PortlandBusinessCommunity.com is designed to help you, the small business owner/operator, gain more internet visibility while helping other business people.  We have a TON of new features that are hidden behind the scenes that you can take advantage of (for FREE).

Add a picture to all your posts automatically. We use your image from Gravatar.com.  Gravatar is a free service.  Create an account at www.gravatar.com, use the same eMail address you have associated with your account here on Portland, upload a great picture (preferably of yourself), and VOLA!  Your photo will now be included with all your posts.

Add a standard tag to all your eMails automatically.  With our recent update, we now include your biography with every post and on your author page.  Make sure and keep it short and to the point (no sales pitch).  to add a link in your biography, you need to add a little HTML code.  Here is the format.  Let’s say your company web address is xyz.com, you will add the following code to your biography where you want the link to appear.

<a href=”http://www.xyz.com”>www.xyz.com</a>

Example of how your biography might look with the above address:

The <a href=”http://www.xyz.com”>XYZ.com</a> company has been serving the Portland Metro marketing since 1997.  You can reach me by phone if you have any questions: (123) 456-7890

You no longer need to add your signature block to your postings because the system will automatically add your biography.

Please note, Bear and I monitor and moderate the content on this site.  If your biography gets to sales pitchy or too long, you will hear from us.

Optimal length is between 200 and 400 characters.

Good Morning All,

The Submit A Link feature is working again.  Please feel free to submit a link to your company website and add a description.  Your link will then show in a categorized format and you’ll gain a valuable inbound link to your company website.  For the effect to be maximized, you should add a link back to PortlandBusinessCommunity.com to a links page on your website.

ALSO

You can submit your company elevator speech (or position statement).  Your elevator speech (unlike a blog article) can be sale pitchy.

1. Click on “Create Article”
2. Choose the “Elevator Speech” category
3. Type your presentation as if it were a blog article, make sure to include a link to your company website
4. Publish

That’s it!

Why should you add a link and elevator speech to this web site?

Two good reasons:

1. This website has over 2,000 unique visitors per month clicking on an average of 4.4 page per visit.
2. This site has gained good importance by the search engines and the robots crawl this site several times per day.

Both reasons translate into more visitors and search engine visibility for your company website.  On average, I receive 600+ visits per month from web folks who originated on PortlandBusinessCommunity.com.  People read my articles here on PortlandBusinessCommunity.com and click over to visit ZenithExhibits.com and BusinessBlogging.net websites.  PLUS I have several first page google listings, in part, because I have relevant information here on this website.

Bear and I created this site to help you, the small business owner, reach more customers and gain more search engine visibility–plus you’ll learn stuff great stuff!

Happy Blogging

Ed Bejarana

Hi All,

My wife and I packed up the dogs in the motorhome and headed to the Southern Oregon coast.  Of course, being a small business owner means I never really take a vacation.  Adding to Coaches list of four, I would add, be committed but flexible.

Looking at the weather, it looks like I left Portland at the perfect moment.  The temp here in Bandon is a nice 70 degrees!  I hear Portland is going to break a three digit temp record today?  Whew, that’s hot!

Since it is too hot for most of you to go outside anyway, why not take a moment to review your business plan and marketing strategy to make sure things are on target?  I use the camp site as a way to disconnect from the real time nature of the internet and reconnect to the basics of my business.  Then once a day I head to town to seek out a free wifi spot and catch up with business.

We all need to take breaks from time to time, but when we are the sales force, labor force and bookkeeper, it is hard to unplug completly.  Feel free to tap into your PortlandBusinessCommunity.com family and ask questions.  Bear and I are working hard to help you because we believe small business people working together makes for an unstoppable force.

I have enjoyed reading the posts of recent days.  Thank you to everyone who continues to help make this web community popular.  Google continues to send more traffic everyday and great keywords.  Those of you who have published have experienced the benefits first hand.  Those who are unsure about how to blog for your business, stay tuned–the first Tuesday in September will be our first FREE business networking and business blogging event.  More information to follow.

Happy blogging and stay cool!

Ed Bejarana
Zenith Exhibits, Inc.

Many medium and large companies are members of Business associations, which hire political lobbyists to promote their particular industry. But what about the small business owner, they certainly can’t afford a lobbyist. Who will help them?

Small business owners tend to look to Chambers of Commerce and Networking groups. But do they work? Some will say absolutely, while other come and go.

Most small business need more then just a lead on a potential customer. They are also in need of valuable information on bookkeeping, marketing and management of assets. Sad to say, that information has been missing from Chambers and Networking associations.

