In profile click on selling preferences
 

then click postage my items

Then tick the box

We’ve put together our own resource centre with guides and tutorials to some of the key tools we see as important in the future of businesses online.

Find out how to use wordpress, understand social media, get a picture of your users experiences through analytics and some general tips and tricks for your own website.

To ensure that you get the full url of the page that you want to link to open up a new browser window

Then highlight the web address and copy (right mouse click then select copy

Now go to your admin area open the page where you want to make a link

Place your cursor on the image or text that you want to use as the link and highlight it.

Then, click on the Insert/Edit Link icon

The dialog box will open and you can now paste the web address (url ) into the URL box

And type text in the title box it will add a tool tip when you hover over the link

Create a useful, information-rich site, and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content.

Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it.

you can check to see what keywords google sees when it looks at your site

Check that your content makes sense to users – it may be very descriptive and written to set a tone, however it may lack the key words that tell users what your site or business is about .. have someone who doesnt know your business read your content and check that you are telling users in clear text what you are.

Fresh content – Why you should update regularly
Spiders from search engines crawl the site if there’s nothing new up there then they don’t need to update you in the db.
Give your website a periodic check up to remove old and stale information.
Fresh content can be articles or postings of only 250 to 300 words in length.
It’s the quality more than quantity of copy that counts.
Don’t discourage web visitors from coming back to your website by never having new content to share.

Key words
Optimise for one or two phrases per page only, and make them keyphrases, not individual words.
Choose keyphrases that will be useful. Research terms people are searching on?
Use those keyphrases in your link anchor text. If that doesn’t look right in your main nav then do it in your body content
Try to ensure that as many of your back links as possible use variations on your keyphrases as anchor text, and that they point to the page that is optimised for that anchor text phrase.

Real simple syndication – RSS feeds – what are they – how to get feeds – how to use them

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rss_feeds

Method to get up to date information from a website or blog its in an xml format than can be read by readers online and desktop and mobile – allows you to easily keep up to date and to provide your readers with up to date information

Can be used as a resource for you to keep you up to date such as Google reader home page (http://www.google.com/ig) set this up to make it easy to keep up to date

And you can use it to make it easy for users/readers to keep up to date with your site – add rss feed links to your site so they can easily add your site – you can also allow them to subscribe to get the news via email by using Feedburner which allows subscriptions and updates are sent out at a specified time each day

Sign up for a Google account – useful for many tools – one login allows access to all of the Google products.

This is a Summary of Tools available – bookmark this link

The most useful tool is the Keyword Tool to get new keyword ideas. either by entering a few descriptive words or phrases, or by typing in your website’s URL. to see what keywords you have used and what are the most popular searched for terms. While it is important to incorporate keywords related to your busines, that users are seraching for you have to also keep it relevant and easy to read. Key words or phrases are basically matching what your prospective customers are looking for with the products or services that you offer. So the keyword tool is good to use for web content and for developing ad campaigns

The Keyword Tool is a great way to find new keywords for your ad campaigns. This tool can help you when you’re trying to do any of these things:

• Find keywords based on your site content. Instead of entering your own keywords, try using the Website Content option. It lets you enter the URL of your business website, or of any site related to your business. The AdWords system will then scan your page and then suggest relevant keywords.

• Create new, separate ad groups with similar keywords. We recommend creating several ad groups in each campaign, each with a small, focused set of similar keywords. Use the Keyword Tool to discover relevant keywords, then divide them into lists of 5 to 20 similar terms. See examples of ad groups promoting a single product or service and multiple products or services.

• Identify negative keywords. The Keyword Tool can show you off-topic keywords that users may be thinking about. Suppose you sell cut flowers and you give the Keyword Tool the keyword ‘flowers.’ It may suggest the related term ‘gardens,’ and you may want to add that term to your ad group as a negative keyword. That will keep your ad from showing on searches for ‘flower gardens’ or similar terms. This helps make sure only interested customers see your ads.

• Specify a language and location. If you’re using the Keyword Tool while signed in to your account, you may see an option to tailor results to a particular location and language. If you happen to be targeting Spanish speakers who live in France, make sure you set the Keyword Tool to that language and location.
• Start broad and then get specific. Try broad terms like ‘flowers’ in the Keyword Tool first. Then try specific terms like ‘red roses’ or ‘miniature cactus.’

Google analytics

To track users to your site you need to set up a google analytics account

you will be give a code

Elfdesigns will on request set up an account and user access this is done by setting up and account – adding the tracking code to your site – creating a user account

Access- Using browser you access the Google analytics site

You login with your user account – which needs to be an email address associated with your google account and the password for the google account

You start at the dashboard – showing a summary of your site – on the left hand side of the dashboard you can access

• who visited the site
• where your visitors are from – geographic area
• what did they look at
• where were they referred from
• how long did they stay
• what pages did they look at

using this tool can help you adjust your content to better serve your users

Take time to look at your report – Hover over for explanations of what each link does

Google maps for business – now called Google Places

This Short Video explains Google maps for business works and what it can do for your business

How to add your site to google maps – if you have a physical location for your business you can add your listing to google maps

• Click on add a new listing
• then complete the form

Online Training

Google offers a training area Learn about the importance of being online with their collection of video and worksheet lessons. The courses consist of a video or series of videos, and many include a worksheet or other download so you can take what you learned with you. Each course is designed to deliver just what you need to know to start getting more from your online marketing.

