I got a mention in an article about getting paid to tweet on ReadWriteWeb (thanks HARO!). I occasionally tweet ads for pay on SponsoredTweets. I’m also trying it out more as an advertiser. I’m totally sold on having @Shoemoney tweet something – awesome results! I try to get the cost per click down to less than $3 and most average half or less. I also look for people with high engagement scores.

I’ve made all of $60 total on SponsoredTweets but the great thing is it’s easy. I’ve turned down some offers because they don’t fit my audience but several have worked out. The best is from an outsourcing company. They hired me to tweet. Then they became my client. Now I hire them back.

After reading the article I wanted to try Twittads but I gave up after not really getting how it worked and not having the time to look into all the details.

Here are 5 tips for using Sponsored Tweets:

1. Post something conversational or like a question – not an advertisement.
2. You can and should rewrite tweets so they are in your own voice.
3. Use related hashtags in your tweet.
4. You can use the term “brought to you by” instead of ad.
5. Don’t be greedy. It’s crazy what some people charge for a tweet. Keep it reasonable and you’ll get to choose from more offers. I’ve found little correlation between cost and results. As an advertiser I skip the people who are priced much higher than their peers with similar numbers of followers and engagement.

As John Chow said in the article: Since they allow you to use “brought to you by” as one of the disclosure mechanisms, you could write: “Hey guys! I found this great $1.99 web hosting deal bought to you by bluehost. Go check it out. URL” and get away with it.

He was also mentioned in a New York Times article about being paid to tweet.

Who should use SponsoredTweets? Authors (like me). People planning events. People who are launching campaigns and want to attract more participation and visibility. The results are quicker than some other methods like SEO, press releases and articles that build over time. Plus it tends to cost less than Google AdWords which has gotten quite crowded (read: expensive).

Sponsored Tweets made me a hero today – so I’m extra motivated to write about them. Plus I’m so fascinated by the instant feedback you get on the results. It’s like candy to a marketer.

Note: I’m partial to Sponsored Tweets (so far in the past several months I’ve experimented with others & it’s my fav so far). I’m also an affiliate. As mentioned I also manage advertising campaigns on Sponsored Tweets. You can use my links above to give me credit for referring you or go there directly (or not at all).

Related articles by Zemanta

• How To Make Money On Twitter By Telling People What You Like (johnchow.com)
• 5 best Web Apps to make money from Twitter (shoutmeloud.com)
• Sponsored Tweets: Kim Kardashian’s $10,000 Tweet Has Been Surpassed (blippitt.com)

You have to read this story about LoveJingles.com and how a musician made over $18k in 5 days with social media. It was fun to interview Love (say it like this: Louve). It seems like a great story just before Valentine’s Day. I signed up for a jingle and will post it when it’s live at the middle of this month. In the meantime, check out the full interview and story on Small Business Trends.

I didn’t get to go to the session with Markus Frind, owner of the wildly popular and successful free dating web site PlentyOfFish. First, what a great, optimistic name. Having been single and used online dating web sites (including his) I have to say it’s encouraging to remind yourself that you do have hope (sometimes you need a reminder of this). Dating often feels like the slot machines at Vegas - you don’t win but you keep paying in.

I hope Markus is doing some good with all the cash he makes living the 10-Hour Work Week (The New York Times reports Markus Frind makes $10 million a year). I somehow have this view of him as someone who capitalizes and leaves. In other words, doesn’t seem concerned with anything deeper than living a good life.

I’m all about having fun but I also feel that if you’ve created something that’s made you ultra rich, perhaps you should do something for the world. Like pay people or organizations to work on solutions to some of the biggest problems we have on this planet. I’d pick one or a few causes from a list like this: starvation, health care, diseases, environmental problems, restoring pieces of history. Maybe he does. But he’s not using his fame as a platform for these causes, that’s not how he seems to work ( and that’s ok even though I don’t like it).

Sometimes someone in real life surprises you. What you think about them may be very off from who they actually are. I found that true all the time in dating. The guys who seemed like losers at times ended up being amazing people who, even without a romantic connection were people I’m glad I met. Others make a great first impression but were disappointing in real life.

But back to advertising.

2 words: marketers dream.

This is the first time I’ve written a post based on a flyer I got at a conference. But it’s worth looking at. Amazing enough they get over 100 MILLION visits per month (Facebook gets 200 million). The average click through rate on the ads is .15% and it has over 2.5 BILLION page views.

What makes it appealing though is the targeting. You can target by so many things - by profession, by smoking habits and even body type! So if you target your ad to singles, this could be really big. Say you’re a jewer who wants to target people who say they are “looking to marry soon.” You could target the ad copy to men to let them know when they are ready to get engaged, think of us.

I’m very curious what performs best on the network and want to try it out. Like Facebook, PlentyofFish has a lot of data on people, which means you can target ads. Google targets them on location and search term. You can do a lot with Plenty of Fish.

Check it out at ads.pof.com

Josh Spaulding wrote a fantastic article about whether or not you should build backlinks to your article directory articles (let’s just call these articles, AD Articles). His answer: “The answer to the question is 98% of the time, no. And 2% of the time, yes.” He continues on to state that AD Articles are for ranking on [...]

After reading the 4-Hour Work Week & talking to my friend Paul about the results from article marketing, I decided to try outsourcing.

What I’ve learned so far

1. It takes skill to clearly define & explain tasks. It’s a skill I’m developing. So I found a company in India
2. It’s so funny to read the results of writers who are not native speakers! I laugh when I read it & find it interesting to note what the writers think of Americans.

Here are a few quotes from 1 article I had written recently:
Climbing the Ladder of Progress
“In today’s world of fast moving and ever increasing competition, publicity is one of the vital tools of business development that emerging corporates need to pay attention to in order to climb the ladder of progress.”

Perplexing!!!! Question
“Is Online PR really different regular PR?
The answer would be a yes as well a no. Perplexing!!!! Let me explain. Both online and regular public relations are similar as far as their targets are concerned- working as an effective marketing tool to step up business.”

Magical ability to reach hordes of people
“The strength of online PR lies in its magical ability of reaching hordes of people throughout the globe in very less time spans that has that magical effect on a business venture.”

Yes, like press release, you get what you pay for! In this case it would be $12 an article but thanks to a special price deal it was just $6 an article. Magical!

Just because it’s not as in vogue to blog as it once was, doesn’t mean that blogging is dead or dying. In fact, it’s as important as ever. Here are some recent studies that clearly show that blogging is still an important marketing tool.

If you don’t blog, pitch stories good and relevant stories to bloggers (who often need content).

3 studies about blogging to consider:

1. Companies who blog get more traffic, links and pages indexed by search engines

Out of 1,531 HubSpot customers (mostly small- and medium-sized businesses) 795 of the businesses blog, 736 don’t.

Companies that blog have far better marketing results. Specifically, the average company that blogs has:
• 55% more visitors
• 97% more inbound links
• 434% more indexed pages

To extend the benefit add these elements - a recipe for an effective small business blog.

