Gartner projects that traditional search engine volume will fall 25% by 2026 as buyers move to AI tools for answers. So you need to show up in AI Answers.
Your customers already ask ChatGPT which plumber to call. They ask Perplexity which firm handles small business taxes.
Most owners react to this with panic. The panic is wasted energy.
The work that earns you a place in an AI answer is concrete, and you can start this week.
The cost of sitting it out shows up in the numbers.
When an AI Overview appears above the search results, the rate of clicks to the listings below it falls by more than 60%.
The answer becomes the destination, and the business named inside it takes the attention everyone else loses.
How AI Engines Choose Answers
AI engines do not invent recommendations. They assemble answers from sources they already trust, then verify the details before naming a business.
BrightLocal’s research found directories rank among the strongest of those sources, with Yelp appearing as a citation in roughly a third of all AI searches.
The pattern matters more than any single listing. When an engine finds your company details stated identically across several trusted sites, its confidence climbs.
When those details contradict each other, the engine discounts all of them and names a competitor instead.
Structured data decides whether the engine understands you at all. One analysis of ChatGPT citations found that 71% of cited pages carried schema markup, the background code that tells a machine what a business does and where it operates.
Pages without it force the engine to guess. Engines rarely cite a guess.
Start with Your Google Business Profile
Nearly 46% of Google searches carry local intent, and the AI Overview pulls from that profile before almost anything else. Fill every field. Keep your hours and your address current.
Then build your presence on established directories. The word established carries the weight in that sentence.
A spam directory with no authority does nothing for you, and a low quality one muddies the details you worked to keep clean.
Get Listed in Quality Business Directories
Choose directories with real domain history and clean structured data. An established directory like DirJournal publishes each listing with the schema an engine reads, which puts your details in a form the machine parses rather than skims.
That is the gap between a listing that corroborates you and one that sits invisible.
Picture a dental practice in Austin. A resident asks ChatGPT for a dentist who takes their insurance and offers evening appointments.
The practice that stated those exact facts in machine readable form gets surfaced, while the one with a bare profile and a phone number stays unseen.
An accountant who writes “we handle R&D tax credits for software startups” gives the engine something exact to match against a real question, while “full service accounting firm” matches nothing a person actually types.
Keyword stuffing backfires now. Older tactics that crammed a page with repeated phrases signal low quality to the systems that choose citations.
Write for the person asking the question, because the engine rewards the page that reads like a genuine answer.
Where you say it counts as much as what you say. One study of AI citations found that 44.2% came from the first 30% of a page’s text.
Put your answer near the top. Stop burying your value three scrolls down.
Write the questions your customers actually type, then answer them plainly on your own pages.
AI engines extract a direct answer far more readily than they parse marketing copy. A clear question as a heading, followed by a short answer, hands the engine a block it can lift straight into a response.
Reviews feed the same machine. AI tools read ratings and written feedback from your profiles to judge whether a pattern of trust surrounds your name.
A steady flow of genuine reviews gives the engine evidence, and evidence is what it cites.
Treat all of this as ongoing rather than a single fix. The same citation study found that only 30% of brands stayed visible across two identical queries run back to back.
AI answers shift constantly, so the owners who win check their presence each month and correct any drift fast.
Be Consistent to Show Up in AI Answers
None of this demands a budget. It demands consistency in your details and clarity in your pages.
The plumber who fixes that this month gets named when a customer asks in October, and the one who waits becomes the rival the AI mentions instead.
Skool is the best community platform I’ve ever used. And I’ve been in online communities since 1994!
Some of the Skool communities are far superior to others. And there are the usual get-rich-quick slippery communities you’ll find anywhere else.
There are two kinds of communities on Skool: huge and growing quickly and very small or dormant. Having a free community plus a paid community is the most common strategy for making money there.
Skool Communities Worth Joining
These are communities I’ve been active in and recommend for reasons I’ll explain below.
Use this as an introduction to Skool, an overview on how to use it, and an explanation of how many people are making tens of thousands of dollars a month very quickly on Skool.
Because most of the tech necessary is provided through this course, the typical overhead for running a Skool community is around $210/mo. However, this does not indicate whether it is essential to run ads to grow and what your ad budget would need to be.
Learn more about Skool from the interviews shared here. This is one with the CEO who answers why the mission of Skool is “to help 1 billion people find community”.
This is Nicholas Cole’s free community that promotes his paid community. If you want to see the best example I know of showing how to give away so much value that you can promote heavily and not cause people to leave, here it is!
He teaches how to become a Premium LinkedIn Ghostwriter. I believe what he teaches would work and am considering doing it myself. If you have about $6k (last I heard) for his coaching program and are serious, it would be worth it.
If you have experience with LinkedIn and ghostwriting, you could attend his free webinars, take a ton of notes and screenshots, and probably figure it out yourself.
Dylan Johnson’s community is a top one to join because he uses advanced skills to promote it. For example, he sends SMS messages and is the only Skool group I’m in that has ever sent any to me.
