blog

Hope everyone is doing well. Am working on some new postings, even though you have not seen them yet.

As I have done the last few years, I am having a fantasy baseball league for my associates in the search engine marketing field. If you are interested in joining, we have few places left. It has been a lot of fun in the past and everyone gets some free plugs here on the site. Ping me if you are interested.

My first grader is learning about maps and the teacher is asking him to contact family and friends from “outside” of town to send post cards. Each time they get a post from a new place, they will find it on the map and look up some info about the place. There is no limit to how many cards to get.

So I am extending this invitation to my global audience. If you would like to help with this project, ping me and I will send you his school address.  Do not know anyone else in the class who is blogging for post cards. LOL

Thanks and have a great weekend.

Today I listened in on a webinar by BIA/Kelsey on their upcoming Marketplaces 2010 conference happening next month in San Diego. If you have not been to a Kelsey conference I highly recommend them. From what was presented, it looks to be a very informative conference. Just wanted to share a couple of things that were presented today which caught my eye.

I. They spoke about 6 major trends they see in marketplaces. Those trends are:

a. Google leverages vertical extensions b. Verticals focus on search rankings c. Competitors create a robust ecosystem ‘working around’ Google d. Social engagement adds a ‘third way’ for local marketers e. Impulse purchases and lead generation add new local focus points f. Mobile adds ultra portability

II. They spoke on areas of innovation to watch. Those areas are:

a. Social locatoin based networks b. Actionable local utilities c. Voice and visual search to drive decisions

Local search continues to grow and the more you understand of local search marketing, the better you can take advantage of it. Want to learn more, check out the conference, read my blog and check out those in my blogroll. You will be glad you did.

Here are a couple of presentations by Mike Belasco at SES Chicago last year.

These next two posts are simply online presentations I have seen elsewhere and thought were worthy of sharing.Both are from SES Chicago last year.

Well 2010 is well under way. Why am I talking about predictions in Feb?  LOL. There are a number of good articles that have been published I wanted to summarize them here. As a small business, you need to keep an eye on trends and patterns and see where and when you should get involved.

It still amazes me how some of my clients (and potential clients) run their business..ignoring the Internet or what is going on really is not a smart move.  (Ok I am off my soap box) Below are the articles I think provide a nice overview for these areas.  Happy reading!

A. Social Marketing: 10 Creative Ways Businesses Used Twitter in 2009 by Matt McGee

B. Linking: 11 Effective, Efficient Ways To Use Limited Time To Build Links

How To Take Control Of Your Link Building In 2010

C. Video Marketing 42 Ways to Use Online Video for Business Marketing by Mark Robertson

11 Predictions for the Online Video Industry in 2010

D. Reviews How To Handle Negative Reviews Of Your Business by David Ingram

E. Local Search Local SEO Predictions 2010 by Andrew Shotland

Blocking And Tackling: 10 Fundamentals Of Local SEO by David Mihm

The “Other 20%” Of Local SEO: Advanced Ranking Factors

Predictions For The Changing Local Search Landscape In 2010 by Neg Norton

Yes I know ILM 09 was last month, but over the holiday I took some time to look over the presentations and what was covered.  A lot of good info. If you have the chance to go to ILM10, would highly recommend it.  This post does not cover everything but these 3 points I thought provided a nice sampling of info and material the small business owner should consider.

1. Reputation Management is not a new topic online. I have not discussed it much but it is something small business need to be aware of. What folks say about you online is important.  Matthew Berk of Marchex provided a nice presentation on a new program they are putting together. Below are the key points smbs should be aware of (in general).

• Local Search is a solved problem for consumers… but not small businesses (SMBs) • SMBs are time starved and lack marketing expertise • SMB digital footprints are fragmented, disparate, and growing without their knowledge • Consumer reviews can dramatically affect their business

Reputation Management: • Gives SMBs visibility into their online presence to inform marketing and operations • Provides businesses with an information advantage • Saves SMBs time (money) by staying on top of their digital footprint • Identifies opportunities to take action

2. Local Content

Jeff Ferguson of Local.com spoke on website content. The key phrase or point that I walked away with was:

“As mentioned previously, be the product and service expert in the form of great content on your site, however, do it locally, not nationally. Target your content via locally relevant articles. Don’t just write about “radon”, the EPA has that covered Write about “radon in Phoenix, AZ” because that’s what your customers are looking for when they are shopping for a product or service.”

