By Beth J. Bates, New Media Special Correspondent

As social media use grows, professional services providers such as finance professionals and attorneys have found themselves turning to tools like Twitter to grow their customer base and stay on top of industry news. Some have even taken sharing to the next level, telling tales of taking the bar exam or describing how they kickstarted their own careers. Many of these professionals are finding other creative ways to use microblogging:

Lawyers

• Interacting informally with other lawyers
• Republishing and sharing content/knowledge
• Following government bodies online
• Attracting media attention
  

Insurance Firms

• Resolving customer service issues
• Making announcements (rate changes, etc.)
• Reaching a younger audience
• Enhancing accessibility and personal engagement
  

Accountants

• Commenting on recent industry news
• Following financial regulations and changes in IRS guidelines
• Using their experience in financial issues to attract new clients
• Interacting informally with other accountants

By finding effective ways to use Twitter and other social media tools, professionals are connecting with new customers, keeping up on trends and keeping the public informed.

Find lawyers, CPAs and insurance firms on Twitter:

• 145 Lawyers and Legal Professionals to Follow on Twitter
• CPAs Embrace Twitter
• Twitter and Insurance – You Have To Be Kidding

Beth J. Bates consults with Hinge on social media tool selection and strategy and helps its clients find effective ways to leverage these new mediums to meet business goals.

CSCPA member Rod Goodrich knows who he is: a small town guy and a dedicated CPA. He strives to be an active member of his profession and the CSCPA. Since 1999, Ron has taken 548 hours of CPE with the CSCPA. He was also president of the Southeast Colorado chapter four times and always relished the opportunity to gather fellow CPAs for education and networking within the region.

Read the full interview with Ron in the December 2009 edition of Quick-Search (pdf).

Hail to the following PUPeans  who passed the recent CPA board exam:

1. Adrian James Mamaril
2. Clerei Ann Santos
3. Dhianne Muyalde
4. Irene Pontillas
5. Abraham Virtudes
6. Marilyn Catama
7. Glenn Tupas
8. Mark Gumayan
9. Jomel Bumatay
10. Lilibeth Alegre
11. Maricris Ablay
12. Jason de Mesa
13. Mark Anthony Bane
14. ???

Actually they’re 14, still searching and identifying that last (but not the least) guy in the line.

I wish you all the best and may you all reach the top of the corporate ladder.  Your PUP Taguig and JPIA-PUPT families are very proud of you.

      In these tough economic times many businesses are struggling for survival, some will be forced into extinction. 

      If you are one of these business owners that have found yourself contemplating selling or liquidating your business, Venture Point understands the magnitude of your decision.

      We can not guarantee that your business will sell quickly during these tough times. But we would like to help by offering business owners the opportunity to post their business for free, as long as needed on www.VenturePointOnline.com.                       

      If you have any questions or would like to list your business, please contact Karen@VenturePointOnline.com.  

Karen Torbett ~ President ~ Venture Point, LLC

    www.VenturePointOnline.com

I’m going to try and get new uniform pictures sense the ones I have a kind of suckish.

I haven’t really been posting on this site mostly cause I’ve been busy with the nachos.Maybe I’ll Advertise my site somewhere.To get people to join.

Online Marketing – Boost Your Business & Reach Target Audience

Internet Marketing:

Internet marketing, also referred to as online marketing or Emarketing, is the marketing of products or services over the Internet. The Internet has brought many unique benefits to marketing including low costs in distributing information and media to a global audience. The interactive nature of Internet marketing, both in terms of instant response and in eliciting response, are unique qualities of the medium. Internet marketing ties together creative and technical aspects of the internet, including design, development, advertising and sales. Internet marketing methods include search engine marketing, display advertising, e-mail marketing, affiliate marketing, interactive advertising, blog marketing, and viral marketing. Internet marketing is the process of growing and promoting an organization using online media. Internet marketing does not simply mean ‘building a website’ or ‘promoting a website’. Somewhere behind that website is a real organization with real goals. Internet marketing strategy includes all aspects of online advertising products, services, and websites, including market research, email marketing, and direct sales.

Search Engine Optimization:

It has been observed and proven by research that more & more businesses such as yours are seeing great results with online advertising. Millions of people search online each day for products, services & information. Google is the number one choice for all these searches done.

Between 85% to 90% of all web site traffic comes from the search engines and directories, use of those handy-dandy submission services that will submit your site to 980 search engines for a mere $19.95 won’t take care of this traffic. Just because your site is listed in the search engines won’t mean that your customers can find it. But only “search engine optimization and positioning” strategies that are designed to give the engines what they want and need in order to find your site among your competitors and other sites related to your category. Search engine optimization and positioning is challenging at best. It’s not a simple matter of adding a few tags that contain your important keywords. It is an art-and a science-since its is applying creative techniques to an in-depth study of the search engines and directories.

