*The following article is the third in a series of TEN, each composed by Shara Lawrence-Weiss. This series is being posted for the purposes of the Mommy Perks community and our readers and friends. If you would like to re-post the articles you are welcome to do so. Please give credit to the author and include the BIO information along with any links (see below). Thank you!
Article Four:
Should I TRADE my time, products or services? (copyright Shara Lawrence-Weiss)
In short: Take it case by case.
*Please Note: I talk below about making sure that trades are “fair.” The word fair does not mean that everyone gets the SAME. It means that everyone gets what “he or she NEEDS.” By making sure that each person gets what he/she needs in a trade, you will avoid hard feelings, anger, frustration, bitterness, etc.
On with the article…
When I first began my PCS business, I had people clambering to get me to trade, donate books, give things away for free and so on. They still do but I have learned many lessons and would like to share some with you - to save you both time and heartache.
Over the past few months and with the economy in the dumps, several people have asked me if I trade (for either of my businesses) and if that is something, as a new or re-launching business, they ought to be doing as well.
First off, I do believe that trading work, products or services can be of value, especially in a down economy. At the same time, the trade needs to be fair and ethical for all parties involved.
I’ve been a freelance writer for years now. I’ve had 100+ pieces published (many for pay). I have been asked to trade my writing services for ad space several times and I used to agree to that. I no longer offer that trade and I will tell you why:
I spend hours working on a written piece for a client. While other professional writers charge hundreds of dollars for a press release, article or the like, I charge far less. There are numerous people on the Internet now, offering writing services for even less than I offer them for. However, I can almost promise you that the $10-20 folks do not have any journalistic background or published pieces in their portfolio. So as I mentioned in a previous article, “you get what you pay for.”
Back to my point: I used to trade writing services for ad space. To this day, no business has come from any of those trades. How long did it take the web site owner to place my link or graphic on their site? 5 minutes. So is that a fair trade for me, personally? At this time and as busy as I am now (and don’t have time to spare)…I’d have to say no (unless Parenting.com or BabyCenter.com would like to trade my writing for ad space - sure, I’m no moron).
Moral of this story = think before you trade. Don’t sell yourself or your time or your products short. What is your time and what are your products worth? Take that into consideration before trading. Work fair trades for everyone involved - not just you but to the other person, as well.
If the trade is not fair for you, politely decline. You have every right to see the value of your own products, time, resources, background, education and experience.
I used to offer the moon when I made trades, wanting to be the kinder, more generous person. “Need me to make you dinner as well???”
Really, though. What’s good for the goose needs to be good for the gander. If not, walk away or come up with a different trade agreement. Have it all in writing and if the other person does not show signs of following through on their end of the bargain, walk away. Don’t waste energy on frustrating circumstances or people. You’ll need that energy to run your business!
In brief: Know when to hold em. Know when to fold em. Know when to walk away. Know when to run, baby.
*This article was composed by Shara Lawrence-Weiss, owner of Mommy Perks and Personal Child Stories. Shara has a background in published freelance, journalism, nanny work, education, special needs, marketing, networking, PR and sales. She is married to her best friend and biggest supporter, Rick, owner of Design Media Pros. They brag three terrific kids and a handful of true and dear friends. They have a roof over their heads and share one vehicle in order to better the planet and save money on insurance and gas. They enjoy food, water, shelter and love. Who could ask for more?
*The following article is the third in a series of TEN, each composed by Shara Lawrence-Weiss. This series is being posted for the purposes of the Mommy Perks community and our readers and friends. If you would like to re-post the articles you are welcome to do so. Please give credit to the author and include the BIO information along with any links (see below). Thank you!
ARTICLE THREE:
“SEO TIPS” (copyright Shara Lawrence-Weiss)
As most of you know, if you own a web site, good search engine results is something you want.
First off, SEO = Search Engine Optimization
I’m not going to delve into the intricate details of SEO because I am not a web developer. However, there are some basic concepts to share that might aid you. My husband has helped with the creation of this particular article. Thanks, honey!
1.) “Content is King”:
This saying still holds true today, as it always has. If you run a site about horses, don’t talk about gardening on your pages. If you have a love affair with gardening, build a separate site. For the horse site, talk about horses and horse care, updates, tips, events - whatever. Just keep it true to what the site implies to be about. That will gain you the respect of search engines when they see that you are true to what you do.
