Monday, 29 April 2013
Monday, 22 April 2013
Why you MUST pay your taxes!
Reputation Damage
Much has been made since the global financial crisis about companies avoiding taxes, Starbucks, Google and Amazon are all mutli-national corporations which have suffered from reputation damage due to their inability to pay what is deemed fair taxes in their countries of business. Being global company means that profit redistribution is common place to pay lower taxes. The drive for paying lower taxes is to boost profits and provide shareholders with further growth. With countries across the world setting different tax regimes it is easy to be tempted into paying as little as possible by transferring profit to these low tax economies. Of course being caught doing so will cause you harm from the residents of the country you are avoiding paying taxes in.
There are many campaigns aimed at highlighting tax avoidance and bringing those people responsible to account, this can have a real impact on sales. War on Want is an example of how the rise in Internet usage can really fuel insights into companies tax avoidance schemes. You do not want to end up with campaigners at your place of work, especially if you're a retail business, Starbucks recently discovered this first hand with UK uncut protests.
Cash-flow problems
For smaller and medium sized business the option of offshore tax havens is not there so they need to ensure that cash-flow issues do not arise. Paying tax annually may be a good way of using cash-flow to boost stock, but with that practice comes risk. Using tax cash to invest in business growth may work out well for some business but should your tax become due and cash-flow not present then the outcome can be catastrophic. Do not rely on new business to pay your tax bill, ensure that existing business has sufficient cash-flow to meet your tax requirement. Of course as a new business it is unlikely you will have made much profit, being able to offset any profit with the costs associated with setting up is possible if you keep good records of outgoing payments. Be sure to keep valid receipts of purchases, there is some leniency in the receipts needed with certain values being acceptable to have no receipt for.
HMRC provide comprehensive checklists and advice for Corporation tax receipts, payment due dates and proof required.
Employee Taxes
If you have paid employees then monthly payments of both tax and national insurance will be deemed necessary, called PAYE tax. This system is very straightforward, with reporting of hours and pay reported monthly and calculations provided as to tax liabilities. It is vital to keep up to date with employee taxes and national insurance, integrating this into your payroll system will reduce time spent on payments and calculations.
SAGE offer integrated systems to manage this real time and ability to keep up to date with your outgoing payroll and tax liabilities. SAGE offer systems to all sizes of business.
Sole trader and freelance taxes
If you are a small business it may be more appropriate for you to pay corporation tax on profits if you are the sole worker in the organisation. This is likely to be less than the tax payment needed for personal tax. Also you may wish to hire people on freelance terms, meaning they are responsible for their own tax, whilst freelance workers may be more difficult to manage and train it will reduce your tax responsibilities, important if you lack the structure and logistics needed to have a payroll department and do not wish to pay for accountant services.
As a freelances it is imperative that you keep some money aside to pay taxes, keep a log of all income earned, on a basic spreadsheet with receipts. Using a system like PayPal helps to keep all your records in one place or an income account which has record of all payments received. You may also have to provide invoices to companies for them to pay you, ensure you do so in a copy book so you retain a record of the invoices. National insurance is a key requirement to keep up to date with as this will ensure you receive a state pension in future. The tax process may feel cumbersome and difficult to submit, but if you keep clear records then it should not be difficult or time consuming. Some accountants will offer flat fee rate for this service, but the HMRC have a very comprehensive guide to this process which if you can familiarise yourself with negates the need to pay someone else to do the job for you.
Winding up Order
As a company, not paying your taxes can result in a winding up order from HMRC. Thinking they won't will not solve the issue as they have issued these on some very large companies. This means they will stop your company from trading, sell your assets and you may be banned from having your own company in the future.
Bankruptcy
As an individual not paying your tax liabilities could end up in court proceedings, and eventual bankruptcy. This would cause many future problems in sourcing credit, getting a job or starting your own business.
Thursday, 18 April 2013
Manager Skills - Emotional Intelligence
A good manager needs a myriad of different skills to be effective. Getting the most from individuals cannot always be delivered using the same methodology, different individuals in a team will have many different drivers to behaviour. Identifying and understanding these motivations can only come about by a manager that has emotional intelligence. Often hearing what employees is saying is not enough, employees will be reluctant to clearly state all their motivations. Understanding an individual requires a huge amount of emotional intelligence to find not only the driver but also the personality of individuals under their leadership.
Managing staff can be a minefield of difficulty as each individual will at some point have some issues which impacts their ability to undertake given tasks, identifying and empathising to these needs is a vital skill. There is two extremes to this, being overly empathetic can lead to employees taking advantage of the trust and care. The other extreme may result in your employees feeling under-valued and will lead to a culture of hidden resentment.
There are three main models of emotional intelligence:
Ability Model: - Salovey and Mayer's conception is based around Perceiving, using, understanding and Managing emotions.
Mixed Model: - The model is based around components for good leadership developed by Daniel Goleman. The competencies are Self-awareness, Self-Regulation, Social Skill, Empathy and Motivation.
Trait Model - based on the ability model but the determination of this is about self-awareness of the skills, leading to an easier recognition by testing. Developed by Konstantin Vasily Petrides this form of emotional intelligence is deemed as being personality based and not skill based, meaning it is harder to train.
The value of emotional intelligence is difficult to ascertain as many companies fail to assess candidates on this criteria. The culture of an organisation frequently dictates the level of emotional intelligence that is perceived as being acceptable and leading from the top is vital. If empathy is shown to employees engagement levels may be higher and productivity improved, absence levels can also be lowered by ensuring employees are not having to hide any issues they have and able to speak openly about problems they have in personal life.