Even if you don’t have a venue to rent, you can learn a lot from Dylan. Check out his Leaderboard. The defaults are “Level 1”, “Level 2”, etc. Boring. See the creative names he uses:
Even though that may not sound important, it makes being part of his community more fun. And that leads to more active members!
If you’ve ever wanted to build websites, especially using the Elementor builder, but didn’t know how to get clients, Ricky Wallace is the guy to follow!
There are increasing calls to boycott Amazon, but I had no idea just how many different issues are involved and how serious they are until I started researching this post.
Image Credit: Broken Sword Publications ~ Click Image to Read Amazon Threats to Publishers
Just like Wal-Mart, Amazon engages in unethical and unfair practices.
In Why Amazon Went Big Brother, Arstechnica wrote:
“Amazon.com shocked customers yesterday when it reached out to hundreds, if not thousands of Kindles and simply deleted texts that users had not only purchased, but had started to read!”
The New York Times reported:
In George Orwell’s “1984,” government censors erase all traces of news articles embarrassing to Big Brother by sending them down an incineration chute called the “memory hole.”
On Friday, it was “1984” and another Orwell book, “Animal Farm,” that were dropped down the memory hole — by Amazon.com.
MUST READ: Amazon moving to force authors to use THEM as their publisher
SMALL BUSINESS INDIE BOOK SELLER BOYCOTT
This week, Small Business supporters called for a boycott of Amazon because of their recent targeting of all small businesses that sell books, electronics and anything else Amazon offers.
Sarah Woodbury called Amazon’s tactic of offering buyers a discount for reporting prices and not buying from local businesses “a pretty low blow—despicable—…” in her comprehensive post on her Word Hits book review blog about Amazon’s Price Check App:
“Amazon wants shoppers to scan the price of electronics,toys, or dvd’s with their Price Check app (thus sending them [Amazon] this data) – and then walk out of the store to get a discount of up to $5 on that item online.”
This is going too far – and on top of their choosing to have ambulances stand by instead of bringing their warehouses down to a safe working temperature and then making employees stand outside in 26 degree weather – I am joining the calls to officially boycott Amazon.
I have previously written about Amazon’s heartless employee practices which intentionally endanger their employee’s lives. Details on that are at the bottom of this post so that all Amazon related issues are in this one post for easier sharing.
I realize that many bloggers and affiliate marketers are in the middle
of their prime revenue generating period and now may be the worst
possible time to make changes, so I ask you to at least REMEMBER. Change who you’re promoting atyour earliest convenience.
As you can tell by the tower ad in the center column of this blog, I have chosen to go with Bigger Books as an alternative to Amazon. Their affiliate program is on ShareASale.
The ShareASale Affiliate Network is where I always look first because they have been protecting merchants and affiliates alike from predatory affiliate practices.
We need to encourage them to continue to make that their most important USP. It IS the reason we use, recommend and promote ShareASale.
Without a continued commitment to keep their network clean they will be just another network.
While obviously wishing to APPEAR TO BE a small business organization, that alliance was actually formed by large retail corporations such as AutoZone, Best Buy, Home Depot, Sears, Target, and Wal-Mart.
That alliance is a good example of why intelligent individuals MUST learn to be VERY discerning in what information you believe.
The quality and quantity of disinformation being generated every day is astounding.
BOYCOTT AMAZON CENSORSHIP ISSUE:
Image Credit SoYouThinkYouCanInvest ~ Click Image to Read their Boycott Amazon post
Amazon has periodically banned books that reveal truths that are not in line with what the global elite want us to believe. When they banned one such book, The Secret of Oz, some called for us to boycott Amazon for censorship.
Amazon lifted the ban of that book so there was no boycott. As I come across other incidents of censorship for political reasons I will add them here. If you know of any please leave details including links in the comments.
BOYCOTT AMAZON CHILD PROTECTION ISSUE:
Amazon is also being boycotted for selling books that are pro-child molestation. This issue makes it clear that the issue of free speech is not a simple one.
We can not protect ALL speech; however, as soon as we move
to limit SOME speech all Freedom of Speech is imperiled.
There are no easy answers when it comes to allowing free speech while at least keeping the most objectionable issues behind closed doors where only those who really want to see them can voluntarily go.
Laws of all kinds are used more to protect evil
than to protect us FROM evil.
Cetronia Ambulance Corps hired to stand by at Amazon warehouses
When you buy and recommend books this year I ask you to consider supporting small book sellers instead of automatically buying or acting as an affiliate for Amazon.
This is especially important in light of the extremely bad publicity Amazon is getting REPEATEDLY regarding their putting profits before lives.
