Get information and ideas at Victoria’s Small Business Festival (1-31 August). There are hundreds of events held across Melbourne and regional Victoria – to view and book events or to order your free Event Guide, visit business.vic.gov.au/festival or call 13 22 15.

As the heart of the festival, the Festival Hub will be at Federation Square from 25 July – 13 August. The Hub provides an informal environment where visitors can learn about low cost and free small business services offered throughout the year. In 2013 the Festival Hub will come alive with special events presented by a number of small business experts.

Daily activities include networking sessions, panel discussions, interactive events, and the chance to enter the festival competition to win the new Apple iPad. The Mobile Business Centre will also be on hand to offer free business mentoring sessions and up-to-date-information for your business. Drop in before or after a festival event to meet and chat with business experts and fellow festival goers.

To find out more, visit business.vic.gov.au/hub

FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS include:

• Small Business BIG Marketing
• Tech Trends
• Festival Hub
• FREE Webinars
• Small Business Big Future Exhibition

You can also visit the Netregistry team at the Small Business Big Marketing event (29th August) or attend our free session at the Festival Hub (7th August) event.

You can also follow us on Facebook or Twitter for upcoming ticket giveaways.

If you decide that you have limited budget or would prefer to have full transparency and control over your website by opting to do it yourself (DIY), then how will you do this? The most common options include coding it yourself from scratch, using an open-source platform, or using a publishing tool like Site Builder (with a WYSIWYG interface).

Starting from scratch and building a website by writing your own code, is great if you know code.  However, for those that are less technical deciding between using an open source platform or Site Builder, can be just as confusing.  So to help you make a decision, we have outlined some of the key features so you can decide on the best solution.

Open Source Software

The most common open source softwares for website DIY solutions are WordPress and Joomla – with WordPress being the most popular. The key features for such software include:

• It’s free - You can download the software and then upload to your hosting space to give you read-made presence.
• Database driven – Open source software is usually database driven and provides a back-end administrative interface hosted on your website to help you add and manage content and design options.
• Design templates – To help bring down design costs you can also download free or cheap templates that will plug into your chosen open source software.
• Online help – Due to popularity there is a wealth of information online including forums and communities able to assist you with customising the site to help get it how you want it, as limited support will be available from your hosting provider.
• On-going improvements – Because open source platforms are so popular, improvements in the code are continually being identified and applied to help improve the stability and security of the platform. To minimise the risk of hacking, you will need to apply regular patches and updates to your site as they are made available.
• Portable – you can take a download of your website files and transfer them to another hosting provider if you decide you no longer wish to use you current host. How to transfer your website.

Website Builders

There are many commercial website builders on the market, mostly offered through web hosting providers. Many of them work in the same way with common features, here are the key features of the Netregistry’s Site Builder:

• Build everything in the one interface – All the tools you need to build your website is available within the website builder interface, so you don’t need to download or install special packages.
• WYSWIYG interface – Site Builder is more intuitive than open source applications.  The user interface is designed with a simple drag and drop concept, making it easy to configure your website options without the need of any complex code.
• Security – Your published website is not database driven and uses a proprietary publishing system that ensure secure folder and file permissions. The Site Builder interface can only be accessed via securely accessing the console, so there is a much lower security risk of your website being hacked or defaced than with open source software.
• Regular updates – Unlike open source software, you don’t need to patch your website code and apply regular security updates, as this is taken care of for you at a server level. This allows you to worry less about the technical maintenance  and concentrate more on continually improving and providing a better customer experience.
• Support – All the support you need is provided by Netregistry, with how to guides, 24/7 email and phone support and a range of online support articles.

We’re here to help

Netregistry has a range of website design solutions – both DIY and custom made.  Visit http://www.netregistry.com.au/get-a-website/ for more information.

If you still aren’t sure or want to consult an expert to get online, give us a call and tell us about your situation. By listening to your needs we can help you find the option that works best for you.

What has your experience been in the past with other DIY website solutions?

1. Get on board with Google Tools

From AdWords and Analytics to Keywords and Disavow, online search giant Google has turned tracking and accelerating your web traffic into a virtual breeze. Invest some time getting to know these programs and understanding how they can benefit you – they represent an arsenal of customer intelligence that can spark profitable insights and instant growth.

2. Grow your company blog

So you’ve made a half-hearted commitment to blogging, but you’re too time-poor to jump right in? Spend some time thinking about your content strategy and devote resources to the type of posts that will drive traffic and deliver results. Remember, content that offers value to the customer is infinitely more useful than shameless promotion. This means how-to videos, product tutorials and free giveaways are better than a thinly veiled sales spiel.

3. Develop your social media presence

It might sound obvious, but nailing your social media presence is a powerful way to connect with your customers and drive traffic to your site. That’s why it’s imperative to regularly reach out to your customers via social media and quickly address their comments or concerns. It’s also worth placing social sharing buttons alongside online content such as product images, newsletters and blog posts. If you make social sharing as easy as possible, it’s likely that your current customers will help bring traffic back to you.