Google help area – for analytics

 Industry Comparisons for metrics

Compare your industry metrics at fireclick

Email Campaign comparisons read about company benchmarks at mail chimp

Sharing Data

If you agree to share your data with google the you will be able to receive benchmark reports from them, read more about sharing your data with Google.

The most important thing is to find a good voice in which to write. Ideally, you will have a balance between professionalism and personality. You don’t want to ramble on about things that aren’t relevant to your company, but if all you do is reiterate press releases, people aren’t going to stay interested for very long. This is especially important if someone else is doing the writing; you need to make sure that you are comfortable with the way the business is being portrayed and make sure that either you make it clear that someone else is writing on your behalf or that the writing is done in a voice very similar to your own. You don’t want someone to read your blog and then meet you and feel a disconnect between your blog writing and your personal communication.

Make sure you respond to comments, but don’t spend too much time responding to everyone. You need to show that you are paying attention and that you care what people are saying, but you can easily get sucked into a discussion (or worse, an argument) if you spend too much time replying to everyone. You will definitely get better feedback from your readers if you seem to be interested in what they have to say. And be sure to moderate your comments; many blogs have spam filters that  you can use, and there are also options to hold comments for your approval before they are posted on your site. This might be a good idea, especially at first, so you can set the tone of your blog.

Post regularly, or else people will stop checking your blog. You should be posting at minimum once a week, although try to work up to posting more frequently than that. Two or three times a week is good, but once daily is ideal. Keep in mind that if you are posting that often, it can become quite time-consuming, so be prepared to spend time on your blog or have someone else help you out so you can focus on other things.

While you should be posting on a regular basis, keep your posts short. It’s better to post three or four 500-word entries than one 2,000-word entry. Most people start to skim when you post long blocks of text, so if you really have a lot to say on a subject, try to break up your posts into two or three pieces and post them as a series of entries. If it’s a very interesting subject, people will come back to read the rest. On a similar note, stick to one subject per entry; you don’t want to seem like you are rambling and focusing on one thing helps to keep you on track.

So what should you be writing about? Even experienced bloggers run into writers’ block sometimes, and it can be difficult to come up with new ideas on a regular basis. Here are some suggestions to get you started:

• What’s new? Discuss new developments or products from your company. Try to make these posts a little more personal than a press release. Share a bit about why your company is moving in a certain direction or the inspiration for a new product.
• Respond to news stories from within your industry. If people are on your website, they have an interest in what you are doing, and as such may be interested in other aspects of your business. If you read trade publications, pick a recent story, summarize it and add your comments.
• Ask questions. Try to generate discussion, or look for feedback on a promotion you’re running or a new product. If you ask questions that invite lots of answers, you can get your readers to link back to your blog post on other sites they frequent, which means more exposure for you.

The more content you add to your blog, the more likely people will keep visiting your site. Keep your blog professional and interesting, and be sure to link your blog to the rest of your Web presence. You can add your blog posts to your business Facebook page, link to Twitter, and add it to your email newsletters. A blog can be a great way to spark people’s interest in your company.

There are a number of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) consultants who can help you tailor your site to Google or any of the other big search engines (like Yahoo, Bing, etc.).

The more links to your site that are out there on the Internet, the more chances people have of finding you. So build links to your site from other sites; one way to do this is to comment on blogs related to your industry and include a link to your website in your comment. Make sure not to spam these blogs, and only comment when you think you have something relevant to say. People reading the comments may be intrigued by what you write and then go to your website to find out more. Also, add links to the emails you send out, especially when you are sending out emails in a professional capacity. Try to give people a specific reason to click your link, rather than just saying “click to check out our site.” You want people to be interested in what you have to say and feel like they can find out something else that will be of use to them when they visit your website.

Finally, here are a couple of paid advertising methods that can help you generate interest in your site. Google Adwords (http://adwords.google.com) lets you target advertising to people based on the keywords they type. You can tailor your ads to ensure they only show up when people are local, and you pay per click. All you need to do is create an ad and link it to specific keywords that relate to your business. You decide your daily budget and how much you want to pay per click so that you won’t spend more than you can afford. Facebook ads offer a similar advertising system. You can choose to pay either per click or per thousand impressions, or views of your ad. The benefit of Facebook ads is that Facebook has access to so much personal information about its users, you can really focus your ads to certain demographics like geography, age, gender, and user interests or Likes).

