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10 Simple Steps to Get Started With Social Media

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Authors: Bryce Whitty

CommitCRM

Guest Post by Lisa Hendrickson, Owner of Call That Girl. Lisa has published her proven social media strategies in her latest eBook, "Call That Girl’s Guide to Social Media". Lisa has been a featured writer for Technibble in 2010 and is a contributor in the Business and Marketing forums.

Everyone is talking about social media lately and the craze doesn’t seem to be going away. If you’re not utilizing it in your business marketing plan, you might feel like you’re behind the times. Many people who are not using it, don’t know how to even get started. As it is one of the top marketing strategies I use for my business, I found it to be easy to learn, affordable and not something I needed to outsource. You can do it yourself and start seeing results in one day by following these 5 starter steps and these 5 action steps.

1.) Collect your contacts emails. Go through all of your emails, client databases, email accounts and create a generic list. An excel spreadsheet will work fine or use notepad.

2.) Create a LinkedIn profile (http://www.linkedin.com). It’s recommended you use your real name for your profile, not your business name. Fill your profile with your credentials and as much information as you are comfortable sharing. Most people on LinkedIn share most of their career highlights, past positions and skill sets. Of course there is more to using LinkedIn than just creating a profile, but this is a good start.

3.) If you have a website, add a blog page or sign up for a free blog like http://www.blogger.com.

4.) Start an email marketing program. Many popular email marketing companies have free 30 or 60 day trials. For 2011, I am using Constant Contact.

5.) Upload the emails you just collected to your email marketing program and LinkedIn profile. You will need a few contacts to build your network and to have people to send your email newsletter to.

Those are the 5 easy steps to get going, here is your action list.

1.) Write a blog about a simple value-add tip you know of about your industry that others would enjoy learning about. (Example: Tips for buying a new computer).

2.) Create a newsletter with a welcome message, a blog tip (the one you just blogged about) and offer a coupon or discount for services. Be sure to write a short paragraph about the blog and then in the newsletter, put in a hyperlink to the blog to encourage folks to go to your website or blog to finish reading the story. Remember to track the analytics of the newsletter.

3.) Join your local city and state groups on Linkedin. After you join these groups, be sure to introduce yourself to the group. After you have done that, post your blog link “Tips on buying a new computer” in a new discussion. A tip for being effective on LinkedIn is to make sure that your discussion is not pushy or gives the appearance of spamming the group. Try to peak the interest of the members with hopes they read it and remember your discussion later for if they need your services. It’s a good idea to use your professional signature with all discussion postings.

4.) Invite members of those discussion groups to your LinkedIn network. (These are all potential new clients as everyone on LinkedIn has a computer available to them). Many of the people in these groups have the potential to be commercial clients and of course, they are all residential clients.

5.) Attend local face to face networking events. Many of your LinkedIn groups will have free or low cost events. Be sure to watch for those and attend. Meet as many people as you can and when you get home, invite them to your LinkedIn network and add to your email marketing. Meeting new people in person is a very important factor to winning big with social media.

I hope these 10 steps will help you get started with social media. If you would like to learn more, my latest eBook will help you with step by step instructions.

Good luck!
– Lisa

© Technibble – A Resource for Computer Technicians to start or improve their computer business
To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. 10 Simple Steps to Get Started With Social Media

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Rizone Complete Internet Repair – Repair Common Internet Connection Issues

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Authors: Bryce Whitty

Rizone Complete Internet Repair is a small, freeware and portable application designed to repair common internet connection issues. A multitude of problems can prevent a computer from accessing the internet such as a virus/adware attack, an incorrect firewall rule or even a legitimate antivirus product that didn’t install or uninstall correctly. Rizone complete Internet Repair attempts to repair everything internet related on a Windows system and will do the following tasks:

  • Reset Internet Protocall (TCP/IP)
  • Repair Winsock (Reset Catalog)
  • Renew Internet Connections
  • Flush DNS Resolver Cache
  • Repair Internet Explorer 8.0.7600
  • Clear Windows Update History
  • Repair Windows / Automatic Updates
  • Repair SSL / HTTPS / Cryptography
  • Reset Windows Firewall Configuration
  • Restore the default hosts file
  • Repair Workgroup Computers view

Works on Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 2008 and Windows 7.

