What Wordpress Plugins Do You Use?

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I’m always looking for ways to make Dorm Room Biz and my other blogs better - either in search engine performance/ranking, usability, or any other arena. One of the easiest ways to do that when your website is based off of the Wordpress platform is through the use of plugins.

So, what plugins do you use for your site?

I currently have installed:

• Akismet (of course)
• All In One SEO
• DealDotCom
• Gregarious
• OIOPublisher
• Subscribe To Comments
• Text Link Ads
• What Would Seth Godin Do

Share with everyone in the comments what plugins you use on your Wordpress site!

How You Can Flourish During a Recession

A lot has been written lately about the current financial crisis and small business. Most of it has dealt with cutting costs and staying afloat, and generally addressing the larger issue of “surviving” the current crisis. While entrepreneurs can survive a recession, there’s no reason not to grow your business, even when money is tight. Here are some ways you can outsmart the competition and not only survive, but flourish during a recession.

Marketing
Most businesses cut back on marketing when times are tough, in an attempt to cut costs and stay afloat. Study after study has proven, however, that the businesses that succeed and grow the most after a recession is over are those who kept on marketing during the bad times. I’m not telling you to spend all your cash on marketing and hope for the best, but don’t cut back on your marketing just because there’s a recession. If anything, use the recession as an excuse to make every dollar count and negotiate better rates with Magazines, Printers and other sources.

Upselling
If you already have existing customers, a great way to bring in extra cash and hone your sales skills is to try and upsell them to a higher level of service, a more expensive product, or a  value added service.
For example, if you do landscaping during the summer, you could upsell a yearlong gardening service or your snow plowing service for the coming winter.  Call past customers up and offer them a member’s only deal or coupon to get them to purchase a new service or product. Try and develop services or products that require a repeat/monthly investment as well.

Efficiency
Making every penny count can be a good thing.  Take the time now to create processes, train employees and systemize your business so that runs like clockwork. The time spent in creating efficiency now will result in the ability to take on more customers and clients with the same system you already have, increasing your profits while not increasing your costs.

Lower Costs
Finally, use the downturn as an excuse to play hardball. Tighten the screws on your vendors and suppliers. For example, call your cell phone provider up and threaten to leave unless they give you a better deal. Tell your suppliers that they need to lower their prices or you will find someone else to deal with.  When they complain, simply explain to them that times are tight and everyone is making cuts in spending. They’ll understand and you’ll have more money to spend on marketing.

This guest post comes from Maya Richard, who writes reviews about cell phones. She can be reached at mayarichard [at] gmail with feedback.

7 Reasons Small Businesses Survive Downturns

Not really a great time in the economy at the moment is it? I beg to differ. Big businesses that people thought were solid turned out to be pretty weak at the foundations. I think what we need in these times, is more small business. Small business is (in my opinion) the basis for a strong economy. These are the companies that have the ability to survive. The big companies were good in the good times, but they had piles of corporate debt, demotivated employees who were worried about losing their job, but small businesses aren’t like that. Here’s why:

Bootstrapped

Remember when you first started your business? Remember all those times when you worked out of the basement and really had no money so you just did the best you could? Well, you’ve been there once, you’ll do it again. Maybe you’re still bootstrapping though, not because you need to, because you WANT to.

Creative

Small business owners at some of the most creative people around. What happened last time you had a problem? You had a good long think about it, you looked at possible solutions and you thought some more. Then it hit you. You solved the problem and moved on. What would a big company have done? Probably spent one million on a consultant, and a few months on reached the same conclusion. You’ve done it since the start of your business and you’ll keep coming up with new and original ideas.

Passionate

There is a reason you get up early everyday and work ridiculously late into the night. The reason? you’re passionate! You love doing what you do, and that means that your work is the best it could be and your clients are happy (usually). You’d do anything to keep your business alive and growing.

Careful

During you business’ lifetime, you have been careful. Where’s the work for client X? It’s in a folder on your desk. You don’t loose your client’s work, you know where everything is and what is happening at any point during the day. You didn’t take stupid risks with your money, and people can see that. you didn’t pile up debt.  Your clients trust you. You’re careful in every way possible. If you’re not, it isn’t just you at risk, it is your clients, and that matters to you (well it should matter).

You know your industry and business

If someone asks you to get you product X, you can do it, if someone asks you to design logo B, it’s done, if someone needs help setting up Y, you’re there. People in your industry (however big or small it is) know you can be trusted to do the right thing. You know the ins and outs of the industry and you also know how your business fits into it. Are you at the forefront? Maybe you are the company making things work at the back end? For any type of business, from eBay power seller to the next Silicon Valley start up, the industry and you relationship is crucial.

