New Pushdo variant floods legitimate websites to camouflage requests

Security researchers have detected a new variant of Pushdo that infects computers with the Cutwail spam botnet, spreading banking Trojans, phishing email and spam.

Dell SecureWorks' Counter Threat Unit issued an advisory Wednesday warning that the malware has infected about 100,000 computers since it was detected in early August. Pushdo is a downloader that contacts a command and control server for orders. The cybercriminals behind the new malware infect the machines with malware that turns them into spam distributors, wrote Brett Stone-Gross, a researcher with Dell SecureWorks Counter Threat Unit.

"The purpose of these fake HTTP requests is to make Pushdo's command and control traffic, which also uses HTTP, blend in with legitimate traffic," Stone-Gross wrote.

Researchers detected a variant of Pushdo using a similar method in 2010. Back then, the downloader used an SSL connection to contact legitimate websites. "At the time, Pushdo communicated over TCP port 443, which is the default port for SSL," Stone-Gross wrote.

Cutwail has been a widely detected botnet and is recognized as one of the largest. Experts believe it is responsible for sending out trillions of spam messages, generating millions in profits for its owners. The spam messages often contain phishing emails, malicious attachments leading to banking Trojans and malicious links to attack websites.

In 2009, security researchers at M86 Security Labs detected a scheme in which malicious URLs leading to Pushdo were spreading via Facebook. Researchers have also attempted to bring down the Pushdo botnet by taking out its command-and-control servers. They sought to cripple the malware and phishing distribution system by eliminating its ability to receive instructions. Unfortunately, the researchers were only partially effective. They were able to take down approximately 20 of the 30 command-and-control servers.

Stone-Gross said the typical way to be infected with Pushdo is through drive-by exploits. He advised IT security teams to continue to educate employees about the risks associated with clicking URLs and ensure software and browser components are fully updated.

Hunter Boyle Of AWeber On Email Marketing and Affiliates #AMDays

Welcome to this interview of Hunter Boyle, the Senior Business Development Manager for AWeber, an email and social media marketing service. At Affiliate Management Days East 2012, Hunter will be speaking on: Ways To Bolster Affiliate Relationships With Email.

* * * * *

Question: What are the major challenges you see email marketers struggle with these days?

Hunter: I see marketers across all channels struggling with two major factors: creativity and a customer-focused approach. Neither of these are particularly new, but they're exponentially more important now because of the smaller windows of opportunity to connect with prospects and customers.

With email, for instance, who's excited about signing up for more email updates these days? We're already inundated with email, plus we're checking social media channels on our smartphones more and more, and our short attention spans are getting shorter all the time.

The same-old approaches might still work, but if you want big results, standing apart from the crowd means finding the right mix of creativity and plenty of “what's in it for me” for your audience, which doesn't care about you, but what you can do for them.

Question: What are the most frequently overlooked opportunities?

Hunter: Sticking with the creativity theme, a lot of marketers still play it safe and stick close to what's worked for them in the past. Content marketing has created a lot opportunities to have more fun, and engage audiences with a more personable, less corporate approach.

I subscribe to the idea that people buy from people, not just websites, so developing a brand experience that's easy, pleasurable and fun for users is an opportunity most organizations could do more with.

Look at the vibe you get from sites like DollarShaveClub.com and Fab.com, or how Quarterly.com and Etsy use personalities, and you get the feeling that you'd enjoy doing business with them. That's a huge differentiator.

Question: In October of this year, you're speaking at Affiliate Management Days East 2012, covering “15 Ways to Bolster Affiliate Relationships with Email.” I must admit, I was “tickled pink” when I first saw your proposal. This is one extremely important topic. As a teaser, could you give us the top 3 things that affiliate managers can change in their approach to emailing affiliates?

Hunter: Instead of laying out three, let me say that we'll be exploring a few different angles in line with this concept of having fun with content marketing and client communications.

There are a bunch of examples, but the bottom line is really about how you manage those relationships from a human perspective, and with a customer- or client-first attitude. The impact that can have on your business is massive, because the impact it can have on their own business is so huge. That's also a key factor in cultivating loyalty and developing long-term relationships.

Question: What are the top 5 mistakes to stay away from, so you don't repel your affiliates?

Hunter:  1.)  Not listening to their needs and feedback.  2.) Not asking them for their input consistently.  3.)  Not rewarding them for their performance and loyalty.  4.)  Not keeping abreast of changes in your industry, and their businesses.  5.) Not communicating effectively (not enough, not providing value, etc.).

