Author Archive

A look into the history of how websites came to be;
Where was your business 40, 30, or even 20 years ago? At those times, The Sales Corner wasn’t even an afterthought. And neither were a lot of other places we interact with today on a daily basis. Today many of our businesses, brick and mortar, or just online consist of also having web site counterparts. I’m sure plenty of those out there have paid pretty pennies for their sites. For example, Apple.com paid millions just in pre-research of the market for their web site. That didn’t even include the design costs.

I forget exactly where or how I came across it it at the time, but I ended up getting my brain turned onto this thing called Hypertext Markup Language or “HTML” for short. I remember that when I started learning about this new programming language, at the time it was using version 2.0 tags and markups. As I dug in and learned even more about it, I discovered that this programming language was thought up by Tim Berners-Lee who was at a place called CERN, and another person named Dan Connolly who was with Atrium Technologies Inc. To my current knowledge, I believe you can find both of these guys today at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). W3C today plays a huge role in how our many web browsers interpret what we see and how they interact with Website HTML, CSS and other web programming languages!

This month is It’s a very exciting on for them, and for The Sales Corner LLC, because this year in 2011 they have announced the first W3C Developer Conference, W3Conf! WooT! Good stuff, hopefully this type of conference will make it easier for web developers going forward!

I’m excited about this too because since I can remember no web browser sees the code in the exact same way as some other browser. It’s odd how interpretations of codes are simply like our human interpretations of our business. Some people see it one way, while others see it in a different way even though the information is in appearance; the same.

You see, I was designing websites several years before a lot of places we know and love today existed. I’ve seen the times change. I’ve seen the businesses online and off change. I’ve seen a lot of places and people come and go with the changes. I know that change is inevitable, and that’s why The Sales Corner LLC has changed over time and today creates a change in how you can change for yourself!

I remember being a part of BBB’s (Bulliten Board Systems) and other like places like various MUDS (Multi User Database System) and text base game environments.

It was late 1995 that I started really digging in and developing with HTML 2.0 after studying bits and pieces of HTML 1.0 and just learning as I went through the process to reach the end goal. I was so excited when I created my first web page that said “hello world!” with a black background! It was amazing! A while after, I went on an endeavor of creating a website in HTML listingPlaystation games and their cheat codes. It was for my friends and I. I had spent hours just scouring the web looking at all the other sites, trying the game cheats for what games I had, borrowing and buying the ones I didn’t, and then aggregating the information into my own web page. By the time I was finished with the bulk of the project, there were over 200 games and cheats on that website. – Aside from the occasional yard sale or store special purchase of a game, what did it cost me to develop the web page? Nothing, except my time. There were no hosting charges, or development fees, or costs of having someone do it for me. I realize now, looking back, that I wasn’t aware what my time was really worth to my friends. That wouldn’t come until later in my life.

Later on my websites continued to evolve into using better coding methods and more efficient skills uses. Eventually I began understanding custom graphics creations and 3d applications, and then also started using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) when those came about.

The crazy boom of Search Engines and being “truly” relevant with your SEO:
When I think about Search Engines, there are two that really come to mind. They are Google, and Yahoo.

Particularly Google had grabbed my attention along with other web developers in 1998. There was this new web based company with a bright idea for a searchable engine on the web that would use web links to determine the importance of it’s individual web pages. It was “the Google search engine”.

This offered web site owners the promise of their websites being found with the simple action of someone searching for a keyword or phrase. This is also what started a lot of the website search engine optimization tactics that are still being practiced by some today. Those that didn’t understand how it worked, couldn’t utilize it and maximize their success as well. Those who did, wanted to exploit it for their own success or that of their clients success. Each one deployed tactics, codes, and website content that although “relevant” in the laymen form, did not provide the value that people expected.

Back then, it was easy to search and get results. The flaw was, sometimes the results didn’t yield what you intended to find. It was possible to identify what search trends were being searched. Therefore it was possible to create a file on your directory with nothing but those keywords and phrases. The Google search engine at the time would identify with those pages being full of words and phrases that really had nothing to do with the content, but still tell you about them, because that’s what you searched for.

