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!

Write a Directory Submission That Gets Accepted

Okay, if you’ve done any reading up on Internet Marketing, you’ve probably read a thousand times that it’s important to get your site listed in “good directories”. Some will push dmoz, others will say it’s a waste of time. Others will push free directories and some stand by the idea that a paid submission is the only way to go. Do you go broad-range or niche-specific? How do you know what to write?

Well, here’s a list of things you should do, regardless of the directory you choose to submit to:

• First and foremost – check to make sure your URL isn’t already listed! Believe it or not, there are many human-edited directories out there where people who do the editing will seek sites out. Skaffe and JoeAnt are two of them. If your site’s already listed there, there’s no need to pay for a listing!
• Read the submission guidelines for EVERY site. Lately, directories have gotten pretty strict about what they will and will not allow, what will be considered and what will be immediately deleted. No two directories will have exactly the same rules.
• Search through the directory to find the absolute BEST place to list your site. Don’t try to list higher up in the directory thinking the PR would be better or that it will be seen by more people. You only get one listing per directory usually, so make it the most relevant category available.
• Check out the titles and descriptions that are currently listed in the directory. They’re likely NOT full of hype words like “best” or “#1″. Typically the actual link is your company name (as displayed on your site in the logo or title section), and the description tells what the site itself offers. Not “We are the best company for all your widget needs!” but rather something like, “Widget manufacturing company offers industry news, product specs and photos, tutorials, and online ordering options.” Remember, directories are not newspapers – think of them more like phone books without the ad blocks in the yellow pages.

The bottom line is this: Consider all different types of directories, free and paid, general and niche-specific, and even local directories that focus on businesses based on the geographical areas they serve. Save the ad hype for your PPC campaigns and always respect the submission guidelines for each directory!

This article was written as part of the ProBlogger “How To” Writing Project. To contact Lara for permission to reprint this, or any other article on this site, in any form, please email her at lara[at]anubismarketing[dot]com.

Children’s Author Diana Metz

(view site | view blog)

• Design and development of main site using CSS and HTML. A table-free design!
• Design and development of blog using WordPress and a customized theme.
• Directory submissions, link exchange program, and other Internet Marketing projects.
• On page Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to ensure proper navigational structure.
• Creating and editing content – optimizing and ensuring fresh new content appears on the site on a regular basis.

Diana is a fantastic author of young adult fiction. Her old site was a very basic geocities site, and after a brief meeting on Neopets, I convinced her that it was time to “graduate” to something more professional. She agreed, and we got started right away with the main site.

About a month or so later, I got Diana into blogging. It provides a fantastic way for her to stay in touch with not only her readers, but with other writers like herself. Diana shares other parts of her life, favorite recipes, and so much more, that it helps her create a bond with others who get to catch a sneak peek into the life of an author.

Nectar Design

(view site)

• Custom theme development and image editing.
• Copywriting and publishing of client data, press releases, and project assesments.
• Custom PHP programming in order to achieve the look and feel in client mock-ups.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Services
• Internet marketing – Article copywriting and editing, submissions, press releases, directory listings, and stats tracking.

We are so proud to be working with Nectar Design! Nectar is an award winning product development consultancy that helps its clients create products that connect to their users and expand their markets.

This site was probably the most challenging one we’ve had to date. Implementing a Content Management System (CMS) in order to allow Nectar’s employees easy access to updating content on the site was a no-brainer. Custom PHP programming was used to create different areas of the site, including the portfolio section, blog, and news areas. The site looks absolutely amazing, and we’re very proud of the way we were able to implement the design mock-ups sent to us by the client. It’s a clean, zen-like layout with easy navigation and sorting of content by category, type, and a behind-the-scenes rating system we added so that Nectar’s employees can sort their information however they see fit.

See what Nectar Design has to say about Anubis Marketing! (coming soon)

The Saratoga Comedy Club

*NEW* We did a redesign! Scroll down for details!*

This site happened because of a chance meeting at a fire department fundraiser comedy show between club manager Jodi Weiner, and Anubis Marketing’s owner, Lara Kulpa.

We’re honored to say that The Saratoga Comedy Club is the first official client of Anubis Marketing!

• Domain registration, hosting and email setup.
• Web site design and development – Header image created from scratch, as well as navigational menu and all other images on the site. This site is currently not a WordPress based site, however the design and content may be ported to WordPress in the future for ease of updating. Currently the site is a basic 2- or 3-column (depending on the page of the site) fluid CSS design. This design was ported to WordPress with some changes. We wanted a more fluid, easy to navigate layout, and an easy way to post upcoming shows, so it was time to make the switch.
• Site contains portfolio pages for hundreds of comedians, as well as information on the show schedule, upcoming events, and information on hiring a comic for company events or fundraisers.
• Internet marketing Program – We’ve got the site listed at Saratoga.Com, and the company’s summer time comedy club is listed at LakeGeorge.Com.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Program – On-page SEO and content copywriting has brought this site to the top of the search engine results for chosen keywords and phrases.

In all, this has been an extremely fun site to work on, and we are currently involved in ongoing optimization, internet marketing, and content management services with the club.

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