A recent article in the Wall Street Journal by Angus Loten, titled, “For Small Firms, the Check is Not in the Mail” really struck home with us here at Cazbah.  Angus’ article poignantly describes one of the potential downsides of being a supplier or vendor to big companies; the fact that you may not get paid or that you certainly won’t get paid on time.

“About 14% of nearly 5,000 entrepreneurs cited late payments — or customers that didn’t pay at all — as their biggest challenge in 2010, up from just 2% in 2008, according to a study released Wednesday by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City, Mo.”

We hear the horror stories from our small business customers all the time about how they have been abused by their largest customers and their late payment practices. All small businesses have felt the burden of financial instability at the expense of their larger corporate customers at some point. This is a serious issue for all small businesses who depend on their receivables for cash-flow, which is most of them.

According to the National Federation of Independent Business, “in 2011, small businesses waited up to 46 days on average to get paid, six days longer than in 2010 and 10 days longer than 2006.”  This resonates with many of our customers, who are often battling to get paid. Bear in mind that these numbers represent the average, which means that there are late payment situations reflected in these numbers that are much worse.

Charles Broersma, CEO of Cazbah, relates his experience with a large corporation:

“Some big businesses have perfected, and frankly institutionalized, the process of holding out on and late paying their small business vendors.

I recall being invited to attend a Vendor Summit, which was an annual affair put on by a local big business here in Rochester (we’ll refer to them as ‘Company X’), some years ago. I felt privileged to have been invited to such a prestigious occasion. That is, until I got there and realized what it was.

The event kicked off with some fanfare about the bright future and new products that were being developed and the goals of the company and how we all had to pull together as a team, yada, yada. Then, the current CEO of the company, who was a mere Vice President of something or other at the time, got up and basically told a packed auditorium that they (the vendors) were going to lower their prices to ‘Company X’ by 10%, across the board, and that ‘Company X’ was going to extend their payment terms on all invoices to the vendors.

I was in shock. I had never heard of such a thing. I was sitting next to the president of a small manufacturing company that had been serving ‘Company X’ for years. His comment to me was that this was typical behavior. He clearly didn’t like it but, he wasn’t surprised in the least. He said, ‘what are we going to do? If we want the business, you have to put up with this unfair and unethical behavior.’”

It’s important to note that “Company X’ is a profitable, multi-billion dollar annual revenue company. It hardly seems like the type of behavior befitting such a company, to walk all over their small business suppliers.  But, as evidenced here and elsewhere, it happens all the time and is an accepted business practice.

It’s hard enough for any small business to succeed, let alone do so without getting paid! One would assume big businesses would be the most reliable, accepting a corporate responsibility to pay their bills on time. Clearly, this is not the case: “on average, big businesses – those with 1,000 or more employees – paid their bills more than a week past the due date on invoices.” This is the start of a vicious cycle, with small businesses unable to pay their bills on time, and so it goes…

‪We’d like to hear from you about your challenges as a small business.

‪Have you been stung by the big company late payment bug? Are your customers “holding-out” on you, and if so, for how long?

Search Engine Optimization is important because without it, your website may never get in front of the people who need to see it.  However, understanding search engine optimization can be convoluted and many companies make promises they cannot keep.  Here are some common questions about SEO, answered.

Q: How do I know where to go for SEO?

A: There are a couple of red flags to watch for in a marketing company:

• A company that gives strict limits on what they will do.  If you are limited in terms of paragraphs, number of pages or search terms they will optimize for, watch out!  Optimization is a continual and total overhaul – it is impossible to optimize just one page or one key term, to have a successful website.
• A company that promises ranking.  Ever seen this:

GUARANTEED #1 on Google!!!!

Search engines are changing their algorithms all the time which in turn changes ranking.  If a company promises they can get you to #1 on Google’s Search Engine Results Page (SERP), question it.

• A short-term commitment.  SEO is not just “once and done.”  It’s complicated and ever-evolving.  If a company provides SEO but there is no long term commitment, they are only worried about their own success.  Search engines constantly change, so should your website.  A good SEO company will be in it for the long-haul.
• A company that doesn’t do their research.  A company that has not taken the time to learn about your “target” customers is not truly invested in your businesses growth.  Good SEO companies do research about how your customers are searching for your products or services, and take the time to implement results into your website.

