Lost in Translation

Last week I wrote 15 tips for Twitter for business and nonprofit. It occurs to me that even before addressing how to use it, we should have a talk about what to expect and what is realistic when it comes to using Twitter.

There are a lot of people claiming they know the secrets to getting tons of followers and getting you rolling in the dough.

As with all things business: there is no secret. They are full of it. I already told you what you need to know and where to learn more if you are inclined. If they are promising secrets, see if that involves you buying something to learn the secret.

Yeah, I thought so.

And if they aren’t offering something directly for sale, they are probably making these claims in hopes of bumping their own numbers and site traffic.

So let’s talk a little about Twitter for business and nonprofit. Why use it at all? What are some ways to use it?

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The following is an article I wrote for another publication a while back. I’d like to re-post it here to help those who follow this blog. I’ve edited it a bit to be specific to this audience.

I’ve been a professional web designer for 10 years now. In that time I’ve seen a lot of people do good things and bad things with their websites. And by bad things, I mean: waste time and money.

However, the web is still a valid place to do business and/or promote your business. It can be a nice source of income for you too. The challenge is that most people don’t know where to start. It doesn’t help that there is a lot of misinformation out there, including a lot of very old information.

No matter what you are selling, there are certain principles that apply.

So here are 12 tips and myth busters to help you on your journey as a business owner using the Internet.

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Some of you may know, I had twins a while back. Anyone who has kids can tell you that you end up on mailing lists for all things baby very quickly. I get mail from companies I have no interest in doing business with, but birth records are public so there you are.

Add to that, stores such as Destination Maternity sell your contact information to other businesses. I suspect this how Enfamil, a formula manufacturer owned by Mead Johnson & Company, LLC, got a hold of my email address.

From here, marketing hijinks ensue.

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My post over at DrakNet sparked some thoughts from my friend at Three Moons Media.

She wrote this article in response. She addresses what to do if you do find an image you want to use when using Google image search. She points out that the images are not entirely off limits, but that there is a way to go about using them: ask. Marilyn gives you other options for finding free images too.

Also, Marilyn further discusses copyright and points you to some excellent articles addressing copyright and copyright myths. Check it out!

I’m overdue for another post. Things get hairy when you run a business from home, have infant twins, and the air conditioning goes out. In many parts of the country, that’s not a big deal in May, but in Texas it can be HOT! We have babies and ferrets, so it meant several days of little work, no fun, and no sleep.

Meanwhile, here is a post I originally wrote for DrakNet that was posted April 30, 2010.

I thought I’d share it here for those that may not follow the DrakNet blog and also because this site is basically an extended FAQ covering issues I deal with all the time from clients. Google image search and copyright are recurring themes in my line of work.

I get a lot of images from clients to put on websites. Because I like to educate and protect my clients, I am prone to asking, “Where did you get this from?”

More often than not, the response is: “Google’s free image search”.

Let me clear up a common misconception: the image search on Google is not a repository of free images for everyone. What Google is doing is searching images on other people’s websites and showing those images to you. These are images that are protected by copyright law.

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