If you've been tasked with managing a team of SEO professionals then this blog post is for you. If you're a webmaster who is outsourcing SEO work to a 3rd party agency or contractor this post is also for you. In SEO like many business ventures, if you have the right talent and can coordinate that talent in a productive and efficient way, you can succeed beyond your wildest dreams.

Unfortunately this rarely happens. What you see more often however is an SEO team led by an SEO expert who wants to dig deep into the SEO details all day, essentially doing all the work his/herself. This leaves inefficiencies all over the place and more importantly, a lack of real leadership and coaching on behalf of the manager.

This blog post breaks down specific tips an SEO manager can follow to be better at leading an SEO team. To achieve more results and to create more of a "team" atmosphere. Here they are:

1. Hire Outside Expertise For Consulting

Take the Abraham Lincoln – "Team of Rivals" approach and start reaching out those you consider as good or better than you at SEO. Seek their advice and consulting. Pay them to sit down with you an answer various questions that you need their opinions/answers to. You'll be surprised how much they know that you don't!

2. Listen To All Ideas From All Team Members

No idea is a bad idea. This must become your mantra. Listen to all ideas and treat all ideas with the upmost respect. Every once in awhile one of these new ideas from someone on your team will save you!

3. Spend 1 Hour Per Day Looking at Analytics

Analyzing data. Somebody's gotta do it? Who better than the SEO manager. Analyzing data will allow you to "script the critical moves" as it's famously described in the book "Switch."

4. Spend 1 Hour Per Day Learning

You've got to stay on top of your RSS Feeds in the SEO industry. 1 hour per day should help you accomplish this. Otherwise you risk being out of the know.

5. Spend 1 Hour Per Day Strategizing

Somebody on the SEO team has to constantly have the clear vision of the business and of the SEO strategy in particular. That's you, the manager! Brainstorming and taking notes should be your favorite time of the day.

6. Delegate. Delegate. Delegate!

I recommend using a project management tool like Basecamp so you can manage tasks and due dates on specific projects. Spend quality time delegating instead of doing. Empower and trust in your people.

7. Allow Your People Room To Take Risks

Don't suffocate the members of your SEO team. Give them room to take risks. It may cost you early success, but in the long run you'll gain more success from those individuals than you otherwise would have. Allowing people to take risks is the best investment in their education.

SEOs are a unique group of people. To be a true SEO means you've had to do countless hours of research and testing on your own to find answers and solutions. SEOs are problem solvers by nature. It's the very material that makes an SEO an SEO. Which can complicate things at the manager level. That same personality that gives SEOs the ability to learn on their own often times hurts them when they become managers because they want to continue to do everything on their own.

The successful SEO managers shake themselves free of this "do it yourself" mentality when they hit the managerial level. They learn to leverage the expertise of those around them and more importantly, they learn to trust! I hope these tips help you better manage your SEO agency or reseller SEO agency. Good luck.

This article was contributed by Nicole. She has been writing about SEO for years, and loves helping others learn about SEO.

As a blogger, you may be your own boss and have a lot of creative freedom, but as the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility.

Not only do you need to keep yourself on task, but you also need to stay creative in order to keep drawing a big audience to your blog. That can be a lot of pressure, which leads to things like writer’s block. If you’re having a lot o trouble staying creative, here are five ways to channel your creative side.

1.  Brainstorming

If you are stuck for content for a particular topic or for a new topic, a good idea might be brainstorming. Give yourself a limited number of restrictions on what you will jot down and just write down whatever comes to your mind in a train of thought.

This will certainly lead to a few bad ideas in with the good ones, but the idea is to try to put everything currently on your mind on paper so that you can try to go from there and generate new ideas. Hopefully after just a few minutes you’ll have some good topic ideas and free up the creative side of your brain to keep fostering ideas.

2.  Get Outside and Take a Walk

Sometimes being in a closed-in space can make it tough for you to come up with fresh new ideas. It can be freeing for your mind and body to get outside where you can move around a bit, take a walk and enjoy the scenery. It might also take you away from distractions like the television, a ringing phone or a string of e-mails. Those can all limit your ideas as well.

3.  Share Your Ideas or Problems With Others

If you’re still stuck, try bouncing ideas with a trusted friend or colleague. You may even do this anonymously on an Internet forum. The goal is to put what you’ve got out there to see if anyone can add to it in a direction that gets you going again. They may also happen to bring up something in the conversation that you hadn’t thought of yet that gives you great ideas or inspiration.

4.  Do a Mindless Task

It may seem counterproductive but if you are really jammed up for an idea, thinking about nothing can be the way to go just to release some of the stress and re-focus you. It is hard to think about nothing when you are trying to do so, but it isn’t so hard to do when you take up a menial task.

You could wash your dishes, clean up your room, walk the dog or organize your desk. Just remember not to multi-task and to focus in on the task at hand while you do it and pretty soon you should trick yourself into thinking about nothing at all.

5.  Release Stress Through Laughter or Exercise

Often, stress can block ideas as you focus in more on the problem and less on the solution. That doesn’t get you anywhere. If you find yourself thinking of things like, “I have to get this done and I don’t know what I’m going to do,” as opposed to “How can I solve this problem?” it may be time to get some stress out.

Two proven ways to accomplish this are exercise and laughter, so either hit up one of your favorite comedians on YouTube or go for a run or a half hour or hour of exercise at your local gym.

This should get rid of some of the frustration and clear your mind a bit to dive back into the task at hand.

Valerie Mellema is the owner of Words You Want. Words You Want offers SEO writing services as well as guest blogging packages, eBooks, press releases, blog writing and more. Visit the Words You Want blog for weekly specials. 

Business cards are still a thriving marketing tool even in today’s technological world.

One reason why business cards are still effective is that they allow you to quickly share contact details with another person without having to stop your current conversation. This enables you to continue to explain the benefits your business could provide a potential customer or client while still giving them your pertinent contact info.

However, some new modern day additions to traditional business cards are making them even more effective marketing tools. Incorporating these features into your business card can help improve the success you see when using them as a marketing tool.

Social Profiles

While you will certainly still want to list your phone number, email address and business address on your business card, you should add your social media handles as well to inform other people of your profiles and make it easy for them to follow your accounts. The more people you have following your social media profiles, the more effective they will be when using them to market your business.

