You’re searching for a local Plumber using Google Local Listing (also known as Google Places). 

However, how do you know whether the plumber is reliable and reputable ? The Reviews !  But how do you know if they are authentic reviews ?

We’ll go over a few Google Local Search Reviews to see for yourself if they are real reviews. Also we’ll go over Google Review Syndication.

Local Search Analysis:

I did a random search for “plumbers san diego ca” in google ( http://ow.ly/2qB9D ) and saw one listing (Bill Howe Plumbing)  that stood apart as it had 106 reviews !

If you click on the reviews for this fellow you’ll see that the top 5 reviews are all 5 stars, perfectly happy customers ! Thats a good thing right ?  

So i decided to look into the details for the top 5 reviewers and noticed an odd pattern. I’ll use the latest reviewer : “Chappy” as an eg to show the odd pattern i found

This fellow is someone who takes posting reviews very seriously. All his reviews are 5 stars. On August 6th chappy has posted 17 reviews. Most of us dont have the time to post more then a couple in a day but thats ok, “chappy” takes reviews seriously.

However should one look further in detail you’ll see a lots of odd things :

1) On the review for Bill Plumbing “chappy” claims to be Megan M of San Diego Ca, however on the same day posts reviews under the names of Craig B of Denver CO, D G of Chicago IL, Danielle of Minneapolis, MN, Christi of Costa Mesa, CA

2) Chappy claims to be living at Legend Park Apts in Schaumburg, IL yet takes his/her ( not sure )  garage door to be fixed in Lake Forest, CA ! Further goes to a dentist in Boston, MA and uses a Spine Doctor in Chatham, NJ.

3) Posting of 17 reviews on Aug 6th alone and buying of several cars from various dealers all across the country

4) Always posting 5 star ratings ! I guess he/she is always extremly satisfied.

Now, would you agree with me, that there is an odd pattern here ? Also its the same pattern with the other top 5 reviewers for Bill Howe Plumbing. Which brings the question: Are these Reviews Authentic ?

There could be some explanations for the reviews done. Perhaps chappy is a young billionaire who has houses all over the country, travels on a daily basis for leisure or business. Perhaps used their services at one time and just got to posting the reviews on a day when they had nothing else to do.  I dont think thats its likely, but i really dont know. Perhaps you can come up with an explanation and share with all of us here ?

Now i must say that this is not an odd incident. I found similar questionable reviews for several other service providers like Chiropractors and even Criminal Attorneys. I found one case for a Criminal Attorney in Texas that specialized in military cases, where they had a review posted every 7 days on the dot. All of the reviews gave 5 star rating, each reviewer had only 1 review under their profile and the writing pattern was the same for all reviews.

 I’d have to say that they were probably done by a Review Providing Service … Google Review Syndication. There are firms that provide reviews for business by either posting fake reviews using various techniques or claim to find your customers and get them to write their reviews on a post card, mail it to the review firm which then posts the customers reviews online under various accounts. Is this service acceptable to google ? While there is no official statement from Google regarding this service, i’m sure google review syndication would not classify as a review but as a comment.

Google’s guidelines are very straight forward. NO FAKE Reviews are acceptable and they do remove fake reviews, ban local listings for business if found to indulge in unfair and unethical methods. Are you willing to take that risk ? I’d recommend thinking twice before you hire a firm offering a review providing service.

I hope you’ll use this post to determine if the reviews you see in local listings for business are authentic or not and do share your thoughts on the eg’s i provided and let me know if you think they are authentic.

On a key note, i have to clarify that I have no affiliation with any Plumbing service. Also am not liable to any loss of business that any firms used in the eg’s may face due to this post. Also i would not be liable if google decided to ban the local listings for any firm mentioned here for unethical methods or non authentic reviews posted. I am not saying that they indulged in any unfair methods, thats for the readers to decide for themselves based on the facts i provided from the reviews.

Look forward to hearing your thoughts on whether you think the reviews are authentic or not. Also if you have other methods to determine if a provider is reputable to not. I can be followed on Twitter and you can fan me on FaceBook. Also feel free to sign up for my Free Newsletter for more exciting articles.

