You know about using newsletters to help bring potential clients to your accounting website and, ultimately to your firm. You know that having PDF files is a great way to entice people to subscribe to your accounting website newsletter. If you have read the first part of this series then you have ways to get free online content for those PDF files. Once you have the content, here is how to create the PDF files.

PDF Software. In order to easily create PDF files you are going to need some software. Before you reach for your credit card, here is a free online resource that creates PDF documents without the cost.

The software is called doPDF. Once you install it then set it as your default printer. You then are able to print, from any software you have, as a PDF file. There are other software options to search for on Cnet website.

Creating the PDF. Remember the article found on Ezinearticles about questions to ask before hiring a CPA? That is going to be the example here. Copy and paste that in to Microsoft Word or some other text editor.

Adding Your Own Spin. Once you have the article in Word then it is time to add your own spin. Remember this part is important to making any potential client call your accounting firm after they are done reading. It is also important to making this content unique to your accounting website.

What to Add. You don’t have to add much, a paragraph or two at most. Make sure that what you have to add is to the point. Consider content the author hasn’t written about. Expand with more direct and personal examples from one of the points the author has introduced.

This is a springboard for leveraging the free content. Your wanting potential readers to understand the ideas presented. You then want them to see your accounting firm as the local expert to use.

End Result. The end result should be content that you have gathered together to use for your PDF files. These files are then offered to potential clients after they sign up for your newsletter on your accounting website. The final post in this series, coming soon, looks at how to change your Email Marketing System welcome letter to link to your PDF.

Do you already use PDF files to increase subscribers the newsletter on your CPA website? How has it worked out for you? Comment with the form below.

Offsite backup of critical files is essential for any CPA firm. Your Quickbooks files are some of the most critical. Now there is an easy solution to just backup Quickbooks files. It is called the Protector and is included free with any accounting website hosted by CPA Site Solutions. Below are the details. Eager to just get started? Click here to sign up.

Why Offsite Backup. Disasters strike anytime, anywhere. The best way to go into a disaster is being prepared. Offsite backup ensures that your CPA firm has the critical data it needs to keep running should disaster strike at anytime. You sleep better knowing those files are secure and you retain your clients confidence.

50 Gigs of Storage. When you have a website hosted by CPA Site Solutions you automatically get 2 gigs of storage free for all your Quickbooks files. After signing up an email comes with a license key and link to download the software.

Virtual Computer Drive. Once the software is installed a virtual drive should appear alongside your other computer drives. This is a virtual drive and functions in much the same way as your regular hard drive. Placing files in this drive means they are automatically backed up offline.

Automatic Backup. There is an automatic backup feature. The software scans your files and automatically backs up any Quickbooks files. You don’t have to do anything to make this happen, it is all done for you.

All Files. You have the option, at anytime, of upgrading to a plan that automatically does the same for all your computer files, not just Quickbooks. This works well if you have a number of other files that you need to backup offsite.

Already have your own offsite backup solution? How has it worked out for you? Comment below.

Although the Internet is an ever changing medium, having a newsletter is still key to running your CPA firm. In the series looking at creating custom campaigns for your Email Marketing System, PDF documents were used to attract subscribers.

This is another series looking at what to use for the PDF, creating the PDF, and uploading and linking to your PDF within the Welcome letter. Here is part one with what content to use for your PDF files to get newsletter subscribers.

Content Made Easy. A number of CPAs and other tax professionals really don’t want or have time to write their own content. So how do you create content for your PDF to attract subscribers? You use content freely available online.

There are many sources of good quality and informative articles available online for free. Although it won’t directly be your content, you are compiling the information for your subscribers so that they benefit. As long as you don’t change what is in the article, you are free to use it.

Where To Go. There are a number of websites with free articles for your CPA newsletter. In order to get you started here are a couple of great sources:

Articlecity—Best way to find something is through a keyword search. Example, searching for taxes brought up an interesting article on taxes when selling a home. The only drawback is that each time you do a search you have to prove your human by typing in barely readable text.

Ezinearticles—Again the best way to find an article is a keyword search but you won’t have to prove your human as with Article City. Taxes keyword search brought up an interesting article on questions to ask before hiring a CPA.

There are many more sources to choose from online. Just make sure that you read the terms of use and follow it before using it for your CPA newsletter.

Make It Your Own. You don’t need to violate the terms of use to make these articles unique to your firm. All you need is some personal commentary upon the articles you use. You then leverage the article ideas and give them your CPA firm’s perspective. The potential clients who read these then come to you for follow-up not the person who wrote the article.

Once you have your articles the next step is to prepare it as a PDF file for your CPA newsletter. This isn’t hard. There are tools online to use if you don’t have any desktop software for the job. This is the subject of the next post of this series.

Do you already use PDF files to gain subscribers? How has it worked out for you? Comment below.

Fresh and unique content on your accounting website is great for your potential clients and search engines. Getting people to your blog though is an ongoing project. One way to make that project a little easier is to work with other people. Start right now by requesting to write a guest blog post on CPA Site Solutions. Send an email to support@cpasitesolutions.com with the subject line of “Blog Post.”

