Mimentum Blog

Posted By Mimenta on July 1, 2009

Searches rely on search engines, which are like lists that list billions of websites in order of relevance or “search ranking”. They have hundreds of small programs (called bots), that crawl the Internet non-stop, indexing sites and reporting back to the search engine. If you have a website one of Google’s search bots will visit your website at least every 12 weeks and the same with Yahoo, MSN and the other search engines. The more relevant they find your website, the nearer page one of the searches, you will get. Although we don’t know exactly what these search engine robots look for (because they are constantly being upgraded), we can get a fair idea how they run.

The search bots or spiders, are continuously improved to become more and more like a human, so if you make a website that appeals to a human, that should get you some good rankings right?

It’s not quite that simple - they are not that human . . .  yet.

There’s a few little differences you need to know:

• They cannot read pictures
• They read code that does not appear on your screen, at the start of your web pages, known as metatags.
• Unlike us humans, the first thing they read is the page title, then the page description.
• They rank the first 50 words of text far more important than the rest of the page.
• If your title,description and key words do not match your content at all, they can “sandbox” your site. It will be invisible to their search engine.
• If your page has any adult content or profanities etc they will tag your site so it only appears if no web filtering is allowed.
• If your page contains a link to any site recorded on their list as a  spam site, phishing or any fraudulent activity, you site will be banned and anyone attempting to access your site will only see a warning message.

Most people will only look at the first three pages of their search results, so it’s important to get as close to page one as you can. If you know how the search bots (or spiders as they are called) work, you can improve your rankings by making it easier for the spiders to index your website.

You can even do this before your site is even launched. We’ll look into this next session.

Category: Business, Computing, Mimentum | No Comments »
Tags: business advice, Business information, business on line, Business structure, business success, create a business, Creating a business, Making money, online business, Online Business creation, starting your own business, Website design, Website Traffic

Posted By Mimenta on June 20, 2009

Think of your web site like a shop.

It’s capable of making a good profit if

• it gets passing trade – or visitors.
• you have products that people like and they are at a reasonable price.

You could call your shop Myers, Seers or Harrods. After all, what’s a Myer, Seer or Harrod?

When they started, no-one knew what they are either. They were just names - names that have become household words over the years. We tend to forget that and moan that our perfect idea of a website name (domain name) is already taken - Get over it!

There are two ways people will visit your website – searches and referrals. This accounts for over 97% of all visits to your website and neither need to use your domain name.

I can’t comment on your products at all - I don’t know what you currently have, intend to get or want to create. It may be an physical product, a digital product or a service. This advice will apply to all of these and it’s free.

There is the first rule - If you want visitors to come to your site, then make it worth their while. Give them something. If they like it, they will come back. If they love it, they will tell others who will come too.

But first we need to get some passing trade - just like people passing your shop. We call it “traffic” on the Internet.Unlike a real shop, we can be serving customers day and night - even while you sleep, you can be doing business on the Internet - I like that idea . . .  a shop on autopilot!

How?

We will begin by looking at the searches and how to get them working for us in the next session.

Category: Business, Computing, Mimentum | No Comments »
Tags: business advice, Business information, business on line, business success, create a business, Creating a business, Making money, online business, Online Business creation, starting your own business, Website design, Website Traffic

Posted By Mimenta on June 15, 2009

Don’t be conned. A website is virtually useless for any business, on it’s own. It is a tool and can be a very profitable one for a business, if you know how to use it and make it work for you.

Don’t waste time crying over that perfect web site domain name that has already been taken – it doesn’t matter. Very few people will actually type the site name in their browser anyway.  Most of your visitors will come through searches based on a topic (not a site name) or a link from another site.

It’s what you put in that site and the title you give each page, that will decide what the search engines describe your site as. Unlike a business name, the actual website domain name is not important.

I have proved this with my own site - the actual site name is of no importance. My art site is called www.mimenta.com.

What’s a Mimenta and what’s it got to do with art?
Nothing at all!

It was a fictitious word I dreamed up in 1976. It hasn’t stopped my site getting 1.42 million unique visitors last year. That’s not hits, (currently 60,000 hits is a slow month) with people coming back several times. That’s only counting “uniques” - new visitors!