Amazon endangers employee’s lives
NYC residents have been getting these emergency alerts since 7:30pm. The situation is“life-threatening” and we’re being told not to travel unless fleeing or given an evacuation order. And what does Amazon do? Require us to report to work for our 10:00pm shift. pic.twitter.com/0bKC6Ns9hm
— Amazonians United New York City (@NYCAmazonians) September 2, 2021
Apparently learning nothing from the bad publicity over employees suffering from heat stroke, last month that same Amazon warehouse left their workers standing outside in sub-freezing temperatures because apparently identifying who pulled the fire alarm was more important than letting them die from exposure:
On Dec. 3, Cetronia Ambulance Corps transported six Amazon warehouse workers to the hospital to be treated for cold exposure following a fire alarm evacuation, said Larry Wiersch, CEO of the nonprofit ambulance service.
About 30 other people got into ambulances to warm up, he said.
“It was cold — 26 degrees — and it was windy,” Wiersch said.
“There were pregnant women, men and women in T-shirts and shorts, some with sleeveless shirts and shorts,” one complaint states.
“People were passing out and feeling ill left and right. … I am absolutely disgusted with this company’s practices and I do believe OSHA should visit this building and give them some sort of coaching on how to better handle the situation before there are more people suffering from hypothermia.”
These incidents make it painfully obvious that Amazon does not consider their employee’s lives when making business decisions. It is up to us to hold companies like this accountable for their actions.
You don’t have ambulances stand by – you FIX THE PROBLEM!
If we look the other way and continue to buy from Amazon and promote them as affiliates we are equally complicit and guilty of enabling them to intentionally endanger lives by negligent homicide or even criminal negligence.
Keep giving them your money and you are guilty, too!
I encourage all people of conscience to switch to other affiliate programs and buy from other book sellers. There are many and I am personally supporting Bigger Books because they are on ShareASale and have every book I’ve searched for so far.
If you don’t care about the Amazon employees, at least care about you, your friends and your family because what we allow to happen to anyone CAN and DOES happen to us eventually. As Joan Baez sings, “There but for fortune, go YOU or I…”
Do you know of an Amazon issue not yet covered on this page? Please do leave details and relevant links in the comments.
If you are a new commenter here or you provide multiple links in one comment, your comment WILL be automatically held for moderation, but I will approve all relevant comments.
Originally published 12/12/11; added new information 12/2/18. Added featured video, more incidents, and removed/fixed broken links 8/1/25.
She goes into specifics on click-through-rates (CTRs) and differences between desktop and mobile. Besides that, she sounds the alarm on a new Google AI Mode.
How Much Can Traffic Drop?
Groundbreaking data was released on May 12, 2025 by Kevin Indig in The first-ever UX Study of Google’s AI Overviews: The Data We’ve All Been Waiting For.
Read both of the above – they’re enlightening and that 55.17% of users trust AI accuracy is downright scary. [LinkedIn won’t let me tag or link to these, so I’ll try to add them in the comments.]
And it gets worse. According to John Iwuozor‘s post (shown below), some sites are being hit with traffic drops of 90-99%!
He mentions Techopedia – down 99%, Travel lemming – 94% drop, and Retrododo – down 90%. The graphs are from Semrush for Techopedia:
The more content you published that is informational rather than transactional or commercial, the more likely an AIO will be shown for keyword phrases related to that content.
Will this get better or is the internet in decline? Find out what Pubcon Founder and CEO Brett Tabke believes.
But It’s Not All Bad News: Same Conversions from Less Traffic
Rand Fishkin shared this excellent explanation of why you still need a website and content in a zero click world:
So What Can You Do? AIO Content Strategy Step 1: Research
Think about what your ideal client would want to know when buying what you sell. Brainstorm some search keyword phrases.
Then go to Google search and see what they’re displaying for each piece of search. If there is an AIO for that search or none of the ranking content is for a business like yours, move to the next keyword phrase.
You’re looking for the phrases that display your content or something similar that you are likely to be able to outrank.
Now that you’ve found some keyword phrases that are at least currently not affected by AIOs, you can use a keyword research tool to check search volume.
Use this tip from Neil Patel as your guide. Your goal is to look for a keyword phrase that has:
High search volume
High cost-per-click (CPC)
Low competition
He elaborates on why and how to do that using his tool in this short video:
Step 2: Update and Optimize Existing Content or Create New Content
Once you’ve selected one or more keyword phrases, look at your existing content. Have you covered this topic or keyword phrase before?
If you have an informational post that is similar enough, you can update that post with your new transactional or commercial angle.
And if you don’t, use that keyword phrase to do additional keyword research. The easiest way to update or create new SEO-optimized content is by using Surfer SEO.
Impact of AI Overviews on Traffic
NEW: Cyrus S., founder of Zyppy SEO, created a great graphic showing how the links in Google AIOs don’t go to the sources. Instead, his research shows that:
Many links currently in Google’s AIOs lead to other Google searches, even when it doesn’t make sense.
Russ Macumber at Impressive shared this research on the percentage of AIOs shown by search intent (informational, navigational, commercial and transactional).
Hat tip to “the” analytics expert Avinash Kaushikfor sharing the Baekdal/Basic newsletter.
