If you get one of these calls, I would be very wary, as after questioning one of the “representatives” it was apparent that they were not from Google and what they were actually offering was different from what they first said.

Some of my clients thought this was a good offer as their website was new and not on the first page of Google. The person on the phone claimed they could instantly get their website on the first page and offered them a choice of 5 keywords, i.e. The client picks 5 keywords such as, dog walking in Manchester, pet sitting in Manchester etc…The Company then promises to get the website on the first page when a visitor types in these search terms into Google.

The only problem with this offer was that the person on the end of the phone did not mention that the listing would appear on the right hand side of google and not the left.

When you do a search on google, say for, martial arts classes in Liverpool, Google will display websites it deems most relevant to that search term. It then displays the results down the left hand side of the page and the sponsored results (ones which people have paid for) down the right hand side, and it’s these results the company is trying to sell you.

These listings in the right hand side of google are known as Pay Per Click or PPC advertising. The way it works is that a person who owns a website bids for a keyword, say, “café in Birmingham”. For this example we will say that you bid 10p for the keyword “café in Birmingham”. Google will look at the other bids and if you have bid the most, you will have the top position on the left hand side of Google.

If you have the second highest bid, then you will be second from the top on the right hand side and so on.

If a visitor goes on the internet and types “café in Birmingham” into google, your listing should appear at the top of the right hand side. If the visitor decides to click on the listing, you will be charged 10p, if nobody clicks it you will not be charged.

This is how the company makes their money. You give them 5 keyword terms, pay them x per month, they set up the PPC account and bid for the keywords and you will appear on the right hand side of google.

In reality, for a small business to get on the first page of Google (on the right hand side) the company will only have to bid between 2p – 10p per click. Even if you get 100 clicks per month (which is very unlikely) you will only be charged £2-£10 by google. If the company does this for you then they will charge you betwwen £50 – £100 per month, then it might be worth setting up an account yourself and save your self £40 – £90 per month. Plus if it’s not working for you then you won’t be tied into a contract the company will get you to sign.

Some of these companies are very good at convincing you that they will get you to the top of google and you will get loads of business from there services. I say, if you want to embark on a PPC advertising campaign, type “Google adwords” into Google or go to adwords.google.co.uk . Funnily enough, Google makes it very easy to set up an Adword account. If you feel PPC advertising is for you, I would have a go at setting up an account, you could save yourself a packet.

It can be very difficult choosing a web designer when you know little about web design, so in this article I will give you tips on how to find one which is suitable to your business.

Web designers don’t have magic wands to get you to the top of google, anyone who claims this I would be very wary of. If you want your website to be at the top of google then you will need to advertise and add to it on a regular basis.

The first thing I would do is think about what you want your website for. Do you want to, sell online, use it to display your products, give information to your clients. I would then do a bit of research on your competition, to see who is currently at the top of the search engines.

You can do this by typing in search terms, on how you feel your clients will look for you on google. Example, if I was a plumber in Liverpool, I would type, ‘plumbers in Liverpool in to google and see what comes up. Have a look at the sites which are top and see if the contact details of the people who designed them are on the site.

Once I had a list of web designers I would look on their website, there should be examples of their work. Contact the businesses they have done work for, preferably, companies who are similar to yours. So, in this example if I was a plumber I would look for, electricians, roofers and other building related professions.

Type, ‘electricians in Liverpool’ into Google and see how near the top they come. If they appear fairly high or even top, I would give them a ring and ask them about their website and the company who designed it for them.

This is the part most people don’t like, but I assure you, in my experience most businesses are please to help, if you are not competition. Think about it, if you were a plumber with a website and an electrician, rang you about your website and the company who designed it, I’m sure you would be helpful. Clients who I advise to do this often make valuable contacts. If the person is helpful, offer to send them work, ask for there card, they might off to do the same for you.

