FAQ / Membership Questions
- I cam here to network and signed up for Biznik Pro. Now what?
- It didn't take much to convinced me of the value. I’m a ProVIP, what should I do first?
- Can I change plans at any time?
- Can I cancel at any time?
- Can I take a break from paying for membership without closing my account?
- What is the Biznik Lite?
- How to I get a member profile and all that SEO I hear about?
- What is SEO?
- How exactly do Biznik member profiles rank so highly?
- I thought Biznik was free.
- I signed up for a year, but I don’t want to use it anymore. Can I get a refund?
- How many months of membership is the promotional rate applied to?
- Do you offer bulk discounts for groups and associations?
I cam here to network and signed up for Biznik Pro. Now what?
Great! "90% of success is showing up." So the first thing to do as a Pro is show up. Showing up can take many forms. You can attend an event or take the lead and host your own workshop or networking social. You can publish an article or join the discussion in one someone else has published. You can start a conversation in the Biz Talk forum, or participate in one that's already begun. You can join a group or form your own. Biznik will not magically introduce you to others, but it does provide the platform for meeting others, and the tools to make it easier to build stronger relationships.
Next, take advantage of your new professional profile. Pro profiles include an additional listing on a second category page, a second website url and a place for your logo. If you have a blog, import an echo of that blog. If you have a Facebook business page, add a Like box for that page. You're paying for these features, you might as well use them!
It didn't take much to convinced me of the value. I’m a ProVIP, what should I do first?
ProVIP is all about more visibility and extra support. If you host events or publish articles, make sure you go to your profile and add a bio. If you participate in the forums, be sure to add a post signature too. The post signature includes an outbound link on every post you make retroactively. Those links contribute to ProVIP members getting 26 times more click throughs to their own site from Biznik, than Basic members.
Next, ask for help. If you came for the SEO, contact us about a complimentary audit of your profile. During a 15-minute call, one of our staff members can take a look at your keywords and summaries and help you polish your profile to the point where it shines in the top 5 results on Google.
Can I change plans at any time?
Sure! Simply click the ‘Account’ tab on your profile to see your options.
Please be advised that all fees are non-refundable and we don’t prorate for partial months or portions of the year.
Can I cancel at any time?
Of course! When you downgrade, your recurring billing is turned off. Your membership benefits will remain active until the end of your billing period but you will not be charged again.
Can I take a break from paying for membership without closing my account?
No problem! You can downgrade your account to Biznik Lite at any time. You will not longer have a member profile, and your representation on Biznik will be in the form of a Lite webcard.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Paid membership fees are non-refundable. If you paid for a year of membership, and downgrade your account before the year is complete, you will continue to enjoy the benefits of your membership level (including the full profile) until the end of your membership billing cycle. Therefore, if you wish to hide your profile before the year is up, you will need to "unpublish" it and not just downgrade to Lite. (See last question.)What is the Biznik Lite?
In a nutshell Biznik Lite is a placeholder until the user is ready to step up and start networking in Biznik as a member. Lite webcards come with the ability to RSVP for Biznik events, but they are void of all the SEO-advantage members enjoy. It's easy to claim a public profile fully optimized for search engines like Google when you join Biznik for $79/year.
When you're ready to message others and create content, bump up to Pro. Premium membership starts at $14/month and includes the power to message, leave comments, start conversations, host events and publish articles.
How to I get a member profile and all that SEO I hear about?
Easy! Sign up as a member! Basic membership will set you back less than $7/month. No where else can you get a business profile soaked with Biznik's SEO mojo for less than the cost of a movie.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. "Good SEO" means you and your business get found more often in search results on search engines like Google when potential customers search for your name or keywords.
If increasing visibility for your personal or business brand is important, then paying attention to where your own website ranks is only half of the battle. If you're active on social media sites and social networks like Biznik, it's important that your social media profiles rank highly for your name and business name too. If you add the url for your own website to the profile, it will receive lift in the search results from a highly ranked profile. The added benefit, is that when you intentionally optimize profiles that you have control over, you can ensure that content highlighting your business strengths, over shadows any poor online reviews or negative comments about you.
Biznik was one of the first social networking sites in 2005 that put extension effort into building an online community that optimized its member profiles. The result is that Biznik.com regularly appears in the top 5 results for the term "business networking" and 93% of our member profiles appear on page 1 of Google for the user's name or keywords.
NOTE: Member Profiles are a benefit of Biznik Membership. The Biznik Lite webcard is void of a Title Tag, an H1 tag, a Meta Description and ALT tags. Starting at $79/year, you can claim an optimized Biznik member profile. Get on Biznik now.
How exactly do Biznik member profiles rank so highly?
Through a well-architected profile structured with SEO in mind. All web pages, including profiles on social media sites, contain SEO elements like the Title Tag, Meta Description, header tags (H1, H2, H3), vanity url, image ALT tags and image filenames. The Biznik profile has these elements too, but you must be sure that you put the right information in the right fields for the results you want.