Over the next few weeks we’ll go through all the tips I give Small to Medium Enterprises (or “SMEs’ ) to take their web sites from “business boat anchor” to “bringing in the bacon”.

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Tags: business advice, Business information, business on line, business success, create a business, Creating a business, Internet fraud, Making money, online business, Online Business creation, starting your own business, Types of Business, Website Traffic

Posted By Mimenta on June 7, 2009

I came across a group of small retail businesses last year who had all bought websites with CitySearch.com.au and were definitely not happy. This was embarrassing for me because I had worked for CitySearch at one stage.

CitySearch at that time was a company attached to Sensis, who print the Yellow Pages (who buy the way are basically a division of Telstra – they’ll deny it of course but they swap staff , share buildings etc). The CitySearch sales people went out and sold websites to shops and other small businesses on the basis that this would bring in more business because it would be linked to the Yellow Pages On Line.

Some businesses did record an increase in trade but many said they paid for a 5 page site that did nothing except inflate their advertising overheads. CitySearch was a directory site that was supposed to redirect traffic to other sites. Those other sites were basically static ads that were seldom updated, probably because of the high costs charged by Sensis, to update the sites. The outcome was a struggling operation that gradually rotted away leaving many business with a bad felling about Internet advertising.

What went wrong?

• The whole concept was fundamentally flawed. Being Telco orientated, they were not willing to start at a loss and ramp up – corporate greed.

• The websites were small, expensive and relied on traffic from CitySearch in the first instance.

• They did claim to have the customer’s site listed with all the major search engines but that’s a far cry from the fact that they didn’t tell the poor customer the site might appear on page 300 of the search pages and most people stop at page 3.

• The websites did not come with an updating fee built in, so few businesses updated prices and information.

• Customers who made inquiries elsewhere, found they had paid more that they would have for a full website and ended up with only a sub domain – not a fully independent site they could get their own IT people to work on.

It highlights a few misconceptions people have when it comes to having a business website.

Category: Business, Mimentum | No Comments »
Tags: business advice, Business information, business on line, business success, create a business, Making money, Online Business creation, Website design, Website Traffic

Posted By Mimenta on June 4, 2009

It’s been a hectic month!

Not every opportunity will yield results, so it pays to have several on the boil at once. The problem with opportunities is that they have a habit of all maturing to fruition at once.

We had sown a few seeds of opportunity out there and there was no response.  We decided to make use of the slack time . First we decided to launch another 3 sites but typically, everything happened as we were half way through the design process:.

• Two teachers left and they asked me to return to Information Technology teaching at least till the end of the year.
• Another business venture I had on the boil also blew up when I wasn’t expecting it and is now running flat out . . .  but it has fired up on the other side of the city - 2 hours drive away!
• The copy writing side of things has doubled as well.
• We entered several art works in a major exhibition.
• Some unusual artwork came in for restoration - a set of divider screens that need invisible  repairs.

Tonight is the first time since mid May that I have been able to sit down to a proper meal with my family!

I was just thinking how well I had weathered out this last round of chaos when I suddenly realised that the last blog entry was over two weeks ago - so much for my 2-3 day updates!

One of the great things about a blog site is it generates good traffic but the downside is you have to earn it - with regular entries.  It’s not just a matter of a constant stream of interesting articles. It’s also a matter of cultivating a reputation of reliability - something often lacking on the Internet.  That means you need to write at regular intervals, to retain your readership. It’s just another stone in the foundation of your net-credibility.

Category: Business, Computing, Education, Mimentum | No Comments »
Tags: business advice, Business information, business on line, business success, Career in Education, Creating a business, Making money

Posted By Mimenta on May 15, 2009

Sometimes running a business can become so demanding that we lose our vision. We can become so engrossed in looking to the future that we lose sight of whats happening in our own back yard.

In the late 1980’s I was working for Ford here in Melbourne. It was the time of the recession and car sales were at an all time low.  People were being encouraged to take a redundancy package. Those left behind were being cajoled into doing the work of those who left, as well as their own jobs.

Every day when I pulled into the car park and looked over the sea of workers cars, it struck me that the most common make of car there, was a Toyota. The Marketing manager even commented to me one day, that it was a poor example, that most employees did not buy the product they made.