Tips

1. If you can operate I.T. software like “Microsoft Word” or “Facebook” then you should be able to update your website yourself. Ask the web designer if the website they are building has the option for you to edit it, otherwise if you need the web designer to change your prices in the future, it may be costly.
2. The best way to get up the search engines is by having a large relevant website with lots of quality links. Have a look at this guide about getting links, but to get a big site you will need to blog. If you have the I.T. skills mentioned above then request the web designer to incorporate a blog on the site.
3. Ask how much it cost to hosts the website each year, should not be more than £60
4. Ask how much per hour it costs for new work to be carried out on the site
5. My advice would be to get a web designer who works with either of the following website design software, Wordpress, Joomla, Mambo. I say these because if you want a shop or other facilities in the future, it will be easier and cheaper to add them. This site is designed in Wordpress

Forget about your meta keywords and descriptions for now; these are still important, but what will make your website stand out is content and links. But, they must be the right content and links. In fact, great content and links!

Content and links are regarded as the best methods to get a website higher up the search engines. I have been recently working with a dancewear retail outlet with a website so I will use this as an example.

The first thing the dancewear shop needs to do is determine the keywords they wish to target. In this case they have done some research and found that the majority of their clients use the keywords “dancewear” and a geographical area. In other words, their customers type “dancewear Preston”, “dancewear in Preston”, “dancewear Lancaster”, “Northwest dance shops”, “dance shops in the Northwest”.

The next thing the dancewear outlet needs is a person in the company who can write dancewear related articles on topics such as, “dance classes in Preston”, “reviews on dancewear”, “what to look for in a dance teacher in Lancaster”, “local dance events in Preston”, “What would you like to see in our Preston shop?” etc. They would only need to write a little, but would need to do at least one per week.

This is the best way to get the right sort of content; can you see why? Each of these articles are searchable on the internet, due to their keyworded content. So, potential customers typing “dance classes Preston” might come across their article “A guide to dance classes Preston”. They will then know about the shop and will hopefully buy something from them.

This is called “business blogging” and it’s one of the best ways to get up the search engines. Quick fixes are not the answer and in the long run, if done correctly, should pay off. A business blog will also help the shop get links (another important factor in climbing the search engines). e.g. if you write about dance classes in Preston, some one might read your article and put a link to it on a forum, facebook account or their own website. As your blogs grow so will your links; see how it works? Their readers will be able to comment on their blog articles, which will produce even more content (remember you have control on what comments you allow).

The other advantage of the blog is that it makes you look like an expert to clients reading the blog. They may think “these guys know what they are talking about, I’ll buy my dancewear from them”

What I recommend is you use a free program called “Wordpress.org” (this is the best blogging software), and have a link in your navigation bar called “blog”. You can try Wordpress for free at www.wordpress.com to see if it is suitable for you. If you feel that you are able to use it, then you can either install wordpress.org (the better version) yourself or instruct your web designer to do it for you. It will probably cost no more than £100.

Once installed, you will then design the blog to look like your website (it will not look exactly the same). ] Have a play with wordpress.com to see if this is suitable for you, there’s lots of help on the internet.

Once you feel competent with wordpress.org, you will be able to do all sort of cool stuff like a video walkthrough of the shop, events calendar, newsletters, advertising space for other companies such as dance classes, and all these programs are free.

My advice is, have a go at www.wordpress.com first and see if it’s something for you. If you enjoy blogging you can easily upgrade to www.wordpress.org and still retain all the articles you have written.

So, what is a blog? A blog is similar to a website, it can be on any subject but unlike a regular website, it is updated regularly with articles or posts. These posts appear on the top of the homepage and as new posts are added, the older ones move down the page. Once the page has 10 or so posts they are archived and are found using a search facility, categories bar or archive page. The front page of a long standing blog is usually the tip of the iceberg, showing only the 10 most recent entries. The rest of the blog may have hundreds or even thousands of posts, all about one subject.

Anyone can start a blog; the software used to power them can be as simplistic or as complex as you need it to be. Blogging software such as “Wordpress.com” and Google’s “Blogger” are free to use and have lots of online support.

