Success on Etsy

[#1]

I have been doing tons of research to help our Shops grow. If anyone has anything else to add please do.

1. Be Confident (believe in yourself)
2. Offer High quality products
3. Price products appropriately:
(supplies x 2) + hourly wages x = wholesale price
Wholesale x 2 = Retail price
4. Calculate your salary
5. Set goals
6. Be honest, use facts
7. Take beautiful photos
8. Join the social network
9. Participate in vendor events
10. Join an etsy team
11. Its ok to say no
12. When listing an item use this formula:
Bracelet Purple passion
not : purple passion bracelet
Buyers will look for the type of product first
13. Create- List- Repeat
14. Ship quickly
15. Include a special hand written Thank you note in every sale. It makes the purchases seem
more personal.

Thats about it for now! I will definately be adding more as I research... Feel free to help out as well. My goal is to Help this Team be Top Sellers....

[Former_Member]

There are a few tricks I've learned to make Twitter not only useful, but actually fun. I promise you, it is possible to @ and # without the stressful @&#$%!

1. Use a third party service to tweet.
Personally I love Hootsuite — I can check in and quickly see my Twitter feed, @ mentions, sent tweets, and direct messages at a glance, as opposed to the Twitter web version where you have to click on a few different tabs to see this same information. Hootsuite also makes retweeting, shortening links, and adding images super easy and you can even set up streams that filter tweets using specific search terms, hashtags, etc. Tweetdeck is another option with similar features. Don't try to use the Twitter website exclusively unless you're a glutton for punishment.

2. Register with Klout, then stop worrying about your score.
As described by their website, a Klout score is the "measurement of your overall online influence." Most social media experts will tell you that your Klout score isn't really an indicator of anything other than how much time you spend on Twitter. They're right — it's a general indicator that will fluctuate so feel free to explore different ways to make Twitter work for you without paying close attention to your actual number. Need more incentive to stop caring? The only person with a Klout score of 100 is Justin Bieber, so unless you have an awesome hairstyle and are geared toward taking the 10-14 year old crowd by storm, you can blissfully stop trying to measure up to a teen heartthrob.

3. Join a tweetchat.
Shy about meeting new people or don't know what to tweet? Join a focused conversation! A tweetchat is when a group of people get together to discuss a topic and include a specific hashtag in all of their tweets so other participants can filter messages and respond. I've met some amazing people through a few of my favorite tweet-ups, including the weekly Oh My! Handmade and Crafterminds chats.

If you do join a chat and don't want to fill up your Twitter stream with your chat tweets, make sure you're replying to another tweetchat participant for every tweet (and don't forget to use the hashtag so other chatters can see your comment!). To follow the conversation, set up a stream using the chat hashtag in Hootsuite or Tweetdeck or check out Tweetchat.com.

4. Talk @, not "at" — avoid spammers and spamming.
Before joining, my biggest misconception about Twitter was that it was a bunch of people broadcasting their messages non-stop. Who wants to be subjected to an endless stream of promotions? Are you a spammer? Stop — this means an end to constantly asking people to like you on Facebook, look at your latest shop listing, or check out every treasury you make. A good rule of thumb is to start or join a conversation for at least 80% of your tweets (do what you will with the remainder). On the same note, avoid the spammers at all costs — I'm talking to you serial link droppers, auto-DMers, and overzealous promobots! Once you start @ing people instead of talking at them, you can really start to branch out and use the site for its intended purpose which is networking with others and making connections. Twitter isn't meant to be a soliloquy.

5. Check your ego at the door.
When someone doesn't immediately follow you back, it's easy to feel offended. But don't feel bad! People use Twitter for different purposes or infrequently review new followers. If it's someone you really want to get to know, strike up a conversation with them. It doesn't always have to be an "I follow you, you have to follow me too" type of thing for you to gain something out of it. Follow people you find interesting or helpful and maybe they'll reciprocate, maybe they won't. On a similar note, it's also okay to unfollow someone who no longer fits with your ideal Twitter stream of consciousness. Remember that these are people you're inviting into your world and it doesn't always have to be a wide-open, two-way street.

Those are my Twitter favorites, what are yours? Leave a comment, or feel free to tweet me @saltcityspice.

About the author: I'm Katrina and I've spent lots of time living and cooking in apartments with small kitchens — when I finally moved into my own house a few years ago I wanted the kitchen to be mine in every way right down to the spice rack, and the idea for my Etsy shop was born. I enjoy cooking, traveling, wine-tasting, working on home improvement projects, and writing. I'm a terrible gardener.

Originally published on the Salt City Spice blog!

[Former_Member]

The above post was not by me. I recovered it from etsy success! I dont want to take credit that is not mine.

[Former_Member]

daniellexo says

This week's most influential small business blog posts are (drum roll) . . .

The Small-Scale Approach to Achieving Great Things
zenhabits.net/small-scale/

How to Build Your Twitter Tribe
www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-build-your-twitter-tribe/

The Three Obstacles in Your Way to Success
handmadesuccess.com/2011/05/the-three-obstacles-in-your-way-to-succ...

Connecting with Intimidating, Influential People Who Can Promote You
www.heartofbusiness.com/people-who-can-promote-you/

Overcome Resistance and Get Out of Your Own Way
the99percent.com/tips/7017/Overcome-Resistance-and-Get-Out-of-Your-...

Have you found an interesting topic in your internet travels this week? Let me know!

Posted at 11:38 am, May 5, 2011 EDT - Report this post

[Former_Member]

Original Post
Admin daniellexo says

This week's best of the small business blogosphere...

Can You Say It In One Short Sentence?
www.chrisbrogan.com/onesentence/

5 Questions to Ask When Expanding Your Product Line
www.craftmba.com/2011/06/08/5-questions-to-ask-when-expanding-your-...

Top 4 Interview Takeaways from ARTrepreneur
www.blacksburgbelle.com/2011/06/top-4-interview-takeaways-from-artr...

Your Business Model: Transactional vs Relationship
smallerbox.net/blog/growing-your-business/your-business-model-trans...

Craft A More Productive Day
handmadesuccess.com/2011/06/craft-a-more-productive-day-2/

Have you read an inspiring post lately? Share it in this thread!


Posted at 3:34 pm Jun 8, 2011 EDT - Report this post
Highlighted Responses
Admin daniellexo says Highlighted Post

Hi all,

The third article in my Etsy Success Reading List gives the Artrepreneur's tips for renewing:
www.blacksburgbelle.com/2011/06/top-4-interview-takeaways-from-artr...

Here are my thoughts on the subject: "I've seen sellers rely on renewing items listed in their shop to get additional views. If you use my tips, I think you'll find that you can renew less often. Linkeldesigns says, "I often rearrange my photos or take a couple of new photos before I renew, especially if it's something that I think should have already sold. Sometimes a fresh angle makes the listing pop, especially as a thumbnail."

If you are intend on renewing, set up a spreadsheet and keep a tally of how many times you've renewed each item in your shop. Don't just renew on a whim: have a plan in place and give yourself a budget. DesignedByLucinda says, "I add a small amount into the overhead of each listing for renewal costs — so I know it is covered. Adding new items always gets my shop more views than renewals, so my tip is add more product." I agree: listing new items on a regular basis is a much more effective approach."

From:
Etsy Success Tips: Increasing Your Item Views
www.etsy.com/storque/seller-handbook/etsy-success-tips-increasing-y...

Hope that helps!
Danielle

[QuirkyUniverse]

Thank you for all the great advice. After reading this I went back to re-do my listing titles and along the way found quite a few of my descriptions and tags were sadly lacking as well.

[Former_Member]

you are very welcome!

[Former_Member]

Can you explain the pricing thing a little more in depth please...?

I feel like I always underprice things.
But I feel as though since it doesn't cost me tooo much to make (being made from recycled/upcycled/repurposed materials and clothes) that I shouldn't charge alot for it....
I never factored in a work/labor cost. D:

[Former_Member]

Hi Imagined,
Here is the way I price my items: I research for the highest price products and the lowest priced products like my items and put mine somewhere in between. You don't want your items too cheap where it seems to others as low quality. And you don't want to price them too high, where they are not affordable.

Here is the formula from the front page:
Supplies x 2 ( this would be the price of the items you use and you double that)
Hourly wage x (what you want your hourly wage to be x how many hours it took you to make your product).
= wholesale price (the price you would sell it, if you were selling to a company)
wholesale x 2= retail price (if you were selling this in a store this is the price you would use.
So:
supplies x 2 + hourly wage x = wholesale price
wholesale price x 2 = retail price.

I myself find this way to expensive, but that is the formula some people follow.
I really hope this helped, If you need anything else let me know.
Mel

[Former_Member]

How to Get More Facebook Likes for Your Website and Fan Page

Posted: 21 Jun 2011 09:34 AM PDT

Facebook Likes are a powerful way to get website visitors to socially engage with your brand. There are two types of likes you can solicit with Facebook’s developer code – likes for website pages and likes for your fan page. The best part is users can like both of these directly on your website without having to go anywhere else!

Using the Facebook Javascript SDK
Some features for the Facebook Like options are only available if you use the XFBML code for the buttons. In order to use XFBML, you must implement Facebook’s JavaScript SDK onto your website. It’s not just an additional line of code, however. You have to have an Application ID to use the JavaScript SDK.

Creating a Facebook Application for Your Website
So let’s look at creating an application on Facebook – it’s easier than you think!

Step 1: Create an App

To create an application for your website, you will want to start on the Create an App page and enter your site’s name, URL, and language.



Click on the Create an App button to continue, and enter the captcha.

Step 2. Copy Your Application Data

On the following screen, you will get your App ID and Secret Key. Be sure to keep this handy as you will need it to implement some of the following Facebook Like code.



You can also get it by visiting your Applications Dashboard at a later date.

Installing the JavaScript SDK on Your Website
Next, you will want to install the JavaScript SDK on your website using the code on the JavaScript SDK page.



There are two versions of the code as shown above – I personally go with the code under Loading the SDK Asynchronously as this option will make sure that, should the Facebook code not be responding, it will not hinder other objects from loading on your page, leading to faster page load times.

You will want to replace the text YOUR APP ID in either version with the App ID you generated earlier. Then place this code between your website’s <HEAD> </HEAD> tags. Depending on your CMS, you may need to place this in your header.php file or similar header template file.

Now that we have the JavaScript SDK covered, let’s move onto Facebook Like buttons.

Installing Facebook Like for Your Website Content
The general consensus is that Facebook Likes may influence search rankings. Whether it is direct, or just one among many other social indicators of good content is still debatable, but search engines nonetheless are taking cues from social signals. Hence, it can’t hurt to increase the likes of your website and its content.

Implementation of the Facebook Like button for your website content is relatively simple. Facebook has an easy to use code generator for the Like button.



Here, you will:

1. Enter the URL you want a Facebook user to like which can be your homepage or an internal page on your site.

2. Decide whether or not you want to use the Send button which allows Facebook users to privately send the URL specified to another user, group, or email address. This option requires you to use the XFBML code along with the JavaScript SDK.



