Jan 6

If your company or business isn’t taking advantage of the millions of people online, then you are missing out on a huge market. If you are already doing promotions online and it’s not been too successful at this point, then be sure to considering hiring a SEO (search engine optimization) company. They can give you valuable information to help your website get the best results possible.

SEO_coursenaviAnother thing you might want to consider is web site design. Having your website designed properly can make a big difference. Make sure your website is easy to navigate and the pages load fast. No one likes a website that it takes the pages a long time to load. While they are waiting for your pages to load, they might just decide to leave your website, without ever seeing what you might have to offer.

Not the Internet has made a huge difference in my business. It seems like I learn something new everyday. There is always new and better technology coming out, and staying up on these newest things, can help you maximize your online efforts. I have learned so much in the past year and I hope I can learn just as much in the years to come. I have seen what a good website can achieve online and I want to make sure that I take advantage of all the opportunities that exist

Dec 28

The internet world is changing daily with content sites like YouTube, FaceBook, and MySpace capturing younger viewers and creating a totally new market place. To compete in this ever crowded space online you need to find a niche, and become the best in that particular area. You can never compete against the big companies like Walmart, eBay, or Amazon. You must create your site with your target audience in mind, so that they you create an experience for them when they visit your site. Logical advertising is going to play a new role in how companies use the internet for reaching out to your customers. This is because there are new companies coming online everyday trying to attract the same customer base.

Dec 16

I’m sure a lot of small business advertising is done every day on the internet. I just wonder how many of those folks are doing it in the best way possible. Online Marketing is a growing industry and lots of new customers to be found online these days. If these small business owners take the time to do a little research, they can make a lot better use of their time. Using a variety of marketing tools online is the best recipe for success. You don’t want to just try one or two marketing methods and give up if you don’t see any results. Advertising online takes time and it will work, if you give it time to work. A good example would be a a company like Purity Spa that is trying to gain awareness and buzz about their availability of dead sea mud wholesale offers to the public and local salons. Establishing as many links as you can that will point toward your business website, will eventually lead to more links getting indexed by the major search engines.

I have found a post titled “Marketing Online is Making Money Online” and many great replies to this blog post. It has several different views and opinions on the marketing strategies of online advertising. I think any small business or someone new to the game, will find a lot of useful information with this blog article. I know I learned a few things about marketing online from this blog post and I believe new and experienced marketers will find something new as well.

Dec 16

Blogs are an effective marketing tool for businesses and its quickly gaining in popularity as more and more online websites turn to blogs for more traffic, better search engine rankings, and new customers. Any business or online website that is geared to bringing in revenue or attention to a product or service can benefit greatly with the help of blogs. All it takes is getting a few bloggers to add links on their blogs that will lead to a specific website and this helps a website online to get more exposure. You don’t have to stop with a few bloggers and if you get a dozen or a few dozen bloggers linking to your website from their blogs; this will dramatically effect the number of visitors you have coming to your website each day. For example a company that is trying to get out the word about Freestyle test strips and their availability can use blogs and social networking sites like Twitter to help gain exposure. The search engines love to see a lot of links directing to one certain website and this causes a website’s ranking to move up in the search results on all of the search engines. The next time someone does a search for a term that relates to your website’s information; your links will be listed much higher than normal and all of this comes from the help of blogs. Online marketers will also benefit from extra traffic that the individual blogs bring directly from their embedded links. Any business or individual can advertise on blogs and it is an affordable way to gain extra exposure, when compared to the prices of other methods that help increase traffic.

Dec 10

Consumer Generated Media (CGM) is making it’s mark in the online blogging world. Many companies are now using blogs and online forums and email marketing to help create brand awareness and a buzz about their new products. From shoe companies to those that are offering franchise opportunities the ideas are limitless.  The use of blogs has created a growth in the number of people creating their own blogs. Some examples of CGM would include blog entries, consumer email feedback, message board posts, forum comments, websites, and consumer generated email. The great thing about CGM is that it leaves a digital fingerprint and can really help a large company or even a small upstart create Brand equity.

As their readers grow so will their RSS feeds which is what people will sign up for in order to receive daily or weekly feeds about site updates. The blog owners can then create an email campaign that will target those users and then be able to create more interest and buzz for their site. They can then highlight other bloggers or advertisers in their campaigns to grow their revenue which can be used to reinvest back into the site to increase their search and marketing position.