The three main things you will need to make money from a blog are;

1. A topic that you are passionate enough to write about on a regular basis
2. A topic which is financially lucrative (I will explain this later in the post)
3. A topic which is popular (lots of people searching for it)

If you don’t have all of these factors then you will find it much more difficult to make money online.

So how does it all work? Well one of the main theories behind making money with a blog is to get a lot of useful articles about a chosen subject. Then through SEO (search engine optimisation), you get lots of traffic or visitors. Once you have all this traffic there are 4 main ways you can make money from them;-

1. Selling advertising banner space to other companies
2. Affiliate advertising – Advertising individual products; when a visitor clicks the ad, it will take them to another company’s website. If they buy the item then you would get a percentage of the total cost.
3. Having a blog with loads of articles will show off your expertise and will encourage people to use your own services.
4. Having Google ads on the blog will get you a percentage every time a visitor clicks one.

Making money with Google Ads;-

Having a blog with hundreds of articles still won’t guarantee financial success if you’re blogging about the wrong subject. To be really successful you need to be blogging about a subject which is profitable and to find this out you can use a tool called “Google keyword selector”.

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

This is the best place to start to see if you have a profitable blogging topic. You can type your keyword into the tool and it will list the amount of traffic that particular keyword generates on a monthly basis. Not only that, there is a drop down box “Choose columns to be displayed” which gives you the option to see how much the average CPC (Cost Per Click) would be. This figure is the average cost that a business is prepared to pay to get on Google’s “Sponsored Links”. The higher the amount the company is prepared to pay, the higher they will appear on the right hand side of Google when the relevant keyword is searched.

When you create your blog you can display these ads within each articles. If someone clicks the ad, Google will charge that company and you will get a percentage, regardless of whether the visitor buys something or not.

This is commercial blogging. Yes, you might be an expert in model areoplanes, but if there is no money in the keyword then there is no point trying to make money from it. Yes, do it as a hobby, but if the average CPC is 4p, you will only be getting a percentage of that amount. It will not matter if you get 100,000 visitors as only a small percentage of these will click an advert.

If you can pick a subject which is profitable e.g. “plumbing”, you might be able to get a percentage of £3. You can see that a percentage of this amount would mean far less visitors to achieve the same revenue. You also might be able to see a conflict of interest. If you are a plumber do you write about lucrative subjects such as “emergency plumbing” CPC £4.33 or “leaking plumbing” 4p? The answer is if the subjects are both relevant then do both and don’t compromise the integrity of the blog.

In summary this is how it all works;-

1. Create a blog
2. Write lots of articles on your chosen subject.
3. Read about SEO for blogs and apply to your own blog
4. Through a combination of lots of articles and SEO, you will eventually climb up Google
5. Visitors will come to your blog
6. A visitor clicks on a Google ad
7. You get a percentage of the CPC for that Advert

For a video/audio tutorial on commercial blogging have a look at Courtney Tuttle’s blog;-

http://CourtneyTuttle.com/2008/06/26/why-almost-everyone-should-be-starting-a-blog/

The awards season is upon us and there are lots of ceremonies taking place. disabled entrepreneurs are promoting their businesses by achieving award success.

The Stelios Award for Disabled Entrepreneurs

This highly prestigious business award is being sponsored by Sir Stelios Haji Ioannou of Easy Jet fame who is known globally for being a serial entrepreneur.

The purpose of this award is a genuine desire on the part of Stelios to help support disabled people in business and with £50,000 it is well worth applying for.

RADAR People of the Year Awards 2008

For over 40 years RADAR’s People of the Year awards have recognised the tremendous work of both individuals and organisations striving for equality for disabled people.
The People of the Year Awards celebrate these contributions, and included is a Disabled Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Feeling inspired? There is still time to apply for the following awards. Go for it….

Enterprising Young Brit

Are you fulfilling your entrepreneurial dream? Have you successfully mixed creativity with commercial flair, or demonstrated real determination in turning your ideas into reality? If so the Daily Mail Enterprising Young Brits competition could be right up your street!

