Production Blog Reviews

Web Site Advertising – Building Links

Posted by BlogPostman under Web Site Advertising

So, you’ve come up with a great idea for an online business, and everyone that you’ve told about your idea thinks it will really be popular with internet audiences. Before you rush out to tell the world about what you’ve come up with, you’ve got to consider how you’ll use web site advertising to build a network of traffic for your business.

The internet is a great medium for entrepreneurs because it is almost a level playing field. Anyone can create their website, come up with a business plan, and start making money if they know how to use smart web site advertising to get them noticed on the web.

Unlike the real world of brick and mortar businesses, where if you have more money, you can build a fancier store front and set your prices lower, the internet doesn’t show favorites to those that have more money to throw at web site advertising. However, it will reward you handsomely for using those tactics in an intelligent way.

The key to using web site advertising in the most efficient way is to build links with other websites that will help to direct traffic to your pages. This isn’t as easy as it sounds, because usually other sites are loath to give up real estate to help someone else out.

This is why it can be helpful to work with an experience internet marketing firm that will be able to plug you into their already existing network of commerce and information websites. This is a smart type of web site advertising because not only will you get valuable links, you’ll be able to target your exposure to the audience members that are most likely to make a purchase.

If you are aware of your need for web site advertising but still unclear about how having additional links to your business on other websites is going to help you to be more successful, you’ve got to think of the web like a highway and your site like one of millions of exits.

Every time you have a link to your site placed on another website, it’s like adding the number of exits that will take people to your pages. The more people that travel through your pages every day, the more chance you have to make as sale and hit the goals that will make you successful.

Don’t allow your business to plateau at a low level of exposure! Click here to learn about proven web site advertising techniques that will increase your visibility and your success.

Local Review Success Hits Speed Bump

Posted by cgseo under Social Media, Web Marketing

Share Local Review Success Hits Speed Bump This content from: Duct Tape Marketing You know I’m a supporter of the local review sites like Yelp! and City Search , but some small business owners have issues with the format. Here’s the dilemma, consumers do seem to like them because they offer an easy way to get some input on a business. Business owners take issue because they sometimes get bad reviews and feel they have little or no control over what’s said about them. I’m not going sit here and say these sites are perfect, but I for one think they provide a necessary service and should be looked upon as a business building tool. Too often the only real problem with these sites is they publish the truth and that’s hard to hear. This past week several attorneys filed class action suits against Yelp! claiming that the service is attempting to sell advertising to businesses as a way to help them erase bad reviews. Here’s some coverage on the filed lawsuit and more in the Wall Street Journal The lawsuit was brought by a vet clinic in the San Fran area called Cats & Dogs Animal Hospital – one look at the reviews on the Cats & Dogs Yelp page and you kind of get the feeling this business has some issues. There are some very good reviews and some very bad reviews. I’ve found these review sites to be very accurately indicative of the health of a business. I suppose this is a good time to remind business owners to be proactive in getting their loyal fans to start the good review trend! Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman had this to say about what he’s called the conspiracy theory . I did some further searching and found one attorney who thinks the Yelp! suit will get tossed quickly . Or consider this from industry analyst Greg Sterling “The allegations above must be proven with evidence. As I’ve said before I’m skeptical that there was any “quid pro quo” or pattern accordingly. But the depositions in this case — and there will have to be many — will start to establish whether there is any meat to these claims or whether it’s just frustration boiling over together with some opportunistic attorneys who may have solicited the action after reading the negative press coverage and wondering if there was a viable lawsuit in the making.” I have no idea whether any of these allegations have merit, but I’ve witnessed how much effort Yelp puts into giving business owners a voice on Yelp and I for one think this shows how authentic their attempt to put out a balanced and necessary offering is. Related Posts: Yelp! Changing the Local Game Some More Your Pizza Sucks And . . . 5 Ways to Rock Customer Review Sites Google Wants to be the Local Place Social Search Gaining Steam Powered by Contextual Related Posts Like this post? Share it with others

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Local Review Success Hits Speed Bump

Web Marketing – Do You Need It?

