Foursquare has recently added a new feature that offline business owners should be paying attention to…

This new feature is a “Add to my Foursquare” button that you can now add to your web site. This very simple little button will allow visitors on your website to add going to your location as a “to-do” item and receive a push-notification to their phones whenever they check-in anywhere nearby.

Now, if you are not familiar with Foursquare, it kind of works like Twitter, but it will add a GPS (from your phone) link to your updates, so people can come visit you while you are at Starbucks on the corner of so and so…

This is just another very cool tool that will turn your web traffic into foot traffic! You can click here for a sample of what one business is doing.
Now remember, this is not going to be relevant to everyone who comes to your site. This is for the people who are using Foursquare. But it defiantly doesn’t hurt to test out and see if you get any results.

So go try it!

A few weeks back we heard the announcement that we were now able to purchase .CO domain names. .CO can stand for “Corporation”, “Company” or “Community”.

So should you go out and purchase a .co domain name? Well, I would say that depends on your situation. If you want to protect your brand, then sure, go get it.

But are there any other reasons why we should go buy a whole bunch of .co domain names?

I decided to do some research on this brand new virtual real estate….

During my research I found out that Overstock.com spent $350,000 on O.co, which they thought was a very good deal!

I also found out that Twitter purchased T.co for a premium price. They are using that domain name for a service.

So why on earth would a company spend so much on a .CO domain name!?

Well, I think it’s important to understand that domain names are virtual real estate and with the release of the .CO has opened up some amazing opportunities to now be able to grab domain names that you never could have before.

Some people buy domain names to sell them for premium prices and others to protect their brand.

I really believe this is an an amazing opportunity for Niche marketers. Now you can get keyword rich domain names that have always been taken by someone else. I think it’s important to point out here, that there is no news as of yet that the .CO will be favored by Google like the .Com and Org. So time will tell…

So depending on what you do, it might be a great idea to go get some .CO domain names, but expect to pay $30.00 per domain names instead of the usual 9.99 or so.

Now one more thing I want to bring up is, because so many people have already been programed to type in .com and if you are going to be using a .co and don’t own the .com, it’s important to make it very clear that it is .CO not .com. So something to think about…

I hope you found this helpful. As time goes on and  you have some info to share about .co, please feel free to do so below in the comment box.

Keep moving forward!

I recently ordered an Apple ipad and in my different online searches for ipad information, I ran across a video by Paul Colligan which talked about how he was going to take 30 days and only use his ipad for his business. He had a lot of great points…

In just the past couple days, my computer died… AGAIN.. This is the 2nd hard drive it’s chewed up. Well, that got me to thinking about if all I had was my ipad and my cell phone (Droid), would I be able to run my business and how would I do it?

After taking some time to think about it and getting past the amount of stress most of us would feel at first, I begin to realize if my business was systemized in the right kind of way, things would be must easier on me.

Let me explain…

With my computer dying and then working with my wife’s computer that has Vista on it.. yuck! I realized I was now forced to work with just the basics to continue on with business. Which I began to take as a blessing.

Think about it…

How much stuff do you have on your computer that you can and do get sidetracked with. Or because your computer does this or that, you do this or that instead of the profit making tasks you should be focusing on.

If I was do to business with just my ipad and my Droid, I would be forced to not have a bunch of things going at one time. I would be able to focus on just one task and get it done right.

I would also be forced to:

- Hire someone to do video editing for me.
- Manage my social media strategies at a specific time and not just whenever.
- I would have to hire someone to do graphics and audio.
- And the list goes one.
- Have a system in place to handle customer service.
- Automate many areas in my business.

Do you see a common thread with the list above? All of those things I should already be outsourcing!! Those are important, but they’re not the profit making tasks.

But because I might have some awesome video editor, I do it myself, which takes me away from the things I should really be doing.

Isn’t it easy to over complicate our business? In what ways do you over complicate your business?
How would do you things if all you had was an ipad and a cell phone?

Keep moving forward!

P.S. If you are looking to simplify your business, join me for this live webinar!