4. Keep on top of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

There’s no denying that SEO is a fickle world, but it’s important that you keep on top of its various shifts. Whether this means outsourcing your SEO strategy to an expert or cross-referencing keywords and algorithms, it’s critical that your search value is always up to scratch. Boosting your web traffic doesn’t have to be difficult, but it does demand your attention, effort and time. But by making it a priority, you’re placed to leave sluggish sales far behind.

What are your best tips for growing web traffic?

Today, winning market share requires retailers to leverage technology shifts to their advantage and turn business intelligence and data into actionable insights for growth. Insights into technology, art, fashion and entertainment are inspiring retailers to create the best showcases of product online and newly identified demand chains are being actioned into amazing omni-channel operations, allowing customers to interface through any device of their preference and shop without boundaries 24/7 anywhere at any time.

Embodying these factors for success, retailers and suppliers are revolutionising the user experience by creating the retail models of tomorrow making for one of the most retail regeneration times in history for those skilful enough to grasp the opportunity.

This collision of the virtual and physical worlds is fundamentally changing consumers’ purchasing behaviours. Consumers are seeking an integrated shopping experience across all channels, and expect retailers to deliver this experience. Failure to deliver puts retailers at risk of becoming irrelevant. The key drivers of this customer revolution are the rapid adoption of mobile devices, digital media and tablets equipped with shopping apps.

UK retailer John Lewis exceeded online sales of $1 billion 12 months ahead of schedule. In August at Online Retailer Simon Russell, Director Retail Operations, John Lewis will be discussing the ‘shop of the future’ vision from both a customer experience point of view and a business operating model along with the delivery of all retail programmes including the key IT Omni Channel infrastructure.

“It’s an exciting time for retail at the moment with customers becoming much more demanding and expecting to see the digital and physical world collide together. That brings real challenges for retailers and those people that face up to it will defiantly be the winners and those that choose to ignore it will do at their peril.” – Simon Russell.

Early Bird tickets are now on sale for Online Retailer 2013.
Visit www.onlineretailer.com for further information or to register for this event.

Let’s take a look at the world of motor racing for a powerful example of this principle in action. Every formula 1 driver shares the same story. They begin as a child driving go-karts and with each race they get better; moving from the back of the grid closer and closer to pole position.

One day they win, then they win again and soon they become the kid to beat. As a result of their regular little wins they get noticed.  A talent-scout for Formula 3 starts asking around the parents and the teams for someone who’s regularly winning races. Eventually the name of a rising star emerges.

Then comes the quantum leap. The talent scout invites the young driver to come and drive in a faster team. The young driver leaves the go-kart behind and takes the wheel of the faster Formula 3 car. It’s not like the go-kart got progressively faster and magically turned into an F3 car, the driver has to leave the vehicle he knows behind in order to step into a whole new league.

In Formula 3, they may temporarily go back to losing, struggling to keep up. Things move faster and everyone is damn good at their sport. Once again our rising star eventually wins a race.  Then they win again and again and soon they are getting use to the podium. Once again, a lot of regular little wins leads to a quantum leap.

A talent scout from Formula 1 comes along and taps the talented young driver on the shoulder and says “I hear you keep winning races, how would you like to come and drive for the F1?”.

On the road to being an F1 driver, the pattern is easy to see. Lots of regular little wins create the conditions for a quantum leap. It’s also expected that after a leap the driver will take time to get use to the new pace. They will go from regular wins to regular losses before regaining their poll positions.

In business we don’t have clearly posted racing divisions like F1 and F3. At best we can gauge success by turnover, profit or growth; but success still follows the same predictable pattern.

Lots of regular little wins first, then an invitation to take a quantum leap to the next level. With this in mind there are two key mistakes an entrepreneur can make.

1. Not achieving regular little wins

In their haste to achieve success the entrepreneur tries to force their way into a level of business they aren’t ready for. Rather than creating some profitable quarters, winning some small contracts and completing some manageable deals, the entrepreneur goes after “that one big deal”.

They start talking about doing 7 figure deals before they’ve ever done a 5 figure deal. They approach large corporations for business before notching up a win with a small or medium sized client. They try to throw money at problems when they aren’t yet sure how the industry works.

Trying to skip the “regular little wins” phase of business is as dangerous as getting behind the wheel of an F1 car before you’ve even learned how to control a go-kart.

2. Not paying attention when someone is offering you a Quantam Leap

A quantum leap in business feels risky. A quantum leap often requires the entrepreneur to significantly change the way they do things. They may need to let go of a product that is selling, they may need to get rid of a key person or partnership. They may also need to go from winning every time to losing quite a lot in order to then move forward to bigger things.