How Publishers and Writers are Affected
These changes along with Google algorithm changes have dramatically affected publishers whose business model was organic traffic and ads.
Two examples:
My primary income ended when Google took traffic away from one of the largest small business publishers. Their traffic and income dropped so dramatically that they shut down the project I worked on for almost six years. They had to let almost all of their staff on that project and their major site go.
Another of the largest small business publishers first pivoted to publishing 30+ posts a day hoping for more traffic. And then they changed their focus entirely to gambling to survive.
Since then, another client decided to stop having me update content. I suspect they’re not sure it is worth spending money on anymore if it doesn’t see a huge increase in traffic to contribute to lead generation and visibility.
I’ve collaborated with about two dozen writers for years. The only one with enough work let clients cut rates dramatically. So she works harder than ever for less money.
All of the others are struggling. Some, like me, are on the verge of homelessness. This is my 25th year of freelancing. 24 great years where I shared extra work with others.
This past year, I am one of those on the verge of homelessness. My only option is to increase my income and get my lease caught up.
What Can We Do About This?
For now, content can still work for businesses. Its primary value is providing your existing customers, clients, or patients and potential new buyers the information they need.
And, pivoting to focus on transactional keywords instead of informational can get you more organic traffic – at least for now.
The first benefit is that their content audit feature makes it easy to see what content is most likely to see an increase in traffic if you update and improve it.
When you update or create content using Surfer SEO‘s content editor, the first step is to enter your primary keyword phrase.
The built-in keyword research tool will suggest additional keywords along with their monthly search volume (MSV).
Click on the phrases you want to include. You can also type in additional ideas to see what keyword phrases Surfer suggests.
I recommend adding 3-12+ keyword phrases, but you really only need to use one. Select “Write Yourself” or “Write with AI”. Personally, I write all my content myself.
Then you can either use the URL of your existing content to pull it into Surfer or click on “Create”. [Or, now you can use the WordPress plugin to do it right in the WP dashboard!]
Here’s Danni from Surfer SEO with a short video on how the content editor works:
NOTE:Surfer SEO contains many tools including a separate Keyword Research tool. And guess what? Besides search volume, it labels search phrases as:
informational
local
customer investigation
shopping
That makes it easier for you to choose phrases that are more commercial and transactional rather than only informational. (But also use what you know and check on Google, too.)
Why Focus on Transactional and Commercial Keyword Phrases?
So far, Google is not showing AIOs for transactional or commercial keyword phrases. Also, these are likely to be less competitive.
Even if you have many actual competitors in your business, all informational content also has to outrank sites like Wikipedia, Reddit, Quora, and every informational publisher on the internet.
At least with transactional content, you’re less likely to be up against all those other publishers!
Bonus Tips:
Don’t forget your Call to Action (CTA). Transactional content should always have at least one CTA and some have many so they are never far from visibility.
NOTE: Would you love to be updating or publishing new content, but just don’t have the time? Or maybe you could just need a hand getting started?
I’d love to assist you to learn Surfer or manage content creation or even the entire publishing process for you!
WANT MORE TIPS?
Could Not Just Impressions But CLICKS Be “NOISE” and Not As Important As We Thought?
Here’s a really controversial viewpoint. You definitely want to watch the video!
If you sell products – this post is important to you.
Most physical stores and many online stores, and specifically Amazon, require UPC codes for products listed for sale. You must avoid scam sellers and fakes!
This post is about how to buy UPC Codes without overspending or creating issues by buying from the wrong source.
WARNING: Many resellers of UPC codes are falsely claiming that their codes are GS1 when they are not.
If you are introducing new products to the market, you are eventually going to need to buy a UPC code for each item if you want to sell at Amazon, on Shopping Comparison sites or in stores.
Amazon does cross checking of UPC codes against the GS1 database, but only for Brand Registered Sellers. Unfortunately, Amazon does enforce their UPC Policy if you registered for their Brand Program.
This means any seller registered with Amazon’s Brand Program, without a barcode Prefix directly rented from GS1 will not be able to list their products.
So, essentially, Amazon is forcing you as a seller to pay for expensive UPC codes from GS1 and pay annual fees for the lifetime of your company and product.
Fortunately, if you have not registered for Amazon’s Brand Program (which is the most common case for Amazon Sellers), you will be able to use Barcodes from resellers without issue and save money at the same time.
Renting UPC Codes Instead of Buying
You can now rent UPC codes to use with vendors who do not require you to use only USG1 codes.
Watch this video for details and to better understand the pros and cons of renting vs buying.
Buying UPC Codes from GS1
Using GS1 – US is the only way to have the UPC number registered directly to you in their GEPIR system. The GEPIR system was replaced by Verified by GS1 as of 12/28/23.
This system is only required by specific retailers and under specific circumstances.
For the majority, this may not be needed and you could save money buying from a reseller.