In my next post i’ll go over Local Search Ranking Factors.

UPDATE ( Aug 18, 2010 ):  Stephanie, Communications Director from Bill Howe Plumbing contacted me to inform that all the reviews posted were genuine and that they had provided them to a Review Syndication firm they hired. The Syndication firm then posted the reviews for Bill Howe Plumbing.

This brings  me to ask

Should Review Firms Provide Proof that the Reviews posted are Genuine ? (Some do by posting a link to a scanned copy of the correspondence from the customer) Let me know your thoughts.

Everyone is awaiting the launch of the iPhone 4 on June 24th 2010. Its supposed to be the biggest product release for Apple for the year 2010. Few new features include 5 Mega Pixel camera, FaceTime, longer battery.

The question that everyone is asking is, “Should i buy the all new iPhone 4 ? “

In the US the 16 GB iPhone 4 will sell for $199 on a 2 yr contract and the 32 GB iPhone 4 will sell for $299 on a 2 yr contract.

We’ll compare the iPhone 4 to the former iPhone 3GS for you to decide, if you should buy the new iPhone 4.

iPhone 3GS Vs iPhone 4

(This Comparison chart was provided courtesy of Mahalo.com )
 

Also watch the official iPhone 4 video from Apple showing all the new Features… Enjoy !

Let us know what you think of the new iPhone. Do you think its worth buying ? In Canada it will be sold unlocked at around $800. Would you buy one ?

I hope you found this write up on Differences between iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 helpful. Do share your thoughts and feedback in the comments below. We do reward regular commentators with do follow links. Don’t forget to sign up for my free newsletter and follow me on twitter ( i will follow back )

You’ve got a FaceBook page that looks great and are getting lots of fans, but are you happy with the limited demographic details that facebook offers about your visitors ?

In this post I’ll show you how to track if your FaceBook page is working for your business.

How to track Keywords used to arrive at your FB Page, traffic sources and much more using Static FBML.

Step 1: Create a Google Analytics account ( in case you don’t already have one ) and create a new website profile for your facebook page. Enter the domain as facebook.com and even though you will be told that you have to activate or verify the site don’t worry about that. Once the profile is created you will get a code that looks like UA-4124123-1

Step 2: Create your custom image tag for each page. Enter the Tracking code into this Free FBGAT Tool here or download the script from here and host it on your own server (courtesy of webdigi.co.uk). In the analytics code you’ll enter the code given to you by google analytics, in the domain you’ll enter the site url used to create the tracking code ( facebook.com ) and in the page link enter the page link to identify which page the tracking is for. Once done you’ll get your custom code to be added to your FBML page.

Step 3: Add the Custom code to your Facebook page using Static FBML . I recommend adding the code to the bottom of the page so that it does not interfere with your page.

That’s all there is to it. Let the analytics pull the data and use it for your tracking purposes. Of course you could take it another step and distinguish fans and non fans visits and activity by setting up funnels, goals and segments.Webdigi has graciously shared their code for distinguishing fans and non fans activity on their FB page here .

Implement the above steps properly and you’ll see the results. In case you dont have the time to do it yourself or are just lazy feel free to contract it out to my team and we’ll take care of it for you. You can contact me through the Contact Page here. These steps have worked for me and my team successfully.

I hope you found this write up on How to add Google Analytics for your FaceBook Fan Pages helpful. Do share your thoughts and feedback  in the comments below.  We do reward regular commentators with do follow links.  Don’t forget to sign up for my free newsletter and follow me on twitter ( i will follow back )

This is a continuation of my previous post on 3 Steps To Get Your Business Listed in Google Local Listings where i showed you how get your Business listed in Google Local Listings.

Since everyone has not started listing their business in local listings there is a need to rank higher in local listings.

I’ll share the Five Proven Steps To Rank Higher in Google Local Listings.

How to Rank Higher in Google Local Listings

1) Add Keywords to your Company Name and Description : If your Business Name happens to have your Keywords in them then definitely use that name in the listing. Don’t make up a new name with the keywords just for the listing. Google gives you the ability to add a description describing what services the company offers. Make sure your content has your keywords along with Location added along with the prime features. This description is used by google in calculating rankings.

