There are a number of refund scam emails currently circulating. These emails claim to come from the ATO and offer a tax refund. They link to a bogus ATO website asking for personal and credit card details. These emails can differ in their appearance and level of sophistication but will generally state that you are eligible for a refund and instruct you to click on a link to submit a form to receive it. The ATO will never email you asking for personal or credit card details and you should never provide this information.

Key indicators of the email scam include:

• The email asks you to provide personal details. Always be suspicious of this.
• It is poorly worded with spelling and grammatical mistakes (though this is not always the case)
• It includes an attachment (form) or link to a webpage to lodge a form.
• It asks for credit card and PIN numbers.

Unsolicited Phonecall Scams

You receive a call from a person saying that they are from “The Tax Office’s Australian Government Grants Department”. The person asks to clarify your name and address and says you will receive a cheque for $5200, hand delivered the next day. In order to get this cheque, you need to call a phone number back to confirm eligibility.

Key indicators of the phonecall scam include:

• The caller advises that you have an unclaimed refund.
• You are asked to pay a sum of money to a third party in order to receive the refund.
• The payment must be made through a money transfer.

Remember, no official institution will ever contact you directly for your secure information.

What’s a blog? This is a Blog! It’s a way to keep information flowing and a means of connecting with key customers through, hopefully, interesting articles and useful information on topics relevant to your business relationship with Bonza; Computer repairs, Websites, Google AdWords, or all three.

Even though my purpose is directed at Bonza clients, through syndication and other promotional activities, my posts get read and spread all around the internet, exposing Bonza to thousand of readers looking for answers to their questions and problems.

Should You have a Blog? PROBABLY! If you have a conventional website you know you have to promote it otherwise it will just sit there. Getting your website noticed, and linked to, is getting tougher every day and it’s so darned competitive. A blog, on the other hand, has the capacity to announce itself, and can keep doing that every time you update it.

What’s the use of a Blog?
1. To build your brand awareness
2. To help search engine rankings
3. To improve customer relations
4. To share knowledge & earn credibility
5. To attract new clients/make sales.

Note: A Blog WILL NOT substitute an integrated marketing strategy!

Have you heard of Technorati? It’s a website that indexes blogs.

Here are some interesting statistics courtesy of Technorati. 
“2009 State of the Blogosphere by Technorati”

More than 133,000,000 blogs have been indexed by Technorati since 2002
77% of Internet users read blogs according to Universal McCann
Two-thirds of Bloggers are male, 60% are 18-44
75% have college degrees and 40% have graduate degrees
Around half of Bloggers are working on at least their second blog
68% have been blogging for two years or more
86% have been blogging for at least a year
70% of all respondents say that personal satisfaction is a way they measure the success of their blog
72% say they blog in order to share their expertise
61% say they blog in order to supplement their income
53% of professional Bloggers are interested in attracting new clients from blogging
72% of those who are self-employed and blogging are interested in attracting new clients
57% say that their future plans include blogging even more
Part-Timers, Pros, and Self-Employed Bloggers are blogging as much as (73%, 76% and 80%, respectively), while Hobbyists are blogging somewhat less
15% of Bloggers spend 10 or more hours each week blogging
One in five Bloggers report updating on a daily basis
The most common rate of updating is 2-3 times per week
85% of blogs use tags
82% of respondents say that they post photos to their blog, making images the most popular form of multimedia
Bloggers participate in an average of 5 activities to drive traffic to their blogs
72% of respondents are classified as Hobbyists, meaning that they report no income related to blogging
56% say that their blog has helped their company establish a positioning as a thought leader within the industry
58% say that they are better-known in their industry because of their blog.

Search engines love blogs!  

Create tutorial posts on how to use your products, detail what goes on in the back-end of your service, give away samples of what your business has to offer. As you build up blog posts, your reach on the web will increase and your prominence in search engines will grow leading to free organic traffic to your website.

BUT - you still have to work on promoting it. Nothing happens by magic.

Let me know if you want to get blogging!

I used a computer technician once who sounded really knowledgeable.  

He spoke about “predictive modelling”, “symbiotic relationships”, “compliance”, “SAS”, “cloud computing”, “critical needs”, “scalable”, “VMs”, “bare metal deployments”, “WAN VM migration”, “virtualization”, “turn-key solutions”, “commercial cloud computing platform”….. Super geek gobbledegook, way over my head!

Basically he was saying, “Get dynamic infrastructures — or die —-!”

Hell, all I needed was my printer fixed!

When the clarion call finally stopped and he got down to work, only then I dicovered this guy could talk the talk but not walk the walk!

He couldn’t fix a simple printer problem!

It’s hard to tell if someone is overstating their skills, boy, do we we know………….but I reckon, when someone blurts out technical jargon, it’s more often than not, a smokescreen.