Here’s a list that we know so far:
GS1 Rental Required:
May require
Walmart / Sam’s-Club (GS1 Board Member)
Kroger / Fred-Meyers
Macy’s / Bloomingdale’s (GS1 Governor)
Home Depot
Lowe’s
Costco
Nordstroms
Neiman Marcus
Wegmans (GS1 Governor)
Sears
GS1 EDI System Providers
Amazon (Brand Registry Only)
Walmart.com
Whole Foods (Amazon subsidiary)
Walgreens
K-Mart
Publix (GS1 Governor)
Target (GS1 Governor)
QVC (GS1 Governor)
JC Penney’s
The Official GS1US site makes this claim that is no longer true:
“There’s only one U.P.C. barcode that’s accepted by retailers everywhere. And it’s only available from GS1 US.”
All sites besides GS1US.org are resellers and the numbers they sell you are registered to the original prefix owners prior to 2002.
Resellers exist due to GS1/UCC’s class action lawsuit and their settlement in 2002. More on this here: (GS1/UCC Settlement).
Their UPC numbers originate from GS1-US (Previously UCC “Uniform Code Council”) before 2002, this is how they can legally sell them.
Buying UPC Codes from a Reseller
When sourcing a UPC Reseller to buy from, there are certain things to be on the lookout for to make sure you are getting a legitimate product.
Not every reseller out there is legitimate. Some sell fake/made up numbers that could end up being a costly mistake down the line.
We recommend Bar Codes Talk as they seem the most legitimate and offer both a 115% Lowest Price Guarantee and Works for Amazon Guarantee. They also provide immediate digital delivery of barcodes.
Here are some tips when buying from a reseller. A reseller:
Must be selling barcodes that come from a prefix obtained from the UCC (Now known as GS1-US) prior to the 2002 UCC Class Action Lawsuit.
Selling UPC/EANs at “Too good to be true” prices, much less than most other resellers, is selling fakes!
Is a government registered verifiable business (No fly by night companies).
Must have a phone number, address, and email contact information.
Has a website and is not selling only on eBay or any other “auction” website.
Once you purchase from a reseller, you should receive a list of the UPC Numbers that have been assigned to you.
Registering the numbers to your products is easy (see video below):
And then you will just need to provide these barcodes to whichever store you are working with or enter them in the UPC text box on Amazon when adding a new product.
Unique Products
If you sell handmade goods or collectibles that do not have UPCs and are unique (one of a kind) follow this UPC advice from SingleFeed:
“Do your best to include these unique identifiers in your product feed, but do not make these numbers up. If you’re selling handmade goods, you will not have MPNs or UPCs. That’s actually ok. If you’re buying your inventory from a distributor/supplier and that product has a real manufacturer, though, you can get MPNs and UPCs. It’s going to take work as not all distributors/suppliers are used to giving out this information, but you have to keep on them to do so.”
This UPC issue is going to affect resellers and merchants on a growing number of channels including Amazon and Google.
NOTE: Content originally written by Gail Gardner and published 5/13/10. Updated 6/11/20 with current information and to add video. Updated for accuracy and published with new date 11/10/22. Updated again 6/28/24 to update that GEPIR has been replaced by Verified by GS1 and correct the link + add another video. This post may contain affiliate links and if you purchase through one of them I may receive a small commission which does not affect the price you pay.
Surfer SEO content optimization is how content I’ve written for clients immediately ranked for keyword phrases that generate income for those businesses.
Even better, that content is STILL in position one or two whenever I check. It has been over a year since I optimized some of it.
And it still ranks!
I’m not talking about easy to rank for content, either. These are highly competitive keyword phrases for clients with dozens of competitors.
Does Surfer SEO Content Optimization Work? YES!
Based on that, I have to say that content optimized using Surfer SEO does rank well. Keep in mind that this is NOT AI generated content.
This is content that I either originally wrote and then optimized later. Or that someone else wrote and I optimized it later.
Do I Recommend Surfer SEO Content Optimization?
Yes, I do. In fact, I would love to optimize content for many more small businesses so that they can increase their incomes — especially in tough times like now.
In the interests of full disclosure, the content I optimize is important to my clients. So it does already have some incoming links.
It is likely that you need incoming links if you are targeting competitive keyword phrases.
Surfer SEO Discount 30% Off Until 4/24/24 8 a.m. EDT
Do you have so many passwords already that they could throw a convention? You may want to use a password convention.
How would you like to know about a simple way to have a different secure password for every account that you can easily “remember” whenever you need it – without looking it up? Read on.
Prefer Not to Remember Passwords? Use a Password Vault
Password vaults are a great way to store your credentials. Although, passwords are easily compromised, which is why the strength should be coupled by an authentication passcode.
What is a Strong Password?
First you need to understand what makes a good (i.e., difficult to crack) strong password. The easiest way to do that is to know what weak passwords are. Instead of explaining all the variables I’ll just offer how I create password conventions for clients.
