Generally Intelligent is hiring Machine Learning Research Engineers (Remote, SF)

Generally Intelligent is an AI research company. Our mission is to build human-like general intelligence and make it safely accessible in order to foster a more abundant, unconstrained, and equitable society. We take a first-principles approach, starting from simple self-supervised architectures and evolving them to tackle human developmental milestones of increasing complexity.

If you’re remote, see the Machine Learning Engineer role: https://generally-intelligent.breezy.hr/p/37984490dd0f-machine-learning-engineer-remote

If you want to be onsite in SF, see the Machine Learning Research Engineer role: https://generally-intelligent.breezy.hr/p/ed6849c074fb-machine-learning-research-engineer-san-francisco

Our YC jobs page is here: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/generally-intelligent

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28497623

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Quadrant Eye (YC W21) Is Hiring a Head of Research, Engineering, Design

Article URL: https://www.notion.so/quadranteye/Welcome-to-the-Quadrant-Eye-jobs-page-daca8963683b4435bd871032224343c0

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28459877

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Generally Intelligent (YC S17) Looking for Machine Learning Research Engineers

Article URL: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/generally-intelligent/jobs/x7wiRgJfa-machine-learning-research-engineer-full-time-sf

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28412775

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How to Use Google Alerts for PPC Research

With over 267 million individual visitors, Google is undoubtedly America’s most popular search engine. Why does this matter?

If Google is the most popular search engine, you should be listing your PPC ads on it. What’s more, you should be tracking the most popular topics and keywords in your industry to better inform your PPC research.

How can you do this? Well, there are a few analytics tools available, including my own Ubersuggest. However, did you know you can use the well-known Google Alerts service to inform your PPC campaigns, too?

If you didn’t, don’t worry. When you think of digital marketing and Google, Google Alerts might not be the first tool that comes to mind over, say, Google Ads itself. Let me show you how Google Alerts work and how they can help you run your PPC campaigns more effectively.

What Is Google Alerts?

Google Alerts is essentially a notification tool. You can use the service to track when people use certain keywords or keyphrases online.

For example, you can ask Google to send you an alert whenever someone mentions your or your company’s name online, or you can use it to track what keywords your competitors are using most frequently.

The best part? It’s free to set up a Google Alert, and it’s easy to get going. If you’re a marketer, then it’s worth giving Google Alerts a try.

All that said, is there anything you can’t monitor through Google Alerts? Yes.

You won’t see any analytics details, like how often your brand is mentioned online or if your mentions are increasing. Meaning, you’ll still need tools like Google Analytics to help you measure KPIs and other significant metrics.

What’s more, you can’t track social media posts this way, so you’ll need an alternative tool if you want to track how often you’re mentioned on social media.

In other words, Google Alerts are handy, but they’re not the only tool you should use to track your brand presence online, track keywords, or monitor trends for PPC campaigns.

How to Set Up a Google Alert

It takes no more than a few minutes to set up a Google Alert. Let’s work through the steps together.

First, go to google.com/alerts. If you haven’t already done so, sign in with the Google account you want to receive alerts.

Next, decide what you want to be notified about and type the search term onto the top bar. Let’s use the search term “influencer marketing” as an example:

How to Set Up Google Alerts - Decide which sources you want to track

Then, decide which sources you want to track. Remember, Google Alerts can’t monitor social media posts for you, but you can choose from other sources like books, videos, and blog posts.

Next, decide how often you want to receive Google Alerts. You can opt for instant alerts, meaning you’re notified the moment a relevant post appears, or you can get updates once a day or once per week. It all depends on what works for you.

If you want to tweak your alerts even further, you can. For example, if you only want to receive Google Alerts for posts in a certain language, simply select the language you’re tracking from the drop-down menu. Or, if you only want to monitor posts relevant to a certain country, you can limit the search to this one territory.

Next, choose between receiving “all” results or just the ones Google deems most relevant to your search query. For example, if you’re using a really broad keyword, you might want to restrict alerts to the highest-ranking results only.

Here’s what the best results for “influencer marketing” look like:

How to Set Up Google Alerts - Sample Preview

Then, choose where you want to receive your alerts. You can either direct them to an email address or an RSS feed.

Once you’ve set your parameters, simply click “Create Alert” to complete the process:

How to Set Up Google Alerts - Finalizing the process

Now you’ll start receiving Google Alerts for this search term! If you want to set up any other alerts at this time, just repeat the steps. You can run up to 1,000 Google Alerts simultaneously, which is probably more than enough for you to track. However, if you need more Google Alerts, you can always set up a second account to run them through.

Want to update or delete a Google Alert? No problem. Simply go back to google.com/alerts, select the live alert you want to amend or remove, and click the relevant option from the menus available.

How to Use Google Alerts for PPC Ads

OK, so that’s what Google Alerts are, but can you use them for your PPC ads? Absolutely. Here are the five key ways you can harness the power of Google Alerts for your next PPC campaign.

1. Find Out What’s Trending in Your Industry

Sure, evergreen content matters, but trends are hugely important to every industry. Ideally, then, you want to quickly identify what these trends are and how you can incorporate them into your PPC ads.

How can Google Alerts help? Well, you can use it to monitor blogs and authoritative websites in your niche for new content. You can scan new posts to identify possible trends and capitalize on them before your competitors do.

To set up Google Alerts like these, simply set alerts for “[company name] + blog.” For example, you could track “Forbes blog,” “Shopify blog,” and so on.

Or, if you’re interested in general trends in a broader niche such as email marketing, you can use a wide search term like “email marketing trends,” ask Google to show you the most relevant results only and see what comes up.

2. Identify Topics to Target

While it’s not primarily a keyword research tool, Google Alerts can nevertheless be used to help you identify new keywords and search terms to target through your PPC ad campaigns.

An example might be helpful here.

Say you sell exercise supplements, and you’re launching a new product to help people recover after tough sessions. You can set up Google Alerts to help identify whether people are typing in search queries like “exercise recovery supplements” and “vitamin water.”

To get started, just set up an alert for these search terms. Here are some examples of how you might write out your keywords:

“vitamin water” exercise recovery
“vitamin water” supplement
“exercise recovery supplements” vitamin water

Using quotation marks around certain words ensures you’ll see results containing that exact phrase, plus any other words you’ve added on.

If no one’s searching for these keywords, you should rethink which keywords you’re targeting for your PPC ads. On the other hand, if they’re popular keywords, it might be worth spending the money to have your ads show up for these search queries.

Like I said, Google Alerts isn’t a keyword research tool as such, but you can use it to support your other keyword research strategies.

3. Receive Alerts About Yourself or Your Brand

When you’re creating PPC ad campaigns, it’s crucial you understand who your target audience is. Who is talking about your brand, and what demographics are you reaching? Once you know the answers to questions like these, you can craft targeted, more effective PPC ads.

