The overall goal and purpose of the meeting and the group is to get around like minded people. That is, other entrepreneurial, goal oriented and self motivated individuals. The benefit for getting around like minded people is to have more proactive individuals to bounce ideas, concepts and methods off of and get proactive feedback. As the saying goes: “If you hang with monkey’s, you’re gonna eat bananas”

Join us for the third official Philadelphia Master Minds meeting where we will be utilizing each others experiences and ideas in discussing successful time management strategies and methods.

 Discuss successful Time Management Strategies and Methods

Thursday, April 5, 2012, 6:30 PM

Courtyard Marriott

280 Old Morehall Road, Malvern, PA

For more information on how to RSVP visit the following link: http://www.meetup.com/philadelphia-master-minds/events/56036562/

Graphic Design: This is a very important element of any website. It seems hard to believe, but there is a science behind this and how people perceive your use of colors and design. It is important to use graphics that symbolize your company’s mission, which is why we offer custom graphic design for our clients. We can help you stand out from the crowd by designing a unique set of graphics and imagery just for you. We spend time researching your industry and your competition to design a long lasting identity for your company that will make you stand alone.

Site Content: Site content is a key factor not only to how your visitors will interpret your company’s mission and values, but also how the search engine spiders will rate your site in their database. It is important to have clear and informative content for your website to attract your target audience and then convert them into dollar signs for you.

Flash Design: Flash can add a great visual and interactive element to any website. There are important things to keep in mind while integrating flash into your site as to maintain the integrity and search engine friendly aspect of your website. We have experience in using flash for a variety of tasks as basic as a spinning globe all the way to an interactive media program. Let us make your site look like it is from the future using the newest and most advanced techniques on the web.

XHTML: Stands for “Extensible Hypertext Markup Language” and it is an essential part of any website or web based project. Our design team has years of experience in developing W3C compliant markup code that is optimized and cross compliant. We will work with you to design and code a website that is scalable for future additions and modifications.

CSS: Stands for “Cascading Style Sheets” and this internet language is responsible for the layout, colors and appearance of the front end of your website or software system. CSS allows web designers to lower the amount of code needed on the markup document which therefore gives search engines an easier and more efficient experience while investigating your website. Beyond this there are many more practical applications using CSS and they just keep expanding the possibilities.

PHP: Once stood for “Personal Homepage”, but after a drastic revision in the early days of its existence it was changed to “Hypertext Processor”. PHP is a software engine capable of powerful dynamic server side activity. In laymen’s terms, you can do tasks such as send an email, process a credit card, update your site content easily from a backend administrative dashboard, port data from a database to the front end of your website and the list goes on and on.

JavaScript: JavaScript is a client side programming language which sets it apart from other programming languages like PHP because it executes in the browser rather than on the server. JavaScript is typically used to allow programmatic access to computational objects in a host situation, but is also used as a functional programming language. JavaScript is great because it is asynchronous with the web browser meaning it can execute a function without having to refresh the browser and without disrupting the flow of any server side programs in place.

It’s hard to believe that we are almost through January, but time does fly. Now that we are into the New Year it’s time to refresh ourselves and our business marketing. We just launched a new company website over the weekend. Check it out at www.curotec.com and let us know what you think of it. We are very open to any suggestions for improvement.

We also hope that you have begun to put together a plan for the New Year on how you will increase your businesses profit and customer base. This time of year is a time to reflect on the last year and apply the things you learned to the upcoming year. Take the time today to look at your last year’s sales numbers and marketing efforts and think to yourself what aspects of your business can be modified to increase those numbers.

If you would like to share any of your marketing ideas with us or consult with us regarding your marketing, feel free to contact Brian Dainis at 215-850-7806.

We look forward to another great year and hope that it is a very prosperous one for everybody

“We sent the MPAA back to the drawing board,” said Fight for the Future Co-founder Holmes Wilson, “But any law that lets the copyright lobby block our websites, censor our search results, or cut off our Paypal accounts–without even going through a judge–will be soundly defeated.”

“This was the largest online protest in history,” said Fight for the Future Co-founder Tiffiniy Cheng, “The MPAA was trying to quietly force this bill through Congress, but when internet users started paying attention, real democracy happened.  This is a watershed moment in the fight against lobbyists’ influence on politics.”

“The MPAA could have proposed a law to address copyright infringement,” said Holmes Wilson, “Instead, they proposed giving rightsholders veto power over online innovation and free expression.  At that point, it was just a matter of getting the public involved.”

A timeline of the SOPA protests: http://sopastrike.com/timeline

Statistics from the January 18 protest: http://sopastrike.com/numbers

Statistics from the November 16 protest: http://americancensorship.org/infographic2.html 

http://fightforthefuture.org

Facebook is a powerful tool and getting more likes to your site or page will socially engage your brand.