QR Codes

QR codes, or quick response code, are another modern day addition that many professionals are adding to their business cards. A QR code is in essence a bar code that contains a lot more information than a standard bar code. They can be scanned with a smartphone to read the contents of that code. Many businesses are placing their contact information, along with other information about their business and services, within a QR code to allow for more information to be stored on their card.

Also, with a QR code added to your business card, you allow someone the opportunity to easily transmit your contact info from a printed business card to their smartphone with the click of a button rather than having to type in all of your information manually. By scanning your QR code, someone will be able to store your business information very easily for future reference.

Online Business Cards

In addition to printed business cards, some professionals are creating online business cards to supplement their physical cards. If you have a QR code on your business card, you can include a link to your online version which can contain a digital portfolio of your work or simply explain in greater detail what your business or company can do for a potential client.

Being able to redirect someone from your physical business card to an online, digital version that contains more information can be invaluable when trying to describe exactly how your business can help a customer or client.

While physical business cards are still very effective marketing tools, there are some modern day additions you should consider adding to your cards to make them even more effective. Adding your social media handles, QR codes and a link to an online business card will allow you to provide potential customers and clients with all of the important contact information and information about your company’s services in a quick, concise manner.

About the author: As a former small business owner, author Georgina Clatworthy has found that a business card offers a valuable means of introducing oneself to potential clients and is the fastest means of passing on contact details. She recommends using professional printing companies like Signazon to ensure that the design and finish of your cards perfectly project the image of your business.

There are a number of SEO tools available for you out there. Those tools typically automate time consuming SEO research and monitoring tasks for you.

While each tool has its own feature set, here are some of the features you’ll find in many of them:

• They’ll analyze your page content for specific keywords, and give you tips how to improve your search ranking for the given keyword.
• They’ll monitor your rankings for your most important keywords. You’ll see which keywords you’re ranking high for, and you’ll see ranking changes.
  Pay attention how many keywords are allowed at specific price points, you’ll find great differences between some of the SEO tools below.
• They’ll show you who is linking back to your site (inbound links), including important information like anchor text of links, site authority, and more.
• They’ll help you to find back link opportunities.
• Some track mentions of your brand keywords on other web sites and social media sites.
• Some help you to manage your SEO projects, including managing customer projects for SEO agencies and consultants.
• You’ll be able to export results into PDF, csv or Excel reports, some brandable, some not.

If you are looking for the best SEO tools that you can try for free, here’s a list of the 10 premium SEO tools that you can check out at no cost!

Top Ten Premium SEO Tools You Try Free:

1. SEO Profiler

SEO Profiler has one of the most complete feature sets, including a high number of keywords (twice as much as Tool #2 below) even in the cheapest plan. Their features include

• rank monitoring,
• site audits and optimization tips,
• link building tools,
• analyzing competing web sites,
• brandable reports.

They have a limited trial that’s completely free, and a full trial for just $1. Paid plans start at $49.

SEO Profiler

2. SEOmoz

SEOmoz has a 30 day free trial offer with complete access to their SEO tool-set. After their free trial ends, plan starts at $99 a month. Do not miss their for members-only resources. After going to your Pro Dashboard, simply scroll down to see their PRO resources that includes discounts for members, webinars and a list of their top directories where you can submit your website.

SEOmoz is also known for having one of the most complete feature sets among SEO tools, and for a Q&A forum where lots of professionals (and a few ‘not so professionals’) are ready to answer your questions. Plans start at $99, twice as much as SEO profiler, but the forum might be worth the extra cost.

3. Raven Tools

Raven Tools has a 30 day free trial offer for their internet marketing tool-set. After their trial, plans start at $99 per month. This will cover unlimited websites and projects. They are known especially for their link management tools.

However, they offer several other tools as well. These will help you with almost everything in your internet marketing campaign.

One feature that makes them stand out from most others on this page is management of PPC campaigns.

4. Authority Labs

Authority Labs allows you to keep a track of your keyword ranking across multiple domains. Compared to the tools above the feature set is limited.

This tool offers a 30 day free trial period, no credit card required. After the free trial, plans start at $49 per month. This allows monitoring of 250 keywords over 50 domains.

5. WhooshTraffic

Whoosh Traffic is a keyword ranking monitoring tool. It offers a 30 day free trial. After the free trial, pricing from $49 for 300 keywords monitoring in unlimited domains. Moreover, you will receive unlimited email alerts telling you about your rankings.

In addition to their keywords monitoring tool, they offer other SEO tools within beta.

6. WebMeUp

WebMeUp is a specialized SEO dashboard tool currently in beta. It comes as a 15 day free trial, after which plans start at $19.95 per month. While this is incredibly cheap, the cheapest plan is limited to 1 domain and only 50 keywords.

The WebMeUp tools allow you to check traffic, search social metrics for your site along with other competitors.

7. CognitiveSEO

CognitiveSEO offers a 14 day free trial period for their link analysis tool-set. After their trial ends, pricing begins at $19 per month. This tool is great for both small businesses and bloggers alike. They’ll include some unique features like classifying links and websites into groups, for example forums, blogs, press release etc.

They’ll also offer To-do list management and Campaign management for agencies.

8. SEMrush

SEMrush is a keyword or PPC research tool which does not normally come as a free trial. However, if you click on begin your free trial option, you can receive a 14 day free trial for their tools. After this offer ends, you can subscribe at $79.95 per month. This tool is great for content research.

One feature you won’t find in the other tools here is spying on competitor’s ads.

9. Link Prospector

Link Prospector is one of the most powerful discovery tools for building link opportunities. The free trial is a single free credit. You could use it for discovery reports of your choice. Also, you can utilize this tool to locate various types of links, ranging from topical blogs to directories.

This tool is very different form the other tools on this page. It won’t replace any of them, but instead offers a unique approach to finding back link opportunities.

10. MajesticSEO

MajesticSEO is great for basic functionality. It is a link research tool. This tool offers a free account that’ll allow you to run a detailed report on your own website. It’s well known for its back link research tool site explorer, but it offers limited access to other tools.

Remember, if you do not do SEO work for a living and want to carry out some important search marketing work for your website, you are in luck with the above cheap and free tools! Give them a try, and later decide on the one that’ll give you the best value long term.

Or you could sign up for one tool per month, and thus get continous information on your sites for a full year for free while learning the ins and outs of search engine optimization.

