Beyond the content, there are a lot of things I like about Jason Falls’s Social Media Explorer . First, I like his very thin header bar. It gives me lots more “top of the fold” for his site. I like his choice of navigation at the top. (That’s number one.) The Top Right I like the top right area where Jason makes it clear that he’d love to further connect and extend the relationship. The entire sidebar is full of awesome like this, but right at the very top, Jason does a great job of showing us that he wants to get in touch. I really like the custom graphics and the …

Weekend Favs September Four This content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr. Good stuff I found this week: Paper.li – organizes links shared on Twitter into an easy to read newspaper-style format. Newspapers can be created for any Twitter user, list or #tag 12 Breeds of Clients and How to Work with Them – A must read even if just…

The other day, someone told me they were a bit down because their score on a social media site was low. I was quick to point out that the number had no bearing on the outside world. It was just something a site had decided about game dynamics within a single social network. It got me thinking about the numbers that matter, from a business perspective, but then even out into other areas. Here were some numbers I thought might matter …

The winner of this week’s WinWeb Pitch of the Week competition is Martin Everard, son of Barbara Everard who was regarded as one of the leading botanical artists of the 20th Century. Martin has created a virtual gallery of his mothers’ work after facing difficulties when trying to display the work in a more traditional manner. Martin took a problem, and his passion, and

I’ve written a lot in the last few posts about business. That was the goal: to help people better understand some of these tools and their impact on doing business. However, I should be really clear that business isn’t all work. Business, especially human business , can be relationship-minded, can be sustainable, and can even be fun. Sure, transactions have to happen and value has to…

Delivery is the New It Thing This content from: Duct Tape Marketing if you’re looking for a way to differentiate your business or products and create a killer competitive advantage you may not have to look any farther than how you delivery of your products and services. Now, delivery is a fabulously flexible term when applied to business, so I use it here to talk about physical deliver of goods as well as digital delivery or information and even delivery of consulting or plumbing services. I’ve done…

In my last post, how to grow traffic to your blog , I gave you some ideas on how to up your traffic. But if you’re hoping to turn this into a sale, you might want to take some preparations into account. Simple Call to Action If you’re bringing people back to your blog, make sure the thing you most want them to do is …

A lot of theories have been circulated for why small businesses aren’t hiring — the bank lending crunch, emotional nervousness about the economy, high taxes, low sales. This week, noted Case Western Reserve University professor Scott Shane weighed in with his theory: It’s all about the residential real-estate collapse . Shane gives several reasons why the real-estate bubble’s pop has paralyzed entrepreneurs. Among them: 1) A disproportionate amount of the products and services small businesses sell are tied to home sales. Independent realtors, small contruction contractors, interior decorators, decor boutiques…they all take…

WiseStamp Brings Your Email Signature to Life This content from: Duct Tape Marketing On the spectrum of really big marketing tactics, the email signature isn’t terribly sexy, but this little touch can say a lot about what you do and how you connect. If you’re like me, you send a lot of email so why not make sure your email signature is working in the background for you. This doesn’t mean you need flashing lights and honking horns, but you should supply …

Of all topics, this is one of the perennials. People want more traffic, more attention, more awareness to their blog. It’s fair. We work hard on our blogs. We want more attention and traffic. If your business depends on volume, this is especially important (for instance, if you’re using ads). Getting traffic is a tricky business, and it requires a lot of experimentation. I’ll tell you what’s worked for…