Many times, entrepreneurs have their head down in their business when the “F1 talent scout” comes and taps them on the shoulder. They get an offer to play at a whole new level but because it feels unfamiliar they turn it down or ignore it. There may be a big deal to do but in order to do it, the entrepreneur needs to enter into new legal agreements, create new products or do a new joint venture. It all seems too tricky and the opportunity is lost.

Skipping the opportunity for a quantum leap is as crazy as a young driver turning down the F1 team because he’s too busy tinkering with his kart. The very reason you get the regular little wins is so you’re offered the chance to drive in the F1. Even if it’s tricky, find a way to get the deal done.

Success is a staged event and it requires you to achieve your regular little wins AND take advantage of the quantum leaps when they come along.

Want to learn more?
To learn more about what it means to build your empire and become a Key Person of Influence, they’re running an 8-hour strategy day on the 5 steps to build your brand and raise your profile in your industry.

Melbourne 1st June  |  Sydney 6th July  |  Brisbane 31st August

Netregistry is a key partner of this event and as Netregistry customers, you get 40% off the retail ticket price, with sale ticket prices starting from $24 for general admission.

Book your ticket for the KPI 8 hour Brand Accelerator | Business Strategy Day.

Whether it’s a cryptic email from Google or the sudden realisation that your SMTP service has been listed in the Spam and Open-Relay Blocking System (SORBS), navigating email errors can be a perplexing business.

Unfortunately, if you’re less than tech-savvy when it comes to the ups and downs of email, it can seriously impact business efficiency and put customer relationships to the test. That’s why it pays to have a contingency plan to tackle SMTP email errors and aim to put them to rest.

Here’s how to deal with some of the most common types of error messages:

550 error codes

This pesky type of email error often occurs when you send an email that then bounces back. It usually means that the receiver’s system could not deliver the email to your user and that the mailbox corresponds to an inaccurate or nonexistent address.

Top Tip: If you’re constantly fielding 550 error codes, it’s a sign that you should be confirming email addresses before creating new mailing lists. If you make an effort to double-check the authenticity of the email addresses you receive, you’ll increase the quality of your database and receive less of these messages.

554 error codes

The ubiquitous 554 error code usually takes the form of a bounce-back message from the server and includes the message you first attempted to deliver. In most cases, it corresponds with a generic delivery failure that can’t be identified by another error message.

Top tip: In many cases, 554 error messages can mean that virus-infected files are attached to your email or that your message triggered a phish filter. Try changing the content of the message, removing hyperlinks before resending the email or checking your message for any hidden or embedded images.

Email address detected as SPAM

If your email address has been detected as spam and listed in SORBS, it might mean that a shared hosting user is engaging in spam abuse – a practice with grim implications for your business.

Top Tip: Dealing with SORBS can be notoriously difficult. Make sure you contact the industry body as soon as you suspect you might be blacklisted and endeavour to be polite and patient through the process of reinstating your domain.

Although tackling email errors can be challenging, making small improvements to your processes can see you navigate your inbox with ease.

What are your most persistent email errors and how do you fix them?

The platform’s association with search giant Google brings juicy benefits for online visibility and SEO – advantages that can see your customer relationships move full steam ahead. Here are six ways to use the network to your advantage.

1. Optimise your profile

When leveraged correctly, Google+ can supercharge your search value and increase your SEO presence. Make sure you use keywords in your description, write a compelling one-liner under your profile name and include a relevant image for maximum effect.

2. Make use of the editing function

Facebook might publish your social media blunders for all to see, but Google+ allows you to edit, lock or link your post and disable comments as and when you need. It’s a good way to fine-tune your message and control precisely what you allow your audience to see.

3. Use Circles to organise content

The Google+ Circles feature can power highly targeted audience engagement that can seriously boost ROI. Think carefully about your customer base and make sure you’re using Circles to organise and curate content for fast results.

4. Drop zone

Google+ makes file sharing seamless thanks to a drag and drop function that lets you move videos, links, photos and other profiles. Embracing it can improve your online productivity in spades.

5. Raise awareness of important posts

Unlike Facebook, Google+ understands that some posts are more important than others by allowing users to notify members of a Circle with an interesting update. To set this up, click on the circle you’re interested in engaging with and check the “notify about this post” box – it’s a great way to improve the impact of your content.

6. Disable sharing when necessary

In the social media world, content can go from private to public in the blink of an eye. Luckily, Google+ allows you to share content with one user or an entire crowd and disable the sharing function if you’ve unwittingly published sensitive information.

Google+ can help you create a tightly curated social media strategy aimed at delivering fast results. If you need help with your Online Marketing strategy, call 1300 638 734 to speak to one of our expert consultants.

What are your best tips for working with Google+?

