dark, and probably regretting that they spent so much money on something they can’t find another use for. They’ll never buy rubber bands again, especially not from you.

But if you show them what can be done with bands that are a different size than the ones they bought, and they think it’s a great idea, guess what!? They’ll probably buy THOSE from you too!

5 Reasons for giving it away…

1. You help your customers and website visitors to know more about your product or service without them having to call or email you.

2. Other web sites that find your information useful will post your articles (with credit to you). This will raise your credibility and get you more traffic.

3. More content to optimize for the search engines and your readers. Include links to other relevant parts of your site (do NOT go overboard here) and you’ve tipped off the search engine spiders to other info, as well as guided your site visitors to related information.

4. More content on your site = one more thing for the search engines to look at when ranking your site. Fresh, updated sites rank much better than stale and unchanging ones.

5. Increased link popularity, which is another thing the search engines like to see.

As you can see, if it’d be good for a rubberband selling company, it’d be good for you. Regardless of whether or not you’re selling a tangible product or a service, explaining that product or service in ways that can benefit the majority is bound to produce great results for you, in many ways.

Business Related How To’s

I wrote up a “How To” for the writing project over at Problogger this week – Write a Directory Submission That Gets Accepted. Darren collected hundreds of entries, many of which were business related – money, startups, organizing, blogging, and so much more. I’ve collected a list here of those and wanted to share them with you. Many of these site have some great information for business owners and bloggers, and I really love what these writing projects can do for blogs! Please, take a look!

• How To Get Promoted When You Work From Home
• How To Participate in the Blogging Community
• Six Ways To Improve Navigation and Increase Pageviews
• How To Find Your (Blogging) Niche
• How To Make Meetings Fun
• How To Master The Art Of Blogging
• Choosing Secure Passwords That Are Easy To Remember
• Establish Your Business Credibility
• Essential Software List
• How To “FTP” Something
• Top 10 Tips To Survive Laptop Disaster…
• How To Increase Your Sales
• Account Security
• Bookeeping For Bloggers
• How To Explain RSS The Oprah Way
• Cheap Computer Equipment: How To Buy It

This list is by NO means exhaustive of the entire writing project, but are some of the best I read for businesses and entrepreneurs. Enjoy, and add them to your feedreader!

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