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.

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?

Videos are a great way to differentiate your business and YouTube is no longer regarded as just an entertainment site. It has grown into an invaluable business resource. With some time and creativity your videos can open new opportunities for your small business that would make a Fortune 500 company cringe with envy. Here are ten reasons why YouTube is a must for small businesses.

1.) It’s Free
Unlike television ads or radio spots YouTube and for the most part social media is free. To become a visible entity on the web it takes time and effort, not money and connections like in traditional media. This medium can be leveraged so a small start up has the same potential to go viral as a much more recognized brand and that can happen very quickly with videos. YouTube is the most watched website for videos and your YouTube channel is like having a second website without the cost of hosting and upkeep.

2.) Drive Sales
A video on YouTube is a great referral to your site. Your video can be seen by many people, optimized and shared through different social media tools like Facebook and Twitter. Because each video will have specific keywords or Tags associated with it. It will be found by the folks who are looking for you and your products via search engines like Google which owns YouTube and has about 70% of the search engine market. A powerful medium to showcase your products and build leads.

3.) SEO
As I mentioned, a YouTube Channel is like having a second site and lends room for you to describe your company and the products and services you provide. Along with the Channel you can describe each video individually with tags to help weed out the folks looking for cute kitty shenanigans. Tagging your video for SEO purposes will give you a great advantage of being found in general search. Each SERP page provides results for videos. For instance if you sell “baseball cards”, that key term in general search will have millions of results but, on video only thousands apply.  Because the SERP page prominently shows video results there is much less competition and therefore giving you a greater chance of being found on page uno. That will lead to much more exposure to your brand.

4.) Huge Audience
YouTube exceeds 2 billion views a day. More than 700 billion videos were examined in 2010. Users published more than 13 million hours of content and are the third most visited website in this known universe, bested only by Facebook and Google, respectively.

5.) Product Support
Provide your customers with useful videos on the most common problems and questions. This will reduce your company’s support costs. A video tutorial on the proper usages of your products beats a convoluted directions page on your website any time. They can watch and pause as they’re assembling as well — all with free YouTube videos.

6.) Training
Use YouTube for product training. If you have a sales force and distributers around the globe, a short series of training videos will save you a ton of money on traveling costs. Simply upload your training videos to YouTube and grant your salespeople access. This will also be useful to new in coming employees as the material is already archived and ready to go.

7.) Engagement
You have the option to let viewers comment on each video. This gives your small business a unique opportunity to correspond with potential customers directly on your channel. Also, sharing your video via social media gives it even more exposure and chance to communicate with folks on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.

8.) Customer Testimonials
A video testimonial from an excited loyal customer can go a long way. Simply having written testimonials on your website leads to the question  of who actually wrote it. Anybody can write, but with video, perspective clients can see and hear the real deal with their own eyes and ears. The trust value and authenticity of your customer recommendations sky rocket. And you’ll have them forever and use them for specific market strategies. You cannot put a price tag on this, it’s that valuable.

9.) Insight
For every video you upload, YouTube offers free analytics data via the Insight feature where you can see statistics on views, demographics, community and subscribers. Most importantly, there’s discovery data that shows you how people are finding your videos, including the links they followed to get there. In addition, you can see how many views you are getting through the YouTube player page, embed player and mobile devices.

10.) Fun
Putting together a company video whether it be a holiday message or a just for the hell of it lip dub video can be loads of fun and boost company moral. We are seeing more and more small businesses having a blast with video and their company brand. These entertaining videos are conveying an important message that they are fun to work for, buy from and do business with. This highlights the social human nature behind the logo and gives a welcoming feel to any future business relationship.

There could be a blog post written for each reason above, probably a whole book. The website for your business is just part of the entire online opportunity. With YouTube videos you can give a no doubt message to your audience. Please don’t have your site built, fold your arms and wait. Take your HD video camera out and start recording the amazing things that are going on in your company right now. Be proactive in your small business marketing.

What Do I Write About in My Blog?

My products & services, RIGHT?  Better not.

