Author: Steve Slisar

Steve Slisar has been training people how to use computers since 1994, opened a training centre in 1999 in Dee Why and by 2005 had 3 training centres and created over 35 individual courses that include Screen videos with audio commentary, training workbooks for those who prefer to read to learn, and exercise files that are used with the tasks in the workbooks so you get practical experience in the software you are trying to learn. Now the creator of 5 of the most popular online MYOB training courses in Australia.
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Using Google Adwords – Step 1 – choose a budget

The Google Adwords market is constantly changing depending on who is bidding for the keywords you want, how they are bidding and how much they have to spend. Keeping this in mind you will have to make some simple decisions before you can get started.

I sat down with a business owner today and she wanted to bid for every keyword she could think of, everything relating to her field of business, but the problem with that is that you are then competing with everyone else for a whole lot of words. We ended up choosing fewer words and decided to spend more to get people to our website using those keywords. If website visitors who come to your website from a Google Adwords advertisement and stay and explore your site Google will recognise your site as a good result for its searches and this will end up elevating your position in the “relevancy based” search results. That should be a significant goal, but I am now just digressing.

So, the business owner agreed that she was going to spend $1200 per month. The next step is to figure out which services she is going to promote and she gave me a list of 15 different services,which we then categorised into 4 main categories… Phew. We then looked at the relative weighting for each category of her business to decide how much they will receive of the $1200 per month and it came to a relatively simple 25% split each or $300 each category (division) per month. These were good figures because that comes down to $10 per day and that is how you can limit the amount of money you spend on Google Adwords…. by setting a daily limit.

The next step is a little more time consuming and involves choosing the right keywords and keyphrases to use for each category of the business. Once you’ve discovered this you choose how much you are willing to pay per click… hence the term Pay-Per-Click (or PPC) advertising (adwords.google.com). You may not get this part right the first time, but you will soon realise that you can pay for anything from 9c to over $20 per click to be on the first page. The more generic and popular the keyword the higher the price, the more words you combine together (keyphrase) the fewer people will be promoting it so the price will be lower. I’ll cover this in another blog post.

UPDATE:

Learn about alternatives like using relevant keywords in a blog for your business to make your website more valuable and ensure it becomes a trusted resource for customers.

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MYOB training courses scheduled for Chatswood and Burwood

workbooks and videos for MYOB training coursesAnnouncing: EzyLearn and Maxis Solutions (RTO 91428) have just released the training schedule for courses in MYOB Accounting for Day to day transactions in both Chatswood and Burwood. These courses are scheduled conveniently during school hours of 9.30am to 3.30 so that mums can attend and get full value out of their day.

These courses cover the Sales, Purchases, Inventory and an introduction to the Banking modules of MYOB Accounting. If you don’t have the software there is a link to the freely downloadable Test Drive software that you can use to practise what you learn on your home or office computer.

The Topics in more detail are:

Creating quotes, orders and then invoices in the sales system, changing item information and credit terms “on the fly” while you are creating an invoice. Understand the different invoice formats, including time billing, how to create and delete text headings and more.

Finding historical transactions is a major part of accounting software. In this course you’ll learn about the Sales Register, Sales Journal, To Do list, Accounts Receivable and Payable reports and Custom lists, plus an introduction to Statements so that you can supply your clients with a summary of funds owing to you. You also learn about the two main type of statement so you can choose the one that suits your needs.

This course also includes recording cash sales, entering credits, settling credits, how to deal with bad debts, deleting sales payments, and reversing credits.

Payments: You’ll learn how to enter invoice and purchase payments including part payments and over payments.

Purchases: You’ll learn how to keep track of your purchases whether you pay for them straight away or receive an account. You will also learn how to create a purchase order, converting it to a bill, creating an item credit, settling and reversing credits, and analysing purchases.

Banking: If you make purchase or income transactions that have nothing to do with the sales or purchases modules, then you’ll learn how to make these entries using the banking module.

There is an early bird rate so visit the ordering site and book early to save money.

We closed our last training centre in 2006 and have taught thousands of students how to use MYOB accounting software since then because we offer

  1. All courses for one price,
  2. Training on various versions of the software,
  3. Training videos combined with knowledge review questions,
  4. MYOB Course Workbooks that act as an MYOB bookkeeping induction
  5. We’re accredited by the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers
  6. We offer a money back guarantee.

