You here the question all the time. “Where do you get business?” the reply often is ” Word of Mouth” . Word of mouth is certainly a great way of getting business. However this response is usually code for ” I don’t have a plan. Work kinda just comes in slowly”. Again not a problem. Although if you really believe in word of mouth and believe that it is responsible for the majority of your business shouldn’t you nurture it.

Generally when people think of word of mouth they think of one person having a good experience and letting another person know one at a time. The great thing about social media is that the word of mouth can now be more than one at a time. It can be hundreds. Do you have a facebook fan page? Do you have a twitter account? Do you drive happy customers to a preferred website to leave positive feedback? These are ways to give that new found fanatic a way to spread the good news quicker. Its like giving them a megaphone compared to the one to one way they had before.

“Do you want to generate good traffic on your blog and therefore give yourself a chance at earning an income from it? Quality Content is a good first step – but it is not enough – you need to work on Quantity also.”

-Darren Rowse

First, your posts need good Quality to them. Without compelling and well-written content, your blog will go nowhere. You want visitors to be interested in your site because the content is great! Make your post long, short, mid-length, but by all means, write well!  If it’s poorly written, you will not be taken seriously.

Second, you need Quantity. The ideal situation is a lot of high quality content and lots of it. You must have a high quantity of content on your blog because the more content means the more searchable material from search engines. Also, more content means more readers will be interested in your blog.

Here are a few tips to help you in these two areas.

-Post Regularly. Readers will be more likely to follow your blog if you have a regular posting schedule. Post daily, weekly, bi-weekly.(although it should probably be at least once a week) — but stick to a schedule!

-Be clear and simple. This is more of a “know your audience” concept. If talking about computers, using computer jargon is okay. Make your content understandable. Use easy to understand words, and make the format user friendly. You are talking to a large and varied audience, and it should not require an advanced engineering degree to read a blog.

-Something New. Start blogging about subjects that aren’t already being blogged to death, or write about them with a fresh perspective.

-Break your posts up. On the Web, people are much more likely to read four 500-word blog posts than they are to read one 2,000-word blog post. By breaking posts up into digestible chunks, you can make it easier for your readers to comprehend what they are reading, while also getting more content without sacrificing quality.

What is Entrecard?

Entrecard is a free advertising exchange network. It’s like dropping a business card on blogs you visit. Users can advertise their own Entrecard ad on any blog in the Entrecard network for free for a certain number of days. Ads are paid for through Entrecard Credits earned by exchanging cards.

So if you are a blogger and want more readers, give Entrecard a try, its Free!

Most people know that Twitter is a free service that lets you keep in touch with people through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: what are you doing?

What a lot of people don’t know is twitter is great for getting the word out about your business! With a massive growth of 1,928 percent in the US from June ’08 to June ’09, Twitter is now reaching a total of 21 million monthly unique visitors. What better way to inform the world about you?

But you cannot build something great unless you have the right tools and know how to use them! Twitter has over 100 different tools to help you with Information Gathering, Network Building & Management, Organization & Productivity, Business & Finance, your Health, Blogging and much more!

Here is a list of tools to get you building!

Twitterholic: Check out the top Twitter users and find out your Twitter stats on Twitterholic.

Qwitter: Qwitter will help you manage your network by sending an alert when a person unfollows you.

Twitter Local: With this service, you can see tweets from Twitter users in a specific location.

Twitpic: Twitpic makes it easy to take mobile phone photos and share them using your Twitter account.

TwitterHawk: Get targeted marketing on Twitter through TwitterHawk

Twellow: Find Twitter users in a specific industry using this service.

Mr. Tweet: Mr. Tweet is a personal networking assistant for Twitter, helping you find relevant followers.

Vacatweet: Set up an autoresponder for your Twitter account with Vacatweet.

ConnectTweet: Put the voices of your group or business together through ConnectTweet.

TrackDailyGoals: Use this site and the #dailygoals hashtag to keep track of your goals every day.

For 95 more helpful tools visit Top 105 Twitter Tools.