Note: Due to the nature of this application (editing internet settings and such), a very small amount of antivirus products detect this application as malicious. This is a false positive. [VirusTotal.com Results]

Screenshots:

Downloads:
Download from Official Site – 441 KB

© Technibble – A Resource for Computer Technicians to start or improve their computer business
To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. Rizone Complete Internet Repair – Repair Common Internet Connection Issues

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New Year 2011

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The Association is pleased to begin the New Year with over 1,300 members and a membership base that continues to grow. We currently have members in about a dozen different countries.

2010 was a very good year for the Association not only due to the increase in membership but also with bringing in quite a few Preferred Vendors to the Association for the members to select from. Some marketing companies were brought in along with a few online backup solutions for our members.

We’veRead More…

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5 Easy Services to Accept Credit Cards as a Computer Technician

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Authors: Bryce Whitty

Accepting Credit Cards seems to be a question that is frequently asked on the Technibble forums. The members of our great community often chime in and mention the credit card service they are using. I have compiled this information into one easy to read post.
There are many other services out there, but these are some of the options that Technibble members are actually using.

Keep in mind, these are fast, easy and convienient ways to start accepting credit card payments but if you are doing a large amount of credit card payments (say, $75,000+ per annum) then it may be cheaper to talk to a bank as their fees are lower in the higher turnover areas. For everyone else, here are some good options to get setup quickly and cheaply:
 
Paypal – http://www.paypal.com – Supports Many Countries
Paypal is by far one of the quickest and easiest ways to start accepting credit cards. However, it isnt the cheapest.
A great way to start accepting credit card payments onsite is to create a Paypal button either on your on your main site, or on a hidden mobile friendly page. To set this up:

  • Log into Paypal, click the “Merchant Services” tab up the top
  • Click “Buy Now buttons” on the right hand side under the “Website Payments” heading
  • On the “Create Paypal payment button” page, choose “Buy Now” as the button type, make the item name something like “YourBusinessName Payment” and leave the item ID and price empty. You will need to set the currency though.
  • You can leave everything else as the default and click “Create Button”. Take the code given to you and place it on your website or a mobile friendly page (that may have this button as the only thing on it so it loads quickly on your phone).

Their fees and pricing can be found here.

 

ProPay – http://www.propay.com – USA & Canada
ProPay seems to get the most mentions on the forums. They have no setup fee but there is a small annual fee. They have no monthly minimums or long-term contracts.

They allow you and your clients to pay via Phone where you enter the credit card number on the keypad.
They also offer an iPhone attachment for free (you pay $14 shipping though) that turns your iPhone 3G or 3GS into a mobile credit card terminal which would allow you to take credit card payments while onsite. If you dont own an iPhone 3G or 3GS, they also have a mobile web interface where you can enter in credit card numbers through your phones web browser.

One thing worth mentioning is that some technicians who make use of ProPay had to pay a $1000 reserve because they deem “Computer Repair, Web and Graphic Design” as high risk. I dont know whether this will apply to all computer technicans or the decision was based off other factors specific to the members on the forums. However, one technician managed to get the reserve down to $500 because he was using the ProPay card reader.

Their fees and pricing can be found here.

 

Intuit – http://payments.intuit.com – USA & Canada (Canada only some features)
Intuit, the makers of Quickbooks got a few mentions on the forums. They offer an iPhone credit card reading attachment, a bluetooth card reader for non-iPhone devices and a bluetooth card reader with printer, also for non-iPhone devices. You can make payments via their web page or download an application that works for many smart phones including the iPhone, Blackberry, HTC, Palm and more.

There is a monthly service fee of $12.95 but no monthly minimums or setup fees.
Their fees and pricing can be found here. (click the pricing tab)

 

Squareup – http://www.squareup.com – USA
I was thinking of giving Squareup a miss because some people had questioned their reliability because they are very new on the scene. However, after asking around on the Technibble forums and the Technibble twitter, it seems a lot of technicians are making use of it. If you do over $1000 in credit card payments within the span of 7 days, the money will be held for thirty days and then put in your account.

Squareup offer a free card reader that plugs into your Apple device (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch) or your Android OS phone (Motorola, HTC, Samsung etc..)

