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You’ve probably noticed how SEO is getting more attention from the media. Some even say that SEO is dead, and that investing in it is like flogging a dead horse. But these statements are wrong because SEO is more alive than ever. However, people are ignoring this rich advertising possibility because of these rumors. Many statistics are saying otherwise. The truth is that SEO can help you to expand your business, improve your marketing strategy, and make a bunch of money. Here are some of the most important reasons why you should develop a proper SEO strategy. Marketing benefits If you are not interested in SEO, you’re missing a great marketing opportunity. Google algorithms are based on its principles. Surely, you want your website to rank as high as possible. People browsing the Net are not checking only one term on one website – they try different websites and modify their search terms. So, what can you do? You can offer your customers a great variety of material. This way, if they modify the term, your page will appear, again and again. Google will notice this and you will be one step closer to appearing on the first page. The rise of online customers It […]
If you have a tech startup or an online business, you’re most likely doing most of your work right in your own bedroom, on a neighborhood cafe, or just about anywhere convenient. At one point, however, you might be asked by clients where you’re operating. Or maybe you’re ready to formally register your business. Does it mean that it’s time to reconsider your setup? Don’t move out and rent just yet! A virtual office might come in handy. A virtual office is a setup where a leasing company would allow you to use their address for a fee. You can officially use their address even in your business registration and other transactions. Because there’s actually no physical office space involved, you’re just going to pay minimal fees. In effect, you’re renting yourself a mailbox. It’s a great way for getting yourself a prestigious business address that you won’t otherwise be able to afford in the meantime. Sounds great? Here’s when you should get a virtual office for your business: You’re wooing big deals From the perspective of your clients, a business address would make you more attractive to enter into contract with. Especially when you’re chasing after investment money, you […]
A lot of local businesses are opting to use personal profiles as their business’ main marketing account in Facebook. This is very risky and ultimately counterproductive. Here are several reasons you shouldn’t do it: Reason # 1 This is against Facebook’s terms of service. Your account might get DELETED anytime. They have already deleted many of these the past couple of years. If you’re using your account to represent something other than yourself, you could permanently lose access to your account if you don’t convert it to a Page. via Facebook Reason # 2 Friend limit is only up to 5,000. Local pages can have 10,000 fans or more. Reason # 3 There is no engagement insights in your personal profile. You won’t be able to analyze how many people see your posts, the age range or location of most of your fans, the best time to post, the best content to post, and the like. Reason #4 Advertising features are very limited in personal profiles. You won’t be able to ramp up your business exposure, if so. Reason #5 Additional tabs are only available in Facebook Pages, such as business event calendar, top fans tab, quiz tab, polls, and more. . […]
You may be a programming geek, a tech enthusiast, or a millennial with a dozen social media accounts. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Are you the type who can’t figure out what a hashtag does or how to log in to a secure WiFi network? As underwhelming as this sounds, cyberpreneurship isn’t so much about what you know or what you don’t know. The playing field, rules, protocols, and whatnot may be very different and boundless compared to a brick-and-mortar store, but cyberpreneurship is still anchored onto the basic qualities of being a successful entrepreneur. Let’s start by asking yourself three basic questions: How passionate are you to learn? What are the things you’re willing to risk? Are you committed to conquer challenges ahead? But wait. If you have answered these questions pretty well, don’t jump the gun just yet. Although they’re basic questions, it wasn’t meant to be that simple. Here’s what you need to do next: Dip your fingers in Most successful entrepreneurs didn’t only start young. They started small. Entrepreneurship, like creativity, can be a strand in people’s DNA that are more dominant in some people, surprisingly turning the ordinary into an enterprising opportunity. A case […]
Starting a business isn’t easy, and sustaining one is even harder. How did Kimstore, an online marketplace for gadgets started by Kim Lato in 2006, grow from a humble Multiply outlet to one of the pioneers of e-commerce in the Philippines? Kim Lato talks about the challenges of starting and sustaining a business. Before Starting a Business When asked if she knew from the beginning that she was going to be an entrepreneur, Kim answered, “I came from an entrepreneurial family, so it was normal for me to see my parents running their own businesses. Then when it came time to start my own, it was easy for me to welcome the idea.” Multiply, which was where Kimstore started, was used mainly as a social networking website. So how did she think of using Multiply as a marketplace? “I had a pool of friends on Multiply, which at the time was the fastest-growing social network. Usually, people just blogged on it, but I thought, ‘Hey, I have friends on Multiply, so why not sell in this community?’ “So I started selling cameras, lenses, and other accessories. Then, people who bought cameras from me were also looking for phones and tablets, […]