Source: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/5014/Study-Shows-Small-Businesses-That-Blog-Get-55-More-Website-Visitors.aspx

2. Bloggers get more followers on Twitter

A new study of 2,100 HubSpot customers reveals that companies that blog have 79% more Twitter followers than those that don’t.

Source: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/5459/Small-Businesses-That-Blog-Have-102-More-Twitter-Followers.aspx

3. Blogs trusted and consulted more often than traditional media. Shift away from traditional media to blogs/social networks continues

This survey is from tech savvy women (who blog) but is useful. Women use social networks and blogs to interact, be entertained and find information about brands. Study finds they are twice as likely to use blogs over social networking sites as a trusted source of information.

45% of survey respondents stated that they decided to purchase an item after reading about it on a blog.

Source: http://www.blogher.com/blogher-finds-women-online-twice-likely-use-blogs-over-social-networking-sites-trusted-source-inform

Blogging should be a part of your pr/online marketing plans.

Have you ever heard or even thought about these statements before?

StumbleUpon.com just doesn’t get me any traffic.

StumbleUpon.com is a waste of time.

I don’t have time to use sites like StumbleUpon.com.

What’s StumbleUpon.com?

Do you have any idea what StumbleUpon.com can do for your online business?

Have you ever heard of “Social Media Marketing”?

I know for many of you these questions may be a bit rhetorical, but you’d be surprised at how many big businesses have NO IDEA what I’m talking about right now.

I’ve been a “Member since Aug 06, 2007“ and StumbleUpon.com (SU) has treated me really well. If an online business isn’t using tools like StumbleUpon.com, now is the time to “get off the bench!”

5 Ways Every Business Should Use StumbleUpon.com

1. SOCIALIZE: Make friends with SU users who aren’t new to the SU scene. One of the reasons this will help you get your “foot in the social media door” is because, chances are, these users have lots of subscribers, lots of connections, and can really help you “push content virally”.

   Going Viral is one of the overall goals I see with social media, to get your name out there in as many valid places as possible. Find stumblers who are already discovering articles, websites, and pages related to what you are all about. Don’t just add all the top stumblers – see what they have in their favorites, compare it to what you plan to favorite, and make sure it’s a fairly reasonable “good fit”.

2. Build Business Relationships: How? – stumble blog posts other SU users create, discover their stuff. Send them message via the SU email letting them know you appreciate what they share.

   Just beware: If I got a ton of friend requests and messages from newbies, I’d probably just ignore them until they got their feet wet a bit. StumbleUpon has a function which makes it even easier to see how close you “match up” with other Stumblers:
   

3. Be an Active Member: This is what SU and all the other “social networks” are all about – activity! Once you add friends with common interests, don’t be afraid to chat with them, send them a message via the SU message box, ask them to Thumb Up and review something, etc.People will say no, you’ll be ignored, and once in a great while one of them will actually do something to help you. This will probably happen more than you expect if you’re persistent and personalize your message.
4. Do Unto Others: Don’t just book mark your own stuff! I know, to most of you this is a “no-brainer” but come on – if you just add your own stuff you will be tagged as a first class SPAMMER! Besides that, the “important” SUers will ignore everything you do and you may get banned from SU.

   To avoid this beginners mistake, find stuff you like that’s related to your website and add it to your favorites: become a part of your industries community! If you don’t know where to look, go to the SU search bar in the top right corner of the SU screen and type in one of the keywords that relates to your industry.Don’t be too specific in your keyword search, and you’ll find other sites that will actually provide you with great stuff you can write about for your own blog.

5. Plan to Succeed! “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail!” Yep, that’s right, if you don’t have a social media marketing plan of attack, you’ll waste a lot of time and, just as the complaints at the top of this post say, SU (or any other social media site) won’t do anything for you.

If, after you implement this advice, you are still echoing the same sentiments found at the top of this post, you probably haven’t put each step in to practice fully Happy Stumbling!

The Power of Stumbleupon Links

One of the articles I wrote awhile back was about why to-do lists are essential to entrepreneur success. Because of StumbleUpon, this article CONTINUES to get views and links (written in May of 09).

Entrepreneur Success

How do YOU plan to use StumbleUpon.com in your online marketing strategy?

This is a guest post by Nate Moller. Nate has consulted with thousands of clients from all over the world, helping them build and effectively market their online businesses. He specializes in social media consulting and search engine optimization. Follow him on Twitter (@mollermarketing). Contact him today for a free consultation.

Article Marketing Expert Eric Gruber has agreed to write about a topic that I’m interested in - which is how to become an expert through posting articles online. Not just to article sites but to authority web sites (sites that have high value in Google). It’s all part of online PR.

How to Become THE Expert Fast with Article Marketing

A thought leader is essentially a trusted resource. And, in an information economy, a trusted resource is extremely valuable. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in – whether you have a Fortune 1000 company or a bakery in a small town – thought leadership will propel your business in ways that you could never imagine. For example, here are three benefits of becoming a “thought leader”…

Why You Want to Become a Thought Leader

1. Prospects will prefer you. The more expensive the products and services, the more prospects will want to seek out recognized leaders. They want to know that the provider is well established and can demonstrate expertise. They want someone who can provide reliable answers and someone who will continue to solve problems and provide cutting-edge information long after the purchase.
2. You will be recognized as a central source of information. When customers, prospects and the media need to know something that involves an industry, they’ll think first of the company or expert they perceive to be the thought leader. People invite thought leaders to speak at high-profile functions, present at trade shows, get interviewed and write articles, opinion pieces and books.
3. Dominate the search engines: Incoming links are one of the key ways to increase search engine optimization. Thought leaders who take advantage of online opportunities such as article marketing will develop a following, increase their company’s online visibility and at the same time improve their SEO.

If you write and submit articles the right way – you can become a thought leader fast.

So, how can you become a thought leader fast?

Top 7 Tips to Help You Become a Thought Leader Just By Writing and Submitting Articles Online

1. Write articles on a consistent basis. To be a thought leader – you need to consistently articulate and convey insightful information that listeners and readers value. This means, you should be writing articles – if not on a daily basis – then a weekly basis. These articles should be used for article submission. They should be on your blog. They should put into an auto-responder series. And, they should be turned into products.

2. Give away your best tips and advice. Truly insightful information is a rare commodity. So, if you reveal some of your best secrets that no one else is sharing, you will automatically become a “thought leader.” Plus, if the information you’re sharing is hot, prospects will think, “Wow! If he’s giving away this information for free – I wonder what I will learn if I get his products or consulting services!” They’ll be drooling to get onto your list, learn more about you and your offerings – and most importantly – buy from you. So, if you want to be a thought leader is then you have to be eager to give information away.

3. Be motivated by generosity, not self-interest. People are more likely to follow altruists – and they instinctively know the difference. Don’t ruin your article marketing efforts by writing an amazing article – and then try to sell them in the bio box. Earn your prospect’s respect first by telling them how you can help them – and then invite them to get a free special report or other call-to-action that reinforces the fact that you are a thought leader. Then focus on selling them.