Discover more reasons to choose EzyLearn for your MYOB Training Courses.

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We’ll notify you when we create a new training video?

I’ve had a Feedburner account (part of Google) for a year and never really understood the benefit of it until now. When you set feedburner up you tell it the RSS feed address of your blog and it keep track of every new feed that you create (or article that I write). That is all good and well and FeedBurner has been working hard to keep track of all the articles and sales texts I have been writing but it never really did anything, until now.

You might notice a little “subscribe now” box at the bottom of every post? If you enter your email address, you’ll receive an email which contains the details of each new post that I write from this website. It is a great way to keep informed through your email about what is going on at EzyLearn. Now is especially a good time to subscribe because I am scheduled to start creating our Excel 2007 and MYOB Payroll training videos for our online courses very soon. I plan to upload each video to this site so that I can get your comments and feedback about the contents and exercises to learn the new skills.

Subscribe now and you’ll be kept in the loop. You might also want to follow us on twitter, this post is automatically added to Twitter as well 🙂

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Email Marketing made simple

Content Marketing for good local real estate agents

EzyLearn has just implemented an incredibly simple email marketing solution for it’s clients. This solution allows you to only pay for the emails that you send, while providing a professional subscription service and html templates for your mailouts.

This solution is part of the 123ezy suite of website services and it makes the whole internet marketing, social media and keeping in touch with clients much easier. Best of all you can measure the success of your campaigns.

The cost is only $49 to setup and then 2 cents per email you send. If you prepay for your emails it comes down to even less.

Interested businesses should contact support@123ezy.com, call Steve Slisar on 0413 007 481 or order your newsletter online.

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Sell online computer courses as a business

Ezylearn has just announced plans to explore trainingagencies across Australia for companies who wish to provide it’s online training courses to their clients. It will be simple for agents to place orders online for their clients, they will be invoiced for the enrolments they enter and will take payment directly from the agent.

This allows companies in the computing and employment markets to earn extra money while providing a service to their client base, says Steve Slisar, EzyLearn Pty Ltd managing director.

If you operate an employment business, computer shop, accounting practise or have a client base you think are willing to learn Microsoft Office applications and MYOB accounting software online, please send an email to Steve at sales@ezylearn.com.au.

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Is Xero stealing MYOB’s future in the cloud?

xero online cloud accounting software versus MYOB

xero online cloud accounting software versus MYOBXero is a New Zealand based public company (XRO.NZ) that create accounting software that you can access from anywhere, much like hotmail, gmail or your Internet banking. I mention Internet banking here because many Internet users use Internet banking and trust it’s security completely. We think Internet banking is completely safe and secure, no matter how we feel about email security. Both are very secure so the move to online accounting software will take a little longer as users understand their accounting data may be safer online than it is stored on their own computer or server.

An article was written in BRW which highlights the challenges and potential future of this model of software delivery: http://bit.ly/9SNbam and most interesting of all is that Craig Winkler, co-founder of MYOB, which was taken over early 2009 by private equity, is now a major shareholder after an injection of $18M.

For us as computer software users and you as EzyLearn MYOB Training students, MYOB is still the market leader in Australia and you can do our online course for only $199 with 12 months access and unlimited repeats (gratuitous plug). The future is focussed on making it possible to work together more effortlessly with our accounting datafile and take advantage of fantastic data centres that store our information securely, provide data security and a first grade backup service.

Our company wholly embrace cloud computing as I delve into cloud computing for telephony (www.virion.com.au has already been very succesful for our business), as a CRM (currently looking into www.salesforce.com as a means to keep track of clients and correspondence), and for email communications (using Gmail and Google apps). Stay tuned for feedback and comments about our experiences.

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New online training course videos due shortly

I’ve just setup our Youtube channel and uploaded some existing videos so they are available for the world to see. My next goal is to create a blog post and link that blog post to the youtube video. This is the first attempt, wish me luck…

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Fantastic WordPress website template themes

You can download free WordPress templates, you can design them yourself using Artisteer or you can download them for $50-$150 each. I found someone who creates them, offers support and allows you to use any of the theme templates he has created for $19.95 per year. Even if you just use it to purchase one template you like, the offer made by this company is the way that dedicated and committed businesses should be working.