There are many online tests to determine your emotional intelligence ability here are two:
http://psychology.about.com/library/quiz/bl_eq_quiz.htm
http://www.queendom.com/tests/access_page/index.htm?idRegTest=3037
Friday, 12 April 2013
Write Content - Get Paid
Reading this article I will presume you are interested in how to make money from your writing. Well interestingly its a far more complex question than it was 5 years ago. In that time the internet has changed, demand for content has changed and more importantly search engine rankings have changed. It used to be the case you could sign up to a website get $10 per article and commision payments for their popularity, being a regular contributor and with good social media following you could expect not only your nominal up front fee but also earnings in perpetuity. Unfortunately Google updates destroyed the earning potential of many of these sites and overnight you saw the collapse of an entire industry. So what happened to all those people who wrote content for money?
Well some went on to find out how the new updates would play out and discovered in fact there were far better opportunities that existed, others returned to their day job and gave up. The purpose of all search engines are to find relevant content for the user, they care little about keeping the websites happy as they are not the ones who are using the search service. They also found that the internet was becoming a game that many black hat operators had found the rule book to so they needed to rewrite the rules.
The best chance to make money from writing online is to have a good website with plenty of interesting content. Placing ads on the site will drive you income directly associated with your number of page views. However if you are bored of this approach because you suffer from ADHD or you need to earn money now, or simply you would like to boost your income then perhaps there are some opportunities that exist.
Here are some examples for you:
ProBlogger Jobs board
This job board is a heavily used board of paid article writing work that usually has some very easy to apply for positions. Unfortunately you will find its a bit like buying a lottery ticket, due to the number of other people applying you won't get all the jobs you want. A good writing portfolio is essential and the ability to communicate coherently with the employer. The jobs vary in price but you can find some well paid writing jobs if you know your stuff. Remember not to apply to everything, you can't possibly claim to be proficient in writing on any topic so stick to your niche.
Wish Magazine
If your niche is perhaps lifestyle or fashion and you can write to an audience of Canadian women then this is the place for you. Because not only does it give you great exposure but it also pays $1 per word. That is a huge sum in the online writing game but like anything you have to be amazingly good at what you do. Perfect English is standard for any of the jobs here, but you will also have to view the tone from their readerships point of view.
Academic Writers
This is the place to be if you are looking for longer term work. Obviously the trick to online writing jobs is having enough scheduled to pay your bills so a site like this may be a perfect match. The payments may be less than the one off commissioned work but of course that is a trade of with the constant stream of jobs you could be doing.
AsiaWriters
Much like Academic writers this is a site that offers more than simply one commissioned article. This website has an entrance exam, yes an exam. So get comfortable and make sure you can write perfect English before you even attempt the exam. It will give you examples of sentence structure and word replacement to assess your competency.
BlogginPro
Another simple to use job board that can provide you with immediate work to fill any scheduling gaps you may have in your work stack. This site again has a lot of competition so make sure your applications are impeccable.
So why would I be sharing this with you and not just keeping it to myself and getting all the best jobs? Well my personal view on content writing is that you have to be in a niche and there are lots of jobs on their I wouldn't even attempt. People are all too ready on the internet to stab each other in the back to get an hours pay but this defeats the purpose of the internet which is based on the fundamental principle of sharing. It's a huge society of people that all share ideas and opinions to enrich each others lives, if you get some paid work out of this then that's brilliant more power to you, just remember where you read it.
Build up your Portfolio
Of course your own writing CV needs to have some good content for it to be taken seriously so ensure you have done some very good Guest Postings to showcase your talent. OK I know its hard to get motivated to do research and site for 3 hours writing an article for a Page Rank 2 blog but it will be worth it to help showcase yourself.
I happily accept guest posts of good quality, feel free to contact me on Google+ for a list of my blogs or if you would like to commission some content from me. If you have enjoyed reading ensure you leave a comment and share to help others.
Well some went on to find out how the new updates would play out and discovered in fact there were far better opportunities that existed, others returned to their day job and gave up. The purpose of all search engines are to find relevant content for the user, they care little about keeping the websites happy as they are not the ones who are using the search service. They also found that the internet was becoming a game that many black hat operators had found the rule book to so they needed to rewrite the rules.
The best chance to make money from writing online is to have a good website with plenty of interesting content. Placing ads on the site will drive you income directly associated with your number of page views. However if you are bored of this approach because you suffer from ADHD or you need to earn money now, or simply you would like to boost your income then perhaps there are some opportunities that exist.
Here are some examples for you:
ProBlogger Jobs board
This job board is a heavily used board of paid article writing work that usually has some very easy to apply for positions. Unfortunately you will find its a bit like buying a lottery ticket, due to the number of other people applying you won't get all the jobs you want. A good writing portfolio is essential and the ability to communicate coherently with the employer. The jobs vary in price but you can find some well paid writing jobs if you know your stuff. Remember not to apply to everything, you can't possibly claim to be proficient in writing on any topic so stick to your niche.
Wish Magazine
If your niche is perhaps lifestyle or fashion and you can write to an audience of Canadian women then this is the place for you. Because not only does it give you great exposure but it also pays $1 per word. That is a huge sum in the online writing game but like anything you have to be amazingly good at what you do. Perfect English is standard for any of the jobs here, but you will also have to view the tone from their readerships point of view.