4. Be different. If you are writing the same thing as everyone else, just using different words – how does this make you the expert? It doesn’t! Build a foundation of expertise. Quantify you experience. Record what you currently know about your industry that others in your industry may not know. Imagine that you’re a mentor writing a long letter to a protégé. Focus on uncommon expertise and wisdom.

5. Use proven article templates that will help you write articles and content that prove you are a “thought leader.” For example, a case study article template will help you write an article that shows prospect that you are the expert – and that have you gotten desired results. An example is my article, “How to Promote Your Book to the Top of the New York Times Best Sellers List”.

6. Submit your articles to the top websites, ezines and blogs! Most people focus their article marketing efforts on sites like EzineArticles.com. Submitting your articles to article directories like EzineArticles.com is good for building links and improving your search engine optimization. But it sucks at helping you become a “thought leader!” Anyone can get published on article directories (including kids) as long as you follow their editorial guidelines. This doesn’t make you stand out at the expert, does it? Get your articles published on top, credible websites. For example, my articles can be found on sites like About.com, SiteProNews.com, MarketingProfs.com and hundreds more.

7. Turn your articles into videos and submit them to the top video sites like YouTube and Viddler. As a thought leader, you want to get your message out to as many people as possible in as many formats as possible.

If you follow my advice, you will become a thought leader and make more money online. To get started, check out my free article writing templates at http://www.TryMyFreeArticleTemplates.com. These templates will help you consistently write articles fast so you can become a thought leader in your industry.

Article Writing Resources (note: these are affiliate links)

3 Free Article Templates
Instant Article Writing Templates Product
A to Z Article Marketing System
Online Article Marketing Course
Article Submission Site Database

About Eric Gruber:
Article Marketing Expert Eric Gruber uses the power of articles to create online opportunities for Internet marketers, small business owners and entrepreneurs who want to experience the benefits of becoming a thought leader in their prospects’ eyes. Now, you can get 3 of his favorite his instant article writing templates that will help you write thought leader type articles in 30 minutes or less. Get it now: http://www.TryMyFreeArticleTemplates.com

Kevin Davis hosted a Meetup about product launches - based on the classic on the topic Product Launch Formula by Jeff Walker (which is opening up again). His product is a book called Cash in a Flash: Fast Money in Slow Times by Robert G. Allen and Mark Victor Hansen.

The book is just a book but he had a giant launch around it and a continuity program (in marketing speak, a way to make income every month by offering more products on the backend). What I’m saying is that is where the money is made, not on the book itself.

Even though I got back late, I really couldn’t sleep after this because the ideas in my head or just thinking about the applications of what I’d learned. I must say this is not my style of marketing but several ideas were helpful and can be applied to any online businesses. It’s effective though - they are doing very well.

Here are key takeaways (being careful not to reveal information that Kevin wouldn’t want out - he was incredibly generous and I think a genius).

• Find JV (joint venture) partners. These are people who have email lists. The size of the list isn’t necessarily correlated with the response. It’s more the engagement and the fit of the offer with the list owner. How to find? events, calling people, emailing. Send free review copies. [I wish Quantcast or somewhere told you if they had a mailing list and approx. size]
• Create videos, previews and have partners do the same to build up awareness. For example, they had free weekly calls and gave people exercises to do to apply what they learned. Then use the answers in the next call. Use information in videos, audio, webinars and transcribe into blog posts - could even use as a product.
• Consider giving a discount for holidays - there are always holidays. This is good to motivate affiliates and give you something to hype (and send out press releases about).
• Project management and communication along with all of the content and web sites you need to create are significant barriers. Just the help desk requirements answering emails and handling refunds, etc. if formidable. I suggest outsourcing your help desk (CD Baby used these guys). This is the part that was overwhelming to me. Someone to manage and recruit JVs, someone for affiliates, someone to design, write, manage the forum, edit video, promote on social sites (that could be $3,000 plus by itself), etc.
• Run contests to keep interest high among JVs.
• Use Google Analytics to track results, Crazy Egg to track where clicks are (what’s working).
• Shipping anything overseas is expensive, consider making the products digital only.

Other tools:

BooksAMillion - ship books, just give them a spreadsheet of the orders
oDesk or Guru.com to find someone to write copy
Disc.com - duplication & replication of USB Flash drives, videotape and diskettes
Kunaki prepares and ships DVDs

OSFLV - open source video player, Wishlist Wordpress plugin for forums, Hannah player to embed into post, shopping cart. Pelotonics to manage, Evernote to keep track of notes (integrates with Google Docs now), OS Ticket for help desk tickets.

Pretty intense. I’d hire Kevin. Of course I’m not sure how in this world he even manages what he’s already doing.

Here is a quick list of recent Internet Business Trends

Email Marketing Trends:

• 46% of small to medium size businesses (SMBs) currently use email marketing to help them find and retain customers.
• 36% of SMBs recently said they plan to begin an email marketing campaign in the next 12 months.
• According to a recent report, for every dollar spent on commercial email marketing the return was just over $43.  The same report showed that for every dollar spend on search advertising the return was just over $21.  Go email marketing.

Search Engine Advertising:

• Bing steals market share from Google among small businesses according to a recent Webvisible finding (Google lost 5% share from Q3 2008 to Q3 2009).
• The same report showed that the average small business purchased 55 keywords in Q3 2009 compared to 43 keywords in Q3 2008.
• The same report showed that the attorney and dentist categories are the most popular at 7.7 and 5 percent, and spend an average of a little more than $2500 and $2000 for the 3rd quarter.
• The same report showed that 32% of clicks resulted in a lead conversion (went to a landing page, watched a video, printed out directions, entered an e-mail address, sent an email inquiry, or completed an online form.  Going to a landing page was the most common lead conversion, and was 2x the next closest forms of conversion.
• What about call tracking?… of those with call tracking, just under 5 percent of clicks resulted in a call.

Check back soon for more Recent Internet Business Trends.

With all the brilliant ways to do web marketing I am amazed that banner ads are still alive. We see them every where, so someone still finds impression advertisement effective. For me the banner ad was born dead (or at least mostly dead ). Even back in the 90’s I never clicked on [...]

I find it fascinating how everyone is trying to kill page rank, including Google. I was just reading a blog that shared, “Page rank means nothing.” The blog further states: “Ya, I said it. It’s a loose comparative tool for relative sites but does not rank the site’s productivity. A less than google-perfect site can still [...]

Branding, simplified.

Branding for startups, small businesses and Entrepreneurs…

Some “branding experts” are saying that you should spend thousands of dollars on branding. Don’t believe them.

First, I must explain, that there may be a valid reason for some companies to spend thousands, even millions, of dollars on branding, however, these are typically large corporations and other well-established companies – the ones that can afford to spend this kind of money on a brand.

Why would you spend thousands of dollars on branding when you may not even know who your target-market is? Or maybe you haven’t even made any profit yet? If that’s you – you still don’t know if what you’re getting into is going to work. Take things one step at a time.