About the author: This post has been written by Nicky. She loves to share knowledge about SEO. She is evangelist for Growth Seed Company. They provide best Drupal SEO Services to their clients.

Ross Dempsey is the Head of Marketing for Glasgoweb, an SEO company in Glasgow who also offers web design, PPC and graphic design services across the UK. Ross’ particular expertise lies in SEO, PPC, Social Media and Analytics.

In this guest post Ross shares 10 tips for SEO agencies on how to put your best foot forward when meeting a potential SEO client for the first time:

Whenever we get a call regarding a potential new SEO project our team will always set up a meeting and we can almost guarantee that our new potential client has several meetings set up with other companies too. So how do you win that big SEO contract? There are no guarantees but here are our top 10 tips of how you should spend your time to get that new client.

1. Introduce Yourself and your company

First things first you need to provide a background of your company. While they will have been to your website it’s unlikely they will have read every page in great detail.  You also need to divulge the experience in SEO that you personally have. We always send the person who would manage their account in the future and they will want to know their experience so that they can trust you with their SEO investment.

2. Let them know the benefits that improving SEO will bring

Many people don’t realize the benefits and potential customers that SEO can bring so it’s important to let them see the potential rewards. Take a few of the keywords you would want to target and use the AdWords keyword tool to show the amount of people that are searching for these terms. Ask how many search results they look at when using a search engine and how often they look beyond the first few results to allow them to see the potential traffic they are missing out on.

3. Show them where their competitors are in terms of SEO

Once you’ve got their attention and they’re beginning to think about the possibilities SEO can bring, you need to show where they are in comparison to their biggest competitors. Explain a few terms like domain authority and linking root domains; then show them how they compare and what the benchmark is. This allows them to see the amount of work you will need to do.

4. Discuss their on site optimization and website in general

Show them some on page grading’s of how their website pages are seen by the search engines for the keywords you should be targeting and let them know the changes that need to be made to allow the SEO to take off.

If their website is nowhere near as good as their competitors don’t avoid the topic, discuss this with them. We’re not trying to upsell our web design packages here, simply put if we are taking on a long term partnership with a client we want them to grow their sales and profits and be rewarded from us improving their online presence and their site needs to be good enough to do so.

5. Be Professional

This goes beyond turning up looking smart with your laptop and notepad. Many people have had someone working on their SEO before and think they have done a great job while you may know otherwise. Don’t belittle their former employees or your competitors that carried out the work, just show them the facts and allow them to make the realization themselves!

6. Show them some of the work you are doing for other clients and the success it has brought you

By showing them some of your work such as infographics, blog posts and the vital statistics of your current clients’ sites they will see the quality of your work and how your SEO has helped your other clients businesses.  This gives them faith in your ability and allows them to realize if you’ve been successful with other clients, there’s no reason why you wouldn’t be successful again with them.

7. Wow them with your knowledge

This doesn’t mean fry their brains with information overload of things they don’t understand. We find that there are many people that read one blog post on SEO and consider themselves an expert. Last week for example, I took a meeting and one of the guys tried to prove his knowledge of SEO because he’d read a post on SEOMoz about Panda Updates. I politely agreed and gave my point of view then went on to say that our team has posts featured on SEOMoz, he was suitably impressed and this may have been one of the deciding factors in them choosing us!

8. Carry out your research beforehand and have a rough price ready on the day

People ultimately always want to know the price of your services. Every project is different so it’s important to carry out research beforehand to give them a rough idea of price. You don’t want to put your team in a position where you’re struggling with your time to meet goals you set because you’ve pushed too hard to undercut your competitors and didn’t know how competitive the keywords were. Yes this price may change on the day as you find out more about their targets but it’s important to have something prepared when they ask about it.

9. Follow up with an in depth quote

It can be a lot for them to take in in one meeting so we find it useful to provide everything you have discussed in a quote along with the price. By providing a professional quote they can also see that you are for real and realize the amount they are paying you is going to be worth it.

10. Be Honest

This is the most important tip we can give, be honest with them. By doing so you will build up trust and a relationship. Don’t make promises that you can’t guarantee and make it known that there are no guarantees with SEO. That way when they have meetings with your competitors and are promised number 1 spot for every term they’ll know that they’re talking nonsense and that in fact, you’re the guys for the job!

To be successful in affiliate marketing, you need to find a way to engage your readers.

Unlike a traditional ad where you're paid for every click or impression, with affiliate marketing you're only paid if and when a customer performs a certain action.

With that difference in mind, here are 7success tips for affiliate marketers.

1. Promote an affiliate product you're passionate about. There are thousands of choices ready for promotion; however, you'll be most successful when promoting something you would personally use or that you really believe in. If you believe in the product, you're more likely to be able to convince others to buy it. Determine what you're most passionate about, and select products focusing on that passion.
2. Set up an affiliate blog. If you were to poll some affiliate marketing veterans on what they wished they'd done first, setting up a good blog would likely be at the top of the list. A lot of people will tell you they don't need to blog to promote products, but it's actually important. Search engines are focusing on quality, and a high-quality blog that gets a lot of traffic can bring more people to your marketing links.
3. Put together a business plan. Your early results are directly proportionate to the amount of research and effort that goes into your marketing plan. Unless you're hiring someone else to do the writing, website maintenance, SEO and marketing, you'll have to do all the 'heavy lifting' yourself. After a little while, you'll begin to earn passive income from the knowledge you acquired and the work you did in the past.
4. Don't get in over your head. In your excitement, you've probably seen dozens of products you'd like to promote, but it's better to concentrate on just one or two. Once you're successfully promoting those, you can expand your reach.
5. Be honest. It's OK to use a pseudonym for privacy, but it's important to choose a name that's in line with who you are and what you're promoting. Be yourself, and promote products that match your passions and beliefs. You'll seem more trustworthy, and people will more than likely buy what you're selling.
6. Interact with others. Building relationships with others is part of being successful in affiliate marketing. If you link to others through blog commenting and guest posting, the people hosting those blogs are more likely to recommend you and your products. Build relationships with those regarded as authorities in their field, and put their experience to work for you!
7. Don't promote excessively. A common mistake among affiliate marketing beginners is to over-promote. Twitter, Facebook, comments and forums are all good places to gain name recognition; however, continual posting of links without offering anything of value will cause you to lose the respect and attention of others.