2) Add Logo, Photos and Video : Make sure you take advantage of Google’s option to add your Logo to your listing. Also add as many photos and Video’s that show the viewer who you are and what your Business is about. This lets them know more about your business and how you can help them. The more photos you add the better it is. Do make sure the quality of the photo’s and Video’s are decent.

3) Get Tons of Reviews : The more the reviews that you have the better your listings stands out from the rest. Don’t make the mistake of faking reviews, you will get caught and its not worth it. Get as many reviews from previous clients who have used your service in the past. Have your reviews have your Location in them. Reviews play a strong role as to whether the visitor would click on your site URL.  Think about it, which Dentist would you rather go to.. one with 5 Good reviews or one with 50 Great reviews ?

4) Add a Company Coupon : A lot of people don’t know you can add a Company Coupon to your local listing. Nothing gets more traffic then a great coupon offer. Create an Urgency to use the Coupon. Make the customers see value in you through your coupons.

5) Create One Way Links for Your Listing : Now that you’ve optimized your local listing, you need to create one way links for it. Just any any other page on your website you need to push it higher in rankings and one way links does the trick. You can get links from indexed articles on top article sites, links from your own website, your social profiles. These links will push your listing higher in rankings.

Implement the above steps properly and you’ll see the results. In case you dont have the time to do it yourself or are just lazy feel free to contract it out to my team and we’ll take care of it for you. You can contact me through the Contact Page here. These steps have worked for me and my team successfully.

I hope you found this write up on Rankings in Google Local Listings helpful. Do share your thoughts and feedback  in the comments below.  We do reward regular commentators with do follow links.  Don’t forget to sign up for my free newsletter and follow me on twitter ( i will follow back )

I was having a conversation the other day with a good friend of mine and he wanted to know if it was possible to measure the ROI on a Social Media Campaign. In this post i’ll cover

The Value of a Social Media Campaign

How To Measure Social Media ROI

However, should we really be measuring the ROI on Social Media ?

Why Every Firm Should be Running a Social Media Campaign

I get these questions asked quite a bit.  Why should a firm run a Social Media Campaign? How will it generate Sales for my firm ? In other words the Value of running a Social Media Campaign. I’d say Everyone SHOULD have a Social Media Campaign for their firm, regardless of their size. Dont agree with me ? Thats ok, you will after you see this video from Erik Qualman from Socialnomics This video is amazing and shows everyone proven stats from firms using Social Media Successfully.

Now that you’ve watched the video, are you on board with the idea that YOU SHOULD be running a Social Media Campaign ? I know you are !

Now that you see the value of Social Media. You need to understand that Social Media is NOT FREE. So what’s required for Running and Managing a Great Social Media Campaign:

1) It takes Qualified People to run your Campaign.

2) You need the proper tools to run your campaign.

3) All of this takes Time ( Don’t expect results overnight )

How to Measure Social Media ROI

Is it Possible to measure the ROI on Social Media? Sure it is. Here’s how

ROI = (Gain From Investment – Cost of Investment)  / Cost Of Investment

Eg. Lets say you spend $1000 to start your campaing and you make $4000 from sales arising from the campaign , then

ROI = (4000 – 1000 ) / 1000 = 3 times your Initial Investment ! These are just random numbers and your campaign success could vary based on number of things.

Steps to Measure the Success of Social Media Campaign

1) Look at Growth at Start of Campaign

2) Track All Activites done during Campaign

3) Measure Sales Growth from start of campaign to present

4) Use Special Landing Pages for tracking Targeted Traffic for a Campaign

I agree that one should track the ROI for their Social Campaign but not to make a big deal about it. After all do we see everyone asking for the ROI for their Ads on SuperBowl ? I hope all of you agree that Social Media Campaigns DO work and get targeted traffic to your site along with developing your online presence and increase your sales. Do Share your opionions with me below in the comments.

I hope you found this write up on Social Media ROI helpful and  feel free to share your thoughts and feedback  in the comments below.  We do reward regular commentators with do follow links.  Don’t forget to sign up for my free newsletter and follow me on twitter ( i will follow back )

This is a quick Post on a LIMITED TIME Offer for getting Domain Names for just $0.99 ! If interested do take advantage as its very rare we see such specials.

