Craigslist Job Postings for Businesses

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Due to popular demand and the overwhelming problem people are having verifying if its a legitimate business or a scammer posting in the Craigslist jobs area. This post will be a two part as I am creating a guide for job seekers as well. This will show businesses who are posting employment ads on Craiglist how to do so, more successfully without the potential of the unemployed turning away because it lacks substance or looks suspicious.

 

Add your Company Name

This is a common mistake that businesses tend to make and it seems suspicious. If you don’t feel comfortable giving your company name in the ad itself then you need to add it into the reply when some emails you about the position. This should really be a requirement. I hear a lot of stories about an alarm/security company around here locally that changes its name several times a year and scams dozens of new employees by not paying them.

 

Add your City, Not Area

This makes it easy to see who the scammers really are, those using the location tag used by Craiglist are found out pretty easily (ie. Space Coast, Treasure Coast, Gold Coast). You need to list the city or county of where the applicant will be driving to.

 

Add your Website

There’s no harm in this, when somebody applies at your company they should know what they are getting themselves into. If your website is under construction or doesn’t look good, then link to a company profile on LinkedIn or Yahoo Local, you should always provide an external source for your potential employees to research some information about the company they’re applying at. In fact, if they do their research properly they’re probably going to find that not so pretty website through the search engine anyways.

 

Add Requirements/Qualifications

If there is no requirements or qualifications, it will begin to look like a potential affiliate or pyramid scheme based business. These are businesses which are NOT allowed to post on Craigslist at all. Be specific with your requirements, make sure that you state what you want from the potential applicants, no sense in having them waste your time and you wasting their time. Also do not require applicants to pay a setup fee for their employment, most will not and you will get reported. I have never heard of a legitimate company charging their employees to work there.

 

Add a Company Description

This goes with the website suggestion above, make sure you add what your company does. Is it membership based, are you selling products, what industry does it fit into.. This is also a good way to find the people with the experience you want. If somebody worked at a local health company and has years of experience and now looking for another position somewhere else, they may look for something in that related filed and they bring what they have learned/suggestions into your company.

 

Use Proper Grammar

Make sure you use spell-check when you develop the content for your ad listing, too many incorrectly spelled words will make your company look unprofessional and assumptions about the whereabouts of the position will be made. Instead of typing the content directly into the Craigslist body text area, type it into MS Word or another word processing program. Craigslist is extremely HTML friendly so you can add all types of coding to the post such as hyperlinks, image links, etc. You can also save the document so you have a copy on your computer for future position postings.

 

Keep it Local

If your a company in Miami posting in the Orlando Craigslist for a job in Miami, there is little chance you will get a reply unless you have an unbelievable wage/salary. So stick to your local classifieds.

 

Use your Business Email Address

It is a very common practice for scammers to use Hotmail and Yahoo accounts, so use an email address that is associated with you company (ie info@kineticwebcreations.com). You can keep it anonymous on the ad itself, however when replying to applicants make sure you are using it.

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Video Marketing: Why Visuals Help

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In internet marketing, you have many different avenues to increase your followers. One of the more personal and successful approaches video marketing. Creating videos about your product or service can give your visual followers a deeper insight on how your company or mission can help them. As you know, there are many popular individuals who have found fame through YouTube and other online video websites. You may not be looking for fame, and that’s okay because we will be looking at the business marketing aspect of video marketing.

 

Creating a Persona, Creating a Brand

When you’re starting out with video marketing, take time to develop your brand and image. Be creative, create a theme that is unique to the best of your knowledge. There are several different personas you can mix or match, which strongly depends on if someone is a star in the video or if it’s mainly containing images and text. Everything from colors, images sizes and shapes are crucial. It is important that these key steps are included: an introduction, a theme/persona, a selling point and why what you’re promoting is unique and should be bought. If you need inspiration, find a company in the same product or service industry and see how they promote their business through video, however do not copy them or you may face legal consequences.

 

Outlines & PowerPoints  

Using PowerPoints and presentations to inform your potential customers cuts down on the need for visitors to read tons of paragraphs to figure out what your company or product does. In a simple presentation, you can streamline the process for your users also, by demonstrating how they can use the product/service and how to get more out of it. PowerPoints are even used for corporate presentations to show potential investors how they could benefit from investing in your company. There are many guidelines online of what standards are important to follow when creating your presentation.

 

YouTube, A Great Place to Start

If you need inspiration, visit YouTube and study what other companies are doing, you’ll find the most subscribed are very important to follow. They have what it takes to draw a crowd, a visual audience. Create an account at YouTube and find a presentation or video editing program to create your marketing piece. Make sure that you can handle the program yourself and feel comfortable with the amount of customization the program offers, taking time to learn a video editing program is the best way to make your presentation unique, thus creating a brand.

