Now available with Google Apps: Google Alerts

[Cross-posted from the Google Enterprise Blog]

Editor’s note: We recently launched an improvement that makes over 60 additional Google services available to Google Apps users. This series showcases what’s new and how your organization can benefit.



Welcome to Google Alerts
No organization is an island. If you’re in business, it’s critical to be connected to what’s happening in your market and to hear what your customers are saying. If you’re in education, you need to stay on top of the latest announcements and innovations within your field. But given the immense amount of data being created every day on the Web, how can you possibly keep track of new information as it's published?

Now Google Apps customers can tackle this problem using Google Alerts with their Apps accounts. Google Alerts is a content monitoring service that notifies you when Google’s search engine encounters new content - such as web pages, newspaper articles, or blogs - that you’re interested in from all across the Web. Simply enter your search terms and Google Alerts will notify you via email whenever Google finds new results that match your terms. To avoid information overload, you can configure Google Alerts to send one email per day or per week, compressing the most important results into a brief message.


Once you’re up and running with Google Alerts, try setting up an alert on the name of your organization or industry. Use quotes if your search term is longer than one word (for example, “small business financing” or “solar power”) - you’ll get more accurate results. Then wait and see what turns up in your inbox. You might be surprised to find out who’s writing about you!

Learn more and get started
Google Alerts can be enabled by your domain administrator from the Google Apps Control Panel at https://www.google.com/a/[your_domain.com] (replace [your_domain.com] with your actual domain name). If your organization isn’t using Google Apps yet, you can learn more and sign up today at http://www.google.com/apps/more.

For more information or answers to specific questions about Alerts, visit our Help Center pages.

Share your story
Have you already started using Google Alerts at your organization, or plan to now that it’s available? Please share your story and your organization could be featured in the next Gone Google ad campaign!


Posted by Oli Gaymond, Product Manager, Google Alerts

Note: Google Alerts may not be available in all areas.

Tell Us Your Biggest Wish for 2011

Today the Google Small Business team is kicking off a conversation about the hopes and wishes you have for your business next year. We are working on a project to help small businesses succeed in 2011 and we want to hear from you.

We’ll start by asking, if you had one wish for your small business in 2011, what would it be? This is just the beginning and we’ll be looking for common themes to share with everyone. We'll pull out the common themes from submissions all over the web or via the form below and share them, anonymously, in aggregate.

Think big and audacious, or be more practical – but narrow it down to just one single wish. We're trying to understand what's most important to small businesses in general, so your wish doesn't have to be specific to Google. It might be something that helps your business prosper and grow. Or, it might be something that gives you personal peace of mind.

Just complete the form below. Or, tell us on Facebook or Twitter using the hashtag #Wish2011. We would like to share some of the specific wishes we hear from businesses. If you'd like us to share your wish (not anonymously) on our blog, please provide us your email and we'll be in touch.

Spread the word and tell your friends -- we want to know their wish too. Let’s get this conversation started.

The one wish I have for my small business in 2011 is....

Email address

Please provide your email address if you're willing to share your specific wish publicly.

Powered by Google DocsReport Abuse - Terms of Service - Additional Terms

Our online conversation about your wishes is intended to be viral with shared responses. Your response in this blog form will be used anonymously and will be kept anonymous. We may share your publicly posted Tweets and Facebook updates by re-tweeting or sharing your update. In those cases, the public usernames on your Twitter and Facebook posts will be included in our retweets and status updates, however, we are only looking at responses to identify common themes to share with everyone. Let’s keep the conversation focused on your 2011 wish for your business.

We would like to share some of the specific wishes that we hear from businesses. If you'd like us to share your wish (not anonymously) on our blog, please provide us your email and we'll be in touch. We will only use your data as indicated above - please see our privacy policy for more information.

Posted by Leslie Hernandez, Product Marketing Manager, Google Small Businesses Team

Now available with Google Apps: AdWords

[Cross-posted from the Google Enterprise Blog]

Editor’s note: We recently launched an improvement that makes over 60 additional Google services available to Google Apps users. This series showcases what’s new and how your organization can benefit.



Welcome to Google AdWords
Every business wants to connect with its customers and this is often one of the goals that a business spends the most time on. Now, your business can more easily use the power of Google AdWords to connect with your customers using your Google Apps account.

AdWords gives you the ability to reach more than 80% of Internet users* as they are actively searching for information about products and services on Google and Google’s advertising network. AdWords enables you to connect with your potential customers at the right time with the right message, by letting you select Google search keywords related to your product or services so that users searching for these keywords can see your advertisements.

Setting up an account takes only minutes and controlling costs is easy - you only pay when people click on your ad and land on your site, and you can set a daily budget to limit your total spend. AdWords also offers great flexibility, allowing you to change your budget on the fly. Plus, if your business serves certain geographies, you have the ability to target your ads only to people searching in a particular state, city, or region.



Now that AdWords works with Google Apps, collaborating with other people in your organization to manage campaigns in AdWords is simple as well. You can invite colleagues to access your AdWords account with their existing Google Apps accounts and grant them differing levels of access depending on how much or little control you’d like them to have. Whether your business has one person that handles all of the online marketing or a team that works collaboratively, AdWords can accommodate your needs.



