Global SEO Leader | Ex-Founder of NAV43
Great Question! As I'm sure many other SEO's here have mentioned.. you should absolutely be leveraging the sub-folder as opposed to the sub-domain as Google and Bing associate sub domains as separate entities with their own value metrics outside of the primary root. The only real time I would recommend a sub-domain over a sub-directory would be due to platform restrictions (Shopify, Wix, etc) where you don't have access to build an infrastructure to support nested content from multiple hosts. Definitely worth chatting about, however you shouldn't have any problems using the sub folder with any other host you'd like.
Fractional CTO
I use Google Search. You can write your own scraper (if you're very smart), or purchase one off the shelf.
Content Marketing Advisor & Agency Consultant
Asking for a link back to their blog is different than re-posting their content -- and there are SEO considerations for both. A link is one of the most powerful signals Google uses to decide who is a credible source and who is not. The more links, the more credible you must be (so goes the thinking). So website owners are working hard to get a lot of links from a lot of sources. Google has not been shy about touting the benefits of both linking to others AND receiving links. There is issue with Site A linking to Site B, and Site B linking back to Site A. In general, if someone asks you link to them, they may promise to link back, but that link will disappear pretty quickly through automated management. Sharing the same content is not going to do you any favors. Google is quick to recognize duplicate content and penalize the copy-cats. There are ways around that (with a rel=canonical element), but it is a little more technical than I think you're looking for, right now. Copying other people's content is done, and sometimes the copier gets more traffic and success than the original poster. There is a good write up of how BuzzFeed does this here: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/marketing/science-behind-buzzfeeds-viral-content In short, there are reasons to both link to another site and quote their content. For optimal performance, this is measured and balanced with your own content and links coming to you. I hope this helps, if you have other questions or want more help. Send me a message or schedule a call. All the best, -Shaun
Author, Speaker, CEO
Re-posting someone else's blog post, word for word, will likely not help you at all. Getting requests to link out to these other sites also doesn't help you--at least not near as much as it helps the sites you're linking to.
Social Media Marketing
5
Answers
Expert in Sales-Marketing Alignment
You'll need to provide more details/context for your question. How long is a piece of string? How big is a house? It all depends on how much time, money, and/or effort you're willing to spend generating those leads.
Co-Founder,UXHack.co | Product & Growth Consultant
I have used this https://canvanizer.com/ for my venture as well as for other clients. Feel free to contact in case you need to get more details.
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
3
Answers
Content Marketing Advisor & Agency Consultant
"...may not see the value of our platform yet or that they already have an existing older system." This is where you want to focus your energies. Why don't they see the value of what you're offering? What roadblocks exist here and how can you remove them? Have you spoken with existing clients to see how they are using your service and what they feel is missing? What was their feedback and have you implemented it into your system? What is it about their old system that they feel is better than yours / or that yours fails to overcome a certain shortcoming and is not worth the hassle of migration? I think some digging into your clients is in order. A better picture needs to be painted about their needs and how they perceive that value that you offer.
Marketing Strategy
6
Answers
Product Discovery, Design, Marketing and Mgmt
It depends. Do you have a documented view of your prospective customer journey?. If not, this is a thing you should do You must have heard this before. Any product or service could be a vitamin (good to have), pain killer(temporary relief) or a pain reliever (long term relief). What kind of product you have decides the kind of Marketing Strategy. You go to a super market for vitamins, a drug store for pain killer and a hospital for pain relief. Juxtapose this with your channels for marketing. We can have a call if you wish to discuss more. I am quite affordable. Call Me.
I help you buy, sell, plan, value a business
If you sell the whole business, then the email list or 'prospect list' naturally comes with this purchase. The challenge in selling just the list is that you actually sell the list such that you're not really just selling a copy. For example, if you sell a copy, then you may fall afoul of spam laws because those people didn't give permission for their names to go to another user in addition to you. What you may wish to do to make it easier is to sell the list along with your account access to the mail provider, ie your Mailchimp access or whomever you use. This way you are truly selling a business asset and not just selling someone a 'copy' of your list. Hope that helps. For over 250 videos and blog posts about buying and selling businesses visit www.DavidCBarnett.com or arrange a call to discuss your specific case. Dave
Fractional CTO
Likely you won't like my thoughts about this. When I give talks about business bootstrapping, I suggest people only work ideas which meet my "Sunset Rule". Sunset Rule - You should be able to go from idea to first sale, before sunset, or best consider other ideas. This also relates to your MVP. If you can't dream up an MVP + sell it before the sun goes down, best consider other ideas. Years ago, I was at an Internet Marketing Party mixer in Austin, TX + sat to visit with a friend. She was down because she was starting a new business + had spent months working on a business plan + determined she required $80K to bootstrap her business + then had spent another several months looking for investors. A buddy of mine + I sat with her for 15mins + slightly retooled her idea. She launched the next day for a one time investment of $144/year (cost of a Meetup.com account) + was generating some significant profit in a few days. Chunk down your MVP, so you can manually make sales by the end of the day... for $0 investment + you'll know for sure you have a profitable business. If you can't sell one unit, by the end of the day... best consider some other idea...