3. Choose between a standard, button, or box count layout – changing the dropdown will show you an example of each.

4. Set the appropriate width.

5. Show the faces of a user’s friends who have also liked the URL specified. This only applies to the standard layout.

6. Set the button to say Like or Recommend. This will change the verbiage on the user’s profile to say that person likes or recommends your URL.

7. Choose a color scheme. Most sites seem to choose the light one.

8. Choose a particular font to match your website.

Once you have all of these settings the way you like them and the Like button appears the way you want it as previewed on the side of the screen, you can hit the Get Code button to get your code.



If you did not want to install the JavaScript SDK and do not need the Send button, then you can use the iFrame code – just insert it where you want the Like button to appear on your page.

If you did install the JavaScript SDK and would like to use the Send button and give users the option to add an additional comment to the post when they like it, use the XFBML version. Again, just insert it where you want the Like button to appear on your page.

I like the option to add a comment, as it allows users to add in their personalized recommendation with the link. Here’s an example with and without a comment on the same link.



A personalized comment makes the recommendation much stronger and likely a user’s friends will click on it!

Installing Facebook Like in a Template
If you want to have the Facebook Like button installed in a theme, such as a single post template file, you will need to modify the code to reflect the changing current page’s permalink. For WordPress, you would need to enter any URL to generate the code, then replace that url in the code with <?php echo rawurlencode(get_permalink()); ?>. For both the iFrame and XFBML Like button code, this is the part you would change:

href=<?php echo rawurlencode(get_permalink()); ?>

If you use a CMS other than WordPress, you will need to figure out what code you need to use to ensure that no matter what page the user is on, that is the one they will like.

Implementation of the Like button can go from blog posts to article content. But it’s not just about website content. What about product pages? Buy.com is a great example of using the Facebook Like button as social proof when you’re about to make a purchase!



Facebook Share – The Facebook Like Alternative
Some sites alternatively use the Facebook Share button instead of the Like button because of the difference in functionality. The Share button will give users the following screen.



This allows users to always have the opportunity to add their own comment to an item they like, change the thumbnail for the post if there are other images on the page, and even change the page title and description before it posts to their wall. The code is also a bit more simple, as it has only one option that works no matter where you place it on templates or directly in the content.

<a name="fb_share" type="button_count" href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php">Share</a><script src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/connect.php/js/FB.Share" type="text/javascript"></script>

This code will simply try to share the URL it is displayed upon.

Installing Facebook Like for Your Fan Page
Now let’s say your next goal is to increase the number of fans for your fan page, and you want to do so directly on your website. Not a problem! You have two different options for allowing users to become a fan of your Facebook page without leaving your site.

The Facebook Like Box
The most popular option for adding information about your Facebook page on your website is the Facebook Like Box. By entering the URL of your Facebook Fan page, you can get the following customize-able box.



Here, you can change the settings for the width and whether to display the faces of people who like the page, latest stream of status updates, and the “Find us on Facebook” header.

Once you have customized your settings, you can click the Get Code button and choose either the iFrame or XFBML code. The functionality between the two is the same.

The Facebook Like Button for Your Fan Page
If you want something a little more subtle, you can use the same Like button as you used for your website content. Just use the URL of your fan page to ensure that any likes will count as fans for your fan page.

One of my favorite implementations of this is Mashable’s subscribe box.



They simply used their fan page’s URL, set the width to 286, left the checkbox for Show faces checked and used the XFBML code. Why the XFBML? Because in this instance, if people are not logged into Facebook, the iframe code would leave a big blank whitespace where the faces of friends who have liked the page would normally be. The XFBML will collapse that space and keep it neat.



This way, people won’t have to wonder what is missing in the whitespace.

Parting Thoughts on Facebook Likes
The Facebook Like button is powerful for bringing social proof to your website content and fans to your fan page, and the beauty is it all can be done without a Facebook user leaving your website. So what do you have to lose? If you aren’t using the Facebook Like button, be sure to start using it today so your visitors, fans, and customers can engage with you through their favorite social network.

How do you use Facebook Like? Share your strategies and any results you’ve seen in the comments!

About the Author: Kristi Hines is a freelance writer, blogger, and social media enthusiast. Her blog Kikolani focuses on blog marketing, including social networking strategies and blogging tips.

[Former_Member]

Great, that was pretty helpful.
Thanks! :)

[Former_Member]

You are very welcome!

[Former_Member]

Man, this ENTIRE thread is full of GREAT stuff! I'm just having a chance to read all of it but I love it! What a great team to share all this kind of stuff with each other. I will go back & read this again & again. THANKS!

[Former_Member]

You are very welcome! If you have any questions, I am sure someone in the team can help! So glad to have you!

[Former_Member]

7 Sneaky Ways to Use Facebook to Spy on Your Competition

Posted: 26 Jul 2011 11:19 AM PDT

Previously on KISSmetrics, I covered the art of 7 sneaky ways to use Twitter to spy on your competition. I don’t really consider it spying so much as simply competitor research, but spying makes it more James Bond-like. And who doesn’t want to pretend to be a secret agent every now and again?

If your competitor doesn’t have Twitter, or you’ve exhausted what you can learn in 140 character bites, let’s continue by learning how to use Facebook for competitor research. Here are some sneaky (or little known) ways to use Facebook to learn more about your competitor’s online marketing strategy.

1. Find out your competitor’s strength on Facebook.
When it comes to competition, the first thing people want to know is if their competitor is using something and how well are they using it.

Facebook offers a simple URL that will give you basic statistics about any domain’s popularity on Facebook. Simply replace the domain.com in http://api.facebook.com/restserver.php?method=links.getStats&urls=domain.com with your competitor’s site.

For example, if you wanted to check out the popularity of Southwest.com on Facebook, then visit http://api.facebook.com/restserver.php?method=links.getStats&urls=southwest.com and you would get the following:



This shows the number of likes and shares for their root domain, along with other interesting tidbits of data.

If you visit the Test Console, you can also enter the fan page URL of your competitor to get some basic popularity data about their fan page as well.



Note that you’ll need to visit their Facebook fan page and grab the URL directly out of the browser as it won’t return any data for http://www.facebook.com/southwest but will for http://www.facebook.com/Southwest simply because of the capitalization of Southwest.

2. Get the competitor’s raw Facebook data using the Facebook Open Graph.
By using Facebook’s own Graph API, you can view the basic data setup of any Facebook entity.

Let’s say you’re in the process of setting up your fan page. Maybe you’re not sure what category you should place it in or what information you should fill out. By finding your competitor’s fan page and appending their username or fan page ID number to the http://graph.facebook.com/ URL, you can see all their basic details in one shot without even liking their page!

If you put one of my personal favorite restaurant fan page’s username into the URL, for example, you would get the following.

Fan Page URL: http://www.facebook.com/chipotle
Open Graph URL: https://graph.facebook.com/chipotle



For fan page URLs that don’t have a simple custom username, simply put their fan page ID number in place of the username. The fan page ID is the 15 digit number at the end of fan page URLs in this format: http://facebook.com/pages/page-title/123456789012345/.

You can see even more applications of this on the Graph API page. You can use it to grab basic information about events, groups, applications, status messages, photo albums, and much more. Basically, anything that isn’t private can be discovered.

3. Find out what freebies excite and encourage your competitor’s fans to like their page.
One of the best ways to get more likes on Facebook is to offer a freebie in what is known as a reveal tab or fan gate.



Red Bull, for example, found that extreme videos would attract more people into liking their page, and with 21 million fans, they must have been right! If your competitor has a similar tab with content promised to people who like their page and their page has lots of fans, you might want to try this strategy for your own fan page.

4. See what the competitor’s fans love and hate about their brand.
One of the best things about Facebook fan pages is that the majority of information is open and available for public consumption. You generally don’t even have to like the page to find out what people are saying – just go directly to the wall and ignore the welcome tab / reveal tab.

Once you’re there, you may only see updates from the page itself, and that’s not where the gold lies. Just below the photo strip at the top, you will want to select the Top Posts link and then filter with Most Recent. You’ll be able to see posts by the page and posts by fans on the wall in chronological order. Then you can read the updates and find out exactly what fans of your competitor love.



This includes everything about the brand like the products and services they provide as well as everything about their status updates, photos, videos, etc. This can give you a great idea of what you should be doing with your business and your Facebook strategy if you want the same love from fans too!

The flip side to seeing everything a fan loves about the competition is seeing what the fans despise. Surprisingly, a lot of people will like a fan page just to complain about the products and services of the brand who owns the page.



This can give you some key insights into what things your brand can improve upon in hopes that the people who are unsatisfied with your competitor may come check you out instead!

5. Learn how to respond to criticisms.
Whenever you see complaints on the competitor’s fan page, you might want to laugh unless you have been struggling to find better ways to respond to criticism on your own fan page from disgruntled customers. If that is the case, you can learn how your competitors respond to negative posts on their wall.



Having the interaction lumped into one update makes it much easier to follow the conversation from complaint to resolution compared to when a customer and competitor are going back and forth on Twitter.

6. Follow all of your competitors in one place.
Ok, this one isn’t necessarily sneaky, but it helps you organize your sneaky spying. :)

At the bottom of the left sidebar of a fan page (usually beneath the number of people who like the page or the list of pages that the fan page likes), you can find a Subscribe to RSS link.



Using this option, you can then subscribe to all of your competitors fan page status updates in your favorite RSS reader. This means you don’t have to like the page to see what their latest updates are and you don’t have to visit multiple pages regularly to check on their updates.

My preferred choice is Google Reader because you can also easily search the updates using the search feature for particular keywords and you can organize your pages into folders by type.

The only downside of this is you’re only getting the updates by the fan page itself, and not any updates posted by fans. But it’s still a nice way to monitor your competitors’ strategies without having to keep visiting their page routinely.

7. Advertise to your competitor’s fans.
This one is a bit of a dirty trick more than a sneaky trick, but I’ve seen other brands use it to some successful degree, so it felt wrong not to mention it.

Imagine your biggest competitor is having some kind of crisis. For hosting companies, it would be massive server downtime. For automobile makers, it would be major recalls. For a restaurant, it would be an outbreak of food poisoning. This is all stuff you can learn about if you are following your competitors closely via their fan pages as previously mentioned.

Now image you could put an ad right in front of all of their fans that addressed their biggest concern. For hosting companies, it could be an ad that says 99.9% uptime guaranteed. For automobile makers, it could be an ad that says your brand has the least recalls of them all. For a restaurant, it could be an ad that says they have a five star rating!

Well guess what? You can! Facebook Advertising lets you target ads down to specific demographic details.



The best part – you can also target your ad to fans of a competitor’s fan page using Precise Interests!



Once you enter a brand, it will estimate the people you will reach (assuming that you have a country selected). You can even add in multiple brands and competitors for each ad.

Your Sneaky Facebook Strategy
There you have it – seven great ways to use Facebook to learn more about your competitors and their Facebook strategy. How do you use Facebook for competitor research? Please share your thoughts in the comments, and happy spying!

Want to learn more about Facebook marketing for your business?
Be sure to check out the Facebook Success Summit, the web’s largest online Facebook marketing conference.

About the Author: Kristi Hines is a freelance writer, blogger, and social media enthusiast. Her blog Kikolani focuses on blog marketing, including social networking strategies and blogging tips.