SEO Company is committed to meeting the search engine optimization & positioning needs of your web site and proposes a campaign plan. Meet your SEOP outsourcing needs thoroughly and professionally. The Scope of Work should include site optimization and allied web promotion & development activities, SE-friendly content writing, and submission and tracking to over all major and support Search Engines and Directories. On project completion your web site will be more accessible on the Internet in terms of Top rankings for specific keywords across the major search engines.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is an online marketing strategy used to increase a Web site’s visibility to the millions of people who find information and services on the Internet. Search engine optimization can help position your firm among the top search results for a given query, which can dramatically increase traffic to your Web site and establish a Web presence for your practice.

Among other things, SEO involves optimizing the structure of your site and the text that appears on it, as well as obtaining links to your site from other sites, to help its popularity rating with search engines. With the number of Web sites on the Internet increasing at an exponential rate, gaining primary placements in search engine rankings allows you to market your firm in a very powerful and effective way.

SEO Activities :

➢         Add the best Meta Tags and Keywords for pages

➢         Alt tag Optimization, Apply relevant alt tag on all images

➢         Change the content of pages if required

➢         Preparation of Anchor Keywords linking on the pages

➢         Create and Update search engine friendly HTML Site-Map

➢         Create a Resource Directory for reciprocal link exchange with different categories

➢         Internal Linking Structure modification

➢         HTML Code & Broken Links correction

➢         Correction of Content as per the Density of Keywords

➢         Getting high PR on Google

➢         Browser compatibility

➢         Optimization or Re-optimization of every page as per targeted keywords

➢         Keyword Competition Analysis

➢         Keyword Density & Prominence Analysis

➢         Checking Meta Tags

➢         Checking HTML Codes & Broken Links

➢         Content and Description Analysis

➢         Page Ranking Analysis

➢         Link Popularity Analysis

➢         Competitor Analysis

➢         Use of best keywords searched on line from the world over.

➢         Development of Strategy

➢         Submit websites URL in Search Engine and Directories

➢         Proper Reciprocal Links / Incoming Links Directories

➢         Reciprocal link Building for getting good and valuable link from same industry websites

Article Submissions :

Effective structure and a well thought-out search engine marketing campaign can be the deciding factor in whether your Internet promotions succeed.
Writing your article and throwing your mission statement should be your aim.
You need to think up a mission statement that powerfully conveys your message to users is most crucial benefit to a potential client. Your mission statement should be clear and concise. If anyone wants more we can have number of options as well.

Blogging:

Blogging is a great way to reach your target audience with your thoughts, opinions, and offerings on relevant topics.

Blogging makes sense from a marketing perspective. You’ll be leveraging the shift from outbound to inbound marketing and interacting with your customers in new ways. A blog lets you meet your customers more directly than sending out brochures or an email campaign. It changes your website from a brochure that most people look at once to something that people interact with and come back to.

Social Networking:

Communities creation to get more traffic is must for any social media activity

Create communities for your online presence and strive to exist in web world.  And most important having online presence is not the ultimate target. What is important is having huge traffic and great page rank. There are lots of communities which drive traffic to your website. Finally traffic will produce business for you. Social Media marketing also engage the customers in generating traffic.

MAINTENANCE OF SEARCH ENGINE RANKINGS:

Regularly monitor the ranks and do the changes required as per the changes in conditions and algorithms of search engines. Changes required on the site, in case any rank is dropped due to changes in search engine algorithms or due to heavy competition.

Email   :           only.seo.india@gmail.com

Url       :           http://consultancyindia.blogspot.com

Preparing your taxes can be incredibly stressful. In many cases, it just makes sense to get some help with them.

Save Me From This Misery!

When it comes time to file taxes, you can look to software or a real live person. In this article, we are going to focus on living people, to wit, the tax professional. You might be surprised to learn there are different types of assistance out there.

Tax Preparer

Generally, tax preparers have the least amount of experience when it comes to filing taxes. Tax preparers are individuals that are trained for the job or pick up the knack over time. An example of a huge collection of prepares would be the people that work at H&R Block. The advantage of using a tax preparer is they are very cheap. Just keep in mind that you get what you pay for.

Enrolled Agents

The IRS actually licenses certain individuals if they pass scrutiny with the agency. Unlike tax preparers, an enrolled agent can represent you at an audit. Enrolled agents are a step up from tax preparers, but the quality of work and knowledge varies from agent to agent. Some can be excellent because they have an interest in the work and stay on top of changes. Others are less impressive.