Part of the Make Your Mark campaign, the competition is open to anyone aged 30 and under who has made their idea happen in a new, innovative or inspiring way

The closing date for entries is 27 February 2009

http://www.makeyourmark.org.uk/get_involved/enterprising_young_brits

Annual Enterprise Awards

Many of these awards allow you to register your interest prior to the application process being open.
The HSBC Start-Up Stars Awards
The HSBC Start-Up Stars Awards is one of the UK’s most highly-coveted small business awards. Held annually since 2000, it recognises fledgling businesses with an inspiring blend of creativity, determination and business acumen. In 2008, the overall winner picked up a cheque for £50,000 to help grow the business. The winner of the Green Award and £5,000.

Be the next start up star go to
http://www.startupstars.hsbc.co.uk/
Barclays Trading Places Awards
The UK’s most inspirational entrepreneurs who have transformed their lives by starting their own business, celebrate their success at the Barclays Trading Places Awards.
The Gold Winner walks away with £10,000and
The Silver Winnerwas is presented with £5,000
http://www.business.barclays.co.uk/BRC1/jsp/brccontrol?site=bbb&task=homefreevi2&value=12044&target=_self

The NatWest everywoman Awards

The NatWest everywoman Awards celebrates inspirational business women who have achieved significant success – particularly those who’ve overcome adversity in the form of financial constraints, social disadvantage or skills gaps. The range of LINK award categories celebrates the success of women at all stages of the career ladder and in all walks of business life.

http://www.everywoman.com/everywomanAwards/TheNatWesteverywomanAwards/

The Queen’s Award for Enterprise
The Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion celebrates and recognises the activities of individuals who have played an outstanding and significant role in promoting enterprise skills and attitudes in others in the UK.
http://www.queensawards.org.uk/individual/Home.html

Do you know of any other awards? Please tell us below

I found networking events really difficult initially and my sight loss did not help. I would now go as far as to say that I am better at it than many of my sighted counterparts these days. I have learned ways to make it work for me and I would like to share them.

Obviously, I don’t have all the answers and different disabilities pose different challenges but a disability need not always be a barrier and can sometimes be turned into an advantage.

Firstly, if you don’t like networking you are probably in good company. It is worth remembering that few people are natural networkers, like anything it requires some preparation and experience .

Before you begin any kind of networking it is important to understand that networking is more about giving than receiving and it is all about building relationships. Once you realise that networking is not all about direct selling it seems instantly a lot less painful.

I used to think that if I didn’t leave a networking event with someone prepared to book my services then my time had been wasted and I had failed. Once I understood the principle of using networking events, and generally meeting people, as an opportunity to begin to build a relationship with a potential client then the pressure immediately disappeared and I began to create real opportunities for my business.

Here are my top ten tips on getting networking working:

1. You Are Your Business

Remember, people do business with people they know, like and trust. Because networking is all about building relationships, people are often buying into you rather than into your business. You are likely to be the person they deal with so you need to think carefully how you present yourself and you should consider what potential clients expectations are.

2. Six Degrees of Separation

‘ 6 Degrees Of Separation’ is the notion that we are all just 6 steps away from anyone else in the world. It’s been estimated we all know about 250 other people. That sounds a lot, but if you sat and wrote down everyone you know – friends, family, work colleagues, your Bank manager, hairdresser, window cleaner etc the list would soon add up.

Folloing this notion, everyone you meet knows other people and through getting to know them you are opening up the opportunity to meet the people they know.

I started my disability business without a single contact in the field of disability. When I thought about it I decided I must surely know at least one person. I gave it some further thought and I did know someone…..I knew my cconsultant who diagnosed me with sight loss and so I contacted him and he became my first client!

My most extreme example of extra curricular networking was at an Anne Summer’s party! A friend had told me of one of her friends who she thought may be a useful contact and she was attending her party. Networking over obscure, vibrating objects was not exactly conventional but it was the introduction I had been seeking.