[Former_Member]

Penny Pinchers & Profits: How Coupons and Promotions Can Impact Your Business

Posted: 21 Jul 2011 11:41 AM PDT

86% of consumers say that a coupon affects their decision (to varying degrees) in choosing one brand over another. Between June 2009 and June 2010 the savings generated from digital coupons doubled. During November 2010 alone, digital coupon traffic rose 27% year-over-year. Coupons are becoming huge. In this infographic, we’re going to briefly investigate the world of coupons: how consumers interact with them and how they might impact your business.

Click on the image below to view an enlarged version of this infographic:




View an enlarged version of this Infographic »


Click here to download a .pdf version of this infographic.



Facts and Stats to Tweet:
During November 2010 alone, digital coupon traffic rose 27% year-over-year. »tweet«
31% of consumers say that they look for coupons on coupon websites. »tweet«
86% of consumers say that a coupon affects their decision in choosing one brand over another. »tweet«
Consumers who use coupons spend an average of 56.5% more than consumers who did not use a coupon. »tweet«
In a study by Seewhy.com, the introduction of a promotional discount in remarketing emails caused the shopping cart recovery rate to jump from 18% to 46%. »tweet«
Digital coupon sales for the 2010 holiday period reached a combined $119 million. »tweet«
In 2010, the Southern states led all U.S. regions in online coupon usage. »tweet«

[Former_Member]

A Beginner’s Guide to Google Analytics 5

Posted: 12 Jul 2011 10:46 AM PDT

Google Analytics is arguably one of the most powerful web analytics applications available today. The fact that, like many Google offerings, it’s an entirely free program, makes it even more appealing. Version 5 of Analytics has just rolled out to many users (look for the “New Version” link at the top of your page after you’ve logged into Analytics to check it out), and there have been some fairly significant user interface changes.

Below we’ve compiled everything you need to know to get started with Analytics in general, and specifically with Version 5. (This is a beginner’s guide, aimed at users who may or may not be familiar with Analytics, and doesn’t cover some of the more in-depth features.)

A Brief History of Analytics
Google Analytics was originally developed from the Urchin on Demand software that Google acquired in the spring of 2005 (Urchin is still developed and available through value-added resellers, and is currently at version 7). The first Google-branded version was released in November 2005. In 2006, further ideas from Measure Map (developed by Adaptive Path) were integrated into Analytics when Google acquired them.

Early on, Analytics was available by invitation only, as demand for the product was very high. It wasn’t fully available to all users until nearly a year after its initial release (August 2006).

Why Use Analytics?
Analytics is a powerful application for tracking traffic patterns on your website. The fact that it’s an entirely free program, and integrates with other Google programs, like AdSense and AdWords, only makes it that much more valuable.

Considering most people already use at least some Google products, it makes sense to use Analytics, because it is such a powerful, yet easy-to-use, product.

The Basic Interface
When you access the report for your site, you’ll first be brought to the Visitors Overview screen. This differs from the last version of Analytics, where you were first brought to a general overview screen that also showed information about traffic sources and content. At the top of the report, you’ll see a chart showing your traffic patterns for the past month. You can also use the dropdown to change the date this graph and the rest of your reports show (or you can choose to compare two date ranges).



On the chart, you can choose to create annotations for specific days. Say, for example, you had a review of your product on a major industry site on a particular day. You could add an annotation to that day, so that when you look back on your traffic patterns at a later date you’ll know exactly what caused a spike in traffic. You can do the same if you have a sudden drop in traffic, say if your website goes down for a few hours.

Along the left-hand side of the screen you’ll see your main report navigation. You can view more detailed reports for your Visitors from here, or switch to see overviews and detailed reports for traffic sources, content, and conversions. Below that you’ll also find Help links for common issues you might encounter.

Along the top, you’ll see more navigation. There’s an additional link for conversions there, as well as a link to custom reports. In the sub-navigation, you’ll see a link to “Intelligence”, which we’ll cover later on.

Visitors
The visitors overview is the default screen you’ll see when you view the report for any of your sites. This screen gives you the number of visitors, unique visitors, and pageviews (along with the average pages/visit). It also shows you the average time spent on your site, the bounce rate, and the percentage of new visits (a pie chart comparing new to returning visitors is also shown). This gives you a good, high-level overview of how your site is doing. High pages/visit, high average time on your site, and a low bounce rate give you an idea of how useful visitors are finding your site once they arrive.

You’ll also see that there are some basic demographics, system, and mobile reports at the bottom of the overview screen. You can view visitors by language, country/territory, or city; by browser, operating system, and service provider; and by mobile operating system, service provider, and screen resolution. The most useful reports here are the demographics reports (the system and mobile reports are more useful in a design and programming sense, than in a marketing sense, though you’ll want to make sure that your site is compatible with all the popular technical specs here).

You can view more detailed reports on demographics by clicking on it in the left navigation. There you can view detailed information about your visitors’ locations (including a map overlay) or language, as well as set up user defined and custom variables for more exact reporting. On the map, if you click on any country you’ll get a larger map of that country, with more detailed information about where your visitors are coming from.



The next sub-report in the visitors section is behavior. This section gives you more information about new vs returning visitors, how frequently and recently visitors are returning to your site, and user engagement. Looking at how many visitors you have returning frequently gives you an idea of how many true fans you have. Users who have visited your site a dozen or more times are most likely fans of your site or company. These are the users you can more or less count on when asking for help in promoting a new product or otherwise getting the word out. You can also view the “days since last visit” report, which gives you an idea of how often your return visitors are coming back to your site.



The engagement report shows you two key metrics: the visit duration and the page depth (how many pages a visitor viewed). Visitors who stay on your site longer and view more pages are more engaged. You want a high number of visitors viewing more than one page, and staying on your site more than a few seconds. If that’s not happening, these reports will tell you so.



The last two reports in the visitors section are for technology and mobile statistics. For the most part, these aren’t very helpful from a marketing standpoint. But, it is a good idea to monitor them and make sure that your site appears correctly in the more common combinations. It’s also vital to review these when you’re getting ready to redesign your site. If you still have a significant percentage of visitors coming to your site using older technology, you’re going to have to make sure your new site still appears correctly for them. Pay attention to trends, too. For example, if you see that a particular mobile platform is increasing by double-digits each month, you’ll want to make sure your site supports that platform, even if it still represents a small percentage of overall visits.

Traffic Sources


Your traffic sources overview is one of the most important parts of your Analytics account. Where your traffic is coming from tells you a lot about the strength of your SEO, your incoming links, and your AdWords and other advertising campaigns. It also shows you where your weaknesses are. Ideally, you want traffic coming from a variety of sources, so that your traffic isn’t tied to closely to a single source that’s beyond your control. For example, if 80% of your traffic comes from organic Google results, and suddenly Google changes their algorithm and your site ends up on page 10 instead of the top of page 1, you’ll see a huge drop in traffic. But if only 40% of your traffic is coming from the same source, it’s easier to compensate (in this case you might increase your AdWords spending to compensate for a lack of presence in organic results).



One of the most important reports in your traffic sources is the keyword reports. These are vital to figuring out how your search traffic is finding your site. Because Analytics tracks not only the top keywords driving traffic to your site, but every keyword used, you can see all the long-tail search results driving traffic to your site. There’s a brief keyword report on your overview page, but more detailed reports can be found under the “Search” sub-report.

The search sub-report also tells you which page visitors are landing on most often, and which search engine they’re coming from. You can view your paid (AdWords) traffic and organic traffic, or a mix of the two. You can also view traffic in terms of campaigns, including traffic from RSS feeds.

If you use AdWords, you can view detailed reports for traffic driven by your ads, including campaigns, keywords, day parts, destination URLs, placements, keyword positions, and TV ads. These reports show you the number of visits generated, how many pages/visit, the average time spent on the site, the percentage of new visits, the bounce rate, your total goal completions, and the revenue generated from each. The last two are the most important metrics to watch, as you want to make sure that the ads are generating enough revenue or conversions to make them worthwhile. You may have some ads that only drive a small percentage of traffic, but a large number of those visitors convert (or vice versa). Without knowing the goal completions or revenue, you might disregard those ads and throw away important revenue sources.

Content


On the content overview page, the graph represents page views rather than visits, so you’ll notice the numbers used should be a lot larger than on the visits graph. One thing you’ll notice here is that both pageviews and unique pageviews are both shown. The difference is that a pageview is recorded every time a page is loaded (so if a user clicks refresh, a second pageview is logged, or if a user navigates to a different page and then uses their back button, a new pageview is counted), whereas a unique pageview is only logged once per browsing session.

Also on the overview page is a list of AdSense revenue, and the $ Index for a given page (which is the value of that page in your sales funnel). Your bounce rate and average time on each page is displayed here, too.

At the bottom of the overview page you’ll see options to review your site content by page or page title, to view your site search stats (if you’re using Google Site Search), to view your events, and to view AdSense earnings by page.

Other reports included in the content section include your more in-depth information about your pages viewed, as well as landing and exit pages. Pay close attention to the exit pages, as these can provide clues as to where in your sales funnel visitors are getting hung up. Landing pages can also be important, as you want to make sure that necessary information is included on the pages your visitors are actually viewing.



It’s a good idea to check your site speed report occasionally to make sure there aren’t any pages that are incredibly slow to load. Slow pages can deter visitors, and can interrupt your conversion process. Be sure to check the page speed of any of your main exit pages, too, as slow loading times could be one reason people are abandoning your site.

The other reports here are a bit more advanced, but if you use Google Site Search, or AdSense, or you’ve programmed Events into your site’s code, you’ll be able to monitor those things here.

Conversions
Conversions are broken down into two categories: goals and ecommerce. Goals are fairly easy to set up. You can have up to four sets of goals, each with five individual goals. This can be valuable for tracking different kinds of actions on your site (like length of time spent, reaching a specific page, or visiting a certain number of pages).

There are four different kinds of goals. Some are simply pages on your site you want visitors to reach. This could be a thank you page after someone has placed an order or signed up. It could be a particular product page. Or it could be something like your contact page or a request for information. You can also set a goal for a length of time spent on your site, the number of pages/visit, or an event.



To set up a goal, simply select which goal group you want to use, name your goal, and then define the goal type. You’ll have different options from there depending on which type of goal you’re setting up. It’s a good idea to at least set up goals for the last page in your conversion process. You can also set up a funnel, or a series of pages leading up to your goal page. If you set this up, you can more easily monitor at what point users abandon the conversion process.

E-commerce conversions are much more complicated to set up, and require inserting code on your actual site. More information about ecommerce tracking can be found in the Google Analytics help files.

Custom Reports


One of the biggest advantages of Google Analytics is that it allows you to create custom reports. Custom reports let you filter results based on a number of factors (basically anything included in any of the regular reports, plus custom filters), and then view any of the metrics included in Analytics (including custom goals). You can also add content drilldowns to further segment your reports. You’ll find the custom reports link in the top navigation.

Intelligence


Intelligence is a relatively new feature of Analytics. There are automatic alerts built into the app, including pageviews, average time on site, visits, bounce rates, and other metrics (some of which are segmented). But you can also create custom alerts, for anything you define. Setting up an alert is simple: just set your alert conditions and decide whether you want an email notification if an alert is triggered, and you’re all set. Alerts can be set for all traffic or traffic segments, and you can set alerts for things like changes in visit numbers, goals, or similar metrics.