Q: What is SEO?

A: Getting back to the basics, let’s quickly take a look at SEO and what exactly it is.

In order to fully understand SEO, learning how a search engine works is imperative.  Search engines use “crawlers” or “spiders” to search through the web and find information.  Once a crawler has found a website it must then dissect the code and store selected information.

Search engines then use algorithms to decide what the most relevant and popular content is to the information seeker (you) and these algorithms are changed constantly.  A website might appear in a SERP based on a hundreds of factors (Google actually has over 200 factors that it takes into account when identifying the pertinence of a website).  Some factors include:

• The number of sites linking to it
• The content on the pages (is what you are saying easy to read and relevant?)
• Accurate Title elements, and ALT tags (image and navigation descriptors so a Search Engine “knows” what is there)
• Page load time (does it take a long time for the page to load?)

Search engine optimization is the process of getting website traffic by ranking high on key terms on the search engines.

Q: So why do I even need an internet marketing expert to help me with SEO?

A: Poorly optimized sites may have great information but have limiting factors.  For example, poor linking structures might lead a search engine to determine that there is no good content, and ranks the site lower because of this.

SEO is a full-time job.  Because search engines are always changing, keeping track of the implications on changes for a website can be a daunting task.  A marketing expert pays close attention to when and how search engines modify the way they rank sites.  Recently Google announced their Penguin update, which dramatically changed the landscape of search.

Internet marketers understand the factors involved in search engine optimization and will stick with and understand your company to the fullest extent in order to optimize it.  There are limitations on what a search engine can and cannot “understand.”  A search engine has no way to determine whether something is important or has superior content, which is why marketing experts are still necessary.  It’s a lot like a band: they might have an awesome sound or powerful lyrics, but if they are not marketed, they will never get a record deal.  Good products need good marketing.

Small businesses have huge potential for growth and development online, however, it is hard to know how exactly to get customers knocking on your door. Is your website producing results and generating revenue? How do you know if your website is doing the best job possible? This article explains the 5 characteristics of successful websites.

1. They are optimized: Simply put, optimization is the process of getting website traffic by ranking high on key terms within the search engine results pages. Google actually uses over 200 factors in in ranking sites and what these factors include and how many are used is updated all the time.

SEO is extremely important because a website is essentially useless if no one can find it. An optimized site can mean the difference between getting 200 visitors a month and 200 visitors a day and yet it is one of the most dismissed aspects of website development. With a professional and well optimized site it is possible to compete with “the big guys.” Your services may be more conducive to someone’s project than the competition, but without this key piece potential customers have no idea your business even exists.

2. They are social: If a business is engaged online via blogging, social media or connecting, people are likely to think you are serious about your customers. These associations tell potential customers you are committed and care about forming customer relationships. The internet is a great no-pressure zone for people who are interested but hesitant to take action. Not to mention, networking through social media gets you “out there,” and is a great way to build brand awareness with relatively low cost.

3. They are updating regularly: A website that is merely present online, it is not doing a whole lot of good, and possibly doing a lot of bad, especially if there is no new information or worse, contains incorrect information. When people log on they are fundamentally searching for information. If a website is constantly updated with relevant information people come to it. Unique and fresh content delivers results.

4. They are tracking and analyzing: Analytics is a great way to understand the needs of the people coming to your site. Knowing how they found your site, where they went, how long they spent and what pages they clicked on is incredibly useful in building a site that serves the needs of your customers. If you find, for example, your about us page is clicked on the most, you might consider expanding it and updating it, ultimately improving the quality of your site. Knowing your customers is extremely useful information and a business that tracks its site is undeniably ahead of the curve.

5.They Have Easy Navigation: Are pages easy to access and does the layout make sense for the user? Navigation should be consistent across the entire site and relevant content should be easy to find. It is also essential that the load time of the website stay low. If a site is laden with graphics and animation causing it to run or load slow, people will look elsewhere. The average American spends about 8 seconds on a website – that’s it! Consequently, a site needs to capture attention, and fast. At a glance people should know your unique value: what makes you different and why they should care. Uncomplicated navigation and clear messaging keeps people on your website.