Their fees and pricing can be found here (goto the ¢ tab).

 

Tyro – http://www.tyro.com – Australia
Tyro is an Australian based company that provide credit card terminals for shops, mobile based terminals that make use of GPRS while you are onsite and a web interface for everything else. With Tyro, it appears you need to pay for the terminals which are $520 for the ethernet version, $680 for the WIFI version and $780 for the GPRS model. Tyro is more expensive than the super cheap and easy startups that exist in the USA, but in Australia there isnt a whole lot of choice.

Their fees and pricing can be found here.


I tried to find some recommended options for our UK readers. However, all of the UK technicians I asked on our forums and twitter said they just use Paypal. If you know of some great UK services for accepting credit cards, please leave a comment below.

© Technibble – A Resource for Computer Technicians to start or improve their computer business
To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. 5 Easy Services to Accept Credit Cards as a Computer Technician

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Top 5 Ways To Get Backlinks To Your Business Website

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Authors: Bryce Whitty

CommitCRM

Guest Post by Bryan Vest: Bryan Vest is a web developer/SEO specialist who enjoys writing articles to help make techs websites succeed.

Search engines often use the number of links a website has from other sites as a major factor in your page ranking. Even Google’s description of their PageRank system says that, “Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B”.

Now before you start rushing out to spam as many links as you possibly can on every blog and forum you can possibly find, you need to know that not all links are created equal. For example, lets say you own a computer repair website. A link from another computer repair website will hold more weight with Google than a link from a home improvement website.

There are other contributing factors to the weight of a link, but we will start off with the basics. Now here are the top 5 ways to get backlinks. There are definitely way more ways out there you just have to be creative, but this will be the main 5 you will see just about everywhere.

5. Blog Comments and Forum Signatures – There are a lot of “SEO experts” and web developers that believe that blog comments and Forum Signatures are the best way to get backlinks. However, these are beneficial, but “spam commenting” is not the way to go. If you can’t add something valuable to the blog post, or offer a different point of view, don’t comment. This will get you more damage than good in the end. A good way to get high quality backlinks from blogs without putting your link actually in the post is to put your name as the keyword you are targeting and your URL as the website. For example, I am currently working on a new site targeting “Temecula Web Design” here would be a good way to get a backlink that bloggers will approve of.

As you can see it will give you a nice link back to your site without causing the blog to look like its filled with spam.

4. Directory Links – Submitting your site to directories can help you. However, like blog comments not all directories are created equal. Some directories (paid or not paid) can give you a high quality backlinks (DMOZ, Yahoo, and Business.com). For free directories you will want to make sure that more than just the home page of the directory is indexed, and that the directory has been around for at least one year if you are interested in a high quality link. The common misconception is that Google ranks websites as a whole when in fact it ranks web pages. Knowing this if you submit your site and end up on page 200 with no ranking then that link will count for almost nothing.

3. Reciprocal Links – Partnering with sites that are directly related to the subject of your site can help you. The idea here is “You scratch my back, I will scratch your back”. This is when another site links to your site while you link to theirs. This however should be used in moderation. If you have to many reciprocal links, especially if they are not directly related to your site, can actually do more damage than good. This method may require some work since not a lot webmasters are willing to link to their competition. However, if you can find sites related that are not in direct competition with your site you can hit a gold mine of links.

2. Article Posts – Article posting has huge potential to launch your site to the top of Google in the event that one of your articles gets posted on a popular site. A popular way is to contact bloggers related to your subject and ask them if they would publish an article (with your anchor text backlinks). This will actually receive a great response because to bloggers well written and unique content is what they are all about. With some time this method could be like finding oil in your back yard. Not only will you have a link on the site you wrote the article for, but there are a lot of blogs out there that just copy content from other blogs. Generally those webmasters are to lazy to remove the backlinks giving you even more links from other sites. I myself have seen a high quality article go from 1 backlink to 12 in 1 month. The best part is that the sites you get those from are all relevant to your targeted keyword as well.