Intelligence can be a powerful tool for tracking potential problems on your site, or sudden spikes in traffic or conversions. Getting accurate, fast information about changes to your site means you can respond better to changes and make sure your visitors and customers are kept happy.

About the Author: Cameron Chapman is a freelance designer, blogger, and the author of Internet Famous: A Practical Guide to Becoming an Online Celebrity.

[Former_Member]

The Bulldozer's Guide to Selling on Etsy

Story by artsibitsi
Published on July 08, 2011 in Seller Handbook
Photo by thewayhome
A few weeks ago, an Etsy colleague made a remark about my approach to business. She said that I was always pushing pushing pushing through obstacles, like a bulldozer, and putting my Etsy shop out in front of people. She said that she was probably too shy to be that aggressively self-assertive.

Well.

At first I was sort of taken aback. Am I really that pushy? And apart from being rather attractive big yellow pieces of machinery, are bulldozers really all that pleasant to be around?

But I’ve decided to embrace it. Hell yeah, I’m a bulldozer. A big yellow bulldozing monster of an Etsy entrepreneur. Grr. Rawr. And what does a big yellow bulldozing monster of an Etsy entrepreneur do? She makes her own road and then she drives down it.

So here are some notes and tips from the cab of the yellow monster truck on doing business on Etsy.

Etsy entrepreneurs are dead serious about business. They are not flirting and they are not fooling around. They have business plans and promotions and financial statements. They may be perfectly nice people, but make no mistake, they are thinking about how to build their business all of the time.
That book you read on how to succeed on Etsy? About ten thousand other people have read the same book. When everyone is following the same rules, it only levels the playing field. To win, you have to do something exceptional.
You are already exceptional. You are an artist who is also an entrepreneur. That’s a hell of a unique skill set. Conventional wisdom is, you know, conventional. That’s not for you. You’re creative, by definition. Do things that work for you even if they’re uncommon — especially if they’re uncommon.
Now go out there and create your own model of business. You don’t have to be a bulldozer to move mountains. Even a drop of water is powerful. Look at the Grand Canyon.

More from ArtsiBitsi:

Your Etsy Business on Autopilot | Your Etsy Shop Numbers | Today’s Interesting Bits

[Former_Member]

here do you paste the tracking code you get from Google Analytics? I just tried to use it today. Do you need the tracking code? Please let me know if you have experience with this. Thanks!

[Former_Member]

I found the answer to my Google Analytics question! Click here if you wanted to know about using it with etsy http://www.gotogreatpanes.com/blog/2010/03/07/ga-set-up-for-etsy-shops/.

[Former_Member]

Thank you Tech! Greatly appreciated. If you find anything else useful here please feel free to post!

[Former_Member]

Natural Link Building 101

Posted: 21 Dec 2011 09:14 AM PST

Link building is one of the most important things you can do in terms of off-site search engine optimization. As you probably know by now, search engines like Google tend to rank pages higher in search results based on the number and quality of links to those pages. Essentially, the more links you have, the more likely you will be to rank well when someone searches for keywords related to your website. Some of the most common ways to build links to a website include the following:

Link Requests – This is where you simply ask another website owner to link back to your website. These are really hit or miss and depend on how well you can convince the website owner that your link on their website is beneficial to both them and their visitors.
Link Buying – This is the big no-no, yet it is still happening. Instead of politely requesting a link from a website owner, you approach them with a deal instead. Some consider it as advertising in the form of a link instead of a banner, but Google considers it a good reason to penalize a website.
Directories – There are a ton of directories out there – general directories, local directories, and niche based directories. Some will allow you to create a listing for free while others will charge a fee. The latter doesn’t constitute “bad link buying” even though you are paying for the link.
Content Links – There are a lot of ways to build links via content, from creating articles on article marketing networks to guest blogging with a link in your author bio.
Social Links – I’m not just talking about links in your social profiles (although we will get to those). This refers to all of the ways getting social online (blog comments, forum posting, answering questions, and using social media) can lead to links.

For this post, we’re not going to focus on the first three (requests, buying, or directories) but rather, the last two – content and social. Why? Because chances are you are already doing most of these right now, or know you should be!

The reason these two are so important is that they are not just about creating links for SEO value (although some will have some SEO value anyway). They are about creating links that people will be likely to click on, so instead of waiting for clicks and conversions from higher rankings in search results, you could be getting both immediately from the link itself!
Linking with Content

Creating content is a great way to gain valuable backlinks to your website while also demonstrating expertise in your industry. There are three ways you can go about getting links from other websites besides your own blog where you should have great content as well.

Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is a great way to get your name, company, and link in front of a new audience. Once you have some good content on your own blog to show as a sample of your writing, you can start reaching out to other blogs in your industry whose audience members could be potential clients. As you have success with smaller blogs in your industry (success being posts with a good amount of social engagement and comments), you can use these as examples to present to larger blogs in your industry.

Some link building tips for guest blogging include the following:

Don’t think of guest blogging as solely a link building exercise. Think about it as a way to position yourself or your brand as an authority in your niche and a way to drive visitors back to your site. With that in mind, create awesome content that fits the blog and its audience.
Read other guest posts on the blog first. Look at how they format their posts and follow accordingly.
When it comes down to the links, you will most likely be adding them through an author bio. Look at other guest bloggers’ bios to see how many links you can have and what they should be to (your website, your blog, and/or your social networks).
Make sure the keyword phrase and page you link to in your author bio is appealing to the blog’s audience to maximize the number of potential clicks.

Article Marketing

Many popular article marketing sites like EzineArticles took a huge hit when the Google Panda update came out. Since then, they have been working to update their networks to focus more on quality than letting everyone get away with quantity. Still, it is unsure how much real value comes through link building through article marketing on those sites.

My suggestion would be to look for article communities (not just directories, but real communities) whose audiences fit your target demographic. And when I say community, I mean sites like HubPages and Squidoo where members can connect with other members through private messaging, commenting on their profiles / articles, or even hanging out in forums. This way you can find other members in your industry or members who would make good potential clients, engage with them, and ultimately drive them to your articles and websites.

Also, on any article marketing network, be sure to take advantage of filling out your profile and (of course) including your links.

This way, if you are engaging with someone on the network, they can get to know you and click through to your website without even needing to get to one of your articles!

Videos

Another great type of content to build links with is video. Most video networks (YouTube and Vimeo are my favorites) will allow you to add a link in the description of your video.

This means that if someone comes across your videos through search or on YouTube itself, they will be able to go directly to your website. So your videos, like your written content, should be informative and geared to draw in the right type of audience for your business.

Remember that video doesn’t have to mean anything to crazy (or anything that even puts you behind the camera). You can turn PowerPoint presentations into movie files, you can upload previously recorded webinars, or you can use screencasting software to do a video tutorial with a recording of your voice and your computer screen. All of these options make for great video content!
Linking with Social Profiles

If you are participating in social media, then you are likely sitting on several properties that could hold anywhere from one or more links. Let’s look at which ones you can put your links in, where, and their impact.

Twitter

Twitter allows you two places to put links – the Web and Bio field of your profile. To edit your profile, go to Twitter and use the dropdown to find your Settings. Then edit your profile to include a link in the Web and Bio field. You will have two links in your profile like this.

How does this work towards link building? There are a lot of other sites that will pull your Twitter profile information and use either just your bio information or your bio and web link. Having a link in both means you are covered either way in getting more links to your websites.

Klout, for example, pulls your bio information and automatically hyperlinks any web links.

Listorious, on the other hand, pulls in your bio and web link, but only hyperlinks the web link.

Facebook

While Facebook doesn’t have so many sites pulling your user information, your Facebook page does have a lot of spots where you can sneak in a live hyperlink.

These will help visitors to your fan page see your other social properties, blogs, and websites. Try to use the shortest links possible, but at the same time, don’t go for just bit.ly or other shortened links as those are often used by social spammers to get unwilling visitors to click on shady links. Bit.ly does work well if you want to shorten a Facebook or LinkedIn profile as it will use their custom short domains, on.fb.me and linkd.in which only go to those sites.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn allows you to have three links in your profile, each with customized anchor text (although they don’t count for SEO value). Think of the anchor text as a way to entice visitors to click on the links. To edit your websites, click on Edit Profile under the Profile dropdown menu. Then click on the Edit link next to your website links. Be sure to use the Other option in each dropdown to get the customized anchor text.

This will give you three great links which visitors to your profile should want to click upon.

Google+ Personal Profile

Google+ gives you the opportunity to add a huge number of links. Try not to make it look spammy, but be sure to take advantage. To add links, go to your Google+ profile’s About tab and click the Edit Profile button. Then click on the Other profiles, Contributor to, Recommended link, and Introduction sections to edit them. In each of these, you can enter links to your websites (and pages within them) with custom anchor text.

Be sure to note that the following links should be of a specific type.

Other profiles – These links should be to pages that are about you, such as your about page on a blog or website and other social profiles.
Contributor to – These links should be to your own author pages for who write for, such as your own blogs, blogs you contribute to, or other major sites you contribute to.
Recommended link – These links can be to any other website you choose.

You can create the same kinds of links on your Google+ pages as well, with the exception that you will only have the option for Recommended links in the right sidebar.

YouTube

Thanks to the new YouTube channel design, you can have more than one link to your other websites near the top of your channel profile. To edit the new channel design for adding links, click on the Edit button next to the About section. Then add the Title (custom anchor text) and URL for each link.

When finished, it should look like this.

While the downside is that these links are nofollow (or otherwise ignored by search engines), the upside is you can add more of them for visitors to click upon!

UTM Parameters

Want to check the number of clicks on these links? You can if you use UTM parameters for the links on LinkedIn, Google+, and YouTube. I wouldn’t suggest them for Twitter and Facebook as both display the entire URL, and URL’s with UTM parameters can get ugly and lengthy.
Linking with Engagement

Engagement with communities in your niche / industry will help you build your personal, professional, and business brand. The following are ways to incorporate link building with your engagement in order to get the best of both worlds.

Blog Commenting

Whenever you start blog commenting, be sure that you are commenting on posts because you want to say something important, not just because you want to leave a link. If you do it because you have something to say, your comment will make an impression which will lead others to become curious about you. That curiosity will equal clicks on your link! Pointers for making people want to click on your link in blog comments (besides just filling in the Website / URL input box on the form) include the following.

Get a Gravatar. Using the email that you most often comment with, sign up for an account and associate a photo with every email address you comment with. This will ensure that a photo comes up next to your comment on most blogs using WordPress, and will help blog owners tell the spam from the legit comments. Because as a blog owner, I almost never approve a comment without a Gravatar unless I recognize the person’s name.
Always use your real name in the name field of comments. The only exception is WordPress blogs that use the KeywordLuv plugin. You will know these because somewhere near the comment form, there will be instructions to use Your Name@Your Keywords in the name field so your website is linked up to your specified anchor text. This means you still include your real name with your comment!
Look for blogs with CommentLuv – search CommentLuv keyword on Google to find them. Whenever you comment on a blog with the CommentLuv plugin, you will get an additional link to your latest blog post beneath your comment when you enter a blog URL in the website field of the comment form.
If a blog is using a third-party system like Disqus and Livefyre, sign up for a profile so you can include your website link and your photo with your comments. You’ll also receive a link from your profiles on those networks as well as a way to keep track of your commenting history (see my profiles on Disqus and Livefyre for examples).

