How Much Google Juice Do You Have?
The inspiring design, llc. PageRank Tool
PageRank is a numeric value that represents how important a page is on the web. When one page links to another page, it is effectively casting a vote for the other page. The more votes , the more important the page must be. But, it is also important to realize that Google also measures the importance of the page that is casting the vote, so one vote can be of more “significance” then another. Google then uses all of this information to calcualte a PageRank or PR. A very technical analysis can be found at Wikipedia, Google, and WebWork Shop.
Whats Your Google Juice? Check out Our Page Rank Tool at inspiring design, llc.
Why is it important? Read about Online Marketing - why its important, why you need to do it, and how you can do it now.
Tools of the Times - Part I
When I stumbled upon this site and looked at the tool for a minute or two, I thought, “hey this could be interesting”. After I entered my email and fed it my contact list of 450 people, I went from interested, to amazed, to nervous, all in about 3 minutes. I think for what the tool was designed to do, it works well, and was nice to see people I never even thought to track down in mySpace or Facebook. It also felt a bit like I was intruding, since most of these people post to site not ever thinking that a tool like this would come along.
So whats the tool, and what does it do? You feed it a list of email addresses and it goes and searches 22 sites (everything from flickr, picasa, myspace, to your wish list at amazon.com) and brings you a list of your “friends” (or anyone you have an email address for) and their pictures, blog posts, twitter thoughts, and products they hope to soon buy.
The first thing I thought, is oh boy, I hope that at some point I didn’t add anything embarrassing to my wish-list on amazon. It was a brutal reminder that everything you post on-line sticks around for a very long time and can and will be found, even if you don’t intend it to. Don’t get me wrong, this is a amazing little tool they have going one here. It will consolidate my social networking for my business in ways I couldn’t have imagined just yesterday. You can enter yourself and track all of the places you network in one central hub.
I guess this is the way we are trending with the web. Web 1.0 connected information, web 2.0 connects people. Give it a shot and let me know your feeling on this tool and implication on privacy and your social networking plan.
Local Portals, Targeted Marketing, Amazing Results
Why you should use them to get local info, list your business with, and even own your own…
It started out as the World Wide Web. It was amazing the reach one could have, chatting to someone in Ireland, buying something from South Africa, emailing someone in New Zealand, all from your living room. Everything was about big, wide, and breaking down the invisible boarders of distance that have so long separated neighbors of the world.
Now, we are starting to see a trending back toward local and the community. Google, Yahoo, and AOL all have local portals and searches. Also, independent local portals are becoming big business in the web world. Why, because everyone wins. The people or companies that develop the site do so for branding, marketing, advertising, etc and the users get information on their local community quickly and easily, a service that even the biggest companies have a hard time providing. Why, because it is users of the local community portal that drive the content, and not even Google can keep up with real time information on every local community. It can be expensive to list with nationally based portals, so local small businesses can advertise for much less on a local, community based portal, sometime even for free.
At sites like UrbanaMD.info, a local Urbana Maryland community portal, all businesses can obtain their own webpage for free. This seem counterintuitive if the owner of the site hopes to make some cash, right?, Well, if you look at it, once again everyone wins. The more information listed on the site, the more end users, and the more revenue from advertising. Most of the time the owner of a site is a development company hoping to gain market share through branding - or a local real estate agent or mortgage broker hoping to gain community trust, appreciation, and recognition through providing a community service based application.
If it isn’t obvious by now, my company runs several of these sites, just recently releasing UrbanaMD.info. AT UrbanaMD Joining is FREE, Classified Ads are FREE and UNLIMITED, and basic Business Listings are FREE. Once you join, you will be able to post to the forums, add your business, check out our recipe Xchange, and even create your own “My Urbana Space” page much like MySpace.com. These are only a few of the things going on around here, and new things are being added daily. There are now over 160 local businesses and restaurants now listed under the “Our Urbana” Section
A site like this provides a public service and in using open source software such as Joomla, can be sold as a reasonable priced, pre-packaged application to anyone that is interested (contact us if you are). But this isn’t just a pitch; you should list your business with every local portal possible, getting your name out there as much as possible. But owning and operating a local portal can take your business to the next level.
Some more articles to mull over:
Promote Your Business through Local Web Portals
Local Portals Mean Big Business
Geolocal - Local Internet Marketing for Small Business
10 Steps to Promoting You and Your Business using Social Media
Oh, if I had a nickel for every time I heard “you’re too old for MySpace”. If I did, I wouldn’t have to try and grow my business at all, I would be retired. Problem is, people are quick to judge and I am short on nickels. In today’s online world, you either promote yourself and your business online in some capacity - or you fade away. Period.
Social media is not a fad. It is here to stay and it brings a profound change to your potential client’s experiences. Now, not tomorrow, is the right time to implement features that will make you and your business social media friendly and will allow you to implement networking and marketing techniques that will realize increases in traffic to your website, and your bottom line.
Step 1. In the immortal worlds of Pete Townsend – Who Are You?