You know your clients

and they know you! The client-business relationship is crucial whatever business you’re in. If you are in a service business, then you need people to pay bills on time and to trust you and your judgment. If you sell products from your online store, then you need to know you can count on return visits and word of mouth. Your clients are your business and you have good clients.

You know your next step

Within a big business, knowing where you are going is hard. However, for the small company, you know where you want your business to go. You know which markets you want to penetrate, which products you want to sell, how many newsletter subscribers you need. With a clear plan, you can adjust your strategy accordingly.

So there you go! 7 reasons why you and your small business are perfectly poised to whether any kind of economics condition. Also, you are less likely to have copy cats/opposition in these conditions, so you can really stand out from the crowd. You might also want to check out this post by The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur about why now is the best time to start a business. What do you think?

Sophie

12 Websites You Need To Be Using As An Entrepreneur

What’s up guys? There are literally thousands of websites and services out there that help entrepreneurs and small business owners to run their business, promote and market themselves, and control the chaos. However, deciding which ones to use is the problem. Here is a list of some of the best services out there that you need to be using or at least looking at for your small business.

Twitter
Twitter allows you to update your followers with what is going on, what you are doing, and what you want to talk about. Limited to 140 characters, you have the opportunity to reach a wide audience with your messages. Following people and having followers is the key to success on Twitter -  you need to build your audience. The micro-blogging platform is free and super easy to use via the web or text messaging. Join, start following, advertise your business, services, or products and watch your business grow.
Website: http://www.twitter.com
Cost: Free

Facebook
What - you’re not on Facebook? What the hell are you thinking? Start a profile for yourself, start a page for your business, and start adding your friends. Use Facebook as an avenue to connect with customers on a whole different level. You can also find your friends from college, high school, and former workplaces. Interact with your friends and start talking up your business. Refer people to your business’s Facebook page or group and get them to join it. As people start joining, others will see the notice on their feeds that their friends are joining your group - which may entice them to join themselves. This is a great way to grow your audience and potential customer base. The social aspects of Facebook are also great - upload and share pictures, links, stores, and more.
Website: http://www.facebook.com
Cost: Free

FreshBooks
Looking for a good and easy way to invoice your clients, track your time, or track your expenses? Then check out FreshBooks! The free service will allow you to add a few clients and the paid version will allow for more, but basically you can send invoices to your clients through email and share documents with them as well. The service is great for someone like a web designer or developer that needs to share documents and information constantly with their clients.
Website: http://www.freshbooks.com
Cost: Free or $14/month and up

Basecamp
Project management and collaboration can be a tricky thing when you are small and just starting out. When you are working with a lot of other people on a project, it is key to keep everyone on the same page. Basecamp from 37Signals will help you do that! Basecamp will allow you to customize your management area look and feel, share it with your customers or team members, and share all kinds of documents and information. Anything from 37Signals is a helpful tool for your business, so check out their other services as well.
Website: http://www.basecamphq.com/
Cost: 30 day free trial or $25/month and up

SmartyPig
If you are looking to save up some of your businesses income and hold on to it for a big purchase of new equipment or other needs for your business, then you need to look in to SmartyPig. SmartyPig allows you to set up savings goals and have money deposited into a savings account direct from your bank account each month. I use them for mostly personal savings goals, but business savings goals are definitely a great idea. The people at SmartyPig are awesome and offer great support, so I strongly recommend them - the best part? It’s free!
Website: http://www.smartypig.com
Cost: Free

LinkedIn
If you don’t like Facebook because you feel there is too much info free for searching and not enough privacy, check out the more professional social network, LinkedIn. LinkedIn has been around for a good while, maybe even longer than Facebook? LinkedIn allows you to connect with collegaues, classmates, and other professionals in similar industries…or just random people like Facebook. However, LinkedIn is focused more on the professional side of social networking and growing your connections. You can have people endorse you to help you grow your presence and you don’t have to really worry about any crazy party pictures of you doing a keg stand showing up on your managers Facebook feed (wouldn’t that suck?).
Website: http://www.linkedin.com
Cost: Free

Google Analytics
I could not create a list of useful websites without having at least one Google product on it. Analytics is an awesome visitor tracking program that Google has developed. All you need to do is slap a few lines of code on your site and let it be. Analytics will automatically start tracking your sites visitors - telling you where they are coming from, how long they are staying, what pages they are visiting, and much much more. The best part? Like most things from Google, it is free! There is no reason that you should not be using the program to track your site traffic and evaluate what is working for you.
Website: http://www.google.com/analytics
Cost: Free

