Setster is suitable for

• Acquiring new customers
• Retaining existing customers
• Managing your customers
• Billing and invoicing your customers

What is Setster?

Setster is an appointment management platform that you can quickly add into your existing website without any coding and keeps customers within your website.  Setster is designed to convert your website visitors into bookings 24 hours a day and free up your time to focus on your business.

Why use Setster?

Setster is setup to work with Quickbooks accounting software to track the whole process but also offers integrations with invoicing platforms like Freshbooks. As most businesses are concerned with no shows, they offer turnkey e-commerce for prepayments or deposits to hold bookings.

What features are included?

There are a number of fairly advanced booking and scheduling features included in your monthly subscription cost including:

• email verifications and confirmations
• synchronise online calendars
• sms notifications on booked appointments
• automatic appointment reminder
•  accept partial for full payment
• add padding between appointments for travel/setup
• send marketing and promotional emails to clients

What plan is right for you?

Setster does offer a 15 day free trial plan but does offer 4 subscription packages suitable for every type of business starting at $19.95 per month.

• Personal Appointment Management
• Business Appointment Management
• Corporate Appointment Management
• Enterprise Appointment Management

What have you got to lose?

If you are thinking of spending thousands on developing a custom booking module, why don’t you trial Setster and increase your revenue by selling your spare bookings online!

One of the recent developments following the Google panda update seemed to shift the value away from shitty low quality or thin affiliate/adsense websites to those sites that had quality content.  Part of that shift also re-enforced the ideal if you were going to get content created you had to make sure you produced useful and easy to read content suitable for human visitors and not just bots by overloading the content with a certain density of keywords.

The issue with SEO focused content is what comes first the chicken or the egg? Do you create a broad/vague article and then seed it with keywords or do you find your seed keywords and build an article around those terms?

The benefit of platforms like Scribe SEO is they seek to fill that gap as they can refocus your existing article to be more suitable for SEO, give guidelines on what Google/Bing think might be the most suitable content for your site along with adjusting your terminologies and phrases to match the language of what people are actually searching for.  Some of the other smaller basic items around SEO are also covered to ensure you follow SEO best practices but also link these into your link building strategies.

Scribe’s billable method?

The platform is interesting as it uses a model that only charges on each analysis of content via it’s Scribe algorithm, with initially the process to fully optimise a page taking 3 to 5 evaluations which will improve with more use of the platform.  Their model is fairly conservative and is modelled around the amount of content you need to produce or optimise each month with the rough guides shown below.

1. Advanced Users for 75-100 pages/posts per month
2. Professional Users for 30-40 pages/posts per month
3. Publisher Users for 7-10 pages/posts per month
4. Starter Users for 3-5 pages/posts per month

Is Scribe SEO suitable for multiple websites?

Their platform is suitable for multiple projects as their license is based on keyword searches and content evaluations not on the number of websites.

Does Scribe SEO offer an API?

Yes their API supports most web based protocols including SOAP.

What technical support is available?

Yes the subscription offers support via the myScribe system

What CMS platforms does Scribe SEO support?

The platform is web based but supports WordPress (version 2.8.4 or late), Joomla (version 1.5) and Drupal (version 6 or later), but does not support the free WordPress.com blog platform.

What WordPress SEO plugins are supported?

• HeadSpace2
• WordPress SEO by Yoast
• All In One SEO Pack (both free & pro version)
• FV All In One
• wpSEO
• Platinum SEO Pack
• SEO Ultimate

What WordPress Themes/Frameworks are supported?

• WooThemes (Framework 2.7.22)* and child themes
• Genesis framework and StudioPress themes
• Thesis framework and child themes
• Catalyst framework and associated themes
• Headway framework and child themes
• Hybrid framework and child themes
• Frugal framework and child themes

Why SEO and how platforms like Scribe can help?

Scribe helps SEO for WordPress

Get a free SEO report
If you are looking for guidance on how you can create compelling content that drive quality traffic to your site, encourage people to link to and share your content you can check out their free SEO report.

What the free report contains

• Why SEO Copywriting Matters
• How Bing/Google Work
• How you can spoon feed search engines
• The 5 primary elements of quality keyword research
• Creating Content That Google/Bing love
• 5 Link Building Strategies that will work
• 5 Areas you can focus on for effective SEO copy writing
• Why can writing for people also works for search engines
• How you can make SEO simpler

You can see a live preview on the right side on how the button will look on your website. The 4 button sizes are 15px, 20px,24px and 60px.