Create a Facebook page for your business. It’s quite easy to get started. Click on this linkand determine what kind of page you’d like to create (brand, local business, company, etc.). Facebook then walks you through all the steps to create your Page; you set up contact details, add a link to your Twitter account, blog, and website, and then you can invite friends to like your page. You can also use Facebook ads to promote your business based on specific demographics.

One of the best ways to use Facebook and Twitter is to drive traffic to your site. The more people become aware of your business, the more likely you are to attract customers. By creating a page in Facebook for your business, you can direct people to click on links to your website and hopefully get them interested enough to sign up for more news. Using Twitter to announce new developments and providing links to your site can help increase viewership on your website.

“Social sharing” and “peer recommendation” are great benefits of social networking. People who like your page on Facebook or retweet your links on Twitter are alerting their friends and followers to your business. Since many people are more likely to check out links provided by someone they know, your readers are essentially promoting your site for you.

Another way to get people interested in your business and website is to start hashtags on Twitter. Hashtags (type “#” plus your subject, like “#thingsiwantrightnow”) are keywords that people can use to group together tweets by many different users about the same subject. If you click on the hashtag you can see all the tweets from all those users on the same page. Hashtags that are sufficiently interesting often provoke many responses and go viral, which will cause them to appear as trending topics on Twitter’s main page. This is a great way to generate interest in your brand, especially if you can come up with a thought-provoking hashtag.

Facebook and Twitter both offer help for businesses, and can give you some tips on how best to use their sites. Check out Twitter’s Best Practices for Businesses or Facebook’s Promoting Your Page help section. Both links provide in-depth info about how best to use your social networking skills to help promote your business.

First things first: in order to get people’s information, you need to give them a compelling reason to come to your site. Once they are checking out your website, you need to give them the option to tell you more about themselves. Get them to provide an email address so you can correspond with them and announce new products or developments. Ask them to provide feedback about certain aspects of your site. Give them the opportunity to contact you with questions or comments. All of these things enable you to collect information from visitors by making them feel like they are the ones initiating contact.

A great way to help determine which parts of your site people are drawn to is to segment your site into microsites. Keeping each aspect of your site separate from the others makes it easy for customers to visit the parts of the site that are most interesting to them, and also allows you to judge what areas of your site are working and which could use improvement. Make sure all sections of your site are visible and linked to your front page, of course. You can also segment your email lists in the same way. Some people are only interested in some aspects of your business, so you can tailor your messages to each segment of your company and send out targeted emails to those who will find them most useful. Those customers are then much more likely to open and read your emails because they will be reading about something that is of interest.

Metrics
The best way to measure the impact and effectiveness of your website and your communications is by using metrics.
Many bulk-email programs, such as Vertical Response, offer built-in email metrics to measure your success, so check with your current software to see what is available. Email metrics measure the following areas:

OPENS: the percentage of people who click to open your email; this information can help you improve your subject lines and your sender name, since those two items largely determine whether an email is read.

CLICK TO OPEN RATE: the number of people who opened your email and then clicked a link you provided.

SENT: how many email addresses to which you sent messages.

BOUNCES: the number of emails that are undeliverable to the addresses given. This number should be closely monitored and, if possible, you should try to contact the address holders to get a current address. If you have an alternate email address or other way of contacting the address holder (a Facebook name or Twitter account, perhaps) you can ask them for a current email address, or ask them to confirm the one you already have.

UNSUBSCRIBES: Try to keep this number as low as possible. High rates of unsubscription could indicate that your message is not compelling or that people are feeling spammed by your messages.

You also need to use site metrics to measure how well your site is attracting and keeping traffic. One of the best tools for site metrics is Google Analytics  This free software is placed on your website and collects data that you can use to determine how people visit your website. Areas measured by site metrics include:

VISITS: the number of visits to your site. If the same user clicks on your site more than once, each of their visits is counted separately.

UNIQUE VISITORS: the number of individual visitors to your site. Whether I click on your website once or twenty times, I will only be counted as one visitor.

PAGE VIEWS: the number of pages a visitor looks at during the time spent on your site. It’s good to know if your entire site is compelling and interesting, or whether people are coming just to look at one specific area.

BOUNCE RATE: the number of people who come and look at a single page of your site, then leave. This information is extremely helpful in measuring the effectiveness of your site as a whole. If people come and leave right away, are your links to other pages visible? Is your site difficult to maneuver? Do you have one really specific page that people are being referred to by a search engine? If you can find out what is causing people to look at a certain page, perhaps you can use that information to help improve the rest of your site.

REFERRERS: which sites are directing traffic to your website.

SEM

Google Adwords – these are sponsored links that you see at the top of the search results – READ an article explaining in layman’s terms what adwords are all about check out the Google Adwords Beginners Guide

SEM

Google Adsense – this is a fast and easy way for website publishers of all sizes to display relevant Google ads on their website’s content pages and earn money.