What should you do now?

It might still be a good idea to spend some money on a logo, a nicely designed website and promotional materials…. but don’t overdo it. You probably won’t need to spend more than $300 on a nice logo and could realistically get a website (with a branded design based on your logo) for less than $1000.

Everyone needs a website, it’s an essential marketing tool for your business… but don’t be fooled into spending thousands of dollars when it’s not necessary. It might be necessary depending on what you want to do with your website, but honestly, most businesses don’t need that much to get a great start. Seriously, you might really never need to spend thousands of dollars on these things – take it step by step and see how things go.

One of the first things you should do, before branding, is BRAND IDENTITY… this is the process of figuring out what your target market is, what you are best at, and where you want to put your focus. Your target market should not be everyone. You should specifically define your target market and focus your business on that. That doesn’t mean all of your clients/customers are going to fit into your definition, but it means you’re more likely to enjoy what you’re doing.

Problogger’s blog had a post about how to get your new blog indexed. I’m going to summarize it for you and me. These are taken from the post and comments. Create a “to do” list or hire someone to add your blog to these sites, preferably with keywords that identify what your blog is about.

• Get a link from an established blog. You could email and ask a related blog or hit up your blogging friends.
• Tell Google (I haven’t tested this, some say you shouldn’t have to or that this penalizes you. My guess is that it’s a good thing but you should test it).
• Add your site to webmaster tools like Google Webmaster Central and Yahoo Site Explorer
• Create a lens about your blog on Squidoo.
• Create an account at these blog communities: MyBlogLog, BlogCatalog, Blogged and NetworkedBlogs and note that you get your own URL for the page you create. Also, for sure get listed on blog search engine Technorati.
• Register with sites that give the “value” of your blog:  WebsiteOutlook, StatBrain, CubeStat, WebTrafficAgents, BuiltWith, WhoIs, QuarkBase, URLfan and AboutTheDomain
• Create a profile for your blog on social sites like Twitter, Delicious, StumbleUpon, on Facebook, etc. There are huge lists of social networking sites where you can create a profile and usually get a unique URL.
• Keep track of all of your URLs and link to them on your Google Profile page. I need to update mine.
• Sign up for ChangeDetection that logs when your site changes (and essentially creates new content about your site). Sites like pingler ping search engines when you change your blog.
• Add your blog to LinkedIn and make sure to change the wording of the link from “My Blog” to a keyword phrase like “Press Release blog“

Here’s a question that I get asked a lot - how much time should I spend on _______ (insert Twitter, Facebook, social bookmarking, blogging, etc). You can easily get overwhelmed by the mirad of tasks and changes required to keep up with social networking and marketing online.

I’ve always struggled with that question. Why? Because the answer depends on you, your stats and your working style. I’m a person who works in spurts. I have inspiration and I try to drop everything and go. If not I forget what I was going to do or I lose the passion of my ideas that drives me.

You on the other hand may be a very organized person who organizes your day and likes routine.

Either way my answer is to do what you like doing the most first and establish a pattern. If you love writing, blog. If you like it quick and easy, tweet. If you have a loyal following of fans, start a Facebook Page. If you have video start a YouTube channel or group. If you have pictures, start with Flickr. If you have a lot of content that needs more traffic,  start with social bookmarking.

Spend time every day learning, building and testing marketing on the site. Give it a month and look at your stats. Yes, you need to have Google analytics installed. Do this now. Hire it done. It’s free it’s so valuable that you shouldn’t be online without having it. If you have a Wordpress blog the easiest is using the plugin Ultimate Google Analytics. You sign up, get a certain number, enter it in the settings (GA Settings) and save it. It does the rest. You can now see how people find your blog - from search engines, other web sites and keywords.

Ask yourself, what is working? How do you know what is working? I look at the top web sites and keywords that bring people to my blog. Then I see how much time each source averages per visit. The ones that are working will not only find your content but stay on your site (a sign they like what they see and want to learn more).

Then try another social networking or marketing activity. If it’s press releases, give it 6-8 months of regularly sending out news before you give up. Most marketing is going to take that long to start seeing results. If you want something faster, paid ads (PPC) is best but what a learning curve!

Next I’ll go over ways to guage your time and align it with what is working best for your business. Then you’ll be able to answer (not guess or listen to an “expert” tell you) how long to spend on social media marketing.

So, this last week I have been in Las Vegas taking a Java Boot Camp course.  Frankly, it has been a rough go for me. Having been on the marketing side for so long my mind just doesn’t want to simulate into the “everything must have a defining class” universe. This being the case, my mind [...]

Sendside Packages solve some very difficult problems for organizations large and small. This short video demonstrates how Sendside Packages let you seperate your business from competitors and compete in ways that they can't match.

View a Package about how Sendside speeds Sales

View a Package about Sendside powers Marketing

What's Sendside good for? Hell, you're supposed to be creative...

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Customer Communications: Sendside's clear communication capabilities provide the ability to 'send' information instead of asking others to come and get it. Instead of a static email, Sendside offers the capability to send high-touch, highly-interactive communications and use your existing content.

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Safety: Sendside gives everyone piece of mind with jaw-dropping capabilities like Reach, Prevention, and Recall that allow you to see every person who has access to your message, prevent forwarding, printing or downloading, and even recall a message at any time, even after it's been read. This type of control gets you some mongo bang-for-the-buck since you can switch inventory or the entire communication in-stream.

So there it is. Of course there's much more... Interactive, video, messaging, real-time reporting and analytics... Jump the curve to Sendside.

Businesses all over the world are recognizing that their promotional campaigns have to stay current with the latest trends or they’ll ultimately fail. Lately, the economy seems to be crashing lower and lower everyday, forcing both large and small businesses to let go of their staff and cut down on marketing costs. The bright side? A lot of companies are turning to the Internet to promote their brand, services and goods. Case in point: Cable TV.

Cable TV is “shifting” their services to accommodate Internet users. The main ides is that if you already have a subscription to Cable TV services, then why should you be constrained to only being able to watch cable on your TV? Why do you have to be at home at all in order to watch cable programming? You should be able to watch cable TV anywhere there is an Internet connection.

Major companies, including Time Warner Cable and Comcast, are in discussions working to increase their presence online by making their services available to paid subscribers on the net. An article on http://www.engadgethd.com said that “In an effort to maintain relevancy during a time when online TV viewing is on the rise, a number of big name cable companies are looking to throw in online companion packages to sweeten the pay-TV equation.”

Cable companies are looking for a way to satisfy the online consumer and cash in. Not only will they be satisfying a hungry online market, but they will be making profit off of it, increasing brand awareness, and revolutionizing their current business model. By keeping up with the latest online marketing trends, they are bound to stay afloat when so many other businesses are quickly sinking.

For the last several months I have been working with Janet (aka newspapergirl.com) on creating a title for her new online pr book. That’s right, I said several months! We have gone through hundreds of possibilities. Personally, my favorite so far is, “Lois Lane’s Complete Guide To Online Press Releases” (her blog tagline is: The [...]