How can Google Alerts help? By allowing you to track whenever someone mentions you or your company online. Once you start tracking your mentions, you can learn more about who is engaging with your brand and what they expect from you.

Again, these are simple Google Alerts to set up. Simply set up two individual alerts: one for your business name, and one for your personal name.

Use what you discover to decide which demographics to target with your PPC ads going forward.

4. Monitor Your Competitors

It matters what people are saying about you and your brand. However, it’s just as crucial to know:

what your target audience is saying about your competitors; and
how your competitors are performing online

Why does competitor research matter when you’re building a PPC campaign? By understanding your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, you can distinguish your own brand and build the most effective PPC ads possible.

You can monitor competitors’ mentions more generally, or you can search for announcements using search phrases like “competitor name + product announcement.” Use your findings to inform your product launch campaigns and PPC ads and stand out from the crowd.

5. Track and Manage Negative Reviews

No business likes getting negative reviews, but let’s face it: they’re a commercial reality. What’s important, though, is how you handle those reviews and use the feedback to improve your business. In fact, 96 percent of consumers read company responses to negative reviews, so your answers matter.

Why does this matter from a PPC perspective? Even if people click through your PPC ads, they won’t buy from you if all they’re doing is seeing multiple negative reviews and no feedback from you or the customer services team.

Can Google Alerts help you track and manage negative reviews, though? Sure. Here’s how.

First, you can just monitor for brand mentions. However, there’s a chance you’ll miss negative reviews tracked this way, especially if you’re a popular brand with multiple mentions.

Next, then, you can set up a special Google Alert for reviews only. It looks like this:

[brandname] + intitle:review

For example, if your company is called “Coffee King,” your alert looks like this:

How to Use Google Alerts for PPC Ads - Track negative reviews

Seventy-two percent of customers read reviews before taking action, like making purchases, so even if you’re running great PPC ads, reviews still matter, and it’s crucial you stay ahead of them if you want to get the most from your PPC campaigns.

Google Alerts FAQ

Let me quickly recap some of the key points we touched on.

What are Google Alerts?

Google Alerts is a notification tool. You can use the service to track who is talking about certain keywords you’re interested in and what they’re saying.

How do I set up Google Alerts?

Set up Google Alerts by going to google.com/alerts. Select your keywords, choose your notification frequency, and click “Create Alert” to go live. You can opt to receive notifications to your email address or an RSS feed, whichever you prefer.

What is the best way to use Google Alerts?

There’s no single “best” way to use Google Alerts. However, it’s ideal for checking out what people are saying about your brand and, importantly, performing crucial keyword research to better inform your PPC ad campaigns and ensure the right audiences actually see your paid ads.

Are Google Alerts free?

Yes, they’re totally free to set up and use. They’re worth trying out as part of your wider digital marketing strategy and PPC research.

Is there a limit to how many Google Alerts I can set up?

You can run up to 1,000 Google Alerts at one time. If this isn’t enough for you, then you could always set up some Google Alerts on a separate work account.

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Google Alerts for PPC Conclusion

If you plan on running a PPC campaign, you’ll know how important it is to research your target audience and choose the right keywords. As we’ve seen, Google Alerts can help, whether you’re sussing out popular keywords or researching popular trends within your industry.

Is a Google Alert the only tool you should use to track your PPC performance? Probably not. However, since it’s free to get started and it’s simple to set up an alert or two, I suggest trying them for yourself to see if they align with your company’s unique marketing strategy.

Do you need more help with your overall PPC marketing campaign? Reach out to me and discover more about how I can help you on your digital marketing journey.

Have you set up Google Alerts yet? What are you using them for?

How to Use Reverse Image Search For Competitor Research

What do backlinks, reverse image search, and your business have in common?

Your bottom line.

Sure, you can blog until you have hundreds of posts on your site, but it takes time.

Can your business afford to wait? Probably not.

This is where a backlinks strategy comes in. Not only can it help with boosting your domain authority (DA), but it could expose your business to a new audience who may want to buy from you if you target the right sites.

How do you find these sites? Reverse image search. When done correctly, you can use it to snoop on your competitors and find the backlinks boosting their DA and profits.

Here’s how to turn their backlink success into yours.

What Is Reverse Image Search?

A reverse image search uses an image in place of a text-based query.

All you need to do is upload an image onto a search engine, and you’ll get a list of information. These details usually include:

file type
source of the original image
image size
other sizes of the same image
websites using the image
related images

While many people use reverse image search to check if someone is stealing their content, it’s a powerful tool in the hands of a savvy digital marketer.

I’ve used reverse image search to grow my backlinks by 26 percent, but it can do so much more than find unclaimed backlinks. When done right, it can give you the upper hand over your competitors while growing your authority.

Why Would You Use a Reverse Image Search for Competitor Research?

Backlinks.

Using reverse image search on your competitors is one of the best link-building strategies most people skip.

Not having any backlinks is a reason more than 90 percent of websites don’t get traffic from Google.

By uploading a photo of a competitor’s headshot or company logo, you can see at a glance where their inbound links are coming from and start building a list of backlink opportunities.

Why is this important?

Backlinks are a valuable Google ranking factor. The search engine uses links from other sites as a vote of confidence.

According to a study by Backlinko, the site holding the #1 spot on Google has, on average, 3.8x more backlinks than those in positions two through 10.

Reverse Image Search - power of backlinks pie chart

By analyzing where your competitors are getting links, you can determine what sites are helping grow their authority and get a slice of the pie for yourself. Getting those backlinks could help grow your traffic, build your authority, and potentially one-up your competitor.

For example, let’s say you’re competing with me. If you reverse image search my headshot, you’ll see results like these before the fold:

When you scroll down past this, you’ll see a few more pages:

If you continue to scroll through the results, you’ll see I’ve been featured on sites like:

Searchengineland.com (DA 91)
Meltwater (DA 77)
Forbes (DA 95)
Getresponse.com (DA 81)

These are all powerful backlinks helping me grow my domain authority, website traffic, and sales.

How to Do a Reverse Image Search to Track Your Competitors

Ready to uncover those hidden link-building opportunities that lurk behind your competitor’s images? Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to do it.

Step 1: Find a Photo

What photo should you use for your reverse image search to track your competitors? I’d recommend using a headshot of the person who would be credited as the author.

Use their LinkedIn profile picture. They’ll likely use the same headshot for their guest blogging bylines, just like I do.

In addition to searching for a competitor’s headshot—or if your competitor doesn’t have a “face” attached to it—search for the brand’s logo.

Step 2: Use Reverse Image Search

You can’t upload a photo on the standard Google homepage.

Click on “Images” in the top right-hand corner to load the reverse image search feature or go to images.google.com.

Where to find reverse image search on Google homepage

Next, click on the camera icon.

Choose the headshot or logo you downloaded in step 1 and click on the blue “Upload an Image” tab. Google will then return a results page that looks like this:

Step 3: Start Looking for Opportunities

If we use the example of my headshot, you’ll see the first result points back to this blog.