Forums

Forums can be a bit tricky in terms of getting links. Some communities embrace it, while others will call out anyone adding a link back to their own site as a spammer. You can find great forums in your industry by searching BoardReader or “powered by vbulletin” keyword in Google. Once you’ve found these forums, go to a public post to see if the forum users are allowed signatures. They will be at the bottom of each post.

Unless you happen to know everyone in the forum (because it’s new or you are the owner of it), I would suggest making some posts within the forum before adding your signature links. Once you’ve had some recognition as a valuable member of the community (maybe 15 to 20 posts, preferably not in one day), then go into your forum profile and add your signature. If everyone else only seems to have one link in theirs, just include one in yours. If people have three, go with three. Once you’ve posted a bit in the community, you’ll get to know what works best.

Also, be sure (as with any other site) that you fill out your member profile completely. This will usually include at least one spot to put a link, and it will help other members get to know you.

Q&A Networks

Question and Answer networks are great places to build your authority and drop the occasional link as part of an answer to a question. The top Q&A networks – Quora, LinkedIn Answers, and Yahoo Answers – all have a resource box where you can add links as a reference to your answer, or a place to look for additional details. This is when it is handy to have a blog because your blog posts will make better answers than a product link. The latter will probably get you labeled as a spammer unless the question specifically says “Where can I buy…” and you happen to have it for sale on your website.

As far as profiles go on these networks, Yahoo Answers doesn’t offer one where you can add links. Quora, on the other hand, is one where you will want to make sure you fill it out as much as possible. You can have links in your main bio.

You can also have links as a part of the topics you follow. When you follow a topic, it will ask you to describe your experience with that topic. In that area, just add a short blurb with your link.

Whenever you answer a question within that topic, it will put your link with your answer as a part of your topic bio.

Unfortunately, it’s not hyperlinked, but it could still lead the way to people going to your website from your answer, even if it is by copying and pasting.
Bonus Tips

I decided to do a few bonus tips that are unrelated to content or social engagement, but are also easy ways to generate more links to your site naturally.

Link to Us Page

The first bonus tip is to simply add something to your website that helps others link to you easily. Call it your Link to Us page and be sure it includes the following.

Badges & banners are just simple images that people can use on their website. If possible, create them in a number of different sizes that are standard so people can find the right one to fit their site. 125×125, 468×80, and 300×250 are pretty standard banner sizes.

Along with your badges & banners, be sure to include the HTML code that people can use to put your link on their site as shown in the example above. The easier you make it, the most likely people will link to you.

Widgets

Can you think of a simple widget that fits with your website? If so, create a widget that people can place on their website. And make sure that widget has a link on it!

See WidgetBox for more examples and learn how to create your own.

Email Links

Do you send out a lot of emails? Do you use an online email service like Hotmail, Gmail, AOL, or Yahoo? If so, use WiseStamp to create visually appealing email signatures with links to your websites, or simply include links to your websites below your name.

I have had several people click on these links in my signature, then email me back saying they didn’t know I did freelance writing, blogging, or photography. After visiting my site, they wanted to inquire about services or prints of photos!

Statistics Checking Links

Want to see some interesting stats about your website (or someone else’s) while building some quick links to it? Try searching for your domain using the following sites. They will tell you some useful information as well as create a profile page for your domain with a link back to it.

Alexa – This site will tell you how your domain ranks in traffic worldwide and within your own country. It also gives you additional details including the number of sites linking to yours, top queries for your website, and additional statistics.
Built With Technology Profiles – This site will tell you what your domain is using on their website including content management systems, analytics, frameworks, server information, and more.
Quarkbase – This site will give you the latest Twitter comments associated with your domain, traffic stats, and social stats. For blogs, it will even pull up the most recent and popular blog posts!
About the Domain – This site will tell you basic SEO information of your domain like the title, meta description, headers, incoming links, and even the Google Analytics ID #.
Similar Site Search – This site will tell you sites it thinks is similar to yours based on keywords and content.

Have you seen success in natural link building through content, social media, and engagement? What other natural link building activities would you suggest for websites looking to gain exposure?

About the Author: Kristi Hines is a freelance writer, blogger, and social media enthusiast. Her blog Kikolani focuses on blog marketing, including social networking strategies and blogging tips.

[Former_Member]

Do More Tweets Equal More Holiday Sales?

Posted: 20 Dec 2011 09:39 AM PST

With the holiday season in full swing both marketers and economists alike are watching the retail sector closely to understand how the economy is doing and whether they put their marketing dollars to good use. Hundreds of millions of people participate in conversations within social networks each day, and many of these conversations reference companies, domains and products, especially during the holiday season.

Leading indicators of product sales for online merchants have typically involved examining on-domain funnel metrics such as impressions, click through and conversion rates. But, if people were talking about a particular product and you were able to measure the quantity and quality of conversations about that product, then these metrics could be accurate indicators of how well those products will sell. In the social world, the quantitative metric is number of mentions and the qualitative measurement is sentiment. Number of mentions measures how many times a keyword (product) is referenced within a post over time, while sentiment measures how positively or negatively people express themselves about that product.

Focusing on both popular electronics domains and then more specifically at two popular holiday gifts, the Apple iPad and Amazon Kindle Fire, we look to the conversations taking place on Twitter and analyze both number of mentions about each product and sentiment to determine if social conversations are a realistic indicator of Black Friday and Cyber Monday holiday sales.
November At A Glance

Looking at Figure 1 below, it’s clear that references to retail domains in social communication significantly spike in and around Black Friday and Cyber Monday, November 25 and November 28, when sales correspondingly also rose dramatically.

Figure 1 – Social Mentions for Retail Sites In November

Figure 1 – Social Mentions for Retail Sites In November

These mention spikes are commensurate with the retail sales increases realized by online retailers. But, can these measurements be applied to specific products and used as leading indicators of how well products will sell?

Let’s take a look at specific product mentions around Black Friday and Cyber Monday to understand if these measurements can serve as leading indicators of how well products will sell.
iPad vs Kindle Fire

The first analysis uses number of mentions as the base measurement, but expresses this as share of voice, as depicted in Figure 2, for the month of November.

Figure 2 – iPad vs Kindle Fire Share of Voice

Figure 2 – iPad vs Kindle Fire Share of Voice

Share of voice is calculated by summing the total number of mentions of both iPad and the Kindle Fire, and then determining the relative percentage of mentions for the iPad versus the percentage of mentions for the Kindle Fire from the summed total.

Looking at the Kindle Fire, we notice that on 11/13, the week the Kindle Fire became available, there’s a spike in the number of mentions, and then another small spike again around Thanksgiving and Black Friday as the hype began to die down and some negative reviews began to surface.

In the case of the iPad, based upon number of mentions it is still largely the dominant product, particularly among the Twitter community. And, as the buzz around the launch of the Kindle Fire faded, Apple’s SOV climbed back up, especially with Apple announcing that they would offer free shipping and rumors about Microsoft Office becoming available on iPads

That’s the conversational quantitative perspective… Next, let’s take a look at how people feel about either product as expressed through sentiment. This measurement uses Topsy’s Social Sentiment™, which is an algorithm specifically tuned to measure how positive or negative people express themselves within social media.

Figure 3 – iPad vs Kindle Fire Topsy Social Sentiment ™

iPad vs Kindle Fire Topsy Social Sentiment

Focusing just on the week around Thanksgiving, people express much more positive commentary about the Kindle Fire, with the product’s positive sentiment passing the iPad as consumer conversations moved towards Black Friday. The hype surrounding Kindle Fire’s launch definitely helped propel positive sentiment moving into the start of the holiday shopping season. However, that positive conversation was not sustainable and is attributed to complaints about the product such as “fat-finger” issues making navigation difficult. And yet, even without a recent product launch, the iPad’s sentiment was also positive, picking up slightly on Cyber Monday as Apple announced that they would offer free shipping for purchases made on Apple.com.

Combining the sentiment analysis with number of mentions, let’s see how these metrics map to one another. It’s evident people are excited about the tablet space this holiday season – but, are all mentions good mentions? The two charts below show volume and sentiment metrics for both products specifically during the week of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

iPad:

Ipad holiday sales 2011

As we saw previously, sentiment for the iPad is positive, staying well above zero with increases on the 25th and 28th. And yet, while the sentiment still appears to be positive, it is noticeably lower by the end of the Thanksgiving week than at the beginning. However, the amount of conversation around the iPad increases from the beginning of the week to the end, going up by nearly 30,000 mentions. So, does an increase in Twitter chatter really drive positive brand sentiment? In this case it doesn’t appear to.

Kindle Fire:

Kindle Fire Holiday Sales 2011

While Black Friday proved to be a good day for the Kindle Fire in terms of positive sentiment, there were slightly fewer mentions between the 24th and the 26th and yet that’s when positive sentiment was at its peak. Consistent with the trends displayed by the iPad graph, it’s clear that an increase in tweets doesn’t necessarily mean an increase in positive sentiment.

As many predicted, this graph also supports the observations that after Black Friday the excitement around the Kindle Fire began to smolder and by Cyber Monday, sentiment had declined dramatically. As users got their hands on the device and tried it out, many complained about specific feature dysfunctions and poor design; those complaints were not only voiced on Amazon.com via customer ratings, but also on social media outlets such as Twitter, and as a, result sentiment declined while number of mentions went up again.

Looking back at the sentiment for both the iPad and the Kindle Fire, despite some early frustrations with the Kindle Fire, for the course of Thanksgiving shopping week, sentiment was still significantly higher for Kindle Fire than for the iPad. Even with the dip after Black Friday, sentiment for the Kindle Fire was still on an upward trajectory. We’d expect that while hype of the Kindle Fire might have slowed, sales should continue to increase, particularly with the OTA update scheduled for the coming weeks.
Conclusions

Quantifying and qualifying social communication about companies and products can provide valuable insights into demand, especially for consumer products where people are expressing opinions within social settings. Measuring the volume (number of mention) and how people feel (sentiment) enable retailers to obtain off-domain indicators for the demand that may exist for the products and provide valuable signal for what products to promote and what priority to display products within their domain. In this case, just because Kindle Fire spiked in popularity, doesn’t mean Best Buy should move that Apple display to the back of the store just yet. However, the comparably large number of mentions of the iPad shouldn’t mask the Kindle Fire’s strong positive sentiment among its user base and shouldn’t be overlooked as a strong contender for tablet market share either.

What’s needed to “connect the dots” for off-domain measurements and on-domain metrics is to combine the two into consolidated analyses. One way to execute this consolidated view of measurements would be to utilize KISSmetrics analytics in conjunction with Topsy Labs’ social metrics. This would allow you to combine number of mention, sentiment with page view, click through, conversation rate, average order size and other RPM metrics for each product. The powerful aspect of injecting social metrics into on-domain is that online retailers can utilize off-domain metrics to anticipate product demand, planning promotions and inventory accordingly to stay ahead of and profit from consumer’s social conversations.

