Can you believe that just ONE You Tube video was watched over 120 million times during 2009? Another 36 million times and yet another over 33 million times.

You Tube was the 3^rd most popular website visited by Australians in 2009 and guess what? Most businesses DON’T have a presence on it. In fact only 2.7% of businesses have taken the time to upload a video promoting their goods or services on You Tube.

Could it be the cost? Nope, You Tube is FREE.

Maybe it’s too hard to upload a video. Ummm nope again. You Tube signup and uploading is very easy.

Okay so maybe it’s just too hard to shoot a video. Mmmmmm let’s see. You’re smart enough to run a business but you can’t aim & shoot a video camera? Or, you don’t want to invest a small amount and get a pro to do it for you.

So, let’s get down to the REAL reason your business doesn’t have a You Tube presence. “TO-IT” For the vast majority of businesses You Tube is a ‘TO-IT”. In other words it’s something which you will do when you get around to it. Trouble is we all know what happens to projects which are in the “TO-IT” basket. We rarely get around to it and it often never gets done.

So girls and boys here’s your pearl of wisdom to finish off 2009. Dust off your video camera or call a video production company and get a video promoting your business on You Tube. Here’s an extra tip. Include a link to the You Tube page displaying your video on EVERY single email you send in 2010.

Most watched YouTube videos globally

Susan Boyle – Britain’s Got Talent (120+ million views)
David After Dentist (36+ million views)
JK Wedding Entrance Dance (33+ million views)
New Moon Movie Trailer (30+ million views)
Evian Roller Babies (27+ million views)

“Of the 9 million+ Australians using the internet every day over half of them are looking for a product or service in their local area. It is a very safe assumption that a percentage of these people will use EMAIL to contact the business(s) of their choice. You as a business person owe it to yourself, the customer and your staff to make every effort to receive each and every legitimate email sent to you, period!”

Despite the proliferation of spammers, scammers and idiots online the fact remains that email is one of the most powerful tools available. The biggest problem email has however is that it’s free!

Like most free resources email is subject to abuse by people who are intent on stealing money, misguiding others and of course the idiots who have nothing better to do than find new ways of abusing a free resource.

There are countless providers offering a variety of email products and services to all and sundry. The 5 main Australian email providers are:

• Yahoo (yahoo mail)
• Big Pond
• Optus Net
• MSN (hotmail)
• Google (gmail)

Most businesses who have a website also have an email address(s) attached to that website which is often facilitated by their Internet Service Provider (ISP). These email addresses also identify the website (business) which they belong to (eg. info@exampleptyltd.com.au). The quality of these email servers depends entirely on the integrity of the ISP.

For many years now the biggest problem with email has been SPAM. In most cases spam consists of an unsolicited marketing email usually sent to your email address by someone who has purchased an email list from a bottom dwelling scum-sucker who has “raked” email addresses from the internet. There are many companies around the world who sell these lists to anyone who wants to pay for them and generally they are quite cheap. (Tip: never ever buy an email list. If you want to do an email marketing campaign use a reputable company with a verified opt-in email list or create your own opt-in list).

So, who are the BEST email providers?

Our testing and surveying of Australian businesses has come up with the following email providers from BEST to WORST.

1. Gmail (probably the best most secure & accessible email system on the planet)
2. BIG POND
3. Optus Net
4. Hotmail / MSN
5. Yahoo / Ymail

For those who use Gmail, the number one position is no surprise. Owned by Google and featuring some of the best deliverability and security features imaginable Gmail totally “owns” the number one spot.

Big Pond and Optus, to their credit, have really lifted their game over the last 2 or 3 years. Both of these operators have taken a “zero tolerance” stance on spammers and scammers and they continue to improve their deliverability percentages.

In my opinion Hotmail & Yahoo Mail / YMail are still off with the fairies when it comes to spam / scam / deliverability. Try looking at the source of the last 10 spam or scam emails you have received, especially out of Africa, China or India. Chances are they have a Yahoo or MSN email address.

Of the 9 million+ Australians using the internet every day over half of them are looking for a product or service in their local area. It is a very safe assumption that a percentage of these people will use EMAIL to contact the business(s) of their choice. You as a business person owe it to yourself, the customer and your staff to make every effort to receive each and every legitimate email sent to you, period!

If a customer’s email doesn’t reach you, or your reply to that customer isn’t delivered, chances are you can bid that customer goodbye. Worst still you will probably never know that customer even existed if you didn’t get the original email. That’s why “Deliverability” is important. Yes it does take an good hour to set up a new email provider and customise email folders, signatures etc. So what? It’s your business, your potential customers and your future. Don’t risk a bad email provider.

How often do you go to a website and sit there waiting for it to display on your screen? And waiting and waiting and waiting……….

Chances are that website is either;

1. Badly designed
2. Is hosted on an inferior or overloaded server
3. Has photos which use up way too much ram
4. Has some arty-farty flash presentation which needs too much time to load

S..L..O..W loading websites are bad for business, period. Whilst your website may be important to you, a new visitor coming to your website looking for your goods or services probably found you on Google along with a number of your competitors  websites offering similar or identical products and services. Now if you believe that prospective customers will actually sit there and wait for your site to load rather than click the “<” back button and go on to the next website you are sadly mistaken. The internet is all about speed and convenience and slow websites are not the flavor of the day.

Another serious issue to consider is Google’s recent announcement that having a slow website can impact on your website’s Google ranking. This isn’t a threat, it’s simply Google announcing that “fast is good” and that fast websites give Google users a better search experience. The above link will also point you towards Google webmaster tools to help you assess and fix your website but in my experience most business owners will leave this to their web designers. My suggestion is that you talk to your web host first. The company which hosts your website will often give you a much clearer picture of the problem because they didn’t design your website and therefore won’t be too embarrassed to admit that they “stuffed up”. If in fact you have opted for their “bottom self”, “el cheapo”, 10 cents a day hosting plans then you may well heed their advice to upgrade to a better / faster hosting plan.