Have you ever felt like Social Media was a waste of time? Or you aren’t getting the results you thought you would. Well, this could be due to a lack of systemization. When you have your social media marketing working like a well oiled machine, that is when you are not wasting your time and you begin to see the desired results.

I want to give you four steps to help you systemize your social media marketing strategies to help you get more done in less time… And keep it simple!

1. Think Strategically – Do Strategically.

The first step to systemizing your social media is to think strategically and define your purpose. Although, it may not always seem like it, everything I post on Twitter and Facebook has a purpose. I am always testing to see how everyone responds.
Here is a little tip: Remember, the point to Social Media in NOT to sell! It is to build a tribe and position you as the expert and the leader in your niche.

2. Keep It Simple and Easy.

Once you know your purpose and you are thinking strategically. It’s time to make everything simple and easy for you to do more in less time. There are different social media applications come in real handy.
Apps like Tweetdeck.com, Hootsuite.com and Seesmic.com just to name a few make life much easier and more systemized. With these apps you can write one update and it will send it to your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Myspace pages with one click! Talk about a time saver!! Also, with these tools, you can follow, engage, research and engage people in your Industry. I go into much more detail on this in my Strategic Tweet training.

3. Don’t Make Things Harder Than What They Are.

There are so many tools and web sites out there now that offer different free and paid services for Social Media, especially Twitter.

Take advantage of these! For example, instead of checking Twitter every 30 minutes to see if someone is talking about you or your brand, you can use a tool called TweetBeep.com which will notify you when someone mentions your brand. Then with it is time to devote some time to Social Media Marketing Strategies you can open those emails and engage those people accordingly to what needs to be done. TweetBeep is a great reputation management system.

4. Putting It All Together.

In order to have everything run smooth for you, let me give you an idea of how all this fits into a system or sub-systems…

After you have setup all your accounts and everything is synced up, this is how your day may look:

- Log into Tweetdeck or whatever app you have chosen, (a sub-system) to check up on things, see if people have DM’ed you or mentioned you and any other advanced strategy.
- Then you could check in with your other sub-systems such as TweetBeep to see if there is anything you need to know about.
- After all the basics are out of the way, then you can move on to engage people and offer valuable content.

- You can even hire someone do all of this for you!

Now if you stand back and look at this, it’s a system made up of sub-systems. If you’re not seeing it yet, that’s okay… You will! This is why it is so important to be a systemized entrepreneur. What does that mean? Well, it’s an entrepreneur that is able to look at his or her business as a system. When you are able to do this you are able to pinpoint the areas in your business that need a “tune up”.

I am going to be going over systems in great detail on a free webinar, if you are interested in joining me on this “Systemizing your Business” webinar, click on the following link to register.

When your business is systemized and you are thinking of things in a systemized manner, you begin to start seeing the results you have been working so hard for in less amount of effort.

I hope to see you on the webinar!

Click Here To Grab Your Seat To This Amazing Free Webinar!

In today’s Simple Business Growth System video, I am going to be sharing with you the #1 reason why most small businesses fail… This might be a brand new concept for you that can revolutionize the way you grow your business. So watch the video below, enjoy and check out my notes after the video.

So there you have it, systems are the Key to your success. When you truly systemize your business, you then begin to have freedom and not be a slave to your business. When I have shown this to different clients they immediately felt a freedom just thinking about how there is hope to get out of the same routine of struggle.

If reaping the benefits of having your business systemized interested you, but maybe you still don’t even know where to start…

I am very excited to share with you, I am going to be hosting a free Systemizing Your Business webinar. I will be doing in to much greater depth about systems and how to start systemizing your business.

If you would like to grab your seat to this complementary webinar that will revolutionize the way you think about your business, please fill out your name and email in the form below.

This exciting webinar will be held live on May 12th at 5:00 pm PST.

This is going to be an amazing webinar and I am super excited to see what you think about it.

I look forward to seeing you on the webinar!!

Mentioned In This Video:

Samantha Hartley’s Site

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