On this the begin­ning of a new year I wanted to also add what not to do in the com­ing year.

1. Audio that starts when some­one lands on your web­site
2. Too many ani­mated graphic objects on one page
3. Vis­i­ble vis­i­tor counter
4. Mir­rored sites
5. Key­word stuff­ing
6. Dupli­cate Con­tent
7. Auto-generated web­sites
8. Copy­right infringement/Plagiarism, scrap­per sites
9. Gate­way pages
10. Using free host­ing when their name appears at the first part in the url

All the above “may” — I repeat “may” some how pro­duce results but, check back in 3 months and you’ll no doubt find that your time/money/reputation was wasted.

There are many arti­cles out there the will tell you what “New Year’s Res­o­lu­tions” are needed to plan for a new busi­ness year as an entre­pre­neur. From a busi­ness plan, bud­get­ing, mar­ket­ing strate­gies, prod­uct devel­op­ment, to every­thing in-between and beyond.

One very impor­tant point that should be con­sid­ered in all your busi­ness plans for the new year — for any year is “do what you love and the money will fol­low”. This may sound tripe but it is the truth. If you do what you love your work is a labor of love and it will flour­ish and grow.

Read some tips for help­ing you grow your online busi­ness in 2007 here: http://www.jbcr-virtualsolutions.com/tips-and-articles.html

Happy New Year!

Jan

I read an arti­cle today that said that a PDF listed in a search, that is click on, breaks the flow in a search. It sure made me real­ize what my own pat­tern is for search­ing, whether it is in Google, Yahoo, etc.

When I do a search on a topic and I see a PDF in one of the results I have to admit I avoid it. Why? As this arti­cle stated it breaks the flow of the search. I think it may not if web mas­ters would make the PDF tar­get blank (open in a new win­dow), but the major­ity of the time it does not. So I open the PDF, see that is not what I am look­ing for, or don’t want to take the time to read it, and click off — poof my search is gone

A PDF is great for sav­ing doc­u­ments in a stan­dard for­mat, print­ing a man­ual, ebook, but it is just not use­ful for searches.

If it is not use­ful for searches, and your PDF is com­ing up in a search list­ing and searchers are click­ing off you know they are not reach­ing your site. How do you resolve that prob­lem? My sug­ges­tion is to have the con­tent on a web page and if needed link to a PDF. I wel­come your thoughts?

Read more arti­cles here: http://www.jbcr-virtualsolutions.com/tips-and-articles.html

Late Decem­ber, early Jan­u­ary is the time entre­pre­neurs sit down and reflect on how their busi­ness did in 2006 and plan what they want to change, add and accom­plish in the upcom­ing year.

Here is just a sam­ple of things you may want to review in your business.

1. Is your web site stale/outdated. Is it time to make some changes?
2. Is your web site con­tent older than your Christ­mas cake? Is it time to make some changes?
3. Is your last bog post so old you don’t remem­ber your login and pass­word? Def­i­nitely it is time to make some changes.

I know we are all so busy but it is crit­i­cal that we take a hard look at our busi­ness and plan for the com­ing year.

Stay tuned for more!

I just want to wish each and every one you a very happy hol­i­day sea­son. I hope you will be spend­ing this time with fam­ily and friends, enjoy­ing the love, warmth and joy of the season.

If you hap­pen to be alone, try not to let it get you down. There are many peo­ple that spend this time of year alone. As dif­fi­cult as it can be, and I do know it can be, you need to Cel­e­brate You! That’s right, go for a long walk, buy a spe­cial treat, read a good book, watch a favorite movie, but most of all know you are spe­cial and you should be cel­e­brated — because you are you!

((HUGS))

Jan