Title Tag
The title tag appears inside the top of the frame of your internet browser, right above the url. This contains the most important information about you. Biznik automatically pulls the contents of your job title, your business name, your location and your name field into the profile's Title Tag. Perfect for keyword optimization, personal name optimization and local search optimization all rolled into one!
Vanity url
Your vanity url includes the names you enter in the first and last names fields. Choose the name you want to optimize. If you want to optimize the name "Jim Kelly" for search results, you will be doing yourself a disservice if you enter "James Kelly Jones, Jr." in the first and last names fields.
Meta Description
Unlike most social media profiles, we automatically generate a Google Summary for you behind the scenes that becomes your profile's Meta Description. That means you can approach your About descriptions from a marketing perspective and are not limited in length.
H1 tag
On the Biznik profile the Your Job field comprises the H1 tag, and is therefore the most important field on your profile. Choose wisely! Entering "owner" in the Your Job field is a massive waste of a highly optimized H1 tag.
Mugshot Filename and ALT tag
Make use of the image ALT tag, by naming your mugshot photo's filename intentionally. On Biznik we automatically apply ALT tags to image files.
Hyperlink to your website
Basic member profiles include one hyperlink to your own website, Pro member profiles include space for two and ProVIP includes space for three! This is good for the robots that will connect those website urls with all the keywords and SEO on your profile. It's good for the humans too who find your highly optimized Biznik profile in a search for your keywords, and want to hire you! Learn more about Biznik Pro & ProVIP.
Additional locations for targeted keywords
Additional places on the Biznik profile are optimized for both outside search engines, and for Biznik's member search. Pay attention to including your targeted keywords in the following locations:
- What you do
- What you specialize in
- Education
- Experience
- Tags/keywords field
- Post signature (available to ProVIPs)
- Bio field (available to ProVIPs)
Pulling in an echo of your blog, and any articles you publish contain keywords too. Also pay attention to your category.
Location. Location. Location.
After you optimize your profile, you must think about where your profile appears. This is why activity and participation are so important. Just as Google loves regularly updated blogs and websites, it equally loves regularly updated social profiles. Biznik profiles list recent activity, but more importantly, every action taken on the site includes a link to your profile.
This is also why choosing your industry category is important. Category pages are highly ranked on Biznik. Think about the lost opportunity when you select the "entrepreneur" category when you could be better placed on the "graphic design" or "chiropractor" category. Basic Members can select one category page to appear on; Pros can select two; ProVIPs can select four. Go ProVIP.
Learn more about optimizing other social media profiles..., Kristi Hines published an excellent article for the Search Engine Marketing Group blog called How to Optimize 7 Popular Social Media Profiles for SEO. Biznik.com was one of the seven she included in her report.
But what if you don’t care about the SEO?
That’s ok! But your Biznik member profile appears on searches inside the Biznik community too. So if you came here to network, you'll want to make sure other Bizniks are finding you too.
I thought Biznik was free.
It was, once. Biznik gave the "freemium" business model a good run, until the cost of development and the expense of staff required to support the tens of thousands of free users caught up with us.
Paying for Biznik provides you access to a community of real business people who are serious about their business. Where real names and mugshot policies are monitored by staff, where Biznik's No-MLM Policy is enforced, where spam from bots is non-existant, and fellow members who unintentionally spam are contacted about it. Articles are curated and events are measured against our 95/5 Principle.
We value community to such a degree that after the founder and the technology officer, the first employee was a full time Community Manager. You won't find that kind of attention to the quality of the community anywhere else.
I signed up for a year, but I don’t want to use it anymore. Can I get a refund?
Nope. Sorry, membership fees are non-refundable. If it makes you feel better, because of the discount on annual membership, you only paid for 10 months, not 12. Besides, you will enjoy all the benefits of your membership right up until the end of your billing period. For Basic Members that means benefiting from having an SEO-rich profile. For Pros & ProVIPs, it means having that professional profile and all that SEO-rich placement. You’re still getting something from it, even if you don’t think you’re using it.
How many months of membership is the promotional rate applied to?
It depends on the type of promotion you purchased. Some promotions are limited to the current membership period. If you signed up for annual billing within the last 12 months, you were eligible for a promotional rate on an upgraded membership level until your annual billing period renews.
For example, if you signed up for a year of membership in June and upgraded to a higher level in December, the promotional rate will last for 6 months, until your June renewal date. In June you’ll be charged the full price for your renewal.
At any time, you can review the status of your membership by going to the 'Account' tab on your profile.
Do you offer bulk discounts for groups and associations?
We sure do! A discounted bulk rate with consolidated billing is available for groups as small as 20. Drop us a line and let’s discuss your needs.
We are here for you!
Biznik Customers Service is part of your membership. Drop us a line and let us know how we can help you get the most from your participation here: info@biznik.com