Want a real-life example? Herm Harrison, Vice President of Foster Transformer Company, talks about the challenges of having a static website and the results of his successful website.

Ecoair is up and running!

Cazbah is proud to announce the recent launch of the Ecoair Corporation Website, one of our newest customers, using our new, high-functioning, and more sophisticated technology.

Peter Knudsen, President of Ecoair, came to Cazbah with a need for a more contemporary, sales oriented Website.  Founded in 1991, Ecoair develops and manufactures highly reliable, efficient and cost effective alternators and electric motors, for specialty applications.  Their Eco-Tech Alternators are designed to address the need for high energy output at low engine speed, a significant challenge in the industries that they serve.

Although Ecoair is an expert in their industry, their Website didn’t show it and it was not functioning as an effective sales tool.  Before switching to Cazbah, their site was more akin to an online brochure and Peter realized that just having a Website was not enough.

Ecoair needed a Total Internet Marketing Solution that would drive traffic to the site and turn that traffic into revenue.  With Cazbah’s Internet Marketing expertise, Ecoair is now able to manage their website in a much more efficient and sales driven manner.

Cazbah’s robust, high-functioning and easy to use technology provides Ecoair with the ability to perform sophisticated tasks simply:

• Getting interested potential customers to find them online and come to their new and improved Website through  SEO (search engine optimization)
• Enhanced design capabilities allowing for a more flexible and improved look and feel
• A new and improve user interface allowing for easier and more efficient changes to all aspects of the Website

Cazbah’s new dynamic platform can handle all aspects of Ecoair’s Website content management needs. As a result, Ecoair is now generating more qualified leads and new sales through Cazbah’s Total Internet Marketing Solution.

To receive a FREE Comprehensive Analysis of your business on the Internet and learn how you too can generate more income from your Website CLICK HERE.

10 years ago this month, the world seemed to be a very uncertain place.  The tech sector was watching the full-speed deflation of the Internet Bubble wreak havoc on the US Stock market.  Having burnt through their venture capital, small dot-com companies were folding without ever having made a net profit. The job market was glutted and venture capital monies had evaporated.  The 9/11 destruction of the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers cast an icy pall of uncertainty and fear across the already struggling US economy.

It seemed a perfect time to me to start a business.

In September 2001, Cazbah was launched with a handful of people and a mission to make small business successful on the web.  Over these last 10 years we have increased in size seven fold, relocated our offices twice, cleared financial hurdles, migrated our technology platform,  celebrated 5 employee weddings and lots of births, and provided hundreds of small and mid-sized businesses with results-driven Internet marketing strategies and services.

A decade later and I find that we are still facing many of the same challenges and opportunities … the global economic instability, national debt, high unemployment and the nascent hint of a new Internet bubble.  And I am as convinced today as I was ten years ago that the answer to many of our problems lies in the hands of American small businesses.

Entrepreneurs and small business owners are America’s biggest job creators, generating an estimated 44% of total U.S. private payroll and creating more than half of the nonfarm private gross domestic product (GDP).   At Cazbah, our passion is helping these companies succeed in the face of what sometimes seems like insurmountable odds. There is a tremendous need to support these small businesses, which are doubly challenged when it comes to using the Internet to find more, new customers. The significant amounts of money they’ve spent on a host of advertising and marketing options haven’t delivered on their promises and they don’t have the resources to hire qualified in-house talent.

The business model that Cazbah began with is still the model that we operate from to this day. We work with our commercial, industrial and retail small business customers, providing them with everything that they need to succeed on the web from web site design to ecommerce services, from SEO to PPC, from email marketing to social media.  The results of our efforts can be seen and heard in the candid testimonials our customers give us telling us how Cazbah has worked for them.

Looking down the line at the decade behind us and the one before us, I’m encouraged by all the things that we have overcome and am excited by what still waits to be accomplished.   We are committed to continue to be a company of passionate people, achieving radical results by making ordinary small businesses extraordinary.

Thank you!

Charles B. Broersma
Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Since 2009 Google has been experimenting with a kinder gentler social search. Social media is playing a fundamental part in how websites and internet content gets shared. Thus far Google’s Social media attempts have been a fairly clumsy and ham fisted affair. Google Buzz has drawn public scorn and law suits over privacy violations. Google Search has barely made a ripple in the social tide. Then there’s Google Wave, well let’s not speak ill of the dead. All the while Facebook is generating more internet traffic than Google and encroaching on their advertising dollars.