YouTube
Social media is a huge part of the web 2.0 revolution and is attracting many more people and businesses to the internet. One way to take advantage of social media and viral marketing is through uploading videos that you create to free video sharing websites such as YouTube. YouTube allows you to upload any video you make (as long as it is under its file size requirements) and share it with your friends, embed it in your website, or post it on other websites such as Facebook. YouTube offers an amazing way to find new customers and visitors for your website. By displaying your website name, logo, or web address in your videos, you will see some traffic come from YouTube…as long as the video is good and people are watching it! If you’re looking to brand yourself and your business, start making some videos and posting them on YouTube!
Website: http://www.youtube.com
Cost: Free

Mint
Looking for a good free way to manage your finances and keep track of your spending? Then you should check out Mint. Mint allows you to link pretty much any bank account, credit card account, and online payment account (like PayPal) to your Mint account and see a summary of your spending and your total income/debt. You can then see trends as to what you are spending the most on and what you need to cut back on. Mint also provides you with different opportunities to save money by switching banks or credit card offers.
Website: http://www.mint.com
Cost: Free

StartupNation
StartupNation is a community website for entrepreneurs featuring step-by-step advice, videos, podcasts, and many resources. The website also features a pretty active forum. StartupNation is definitely a site to keep an eye on as you work on developing your business and have questions you want to try to get answered.
Website: http://www.startupnation.com
Cost: Free

Young Go Getter
Young Go Getter is an active forum for entrepreneurs. You can definitely get the help you need from this group of dedicated people with their knowledge spanning a wide array of industries and technologies. If you have questions about an industry, looking for some help, or just want a place to hang out, then check out YGG.
Website: http://www.younggogetter.com
Cost: Free

Young Entrepreneur
A community of entrepreneurs and want to be entrepreneurs exceeding more than 5000 members strong, YE is a site to visit and visit often. Although some of the content may not always be the most relevant or it may be ’spam’ posts, if you have the time to sort through and find the good stuff, then it is worth it. I talked with the creator a couple weeks back and he says things are in the works to make YE much better in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out! This group of helpful people can definitely be a benefit to you and will help you in any way they can!
Website: http://www.youngentrepreneur.com
Cost: Free

And finally, of course, Dorm Room Biz is always one of the best places to get help as a student entrepreneur!

What are your favorite websites to check and resources to refer to when you need some help?

Small Towns Are Great Business Locations

Take advantage of the things that small towns offer to businesses!

Thinking about taking your business to the next level or starting one in general? If you live in a small town, then you should definitely consider it! Small towns and cities offer some advantages and benefits that you may not find in larger, more populated areas such as Washington D.C., New York, Baltimore, Miami, or Los Angelos. Looking at places like Roanoke, VA, Colorado Springs, CO, etc. you will find plenty of business opportunities that could be very successful.

Here are 11 reasons why small towns and cities are attractive business locations:

1. Potentially weaker competition because the big box retailers and business are not focusing on the area or have focused on larger cities.
2. Opportunities to work with smaller and more dynamic companies that are interested in helping you succeed as well as themselves.
3. Better chances for media exposure. Small town papers and news channels will eat up a story about a young entrepreneur or new small business opening in the are. This is press you probably wouldn’t be able to get in larger towns.
4. The cost of living can be extremely less in small cities and can make opening or expanding your business more viable. Retail/office lease prices are less as well.
5. You can usually drastically lower your commute time by not having to fight through traffic during peak hours.
6. Access to more resources such as universities and their departments (such as the VT Knowledgeworks)
7. Better chances of getting to know influential people in a region and more opportunities for intimate networking.
8. Getting out of a more populated city can bring you closer to quality of life amenities such as golf courses, parks, hiking trails, mountains,
9. Small town attitudes and relationships can be very helpful. Knowing your customers and the people you serve by name, dealing with them regularly, and leveraging any other relationships you may have in area such as family or friends can be HUGE to your business.
10. Advertising and marketing efforts can be more cost effective in small towns.
11. Lower operating costs including electricity, utilities, health care, etc.

A big thank you goes out to two good friends of mine, Stuart Mease and Mike Michalowicz, for their input and thoughts on the topic. I highly recommend checking out their websites!

Charisma - Leadership Qualities Series

Charisma is a special personal quality that generates others’ interest and causes them to follow.

Napoleon makes the point that great leaders are optimists and merchants of hope. Optimism, a sense of adventure, and commitment to a cause are traits found in charismatic leaders. These are qualities that unleash the potential of others and bring forth their energies. Charisma is difficult to define, but the result is admiration, enthusiasm, and the loyalty of followers. Charismatic leaders in history include Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, and Elizabeth I.