During the boom, there were only a few that identified how to stay in tuned with the Google algorithms. They were not always public about their changes. The people that knew how it worked, would charge loads of dollars to get your site listed on the top of the search. They were spawning practices like exchanging links or sharing links on sites and anything they else they could do to get Google searches to pick up on their website. Even if it meant organizing with links that had no relation to the actual website content. Unfortunately, the result for a lot of these places as Google changes, ended up hurting a lot of credibility from reputable sources in the process due to the “fast acting ways to get recognized” which were being practiced by their webmasters.

You’ve heard content is king? But it also needs to be relevant content!
I understand like a lot of people now today, that in order to get great rankings on any search engine, particularly on Google, you need to practice some things on a regular basis. You don’t need to worry about deploying a page full of keywords or link backs to your site. Google’s smarter then that these days! A long time ago I learned some ways to identify how Google will pick your website up long before that of someone who spends all their time on a link exchange. Here’s why!

Nowadays, Google has their hand in all kinds of things that are web based; and to take advantage of their search engine, why not utilize their tools that are obviously promoted by their search engine criteria! After all, Google loves what Google loves right?!

Google searches have a great ability to show your website on top in the first five which ultimately can give you some really spectacular search engine ranking results and traffic. However, you don’t just get high rankings by paying someone to get you there. You have to do the work. Google recognizes things differently today then they did in 1998. Today, in order to get high SEO rankings I’ve compiled a list of things you’ll need to do every single day……..no, I’m not joking. Every day. If you can’t do it every day, or have someone do it for you every day, you won’t get the results you’re looking for immediately, and it will take more time then you’d probably like to wait.

Here’s that list so you can get started NOW!

Generate new content and deliver something of value every day…
Make sure you generate NEW content every single day. Your content should be 90% or more relevant to your entire site! This includes Saturday’s and Sunday’s. Weekends are one of the busiest times for searches because people are at home, off work, and looking for things that interest them. Each piece of content should be somewhat different in definition, or if the content is the nearly the same, change it in ways so that’s it’s becomes somewhat NEW or SIMILAR to the older version, but NOT THE EXACTLY THE SAME.

Toot your own horn, spread the word, Advertise, then “wash, rinse, and repeat”…
Don’t SPAM! I’m not suggesting you send SPAM messages to people you don’t know or have never interacted from.
Utilize your network, but keep your messages to a minimum. At the same time, you need to find your balance with the people that want to hear from you. When people want to hear from you, it’s not spamming unless you’re always giving them something they don’t care about. You need to tell people in your market or area of like mindedness about your content and drive it to the people for them to find it. Telling people about stuff we like, or enjoy goes back long before the internet was conceived. Spreading the word and word of mouth has become even more valuable today with web applications like Facebook and Twitter. Join or create your own social networks! People that want to hear from you will follow or join over time! The more your active with your site is on a daily basis, the better results you’ll get from page ranking with Google. Google is always looking for highly “active and popular” websites and blogs! That’s one way to spot some really good and relevant content!

Stop just exchanging links with Link Exchanges and start linking relevantly with those around you…
It used to be you could just submit your links to a directory, or write a page on your website with a thousand links on it. That doesn’t work the way it used to. Refrain from this activity. High Rankings about based on relevance and popularity today. Don’t bother just exchanging links anymore, or even submitting to link exchanges! You’ll find this takes more time, or longer time, then it would if you sat down and wrote a 150 word blog post about your work, or your business, or someones work or product etc… You need to get EXTERNAL LINKS and BACK LINKS to your site in other places on your own page, and those that are also providing the same types of content or information you do!! Remember “relevance” (am I being redundant now?..). When you establish good relationships with those in your network and get your link permanently placed on your their pages or client’s web pages, you are creating a “web” of links that reach back to you! The reason you want permanent placement is to help with your “popularity and relevance.” You’ll find that as your online popularity grows, so with your attention seekers looking for your information from other resources they have identified with your links. You’ll rank higher on search engines once you start gathering that traffic!

Install Social Media Tools and Google PLUS into your website, blogs, pages, articles, and everywhere…
In this article, it might be the best advice I can give anyone on today’s platform of advanced tools to get noticed and become popular. There are so many providers of applications now that it’s easy to find tools like those of the Social Media Networks and things like Google PLUS that will be able to help you grow your search engine rankings! Just these things alone have the power to get you listed on top when everyone else is falling off! They are relatively easy to install with little knowledge of development and the companies that make tools like these are very savy and provide very detailed instructions to get you working! With the integration of tools like this, you are most certainly on your way to better and higher Search Engine Rankings!