Tomorrow, April 21st, I will be speaking to the Heber Valley Chamber of Commerce member luncheon.  The subject is Web Marketing Demystified: The Internet from an Entrepreneur’s Perspective.  All too often, we hear that we must have an internet strategy as entrepreneurs, but there is so much information out there that it’s hard to figure out what to do.  How does it all fit with traditional marketing?  If all the things that web marketers are true, then why aren’t we richer, happier, sexier, and just darn better?  This presentation will help figure out what is buzz and what is real so that entrepreneurs can make better decisions.

Where do you turn to find the most current information? The newspaper or the Internet? News junkies all over the world are ditching the newspaper and opting to scroll through the Internet on their iphone or laptop to find the latest news, facts, figures, stock changes, market crashes, and impending doom the world seems to be facing at any given moment. Electronic media is quickly becoming the world’s largest free source for quality up-to-date news.

The Internet is hitting newspapers where it really hurts– their pockets. Once upon a time, people had to pay to read printed news and advertisers paid to reach these customers. The publisher and his journalists made a profit and continued the cycle of selling news. The Internet, however, offers overwhelmingly vast amounts of information at a cost everyone can afford, free.

Most newspaper businesses don’t understand that they have to incorporate the Internet into their business model to avoid failure. People are cutting costs everywhere, and if paying for the newspaper becomes too big of a hassle, customers will quickly jump onto the web to find the latest and greatest ground-breaking news stories. Newspapers argue that the Internet lacks quality content and true journalism and are fighting to keep it alive.

Many people argue that newspapers are one-sided and don’t cover enough newsworthy information. Surfing the Internet allows customers to read millions of different articles on the same subject with varying opinions and angles. It’s also said that scanning information on the web is much easier than the traditional method of having to flip through pages of the newspaper to find the story you’re looking for. In the 21^st century, people have entered the Age of Technology where they’re turning to quicker, faster, cheaper and easier solutions for just about everything.

Daniel Vahab recently wrote an article for http://www.tothecenter.com/news.php?readmore=8877 saying, “But the recession is not to blame. Newspapers have been on a downward spiral ever since the advent of the Internet and the surge in popularity of blogs. All the recession did was speed up the process. And there’s no turning back. The Internet is here to stay.” Technology will always advance. Those who choose not to climb aboard and face the future may see their company crumble as newer technology replaces the old.

There’s a fresh new opportunity from Technorat to create both powerful one-way links to your site and build your own reputation as the expert in your market.

Technorati has introduced new “tag pages” system, the main page:

There are two approaches to keep in mind when utilizing the new Technorati tag pages.

Firstly, you want your own blog posts to appear in the more popular tag pages (of course, they need to be on relevant tag pages as well - don’t pick irrelevant tags). There’s a comparison engine that can help you determine the most popular tags. For example, here’s “Internet marketing” compared with “seo.”

As you can see, SEO trends higher than interenet marketing. So, if you had a blog post relevant to both categories and were trying to decide which one to tag it with, SEO would be a great choice as it’s a more popular tag. You should use between 5-10 tags on your blog posts, so there’s plenty of room for several tags but, again, it’s important they’re relevant.

Secondly, and this is the fun announcement from Technorait - each tag page has a sort of “sponsor” who writes an introduction to the topic. In return, Technorati links to the authors blog! Take a peek at what this looks like:

These pages are, of course, new right now and there are TONS of them available for you on which to add your own description and link! Because you’ll only get links from and write descriptions for tag pages that are within your niche, these links from Technorati will be HIGHLY relevant as well - and we know Google loves that!

Technorati describes the opprotunity:

This is a unique opportunity for authors, brands, agencies, experts and content sites with some significant benefits. Your tag article will appear on Technorati.com with a writer credit. You will be seen as the definitive expert on a tag subject – by millions of readers. Your article can include links to useful references and sites, including your own, if relevant, as well as your own byline link. It’s also really easy to contribute: tag articles are only 2-3 paragraphs, between 100 and 200 words, and can live for years as evergreen content.

Aside from the Google love link you’ll receive, having a prominent space on your niche’s main Technorati tag pages will bring your own site and name brand recognition. Having written the tag article, you’re now the expert in the niche.

How to become a tag page author? You’ll need to join Blog Critics, and they do a manual review of your content. If you’re publishing MFA (made-for-Adsense) or other non-unique content, you’ll likely not be approved. This is the opportunity to showcase your best work. Once you’re a Blog Critics member, you’ll be able to author Technorati tag pages.

Move forward with this opportunity as quickly as possible, as the “keyword goldrush” is occuring right now - grab the best keywords for your niche before they’re all snapped up!

Via Crowd Mountain

I will be hosting another FREE Utah SEO Workshop in Utah Valley.  Here are some of the details:

Free SEO Workshop (Intermediate Level) – Utah and Wasatch County
Geneva Building (1410 W 1200 S, Orem) Room GB 203
Wednesday, February 25, 2009 – 7:00-9:00pm

This FREE workshop will focus on the five main steps of search engine optimization (SEO) and review the best free SEO tools on the market. This “hands on” course will also cover successful online business models currently popular with SEO. SEO is the process of getting your website to the top of Google, Yahoo, or MSN search.

This class will be taught by Michael Eagar who has extensive experience as an online entrepreneur, and manager for many Internet start-up ventures.  Some of the companies that Michael has been associated with are Novell, Provo Labs, My Princess Pearls, US Family Tree and OrangeSoda.  Michael now owns his own company called Utah Labs which specializes in Online Business Training & Consulting.

Registration is required for this class – click here to register now, or contact our office at 801-863-8230 or sbdc@uvsc.edu.

Too many times I get asked the question from people interested in SEO, PPC, or other online marketing strategies how to measure success of whether the strategy was successful or not.  I always respond that it is very easy yet difficult to measure success of online marketing campaigns, here is some elaboration.

Whats The Scoop on Analytics Tracking?

Usually the most difficult aspect of setting up goals and objectives to track on your website is determining what those goals are and finding out how to track them online.  It seems fairly easy, but when you really dig in and ponder it you may find its more complex than you originally thought.  Lets take a  local doctor as an example.  Obviously a major goal or objective of the website will be if people come to the website, become interested, and contact the doctor to ask a question or even setup an appointment.  The easy objective to setup would be if the website has an online request form that you can track how many times people use it to send an email.  The only problem is that many emails may be from non-client communications.  Some examples may be someone who is emailing to ask about a job, a current client emailing to find out when their next visit is, or an insurance company contacting the doctor to try and get him to service their clients.  Unless you have separate forms or handle different requests in varying methods you can not weed out which emails are which easily.  Even more so what do you do about people who do not fill out the form?  Some website visitors may prefer to call the office instead of send an email; this would be difficult to track unless you only put your phone number on your contact page and keep track of how many people visit that page – even that method lacks credibility because you do not know how many of those people actually called in.