The tips mentioned above will help you start your affiliate marketing campaign on the right foot. By using these tips as a base for your marketing efforts, you have a much higher chance of success.

This article was written by Crispin Jones, owner of Is ClickSure legit, full of reviews and information on the ClickSure affiliate network.

Since its advent, social media has played a big role in changing the way we do online business. Many brands have gone to the likes of Facebook and Twitter to promote their name, gather an audience and use the platforms to convert them into actual customers.

But while social media is fast conquering the online market, some industries still do not find platforms such as Facebook and Twitter useful.

So yes, what makes Twitter and Facebook a waste of time for your small business? Below are the top 4 reasons:

1. Your target audience is just within reach.

If you are running a small business and are catering to a very local market, then there’s actually no need to use social networks because they’re just within reach. This proves true if you already have an established location; people already flock to you naturally.

Sure, having a profile on Facebook and Twitter helps, but you can do without them. It’s unless of course you are consistent in posting updates about your store, but that wouldn’t be necessary when your audience is already knows about that.

2. Your market is not into social media.

Yes, there are markets which are not into social media. These include the businesses that cater to the elderly, or those that rely more on search queries rather than social media-such as home services.

If your business is service oriented, and your clients are usually one-time customers, then you may settle for a website instead of a social media profile. This is because your clients will be looking for you to transact deals and not to socialize.

3. Most of your followers are not into your business.

If you are running a small business, your main followers would most likely be your family and friends. Sure, they support your business, but not in terms of proactively endorsing it to their own contacts.

Promoting your business on social media will only be effective if most of your target audience is also on social media; it’s not every day that you can find referrals from second degree friends. If ever a customer looks for you, he or she will do it via Google instead.

4. You are catering to an offline market.

Let’s say you are running a food stall down the street. Given your location and the nature of your business, your market is already there. Your customers pass by your stall naturally, and if ever they want to know about your offers, they’ll ask you directly. And no, they won’t spend time looking for you on social media, unless you already have a cult following.

So there’s actually no need to go online if you are serving an offline market. It would only be a waste of time to shout out on Twitter or Facebook when most of your followers are located somewhere else, somewhere far from your business. If you want to increase your customer base in this line of business, then go for the old school marketing-flyers and all.

Ryan Barker is a freelance journalist with interest in marketing, social media, online marketing, brand research and brand boasting among many other related topics.

The biggest part of SEO services is to connect with customers and build relationships giving them the encouragement to support your business. Sometimes, the role ends up reversed and the community may need support from businesses.

The world is full of tragedy, in the last year alone we have seen towns destroyed from storms, tragic losses through sink holes, and other tragedies that have rocked big and small towns across the globe.

In these times of troubles, businesses need to reach out to their community and offer them support, but doing so can be difficult for businesses.

These tips can help any business reach out to their community, the same way their community has reached out for them.

Show Commitment

In times of trouble, its not enough to just write an I am sorry card to the communities that support you, you have to put your neck out for the people who stick their neck out for you. The communities around you are what keep your business alive, so when they feel like they are drowning, it is your turn to save a life.

You don't have to cut a check or anything like that, but give a helping hand. When businesses and homes have collapsed in tragedy, give a helping hand with cleaning up the mess. The biggest hearts do the smallest gestures.

Show Value To Your Community

There are many ways to show your community you care by adding value. We have seen many businesses use these techniques by sponsoring charities in time of need, using all their business resources to give a helping hand. We have seen companies like tide offer laundry services for free using their resources and other businesses using the power of the public relations team to spread the word to raise money for a cause.

When businesses use their resources to add value to a community, they are using their SEO services and tools for someone else beside themselves, and it will reflect on the business later.

Size Does Not Matter

Many businesses think that they may not be able to help in times of tragedy because their business is not big enough. Even the smallest businesses can make a difference when there is a community in need; it all depends on how you do it.

1. Some small companies have been known to donate their proceeds, offer services for local events, and even donate their products at no cost to assist those around them, when you have lost everything, even the smallest things help.
    
2. Large corporations can help by using their marketing skills to help bring attention to the issue at hand. All major corporations have connections, so using those connections for a favor that doesn't benefit your business directly shows an unselfish act to the people who have always opened their wallet for you and made your business successful.

Every business no matter how big or small can give back to their community, even not-for-profit businesses can donate some of their volunteers to the cause to help communities in their time of need. Every little gesture, has a big impact.

Robert has been writing and researching SEO services for the past 5 years in hopes to educate businesses how they can benefit from these services and increase their visibility in search engines.

Remember the days of filing endless documents in a smoke filled office with the constant drone of a computer sounding like it’s about to take off in the background?

Fortunately the evolution of IT has allowed modern offices to evolve too and now they are less clustered with paper and a more work friendly environment.

That has been the case now for many years but another step in the evolution of the modern office has arrived and this one is inspired by the internet and file sharing devices.

The advancements in the internet and its widespread availability means that the world is now our office, let’s take a look at how and why your office should make some changes.

We Just Don’t Need To Be In The Same Room

There are lots of examples of businesses that do need their employees to be in the same room as each other but there are lots more that simply don’t. It’s a pretty alien concept to most of us who have spent years working in a traditional office.

However if you think about what you actually do you’ll probably see that you could do it from home just as easily. Many people see working from home as slacking off in some way but with modern file sharing technology and the feeling of a bit more freedom it is usually far more productive for the company employing them.

How Does It Work?

It’s simple, all you need is a good PC or laptop and a fast internet connection and you’re ready to work from home. Modern Microsoft Office software is designed to make file sharing easy so you can instantly share your work with those who need to see it and get or give any required feedback.

Then of course there’s lots of instant messaging tools available to exchange information and keep in regular communication. When you add that to traditional emailing and a company phone line then it becomes hard to argue against the benefits of working from home.

What If We Need To Have A Meeting?

This is a question that usually gets raised by employers who are sceptical about adopting a new approach to their office and it’s a valid concern. If you need to have a team meeting then you can simply dedicate some time for everyone to come in and meet or alternatively there are tools such SKYPE that allow you to communicate face to face without having to be in the same room.

Just because your employees work from home doesn’t mean that you never have to see them, you can still dedicate days for them to come in and meet face to face if you want.