A few months later they brought out a scheme that made it easier for employees to get finance to buy a new Ford vehicle. While the management was busily patting themselves on the back, claiming they had solved this problem, they never realised they had completely missed the point.

Why were there more Toyota’s in the car park?
Because they belonged to low paid workers - the same workers who were afraid of losing their jobs. These cars were not purchased as a new car - they were bought as a second hand vehicle because the workers could not afford a new car. Ford made their cars to look good new and gave no thought to a vehicle beyond 5 years old. At this time, dollar for dollar, you got a better deal buying an old Toyota, then an old Ford.

Offering finance for a new car, to a worker who thinks he (or she) might be unemployed before the end of the year, doesn’t solve the problem.

If they had offered the same deal for second hand Fords, the car park would have been full of them. Ironically the result was when workers bought another second hand car, they didn’t buy a Ford now. After all it was obvious that second hand Toyota’s were better - just look in the car park and you will see the numbers speak for themselves!

Typically someone in management had noticed a problem and reacted without thinking the solution through.  They never stopped to get all the facts - the workers were unable to buy new Fords and there was no incentive to buy a second hand one. Therefore the car park was dominated by Toyota’s.

In business we see many so-called solutions that just don’t resolve the problem because we fail to get all the facts before designing the fix.

Category: Business, Mimentum | No Comments »
Tags: business advice, Business information, business success, Making money, online business, Online Business creation

Posted By Mimenta on May 6, 2009

You might want to make a few changes to the way you store the contacts in your mobile phone after reading this…..

About an hour after arriving in the city, a friend of ours discovered she had left one of her bags on the train, She went to phone the train company and realised that her mobile phone was in that bag, along with her coin purse, which had her bank cards in it as well.

She explained her predicament to a shop owner who graciously let her use his phone to call her husband at work, hoping he could to the phoning to stop the credit card and notify the train company.

To her surprise, her husband told her he had already had one call from her – a text message telling him she had forgotten her PIN number!

Needless to say he had responded with a text message with the PIN number.

I guess you can imagine the rest.

The bank account was empty of all cash and the Gold credit card was maxed out by the time the husband called the bank and reported the card missing. (I bet he didn’t feel like a privileged card holder now!)

Working backwards, the thief has looked through the contacts in the mobile phone, seen “Hubby” and sent a text message requesting the PIN for the cards in the bag. Of course “Hubby” assumed the text message was from who it claimed to be – his wife, and replied by sending the PIN back. He even admitted later that he thought the message was odd because his wife never forgot her PIN but he still replied, believing the SMS was going back to his wife.

The thief made off with almost $100,000.00 between the cash from the account and the credit purchases.

It makes you realise just how much information we think is trivial, is actually vital, in the wrong hands. Storing names in your phone – don’t give any indication of the relationships. A crafty thief could even ask a son or daughter to call Daddy and get the PIN.

I know another friend who meticulously records the addresses as well and on one  is the code to disarm his home alarm, another is his mother’s home alarm code and a third is for the shop alarm where he works.

If a text message asks for information, call them back rather than text back. It could be anyone sending that text message.

Now look at your mobile phone and see what information a thief could misuse if it was in his (or her) hands.

Go on . . . . .

. . . I dare you!

Category: Business, Computing, Mimentum | No Comments »
Tags: anti-fraud, anti-fraud advice, Business information, Creating a business, Identity theft, Phishing

Posted By Mimenta on May 3, 2009

A close friend of mine works at Telstra - one of our biggest telecommunications providers.

Her mobile phone is with Optus (Telstra’s opposition) because even after she gets a 20% staff discount from Telstra, Optus’ plan for her usage works out cheaper.

Her Internet is with Optus too. Telstra measure their customer usage on uploading as well as downloading whereas Optus measure usage only on downloading.  While Telstra’s staff discount makes the deal seem cheaper, the amount of usable bandwidth she is actually getting is less. A 20GB deal with Telstra will quickly be used up because her bandwidth is being measured in two directions.

In both instances she has a staff discount but the opposition’s plans work out cheaper. Many of her co-workers also are with Optus for similar reasons. Telstra management has commented several times that they consider it a form of disloyalty. But who is really being disloyal?