Also, in addition to collaborating in AdWords itself, tight integration with Google Apps lets you export your reports to Google Docs in a single click. This lets you share your campaign data with colleagues and collaborate in real-time in the same way that you already collaborate on other documents and spreadsheets using Google Docs with your Apps account.



Be sure to check out some success stories from businesses of all sizes, including First Crush Restaurant, which was able to increase traffic to its website by 400%, or Happy Hound dog daycare and boarding facility, which gets over 90% of its business through AdWords.

Learn more and get started
Google AdWords can be enabled by your domain administrator from the Google Apps Control Panel at https://www.google.com/a/[your_domain.com] (replace [your_domain.com] with your actual domain name). If your organization isn’t using Google Apps yet, you can learn more and sign up today at http://www.google.com/apps/more.

For more information about AdWords you can visit our information page or you can find the latest news and tips at the AdWords Blog.

Share your story
Have you already started using Google AdWords at your organization, or plan to now that it’s available? Please share your story and your organization could be featured in the next Gone Google ad campaign!


Posted by Kit Broussard, AdWords Team

Note: Google AdWords may not be available in all areas.
*Source: comScore Media Metrix (US, May 2009)

Weekly Inspiration

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Snowflake Bow Gift Boxes , originally uploaded by la Naváa.

Submit your photos for consideration as a Weekly Inspiration by adding them to the Flickr Group.

How I’m Using Hotpot to Plan My Thanksgiving Weekend

[Cross-posted from the Hotpot Community Blog. We recently announced the availability of our new local recommendation engine powered by you and your friends, called Google Hotpot. Read on about how folks in your local area can find your business through the ratings, reviews and recommendations on Google. - Ed.]

The word “Thanksgiving” conjures up images of my family gathering around the table in Pennsylvania, passing the turkey and mashed potatoes to one another. But not this year. While my family's off on a surfing trip in Mexico, I'm staying in New York to spend time with my boyfriend Wes.

But I don't want to spend the next several days lazing about the apartment. I want to use the time to discover new local places, and maybe even visit a few forgotten ones. So here I sit, with my Google search fired up and my Hotpot recommendations — based on what I’ve rated and what my Hotpot friends have rated — ready to set my course. What new places should Wes and I check out? Here's what Hotpot suggested:


Thursday
Sure, I could attempt to cook, but why make Wes suffer? In Maps, I search for "restaurants new york, ny,” and in the left navigation where I see my search results, I find friend recommendations listed with the top several results. Here’s one restaurant that catches my eye, recommended by my friend Vivi:

I’m thinking we can get an early meal at Freemans, and then treat ourselves to some delicious dessert. Preferably close to home — Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn — so we can load up on sweets and then roll ourselves back to the couch. Searching for "dessert brooklyn, ny" pulls up this local gem, one I’ve been meaning to visit:

Note to self: Remember to schedule in some gym time.

Friday
My family's big into books, so for Black Friday, I want to go somewhere a little less big bookseller, a little more worn-and-torn. I’ve rated and reviewed a bunch of independent book shops already on Hotpot, so by searching for "book shop new york, ny,” Google should know exactly what kinda bookseller I’m looking for. And voila:

Saturday
I live in New York, but, sadly, I don't always take full advantage of the many wonderful cultural institutions we have. So this weekend, I'm committed to getting us to a museum. But which museum? The search "museum new york" pulls up a great recommendation from my friend Daniel:

Sunday
After an eventful few days, Wes and I will most likely just want to chill out in front of a movie. To avoid the crushing Harry Potter crowds at the cineplex, I'm thinking we should see something at a local independent theater. Searching for "cinema new york, ny" shows me a few options based on theaters I’ve already told Google I like. This one stands out:

And they're showing Woody Allen's latest! Perfect.

Now that I’ve shared with you how I’m using Hotpot to plan my Thanksgiving weekend, do tell: How are you using Hotpot for the holiday? Share your stories in the comments.

Posted by Vanessa Schneider, Hotpot Team

Now available with Google Apps: Google Finance

[Cross-posted from the Google Enterprise Blog]

Editor’s note: We recently launched an improvement that makes over 60 additional Google services available to Google Apps users. This series showcases what’s new and how your organization can benefit.



Welcome to Google Finance
Financial market data is some of the most time-sensitive and important information that many businesses track minute by minute. Portfolios, stock charts, and up-to-the-second market news are all central to understanding investment options, making business decisions, and tracking suppliers, partners, and competitors. How is the market reacting to the press release you just issued? How financially stable is the vendor you’re considering? What are your competitors in the market announcing today? Fortunately, Google Finance is now available to our Google Apps customers, so you can answer all of these questions and more for free with your Google Apps account.

Google Finance puts all of the financial data and market news that matters to you at your fingertips throughout the day and enables you to share it easily with colleagues and clients. Integration with your Apps account allows you to create and save multiple portfolios and track performance over time as well as access your saved portfolios through your mobile device when you’re away from your computer.


Google Finance also makes it easy to keep track of important portfolio company events, such as quarterly earnings announcements, by allowing you to add these events directly to your linked Google Calendar with a single click.


Other Google Finance features allow you to create custom stock charts that include related companies’ performance and custom technicals and indicators of your choosing -- and share them with colleagues easily. And you can brainstorm investment opportunities using the Google Finance Stock Screener or Domestic Trends features.