What’s In It For The Bosses?

We can see the obvious benefits in this new working arrangement for employees who can work from the comfort of their own homes, save money on travelling expenses, get a better work/life balance and generally feel like they’ve been trusted with more freedom but what’s in it for their employers?

• Firstly the employer will save money by not having to run a large office on a daily basis which can be very expensive when you take into account electricity costs, providing office equipment, updating chairs and tables, fixing computers, updating technology.
• Then there are the other people they need to employ such as cleaners, security staff and maybe even cafeteria staff to provide their employees with a proper working environment.

It’s much easier for a new start-up company to hire people who have their own computers and can work from home, straight away you are avoiding huge overheads. Another benefit to the employer is that you can attract a better standard of employee.

A web design company for example will be able to attract people from all over the country and maybe even further afield to work for them remotely so they are not limited to their local area which may not have the calibre of people that they need for the job.

Remote working is set to become the norm in employment and so the modern office is set for some big changes. The age of the internet has changed the world and made it a much smaller place meaning that your office can now stretch across the world with employees being spread out everywhere yet still working in complete unison

Paul Greer is an IT expert who cleans data centres for ECS. He has noticed a huge change in the way IT offices are run in the past few years with employees working from home and the data centre becoming the new head office.

The way to get business and find new customers used to be all about your physical location.  Now it’s all about your location on a Google search.  You’re not just competing against the store a few blocks down; your competition can be located anywhere from New York to London to China.  The internet has forever changed the way we shop, do business, even communicate. 

The first thing small businesses did to stay in the game was to maintain websites.  They started selling their product and providing information and services all online.  This allowed them to spread their business farther than any physical location allowed.  Now they have taken it a step farther and started blogging.

Blogging is quickly becoming the most popular way for small businesses to strengthen their customer base and their reputation.  It is becoming a necessary part of every small business.  Unfortunately, it is also becoming the quickest and most sure-fire way to lose customers and hurt your reputation. 

Many small businesses start blogging before they take time to understand the how, what, where, why and when of blogging.  These 5 questions should be the basis of your blog.  The answers to them will determine everything your blog will accomplish.  While many seasoned bloggers understand the importance of these questions and know these answers like the back of their hand, some newbies just don’t get it.

Not understanding these questions leads business owners to make mistakes that can cause them to lose customers, business and a good reputation. 

The following tips will help small businesses owners realize what they are doing wrong and what they need to change.

1. Why? “Everyone else is blogging.”

The “why” is the most important question you should ask yourself.  Why are you starting a blog?  The purpose of your blog should be to show that you are the leader in your industry.  You are the ones with the knowledge and expertise customers are looking for.  Your articles should prove that.  Don’t start one just because your competition is.

Many small business owners get caught up in the importance of getting something posted that they forget why they started posting in the first place.  Don’t get lost in your blog.  It is your voice to the world.

Before you start blogging, sit down and review your company’s mission statement. Find out how a blog will help you accomplish your goals and then write a mission statement for your blog.  Always keep that in mind.  Every change you make, every article you post should be getting you closer to achieving your goals; if it’s not then don’t do it.  It’s as simple as that.  If you can’t see how a certain action will influence your company for the better, then rethink what you’re doing.  

2. How? “A basic blog template should work just fine.”

Know your blogging platform.  Many business owners make the mistake of learning just enough about posting to get by.  You should never settle for just getting by.  Try new things, experiment with different plugins, add images, find out what works for you and your customers.

There are so many options out there that can enhance your blog.  You need to learn everything you can and take advantage of these opportunities.  If you find yourself to be a little technology challenged, you can either hire someone to do the job and teach you how to do it or you can just find out if one of your current employees knows about blogging.  Have them show you the ropes so you understand what can be done.

3. What? “A little bit of this and a little bit of that.”

Deciding what to blog shouldn’t be very hard, but unfortunately many small businesses get so caught up in it that they start blogging about everything.  As stated before, your blog should prove that you are a leader in your industry.  It should show potential customers that you are the one to go to when they have a question.

Decide what your niche is; it should be based off of your products or services you provide.  If your business sells pet products, you probably shouldn’t be posting your favorite chicken cordon bleu recipe.  When accepting guest posts make sure they follow your niche.  

You should also decide if you want to post articles that are controversial.  If you don’t want to offend any of your readers you might want to avoid writing about politics, religion or issues in the news.  Base what you post off of the readers you are targeting.  This will not only determine the type of articles you write but also the language you use. 

4. Where?  “I’ll guest post anywhere that will accept me.”

Guest posting is a great way to get backlinks and lead people to your site.  As stated before, your goal should be to show you are the top dog in your industry, try to guest post on blogs that are similar to yours.  Don’t lose focus of why you started blogging in the first place.

5. When?  “Posting a couple times a week, twice in one day, what does it matter?”

There are many blogs out there that only post when they remember or feel like it.  This is a huge mistake because your readers don’t ever know when to expect an article.  If they read something on your blog that they like, they will begin to check it regularly.  If they are unable to count on you posting at certain times, it becomes a guessing game and they will lose interest.

The way to fix this is by deciding how often you want to post and set a day and a time to post on.

 If you want to post every day, that’s great.  Plan a week in advance so you are always ready for an article to go out in the morning.

If you only want to post once a week, set a day and stick to it.  If you decide on Wednesday, you should always post something on Wednesday.  Let your readers know when you will be posting.  Be reliable.   

Having a blog is a great move for any small business owner.  But you have to stay on top of it.  Don’t make the mistake of putting your blog on the backburner or downplaying its importance.  It is a tool just like any other business strategy.  Be active in your blogging.  Avoid these common mistakes and you will find that blogging brings great results.

Kathryn Mott enjoys writing about blogging, SEO and social media.  She works for Professional Marketing International.  Learn more about how they help entrepreneurs and investors here: http://www.youtube.com/user/pmieducation.

1) Warriorforum

Warriorforum (PR 5) has been around for quite a while, and is one of the top internet marketing help forums out there. If you're reading this, it's very likely that you've heard of it, if you're not already an active member! Create a profile with your website listed, place it in your signature and start contributing for an easy backlinks.

