Small Business News

Blogs have become one of the most effective ways of communication in digital technology. And the maturation of the medium has resulted in bloggers spending more time to create high-quality posts which deliver better results.

The latest blogger survey from Orbit Media has revealed 56% of bloggers who spend six-plus hours on a blog post get better results. It goes without saying the more time you spend on a post the better it will be.

While spending six hours on a single post is possible for professional bloggers, the same doesn’t apply for someone running a small business. But an owner who knows his or her craft can write an informative post in less time and have the same impact for the desired audience.

In the report, Jay Baer of Convince and Convert highlights the importance of definitive content. Baer says, “To succeed with blogging (or just about any written word online) you must provide definitive content. Not just some half-baked flotsam and jetsam that is 85% the same as the other 5,237 posts on the topic, but real meaty stuff.”

Baer agrees long-form content delivers, with this added caveat. Adding, “But all of this long-form opining demands the one thing that is a finite resource for bloggers: time.” This is especial

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A new survey finds 31% of employees spend one to three hours of their workday focused on March Madness. This could include talking to friends, watching games or even developing brackets for the tournament.

Monster surveyed over 300 candidates and employers about how March Madness affects small businesses. Small Business Trends contacted Vicki Salemi, Career Expert for Monster, to find out more. We asked ow this huge sporting event impacts workplace productivity.

Small Business Trends started out by asking Salemi about any drag the tournament has on the average smaller company.

“One consequence is the decrease in productivity,” she wrote in an email. “This includes lethargic employees who stayed up late watching a big game the night prior, calling in sick the following day, or general distractions.”

This is the NCAA college basketball tournament where 68 team compete through seven rounds. It’s been held every year since 1939. The tournament started March 19-20 with the National Championship Game on April 8.

The Monster survey also found that 13.7% of respo

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The hottest technology on the market today for business and personal use is coming straight out of the VoIP and virtual phone sectors. VoIP technology lets you call from anywhere using a cell phone, computer, tablet, a VoIP phone or other data-driven device from the same number.

Let’s look at what a VoIP number is and how you can get one. We’ll also discuss how to get VoIP services started and five VoIP fraud alerts that will protect your business. A VoIP number can also save you a ton of money that conventional landlines can’t.

A VoIP number (also known as Voice over IP or virtual phone number) is a real telephone number that gets assigned to a user, but not to a specific phone line. Throughout the technology industry, virtual phone numbers get referred to as access numbers or direct inward dialing.

VoIP works by using the Internet to place calls. Unlike traditional phone service, where the call gets routed through a phone line, your service travels over the Internet. With this method, VoIP routes a call along the most efficient paths possible.

VoIP also extends to other forms of communication, l

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When doing B2B marketing, many business owners and sales reps tend to fall back on the same old approaches. They focus on the same places and methods for doing networking and finding new prospective clients. These include: trade shows, industry associations, and formal networking events. All of these conventional networking methods make some sense. After all, sometimes there’s no substitute for having a presence on the floor at your industry’s biggest annual convention, or pressing the flesh in person at a local business networking function. But if you want to boost your B2B marketing results, you need to be creative about where you do your networking. 

Here are a few unexpected and unconventional places where you should try to do some B2B networking to find your next new prospective client: 

Sometimes you can find new clients by volunteering at a nonprofit – not because you’re there to sell or to find new clients, but because you’re doing something that you care about, and you often will meet new people who are open to making new connections. This is a big reason why many business people love to serve on nonprofit

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