SurePoint IT Solutions Blog

5 Metrics To Track On Your Blog

Want to turn your ho-hum blog into a true marketing magnet for your business? Then you have to give it a little TLC and attention. With so much content online, the “build it and they will come” strategy is the worst you can use. Since you can’t improve what you don’t measure, here are 5 key things to track on your blog:
 
1. New vs. returning visitors: If you are getting a lot of new visitors but no one is returning, you might need to improve your content. Other tips would be changing the placement of your RSS/email subscription buttons and adding a subscribe button at the bottom of each post.
 
2. Referring sites: Knowing where you are getting most of your visitors from helps you focus more on those areas. Are they coming from Twitter? Then Tweet more frequently. Facebook? Then put more focus on your pages and content there. Pretty obvious, but are you doing it?
 
3. Keywords: If you know what keywords or key phrases you want to rank high on, make sure you use them in your headlines and content. Google’s Ad Keyword tool can help you determine different variations or synonyms for your main keywords; and Google Analytics can alert you to what keywords people are typing in to find you.
 
4. Commenting: The more people comment on your blog the better it is for interaction and ranking. Encourage folks to post their thoughts by writing about controversial topics and asking for visitors to weigh in with their opinion. You can also ask questions such as, “What’s YOUR biggest computer pet peeve?” or similar.
 
5. Top content: Keep track of what topics are most read and commented on by your visitors. The goal is to find common threads and exploit them in future posts.

You should know this by now: Computers can and do fail. And nasty viruses can take down your system by creeping through your antivirus software and firewall.

The problem is that you usually get no warning before it’s too late. Puff! Your data is gone. This has happened to more than a few business people. In extreme cases, it has put companies out of business. And the worst part is this: It’s completely avoidable. By backing up your data, you can retrieve all or most of what you lose.

Yes, yes, I hear some of you snickering about the hassle involved. Indeed, there is a hassle involved. But you owe it to yourself — and your business — to take stock of your backup plan (or lack thereof) by reviewing these tips.

Most Important: Back up Your Customer Databases and Payroll Records

What’s the heart and soul of your company? People have different opinions, but certainly your customer or client database has to rank high.

Inside one or two data files are all the nitty-gritty details including what they buy, when they buy, how they pay and so forth. Contact lists also are databases, and you might have yours combined with your customer list.

So, where would you be if you lost your database? How would you feel if you attempted to open your database and it wasn’t there? Not good, I’ll bet. So you should be backing up your database.

Also mission-critical for backups are your employee payroll records. You don’t want to lose the information that you have to report to the Internal Revenue Service. Your employees don’t want problems with the IRS, either. And they certainly don’t want to be paid late.

Store Your Backups Off-Site

To really be safe, the backup medium (tape, CD or DVD, etc.) should be removed from your site. If you are backing up to tape, for instance, and you leave the tape cartridge in the machine, you’ll be protected if the hard drive fails. But if the equipment is stolen, or the office burns to the ground, the backup will be lost.

The safest procedure is to use a different tape or disk each day. Keep all but the current day’s media off-site — at your home, perhaps.

Tape Drives Are Obsolete

Years ago tape drives were a popular way of conducting a backup. This is no longer the case.  Tape drives are slow and bulky and the failure rate of a tape is 80%. It’s a good thing better technology exists.

Here are some other options:

• Back up to a burner — a CD or DVD drive. Neither holds nearly as much data as a tape. If you decide to go this route, be sure your software allows automated backups. A CD or DVD will work well if your data is not voluminous. CDs will hold up to 700 MB; most DVDs will hold 4.7 GB.
• Use a Zip or Jaz drive. These are made by Iomega. Zips hold 250 MB of data; Jaz holds 2 GB.
• Use an external hard drive. These run U.S. $50 – $150 and hold a vast amount of data. They attach to the computer via high-speed connections such as USB 2.0 or FireWire. Hard drives are fast, so the backup wouldn’t take much time.  

Need More Security? Consider an Online Backup Service

If you’re especially concerned about safety, you might want to consider an Internet backup. SurePoint IT Solutions can store your data for you, for a monthly fee. Our backup services keep your data protected in the event of a disaster. If your computer dies, have a fire or flood, you can rest assured that your data will be protected, regardless of the catastrophe.

Contact us today for a FREE Quote of one of our many off-site backup solutions.

Much like laundry and bills, no matter how much you try to keep up, e-mails just keep piling up in your inbox. E-mail is a critical part of your day-to-day work, so how do you keep it from becoming a distraction while balancing the things you really need to address? Here are 6 tips…

1. Zero your inbox. Do you remember the last time your inbox was empty? Probably never; that’s because it costs nothing to keep an e-mail and therefore you don’t delete items “just in case” you need them at some point. This really causes messages to pile up FAST. Truth be told, you really DON’T need all those e-mails. Make it a goal to “zero” your inbox every week, particularly on a Friday before you leave for home. If you can’t “zero” it, at least get the number down to fewer than a dozen critical messages you absolutely need to work on within the next 2-3 days.

2. Use folders sparingly. Only set up key, strategic folders or you’ll end up with dozens of folders filled with messages in addition to a massive number of messages in your inbox. You might keep one labeled as “storage” for any non-urgent messages that may need to be referenced at a later date.

3. Delete first, read the surviving messages later. Many of the e-mails you get probably aren’t even worth reading. Start your day by immediately deleting these emails before you even start to open and read the important ones.

4. Take action immediately. Probably the most helpful way to keep your inbox uncluttered is to take action right away on all messages instead of reading them and then going back to them later when you have time to process the message properly. By taking action right away you avoid wasting time re-reading messages. If it does require a follow up that you don’t have time for, file the message and mark a reminder to follow up. Otherwise forward it, delete it or file it into a folder.

5. Slow your roll. Your e-mail can be a constant distraction through your workday, IF you let it! Take control and set aside “e-mail free” time periods throughout the day so you can truly concentrate on projects without interruption. The world won’t stop if you don’t check your email every few minutes, I promise.

6. Install a GOOD spam filter. The vast majority of messages are unwanted spam, some of which contain viruses. But not all spam filters are created equal!