Learn more and get started
Google Finance can be enabled by your domain administrator from the Google Apps control panel at https://www.google.com/a/[your_domain.com] (replace [your_domain.com] with your actual domain name). If your organization isn’t using Google Apps yet, you can learn more and sign up today at http://www.google.com/apps/more.

For more information about Google Finance, you can check out our Help Center pages, or you can follow the latest product news, tips, and features on the Google Finance Blog.

Share your story
Have you already started using Google Finance at your organization, or plan to now that it’s available? Please share your story, and your organization could be featured in the next Gone Google ad campaign!


Posted by Karolína Netolicka, Product Manager, Google Finance

Note: Google Finance may not be available in all areas.

When Do People Look at Your Shop?

What time of day people are viewing your shop can be a valuable bit of information to know. You could time new items to go up during the busiest time, and make changes during the slowest times. If you post frequently on twitter or facebook you might find the trend correlates heavily to when you are posting to those social media sites and make an effort to spread your posting out more to communicate with people who aren't online when you are usually posting.

So how do you find this out? Assuming you are using Google Analytics it's pretty easy though a bit hidden in the interface. Here's step by step how to do it:

Step 1: Log into Google Analytics.

Step 2: Click Visitors in the sidebar menu

Step 3: Click Visitor Trending

Step 4: Click Visits in the secondary menu under Visitor Trending

Step 5: Expand your date range. To get the best average you want to use a large date range. I used a year but if you haven't had Analytics collecting data that long you could do 6 months or since you installed Analytics. It's up to you but try to use at least several months worth of data to get the best picture.

Step 6: Click the Clock. Right over the visits graph on the right you will see some tiny icons, you want to click the one that looks like a clock face.

Step 7: Analyze the information. In my case my least views are at 6am and the most at 5pm for my time zone. Google uses a 24 hour clock not a 12 hour one which can be a bit confusing if you aren't used to it, just subtract 12 from times past 12:59 (14:00 is 2pm).

Spreading holiday cheer and regional cuisine through AdWords

[Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog.]

When we here in the U.S. think of Thanksgiving, many of us think of our favorite foods: perhaps a fresh-from-the-oven pumpkin pie, a sweet glazed ham or a succulent turkey. But thanks to Charlie Hohorst III of Lafayette, La., tens of thousands of Americans dream instead of a turkey... stuffed with a duck... stuffed with a chicken.

For the past 15 years, Hohorst has run food shopping site Cajun Grocer, which specializes in more than 1,000 different authentic Louisianan foodstuffs and delicacies. The “turducken”—a Cajun dish consisting of a de-boned turkey filled with duck, chicken and stuffing—is “the bread and butter” of his business, says Hohorst. He can attest to their growing popularity as he ships an ever-increasing number of turduckens to cities all over the country, from Los Angeles to Boston.

Cajun Grocer’s business has grown hand-in-hand with the use of Google AdWords. Before starting AdWords campaigns in 2002, sales were fueled primarily by word of mouth, and reaching the right audience at an affordable price was a challenge. “With a specialty product like a turducken,” says Hohorst, “who do you target and how do you target them?” Using AdWords, Cajun Grocer can show off their products alongside relevant searches on Google and measure every penny spent on advertising.

Cajun Grocer’s ad for “turducken” searches, using AdWords Product Extensions.

The process of hand-crafting all eight types of turducken for the Thanksgiving rush starts in April and continues through packing and last-minute shipping as late as November 23.

Aside from their role in spreading the culinary influence of his native Louisiana, what Hohorst really loves about turduckens is that, much like the Thanksgiving holiday itself, they give people a reason to come together. “They’re a gathering item. Many people have heard of them, and when someone they know has one, it can bring in 10 or even 20 people.”

Posted by Jim Prosser, Communications Manager

Now available with Google Apps: Blogger

[Cross-posted from the Google Enterprise Blog]

Editor’s note: We recently launched an improvement that makes over 60 additional Google services available to Google Apps users. This series showcases what’s new and how your organization can benefit.



Welcome to Blogger
How do you let the world know what's important to your organization on a day-to-day basis? You may have a Web site, but when was the last time you added fresh content? You may have advertisements and media placements, but how interactive can you make those conversations? Many companies solve these problems by using blogs to connect in more meaningful ways, sharing up-to-date information and allowing follow-on conversations; and now Google Apps users have the perfect tool for delivering a corporate blog: Blogger.

Blogger is an easy-to-use yet extremely powerful content publishing platform that helps you broadcast stories, insights, and ideas to others in only a few clicks. Your organization can use Blogger to start conversations with customers or partners about upcoming events, product launches, or your company's vision for your industry.

A recent study showed that an estimated 34% of US companies already use one or more blogs to connect with their customers, and this figure has doubled in the past few years.* Google uses blogs, just like the Enterprise Blog where you’re reading now, to connect with our users and partners. In fact, Google has almost a hundred blogs running on the Blogger platform, covering topics as diverse as our renewable energy policies, product updates, developer challenges and code snippets, and information for advertisers and partners.

Blogger offers a powerful rich-editor that lets you create a great looking site with simple and intuitive tools that require no web design experience to use. And for those that want to achieve a deeper level customization, Blogger provides great flexibility and full control over the blog content you create, letting you edit the HTML and add CSS and Javascript to create your own unique look and feel.