The good news is that the technical aspects of tracking success is actually fairly easy, straight forward, and quick to setup.  I am most familiar with Google Analytics which is a free anlaytics tracking program that is currently the most popular web analytics system out there.   In Google Analytics you can setup a goal for almost anything you want to.  If you are an ecommerce website you can set it up to track revenue, if you are a ski resort you can set it up to track ticket sales, if you are a web design company you can set it up to track incoming emails, etc.  Sometimes all you need is the url of the ‘thank you’ page of a goal or action that you want to track.  You may run into problems with technical integration if your goal or action is delivered by a 3rd party vendor who will not allow you to enter the tracking code onto their website.

8 Easy Ways to Improve Your Tracking

1. Concretely determine what your main goals are. Make sure you have thought through and you really know what factors contribute to the overall success of your company and which do not.  For example it may be as simple as tracking revenue for an e-commerce site, or as complex as tracking orders over $500 and for customers who make more than one purchase per month.
2. Don’t be afraid to have more than one goal to track. You may have multiple goals and objective for your website, don’t be afraid to track them all.  You may track online email requests, people hitting your contact page, and people who sign up for your newsletter.
3. Determine offline goals via offline methods. One simple example is having your staff who answer the phone start to ask how they found out about you so you have that information to supplement your analytics statistics.
4. Place a dollar amount to every action. Find out what every objective you are tracking is worth.  You may learn that 5% of people who sign up for your newsletter purchase your products at an average value of $95.  That way you can place a value of $4.75 per newsletter sign-up.
5. Work Together. Coordinate with other departments to get as much information as you can to work together. Offline marketing, online marketing, sales, management, support, and customer service all should work together to ensure goals are being met.  You may find that you have an excellent sales record but because of poor customer service you never have returning clients.
6. Ensure your web analytics are working properly. If your analytics are not working properly and capturing as much traffic and data as technology allows then you may make big mistakes based off of inaccurate data.
7. Work with 3rd party vendors or get rid of them. If you have vendors that will not cooperate with you to track analytics on their systems you should look into finding a new vendor who is more willing to work with their clients.
8. Learn from your metrics! If you find out your banner advertising is not paying for itself then axe it!  If you find out SEO or PPC are doing really well and bringing in a profit then boost it!

For those of you who just can’t get enough Internet marketing news, there are a number of industry magazines that you can subscribe to for FREE.

These Search Engine marketing magazines can help you keep up on industry news and generate new ideas for your business and your web site. Reading about the success others are having can also be very motivational.

Here is a list of Search Engine marketing magazines which you can get for FREE:

• Website Magazine - expert information for website professionals on how to succeed on the web.
• Revenue -  affiliate marketing magazine with everything about online marketing, including key business strategies, innovative marketing methods, effective online advertising technique and emerging advertising trends.
• Promo - resource for all promotion marketers providing the ideas marketers need to create powerful promotions.
• Online Marketing Monthly - marketing magazine focusing on the internet marketing industry.
• DMNews - source of news and information for direct, database, interactive and online marketers.
• Internet Retailer - strategies and technologies for the e-retailing industry.
• Multi Channel Merchant - integrating front-end and back-end operations.
• Electronic Retailer - for the electronic direct response industry.

Other Magazines that have a paid subscription but are worth the cost:

• Search Marketing Standard
• Visibility
• Domainers
• Modern Domainer

I am giving a presentation at a CEO Space Utah business networking meeting today on how to leverage the internet for business success. Here are some tips I put together as a handout for attendees:

Internet Marketing 101

• Leverage your skills, talents and knowledge (Intellectual Property) by duplicating yourself. What do you know that would be of value to businesses and individuals? Put that into a sellable format such as a blog, e-book, online video, DVD, CD, podcast, etc.
• A Blog is a great way to market yourself, share your knowledge and put yourself out as an expert in your field. You can use it to sell your intellectual property and build a following.
• Create an e-mail list, newsletter, membership, etc. so that you have someone to market to.
• Content is King. Unique and valuable website content is important for SEO and traffic.
• Take your content to where the traffic is (Facebook, YouTube, Squidoo, Ezine Articles, etc.) and use your Blog/Website to bring it all together for those who find you on the social networks.
• Keywords and Key Phrases. What are people going to search for to find a company like yours?  Optimize your content to those words/phrases.  Use them throughout the content of your website, but don’t over-do-it. Be wise. Use the Google Keyword Tool for suggestions.
• Most Bloggers gain their traffic from 3 sources, inbound links (other sites linking to yours), search engines (Google, Yahoo!, MSN, etc.) and social media (Facebook, MySpace, Squidoo, Digg, etc.).
• Remember that your front page is the most important part of your website. It’s your WOW!  That’s what people see first.  Your call to action should be very clear and focused on the front page.
• Service Providers. If you offer a service (i.e. carpet cleaning, plumbing, auto mechanic, coaching, etc) and/or have a physical office/storefront be sure to list yourself on Google Maps, Yahoo! Local, Yellowpages.com, Superpages.com and other business directories.
• Advertise. Google AdWords and other ad services are a profitable route for some businesses.
• My recommended Social Networks / Social Media sites: Facebook.com, Linkedin.com, MySpace.com, YouTube.com, Twitter.com, Digg.com, Squidoo.com.
• Other resources: dailyblogtips.com, weblifellc.com, poorrichards.net, inspiredstartup.com, seomoz.org, http://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal, google.com/sktool.

Some people are currently experiencing and economic recession, others aren’t. Some businesses will experience an increase in profits while others will slow down or even fail!  Some people are now being more frugal about how they spend their money and because of this some businesses become more of a luxury or unwanted expense?

No worries.

This is were leveraging the power of the internet comes in – this could make or break your business.  First, you must be offering what others consider valuable.

Did you know that the recession is not effecting businesses that are providing value online?  If you are providing information or services that people value and will actually help their business or another aspect of life, you will probably not feel the recession… unless you’re not leveraging the internet like you could and should be doing.

For some ideas on how you can leverage the internet refer to my post about duplicating yourself.

Are you an Entrepreneur? Do you have a great product or service that you offer?  Have you considered duplicating yourself?

No I don’t mean cloning! I mean duplicating yourself; leveraging your skills, abilities and knowledge to create more value and help more people.

How to Duplicate Yourself With Your Intellectual Property

First, consider these questions… What business are you in?  What products/services do you offer?

Even if you don’t currently have your own business. Perhaps you have a marketable skill, talent or expertise? What do you know that could benefit others if they had that same knowledge? This is your IP (Intellectual Property). What is Intellectual Property? It is information, it exists first inside of your head and is then reproduced in various forms (printed, spoken, tangible, recorded, etc.)

Now, here comes the duplication… How can you turn your Intellectual Property into a tangible form? i.e. a book, website, DVD, CD, e-book, digital product, etc.

It is in the creation of an educational product, based on your expertise, that you can duplicate yourself.  The amount of people you can personally visit with and talk to one-on-one is limited. Offering your service as a product you can sell to others allows you to influence an infinitely greater amount of people.