Posted by BlogPostman under Web Marketing

So, you’ve been in business for a few months now, and you’ve seen your customer base grow from just a few friends and family members to enough local action to keep you busy on a daily basis. You’re probably thinking that you’re doing alright without any web marketing campaigns, but that’s where you’re wrong.

Too many people think that because they’ve managed to generate interest about their products or services through word of mouth tactics, or simply print and television advertising in their particular region, they are doing all they can to build a brand awareness about their company. However, without web marketing, you are leaving out a very important piece of the puzzle.

If you’re just now starting your web based business, you have to understand that web marketing is even more important for you than it is for traditional brick and mortar businesses. This is because the internet is your lifeline to your customer base. If you’re not making use of it, you can be sure that your competition is.

If you’re trying to decide whether or not you really need to invest in web marketing, you have to ask yourself how big you eventually want to grow. If you want a big tomato bush, with lots of fruit on it, you can’t keep it in a tiny container on your kitchen counter forever. Internet marketing gives you access to the biggest audience of all: the millions of people who are searching the internet right now.

Neglecting the need for web marketing just puts your business at risk for complete obscurity, meaning that you might have a great product or service that many people would be interested in, but because you don’t show up in the relevant search results, they have no idea you exist.

If you’re interested in utilizing web marketing to help grow your business, but aren’t really sure the best way to get started, you should know that there are many qualified internet marketing firms that can provide you with comprehensive packages that will work for you.

When choosing a web marketing firm for the first time, make sure that they offer a wide variety of services for you to pick from. This means that you should have your choice of website linking, email advertising, and social bookmarking, as well as banner ads.

If you’re scared that you might not be doing enough to connect with your online audiences, web marketing could be the tool that you’ve been looking for. Click here for more information on services that could propel you to success.