Who says that you cannot have the time of your life while working from home? Working from home is undoubtedly fun! With more than six years as a cyberpreneur, I’ve had my share of ups and downs. But nevertheless, about 70% can be linked with F-U-N. True story. So yeah, here’s my list of things to do or things to think about to have the best-est days as an online entrepreneur. 1) Define fun What does “fun” mean to you? Get clear with it and work from there. We surely have various perspectives, so what might be fun for me might be different from you. I might envision fun as curling up with a nice book or you might consider heading to the beach to spell “fun”. Mull over this for 10 minutes. Right down your answer. 2) Integrate passion with fun What is it about passion that makes people tick? And how is it connected with fun? Well, passion is all about what excites you. It’s all about what keeps you up at night without complaining at every bit of it. Whatever that is, keep at it. You’ll be amazed that work, when considered your passion, becomes stress-free. Passion […]
Ask what an OFW wants to get after his or her return. It’s very likely to get these two big answers: their dream house and a big capital for a profitable business venture. For the latter, OFWs can save a big amount of money in a span of 10+ years, and then come back home to start their dream businesses. This is the part of the story where we stop and call it a happily-ever-after. The reality for some OFWs may be this: After investing their life savings on capital-intensive businesses (for example, a restaurant franchise or a fleet of taxis), somewhere along the line, they make a wrong turn. They might have misjudged the market demand or trusted the wrong persons. Everything crumbles and the ex-OFWs go back to the job market for another overseas opportunity. If you’re an OFW really into starting your own business and still see yourself retiring in the Philippines, cyberpreneurship can help you get started. Here are some of its advantages. It teaches you the fundamentals of running a business Why should you wait until your contract expires or that X amount of savings before you find out if running a business is for […]
What’s the first thing that you notice when you’re visiting online marketplaces? Is it the description of a certain item, or the image for the product? As humans, we’re visual in nature. For sure, most of the time, you remember product photography more than detailed description. Visuals can create an impact to get a response from a potential customer. It triggers a reaction – emotional, psychological, and even physical – among your audiences. Product photography can create a connection between the sellers and purchasers like you. Due to a shorter attention span nowadays, the challenge for online sellers is how you will attract and persuade potential customers before they move on or click out. Product photography is essential regardless of what you’re selling: it’s a major factor in capturing your customer’s interest. Here are some helpful tips on how to engage your potential customers using product photography: Show different angles As the old saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” It can also be applied to online selling for the purpose of helping the customers decide whether to buy a certain item or not. The customers cannot touch your products physically, but you can let them visualize your […]
Pokémon Go is nothing short of a worldwide craze. For the uninitiated, the game requires you to be alert to spot Pokémons and catch them with Poke Balls. There are stubborn Pokémons that can use up your Poke Balls and escape when captured. To get more balls and other helpful items (such as potions and eggs), you have to find Poke Stops. But there’s more to it than just an AR-enabled game. It’s turning out to be a business opportunity as well, especially for brick-and-mortar businesses such as restaurants. For cyberpreneurs, there are also great lessons to learn. Here are some. 1. Take more of the same to evolve A Rattata again? You may think you’re getting more of the same, and might even be tempted to pass up such leads. However, like your Pokémons, you can only evolve into something bigger and stronger if you’ve paid your dues (not necessarily with candies). For now, you may be struggling with your seventh blog post for a client about Creatine health benefits. But one day, you might have an online PR empire of your own to run. 2. Bring opportunities to where you are You can get the same opportunities without going […]
There’s constant competition between brands for market domination. When companies are small, this can be done with quality improvements and price adjustments. But as businesses grow, there grows the competition too. The market battle becomes tougher. This requires taking extra moves in order to maintain and keep the customers interested. Brand awareness comes into play due to customers’ most important requirement that they’re usually not aware of (at least not always) – the emotional need. How to define brand awareness? Put simply, in the words of Jeff Bezos (the founder of Amazon): “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.” One of the key steps in promoting a product is creating brand awareness – or the likelihood that consumers recognize the availability of a certain service or product. It is a rudimentary form of brand recognition. It’s important to distinguish it from brand recognition, although the difference between them is subtle. If the purpose of brand awareness is having customers keep coming back to you and having your products as their products of choice, then increasing it is extremely important. Here is what you can do to increase brand awareness. 1. Engage in social […]