2) Digital Point

Digital Point (PR 5) is another forum for those looking for help with their internet marketing efforts. Much like Warriorforum, simply create a profile with your website listed in the information, and start talking to the community! Not only do you get a backlink, but you're likely to learn a thing or two in the process.`Digital point forum will allow you to have signatures and a couple of other extra features when you are an active user and has reached a certain number of posts

3) Site Point

SitePoint (PR 7) is a website dedicated primarily to the different aspects of web design. If you are a web designer, then you need to be on Sitepoint. SitePoint offers information on everything web-design related from learning PHP, to logo design! This is an excellent place to not only learn, but get a high-quality backlinks from. This forum is owned by SitePoint Pty Ltd, a Melbourne based publisher of books and websites. It is best known for its web developer books and online magazine. SitePoint was founded by Matt Mickiewicz and Mark Harbottle in 1999. In 2001 SitePoint began publishing books.

4) AllCoolForum

AllCoolForum (PR 1) is a forum dedicated to everything cool! While its focus is internet marketing techniques, these forums also have sub-forums on entertainment, travel and even jobs! There's a little bit of everything here for the internet savvy and newbie alike.

5) Geek Village

Geek Village (PR 3) is another internet marketing forum, but dedicated to geeks. You can learn everything from CPC, to search engine optimization, to web design! There's also a marketplace for geeks to buy/trade/sell items. For the non-internet-marketers, there's a sub-forum to talk about everything geek-related (except internet marketing).

6) SEO Refugee

SEO Refugee (PR 3) is a forum dedicated solely to search engine optimization tactics. Learn about Google's latest algorithm updates, the most recent SEO techniques, or even SEO tools! Like all forums, there is a sub-forum to talk about unrelated stuff if you're just looking to score an easy backlink.

7) Zymic

Last on my list is Zymic (PR 4), a forum dedicated to all things web-design related. This forum can get very technical, as most of the sub-forums are dedicated to subjects only a true web-developer would know about. Even if you're not a hardcore web-developer though, you can still participate in the off-topic discussions, or even buy/sell things in the marketplace.

Hopefully my list of the top seven high PR forums will help you and your website. Always remember that Google wants quality over quantity!

About the author: This article is written by Peter Brown, an SEO blogger and Professional writer currently living in Colorado. Peter enjoys reading and writing, he has also written for some top10 list sites that includes Toptensbest

A business plan is a strategic tool that every business should have, even if you think you're "too small" to need one.

A business plan is most valuable because it compels you to think holistically about your goals, assets, strengths and weaknesses, and closely examine any assumptions you're making.

Use your business plan to describe your company's:

• Mission, vision and core principles.
• Products and services.
• Organizational structure and key leadership.
• Goals, market opportunities, risks and customer profiles. 
• Action steps and resources needed to achieve long- and short-term objectives.
• Financial data, such as profit and loss, cash flow, sales forecasts and outstanding debt.

Why do you need a business plan?

A well thought-out business plan provides essential documentation to obtain financing.

It may also be useful to persuade potential partners and suppliers to work with you.

A business plan is also a way to take the pulse of your business and make projections about future growth. Is your business healthy?

It serves as a mental exercise to see how, or even if, the business will work.

A business plan can also highlight problems and pitfalls if you are purchasing an existing business.

"We were seriously investigating the purchase of a well-loved local business," says Katie McCaskey of George Bowers Grocery in Staunton, Virginia. "Once we gathered the necessary data to write a business plan we could see that this business lost money on every sale, with no solution in sight."

The business plan exercise prevented McCaskey and her husband from buying someone else's problem business.

Map a route, but look for new directions.

Just as you need to balance your checking account to make sure your finances are on track, you need to check your business plan regularly to make sure you are on track with your goals. It is also important to ensure you're still making a profit. As Jeremiah Daly of Highland Capital Partners puts it, "…the business plan serves as a key road map to help the company navigate its way to success."

Successful navigation frequently involves course corrections. The business plan is a "living document."

If your business plan doesn't align with what you're actually doing, it may just be more a matter of revising your plan, not what you're doing. Be willing to adapt.

"Being in business means to be ever changing and adapt to the changes that present themselves to you," notes Kristy Straka at Women on Business, "the challenges you might face in financing your business or other obstacles may lead you to alternative solutions that you might not otherwise explore."

Don't be intimidated: You're not writing a Harvard case study or a textbook. You're just laying out your anticipated cash flow in a way that you can understand.

Your business plan should fit the needs of your business. If, for example, you're not looking for financing, then you don't need a complete P&L statement in your business plan. You just need to tally and then visualize all the expenses flowing out and anticipated income flowing into your business. If you need help there are support organizations who will assist you, even for free. Locate your local SCORE chapter or community development agency for resources. 

Tim Berry, Founder of Palo Alto Software reminds new entrepreneurs that a business plan needs only to be as big as what you need to operate your business. Not everyone needs a soup-to-nuts formal business plan, at least to get started.  

"The primary value of the business plan is, as Paul Morin of Companyfounder.com, puts it, "the insights you gain into potential opportunities and pitfalls of growing your business…" He goes on to say that a business plan allows you and your team — even if the "team" is just you! — to 'get on the same page' and develop a common 'language' and understanding of the issues of your particular business, its target markets, growth potential."

One way to ensure everyone is "on the same page" is to try to minimize the number of pages. Keep it simple.

Keep it short.

Quantity is not quality. As Entrepreneur.com writer Mark Henricks writes, there's no need to have business plans that run 20 or more pages. In fact, the shorter your business plan, the more likely it is to be read and understood.

You and your management team don't need the long story because you already know the details. Use a business plan as a refresher now and then to check on your execution.

Even prospective investors don't want to wade through page upon page of financials. One or two spreadsheets may be all that's necessary to get started. Your business plan just needs to get to the point, notes Kim Ann Zimmermann, of BusinessNewsDaily.

You particularly want your Executive Summary to be concise. Although the Executive Summary comes first in the table of contents of your business plan, write this last. That's because the summary is a brief (two pages at most, preferably one) distillation of everything you've detailed in the plan. It's the "sell" that might get a potential investor to read more, or a "bird's eye view" of your company to give a new supplier. Be as clear, concise and to-the-point as possible.

Eric Markowitz, a reporter for Inc.com, recommends that you ask a 5th grader or any other non-investors to read the plan. If they can explain what your company does, that's a great sign. If they can't, consider it a warning.