Guest Blogging. When you write a post for another website you increase traffic to your own. Your guest post introduces a new set of readers to your accounting website.

Finding A Blog. Once you know that you want to write a post for another website, the next key is finding a blog. You want to find one that has a similar audience.

Similar means that it is in the same realm or subject. The intent is less about targeted traffic of potential clients and more about overall traffic.

This Blog. Consider writing a blog post for the CPA Site Solutions blog. The blog is read by over 4,000 CPAs and other tax professionals each month. Why would you want to write to be viewed by potential competitors?

Would you present your ideas at a conference of like minded individuals? Of course. It is the same with writing a guest post. There is a benefit to learning and collaborating together. In an ideal sense that is what they Internet is about, making connections and relationships. Send an email to support@cpasitesolutions.com with your request to write a guest post.

Branching Out. Once you have branched out as a guest blogger, invite others to write on your own blog. This not only lends a different voice but again builds an ongoing online collaboration. When your post is good then a lot of people send it around to read.

Think of the root system of a tree. It is stronger and able to gather more resources to survive the more it branches out. Writing a post on another website becomes another small branch of your accounting firm’s root system.

Social Media. Once you write as a guest blogger or have someone write on your own blog, be sure to use your social media channels. Do a short Tweet or post on Facebook about the post. This leverages the millage you get from it.

How has your blog been useful on your own accounting website? Send a comment below.

In today’s society, you can get a high-quality of collaborative technology that is shared internally or across boundaries of the firm. The technology is reliable, secure, and requires no support from IT. With these advances, direct marketers have the opportunity to make their projects as engaging as their campaigns, and accountants, with a good workflow, can have the opportunity to get better publicity.

Manage Projects from Anywhere

Here are my top five ways to get started on finding software that will support your firm’s direct marketing efforts:

1. Know your procedures. You want a technology that supports what you do today without requiring new behaviors, or a great deal of added work. Have your prospective vendors show you how their technology works and how it will help all the people involved in that project.

2. Never Forget your Partners. Your marketing team will only be more efficient if the technology easily supports working with teams outside of marketing. Now, going back to number 1, this means that the software has to be easy-to-use with no installations or training so your partners will actually use it.

3. Focus on Workflow. Two basic types of collaboration software: real-time and workflow systems. Real-time tools, like instant messaging, white board, conferencing and chat are great for interaction, but your team spends most of their time collaborating in a workflow. So, if a vendor can’t support your workflow, then find another vendor who can.

4. Expect Simplicity. By focusing on workflow take the next step and consider team adoption. Find a system that supports having each team member’s information most readily available, while allowing clear, fast paths to any additional information needed.

5. Start now and iterate. John Hagel, the respected strategist often says you need experience with a technology to be able to know how to use it. Find a flexible solution that allows you and your team to change the solution easily. These days many new technologies are simple for non-technical people. So, by starting right away with core workflows, you can get your team more comfortable and later on iterate the solution.

These days, we use technology in every aspect of our daily lives and as an accountant it can save you time, money, stress, and in marketing situations, it can get you noticed.

Any CPA website hosted by CPA Site Solutions automatically has the benefit of email, online documents and more via the Workteam Collaboration Suite. Email integration is easy enough however using online documents, part of a paperless office solution, is sometimes a longer process. The integration of online documents within Microsoft Office through Officesync is easy. It also makes your accounting firm efficient and is one more step towards a paperless office.

Integration. A quick free download gives you access to your Google docs via Microsoft Office 2003 or 2007. The free version gives you the ability to collaborate using Office and Google Docs. There is a premium version that allows collaboration via Google Sites that could be worth it.

How It Works. Officesync shows up directly within your Microsoft Office software. Right below the Save As button you should see an Officesync option. From here everyone in your accounting firm has the option to open, create, or share an online document.

The Benefits. If your accounting firm collaborates on documents between team members, then you have the benefit of instant updates. This shortens the time it takes to work on a project between accounting firm team members. All team members have instant access to any and all updates that have been made to a document, while never leaving Microsoft Office.

Most accounting firm’s are used to using Microsoft Office. Having Officesync means no one in your accounting firm has to learn much more. Accounting members do get the benefits of Google docs within their existing workflow. These benefits include being able to share documents online, access a document from any browser, and team collaboration.

More and more accounting firms are recognizing the benefits of a paperless office in terms of efficiency. Since Officesync integrates with Microsoft Office, there is little or no learning curve.

Do you already use Google Docs within your accounting firm? How has it helped your accounting firm get things done? Comment below.

Every CPA needs a system in place for managing client appointments. Most of the time this is a time consuming and expensive process. It doesn’t have to be. Here is a great new way to automate your accounting firm’s appointment bookings through your website (similar to airlines and hotels) using ebookaplace.com.

Everfree and More. The first level of pricing is free forever. That level includes one user and 10 booking requests per day. If you are a smaller CPA firm just starting out then this level could work very well for you.

Cost Savings. The cost savings more than pays for itself within the other levels. Especially considering the costs of hiring someone to help manage your bookings. If you do these yourself, there is the value of your own time and being able to free up towards billable hours instead.