First two to four letters of the site where the password will be used
A number the same length as the number of letters you selected (2-4)
A special character – not all special characters are acceptable on all systems
Decide what order you wish to combine them in and write down your pattern
Here are some examples of patterns you could use:
Three letters, special character, three numbers
Three numbers, special character, three letters
Take a word and insert numbers and special characters in specific positions
Those are the basic components of your new password system. Even the simplest version is a fairly difficult password to crack. If you’re really security conscious you can make passwords stronger by:
Using both upper and lower case letters
Using more special characters
Making the way you combine them more complicated
Making them longer – the more characters you use the longer it takes to run a password cracking system against your password
Here are some SIMPLE examples to help you understand more clearly:
Convention: first three letters, special character, three numbers
Password for Yahoo: yah-824
Password for Google: goo-824
Password for Microsoft: mic-824
Even though these are very simple examples they are much more difficult to crack than commonly used passwords.
I would recommend something a little more creative as someone who had one of these MIGHT be able to guess your pattern.
Feel free to make your convention more complicated so it is even more secure.
The key is to make your password convention easy enough to remember and keep it consistent enough to actually use it.
If you want really secure passwords make the convention complicated and write only the pattern down.
If you change your passwords you can change your pattern and even write down the new pattern or even some notes and even if someone finds them they won’t be able to figure out your passwords.
TIPS for Memorable Passwords
Use a number you know and don’t write it down
Use a base word broken up by inserting your numbers and special characters into it
Use both upper and lower case letters
Here is an example of a very complex pattern written down in your own unique code:
Write down a12B%3c and no one will ever guess what your passwords are
Example Password Conventions
So what does a12B%3c mean? Here is the translation:
You have three letters – say yah for Yahoo or goo for Google
You have three numbers – any three numbers you can remember
You have a special character – in this case the percent (%) sign
a is your first letter – make it lower case
B is your second letter – make it upper case
c is your third letter – make it lower case
Your numbers plug in where the 1, 2, and 3 are
If your number is 824, your passwords are:
Yahoo – y82A%4h
Google – g82O%4o
Microsoft – m82I%4c
US Counties – u82S%4c
While this may seem confusing at first, once you get used to it you’ll never be without a password as long as you can remember (or have with you) your pattern.
Your passwords are strong and unique but as you move from site to site while working you’ll be able to recall what one you haven’t used in a long time is because it is similar to one you use every day.
There Are No Uncrackable Passwords
WARNING: All passwords can be cracked with enough time, computer power, and motivation.
Using this convention idea is not as secure as using totally random passwords, especially if someone had access to more than one of your passwords and recognized your pattern.
How strong your password needs to be depends on what you’re securing.
Privileged Password Management
Privileged password management is an advanced type of password authentication that is used for privileged identities. For example, IT admins and CISOs.
I was able to reach someone, and they gave me a phone number. But I can never get through on it.
No doubt as well-known as CBN is, there is huge demand for their assistance.
We Need Your Ideas
Six more generators would be a simple solution. And a few years ago, there was plenty of good-paying work and I could have made that happen by myself.
Work is slow now, and I am getting slower due to age. I can’t work sixteen hours a day like I once could.
So I’m asking for your ideas. For example:
Work: Is there any remote work that Stephen could do for you?
Charity: Who else should I contact?
Connections: Does anyone have any connections who could assist?
Fundraising: Can you recommend a way to raise money to buy the generators the community needs?
I did get Stephen to open a PayPal account so he can hopefully accept money. It seemed to work fine on my end, but he sees a “suspicious activity” message.
PayPal wants a bank statement. But of course no one in his community has a bank account.
So PayPal is a dead end (unless someone knows of a solution)?
How often have you wanted to contact someone, but didn’t have their email address or phone number?
Would you be impressed if you could search using only someone’s name and find the information you need in one place?
Most tools only search for email addresses. And some of those will only search on particular domains. What if you don’t know what domain they use?
I’ve tested many tools to find contact information. But I was surprised at how much detail the startup company Expandigo was able to find.
Just a Name Returned All This
All I typed in was his name. Because I tested using someone I know, I am able to verify that one professional email address and one phone number are accurate.
Another email is an old email address. One is a good guess. So if I didn’t know him, I would be able to reach him using this information.
Check out the results Expandigo gave me in the image below:
Job Title
Links to the correct Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn profiles
Email addresses with an indication which are personal versus professional
Phone numbers
Company name, address, and LinkedIn profile
What is Expandigo?
Expandigo uses enhanced data collection to enrich contact information. This provides more accurate information.
Many people go to great lengths to keep their phone numbers and email addresses private to minimize spam.
So finding accurate information is always going to be a challenge. Expandigo did manage to find both a good business email address and a good phone number.
Who Would Use Expandigo?
The applications for Expandigo are limitless. For example:
Companies looking for business partners or suppliers
Lead generation
Writers searching for publishers
Updating existing contacts who may have changed companies or moved
Business services organizations like Chambers of Commerce, Industry associations, and Economic Development Organizations could offer Expandigo to their members.