Question: If you were to leave affiliate managers with just one piece of advice today, what would it be? 

Hunter: The best, most fruitful business relationships are always two-way. That's why the best salespeople are those who listen more than they talk.

Think about how you're interacting with your affiliates. Are you simply sending them emails with updates and news tidbits, maybe some rewards, or are you using an array of communication tools that provide real value, and genuinely help them grow their business, so you both can succeed together?

If you haven't done an audit of your communications efforts before, or for a while, that's an ideal place to start. See where the gaps are. Ask them what else they could be getting that they're not. And get started delivering it!

* * * * *

Affiliate Management Days takes place October 9-10, 2012. More information about Affiliate Management Days being held in Ft Lauderdale, can be found here. Or follow the hashtag #AMDays on Twitter. Register using code SBTAM150 to receive $150.00 off your pass. Register by Friday, September 7 (at Early Bird rate), and save a total of $650.00.

Be sure to check out the rest of the interview series from #AMDays.

Kred Story Dives Deeper Into Social Influence

In order to measure social influence, there are many factors that must be considered, so a simple numerical score might not be able to tell the whole story. Sites like Klout and Kred have faced some criticism for this exact reason. However, Klout recently redesigned its service to include a more inclusive social analysis, rather than just a score based on numbers. And now Kred is also changing the way it presents information with its new feature, Kred Story.

Kred Story arranges a user's social media posts from an array of sites, creating a sort of collage similar to that of social dashboards like RebelMouse. But what makes Kred different is that it takes all of this information and uses it to analyze social influence. Users can click on their posts and see how many retweets, replies, or other interactions they received, and from whom.

This visual representation of social influence allows users to dive deeper into their network to actually learn what types of posts garner the most interaction and results. Instead of just viewing a number and trying to increase that number over time without any real guidance of how to do so, users can see all their posts together and compare them, so they can decide what is working for them and what they might need to change.

Kred users can also view posts associated with a certain topic or hashtag. This type of feature could allow businesses to monitor social conversations about their brand or about their industry as a whole. They can also use the tool to find influential people in their network or industry.

Kred isn't as widely used as other social influence measuring systems like Klout, but it does present information in a different way and using a different set of factors, so businesses or social media users that want to dive deeper into their social influence summary might consider using it.

Currently, Kred Story is based mainly around Twitter, but also includes some information from Facebook. The company hopes to add integrations with more sites like Google+ and LinkedIn in the future.

Give Your Small Business A Morale Boost

Summer is over, and for most small business owners, that means the slow season is coming to a close and it's time to get back to work with renewed enthusiasm. With Labor Day (a holiday created to honor working people) just past, it's also a good time to sit down and take a look at the state of your small business's work force.

Is your staff as enthusiastic about your business as you are? In other words, how is their morale?

What are some signs your team might be suffering from low morale? Hopefully you're in tune with your team enough to spot the red flags right away. Frequent sick days or absenteeism, employees dragging in late to work, lack of energy or spirit in meetings, whispered conversations that end quickly when you come into view-all of these can be signs of lagging morale.

Unlike engagement, which occurs on an individual level, morale is more of a group thing. One employee with low morale can quickly infect others, spreading the doldrums across an entire department-or company.

If your employees' morale is suffering, here are some ways to pep it up again:

Be Present

An oblivious boss is a common cause of low morale. Even a normally attentive entrepreneur can get sidetracked by stress, deadlines or other demands. If you've been locked away in your office (or out of the office altogether on business trips for weeks at a time) you can easily miss the warning signs that can fester into real problems.

Make it a point to get out and mingle with your team or, if you absolutely can't, give a trusted partner or employee the task of monitoring mood and reporting back to you.

Check Yourself

As much as we entrepreneurs love our businesses, sometimes our morale suffers from long hours, business setbacks or personal issues. Before you starting fixing your employees' outlook, check your own morale to make sure you're not communicating a negative attitude to your employees.

If you're less than pumped about your business right now, figure out how to get your mojo back.

Communicate

It's been my experience that the number-one cause of poor morale is failure to communicate effectively. When employees don't know what's going on, rumors fly and moods plummet. Even if you've got nothing but bad news for your team, sharing it honestly is better than hiding it or sugar-coating it. Let them know what's going on and that you're all in it together.

Who knows? Fighting together to overcome the odds just might be exactly what your team needs for their morale to soar.