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Your Website Anywhere! Mobile Sites Are The Next Big Thing

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As technology continues to flourish worldwide, mobile sites are becoming more popular amongst many businesses. But why and how are mobile sites becoming more popular? This new craze may be seem like another rough spot for businesses who have spent time and money to attract the web presence they have now, but really this may be a great opportunity for marketing your business. Here are some benefits of having a mobile website.

 

Improved Mobile Visibility

Your business can have the added benefit of being found more easily online in search engines. You may have seen the .mobi domains that are available, though you don’t necessarily need to buy a domain in order to convert your website to a mobile site, especially with CMS sites.

 

User-Friendly Interface

To your potential customers, mobile websites are a more organized version of your current site. Usually when viewing a non-mobile website on a mobile device, visitors will see the normal website and be required to zoom into certain parts, which decreases the chances of them really taking the time to view your website. In a mobile website, pages become compressed and more organized, and content/navigation can be read without having to zoom in. Also, mobile websites often load much faster when browsing.

 

Device Expansion

Expanding your website to a mobile version will allow the site to display better on well known devices such as the iPhone/iPod, Android, Blackberry and most cell phones. If your business depends a lot on travel/mobile information, especially maps, you should consider having a mobile version of your site built. This is often much more affordable then the original design and mobile sites will not always include every plugin or tool.

 

Mobile Coupons

This also opens the gateway for you to offer coupons to your mobile visitors, many companies are accepting QR codes, which  just by scanning can be read and applied. This can be viewed as a mobile-friendly gesture, especially when the visitor is on the road.

 

We offer mobile website building, so if you would like to learn more about how you can improve your company’s online effectiveness and visibility, contact us today for a free consultation.

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Safety First: Opening Your Computer

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Though not often recommended unless you know what you are doing, taking the cover off of a computer exposes the main hardware associated with the machine. In this article, we will provide you with safety information so you know you are taking the proper precautions if you decide to replace RAM or a Hard Drive.

 

Static Electricity: Hardware Killer

Static electricity is one of the top causes of damaged hardware. If you don’t rid yourself of static prior to opening the case it can surge the memory, hard drive or even the motherboard itself. There are mats and different padding you can purchase to ensure that your computer doesn’t meet an untimely death when you go about trying to upgrade it.

 

Liquids

Obviously, you never want any open containers of water or other liquids that might spill and get into your computer. Even more, make sure your hands are dry before you touch any part of the computer. There have been cases of where even touching the power button with the computer case on with wet hands has caused electric shocks.

 

Unplug the Computer

This is something that seems like a no brainer, yet this is actually a very common mistake. Mixed with the last step of liquids, this accident can cause death. Always remember to unplug the computer and any wires connected to the exterior, like the monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc.  Electricity can still reside in the computer after it is unplugged, so it’s also important to make sure you have static protection and also try pulling the residual electricity out by pressing the power button on the computer while unplugged.

 

Know What You’re Doing

Make sure you have done the proper research on what you are doing before you do it. This makes the guessing time less and leads to less mistakes in the long run. If your replacing a Hard Drive, learn what a hard drive looks like, where it is in your computer model and make sure you have the proper replacement type.

 

Consult a Computer Technician

Above all of these, it is highly recommended that you consult a computer repair person before attempting to tweak the insides. As with all electronic tweaking, a $100 upgrade can turn into a $500 mistake without taking the proper measures. 

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Tracking Website Analytics, Why?

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Many times clients will want to have analytics installed in their website to learn more about their visitors, to learn different statistics that may be essential to target marketing. It also helps businesses find how many visitors actually use their website and what pages are most populated. Many times you can sign advertising deals with large companies to promote their services or products on your website and a lot of those deals require you to provide a report of website statistics, so the company can see how many visitors they get on average. So what kind of kind of data can you learn from having website analytics?

 

Page Views

The amount of page views, one of the broader statistics in analytics. The number of page views demonstrates how many overall views you’ve had on pages across your entire website (or where the tracking code is installed). Normally you can set a report to generate numbers between a set timeframe. This allows you to see when you had the most page views and when you’ve had the least amount of page views.

 

Visitors

With analytics, you can track the amount of visitors that come to your website. Through the use of a “cookie”, a code file placed on the visitor’s computer – usually non-malicious. Most analytic services provide a broad detail on visitors (detailed stats covered below), which usually includes first time visitors (first time viewers), returning visitors (visitors who returned to your website) and unique visitors (combined returning and first time visitors).