Is the employee being disloyal for going to a cheaper provider for their services?

As a staff member who helps Telstra make a profit (as opposed to the COE who decreases Telstra’s profits and net worth yet takes millions of dollars in bonuses), shouldn’t Telstra show some loyalty to their staff, reward them for their input and make their own product so cheap that no employee would deal with anyone else.

Today’s corporations have developed this maniacal belief that they deserve your unerring loyalty, while they do little to earn it. In most businesses today, the employee is little more than a name in a ledger, written in pencil that can be removed instantly. In coporations the name is less personal - just a number.

We hear daily of corporations shedding thousands of workers to keep increasing their profits. Fifty years ago a business only shed staff only when it was in danger of making no profit.

Since when does the survival of a company depend on making ever increasing profits. It’s time we took a reality check. In these tough times many businesses will not be able to make a larger profit than last year - there’s no rule that said business survival depends on making a growing profit. It only depends on making some profit, so the business’ running costs are covered.

If you want loyalty from your employees, keep them employed. Loyalty is a two way street - you have to earn it before you can ask for it back.

Category: Business, Mimentum | No Comments »
Tags: business advice, Business information, business success, create a business, Making money

Posted By Mimenta on May 3, 2009

We were sitting at the table eating our “meal” and I said to the employee next to me, that one day I would get my own restaurant and would let my staff dine off the menu. I would never feed them these slops then expect them to serve  fine food. He laughed and said that it was impossible. As a restaurateur I would go broke.

A year later I opened my first restaurant and my staff were told they would choose their meals off the usual menu - just like any other customer. They would dine in the restaurant the same as anyone else.  I made only one condition: you could only have the crayfish once a week.

Yes it did cost me little extra but there were massive benefits:

• Staff fed back ideas for improvements to meals and service and followed their ideas up - they felt they had a vested interest in the place.
• meals improved in every aspect - staff were preparing food for themselves to eat as well as the customers.
• Service improved as staff competed good naturedly - the short order chef showed off his “waitering” prowess to the waiter etc.
• Staff willingly  became cross trained as they covered each other for meal times.
• Everyone took a personal pride in their work as they realised that they were all major components in the whole process.
• The staff morale soared and the retention rate dramatically improved well beyond any other restaurants in our town. I was now an employer of choice.

When I started my next restaurant, I already had proven, cross trained staff capable of management, to run it.

Unwittingly, I had created a continuous improvement process. By turning my staff into customers, they now had a vested interest in improving my business - it was now their business too.  I didn’t pay any more, in wages than any other restaurant but my staff were appreciated and felt they were valued. As a result, they put in that extra effort that made my restaurant a success.

I repeated this process four more times and each time I got the same result - the small increase in staff meals costs was massively offset by the boost to my business.

It is alarming to watch today’s businesses treat their staff with contempt, trying to strip every tiny benefit and get them to do extra or they will replace them. As businesses we easily forget that our staff are really the best asset we have in our business. We invest weeks or months of training to get them up to peak performance. It makes sense to keep them - make them feel welcome and a valued part of our enterprise.

When we feel like we belong, we look after our surroundings and will willingly work towards helping you improve your business.

Category: Business, Mimentum | No Comments »
Tags: business advice, business success, create a business, Making money, Online Business creation, starting your own business

Posted By Mimenta on April 22, 2009

I was out of work in New Zealand during a recession in the 1970’s. The only work I could find was as a kitchen hand in a restaurant. I took it because it advertised free meals . . . Yeah -  I was really broke !

We would come to work half an hour before our shift and be served this awful mince mush then spend the rest of our time serving delicious seafood and really nice meals. That only made us realise just poorly we were treated.

The pilfering was rife there, at all levels. The staff all resented the management so much that they turned a blind eye to the stealing that was going on. While the place was clean, everything was done with the minimum of effort. Mistakes were common with preparation as everyone rushed to get out the door the moment their shift ended. The atmosphere was depressing with people frequently yelling abuse at each other, occasionally resulting in fights and dismissals.

As an employee, you were lowly and each mealtime verified just how unimportant you were to the business.

It was a miserable job but I learned everything I needed to make a fortune out of my restaurants later.

It was easy - just do everything these people didn’t !

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Tags: business success, Making money, online business