This experience is similar to the one I wrote about websites a couple of weeks ago. Is your Website a Brick Wall?
i.e. setting up road blocks with walls of jargon.

I just read an article by Michael Hess over at BNet.com titled “Does Your Service Suck “.  You may find it interesting. Click here to read the Article.

A SPECIAL NOTE.

Many thanks to Bryan Beach for letting me use his cartoon. Now if I can only get a Wenzl…

Owning a website is easy, getting it noticed is the hard part. Your website developer uses SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) techniques to help it turn up in “organic” (free) results pages for keyword searches. 

But what are YOU doing to promote it? 

The trick is getting noticed by your target audience. So where are they? They’re right behind you silly! On the roads you drive every day.  

Yep, I’m talking about Car Signage…… but it has to be done RIGHT! 

There’s no point having signage if it’s illegible. Every time I’m on the road I see signage errors and can never understand why they can’t see their mistake themselves.  

• Can’t read it because the lettering is too small
• Can’t read it because of the choice of colour
• Can’t read it because of a fancy or italic font
• Can’t read it because there’s too much text.

Here’s an example of how it should be done with Vinyl Lettering. 

Click on the image to visit their website

White on black/Black on White
Positioned at the bottom of the rear window
Only the web address, you don’t need phone numbers, no-one can write whilst driving
Even the www part is not necessary
Arial font is the best (and check the size can be read 2 car lengths away)

So how many prospects are you missing every day?  

 

Hello, Bonza Computer Repairs, Ros speaking.

“Hi, My computer won’t start can you send a technician today?”

“Bonza provides innovative cutting edge value-added critical computer solutions specialising in PC repairs for home users and business owners, onsite or online remote computer repairs, website development including Search Engine Optimisation and Google AdWords management for your online marketing, and with only 2% fat….”

“Did you hear me I have an urgent problem with my computer and need a technician as soon as possible!”

If you’d like our special report on “10 Most Common Reasons a Computer Won’t Boot” just give me your full name, address, email, and phone number. You’ll have that report in your email inbox in just 3 minutes.”

DIAL TONE. Oops! That hot prospect has gone, never to return.
Are you sure you heard the word “tosser” before they hung up Ros?

Of course that’s not how we answer the phone! Or talk to the bloke in the pub.

So why isn’t your website like your phone answering?

Or like you’re speaking to the guy in the pub explaining how you can fix his problem? Start talking about how great you are and you’ll see his eyes glaze over……

Take a look at your website NOW, what does it say?

People who search have a purpose so your website should answer that search query right in the first main heading. If you use your headline and first paragraph to tell readers what’s in it for them (benefit), chances are you’ll engage them in the 3 seconds you’ve got to do it.

We all do it, read a headline and make the decision to stay or go right then if it doesn’t answer your query.

The next paragraph should repeat the benefit with more detail about how it will be achieved. All copy so far should be written in the 2nd person, “you, “your” and not “we”,”our”.

I know, I know, it seems logical to clarify your credentials first but no-one really gives a toss about you, the visitor is after a solution to their problem fast and waffling on about you only creates a brick wall.

The Bounce rate in your Google Analytics report is a good indication your visitors are hitting a brick wall.

 Let’s rewrite your copy so it brings in customers – 1800 280 440

Pareto’s Law (also known as the 80/20 principle) describes the unequal distribution of wealth in society and how it is acquired by a minority of the population. The Italian economist Vilfredo Federico Damaso Pareto discovered this simple formula back in the early 1900’s.

The 80/20 rule allows business owners to determine whether you’re on the right track or not and empowers you to set priorities and take actions which could mean the difference between failure, survival, and success.

Applying the 80/20 principle to your business is tough in a recession. You have to be strong.

Revenue: If 80% of your income comes from 20% of your customers then take care of that 20% and reduce your contact with the other 80%.

Customer Service: 80% of complaints come from 20% of your customers. That 20% make the most unreasonable demands and give the least profit. It’s time to say “no more” and direct them to your competitors.

Marketing: 80% of your sales come from 20% of your advertising efforts. Identify which advertising campaigns are successful in generating the most revenue and forget the rest. 

Advertising online: When applied to pay-per-click marketing, 80% of your keywords will not deliver results. Conversions, leads and sales will be generated by 20% of your keyword list.

Time Management: As business owners, of all the tasks we perform each and every day, only 20% really matter. Those 20% are actually responsible for 80% of our results.

I know, you knew all that already!

Parkinson’s Law. Have you heard of it? Parkinson’s Law states ‘work expands to fill the time available for its completion’.

So a task will grow in perceived importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for its completion.  In other words, a task that should only take an hour to accomplish can easily take a week if you give it that much time.

Too many of us spend too much time on the things that don’t matter and not enough time on the things that do.