Good Luck

Matt G
The Sales Corner LLC

For more information on the types of things The Sales Corner LLC can do for your business, website, or brick and mortar, you can can follow this link to our Free Membership Information page, or view our Digital Services and Products Store. If you’d like to become a member of The Sales Corner LLC to get more Free Sales and Marketing or Business help, you can fill out this form now. To go back and understand even more history, there’s a wonderful story about The Sales Corner LLC here that you can review.

So it’s possible as time goes, that you may become conflicted with a choice. A choice to choose a supplier and decide who to use for your next trade show pop up or pop up booth vendor. One of the unique values here at The Sales Corner is that we can talk about more then one place, and even though they might compete, or conflict in some way, we have no interest in making their business harder. In fact, having a resource is great. Having more then one, is even better. That’s what we are doing.

You may have read this post about a week or so ago about a similar company. The Sales Corner Registered Members were given a special discount code offer as part of our posting that article.

When we were invited to do some research on them and look over their products, it became immediately apparent we had come across a company that’s been doing this a long time, and offers A LOT of stuff one might need to accommodate their pop up trade show displays. How much easier could it get? You literally order something like this, have it sent, and in a matter of just moments you can begin setting up your great customer attracting booth.

We’re sure anyone on the search would enjoy looking over the list of products over at Camelback Displays. Not only do they offer an enormous budget friendly amount of products, but they also have a HUGE ECO FRIENDLY product offering for just about anything you’re going to need for a trade show or booth and still remain environmentally sound.

It’s important to do your research and identify the vendors and suppliers that are important to your business. After all, the world is so competitive, and so large, that there’s enough room for everyone. The simple point in the end is that you save money, and focus on what’s best for your company, product, service, or self. If you do that, you can reach to new heights that allow you to open new doors!

So again, we leave you with this. Go ahead and shoot on over to this place if nothing else, to review what they’ve got for pop up displays and other trade show pop up stuff! I’m sure you’ll be happy to add them to your Rolodex!

Enjoy!

Hi everyone.

A few months ago, we introduced a company called Post Up Stands. Today, we wanted to bring you another mention of them!

It’s quite likely that a company such as this will never go out of business due to their ability to create such flavorful business looks with their

Vinyl Banners and their Trade Show Displays. The reality is that no matter who you are, if you are attending any kind of event where you need to stand out over your competitors, find a trade show edge, or grab and hold the attention of a passer by, then Post Up Stands likely can help you because they have a product that can do just that!

It may be good for you to know that they have a “try before you buy program” that will most certainly help you build confidence in the product you are considering. They have anything for an inexpensive deposit which ranges from a table top display, to a big horizontal Trade Show Displays. Don’t forget Vinyl Banners and other displays and signs. We can only suggest that you consider something like what they offer for the next table or networking event you will be displaying at. It will only provide a means to attract attention and bring you some potential prospects that might otherwise be unseen.

 

**Updated 9/8/2011** Exclusive Update only for The Sales Corner: For Members of The Sales Corner, received a discount code that can be used for 10% off a purchase at PostUpStand.com.  If you are not a member of The Sales Corner and would like to become one to get your own discount code. It’s completely free just by signing up here. Just sign up and then after we send you your free introduction content, just reply back and go ahead and mention this article!

 

Step back into the most primitive of times in your life as a child and we can utilize some of that information to help us grow and expand our businesses today. When we were in Kindergarten, or even Grade-school, Middle School, and High School we shared, and we did it lot.

Sharing is one of the key forms of gathering new valuable and relevant information. The Sales Corner LLC was defined on the basis of sharing. It’s important to share knowledge and information without expecting anything in return. It can help you become credible and a utilized resource. It works for us, and it will work for you too.

Below, we’ve identified 5 Great Opportunities that you can start utilizing today, or work into your current sharing plan and begin growing your business and bringing attention to what you are doing. By sharing what you know, others can learn. By learning, they can identify. By identifying, people start working together as a team, promoting each other in what they do.