Maybe you couldn’t get a straight answer from a client, or a team leader won’t send you a project document as promised. For all the benefits it brings to the company, there are still many people who resist sharing knowledge. At the heart of the resistance is the fear of change: what would happen if I share my knowledge – and more so, if I depend on another person’s knowledge? As Thomas Davenport notes in Ten Principles of Knowledge Management, “Sharing and using knowledge are often unnatural acts.” To make things more complicated, sometimes people won’t even admit or show resistance openly. Not wanting to share knowledge speaks a lot about the interests (sometimes conflicting and competing) of people in your company. Understandably, people have various reasons for resisting knowledge sharing as much as they have different stakes. Here are some common reasons for resisting knowledge sharing and the troubleshooting tips to address them. 1. Insecurity “I don’t want to share what I know because it may reduce my value or jeopardize my job security.” Guarantee that sharing knowledge won’t diminish anyone’s value – on the contrary, it would increase respect and trust. Your company could assign knowledge-sharing objectives to each employee’s […]
There have been substantial changes in the global marketplace over the past decade. It has undergone a major shift, and businesses today are not limited by geographical location or borders. The only things that count are the amount of willingness and creativity in adapting to new technologies, and finding new ways for using them to your own advantage. Business owners and entrepreneurs who want to launch an eCommerce business should know something about the eCommerce industry and what it takes to achieve and maintain success in it. The eCommerce Industry There appears to be no essential limit to strong and steady business growth in the eCommerce industry. In the past decade, all vital metrics in the eCommerce field have increased, and with a broader reach and lower startup costs, more and more entrepreneurs are switching to online retail. According to facts presented by BusinessInsider, people aged 18 to 34 remain to spend more money online than any other age group, and the majority of online shoppers tend to have incomes higher than typical (above $75,000). If you have an idea for starting an online eCommerce business or launching an eCommerce branch of an existing brick-and-mortar store, the time to do it […]
Every business starts with an opportunity. Your online or cyber business idea has to be rooted to a real-world problem that a group of people are dealing with. In short, you’re selling a solution. You have to think about a particular problem, and then figure out what type of business you’re in. Broadly speaking, there are 3 categories of online businesses: service-based, knowledge-based, and product-based. Here’s a video we’ve prepared to give you a short introduction: Service-based online business This is the easiest type of online business to launch. Just by being online, you can reach out to potential customers – people or other small businesses – who need your service. There are many job sites where you can get projects from. Or you can even just promote your service right on social media, maybe a friend of a friend has an urgent requirement for your skill. Writing, designing, and coding are some of the most in demand skills that you can offer via the Web. Selling your services is also a good way for building the skills and experience that you need if you plan to transition to a new career. Knowledge-based online business If you have expertise or […]
So, if you are confident about your products and services and you don’t want to waste your time, take these learning into consideration and market wisely.
There’s this old idea in Silicon Valley that says: “hire slow, fire fast”. However, this idea doesn’t work with a startup. You would need as many good hands as possible to keep your ship from sinking. So instead of hiring less people and firing more, you need to “hire fast, fire fast”. As much as possible, retain all your good employees and weed out the bad ones, which could heavily affect productivity. Instead of firing someone, what you need to do is screen your potential employees before signing their work contract. What to look for in a potential employee In an interview, every person you shake hands with seems to be a pretty good candidate for the job. You would want to hire everyone that comes through that door (if you have the budget for it, why not?). Interviewees might have experience, but they might not have long-term commitments nor willingness to adapt to your work environment or the demands of the industry. What you need is an employee that has 5 or more of these traits to help man your startup: Drive Startups need manpower that would help the company move forward. Even if it is outside the job […]
