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Table of Contents for this issue.....
1.
Authors
Comments
2.
Q & A,
Suggestions and Comments
3.
google.com/support
4.
google.com/support/webmasters
(Video)
5.
Video by
Matt Cutts of Google (Video)
6.
Google as
a Brand Name
7.
A Great
Retirement Job – Consultant
Author's
Comments
As
we promised last week, this week’s focus will be on Google Webmaster
Tools. Since Google is the
big dog on the Internet, it is advantageous to know what Google has
available to help you improve your website in order to make it rank high
for your keywords.
We
welcome any feedback on other tools that you have used to help you in
this area. We will share the
feedback with everyone. Please
use the suggestion form listed in the Q&A section.
Q & A,
Suggestions and Comments
We
received several emails commenting on the results of the Merrill Lynch
survey on desired Boomer retirement jobs.
(Read the survey at http://www.retirement-jobs-online.com/#Begin
Track Two).
Some
readers could not understand the popularity of customer greeter or
retail sales clerk. We are
not going to comment on the merits of any of these jobs since this is
what the survey reported.
We
received an email from
Don
at www.profitpuzzle.com
commenting on the survey.
Don
sent the results of another survey he read:
John,
Been
a while. Here's some more "Retirement Jobs Top Ten" from the
"Dream Book" put out by Ameriprise Financial. Their source:
Too Young to Retire: 101 Ways to Start the Rest of Your Life (Plume
2004):
Top
10 retirement careers
1.
Antique/collectible restoration
2.
Bakery artisan
3.
Coach (life, executive, transtion, career)
4.
Dog groomer
5.
Freelanced commercial writer
6.
LIfestyle magazine entrepreneur (mystery shopper, survey taker, car
tester)
7.
Minister
8.
Motivational speaker
9.
Professional organizer
10.
Virtual assistant (administrative support and other specialized services
vai fax, phone, Internet)
These
careers capitalize on your life work experience, offer
flexibility and
have low overhead.
Don
Our
thanks to
Don
for his contribution to our eZine.
If you have anything for this
section or you have a suggestion for a topic for an article,
please go to http://www.boomer-ezine.com/Suggestion_Form1.htm
and give us your input. With
your input, we can improve the Boomer Video eZine.
www.google.com/support
The
first level of support on Google is located at http://www.google.com/support.
This has links to the various services in Google that you might
need. It has a link to
“webmasters” and that is where we will spend our time in this issue.
You do not need a Google account to access most of this
information.
www.google.com/support/webmasters
Here
is what the
Google
Webmaster
Help
Center
looks like. There is a
tremendous amount of information that is available using the links on
this page.
Let’s explore a few of these that I think are the most
important.
To
really take advantage of these tools, you need an account on Google so
you can look in detail at what Google knows about your website.
You can open a Google account (no charge) from any Google search
page.
In
the upper right hand corner, click “Sign In”.
This will present the sign in page.
If you do not have an account, you can sign in on this page.
I will show you where in the video.
From
here, we are going to switch to video to walk through the webmaster
tools. It is much easier to
show them than to describe them.
Click
here to start the video
Video by Matt
Cutts of Google
Check
out this video by Matt Cutts about the change of Google Sitemaps to
Google Webmaster Central which includes new Google webmaster tools.
The video is from August 2006 so it is a little old, but it talks
about the changes that were made.
Note:
In the video, Matt uses the term “dub dub dub”.
This is a spoken shorthand for “www” or “world wide web”.
Matt
works for Google and is well published on the Internet.
Google him for more information.
He has his own blog at http://www.mattcutts.com/blog.
Watch
the video at
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4526554928294588907
Google as a
Brand Name
I
just read an article on CNET News.com (
April
23, 2007
)
that Google is the world’s
number one brand name.
Microsoft held this distinction last year.
The first ten brand names are:
1.
Google--
$66.4 billion
2.
General Electric-- $61.9 billion
3.
Microsoft-- $55 billion
4.
Coca-Cola-- $44.1 billion
5.
China
Mobile
--
$41.2 billion
6.
Marlboro-- $39.2 billion
7.
Wal-Mart-- $36.9 billion
8.
Citigroup-- $33.7 billion
9.
IBM-- $33.6 billion
10.
Toyota
Motor-- $33.4 billion
This
is truly amazing when you consider how much older many of the brand
names are than Google (founded 1998).
A Great Retirement Job – Consultant
Authors Note:
I created this article from the information that I published in
the consultant web page on retirement-jobs-online.com.
I decided to modify the information slightly and publish the
article on ezinearticles.com. This
is an example of leveraging your effort by using the same information
more than one time. Now I
will send this article to the article listing service that I use in
Pakistan
and the service will publish it on over 100 business article websites.
That is getting the most mileage out of one article that started
as web page content.
You
have worked for years at your full time job and you have developed
experience and knowledge that will be invaluable to other people. Now it
is time to take advantage of all that accumulated knowledge and create
retirement income at the same time.
When you really
analyze what you must do, you realize that YOU
are what YOU are selling.
You
must market yourself and convince others that you have the answers to
their problems;
that you have already faced the problems and conquered them.
One of the best ways
to gain respect is to publish articles about your area of expertise.
When you include “author” in your bio, you immediately
command additional respect. Start
by publishing your
articles on ezinearticles.com.
In my opinion, it is
the premier article site on the Net. Once your article is accepted and
published on ezinearticles.com, you can easily publish it on over 100
other business article sites. You
can do this yourself or there are services that will do it for you for a
very reasonable price. At the end of each article, your bio will point
back to your website. Just think of the exposure that you get from one
article published on over 100 business article sites.
If you are not already
a published author, you will find that publishing on the Internet and
being able to include "author" in your bio brings you added
respect. This is expected of a consultant.
Consider establishing a blog and post to it frequently.
This is a very quick and easy way to establish yourself on the Internet.
It can be very effective in attracting attention to your consulting
business.
Publishing a newsletter is a good way to gain exposure.
Write articles that give your subscribers tips and current
information in your area of expertise.
The most important thing that you can do is have your own website.
You can build a website
to describe your experience and area of expertise. This will show your
prospective customer who you are and how you can solve his/her problems.
Having a website tells
the world that you are serious about your business. It tells your
readers that you own your own piece of Internet real estate.
You say, “I don’t
know anything about building a website.” Well, it is not as hard as
you think if you have the right tools. Do the research to find the right
web host to make your website successful.
You need a website that sells a service which is what you as
consultant are selling.
You can provide this service in your local area or to a global market.
The Internet allows you to do both. We all know about the global reach
of the Internet. On a local basis, the Internet is rapidly replacing the
yellow pages for locating consultants.
These
are just a few suggestions.
Let your imagination run wild and think of other creative methods of
attracting customers to your new consulting business.
Remember, your job is
consultant, not webmaster. You should not become
bogged down in the technical details of building and managing a website.
For more information and a free Masters Course on creating a website to
sell yourself as a consultant, go to www.retirement-jobs-online.com/consultant.html.
I wish you good fortune in your endeavors as a consultant.
That wraps up our
issue for this week. Until
next week, stay tuned.
John and
Linda Howe
www.boomer-ezine.com
http://www.entrepreneur-ezine.com
www.boomer-guru.com
www.boomer-entrepreneur.com
www.boomer-marketplace.com
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