Small Business Optimism Rises Is there Hope

By Doug Caverly - Tue, 08/26/2008 - 11:30am.

Three cheers (or at least one) for the economy

August is a nice month. Temperatures seem more bearable, kids are going back to school, and, at least this year, the economic outlook of small business owners is heading up.

We encountered some dark times during the past couple of periods, but Danita Blackwood reports, "The Discover Small Business Watch reached 86.9 in August, up 2.3 points from July and more than 15 points higher than June."

Compared to those old measurements, fewer small business owners now think the economy is getting worse, and more owners believe it's getting better. These changes left the optimists far below 100 percent in terms of strength, though, and there remain some problems in other categories.

The main one, as described by Blackwood: "42 percent say they have experienced cash flow issues over the last 90 days, a significant increase from 33 percent in July 2008."

This seems at odds with the numbers concerning the overall economy, unless some of the survey's participants were drawing a line between their own businesses and everything else going on. We'll just have to hope the "good" stats influence the bad, and wait to see what happens next month.

Don't Look Past Your Local Internet Audience

By Chris Crum - Wed, 08/20/2008 - 10:04am.

They might be your best customers...

When it comes to Internet marketing for small businesses, it can be easy to get caught up in the enormous number of tactics and resources available online.

You might even forget about the good-old fashioned local media that has been working for businesses for ages.

I'm talking of course about local television, local radio, local newspapers, etc. You can still look to these resources for advertising in the online world, because chances are, most of these outlets have web sites that offer advertising opportunities, providing not only a chance to have your message appear to users across the web, but have it targeted to local residents at the same time.

You've got your obvious local audience looking for local news and items of interest, and thanks to blogs, social bookmarking, and news aggregation like Google News, stories will be linked to and picked up all over the place.

This will translate to more eyeballs on your ad. Think about it.

On WebProNews, Mike Sachoff talks about a study that finds how consumers trust advertising on local newspaper, magazine and television Websites take action after viewing ads on these sites.

According to that same study, the following percentages of consumers taking action correlate with ads on each type of site: Local Newspaper Site: 46%

- Local Television Site: 44%

- Local Magazine Site: 42%

- User Review Site: 39%

- Portal: 37%

These are not small numbers.

When you are evaluating the different pieces of your own Internet marketing puzzle, it is not wise to count out the sites that hit closest to home for your most likely customers.

Website Content Tips

By Doug Caverly - Fri, 08/22/2008 - 10:05am.

Keep it simple and make a call to action

Henry James was an excellent writer. Even when his stories centered on less than exciting subjects, the rich language made everything worthwhile. But if you emulate his style on a business website, potential customers will probably wander away, and Jon Wuebben has some tips about what might be more effective.

The author of "Content Rich: Writing Your Way to Wealth on the Web" first suggests that you skip all the fancy stuff and aim for a conversational tone. "Not only will it immediately appeal to your visitors, but it also enables your message to be easily understood," according to an email sent to SmallBusinessNewz.

Move farther from James's style by using bulleted lists and limiting the number of words on a page to 350 or so. Ideally, people will be spending their time buying your products, not digging through novel-length descriptions. Keep things interesting, though, as an extra draw is always good.

Finally, don't forget to ask something of (or offer something to) visitors. Suggested lines include "order now" and "click here to get your free newsletter," with the Wuebben email stating, "Add these calls-to-action as they promote the visitor to take a more active and involved approach."

It should be easier to implement these suggestions than write a book, so go ahead and review your site's content when you get the chance.