Scroll down further, and you’ll see my author profile for CoSchedule. The blog has a DA of 57 and is a popular tool for content marketers. As a competitor, this is the kind of site you want backlinks from or to write guest posts for.

Having a guest post on a high authority site like CoSchedule could add to your credibility. You can use it to establish yourself as the go-to expert in your niche and get your message in front of your target audience.

Don’t forget to reverse image search your competitor’s logo! It can help you find opportunities to get listed on resource pages or niche directories.

How to Find Guest Post Ideas Once You’ve Completed the Reverse Image Search and Competitor Research

Now that you’ve completed your reverse image search, you should have a master list of websites your competitor uses for backlinks. Now what?

It’s time to come up with guest post ideas, start pitching, and, when a site agrees to your guest post, deliver compelling content to drive traffic back to your business.

You’ll have a much stronger pitch if you have a few blog post ideas. Here’s how to make sure you come with content the website will love.

Read Their Blog

You don’t want to make the mistake of pitching a blog post that’s already on your target’s website or won’t add value to their audience.

Editors receive an average of 10 pitches per day, and 20 percent of them don’t thoroughly read 90 percent of those pitches because they can tell at a glance they’re not worth the time. Make sure yours is in the 10 percent that the editors read.

How? By thoroughly reviewing the website you’re targeting. After reading the site’s content, you should be able to answer the following questions:

Who is the audience? B2B, CEOs, moms working from home, etc.
What is the level of the audience? beginner, intermediate, advanced, etc.
What type of content do they post? 3,000+ word tutorials, quick tips and tricks, narrative essays, etc.
What are the content gaps? Are they missing a comparison between two popular tools? Can you offer a different perspective on a hot topic?
What topics do best? Use Buzzsumo to see what posts get the most shares on social media.

Keyword Research

Once you have a few topic ideas in mind, tie everything together with keyword research.

Presenting a unique guest post idea backed with a strong long-tail keyword shows you know how visitors reach the site and, therefore, can write for their audience.

Plus, you want people to read your post. Choosing a keyword with a decent amount of traffic ensures you’re writing a blog your target audience will find and consume.

Use Ubersuggest to find high traffic, low competition keywords. Remember to check your chosen site’s DA so you can target the right keywords.

using ubersuggest for keyword research after completing reverse image search competitor research

How to Pitch Your Guest Post After Doing a Reverse Image Search on Your Competitors to Find Potential Backlink Opportunities

I have an in-depth guide on becoming a successful guest blogger, but here are the pitching basics to follow every time:

Read the Guidelines
Always check to see if the site has guest posting guidelines. If they do, follow them to make sure your post doesn’t get rejected. According to research by PointVisable, 22 percent of guest posts are rejected for not following the guidelines.
Personalize the Email
Hop onto LinkedIn or read the “About” page and find the exact person you need to email. If you can address the blog owner by name, you’ll have a higher chance of success than starting an email with “Dear Sir.”
Introduce Yourself
Include your industry expertise, accolades, and link to other places you’ve been published. You want the person to understand you’re not a generalist. You’re an expert with something valuable to add.

Reverse Image Search FAQ

How do I reverse Google Image Search?

Go to images.google.com and click on the camera icon. Upload the image and click on search.

How do you do a Google reverse image search on my phone?

Download or take a screenshot of your chosen image, then open the Google (not the Chrome) app on your phone. Tap the rainbow camera icon, allow any permissions it asks for, then tap the gallery icon. Select an image from your phone, and Google will display the results. You can also use Google Lens to take a photo and search for it.

How do you reverse image search with Chrome?

If you’re using the Chrome browser (again, not the app), you can reverse image search by right-clicking on any picture and selecting “Search Google for an image.”

Is reverse image search free?

Yes. It’s a free tool you can access via Chrome.

Reverse Image Search Summary

As you can see, reverse image search is a powerful backlink tool. It can help you identify the best sites to target for backlinks and go after the sites giving your competitors results in their business.

However, searching for an image is only the start. Once you have a list of sites, do your due diligence and pitch blog post ideas to establish your business as the go-to expert.

Only compelling blog posts will get you the backlinks you need to rank higher on search, attract the right people onto your website, and into your sales funnel.

Do you think reverse image search is a good way to gain an advantage over your competitors?

How to Use Wolfram Alpha for Marketing Research

Are you searching for new ways to make sense of the marketing data you’ve been aggregating?

With the continuous growth in artificial intelligence (AI) and the ever-collecting stores of data, there’s a better way to view and use existing marketing data.

While many online tools promise functionality to allow users to see data in a whole new way, search engine Wolfram Alpha actually delivers.

Through a combination of AI, algorithms, and an extensive knowledge base, this unique engine can provide marketers with valuable data points, as well as answers to complex computational queries.

Interested?

You should be.

In this post, we’ll explore Wolfram Alpha offerings and break down five ways the search engine can best benefit data-minded marketers.

What Is Wolfram Alpha?

Wolfram Alpha self identifies as an answers engine.

While the term engine may conjure images of Google’s search results, Wolfram Alpha wasn’t created to compete with Google—in fact, it has highly different functionality than the search giant.

Launched in 2009, the engine serves up lists and tables, providing users with specific, numeric-based answers to their questions. Given this emphasis on numbers and data, this engine isn’t necessarily for purchase-minded searchers; rather, it’s a data-driven engine that can provide insights.

Wolfram Alpha works through harnessing the extensive stores of collected expert-level data and algorithms to answer questions, conduct analyses, and build reports.

Versatile in its usability, this search engine can be used by students to solve equations just as easily as it can help you find nutritional information about M&Ms.

While you may not care about the caloric values associated with M&Ms, you should care about how these incredible data stores can benefit marketers.

While the free version of this engine is filled with useful actions, Wolfram Alpha Pro users can also upload data, get custom visuals for presentation, and access unique web apps.

Below, we break down the five top ways marketers can benefit from the unique tool that is Wolfram Alpha.

5 Ways to Use Wolfram Alpha for Marketing Research

While some marketers may love a deep data dive, some may detest it. Regardless of which camp you belong in, Wolfram Alpha can take the guesswork out of data analysis for you.

What’s more, the engine removes the guesswork from data points, providing more reliable figures than other sources.

Below are the five best ways Wolfram Alpha can help you optimize your marketing campaigns.

1. Upload Files for Automatic Analysis and Computation

Whether you’re tracking the success of your content, the performance of your social channels, or break-even analysis, aggregating all of your marketing data can be difficult.

With the Wolfram Alpha engine, the heavy lifting is done for you, letting you focus on other aspects of your marketing plan.

Check out this simple tool for calculating cost per thousand impressions (CPM):

A breeze, right?

