Internet Marketing Consultant – Dan Blakeslee

Just what exactly is Web 2.0? Well, Web 2.0 can be defined as the new age of internet usage in today’s society. It is a concept or a set of ideas that is similar to brainstorming or networking. It involves a set of technologies designed to make the internet easier to use for marketing your business and getting your product information out to your customers.

What technologies are included in Web 2.0?
The Web 2.0 concept includes, but is not limited to, such web services as Google Ad Sense, Facebook, Wikipedia, and various blogging sites. The differences between these services and what was used previously (i.e. Netscape, personal websites, Britannica online, and evite) is simply the use of huge platforms instead of basic software. Sites such as Google are in fact huge databases of information that can be accessed and utilized in a variety of ways.

How does it work?
Web 2.0 brings businesses closer to the public by making them more accessible. It works in a way similar to a network diagram. In the center circle, you have the information that a business wants to get out to the public. That business can use the internet as a platform to deliver their information. The circles linked to the center circle would represent the Web 2.0 services that businesses could use to get that information to their customers. There are many marketing firms available to help businesses set up these web services.
The most useful parts of Web 2.0 are blogging and social networking. By using blogging and social networking, businesses can deliver information about their products to a wider market. They just simply have to set up a blogging site or create a page on a social network like Facebook, and promote their products. The consumers can simply click the like button on the business’s Facebook page and be kept up to date on products and information. This brings businesses to a more personal level for the customer.
Businesses can also get information to more consumers by having the consumers subscribe to RSS feeds. RSS feeds are designed to send notifications to the subscriber whenever content changes on the page that they have linked to. This helps businesses keep their information current.
Another way to use the Web 2.0 concept is through pay per click advertising such as Google Ad Sense, or Amazon’s one click program. These applications help businesses enhance their customer service relations. No time to work Web 2.0 on your own? Hire a company that can do it for you – it’s a small investment that can really pay off.

Have you ever had difficulty getting the information you need to finish that big project? One of the easiest ways to get that information is through a keyword search. However, if you are using the wrong word, you may still never find what you are looking for. Customers have the same problem. Some searches do not target businesses that match what the customer is looking for. As a result, internet marketing experts are finding some pretty innovative ways to reach potential customers with Keyword Search. Basically, they’re finding ways to infuse sites with words that they think potential customers would use. Just about any business can take advantage of this kind of service. Here are some helpful details to give you more insight into what it’s all about.
What is Keyword Search?
Keyword Search looks for words that are in records or on websites. Keywords can be used if you don’t know the heading, title, or author. Most search engines or searchable databases have a keyword search option where the user can type in the word or a group of words for the subject that he or she is looking for.
Also, there are keyword tools available for businesses wanting to target specific groups of customers. These keyword tools work by having businesses try to think of the way their potential customers would think when conducting a search. After selecting keywords they think their customers would use to search for their product, businesses can use the keyword tools to string together key phrases. Businesses can use those key phrases to help narrow down the topic so that the information will have a better chance of leading customers to their site.
How can Keyword Search help businesses gain the upper hand?
If a business uses the wrong keywords, then their customers would have a harder time trying to find them. Businesses can use services such as Word Tracker to help determine the best words or phrases to draw attention to their product. By creating lists of these words and monitoring them for their usage, marketing experts can determine how effective they are at reaching customers for their clients. If they find that the words are not drawing in desired amount of potential customers, then these marketing wizards can adjust their lists and monitor them again. This process can be repeated as many times as needed to get the desired results.
In a world where many small, local businesses struggle to survive in the face of big box competition, a company that specializes in SEO services and other internet marketing techniques can help make a huge difference.
You’ll find that a good SEO campaign will target the right keywords that will gain your business greater exposure to a larger number of customers – and that’s a worthwhile investment.