Academic Writers
This is the place to be if you are looking for longer term work. Obviously the trick to online writing jobs is having enough scheduled to pay your bills so a site like this may be a perfect match. The payments may be less than the one off commissioned work but of course that is a trade of with the constant stream of jobs you could be doing.
AsiaWriters
Much like Academic writers this is a site that offers more than simply one commissioned article. This website has an entrance exam, yes an exam. So get comfortable and make sure you can write perfect English before you even attempt the exam. It will give you examples of sentence structure and word replacement to assess your competency.
BlogginPro
Another simple to use job board that can provide you with immediate work to fill any scheduling gaps you may have in your work stack. This site again has a lot of competition so make sure your applications are impeccable.
So why would I be sharing this with you and not just keeping it to myself and getting all the best jobs? Well my personal view on content writing is that you have to be in a niche and there are lots of jobs on their I wouldn't even attempt. People are all too ready on the internet to stab each other in the back to get an hours pay but this defeats the purpose of the internet which is based on the fundamental principle of sharing. It's a huge society of people that all share ideas and opinions to enrich each others lives, if you get some paid work out of this then that's brilliant more power to you, just remember where you read it.
Build up your Portfolio
Of course your own writing CV needs to have some good content for it to be taken seriously so ensure you have done some very good Guest Postings to showcase your talent. OK I know its hard to get motivated to do research and site for 3 hours writing an article for a Page Rank 2 blog but it will be worth it to help showcase yourself.
I happily accept guest posts of good quality, feel free to contact me on Google+ for a list of my blogs or if you would like to commission some content from me. If you have enjoyed reading ensure you leave a comment and share to help others.
Is you age Important when Job Hunting?
Age discrimination is an ever growing topic due to the relative health of older generations. With less manual labour undertaken it is unlikely that by the age of 60 you could not continue with the duties of your and if you live to 80 then you will have only worked for half your life. How can you ensure that your age does not become a factor when you are seeking employment later in life or as the result of a redundancy?
Change and Adapt
One of the biggest complaints of older generations in the workplace is their inability to adapt to change, perhaps having been in the company so long they believe they know everything or know what's best but often they are much more likely to progress if they change and adapt with the role they are in. The older generation of today grew up in a time without technology, they are in competition for jobs with people who had computer lessons at school and new technology to them is simply like changing your clothes daily. This is a worry for the older generation who take longer to learn the necessary skills when technology is involved but with good training it needn't present a problem. There is a wealth of free to use computer courses and you may find your local area has drop in centers to help you get more in touch with technology, it is well worth investing the time as everything becomes more and more digital. Even if you know the basics there are shortcuts, tips and tricks which can really boost your productivity.
Set realistic earning expectations
When looking for a job later in life it is easy to expect that your experience will get you some kind of premium, in most cases it will get you a higher starting wage but not by much. The recruitment market is a buyers market so the employer will have cost at the forefront of their mind, with such varied competition you may need to accept a lower starting wage. If you ensure they have a good progression plan to move up the salary bandings then this should not worry you as proving your worth you will quickly gain higher pay.
Do not hide your age
In many industries its common place to lie about your age. Take for example the case of the actress Huong Hoang who tried to sue IMDB for publishing her age, which eventually ended in the case being dismissed as there was no proof she had been the victim of age discimination. Of course the irony of that story is that by making an issue of her age she probably simply publicised it more than it would have been noticed had she not bothered. Age should not be something you have to hide so do not be tempted to chop a few years off in the hope it will help, be up front about your longeviety of career, there is no reason that if you are 50 that you will not be at the company just as long as someone who is 20, the average length of time in any role is around 3 years and within a company is now below 10 years. The days of career for life are long gone and this has helped the older job hunters enourmosly.
Most companies when recruiting have to appear to not discriminate based on age, however certain aspects of your ability may be questioned and you need to be able to prove you can do the job advertised. The biggest barrier to employment in old age is not your age it's your skills so go out there and learn something new it will help.
Change and Adapt
One of the biggest complaints of older generations in the workplace is their inability to adapt to change, perhaps having been in the company so long they believe they know everything or know what's best but often they are much more likely to progress if they change and adapt with the role they are in. The older generation of today grew up in a time without technology, they are in competition for jobs with people who had computer lessons at school and new technology to them is simply like changing your clothes daily. This is a worry for the older generation who take longer to learn the necessary skills when technology is involved but with good training it needn't present a problem. There is a wealth of free to use computer courses and you may find your local area has drop in centers to help you get more in touch with technology, it is well worth investing the time as everything becomes more and more digital. Even if you know the basics there are shortcuts, tips and tricks which can really boost your productivity.
Set realistic earning expectations
When looking for a job later in life it is easy to expect that your experience will get you some kind of premium, in most cases it will get you a higher starting wage but not by much. The recruitment market is a buyers market so the employer will have cost at the forefront of their mind, with such varied competition you may need to accept a lower starting wage. If you ensure they have a good progression plan to move up the salary bandings then this should not worry you as proving your worth you will quickly gain higher pay.
Do not hide your age
In many industries its common place to lie about your age. Take for example the case of the actress Huong Hoang who tried to sue IMDB for publishing her age, which eventually ended in the case being dismissed as there was no proof she had been the victim of age discimination. Of course the irony of that story is that by making an issue of her age she probably simply publicised it more than it would have been noticed had she not bothered. Age should not be something you have to hide so do not be tempted to chop a few years off in the hope it will help, be up front about your longeviety of career, there is no reason that if you are 50 that you will not be at the company just as long as someone who is 20, the average length of time in any role is around 3 years and within a company is now below 10 years. The days of career for life are long gone and this has helped the older job hunters enourmosly.