In addition to the engine’s standard calculators, you can select from hundreds of existing widgets from the Widget Gallery that come with a simple embed code that you can easily copy and paste.

These widgets operate as shortcuts for your most-used formulas or can be built into your site.

wolfram alpha - break-even analysis widget

Regardless of the computations you seek, Wolfram Alpha can complete simple to complex equations, making your job that much easier.

2. Research Keywords

As you most likely know, keyword research refers to the process of finding and analyzing terms individuals enter into search engines. This process lets marketers discover which terms to target to reach their ideal audience.

After you’ve identified the most important topics that relate to your audience and identified the related keywords, it’s time to dive deeper.

While you can certainly turn to Google’s “searches related to…” list that manifests at the bottom of your query page, you can also look to Wolfram Alpha to help you get creative about related terms that your audience may be searching.

Wolfram Alpha offers information about words that can be of particular interest to marketers. The two that top our list include word frequency and the thesaurus function:

Word frequency: This tool enables searchers to learn the historical usage of a word, tracking its ebbs and flows in popularity over time. This can benefit your keyword research, as it speaks toward a word’s popularity (or lack thereof) and can be a strong indicator of search volume.
Thesaurus: This feature not only allows users to search term synonyms but to either narrow or expand that search through hypernyms or hyponyms. Beneficial to marketers in its broadening and narrowing capacity, Wolfram Alpha helps you discover related terms you may have otherwise bypassed.

3. Visualize Data

While data for data’s sake is one thing, taking data and turning it into something consumable for your company or client takes data utility to the next level.

Wolfram Alpha doesn’t just compute metrics; it can chart them too.

Do you have some marketing results you want to see charted over time, with the ebbs and flows of success reflected in an easily consumable manner?

Plotting functions with Wolfram Alpha is super easy: Simply enter the particular function you want to graph and let the engine do the rest for you. The number and type of graphs that Wolfram Alpha can build are seemingly endless.

If you find yourself overwhelmed, here are three standard graph types Wolfram Alpha can help you build that are incredibly effective or digital marketers:

Stacked charts: These can help demonstrate cumulative composition throughout a time span, such as leads from marketing channels.
Pie charts: They are incredibly versatile and can help demonstrate everything from budget allotment to the percentage of users using respective social media channels.
Distribution graphs: These allow marketers to show a single variable with a multitude of distribution points.

4. Use Localization

Perhaps you’re interested in doing some out-of-home advertising for your latest campaign. You want to be sure that the population in the area you’ve identified as a potential site aligns with your audience.

You could turn to Google, but you should turn to Wolfram Alpha.

While Google can serve up different results to queries depending on where you’re physically standing, it can’t make every site it aggregates data from do the same. Wolfram Alpha, however, does not rely on other sites for its wealth of data, which makes the engine’s localization analysis more accurate to your query.

Let’s return to the out-of-home advertising example: Imagine you want to know the per capita income per a specific area to know if your product will work within the parameters of the population’s budget.

While Google will give you pretty decent results, Wolfram Alpha will provide you with more precise ones with accompanying information (like currency) reflecting your current location.

5. Compare Data

With the advertising revenue function of Wolfram Alpha, you can determine the projected outcomes of your advertising campaigns, as well as all the associated metrics.

Okay, maybe not that impressive. However, you can also compare campaigns to one another, identifying areas for improvement and relative and collective successes and failures.

The search engine’s comparison function doesn’t end here.

While on traditional search engines like Google and Bing, you’d be hard-pressed to find a sales tax comparison for three United States cities, but Wolfram Alpha serves up this data quickly and easily.

In addition, if you’re in need of a comparison between two data sets, Google has to have a relevant site indexed to provide that information, or you have to manually compare the sets. With Wolfram Alpha, you can compare multiple data sets for results. The engine also generates graphs, historical data comparisons, ratios, and tables.

If we continue with our ongoing out-of-home advertising example, you can compare regional information regarding population age, income, and various other helpful demographics that allow you to make informed decisions about areas for potential advertising.

How to Use Wolfram Alpha for Marketing Research

Regardless of what data points you’re searching for, the Wolfram Alpha answers engine has an algorithm for you. What’s more, savvy marketers can harness its incomparable data stores to dig deep into metrics, conducting better research for better results. Areas that can benefit marketers include:

Uploading files for automatic analysis and computation:
With Wolfram Alpha’s insane computational ability, you can input almost any equation and gain instantaneous results.
Researching keywords:
Tired of your go-to keyword research tools? This engine can help you dive deeper into your understanding of which words resonate with your audience.
Visualizing data:
Pie chart? Scatter plot? Wolfram Alpha can help you see and present your marketing data in new, simple ways.
Using localization:
Get better data about your consumers from Wolfram Alpha’s deep data stores. What’s more? The engine automatically translates that information into the most relevant representation of your location.
Comparing data:
With Wolfram Alpha, you can compare almost anything through the engine’s deep data stores. Compare locations, audiences, and outcomes for improved marketing success for all your campaigns.

Wolfram Alpha for Marketing Research Conclusion

While Wolfram Alpha isn’t a traditional search engine that will send marketers scurrying to rank on its pages, the engine can still provide marketers and individuals alike with a plethora of knowledge that can help drive your next digital campaign.

As you explore the inner workings and functionalities of Wolfram Alpha, be sure to keep an eye on how the engine can help you dive deeper into data that will allow you to understand your audience, deliver effective presentations, or simply conduct better research.

As the platform continues to evolve, keep an eye on the blog to learn about the new advances and offerings the platform is creating that can help you harness the power of data to supercharge your next campaign.

What’s the most effective way you’ve used Wolfram Alpha for marketing research?

How to Find Image Sources For Proper Attribution or Research

There’s no shortage of amazing images online, but that doesn’t mean you’re always going to find the original. So many images you find on blogs and other websites originated from somewhere else. While it may not seem like a big deal, it seriously pays to know how to find the original.

Here’s how to find an image source quickly and easily.

Why It Is Important to Find Image Sources

It’s always handy to know how to find proper image sources online. It won’t just make your life easier when it comes to finding high-quality photos; it could also help you avoid legal trouble.

You Saw an Image and Want to Find It Again

Is there anything more annoying than seeing a cool image online, saving it to your desktop, and then forgetting where you found it in the first place? Worse still, you then have to waste hours trawling through your browser history to find it.

All of this wasted time and effort can be avoided when you know how to find image sources quickly.

You Want to Use an Image in Your Blog Post and Attribute It Properly

Images are vital when writing blog posts. Research shows articles with photos get 94 percent more views than those without them. That’s because nothing puts readers off more than huge blocks of text. Images help break your writing up, make points clearly and improve the reading experience.

However, you can’t just use any old photo you find on the internet in your blog. You have to make sure you are legally allowed to use it and that you can attribute it properly. You’ll need to find the original image source for both of these tasks.