Here are some examples of how others are duplicating themselves.

A Financial Advisor who teaches people how to get out of debt, rather than meeting with each individual in person, can create an audio CD or visual DVD teaching people the same strategies.

A Business Coach, Branding, or Marketing expert, can take their clients through their process via a video or audio CD.  This can even be done online on a website.

A Home Gardening Expert can create a video showing a step-by-step process of home gardening.

There are so many things that can be taught, so many ways to do it, and so many experts out there, the possibilities are endless. Some of the richest people in the world have made their fortune selling books and other products that teach others how to do what they do.

Now ask yourself: “What skill, talent, trait, knowledge, or expertise do I have that can be turned into a product?” (DVD, CD, book, e-book, website, blog, newsletter, software, etc.)

Some people are currently experiencing and economic recession, others aren’t. Some businesses will experience an increase in profits while others will slow down or even fail!  Some people are now being more frugal about how they spend their money and because of this some businesses become more of a luxury or unwanted expense?

No worries.

This is where leveraging the power of the internet comes in – this could make or break your business.  First, you must be offering what others consider valuable. As I mentioned in a previous post, there are many ways you can duplicate yourself to leverage the internet for greater success in your business.

Did you know that the recession is not effecting businesses that are providing value online?  If you are providing information or services that people value and will actually help their business or another aspect of life, you will probably not feel the recession… unless you’re not leveraging the internet like you could and should be doing.

Industry gives comfort and plenty and respect.

A Blog is a great way to market yourself, share your knowledge and put yourself out as an expert in your field.

Most bloggers gain their traffic from 3 sources, inbound links (other websites linking to yours), search engines (Google, Yahoo!, MSN, etc.) and social media (Facebook, MySpace, Squidoo, Digg, etc.).

Take your content to where the traffic is (Facebook, YouTube, etc.) and use your Blog/Website to bring it all together for those find you on the social networks.

Link Building

Link building allows your website to be more easily found by others. The more websites that are linking to you, the more potential you have for getting higher rankings by the search engines.  It’s not just quantity that is important, but the quality of the links coming in to you.

Content is King

Great content is an important key component of search engine optimization. After-all, you want people to look up to you as the expert. With lots of original, valuable, entertaining, and inspiring content you can dominate your market.

Keywords and Key Phrases

Something to consider… What keywords and key phrases are people going to search for to find a website/company like yours?  Once you have answered that question you can optimize your site and content to those words/phrases.  Use them throughout the content of your website, but don’t over-do-it.  Be wise.

Contact Brian @ Weblife LLC today to use our services for your project.

It’s Christmas time and people are in the mood to give gifts and tips. Money is likely tight this year. Why not ask them to leave a review of your business online instead? Rather than a 1-time thing, this can create leads for your business for years to come!

This applies to the place you get your hair cut (be sure to leave your favorite stylist’s name), where you take your car in to be repaired, and many other local businesses you patronize.

This works even if the business doesn’t have a web site. You can help them get at the top of the list when someone goes to Google searching for a business like theirs. Research shows that people are using search engines sooner and more often than they use the Yellow Pages to find a local business.

First, their local business should be on Google Local. Google Local lists small businesses and is connected with Google Maps. My friend Matt says: “This almost guarantees a first page ranking for your most targeted local keyword.” That means a keyword with a location attached such as “Palaski, New York auto repair shop”.

If you add your business to Google Local it will show up in the list of results for auto repair shops that are close to Palaski New York. It will list your address and phone number and show reviews. You can click, “add review” next to the reviews, and leave your review of the business.

Google Local pulls reviews from other sites. Consider offering an incentive such as $5 off for anyone who completes a review for your business and emails you the link. You can email customers, thanking them for their business and asking them to leave a review. You can also leave reviews on some of the sites I’ve listed below.

Places to leave reviews (these are sites that Google Local pulls reviews from)
TripAdvisor.com
Judysbook.com
InsiderPages.com
Citysearch.com
Virtual Tourist.com
http://wcities.com
Outside.in
Fodors.com
Zagat.com
Goyot.com
Fommers.com

“You have to stop thinking like a marketer, an advertiser and a communicator and start thinking like a publisher. Create information your consumers want, and they will share it…”
- David Meerman Scott

Lee Odden’s blog has a great summary of a presentation by David Meerman Scott’s on PR and marketing.

I love this rule: “Nobody cares about your products (except you).” And I’ll add, get over it.

He also said to stop using your own corporate speak and use the language your customers are using. To find out what words they are using, look at customer reviews for your products or products that reach your audience. There is a lot of information online. I like using it to write my product descriptions. Amazon reviews is a great start.

David shared the top ten overused words from a recent study:

* Next generation
* Robust
* Flexible
* World class
* Easy to use
* Scalable
* Cutting edge
* Well positioned
* Market leading
* Mission critical

Stop the fluff. Get to the point quickly. And give us a reason to care. That’s good marketing - and good writing.

You’ve got a website right?  And you have value and services to offer the world.  Are you leveraging your website effectively to compel your visitors to action?

There are mutliple things to consider when going about this.  Here are some questions you may want to ask yourself:

• Who is my target audience?
• What am I offering?
• What is the end result or action I want my website visitors to take?
• What do I have to offer for free?
• What do I have to offer for sale?
• What compelling offer should I make on the front page of my website?

Now that you’ve gone through these simple questions it’s time to determine what to do next.  You may want to make one offer, or multiple.  Perhaps you’ll compel people to sign up for your newsletter by providing their name and email address in exchange for a free article or other download with valuable information.  By signing them up for your newsletter you now have an opportunity to market your services to them on an ongoing basis (just don’t forget to provide something of value in each newsletter).

If your purpose is to sell a membership or a product, make that clear on the front page.  Many online visitors don’t look any further than the front page.  The front page is your most important page, use it wisely.

Keep these 4 steps in mind for how to effectively engage your visitors:

INTERUPT – ENGAGE – EDUCATE – OFFER… more on those later.

Register now for the Utah SEO Training October 2008 version.  All the info you need here:

Beginning Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - Utah County

• This class starts Tuesday, October 21st.  This class will be held on Tuesday evenings from 7:00-9:00 pm or if you can’t make that time, all materials and training will be available online at seotrainingbook.com.
• Registration is required for this class - click here to register for the next class, or contact our office at 801-863-8230 or sbdc@uvu.edu
• SEO training is critical for anyone wanting to excel at Search Engine Optimization and to put your website at the top of the search engines.  Learn the latest skills and strategies to bring business to your website. You do not need to have a website to participate in this course (although it is helpful).  In this course you will learn:
• The skills of SEO and how to put your website at the op of search engines.
• How to design/develop your website to be search engine friendly.
• How to start an Internet business the right way from the very beginning.
• Several ways to make money on the Internet.
• SEO essentials such as: Onpage and Offpage SEO strategies, keyword research, getting links to your site, the best search engines, the best 10 free SEO tolls.