Hey - my new catch phrase! “Be true to what you do!” 
2.) Key Words:
Use key words on your site (and certainly on your home page) that you think others would Google in order to find you. If your site is about early childhood literacy, be sure to use those three words in various locations especially the FIRST PARAGRAPH of your home page text. Your web site title also needs to reflect what you do or offer. Don’t put the words, “You’ll love this site!” in the title. Who would Google that to find you?
Be smart and wise and place appropriate key words, terms or phrases around your site, on each page and especially in the first paragraph and title of your site.
3.) Flash:
It has been believed that Flash sites do not gain search engine results, the way that traditional sites do. This was true a few years ago, but I recently read an article that said as long as the back end coding is written correctly, search engines have developed a way to read Flash sites. I do want to note this, however: rarely when I Google something does a Flash site show up first…or 2nd…or 3rd…or 4th…or even 5th…(my observations and not based on research).
Perhaps their coding was simply not written effectively or perhaps search engines still find it easier to read traditional sites over Flash sites. Something to consider, regardless.
4.) Back End Coding:
Search engines will be more likely to read the content on your site if the coding is nice and clean (a professional developer will know how to do that). If your coding is full of extras, garbage, etc, the search engines will have a harder time reading. Let me use Mommy Perks as an example. When the site was first built, the designer (who was not also a developer) placed the site up by copying and pasting text right from WORD documents. WORD is known for carrying over junk coding and all kinds of extras that make the pages a total mess. When my husband re-built the site, he did so using standards compliance coding and cleaned up all of that WORD ’stuff.’ Within weeks, our SEO went through the roof. Prior to that, I had people tell me every now and then that they had found Mommy Perks through a search engine. Since rebuilding the site with professional coding, I now receive one call, one email, one contest entry, one newsletter sign-up after the next…saying, “Found you through Google or Yahoo!” The bottom line is this:
Too much un-nesessary code = bad. Not enough code = bad. Just right code = good.
Think…THREE LITTLE BEARS porridge story: “This one is juuuuusssstttt right.”
*(Keep in mind that it also seems to be important to ORDER the coding correctly).
5.) Link Trades: Incoming links and Outgoing links - what’s it all about?
Basically, if you are using links to boost your SEO, trade with people who are like-minded. If you own a salon, trade with beauty sites. If you own a pet shop, trade with groomers. And so on. If you run a golf shop, trading with a Maxi Pad warehouse ain’t gonna do ya much good 
Or - if you are like me - and you just want to trade in order to help others be seen and found and to gain exposure for each person listed on your site, don’t worry about finding like-minded businesses. Spread the love near and far and don’t worry that a site doesn’t necessarily relate to what YOU offer, sell or do.
If you want links to boost your SEO, though - you must, must, must trade with sites that are like-minded.
6.) To Hire SEO Experts or Not to Hire?
Many SEO companies now charge $500 a month to give you the tips I am sharing and to implement them. I don’t know many small businesses that can actually afford to spend that (my husband charges $200 a month rather than $500 so there are some folks out there who will do the work for less than norm).
However, here is another idea: Hire a web developer in the first place who understands SEO and will include it in your web site design. That way, you are taking care of both issues and won’t need to hire an SEO company at all. And if you just really, really want to spend money, send that $500 a month to me. I’ll donate to a children’s charity in your name.
If you do depend on your web developer for SEO, make sure you have some kind of setup where you can rearrange your placement of keywords. SEO is an ongoing process and requires some experimenting. If you are not getting the results you want, the first step is to try different keywords, or if you think you have the right words, place them differently.
Much more could be said of SEO but that ought to get you started!
*This article was composed by Shara Lawrence-Weiss, owner of Mommy Perks and Personal Child Stories. Shara has a background in published freelance, journalism, nanny work, education, special needs, marketing, networking, PR and sales. She is married to her best friend and biggest supporter, Rick, owner of Design Media Pros. They brag three terrific kids and a handful of true and dear friends. They have a roof over their heads and share one vehicle in order to better the planet and save money on insurance and gas. They enjoy food, water, shelter and love. Who could ask for more?
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