That is why the Free Service of Portland Business Community.com was formed. It is a group of small to medium business people, who are willing to share information and ideas, without a sales pitch.

We want to do so, utilizing 21st century technology, which will make all of the information searchable on the Internet. Your information is also able to be linked to your website, which will increase your visibility on search engines. You can also add photos and links to supporting articles. Check out my “Elevator Speech” on the site.

Can’t write? I doubt that, but I understand if you prefer to start slowly. The site has a new category called “Elevator Speeches.” I am sure you are familiar with the term. It’s that 90 second commercial you use at your Chamber of Commerce and Networking events. Well now you can post it on Portland Business Community.com and the world can view it. Remember to add a link back to your site, along with a photo or logo.

You can also use Facebook and Twitter to spread the word about your goods and services. Find a good URL shortening service and you are on your way to driving quality traffic to your website.

I am sure that some of you have even more good ideas of how to build credibility and traffic to your website. Please share some with me in the comments section of the article.

Ken Bear Cole
Fishing with Bear LLC

You are a small business owner who is considering joining a local Chamber of Commerce to help promote your business. Is there a better way?

Chambers of Commerce have changed over the years. In the past it was a prestigious honor to be a member of the local Chamber. Today they are much easier to join, but the message is the same, “Do business with other members.” But is it working?

Here are some things your local Chamber does not want you to know:

• Each meeting will require approximately 3 hours of your day. It will include about 30 seconds to 6 minutes to promote your company before the entire group. You will also have 30-45 minutes for “Networking”, which is a buzzword for chatting with other business owners.

• All of the information you shared is virtually lifeless once you leave the meeting. Yes you may walk away with some business cards, but are you connected to those people? Probably not. Most of the cards end up in the trash or an unused database.

• After a few months of attending the meetings, you will discover that most of the same people are there each week. Well, so much for meeting lots of new people every time.

• It will usually require one year of attending meetings before you receive an order large enough, to pay for the membership fees.

So what’s the alternative? On-Line Social Networking and Business Blogging. If you are like most business owners, you are probably not sure what that is or entails. Yet me try to explain it.

In today’s business world, a website is mandatory. It should be the storefront window into your company. You can direct Internet traffic to the site by writing articles or stories, which will be beneficial or interesting to your customers.

Here is an example: Let’s say you sell insurance. Write a story about a customer’s loss and how the insurance saved the day. Or you could explain different types of insurance. Just make sure you are not giving a sales pitch.

People want to do business with people they like. So let them get to know you. It’s no different then meeting someone at a Chamber of Commerce meeting. Other members are not going to do business with you until they know you. The only difference is that you are writing instead of talking face to face.

But here is the best part. IT ALL FREE! Social networking does not need to cost you any money. You can post the articles on Portland Business Community.com. This is a free service, which is designed to help the small businessperson stand out in the crowd.

Once you have posted the article, send it out on Twitter.com. That information is now searchable on the web. Just like a good newspaper add, you can continue to send it out over and over again. It will take a little time to write a handful of articles or stories, but the time is well worth it!

Remember I said that in a Chamber meeting you conversation “is virtually lifeless once you leave the meeting.” That’s not true with anything you publish on-line. It’s all searchable and can be linked back to your website.

The next thing you will want to do is set up a Goggle Analytics account. That way you can track the added traffic to your website. There’s no need to wait months to see if your advertising is working. You will have measurable information within a week or so.

I decided to pay Zenith Exhibits $350 to jump start my Twitter account. I have a summer seasonal business so I did not have time to waste. You can do it on you own if you choose. I was guaranteed 1,000 followers on Twitter within 30 days. I actually received over 3,000.

From 3/1/09 to 4/1/09 I had 63 visitors to my website with the busiest day at 6 visitors, but no calls.

From 5/17/09 to 6/16/09 I had 1,307 visitors to my website with the busiest day at 62 visitors and the phone is ringing and I am making money!

At the time of this publication, Portland Business Community.com has over 1100 visitors per month and has continued to grow since its creation in late 2008. Being connected to that website will increase your Goggle rating and move you closer to that 1st page listing.

Notice we have not tried to sell you anything. We just want you to be successful.

Ken Bear Cole
Portland Business Community.com

All of us are struggling with the economy. Business is down, hundreds of thousands of people in Oregon are looking for work and bills are piling up… You may need some extra cash, especially if your spouse or significant other is one of those recent pink slip recipients.