Make It Fun

You and your employees probably spend more time together than you do with your families and friends. If those 8 (or 12) hours a day aren't fun, morale's going to suffer â€" and even in the dullest of industries, there's room to create fun.

Take a cue from the high-tech industry and pep up your team's spirits with group activities that build team spirit. Don't just force an event on your staff-pick something that fits naturally with what your employees like to do, whether that's a bake-off, an Ultimate Frisbee tournament or a Friday afternoon beer bash.

How do you keep morale high in your small business?

Happy Business Team Photo via Shutterstock

If You\'re Not Mobile, You\'re Not Going Anywhere!

If You're Not Mobile, You're Not Going Anywhere

 

by Deltina Hay, Author of ‘Bootstrapper's Guide to the Mobile Web'

 

The mobile web is upon us whether we like it or not. People are using mobile devices to search, shop, and click through on ads at unprecedented rates. And these rates are only expected to grow. Chances are high that your competitors are taking advantage of this growing trend already. Don't get left behind!

It is important to understand that people use the Internet differently on mobile devices. Mobile consumers know what they want from a website, and typically take action once they get there. Mobile conversion rates can be impressive, but only if a website caters to the expectations of this mobile audience.

Mobile website solutions need not be complicated or expensive. There are many options available, but it is important that the solution you choose adheres to established mobile website best practices.

Mobile app usage is impressive, but while people do spend a lot of time using mobile apps, most of that time is spent on games and social networking. So do you really need a mobile app? It is best to weigh the pros and cons of publishing your own mobile app or investing in optimizing your mobile website.

Mobile app solutions vary in price and complexity. It is best to familiarize yourself with the mobile  app marketplace, and know the difference between a native app and a web app before choosing your solution.

The mobile web is more than just websites and apps. From QR codes to augmented reality, there are a host of tactics and tools you can implement to promote your business on the mobile web. When marketing to a mobile audience, it is imperative that you send them to landing pages and other sources compatible with their mobile device.

The Bootstrapper's Guide to the Mobile Web is a complete guide to getting you and your business ready for the mobile web. This book can help you choose the best mobile website solution, whether or not you need a mobile app, and what other mobile trends you might want to implement.

The book offers real-world, step-by-step examples, and tons of resources and worksheets to help with your overall mobile web strategy and plan.

Some of the topics covered in the book include:

• How people use the mobile web, why it is different from the traditional Internet, and why you need to be prepared.
• How to decide the best solution for your mobile website.
• Step-by-step examples of methods and tools used for creating mobile websites.
• Issues like mobile traffic redirection and search optimization as they apply to mobile websites.
• A worksheet for creating your mobile website strategy.
• Reasons you might-or might not-want a mobile app, and options for preparing one.
• Real-world examples of methods and tools for creating mobile apps.
• A worksheet for creating your mobile app strategy.
• Other mobile tactics like QR codes, location-based marketing, mobile ad campaigns, and SMS marketing.
• The future of the mobile web such as augmented reality, near field communication, new search optimization techniques, and more.

Check out this video trailer for the book below:

Deltina Hay, author of The Bootstrapper's Guide to the Mobile Web and The Social Media Survival Guide, is a web developer, publisher, and small business owner. Hay presently teaches the graduate level Social Media Certificate course for Drury University and online classes at Udemy. Connect with her on Twitter @deltina.

Someone\'s watching your film downloads

Illegally downloading a single blockbuster film or hit song using "torrent" software means your computer is likely to be secretly logged and monitored by copyright enforcement agencies, undercover research has shown.

The digital details of filesharers using websites such as Pirate Bay are monitored within three hours of downloading popular films, music, e-books or software programs, having their computer's IP address stored as "first-hand evidence", according to a three-year study by the University of Birmingham.

Obtaining a pirate version of the latest Batman film is far more likely to result in your computer activity being spied on than hunting down an obscure Italian post-modernist arthouse title.

The study, led by Dr Tom Chothia, found that "monitoring is prevalent for popular content" but absent for less popular content.

Users of BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer file-sharing system that enables people to download files in fragments from "swarms" of multiple users rather than directly from one source, may have been monitored for as long as three years.

A team of computer scientists made the discovery by building their own software that tracked all the connections that were made to it.

Ten monitoring companies were identified by the research, but it is unclear what they do - or plan to do - with the information. There has been speculation the details may be stored in anticipation of a new and more intense crackdown on filesharers in the courts.

However, the paper noted that "direct monitoring, in its current form, falls short of providing conclusive evidence of copyright infringement".