Once you’ve found the image source, you’ll be able to work out whether you’re allowed to use the image (I help you with this below if you’re still not sure), and you can attribute it correctly if you need to.

While it’s very rare for small sites to get into legal trouble for using copyrighted images or not abiding by Creative Commons, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

You Need a High-Quality Version of an Image

Low-resolution images suck. They look bad on your blog, and they look even worse when you scale them up for printed marketing materials — but pixelated images are exactly what you’ll get if you don’t find the original image source.

Why? Because reposted images are usually shrunk to reduce the file size and increase website load times. This is great for the website in question, but it’s not great for you. The original image, on the other hand, is usually much larger in size. Whether you want to use an image in a piece of marketing collateral or edit it yourself, it pays to be able to find the source.

5 Ways to Find Image Sources

Finding an image source isn’t difficult. Here are five different ways you can use to find any image source today.

1. Use Google’s Image Search to Find Image Sources

Google Images Search is the de-facto place to find images online. You probably don’t need me to tell you that, though. What you may need me to explain, however, is how to use Google Images to find the source of an image.

Ways to Find an Image Source - Image Search on Google

You can do that easily using Reverse Image Search. Head over to image.google.com, but instead of typing in a keyword, upload your image. Google will show a link to every page on the web with that picture, and it shouldn’t be too hard to find the original.

You can even use Google’s Reverse Image Search on your iPhone by requesting the desktop version of the site in Safari.

2. Use Other Reverse Image Tools to Find Image Sources

Ever found an image on Twitter or Facebook and wondered where to find the original image? While it sounds like a tall order, reverse image search tools actually make finding original sources using just the image far easier than you’d think.

All you need to do is upload or copy and paste the image into the tool, and the search engine will find every instance of that image online. In most cases, it won’t be hard to find the original image.

There are plenty of reverse image search tools out there, but here are a couple of my favorites.

TinEye

TinEye is a great reverse image search tool that helps locate an image source in seconds. You can search by uploading a URL if you have one or the image itself.

You can also use TinEye’s Chrome extension to right-click on any image while browsing and instantly get access to the platform’s data.

Search By Image

Search By Image is an Android app that lets you reverse search for images on Google TinEye or Yandex. Search by uploading images from your phone or opening images from Facebook, Twitter and other apps.

3. Look Up the Image MetaData to Find Image Sources

You can find a surprising amount of information about an image in the file’s metadata. Sometimes it will even include the image’s source.

You don’t need to be a technical whiz, either. First, download an image. For the purposes of this example, I’ll be downloading this image from the Good Housekeeping website.

Ways to Find an Image Source - Look Up the Image MetaData

On a mac, you can find the image’s metadata simply by right-clicking on the image and selecting “Get Info.” You’ll be served up a load of data that probably won’t make much sense, but you’ll clearly be able to see the image’s source.

On Windows, just right-click the image and select “Properties.”

4. Use the Chrome Browser to Find Image Sources

If you use Chrome, you don’t need to visit Google Images to do a reverse image search. Instead, right-click on the image when you find one you want to search and click “Search Google for Image.”

You’ll be shown the full reverse image search results as usual.

5. Use Visual Search by Bing to Find Image Sources

Bing has its own image search functionality called Visual Search that makes reverse image searches a breeze.

You can drag your saved image into the search bar or upload it, and Bing will show every location it can find it online. You’ll also get a pretty in-depth rundown of the image’s attributes and any text that Bing can find in the image.

How Do You Attribute Image Sources Correctly?

How you attribute images depends on the type of image and where you found it. Most sites will be very clear about what you need to do when it comes to attribution, but it can help to know the following terminology.

Creative Commons Images

This nonprofit organization allows the use and sharing of images and other creative materials through a series of licenses. Some won’t require attribution at all, some will let you edit images, and some will be incredibly strict.

Attribution is a legal requirement of Creative Commons images unless the image has been published under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. The Creative Commons outlines clearly what it classes an “appropriate credit” using the TASL method. You’ll need to include the following details:

title
author
source
license

Here’s an example from Creative Commons that shows exactly what they mean.

find image sources - how to attribute image example

“Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco” by tvol is licensed under CC BY 2.0”

If you alter a Creative Commons image, you must include the changes in the attribution.

Public Domain Images

When work is listed in the public domain, it means the copyrights to it have expired. It is free to use, share, and edit. You don’t need to attribute the image at all or ever reference the original source.

Royalty-Free Images

Royalty-free images usually aren’t free. Rather, you have to pay a fee to use the image once, but are then free to use it again as many times as you like without paying royalties. That’s what the royalty-free part means.

Royalty-free images usually don’t require attribution, but be sure to check the licensing agreements of the site you downloaded them from. There may be other restrictions, too, like not using them for a certain purpose or in a certain niche.

5 Sites to Find Great Images

The costs of paying for images every time you use them quickly adds up for small businesses. It simply isn’t a sustainable practice. That doesn’t mean you have to go without images, however.

There are plenty of places online to find high-quality royalty-free images. Here are a few of my favorites.

Unsplash

Unsplash is probably the best stock photo platform in the world. You can use the images for free in almost any way you like.

Pexels

Pexels is another large, free stock photo platform like Unsplash. It has its own license that governs what you can and cannot do with photos.

Burst

Burst is Shopify’s stock photo platform. You can download photos for free without being a Shopify customer.

Flickr

Flickr is a fantastic image repository where you can find thousands of images to use for commercial purposes for free.

Canva

You may have used Canva to create a new logo or poster, but did you know it also has hundreds of free stock images you can use, too? You don’t even have to edit them to download them.

Conclusion

Finding an image source can seem like a lot of work, but it’s well worth it to find a high-quality image or protect your site from legal issues. Use any one of the five strategies I list above, and you’ll be sure to find the original source of just about any image you can find online.

Once you’ve found your image, make sure you are using it in the best possible way on your blog or are using the best editing tools if you want to make the image even better.

Where do you find your favorite images?

How to Find Image Sources For Proper Attribution or Research

Fundbox Recession Funding – Check Out Our Research on This Rock Solid Way to Get Financing Even in a Recession

Itching for Business Financing? Then Check out Our Review of Fundbox Recession Funding

Fundbox is one of several lending companies online. They offer Invoice Financing (which is not the same as Invoice Factoring). Our Fundbox recession funding review can help you make the best decision for your business.

Fundbox has raised more than $100 million in capital from Silicon Valley investors such as General Catalyst Partners, Khosla Ventures, Blumberg Capital, Entrée Capital, and Spark Capital. They count Jeff Bezos of Amazon as one of their investors.

We look at the specifics and drill down into the details.

Fundbox Recession Funding Review: Background

Fundbox is located online here: https://fundbox.com/. Their physical address is:

300 Montgomery St.
San Francisco, CA 94104.

You can call them at: (855) 572-7707. Their contact page is here: https://fundbox.com/company/contact-us/. You can email them at: support@fundbox.com. The company has been in business since 2013.