Respond now with an email to michael@ebookaplace.com. The first 6 to respond and mention this blog post get a Standard Account (usually around $30 a month) free for two years!

How Ebookaplace Works. At a very basic level it offers a calendar system where clients book appointments with any of your CPA firm staff. The system also offers much more. There is a ton of flexibility that allows for multiple configurations depending upon your needs. There is also enough integration to easily use it within some of your existing work flow.

Live Example. Johnson, Harris, and Goff currently use the system. They have a link to appointments off of their accounting website navigation. When a client clicks through to the they get a calendar listing available dates. Clicking on the date then gives them possible times. They pick a time, register/login, and confirm.

You also have the option of placing the appointment calendar on any page of your accounting website. Ebookaplace.com generates the code to use so all you have to do is copy and paste it onto any website page.

Updates Easily Made. Running behind schedule? Appointment updates are easily  made from your phone at anytime. Doing any updates automatically sends an email to the meeting participants.

Google Calendar and Outlook. Ebookaplace integrates with Google Calendar which is included if you are using the Workteam Collaboration Suite. Really handy is the ability to manage the account within Outlook. Immediate integration with these popular services makes it easy to have the service work with your existing workflow.

There are times when working directly with a client on the phone or face to face is critical. Finding the best time to meet is one case where it is much easier and more efficient to use a service like ebookaplace.com instead.

Have you thought about using a booking service for your appointments? What features have you found the most appealing? Share in comments below.

Your CPA firm is no less a brand than Tiger Woods, Apple Computer or Rolex watches. Most people know where to go to buy an iPhone. The businesses and individuals who need accounting and tax preparation in your area, may not know of your firm when doing a local search. Having your firm name as a keyword in your page title for your CPA website, is not helpful and here is why.

First Page. You are perhaps slightly interested in appearing on the first page of search results for Anywhere USA Tax Preparation. Keep in mind it is Google’s responsibility to show relevant search results for the term being searched on. Therefore you naturally stand a very good chance of being on the first page of search results, if not number 1, for your firm’s name, especially if the searcher also included your city or town name.

Google’s main priority is to show relevant search results, and they know your website is the most relevant search result for searches on your firm’s name. You may very well pay less to be higher in the sponsored listings for your firm’s name than someone else bidding on your firm’s name as a keyword.

Your Link to Showing in Searches Are Good Keywords

Page Title. The page title is what you see at the very top of your browser window. It is what appears in someones bookmarks if they bookmark your site (and don’t manually name the bookmark). It is also what appears in big blue text in the search results pages.

Your Firm’s Name Is Not Your Keyword. When you perform on-page SEO for your site, having your firm’s name in the page title does nothing for your SEO effort. In fact it can even dilute the importance (ie: relevance) of your target keywords.

Some firms demand having their firm name in the page title. What do you think is a more attractive link to someone who searches on “Anywhere USA Tax Preparation”, a blue link that says “Bauer and Evans CPA“, or a blue link that says “Anywhere USA CPA, Accounting, and Tax Preparation”?

Adjusting your site’s page title will not result in first page search results. In fact Google tells us there are over 200 things they look at when considering placement in the search results. However the page title is certainly an important aspect of your on-page SEO effort and a good place to start.

When a potential client performs a search for a CPA or accounting firm, they are typically looking for a local firm. Searching on “CPA” or “accounting firm” yields mostly irrelevant search results. More likely searches are made with a location and service, such as “Miami Accountant”  or “Fort Worth TX CPA”.

Google, Yahoo and Bing recognize such local searches. When they detect a local search, they will show the local listings above the organic listings. These listings are often significantly more relevant then the organic listings.

Local Directories. There are other local directories such as YellowBook, AT&T Yellowpages, Kudzu, and many others. Many of them may already have a listing for your CPA firm.

The source data for your listings probably originated from a variety of third-party sources. There may very well be variations in your listing name, address and phone number. This potentially creates multiple representations of your business online. This hinders the ability of the various local search engines to know which of your listings is the true identity.

Updating Your Contact Information. Change your address or phone number and update your CPA website? Unless you have control of your local directory listings, your updated data may never be reflected in the directories. The online directories do their best to ensure they have accurate data. However, if you were at your old address for 10 years, then there may be hundreds of sites and directories that show your business at the old address. All that information can influence the major local directories into believing that is the right data.

Going Mobile. In an ever increasing mobile world, people are relying on local data more and more. In fact 45% of local searches are performed by people who know the company they are looking for. These searchers rely on and expect to find your current address, phone number and driving directions. They are relying less and less on finding it via your website.

Taking Control. For these reasons it is important that your business controls and proactively manages your local business identity. This increases the confidence of the local search platforms that they have valid and accurate data. This also increases the local platforms ability to link other unique content such as customer reviews and social media.

CPA Site Solutions has a Local SEO service, that optimizes and manages your CPA firm’s local listing for you. Rest assured that your business identity is submitted to and consistent across over 100 directories, including all the major local search platforms. When you change your address or phone number, CPA Site Solutions makes sure your information is updated in the local directories. That ensures existing and new customers alike are able to find your CPA firm.