Tag: Tips

Posted on

iPad Emulator Tool

With the popularity of iPads and tablets, it is important to take a moment and view your website the way an iPad would see it. I’ve found this free online tool that allows you to do just that; see your site like an iPad sees it.

http://ipadpeek.com/

If you watch your Google Analytics statistics you will see that Google is now reporting iPad and tablets users in the statistics.

Of interest to me recently was that screen sizes were growing and now with the advent of iPads and tablets, they are shrinking again. A good size for a design is about 1100 pixels wide or so as this looks good on tablets and on most computer screens.

Now I can’t wait for a small tablet tool for the popular Amazon Kindle Fire!

Posted on

Handling Bad Online Reviews

Getting a bad review online can be maddening, but don’t make it worse by responding without putting in a lot of thought to how your own response will be perceived by future customers.

I have a client who had a very poor review. When you are in business, you can’t please everyone, but in this case the owner shot off a rebuttal that when I read it, I just cringed. It made a bad situation much worse. It portrayed the business owner and staff as angry, resentful, argumentative, and vindictive. OUCH!

Sometimes a bad review can be a wakeup call. When you get a bad review, step back and look at it, could it be truthful, or have a grain of truth to it? It is very important to take a careful look to make sure that there is not a change needed on your part such as a change in office policy, customer service, or staff retraining.

If you feel that a rebuttal must be made. Focus on the positive, express concern for a problem, offer special attention from top management to repair the situation. Encourage the reviewer to recontact the office for a refund, redo, or credit on future service. Don’t write a hot rebuttal that trashes the reviewer or accuses them of being unfair or dishonest. This will only work to hurt you and make you look like the review was really true based on your hot angry response.

You can’t fight unfair reviews, but you can work to soften the blow and maybe even become better by taking the review as constructive criticism. Just be careful in your response and work to repair a poor situation not to make it worse with your own comments.

Posted on

Don’t Get Locked Out of Your Own Online Business

I see this all the time, it is not uncommon at all. A business person buys an existing business, several months or years down the road they want to solve problems with organic placement and find out that they have no access to the important tools that control their online presence.

For any business owner considering buying an existing business, these are the things you should demand before the final payment for your new business changes hands. Then verify that they have been done before you sign over the last check.

  1. Domain name registration should be transferred to you.
  2. You should have the admin URL, login, and password for your domain control panel. Verify this! Make sure that if you needed to change your domain name servers you have access to do so. This allows you to change web hosts when you want without hassle.
  3. Your web hosting should be in your name and you should have administrative rights to the account and know how to login so you can set up new email accounts, and change passwords to lock old owners out.
  4. You should be an administrator on your business’ Google AdWords account. If the old business owner used his email address to set up the account, he or she needs to relinquish this email account to you or have Google AdWords change it to yours before you make your last payment to them. Don’t be satisfied with anything less than administrative rights.
  5. You should be an administrator on your Google Analytics account. Once you are an administrator, you can remove all old business owners and account managers from accessing your Google Analytics account. Don’t be satisfied with anything but administrative privileges. If the original business owner cannot do this for some reason, ask to be made a standard user so you can see the traffic, but demand that before you exchange final payment that a new Google Analytics account be set up with you as administrator and the new Google Analytics tracking code be installed on the website at their expense. This will allow you access to the old stats but full control moving forward. Demand that the old account remain in place for a minimum of two years.

You will never have more leverage to get what you want than before you make your final payment or before you pen your final signature to a contract. I have seen a number of instances when new owners simply did not know to make these changes and we have had to re-mediate them at expense to the new business owner. Be smart, be careful, and make sure you are not locked out of some of the most important tools to grow your new business. You should be in control not the old owner or an old account manager.

Posted on

Creating a File Shortcut in Office Applications

I think that you will love this neat little shortcut that I have been using, if you don’t know about it already. Follow the instructions below to add a shortcut link on the system file menu screen for any Microsoft Office Applications.

  1. Go to the Start menu and click Computer.
  2. Travel to the file folder location you want to have appear in the Favorites Links on the left side of the Computer screen.
  3. Drag that file folder to the listing of links.
  4. Reposition the link as you desire in the list.

This little tip makes traveling to files on your computer easy by having file folders or even files within easy reach every time you use the Computer link.

There are some situations when you cannot add a shortcut to the list that appears in Windows. Usually this is when you are not within your user settings such as when you are accessing network locations or drive letters. But while you are in any Office Applications you will be able to see your own personal shortcuts to navigate faster to the things you use most.