Send Private Messages to Friends

Send multiple private messages to your friends and ask them to help you get more likes on Facebook by giving your URL and ask them to click the “Like” button. There’s no harm in asking them help on this. Remember, if your friends value you then they will not hesitate to give you some help.

Post Facebook Status that has Humor

Humor is the best medicine indeed. Sharing your humor or any simple quote that has humor in it will definitely drive more likes.

Share Useful Information

Post information and updated news about the current issues. Give a little comment about the current issue and ask them about their opinion. If other people are interested in your news, then they will give time to read it and eventually like your post.

Interact with other Facebook Users

Interact with other users and get to know them. Once you get to know them, send them a personal message and ask them to help you like your page. Share pictures and videos that will also make them interact about it.

Status tagging

The status tagging feature is new to Facebook but many are already aware of it. Put an @ sign then type the name of a person or page you want to tag. This will lead and drive people to your page and view it when they see the tag in their newsfeed.

Connect with other Social Networking Sites

With the technology today, you can now connect your updates and news feeds through other networking sites such as Twitter. You can post your URL there  and help lead your followers from these sites to your page.

Content Matters

Always remember, good content really matters. Try to create a good content to get more fans and keep them interested in coming back to your page. Well, if you know your subject well, then it is easy for you to create an outstanding content. Above all, it should be noted that the content is relevant to your page.

Join groups

Another way to get likes on Facebook easily is to join from hundreds of Facebook Groups available and is related to your page. From there, promote your page in the group wall as well as in the group discussions. This will be effective because members of the group know that your page has something to do with their page making them relevant to each other.

Spend on Advertisements

If you have a little cash to spend, you can advertise on Facebook. With this you can target the people you want to view and like your page. But paid advertisement has a limit on how long it will be published and you need to have a separate budget on it.

Purchase Likes

Purchasing Facebook’s likes is the easiest way to get them, but you need money on it. There are companies that offer Facebook likes for a cost friendly approach but there are also others who don’t. Remember to choose the company that guarantees Facebook like and not only send out invitations to just like your page.

There are thousands of people who want their page to be liked by thousands and even millions. Getting more Facebook likes will definitely drive more traffic to your page and will create an effective market.  Everyone has their own motive but be careful in what you are trying to accomplish and how it suits your fans.

It’s hard to believe that we are almost through January but time does fly. Now that we are into the New Year it’s time to refresh ourselves and our business marketing. We just launched a new company website over the weekend. Check it out at www.curotec.com and let us know what you think of it. We are very open to any suggestions for improvement.

We also hope that you have begun to put together a plan for the New Year on how you will increase your businesses profit and customer base. This time of year is a time to reflect on the last year and apply the things you learned to the upcoming year. Take the time today to look at your last year’s sales numbers and marketing efforts and think to yourself what aspects of your business can be modified to increase those numbers.

If you would like to share any of your marketing ideas with us or consult with us regarding your marketing feel free to contact Brian Dainis at 215-850-7806.

We look forward to another great year and hope that it is a very prosperous one for everybody.

The New Year is a good time to make resolutions. The resolutions can be personal, such as exercising more, or quitting smoking. But, the New Year can also be a good time to resolve to improve your web content. One area of improvement can be your SEO or Search Engine Optimization and how you use keywords to get your web copy ranked high in Google Searches.

2011: The Year of the Panda

In 2011, Google rolled out its Panda update. The update was designed to improve search engine results for Google users.  The idea was to rank sites with outdated or poor quality content much lower than good quality content.

While the idea of quality may be somewhat subjective, writing SEO copy is no longer just a matter of getting as many keywords as possible into your text. Now, SEO writers have to pay attention to a few good rules to help ensure good rankings for you and your client’s copy.

A Few Simple Rules

SEO writers should follow a few simple rules to preserve the high rankings of their web searches once they get them:

Update Content-Since one of the major reasons for Panda was to rank outdated content lower, stale content gets ranked lower. Web content can be easily updated. 

Remember Grammar-Poor grammar and spellings are also used to rank content. Proofread your content before it ever goes live.

Repair Links-Broken links will also result in lower rankings. Check the integrity of the links periodically for outdated, broken links. 

Use Brevity and Depth-Length of the copy is also now used as an indicator of web search quality. Web copy now needs a balance of brevity and depth to indicate quality. This of course can be a judgment call and may seem subjective. But, web articles now need to show that they are easy to read and also have substantial content.

Question Images-Graphic content is important for websites. But, sites that are too heavy in graphics will get lumped in with the ad-heavy sites that get ranked lower in Google’s rankings these days.

