Successful Blog

Thanks to Week 361 SOBs

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Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,

Purple SOB Button Original SOB Button Red SOB Button Purple and Blue SOB Button
and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.

I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.

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They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.

I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.

Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award carries a “Liz said so” guarantee, is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and is backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.

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Want to become an SOB?

If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame– A-Z Directory . Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

How to Stop Common Workplace Accidents

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Jay Acker

Starting a small business is a huge undertaking. Not only do you have to worry about start-up capital, acquiring adequate space, creating a viable business model, and recruiting reliable employees, once the company is up and running, you also have to deal with the safety of your employees, customers, and clients. Although certain lines of work pose inherent workplace hazards, small business owners in every industry should take precautions to minimize the risk of accidents and injuries.

Drafting a thorough employment manual is a great place to start in an effort to create a safe working environment. Research suggests that careful planning can drastically reduce the incidence of workplace accidents. Therefore, before you launch your next business venture, consider these common injuries and the various ways a safety manual can help you address them.

1. Vehicle Accidents

If any employees drive during working hours for company business, or if any employees use company cars, a very specific policy concerning the operation of motor vehicles is imperative. First, prudent employers should scrutinize job applicants’ driving records before entrusting them with access to company vehicles. Company car policies should also emphasize the dangers of using cell phones and texting behind the wheel.

In addition, an effective safety manual will clearly outline the protocol for dealing with any sort of vehicle accident. That protocol should involve calling 911, gathering information from other individuals at the scene of the accident, and notifying the appropriate members of company management immediately after the accident occurs.

2. Workplace Violence

Employee-on-employee violence accounts for a staggering number of serious workplace injuries. Therefore, the employee manual for any reputable small business must stress the company’s zero tolerance policy on workplace violence. To prevent on-the-job physical altercations, some companies implement dispute resolution procedures. Under such policies, employees who are not getting along can try to settle their differences with the assistance of an impartial mediator. Safety manuals should also require staff members report incidents of violence or suspicious circumstances that suggest a dispute may be brewing.

3. Injuries from Overexertion

It’s no surprise that employees charged with regular heavy lifting are prone to various physical ailments, often focused on the lower back. However, even sedentary office workers can suffer injuries from overexerting themselves if they lift, carry, or pull an object in an unsafe manner. Because the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has not outlined definitive restrictions on the maximum weight an employee can safely lift, small businesses should encourage their employees to use good judgment when faced with moving items in the workplace. Companies should also have tools, such as hand trucks or dollies, on-site to aid the staff in moving heavy objects.

Safety manuals typically require employees who strain a muscle at work to immediately report the incident to a supervisor. Thereafter, management should assess the situation and direct the employee to consult medical attention if appropriate. Permitting injured employees to continue working only risks exacerbating the situation.

4. Repetitive Motion Disorders

When an employee repeats the same motions daily, whether it be typing at a computer or grabbing items on an assembly line, they are at risk for repetitive motion injuries such as tendonitis, bursitis, and carpal tunnel syndrome. A good safety manual will require these at-risk employees to take adequate breaks to give their muscles time to rest periodically throughout the day.

5. Slip and Fall Accidents

Accidents involving falling, slipping and tripping are a part of life. They happen everywhere, so creating a fall-free workplace would likely be a fruitless effort. However, taking precautions to reduce the incidence of injuries resulting from such accidents is a viable and important goal. Company safety policies include a hazard assessment process to identify loose cords, footing and poorly lit areas and take steps to correct them. Wet floors and untethered cords or wires, for example, deserve immediate attention, and employees must be encouraged to report unsafe conditions to manaegment.

6. Machine Related Injuries

Use of industrial machinery has led to some of the most gruesome and deadly workplace injuries around the globe. Therefore, companies must provide extensive formal training to employees before allowing them to operate dangerous equipment. If you use machinery requiring specialized training, include in the manual that employees without documented training are not allowed to operate it.

Safety-related education in this context should emphasize the importance of refraining from wearing loose closing and jewelry while operating machinery. Similarly, hair must always be restrained. Those items can easily get caught in the machinery, which often leads to devastating injuries.

A company safety manual is not only a legal requirement to provide to employees, it’s a tool for a business owner to understand the risks and potential hazards they might encounter on the job. By considering these early in the process of setting up your company, some hazards can even be mitigated. Do the best for your business. Keep it safe.

Author’s Bio:
Jay Acker runs safetyservicescompany.com the teams who make safety manuals, videos, posters, training kits and other items for safety training.

Humanize your LinkedIn Profile

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Rosemary O’Neill

Your LinkedIn profile can be a powerful calling card, even if you’re not looking for a new job. It will often show up on the first page of search results for your name in Google (try it), so why not take a moment to give it some personality?

Who’s searching for you?

In my case, I received two different invitations to speak at events after adding “speaker” to my LinkedIn profile. Coincidence? I also found out that my company had been highlighted on a “companies to watch” list based on the work we put into our corporate LinkedIn presence.

Both your personal and your corporate LinkedIn pages should reflect your style, personality, tone, and mission. Donâ’t make the mistake of using “corporate-speak” in your profile summary (unless you talk that way, in which case…stop it).