3. Social -Local Mix

Mike Boland has a nice presenation on how social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, etc is getting integrated into local search. This topic is big and probably every site or directory you go to now has the option of tweeting your info or linking your tweets to your account etc.  Like or not social media is very important and the small business should try to embrace it.

Happy New Year everyone! I hope 2010 will be a great year for you.

As I was going through some papers, it was brought to my attention that 2010 will mark me working in Cyberspace  for 10 years. Wow, it is hard to believe.  The actual date is sometime in June. Thus, I have spent some time reflecting on all that has happened.

It amazes me on all what I have done and learned online, the people I have met and worked with, the places I have gone. Has it been worth the time? Yes.  It has been very interesting to see how the Internet has evolved and continues to evolve each year.

I looked back at some of my earlier web work and seems so mundane. I have come a long way since 2000. LOL!

I won’t go into a whole long sappy reflection but a few important points that I have concluded:

1. The Internet is constantly changing itself.  What worked in 2000 will not necessarily cut it today. There are some fundamental concepts/ideas/practices that were important in 2000 that are still today. 2. Because of point #1, you cannot just sit around, you also need to be changing and working to “keep up” with the system. 3. A long term outlook is best. By trying to see the whole picture and developing an appropriate strategy, one should be able to “survive” online. (Remember the turtle beat the hare.) 4. When you need help or guidance, get it. Don’t be shy. LOL

Nothing really earth shattering here…Just some simple advice and encouragement to continue moving forward.  The Internet is a major part of everything these days and I do not see it simply going away.  Small business can do a lot online if they approach it properly.

My goals for this year? Last another year… LOL.

• I really want to continue helping small businesses maximize their online visibility.
• Continue blogging, tweeting, etc
• Put on a conference on local search marketing aimed toward smbs
• Make it to a conference or two

Ok enough reflection…back to work!

Just wanted to take a minute to wish everyone a blessed and Merry Christmas and a Happy 2010 New Year!

This is something I have been wanting to comment on for a while. I really like Wordpress- its ease of setup, cool widgets, tons of templates available, and the amazing amount of SEO components you can employ with it, make it a no brainer for small business.

If you are a small business and want to “run” your own website, I would recommend using wordpress. When I discuss this with clients, I get a lot of curious looks. Wordpress is simply a content management system (CMS). Now there are many options out there for CMS, so if Wordpress is not your cup of tea, take a look at some of the other options.

The idea of using Wordpress for a small business site is nothing new. A few other articles on the subject are:

Don Campbell’s  Why Use Wordpress to Power Your Small Business Website and then a case study he report on.

Tim Conley’s 11 Reasons To Use Wordpress For Your Business Website and his video tutorial.

If you read these articles, you should come away with the notion that using Wordpress can help you control your website more and help with your local search marketing.  Bottom line.

I have used wordpress to build a number of sites for local small business, with good results. The main reason I have used it is so that. the small business owner can control his content. Using a CMS, definitely allows a small business owner with little web experience the ability to add, edit, delete information quickly and easily.

Another aspect that I like about using wordpress, it allows the visitor to leave a comment, question, rave, etc for the small business. Interacting with your visitors/customers/clients is a very important component in doing business here in 2009 and beyond.

The SEO aspect of wordpress is great. There are so many components that one can employ to help the site with search engine visibility, geotargeting, keywords, you name it.

A word of caution, do not think that if you build/use wordpress for your site, it will magically appear #1 in Google. You need to make sure you set it up and use it properly!  I can get you started off on the right foot but it is your responsiblity to follow up but adding content, responding to comments, questions, adding links etc.  It take a little bit of time but as I always say, time spent marketing online is well worth it!

I recently got word from 8Coupons.com that their service is going nationwide. You can the press release on their blog here.

“When a user visits 8coupons.com, the map on the homepage will automatically populate the Top 8 most popular deals based on his or her IP address. This ensures that anyone who visits the site will see the deals that are most relevant to them specifically.  The Top 8 deals will change dynamically as the user moves the map around to different locations, zooms in on a specific street, or narrows down the deals by sub-categories such as restaurants, entertainment, beauty & spas, services and shopping.”

From reviewing their website, it looks to be a pretty cool service. I checked for coupons in my neck of the woods and really did not see any, so I am assuming it will take some time to filter down to the small markets.

Greg Sterling also commented about 8coupons on his site, so you might want to check it out. Greg did say (and I agree)  “Coupons, wither mobile or online only, are extremely popular and successful as a marketing tool with consumers. It’s also one of the few forms of mobile advertising that consumers are highly receptive to.”