Some of the monitoring may also be carried out simply for research into the extent of filesharing.

If one download is enough to attract a monitoring firm to the culprit's details, the sheer number of filesharers whose internet activity has attracted their attention will be huge.

- Independent

Cloud Accounting: A New Way To Streamline Financial Operations

Accountants have a ton of work to do, but much of it can be replaced with digital intelligence. Cloud accounting isn't something new, but it certainly has been catching on lately. If your business is in its ripest beginnings, it's also possible that you're doing all of the accounting yourself. This is a burden even if you're someone who understands taxes thoroughly.

Well, there are ways to streamline this in such a manner that you can just relax and look at a broad picture of all your finances. There are even services that connect to your bank account to automate everything for you, making the task simple and less time consuming. What would you do for an extra seven hours a week?

The best accounting software is one that you can use on any device, on any location, and with the most flexible features. So, we've compiled a list of a couple of services that work best for small business environments:

• Wave Accounting - This is one of those solutions that will make you start wondering what you've been doing without it all along. Along with the fact it's free, it also is a good piece of software that fully analyzes its input and presents statements, ledgers, graphs, and balance sheets that you can use even when filing your taxes. Wave Accounting puts all of your data into the cloud, ensuring that you don't have to deal with damage control when an in-house crisis emerges. As for pricing, we already said it's free, or as Wave puts it: ‘You can choose to pay $0 or three easy payments of $0′.
• FreshBooks â€" Now referring to itself as a cloud accounting service, FreshBooks lets very small enterprises get their feet wet on invoicing and accounting in a way that's much more feasible than using QuickBooks. It allows you to track your expenses, profits, losses, and sales taxes. The service is free for the first three clients you input into the system. After that, you have to pay $19.95 per month for up to 25 clients or $29.95 for an unlimited number.
• Kashoo â€" We just spoke about FreshBooks, so it's natural to talk about Kashoo, an application that works well for freelancers and established businesses alike. Kashoo lets you integrate payroll data and deal with different currencies. Kashoo kind of completes FreshBooks and allows you to integrate its data for easier invoicing, although you could create your own invoices from Kashoo itself. It starts out at $10 per month  for a freelance account and goes on to $20 per month for a small business account that lets you input payroll data and use the multi-currency features.

You don't have to settle for filing your own paperwork and going through droves of data just to keep up with the angry tax man. If you adopt one of these cloud solutions, you'll have much more transparency in how you operate your accounting operations.

20 Free Social Media Monitoring Tools You Should be Using

Social media is quickly become a main focus of marketing for small businesses. Social media is an excellent tool to build a community around your product or service, expand your target market, and to listen to what your customers want. It's clear that social media is valuable, but measuring social media ROI proves to be a challenge.

Luckily, there are numerous free and low cost tools you can use to measure your social media activity. Do you want to know the increase in brand mentions? The number of conversions directly related to social media efforts? The growth rate of your online community? Know what you are measuring and why when choosing your social media monitoring tools.

Here's a list of 20 free social media monitoring tools worth checking out:

1. Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a web-based dashboard that allows you to monitor multiple social networks in one place. You can collaborate with fellow employees, schedule messages, and assign tasks to your team. It's particularly great for managing multiple accounts on the same platform. This is one of my personal favorites.

2. Klout

Klout provides an influencer score based on your social media activity. Your Klout score is determined using over 400 variables. In addition to working on your own Klout score, you can look at your influences and who you influence to regularly share content that is of the highest quality from trusted sources.

3. TweetReach

Who is reading your tweets? How is it being shared? What is the measured impact of what you're putting out there? TweetReach is a social analytics tool that helps you capture this valuable information.

4. TwentyFeet

TwentyFeet aggregates your activity from various social media platforms so you can get the full picture of your online presence. Then, you can determine which of your activities are most valuable.

5. Twitalyzer

Measure your impact, engagement, and influence on Twitter with this tool. They offer three plans, depending on your needs, Individual, Business and Agency, all at a very reasonable price. They do offer their three most popular reports for free, so just connect your Twitter account and start Twitalyzing.

6. PeerIndex

Use this tool to determine your online authority and who your online brand advocates are. Learn which topics are best for you to focus on and who to connect with to spread the word.

7. Facebook Insights

This dashboard gives you all of the analytics data related to your Facebook page so that you can track growth and impact. Use the Insights to better understand your followers and reach the right audience.

