Tool Review: yousendit.com

If you ever have to send or receive large files that are too big for email, one of the best tools we can recommend is yousendit.com. We have been using yousendit.com for years since it was recommended to us by one of our favorite vendors, PostupStand.

yousendit.com offers online access to save, send, and upload files. There are three different versions to choose from:

	Lite	Pro	Pro Plus
Cost	Free	$9.99/month or $4.17/month with an annual plan	$14.99/month or $149.99/year
Storage	2 GB	5 GB	Unlimited
Maximum File Size	50 MB	2 GB	2 GB

And, you can connect with yousendit.com in multiple ways, through the Internet, on your desktop, through Outlook email, and on your mobile device.

They even offer electronic file signing and a new collaboration tool called Workstream™.

So the next time you need to send or receive files that are too big to handle… check out yousendit.com.

Click on the comments section below to tell us about your favorite tool!

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Kerry Brooks is Co-owner of ProfessionalEdge Associates, offering a wide range of marketing and support services to businesses that want to increase their success, but aren't in a position to add to their staff.

Beware of Overused Words

In a world where media of every kind is in an all-out war for our attention, superlatives and sensationalism have become the norm.  We are all guilty of it.  One of my go-to words is awesome, and I catch myself using it every day, even though I know not everything can be “awesome”. 

Another overused word in today’s language is epic.  I heard a sportscaster use that term to describe four consecutive snowboarders in a recent competition.  The word has lost all meaning.

Other examples of overused words:

·         Literally

·         Seriously

·         Amazing

·         Like

We must take care not to fall into the overused word trap.  Frankly it makes us less credible, and we will either lose the attention of our audience, or they will become so distracted by our words that they miss our message.  And there is nothing awesome about that!

What words do you think are overused?

Kim Luedke is Co-owner of ProfessionalEdge Associates, offering a wide range of marketing and support services to businesses that want to increase their success, but aren't in a position to add to their staff.

Still one of the best commercials ever...

What does your website say about your organization?

To many businesses today, your website is the front door to your organization. So many businesses do much of their work virtually; and, even if you do have a physical storefront, your website is one of the most important tools in your marketing arsenal.

First and most importantly, if you don't have a website, get one. Now.

Websites can be either a traditional set of web pages that tell people about your business, or you can use a blog as your website, as long as you have one. Some organizations even use their Facebook page as their website, which is also fine. As long as you have a place online where people can learn about what you do.

Take a look at your website from your customers' perspective -- all of your customers, including those you provide products and/or services to, your potential customers, your board members, your staff, etc. Your site should tell the story of your organization as concisely as possible in the first few seconds of viewing.

The top of your home page is the most important real estate, because visitors will make the decision to learn more, to click through, or to shut it down before they will decide to scroll for more information.

If you use social media, add links to connect with you above the scroll on the home page (or use the WIBIYA toolbar like we do at http://www.professionaledge.com/ so those links are always available from anywhere on your site).

Update your content all the time. Why would people want or need to come back if there is never new information?

And finally, be sure your website tells the graphic image that you want told about your organization. Be sure the look matches your current brand, image, and goals and take a new look at it every year to be sure it is still the right image.

Take a minute right now to look at your website. What does it say about your organization?

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Kerry Brooks is Co-owner of ProfessionalEdge Associates, offering a wide range of marketing and support services to businesses that want to increase their success, but aren't in a position to add to their staff.

Is it time to get rid of your newsletter and birth a blog?

The next entry in our business success series

We've been talking about how much marketing has changed over the past several years and your newsletter is the next target. Just a couple years ago, a newsletter was one of the first things we would have recommended to you if you were our client. Newsletters provided a great opportunity to talk about the things that show your expertise and stay in front of your customers and potentials.

And we aren't asking you to stray much from that, promise!

Taking the same premise of your newsletter, now we may recommend that you switch it up into a blog. Blogs offer the same advantage as newsletters because they allow you to show your expertise to your market space. But blogs offer so much more! With a blog you can add new content at any time. You can post daily and the blog automatically archives everything ever posted so it acts as one continuous newsletter. You can then invite people to read your blog through all of your social networks, email, and your web site.

And, every time you post to your blog it's like launching a new web page that hits the search engines and gets you more exposure.

There are many blog tools available to you, such as Blogger where we create the http://professionaledgeblog.blogspot.com blog.

Have you or will you take the step to change your newsletter into a blog? Let us hear your thoughts in the comments section below.

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Kerry Brooks is Co-owner of ProfessionalEdge Associates, offering a wide range of marketing and support services to businesses that want to increase their success, but aren't in a position to add to their staff.