Just like Google Apps, Blogger runs in Google’s cloud so you never have to worry about provisioning new hardware or updating software. Blogger already serves content from millions of contributors to over 300 million readers, so the platform is ready to scale to meet your needs as readership grows with your organization.

Learn more and get started
Blogger can be enabled by your domain administrator from the Google Apps Control Panel at https://www.google.com/a/[your_domain.com] (replace [your_domain.com] with your actual domain name). If your organization isn’t using Google Apps yet, you can learn more and sign up today at http://www.google.com/apps/more.

For more information you can take a product tour or learn about Blogger’s top features. Finally, you can track the latest news and updates on Blogger’s own blog.

Share your story
Have you already started using Blogger at your organization, or plan to now that it’s available? Please share your story and your organization could be featured in the next Gone Google ad campaign!


Posted by Anil Sabharwal, Product Manager, Blogger

Note: Blogger may not be available in all areas.
* Source: eMarketer, August 2010

Driving toward better ROI: How one small business uses the Conversion Optimizer to increase sales

Elliott Antal, eMarketing Manager from the Richard Petty Driving Experience, recently won the Google AdWords Conversion Champion Challenge. His sweet, sweet reward was one-on-one time with the Conversion Optimizer team (and a free trip to Google headquarters).

While Antal was here, we gained more insight into why the Conversion Optimizer, an automated AdWords tool that manages bids to achieve conversion targets, has become an important part of his small business marketing strategy. “We don’t have a large marketing budget so we have to optimize everything we have,” says Antal. “Using the Conversion Optimizer makes perfect sense because it allowed us to track all dollars and maximize efficiencies.”

Renowned NASCAR driver Richard Petty founded the driving experience in 1994 to provide high quality motorsports entertainment with new audiences. The business is headquartered in Concord, North Carolina and it runs NASCAR driving experiences at over twenty racetracks worldwide. The Richard Petty Driving Experience is all about the in-person adventure, so marketing it online requires creativity and dedication.

Antal’s initial strategy was to target new audiences with two campaigns: one focused on race tracks where Richard Petty has a presence and another focused on Richard Petty branded terms. He quickly noticed that while he was reaching a vast audience, clicks weren’t resulting in as many purchases as he had hoped.

When he activated the Conversion Optimizer, Antal knew he’d found the solution to his problem. By automatically investing budget in clicks that are likely to lead to sales, the Conversion Optimizer reallocated funds to the most cost-effective terms. “Our main goal is to have people book a riding or driving experience and this allowed us to move money to keywords that lead to those conversions,” says Antal.

Before using the Conversion Optimizer, Antal had allocated budget equally across branded and non-branded terms. When he activated the tool, conversions on branded terms increased significantly and yielded a stunning return on investment -- even better than other non-AdWords initiatives. To capture even more conversions, Antal moved some of his overall marketing budget over to the branded terms campaign.

“As much as I would like to do so, I’m not able to comb through my AdWords account every hour,” says Antal. “The Conversion Optimizer is like my assistant, helping me change bids and keywords even when I’m not able to. For many small businesses where marketers have to wear multiple hats, I think Conversion Optimizer is a huge help.”

To learn more about the Conversion Optimizer, please visit the Conversion Optimizer site.

Posted by Lisa Coffey, Product Marketing Manager, Conversion Optimizer

Now available with Google Apps: Google Voice

[Cross-posted from the Google Enterprise Blog]

Editor’s note: We recently launched an improvement that makes over 60 additional Google services available to Google Apps users. This series showcases what’s new and how your organization can benefit.

Welcome to Google Voice
Telephones make our lives easier every day, but we’ve all met with the limitations of what the existing technology can do for us. Maybe it’s missing an important call because you were away from your office. Maybe it’s juggling multiple voicemail inboxes or struggling to listen to voicemail in a crowded conference room or on a noisy train. Maybe its wishing you could set up a conference call right from your mobile phone and connect with colleagues instantly.

Now, Google Apps users can move beyond these limitation and use their telephones in new and more flexible ways by using Google Voice with their Google Apps accounts.

Google Voice is about giving you more control over your communications, regardless of which phone or carrier you use. Here’s a little bit about how it works:

• A Google Voice number is tied to you (not to a single device) and can ring all of your phones. This means when someone calls your Google Voice number, you can choose to have it ring your work phone, home phone, mobile phone, or all of them at once, so you’ll never miss a call again.


• Google Voice makes voicemail as easy as email by transcribing your voicemail messages and storing them all in one place, along with your SMS messages, for as long as you like. You’ve long had the ability to quickly scan email messages as they arrive, and Google Voice now brings this same flexibility to voicemail.


• With Google Voice you can switch phones in the middle of a call, so you can continue a conversation that you started on your desk phone from your mobile when you need to get going.


• You can also customize call settings based on who’s calling. Google Voice lets you choose which phones ring based on the caller, which voicemail greeting is played if you don’t answer, and allows you to block certain numbers or send them straight to voicemail. For example, with this functionality you could direct most calls to your desk phone, but also ring your mobile when an important customer calls, as well as serve different voicemail greetings to that customer than you do to your coworkers or suppliers.