Advanced +1 Button Options

The advanced options have a number of default settings the first one is you have to include the count unless you change code, and the default setting for parse is on load, which you can change to explicit for performance reasons.  The JavaScript call back function may accept a JSON object will be in the form {“href”: “http://www.example.com/”, “state”: “on”}. For more details on the advanced options visit here.

How to Tag Plus One Clicks with Google Analytics

One smart way to get data on clicks before Google rolls out an official solution is to check out Yoast who has created a simple guide on Tracking Google +1 button as an event in Google Analytics. I’ve just added it to this site and should hopefully start gathering data soon.

Do all my pages need to have a rel=”canonical” tag?
No, though we recommend it, Google will next look for the rel=”canonical” tag on the page. If that isn’t found, Google will use the document.location.href. This final value can sometimes be misleading because of state variables often kept in the URL. So they advise using a rel=”canonical” tag can help you specify the exact URL you want +1

Will the +1 work on a private URL?
No, the +1 button won’t work. +1′s only work for public URLs.

Most accounting packages such as MYOB or Quicken have always proved difficult for even the most experienced users and their bulky and clunky interface makes end of month accounts one of the most painful experiences in running a business. Hosted billing platforms like Freshbooks offer billing that’s so simple anyone in your company can do it and not have to worry about if you are using the latest version of your accounting software or updating the most current database. There are a number of hosted solutions from MYOB such as LiveAccounts and QuickBooks offers Reckon Online but most of these platforms still have way too many features and functions to be suitable for most small businesses and I’ve focused this article around why I use Freshbooks.

Quote to Invoice

No matter what your business is, it’s fairly common to be handling a number of quotes for multiple projects or clients at once, and these often have to be adjusted or tweaked as discussions progress.  The steps to move from a quote to an invoice needs to be as simple as a few clicks and only a few platforms have been able to deliver this.  Previously it took 15-45 mins to gather and double check all the notes from emails and meetings to revise the original quote before you were able to convert to an invoice. I’ve found that using platforms like Freshbooks I could simply convert a quote to an invoice and issue it in just a few clicks and continue onto the next item of business.

Invoice to Collections

One of the biggest parts a business can streamline is their recurring invoices so they are automatically sent out but can also enable auto-billing so you can charge your client’s credit card on file. This ensures that services or products are not delayed or interrupted because you forgot to send the invoice to their accounts department.  Keeping clients and customers billing cycles regular reduces the backlog of invoices that can place a strain on cashflow and place business relationships at risk. Also if clients request it you can you mail paper invoices straight to your clients with a return envelope for your clients convenience. There is also the ability for clients to easily dispute invoices within the Freshbooks platform.

Collect Online Payments

One of the growing areas for cutting costs is allow your customers to quickly and easily view any current or outstanding invoices online at anytime but also allowing them to pay invoices online with a single click.  Most hosted billing solutions support leading payment platforms like PayPal, Google CheckOut, 2CO and Authorize.Net you can ensure you clients have multiple ways to pay your invoices online or offline.

Set and forget it

One of the biggest areas where a business can improve efficiency and accountability is by automating their late payment reminders to be sent automatically to clients a specific number of days after invoice is due.  This reduces time spent following up on invoices from delinquent clients and customers. You can also see when clients login to view invoices so no more claims they did not receive the invoice or were unable to find the amount they had to pay, it offers increased transparency for both parties.

Make sure data is backedup

One of the advantages of cloud/hosted solutions is that all your data is backed-up in real-time to multiple locations and often as a final level of redundancy also stored off-site in tape backups.  Most hosted billing platforms like Freshbooks offer data storage facilities that are SAS70 compliant and all your financial data is transmitted using 256BIT SSL encryption.

Invoice in any currency

One of the big areas of growth is the expansion of businesses internationally and to grow you need to be able to quickly organise and report on your invoices without having to be worried about which currency you might be dealing in.

Time Tracking Improvments

Being able to quickly and accurately track your and your staff’s time ensures that you both meet your deadlines and stay on budget but also allows you to learn the love of your clients as they can access their projects at any time to keep track of how much time is being spent and on what. Simply clicking a button you can effortlessly move from project time-sheets into an invoicing.