Your company blog content is a great way to communicate with your potential and current customers.  It’s a way to give them the news they are interested in.  Reading about the best features of products A, B, and C can easily be done via your website and for a blog post, can be really boring if done too often.  The common question I hear from my clients is, “So what DO I write about?”

I recently came across a blog by Urban Outfitters – a retail clothing store.  They are making the UO Blog thee Go-To Place for current fashion trends.  They are writing about fashion from all over the world – not just their own store.  Their focus seems to be: what else do our customers want to know?  They are writing about things that their clientele care about, in this case, looking cool and wearing the latest trends.

UO’s blog content considers the consumer instead of focusing on specific products.  Their content is updated often, which makes people want to come back for more.  Don’t be taken aback by UO’s choices of clothing in the photos, videos, and set up.  It is uniquely designed to target a specific audience.  Great work UO.  They seem to know their customers well.

But you’re a small business that can’t spend the time or money investigating and traveling and researching.  What is your blog about, then?  If you go back to Urban Outfitters’ focus, it’s simple: what else do our customers want to know?  Do you get phone calls from customers asking questions about how to fix something, how to determine the correct size, what are the best ways to use a product?  Take the answers you provide over the phone and write about them.  Do a little research on Google to enhance your content, and wallah!  You have a great post with little effort.  Write about the latest updates in your industry, the trends; the big news.  Write about what is going on within your business location – remodeling? A party? A promotion? A new hire? The owner’s hobby?  The list goes on and on.

You are an expert already, just write it down.
Where do you get the inspiration for your blog? Write back we would love know.

We are warning our clients and small businesses to be aware of a search engine ranking flimflam. A confidence game played on the unsuspicious who pay for keyword ranking and traffic. This unscrupulous charade demands money upfront and promises that your website will move ahead of the pack. They also guarantee oodles of visitors that could take other websites months if not years to accumulate. Don’t be scammed, these third party search engines are illusionists. They use slick technology as their smoke and bots as their mirrors, all the while lining their pockets with your much needed marketing dollars.

The misconception of “the more traffic the better” is only part of the equation. Relevant traffic is what affects the bottom line. These “new” search engines that are charging upfront for web positioning and traffic are using bots and malware to make it appear their false promises are true. To separate the wheat from the chaff we rely on the data. Google Analytics provides us with the raw information that shows that these new search engines or catalog referral sites are not bringing relevant traffic. In fact, in many cases they are using bots to click on your site. The bots will show as a visit, but they aren’t real people who wish to do real business.

This scenario has reared its ugly head recently. A fairly new client bought into this suspicious and intricate ruse. They we’re charged $1,500 a month for website traffic. They did get plenty of visits but with a bounce rate of over 92%. The fraction of visits that did not immediately bounce out stayed on the site for an average of 11 seconds. Out of all this buzz and bother there was not one goal conversion. Not one of the so called visitors purchased anything nor requested more information.

Google Organic (unsolicited web traffic) for the same time frame was about 20% higher in visits, had a bounce rate of fewer than 43% and the visitors here spent an average of 3 minutes on the site. Affix that with 23 goal conversions (and another 24 from other reputeable referrals) and it is apparent to us that the “new” search engine is about as reprehensible as it gets.

There are no quick fixes to Search Engine Optimization and everyone should be very wary at the “throw money at it” solution process. Before you send one RED cent to these companies with unrealistic promises, do the research. A basic search will pull up many threads of conversation regarding deceitful web marketing practices.

Because this is an ongoing investigation and for legal reasons we cannot provide the exact name(s) of these internet advertising scammers here.  But we will offer free consultation regarding this post. You can leave questions in the comments section or email me directly at bgriffin@cazbah.net

If you are a victim of fraud of this type of criminal marketing scam or sales pitch activity you should file a complaint at the Internet Crime Complaint Center. The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C). Victims need to report these incidents and start fighting back. Don’t let the Internet Search Engine Data Merging Keywords scammers do this to other victims.

Have any stories about internet advertising or instant traffic scams? What are your experiences with the “new third party” search engines? Write back on the comments section we would love to know your thoughts.