About Topsy Labs:

Topsy Labs, Inc. enables businesses around the globe to apply social intelligence to realtime decisioning. Our fast-indexing technology ingests massive amounts of authored content from the world’s largest social networks and our live-ranking software applies influence algorithms to social data, identifying the most important content seconds after it has been posted to the social web. We produce a variety of metrics calculated from census-based social data sets, enabling businesses to interpret social signal in ways that are meaningful to each business segment’s needs, with high degrees of precision and in realtime.

Topsy Labs is located in San Francisco and funded by top-tier Silicon Valley venture firms. For more information, visit topsylabs.com or contact us at bizdev@topsy.com.

[Former_Member]

Can You Write a Better Headline Than This? Not Using Old Headline Formulas You Can’t

Posted: 19 Dec 2011 03:07 PM PST

Do you know the main difference between copy that converts and copy that doesn’t?

You might think it’s the story it tells, or the offer it makes, or how well the bullets are written, or any of a dozen things.

But the answer is much more basic than that.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COPY THAT CONVERTS AND COPY THAT DOESN’T IS—THE FORMER GETS READ; THE LATTER GETS CLOSED

And what makes people read copy? You probably don’t need me to cite any studies to know that it’s the headline.

Without a good headline, no one reads your copy. And if no one reads your copy, no one clicks your call to action.

That’s why the headline is the most important element on the page. David Ogilvy, the great mad man, found that of everyone who reads a headline, only 20% read the copy. Pareto’s Principle at work.

Drayton Bird, perhaps the most experienced direct marketer in the world, suggests spending 80% of your time writing your headline. Put most of your effort into the thing that will yield the greatest returns.

And common sense suggests that if you rely on using words to make money, learning to write great headlines is more important than mastering every other copywriting trick combined. If your headlines don’t telegraph to your reader a message that gets him nodding and compels him to read on, you might as well give up copywriting immediately.
WHY YOU SHOULD USE A FORMULA FOR WRITING HEADLINES—BUT NOT THE ONE YOU ALREADY KNOW

You could power New York with all the electrons that have been (ab)used to produce articles, books, courses, and particularly formulas about writing headlines.

There’s a good reason for that. Formulas help us apply fundamental principles in a repeatable, consistent way. And even after doing that becomes second nature, formulas still make useful checklists.

But while there are some good headline formulas out there, they suffer from two problems:

They’re too forced—“ultra-specific”, really?—which makes them hard to remember; and,
They typically lack a key element which is extremely important to effective headlines on the web. (Not so much for offline writing—but definitely for web writing.)

I’ll talk about that element at the end. For now, let me introduce you to the SHINE headline formula. Why “SHINE”? Because after I’d picked out the five elements that go into a successful headline, and plugged their initial letters into an anagram generator, that was the only English word that came out.


S is for Specificity

If you are vague about the value of reading your copy, your reader will be too. Needless to say, he then won’t read it.

Nothing is as uninteresting as vagueness. Specific and concrete facts, on the other hand—particularly ones that form pictures in our minds—are intensely interesting.

So the first thing you must do to create a winning headline is use objective, quantifiable language. Figures are excellent; they imply research, which adds to your perceived legitimacy. But all kinds of specificity are good: names, descriptions—including of your reader himself; Mel Martin made millions writing “For people who…” headlines—titles, examples, projections, results, and so on.

Avoid subjective claims that anyone can make. “The number one ___”, “The leading ___”, etc. These are meaningless; like claiming your newborn is the most beautiful baby in the world. Everyone says that kind of thing, and studies show these sorts of claims actually reduce readership significantly, because people give them the same sort of attention they give to banner ads—i.e., none at all.
A WORD ABOUT LENGTH

A headline you can read in a single glance obviously communicates its content more effectively than one you cannot. Usability research shows that people not only scan body copy, but headlines as well—and they tend to take in only the first and last 3 words. This suggests the perfect length for a headline is 6 words.

Of course, that’s seldom enough to tilt the specificity-meter into the red. And I have it on good authority that some of the highest-converting headlines on the web are as long as 30 words. As a rule, if it won’t fit in a tweet it’s too long. But let me suggest that rather than worrying about length you should worry about making every word count. Especially the first and last 3—and if that means using the passive voice, so be it.


H is for Helpfulness

For your reader to see value in your copy, you must show how it will help him. Sounds obvious, yet most headlines give readers no clear idea of how reading the copy will help them—and so they don’t read it.

To make your headline helpful, simply speak to the issue which is foremost in your reader’s mind—the problem he came to your site to solve. People understand that what’s stated in the headline implies a solution in the copy. It can be explicit, as in 37Signals’s “Basecamp is the project management tool you wish you had on your last project.” Or it can be implicit, as in Saddleback Leather’s “They’ll fight over it when you’re dead”—implying both remarkable durability and enviable aesthetics and functionality.

Alternatively, if your reader isn’t yet aware of the problem, simply begin by stating it directly—as in the headline, “Toxic Killers in Your Grocery Cart”.


I is for Immediacy

Speaking of toxic killers, your headline should be so interesting that your reader cannot help but read on immediately.

Why immediately? Why not just be interesting enough to avoid the back button? Well, let me ask you: how many browser tabs do you keep open because their contents look interesting, and you fully intend to read them…later? If you’re anything like me, it’s so many that you’ve signed up for a service like Instapaper or Readability just so you can create an ever-growing list of things you really must read later, to hang over your head like a gradually descending zeppelin, slowly reaching such epic proportions that the only solution, in an eventual but inevitable act of desperation, is to set the whole thing on fire and watch it burn.

Anyway, you know from experience that if you don’t read it right away the odds are slim you’ll read it at all. The same is true of anyone reading your copy.

Creating immediacy is obviously easier for topics with greater emotional appeal; more difficult if you’re selling something like project collaboration software—which, with apologies to Jason Fried, few people really get worked up about. Nonetheless, you can do it for anything if you appeal to your reader’s self-interest. Focus on desires rather than needs, as these are, strangely, stronger.

Even better if you can tease him while doing so. Curiosity is an immensely powerful motivator. Paradoxes, quizzes, an implied danger or reward, or even simple questions can inflame a headline’s immediacy by playing to your reader’s curiosity—almost forcing him to read the copy. Here’s a classic that illustrates the irresistible power of the self-interest and curiosity combo:

“How Safe Is Your ____?”

Useful for a wide range of things, from information products to security systems to hats. How safe is your head from bird flu carried in pigeon droppings?


N is for Newsworthiness

To give your reader a reason to spend time in your copy, as opposed to your competitor’s, your headline must say something he hasn’t heard before. Or, more precisely, something he thinks he hasn’t heard before.

Obvious, generic, or familiar statements will put a bullet in your foot. In fact, anything that makes him think, “I already know what this is about.”

In other words, your headline must have news value. This doesn’t have to mean actual news—although headlines starting with “Now”, “Finally”, “Announcing”, “At last” and so on are all tested winners. But it can be as simple as the example I gave from Saddleback Leather: “They’ll fight over it when you’re dead.” How many leather goods companies emphasize quality and looks as their “unique” selling points? Probably all of them. But Saddleback gets away with appealing to the exact same USP by simply phrasing it differently.

Indeed, by putting your headline in terms of a story, you guarantee a unique spin. You also guarantee the critical element most headlines on the web lack—which brings us to our final point…


E is for Entertainment value

People today are information grazers. With so many blogs to read, so many things to Like on Facebook, so many tweets to scan, so many videos to watch…sales copy stands in boring contrast. Even non-sales copy.

Headlines which promise some entertainment in the copy succeed more often than those which don’t.

This is something you don’t see emphasized very often in headline formulas. In fact, since much of the advice you’ll read about writing headlines comes from the Cult of Claude Hopkins, you may even hear that copy should not seek to entertain at all. Hopkins famously said a salesman is not a clown.

But Hopkins wrote nearly a century ago, in a very different world. Although most marketing principles are universal, some things do change, so let me put this as bluntly as I can:

People on the Internet will not be bored.

Now, being entertaining doesn’t mean you should include the sorts of stupid “clever” gimmicks you see in much advertising—self-indulgent puns, whimsical turns of phrase and other such rubbish. That is worse than useless.

But stories, the oldest form of entertainment, are highly effective. So is humor, if used cautiously, but you must understand the kind of humor your reader likes and what he’s comfortable joking about.

Here’s a great example of the combined power of story and humor, written by the master of email, Ben Settle:

“How Even Skinny, ‘Barney Fife’ Cops Single-Handedly Control And Dominate Violent Criminals, Gang-Bangers And Other Cold-Blooded Killers…Without Even Drawing Their Guns!”


Making a headline SHINE

Let’s put all this to work. I’d like to help you construct a headline here, so you can see how the principles I’ve covered make headlines SHINE.

You know Mulder, I presume. Agent Fox Mulder of the FBI? If you haven’t seen The X-Files, he’s the guy who “wants to believe”. So let’s imagine we’re selling an information product that compiles all the world’s best UFO data into a comprehensive report. Mulder—or someone like him—is our ideal prospect.

Let’s start with specificity. This product is for the FBI agent who wants to believe. Can it be that simple to really get Mulder’s attention? Yes it can.

Right, how about helpfulness? What is it that Mulder will want out of this product? I’m thinking easy access to data which is normally scattered across multiple sources. He needs all the world’s UFO data at his fingertips.

Okay, what about immediacy? Well, Mulder’s job is often dangerous. Having the right data available in an alien encounter could be the difference between life and death. He doesn’t want to die because he didn’t know something.

Now, news. It’s pretty unlikely anyone is currently offering a product like this. But we can easily imagine that Mulder has often wished for one. Finally, we have created it for him—so we can play off that news factor for even more pulling power.

As for entertainment value, a man like Mulder is intensely curious, competitive, driven, highly skilled, and knowledgeable. Someone who can’t resist a challenge, who can’t resist finding out the answer to something, and who can’t resist perhaps showing off to himself a little. The kind of man who loves to test himself. Which gives us:–

For the FBI agent who wants to believe…
Can’t survive our “alien invasion” quiz?
Now you can get all UFO data right on your smartphone

About the Author: As well as being an expert on headlines, Bnonn is the author of a free video series covering all the elements of turning visitors into customers—from headline to CTA. Known in the boroughs as the Information Highwayman, he helps small businesses by improving both their copy and web design. When he’s not knee-deep in the guts of someone’s homepage, he is teaching his kids about steampunk, Nathan Fillion, and how to grapple a zombie without getting bit.

[Former_Member]

5 Reasons Why Live Chat is The Untapped Potential for Your Business

Posted: 23 Dec 2011 01:37 PM PST

The trouble with online shopping is that many customers are disconnected from someone who can answer their questions in real time with precision. Rather than watching potential customers click away from their e-commerce sites, many businesses have been adding live chat support. As it turns out, live chat has the ability to provide the convenient answers that customers want, while also adding significant benefits to the staff and bottom line of companies.