Expandigo is interested in partnerships with business aggregators.
Why Use Expandigo?
Expandigo makes it fast and easy to find and then store information about your contacts.
They call it a “light CRM” because you can organize your contacts and add notes. Unless you delete them, they stay in your Enriched Contacts list.
Marshall Eldred, CEO of Golden Hill Ingredients, uses it to find leads:
“Expandigo allows me to drill down and search for real leads. The format is easy to use and produces results quickly. I can also save my new contacts within the Expandigo platform which makes finding potential customers and organizing their contact information even easier. Its simple and to the point. This tool is helping us expand our business to customers that otherwise we may have missed. I wholeheartedly recommend Expandigo!”
Expandigo Dashboard
There is almost no learning curve getting started with Expandigo. Create an account and start searching. (Detailed how-to and tips below.)
Anyone can sign up and get 10 free welcome credits to try it out themselves. No credit card required.
I found the information above with just one of those free credits! Why not try it out? It doesn’t cost you anything.
Just create a free account. Once you log in, you’ll see your Expandigo dashboard (see image below).
Simply click the “ADD NEW CONTACTS” button in the Enriched Contacts section:
In the Contact Search form, fill in one or more fields. I found it worked best to only fill in 1-2 fields.
Use autocomplete for industry, company name, job title, country and location.
You can start by choosing 1 in the “How many profiles” field. That consistently worked for me.
However, if you don’t get the correct result, you may wish to increase that number.
For these results, I entered name and country:
Note that I did not fill in the industry, company name, job title or location fields above. The words you see there are examples so you know what type of information to input.
But you can use the industry drop-down to choose an industry:
s
You can use autocomplete to fill in the company name, job title, country, and location:
After you click the “SEARCH CONTACTS” button, the view below is what you’ll see:
Expandigo Enriched Contacts Detail View
Click the “RELOAD DASHBOARD” button to see the results:
When you close this view, you’ll be back at your dashboard. And your new contact will be included in your Enriched Contacts list:
Any time you want to see the details, click the first icon to the left of the name. When you move your mouse over it, it will say “Show details”.
Notes Manager in Expandigo CRM
The center icon opens the contact “Notes Manager”:
Click into the “Category” field and choose one of the options:
Choosing the category fills in the first field. Then just type in the rest of the details and click “ADD NOTE”:
The next view shows “New note added” in a bright green button:
You can now see “There is 1 entry for this contact”. There is an option to email the note. Clicking it will open the email program on your device.
The note is visible in that view and can also be deleted when desired:
How to Delete Contacts in Expandigo
The third icon to the left of each contact is red and is for deleting contacts you no longer wish to keep.
You are unlikely to accidentally delete any contacts because you will see a confirmation window if you click on delete:
What Does Expandigo Cost to Use?
Your first ten searches are free. After that, Expandigo uses a pay-as-you-go model. If you only need a few credits, you can buy 25 for $24.99.
The more credits you buy at once, the less expensive they become. And importantly, even when you have no credits left, you don’t lose access to your contacts!
See how simple Expandigo is to use? Not everyone you search on will have all this information.
However, their database does contain over 3 billion people and 28 million companies globally.
This is a simple way to get phone numbers for people you interact with already. Or to find an address to send them a card.
How often do you realize you don’t have a current email address for someone? Or their phone number?
And how fast could you expand your contacts and generate more leads with a tool like Expandigo? Give it a try.
In such a fast-paced digital era, entrepreneurs need to remain on top of their game. Allow me to enlighten you with the “Top 5 Powerful Tools for Entrepreneurs” that I use.
They can help you organize your entrepreneurial lifestyle. There are a number of productivity tools for entrepreneurs you can invest your time in and ensure that your business grows exponentially.
Enjoying an organized email inbox or a swift website experience was never this easy.
With the abundance of such tools and services, you can prioritize your efforts and focus on doing the work that really matters to you.
You can ensure you’re meeting your business goals by streamlining your priorities. Many among these tools are available for free, so you do not have any reason not to give them a shot. Let’s begin.
Top 6 Powerful Tools for Entrepreneurs
1. Trello
Trello is a great project management tool for entrepreneurs. It is a free tool that displays a work board of cards to allow you to organize your to-do priorities with ease.
You can create your own to-do lists and divide the tasks into cards accordingly. By default, every project or task consists of three work columns labeled as To Do, Doing, and Done.
[Editor’s note: You can rename the columns to anything you wish and add as many as you wish. I’m sure there must be a limit, but I haven’t ever hit it and have boards with dozens of columns.
Easily drag your cards from one column to the other ensuring maximum effectiveness. You will also be able to add comments, upload files, and create checklists on your work board.
Feel free to use this versatile app for carrying out and managing your different tasks. For example, you can:
create an online course while tracking its progress.