On March 30th 2011 Google announced “+1”, its new social bookmarking/sharing/recommendation widget thingy. This is not a new concept, but Google’s +1 is placed directly into your Search Engine Results Page (SERP) to the right of each listing.  That’s what makes it a bit different and potentially more effective than the other social bookmarking sites like Reddit, Digg and StumbleUpon. And similar to Facebook’s “Like” button, your social network peeps will see it,……sooner or later.

According to Google; +1 is the digital short hand for “this is pretty cool”. Basically it’s a web page approval indicator to share with People in your Gmail, Google Talk chat list, folks you follow in Google Reader and Buzz and the good people in your “My Contacts” group. In the future, the crowd you are connected to on non-Google services like Quora, Flickr and Twitter will also witness your +1ing.

Google will inform site owners by email when the +1 button is available for their web pages. Until then, +1 buttons can only be found on SERPs for English language sites and next to paid ads. The +1 button will be a natural ranking signal for search results when clicked. It will also be displayed for the searchers own network in their Google Profile. You will be able to see your friends +1’d activity through their profile and on the SERPs page as a little icon image beneath the +1’d listing.

All searchers must have a Public Google Profile and if it isn’t public by the end of July this year, it will be deleted by default. Searchers who have a Google account but no Google Profile will see the personalized +1’s but won’t be able to add them, and those who don’t have a Google Profile or aren’t logged into Google will see aggregated +1 data.

The +1 buttons will be integrated with Google Ads and listings. Google says +1 will not affect Quality Scores but it will influence the click-through rate (CTR) and advertisers should see a pickup in clicks. Also, organic and paid search shares a commonality with +1. That means that if your AdWords landing page was +1’d in organic listing, the +1 will show next to the ad.

According to Google all ads will be getting +1 buttons and can’t be turned off.  The clicks on the +1 buttons next to the ads will NOT count as a paid click but advertisers will be able to see their +1 statistics. Soon, anyone registered with Google Webmaster Central will be able to see +1 stats for their organic search listings as well.

Eventually the +1 buttons will be linked directly to search results. Google Co-founder and new CEO Larry Page sent out a company-wide memo, alerting employees that 25% of their annual bonuses will be tied to the success or failure of Google’s social strategy in 2011.

The stakes are high, and even if +1 fizzles away into ambiguity Google’s social strategy will clearly effect search engine optimization (SEO). The internet is turning into the socialnet and it’s no longer just what you know and sell but who you know, who knows you AND how likable or interesting your content and products are.

I have no idea if Google’s new social experiment will survive. The name “+1” is just awful and there are many questions about algorithm vs human (social) in regards to search results. If I search for apple pie and my wife’s’ aunt Betty’s recipe blog is listed on page one (which it shouldn’t) but, because she’s +1’d it and is in my network doesn’t that go against “organic” rank and the Google algorithm? In time, will all my search results rank according to what my friends have to say about it? And if it does and proves more useful to me, does that mean Google’s search algorithm was wrong all this time? Or I hate the results and there’s no going back? What about spammers?

Are you using the Beta version of Google’s +1? How do you like it? Or if you’re not using it do you think you will? Write back, obviously I need the help.

Content, content, content…  Adding new written content to your website is an important road to continued or increased success for your online business. We know this because of experience, research and the study of changes in the industry. For example, Google continues to modify its algorithms to give favor to sites that are updating and adding new, original content. In June 2010, Google announced a major update called May Day. The algorithm change directly affected the ranking of pages with deeper page content.

Most recently, Google implemented its update called Panda/Farm in which it aimed to penalize sites for copying and duplicating content – emphasizing the importance of creating original content. For best results, I tell my clients to add content that is DRIC. What is DRIC you ask?

DRIC:
Detailed: This is content that’s specific, but not long-winded.
Researched: Do a little research on your content to write beyond what you know yourself.  This content is supported and enhanced by outside research
Industry-Specific: Your content focuses on your industry or the industries you serve.
Current: This content includes reference to current news and information on the topic.