I help you buy, sell, plan, value a business
Hi, My entire practice is built around helping people buy and sell their own business. I've been working in this field since 2008. If you come over to www.DavidCBarnett.com you'll find over 300 blog posts on buying, selling, financing and managing SMEs with links to playlists which now have over 250 FREE videos on these subjects. Also, dozens of links to interviews on podcasts that I've done on these subjects. To learn more about buying a business, I recommend my online course at www.BusinessBuyerAdvantage.com . To learn about selling, visit www.HowToSellMyOwnBusiness.com where you'll also find an online course as well as a free download and links to my best-selling book called 'How To Sell My Own Business.' To learn about improving a business to make it more valuable, visit www.EasySmallBizSystems.com Right now I've got 7 books on Amazon along these topics as well. And if you ever want to discuss a particular opportunity that you find, just arrange a call. Cheers David C Barnett
UX Design and Business Branding
I'm going to make 2 assumptions in my reply 1. You're selling these to companies 2. These are rather expensive systems. Basically for such a situation, what you have right now is a first mover advantage. That basically means you have the opportunity to gain quick traction and find early adopters for your systems. If you act fast enough and manage to get companies to buy them from you, this gives you a huge advantage on your competitors. Why? This is because you have the opportunity to forge close relationships with customers and get testimonials. In the future, your competitors might be able to beat you pricewise, but that is never a substitute for trust in your company and the relationships you've been able to forge. So I would suggest spending a lot of time on 2 things 1. Creating a holistic experience for the customer from the installation of the software to the deployment. You want to be there at every step of the way when needed. If necessary, set it up for them, do some free repairs(If it doesn't cost you much). At this point you're building the relationship between you and your customers so going the extra mile counts. 2. You also want to start getting some form of testimonial to build trust and confidence in your product. This is important because word-of-mouth is more influential than advertising when selling a product. Without further information, this is all that I can come up with for now. If you're keen, I could discuss more specific strategies with you for your business and cover key actionable steps you could take to accelerate your growth and sales. :)
Increase sales, profits, and market share
Ask friends, families, and previous co-workers to refer you.
Fractional CTO
Most live chat tools are encapsulated in a Javascript snippet to add to your site. WordPress, for example, may provide a plugin + if you look at the plugin code, usually the code simply injects the Javascript snippet. This said, all you really require... choose how you'd like the live chat icon/window/widget to display + likely the live chat provider will have a library of code to display their live chat window in different ways.
Experienced eCommerce Expert
Depending on the specs of your boxes, there are many different great options out there for custom printed boxes, at reasonable prices. From my experience working with online retailers, here's some of the best that I've come across: https://packlane.com/ https://pakible.com/ https://www.boxup.com/ https://packhelp.com/ https://www.companybox.com/ http://brandincolor.com/ Some specialty suppliers: https://www.ecoenclose.com/ - eco-friendly http://www.instabox.com/ - Canada http://www.glbc.com/ - Canada + US https://www.packqueen.com.au/ - Australia Hope that helps and gives you some options to consider! Custom packaging is an important part in building a great brand, so it's smart to be looking into this. If you need any advice around creating an eCommerce brand and driving online retail sales, schedule a call with me and we can dig into it!
Business Strategist & Conversion Expert
First you have to understand what STYLE of selling you're looking for. A book for one style may be great for me, but you'll think it's weak and ineffective. Two main distinctions are the "hardcore closer" (traditional) approach versus the "consultative" (more modern) approach. One appeals to an individual while the other does not. Many people are unaware of anything under than the fast-talking, bombastic style of selling made popular by movies and television, however; it took me 10 years in the professional world to even figure out the right question to ask ("IS there another style of selling?"). Once you understand which style of selling you want to learn or expand on, then you can choose appropriate books or courses. There is little point in giving SPIN Selling to a Hopkins devotee. And The Challenger Sale will fall on deaf ears to those who are desperate to not be seen as "pushy."