Once you've got a business plan that works for your business, your employees and your partners, chances are it will work in the real world, too. The effort you put in here will pay off. Which, of course, is the whole point.

About the author: David Soyka is a freelance journalist who writes for Vistaprint, a leading provider of custom, branded products for business owners, including personalized checks, business cards, address labels, and much, much more. David has been a journalist for over 30 years, and has taught writing at Rutgers University. 

When I first started blogging about my business it took me nearly a year before I had a regular blog going. In that time I had created 4 different blogs across multiple blogging sites, played with the design for hours and then I had left it.

So what stops you from blogging? For me it was a number of issues, down below I have discussed some of my areas of concern and how I got around it.

What do I write about?

The biggest problem when I would sit down to write was, what do I write about? What topics are interesting to me and also to prospective readers that might get them interested? Typically I would start on multiple topics and leave it halfway through because I was not sure it was worth writing about.

Now I reach out to my social media contacts i.e. LinkedIn or Twitter. You can see discussion and conversations which are trending. Talk to people in your business and find out some of the common issues they face. Another option set up Google Alerts for your industry as it will give you the most popular news and you can write your perspective on that.

Just remember the day the creative juices are flowing, write down all the topics you can write about. You can always refer to this the day you’re suffering from bloggers block!

No one is reading my blog?

It took over 1 month before I got a mail which said someone had liked my blog and another 2 weeks post that for someone to follow my blog. So now you know where to get interesting content from, question is how the others will know.

There are some simple methods through which you can promote your blog readership.

• Make sure there is a link to your blog which dynamically updates your blog posts on your website.
• Connect your blog to all social media accounts so that every time you post it, it gets pushed to your social network.
• All your digital profiles should show a link to your blog page.
• Finally there are blog directories to which you can add your blog to. This allows a wider distribution and visibility for your blog.

Technology you are heartless!

Are you a technology dodo? Well! so was I when I first started. There are so many tools to use and blogs which have lovely designs, it makes you wonder how to get it working for you.

Well I think there are two ways you can do this.

1. One is to get down and dirty i.e. there are lot of blog sites which offer help and user forums to ask questions on how to customise your blog. A little bit of focus and patience can teach you a lot including how to bullet your post using html.
2. Now if this is too much for you, then hire someone! There are a number people who can design a lovely blog for you at a very small price. You can brief them on your requirements and they will deliver a readymade blog and you can then post away!

Finally remember you do not have to be Shakespeare to be a good blog writer. However you need to write a lot and that to consistently. The more you blog the better you will become.

Mark Anderson has contributed this guest post. He provides tips on writing blogs, essays, research papers etc. through his posts.

You know how important online reviews are for your business’s reputation, but it’s not just your reviews that you need to be monitoring. While your reviews can give you good insight into the minds of your most outspoken customers, your competitors’ reviews can do the same.

When you’re competing for the same clients, competitive analysis is essential, especially when it comes to online reviews. Here are some things to keep in mind.

Analyzing Competitor Reviews

The reviews of your competitors will help you learn more about their company. First of all, you’ll be able to identify some things that the customers think that business does well and what they think needs to be improved. This information is very valuable, because it will help direct you in how to improve your company so that your business will do those things better than the other guy.

You want to excel in the areas they don’t, so that there’s a clear reason for their customers to prefer your business, and you obviously want to match and exceed their good points, too.

Tracking Competitor Reviews

Hopefully you have some professional monitoring services for tracking your reviews, because it will make things a whole lot easier for you to track your competitors’ reviews, too. You can specify what competitors, what keywords, what websites, etc. and be delivered notifications when new reviews are posted.

It’s important to stay on top of reading their reviews as soon as you can, because timeliness is an issue and can offer more insight. You also want to continue monitoring negative reviews to see what response (if any) your competitor gives. Their response can help you compare their online customer service to your own.

Other Types of Reviews

At the same time, there are other types of “reviews” you should be monitoring. They may not be typical reviews, but they can also offer insight into the minds and thoughts of your competitors’ customers.

• Most importantly, regularly visit their website or have it monitored for any changes. Comparing your websites is important.
• Also, monitor any comments on their forums, blogs, Facebook pages, etc.

While something might not be considered a review, it can still include information that will help you compare your business and the thoughts of your customers to theirs.

Comparing Profiles

Another thing to consider is monitoring the profiles of your competitors’ on all review sites. You should be claiming the listings of your business on any site such as Google+ Local, Yelp, etc., which will allow you to add information about your business.

At the very least, you don’t want to post less information than your competitors do. Your profiles should be at least as detailed as your competitors, but preferably more so, so that people who are comparing businesses will have more information available to help them make a fair and accurate comparison.

Online reviews can make or break a business. Don’t underestimate how valuable they can be, and always remember that your competitors’ reviews can be equally as important as your own.

Garrett Payne is a professional reviews tracker from Dallas.  He is currently teaching others about properly tracking business reviews and alerts.

The hype over social media has died down over the past few years. Which is actually a good thing because we were completely inundated with articles touting the phenomenon and making it sound like any business that didn’t get with the programme would immediately go bankrupt and have to close its doors.

Despite all of these expert articles, many small, medium and large businesses didn’t leap onto the bandwagon and they didn’t seem to suffer for it.

And so the evidence proving social media’s importance started to arrive.

• Social media has been linked to the top performing Fortune 100 companies, with the very top performing companies actively participating in the social sphere.
• It’s been linked to higher profits and increased customer loyalty.

It is, by all accounts, one of the best things your company can do.

But there is one big challenge: the social media attitude

It’s been there since the beginning and it’s not going to go away. The challenge is to tackle social media with the right attitude: The right attitude comprising enthusiasm, patience and commitment.

Unfortunately, many businesses start with good intentions and then lose the plot after a few months. They find that it is simply too time consuming to keep their pages updated and to interact with visitors. Gradually they stop interacting and their social media presence fades away.

Challenge #2: Making a bad situation worse

Another problem, according to Matthew Peneycad (Social Media Today), is the negative comments that come a business’s way. Owners take all the negativity to heart, and then they lose heart.

This is like covering your eyes and hoping that no one will see you.

All you’ll do is increase frustration, which will result in even more (and even more venomous) comments. What’s more, the comments will not be reserved for your pages but will end up on personal blogs, personal timelines and possibly even customer service sites.