Kind of goes without saying, doesn’t it? I mean, who hasn’t heard how challenging the bank lending picture is for small businesses? We speak daily with small business owners, across the country in a multitude of industries. The story is always the same; banks aren’t lending and they have become extraordinarily conservative with respect to their loan / line approvals.

Worse yet are the numerous stories of banks coming back around to their small business customers to ‘reevaluate or review’ a loan package or line of credit. The banks have been doing this with regularity over the past year and a half primarily because they have economic jitters (and regulators breathing down their necks) and, the unconditional right to do so. Often times, this activity requires extraordinary amounts of work on the part of the business owners (a major distraction) in order to provide the bank with an updated inventory count or some other form of business valuation, to appease them enough to move their company off the hot seat.

Speaking as a small business owner, it’s especially frustrating to see all of this going on, knowing full well the significant contributions that small businesses make to the US Economy in the two leading areas that determine the health of the economy at large; real GDP (gross domestic product) and net new jobs created. According to the SBA, “small businesses create most of the nation’s new jobs, employ about half of the nation’s private sector workforce, and provide half of the nation’s nonfarm, real gross domestic product…”

So here’s the good news, sort of: HR 5297 – Small Business Jobs and Credit Act of 2010. This SBA bill, sponsored by Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts, is big news for small businesses. It passed the House but… we’ll get to that it just a moment.

HR 5297 stands to benefit small business in some big ways. First, it provides a 90% loan guarantee via the SBA, giving the banks the security that they need to make a loan. Compared to the normal 75% guarantee, it can mean the difference between getting the loan or not. Second, there are no fees associated with this loan package. This alone can save a small business tens of thousands of dollars! Third, the loan limit has been increase to $5 Million. The bill also allows businesses with up to $15 Million in net worth to qualify. The previous limit was $8.5 Million. In addition, small businesses with existing SBA loans that have balloon payments coming due can refinance their commercial loans through this program.

Now for the bad news: Politics…need I say more? HR 5297 passed the House of Representatives on June 17^th with 241 in favor, 182 opposed and 9 abstaining. A small margin for sure but, it passed. It has since stalled in the Senate due primarily to a Republican filibuster.

This post is not intended to be a political commentary. It’s my hope that our representatives in the Federal Government will have the good sense and the higher calling to put aside their differences and truly act in the best interest of the people by passing this bill.

Monday, September 13^th is the day Senators head back to Washington after their summer recess. Waiting for them, front and center, will be HR 5297. As you can imagine, there is a lot of energy and anticipation surrounding this particular bill. With all of its attributes and the fact that it could be very profitable for the banks, it stands to be a win-win-win. Small businesses win, they get funded. Banks win, they make profitable loans. Government wins, they serve their constituency, create real GDP and jobs.

The SBA lending community (approved banks) has started to come alive recently and, according to several business owners that I have talked to across the country, banks are now reaching out to their small business customers in order to reopen funding discussions. Presumably, this is in anticipation of the passage of HR 5297.

If you have not heard from your banker recently and you are interested in seeking funding through the SBA, you owe it to yourself to put a call in to him or her and find out what they are doing to prepare for the potential passage of HR 5297. More importantly, you should find out what they can do for your small business specifically.

The entire 122 pages of  HR 5297 is available.

Discussing Cazbah, an Internet marketing services company, to business owners in manufacturing and industrial distribution recently reminded of the “Peter Principle,” which states:

“Employees within a business will rise to their own level of incompetence. Beyond that point, they will not be particularly effective inside the organization, and will not contribute as they once did.”

Well, business Web sites need to be considered like an employee – they are an internal resource that needs to be utilized as effectively as possible for the ultimate growth of the company. Like any resource; it needs to be kept current, relevant and in synch with the business goals.

Unfortunately, many businesses neglect their sites so they remain a static listing of products – lethargically posting information to its point of incompetence, running rampant inside many vertical markets; such as healthcare, food production, bio sciences, and others.