Put your user first

Users typically scan a screen from top to bottom, left to right – smart business owners should leverage this “F pattern” to arrange information across their website. Conduct a little user analysis to work out which pieces of data you’d like your customer to access first. Then, arrange the most critical information on the top-left section of the website and organise lower-priority pieces in decreasing order of importance.

If you make an effort to follow this visual hierarchy, it’s likely to reap big rewards in terms of clicks, conversions and sales. Just make sure you monitor changes in user behaviour – the best conversion strategy is one that’s responsive and highly engaged.

Choose your calls to action carefully

Although it’s tempting to include multiple calls to action, remember to think critically about what you want users to absorb first. Including too many points of interest risks confusing users and diluting the message, while failing to highlight relevant information shows that your website (and online business) lacks focus.

Choose two or three important messages and highlight them using bolder fonts and negative space. Understanding the power of visual hierarchy is the first step towards supercharging your content placement efforts.

Contrast is king

It’s essential to downplay elements that don’t require highlighting while emphasising the content you’d like to make the biggest mark. That means product headings, promotions and key business information should be distinct from the main layout, while trust markers such as security information can be rendered more subtly and relegated to the background.

While it’s important that your supporting content is noticed, it should never impede your main conversion path. If you’re strategic about contrasting aspects of your website, you’re more likely to garner strong results.

Although it’s easy to overlook the power of content placement across your website, this can equal lost sales. Taking control of your online real estate can accelerate your conversion levels and take your profits from good to great.

Netregistry has a wide range of Online Marketing solutions such as PPC, SEO and Email Marketing to help small to medium businesses get noticed online.

Good branding speaks volumes about your company’s values, direction and ability to deliver on promises. This in turn helps build lucrative customer relationships that bolster your bottom line.

Bad branding, however, paints an inaccurate picture of your business and can destroy your integrity in your customer’s eyes. This can seriously threaten the health of your business and see you forfeit your competitive edge. Here are three no-fail strategies for ensuring your brand presence is up to scratch.

Know your audience

If you want a brand that connects with your audience, you must first understand what they want. Start by developing a profile of your ideal customer along with the brand attributes that are most likely to resonate with them. This list should cover everything from your social media strategy and customer service policy to your website design.

Focus on consistency

Consistency is your most powerful weapon when it comes to creating a brand presence that works. Are you using a consistent voice across your website copy, social media presence and blog? Does your offline store offer the same promotion as your offline channel and does it reflect the same marketing message? Prioritising consistency is the best way to build the kind of seamless brand experience that will keep customers coming back.

Embrace social media

Effective social media strategy can accelerate your branding success. Although it’s important to know where your clients spend their time online, it’s equally imperative to plan social media content that reflects brand values and encourages customers to share. Ensuring that your social media presence plays a central role in your brand strategy is much wiser than adopting a slapdash approach.

Ultimately, the best online branding efforts call for holistic thinking and a focus on customer engagement and consistency across the board. Put yourself in your audience’s shoes when you spring clean your brand and you’re bound to reap big sales rewards.

Great branding ties in with a great marketing strategy. Your online marketing campaign needs to flow and increase your online presence and define you from your competitor.

Promote and advertise your business online through a variety of Online Marketing methods. The most effective approach integrates the following core strategies; Search Engine Optimisation, Pay Per Click Advertising and Email Marketing.

This new technology is fascinating to a lot of people.  Now, imagine there are seminars and courses on how to set up a microphone, how to switch it on, how to fiddle with the dials. Imagine people start writing articles like “The Power of the Microphone”, “How To Make Millions With A Microphone” and “Microphone With Strategies”.

To some people it seems like it is the microphone that is making people rich but they are missing the biggest point.

The money doesn’t go to people who know how a microphone works, it goes to the people who know how to sing!

In today’s society we have social media as the new “microphone”.  It takes a message and gets it out to the world almost instantly.

There are many people who have become obsessed by this new technology – they attend courses called “Social Media Millions” and “Make Money Online”.  Some courses are good but many get people focussed on the wrong thing.

It’s not social media that makes people rich. It’s their message.

The Social Media just makes them louder. Just like a bad singer is a loud bad singer when they have a microphone, a terrible business message just gets ignored by more people online. If you were alive at the time of the microphone I would advise you to get good at singing NOT get good at setting up a microphone.

Today you need to get good at pitching your ideas, productising your value, building your profile and empowering your community NOT get good at fiddling with websites.

Want to learn more?
To learn more about what it means to build your empire and become a Key Person of Influence, they’re running an 8-hour strategy day on the 5 steps to build your brand and raise your profile in your industry.

Melbourne 1st June  |  Sydney 6th July  |  Brisbane 31st August

Netregistry is a key partner of this event and as Netregistry customers, you get 40% off the retail ticket price, with sale ticket prices starting from $24 for general admission.

Book your ticket for the KPI 8 hour Brand Accelerator | Business Strategy Day.