 

Sharing Wealth and Knowledge Tip #1
You never know what someone will discover, or engage with you about...
Often times a subject or content matter will be interesting to more then just you. It might be interesting to 5 people, or 50 people that all have an interest in your topic of discussion. Utilize your current resources and tools to start a discussion on your blog, on your website, on your email, or wherever it is that you are reaching your audience. Suggest a title of discussion, and write your thoughts on the discussion, and open it up to feedback and others interjections and let the wheels roll. You may find you can identify needs to address or prospects to engage. By discussing what you know, and basing your topics on experience of your reality people will come to understand you in the discussion, and you will come to understand others as well.

Sharing Wealth and Knowledge Tip #2
Create a niche website or blog only dedicated to your knowledge and experience...
A lot of people think that they don’t know what they would do with a website if they had one, or no ideas on where to start building a website or what should be on it. The answer to this is simple. If you have a website, what is the image and purpose you are trying to achieve with it? How useable and resourceful is it for others to come to and keep coming back to? Evaluating what your “website mission” is will be critical to establishing your ring of those around you that want to gain information from your wealth and knowledge of information. Keep your website valuable, and relevant to your mission. Establish a means of communication mediums, and feedback mediums that allow interaction to take place in your common community.

For those who do not have a website, where to begin is a struggle sometimes. Often not realizing that whatever they like (personal interest), or whatever they can provide (personal knowledge or experience), can be put together in some form of digital media (website, blog, video, audio, etc) and shared among the ranks interactively, socially, (you tube, papers, online comments, etc..) and ultimately create a very valuable stream for others to congregate around. The Sales Corner has had many clients tell them that they are waiting for this or that to take place before they have a website, or this or that before they want to move forward in some way. They will continue by saying that they are ready for when “x” takes place, because they have taken the time to write content or otherwise create their content and “get it ready to publish”. All the while, their content sits on their hard drive, and isn’t doing anything for them to begin building the value it could bring to others. In a situation like this example, starting anything in the form of external communication would be positive. It would get a lot of wheels rolling with people’s interest, and continue to work for them while they wait for their “major” advances to take place.

Sharing Wealth and Knowledge Tip #3
Keep in contact and regular with your community...
So you’ve had a great idea today, or a thought to try something new to try? Have others tried it? What else can you learn from sharing your experience with those around you? What might you help others with if you shared? If you don’t say anything or bring up your thoughts or ideas, how can you reliably get any feedback on the subject outside of your own personal feedback which consumes your own limited thought process on the subject? Part of communicating, is keeping your information and communications transparent for others to know what’s happening and what might be going on inside your business, website, or head. Perhaps it’s something that will generate an enormousness amount of buzz, or create a large amount of sales purchases, or even just inquiries. Whatever it does, the affect is that it will shed new light, on you, on them, or both. Using email, social media, and other web tools is a wonderful way for you to stay in touch and provide valuable and relavent information to your community.

Sharing Wealth and Knowledge Tip #4
Don’t be afraid of experiencing failure. In yourself, or in others…
In a world where “living online” and having access to information and content 24×7 is the normal for many. It’s also the normal for many to get caught in a scam, or some kind of crazy strange scheme. For you and those around you there is an opportunity at any corner or avenue to spark a conversation or generate an interest socially.  You can do this through personal expression with an opinion, and idea, or even an achievement. You can actively engage any audience around you that may have any inclination to take an interest in you, or your subject. Go ahead and let people know what you’ve accomplished, and what you intend to accomplish. Let people know what you are thinking about, and would like to think about more of. It’s okay to be open and honest. Most of the time, as a human being, we rather people be honest with us, then hold back in their true feelings and thoughts. It’s okay to wish for bigger and better things. It’s okay to set milestones and have goals in mind. If you are afraid of not following through, or having something go south on you and how it might reflect, that’s normal, and it’s okay too because it’s okay to fail. In fact it’s good to fail. The Sales Corner has not always succeeded at certain things, but we’ve learned from them, and we pass our experiences and knowledge on as much as we can. In some places, failure is celebrated similar to a birthday part. We tend to remember important events like a birthday party, and so as a result, we remember why or how we came into failure, and we do our best not to make the same mistakes twice. As long as you’ve learned something, anything, from your failure, then how have you failed really? The reality is as Benjamin Franklin once said a few lines that can sum up his thoughts on failure as a great inventor, scientist, and statesman of our time: “Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.” and “I didn’t fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.”