Just like Google Apps, Google Voice runs in Google’s cloud so it can be accessed online, even when you are away from your phone.

Learn more and get started
Google Voice can be enabled by your domain administrator from the Google Apps Control Panel at https://www.google.com/a/[your_domain.com] (replace [your_domain.com] with your actual domain name). If your organization isn’t using Google Apps yet, you can learn more and sign up today at http://www.google.com/apps/more.

For more information, you can visit the Google Voice overview page to see video explanations of the key features or take a look at our Help Center for details instructions. You can also follow the latest product news and features on the Google Voice Blog.

Share your story
Have you already started using Google Voice at your organization, or plan to now that it’s available? Please share your story and your organization could be featured in the next Gone Google ad campaign!


Posted by Vincent Paquet, Product Manager, Google Voice

Note: Google Voice is only available in the U.S.

A bridge to the cloud: Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office now available to early testers

[Cross-posted from the Google Enterprise Blog and the Google Docs Blog]

Tens of millions of people have moved to Google Docs because it’s 100% web: it provides real-time collaboration in the browser, with no software to install, manage or upgrade. Of course, we know that many more of you still use Microsoft Office, because until recently, there weren’t many tools to help you collaborate and share with others. Now there’s more choice.

To help smooth the transition from Office to the cloud, my teammates and I founded a company called DocVerse, which was acquired by Google earlier this year. Over the last 9 months, we’ve been hard at work moving the DocVerse product to Google’s infrastructure. We’ve also renamed it Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office. Today, we’re pleased to take the next step towards a public launch and make it available to early testers.

For those of you who have not made the full move to Google Docs and are still using Microsoft Office, Google has something great to offer. With Cloud Connect, people can continue to use the familiar Office interface, while reaping many of the benefits of web-based collaboration that Google Docs users already enjoy.

Users of Office 2003, 2007 and 2010 can sync their Office documents to the Google cloud, without ever leaving Office. Once synced, documents are backed-up, given a unique URL, and can be accessed from anywhere (including mobile devices) at any time through Google Docs. And because the files are stored in the cloud, people always have access to the current version.

Once in the Google cloud, documents can be easily shared and even simultaneously edited by multiple people, from right within Office. A full revision history is kept as the files are edited, and users can revert to earlier versions in one click. These are all features that Google Docs users already enjoy today, and now we’re bringing them to Microsoft Office.

All you need is a Google account, and you’re ready to go. That’s it!

If you’re a Google Apps for Business customer interested in joining our preview program, please sign up here. If you’re not, don’t worry- at launch, Google Cloud Connect will be available free to everyone, including consumers.

Posted by Shan Sinha, Group Product Manager

Update: Thank you for your interest! Due to the extraordinary demand from thousands of businesses in just the last few hours, we are no longer accepting volunteers for our early testing program. Please fill out this form if you would like to be notified when Google Cloud Connect becomes available.

Many of you have also asked about availability for Macs. Unfortunately due to the lack of support for open APIs on Microsoft Office for Mac, we are unable to make Google Cloud Connect available on Macs at this time. We look forward to when that time comes so we can provide this feature to our Mac customers as well.

The Holidays and Branding

The holiday season (I'll save my defense of using that phrase for another post) is a time of rampant consumer joy in the US and most businesses want to take advantage of it. Many B&M stores deck the aisles with lights, trees, and Santas, and many online retailers do the same to their sites. Now I see nothing wrong with capitalizing on this to increase my business but I think you should do it in a way that preserves your brand imaging.

Here's an example from my shop this year. My usual banner:

My winter banner:

I kept the same blue background color, still the product images in overlapping circles, switched from a green cuttlefish in the logo to the same one in red, changed the text to white, replaced the watery swirls with snowflakes, and made sure to include one of my platypus ornaments prominently. When I changed my profile photo on Etsy I only made the minor change of adding some snowflakes and slightly reworking the cropping:

TO:

So while my shop now looks quite festive and wintery it's still quite clearly consistent with the visual branding my shop uses the rest of the year.

So go ahead and show off your seasonal items, change your banner, welcome Santa to your shop, but keep it clearly your shop not another random holiday site and stand out from the crowd.

Now available with Google Apps: Google Reader

[Cross-posted from the Google Enterprise Blog]

Editor’s note: Yesterday we launched an improvement that makes over 60 additional Google services available to Google Apps users. This series showcases what’s new and how your organization can benefit.


Welcome to Google Reader
We all have favorite websites. The ones that we keep returning to day after day – or even several times a day – to check for new content. Whether you follow company press coverage on a set of news websites, track industry-related developments through trade journals, or follow what people are saying about your organization in the blogosphere, you can now do all of this in one place using Google Reader.

Now available with Google Apps accounts, Google Reader is a web-based content aggregator that allows you to pull updates from your favorite websites together in one place. By subscribing to a site's RSS or Atom feed in Reader, you’re automatically notified when that website posts new content. Instead of checking many sites repeatedly for updates, Google Reader brings your favorite web content to you!



Google Reader also makes it easy to share relevant articles with colleagues at your organization using Google Apps. Reader is integrated with your existing contacts list so address auto-complete works seamlessly. For example, if you see an article in your Reader feed about new tax incentives for your industry, you can easily share this with a coworker responsible for financial planning or with an entire distribution list you have created, right from the Google Reader.