As a leader, ask yourself, Do I possess a positive outlook and commitment in my demeanor that transforms followers to new levels or performance as well as personal loyalty to me?

If you are just tuning into the Leadership Qualities Series, head over to the introductory post so you can catch up on the previous posts!

ShowYourLoveShop.com Launched

In less than 48 hours I launched a brand new niche e-commerce website focused on products available to make your upcoming Valentine’s Day even more special for you and your loved one. The shop, Show Your Love Shop, currently features 30 different products with more being added daily. This is half experiment and half serious business.

I say that it is half experiment because this will be a test to see how well different marketing techniques work to market a site with about only a month before the holiday. Also, it it is a test to see how well these different products might be able to sell. The site is based on the Shopify shopping cart system, which I will discuss more in another post.

This is also half a serious business venture because I had to put about $30 behind it so far to create and launch it. Shopify is only free to a certain limit (10 products) and I needed to have more than that, so I had to upgrade to the basic plan at $25, adding in the domain name, I have spent just over $30 so far - hopefully I can get a few sales and recover that amount.

So, I encourage you to check out the site, maybe pick up a thoughtful Valentine’s Day gift for your special someone, and give me some feedback about the site.

With only about a month before the holiday, I would love to hear any marketing techniques you can think of to get the site out there and seen!

Yaro of Blog Mastermind Releases Free Chapter on Marketing Through Conversations —-Sign up today for the Blog Mastermind Program, only 4 days left!

Yaro from Entrepreneurs Journey and his flagship blogging education program called “Blog Mastermind” has released a free chapter of his program for everyone to read, not just limited to his current subscribers. If you are not a member of the Blog Mastermind program, I would highly recommend it if you are looking to start taking blogging seriously and want to learn different ways to make your blog skyrocket into high traffic and high income. Below, is the free lesson and at the end is also some different action steps that Yaro suggests you take to achieve the different topics covered within the lesson.

——————–

I know many of you have eagerly awaited this section of Blog Mastermind. It’s time to talk marketing.

Before we do that though, let’s cover a few key points to review what we have done so far and where we are heading.

Through the early lessons you created your blog (if you didn’t have one already) and then optimized your blog structure. I then equipped you with an understanding of what goes into effective blog content, covering key concepts like authenticity and copywriting for blogs.

Theoretically you now know what goes into a blog people will want to read. The next problem is finding these people and convincing them to come discover your blog.

Falling Behind?

To this point you may have struggled to keep up with the tasks so I feel it necessary to remind you that this process is not a race. Although I assign you weekly tasks and continue to throw fresh content at you, there is no rule that you have to study and implement everything as it comes and adhere to a strict schedule.

Obviously you get more out of this program if you are doing something every week, but it is important that you work to a pace that works for you, that you enjoy the process and experience rewards relevant to your situation (yes you can celebrate your first 10 RSS subscribers!).

I don’t want you to experience information overload. If you are feeling the symptoms of this syndrome remember that you only need focus on one task and one problem at a time. Pick one aspect of your blogging that you want to improve and focus on implementing tasks related to that problem. Once you are on top of things, move on to the next problem.

Building on Previous Efforts

Many of the tasks I will assign you in upcoming lessons relate back to what you learned and hopefully implemented in previous lessons. I strongly recommend you don’t waste marketing energies until you are on top of your content production.

I’ve said this before - there is no point marketing an empty blog - so go back and work on your foundations if necessary. If that means you file the marketing related lessons for later study while you focus on the first ten lessons, so be it, the marketing lessons are available when you are ready.

The ideal situation you are working towards is to form blog writing habits, a routine you go through that results in publishing fresh content to your blog at a pace of around one article per day.

Whether you wake up each morning and write one article, or you spend your weekends writing seven articles that you drip feed throughout the week, doesn’t matter, it just needs to be a habit so you keep it up for the long haul - and you get good at it, so you can produce more content in less time.

Once content production becomes part of your life (or you have outsourced that aspect of your blogging) you can focus your learning muscles on experimenting with all the different marketing techniques I am going to present to you.

Ideally, you should now spend about 1-2 hours a day on writing great content, and spend another 1-2 hours per day on marketing, but don’t market if you haven’t got fresh content coming. The work ratio should skew towards marketing starting from this lesson forward, but writing new content should become easier, and thus quicker.

I’ll teach you methods that allow you to leverage your content production skills for marketing, so adding proactive marketing to your daily tasks should not excessively increase your workload. Move a little further forward each day and you will do fine.