 

Entry & Exit Pages

This is more detailed tracking statistic, it follows which pages visitors came to when the entered your website and what pages they left your website on. This can help you come up with ways to make your website more appealing. If you notice a trend of visitors leaving your website on a certain page, you can change the page around making it more entertaining or easier to view. A lot of the time, this is due to links in the content which open in the same window. To stop that cycle, you need to have the links changed to open a new window or tab when they are clicked.

 

Search Engines

Another great way to budget marketing and find out how most visitors are finding your website online. Coined as “Search Engine Wars” this feature allows you to see what percentages of people are visiting your website via which search engine. You will be able to utilize campaigns and open webmaster accounts on individual search engines to manage your website and submit yours for authenticity.

 

Keywords 

Keywords allows you to see which words that visitors typed into a search engine that lead them to your website. This is much like content gathering as it shows that the more specified keywords you use, the more visitors will be able to find your website when they are looking for answers or information.

 

Length of a Visit

Most analytic services will be able to tell you how long a visitor stayed on your website. Interactive websites, those with games, puzzles storylines often will have visitors on their websites for hours. Unfortunately interactive websites are not for everyone and generally depends on what you are promoting.

 

Maps & Location

Visitor maps will show you where in the world people are viewing your website. This can break down the visitors to the country, state, county, city and even general street within a city where the visit came from. This is a strategic tool to use when basing marketing on a geographic level. 

 

Browsers & System Stats

This tool lets you track what web browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, etc.) your visitors are using when they view your website. It’s important to test your website in other browsers to see how they look when they are viewed, commonly web designers will forget to do a browser check and what looks good in Internet Explorer may not look the same in Firefox or Chrome.

 

For more information on Website Analytics, or to receive a free consultation on how analytics could benefit you individually, contact us now. 

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Advertising Etiquette

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Advertising Etiquette

By Randy Pence

In the world of freelancing, I come across many ads looking for web designers. The ad you place can very much impact the kind of designer you get to respond to your ad. Today I’d like to go over a few observations and give you a few tips as to how to help you get the best people to respond to your ad.

My first piece of advice is to not to come across as rude. I have seen a lot of ads where the client has come across as rude or very demanding. I actually read an ad once that had a line that said “If you don’t know your s***, don’t bother applying.” This kind of tone in your ad will not get you a lot of responses. This sets you up as a problem client right away. Many designers will not work with you and will not even respond to your ad. The designers you do get will likely be very desperate for work and charge very little for your service. You get what you pay for.

Please be professional. In addition to not being rude, look professional. Take a moment to proofread your ad and make sure everything is correct. Especially contact information. I have actually had many emails come back as undeliverable. I have also contacted phone numbers that have ended up being someone who had no idea what I was talking about or were not even valid numbers at all. I know we live in a busy world and it is very easy to get caught up in something, but just step back for a moment and good things will happen. We want to get in touch with you.

Don’t come across as desperate or rushed. I have turned down work before based on a feeling of being rushed in a consultation. Make sure you get your ad placed early enough to allow time for the interview process. The first designer you talk to may not be the best person for the job, so don’t wait until close to when you need the project. Allow time to find the right designer and allow them time to properly plan out and design the right site for you.

The next thing I recommend is put a couple of basic details in your ad. I have seen many ads that just say I need a website, contact me. I know I personally get put off a bit when I see those kinds of ads. Many freelancers will look for projects that cater to their strong points. If there are no details in the ad, we don’t know how to proceed with our communication. Freelancers will tailor their contact emails or phone calls based on the ad. That way we don’t come off as robots when we contact you. Just a few quick things will help. How many pages, what technologies do you need to incorporate. As freelancers, we get paid by the job. Help us maximize our time and yours.

With these few tips, I know you will see marked in improvements in the number of applicants you get for a project and the quality of work the designers bring with them.

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Your iPhone or iPod Battery is Dying.. Here’s What To Do!

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It took my iPod a year before the battery started inching down rapidly. The less charge your battery holds, the less time you’ll have before having to plug in and recharge the device. I found a few solutions that worked for me, there’s apps that will give you other battery preserving information.

Be Offline

I found that apps that use the internet or network , cause the device to lose charge quicker. A way to work around this problem is to play music directly from your iPod instead of using a online media app like YouTube. These devices also have an airplane feature that stops the devices from accessing and attempting to connect to the internet.

Dim the Lights!

Keeping the brightness low is a great way to conserve charge, as the display would not work as hard to produce a highly illuminating screen. This setting can be found in the Settings area.

Stop the Constant Mail Delivery

If you utilize the Mail feature of the device, make sure you have the intervals of “Fetch” to either “Hourly” or “Manually”. This can be found under Settings, Mail then Fetch New Data.