Trello offers a bird’s-eye view on every project that you’re working on, ensuring that you remain efficient while enjoying complete control.
2. Office Online
Office Online is an essential business tool. Starting from $6 per month, I feel it is the best complete package tool for office work.
Their word feature is by far the best text pad I’ve used. It is a great tool when you’re working on a single project with multiple team members. My favorite feature among many is its advanced accessibility.
You can access your office tools such as slides, docs, excel sheet, online storage, etc., from any location at any time on any device.
Office Online offers an easy-to-use interface and you can enjoy complete control of who can view or edit your content. You have the authority to control the accessibility and privacy of your content.
Authorized team members can proofread and edit the content for everyone else to see. You can chat with each other as well as add or remove comments.
You will also be able to see who is working on the project in real-time which makes it one of the best tools for entrepreneurs.
Furthermore, I use Office Online for all my projects, plans, and proposals. It is a very convenient tool that allows me to share inter-team as well as intra-team information.
Office Online auto-saves your work so you do not have to worry about losing your content. It comes with 1TB additional online storage.
3. Bizzabo’s Event Management Platform
Bizzabo’s event management platform is an intelligent personal assistant that helps entrepreneurs to schedule and keep track of their meetings and appointments.
With the assistance of X.Ai, you can increase your productivity and focus effectively on the efforts you need to put in to meet your business goals.
This personal assistant ensures that your emails do not remain unanswered. It allows you and your team to reach an agreement concerning meetings or discussions.
X.Ai searches for the best suitable time based on everyone’s availability for a team meet-up.
Moreover, correspondence that comes in from clients can also be processed automatically. Set up meetings for you with them while you focus on being an awesome entrepreneur.
4. QuickBooks
Another great tool for entrepreneurs, QuickBooks is a popular accounting tool that allows entrepreneurs to keep track of all their income and expenses.
It offers an easy-to-use interface where you can swiftly send invoices to your vendors and suppliers.
QuickBooks ensures the monitoring business transactions with ease. You can automate daily expenses. Moreover, you can also auto-fill parts of your taxes with just a few clicks.
5. InFlow
InFlow is a desktop-based inventory management tool for entrepreneurs that helps them track inventory.
You can fill your customers’ orders, reorder stock, generate purchase orders, and develop customized reports as well.
InFlow is a popular choice when you’re looking for effective tools for entrepreneurs. Its flexible design allows it to fit well with many different businesses and industries.
5. TimeCamp
TimeCamp is a time tracking software and an employee hour calculator. It allows measuring employees’ working time in multiple ways: with a desktop app that works in the background, with a mobile app, browser plugin, or by filling timesheets manually. No matter which way you choose, you can ensure the working hours are tracked on the dot.
With its accurate time tracking and attendance data, it’s great to support payroll. A wide range of preset custom reports helps analyze the employees’ effectiveness and projects’ performance.
What’s more, TimeCamp ensures both teams and freelancers the project management features. Its clear project structure with tags makes the daily time and task management flawless, with time entries assigned to the accurate project or task. Users can also invite Guests to their account and show them their time results with billable/non-billable hours as proof of work.
Besides being a comprehensive time management suite, TimeCamp also helps teams estimate the time of projects and track the resource consumption in ongoing projects.
Another feature that both teams and freelancers can find useful is invoicing. Users can generate invoices and send them straight to their customers.
Summing up, TimeCamp eases the pain of daily time-related company processes. Based on time tracking data.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a wholesaler, retailer, or a manufacturer, InFlow will ensure you manage your inventory with ultimate ease.
6. Visme
Visme is an easy-to-use visual content creation and collaboration platform. With Visme, you can get ready for your meetings by creating beautiful presentations, pitch decks, reports, sales decks, videos, etc.
The best part is that it includes a drag-and-drop editor and a library of hundreds of templates, photos, and animated characters.
Combining simplicity with flexibility, Visme allows entrepreneurs to create engaging visual content to deliver their messages clearly to their audience.
It has a collection of native integrations, so you can connect Visme to other tools you already use. It is also great for team collaboration since you can create, store and collaborate while maintaining brand consistency across your whole team.
In Summary
These above-mentioned five tools for entrepreneurs are essential for your business. Every businessman should have them in their arsenal for success.
There are plenty of other productivity tools available for entrepreneurs, however, many among them come at a high price and have a difficult interface.
I personally use these tools daily to manage my tasks. They allow me to remain on top of everything. They never fail to enhance my workflow and improve my processes.
Using these powerful tools will certainly add value to your business. You and your employees can help each other grow your business in amazing ways.
Infographic added 3/14/21 – not from original author.
Originally published 6/18/19; updated 12/5/21 to remove an outdated tool name and add new tools; updated 11/15/22 to add a tool.
Not every reseller out there is legitimate. Some sell fake/made up numbers that could end up being a costly mistake down the line. 
You cannot grow food or easily get water to drink or bathe in. Having no water makes like a struggle.