Most companies when recruiting have to appear to not discriminate based on age, however certain aspects of your ability may be questioned and you need to be able to prove you can do the job advertised. The biggest barrier to employment in old age is not your age it's your skills so go out there and learn something new it will help.
Tuesday, 9 April 2013
Google+ - Grow your profile
So Google+ is a growing social media platform that is mainly taken up by people who know a little bit about SEO or marketing. There is a much heavier usage of businesses on Google+ than on other social media platforms as it allows quick integration with listings on Google maps and other Google products.
Google+ Power to Your Content
But one aspect you may not know is that your Google profile can act as a great advert for your content. Google want to use the platform to find what the best content is on the net and a great indicator is those interactions with the content, and the people who are generating that great content.
If you set up your profile correctly you should have listed all the blogs you contribute too, this is part of the standard process of setting up authorship mark up so will help your search rankings aswell. The other thing is to include your links in your introduction to add weight to your blog or website.
Did You Know?
Many people claim that Google will automatically index any content that is shared on their social media platform, which would make sense as they want the fastest and best content to be on their search engine for users. This means any content you post you should automatically get in the habit of posting on Google+ and communities are a great way of getting real organic traffic of engaged users in your niche.
A good tool to discover how you rank against other users is Circlecount
No Substitute for Quality
There is no quick fix to this. There is not black hat techniques to buy followers that will generate you any better results for your content you will only improve by adding quality and the communities and followers your connected with will make the final judgement as to whether you are worthy of a +1 share or comment. Google+ like twitter doesn't have a reciprocal add logic to it, so you won't find that even if thousands of people follow you that you need to follow them back, I mean after all your feed would look like a sushi bar on warp speed. What you need to do is engage with people you like who generate content you enjoy, don't be tempted to add people just for the sake of attempting to get a follow back it's a pointless endevaour.
Other Social Media
So while twitter and Facebook are currently trying desperately to monetise their systems with product advertisement at a cost (paid messaging to celebs, sponsored posts, ads, Sponsored tweets etc) Google+ can happily generate a social media platform which does what it says on the tin and makes it a platform for people to socialise and share ideas......for now.
If you wish to discuss anything or would like to commission any articles feel free to contact me on Google+
Google+ Power to Your Content
But one aspect you may not know is that your Google profile can act as a great advert for your content. Google want to use the platform to find what the best content is on the net and a great indicator is those interactions with the content, and the people who are generating that great content.
If you set up your profile correctly you should have listed all the blogs you contribute too, this is part of the standard process of setting up authorship mark up so will help your search rankings aswell. The other thing is to include your links in your introduction to add weight to your blog or website.
Did You Know?
Many people claim that Google will automatically index any content that is shared on their social media platform, which would make sense as they want the fastest and best content to be on their search engine for users. This means any content you post you should automatically get in the habit of posting on Google+ and communities are a great way of getting real organic traffic of engaged users in your niche.
A good tool to discover how you rank against other users is Circlecount
No Substitute for Quality
There is no quick fix to this. There is not black hat techniques to buy followers that will generate you any better results for your content you will only improve by adding quality and the communities and followers your connected with will make the final judgement as to whether you are worthy of a +1 share or comment. Google+ like twitter doesn't have a reciprocal add logic to it, so you won't find that even if thousands of people follow you that you need to follow them back, I mean after all your feed would look like a sushi bar on warp speed. What you need to do is engage with people you like who generate content you enjoy, don't be tempted to add people just for the sake of attempting to get a follow back it's a pointless endevaour.
Other Social Media
So while twitter and Facebook are currently trying desperately to monetise their systems with product advertisement at a cost (paid messaging to celebs, sponsored posts, ads, Sponsored tweets etc) Google+ can happily generate a social media platform which does what it says on the tin and makes it a platform for people to socialise and share ideas......for now.
If you wish to discuss anything or would like to commission any articles feel free to contact me on Google+
Online Privacy - EU Law
The internet has given risen to a wealth of opportunity and ability of users to find anything, buy anything and do anything they like. People can connect to other like minded individuals and they can express their own views easily to the world. This may seem like the ultimate freedom but with any freedom comes responsibility. To ensure everything you put onto the internet is the kind of information you want to be associated with your life is important, your views may change but if you have expressed opinions online it may still exist for people to see.
Job prospects
Recruiters are well aware of facebook and other social media, in fact most companies have a privacy agreement in their terms of employment (you know that document you signed when you took the job). To ensure they have recourse when an employee tarnishes their companies name. With the rapid increase in employee misbehaviour online it has been deemed more neccessary to establish background checks that incorporate an internet search to ensure the person is fit for purpose. This may throw up all kinds of antics from a persons past and reveal a lot about their personality. For instance an employee may come across as tempremental or opinionated which could be off putting from an employes perspective.
There have been some high profile cases of employees being sacked, as well as some rather comedic ones. Using a two year old picture as an excuse to claim you are snowed in, claiming to be ill then revealing on social media you are hungover and slating your boss are all ways in which people are caught out. So ensure that firstly you know who you are speaking to when posting on social media, your profile may not be as hidden as you think.