8. SocialMention

Track and measure who is talking about you, your company, your product, or any topic related to your industry. SocialMention pulls data from hundreds of social media services to give you the most accurate, real-time information.

9. SocialPointer

This tool allows you to track and monitor social mentions and respond in real-time. Find potential customers, listen to what your competitors are saying, and get immediate feedback about your business.

10. SocialBro

Manage and analyze your Twitter account with SocialBro. This tool gives you detailed information about your Twitter community so that you can interact with followers more efficiently and garner the best results.

11. FollowerWonk

This Twitter analytics service, now owned by SEOMoz, allows you to understand and sort your followers. Learn when your influential followers are most active so that you can select the best times to engage your community and to ensure you're reaching the right people at the right time.

12. HowSociable

Measure your brand's impact online with this tool that provides you with a magnitude score. The score analyzes your level of activity online so that you can determine whether you have enough of a presence.

13. Seesmic

Manage all of your business' social media accounts in one place with Seesmic. Quickly view and respond to social activity in real-time even from your mobile devices.

14. Engag.io

This is a great tool for managing your conversations on social networks. Engag.io provides you with valuable insights into the people you are talking to via social media and also gives you a place to track whether or not you've responded.

15. TweetDeck

Arrange feeds from all of your social networks in one place using the TweetDeck dashboard. You can also schedule tweets and set-up customizable feeds for your social search needs.

16. Brand Monitor

Track your brand across numerous social media sites. Find where conversations relevant to your business are taking place so that you can start becoming an active social media participant. Learn trending keywords and measure conversation engagement to help bring more valuable brand content to social media platforms.

17. Kred

Similar to Klout, Kred mines social data to give you a Kred score. The score is a combination of your influence and your outreach activity. Kred measures how often you tweet or post, how people interact with you, and the growth of your audience. Kred gives you a detailed breakdown of your score so that you know exactly where you should improve and the areas in social that are working well for your company.

18. Google Analytics Social Reports

Nicely integrated into your Google Analytics platform, Social Reports helps measure how social traffic is directly impacting your conversions. Using an overview of your social networks, this tool allows you to visualize your social traffic so that you know where your time is best spent in the social world.

19. TwitterCounter

TwitterCounter tracks Twitter users to give you statistics and usage information for your account. This service offers a very basic free package with graphical data, but you can pay a bit more for access to an account comparison feature, more updates, report exports, and more.

20. Topsy

This is a real-time social search engine. Sort through the latest social activity related to your industry, brand, or community and apply that knowledge to future business decisions.

There's a lot of overlap in the services these social media monitoring tools provide. It's most important that you find the tool that aligns with your business needs and personal preferences.

Social Media Photo via Shutterstock

McAfee sees continued rise in Android malware

Mobile malware continued its steady rise in the second quarter of 2012, targeting mainly Android devices, according to the latest threat analysis provided by McAfee.

Mobile malware is certainly not proof-of-concept or early code.

McAfee Inc.

The growth of mobile malware in 2012 has been "unprecedented," McAfee said with more than 13,000 mobile malware samples collected and analyzed by the security giant compared to less than 2,000 in 2012. The "McAfee Threats Report Q2 2012," (.pdf) highlighted the emergence of drive-by downloads targeting Android users, a Trojan that corrupts photos on an Secure Digital (SD) memory card, and a new botnet client that uses an Android device and a Twitter client to communicate commands.     

"Mobile malware is certainly not proof-of-concept or early code," McAfee noted in its report. "It is fully functional and mature, and mobile malware writers know what they are looking for: consumer and business data."

The sharp increase in mobile malware documented by McAfee may be partially attributed to its focus on the Android platform. In January, it launched Android endpoint security software. Earlier this year, the company also joined other security vendors, launching a mobile app designed to protect Android devices. Security experts have been noting the increased threat to mobile devices as they become used for banking and other sensitive transactions. The threat is being taken seriously at enterprises. Many IT professionals indicated in a recent SearchSecurity.com enterprise mobility survey that addressing the threats posed by mobile device use in the workplace is a rising priority.  

Still, mobile malware remains a tiny fraction of the malware collected by McAfee. The security vendor said its database contains more than 90 million samples and is on track to reach more than 100 million samples before the end of the year.

McAfee said it saw a slight increase in rootkits, with the Koutodoor Trojan showing "tremendous growth. Koutodoor,(.pdf) first detected in 2007, installs a rootkit, modifies registry values and attempts to remain undetected, giving the attacker administrator privileges to the victim's machine. The TDSS and ZeroAccess rootkits declined slightly, but continue to infect machines globally.