Let the world know who you are and what you do. People don’t deal with unknowns well, and when you are just starting to build a web presence; you are exactly this, unknown. Create a personal website along side your business website. From your personal website, link to your many vehicles of online networking; such as Linked IN, Facebook, and MySpace (to name just a few). Today’s online entrepreneur has multiple online presences and you need a central hub to manage all of these. Promote your online presence from this centrally managed online personal page.
Step 2. Create Online Profiles…
So, you need to start somewhere, but where? Start by creating a Facebook and LinkedIn account, Facebook is the online leader in social media and Linked in is the premier networking site, with just these two, you are well on your way. Spend two hours a week in the beginning building your profiles, connecting with colleagues, associates, and friends, and publishing content to these sites. Below is a list of other website which will let you create free online profiles or communities - for after you get your feet wet with Facebook and LinkedIn and have the need for more…
· MySpace
· Squidoo
· Meetup
· Blue Dot
· Wetpaint
Step 3. Start a Blog…
This is free and easy. The obvious choice for the beginner is the Google owned blogger.com, but for a more serious approach that allows customization, you may want a custom setup of Wordpress, LiveJournal, or other software. This allows for customization and you can provide an easy bookmarking feature to social bookmarking sites like Digg and del.icio.us or other listed in step 4.
Step 4. Yes, It Is A Popularity Contest…
Provide an action button for direct posting of blog articles to Digg. Digg, and others like it, are community-based popularity website that combines social bookmarking, blogging, and syndication. A well dugg article can bring thousands of visitors (read: potential clients) to you.
· Furl
· Shadows
Step 5. Short and Sweet…
Provide RSS feeds for your blogs, forum postings, websites, etc. An RSS feed provides easy access to your user base and allows them to quickly and easily navigate your information. Frustrated people often do not hang around long, and if they don’t hang around, they won’t learn about you or your business. Keep people happy and keep them on your site.
Step 6. Get it out there…
Publish all your feeds at Feedburner (or others from the list below). Much like Facebook, Feedburner is the premier RSS provided media distribution and audience engagement services for RSS feeds. They custom RSS feeds and management tools to bloggers, podcasters, and other web-based content publishers. Services provided to publishers include traffic analysis and an optional advertising. If you have something worth reading, you will be able “bank it” using their services.
Step 7. Going Viral
A Viral video refers to video clip content which gains widespread popularity through the process of Internet sharing, typically through email or IM messages, blogs and other media sharing websites. Now, not all of us have the potential for this, but we all have the mechanism. Remember, if you have a camera phone, you could have a viral video, which is posted, can drive traffic to your site, regardless if it is relevant to your business.
If this form of advertising and social media shenanigans is not for you, then take comfort, you can still provide video. Your video can be educational or service oriented and aspire to inform your clients or users on products and services you provide. Video is a medium maybe more powerful then the written word, but takes a bit more knowhow and thought.
Step 8. Spreading the Virus…
Provide embedded links to your remotely hosted videos from your blog, website, or social media sites. YouTube as well as others allow a community driven video sharing experience while keeping the load off of your server.
Step 9. A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words…
Use social photo sharing sites like Flickr and SmugMug to share pictures related to content on your site or blog. Use many of the techniques discussed earlier for social video sites.
Step 10. Sharing is Caring…
Provide a “Send Link” feature for all the services you provide to clients, your RSS feeds, your pics, (pretty much everything we covered above). This allows users to send an article, product description, etc. to a friend via e-mail. Free Advertising, and after all that’s what we are trying to do here right? Put in the work up front and let the internet and social media take over. It will take time, but it will be worth it.
These steps are not a get rich quick recipe, but a strategic formula for long term success in an overwhelming online world. If you have questions or comments, please leave them here or contact us.
Read more at inspiring design, llc.
This is an article in a weekly series - how to promote your business online.
Business, How To, Online Marketing, Social Networking | Comments (0)How to Promote Your Business Online - A Primer of 3
Being a complete online solutions company doesn’t come easy. Even we have a hard time keeping up with the cutting edge application that come online each and every day to help you (and us) promote ones business in a world that online.
So, how do we do it?
Probably in a lot of ways that you have done it for the past 20 years, but with a twist. Below we will walk though some of the tools we use, hopefully inspiring you to dive into the the world of cutting edge online marketing.
VFlyers
The way it was…Flyers
You would print them up, and put them under car windshield wipers, post to telephone poles, hand them out on a street corner.
How it is now…Vflyers
Create and manage attractive virtual flyers that can be automatically or manually submitted into leading online marketplaces!
With this application, you can create multiple flyers, image galleries, and post to craiglist and dozens of other advertising sites with the push of a button. Vfler tracks flyer views and contacts and you can manage these all in a very intuitive and user friendly interface. Best part of all, like most application we use here at inspiring design, llc - IT IS FREE. No better way of cutting costs then to do free online advertising.