Invoice Financing

Rather than purchasing your accounts receivables for a percentage of the money owed to you, they will instead finance the full amount in the form of what is essentially a loan. And then you will pay it back as your customers pay their invoices. Fundbox does not communicate directly with your customers; you will continue to do so.

Payment plans are either 12 or 24 weeks. There is no penalty for repaying early. If you repay early, Fundbox will waive all remaining fees. If you finance your invoices with Fundbox, the fees are flat.

To qualify, you must have at least 6 months invoicing history in your accounting software. And you must have at least $50,000 in annual revenue.

Fees

Fundbox’s fees can vary, depending on customer and over time. You will pay the same amount each week. See: https://fundbox.com/pricing/.

Determine if you can meet a regular payment schedule during an economic downturn.

Demolish your funding problems with our rock-solid guide about 27 killer ways to get cash for your business. Get money even during the worst of a recession.

Revolving Business Lines of Credit

They also offer revolving business lines of credit. You can get line of credit up to $100,000. You will need to allow Fundbox to connect with your accounting software, such as QuickBooks. Fundbox would like to see at least two months of activity in any supported accounting software or three months of transactions in a business bank account.

Your business should be based in one of the 50 United States or one of their supported US territories. Their approved territories are Guam, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands.

Fundbox Pay

Fundbox has a B2B payment system (in a way, like Square or PayPal). This enables merchants to get paid faster on Net 60 accounts. It also allows buyers to qualify for net terms wherever Fundbox is accepted. Applying will not affect your personal credit. See: https://fundboxpay.com.

Accounting Software they Support

Fundbox Pay supports several types of accounting software, including:

Clio
Ebility
FreshBooks
Harvest
InvoiceASAP

They also support:

Jobber
Kashoo
PayPal
QuickBooks Desktop and Online
Zoho

Fundbox Recession Funding Review: Advantages

Advantages to Fundbox recession funding include their exceptional flexibility in connecting to your business bank account, and fast approval. Another advantage is that Fundbox stays out of your relationship with your clients. Your clients need never know that you are working with Fundbox.

Fundbox Recession Funding Review: Disadvantages

The main disadvantage is less than fully transparent fee information. However, if you sign up for Fundbox, they will let you know what your fees are.

Fundbox Recession Funding Review: The Bottom Line

The businesses which do best with Fundbox will be those which can pay back their debts on time or even early. But this is the case with virtually all online lenders, of course.

In addition, entrepreneurs with poor credit will be able to turn to Fundbox. This is vital as most other online lenders will not do the same. And it is even more important during a recession.

Companies without a long time in business might also do well. While neither a minimal time in business nor a minimal annual or monthly revenue requirement is spelled out on the site, there has got to be some sort of minimum in both areas.

As might be expected, companies which miss payments will not do so well with Fundbox recession funding – but that is the case with all online lenders.

Demolish your funding problems with our rock-solid guide about 27 killer ways to get cash for your business. Get money even during the worst of a recession.

Fundbox Recession Funding Review: Alternative Funding

Of course we recommend business credit building as a reasonable alternative to Fundbox.

The Advantages

Since small business credit is separate from personal, it helps to safeguard a business owner’s personal assets, in the event of legal action or business bankruptcy. Also, with two separate credit scores, a small business owner can get two separate cards from the same vendor. This effectively doubles buying power.

Another benefit is that even start-ups can do this. Heading to a bank for a business loan can be a recipe for disappointment. But building business credit, when done right, is a plan for success.

Individual credit scores depend upon payments but also other elements like credit usage percentages. But for business credit, the scores truly just hinge on if a business pays its invoices on a timely basis.

The Process

Growing business credit is a process, and it does not happen without effort. A business needs to actively work to build company credit. Nonetheless, it can be done readily and quickly, and it is much faster than establishing personal credit scores. Vendors are a big part of this process.

Carrying out the steps out of order will lead to repetitive rejections. Nobody can start at the top with business credit. For example, you can’t start with retail or cash credit from your bank. If you do, you’ll get a rejection 100% of the time.

Small Business Fundability

A business has to be fundable to lending institutions and vendors. For this reason, a small business will need a professional-looking web site and e-mail address, with website hosting from a company like GoDaddy. Plus business phone and fax numbers ought to have a listing on ListYourself.net.

Additionally the business telephone number should be toll-free (800 exchange or the equivalent).

A company will also need a bank account devoted strictly to it, and it has to have all of the licenses essential for operation. These licenses all have to be in the accurate, appropriate name of the small business, with the same business address and phone numbers. Note that this means not just state licenses, but potentially also city licenses.

Working with the Internal Revenue Service

Visit the Internal Revenue Service website and get an EIN for your business. They’re free of charge. Select a business entity such as corporation, LLC, etc. A business can begin as a sole proprietor but will most likely wish to switch to a form of corporation or LLC to limit risk and make best use of tax benefits.

A business entity will matter when it involves tax obligations and liability in case of a lawsuit. A sole proprietorship means the entrepreneur is it when it comes to liability and tax obligations. Nobody else is responsible.

If you operate a business as a sole proprietor at least file for a DBA (‘doing business as’) status. If you do not, then your personal name is the same as the business name. As a result, you can wind up being directly responsible for all business debts.

In addition, per the Internal Revenue Service, by having this arrangement there is a 1 in 7 possibility of an IRS audit. There is a 1 in 50 chance for corporations! Avoid confusion and dramatically reduce the odds of an IRS audit as well.

Demolish your funding problems with our rock-solid guide about 27 killer ways to get cash for your business. Get money even during the worst of a recession.

Instigating the Business Credit Reporting Process

Start at the D&B web site and obtain a free DUNS number. A DUNS number is how D&B gets a corporation into their system, to produce a PAYDEX score. If there is no DUNS number, then there is no record and no PAYDEX score.

Once in D&B’s system, search Equifax and Experian’s web sites for the company. You can do this at https://www.creditsuite.com/reports. If there is a record with them, check it for correctness and completeness. If there are no records with them, go to the next step in the process. In this manner, Experian and Equifax will have activity to report on.

Vendor Credit

First you must establish trade lines that report. This is vendor credit.

And with an established business credit profile and score you can start getting retail and cash credit.

These varieties of accounts often tend to be for the things bought all the time, like shipping boxes, outdoor work wear, ink and toner, and office furniture.

But first off, what is trade credit? These trade lines are credit issuers who will give you preliminary credit when you have none now. Terms are generally Net 30, instead of revolving.

Hence if you get approval for $1,000 in vendor credit and use all of it, you will need to pay that money back in a set term, like within 30 days on a Net 30 account.

Details

Net 30 accounts need to be paid in full within 30 days. 60 accounts must be paid in full within 60 days. Unlike with revolving accounts, you have a set time when you must pay back what you borrowed or the credit you made use of.