Dec 10

When going to college I remember my professors in economics and marketing talking about companies and their products and using the term “widgets” They would always use in place of a real companies products to make a point. For example ” How many widgets would company X need to produce in a day to fill the demand, if the they were given a large order that exceeded manufacturing capacity” I have been seeing more the use of the term widget as we use them here in our blog and at or sister site  on the sidebars, as easy to install toolbars, search forms, and the like.

bloggerAdvertisers are starting to use them more, as they look for a way to attract new customers, or create buzz about an upcoming movie or software. If used correctly many will help you capture visitor data and click thoughs   to help identify certain trends. Having a tool that will help identify internet marketing trends based on a certain set of value can really be helpful to anyone who owns or publishes a blog. What may be typical is they offer the free widgets on their site, that you can download on your desktop to say for example ” get the local weather or traffic update” In that there will be some ad placement or branding. The consumer fills a need for having timely information for free, and the advertiser now has your attention. Some widgets will allow the company to see where you are clicking too. Which is helpful to understand and target that consumer in the future. This may sound like Spyware, and maybe it just might be. You will need to check the privacy policy on the website before downloading anything on your PC.

Oct 4

For anyone who has ever tried to launch a new site on the web knows trying to gain traffic and customers can be a daunting task. We have seen websites that show great promise but they eventually failed mainly due to the fact that were unable to build their customer base and grow their business online. These companies thought by simply having a presence online that people would flock to their site and be willing to part with their money.

In order to attract and retain customers your site needs to be easy to navigate, easy to find, and be able to track and create a unique experience once the customer does find your site. For any online business web design is the first step in putting your business on the web. There are more than enough web design firms where price and ability are vastly different. At Design Wise a internet marketing huntsville web design company they can help bring their experts together to help design, build and launch your online business.

Through their integrated web development services they can help your business to grow and build brand awareness in targeted markets. Their team of SEO experts and designers understand the concept that great web design is only one piece to the puzzle when getting a business online. Helping customers to understand the flow and content of their blogs and webpages will keep customers coming back and this means more revenue.

Sep 9

In order for any business to survive online you must be visible to your customers through various channels with search engines being the most important. It is estimated that over 80% of the sites online are found through search engines so having a top ranking for the keywords linked to your site is critical to your bottom line. Proper Search Engine Optimization is not something that you can read a book on and then implement and hope that your site will magically appear at the top of the major search engines. Hiring a SEO consultant is part of a long term plan to help grow your traffic both organically and through various channels.

There are expert companies like Absolute Internet that can bring their team of experts to help develop the right linking and search optimization strategy to help you grow your customers and your business. Through a balanced approach of PPC management, off site linking, and proper optimization of your internal links they can help fine tune your site and thus help to increase your presence and branding online.

Jun 6

Being successful in sales requires always being able to ask for the business and having the right information at the right time to help your customers understand why they should do business with you. I worked in copier sales for 7 years and we worked off sales leads and cold calls to gain business. At that time we had no CRM  or facilities management tools that actually linked the customers we were calling on to a main application or that helped to manage our warehouse of parts and incoming shipments. This had it’s drawbacks if we had someone leave the organization and their record keeping was less than stellar. This basically meant we were starting all over in that particular geography.

Mar 13

I have heard the same theory over the past few weeks that Entrepreneurship will be the key to helping this economy getting back on its feet. The thought is that small business will help to create jobs and growth in the private sector thus creating the forward momentum that we need. The idea that we need to grow government and government run programs is only a short term fix and will not sustain long term growth. That is why I was excited to read about an initiative from the Kauffman Foundation called Fast Trac that will fund local initiatives in communities that have hardest hit by the down turn to help Young Entrepreneurship grow and thrive.

Through a partnership of the Kauffman Foundation and Deluxe Corporation Foundation that will invest $1million to help support the Entrepreneur spirit through a program called FastTrac LaunchPad where job loss have been the greatest. The main focus behind the FastTrac launch is to help local people with the drive to start their own business by giving them the essential tools and training to create their vision.This present the opportunity for those that unemployed to possibly make their own future out of sound business models rather than settling for the next available job. This can help instill passion and ownership on making things better and providing a stronger economy through small business.

The FastTrac NewVenture program includes ten modules:

  • Exploring Entrepreneurship
  • dentifying and Meeting Market Needs
  • Setting Financial Goal
  • Planning the Product/Service
  • Researching and Analyzing the Market
  • Reaching the Market
  • Building the Organization and Team
  • Planning for a Profitable Business
  • Monitoring Cash Flow and Seeking Funds
  • Implementing Next Steps

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