For those of you always on the move, Google Reader also makes it easy and convenient to follow the stream of updates from your favorite websites on your mobile device, automatically synced through your Google Apps account.

Learn more and get started
Google Reader can be enabled by your domain administrator from the Google Apps Control Panel at https://www.google.com/a/[your_domain.com] (replace [your_domain.com] with your actual domain name). If your organization isn’t using Google Apps yet, you can learn more and sign up today at http://www.google.com/apps/more.

For more information about Google Reader you can take a look at our Help Center pages or follow the latest news and get tips and tricks from the Google Reader Blog.

Share your story
Have you already started using Google Reader at your organization, or plan to now that it’s available? Please share your story and your organization could be featured in the next Gone Google ad campaign!

Posted by Brian Shih, Product Manager, Google Reader

Note: Google Reader may not be available in all areas.

Etsy Coupon Codes

Etsy has finally released the long awaited coupon codes. As of the time I'm writing this they haven't been rolled out to everyone but I was one of the lucky people who got it. This is also why I'm posting twice in one day, I already have posts for Monday and Wednesday next week and didn't want to wait to post this.  I did a quick test run of coupon code yesterday and it seems to work great.

There are a few additions to the coupon codes I hope Etsy makes in the future such as options to limit the code to one use only or to one use per user and to limit the coupon to just one section and not the whole shop. Right now a coupon can be used any number of times until you make it inactive and applies to the whole shop. It's a great start for the feature but I hope to see it expanded in the future.

Now on the the fun: How to promote your coupons! Here's a short list, please add your own suggestions in the comments I'd love to see them.

• Post on Twitter, your website, blog, or facebook fan page.
• Post in the Promotions section of Etsy's forum
• Post on coupon code sites like RetailMeNot
• Host a contest on your blog or social network of choice and email/message the winner with the coupon code. Personally I like trivia contests, I've done them before for giveaways as well.
• Include a Thank You note in orders with a coupon code for repeat customers
• Hand out your business cards with a code on them for new customers

Couple other thoughts: I'd put a short time limit on most coupon codes you advertise online, 3 days for example. This will help prevent someone turning up with a 15% off coupon when you already have your prices marked down for a sale.

Always include an expiration date for coupons you hand out or include with orders (even if you plan to use the code for a long time you should do this, change over your codes every 6 months or so) you never want an angry customer saying her code doesn't work because you've inactivated it with no warning.

Great tech support and good karma found with Google AdWords online

When Uday Challu noticed a growing dissatisfaction with avenues for technical support, he was inspired to create a better way for people to get help with their tech troubles. So in 2007 he founded iYogi.com, India’s first direct-to-consumer remote technical support company. Founded on a belief in good karma, iYogi aims to mitigate frustrations with technical products and services by delivering a high-quality customer service experience.

iYogi Founder Uday Challu

iYogi provides round-the-clock, 24-hours service on a wide variety of technical products and issues, in Australia, Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. Uday uses Google AdWords to reach these international customers.

Uday says he saw search and, in particular, AdWords as a way to reach customers in need of technical support. He says, “iYogi services are currently available in multiple geographies and advertising with AdWords seemed like the most obvious way to reach customers who were turning to the Internet to find and fix their problems.”

With the intent of starting small and building to scale, Uday targeted his first campaigns to the U.S. only. Using location and language targeting, iYogi launched a U.S.-only campaign with general keywords related to customer support, and honed his campaign over time. “We gathered lots of intelligence from the Search Query Report, which helped us identify other keywords people in the U.S. were searching for,” says iYogi Vice President of Online Marketing K.R. Sreejith. “We also tested new ad texts and customized these ad texts to highlight popular keywords.”

Then, using lessons from his experiences in targeting the U.S., Uday expanded into the Canadian market. He found his experience in the U.S. helpful for the Canadian campaign, but didn’t see similarly high volume. After examining the global competitive landscape, he decided to expand to Australia and the U.K.

“We quickly learned that ads in the U.K., for example, had to be different than ads in the U.S.,” says Sreejith. “Using the Search Query Report, we noticed that the popularity of certain keywords was different in the U.K. and that there are differences in the spelling of these terms. We also learned from our sales teams that U.K. customers spend more time on the phone than do U.S. customers. So, we edited our ad texts and landing pages to reflect these different keywords and values.”

Today, iYogi is one of the fastest growing remote tech support provider in the world. As Uday continues to expand his business internationally, he’ll continue to use insights gained from his ad campaigns and to provide the rest of the world with similarly karmic technical support experiences!

Posted by Anand Devsharma, Team Manager, India

Weekly Inspiration

Shopaholic Giraffe, originally uploaded by hobotariy.org.ua.

Submit your photos for consideration as a Weekly Inspiration by adding them to the Flickr Group.

Biztree's Google AdWords Success Story

Here on the Small Business Blog, we occasionally share the successes of our customers by letting them tell their story in their own voice. Today, we’re happy to feature Jonathan Defoy and Bruno Goulet, founders of Biztree, who have found success using AdWords.