To kick off your business credit profile the right way, you should get approval for vendor accounts that report to the business credit reporting agencies. As soon as that’s done, you can then make use of the credit.

Then pay back what you used, and the account is on report to Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, or Equifax.

Not every vendor can help in the same way true starter credit can. These are merchants that will grant an approval with minimal effort. You also want them to be reporting to one or more of the big three CRAs: Dun & Bradstreet, Equifax, and Experian.

Retail Credit

Once there are 3 or more vendor trade accounts reporting to at least one of the CRAs, move onto retail credit. These are companies such as Office Depot and Staples.

Use the business’s EIN on these credit applications.

Fleet Credit

Are there more accounts reporting? Then progress to fleet credit. These are companies such as BP and Conoco. Use this credit to buy fuel and fix and take care of vehicles. Make sure to apply using the small business’s EIN.

Cash Credit

Have you been responsibly handling the credit you’ve up to this point? Then move to more universal cash credit. These are companies like Visa and MasterCard. Use your EIN to apply.

These are often MasterCard credit cards. If you have more trade accounts reporting, then these are feasible.

Monitor Your Business Credit

Know what is happening with your credit. Make certain it is being reported and deal with any errors ASAP. Get in the habit of checking credit reports. Dig into the specifics, not just the scores.

We can help you monitor business credit at Experian and D&B for 90% less than it would cost you at the CRAs.

Update the info if there are inaccuracies or the info is incomplete.

Challenging Mistakes

So, what’s all this monitoring for? It’s to contest any errors in your records. Mistakes in your credit report(s) can be taken care of. But the CRAs usually want you to dispute in a particular way.

Disputing credit report inaccuracies normally means you send a paper letter with duplicates of any evidence of payment with it. These are documents like receipts and cancelled checks. Never mail the original copies. Always send copies and retain the original copies.

Disputing credit report errors also means you precisely detail any charges you contest. Make your dispute letter as understandable as possible. Be specific about the problems with your report. Use certified mail so that you will have proof that you sent in your dispute.

A Word about Business Credit Building

Always use credit sensibly! Never borrow more than what you can pay back. Keep an eye on balances and deadlines for payments. Paying promptly and fully will do more to boost business credit scores than nearly anything else.

Building business credit pays. Good business credit scores help a small business get loans. Your loan provider knows the small business can pay its debts. They understand the business is bona fide. The company’s EIN connects to high scores, and credit issuers won’t feel the need to ask for a personal guarantee.

Business credit is an asset which can help your small business for years to come. And you can even build it during a recession.

Fundbox Recession Funding Review: Some Final Thoughts

And finally, as with every other lending program, whether online or offline, always remember to read the fine print and do the math. Go over the details with care. And decide if this option will be good for you and your company.

In addition, consider alternative financing options that go beyond lending, including building business credit. Recession funding exists but it is harder to get. So make sure to try Fundbox recession funding.

Only you can best decide how to get the money you need to help your business grow. Today, we want to hear from our audience! Share your voice with us about your experiences with online lenders. And let us know your opinion of our Fundbox review.

The post Fundbox Recession Funding – Check Out Our Research on This Rock Solid Way to Get Financing Even in a Recession appeared first on Credit Suite.

It’s Science-backed With Our Foolproof Research: How to Build a Business Credit Score in a Recession

We Smuggled Out Hidden Information on How to Build a Business Credit Score in a Recession

Our research dynamos can teach YOU how to build a business credit score in a recession! The economy doesn’t have to be perfect to build business credit quickly and effectively.

Building better business credit means that your small business attains opportunities you never assumed it would.

You can get new equipment, bid on real property, and deal with the company payroll. And you can do so even when times are a bit lean. This is specifically helpful in holiday businesses, where you can go for calendar months with simply negligible sales.

Because of this, you ought to tackle building your company credit. Enhance and maintain your scores and you will have these possibilities. Do not, and either you do not get these opportunities, or they will cost you a lot more. And no company owner wants that.

So you need to know what affects your business credit before you can make it better.

How to Build a Business Credit Score in a Recession: Credit History Length Is Vital

This is essentially the length of time your business has been using business credit. Obviously newer businesses will have short credit histories. While there is not too much you can particularly do about that, do not despair.

Credit reporting agencies will also consider your personal credit score and your own history of payments. If your consumer credit is good, and particularly if you have a fairly extensive credit history, then your individual credit can come to the rescue of your company.

So that is, you did not just get your first credit card recently.

Normally the converse is also right. Hence if your individual credit history is poor, then it will have a bearing on your business credit scores. And it will do so until your small business and personal credit can be split up.

How to Build a Business Credit Score in a Recession: Don’t Allow Your Credit Utilization Rate to Harm Your Small business

Your credit utilization rate is just the amount of cash you have on credit. So it is then divided by your total available credit. Lenders in general do not wish to see this exceed 30%. Hence for every $100 in credit, do not borrow more than $30 of that.

If this percent is climbing, you’ll have to spend down and pay off your debts prior to borrowing more.

How to Build a Business Credit Score in a Recession: Your Payment History Truly Matters

Late repayments will affect your company credit score for a good seven years. If you pay your company debts off, as fast as possible, then you can make a very real difference when it relates to your credit scores.

Ensure that you pay promptly. And you will enjoy the rewards of promptness.

Learn more here and get started toward building business credit attached to your company’s EIN and not your SSN. Get money even in a recession!

How to Build a Business Credit Score in a Recession: Your Personal Credit Can Bear upon Your Business Credit

A substandard business year could end up on your personal credit score. And in case your business has not been around for too long, it will directly influence your company credit.

But don’t worry, you can separate them easily. Do so by taking measures to unlink them.

For instance, get credit cards exclusively for your firm. Or open business checking accounts and other bank accounts (or perhaps get a business loan). And then the credit reporting bureaus will begin to address your personal and small business credit independently.

Also, make sure to incorporate. Or at least file a DBA (doing business as) status. You can also pay for your company’s debts with your firm credit card or checking account. And make certain it is the company’s full name on the bill and not your own.

How to Build a Business Credit Score in a Recession: The Credit Reporting Bureaus Can Just Plain Get It Wrong

Just like each organization out there, credit reporting agencies like Equifax and Experian are only as good as their information. If your firm’s name is like another’s, there can possibly be some errors.

So check those reports, and your company report at Dun & Bradstreet, PAYDEX. Remain on top of these reports and contest charges with documentation and clear communications. Do not just let them stay incorrect! You can fix this!

And while you’re at, it you should also be overseeing the credit reporting agency which solely handles personal and not business credit, TransUnion. If you do not know how to pull a credit report, do not fret. It’s easy.

An Alternative – Business Credit!

Business credit is credit in a small business’s name. It doesn’t attach to an owner’s consumer credit, not even if the owner is a sole proprietor and the only employee of the company. Consequently, a business owner’s business and consumer credit scores can be very different.