Nudity
There is a huge amount of nudity on the internet, from the porn sites to the car enthusiast forums there is naked pictures everywhere. People have really taken to 'Sexting' the practice of sending rude pictures to people using smartphones. Partly this is due to the ease of use of digital cameras now with most phones having a great resolution camera built in. It is also something attractive to younger people, often they regret this decision later in life as that person is no longer their partner or friend. Sending naked pictures is no neccessarily something you should be sacked for, in fact often managers will not ever see these pictures unless they themselves are using adult websites, which simply creates that awkward scenario of them knowing but unable to say without giving away their own sordid internet history.
But if you do partake in internet nudity, whether it be a picture on a RATE ME website or some other forum or a video you did at college for some beer money you should always know it is permanent and should never be done in a uniform. Companies do not want their brand tarnished by porn. Another example would be considering your chosen career, if you are working in the public arena, with children or other vulnerable people having a sordid past can be grounds for dismissal and will certainly be something that parents or interested parties will frown upon. It is easy to have images removed from most larger websites by simply putting in a copyright request which states the model has not given permission, this is something you should definitely consider doing.
Relationships
People who meet in bars or in social settings used to have this process called dating that took a few weeks to learn all about their personality, likes and dislikes. Now you can download the information to a handy summary using social media. This is the first port of call for most prospective daters so making sure you remove all the pictures of ex's from your profile can turn into a full time job, and all those ones you didn't put up but have to untag yourself from. The dating landscape may seem like great fun but it is decidely more complicated now than in previous generations.
Attracting the right people is about ensuring you portray your personality well, often difficult in short hand status updates or tweets. Angry ex's and spurned lovers may also see what your up to and attempt to sabotage so being honest is something you may need to consider.
Sudden Fame
The argument for not doing everything to hide your history is because lets face it who cares your just a normal person yea? Well that may be true at the moment but there is a myriad of ways the press may take an interest in your life. For instance winning the lottery is a sure fire way of someone finding out who you are and doing an internet search using any found images (usually the worst) to print your great news. Even if you do not go public the chances of keeping it secret are slim as a neighbour or friend is surely to reveal your identity. You may become embroiled in a political or social story, victim of crime, inventor or even just internet sensation. All these are ways in which someone out there may start to dig up your past and publish what they find. The sudden fame aspect is also unfortunately a sure fire way to have individuals from your past come out and either speak about you or blackmail you. Be careful who you trust and do not ever fall victim to blackmail, the law will protect you.
If your wondering who the bloke with all that gold is try a Google search on Michael Carroll, you will be astonished at the stories they have on this lotto winner.
EU Law
So the EU have come up with a nice law that allows you to ask a company to delete all your history relating to yourself from their servers. They oblige of course but what may be more of a worry is where that information went, other websites that have copied the text or images or even individuals who have kept a record. In the case of Paris Brown the Kent Youth PCC, who was in her £17,000 per year role for a total of a week before the media managed to create such a fuss about her past rants that she resigned, is now facing investigation for alleged racism and homophobia. This shows you that the world waits for no one, is a week long enough to get everything in order or should you start now?
In essence you can never keep all your opinions sensible but you must ensure that anything you share is not going to damage your reputation. It may also be good to check the privacy settings of any social media, picture content is something that should always be set to private. So spend some time searching for yourself and clean up any profiles or old commentary that you no longer want associated with yourself. It may also be a good idea to set up new email accounts and completely remove any reference to old ones.
Job prospects
Recruiters are well aware of facebook and other social media, in fact most companies have a privacy agreement in their terms of employment (you know that document you signed when you took the job). To ensure they have recourse when an employee tarnishes their companies name. With the rapid increase in employee misbehaviour online it has been deemed more neccessary to establish background checks that incorporate an internet search to ensure the person is fit for purpose. This may throw up all kinds of antics from a persons past and reveal a lot about their personality. For instance an employee may come across as tempremental or opinionated which could be off putting from an employes perspective.
There have been some high profile cases of employees being sacked, as well as some rather comedic ones. Using a two year old picture as an excuse to claim you are snowed in, claiming to be ill then revealing on social media you are hungover and slating your boss are all ways in which people are caught out. So ensure that firstly you know who you are speaking to when posting on social media, your profile may not be as hidden as you think.
Nudity
There is a huge amount of nudity on the internet, from the porn sites to the car enthusiast forums there is naked pictures everywhere. People have really taken to 'Sexting' the practice of sending rude pictures to people using smartphones. Partly this is due to the ease of use of digital cameras now with most phones having a great resolution camera built in. It is also something attractive to younger people, often they regret this decision later in life as that person is no longer their partner or friend. Sending naked pictures is no neccessarily something you should be sacked for, in fact often managers will not ever see these pictures unless they themselves are using adult websites, which simply creates that awkward scenario of them knowing but unable to say without giving away their own sordid internet history.
But if you do partake in internet nudity, whether it be a picture on a RATE ME website or some other forum or a video you did at college for some beer money you should always know it is permanent and should never be done in a uniform. Companies do not want their brand tarnished by porn. Another example would be considering your chosen career, if you are working in the public arena, with children or other vulnerable people having a sordid past can be grounds for dismissal and will certainly be something that parents or interested parties will frown upon. It is easy to have images removed from most larger websites by simply putting in a copyright request which states the model has not given permission, this is something you should definitely consider doing.
Relationships
People who meet in bars or in social settings used to have this process called dating that took a few weeks to learn all about their personality, likes and dislikes. Now you can download the information to a handy summary using social media. This is the first port of call for most prospective daters so making sure you remove all the pictures of ex's from your profile can turn into a full time job, and all those ones you didn't put up but have to untag yourself from. The dating landscape may seem like great fun but it is decidely more complicated now than in previous generations.