Written content can be added to your website in several ways: Product Descriptions, Product Information pages, Industry Application pages, Frequently Asked Questions, Case Studies, Testimonials, and more. In all of this writing, details are important: researched, industry-specific, and current details.

First and foremost, content on product pages and about your product takes priority. If you don’t have DRIC content about your product then that is where you need to start.

Recently I made a plan with one of my clients to add original written content – DRIC. This particular client sells an industrial product and is currently successful at bringing targeted traffic and converting this traffic into quote requests. His product page content is well developed, and he would like to further his success and increase targeted traffic for the products that are sold most often. To do this, he created a brief list of industries that buy his product. First on his list was the grain industry.

We discussed and wrote a plan for adding new original content. First he wrote a few paragraphs on the problems his grain industry customers have and how his products can solve these problems. This writing was brief but detailed. We also included relevant keyterms, examples, and researched information to support his statements. Next, we added images that exemplify the grain industry. With this new content, we were able to create a new web page specifically for the grain industry. We will continue to create pages and content related to the grain industry including frequently asked questions, product lists, case studies, and testimonials – all content that is specifically designed to help the customer in the grain industry.

The goal of developing this new content is to teach site visitors and the search engines that my client and the product he sells can help those in the grain industry. It will teach them that he is an expert in his field and knowledgeable about related products. Ideally, search engines like Google will begin to send unique searches from those types of customers to his website. Directories and referring sites within the grain industry may even begin to link to his site. All of this is aimed at increasing those targeted quote requests that lead to more sales.

Next time you question how you can improve the content on your website, remember the acronym DRIC: Detailed, Researched, Industry-Specific, and Current. Then dive into updating your current content or creating content around a new topic that is designed to help increase website visitors and increased sales. Do you have another idea for adding unique content to your site?

Have you gotten one of these emails?
Dear Sir,
We are the authorized anti-cyber squatting organization in China. We write to inform that we received a formal application from a company who is called Saiberwi Investment Co., Ltd is applying to register “YOURDOMAIN” as their domain name in China on Mar.29th, 2011.

The email continues on to tell you that if you don’t reply, they will automatically give the mysterious Saiberwi Investment Co the .cn extension of your company’s domain name because they must be your Asian business partner. If you inform them you don’t know doodley about Saiberwi Investment Co., the offer will be made to sell you multiple variations of your domain name with Asian country extensions at ridiculously inflated prices.

And then there is the real purpose of the email; to scare uninformed business owners into paying $100-$500 US dollars for additional domain names (.asia, .cn, .com, .tw, .hk etc.). I’ve seen variations of this scam floating around the mailboxes of clients for the last five years or so. A Google search of the phrase “anti-cybersquatting organization in China” results in a flood of online forums identifying these emails as a scam.

So what should you do if you get one of these emails?
Nothing, Ignore it, Delete it!

That’s not to say that it might not be a good idea to register your trademark or purchase a domain name in China. In fact, if your business plan includes introducing product to the Chinese market, it’s definitely something you will need to take care of. But it should be done as part of a larger plan to do business in China not in response to an unsolicited email from a rather shady web company who charges inflated prices.

If you currently or plan on doing business with China and want to secure your domain name, most full service registrars will happily sell you .asia or .cn .com extensions for a heck of a lot less than $327.00 a year.

Have you come across any recent email scams? Let us know we’ll help sound the alarm.

Do you ever sit in front of Google searching for your web site listing under your favorite key terms?  Do you feel a sense of anxiety when you notice your competitor ranked ahead of you on those key terms?  You do?  Great. Now STOP doing that!

I have encountered countless customers who create unending angst for themselves by indulging in the competitive SEO search.  There is nothing wrong with being competitive as long as it makes sense.  The problem is the search “strategy” that results from the “competitive search” often doesn’t make sense.

I recently had a customer tell me that key term X was a term they needed to be found on because their competitor was on that page and that they knew, for a fact, that their customers search on this term.  Although, both of these assertions might partially be true, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you should do something about it.