If you think press releases are the stuff of public entities and gigantic corporations, think again! Using a system that includes frequent press releases is a great way to get your business noticed and increase your bottom line. Press releases are an excellent way for small, local businesses, nonprofits, and larger companies with specific local markets to get the attention of the media, as well as clientele of all kinds. Here are some strategies for putting press releases to work to increase profitability – no matter what kind of business or nonprofit you’re invested in.
Write and Release Information Frequently
Press releases don’t have to be large, complicated chunks of information – in fact, if you stop to think about the types of news articles that attract your own attention, you might realize that the most effective tend to be small, catchy, interesting bits of news. So, don’t think writing press releases frequently will take a lot of time and energy. Here are some suggestions for implementing this particular strategy.
Any time you have a new program – If you’ve got a new solution or customer appreciation program, publicize it!
If you’re a business and you are collecting for charity – publicize this information! You’ll make more money for your charity or cause, and you’ll attract more clients, who will appreciate the fact that you or your employees care about others.
If you produce a new, helpful product or come up with insight about a problem – Let people know about this. People like to be involved in their communities, and if you stop to look at what major corporations do, you can duplicate their efforts on a smaller, local scale.
Keep in mind, press releases are not the same thing as paid advertisements, but they do make people take notice of your presence and give you one more way to shine and stand out from the competition.
Create an Online Press Room, and Post Your Press Releases There
If there’s one thing search engines love, it is frequent updates. Just as a blog that is updated regularly can increase your visibility, so can press releases.
Make your press room easy to use by posting your press releases in reverse chronological order (the newest should be on top) and once you have enough press releases, you can start to categorize them by topic or keyword as well.
Distribute Your Press Releases To a Large Audience
Using an online tool for distributing press releases is fairly inexpensive, and can be limited to a particular geographic area. In addition, your press releases will be picked up by search engines, and this alone can boost your visibility – whether you have a local or global audience. There are many popular press release distribution services to try – check with your SEO specialist to see what he or she recommends.
AScribe
Business Wire
Marketwire
PrimeNewsWire
PR Newswire
AlterNet (focuses on environmental, human rights, civil liberties, and social justice)

How to Sign Up For a Google Adwords Account in 3 Easy Steps

If you have ever wanted to advertise your local business using the Google Adwords program, this article will show you how to create an Adwords account in three easy steps. It should take you not more than ten minutes to set up a new account. Go to google.com/Adwords and follow these three steps

Step 1 Create an account
Create Google account: this is where you create a new account. Google asks you if
you have an email account and password that you use with its other services like Adsense, Gmail, Orkut or iGoogle or
you do not use these services

Chose the second option b) to create a new account.
Choose an email address name
Type in a password
Re-enter your password
Fill in the captcha section
Click ‘Create account’

Step 2 Set Time Zone and Currency
Note that you cannot change your time zone and currency and they remain permanent so think carefully as you choose them
Choose your time zone by selecting your preferred country and the right time zone for your location in the country
Choose the currency you would like to use to pay Google and the one Google will use to display all money values in your account
Click ‘Create’
.

Step 3 Verify Account
Google congratulates you on opening your new Adwords account and requests you to open your email to click on the confirmation link they have sent you. They do this to make sure that the email address you provided is correct.
Go to your email account, open your inbox and click on the verification link sent by Google
Google confirms that your email address is correct and that your Adwords account is now active.

You can now go ahead and create advertisements with the Google Adwords program that will drive traffic to your local business website.

As a small business owner, you are very likely barraged with information and various opinions about your website. Clients might like the photos of you and your dog on the “About Us” page, and various companies might be calling asking if you would like to “buy a top spot” on their search pages. The worst thing you can probably hear, besides “Your site crashed,” is “We looked for you online but couldn’t find you!”
The fact is, you’re basically sunk without SEO. But, what kind of SEO should you incorporate into your website? Some say “Content is King”, and believe on page SEO rules the internet, while others declare that off page SEO is more important: “Links Reign Supreme!” Who should you listen to?
What is On Page SEO?
On page Search Engine Optimization includes things like optimizing keywords, tags, and web content. Search engines love heading tags that emphasize key points, and they grab on to images that include “img alt” tags that include those same keyword phrases.
Additional strategies for using on page SEO include labeling folders and naming files so that they are keyword rich, since search engines crawl through and index your site using folder and file names. Don’t rely on a snappy title alone, and think that your page is optimized.
What is Off Page SEO?
Off page SEO is the term that refers to any search engine optimization that takes place off your webpage. Things like article marketing, linking and backlinking, and social media marketing are an important part of off page SEO.
Which Type of SEO is Better?
It turns out that both camps in the search engine optimization debate have something valuable to offer. If you want to make the most of your website, include plenty of each type of SEO and you’ll come out ahead.
How To Optimize
All this may have you feeling a bit overwhelmed – and that’s not surprising! Optimizing a website properly takes research, time, and effort. As a small business owner, you very likely lack both the time and desire to take all these steps yourself. If you had a major water main break inside your building you wouldn’t try to fix it yourself – and the same is true for getting your site up to speed. Get an SEO expert onboard. Find someone who can help you with both on page SEO and off page SEO. Your site will be optimized in just a short amount of time, and you’ll see site traffic as well as your bottom line increase.