Attracting the right people is about ensuring you portray your personality well, often difficult in short hand status updates or tweets. Angry ex's and spurned lovers may also see what your up to and attempt to sabotage so being honest is something you may need to consider.
Sudden Fame
The argument for not doing everything to hide your history is because lets face it who cares your just a normal person yea? Well that may be true at the moment but there is a myriad of ways the press may take an interest in your life. For instance winning the lottery is a sure fire way of someone finding out who you are and doing an internet search using any found images (usually the worst) to print your great news. Even if you do not go public the chances of keeping it secret are slim as a neighbour or friend is surely to reveal your identity. You may become embroiled in a political or social story, victim of crime, inventor or even just internet sensation. All these are ways in which someone out there may start to dig up your past and publish what they find. The sudden fame aspect is also unfortunately a sure fire way to have individuals from your past come out and either speak about you or blackmail you. Be careful who you trust and do not ever fall victim to blackmail, the law will protect you.
If your wondering who the bloke with all that gold is try a Google search on Michael Carroll, you will be astonished at the stories they have on this lotto winner.
EU Law
So the EU have come up with a nice law that allows you to ask a company to delete all your history relating to yourself from their servers. They oblige of course but what may be more of a worry is where that information went, other websites that have copied the text or images or even individuals who have kept a record. In the case of Paris Brown the Kent Youth PCC, who was in her £17,000 per year role for a total of a week before the media managed to create such a fuss about her past rants that she resigned, is now facing investigation for alleged racism and homophobia. This shows you that the world waits for no one, is a week long enough to get everything in order or should you start now?
In essence you can never keep all your opinions sensible but you must ensure that anything you share is not going to damage your reputation. It may also be good to check the privacy settings of any social media, picture content is something that should always be set to private. So spend some time searching for yourself and clean up any profiles or old commentary that you no longer want associated with yourself. It may also be a good idea to set up new email accounts and completely remove any reference to old ones.
Saturday, 6 April 2013
Paying for Guest Posts
Google consistently looks to punish websites that exploit their search results for financial gain. Amazingly there are literally thousands of SEO 'experts' offering you the kind of advice that is likely to get your site punished in the next Google update, by then of course you will have noticed a surge in your impressions and therefore been happy to give them the money. Of course if the site that they have linking to your website is found to be in breach of any of Google's myriad of rules and regulations, which of course they would never spell out for fear of people getting round them with black hat techniques, then you will find any of the benefit from that link be removed. There will not necessarily be any action taken against your site but in essence the service you have paid for will be worthless.
The move away from links as a strategy to more content marketing it seems has now become awash with those wishing to get your hands on your cash for doing very little. Traditional Content Marketing was a marketplace for good quality writers to connect with companies and websites that wish to have some content written by an experienced writer. This was a great market and led to many top websites investing millions in content to ensure their brand was well known but also had content that was useful for the user.
Getting Content - Paid writing services
The practice of hiring writers to write content is traditional but very popular way for companies and websites to achieve better rankings by having quality content. Google values the content because they see themselves as being on the side of the user, they want the user of Google to have the best time and find the best information. This often means that webmasters get furious with Google about any downgrades or falls in impressions, but you must remember Google is not the provider of a service to a webmaster they are a service for the searcher. This kind of financial transaction is not frowned upon by Google and can be a great way to boost your blog, or product website by having professionally written content.
Getting Guest Posts - Paid Guest posting
Instead of traditional content marketing Guest Posting paid services now offer you the content and also the placement of the article on a website that will link back to yours. Sounds like even better idea than content marketing right? not only are you getting the content but your getting exposure and a handy back link to boost your Google rank. This may be true in some cases but unfortunately a lot of these paid services are actually placing your content and links onto either useless websites, article farms, spinner websites or no where at all. The reason for this is that real guest posting is a long and laborious task, to find quality websites, write articles for them that they want to use and then having them published can be a process that takes a few weeks, not a couple of hours. So ask yourself why would someone want to do all that work for $20? Perhaps they have a well established network of contacts to have your work published on, or perhaps they have a number of well established blogs of their own that they would place it on. My advice would always be wary of this type of offer. Consider the time it takes and the value it generates, always check where they will publish the guest post prior to payment of any money and make sure that website is something you think is appropriate for your brand. As with the hiring of anyone ensure you have done a sufficient background check before engaging in a financial transaction with them. There is a massive difference in subcontracted work and work done directly by the person you are paying. Sub contracted Content Marketing is huge business, essentially someone sets up a website offering paid writing jobs, offering typically $2 per article and then have a team of people paid $2 per hour to post your articles on websites. So your $20 payment is in fact only 20% to those writers and placer but a massive 80% for the middle man who has a nice website. If you thought it was a lot of work for $20 then it certainly is a lot of work for $2 so you can imagine the output you get.
If you wish to discuss any points feel free to leave a comment, or if you are looking for reputable Content Marketing then leave your details and I'll get back to you.
The move away from links as a strategy to more content marketing it seems has now become awash with those wishing to get your hands on your cash for doing very little. Traditional Content Marketing was a marketplace for good quality writers to connect with companies and websites that wish to have some content written by an experienced writer. This was a great market and led to many top websites investing millions in content to ensure their brand was well known but also had content that was useful for the user.