In this post we’re going to get into why live chat can improve your business and tips on how to maximize its effectiveness.
1. Live Chat is Convenient for Customers

live chat is convenient

A study called “Making Proactive Chat Work” that was conducted by Forrester Research found the following:

“Many online consumers want help from a live person while they are shopping online; in fact, 44% of online consumers say that having questions answered by a live person while in the middle of an online purchase is one of the most important features a Web site can offer.”

An online chat system provides customers immediate access to help. Wait times are often much less than a call center, and customers can easily multi-task while waiting. Additionally, the pain of having to dial a 1-800 number and navigate through a maze of numeric options is non-existent.

An ATG Global Consumer Trend study found that 90% of customers consider live chat helpful and an emarketer.com survey found that 63% were more likely to return to a website that offers live chat. The report goes on to say:

“62% reported being more likely to purchase from the site again. A further 38% of respondents said they had made their purchase due to the chat session itself. All these attitudes were even more prevalent among respondents who bought online at least weekly.”

2. Live Chat Cuts Down on Expenses

live chat cuts down expenses

Live chat software has consistently demonstrated that it can save on both employee task time and phone expenses. Some of the most notable cost savings are:

Live chat reduces overall contact center costs by lowering average interaction costs.
Increases efficiency by allowing live chat representatives to handle multiple chats simultaneously, thus reducing the need to hire more representatives.

With employees spending less time on the phone, they can multi-task during chat conversations and cut the waiting queue to a fraction of its former size when compared to a call center. Not only is this a process improvement but it increases the chances of overall sales (which we’ll get into next!).
3. Live Chat Increases Sales

live chat increases sales

The general trend among users in marketing forums and on blogs is that live chat on a website can generally lead to improved sales numbers. Forbes magazine reported in a recent study:

“In 2008, Wells Fargo made a second attempt to leverage online chat to drive sales, and happily, this time the results have been crystal clear. High customer satisfaction scores and a double-digit increase in converted shoppers have shown the value once and for all of this technology.”

The key is that customers have someone who can immediately walk them through a sale if they become confused or have a question that can make or break a sale. This helps eliminate bounces away from retail websites and ensure that full shopping carts make it through check out.

Website designer Cory Miller of iThemes regularly uses Provide Support for his business, and he has noticed increased opportunities for upselling products. Once customers are engaged with an employee who can understand their needs, the employee is in a perfect position to recommend additional purchases that may be the perfect fit for that particular person.
4. Live Chat Gives You An Edge of Your Competition

live chat gives you an edge over the competition

A recent study by TELUS International found that many top retail businesses are not offering chat. If you want to gain an edge on the competition, live chat is a key feature that websites must have in order to be competitive and to hopefully rise to the top. In fact, live chat provides a simple way to connect with customers who spend a good deal of their money online. The report by E-Marketer found:

“Almost two in 10 live chat respondents did more than 75% of their holiday shopping online, compared with 14% of those who did not chat. A further 25% of chatters made 51% to 75% of their purchases on the Web, versus just 10% of those who did not participate in the chat service.”

If you aren’t convinced that live chat is for your business, check out this study conducted by Bold Chat. The cost savings and convenience for both staff and customers makes live chat not only a viable option for businesses today, but an essential tool for any company that thrives on providing excellent customer service.
5. Live Chat Taps into Customer Pain Points

live chat paint points

A customer’s frustration or need that has yet to be filled is called a pain point, and marketing teams mine social media and message boards for these pain points. Marketers such as Markus Allen turn these pain points into profit: “Armed with these pain points, we can either write new content (for a blog or for an article) or create benefits/advantages for our advertising.” In addition, pain points can turn into sales opportunities with customers.

Live chat provides immediate access to customers’ pain points. When customers use live chat, they’ll try to ensure that a product will perform as advertised or that a promotion will provide the discount they want. In addition, as live chat representatives talk to customers, they can find out ways to improve a company’s products and services.
Tips on Making Live Chat go the Extra Mile for Your Business

Live chat can obviously increase your business potential, but only if it’s executed correctly. Here are some important tips to ensure you make the most out of live chat software:

Train your team! Your live chat representatives have to be extremely knowledgeable about your inventory and website navigation. Provide cheat sheets and FAQs to improve their performance and to make it easier for them to answer your customer’s questions quickly.
Be aware of your shopping hours. If you own an online soccer shop in California, there is a chance that most of your visitors are international. Use analytics to determine when most of your visitors are using your site. Don’t assume 9 to 5 chat hours will work. If you have a problem sourcing local employees to cover off hours, consider outsourcing help using services like Odesk or Elance.
Don’t be too robotic. The whole point of having live chat available is to provide warm, human help to a customer’s shopping experience. Having robotic greetings or responses can kill the effectiveness of live chat.
Consider hiring people with sales experience. For the most effective use of live chat, consider using inside sales people and not just customer service representatives. People who have sales experience will more likely lead customers towards sales and increase the possibility of upselling.
Don’t forget to boost your social. When your live chat representatives receive positive feedback from online visitors and customers, consider instructing your representatives (or sales people) to nicely remind your visitors to Like your Facebook page and leave a comment on it.
Be prepared for surges in chat volume. Customers need to understand that they are in a queue and a representative will be with them shortly, if not immediately.
Give your customers helpful chat features. Customers will also need to be able to modify the font size and to request a transcript of the chat.

Thankfully, all chat software websites provide live chat support, so you can test their products while you shop around.

Besides finding the right software, companies using live chat will need to provide specialized training for their employees. Live chat is different from a phone call, since all replies must be short sentences that get right to the point. Long paragraphs don’t work in live chat. There is an art to knowing when to ask a question and when to offer solutions or additional products.
Choosing the Right Live Chat Package for Your Business

If you want to get started on live chat today, be sure to scan this list of chat software reviews. There are plenty of great options when it comes to live chat software, so choose the program that offers the best interface and simplest integration into your website. Here’s a small list of some of the best live chat solutions out there:

Bold Chat – Tends to focus on solutions for Ecommerce websites. Bold Chat serves 24 of the Internet Retailer Top 500 and 85 of the Second 500.
Livezilla – Features include: Richtext Chats, Global Canned Messages, File Transfer, E-Mail Transcripts, (Automated) Proactive Chat Invites, Operator to Operator Chats and more.
Live Person – Creates meaningful, real time customer connections that help businesses
increase conversions and improve consumer experience.
Kayako – Help desk software that lets you manage email, tickets, live chat, calls and remote support.

Now It’s Your Turn

Have you use live chat on your website. What was your experience? Please let us know in the comment below!

About the Author: This guest post is written by Lior Levin, a marketing professional who advises for a neon sign store that provides custom made neon signs, and who also works for a psd to html company.

[Former_Member]

The Entrepreneur’s Handbook: 101 Resources for First Time Entrepreneurs

Posted: 22 Dec 2011 01:05 PM PST

Are you looking to take the leap into starting your own business in 2012? If you’re just starting to think about it, or if you have been planning it for a while, you still may have lots of unanswered questions. The following 101 resources will help you learn more about entrepreneurship, startups, small business, and much more.
Entrepreneurs & Startups

Entrepreneur.com – Business ideas and trends from Entrepreneur Magazine. The latest news, expert advice, and growth strategies for small business owners.
Forbes for Entrepreneurs – Read the breaking Entrepreneurs coverage and top headlines on Forbes.
Inc. Start-up – Advice for founders of start-ups and start-up entrepreneurs on writing a business plan, running a home-based business, naming a start-up business, how to incorporate, financing a start-up, buying a small business, and starting a franchise.
Mashable on Startups – Essential technology tips for startups.
Entrepreneurs’ Organization – The Entrepreneurs’ Organization is dedicated to transforming the lives of the entrepreneurs who transform the world representing 40 countries with 120 worldwide chapters.
About.com for Entrepreneurs – Help and advice for going from the idea stage to business plan to the marketplace and beyond.
Harvard Business School Entrepreneurs – A video archives that captures insights from leading members of the School’s entrepreneurial community.
Young Entrepreneur Council – YEC is an invite only nonprofit organization comprised of the country’s most promising young entrepreneurs.
Ted Talks on Entrepreneurship – Video archive on talks about entrepreneurship.
Kauffman Foundation – The Kauffman Foundation works to further understanding of the powerful economic impact of entrepreneurship, to develop programs that enhance entrepreneurial skills and abilities, and to improve the environment in which entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.
Global Entrepreneurship Week – Global Entrepreneurship Week is the world’s largest celebration of the innovators and job creators who launch startups that bring ideas to life, drive economic growth and expand human welfare.
Business Exchange on Entrepreneurship – This topic covers all things relevant to entrepreneurs, including information on the latest new ventures and tools that help them reach success.
SCORE – SCORE is a nonprofit association dedicated to educating entrepreneurs and helping small businesses start, grow, and succeed nationwide.
Focus – Focus makes the world’s business expertise available to everyone. At the heart of Focus is a network of thousands of leading business and technology experts who are thought leaders, veteran practitioners and upstart innovators in hundreds of different topics and markets.
The 10 Best Entrepreneurship Courses of 2011 – University courses in entrepreneurship are better—more useful, more real, more likely to produce actual companies—than they have ever been. Here are 10 we’d love to take.
Entrepreneur Finder – Entrepreneur Finder works by matching your interests, information and requirements with the individuals or companies that you are searching for. After you create a profile, you will have free access to contact other members and take advantage of the user search and matching features.

Startup Financing

Entrepreneur.com on Startup Financing – Need help on startup financing? Find everything you need to know about startup business financing and how to get your business the money it needs to get it.
How Does Venture Capital Work – A simple guide on how venture capital works. firms and funds, and venture capital in a new company.
Venture Capital on Alltop – The latest posts from top new sources on Venture Capital.
National Venture Capital Association – As the voice of the U.S. venture capital community, the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) empowers its members and the entrepreneurs they fund by advocating for policies that encourage innovation and reward long-term investment.
Business Loans, Grants and Financing – Fill out this form to find financing for your small business. This form provides a guide to programs for which you may be eligible.

Business Planning

Business, LLCs & Corporations Center – Starting a small business? Learn about LLCs, business plans, financing, and more. Everything you need to start and run a smart, successful small business.
Compare Business Types – Use this business structure reference chart to compare common business types. Also see LegalZoom. Both can help you get started with your business filings.
Bplans – Bplans offers free sample business plans, business plan software, business calculators, and articles on writing a business plan, starting a business, and other small business topics.
How to Write a Business Plan – Whether you’re just starting out, need funding or want to monitor the health of your business, creating a business plan is your first step on the path to success. Read this extensive how-to to get started on your plan.
Writing a Business Plan – Now that you’ve decided that you’d like to open a small business, you should put your thoughts down on paper. This way, your business idea is expressed in a plan – a living document that outlines every critical aspect of its operation.

Accounting & Bookkeeping

Accounting Basics – Staying on top of your small business bookkeeping is important to your business financing. Learn how to manage your business’ bookkeeping and more.
Basic Accounting – Advice for start-ups, entrepreneurs, and small business owners on basic accounting, including how to calculate and track cash flow, profitability, earnings, Ebitda, gross margin, and a business’s breakeven point.
2012 Best Accounting Software Comparisons and Reviews – Compare the top ten accounting and bookkeeping software products for your small business.