Rush Design Group is a branded reseller of emma email marketing. If you are familiar with emma you already know that they are the industries premier email marketing system. We chose to offer emma to our clients because it has the best system available. As a reseller we provide the design for our clients emails. As a special offer to our blog visitors we are offering 5 free account setups. This will include the custom design of your email header and set up of your account. There is no contract. We are only offing this to the first 5 that respond. Please click the graphic above for a contact form.

Have you ever wondered if websites could fight who would win. Well I found this nifty tool today that I thought you might like. It lets you compare two sites and see which one has what it takes in the world of Search Engine Optimization. Try comparing your site with you competitors site. If your site isn’t holding its own than maybe we should talk.

Be sure to let me know how the fight goes in the comments. And if you like it please Retweet.

click here SEO challenge

Courtesy of Driving in Heels - Flicker Creative Commons

This economic slump has made people wake up and realize that not having a website is just not ok anymore. There are huge opportunities waiting for companies that will make the investment. The days of setting back and watching the business come through the front door are over. The question now is do I want to spend money on a website and hope that in will generate some income or continue to rely on my yellow page ad.

The answer is get a website. If you don’t have a presence on the web what are waiting for. Do it now. The web is where people go to find a product or service to purchase. Most people that have a computer and the internet search online first  If they can not find it there they may look in the yellow pages. The fact is that being in the yellow pages may be good, but if all the competition is there as well it will just be that much more difficult to get the business. And does that ad really let you sale yourself like a website could.

I think that the web is a huge opportunity for service related business like roofers, plumbers, and air conditioning companies. They have typically flooded the yellow pages because it was easy. However I am surprised at the low number of those businesses that also invest in their website. If people look on the web first you should be out there to be found. Especially since there is less local competition in those areas. Don’t get me wrong their is opportunity in the phone book but there is less local competition on the web.

For example. I live in Springfield, TN. When searching on Google there is not one local plumber with a website. There is no local competition. However if you look in the phone book. They all have an ad.

Where do you look first for a company? The phone book or the web? Let me know in the comments.

Our most recent logo design / branding project in the Nashville, TN area was for Sentry Steel. As you can see above, the logo has changed quite a bit. Sentry Steel has been in business since 1965 and has added to there services over the years. These added services are what moved them to update their logo. Because of the Steel Services in the name, there are immediate ideas of what their company might do. There is also the issue of clients assuming they only do that one thing they did so many years ago. So the new logo takes the infuses off of the Steel Services and puts it on Sentry. This allows them to brand other parts of the business, as you can see below.

This is all to common in businesses. Most businesses start up with a specialty in one area and so there name or brand depicts that service or product. However as the business grows and industry demand changes, so do the products and services that the company offers. As they add offerings, the name becomes less representative of the company and can become an inappropriate representation of what the company does. When this happens, the brand of the company can be weakened. Your brand is what people think you are or think you do. If they think you do something that you don’t do, or don’t know what you do. Then their idea of you is not correct and you have a week brand. This ultimately translates into loss of business and missed opportunities.

Sometimes the solution is to just update the old logo to make it more current. Sometimes a complete redesign of the logo is necessary. In extreme cases a new name and logo are the answer. Whatever the issue your company is facing, be assured that there is a solution and we at Rush Design Group have that solution. We are also currently working on developing a consistent brand accross Sentry’s website and print materials.

Over the next 4 months Rush Design Group will be giving free printing and design to 1 lucky winner each month. Everyone else that signs up will receive that months item at 50% off. (limit one per customer only while supplies last)

After signing up you will receive an email notifying you of that months offer. Every email will have a button to click to register your name in the drawing. Please pass the email along to anyone you know that would like to save 50% off that months item.

Free Business Cards

May’s Free Giveaway will be 1000, full color, glossy, double sided, business cards. With set up included. Regular price for cards would be $60 per 1000 and $50 for setup and design. If in May you would like to get 50% of this $110 item please sign up for the email and in the email there will be a code for your discount.