Biztree’s relationship with Google started in early 2003. We had just taken a loan of $25,000 to invest in advertising and we spread it across seven channels including affiliate programs, mass email, forum advertising, content and search advertising. After 30 days we lost all our money in all channels – except one. The small investment we made in Google search returned almost three times our investment!

At that point we went back to the bank to borrow $100K hoping to replicate the results. After much fighting with investors, we finally received the funds and the same results were obtained again! To this day we continue to see similar results (2 to 3X returns) and know that we can count on Google as a reliable source of quality traffic.

Today, Business-in-a-Box is the leading legal and business document template software. It’s available in 8 different languages and has over 2 million users worldwide. We help small and medium businesses quickly produce all sorts of documents and with Google’s help, business people in over 200 countries are now able to create contracts, legal agreements, business plans, marketing plans, forms and financial spreadsheets, in a matter of minutes.

We owe a large part of our success to our relationship with Google where we’ve gone from spending $100K per year to well over $100K per month!

In our view, Google’s biggest strength lies in its ability to stay ahead of the competition by continually improving user experience and upgrading and fine-tuning its powerful technologies, as witnessed by constant additions to Google Analytics, AdWords Editor tool and Website Optimizer. The second thing we love most about Google is how it enables us to quickly test our marketing efforts, while generating near instant results.

A great deal of our success with Google comes not simply from its outstanding ad platform, but from its people. From the very start of our relationship, we’ve been dazzled by a customer service team that is not only great at resolving issues, but also at helping small businesses improve their advertising practices.

Posted by Jim Prosser, Small Business Blog Team

Ten times more applications for Google Apps customers

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog and the Google Enterprise Blog)

As customers begin to recognize large productivity gains with Gmail, Google Docs and the rest of Google Apps, they frequently ask when they’ll be able to use services like Google Voice, Reader, Blogger and AdWords with their Google Apps accounts. We’ve steadily added new functionality to Google Apps and recently added support for third-party apps, but we’re thrilled to swing the floodgates of new functionality wide open now. Starting today, customers worldwide can access a full spectrum of services from Google—including more than 60 productivity-boosting applications that extend far beyond any traditional software suite.

Coupled with the ability for administrators to provide different sets of applications to different groups of users, the possibilities for empowering workers in new ways are remarkable. For example, you could equip your marketing team with Picasa Web Albums so they can collect and share photos from customer appreciation events, and let that team publish your company’s blog with Blogger. Services like iGoogle and Alerts, on the other hand, may be broadly useful, and could be enabled for your whole organization.

Existing customers can transition at their own pace over the next couple months to the new infrastructure supporting these applications from the administrative control panel. New customers will automatically have the new infrastructure. The additional services are not covered by the Google Apps SLA or telephone support, but we’ll be watching for feedback how we can make these new applications even more useful.

In tandem with this big improvement, we’re also simplifying the names of the versions of Google Apps. Here’s how we now refer to our line-up:

• Google Apps is our free service geared towards families, entrepreneurs and other groups up to 50 users.
• Google Apps for Business offers 25GB of email storage per user, a 99.9% uptime guarantee, data migration capabilities, advanced management tools, telephone support, added security features and more, all for $50 per user per year.
• Google Apps for Government is FISMA certified and designed with local, state and federal agencies in mind.
• Google Apps for Education offers many benefits of Google Apps for Business, but at no cost to schools, universities and qualifying non-profits.

The team has worked hard to unlock all of this new functionality for our customers, and we think many of these new applications will become indispensable within your organization. To help get you started, each day the Google Enterprise Blog will profile how your organization could put a different application to use. The first post tomorrow will focus on Google Reader, so drop by again soon to follow the series.

Posted by Derek Parham, Lead Software Engineer, Google Apps

Handmade Interview: ArtsiBitsi

Welcome to the very first interview for the Handmade Business Blog. I hope to run one interview every two weeks until I run out of them. If you would like to be featured go here to get more information.


This weeks interview is with ArtsiBitsi, you can find her work at ArtsiBitsi.com and ArtsiBitsi.etsy.com. Get in touch on Facebook and Twitter too.

Introduce Yourself:

Bits and Blanche, hard at work

Hi.  I'm Artsi Bitsi.  'Bits' to my friends.  That's you, right?

So, I see monsters everywhere. It's like I'm like the Monster Whisperer.

The monsters in my head tell me what to make, but it's me that always makes sure that it is both fun and functional.  I have an old 1970s White model 999 sewing machine that I call Blanche. Some days she doesn't want to work, but then I remind her that the Social Security Administration doesn't pay benefits for unemployed sewing machines.

Sometimes I dance with scissors.

Q #1: When did you start your handmade business and what inspired you to do so?

I discovered Etsy and opened my shop in the summer of 2008.  I loved the idea that I could have complete control over my inventory and prices and promotion.   In consignment, the artist is so dependent on
the shop owner.  So being in charge of my own success was really attractive.

The immediate feedback of the online marketplace is also very appealing.  For example, I started out selling these lovely little watercolor paintings -- very serious, but not at all distinctive. After a few weeks of that, I started listing some of my purse designs.  Again, it was the sound of crickets.

After two months of experimentation, I designed my first monster bag. As soon as I listed it, it got a very positive response, so I made another.  If it had not been for Etsy, I would probably still be painting watercolors that nobody wanted.

every package is sent with extra happiness

Q #2: Do you have to balance your business with work, children, both? How do you do it?

