Small Business Mavericks

JULY 11, 2011

The moment you decide to put a website online, you’ll have to make a few decisions. It doesn’t matter if your website is an extension of your off line business or if it is a standalone entity. You’ll still need to make the same decisions (an extension of an off line business may actually have a few more to make). One of the decisions you’ll have to make is whether or not your Web business is local, global, or if it even matters.

Directory 170

Directory SEO Engineering Social Media 170

Small Business Mavericks

JULY 25, 2011

For years we’ve been listening to online marketing experts talk about how e-mail marketing is the most effective marketing online. Is it really? Yes, I’ll have to agree. For one thing, postage rates are going up. That means the cost of direct mail marketing is getting to be out of reach for a lot of businesses. But you can often get great results – in many cases, better results – from e-mail marketing than you can from direct mail marketing.

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Marketing ROI Newsletter Cost 168

Small Business Mavericks

JULY 9, 2011

If you’ve ever wanted to start your own holiday, Chick-Fil-A can teach you how. The fast food restaurant inspired hundreds of thousands of people to dress up like a cow and get a free chicken sandwich. That’s pretty impressive. When it comes to marketing – traditional or internet – it’s OK to get wacky. Wacky sells. It inspires.

Automotive 168

Automotive Discount How To Small Business 168

Small Business Mavericks

JULY 7, 2011

Mashable is reporting that Google is planning to rebrand two of its largest Web products – Picasa and Blogger. The rebranding supposedly is taking place in concert with the public launch of Google +. Here’s my question: Why? I understand rebranding Picasa. It’s new name will be Google Photos. When I think of Picasa, I think of Picasso – the famous painter.

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Picasa Blogger Google Proposal 164

Small Business Mavericks

JULY 5, 2011

I said it was going to happen. Of course, it happened sooner than I thought it would. But I’m more than pleased to announce that my prediction was correct. Facebook is now offering Skype video chat. WebProNews reported the news over the weekend. So what’s this mean for small businesses? Imagine this: Suppose you were able to embed a Skype button onto your business page at Facebook so that people who view your page could contact you via Skype in real time.

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Facebook Widget Small Business Course 164

Small Business Mavericks

JULY 3, 2011

It’s important, as a small business, to have a content marketing strategy. What’s the alternative? You could just post random content and hope it gains traction, drives traffic, and wins customers. But that’s kind of like wishing in a well. A better strategy is to plan your content marketing so that all levels of your content work together for the good of your customers and your company.

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Content Marketing Small Business Newsletter 164

Small Business Mavericks

JULY 23, 2011

How does Google Maps rank your business for searches conducted? Here’s a short video that explains how that happens. HINT: In a nutshell, it’s based on three ranking factors. Location. Relevance. Prominence. Watch the video, then we’ll talk about it. Location, Location, Location. Even online, location is important. But your Google Maps listing will be ranked based on a user’s search query and your location from their search location.

Automotive 161

Automotive Small Business Hotels Apple 161

Small Business Mavericks

JULY 21, 2011

Klout users will recognize the metric known as “true reach.&# Even if you don’t use Klout but are active in social media, you might have heard the term. But what does it mean? True reach is a measure of your target audience’s real strength. For instance, if you follow 100 people on Twitter and each of them follow 100 people, your potential audience is 100 X 100, or 10,000 people.

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Klout Metrics Social Media Activities 161

Small Business Mavericks

JULY 18, 2011

One of the ways to ensure that your website ranks well for local geo-phrases is to write about local events and places, but you have to be careful how you do it. If your blog is for a local brick and mortar business that is trying to attract customers from within a specific geographic area, then one way to “humanize&# that blog is to write about the people and places in your area – in a good way, of course.

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Eventful Communities Organization Issues 161

Small Business Mavericks

JULY 16, 2011

Yesterday I discussed integrating your online and offline marketing. I’m glad readers understood what I was saying and took the message to heart. But how do you integrate your marketing so that your branding message is unified? In a word, you should do one of two things. Either put your Internet marketing under your overall marketing umbrella so that one follows the other, or have a liaison between the two that works to simplify and integrate your message.

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Team Marketing Brands Small Business 161

Small Business Mavericks

JULY 14, 2011

There are a variety of forms of spam. One particular type of spam that I find particularly egregious is blog comment spam because I see so much of it. Here are five specific ways I can tell a blog comment is spam and why I won’t approve it. Your comment is written by your company name or a keyword phrase. What this tells me when I see it is that you are looking for free link juice and aren’t really interested in engaging with me and my blog readers.

