This video is very good video as it search engines are always developing to combat spammer and help users to find the most relevant information. This video is more an hour long, but I watched it all and here are some highlights if you don’t have time to watch.
Highlights:
If you have fancy navigation (in flash) make sure that your page is accessible in many ways. Static htmls are the easiest for search engine to crawl
Alt text on the images is very important. This also correlates with Whiteboard Friday video @ seomoz.org
Do your keyword research in AdWords you might rank high for a certain word, but there might be a very popular search term in your industry that you are completely missing out on
Don’t use too much bolding, people can’t read it very well and crawlers might think it is a spam
Make sure your thumbnails lead to bigger pictures. Google tries to index bigger pictures as this is what users are searching for
Basic, but make sure your loading time is appropriate. Especially if you want people to access your website from cell phones
ALWAYS backup your website. Everybody gets hacked, timely back-ups will allow you to quickly restore your website.
My favourite: best $20 you can spend is by taking a random person, tying your hands behind your back and ask them to use your website
Before buying a website make sure you check its history. Some urls were owned by spammers, burned to the ground and then put up for sale
Overall great video. It is almost like going for class session on SEO.
It’s been awhile since I wrote. Running a real life business is demanding both emotionally and time wise. Most of the time at the end of the day, after all the battles, I just wanna watch a movie and hit the pillow. The internet business is like anything else in life, if you want to succeed it is not going to be a bed of roses; you will have to work hard and some days you will hate what you are doing.
This time I wanted to write about the emotional part of running any business. After almost a full year of running a business I can say that no business school in the world can teach how to deal with the emotional aspect of starting up the business. Even working in a big corporation and being responsible for bunch of people won’t give an idea what is like to fight for your idea, be responsible for other people’s lives, have fun, make money, and stay sane while doing it.
I think that no matter what business you are starting it won’t go as smoothly as planned and you are likely to run into obstacles that can bring you down. In an internet business like mine where you sell ads you don’t even have a product to sell in the beginning (no page views no sales). We’ve been doing a lot of seeding work and you won’t see the fruits of our labour immediately. We’ve been screwed over by our web company that effectively prevented us for close to a year to start making any money on the website. So how do I personally and the company as a result keep going?
As “Good to Great” states we face the brutal facts and then we still have unconditional belief that with hard work we shall reach our goal no matter what. This is simple advice, but sometimes it is hard to continue believing in yourself when nobody else does, when you family/friends tell you to get a real job and you start doubting yourself. Guess what? This why running a business is not for everybody. This is what separates fighters from wanna-bes. Your ability to not let the emotion take over you, to believe in yourself and continue to push hard is what makes a winner. In anything there is a breaking point where 90% of people will give up and 10% will continue to push, people who push become extraordinary in whatever they do.
We only live once, so I think it is worth figuring out are you a fighter or not? So NEVER and I mean NEVER stop believing in yourself.
I am not going to go into a long explanation about my awfull experience with Discount Car and Truck Rental. You can see the video, here is what happened:
-I booked a pick -up truck (because we have bicycles) and had a confirmed reservation for our four day trip
-two hours before the start of the trip I get a phone call saying that there no pick up truck as the one was in accident and that they appologize for the inconvenience, but they don’t have any other cars
-they told me I can call main line of customer service
-I left 4 voicemails to customer service and sent a letter, and I didn’t even receive an apology
My thoughts: that is some awfull customer service.I mean the left me on Thursday running around trying to rent a pick-up truck from other companies, of course they were almost none left and the prices I paid for one was way bigger than expected. I was just lucky I could get one. i understand that accidents happen, but they happen in every industry and for that you have a buffer. (Exta cars) if you don’t have anything, you go to your competition (like airline companies do ) and make the trip possible. IF you can’t do anything you still should do something to make it up to your customer: free rental, apologies, vice president calling you – something!
Not only these guys screwed up, but they also didn’t leave any ways of communicating with them and just showed they don’t really care about me. Well if you don’t care me I can less about you Discount Car Rental. I just hope other people don’t get into the same trap.
Tourism Montreal is Now Using 100% Web-Based Advertising - that is pretty significant shift from a government supported office. That is a great opportunity for people in media business like myself. Got to figure out who is taking care of their media buying. I think toronto4couples.com would be a great fit for them.
Sometimes when topic is of a particular interest I do visit launches in Gladstone Hotel organized by Interacative Ontario. I find their events very informative and in some way motivational as you get people in the room that have similar vision to yours.
This past Friday the topic was Ontario Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit (OIDMTC) . OIDMTC is a refundable tax credit based upon the eligible Ontario expenditures claimed by Canadian corporation for an interactive digital media products.
These are my notes from the discussion:
-bigger portion of the discussion was centered on SR&ED vs. OIDMTC . Conclusion: SR&ED is better since you can apply for it year long and you don’t have to have a successful product in a time of application. However, if you are in doubt either your company is eligible for SR&ED you can apply for both programs and government will choose which is the most appropriate program for you. You can’t stack two of these credits.
-OIDMTC is a labour credit. Some nuances might arise when you sub-contract work to other companies. If you do plan to claim this credit make sure you meet with an accounting firm that has an expertise in this field to make sure you stay in requirements of the credit.
-it is a good idea to hire an accounting company to fill out the application for you as it can be very difficulat to do it for a person. Most of the accounting companies work on contingency basis (10%-25%) depending on a difficulty of an application
-when you do use outside company make sure you still understand the process of the claim and what is submitted to the government. When they come with an audit you want to be able to showcase that you do what you claimed you do in your application.
-you have up to 4 years to claim OIDMTC and if you constantly update your product (for example website platform update) you can only apply once in two years. From what I understood you have to apply by the end of your fiscal year.
-two deadlines May 11th and October
Overall it seemed like that if you are eligible it is actually humanely possible to receive this credit and people in OMDC are actually pretty nice and answer phone calls. Being a new entrepreneur during recession times there are so many things I have to take care of and sometimes it is hard to pay attention to everything. However, optimizing you company and getting financed through governemnt should never go off your radar as cashflow and investment is a bloodline for a start-up business.
I will post in the future my experiences with applyijg for different tax credits.
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