Fractional CTO
You can't verify anything, unless they give you their tax returns. You can do revenue share deals, where gurus are paid a percentage of profits they generate. Tip: True Gurus (upper 'G', rather than lower 'g') are busy generating cash. You'll rarely meet them + hardly anyone knows them. To meet real Gurus, traffic places like Meetup Groups with very tight topics, which relate to what you're trying to accomplish. When you meet a real Guru, likely you'll know it by the way they talk about their area of expertise... which you'll likely have to tease out of them. Anyone making massive cash... tends to keep their techniques to themselves.
Creative Financing
6
Answers
Fractional CTO
First hire a credit cleaning company. This will cost you roughly $200 USD. I ignore my credit till I require it, then use a credit cleaner, because the entire credit report industry is pretty much a racket. All manner of junk shows up on credit reports over the years. You can clean all this yourself + likely paying $200 will be far more profitable, than spending many hours/day for months to do this yourself. Last time I did this my mid score was 618 + after a month of my credit cleaner's work, my mid score as 796. You'll still require much more than a high credit score to get this type of loan + having a high credit score will ease all your steps.
Fractional CTO
This is very tricky, as many countries participate in the Eurozone food requirements or other equally oddball rule sets. Your first step will be to pick a jurisdiction, like Europe + then ensure your ingredients list matches their rule set. If for example, you have Kava Kava on your label, you won't be able to ship to England or any EU country. Start with this first. Then generate content (YouTube + blog), related to uses for your product. This will be a long haul venture. Having done this myself before, you'll invest years (plan on at least 10 years) + have a 7-8 figure business. This all imagines you control the entire ingredient acquisition + manufacturing chain. I'm unsure what you mean by registered member of a company. If this means you're working with an MLM or other company where you have no say in the supply chain... Don't even start. You'll invest a huge amount of time + to many things can go wrong, if anyone else is controlling any part of this process.
Entrepreneurship
3
Answers
SEO Expert and Strategist
Great question! I believe that Hootsuite might be one of your best solutions. It is a free tool and you can publish through several social media platforms at once. For a free account, however, they limit you to 3 accounts I believe: https://hootsuite.com/plans/free There is also Buffer as well which I believe has similar functionality: https://buffer.com Here are some additional helpful resources for you: https://blog.capterra.com/top-free-social-media-management-software/ https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/5-social-media-management-tools-to-save-time/
SEO Expert and Strategist
Great question! 1) You can use "pre-selling" to offer an upcoming service or product to existing customers which they will effectively fund by paying for it (while you create it) so that they are also buy it as your customer: https://thefoundation.com/podcast/episode21 https://thefoundation.com/podcast/episode61 2) You can use a crowd funding platform like Kickstarter or IndieGogo. 3) You can ask customers if they'd like to become an investor in your business and offer them to become more like a partner with benefits and compelling reasons to join you. 4) You can ask customers directly what it would take or would interest them in becoming your investor. Hope that helps! Tom
Fractional CTO
This is really a question for you NC tax preparer + NC attorney. There may be NC tax implications. Likely no legal implications. Only your local professionals will likely be up to complete speed about all this. Also I'd suggest you stick with H&R Block for your taxes, as they have an intense training program all their preparers must continually go through. Many years, they must go through multiple times. This will be essential with the new tax bill being floated, as answers to your questions today, may change after new tax bill goes through.
Business planning
14
Answers
I help you buy, sell, plan, value a business
Making sales and figuring out what potential customers want. Really, everything else can be done after you've proven that there really is a business opportunity. www.DavidCBarnett.com
UX Design and Business Branding
Cost of customer acquisition will depend a lot on what type of course you're looking to sell and your target audience. No one will be able to give you a straight up answer here. If you're able to provide more details, I could give some more nuanced advice :)
UX Design and Business Branding
Before you consider selling your patented product, here are some questions you should consider. 1. Do I have a viable market? 2. Do I have sales/orders that show this demand 3. What sort of competitive advantage do I explicitly have over my competitors. It's important to get as much leverage as possible over whoever you plan to sell your product too. The best way to do this is to get hard data you can use to back up your claims and to find clear distinct competitive advantages which will cement a strong market position for years to come. If you have any further questions, drop me a message and I'll be more than happy to answer them :)