Compare yourself against others

One of the hardest things in small business is the ability to rank or compare yourself against your peers, but platforms like Freshbooks offer the ability to get quarterly report cards which allow you to compare yourself against your profession. The items offered in the Freshbooks quarterly report card include:

• Number of invoices sent this quarter
• Average invoice amount
• % of clients who pay online (ie paypal)
• Amount invoices last quarter
• % of revenue that is recurring
• % of revenue from new clients
• Average amount invoiced per client
• Average time to collect payments

How to speed up expense reports?

One of the other time consuming elements of finalising and balancing your accounts is ensuring you input all your receipts into either your accounting package or excel.  To solve this solution I initial decided to upgrade from excel to MYOB Accounting which after trying to use it for close to 2 years, i’m switching away from it at the end of this financial year and moving to a expense solution that integrates with Freshbooks. There are a few options available one from Shoeboxed offers the most creative solution as they allow you to post in all your receipts to be scanned and processed into a file along with PDF copies kept and documents shredded, but also offer a phone application that enables you to photograph and email the receipt to be processed.  These types of solutions allow for small business to easily deal with hundreds of receipts each month while still maintaining their focus on the business and keeping their accounts upto date.

• Expense Cloud
• Kashoo
• Xero
• Shoeboxed

A number of solutions such as Expense Cloud offer integrations with platforms like SalesForce and TripIt to reduce the double handling of expense reports but also offer automated expense reports and auto-import transactions from credit cards and bank accounts to allow for submission and approval of paperless reports. Most platforms also offer the ability to email invoices/receipts to a central address where it will be processed and added to your expense report.

Whole Solution online

You can easily combined billing, invoicing tasks and accounts with just one or two platforms and Freshbooks all thanks to data passed via it’s API which allows you to pick the best solution for each specific task while reducing double handling of data. I suggest you consider the future and start outsourcing some of your tasks that are outside your comfort zone but also a massive time suck each month and move your accounting and bookkeeping into the cloud with a solution like Freshbooks.

Getting back lost data from a failed hard-drive can cost thousands of dollars and set a business project back weeks, months or even sink it all together.

One of the things I like is that there is 2 versions of Mozy available which makes it a suitable recommendation for both personal and business use.

MozyPRO is suitable online backup for business who need to backup servers and computers and control it via an online admin console. It’ a suitable solution if you have a network of workstations or servers and need 24/7 phone support.

MozyHome is suitable for backing up your digital life at home including music, photos, videos and documents. It’s great solution for those who have a few computers or laptops and and offers live chat support.

Why use online solutions like Mozy?
You shouldn’t have to think about backup as backup should only need to be set up once, and then work automatically. You can also get a double benefit as you can backup to a USB device and into the cloud at the same time ensuring data is backed up locally and online each time.

Your backed up files should are encrypted and stored in a secure, remote location that’s only accessible by you from anywhere but now includes mobile devices such as iPhones.

Your backups should be smart enough to only back up data that’s not already been backed up to reduce data duplication, only back up parts of a file that have changed, but be able to back up open and locked files. Get Mozy Online Backup from just $5.99/Month

Mozy offers a number of online backup solutions to fit your individual needs. For non-commercial backup of your personal files, including music, photos, home videos, and personal tax records, check out the simplicity of MozyHome.

If you’re a professional looking to back up business data, financials, and administrative files for multiple users, MozyPro is your best solution.

MozyHome Features

• Automatic or scheduled backups
• Local backup via Mozy 2xProtect™
• Submit tickets and chat live with technical support
• File encryption during backup and storage
• Bandwidth throttling
• In-client, in-Windows, web-based, & DVD restores
• Desktop/laptop support for Windows and Mac

MozyPRO Features

• Automatic or scheduled backups
• Local backup via Mozy 2xProtect™
• Submit tickets and chat live with technical support
• File encryption during backup and storage
• Bandwidth throttling
• In-client, in-Windows, web-based, & DVD restores
• Desktop/laptop support for Windows and Mac
• Server support for Windows and Mac
• Network drive support for Windows and Mac
• 24-hour phone technical support
• Custom your-company.mozypro.com domain
• Centralized billing, support, and administration

Want something for nothing? You can also get the benefits of Mozy for personal accounts for free with 2GB Totally Free thanks to Mozy.