Sharing Wealth and Knowledge Tip #5
Be open minded, learn, and experience new things…
Those of us that never want to try anything new, or those that have no interest in being influenced by others will likely not become as successful as potential allows. We learn from those around us. This is why you see executives all together, or playing golf, or doing whatever the group is congregating at. They are establishing a circle, and within the circle they share. One way to establish a better understanding of ourselves is to gather the opinions and critiques of others around us. If we are the closed minded type, we will never be able to think “outside the box” for an alternative. If we don’t want to learn, we will never be able to know something new and gain more information to help. If we don’t want to experience new things or step outside our comfort zones, we will likely not be able to share both the positive and negative impacting scenarios in which we would have otherwise identified with new information, content, or knowledge. Being open minded, learning, realizing and experiencing, along with having the free will to choose which we accept and that which we do not, are given to use in order to become who we are or intend to be as we grow. These opportunities should be looked at as priceless and invaluable moments with privileges for which we can share with others to hopefully help them achieve, learn, and grow along with us. If we are not willing to accept any change or new information, then how can we be confident that we can express all of our abilities to someone else and help teach them to assist them to succeed or at least keep them from failing in the same ways?

 

If you like this article or content on The Sales Corner, we highly ask that you utilize our tools around the articles and on the blog to gain more knowledge, share, and help build a community and utilize The Sales Corner as a resource at your fingertips! We’re not going anywhere!

The Sales Corner tries to do it’s best at putting a significant amount of thought into our article composition and postings before we go forward and process our opinions and experiences. We only hope that we help 1 person a day, then if we are able to provide help to more then that, we’ve exceed expectations in ourselves and in our community. Ultimately anyone reading this content may realistically take only one thing away from it. Even so, it will continue to live forever and be available even to those who seek out helpful and meaningful ways to help themselves and others.

For some additional popular articles you can review these others which fit nicely into this topic of learning opportunities and sharing experiences;

5 Sales Tips to Improve Sales
and….
Sales Probing Question Ideas for Sales Professionals

 

Hi everyone,

We’ve recently published our own Alexa Toolbar! It’s compatible with Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Now you can stay in touch with The Sales Corner no matter where you are or what you are up to on the web!

 

You can download it here.

Please feel free to submit your feedback about this tool!

Thanks.

Hi Readers,

It’s strange sometimes how you can discover something you didn’t know existed. As human beings, it’s a common practice to get burned out or get into a “block” mode preventing us from continuing to move forward. Has that ever happened to you? It’s happened to us. And just when we think that we’ve exausted all of our resources and have done all that we can to get through the road block, we finally realize that we’ve come across something provides value we didn’t see before, or motivation to keep going, or perhaps a new relationship we didn’t consider.

With the invention of Smart Phone Applications and Social Media tools, it seems now that good quality and free information is a single click (or two..) away.  Sometimes we see with clients, or prospective customers, or new business relationships that those unseen and hidden opportunities could have dangling in front of you the whole time. All you needed to do was take a minute to change your process up, or identify some new information for you to register that realization.

We’ve recently come across a company that focuses on getting reporters and media outlets creative material that is commonly needed to keep a blog or website competitive in their niche. Sometimes you need to “find sources” and sometimes you need to “find reporters” because you are seeking original content and unique structure for what you are trying to do. The answer for some of you will be a place called HelpaReportOut.com.

“HARO” is certainly a place someone can come and utilize to find some valuable content, and contributors and outlets to engage with their content. It’s a source for Writers, Press, Marketers, and other types of people that have the common interest to share knowledge, experience, and gain valuable unique opportunities to gain traction on the web.

The Sales Corner came across HARO from reading some of our social media posts from some particular members in our network. We took the time to register, and have started using HARO ourselves.

We hope that you can find an opportunity to check out out on their website at http://www.helpareporter.com and gain your own valuable and priceless ideas on what you can achieve when you utilize a resource like this!

We are happy to bring you this resource as a tool that you can use to help yourself. If you’d like to become socially networked with them, you can locate them on Facebook and Twitter.

Remember, places like Help a Reporter Out, MailChimp, Blogsvertise, and even The Sales Corner LLC are invaluable resources to those of you looking for a compilation of tools to help grow your business or online interests at NO COST. There are tons of online resources that are free to register and use, and most of them also have “pay” services that you can use to get even more advantages with. Support those that you know do good work and encourage them to continue by utilizing their Free Resources as much as possible, and occasionally think about giving them support by paying for a service, or paying for an ad placement, or whatever it might be that you can do to give back.