1. Blog With Quality Unique Contents – It is a well known fact that Google loves blogs! If your content is truly unique and well written you will naturally receive backlinks from other sites. This is the liquid gold of backlinking. Now this method requires the most work and will take the most time, but if you do it right and spend some time on it you can easily get 20 to 30 backlinks from a well written blog post. There links are almost always on relevant websites to since they are coming from webmasters that find your information useful to their viewers as well. Over time you will naturally receive high quality backlinks boosting you to the top of Google ranks with ease.

Guest Post by Bryan Vest of Temecula Web Design

© Technibble – A Resource for Computer Technicians to start or improve their computer business
To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. Top 5 Ways To Get Backlinks To Your Business Website

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The Opportunity Cost

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Authors: Bryce Whitty

CommitCRM

The Technicians on the Technibble forums brought up a very interesting topic about the “opportunity cost” of the things we do.

A good example of explaining “opportunity cost” is if a person invests $10,000 in the stock market, they deny themselves the interest that could have accrued by leaving the $10,000 in a bank account instead. The opportunity cost of the decision to invest in the stock market is the value of the interest they could have earned if they put it in the bank.

So how does this apply to Computer Technicians? Someone on the Technibble forums mentioned the idea of pre-making lengths of RJ-45 network cable and packaging them individually (such as 1m, 5m, 10m lengths). The margin would be fairly high on the products because when you buy network cable and the plugs in bulk, they work out to be fairly cheap and you can charge more for a pre-packaged cable.

One of the Technicians on the forums chimed in with this:

Once you tack in your opportunity costs (Your time not spent doing other things) and what your time is worth making your own cables for lengths shorter than 6′ is a waste of time.

Lets say that you sell network cables at $1 per foot. It takes you a minute on each end of get the wires in the right order and crimp the plug on them so that works out to 2 minutes per cable. If you sold twenty 5-foot cables for $100 and our material costs was $28 then you would have made an easy $72 for 40 minutes of work.

However, if you had purchased these pre-made cables at the same material cost of $28, you would have had these cables already in you inventory and earned $66 of your normal $100 per hour rate while you used that time to repair a clients computer.

Total cost of making them yourself:
$100 income – $28 expenses = $72 profit (at a loss of 40 minutes of time)

Total cost of purchasing the cables:
$100 income – $28 expenses = $72 profit
$72 profit +$66 you earned having used your time and skills for repair work instead = $138 profit

In this situation, the opportunity cost of making cables is the loss of $66 you could have earned if you used your diagnostic and troubleshooting skills for fix computers instead.
The figures change a bit when you are making a small amount of very long cables because then it might be worth it. A few technicians recommended Monoprice.com as one of the cheapest places to get network cables (I haven’t used it, but a few forum members have). In this example, if you were to purchase those twenty 5-foot cables from Monoprice, the total cost would have been $13.60 for the cables and about $6.60 shipping equalling $20.20 in total.
Is 40 minutes of your time worth $20.20? Probably not.

I understand that many people will make cables if they have no other work to do, but that time could be used far more effectively by reading a marketing book or doing something else to improve your business – which will in turn bring you more income.

There comes a point in the life of your business when your time and skills are too valuable. Of course, a lot of people just do it for the love of the work, and thats fine too if that is what makes them happy. I must admit I do this myself in certain areas, we just need to be aware that there is an opportunity cost in the decisions we make.

Special thanks to everyone in this thread for bringing up the topic.

© Technibble – A Resource for Computer Technicians to start or improve their computer business
To get started with your own computer business, check out our Computer Business Kit. The Opportunity Cost

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Chamber of Commerce Insight

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I just thought that I would take a little time today to share a couple of my observations of late. I hope that everyone is staying busy with their computer repair services. I seem to have lately found some free and cheap advertising that has had an immediate payoff. I have been a Chamber of Commerce member for a couple of years now, and one of my competitors is even on the board of our local chamber. He is a nice guy and I try to buy parts from him when I can.

The point is, I askedRead More…

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ACRBO Recommends “Powered by Nine” Online Backup and Recovery Platform

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Los Angeles, Calif. – October 5, 2010 – Nine Technology, a leading provider of online backup and recovery platforms through channel resellers and managed service providers, today announced the Association of Computer Repair Business Owners has selected the “Powered by Nine” platform as a partner to Association members. The ACRBO chose to endorse the Nine Technology products after careful consideration of its members’ needs and after rigorous testing of the systemRead More…

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