My WAHM Blog » resources

Are Your RSS Feeds Auto Discovery Friendly?

Lauren — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 13:51:03 +0000

Just imagine. Every time someone visits your website, their browser notifies them of your RSS feed. No, it’s not as interuptive and no where near as annoying as pop-up subscription boxes but still a good chance to get people to subscribe to something you have to offer. In a nutshell, that’s how auto discovery works. There ‘s usually a small flag somewhere in the browser telling people your feed is available for them and if the visitor is interested in subscribing, they will simply click subscribe – much like bookmarking a page.

Now you know how it works, why is it so important? For one, many feed readers and browsers already support auto discovery RSS feeds. But perhaps what’s more important, Microsoft is incorporating this starting with Internet Explorer 7. Internet Explorer still commands a good chunk of browser share out there, especially those who are new to the Internet or non technical Internet users. If your RSS feeds are not auto discovery enabled, it’s a good chance you’ll lose out on a bunch of subscribers.

As it is today, browsers like Firefox, Opera and Safari can auto discover feeds. Many use this to subscribe because it’s just so much easier. While this group may not be that large but why should you not take advantage? If just making your feeds auto discovery friendly you get an extra subscriber, even if it’s only one it would be worth it because it costs nothing but maybe 2 minutes of your time.

So how do you find out if your feeds are auto discovery friendly? The good news is, if you’re using a blog to manage your content, many have this feature built in. But it doesn’t hurt to just check it anyway. If you don’t use a blog, chances are, your feed is not auto discovery enabled.

Before I go, here are two little tips that would help your RSS distribution and subscription using auto discovery.

1. Put the auto discovery tag in other web pages too. Just because it’s not a blog doesn’t mean you can’t have an RSS feed on it. Take advantage of that, put your feed in your main website’s template. Now you have two opportunities to get in touch with people. When you update your website and when you update your blog.

2. If you use a service like FeedBurner to track your subscriptions, remember to update the feed URL in your blog or website template. This way, you’re capturing all your feed traffic statistics.

What’s next? Go make your RSS feeds auto discovery friendly right now. Because RSS is not always visible to us, don’t run the risk of forgetting this.

About the author

Lynette Chandler helps entreprenuers leverage readily available technology for their marketing. Learn more about RSS and blogging at TechBasedPlugins.com

5 Characteristics of a Good Bookkeeper

Lauren — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:49:48 +0000

Before we start talking about a bookkeeping business let’s distinguish between a bookkeeper and an accountant. A lot of people interchange the words bookkeeper and accountant often times not realizing they are two different things. In reality they are two very different things.

For the most part a bookkeeper doesn’t have a college degree in accounting where as an accountant does. A bookkeeper does more basic type duties such as data entering. This can include things like creating and mailing invoices to the customer, entering bills, paying bills and processing payroll data.

An accountant is going to handle the more detailed oriented type tasks. They will take care of handling expenses that have occurred but haven’t been entered by the bookkeeper. These entries will need to be adjusted by the accountant. An example of something like this would be bank loans (interest that has incurred since the last payment).

Another example would be money earned (wages) by the employees of a company that will be paid next week. It could also include things like miscellaneous expenses, etc. There’s several different things. The other important aspect that the accountant will do that the bookkeeper doesn’t is they will prepare financial statements and work with upper management on understanding these things.

Now that we have distinguished a bookkeeper and an accountant let’s talk about a bookkeeping business and what makes a good bookkeeper. Here are five characteristics that a good bookkeeper should possess.

*Enjoys working with numbers
*Detail oriented
*Time Management skills
*Familiar with current technology
*Analytical

If running a bookkeeping business is something you think you would enjoy, possess the skills necessary and want more information pick up a copy of Mom’s Talk Biz Guide to Starting Your Own Bookkeeping Business. You will find tips on what you need to get your bookkeeping business started, earning potential, keeping your clients satisfied and that’s just to name a few!

eBay – Hobby or Business?

Lauren — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 18:16:44 +0000

eBay is a great way to get bring in extra money. You can start slowly by selling a few items you have been meaning to get rid off and grow until eventually you’re buying and selling items in bulk through your own eBay store. The level of growth is really up to you.

There certainly are no limits to how much money you can make on eBay it all comes down to how much you want to get out of it – if you treat it as a hobby then, well you’ll make pocket money. If you treat it like a business and think big – then you’ll be an entrepreneur on your way to success.

If you haven’t yet sold an item on eBay, have no fear it isn’t too difficult to set up your own auction. eBay themselves has a whole section with tips for making the most out of your auctions. As mentioned, start small with a few items and grow from there.

One thing to keep in mind is that feedback is extremely important on eBay. You want to make sure you have a positive interaction with all your buyers and that your feedback is spotless. The best way to ensure good feedback is to make sure you describe your items as accurately as possible so there are no misunderstandings (if something has a scratch then say so), contact the buyer right away after an auction, ship the items promptly taking all the necessary precautions and be courteous in providing prompt feedback. It’s not rocket science but merely good customer service skills. Always go beyond what’s expected and people will recognize that, and remember you.

Once you’re ready to go BIG with eBay you can think about drop shipping (this is where you don’t hold or ship any stock and a third party provider provides and ships the goods for you for a percentage fee). You’ll need to do your homework before you try drop shipping as there are some unfortunate scams out there. You can also think of opening your own eBay store and really expanding.

The possibilities with eBay are endless it’s simply up to you whether you treat eBay as a hobby or really commit to building a full-time income around it. To learn how to make it BIG with eBay, visit http://www.MomsTalkBiz.com/make-money-ebay.html