Employees

SBA on Hiring – When you’re ready to hire employees to work in your business, you’ll need to perform a few key steps to be in compliance with employment laws, and to ensure that your new employees understand the work for which they’ve been hired.
Inc. on Recruiting and Hiring Employees – Advice for small business owners and entrepreneurs on recruiting and hiring employees,
NOLO on Hiring Employees – When you hire employees, you need to know the rules on job descriptions, interviews, background checks and more. Find out how to gather the information you need and choose the right employee — without violating the law.
Open Forum on Employee Management – Current archive of over 230 posts on employee management.
About.com on Human Resources – This section of About covers HR management, workplace communication, job descriptions, policies, leadership, and more.
Entrepreneur on Managing Employees – Managing employees can be a difficult task. Here is an online guide to managing employees.
Fast Company on Hiring Employees – These features can help you identify the skills you need your employees to possess, find the employees you need, and how to link them up with the teams that will best bring out their potential.

Taxes

Small Business Tax Center – When you’re running a business, you don’t need to be a tax expert, too. But you do need some tax basics. IRS Small Business Advantage gives you the information you need to stay tax compliant so your business can thrive.
SBA on Taxes – This section helps you with every aspect of the taxes you must collect from your customers, including strategies for tax record-keeping.
Small Business Tax Strategies – Tax planning is a year-round event if you want to minimize your business’s tax bill. Whether it’s surviving an audit, capitalizing on business deductions, or finding tax-friendly ways to run your business, this Inc.com guide can help reduce your tax obligations and make paying taxes less anxiety provoking.

Online Marketing

KISSmetrics Marketing Guides – This page will get you started with marketing guides for social media (Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and Digg), Google AdWords, email marketing, PPC, and more. All it’s missing is the Beginner’s Guide to Google+ and Content Marketing.
The NOOB Guide to Online Marketing – If you’re new to online marketing, this post and infographic explains everything from analytics to social media marketing.
The Beginners Guide to SEO – This online guide has 10 chapters covering search engine optimization from how search engines operate to tracking success.
Introduction to Blogging – WordPress’ guide to blogging. Also don’t miss these 70+ Resources for Starting a WordPress Blog.
Copywriting 101 – This tutorial is designed to get you up and running with the basics of writing great copy in ten easy lessons. Afterward, you’ll get recommendations for professional training, plus links to tutorials on SEO copywriting and writing killer headlines.
Getting Started – If you are new to social media or you’re not sure you’re doing the right thing, this page is for you. It contains a number of videos and articles to help bring you up to speed.
Getting Started with Google Analytics – Google Analytics is a free analytics tool to track your website’s visitors and traffic. Take a moment to configure your account and use this checklist as a reference to getting the most out of Google Analytics.
The Smashing Networks – Need resources on web design? The smashing network includes over a dozen blogs dedicated to web design, CSS, WordPress, and much more.

Essential Software

2012 Best Antivirus Software Comparisons and Reviews – Compare the top ten antivirus software products for your small business.
2012 Best CRM Software Comparisons and Reviews -Compare the top ten customer relationship management solutions for your small business.
Microsoft Office – Everything you need for Microsoft Office including learning resources, templates, graphics, and more. Not ready for Microsoft Office? Try Open Office or Google Documents as free alternatives.
2012 Payment Gateway Services Comparisons and Reviews – Compare the top ten payment gateway services for your small business.

Small Business Blogs, News & Guides

OPEN Forum – A wealth of resources for business owners – videos, articles, blogs, podcasts, and expert advice to boost your business, sponsored by American Express OPEN.
NYT Small Business – Find breaking news & money news on mortgage rates, mutual funds, the stock market, bonds & notes, company research, earnings reports and market insight.
Mashable on Small Business – Essential technology news and tips for small businesses.
Inc. – Get advice, tools, and services that help your small business grow.
BusinessWeek on Small Business – Get information for small business startups and entrepreneurs. Find helpful resources about small business management, financing, marketing & technology.
Small Business Trends – Small Business Trends is the premier source of information, news and advice covering issues of key importance to the small business market.
CNN on Small Business – Latest financial news on small businesses, including tips for small biz owners, small business loans, management, startups and entrepreneurs.
Wall Street Journal’s Small Business How To Guide – WSJ small business guide covering how to fund, start, run, buy, sell and manage your small business.
Reuters on Small Business – Reuter’s blog section for small business and entrepreneurial advice.
Alltop Startups – Alltopstartups is dedicated to profiling startups, reviewing new and top internet and mobile products.

Books for Small Business & Entrepreneurship

Best 2011 Books for Entrepreneurs – Some of these are unusual choices that don’t fit neatly into the “business book” genre. But being an entrepreneur involves a lot more than nuts and bolts and outcomes, so this list includes books about leading people, making decisions, the broader
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t – Over five years, the team analyzed the histories of all twenty-eight companies in the study. After sifting through mountains of data and thousands of pages of interviews, Collins and his crew discovered the key determinants of greatness — why some companies make the leap and others don’t.
EntreLeadership: 20 Years of Practical Business Wisdom from the Trenches – Whether you’re sitting at the CEO’s desk, the middle manager’s cubicle, or a card table in your living-room-based startup, EntreLeadership provides the practical, step-by-step guidance to grow your business where you want it to go.
The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It – In this first new and totally revised edition of the 150,000-copy underground bestseller, The E-Myth, Michael Gerber dispels the myths surrounding starting your own business and shows how commonplace assumptions can get in the way of running a business.
Breakthrough Entrepreneurship – Using examples of companies large and small (Zipcar, Parenting Magazine, Wal-Mart, Google), Burgstone and Murphy teach readers to find and fill an unmet customer need, plan for profitability, strive for sustainability, establish credibility, gather necessary resources, lead and manage effectively, and maintain balance. (Publication Date: March 2012)
Midas Touch: Why Some Entrepreneurs Get Rich-And Why Most Don’t – Through two of the world’s most successful and influential entrepreneurs’ real life stories of success, failure, perseverance and purpose, you’ll discover how they do it and whether or not you have what it takes to drive your own entrepreneurial success.
Tim Tebow Your Business: Lessons From The QB’s Unlikely Success – The basic complaint about Tebow is that he shouldn’t be winning. And yet, the Broncos keep winning. After starting the season 1-4, the team is now 6-5, just a game out of first place in their division. So how is this possible? And what lessons can be learned for business?
12 Business Lessons from Your Favorite Cartoons – As we grow older and more wise, it becomes clear that these cartoons taught us how to not only be good people, but also good business people.
20 Business Lessons Learned from Monty Python – Skeptical that there are indeed lessons to be learned from Monty Python? These 20 pearls of Pythonic wisdom will show you the light.

Business Lessons

60+ Unexpected Business Lessons – In business, you can learn something new and unexpected at virtually any time or any place. With that in mind, the CarolRoth.com contributor network of entrepreneurs, advisors and experts have shared their most unexpected or unusual business lessons.
5 Best Business Lessons From Warren Buffett – Small-business owners can learn a lot from the leaders and innovators in big business, especially the Sage of Omaha.
10 Business Lessons From a Snarky Entrepreneur – Here are 10 positive lessons I learned from more than 12 years as an entrepreneur.
3 Business Lessons From The Godfather – So what can you learn from The Godfather? Here are some valuable lessons.
14 Inspiring Life and Business Lessons From Richard Branson – If there’s one guy I’d want to trade lives with for a day it would probably be Richard Branson. He’s made a fortune, has had a blast doing it, and still seems to be going strong. These are just 14 incredible life and business lessons from him that really inspired me.
Top 10 Business Lessons from Bill Gates – He’s retired from his role as Microsoft’s CEO and instead devotes himself full-time to philanthropy through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Below, you’ll find 10 business lessons from the life of Bill Gates.
12 Most Compelling Business Lessons from Rock Stars – Business is a lot more fun when you learn from rock stars instead of text books. If your ears are open, you’ll find that many essential business lessons are coming through your speakers.
11 Business Lessons Steve Jobs Taught Me – Although I’m young and haven’t been following Jobs’ career as intently as others, he has taught me a lot about business in the last five years. Here are 11 things I’ll never forget that Steve Jobs taught me.
14 Business Lessons For Every Entrepreneur – A quick and easy read with 14 tips for every entrepreneur.
Top 30 Inspirational Entrepreneur Quotes – The following is a compilation of various motivational quotes from famous entrepreneurs and are in no particular order, nor are they a definitive list of the best quotes ever.

Social Entrepreneurship

What is a Social Entrepreneur – Social entrepreneurs are individuals with innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social problems. They are ambitious and persistent, tackling major social issues and offering new ideas for wide-scale change.
12 Most Damaging Myths About Social Entrepreneurs – They’re the answer not only to our economy but to issues such as obesity, institutional racism, poverty, sustainability, and other social concerns. Unfortunately there are many misperceptions about social entrepreneurship that are keeping many people from embracing this growing trend.
Forbes’ List of the Top 30 Social Entrepreneurs – For the first time in Forbes’ 94-year history, we’ve assembled the Impact 30: a list of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs. We’re defining “social entrepreneur” as a person who uses business to solve social issues.
Skoll Foundation – One of the leading foundations in the field of social entrepreneurship.
Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship – The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship provides unparalleled platforms at the regional and global level to highlight and advance leading models of sustainable social innovation.
Business Week on Social Entrepreneurship – Social Entrepreneurship is still in its infancy and has a lot of growing up to do before it will have major impacts. Read updated news, blogs, and resources about Social Entrepreneurship.
Social Entrepreneurship on Alltop – The latest posts from top new sources on Social Entrepreneurship.

Top Entrepreneurs 2011

Top Young Entrepreneurs 2011 30 Under 30 – Inc.com’s annual list of the top young entrepreneurs in America. See featured profiles and video in this year’s 30 Under 30.
Top 10 Female Entrepreneurs – From healthcare to baby food to technology consulting, these female entrepreneurs have forged their way to the top of their fields.
Top 10 Black Entrepreneurs – These 10 Black entrepreneurs from around the country bootstrapped their firms and built fast-growing enterprises, earning them a spot on the Inc. 500.
Top 10 Latino and Hispanic Entrepreneurs – With family roots that trace back to Spain and Central and South America, these Latino and Hispanic entrepreneurs have built some of the fastest-growing American companies.
Top 10 American Indian Entrepreneurs – From IT solutions to military services, these are the top small businesses run by CEO’s of American Indian heritage.
Top 10 South Asian Entrepreneurs – From IT services to industrial supply, these are the top small businesses run by CEOs of South Asian heritage.
Top 10 East Asian Entrepreneurs – From mobile accessory designer to media outlet, these are the top small businesses run by CEO’s of East Asian heritage.
Best Young Tech Entrepreneurs 2011 – For our annual survey of the most promising technology entrepreneurs, Bloomberg Businessweek’s editors and writers weighed input from venture capitalists, angel investors, and other representatives of startups.

We know there are many more resources for entrepreneurs, startups, and small businesses out there. Please share your favorites in the comments!

About the Author: Kristi Hines is a freelance writer, blogger, and social media enthusiast. Her blog Kikolani focuses on blog marketing, including social networking strategies and blogging tips.