Getting Content - Paid writing services
The practice of hiring writers to write content is traditional but very popular way for companies and websites to achieve better rankings by having quality content. Google values the content because they see themselves as being on the side of the user, they want the user of Google to have the best time and find the best information. This often means that webmasters get furious with Google about any downgrades or falls in impressions, but you must remember Google is not the provider of a service to a webmaster they are a service for the searcher. This kind of financial transaction is not frowned upon by Google and can be a great way to boost your blog, or product website by having professionally written content.
Getting Guest Posts - Paid Guest posting
Instead of traditional content marketing Guest Posting paid services now offer you the content and also the placement of the article on a website that will link back to yours. Sounds like even better idea than content marketing right? not only are you getting the content but your getting exposure and a handy back link to boost your Google rank. This may be true in some cases but unfortunately a lot of these paid services are actually placing your content and links onto either useless websites, article farms, spinner websites or no where at all. The reason for this is that real guest posting is a long and laborious task, to find quality websites, write articles for them that they want to use and then having them published can be a process that takes a few weeks, not a couple of hours. So ask yourself why would someone want to do all that work for $20? Perhaps they have a well established network of contacts to have your work published on, or perhaps they have a number of well established blogs of their own that they would place it on. My advice would always be wary of this type of offer. Consider the time it takes and the value it generates, always check where they will publish the guest post prior to payment of any money and make sure that website is something you think is appropriate for your brand. As with the hiring of anyone ensure you have done a sufficient background check before engaging in a financial transaction with them. There is a massive difference in subcontracted work and work done directly by the person you are paying. Sub contracted Content Marketing is huge business, essentially someone sets up a website offering paid writing jobs, offering typically $2 per article and then have a team of people paid $2 per hour to post your articles on websites. So your $20 payment is in fact only 20% to those writers and placer but a massive 80% for the middle man who has a nice website. If you thought it was a lot of work for $20 then it certainly is a lot of work for $2 so you can imagine the output you get.
If you wish to discuss any points feel free to leave a comment, or if you are looking for reputable Content Marketing then leave your details and I'll get back to you.
Wednesday, 3 April 2013
The Clothes do not maketh the man!
Depending on your industry you will find there is a set dress code for the types of clothes that are deemed acceptable and normal. Obviously for women this list is a lot more complex than for men. The types can be broken down into four main categories:
Formal Business Attire
Most office based companies insist on smart formal business wear from both genders meaning suit and a tie for the men and a smart pant suit or skirt and blouse for the women. But how important is this really? Why do companies bother? Its an interesting question and considering many employees only conduct internal interviews so have no external client face time you can understand the frustration but there is a purpose for it. Those who dress smartly are effectively putting on not only clothes but a mindset. That mindset will be professional and smart. It is easier to speak with authority, improves engagement by ensuring everyone speaks eloquently and also creates a tone that will mean your office may be a more sombre and professional work space.
Tips on guidelines:
For men ensure shirt is ironed and top button is fastened with Tie on show.
For Women ensure covered up (no short skirts or low tops) and colours are not too vibrant.
Some examples of good and bad:
Smart Casual
A lot of modern offices have now adopted the smart casual approach where shirt and shoes are still expected but ties and suit jackets can be left out. The bad part of this approach is that it leads to a lot of confusion especially for your female workers, they already have a difficult choice when it comes to office wear and this can often lead to an environment where some still apply formal business attire rules and others really go to town with the casual element.
Tips on guidelines:
For men ensure shoes worn and shirt collar visible, jumpers should be without slogans.
For Women ensure covered up (no short skirts or low tops) and no open toed sandals.
Casual
For modern and art type industries you find the choice is mainly casual, jeans and a tshirt are deemed everyday staples for those working in a more creative environment. This breeds a culture of comfort, engagement and innovation. Allowing your staff more freedom with their clothing lets them express themselves which should be encouraged when working in a creative field. Comfort is also important if they are spending long periods of time at a desk, workbench or other
PJ's
For the rise in homeworking this has become the office wear of the blogger. Wearing your PJ's is comfortable easy and quick, but it does present some issues, for instance you miss that lovely feeling of getting into your PJs after a long day at work. Also with the rise in the use of skype for meetings the 101 Dalmations onesie may be viewed as slightly peculiar when speaking to a potential client. Also when working with webcams ensure you wear something which has a high neckline, all too often people forget that the other user can only see your head and shoulders so may think you are naked!
The choice of work wear for a business is essential in setting a tone and not a decision that should be chopped and changed, also ensuring that there is a blanket code for all is important to not create a clothing hierarchy. If you supply staff with uniforms then to improve engagement you may wish to take feedback on the uniforms and let the staff have input into the design.
Formal Business Attire
Most office based companies insist on smart formal business wear from both genders meaning suit and a tie for the men and a smart pant suit or skirt and blouse for the women. But how important is this really? Why do companies bother? Its an interesting question and considering many employees only conduct internal interviews so have no external client face time you can understand the frustration but there is a purpose for it. Those who dress smartly are effectively putting on not only clothes but a mindset. That mindset will be professional and smart. It is easier to speak with authority, improves engagement by ensuring everyone speaks eloquently and also creates a tone that will mean your office may be a more sombre and professional work space.
Tips on guidelines:
For men ensure shirt is ironed and top button is fastened with Tie on show.
For Women ensure covered up (no short skirts or low tops) and colours are not too vibrant.