"Rootkits, or stealth malware, are one of the nastiest classifications of malware we see; they have a heavy influence on almost all other areas of malware," McAfee said. "They are designed to evade detection and 'live' on a system for a prolonged period."

Rogue antivirus, password stealing Trojans and ransomware also continues to be a problem.

NYC Event: 2012 Small Business Influencer Awards Gala

The 2012 Small Business Influencer Awards Gala, Hosted by the NYXPO, is coming to the Javits Convention Center in New York City on October 17, 2012!

Click HERE to register!

 

You won't want to miss the opportunity to network with top small business influencers from across the country and then celebrate as the top 100 Small Business Influencer Champions are honored and presented glass trophies during the awards ceremony.  In addition, you'll meet other small business owners, journalists, bloggers and the Small Business Influencer honorees and judges. There is no end to the excitement as you engage in speed talks with the evening speakers, enjoy refreshments and have a chance to win fun prizes!

The Awards Gala is the evening event capping off the all-day New York Business Expo & Conference. The Conference ends at 5:30 pm and the Gala starts immediately after.

Your Small Business Influencer Awards Gala ticket also gives you free admission to the Conference. Attend both â€" how can you go wrong? Tickets for the Awards Gala are just $34 in advance if you use the $15 discount code: INFLUENCER.

Tickets are limited to the event, so make sure you register today!  We hope to see you there!

Creating An Editorial Calendar For Your SMB Blog

One of the most difficult things about blogging is consistency. It doesn't matter if you're a large brand or a small time consultant; we all have trouble producing unique, authoritative content on a regular basis. Especially if we haven't planned for it in advance.

And that's where editorial calendars come in.

Your editorial calendar is your plan for your blog. Quite simply, it's a schedule of the content you plan to produce, who will be writing it, and when it's due for publication. By putting your calendar in place it works to keep everyone accountable, lays the groundwork for the company's blogging commitment, and ensures that blog doesn't hit an unexpected dry spell because you get busy.

Everyone has their own idea of what constitutes an editorial calendar, however, below you'll find a number of best practices to help you construct an editorial calendar that will most work for you, regardless of its form.

1. Decide On Your Tool

Your editorial calendar can take whatever form is most convenient and comfortable for you. In the past I've used Basecamp Whiteboards, Notepad files and even a constant stream of Post Its on my computer monitor to help me organize my ideas.

Today, many bloggers today use Google Docs to construct their editorial calendar because it's accessible from anywhere and provides the ability for multiple people to share and edit the calendar. By making it shareable, everyone gets ownership of the content that is going to be produced.

Another available option is to use the Editorial Calendar plugin for WordPress. Here, you can create your calendar directly in your blogging form, quickly see all scheduled posts, and even move them around as needed.

2. Think About Goals

Having goals surrounding your company's blogging is important regardless of whether or not you're adhering to an editorial calendar; however, your calendar can help you make them actionable. You're able to tie what you want to happen (increase rankings for the term [male cowboy boots] by tying them to specific actions [“We target [male cowboy boots] in a post a week”].

When putting together your content calendar, you'll also want to consider things like:

• How many posts can you realistically publish per week or month?
• What percentage of your blog do you want to be about X topic vs Y topic?
• How many posts per person on your team can you expect?
• What other goals do you have for the blog?

It's important to map these things out before scheduling content because it will frame the way you think about things. For example, knowing you'll need to post twice a week about your core SEO terms will have a dramatic effect on the editorial calendar you put together. By building your calendar around goals it will help focus your efforts and increase ROI.

3.Map Out Keywords

In many cases, the keywords you'll be targeting on your blog will mirror the terms you're targeting on your main site. However, you may find there are other opportunities for long tail terms. Remember that you're blogging as a way to highlight key services, bring attention to what you offer as a company, and to build thought leadership. So your keywords and topics should be selected to go along with those goals. You'll also want to think about which pages you'll want to be driving users to and select topics that will match up.

Once you have a list of keywords you'll want to target, assign where you'll want these posts to link off to on your site. For example, if you're a florist wanted to target the phrase [Seasonal Plants], you'll want to link off to pages that show those plants. You should do this with all of your keywords to help yourself, and your staff, so that everyone knows where they should link to based on the content they're writing.

When you're thinking about keywords, remember you're also thinking about the terms you'll want to use in headlines, subheads, tags, ALT text, and within other areas of your post. These are all equally important.