There are No Other Purchases Required for this $0.99 Cheap Domain Name Registration Offer.

Qualified Domains are : .COM, .US, .MOBI, .BIZ, .NET, .ORG, .CA, .CO.UK and .IN domain for just $0.99! (Plus ICANN fee of 18 cents)

.

Its very Simple to get this $0.99 Cheap Discounted Domain. Here are the Steps

1) Visit Cheap Domain Names

2) Search for the Domain You require and once you find the Domain You want

3) Choose 1 Yr as Registration Length

4) No Need to Choose any other products ( unless you want to )

5) Check out and pay with a credit card. ( Paypal not applicable for this offer )

You’ll see the Total for the 1Yr Registration comes to $1.17 with ICANN Fee. I’m attaching Proof for this below

This Offer is limited to ONLY 1 Domain Per person. Also Domain can be Registered for 1 yr only to get this special offer. If you register for 2 Yrs, the 1st year will be $0.99 + ICANN Fee and the 2nd Year will be for $10.69 for a Total of $12.04 with ICANN Fee.

Offer applies to the first year only of new or transfer registrations. This offer may not be used for renewals, bulk registrations, premium domains or Sunrise/Landrush domain registrations. Limited to one order per customer, expiring after 7,500 redemptions or on February 8, 2010 (whichever comes first). Discount will be reflected in your shopping cart; cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or promotion. Customers may not use gift cards or PayPal® to redeem this offer.
* Plus ICANN fee of 18 cents per domain year when applicable.

Here is the screenshot for the Rules of the offer

USE THIS LINK TO SIGN UP FOR CHEAP DOMAINS

So Take Advantage of this offer ASAP and Dont forget to Thank Me below by placing a comment and signing up for my Free Newsletter to get Notified of such Secret Specials ASAP and Follow me on Twitter as well. The Link i have added is my Affiliate link and i may make money if you use it.

UPDATE: May 17 2010 Godaddy just issued a LIMITED Time Discount Coupon for $0.99 for 1st Year and FREE .INFO DOMAIN with it  ! Discount Code : 99INDY. USE THIS LINK TO SIGN UP FOR CHEAP DOMAINS

USE THIS LINK TO SIGN UP FOR CHEAP DOMAINS

This offer may change at any time and i am not responsible in any manner what so ever. I take no responsibility if you dont get it for any reason whatsoever. I am not liable in any manner whatsoever for the above offer.

When we hear of using Twitter, one automatically thinks of Online Marketing for Business. But that’s not all. Think about it:  What is Twitter Really? Platform to Communicate! It allows one to engage in a dialogue, build trust and loyalty.

So why not use Twitter for Temples and Churches? In this post i’ll discuss how any Temple or Church can build an online presence using Twitter.

.

Key Points For Temples to Build Online Presence Using Twitter

.

1) Tweet a Mantra or a Passage from the Holy Book. If  you can do explain the meaning of the Mantra as well. Great eg of this can be seen @ShivJiBhagwan Twitter Profile where a Matra “Om Namah Shivaya (pronounced as Om-Num-Aa-Shi-Why ) It Means ‘I bow to Lord Shiva.’ “  has been done perfectly.

2) Tweet about Religious Events. This allows followers to be aware of when religious events are taking place. Its a good idea to tweet a week before the event to let followers know and then a day before to remind them. Also Do differentiate between regular prayers and special events.

3) Tweet to Request Feedback. After a prayer or even a special gathering at the Temple, ask your followers who attended to give feedback on the event to see how they felt about it. Did they enjoy the get together and if anything else could be added for the next event.

4) Tweet to Bring Closeness. Getting your followers to communicate with you gets them more involved with the Temple and more dedicated. It gets them more involved in events.

5) Tweet to Introduce New Members to the Temple. The perfect way to welcome new members and to introduce them to everyone. This way they feel welcomed to the community.

6) Tweet to Notify Followers of Community Events. Most Temples host Medical Camps where Doctors come to provide free checkups. Using Twitter can ensure that all members are notified of the event and are there.