I started out just using free templates because I didn’t know what I was looking for and I didn’t know how to use WordPress properly, plus, I was using a different sitebuilder for most of my websites anyway. Then I looked at some of the professional WordPress templates available and didn’t like the idea of paying $75 for an excellent theme from Press75 because I figured I may not like it in 6 months, OR I wouldn’t be able to get all the features working properly. Instead I purchased Artisteer because I realised I could take any template and customise it completely! I was in complete control. In reality, I then spent a lot of time using Artisteer and realised that I didn’t want to design many of my own prefessional templates, I simply wanted to find one that was created by a professional and customise it for my own websites.

I had to find a business that creates professional looking WordPress template themes, would allow me to use a variety of themes they had created and all at a price that was impossible to refuse. I found Elegant Themes by Nick Roach and I’m amazed at how easy he has made it to use any of his themes and how little he charges. Visit his website to see the WordPress themes available: http://bit.ly/aCLCsg

Follow this blog to find out how I went to install and start using the features of the eVid theme…

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Getting social with your website

Social media seems to be on everyone’s lips today, especially if you work in the area of websites and internet marketing. The biggest names on the Internet at the moment: Google, Twitter and Facebook area all into it, but what does it mean for your business and it’s website?

I’ve just had the pleasure of spending several hours on a Sunday learning about TwitterFeed, an application that allows you to connect your blog (that’s what you are currently reading) to Twitter and Facebook accounts (and Pages for Facebook). This article is a test to see if it works. If it does, then a new tweet will be created at any nominated Twitter accounts and also on any nominated Facebook Pages.

If it does work the greatest benefit is that you don’t need to create all the Wall comments (facebook) and Tweets manually because TwitterFeed will do it. All you need to do is write the article.

8 hours later… Yep, it worked. A tweet at www.twitter.com/ezylearn was created with a link to the article and a post in our Facebook Page was also created. What does it mean? Simply that when you write and publish your blog post, announcements are automatically made on any Twitter profiles and Facebook pages you manage.

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Writing a blog post from your phone

You can truly understand the power of communications today when you can create a blog article from a cafe using your iPhone, wordpress and website design and have that article and related links appear on numerous websites.

We’ve just setup a new phone system using linksys (Cisco) phones and voip business telephone system which means we now use our broadband connection to make calls and can transfer calls no matter where we are, but better than that we pay $14.95 per month for a line and no longer receive TELSTRA bills. That’s a good feeling.

There is a cost for new ip handsets and some configuration to do, but Simon from yourITSupport does all of that effortlessly.

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New MYOB training video “email default preferences”

myob training course

Emailing invoices is commonplace today and the benefits are numerous: The arrive quicker, recipients can print them if they choose to or save them as a file and there is more certainty that they get delivered and not “lost in the mail” http://bit.ly/a6aDTG

You may be aware that the ability to email invoices from MYOB has been available for years and what an empowering experience that was, the first time we did it at EzyLearn. You may also know that there are default email subjects and messages for the quotes, orders, purchases and sales invoices that you create and send to your clients. We’ve created a new video to show you how to change and manage these default email message preferences.

The great feature about default messages is that they make your business look professional and show consistency while providing important information to your customers with each invoice.

We’ve included this video as part of our Day to Day course and it is available for no extra charge for existing students who’ve enrolled within the last 12 months.

Check it out. You can follow the link below (then use your student account login details to gain access to it), or browse through the contents of the Day to Day course and locate video number 502307!

Here’s the link: http://bit.ly/9kKK0B

Enjoy

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EzyLearn can help online with employment

Proof of training and evidence of completion of a course are two significant ways to prove that a person has the skills to perform selected tasks when they are in the workplace. How is this achieved with online training?