 Parkinson’s Law is the adage first articulated by Cyril Northcote Parkinson as the first sentence of a humorous essay published in The Economist in 1955:

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

Have you noticed other topics creeping into this blog? What has AdWords or Google got to do with computer repairs? 

A lot actually, and I’ll get to that in a sec. 

Bonza has lotsa blogs! This one dedicated to Computer Repairs, others for Websites and SEO, Google AdWords and Online Marketing.  It’s all a bit much to manage! 

So what’s going on? I have decided to roll everything into one (it’ll take time to integrate). Everything is inter-related, it’s ALL internet technology. The Bonza Blog will cover any and all topics.

So back to the question “what has Adwords got to do with computers?” 

CHECK OUT THIS AND FIND OUT!  Click on the image below to see the sequence. 

Click on the image for a bigger view

EVERYTHING at Bonza is done in-house under the watchful gaze of Bonza’s owners, me and Anthony.

Which brings me to our UPS (Unique Selling Proposition)

Having someone who answers your email; answers the phone; gives you specific instructions; leads you through the labyrinth of information, is all about responding to you and your questions.

It’s Guaranteed at Bonza

Miracles can happen with creativity, planning, thought, time….oh wait, that’s not a miracle, it’s called work!

On the 8th of June Google rolled out Caffeine, their new indexing system built to make search up to 50% faster and results fresher. It means more frequent updates to Google’s search engine index and better results for businesses like yours. 

The old index had several layers. Google used to analyse the entire Web every couple of weeks to update its index. This caused significant delays because content could not be updated until the entire batch (everything in their index) was updated. There were always delays between when they found your site and when they made it available.

Caffeine analyses smaller portions of the web more frequently and subsequently updates its search index on a continuous basis. New pages, or new information on existing pages, can be added straight to the index which means more relevant search results for users and your fresh content to appear faster. It is all about enabling deeper processing and managing an ever growing web.

How will Caffeine affect your current website?
Well, the free search results space has become more competitive for one, and it’ll be harder to retain your current ranking and sustain it. You’re going to have to take part in Google’s intent to provide the latest and greatest search results by ensuring your website offers new and relevant content if you want to stay in the top of rankings.

How does Caffeine impact on SEO?
Nothing that Bonza doesn’t already attend to now, but some factors have become more vital.

1. Page Load Times: Page load times is a critical part of Caffeine. If your website is old and heavy it might be time to slip it a bit of caffeine to give it a pick-me-up.

2. Social Network: By adding your 2 cents worth,  posting comments, joining discussions and posting your own articles and leaving a link to your website in your signature will encourage traffic to your site and show you as an authority in your niche. Your clients and prospects will like more info as well.

3. Content/Site Updates:  Updating your old tired content and adding new information has just become a priority. Adding a blog to your site is the easiest and less expensive option. If you can delegate the task to one of your staff to make regular posts. You need someone committed to posting new, interesting and informative information, stuff that your clients/prospects will want more of.

4. Google AdWords: Caffeine prioritises organic (free) results rather than paid advertisements but that being said, page load time will affect your PPC account and your campaigns Quality Score. Which means the page your ad points to better be good, fast loading and relevant.

5. Avg Time on Site: You’ve seen in your Analytics reports Average Time on Site statistic? This has become an important factor in Caffeine because, again, Google’s ultimate goal is to return the best results to its users. So if your visitors aren’t spending time on your site you haven’t captivated them! The length of time they stay on your site is a measure of relevancy and a vote of confidence. If a page has a high bounce rate, it’s time to update it.

Summing Up

Google’s Caffeine relies on sites that are updated quickly and frequently. Your site isn’t going to generate much traffic if it just sits there. It needs change, and often. That’s nothing new really. Haven’t we always said you need to keep adding fresh content?

Here are a couple of things you can do;

1. Update you site content, add new content.
2. Submit an updated xml sitemap to Google to provide a road map to all your new content.
3. Add a Bonza CMS (Content Management System) so you can add and update content on the fly.
4. Change your site to a Wordpress site. It’s a more flexible CMS than Bonza’s.

[Client] ARE YOU MAD?
Managed Services means you’ll take a payment out of my credit card every month and maybe I won’t need computer repairs that month!  I might need some phone support, but you’ll do that for FREE right? 

[Technician] Knowledge and expertise is valuable, so no, phone support is not free, I expect to be paid for my time just like any other service provider. Do you pay your mechanic, electrician, hairdresser…..?

[Client] Oh! But you’re such a nice guy, we’re friends, aren’t we? I don’t really want to pay you for every single little thing I can fix myself when you tell me how.

[Technician] Do you know about 80%, maybe more, computer problems are due to user error?  When your car breaks down do you phone your mechanic to get instructions on how to fix it?