We’re all there to do business

Recent updates have made LinkedIn more visually appealing and more user-friendly, which may mean that more people are taking a second look. After all, Liz told you four years ago to start taking advantage of LinkedIn’s secret superpowers.


Humanize Your LinkedIn Profile

What are you waiting for?

Humanize your LinkedIn Profile

Grab those eyeballs with some LinkedIn profile bells and whistles:

  • Use your own tone of voice in your profile summary, and tell your story
  • Fill in the Volunteer Experience section; it makes you a whole person
  • Try adding the ReadingList app to show what books you’re reading
  • Add the SlideShare Presentation app and upload your marketing “deck”
  • Don’t forget to ask for recommendations when it’s appropriate, human voices on your profile are very compelling (be generous with your own recommendations too)
  • Try hard to include photo or video with your status updates

LinkedIn has said that they are working on enhancements to the company pages too, so start thinking about how you might spiff up your corporate presence as well!

Is your LinkedIn profile telling your story with pizzazz?

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Thank you, Rosemary!

You’re irresistible!

ME “Liz” Strauss

Make Your Reputation Count When Searching for a Job

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With millions of Americans still searching for work, the stars in many cases have to align perfectly to land that coveted job.

While you can have years of experience, a desire to get the job done yesterday and not tomorrow, and the ability to work well with others, what could possibly be holding you back? Perhaps your reputation?

In today’s 24/7 Internet age, it just takes one unenviable image or statement to get online and cost you a potential job. As more and more companies turn to researching prospective applicants online, job seekers need to make sure their history is not something that will come back to bite them in the end.

Estimates indicate that more than 40 percent of resumes include false or altered information when they arrive on the desk or computer of an employer. Given that figure, is it any wonder more businesses are spending extra time checking out just who their next employee may be?

For the prospective employee, turning to services such as Reputation.com allows them to acquire personal information discovered on different blogs, photo sites, news outlets and social networking venues like Facebook and Twitter. Remember, it just takes one bad comment or image to kill a potential job.

As an example, say you are college grad entering the workforce for the first time. Your grades were super, you did a variety of charitable functions during your four years in school, and you come highly recommended by your professors and even an employer or two where you may have interned or worked part-time. Think that the coast is clear?

Wait a minute…. remember that silly comment you made on Twitter a couple of years ago where you admitted to shoplifting something from a store? Remember the photo you had taken at a frat party that was more than just a tad compromising? Lastly, remember that innocent comment you made on Facebook last year about someone’s ethnicity? Any or all of these scenarios could doom you if a potential employer discovers them through a  simple background check.

To start the process of better understanding your online image, do a simple Google search of your name and see what comes up.

In the event there are issues to be dealt with, using a reputation service company will allow you to put out more positive information about yourself and how you can help a prospective employer. By doing so, such information will move to the front of search-engine results, while pushing the negative details down.

In a world where your reputation can mean the difference between a job and unemployment, don’t bank on assuming your online reputation is squeaky clean.

Photo credit: scoop.it

Dave Thomas has more than 20 years’ experience as a writer, covering news, sports marketing, SEO, press releases, social media and more. 

 

 

The 5 Pillars Of Successful List Building

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Gerald Gigerl

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Marketing and List Building Online

Today I will introduce you to the 5 pillars of successful list building, the main factors that can make or break your wealth.

It has to be mentioned that most online marketers have a wrong idea about what marketing online really means. Marketing is war, marketing is testing and marketing is about being the best.

To be good in list building you have to put in at least hundreds of hours to become good at driving traffic, split testing, creating products and writing email campaigns.

There are no shortcuts in making this work and as long as you are not trying to find a way around the hard work, you are not getting into any trouble.

The 5 Pillars Of Successful List Building

Let’s have a look at the 5 pillars of successful list building.

Pillar #1: Niche Selection

Unbelievable but true, I think there are way too many people who get into a niche that they don’t like and are comfortable with. Your goal is to spend enough time researching a market that is big enough and has substantial equity to making your business worthwhile.

Never enter a market that you are not passionate about because in most cases you will “quit” before you ever realize success. When things are tough, the only thing that keeps you going is your drive, passion and goals.

Pay attention to what kind of market you enter as well as how much demand there is. It’s easier to succeed in an already booming market than it is to achieve substantial results in a developing market. It takes more money, energy and time to reach breakthrough success in a “fresh market”.

Pillar #2: Business Model

Your business model is the single most important success factor for your chosen market/niche. As for pretty much everything else there are two options: You choose to create your own business model or you decide to go with an already successful business model.

What is actually meant by creating or following a business model? Basically, you have a very clear plan on how you do everything such as what kind of products you promote, what kind of bonuses you offer, what kind of OTOs (One Time Offers) you offer, optimizing squeeze pages, running split tests using Google Analytics/Experiments, creating email campaigns and much more.

While this might be exactly what you are doing for “planning”, all these skills can only be learned in the process of DOING. Yes, you have to have a plan on how to drive traffic and market your products, but without a strict discipline of doing exactly that, you are just wasting your efforts for planning.