The rise of the Internet age has given us far more than just the capability to connect with friends or upload selfies online. It has also given modern entrepreneurs capabilities not possible several decades ago. As an online marketing consultant, one of the perks of my work is that it gives me a front row seat on the evolving landscape of business, and how the Internet is helping businesses who take the initiative of incorporating online elements in their operations. It also makes those that don’t obsolete in a matter of years and even months. Whether you have a primarily online or offline business, chances are Internet tools, widgets, plugins, apps and features play an important role in ensuring the success for your business. The following are some concrete examples: 1. Cheaper start-up cost The Internet has made starting a business simple and cheap. With just a website or even a fan page, you can already start a multitude of businesses – such as a bakeshop, an apparel store, or a bookstore – without the need for a brick and mortar office or shop. This also makes it very easy for you to test the validity of your business idea. […]
The Philippines is getting serious in promoting startups as a way to grow the economy. Through Senate Bill 2217 or the “Start-up Business Bill”, the government hopes to set a favorable business environment for budding entrepreneurs. Before you get too excited, there are some caveats to the program since it’s designed for those new in entrepreneurship. The start-up business bill was filed on May 2014 by Senator Bam Aquino and is currently awaiting passage into law. Indeed, it’s a very positive step in recognizing the contributions of startups in: Job creation Production Innovation Trade What’s a “startup”? According to the bill, “start-up enterprises” are newly registered businesses either in industry, agribusiness, and/or services. Digital startups are covered under this broad definition, which also spans offline and more traditional sectors. It includes all ownership types – from sole proprietorship, cooperatives, partnerships, to corporations. What does the bill mean for you? As a cyberpreneur, you’ll be exempt from paying taxes in your fist two years of business! It covers both national and local taxes. A tax break! How cool is that? You get to keep your earnings and reinvest it to grow your startup. It also gives you time to organize, develop, and learn what works for […]
Businesses only become sustainable when its customers are happy. But even when it happens, this stage is still very temporary. When customers sense they’re worth nothing more than their money to you, they’ll shop around and go to where they feel they’re valued the most. Customer satisfaction should be a cornerstone of your brand. With the global market today, competition is everywhere. Since the market has gone online, it’s harder to build trust between the customer and the business. With a well-developed brand, it’s easier to spot if a certain product or service being offered is reliable, or if it is a sham. Here are some tips to consider in ensuring customer satisfaction and establishing a trustworthy brand for your business: Be accessible Customers want to know the fine print about your business. Make sure to have your communication lines open – listing your social media accounts, hotline numbers, and even operating address makes a huge difference. Return the favor by assisting them and eliminating their worries. This would lead to your brand’s credibility. Be honest Being open about both your business’s strengths and weakness (or more aptly, your limitations) lets your customers know you have their best interest at […]
With the theme “Building inclusive economies, building a better world”, the 2015 APEC Summit that’s currently hosted by the Philippines puts emphasis on sustainable and resilient businesses. This extends to cyberpreneurs, who stands to benefit from APEC’s renewed push for liberalizing service industries. Gathering 21 member-economies from across borders of the Pacific Rim, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is where almost half of the world’s total trade happen. At first glance, it may seem that APEC is all about corporations, regulatory bodies, and economic ministries. But the importance of MSMEs (micro, small, and medium enterprises) in the region cannot be discounted. As highlighted by APEC’s Small and Medium Enterprises Working Group, MSMEs comprise over 97 percent of all enterprises and employ more than half of the workforce in the region. As many MSMEs move to the digital front, how can you benefit from APEC? 1. Join APEC start-up challenges Started in 2013, the APEC Start-up Accelerator Initiative is on a mission to match tech start-ups with possible mentors and funding opportunities. It offers hands-on business consulting among start-ups engaged in key innovation areas (such as interactive learning). The initiative has since sponsored six Asia-Pacific start-ups to participate in competitions held in Silicon Valley, helping […]
Gone are the days when coupons are cut out from newspapers and magazines. Online businesses have digitized the tactic. For customers, coupons are a lifesaver, enabling them to purchase favorite items with huge discounts. Use coupons as a way to promote your business and enhance customer loyalty. How to maximize your coupon page For many e-commerce sites, coupons encourage customer to shop more at your website. Coupons are a win-win situation for both businesses and consumers. If you want to boost your coupon campaigns, you have to start by creating appealing coupon designs. Laying down the basics, your coupon should contain important information such as merchant logos, a brief description, and emphasis on the discount or amount off purchases. Make sure to feature good brands in your e-store, since it not only encourages more shoppers to buy from you, but also strengthens your credibility as a coupon provider. Like all things on the Web, coupons need to be regularly updated, so check for validity and promo expiration. What customers get from coupons The most important part of any coupon campaign is how much the customers get when using your merchant coupons. Shoppers love discounts, so attract them to your site […]