How you treat your computer, network, server, and problems arising, directly reflects the value you place on your business computer infrastructure. The very thing that gives you a competitive edge!
You do know IT is a competitive tool don’t you? 

[Client] I haven’t really thought of it in those terms, I’m just concerned about how much it’s costing me.

[Technician] No business can survive without computers and computer repair is a necessity! You ought to be able to get on with your business and NOT worry about IT. 

[Client] But the cost, it never ends.

[Technician] If you’re still fighting fires, reacting when a problem occurs, yes it becomes expensive. That’s why Managed Computer Services will save you money in the end. When you remove the IT headache from your business structure and place it in professional care, the benefits are immediate!

1. No more expensive repair and recovery costs
Our network monitoring and maintenance will save you money instantly by preventing expensive network disasters from happening in the first place.

2. Faster performance, fewer glitches, and practically ZERO downtime
 All systems degrade in performance over time, causing them to slow down, hang up, or crash. Our preventative maintenance and network monitoring detects these problems early and prevents them from escalating into more expensive repairs and downtime.

3. The benefits of a FULL IT Department without the cost!
Think of the cost of hiring IT staff. You’ll have our IT staff at your fingertips 24/7/365 for a reasonable monthly fee.
Including unlimited phone support!

4. Pay LESS for IT services
With Managed Computer Services you pay ONE flat, affordable rate and get ALL of the technical support you need. No hidden charges, caveats, or disclaimers.

5. Experience a faster response time
Our remote monitoring and maintenance software allows us to remotely access and repair most network problems right from our office. If we cannot fix it remotely, we will dispatch a technician to your office on the same day.

6. Budget for network support and free up capital
Our low fees allow you to budget for IT expenditure just like your rent or insurance. This frees up all that extra capital you would normally spend on staffing or emergencies and allows you to put it back into your business.

7. Peace of Mind 
Cyber criminals never rest. We constantly evaluate your network to ensure that they don’t get through.

8. Safeguard your most precious possession. Your data
 If you rely on your computer systems for daily operations, it’s time to get serious about protecting your critical, irreplaceable electronic information.

9. End spam, pop-ups, and spyware
We stay on top of the latest viruses, spyware and other annoying, intrusive bots that bog down your system. Your updates take place as they become available, not when someone finally gets around to it.

10. Affordable monthly rate.

Regards,

Wayne O’Connor
IT Manager/Senior Technician
Bonza Mobile Computer Repairs
Phone: 1800 280 440

Please give me a call if you’re not sure if or how managed services can benefit your business.

People are scurrying around looking for ways to inject some life and leads into their business. Bonza’s website design department hasn’t had a break for months as work pours in.

WHY? Suddenly business owners realise they should have organised a website years ago when the focus changed to searching online to solve problems and find information. Plus in the quiet time, thoughts turn to updating current sites or adding new offers and new content.

One of the things website owners forget is that the internet is dynamic, search engines want new stuff and don’t like static old websites cluttering up the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages). So if you’re a website owner, remember to add fresh content regularly if you want your website to stay in view of searchers.

A GOOD WAY TO DO THAT IS to start a Blog like this one. Fresh content is added to our Mobile Computer Repairs website every week. You have to be motivated to add new content regularly mind. I do WEEKLY,  but monthly will do.

THIS DOESN’T SOLVE THE IMMEDIATE LEADS PROBLEM THOUGH…
You’re not getting any business so you think about ADVERTISING.
Should you place an ad in your local paper?
What about Yellow Pages? (Sshhh, it won’t help!)
     ~  Click Here for a comparison chart ~
Hmm, you’ve searched on the Internet and found directories like Start Local, Hotfrog, Gumtree and the like and added your business. It won’t do anything other than invite a lot of spam! You’ve even added your business to Google Maps and nothing changed.

Say you had the ability to market to your prosepects the minute they’re looking to solve their problem.  Would you jump at the chance?

SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING GIVES YOU THAT OPPORTUNITY.

It’s the ONE WAY to generate leads. THE ONLY WAY to advertise to people who are looking for your products and services right NOW.

More than 15 million people in Australia use the Internet. Google’s advertising network reaches almost 90% of these potential customers. You can target potential customers by suburb, city, state.

AdWords shows ads to potential customers when they’re actively searching for what businesses like yours have to offer.

Your ads could be showing when decisions are being made.

Google Adwords is probably the greatest advertising medium developed for business owners, like yourself, in the last 20 years.

You only pay when consumers click on your ad to go to your site. You can adjust, pause, or stop your campaigns at any time.

Instant, measurable, affordable, controllable – there really is no other advertising medium which gives you the same results.

However, if Adwords is set up incorrectly you’ll end up disappointed.

Want to find out more about AdWords?
Phone Anthony now on 1800 280 440

Bonza offers pay per click advertising services with a new easy payment option.  

Article: Where’s My Website