4. Brainstorm Content Types

When it comes to blog content, the options for what you can produce are virtually endless. Create a list of the content types you'd like to try out or what you think you can realistically handle.

Some content types to consider:

• Industry Commentaries
• Interviews
• How To/Tutorials
• Product/Service Reviews
• Case Studies
• Event Liveblog Coverage
• Photos
• Videos
• Potential themed months

Once you have an idea of the type of content you'd like to create for your blog, rotate the different types around the calendar to keep things fresh and so you're not posting all your videos in the same week. Content diversity will help keep both you and your reader interested in your blog.

5. Check Your Other Calendars

While you're still thinking up potential content ideas, take a moment to pull out your business calendar. Are there any anniversaries or birthdays coming up that you can create content around? Is there an industry conference happening that you can work into your schedule? Have a big offline marketing campaign launching first quarter? Consider all of these and find ways to work them in.

Don't forget to check a real calendar, as well! Is there a way to tie-in blog content with national holidays, the seasons, well-known events (like the Olympics that just passed or Back to School season?). All of these things can be incredibly helpful in making your blog relevant and interesting.

6. Plot Your Course

Just as there are many tools to help you create a calendar, there are many ways to set it up.

Some bloggers create editorial calendars simply be plugging a keyword + content type (article, interview, photo, etc) into a specific day so they know on Sept 1 they need a post that matches these elements. Others will take a step further and start brainstorming actual titles, complete with keywords, tags, and the interior pages you'll be linking to. Some will color code the calendar based on author or topic. However you want to do it is up to you.

Personally, I like writing down the keyword I'm going after and the proposed title. For me, this does the best job of setting up what is to come that day and to get my mind moving in the right direction. I also like knowing what the other people I'm working with will be targeting so that I can offer ideas or helpful links, when possible. But again, whatever makes sense for you.

The above is how I go about putting together an editorial calendar. What does your process look like?

Image credit: kovaleff / 123RF Stock Photo

A GPS For Your Software: Walkme.com App Walks Users Step-by-Step Through Tasks

You have GPS turn-by-turn navigation for your vehicle, so why not your online experience? A new guidance system from WalkMe.com eases the need for help desk assistance by allowing users to create interactive step-by-step instructions to walk users through software applications. The software acts as a GPS for your software, guiding users through each screen.

WalkMe.com characterizes its software as the next best thing to sitting next to the user, walking him or her through each step. For small businesses that use specialized software, this could eventually lead to less headaches as more software and app developers begin to implement it into their packages.

For most small businesses, the biggest use for WalkMe.com is the ability to integrate it into a company website. Most small businesses can save time and money by converting traditional paper processes to electronic ones. However, having customers complete applications and forms online can be difficult, especially if some of your customers are technologically challenged. WalkMe.com allows your webmaster to deploy instructions that will make users feel as though they are guided each step of the way.

Many sites offer video tutorials to help users understand how to complete a task, but customers find that difficult. If a customer chooses to watch the video before using the site, he or she may feel challenged to remember what the video instructed. If that user chooses to watch the video while using the site, that will require opening the video in one window while navigating the site in another. Constantly switching back and forth can become cumbersome.

WalkMe.com's step-by-step instructions appear as a balloon on the screen that describes the current step. The instructions are intuitive, so if the user isn't quite grasping the current step, WalkMe.com helps them until they are ready to move to the next step. If your customer base is multilingual, WalkMe.com offers the option of providing help in a variety of languages.

The user will not need to download any software to use WalkMe.comâ€"it will be integrated into the software they are using. This will allow them to enjoy the same computer performance they've always had while adding additional features to their software or website.

On the webmaster's side, WalkMe.com is simple to deploy, with the ability to easily update each bubble with just a couple of clicks. Additionally, analytics are built in to the software to provide feedback on where your users might be having trouble. This can help you determine where your site can be made easier to use.

“As people and businesses become increasingly dependent on the Web for everyday activities, the Web itself is becoming more and more complex,” Dan Adika, CEO of WalkMe, said. “Instead of tackling the overwhelming task of trying to change that, WalkMe just shows you how to navigate it faster and with ease.”

WalkMe.com has a free plan that includes up to three walk-throughs with no time limit. Paid plans start at $97 a month. Each plan comes with a 45-day guarantee, with the option to either downgrade or upgrade your plan at any time.

Small Business Trends Recommends These Companies!

