jason l colon

Applies to:

• Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server
• Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2007

Summary:

Using SharePoint Designer 2007, customize a Microsoft Windows SharePoint Blog site to allow users to vote on and rank Blog posts.

You may download a 60-day trial of Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2007 at
Microsoft’s website - http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner.

Set up your SharePoint Blog and Survey List

1. Create a new Blog site within your SharePoint site.
2. Click View All Site Content from the Quick Launch Menu

Read more…

Business, Collaboration, Innovation, SharePoint, Technology blog, customize, designer, ranking, rating, sharepoint ranking, vote, voting

In today’s world, having a website for you business is a must. Additionally, it’s no longer good enough to simply build a website and put it online. You must not only make it easy to find, you must actively promote and market it as well. Today I’m going to cover six steps that you can take, starting today, to help drive traffic to your site and help it “get found”.

1. Get local
The popularity and use of local business directories are on the rise. Large search engines, like Google, are linking business listing with their online mapping applications to provide a complete business listing. It’s essential that you register your business and web site with these local directories in order to help visitors find you. Start with Google’s local business directory. You can register your business at http://www.google.com/local/add. You must sign up for a free Google account if you don’t have one already.

2. Get Personal
Business networking has moved online. Create a profile for yourself and/or employees using the popular business networking site – LinkedIn – http://www.linkedin.com. Additionally, get your co-workers to create profiles as well. As with “old fashioned”, face-to-face networking, it is what you make of it. At a minimum, your LinkedIn profile will be at or near the top of search engine queries for your name and you’ll have a link back to your company’s web site. You’re profile ranking benefits from the vast resources LinkedIn uses to boost their own search engine rankings.

3. Get Linked
Do your business partners, vendors, and affiliates have links back to your web site? Google has a test to check incoming links to your site. Typing “links:yourdomain.com “ (minus quotes) into Google’s search bar will display a list of web sites with links to your site. Whatever the number of incoming links is, try to increase it by asking for links on other web sites. Be sure to reciprocate on your web site. Incoming links are a surefire way to help boost your search engine rankings.

4. Get Active
Set aside an hour each week to contribute content to another web site. It’s essential that your contribution be useful and a no-strings-attached proposition. Find a web site, blog, or message board in your industry and post a comment, tip, recommendation, or solution on the site. Be sure to include a link back to your site if allowed. Become a perceived expert in your industry! Whatever you do, don’t post garbage.

5. Get Fresh
How fresh is the content on your web site? Have you thought about starting a blog? Search engines love blogs. You may also try creating your own monthly “Top 6” list for your industry. As with your contributions in number 4, make certain that the content is useful. Your content should educate your visitors. If possible, add fresh content every week.

6. Get Optimized
Is your website search engine optimized (SEO)? Until now, you’ve should have been able to tackle most of the steps listed above. Optimizing your web site can be a formidable task. Consult a professional if you’re not sure how to proceed. Two key topics to consider are keywords and analytics.

Keywords – Just because you sell airline tickets doesn’t mean that people are searching for them when they’re ready to fly. They may be search for cheap flights or some other variation. The point is, you won’t know until you do the research. Check your keywords at http://inventory.overture.com. This is a great tool to show you popular keyword searches based on keywords that you enter. It’ll make sense once you visit the site.

Google Analytics – At the most basic level, how do you know what is and isn’t working on your site? Not technically, but as it applies to your content. Wouldn’t it be great to know what content is a homerun with your visitors and what content is a dud? Once you know your homerun content, topics for new content are easy.

Look for a SEO tip sheet coming soon. For now, get out there and start promoting your web site! Get yourself found!

Business, Domain Name, Marketing, Technology how to, keywords, search engine optimization, seo, url, website, website submission

Free is good. Google has two hosted email solutions that offer great SPAM protection – Gmail and Google Hosted Apps. The fact that you, as a small business owner, can take advantage of Gmail and other Google apps using your own domain name is pretty powerful stuff.

SOLUTION ONE - Google Gmail Solution. Not a perfect solution. I’ll explain why in a minute. The Google SPAM filter worked extremely well during my tests. This is the easier of the two solutions to implement.

The following assumes that you have POP3 email server and account information for your domain.

How does it work?

1. Register for a Gmail account at Google.com.
2. Add you’re your POP3 email account to Gmail.
3. Gmail checks your email account and automatically filters SPAM and viruses.

What are the issues?