I'm pretty lucky to have a job teaching computer science classes at the university, which gives me a lot of flexibility.  When I'm not teaching, I'm pretty free to organize my time however I want.  When things are slow at work, I do sketches or cut out pieces of felt for my next project.

My only daughter is grown up and living in Chicago, but she is still very interested in my ArtsiBitsi store.  I often ask her for feedback on my new designs.

Q #3: What is your usual work day like?

It varies, depending on my teaching schedule.  But most mornings, I start in my office, reading email, promoting, listing and printing shipping labels for any orders.  By mid morning I can drift over to my
studio (across the hall) and tinker around for a hour or two with felt and buttons and such.

In the afternoon, I'm at the university teaching my courses and meeting with students.

I like the fact that my days are broken up this way.  Computer Science is a very logical discipline, and it contrasts well with my artistic pursuits.  And I feel like my students benefit from the fact that I'm
not completely mentally immersed in machinery all the time.

Q #4: What is your favorite thing about running your business?

I love the autonomy and flexibility.  Being able to sell my designs means that I can create lots more.   Its really hard to rationalize making one more monster when your spare bedroom is already full of monsters.  But if I sell a monster, I've got room to make another!

some Happy Monster card designs

Q #5: What is your biggest challenge?

Even though I have an MBA, its been a challenge translating all of that book-learning into practical action.  But it's a wonderful puzzle, and I really enjoy tinkering with my designs and my site and discovering what people like about shopping for handcrafts online.

Q #6: How do you market your business?

I know that social media is in fashion now, but honestly most of my site traffic comes from Etsy and Google searches.  So I spend a lot of time looking at what search terms people use, and tailoring my listings and tags accordingly.  I really love Google Analytics and the Tag Report tool from Craftopolis.  http://www.craftopolis.com/#com=tr

Another strategy that is starting to pay off for me has been curating treasuries.  Its great how Etsy has opened up the treasury application so that everyone can make one, whenever inspiration hits.  I think that treasuries are going to revolutionize how people shop on Etsy, particularly since the introduction of tags.  There are lots of gift guides going up now and they've just been a fantastic way to see undiscovered and original work.  I've also been participating in treasury contests and recently I've been seeing more site visitors coming from those.

Q #7: What is one mistake you've made in your business that you've learned from?

Just one?  Seriously, its a slow month if I haven't goofed it up a couple times.

For example, I have introduced dozens of designs that have just completely flopped.  Want some iPhone pouches shaped like Marilyn Monroe's Lips?  I have them in pink and red.  Cheap.

For another example, I sent a bunch of stock to a consignment shop in another state... only to see my stock, and the shop, completely disappear.  Lesson learned: for non-local stores, its wholesale only.

And then there are the kinds of mistakes that come from just not paying attention.  Like the buyer whose address was slightly different on her PayPal account from her Etsy invoice.  I didn't see the difference, and her package spent several weeks in USPS limbo trying to find her.  Lesson learned: double-check everything and use delivery confirmation.

Q #8: What has been your biggest success and why do you think it's been so successful?

You probably mean what product has been the most successful, but when I read this my first thought was, 'still being here is my biggest success.'  That is to say, my backpacks have done well and I've gotten some pretty big wholesale orders for them.  And the journals are popular.  And sales of the pouches are steady, so that's good too.

But what is amazing to me is that after 2 and a half years, I am still selling monsters and having fun doing it.  From the beginning I promised myself that I would only do this as long as it was interesting and enjoyable.  Which is a pretty big expectation to satisfy for any endeavor.  So every day, I challenge myself to find
some way of making the business more entertaining -- for me. Sometimes that means coming up with a new design, and sometimes that means mastering some new technique, or finding a creative way to promote myself.  Everything I do has to make me happy first, or else it won't make my customer happy.

Q #9: What is the one thing you'd most like to tell someone just getting started?

First, find a team and join it.  Heck, join a couple.  Having a support group is really helpful, particularly having a support group of people who can help you find resources and give you feedback.

Second, find someone to emulate.  Notice how they organize their listing descriptions and compose their item photos.  What kinds of things are they doing to promote themselves?  Role models and mentors are very important.

Third, read everything.  There are tons of useful articles on Etsy's Storque.  But there are also thousands of bloggers posting great advice and motivation every week.  Read and reflect and let yourself be inspired.

Q #10: What goals do you have for the future of your business?

Well, my first goal is to keep having fun, so that I can pass that fun along to my customers.

But I would also like to diversify my product line to include monster prints and cards over the next year.  That's kind of a scary transition to make because it would mean having to find a completely new audience and market.  Also it will take a lot more upfront time and effort to do the artwork.  Hopefully I will figure it out before next Christmas, otherwise I will be giving everyone in my family cardstock gift packs.  lol.

Q #11: Anything else you would like to tell the readers?

Being a professional artist means something different to everyone. Some people are trying to make a living, and some people are trying to get a message out there, and some people are just trying to share their hobby.  Figure out what this business means to you, and what you have to offer that is unique, and don't get pulled in some other direction just to go along with the crowd.

Fill every day with art and adventure and you'll always be a success.

Happy customer with one of the first Happy Monster Backpacks