You will also learn the following: introduction to SEO, Search Engine basics, 5 Steps of SEO, Keyword Research & Strategy, Website Strategy, Web Page Strategy, Linking Strategy, and Ongoing SEO Learning, and tips on starting your own Internet business.

The cost for this class is $425 which includes:

• Five evenings of training.
• Access to the SEO Forum
• Weekly SEO Training Videos
• Weekly SEO Powerpoints
• Weekly SEO Summary Guides
• Weekly SEO Resource Guides
• Search Engine Optimization Level 1 certification.
• SEO training from the top SEO firms in the State of Utah.
• Networking and job opportunities in the SEO industry.
• Everyone who completes the course will receive $100 back.

This class is being taught by Michael Eager who has extensive experience as an entrepreneur, consultant, and manager for many Internet start-up ventures. Some of the companies that Michael has been associated with are Novell, Provo Labs, My Princess Pearls, and OrangeSoda.com.  Michael owns his own company called Utah Labs which specializes in Internet Consulting and search engine optimization.

**This class is funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the US Small Business Administration.

FREE class on Internet Marketing SEO Blog coming up.  Here are some details:

Internet Marketing (Intermediate Level) - Utah and Wasatch County
Geneva Building (1410 W 1200 S, Orem) Room GB 203
Thursday, October 23, 2008 - 7:00-9:00pm

This FREE class will focus on how to create a blog using free internet software to help you with search engine optimization (SEO). This “hands on” course will also cover key words you can use to get your website to the top of a Google or Yahoo search.

This class will be taught by Michael Eagar who has extensive experience as an entrepreneur, and manager for many Internet start-up ventures.  Some of the companies that Michael has been associate with are Novell, Provo Labs, My Princess Pearls, and USFamilytree.com.  Michael now owns his own company called Utah Labs which specializes in Internet Consulting and search engine optimization.

Registration is required for this class - click here to register now, or contact our office at 801-863-8230 or sbdc@uvu.edu.

The Tampa Bay Rays and the beloved Boston Red Sox are in a close race for the AL East pennant… I wonder how the Rays feel about the Red Sox. Link bait anyone? (Click on photo to enlarge).

Utah’s own Wordpress WordCamp begins in less than two weeks from now. Novells OSTC (Open Source Technology Center) in Provo is hosting the event on Saturday, September 27th 2008. This event will be for anyone doing stuff in Wordpress. Some stuff will be beginner level, and some will be advanced level.

Here is a list of what is included:

• Cost is $20
• Lunch is included
• WordCamp Utah 2008 t-shirt is included
• Networking with a lot of Utah Wordpress Bloggers included
• Presentations by Matt Mullenweg, Richard Miller, Cameron Moll, Thom Allen, Ash Buckles, and Alex King - all included
• Breakroom snacks included

You need to hurry to get in this event. You can learn more and register here: for Utahs Wordpress WordCamp.

Remember that space is definitely limited… There is a cap on about 200 people signing up, and it is almost there. If you want to get in, you need to get a spot right now!

Post written by: Russ Page SEOMoz, Directories and the lowdown on linkfarms SEOMoz is a great resource for keeping up with SEO, internet marketing and the general strategies and tactics of doing business online. The following is just one of the many reasons I’m a member. While this may seem like no-brainer at first glance, most of [...]

Five Effective Business Networking Tools

There are many ways to market a business product or service. Business Networking has proved to be very effective and is an essential skill for most business people, especially entrepreneurs. People are assets; many customers will make a choice over one business or the other because of the person representing that business. This requires that a business owner develop and maintain business relationships. Here are some tools and resources to take your business to the next level using networking.

Find the Best Network Group(s) for You

It’s best to visit as many business networking groups as possible. There are usually a lot of options out there. Take note of which ones spark your interest. Notice the tone and attitude of the group. Is there quality leadership? Do the people seem supportive of one another? Some groups are free and many will allow you to visit multiple times before joining. I recommend that you join as many network groups as is feasible for you and your business. Choose the ones in which you have the most to offer as well as receive.

In my experience I’ve found that one networking groups stands above the rest, CEO Space. They have a cooperative networking model. You’ll find that most members are genuinely interested in your success and doing what they can to help you find what you are looking for. CEO Space specializes in income acceleration, entrepreneurial training, and super networking to grow businesses exponentially. As a member you will be taught Free Enterprise Skills not taught in conventional educational programs.

More info: www.ceospaceutah.net

What You Give Will Come Back to You

Business networking isn’t all about what you can get, it’s actually about what you can give. The more you open yourself up to giving and assisting others, the more you are making yourself available to receive. Also, it’s about quality not quantity. When you are giving information and referrals keep in mind that you sincerely want the person to succeed and give with such a mindset.

Have you belonged to networking groups in which you felt you weren’t getting enough leads? Perhaps it’s because you haven’t been giving enough? Or perhaps people you haven’t been there long enough or created enough relationships with people to make them comfortable to give you leads. Give it a try: forget yourself and focus on creating success for others then watch the same happen for you.

Follow Up

How much business have you potentially missed out on because you didn’t follow up? If you receive a referral from someone be sure to follow up with that contact, you may be missing out on a great opportunity. Also, whenever you give a referral to someone else follow up with them. Find out if they were able to get a hold of the person and what the result of the referral was. You might even want to keep a written record of the referrals you given and received. A great strategy when giving a referral is to call up the person you are referring right away and hand your phone to your business associate. Get them connected right away for better results!

Set Goals

Before going to your networking meetings set some goals. Are you there for clients? knowledge? or an other reason? Decide what it is you are looking for and ask for that specifically. What do you want to accomplish? Make a list of intentions and as you fulfill each one add more items to the list. Remember to also help others accomplish their goals.

Business Cards

Don’t forget your business cards, how else will people follow up with you? Put enough information on your card so that people will have multiple ways to contact you (i.e. work phone, cell, email, address, IM, etc.), you never know what each persons preferred method of communication is. Be generous in giving out your business cards. Give cards out to everyone, including family and friends. Give out multiple cards to some people; they may end up referring your services.

Create a business card that stands out. What is it that makes you different from everyone else? Why should people choose you? Be sure to make that statement on your business card. Putting your picture on your business card will help people connect a person to the business. Insert your card in all mailings and find every opportunity you can to give them out. You never know what opportunities you might be missing out on by not giving out enough business cards. Your business card is one of the most simple and effective marketing tools.

“Voices of Search” blog compiled a list of the most popular search engine marketing blogs. The good news is Newspapergirl made the list.  The bad news is I didn’t break the top 200! I guess it might help if I were actually blogging regularly. Marketing Pilgrim, who I write for (which is not a lot lately) came in at #30.

At some point I went from learning and reading about Internet marketing to doing it. Much of it doesn’t seem new or exciting but I still love it. To write well you must read well and lately my reading has been confined to the newspaper and books that have nothing to do with my work.

I’m glad to have made the list with many people I look up to and respect. Now if I could get my blog updated and redesigned and make it a point to post more often!