More Work, Less Play

Apps that are games, consist of videos or highly interactive tend to use the battery charge up more quickly. This can also effect the longevity of your battery. 

As Always, Keep Device and Apps Updated

Keeping the device and applications updated ensures they are getting the most current version of the utility and the updates can include performance enhancements that require the app to draw less battery from the device when it’s in use.

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Programs You Should Keep Updated

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Occasionally we find there’s a video that won’t load, a file that won’t open and a virus that via a file and no protection stopped it from taking over. This can be the case with a lot of computer users who don’t keep their most performance related, security orientated programs updated. Below is a list of recommended programs (if you don’t have them) and their importance relating to keeping the version current.

 

Windows/Microsoft Updates

Essential to security and performance, remember to check if there are Windows updates available. Notable updates can include updates to world issues such as the time zone date change, automatic malware detectors that search firmware for any malicious activity and patches to ensure that you don’t end up becoming a zombie computer and infect other network PCs with spyware.

Virus Protection  

Update your virus protection constantly with new definition files from the publisher, failure to do this can result in your machine becoming infected and the virus protection not being able to detect that there is a virus. This can especially be the case if a new mass virus is created and your protection does not have the most recent updates to protect the machine.

Adobe Flash Player

Adobe is constantly releasing updates for their products. The bulk of the updates consist mainly of security updates and performance enhancements. In March of 2011, Adobe released an update for their Flash Player which decreased the amount of resources the computer dedicated to playing a video in the FP format (YouTube), using just 15% CPU.

Sun Microsystems Java

Sun Microsystems usually release an update for Java once or twice in a two month time, these updates are for the most part security related with few performance enhancements. Java is used mainly for online interactive games and is the most used software choice for gaming websites.

Hardware/Drivers

Check for updates to your computer hardware, this can be done two ways. 1) If your computer is a Windows Vista or Windows 7, the Windows updating sytem can find updates for your hardware already. 2) You can choose to install them manually and use a program to find the devices and their model numbers. Keeping devices such as the display, processor, W-Lan and other devices is another great way to make sure you are getting the most out of your computer.

Maintenence Programs

Programs that are similiar to file cleaners and disk defragmenters usually need light updating, and carry a bigger impact when they are. When these programs are updated they can include new scenarios for ensuring the deletion of the files or change the way they compress files saving time and space. 

Generally it is a good idea to make sure that all your files, programs and hardware are kept updated with the latest software. If you have questions about updating these files feel free to send me a question below or on the contact page!

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Make Disk Defragmenting Quick & Easy

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If you found yourself wanting to defragment your hard drive, below I show a few ways on how you can improve the speed of the defragmenting process. This is especially useful for owners of older and already slower computers. I decided to write this article after watching someone sit through a two day disk defragmentation.

Clear Out Temporary Files

Both the system and Internet Explorer create temporary files that it uses to catalogue files it finds that it would need again soon. However a lot of the time it captures logs and media files that don’t need to be used again. In this case it is reommended you empty your Temp Folder and Temporary Internet Files. An easy program you can do this with without potentially damaging internal files, is a useful program called CCleaner, you could also use this for some of the below tips as well.

Move Media Files

If you have a lot of media files, such as pictures, music, videos, etc; you should always make sure you use an external drive or secondary drive to store these files. These files can weigh down the speed of the computer in general, so it’s always good to ensure that you have them on another media device.

Sort Out Your Computer 

This is also a plus for ultimate file management, don’t keep files you’re not planning on needing ever again. Sort through your Desktop, Document, and User files for anything you can delete. (Remember to empty recycle bin)

Update Your Computer

If you have any Windows updates, run them and ensure they’re installed.. These updates can provide security and speed enhancers.

Installation Files

 If you keep the original installation files of programs, after they’re installed, consider removing them to save space and speed, most installation files can use between 45 MB – 1 GB. 45 MB may not be much but for older computers this can be a serious space taker.

Restart

If you have done all these steps, simply restart your computer. This will give it a clean start for an easier defragmentation.

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Testing Your SEO

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Search engine optimization is the way you are found in the search engines. It controls how high you rank and how low you rank, so if you want to have your website found, review your SEO and make sure it’s functioning at highest potential.

Keywords

Review the current keywords (meta tags) you have presently on your website and contemplate any additional words you may want listed. If you can’t find how to access these, ask your web designer. These words help with building your presence in search engines.

Pages

Ensure that every page has keywords, especially with blog keeping this will help visitors find it quicker in the search engines.

Effective Titles/Effective Descriptions

Every page can have a different title than your home page, so ensure that every page is titled differently, and also have specific description for each page.

Remember if you need website or SEO support, you can contact me anytime for quotes and information: info@kineticwebcreations.com

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