3. Attending Networking Events

Attending with a friend or a support worker may help the nerves but avoid the temptation to just chat with them, you can do this anytime. Discuss with a support worker before attending how you would like their support and consider how you will introduce them.

Keep your business cards to hand and in a professional wallet but don’t circulate the room handing them out to everyone. The only thing you will be known for is being the person to avoid.

If you meet someone you would like to keep in touch with, always get their contact details even if they haven’t got a business card. Don’t assume they will call you, even if they say they will, you need to be able to instigate further contact.

Ideally you will go home with a number of business cards. It is a good idea to jot on the back of the cards where and when you met the person and a couple of key words about them or their service. Believe me, you will be glad of this after some time has passed and your memory has faded. It also makes getting back in touch with someone easier if you can relate to a previous conversation or common interest.

As I am unable to see the cards I receive I fold the corner of business cards from people I want to prioritise contacting, as it helps me to identify them later.

‘Working a room’ is few people’s idea of a good time and it is not my idea of a good time either! I found speaking at networking events is a great way of making sure everyone in the room leaves knowing about me and my business. I have a captive audience and the best bit is that everyone comes to you.

If you are prepared to speak at an event it is often possible for information about you and your business to be included in the marketing of the event and available at the event. This in itself is great free marketing that someone else will even do for you!

There are all sorts of events so do your research. Know what it is you want to achieve, the sort of people you want to work with and where they network.

Consider also what suits you. Family commitments or your disability may make certain times of day preferable. I stopped attending breakfast events as I do not function well at 7am and the lack of public transport was a problem.

One of the difficulties I have is knowing who is in the room as I can’t se the delegate list or name badges. One way I have turned this to my advantage is to ask the organiser for the delegate list in advance. I can then identify a couple of people I really want to meet and I ask the organiser to introduce me.

4. What Can You Do For The People You Meet

You should be thinking as much about what you can offer other people, as what you can get from them. If you seem to be in it just
for what you can get, people will see this very quickly and you will not endear yourself to them.

5. Breaking the Ice

It can be hard to instigate conversations but that is what you are there to do. Walk over to someone standing by themselves, smile and extend your hand and introduce yourself. They will be grateful and you will look confident.

Consider asking a general question at first such as, ‘have you been to this event before?’ You may wish to avoid asking what they do as a first question as it may look like you are networking a bit too hard.

Make sure you ask open questions to generate a conversation. Try and find some mutual interests.

People also like to talk about themselves and they tend to like people who allow them to do this. The benefits are two-fold; you are showing an interest which is a great way to build a relationship and you are also gaining a good picture of what they do and what you may be able to do for them.

When approaching a group you may need to be bold and at a pause in the conversation say, ‘may I join you?’ Everyone is there to meet other people and most people are there alone so no one is going to say ‘no’.

6. “So what do you do?”

You know you will be asked this question so it is not good enough not to have thought about how you will answer it.

Prepare by writing down all the problems you help people with and the benefits you provide. This may be; saving them money, increasing their client base, providing peace of mind or saving them time. Whatever it may be it should be something that sets you apart from every other person in your profession that they’ve met before.

The approach that many people take is to simply say their job title such as, ‘ I’m an accountant’. This approach is largely ineffective because most people will think they know what you do. Unless they coincidently require an accountant they won’t see the need to ask you any further questions.

Also you are not presenting yourself as an individual or selling the benefits of what you do. an accountant may give the following response, knowing the event is attended by small business owners, ‘I help busy business owners keep on top of their bookkeeping so they can spend more time running their businesses’.

7. Moving On

It can be difficult when you want to move on from talking to one person to talk to someone else. Even if you are talking to someone really interesting you should move on to talk to others.

I find saying something like, ‘ Nice to talk to you. There are one or two other people I need to try to speak to so if you’ll excuse me, I’ll just see if I can find them’ seems to work in this situation.