Yahoo news published 7 Great Side Jobs for Extra Cash, written by Cherie Berkley with PayScale.com; but I felt we could expand on that list for those of us in the beautiful Pacific Northwest!

In the tradition of the great depression, setting up a doughnut and coffee snack cart and walking around downtown could generate some income. Not sure if the City of Portland would like it, but I bet so long as you keep moving, pushing a cart around the streets of downtown is no worse than setting up a long term trailer in a parking lot?

Personal assistant is a great opportunity for the not so busy house mom/dad. Running errands than busy people no longer have time to do has value. The same type of errands you would do for a busy home owner, you could offer to a busy small business owner.

Along the save vanes, a downtown courier is another opportunity. Picking up and delivering things for downtown business can not only put dollars in your pocket, but maybe open some networking doors.

What other ideas can the community come up with? Add your comments to this blog article and be sure to include a link to your website so visitors can see how creative you are!

Ed Bejarana
BusinessBlogging.net
a division of Zenith Exhibits, Inc.

It seems like the news is worse with each passing day…More layoffs, plants going idol for three or more months, unemployment hitting all time highs in our state–what is a small business owner to do?  To quote the great philosopher, Bobby McFerrin, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.”

Bobby said, “In every life we have some trouble, when you worry you make it double.”

Time to focus on tomorrow and assume ALL responsibility for your success (or failure).  Relying on Uncle Sam is not a good business strategy.  If you are unemployed, consider starting your own business.  If your business is slacking, increase your marketing effort.  If you are under staffed, accept reality (for a while) and work more hours.

The message is work smarter AND harder.  There are many FREE or low cost opportunities for you to market yourself and your business.  Twitter, does not cost a dime and (with a large enough following) does help bring more traffic to your website.

If you are a job seeker, being on Twitter or writing a blog can get your name higher on the search engines and when a prospective employer does a search for what you’ve written or done online, your unique ideas and positive attitude shows up HIGH on the list.

If you are over worked, then bring in a consultant or personal assistant.  Freeing your time from less productive tasks allows you to focus on more profitable activities.

Remove the following words from your vocabulary:  Can’t and Impossible

Stop watching the daily news.  Spend time each week with someone who has a positive attitude.  The cost of coffee and time with such a person will pay off in spades!

Ed Bejarana
BusinessBlogging.net
a division of Zenith Exhibits, Inc.

Part of the reason why Bear and I started this site was to help the small business owner find more ways to market themselves and their business. Recessions are toughest on the little guys, but as a community we can all weather the storm.

Each week we will publish a weekly topic related to current business conditions in the Portland Metro Area.  You are encouraged to add your comments and participate in the discussion.

Commenting on existing articles and writing your own article has the very same marketing effect.  Both communication methods give you links to your main company website and associate your words with the major search phrase for the article.  Becoming a member (FREE) and updating your user profile with your business web address also gives you an additional link in the Members section of the site.  Be sure to add a description of your business and any contact information…  All FREE for you to use.

Please take moment to add your comments to this eMail and tell us a little bit about you and your business.

What is it you do and why? Take a moment to introduce yourself to the group.

Ed Bejarana
BusinessBlogging.net
a division of Zenith Exhibits, Inc.

Good Morning and Happy Tuesday!

First off, please welcome Tim Snyder with Identify Yourself and Steve Copeland from Residual Income.  I can say with absolute certainty that these gentlemen have class.  I met both of them at a Small Business Development Class.  Tim and I took the Greenhouse class together last year and Steve took my class this past week Mastering Online Marketing.  Welcome gents.  Please take a moment to tell us a little bit about yourselves.

Beings this is the first weekly topic, let me also say welcome to Ken Bear Cole with Fishing With Bear, John Wade with Center for Environmental Medicine and Coach Charles with Coaching At Its Best.

Over the past several weeks, the government has been proposing bail outs for various industries, saying some businesses are “just too big to fail.”  I believe small business is too big to let fail and we will receive a different sort of government bail out.  But as a business community, I think it is in our best interest to plan for and seek out our own economic success.  So with that thought in mind, I would like to propose a topic for discussion.  To add your comments, click on the article header, then scroll to the bottom and and your comments to in the box at the bottom.

Without getting political, I’d like to steer the conversation towards local business operations and economic struggles.  As a small business owner, we have advantages and disadvantages over big business.

Take a moment to add your comment to this article and highlight one of the advantages you have over big business and one disadvantage.

Ed Bejarana
BusinessBlogging.net
a division of Zenith Exhibits, Inc.