Good web content should be clean, uncluttered and tasteful. While Google’s Panda update rules may be a challenge for SEO writers, they should be seen as a challenge worth achieving. SEO writers can make quality a selling point for their clients’ web content. With the Panda updates as a guide, SEO writers can show their clients the differences between their content and lower quality content. Quality is now rewarded in Google searches and copy writers should strive for that quality.

SEO writers should also monitor their copy once it’s posted and periodically test the rankings to ensure their own quality control.

The New Year can be the year that your web content can differ from others. 2012 can be the year you can show quality and produce results for your SEO copy. Make a resolution right now to make 2012 the year that your copy has high quality and produces great results for your clients.

1.         Free Shipping Deal

Product Shipping is one of the feared parts of online buyers. In order to attract them, instead of allowing their fear to set in, make an offer to ship products with an extra twist. You could offer free shipping at the same time give them a privilege to choose to have a free gift wrapping or a personalized message with every order they make.

2.         Personalize your product display site

Many online buyers prefer to see the product they plan to buy before they actually order it. It depends on what your ecommerce store is selling, but having a detailed overview of the product images can make it seal the deal. Of course, you add product images that are also visible, with high resolution and have at least a 360 degree view as well as a close up of the product.

3.         Simple Signup

Almost all of the Ecommerce stores want their shoppers to sign up with them, but too much questions during signup may turn off your customer. Get only the real important detail that is needed and you will see your registration rate go up. What are really needed are the email address and a password as well as the name. Avoid asking for a username, it is easily forgotten. Rather use email addresses because it is memorable and unique. And by getting email addresses you could send email to your previous buyers and thank them at the same time advertise new products and special offers. This will encourage them to come back and purchase again.

4.         Advertise your Ecommerce store using Social Media

Everyone is using social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter regularly. These are the top two most powerful social media networks as of today, so why not advertise your Ecommerce store to social media sites and bring new people to your shop. Once you get customers using Facebook and Twitter, you can now continuously send special promotions and new information about your store.

5.         SEO

Your Ecommerce store will be useless if nobody can see it when they search products online. To get more sales from an Ecommerce store, you have to increase traffic to your site. Getting more targeted traffic increases sales.

6.         Feedback

It is very important to listen to customers’ feedback. Listen to what they like and want and what they don’t. After all, customers are always right. Keep track on what they are looking for. Never stop exploring new ideas.

Now, you have learned possible ways to get more sales to your Ecommerce store. Some are easily used and others need time to work. Remember, increasing your online sales is not just a matter of using only one idea; it is about trying other options and combining them to make it successful. Some of the options need technical expertise. Never be afraid to find the right people to implement the strategy you want.

Social shopping offers a variety of ideas on things people can do and places they can go to and eat all over the world. It is one of the best ways to spread special offers, attracting new customers, and reach repeating customers. Because social shopping is one of the most diversified places on how people discover and experience online deals, here are some of ways to use social sites to get more restaurant customers:

1. Living Social

Living social offers one fantastic deal every day with discounts. One feature that is popular is the “Share for a Free Deal”. Users get to have a link to share which is unique. This unique feature tempts users to share it to as many people they know, if three people viewed and bought the deal with your link, then you got the deal for free. Their innovation and unique imagination made them one of the fastest growing companies in the social buying category.

1. Groupon

Groupon is a site that offers discounted gift certificates and unbeatable deals that usually weighs discounts from 50 to 90 percent. But the twist here is that the discount for the product or service can only be claimed when certain people also purchased the discount.  You can also use this like cash to purchase at a huge discount rate. But in case, you did not get enough buyers to activate it, the deal falls through and will not be charged to your credit card.

1. 8 Coupons

8 Coupons is another social buying site that surprises everyone with their best deal daily. It also helps emerging businesses to get discovered. It has a presentable way of making customers find online products and services online very easily. Anyone can get a coupon and discount form without requiring payments.

1. Dealster

Dealster is a huge social buying site that notifies members about their daily deals. They offer great savings from great deals and awesome rewards. They have a rewards program that when you purchase something from them, you get to earn a badge and it is convertible to cash. They also offer a group deal voucher which can be transferable and may be given to family members and friends.

1. DealMap

DealMap was recently acquired by Google that works by collecting and combining all the best local deals from a large number of sources and gives users the opportunity to view the deals mapped out around them through mobile applications, websites and email newsletters.

These social sites will help you get more restaurant customers and encourage them to share their experience with your deals to their friends. But remember that for you to make this site work for your restaurant, you need to get your customers to come back the second time around. Be sure they get the best experience they could have at your restaurant, give them the most stellar service they could possibly experience and above all let them experience the most delicious food you could offer them.