CPA

The Certified Public Accountant goes through a hellish process to obtain their license. Getting licensed as a CPA requires significant study and the licensing test is absolutely brutal. If you have a unique or complex financial situation, you want to use a CPA to do your taxes. In fact, you should use a CPA throughout the year to not only prepare taxes, but plan to avoid paying as much tax as possible.

CPAs are expensive with hourly rates in the $200 to $300 range. They can, however, be worth their weight in gold and a few of them are pretty heavy. When picking a CPA, you want to find a proactive one. A proactive CPA is going to talk to you about your life and finances. They are then going to make suggestions to significantly lower your tax bill. The savings typically far outweigh their fees, and youíll be glad you hired them.

So, who should you pick? The answer is entirely dependent upon the sophistication of your finances. If you are salaried employee earning $50,000 a year, you donít need a sophisticated tax planner. If you are a small business owner with three businesses, it is time to find a CPA.

Tom Varga — CEO of CFO Selections

Tom Varga — CEO of CFO Selections

I really enjoyed my interview with Tom Varga with CFO Selections.  He was interviewed for my new documentary “CEOs of Seattle.”  Tom is the leader of one of the fastest growing companies in the country, and I feel they have a bright future.  CFO Selections is sort of like a temp agency for CFOs.    Tom did a great job in the interview talking about the secrets to the success of his enterprise, and most importantly the values that have shaped his management style and philosophies.  He really believes in the concept of giving to others.  Give and you shall receive.  What a concept.  Thanks Tom for all your help with this documentary project.

I know everyone has seen and heard the commercials about QuickBooks.  They make it look really simple, but most people find that when they use a QuickBooks ProAdvisor, their experience with QuickBooks is better and long lasting.  It’s true that you do not need to be an accountant or a CPA to run QuickBooks, but you do need a little bit of accounting knowledge and lingo. 

Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors are typically CPAs, accountants, small business advisors or consultants who have been tested and certified on QuickBooks.

ProAdvisors help businesses customize QuickBooks for their unique needs and help them get the most out of the software. ProAdvisors are also a great resource if you run into trouble with QuickBooks. ProAdvisor fees are typically reasonable and many businesses feel the investment is valuable. 

So instead of giving up on QuickBooks and continuing to do “shoebox” accounting contact a ProAdvisor today.  You will be glad you did!

The IRS has recently issued a new regulation which has set new standards for written tax advice, including electronic communications.  Therefore, we are required to advise you of the new regulations and that this communication is not intended, and it cannot be used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed for taking a tax reporting position based upon this communication.

By Robin Roshkind, Esquire, West Palm Beach, Florida

There are many times in divorce cases that expert testimony or evidence is needed.  Most often CPAs perform analysis of the family finances, in terms of establishing valuations of a business, determining a party’s true income and expenses, and determinations of the truthfulness of financial affidavits.  Asset valuations and financial information is determined by using an accountants or forensic CPAs.  That person is key when it comes to depositions, temporary relief hearings and trial testimony and evidence.  Financial information controls child support, alimony awards, as well as distribution of marital assets and debts.  They also determine the ultimate outcome of any settlement or court order regarding the taxable events or ramifications of taxes in the overall scheme of things.

Appraisers are also needed in divorce cases to establish the value of jewelry, artwork, pianos, antiques and collectibles, such as stamp collections, wine collections, coin and gun collections, antique car collections.  Testimony of an appraiser can effect the distribution of marital assets.

Real estate agents and brokers value real property such as residences, rental property, and commercial property.   Divorce often forces sale.

Child psychologists get involved in time sharing and custody issues.  Oftentimes their testimony based upon home studies, helps the judge in determining what is in the best interests of the child.

Marriage counselors can testify as to rehabilitation of adults accused of drug use, alcohol abuse, anger management, and other mental health issues that may effect the outcome of a divorce.

Sometimes divorce trials become a “battle of the experts” so if your case is complex, or is going to trial, you should consider retaining the services of these expert witnesses.  For more information about this or other divorce topics, call one of the attorneys at ROBIN ROSHKIND, P.A. at 561-835-9091 or click on the Firm’s web site at www.familylawwpb.com.

I’ve just been digging through my blog drafts folder and realised I failed to post this a while back, but I thought you’d all still enjoy this shot of the Vicar, prepared by the Ringmaster at the CPAS Pathfinder summer holiday venture we were on way back in July. The theme was the Circus, and the Vicar’s dorm group were the Lily Livered Lion Tamers.

A lion or a teenager - which is harder to tame?

We had a wonderful week by the sea with 62 young people, aged 11-14, and a talented team of over 30 leaders. Me, I hung out with some other mums who were there with younger kids and were supporting their husbands who were leading. But it was great to be there, praying and having the chance to chat with leaders and youngsters.

The Queen blogged about camp too.