Blogs
The way it was…Editorials
How could you get your voice heard? Submit an editorial to a local paper…Stand on a street corner and shout…
How it is now…Blogs, Blog, and more Blogs
Even my grandmother has one. Everyone now a days has a blog, and if you don’t, just get one, it is easy, cheap, and we can help you set one in in a snap. Once you have a blog, you have a voice, and if you get people interested in what you have to say, you have an audience, and then you have prospective clients… So, once you have one, how do you get readers? Here are some sites, tips, and tricks on how to promote your blog.
- Blog Rush
- Submit to RSS directories
- Submit to blog directories
- Submit to general directories
- Find out how much your blog is worth
- Social Media - Digg, del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Reddit, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube
- Forums - AuthorityBlogger, Bloggeries, SitePoint, Blogger Forum, BloggerTalk
Google Adwords
The Way it Was… buy ad space
Maybe in local newspapers, trade magazines, if your big enough, billboards - promote your business, pay even if nobody sees it, or if people you don’t care about seeing it are the only ones that actually do.
How it is now… buy ad space though Google, only pay if someone clicks the link
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is a paid form of advertising, popularized mostly by the Google Ads. The concept is fairly simple. Businesses bid to be placed at or near the top of the search results for particular keyword phrases. The bidding is done on a “per-click” basis, meaning that a company pays a specific amount every time the engine sends them a visitor. In addition, the top results on Google also show up in the results of many of the popular search engines (usually listed as “sponsored” or “featured” results).
Read more at inspiring design, llc.
This is the first article in a weekly series of how to promote your business online.
35+ Small Business Online Resources - Inspiring Solutions for an Online World
Google Everything - AdWords, Analytics, Apps, Base, Calender, Code, Gmail, Local, Maps, Webmaster Tools
SpeedTest - Self explainitory, but this one gve as great interface and you can save results from session to session.
Yelp - Review and talk about what’s great (and not so great) in your area (restaurants, dentists, hairstylists, and anything local)
ZapReader - Web based speed reading program. Grain of salt alert: the site says you can experience a 300% increase in reading speed, without any loss in comprehension
YouSendIt: Have you ever had to clean out your inbox just so you’d have room to send out an email? YouSendIt puts and end to that trouble by sending files up to 2GB to your clients.
Basecamp: Basecamp offers a way to improve project communication. Use it to keep your teammates and clients informed about what’s going on with your projects.
Lulu: Lulu gives fledgling writers an easy way to get published. Each product is printed as it’s ordered, so you don’t have to build an expensive inventory.
PayPal: Give your clients a way to pay without sharing their financial information by using PayPal.
Campfire: Campfire is a web-based chat tool that’s ideal for online meetings with clients or coworkers.
LogMeIn: Don’t let your business suffer because you can’t take your computer on the road. Use LogMeIn to get access to your computer’s desktop anywhere
LinkedIn: LinkedIn offers online networking at its best. Find opportunities and contacts based on your work and the people you already know.
Craigslist: Craigslist is an invaluable tool for any freelancer. Find clients, sell your work, buy supplies, network and more using Craigslist.
l8r: If you’re working at 2AM but prefer that your client thinks you keep normal hours, you can use l8r to delay sending messages until a specified time. You can also use it to schedule emails that you know you’ll send, like reminders.
Pinger: Forgot to send an email? Don’t worry, you can send an audio email message to your recipient instead using Pinger.
Yugma - Free online collaboration with real-time desktop sharing, virtual meetings and more.
Plaxo - Plaxo offers toolbars for major email clients and web browsers (at least in Beta release) to keep your address book updated across all the applications that you use.
vflyer - Create a standardized classified ad that can be used online or in print.
GrandCentral - One phone number that will ring all of your phone lines and organize all of your voicemail into one mailbox.
Website Grader - How good at you at optimizing your website for Search Engines?
Lipsum Generator - Generate Latin filler text for mock-ups and story boarding websites
stock.xchng: Add photos to your writing or web design at low or no cost. stock.xchng provides tons of stock photos, many of them royalty-free.
MorgueFile: MorgueFile’s high resolution photos are has-beens in the stock photography world, but that doesn’t mean they won’t do a great job spicing up your work.
Designers Toolbox: Get set up with all the legal forms your design business may need with Designers Toolbox
Nolo: If you’ve got a legal question about your business, head to Nolo. Experts there offer legal advice for independent contractors and consultants.
Prosper: Using Prosper’s people-to-people lending website, you can borrow money for business expenses from real people. If you have extra cash, use Prosper to earn interest by lending to others.
MiddlePost Docs - Electronic signature services that allow you to get legally binding electronic signatures on your contracts.
IconnectE - Network with start-ups, small business owners, entrepreneurs, and others to create more business opportunities for yourself.
88 Miles - Unobtrusive time tracking that allows you to punch in and out of projects as you’re working, and includes on-screen timers that show you how much time you’ve clocked.
For Webdesigners - 295 helpful links for webdesigners
Cool Online Apps, Online Marketing, Web Design | Comments (0)