Online branding is absolutely the newest, hottest way for any small businesses to grow. The question is, how can you, a busy professional who is likely fully invested in running many of the everyday aspects of your business, find the time to decide what to do, and then implement the strategic changes that need to be made, in order for your online branding to work at an optimal level? We’ve taken on the challenge of making that task a whole lot easier for you. Here are three outstanding methods to combine – they make online branding work for you, so you can focus on the work you do every day to make your business great.
Use The Right Words
Plainspoken, conversational content written in a way your consumer demographic is likely to understand, is certain to appeal to those people in a way that the standard “less is more” standard of internet writing just can’t do. While you do want to use headings and bulleted lists, and avoid making your content look too much like a textbook, you don’t want to make your customers feel as though you’re approaching them on a kind of kindergarten level.
This being said, the same kind of content is not going to work on every single site. If you sell cosmetics and home decorating items, for instance, you’re going to word your content much differently than you would if you sold a landscaping service or classic auto restoration supplies. If you’re not the best writer, hire someone to use the best words possible to get your ideal audience’s attention. If you’re a mediocre writer, consider putting your content together and then having it edited. The fact is, your customers don’t care who writes your content. They simply want to read it, get the facts, and move on with their day.
Visual Appeal Is Important
Choose an appropriate design scheme, and put great photos up on your site. If you don’t have good photos and you don’t have anyone to take them, invest in some stock photos, or place an order with a freelance photographer. The right visual appeal can make an amazing difference in your online branding success.
Pick A Few Things, and Do Them Perfectly
Be “THE” authority on one or two specific things. If you specialize in tea, put up articles, stories, and photos of different kinds of tea to go along with the teas in your online catalogue. Offer tea accessories, and add in some things that people might enjoy along with the tea they buy from you. An internet marketing company could help a small tea company become the best in the business. Why? Because people want a one stop shop. They want to get their shopping over with, and move on. They want to visit a few select places on the internet, not search endlessly. Be the best, and you’ll win customers’ loyalty faster than you could ever imagine.

You know you need to promote your local business, and we hope, by now, you have heard that you need to use some internet marketing techniques if you want to help your business grow and really compete in today’s marketplace.

You didn’t get to where you are now by making a lot of mistakes and poor choices, so it stands to reason that you probably want some answers to questions you might have about just why internet marketing is so important to your business’ success – and you probably wonder whether it’s even necessary.

The fact is, unless you own the only watering trough in a one horse town, you need internet marketing desperately. Here are three reasons why.

One: You Need To Be Able To Compete.

Let’s take a minute to pretend you own a nifty little bookstore with a café and coffee shop attached. You offer free Wi-Fi, and you do a pretty good business in coffee and crepes, but you’re wondering why the books you have for sale are gathering so much dust. The answer? People in your area are bombarded with great offers from sellers like Amazon and Barnes and Noble. By the time they find out you have the same great bestseller for sale as the big box retailers, and at a price that’s competitive, they’ve already bought the title. Worse, they’re bringing their new book into your shop and reading it while sipping a three dollar latte and feeling righteous for coming to your store instead of Starbucks.

How do you compete? Internet Marketing. You get up on Facebook, you tweet, and you let people know what’s out there. You tell them, “Hey, for every five books you buy, you get a sixth one free – or you get a latte when you buy a book.” Something. Get them in the door and sell your product.