Here are some questions one should ask themselves before acting on such an anecdotal theory:

• What does my keyword research tell me?  Is there high search engine traffic with low competition?
• Is the key term something I actually sell (i.e. “fringed tulip bulbs”) or is it a broad term that has cross-industry meanings (i.e. “Bulbs”, flower or light?) that has a low probability of converting (sale)?
• Do I have a good understanding of the key term traffic that is already coming to my site?  Am I doing everything I can to make sure that the content on my site helps that traffic convert or is it bouncing off my site? Most of my customer’s sites generate over 3/4 of their traffic and online sales from long-tailed key terms (i.e. “tulip flower bulbs”)
• If I do find a broad key term that is relevant to my business and I think I can compete for it do I really have an understanding of what my competition is doing to drive traffic and gain rank for their site? (i.e. ad spend, direct mail, email marketing, etc.)  It may seem like you are comparing apples to apples but really you might be competing with someone who is outspending you 10:1.  That could possibly be why they have a crappy looking web site but get “good rank”.

What most don’t realize is that they already have a large amount of qualified traffic coming to their site but they do little to make sure it converts. Some of the reasons visitors “bounce” off pages on your site are:

• Not enough information to make a decision.
• No call to action. “How to Buy”
• Price or Shipping is not competitive.
• Content is not relevant to their search. (I want light bulbs not flower bulbs)

What have we learned in today’s blog post?  Go with what you know, not what you think you know. What are my web site analytics telling me?  If you follow the competitive SEO siren song thinking you can OPTIMIZE your site to get ahead of your competition on a couple broad key terms, I can promise you, you will be disappointed. Be smart about where you want to rank in the search engines, develop a plan to convert your existing traffic, then execute your plan.

Last week, Illinois Governor, Pat Quinn, signed state legislation requiring large Internet retailers to collect that state’s 6.25 per cent sales tax on all Illinois Internet shoppers. While Illinois brick-and-mortar stores cheered wildly at the newly leveled sales tax playing field, Internet retail giant Amazon.com picked up its ball and went home. Calling the law “unconstitutional and counterproductive,” Amazon said it plans to end relations with its Illinois affiliates by April 15.

This bill is just the latest salvo in the ongoing battle waging between giant Internet retailers, state governments and brick-and-mortar retailers. It started in 1992, when the US Supreme Court ruled that only sellers with a “nexus” (i.e. a physical presence in a state in the form of retail outlets, warehouses, offices, transportation hubs, etc.) were required to collect that state’s sales taxes.

In 2008, the State of New York found a way around the 1992 ruling by claiming that in-state affiliates provide those out-of-state retailers with a physical presence. Affiliates are website owners and bloggers who post a retailer’s advertisement or links and receive a commission on any sales that result on the retailer’s site via clicks from the affiliate’s site. Dubbed the “Amazon Law”, it applies to retailers who receive a total of more than $10,000 in referrals within a 12-month period from New York affiliates.

Amazon immediately challenged the law in court, where it still remains today. As other states started enacting their own versions of “Amazon Law”, Amazon has responded similarly by closing warehouses and terminating affiliate relationships.

What does this all mean for small and mid-sized e-commerce sites? In many ways, not much. Most of the state laws being enacted or proposed are targeted at large retailers. Transaction thresholds used to decide who does and does not have a sales tax collection responsibility have been for the most part set high enough to exclude many small to mid-sized businesses.

The other businesses being impacted by these laws are the affiliates of retailers like Amazon and Overstock.com, many of whom are retailers themselves and may be selling their products on these sites. A small but very vocal group of Vermont bloggers and in-state retailers affiliated with Internet sellers are organizing a counter campaign to fight that state’s proposed Amazon law. Some of these small businesses would stand to lose substantial income generated by their affiliate programs with major retailers.

The biggest danger for small businesses is if the tax collection responsibility rolls down to smaller players. Though the technology needed to calculate and charge the appropriate sales tax amount at the time of the purchase is relatively easy to implement, the reporting and payment of those taxes to thousands of state, county and municipal tax departments would be disastrously onerous for many companies.

One path out of the sales tax quagmire may be the Federal government stepping in to establish a single remote Internet retailer sales tax. Unfortunately, the US Congress tabled the national Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement last year and shows no signs of passing it anytime in the near future.

Until that time, small and mid-sized businesses would do well to keep informed on the sales tax landscape and, use the services of an e-commerce savvy CPA or market-aware web professional.

What are your thoughts on the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement? Good idea or not?