Some examples of good and bad:
MEN'S
 |
| Good Suit |
 |
| Bad Suit |
WOMEN'S
 |
| Good Work wear |
 |
| Bad Work wear |
A lot of modern offices have now adopted the smart casual approach where shirt and shoes are still expected but ties and suit jackets can be left out. The bad part of this approach is that it leads to a lot of confusion especially for your female workers, they already have a difficult choice when it comes to office wear and this can often lead to an environment where some still apply formal business attire rules and others really go to town with the casual element.
Tips on guidelines:
For men ensure shoes worn and shirt collar visible, jumpers should be without slogans.
For Women ensure covered up (no short skirts or low tops) and no open toed sandals.
Casual
For modern and art type industries you find the choice is mainly casual, jeans and a tshirt are deemed everyday staples for those working in a more creative environment. This breeds a culture of comfort, engagement and innovation. Allowing your staff more freedom with their clothing lets them express themselves which should be encouraged when working in a creative field. Comfort is also important if they are spending long periods of time at a desk, workbench or other
PJ's
For the rise in homeworking this has become the office wear of the blogger. Wearing your PJ's is comfortable easy and quick, but it does present some issues, for instance you miss that lovely feeling of getting into your PJs after a long day at work. Also with the rise in the use of skype for meetings the 101 Dalmations onesie may be viewed as slightly peculiar when speaking to a potential client. Also when working with webcams ensure you wear something which has a high neckline, all too often people forget that the other user can only see your head and shoulders so may think you are naked!
The choice of work wear for a business is essential in setting a tone and not a decision that should be chopped and changed, also ensuring that there is a blanket code for all is important to not create a clothing hierarchy. If you supply staff with uniforms then to improve engagement you may wish to take feedback on the uniforms and let the staff have input into the design.
Tuesday, 2 April 2013
Google Authorship - A Must for Guest Posting?
Google likes to display results with a nice little picture of the author, it has been proven to improve the amount of traffic generated on a Google search as it somehow invokes trust and intrigue. Another aspect to Google authorship is of course that the website you are writing on needs to have a Bio of the author and even perhaps an author page to reference to ensure the Authorship works. If you wish to improve traffic to your articles it makes sense to use Google Authorship, not to mention the chance that your authorship will generate cross article traffic if a person likes your work.
Difficulty of Google Authorship
A Lot of webmasters don't allow their guest posts to have Google Authorship which means that your work is not being accredited where it should be and it is not been given the exposure that perhaps it should be. This is down to the design of many websites making google authorship difficult to do without code. Most Webmasters offering guest posting want to be able to publish the work with the minimum amount of effort necessary. Another complexity is that if you own the publishing and you have access to your Google+ Profile then it means you can quickly check it is all working. If when publishing an article you need to check it is working then you will have to rely on the author adding this to their contributor list. This has led to a rise in the number of websites that prefer to have article series, weekly contribution or a long term relationship with authors, those which continue to run a one article guest post opportunity run the risk of being caught up in spam activity and penalised.
Benefits of Google Authorship - Video
Be Careful
Like anything on the internet you do not want to be affiliated with anything that is spammy or black hat so by giving authorship status to your guest posters you are in effect creating a link from your website to that individual. Whilst checking the links in a guest post are suitable is an obvious step when publishing you may also have cause to check out the author, ensure they are not going to be bad press for your website. Essentially Google wants to use Authorship ranking to eventually get web searches that are impacted by the trustworthy nature of the author. If for instance the author has three followers and only posted two bits of content this might be viewed as having less weight than someone who posts regularly and is well established on social media. This may sound unfair but what it will do is ensure that spammers are not given coverage and that is the ultimate aim in Google's plan. Identifying websites that are spam or black hat is a constant battle for Google and a tool in their arsenal is that most spammers do not have 'real' social media accounts, they have lots of links from bots or fake profiles (Something with social media is constantly looking to rid from their sites) and so authorship will play a vital role in not only ensuring good quality is recognised it will also be a valid tool for Google to get rid of more spam.
Difficulty of Google Authorship
A Lot of webmasters don't allow their guest posts to have Google Authorship which means that your work is not being accredited where it should be and it is not been given the exposure that perhaps it should be. This is down to the design of many websites making google authorship difficult to do without code. Most Webmasters offering guest posting want to be able to publish the work with the minimum amount of effort necessary. Another complexity is that if you own the publishing and you have access to your Google+ Profile then it means you can quickly check it is all working. If when publishing an article you need to check it is working then you will have to rely on the author adding this to their contributor list. This has led to a rise in the number of websites that prefer to have article series, weekly contribution or a long term relationship with authors, those which continue to run a one article guest post opportunity run the risk of being caught up in spam activity and penalised.
Benefits of Google Authorship - Video
Be Careful
Like anything on the internet you do not want to be affiliated with anything that is spammy or black hat so by giving authorship status to your guest posters you are in effect creating a link from your website to that individual. Whilst checking the links in a guest post are suitable is an obvious step when publishing you may also have cause to check out the author, ensure they are not going to be bad press for your website. Essentially Google wants to use Authorship ranking to eventually get web searches that are impacted by the trustworthy nature of the author. If for instance the author has three followers and only posted two bits of content this might be viewed as having less weight than someone who posts regularly and is well established on social media. This may sound unfair but what it will do is ensure that spammers are not given coverage and that is the ultimate aim in Google's plan. Identifying websites that are spam or black hat is a constant battle for Google and a tool in their arsenal is that most spammers do not have 'real' social media accounts, they have lots of links from bots or fake profiles (Something with social media is constantly looking to rid from their sites) and so authorship will play a vital role in not only ensuring good quality is recognised it will also be a valid tool for Google to get rid of more spam.
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