Alternatively, you can say, ‘Shall we see who else is here’, and take that person with you to join another group.

8. Following Up

An important part of networking is the follow-up. There is no point in networking with people if you are not going to keep in touch with them.

Have I mentioned already that it is about building relationships! Rather than just giving someone you meet your card and hoping they will ring you, or even trying to arrange to ring them, consider offering to send them something of interest to them. Having established what the other person’s interests are you may like to offer to send an article on a holiday destination you had talked about or a link to a work-related website.

Usually people will be quite happy to receive something like that because it’s of use to them and not just your marketing material, although in a way that’s exactly what it is. You are offering them something of value and it gives you a reason to contact them again to follow-up.

If you want to follow-up with someone you talked to, it’s often best just to send a note saying, ‘ good to meet you yesterday. I enjoyed our chat and I hope to see you again at the next meeting’. This in itself will help to move the relationship forward, It shows you remembered them and have made an effort. Ideally refer back to something you talked about. People will be really impressed that you took the trouble to send something of interest to them.

You need to try and distinguish yourself from everyone else. A solicitor I know, is aware she is often not the only solicitor at events. She is pretty sure however that she is the only one with a guide dog. She is very careful not to play to her disability but when she follows up the next day on the phone she will sometimes say, it’s Sarah,the one with the Labrador in tow, nice to meet you yesterday!’. She finds this breaks the ice and reminds the person who she is.

9. Referrals

remember the six degrees of separation theory….everyone you meet knows many other people who may be interested in your services. Consider asking people you meet, ‘the sort of people I generally work with, who get most benefit from my services are ( add ideal client) with ( add kind of problem ). Do you come across many of those people in your own work?’ You need to give them enough information so that, if they come across someone that you could work with, they will recognise that they can connect you. Offer this in return as it shows you are prepared to give as well as take.

Consider sending a thank you card if you receive a contract off the back of a referral.

10. Review Your Progress

Look back at what seemed to go well and what didn’t. Review what events gave you the best return, remember that this may take time.

Try different approaches and see what works for you. If you are prepared to put the work in and be patient your business will reap the benefits.

Do you know any hint and tips? Please let us know below

You can list your business contact details, website and services you offer by clicking this link or clicking the directory tab at the top of the page. Feel free to put your disability in the keywords section. This way other entrepreneurs with a similar disability will be able to find you in the directory e.g. blind, visually impaired, cataracts, deaf, hearing impaired etc.

If you find the information helpful on my blog then please feel free to give me a link on your website in return.

I can’t wait to see the variety of businesses disabled people run. From my own experience I have worked with entrepreneurs from every sector, from dog walkers to corporate trainers!

So what are you waiting for? Fill in the form and let’s see if we can make the most comprehensive directory of disabled businesses on the internet!

Most entrepreneurs’ first point of contact with an advertiser comes via the telephone. Here you will be given all sorts of promises, from the number of readers their publication gets, or how high they can get you up on Google search results or the number of leads your advert will generate. But, can you really believe their businesses claims? How do you know if they are telling the truth? The answer is you can’t and you don’t! There is only one way to be sure that you’re not handing your money over to a crook and that is to do your own research!

The first thing you need to do is request a copy of the thing they want you to advertise in, whether it be a brochure, magazine, calendar, menu or whatever crazy thing they have come up with. If they don’t have one or it’s, “brand new” then be very wary. Personally if they were a new company, I would not use them.

The next thing to do is have a look for an advert which is similar to your business, but not in direct competition e.g. if I was a plumber I would look for an electrician’s advert. I would then contact the electrician and say to him that I was thinking about advertising in the magazine and does he get much business from it? I have used this method time and time again and have had numerous responses from “We get loads of business from it, our customers always mention the magazine” to “Oh my God, don’t use them, we are taking them to court!”. See why this method can be useful?

One thing is constant; I always get a friendly response and have even got business from the conversation. As long as you are not in direct competition with them I find people are willing to help and have even recommended other advertising companies they use.