I talk with many business owners who do not fully understand the fact that the Internet – regardless of their market and industry – needs to be a dominate factor in their marketing and sales strategy to drive business growth. Business owners I speak to inside industrial markets still believe the Internet is not important to their own customer base. It’s just for kids, or those buying retail. These company leaders are falling way behind with regards to sustaining business relationships, and leveraging the Internet to grow revenues, year in and year out.

Having a static Web site is no longer a viable means to grow your business. Like your sales person, your site is about interacting with real people, ensuring they find you based on what you offer in terms of a solution to their problems. People searching on the Internet are looking for someone to help them and then, deciding if they want to engage with you before they ever pick up the phone to speak with you.

So what does that mean? Your potential customer is coming to you (inbound marketing) and is pre-qualifying you as a potential vendor.

That is how business to business is done on the Internet. For manufacturers, distributors and dealers who understand that the Internet is such a powerful medium which must be embraced and used to its fullest, they are taking actionable steps to use it. Why?

Over 74 percent of the U.S. is now on the Internet at some level. 74%!

That is three out of every four people you talk to – and transact business with every day. Doing business with people on the Internet is not just about having some product listed in your business site and hoping they pick yours over someone else’s. It’s about helping to solve a problem they have. New customers come from those who are seeking a partner to provide a solution, the right solution, for their own business. You need to be found so you can be that solution provider.

Yes, Internet marketing can be daunting. But, it’s a brave new world where business gets done. And what about business owners who dismiss the significance of the Internet: not preparing their organizations to strategically leverage it to their own fullest advantage?

Those not recognizing the Internet as the viable and essential business tool it is may be classified as the “Peter Pan” Principle.

Like Peter Pan, it appears they would rather remain in a more comfortable place.
Not try something new. Set aside plans to use the Internet fully – and maybe, just maybe – they won’t ever have to leave Never -Never Land!

As Peter Pan said… “I’ll teach you to jump on the wind’s back, and away we’ll go!”

However, I think a better lesson from Peter Pan – with regards to strategically growing your business – would be to fully utilize a wide array of Internet technologies (supplied by your friends at Cazbah of course) and generate better business results and more revenue.

I say…. “Let’s jump on the Internet and away we’ll go!”

Account Manager

Cazbah, an Internet marketing services firm, provides small to mid-sized businesses with everything they need to succeed on the Internet. Our highly effective solution includes a dynamic database driven Web site with simplified content management, search engine optimization, e-mail marketing, e-commerce shopping cart, and dedicated service and ongoing support. Cazbah customers gain a greater level of control and generate measurable results!

Responsibilities
Key responsibilities for the Account Manager position include identifying and defining our clients’ requirements and needs, managing all aspects of a clients’ online sales and marketing strategy, and understanding and applying the Cazbah capabilities to our clients’ situational needs. Responsibilities include:

• Training our clients on the Cazbah tool set
• Monthly contact with clients
• Development and implementation of Internet marketing plans
• Working with the Cazbah production team to implement Internet marketing plans
• Analyze Web site performance and make appropriate adjustments to Internet marketing plan.

Required Skills
Candidate must have Internet marketing experience and have knowledge of how Web sites are built and maintained. A BS/BA degree or equivalent work experience in customer support, marketing or technology industry is also required. Experience working with small businesses/start ups preferred. In support of this, the candidate will have the following:

• Excellent communication skills and feel comfortable dealing with their assigned clients on a daily basis
• Basic Web site editing skills
• Strong knowledge of MS Word and Excel, and basic photo editing knowledge

Preferred Sills
The ideal candidate will have a passion for small businesses along with a strong knowledge of Web development. Preferred candidates will be skilled in the following areas:

• Google AdWords knowledge / certification
• Google Analytics knowledge / certification
• E-mail marketing knowledge
• Social media marketing knowledge
• Sales and distribution knowledge for retail and manufacturing industries

Benefits
The Cazbah Account Manager position is a salaried position with a healthcare plan, and matching simple IRA.

Please send cover letter and resume via e-mail to careers@cazbah.net
No phone calls please. We are an EEO Employer.