The Benefits

Since small business credit is independent from individual, it helps to secure a business owner’s personal assets, in the event of a lawsuit or business bankruptcy. Also, with two separate credit scores, a small business owner can get two different cards from the same merchant. This effectively doubles buying power.

Another advantage is that even new ventures can do this. Visiting a bank for a business loan can be a recipe for disappointment. But building business credit, when done the right way, is a plan for success.

Personal credit scores depend upon payments but also additional factors like credit usage percentages. But for business credit, the scores truly only hinge on whether a company pays its bills on time.

Learn more here and get started toward building business credit attached to your company’s EIN and not your SSN. Get money even in a recession!

The Process

Growing business credit is a process, and it does not happen automatically. A business needs to actively work to establish business credit. Nevertheless, it can be done easily and quickly, and it is much more rapid than establishing personal credit scores.

Merchants are a big part of this process.

Doing the steps out of order will result in repetitive denials. No one can start at the top with company credit. For instance, you can’t start with store or cash credit from your bank. If you do you’ll get a rejection 100% of the time.

Business Fundability

A business has to be genuine to lenders and merchants. For that reason, a business will need a professional-looking web site and email address, with site hosting bought from a merchant such as GoDaddy.

And company telephone and fax numbers ought to have a listing on ListYourself.net.

Likewise the company telephone number should be toll-free (800 exchange or comparable).

A business will also need a bank account dedicated solely to it, and it has to have all of the licenses essential for running. These licenses all have to be in the correct, correct name of the small business, with the same business address and phone numbers.

So bear in mind that this means not just state licenses, but possibly also city licenses.

Learn more here and get started toward building business credit attached to your company’s EIN and not your SSN. Get money even in a recession!

Dealing with the Internal Revenue Service

Visit the Internal Revenue Service web site and acquire an EIN for the company. They’re totally free. Select a business entity like corporation, LLC, etc.

A company can get started as a sole proprietor. But they will more than likely wish to change to a kind of corporation or partnership to decrease risk and maximize tax benefits.

A business entity will matter when it comes to taxes and liability in case of a lawsuit. A sole proprietorship means the entrepreneur is it when it comes to liability and taxes. No one else is responsible.

If you operate a small business as a sole proprietor, then at the very least be sure to file for a DBA (‘doing business as’) status.

If you do not, then your personal name is the same as the business name. As a result, you can wind up being directly responsible for all company debts.

Additionally, according to the IRS, by having this structure there is a 1 in 7 possibility of an IRS audit. There is a 1 in 50 chance for corporations! Steer clear of confusion and significantly decrease the chances of an IRS audit at the same time.

Starting Off the Business Credit Reporting Process

Begin at the D&B website and get a cost-free DUNS number. A DUNS number is how D&B gets a company in their system, to produce a PAYDEX score. If there is no DUNS number, then there is no record and no PAYDEX score.

Once in D&B’s system, search Equifax and Experian’s websites for the company. You can do this here. If there is a record with them, check it for correctness and completeness. If there are no records with them, go to the next step in the process.

By doing this, Experian and Equifax will have something to report on.

Trade Lines

First you must establish trade lines that report. This is also called vendor accounts. Then you’ll have an established credit profile, and you’ll get a business credit score.

And with an established business credit profile and score you can start getting revolving store and cash credit.

These types of accounts have the tendency to be for the things bought all the time, like coffee, shipping boxes, outdoor work wear, ink and toner, and office furniture.

But first off, what is trade credit? These trade lines are credit issuers who will give you initial credit when you have none now. Terms are commonly Net 30, instead of revolving.

Hence if you get approval for $1,000 in vendor credit and use all of it, you must pay that money back in a set term, like within 30 days on a Net 30 account.

Details

Net 30 accounts have to be paid in full within 30 days. 60 accounts have to be paid in full within 60 days. In contrast to with revolving accounts, you have a set time when you must pay back what you borrowed or the credit you made use of.

To kick off your business credit profile the right way, you should get approval for vendor accounts that report to the business credit reporting bureaus. As soon as that’s done, you can then use the credit.

Then pay back what you used, and the account is on report to Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, or Equifax.

Not every vendor can help like true starter credit can. These are vendors that will grant an approval with hardly any effort. You also need them to be reporting to one or more of the big three CRAs: Dun & Bradstreet, Equifax, and Experian.

But you may have to apply more than one time to these vendors, and you may need to purchase some things you don’t need, to confirm you are responsible and will pay promptly. Consider giving nonessential things to charitable organizations.

Revolving Store Credit

Once there are 3 or more vendor trade accounts reporting to at least one of the CRAs, progress to revolving store credit. These are service providers such as Office Depot and Staples.

Use the small business’s EIN on these credit applications.

Fleet Credit

Are there more accounts reporting? Then move onto fleet credit. These are businesses like BP and Conoco. Use this credit to purchase fuel, and to repair and take care of vehicles. Make sure to apply using the small business’s EIN.

Cash Credit

Have you been sensibly handling the credit you’ve gotten up to this point? Then move onto more universal cash credit. Keep your SSN off these applications; use your EIN instead.

These are usually MasterCard credit cards. If you have more trade accounts reporting, then these are feasible.

Monitor Your Business Credit

Know what is happening with your credit. Make sure it is being reported and deal with any mistakes ASAP. Get in the practice of checking credit reports. Dig into the specifics, not just the scores.

We can help you monitor business credit at Experian and D&B for 90% less. Update the information if there are errors or the info is incomplete.

Disputing Errors

So, what’s all this monitoring for? It’s to dispute any errors in your records. Errors in your credit report(s) can be corrected. But the CRAs normally want you to dispute in a particular way.

Disputing credit report inaccuracies usually means you send a paper letter with copies of any proofs of payment with it. These are documents like receipts and cancelled checks. Never mail the originals. Always mail copies and retain the original copies.

Disputing credit report mistakes also means you specifically spell out any charges you challenge. Make your dispute letter as clear as possible. Be specific about the problems with your report. Use certified mail so that you will have proof that you mailed in your dispute.

A Word about Building Business Credit

Always use credit sensibly! Don’t borrow more than what you can pay off. Keep an eye on balances and deadlines for repayments. Paying in a timely manner and in full will do more to raise business credit scores than pretty much anything else.

Establishing business credit pays. Great business credit scores help a business get loans. Your lending institution knows the business can pay its debts. They know the business is bona fide.

The small business’s EIN attaches to high scores, and lending institutions won’t feel the need to demand a personal guarantee.

How to Build a Business Credit Score in a Recession: The Takeaways

Once you find out what influences your small business credit score, you are that much nearer to being able to build a business credit in a recession.

Learn more here and get started on how to build a business credit score in a recession.

The post It’s Science-backed With Our Foolproof Research: How to Build a Business Credit Score in a Recession appeared first on Credit Suite.