I’ve come across a lot of business owners who are not sure why they should be on LinkedIn. “Is it just another social network?” “Why should I have my profile there and spend time keeping it up to date?” Or even – “It’s not going to work anyway so why bother…”

Why bother indeed – with well over 50 million users all over the world, the absolute majority of who are business professionals (not kids or teens like you may assume about Facebook or MySpace) – why would a business owner not want to be part of such network? If you are still wondering how exactly it works, here’s a short video that will explain the basics:

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Guest post by Olga Sladeskova, director of Marketing Resolutions:

Google AdWords is one of the fastest ways to promote your business. All you need to do is open your AdWords account, set up your campaigns and start advertising.

Google search engine - AdWords is outlined in red

This can only take a few moment however if you really want to get the most out of AdWords it is crucial to educate yourself first. Here are some tips for setting up your first Google AdWords account.

Google AdWords account is very easy to open. Just go to this link www.AdWords.Google.com, follow the instruction and you can have an account open within 3 minutes.

Once you open your account you will need to start thinking about what products or services you want to sell through AdWords. Write them down on a piece of paper and then brain storm other variations to these words.

For further help with keyword variations use the free Google keyword tool on the following link: https://adwords.google.co.uk/select/KeywordToolExternal

The length of your keyword list will depend on the number of products or services that you are selling. Once you are happy with your list, group the keywords by services or products.

These groups will later become your Google AdWords campaigns. Split up your keywords further into subgroups which will later become your Google AdWords ad groups.

You have now created your AdWords account structure:

You will now need to write ads for each ad group. It is a good idea to write 2 ads per ad group and test which one is getting better performance.

When writing ads the rule of thumb is to use the keywords in your ad text. This will help in increasing your conversion rates but also help reduce your cost per click.

For more information and tips on advertising with AdWords download the FREE Google AdWords guide.

Olga Sladeskova and Marketing Resolutions is a Google AdWords Certified Partner and advertising professional based in London.

Guest blog by Simon Wittenberg, V12 PR.

It’s not all about the spin or cashing in on the celebrity divorces, public relations, also referred to as PR or media relations, it’s a great way to promote your business at a time when the UK is feeling a little sensitive, and recovering from negative growth. There is no one true definition of PR, but it is essentially communicating key corporate messages using the media as the channel to do so. It also spans from a single press release to a product launch or awards ceremony, and from a regional newspaper to a national TV or radio campaign.

Before seeking any PR assistance, it is worth defining your objectives, key messages, and the target audience which you would like your business to reach, as this will play a large role in determining the direction of your PR programme, and the most effective media channels. This includes the use of social networking, which is now being used as a source of factual information by journalists. Twitter (www.twitter.com) is useful as a website traffic driver and for making connections with businesses in the same industry, or with the members of the media themselves. It is a peer to peer networking site, whereas Facebook (www.facebook.com) is divided into interest groups, but relies on members approving others before seeing their profile, which is not the case with Twitter where anyone is free to follow any other member.

Relative to the fee, a good and experienced PR consultancy should be able to achieve a higher equivalent advertising spend if the same amount of column inches had been purchased by the client. PR is an essential part of any marketing strategy, but it is an animal that can soon get out of control if not handled correctly. This is where expert advice and assistance can prove invaluable before anything goes ‘public’.

Simon Wittenberg is Managing Director of V12 PR Ltd, a freelance media relations consultancy. Simon can be contacted at simon@v12pr.com.

If you are a coach or consultant you may have found yourself stuck in a vicious circle: you earn more money only if you work more hours. So when you go on a holiday, decide to study or spend some extra time with your family – your income drops.

There is a solution to this problem. You can convert your knowledge and experience into sellable products and start selling them via your website. These could be e-books, CDs, DVDs, white papers, online training courses, teleseminar recordings, podcasts, premium membership area access, access to online library or articles, etc. Whatever you choose to do there are a few things you need to consider first. Apart from the obvious – developing and designing your information products – you need to think about delivering purchases to your customers.

How can a Virtual Assistant help you with earning a passive income?

If you would like to find out more – contact us today on 0208 144 4594 or email via the website. We offer you a free, no obligation consultation on how to convert your expert knowledge into passive income.

Here are our simple 7 steps on how to get your business to stand out from the rest:

1. Get yourself noticed – use testimonials, press releases and case studies to showcase our value and professionalism. Websites like LinkedIn or the bestof help to make all testimonials look genuine rather than something written on your website.
2. Create a niche for yourself – focus on one area of the market and become the ultimate sought-after professional for those in this niche. Your marketing costs will go down while the referrals will increase.
3. Underpromise and overdeliver – ensure that you are able to deliver before the deadline.
4. Have expert knowledge – whether it’s a specific set of skills (like Facebook landing pages design) or knowledge (virtual assistant coaching) it will make you more valuable to your clients.
5. Know your strengths and weaknesses – we can’t be equally good at everything. Capitalise on your strengths and find someone else to do what’s your weakness.
6. Ask questions – you’ll demonstrate your interest in the client and their business and may uncover additional opportunities: issues the client didn’t realise you can help with.
7. Follow up regularly – it’s a lot cheaper to keep your current customers rather than constantly look for new business. Make a habit of customer service excellency, follow up all leads, check the status of current projects, gather feedback, ask for repeat orders. And before you know it – your past customers will come back.