7) Tweet Links for Bhajans uploaded. A lot of Temples are coming up with their websites and now one can upload the evening aarti and upload it and tweet the link for everyone to share.

8 Tweet to Get More Members. By this i mean members to come to the Temple and be part of the community. Get people to be aware of your Temple and get them involved.

9) Tweet for Donations. Yes i did not forget this one. Try not to over do it as it would make followers not pay attention to the tweets if all you tweet about is donations. Keep it to a minimum.

.

Take a Look at @ShivJiBhagwan A Spiritual Twitter Profile dedicated to Lord Shiva, sharing Shiv Ji Bhagwan Preachings, Lord Shiva Pictures and Details on Lord Shiva Temples Worldwide. It has a nice background that lets the viewer know what the profile is about. Its a start up and they are looking for followers for their website ShivJiBhagwan . Its a great concept to connect all Lord Shiva Followers worldwide and share Locations of all Temples worldwide for followers to visit.

If you’d like to know how to create the perfect Twitter Profile read my last post on 5 Steps for Optimized Twitter Profile.

I hope you found this write up on Twitter for Temples and Churches useful.  If you can think of other uses of Twitter applicable here, do feel free to share your thoughts and feedback  in the comments below.  We do reward regular commentators with do follow links.  As always Don’t forget to sign up for my free newsletter and follow me on twitter ( i will follow back )

This Post is a continuation of the Series on my 5 Personal Tips on How to Create the Perfect Twitter Profile for Getting Targeted Followers, and Sales. If you missed it i highly recommend reading it.

Now that you have an Optimized Twitter Profile, this post goes over What to Tweet, How to attract Followers and What NOT to do.

Follow these 6 Golden Steps for your Twitter Success for your Business.

6 Golden Rules For Tweeting Success

1) Build your Trust : Don’t Start your Profile with Marketing your services or products. This is the worst thing you could do. You need to share your knowledge and expertise with your readers. Make them wanna follow you ! Build your credibility.

2) What to Tweet : This can be difficult for some. If this is your professional profile, don’t tweet about what you had to eat or where you party last night. Find the leaders in your niche and see what they are tweeting about, RT their top tweets, join them in a conversation.

3) Join a Conversation : Twitter is a communication platform. In other words its a 2 way flow of ideas and thoughts. Join other peoples conversations and get to bond with them. This is great for getting followers. Initiate and join conversations with leaders or experts in your niche. You get to break the ice this way and they get to know you’re interested in their niche and not looking to spam them. Chances are they’ll follow you back once you follow them.

4) Selective Following : Just because someone follows you, you don’t need to follow them back, especially if they are not in your niche. Be selective in who you follow. Read their tweets, make sure they are not spammers. See their ratio of followers to following ( Ideal ratio is 1 :1.07 )

5) Display your Twitter Profile : Now that you have the perfect Twitter Profile, why hide it ? Add it to your Blog, add it to your email signature, on your business card. The more places you have it, the more visibility you’ll get.

6) Join Major Twitter Directories : The best place to get your Twitter Profile noticed  and get followers joining you is Twitter Directories like wefollow or twellow.

.

I hope you found this write up on Twitter Success helpful. Do feel free to share your thoughts and feedback  in the comments below.  We do reward regular commentators with do follow links.  Don’t forget to sign up for my free newsletter and follow me on twitter ( i will follow back )

Twitter is the most Powerful Social Networking Tool one can use to create their online presence and get targeted traffic. I’d say Twitter is the Perfect Marketing Platform.

Your Twitter Profile should let viewers know Who you are, What you do and What you Tweet about.  Remember its not about getting mass followers but Targeted Followers that are interested in you or what you have to offer.

Read my 5 Personal Tips on How to Create the Perfect Twitter Profile for Getting Targeted Followers, and Sales.

.

5 Steps For An Optimized Twitter Profile

1) Keyword Enriched Bio The best way to show up in search engines or twitter search is by adding relevant keywords to your bio. When we do this for websites why not for Twitter Profiles ? This way your Twitter Profile shows up higher in searches.