Two: You Want Your City to Thrive

How many empty storefronts are in your town? You want to drive business to local retailers, partly because you’re one of them, but partly because you want your city or town to be the kind of place where you, and other people want to live. You want your kids to go to a good school, you want the police and fire department to arrive on time for emergencies; you want a good life.

How do you help your city thrive? You grow your business, and you pay more taxes (sorry – that really is part of the big picture!). You do what you can to make your town a nice place to be. Internet marketing helps you get a good share of local and global business, so you can continue enjoying life on your terms.

Three: You Want to Retire Someday

The answer: internet marketing. Hire a marketing company that can help you be more profitable, hire people to do the work you’re slaving over now, and take a vacation, already. You deserve it!

How to Get Your YouTube Viewers To Take Action

A common mistake business owners make in video marketing is to make a great video, upload it and then do nothing, and yet wonder why they never sell anything. The truth of the matter is that any self-respecting local business wants to ring up sales not just to entertain or inform people.

The problem is that we are often reluctant to pinpoint exactly what we want to accomplish. So as a business owner, ask yourself: what exactly do I want the viewer to do after seeing this video?

Do I want them to opt-in to my email list?
Do I want them to buy a product?
Do I want them to visit my blog?
Do I want them to join my Facebook fanpage?’
Do I want them to Tweet me?

Once you know the specific action you want your potential viewer to take, then tell them to do just that. Craft your copy to include your call -to -action message in these three areas of your video:
Within your video content
Within your annotation text
Within your description

Here are a few call- to- action sentences you may use:
This video shows just one use of our product. Get more free tips when you purchase this amazing product by visiting my blog at abc.com/blog
Click here to watch more cosmetic surgery videos
Sign up for our free newsletter on interior decoration by clicking this link

By doing this, you will be able to see tangible results from your video marketing. Better yet, you will be able to accurately measure how effective a particular video campaign helping you to know what works and what doesn’t work. For example you will know which copy works better, which videos bring in more sales conversions, which videos generate more opt-ins and so on.

You might have heard a bit about Twitter, and you might even use the service from time to time. But, if you’re like so many others, you may wonder what kind of use you can put it to. Savvy internet marketing entrepreneurs have some pretty incredible insight: Small businesses can use Twitter to promote their products and services, and get amazing results.
Let’s look at the case of a man named Curtis Kimball, who runs a small crème brulee business from a mobile catering cart in San Francisco. His first customers were friends and family members who wished him success. One day, Kimball noticed a new customer in line – someone he didn’t know. He asked the client how he’d heard of the mobile crème brulee cart, and the man told him he’d heard about it on Twitter and just had to try it for himself. Something clicked for Kimball – he decided to start tweeting, and his business grew by leaps and bounds.
Curtis Kimball, former carpenter, now enjoys life as the owner of a thriving business. What started with a tweet has become a steady stream of faithful followers – almost 6,000 and growing, according to the New York Times. Everybody wants to know where they can find the cart and get the flavor of the day. Kimball is thrilled – “I would love to say that I just had a really good idea and strategy, but Twitter has been pretty essential to my success,” he told the New York times in an interview.
Perfect For Small Local Businesses on a Budget
Many small businesses need to put money into areas other than advertising, which is why Twitter and other social media marketing platforms work so well. Some businesses start out tweeting, and move on to bigger things – could yours be the same?
Word of Mouth Marketing Works
Even though Twitter is a technologically advanced means of communication, it uses the principle of word of mouth marketing. People like what you’ve got to offer, and they tell others. You let your customers know that you value them, you give them something to look forward to, and you give them a little reward for following you. Then, you sit back and watch your business thrive. One sushi restaurant in San Francisco gives customers who mention Twitter a free salad. A small investment to be sure – but a worthwhile one!
What if You Don’t Have Time to Tweet?
Many small business owners spend so much time behind the counter, or performing a service for their customers, that they barely have time to eat or sleep – much less manage social media marketing campaigns. So, how can these people grow their businesses, and ultimately hire others so they can take some well-deserved time off?
The answer is simple. Hire a company that specializes in providing social media marketing for small businesses. It’s a small investment of money and time that can really pay off. Tweet!

Achieving first page ranking on Google