As Small Business Trends ramps up its advertising efforts, we wanted to take a moment to thank the companies that have worked with us for the month of August. Want to be on this list? Learn how.

TeamWox SaaS 2.0 is an enterprise system based on the cloud. Our review of TeamWox is here. For more information, visit the TeamWox page.

Wrike is a project management software application that enables task management, time tracking, scheduling, workload management, document collaboration, spreadsheets, and much more. Learn more about Wrike here.

BrainHost is a web hosting company that will help you with your small business website. Hosting is just $7.95/month and the site features a free website builder, free traffic/SEO package, a free advertising/marketing package, and best of all, you can transfer your website from your current host free of charge. Learn more about BrainHost.

Yext helps small businesses make it on the map, ensuring that you're findable on the web. You can list your business everywhere for free with just a few steps. For more information, go here.

Want to know what your company is valued at? PMVTool gives you a pre-money valuation to help you understand how much capital your company should invest. The tool combines valuation best practices with relevant industry comparison models and proprietary technology to deliver the most efficient, reasonable, and defendable pre-money valuation data possible. To get on the beta program, visit PMVtool.com.

Want to know more for your team to succeed? Join Caliper and register for a free webinar on September 12th. During this session, you'll learn how to ensure you have the right team, how to discover if your employees are using their talents to the fullest potential, and what to do to retain the loyalty of your top talent.

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Call for Sponsors for Upcoming Online Awards

We're especially looking for online event sponsors for the upcoming Small Business Influencer Awards and the Small Business Book Awards. Get seen by an extremely targeted and influential small business audience!

For the Small Business Influencer Awards,  we specifically are seeking a Reception Sponsor for the October 17,  2012 Influence Awards Gala in New York City, as well as printer sponsors.  Other opportunities for ownership of our online components are also available to any business seeking visibility during our high profile awards promotions.

If you're interested in these and other opportunities, please visit our advertise page for more information on how to contact us.

Hackers Leak 1,000,001 Apple Device IDs

Uh-oh! It may indeed be the ultimate security debacle. A hacker group seeking to reveal an alleged FBI breach that it claims would have allowed the Federal agency to spy on citizens, leaked 1,000,001 IDs belonging to Apple users. It's an allegation the FBI denies. But for businesses increasingly worried about privacy and the security of their customers' information, it's just one more headache. Here's another look.

Apple Leak

Worst of all. As bad as it is, it could have been much worse. Hacker activist group AntiSec insists they obtained the data in an effort to expose the FBI's questionable activities. Though the group trimmed a great deal of personal data from the information released, they say they obtained Unique Device Identifiers (UDIDs), user names, names of devices, type of devices, Apple Push Notification Service tokens, zip codes, cellphone numbers, addresses, and more. The Next Web

Makes no difference. The FBI denies AntiSec's claims, saying that the computer the group supposedly accessed had never been hacked into, and that the Federal agency was never in possession of the supposed data in the first place. But to the many customers whose data was leaked, how the information was obtained makes little difference. The problem is, that the information was shared without consent.  All Things Digital

The real problem. No matter how the latest security breach occurred, the underlying difficulty remains. Security consultant Aldo Cortesi writes passionately on industries that have been warned repeatedly about security and privacy concerns but have failed to fix their problems. Businesses of all sizes must step up and realize the importance of privacy and security in our data-driven economy. Corte.Si

Safe and Secure

The more the merrier. With privacy concerns growing by the day, the question is how much data businesses large and small should continue collecting on their customers. The answer, says entrepreneur David K. Williams, is as much as they can. Here's how to apply the information you collect properly and improve the customer's experience. Forbes

Feast or famine. One entrepreneur soon discovered he hadn't collected enough information about one of his business associates, yet had given that employee too much access to his company's technology. The result was sabotage and a lesson on the need to collect more data and improve security for all companies, especially those heavily reliant on tech. SmallBiz Technology

Another kind of security. There is another way you need to look after your business's security, and that's in the area of liability protection and business structure. Both of these will help protect your business and add a level of privacy, says Nellie Akalp, a 2012 Top 100 Small Business Influencer, who has made it her role to help many small business owners add security to their companies. Small Biz Diamonds

Where personal info should be shared. Guest poster Jessy Troy argues there is at least one place you should be a bit more free with your personal informationâ€"when it comes to your blogging persona. Here are six reasons Troy argues you will want to use your real identity and some personal information when blogging for your business. The Frugal Entrepreneur