SmallBusinessNewz

7 Steps to Earning Customer Trust Online

Keeping in theme with my recent article about ingredients to surviving in online business, let's talk about earning customer trust. A recent survey found that 81% of consumers don't trust small online businesses.

5 Key Ingredients to Surviving in Online Business

This is a basic list of key things that are critical to having a successful online business. This article is more for the person who is new to online business rather than the seasoned professional. 1. Design I really can't stress enough how important a professional-looking design is for attracting sales. Quite frankly, many people will just not trust a site that is poorly designed.

Don't Let Blog Comments Ruin Your Reputation

Blogs and blog comments are great for a small business owner because they allow you to socialize with others within your niche, which can indirectly promote your business. This is true for both your own blog and comments on others, but one thing you have to be careful of is a commenter who is out to make you look bad.

Many Businesses Unprepared For Reputation Problems

Paul Dunay has finished his Reputation Management for New Media Survey and you can now download the report–for free!

The Free Model and Personal Experience

I’m so glad to see the Financial Times take a look at the biggest flaw with the "free" model that’s embraced the web: you can’t make money with it! “There is going to be a shake-out here in the next year or two” as many Web 2.0 companies disappear, said Roger Lee, a partner at Battery Ventures. Despite this, venture capital firms are still eager to throw money around…

Getting Removed From Search Results

Most people I talk to want more search engine visibility, not less. Still, every once in a while I get a request to remove an unflattering result in Google. Here's some advice on how to get it done: The best first step is to remove the reference on the originating Web page. If you don't, there's a very good chance that the result will reappear even after you get it removed.

Search Engine Optimization Strategies for Managing Your Reputation

There is nothing more precious than your reputation. What happens when one jealous ex-lover, disgruntled employee or unsatisfied customer decides to get nasty and post something snarky on the Internet about you. And horror of horrors, it shows up #4 at Google or Yahoo when somebody searches for your name or your business name? That’s when you need an SEO campaign for reputation management. While every campaign is unique, there are a few key steps you should take.

Reputation Management and SEO Are Not the Same Thing

For once, the (semi-)mainstream media (almost) gets it right. Chris Wilson, editorial assistant at the Washington Post-owned Internet magazine Slate, wrote an article Friday about search engine optimization—and it didn’t confuse legitimate SEO with the snake oil salesmen that usually dominate the image of the industry. In fact, Wilson’s premise was that SEO helps everyone, and I think we’d all be inclined to agree. As he put it:

Your Pal, The Online Review

It matters what others think of you, or at least of your small business. Make sure you know what they think about your customer service.

Online Reputation Management as an Industry

Online reputation management (ORM) is officially an “industry.” While there’s been a lot of discussion about the importance of reputation management, BusinessWeek is among the first to look at the industry behind it. While I define online reputation management as this…