A certificate in the hand of a potential employee might seem like the answer to everyone’s hopes. Companies are looking for staff with the skills and prospective employees want to be employed. So, what does a certificate mean? The most structured form of vocational training is a Certificate or Diploma course, these courses are operated by RTO’s (Registered Training Organisations) who adhere to strict guidelines in assessing students skills level, running the courses and assessing the students skills at the end of the course. Under these strict guidelines you can be confident that if someone has a certificate that they have reached a certain level of competency.

EzyLearn is a computer training content provider, in other words, we create training videos, workbooks and exercise files that are used by private individuals, companies and training companies (including RTO’s). Some of these companies have qualified assessors who are able to provide a Nationally recognised Certificate, regardless of the training materials used.

At our www.myobcourse.com.au website we provide a Certificate of Completion. Our assessment of a students skills are based on their ability to take an MYOB data file, make changes to it like enter inventory items, create customer cards, create invoices, apply payments to those invoices and perform a bank reconciliation. If they can send the data file to us, there is good evidence that they have the skills required for most every bookkeeping tasks.

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Affiliate marketing – how easy!

I think about the times when I have been to countries like Egypt and Vietnam where there seem to be so many people willing to help travellers who’ve just arrived in the new town. I quickly got to learn that they are doing it for the money. This is why tourism is so important in these countries… It’s how locals can get paid by tourists who need help. Continue reading Affiliate marketing – how easy!

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MYOB training course – *free trial*, start now, money back guarantee

EzyLearn’s MYOB Training Courses are now being used by JOB Network centres, CRS Australia and other employment agencies because:

  • There is a wide range of content (MYOB Setup, Day to Day transactions and bank reconciliations),
  • Students can start straight away,
  • Students can access the training materials any time, day or night,
  • Students can access the training material from their home or office or anywhere with an internet connection, and
  • The training that everyone receives is consistent.

We have begun production of our MYOB Payroll training videos and when the training materials are completed, they will be made available to all students at no extra charge. EzyLearn’s MYOB course: all myob courses rolled into one.

But best of all, we are so confident that students will like our training course that we are now offering a money back guarantee. If, within 7 days, you are not satisfied, we’ll give you all your money back.

Check out our website and tell your friends about us: EzyLearn’s MYOB Training Courses

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Advertise on EzyLearn Computer Training websites

Are your customer the kind of people who want to learn about computer software programs like Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and MYOB Accounting software? EzyLearn owns a well planned and designed suite of websites which cater to this market. We call it our website real estate, and it gets some fantastic traffic.

EzyLearn is exploring the possibility of working with advertising partners in the recruitment, job seekers market place. PageRank is a Google metric that’s designed to show you the perceived value of a website, it accumulates a range of visitor statistics into one single ranking number. Google PageRank statistics include: number of first time visitors, returning visitors, time spent on the site, number of pages visited and much more, and if you download the Google Toolbar you can see the Google PageRank for every page you visit.

A number of our computer software training websites and website pages have grown to a Google PageRank of 4 and for selected keywords and phrases they appear in the first page of results. Some good examples are www.myobcourse.com.au and www.freecomputertraining.com.au. The FreeComputerTraining website is our most successful website in terms of traffic with over 55,000 unique visitors in the past 12 months. This website is used by many job network agencies across Australia as a free learning resource for those looking for employment across Australia.

If your business offers a service aimed at the needs of those who are seeking employment and are taking the making an effort to learn and improve themselves, this website may be an ideal place to put your display advertisement.

Any interested parties should send an email to online manager Richard Dabba at info@freecomputertraining.com.au.

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Website and marketing campaign up and running in one day

With all the right information (content) and systems in place, you can setup a website, optimise it for search engines and create a Google Adwords campaign in one day. Doesn’t that sound nice?

An experienced 123ezy website designer can setup a website for you using the sitebuilder (so you can log in at any time to make changes), create a Google account, create a Google Adwords campaign and get your business online quickly. Your consultant can also code up your 123ezy website with Google Analytics code so that you can measure your statistics from your Google Account interface.

To learn more about what is included in a 123ezy website hosting solution, visit this link: http://www.123ezy.com/website_designer/page_whats_included_whats_included.html

If you’d like to book a consultation remember that it comes with a one month followup on the phone to go through and see how successful the campaign has been. For more information, follow this link: http://www.123ezy.com/website_designer/page_education_consulting.html