1. If you send a new POP3 email or reply back to a POP3 email using Gmail, Gmail adds the following to the ‘From:’ line: your_username@gmail.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it on behalf of Your Name [ you@yourname.tld This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ]A little sloppy. Not terrible.
2. In Gmail, you have two options for checking email with your POP3 email account.
   1. Download email to Gmail and delete it from your POP3 email server. Your email will no longer show up in your desktop email client. This will work fine if you plan to use Gmail as your mail client from now on.
   2. Leave a copy of the email on the POP3 email server. Your email will stay on the server and will be downloaded by your email client when you connect – SPAM and all!

SOLUTION TWO – Google Apps. Although this solution gets pretty technical, I highly recommend it. Feel free to drop me a line if you choose this option. I’ll do what I can to help you with the configuration. Basically, it involves you redirecting the email function from your current provider to Google. Your current provider may continue to host your website if you’d like. Google will take over your email hosting; most likely providing far superior SPAM and virus protection. This solution also eliminates both of the Solution One issues listed above.

Here’s the catch – Your current domain registrar must allow you to make the redirect changes to your existing domain.

Your registrar must allow you to make MX record changes to your DNS. Your MX (a.k.a. Email server) records must be updated to point to Google.com, NOT your current registrar. Other DNS entries for your website will remain intact.

DNS changes (including MX record updates) are typically done from an online control panel at your domain registrar.

Business, Email, Free Stuff, Technology apps, email hosting, free, gmail, google, hosting, spam solution

Using LinkedIn.com? Congratulations! You’re developing an online personal brand. You now show up in Google (and other search engines) when someone searches for you by name. LinkedIn does a good job of pushing you to the top of the results list.

The following are some other ways you can maximize your LinkedIn experience.

1. Ask and answer questions! Post your questions and get answers from your connections and others in your network. You can also become an expert within your network by answering questions posted by other LinkedIn users.
2. Give and receive recommendations! Ask others in your network for recommendations of your work. Getting recommendations will help you build credibility within your network and help you make additional connections. You should also give recommendations, when appropriate, to your connections.
3. Start a LinkedIn Group! LinkedIn now offers LinkedIn Groups, a new way for groups to bring value to their members. Many professionals advance their business goals by counting on professional groups, alumni groups and workgroups to make vital new business contacts which will enhance their trusted connections. Start your own LinkedIn Group today.

View my LinkedIn profile here.

Business, Networking, Personal Brand, Technology .com, Business, linkedin.com, Networking, Personal Brand, Technology

Whether a new business name or new domain name (.com) for your website, you should find out if the name you’ve selected for your new business is already taken.

Ohio Business Name
Starting a new business in Ohio? Is your new business’ name already taken? Perform a name search using the Ohio Secretary of State web site to find out. Click here to begin your search.

Domain Name Search
Is the domain name you had picked out for your new business already taken? Click here to find out.

Business, Domain Name business name, Domain Name

According to a new report from Dell and the Ponemon Institute, (Airport Insecurity: The Case of Missing & Lost Laptops, June 30, 2008) U.S. business travelers misplace over 12,000 laptops every year in airports around the country. That’s over 624,000 laptops per year. If the average cost of each laptop lost was $1,500, business travelers would be losing a combined $936,000,000 annually.

Some other interesting facts:

Between 65 and 70 percent of lost laptops are never reclaimed,
Most laptops are lost at security checkpoints
Over 50 percent of business travelers carry sensitive corporate information on their laptops.

Business, Technology

There’s an old saying that goes like this: The more I know, the more I know how much I don’t know. Well, two hours worth of practical eMarketing techniques at the Key Entrepreneurs Development Center certainly helped me fill in some of the gaps. And at $29.80 per class ($149 for 5 sessions), the ROI is out of this world.

Brad Kleinman packed the first class full of practical information that could be put to use immediately. The following are a few highlights.

1. Newsletter Marketing – Two online services, Constant Contact and iContact, make electronic newsletter processing a breeze. Both are relatively inexpensive and offer trial periods.
2. Podcasts – Create your own podcasts using a free program called audacity.
3. Google Trends – Perform keyword and competitive benchmarking.
4. Keywords – Your homepage should have 150 words, 3-7% of which should be your 3 primary keywords.
5. Embedded Calendar – Embedding Google Calendar into your website is a cinch.
6. Embedded Video – Embedding Video inAto your website is fairly easy using Brightcove.TV. Apparently, Brightcove.TV is more professional than YouTube.
7. Embedded Slideshow – Embed presentation slideshows using slideshare.net.
8. Book Publishing On-Demand - Publish a book on-demand using LuLu.com.
9. Promotional Material – Create your own promotional materials using CafePress.com. Upload your logo or image and have clothing or other items within days.
10. Google Alerts – Use Google Alerts to track new websites and/or blog posts containing certain keywords. Brad Kleinman uses Google Alerts to track new blog posts containing his name. Hello Brad!

Business, Marketing, Technology