How To Build Blog Traffic

By far the number one complaint bloggers have, and this effects bloggers at all levels, is not having enough traffic. Whether you are just starting out or well established, we all want more traffic, and rightly so, since traffic is the single biggest determinant of profitability - there is no money without traffic.

I’m going to cut to the chase, there are only four ways you can get traffic to your blog -

1. You can buy it
2. You can get it from search engines
3. You can take other people’s traffic
4. You can do or create something that generates attention and word of mouth

We will cover all four methods through the upcoming lessons. Note that you don’t have to use every single method, in fact many people focus on becoming proficient at one method only. Obviously the more you diversify, the less dependence you have on any one source, which is important because no technique remains effective forever and the environment constantly changes.

I make use of the last method the most, but I have experience with all of them.

Some blogs focus on search engines and work constantly on search engine optimization (SEO), researching keywords, building links and chasing long tail traffic.

Other blogs use paid advertising to establish an initial following by purchasing paid reviews, pay per click ads and banners on websites and blogs.

Then there are bloggers who use techniques to “borrow” traffic from other sources, perhaps through joint ventures, or guest blogging or even simple methods like we will review in this lesson and the next - leaving comments and posting in forums.

The most common way bloggers use to build traffic, which unfortunately is usually the slowest unless you have existing leverage points in place, is to focus on building content. Great content can be enough to sustain a blog, but it’s rarely enough to get it going in the first place. It’s usually necessary to combine this method with one or several of the other traffic techniques, at least initially. Read more »

Where do you sell a website? How do you price a website?

Looking to get rid of your website? Wondering where you can sell your website or blog at? Here are a couple resources to do so and also to learn how to value your website.

Places to sell your website or blog:

• SitePoint Marketplace
• Digital Point Forums
• BuySellWebsites

How do you value your website?

• Entrepreneurs Journey - How to sell a website
• WebsiteGear - How to sell a website
• College Start Up - 7 ways to evaluate the value of a website

Good luck with selling your website or even buying some. Check out the forums above if you are in the market to buy something as well!

Portfolio eh?

Over the years I’ve had a lot of people ask me for tips on how to build or construct a portfolio. Maybe its time I sit down and talk about it.

I saw at the bright age of thirteen that having a portfolio really pays off in the work field and industry. My father is a die-hard entreprenuer and fortunately through his hard work and talent, he never needed a portfolio. What? I just used an example that contradicts my topic. Reason being - My father grew up in a not so technologically advanced age. In this day and age - the portfolio is just one of many tools that can set you apart from the competition.

I started developing web sites and related material when I worked in the professional wrestling business with Heritage Pro Wrestling and the AIWF’s SCW. Each job I have taken I have somehow tried to implement my sklls so I can continue to extend my portfolio. It has paid off over the years and I have learned a few tricks of the trade a long the way.

Start Small
I know it sounds like no-brainer-common sense, but in all honesty, some people think that portfolio’s gotta have humongous projects. This isn’t the case - you must “crawl before you walk” my father always said.

Look around, project potential is unlimited. Friends, coworkers, bosses, organizations on campus, and campus departments all have work that needs to be completed - use your major / talents to their and your advantage. Logos, promotional flyers, letterhead, introduction 5-page web sites - the possibilities are endless in terms of creating the groundwork for your portfolio.

Don’t be afraid to ask
Look at it in this light - if you don’t someone else will. Do you know a way that could better promote the project? Use your instincts, talents, and inside knowledge to benefit. Remember, you may be taking a paycut or helping for “free”. In actuality, you are given an opportunity to build your portfolio AND advertise your abilities. In the long-run you are being paid through an improved work record and work rate.

Construct
So you have completed projects. What is your proof? One of the things I have made sure to do with each project is (with my boss’s permission) keep copies of the work I have created - both electronically and in hard copy. For example - my portfolio spans both a scrapbook and a cd. You can open up the scrapbook and see covers, fliers, and print outs of web sites I have designed. If you use the cd, you are able to walk through an interface that showcases projects, descriptions, and links to projects that are alive on the Internet.

Bring copies to your interview
Nothing beats bringing in your portfolio to your potential employer. It shows that you have the work experience. It also gives ground during an interview to where you can explain how you got your feet wet in bringing the project to life. With the electronic portfolios, you can leave copies with your potential employer so that they may view it later on down the road. This is very effective during job fairs, workshops and conventions.

All in all, I hope that by creating a portfolio will deepen your creditability and expand your working history. I will most likely build upon this article in the future to provide more detailed information, such as creating a simple electronic portfolio and layouts for the scrapbook portfolios. Now, get to it - start building yours today!