Hans Dirkse

If you are starting up a small business, then it is more than likely that you will be looking into strategies that will help in marketing your business and help it grow. There are marketing strategies that have existed that have been used by many with small businesses. There are new strategies that come up from time to time and some of them are said to work even better as compared to old strategies. Some of the new marketing strategies are as follows;

Create content that is relevant to your website.

When people Google for products in your niche, you would want your website to appear among the first results. In order for this to happen, you need to create content to your website that will ensure you get listed among the top in Google’s searches. It is not hard creating content, except for the fact that you will need a lot of creativity and time. The content you create should be relevant to what you are offering.

Write for a trade magazine

One good way of gaining recognition for yourself is if you wrote an interesting article on your niche and left your contact details. This way, you will be showcasing your knowledge on that particular topic and will be attracting customers as you do so.

Make use of keywords

When people do the search for things on Google, they usually use particular keywords or phrases. Google will bring up the top websites that have these keywords or keyword phrases. You too could do the same by writing content that has these keywords written in a sensible and consistent manner. If there are too many keywords, Google will consider it trash and will not place your website in the top rankings.

Sponsor your local team

With this marketing strategy, you can buy uniforms and equipment for your local team and sponsor them. Aside from doing something charitable for your community, you will be getting the attention you need from the local press. This will catapult you into the limelight for being a business owner who takes an interest in what his community does. This will also allow you to get recognition from business promoters who might take an interest in your business.

The American Civil War was a brutal conflict which took place in the United States of America between 1861 and 1865 and still has serious repercussions to this day.

To understand why this break up of the Union occurred and how it led to a bloody struggle for four years that pitted family member against family member, here follows a brief summery of the polarised opinions that divided the economic and political attitudes in the USA as the 1850′s drew to a close.

The Southern States of America, who are often referred to as Dixie were monopolised by powerful plantation owners whose feudal and archaic views were predominant throughout the society. The source of their wealth came from the tobacco and cotton crops which were the mainstay of the Southern citizens.

At that time, the demand for cotton and lint throughout the world was immense and guaranteed the Southern States prosperity, as long as the crops could be farmed economically. In order to do this, the plantation owners relied heavily on ‘free labour’ that was provided by the slaves who worked the fields. The South’s riches were deeply rooted in slavery.

By the 1850′s slavery was only practised in the South. It had been prohibited in the North which considered it morally offensive and uncivilised.

This issue however, was not the only difference between the North and South. Because of it’s agricultural success and wealth, the South had no motivation to develop any industry other than the production of cotton and tobacco. On the other hand, the North was industrially advanced and was attracting vast numbers of European immigrants who further enriched the North with their array of skills, talent and knowledge. People in the North were developing rapidly and were keen to expand into the New Territories.

The animosity between the North and South could be seen in the dispute over the New Territories. As the soil was being exhausted by the unrelenting cotton farming, Southern plantation owners were planning on spreading into the newly discovered Western Territories taking cotton and slavery with them. While most Northerners, except a handful of extremists, were prepared to tolerate slavery in the Southern States, they were extremely determined to prevent it from being introduced in the Western Territories that would eventually be admitted into the Union.

When most people think of business computers, they are only thinking about Windows. However, as the popularity and market share of Apples gets bigger, more and more companies are looking towards Apple computers to fulfil its technological needs. While it would be brash to say that Apple offers the best ever computer without any exceptions, there are some notable advantages to using Apple computers for business needs.

One of the biggest disadvantages to using the Apple OS for business is that there are fewer programs available, and everyone seems to bring this up first and foremost in the battle between Windows and Apple. However, what few recognize is that Apple has all of the programs needed for business. Many of its office suite programs mimic the popular Microsoft programs, and Microsoft has even licensed Apple to use their exact programs such as Word and Excel. Even without the help of Microsoft, Apple still has all the analytical programs necessary to effectively run a business; there just happens to be less to choose from.

If the business requires strong graphical processing, then Apple computers are much better at this. The Apple OS is built to better process and create graphics, making this great for businesses that need strong presentations or work with graphics all the time. For example, a graphic designer or the educational system will find this much better than Windows.

Many people say that Apple OS is impervious to viruses. This is not entirely true, but there is some truth behind this statement. Most hackers go after Windows computers, because they make up about 90% of the computer market. Due to this, very few hackers specifically go after Apple, because the programming needed is completely different. While Apple is not impervious to attacks, you will notice much less effective attacks mounted against this system. This can lower the price of security systems, making it easier on operating costs.

Anyone that commutes from Pretoria to Johannesburg or from the northern suburbs of Johannesburg to town or from the northern suburbs of Cape Town to the city bowl will tell you, it is sheer hell travelling by car in the morning as indeed it is in the reverse direction at night. Travelling in a small car under these circumstances is, admittedly, no safer or less frustrating than travelling in a large car, but at least it saves on fuel usage and contributes to savings on harmful gas expulsion.

The case for large comfortable cars as pertained a decade or two ago, no longer exists. The small car, today, is as comfortable in town and as a commuter vehicle as any. They may well lack some of the luxuries that their large brothers have, but who can enjoy luxuries while having to be so vigilant on the over populated commuter roads anyhow? Also the large cars are gas guzzlers and spew out masses of carbon dioxide. The maintenance costs of these luxury sedans cost a fortune, as do tyres and other consumables for these gas guzzlers. As for the argument of comfort and luxury over weekends and holidays offered by large cars, I say nonsense. If you need to do an hour or two on the weekend do you really need to do so in an over abundance of luxury? Many small cars have air conditioning, fancy entertainment systems and those small motors these days produce amazing performance. So, is there really any compelling argument for larger vehicles? No, the main argument for large cars, these days, is about prestige and showing off. It is a well known fact that South African motorists love buying these large and expensive vehicles notwithstanding that we as a nation spend some 75% of our monthly earnings repaying debt, compared to the Europeans at 8%. So financially and economically there is also a case to be made out for smaller cars rather than large cars, leaving behind our South African snobbery and unnecessary competition with the Jones’.