Take a Look at @RamitNarang my Internet Marketing Consulting Twitter Profile: I am an Internet Marketing Expert and Data Security Consultant helping business succeed online. Contact me for consulting work related to SEO or Data Security. As you can see I’ve added my keywords in my Bio.

2) Choose Appropriate Twitter Name Make sure your Twitter Name has your Name or Company Name and if possible add a Keyword as well. This makes it easy for followers to find you. I prefer not to use my niche in my main profile as your niche might change but your name would hopefully remain the same !

3) Add Website URL to Profile This may sound as something that everyone would think of, but you’d be surprised how many profiles i see without any websites. Also its good to use a special landing page to track visitors from your twitter profile.

4) Add Your Location This is important as this relates to Local SEO, allowing your profile to show up when people are doing local searches for people in their area. Local SEO is key to targetting people that are in your local area.

5) Add Appropriate Background and Profile Pic It helps to add a nice image background to make the profile attractive to attract followers to want to know what the profile is about. You can find lots of free backgrounds to use or even go ahead and get one custom made for yourself from a professional. ( Contact me for getting one custom made )

Once you’ve followed the above steps you’ll see that you’ll get more followers automatically follow you without you having to follow them first. Also you’ll see that your site will get more targeted traffic from twitter. I get tons of traffic to my blog from twitter and quite a chunk of my Business too, and i absolutely love it.

In my next post i’ll write about the 6 Golden Rules For Tweeting Success, a continuation of the series on how to get more followers on twitter, get targeted traffic that bring in tons of sales.

I hope you found this write up on Twitter Profile Optimization useful. Do feel free to share your thoughts and feedback  in the comments below.  We do reward regular commentators with do follow links.  As always Don’t forget to sign up for my free newsletter and follow me on twitter ( i will follow back )

I

Today, January 1, 2010 we’ll see the New Nevada Encryption Law go into effect. The State’s Encryption Law requires businesses in Nevada to use Encryption Software while transferring “any personal information of a customer through an electronic transmission,” except via facsimile.

The Updated Encryption Law also mandates PCI DSS Compliance (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) for businesses that accept credit card payments.

.

This Law is applicable to all businesses operating in Nevada and in compliance businesses will be protected from liability in the case of a Security Breach.

Let’s take a detailed look as to how it applies to virtually all Nevada Businesses. A few of you might be thinking it does not affect me, when in fact it does. Here’s how.

.

If a Business stores the customers

1)     First Name and Last Name

2)     Social Security number or Employee ID No

3)     Driver’s license number

4)     Credit or Debit Card No

Then this updated Encryption Law DOES imply to the Business.

.

Alternatively if a Business collects

1)     Employee’s Social Security Number

2)     Driver’s License No

Even if an employee is given an Employee ID No, since the SSN collected is tied to the Emp ID and stored, the New Nevada Encryption Law applies to all Employers.

Also the Encryption Law requires that no Data Storage Device with personal info be moved unless it’s encrypted. This applies in the form of Laptops, External Drives, PDA Phones.

One can read the Actual Nevada Encryption Law from here

Businesses are required to be in compliance as of Today, January 1, 2010. Those that are in compliance will be protected from any liability in the case of a security breach. Those that are not will be liable and it’s easy for Nevada State to find those not in compliance.

.

So if your firm is not in compliance and would like to protect itself and be in Compliance they can contact Data Security Consultant Ramit for a personal evaluation and for Full Disk Encryption Plans starting at $139.99/yr. We offer a Streamlined Solution where one can easily implement a complete implementation of managed protection services, including Full Disk Encryption and USB device encryption to machines within their enterprises – be onsite or in the field. Our Encryption Software can get your Laptop Protected in less than 6 minutes. CONTACT US for Encryption Advice.

.

The evaluation of the Encryption law is our understanding we will not be liable for any misunderstanding or wrongful evaluation of the law. I hope you found this write up on Nevada Encryption Law helpful and  feel free to share your thoughts and feedback  in the comments below.  We do reward regular commentators with do follow links.  Don’t forget to sign up for my free newsletter and follow me on twitter ( i will follow back )