Recently, I spoke with a new prospect, who decided not to participate in one of our webinars because he preferred doing business “face to face” and stated that if I wouldn’t travel to his office in Ohio, he didn’t want to continue in discussions. Understood – that is certainly his prerogative which I’m sure has served him well for many years.

It made me sit back however and consider objectively the pros and cons of online meetings. Online meetings are certainly both time and cost effective, and less intrusive but may lack traditional warm, personal contact. The challenge is to improve the ability to build a strong, personal relationship with customers through the technology.

I have been doing online webinars for almost five years and have used several tools during that time –like WebEx, Adobe and Gotomeeting and others. Regardless of the tool, what I found to be critical to a successful event is to maintain personal contact as much as possible. So here are some suggestions based on my experience.

At the start of the meeting, build a sense of community by introducing the participants to each other.  Let them each say hello to each other (assuming the group is small) just as you would if you were standing before them in a conference room. This is a polite courtesy you would do if you met in person, right? If the group is too large for personal hellos, address the group as you would in a larger auditorium with a nice welcoming statement that is as personable as possible. This will help everyone feel both included and valued. Let your personality shine through before getting into your formal product information.

Use of a webcam will let people see both you and your environment and is key to improving a sense of personal relationship. Set the stage! Show yourself as you would for a visit to the client’s facility. Let them know you are a real person and are professional in your appearance. Also, displaying a background that reflects some of your own personality helps.

Follow-up each online meeting with a phone call and a personally tailored e-mail. Each should serve to highlight any questions the individual raised.  Try to include something specific to their own situation.  Be sure that, although they were a part of a bigger discussion, their insights are relevant and you heard them.

Keep in mind that online meetings are not a replacement for face-to-face sessions, but often costs and logistics dictate that need. And if want to hang on to the traditional practice of bringing bagels to a customer’s site for a meeting – have some delivered!

In the words of Randy Jackson on American Idol:  “Just keep it real baby! “

I had a discouraging experience a moment ago… I was checking my LinkedIn profile where I have a feed from our company blog – Cazmunity. My discouragement came from the number of days since I last posted. Ouch! It has been way, way too long!

This past year has been a very busy year for us at Cazbah. We actually finished the year ahead of the previous year by about 20% which, in the most severe recession that anyone can remember, is a pretty good thing. We also had our best new customer sales year in our history. It’s clear that more and more specialty small businesses are realizing how important the Internet is to the success of their businesses.

Our customers have continued to reward us with their loyalty as well. The Cazbah business model is predicated on our client’s ultimate success and their willingness to make a voluntary renewal of their business relationship with Cazbah year after year. The exceptional renewal rate and feedback we receive is indicative of our clients’ trust.

The true value of the Cazbah experience is in the personal relationships that our dedicated account managers establish with their clients. As is always the case in a trust-based relationship, our clients confide in us and share their fears, concerns, hopes and dreams for their businesses.

Because we do listen and have their best interests at the heart of what we do, several of our clients have asked us to take on a bigger share, or all, of their marketing efforts. Since these requests are on the rise, we’ve recently introduced two additional lines of business based upon our clients’ needs: Community Management and Strategic Marketing Consulting.

Our Community Management offering takes a hard look at a small business’s position in their industry and establishes them as the center-of-influence in the communities that they serve. Hence the name Community Management. The dynamics of the Web for small business have been steadily changing as social media and networking have established themselves as vital (and viral) communications mediums. Every aspects of a company’s social media activities are taken into consideration, all of which are handled by dedicated Cazbah staff on their behalf, freeing our clients up to run their businesses.

Strategic Marketing Consulting is a very involved five-step process that looks at every part of a small business, leveraging the strong current knowledge that we have with our existing clients. This engagement seeks to create a fit between the company’s resources, capacity and changing market opportunities. Our aim is to shape and focus our client’s offerings so that they produce enhanced financial results.

We have several of these expanded business relationships underway and we are seeing some immediate and exciting result. Please stay tuned in as we’ll be sharing information on a much more frequent basis going forward.