How A Good Company Profile Can Boost Your Search Engine Visibility

Tradeloop membership is limited to dealers, and wholesale prices are hidden from the public. However, Tradeloop members can make some information available to the public by choosing to make their Broadcasts public. Another option is to participate in the End User program that displays retail pricing to public users.

One benefit of the End User program is that it increases your company visibility on search engines by making your company information available to search engine spiders. The spiders index your company description and display it to Web searchers. In many cases, carefully-written, keyword-rich Tradeloop company profiles appear in the top ten of Google search results.

A good company description answers three questions:

1. Who are you? Briefly describe your company and its business focus.
2. What do you sell? Explain what products and/or services you specialize in. Be complete and use manufacturer names and your targeted keywords. For instances, if you sell "used disk drives" and specialize in certain OEMs, be sure to mention it. Those are terms that Web searchers will use to find you.
3. Why should I buy from you? Emphasize the qualities that make your company stand out from the crowd. Maybe you offer 24-hour phone support, extended warranties, or free shipping.

Also, check to make sure you've selected the most accurate Business Type in the Company Information section. That, along with your company's name and location appears in the title section of the browser. See how yours looks by going to your Company Profile page and looking at the very top bar of your browser window.

A complete company profile gives you added credibility with fellow Tradeloop members too. It's often the first impression members have of your company, so write carefully and put your best foot forward.

There's a limit of 4,000 characters, but that should be plenty. This entire blog post is only about half that!

New Privacy Option on Broadcast Messages

We've added a new message privacy option to the Broadcast page. Now, you can choose whether to keep your Broadcast "Private," (only dealers can see it) or you can select the "Public" option to make the Broadcast message contents available to search engines and to public users.

Previously, only "Premium Broadcasts" displayed to the public, while "Regular Broadcasts" were member-only messages.Now, members have the option to make either type of message public or private.Now, there's no extra fee required if you'd like your broadcast message to display to public and search engine users. Note: the "Public" option doesn't display wholesale pricing information. Only Tradeloop members can view prices - unless you're part of Tradeloop's End User program that displays retail prices to end users.

We made this change for two reasons: to give more options to Tradeloop members and to protect members' privacy.

Even though public users could only see the first 100 characters of Premium messages, sometimes the member's name or company name showed up in that content. We added the search engine privacy option to protect members' privacy by letting them to completely hide the broadcast body from the public.

Of course, many Tradeloop members are anxious to have their Broadcast messages picked up and indexed by search engines.This helps increase your overall company visibility and credibility on the Web. Previously, the only way to do this was with a Premium Broadcast message – which meant paying a nominal fee to send your message.

The Public and Private options are on the "Create a Broadcast" page in the "Select a Style" section.

Ethically Speaking - October 2008

The Ethics Committee closed four cases in September.

Non-Tradeloop member, Vive Electronics was the defendant in two of these cases (Case # 4969 and Case #4976), and was banned from the Tradeloop community. One case involved the alleged non-shipment of prepaid goods; the other was an RMA dispute.

Case #4991 was closed due to non-response from the complainant.

Case #4962 was a dispute between Caenri Corporation (complainant) and ICT Group (defendant). In this case, the complainant alleged that the defendant sent defective disk drives and refused to issue an RMA. The defendant replied that the drives were out of warranty and not eligible for return. In an unusual split decision, the Ethics Committee voted to take no action, but to post the case and allow the Tradeloop community to review the details of the case.

In other Ethics news, two cases are being reviewed by the Ethics committee – and both involve the same defendant. And two new cases were filed, both alleging that the defendant refused to honor a purchase order.

For more information about Ethics complaints and cases, visit the Tradeloop Ethics Blog. Remember that the blog format gives members an opportunity to review and even comment on posted cases.

New IBM Team Member at Frontier Computer Corporation

Frontier Computer Corp, is a distributor/reseller of Enterprise level systems, storage, networking, parts, and upgrades. Based in Traverse City, MI, the company sells equipment from major OEMs including Sun, HP, Cisco, and IBM.

Recently, the IBM group added a new team member, Paul Wieland, and we spoke briefly with him about his new position.

Paul said that he was excited by the opportunity to join Frontier because of the company's efficiency and commitment to service.

"Frontier has done great work building infrastructure and streamlining operations. The company is efficient and customer-centric. It's the best place I've seen in terms of how all departments work together to support customers. It means I can be very effective and focus on customer relationships instead minutiae."

It's also great to be working closely with a team of co-workers again instead of in a solo office, he noted.

"The four of us all buy and sell used IBM computer hardware, but we have named accounts; we aren't competing against each other. It's a nice team approach to business with a lot of support and information transfer."

With 20 years' experience in the computer industry, Paul has seen the technology and market change quite a bit:

"When I started, profit margins were huge – and so was the equipment I sold. A disk drive was the size of a refrigerator and cost $100k. Now, a drive might cost $500. As costs do down, so do profit margins. That's why efficiency is so important."

Paul said that he's enjoyed his career. He's traveled the world and made many friends. "Basically, I've seen it all, and I'm glad to be here at Frontier. It's a great company, and I plan to retire from here. Someday."

Has your company been in the news lately? Let us know. We may feature you on the blog!

Announcing Tradeloop's New Member Blog!

It's been two years since we launched the monthly Tradeloop newsletter. Member response was enthusiastic, because it was a great way to keep up with Ethics cases, learn about other members, and get notification of new member services and options.

We're now building on that success and replacing the monthly newsletter with a Tradeloop news blog. It will have the same great information as the newsletter, but added advantages too:

• Timely information: You won't have to wait a month to find out about new features and upgrades to the Tradeloop site.
• Better communication: Members can comment on posts, trade ideas with each other, and easily make suggestions about more improvements they'd like to see.
• More flexibility: We're constantly working to make Tradeloop an even more valuable service to members, but the newsletter format limited the information we could provide. With a blog format, we can easily put up short posts with breaking news and pass along tips to help you get more out of your membership.
• Increased member visibility: Has your company been in the news recently? Let us know, because it might make a great blog post. Positive coverage adds to your company's air of professionalism and credibility.
  

Welcome to the new Tradeloop Blog! We invite you to visit and comment often.