It takes insane amounts of sweat to make anything work. The best you can do to reach your list building goal is to work as hard and smart as you possibly can.

Pillar #3: Squeeze Page Optimization

This is the step where you start making real money really soon if you are putting in consistent effort to make it work.

A squeeze page is a page where a person leaves the email address to get a free gift. The main goal is to drive as much targeted traffic to your squeeze page as possible and convert the traffic as good as possible.

The opt-in rate is mainly determined on how persuasive your sales page is, meaning how people perceive the value you are offering. To get the highest opt-in rate possible, you have to test titles, value proposition, colors, free products and much more.

The only way you can really test all those factors is by driving ongoing, highly targeted traffic to your squeeze page(s).

IMPORTANT NOTE: The message you spread on your squeeze page for your free information product should be consistent. Don’t give people information that is not accurate just to make them subscribe to your email list. The information on your squeeze page must be in congruence with your product.

If your message is providing wrong information, you will get a higher unsubscribe rate than you ever thought possible before. Therefore, your message (value proposition) needs to be consistent to attract targeted customers to your products.

Pillar #4: Traffic Generation

Traffic generation is something that you should never get sick of. There is unimaginable amount of equity in driving traffic to your squeeze page(s). The more ongoing traffic you are able to drive to your capture pages, the more possibilities you have to split test.

Some typical traffic generation methods include forum marketing, free product offers, SEO, PPC, social media, video marketing, article marketing, ad swaps, solo ads, JV giveaways and webinars.

You should never get stuck with one traffic generation method but focus on more techniques to drive high quality traffic.

Pillar #5: Email Marketing

Under email marketing goes everything that you do within your autoresponder. You have got to learn how to set up email campaigns, write newsletters, promote products and much more.

If you decide to market the best-selling products from an affiliate network like ClickBank, many vendors will have email campaigns ready for the promotion of their product. All you need to do is to simple copy and paste their prewritten email campaigns into your autoresponder follow up emails.

If you are promoting your own products you will always have to write your own email campaigns.

No matter what product you decide to promote make sure to keep a stable relationship between your list and you. Don’t bombard your list by sending several emails a day promoting different products all the time.

You want to build and sustain trust.. The best way to do that is by giving your list immense value in the form of free products, free reports, free articles and so on.

Now that you know the 5 pillars of successful list building, you can start producing amazing results for your business!

Author’s Bio:
Gerald Gigerl is a product creator, lead generation and affiliate marketing expert. Gerald creates information products on how to drive massive traffic to your website and generate up to 75 “product hungry” leads a day! If you are really serious about making massive amounts of money online you can learn more about Gerald here: The Affiliate Traffic Pro .

How to use Pinterest for a Commercial Website with Few Images

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Marcela De Vivo

As Pinterest, the picture and board-based social networking site, has exploded in popularity. Many businesses have been scrambling to use it to drive customers to their websites.

For ecommerce businesses this has not been much of a challenge due to the product and photo-based nature of their websites. They can create relevant boards and promote their products with elegant and sharable photos, driving a lot of traffic — and hopefully purchases — to their website. By interlacing their own product images with other interesting and relevant images, they can create appealing Pinterest boards that drive user engagement.

What about the rest of us?

How to use Pinterest for a Commercial Website with Few Images

Many businesses that operate online are not product-based or may not have a lot of photos to work with. Are they simply out of luck when it comes to Pinterest, or are there creative ways to use this network to drive customer engagement and traffic?

Fortunately, as creative social media SEOs and marketers, we proudly proclaim that all hope is not lost! There are a lot of ways you can use Pinterest to interact with your customer base, even if you’re not a photo-centric business.

Inspirational and Motivational Images

If your business has a motivational or inspirational purpose behind it, you can use Pinterest to share these values with your customers. If you haven’t noticed that motivational images have been exploding around the internet, it’s time to open your eyes.

These types of images — a beautiful picture with inspirational text overlaid on top — are some of the most shared images on the internet. They spread through Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter like wildfire and can be very effective drivers of traffic.

Pick out some values that your company stands for and turn them into motivational images. Throw them up on Pinterest boards and share them via all of your social networks. If you do your job properly you should see a positive response.

You can use a tool like PicMonkey to edit your images, add text, and make them fun and easy to share. You may also choose to add your watermark to improve your branding.

Curating Pins From Your Niche

If you can’t make the above strategy work, you can always act as the gatherer of information for your niche. There is ALWAYS value in aggregating all of the content related to your niche and organizing it into neatly consumable boards on Pinterest. A few websites have had major success using this technique. The best part: you don’t have to OWN or CREATE any of the content yourself!

Don’t get me wrong — this isn’t stealing. You’re going to pin and repin related content into boards that are organized. This way anyone interested in your niche can go to one place on Pinterest — yours — to get all of the information that they need.

Final Thoughts

Remember that Pinterest is just another social network. It’s not going to be the end-all of your social media strategies. It’s just another arrow in your quiver when it comes to delivering value to your customers and gaining their attention and hopefully their business!

Author’s Bio:
Marcela De Vivo is a freelance writer helping webmasters find the right tools to promote their websites online. She loves to connect on social media so be sure to follow her on Facebook and Twitter.