7 Steps to Powerful Online Seminars

Posted by cgseo under Social Media, Web Marketing

Share 7 Steps to Powerful Online Seminars This content from: Duct Tape Marketing For many businesses, particularly service oriented businesses, getting up in front of a group of prospects with the opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise is one of the best lead conversion opportunities going. Holding workshops and seminars live and in person has long been an effective tool. The web makes this tool even more powerful and more affordable as it allow you to conduct online versions of seminars that don’t require you to rent a room or your prospects to leave their homes and offices. Online seminars are a marketing tool every business should consider adding to the mix. Below are seven steps to consider to make your online seminars pay. 1) Get sponsored Before you go too far down the seminar path consider getting sponsors to join you. This doesn’t have to be some big name corporate deal, give strategic partners the opportunity to join you in promoting your educational sessions for the right to call themselves a sponsor. Round-up prizes from related businesses that want the exposure their prize garners in your promotion. Free stuff drives enrollment! 2) Educate, don’t sell Make certain that your “free” session is packed with content so good people would pay for it. That’s the expectation these days. If you create seminars that are basically veiled sales presentations, you won’t reap the benefits of this expertise play and people won’t come back or tell friends about your great seminars. There’s a time and place for the sales pitch, but only after you’ve established trust through sharing valuable information. People are OK with a “here’s the sales pitch” at the end of a presentation that was time well spent. Consider creating a series of events and promoting them together. This can help build momentum and allow you to build a loyal following. 3) Pick your platform There are dozens of online platforms for hosting your web seminars but choose your platform with some considerations in mind. Free may not be the best option if you are using this tactic to demonstrate how professional your business is. Look for a tool that offers some interaction tools such as polling, questions, chat, even video Make sure your chosen tool can handle the numbers you plan to enroll Be certain you can easily record your sessions for future marketing use Look for ease of use and follow-up reminder email automation GoToWebinar (a sponsor of the Duct Tape Marketing podcast), Acrobat Connect and WebEx all offer the features above 4) Cause interaction Use the functionality of your online webinar tool to get the audience involved. Polls are a great way to take the temperature of your audience and the results can make for both interesting discussion during your session and follow-up discussion in another form of content such as a blog post. With small groups you may want to allow video or audio chat, but it’s always a good idea to take questions from the attendees. Most platforms also allow you to conduct a survey at some point in your presentation. This is a nice way to end a presentation to get feedback from the audience and even let them vote on other topics they would like to hear in the future. 5) Create a backchannel Lots of people attend webinars these days and share information they hear with their followers on Twitter. It’s become common practice to create a hashtag for your events so people who attend or those that don’t have an easy way to collect all of the comments made by listeners. Some presenters go as far as having an assistant monitor and tweet during the presentation to keep the conversation lively and accurate. This free PowerPoint Twitter Tool allows you to create tweets and have them posted automatically during your presentation. 6) Have bonus content Because there is so much free information out there online the expectations for what you provide as free package have grown. In addition to the event itself consider creating a PDF workbook or collection of blog posts from yourself, related bloggers or strategic partners and delivering that document along with your follow-up. This gives you another reason to reach out and remind your attendees about the great content and gently about the products and services you offer. 7) Promote the archive Use your chosen platform to record your presentation. Upload your recorded session to a video host such as Vimeo or YouTube and embed the video in a web page surrounded by additional resources and further reading links related to the topic. This is a great way to use the session for future marketing efforts and create the kind of page and content that search engines love. Consider using a service like CastingWords to transcribe the session, combine three or four session with video, transcript, resources and your collection of blog post PDF and you’ve just created a product that you can sell! Handling all the moving parts of setting up, promoting, running and archiving live events can seem a bit overwhelming at first, but the long term payoff in terms of expertise, content, and trust building is worth every bit of it. Image credit: hildgrim Related Posts: The Telephone Doesn't Use Any Gas 5 Tips for Getting More Leads from Speaking 5 Ways to Share Content to Create Referrals Extending Your Presentations Through the Backchannel Great Small Business Video Collection Powered by Contextual Related Posts Like this post? Share it with others

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7 Steps to Powerful Online Seminars

Internet Marketing – Climb to the Top

Posted by BlogPostman under Internet Marketing

Owning or managing your own business can be very stressful, and many people have so many things to think about on a daily basis that they don’t even realize they are ignoring one of the most important business processes: internet marketing. Research has shown that millions of people turn to the internet first when they want to find a product or service, and you’ve got to figure out a way to take advantage of this ready-made audience.

Traditional marketing usually consists of creating promotional materials that can be distributed and disseminated in a number of different ways, usually through print, radio, or television advertising. While these methods have been proven successful to a certain extent, they won’t be enough to keep you fresh in the minds of web surfers.

Internet marketing is an amazing tool for entrepreneurs, because it never closes, it can’t be torn down or covered with another advertisement, and it isn’t so permanent that you can’t make changes if your product or service suddenly becomes different.

Something that you have to understand about internet marketing is that it is always most successful when it happens in a wide variety of ways, all at once. This means that you have to find a way to combine search engine optimization techniques, with email advertising, website linking and other tactics in order to build quality brand awareness.

When you talk to most new internet business owners about internet marketing, you are likely to see their face become a little frustrated and very confused. Because there are so many different ways to go about it, choosing the right methods can be difficult.

If you want to take advantage of all the different ways that internet marketing can help to propel your business to the top of its industry, but you don’t want to waste time making silly novice mistakes, you might want to consider using an established online marketing firm to design and execute your campaigns.

The best internet marketing companies are the ones that have been around for a long time, and that have proven over and over again that they can increase visibility and sales for their client companies. Don’t be sucked in by fly by night companies that tell you they can double your traffic overnight, because these claims are often much too good to be true.

Don’t waste your time on marketing techniques that won’t get you noticed in the audiences you’re targeting. Click here to learn more about internet marketing.