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Domain Name Policies URL Comments 161

Small Business Mavericks

JULY 12, 2011

If you know who John Battelle is, then you’re doing good. He’s one of the pioneers of the Internet and actually has quite a following. He recently decided to turn the comments to his blog completely off. OK, so why should you care? Because John’s blog, Searchblog, is not on WordPress. And why is that a big deal? As he mentions in the blog post.

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WordPress Open Source Software SEO 161

Small Business Mavericks

JULY 10, 2011

More and more, I’m seeing small business websites using WordPress as a CMS. Even churches and community service organizations are using WordPress as a CMS and designing their websites using this free open source software. Is that a good idea? In a word, there is nothing wrong with using WordPress as a CMS. In fact, that’s what it is. However, WordPress started out as a blogging platform and branched out from there.

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WordPress Open Source SEO Small Business 161

Small Business Mavericks

JULY 2, 2011

It seems that smartphone apps are making a big play. They are becoming more and more popular and present themselves as an awesome way for businesses on the go to take advantage of mobile marketing. But is it a fad or this trend here to stay? I certainly don’t think mobile marketing is going anywhere. It will only get better. And it seems that smartphones – iPhones and Androids – may stick around as well.

Marketing 161

Marketing Mobile Small Business iPhone 161

Small Business Mavericks

JULY 1, 2011

When it comes to blogging, there is no one-size-fits-all strategy. There are as many ways to do it as there are companies with a message to send. The key is to find the method that works for you. With that in mind, here are 4 viable blog strategies that work. All you have to do is give them a go. SEO Blogging – With SEO blogging, the idea is to produce content that gains search engine traction.

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Strategy Domain Name Social Bookmarking SEO 161

Small Business Mavericks

JULY 29, 2011

One thing that is inevitable is change. Especially online. And especially when it comes to online marketing. What’s important today may not be important tomorrow. Case in point: Remember those old web rings? Who joins those any more? Certainly not anyone who is serious about online marketing. At one time, you could read online debates about which method of advertising was going to win in the end – PPC or banner ads.

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Mobile Advertising Video Google 156

Small Business Mavericks

JULY 15, 2011

Some people call it “integrative marketing.&# I think that’s a good phrase, but regardless of what you call it, small businesses struggling in a down economy should spend a little time thinking about how they market themselves. Cutting marketing out of your budget altogether shouldn’t be an option, but you have to pay attention to where your dollars are going.

Marketing 156

Marketing Widget Discount Small Business 156

Small Business Mavericks

JULY 13, 2011

Early this year, in February, Google rocked the Internet when it updated its search algorithms and slapped down some very authoritative sites in their respective niches. Some of the biggest slap downs occurred in the article directory niche. The top article directories lost tons of rankings within minutes along with traffic and revenue. What happened?

Directory 156

Directory Guidelines Google SEO 156

Small Business Mavericks

JULY 27, 2011

Is it better to design a website using HTML or a content management system (CMS)? To be sure, there are pros and cons to either method. Here are a few things to think about when making your decision about whether to design your website using HTML or CMS. Security: In terms of security, HTML is superior; however, most CMSs have security plugins or add-ons that you can use to make your site more secure.

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Content management systems SEO Library Small Business 150

Small Business Mavericks

JULY 22, 2011

If you’ve been wondering just when Google Places was going to get its act together and starting being social in a social media world, it’s time to relax. They’re actually getting there. For the record, I’ve kind of been wondering myself. Just when is Google Places going to allow you to do more than list your business and rate other businesses in a website environment that looks like it was built in 1998?

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Google Review Features Process 173

Small Business Mavericks

JULY 26, 2011

Article marketing is still alive and well on the Internet. Do you ever wonder where you can publish your articles and build links back to your website or get the attention you deserve as an expert in your field? Here are 5 non-article directories that are great places for marketing your article content. Squidoo – Squidoo is the brainchild of popular author and marketing genius Seth Godin.

Hubpages 170

Hubpages Publishing Adsense Syndication 170

Small Business Mavericks

JULY 31, 2011

I recently deleted a comment that had it been submitted to the right blog would have been a great comment. Unfortunately, to me it was spam. So what made it a spam comment? Here, I’ll let you judge it for yourself: If you are looking for a way to change up your hairstyle very quickly and dramatically, you should consider African American hair extensions for an easy solution.

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Comments Small Business Blogger Types 164

Small Business Mavericks

JULY 19, 2011

If you look at the top 20 keywords that Google makes money on with its AdWords service, you’ll find that 4 out of the top 5 are all about money. Here are the top 5 keywords on which Google is earning its gold: Insurance. Loans. Mortgage. Attorney. Credit. Education, technology, and computers also have multiple places within the top 20. I can understand technology and computers, but education?

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Insurance Adwords Education Training 164