Every social media complaint is a marketing opportunity

The point is that you need to take the negativity to heart. Well, to a degree. You need to pay attention to complaints so that you can improve your service.

You should also not view a complaint as a single unhappy customer. For every person who takes the time to register a complaint, there are between 10 and 100 unhappy customers with exactly the same complaint, but who have elected to stew in relative silence. And by relative silence we mean that they do complain, but they keep it to their social circle. But, as their social circle is also likely to have various social media accounts, news of unhappiness quickly spreads.

You should view every complaint as a marketing opportunity. You can thank customers for their feedback and reassure them that you are taking steps to ensure that the problem never recurs. Nothing takes the wind out of indignant sails quite like a polite response.

It doesn’t stop there though. You really do have to take steps to ensure that the problem never recurs. You can’t expect to get away with lip service.

Alas, all of this does take time. Which brings us back to the first challenge.

• The truth is that using social media as a business does take time.
• It does take effort.

But, it’s far better to stick with it than to let it fall by the wayside!

About the author: Sandy Cosser writes for Now Learning, an education portal that promotes tertiary education opportunities in Australia, such as a variety of TAFE courses in the state of Victoria (Vic), New South Wales (NSW) and Tasmania (Tas).

The days of spending time and money on maintaining desktop software will soon pass.

Taking its place is SaaS: Software as a Service.

SaaS allows you to access software functions remotely, often charging a monthly fee. As more businesses make the switch, the evidence is becoming undeniable: SaaS is superior to desktop software in many ways.

SaaS Saves Businesses Time

Setting up business software can be an arduous process. Deployment times can take months, sometimes over a year. Because the SaaS vendor already has the software up and running on their server, the deployment time is much, much shorter.

SaaS Keeps You Up to Date

Technology is constantly changing, and with it the software you use to run your business. Using traditional means to run your software keeps you waiting. You have to wait for new releases to take advantage of upgrades. Once these upgrades come, you have to go through the whole installation process again. In some cases the cost of upgrades are so high that you can’t take advantage of them, leaving you and your business behind.

Working with SaaS eliminates this inefficiency. Being constantly connected to the software’s vendors means that as soon as new innovations become available, you can take advantage of them. The upgrade process is ongoing, keeping you abreast of every change without having to jump through hoops.

SaaS Lowers Your IT Costs

The overhead costs for implementing conventional software can be immense. Many applications require you to purchase servers, which in turn puts you in the position of needing to house and maintain them. Once the servers are set up, the software itself needs to be installed and maintained. All of this work requires additional IT personnel, putting additional strain on your budget.

All in all, setting up traditional software can cost just as much (or even more) than purchasing the software itself. Making the switch to SaaS eliminates many of these costs, saving you tons of money.

SaaS Allows You to Pay As You Go

Traditional software requires you to pay an up-front licensing fee. This fee can be exorbitant, requiring capital that not all businesses have. SaaS allows you to pay as you go. Most providers break their fee structures down into a monthly or annual fee. This allows you to work the costs into your budget. It also gives you the flexibility to cancel if the software is no longer relevant.

Some types of software contain functions and features that your business will never use but you will still have to pay for. SaaS sidesteps this inconvenience by offering metered usage. This means you pay for what you use, rather than bells and whistles you can do without.

SaaS is Flexible

Traditional software often makes you commit to one fixed account structure. If your organization is set in stone, this is not a problem. However, most businesses benefit from flexibility. As your needs change, SaaS allows you to add or subtract accounts.

A final advantage that SaaS can offer is the ability to scale to the size of your business. With traditional software, you are forced into a one-size-fits-all box. SaaS is scalable, allowing you to customize your services to the specific needs of your business. This flexibility also makes it easy to integrate new software with existing systems, maximizing the functionality of both.

The software tide is turning and SaaS is undoubtedly becoming the new standard. Traditional software simply cannot compete with its flexibility and ease of use. Keeping up with this new trend will benefit your business both financially and with improved performance. Keep an eye on SaaS in the future and consider it for your next software purchase.

About the author: Sarah Jackson is a blogger, business writer and associate editor at Proformative.

When it comes to Internet marketing, there are two main groups of people: successful Internet marketers… and the rest of us. Successful Internet marketers are able to drive large amounts of qualified traffic to their sites (and usually they have also found ways to better convert that traffic that they are receiving).

So what are they doing that the rest of us may not be? What do they know that we don't know? Ever find yourself wishing that you could just get into the brain of a successful marketer for one day; find out those Internet marketing secrets that they don't want to divulge to others?

Well, wish granted. I am here to fill you in on their secrets. I am here to share with you some of the top things that Internet marketers know.

Here are the top 7 secrets of successful Internet marketers:

1. Google is #1

Some inexperienced Internet marketers try to "outthink" the system. They see others going after Google traffic, so they choose to ignore Google and concentrate on other traffic sources. That is a mistake.

There is a good reason why so many marketers, especially the successful ones, put so much effort into getting high results in the Google SERPs. That is because, when it comes to organic traffic, Google generally drives more traffic than most of the other organic traffic sources.

2. Direct Navigation is Still Relevant

Is type-in direct navigation traffic still "a thing?" I mean, Internet marketers have been buying misspell and keyword-based domain names for years. Hasn't that traffic source kind of become obsolete, or at least tapped out?

Absolutely not! Many successful Internet marketers are still making a killing off of these additional domain names (either through making money off of parked pages or by directing those additional domain names to their websites), and there are still many, many relevant domain names available for purchase.

3. Content is Key

This is yet another area where inexperienced and unsuccessful Internet marketers try to beat the system. They think that they can get around having to put in the effort to create high quality content for their site.

The truth is, if you want to find as much success online as possible, you can't forgo this important aspect. Successful marketers understand the importance of high quality content, so they put in the effort that they need on this aspect of successful marketing.

4. Experts are Rewarded

Google loves to see someone that works to show them that they are experts. These people, who prove their credibility, and who prove that they are a resource to others, are rewarded by Google (of course, with better rankings in the SERPs). What is one of the best ways to prove that you are an expert? Through high quality, informative content of course!

5. Lead Generation Hasn't Gone Anywhere

Many successful Internet marketers are still purchasing leads. They use these leads to build up email lists, generate more social traffic, send out offers to, etc. These marketers want you to think that they are able to do it all on their own. Well, usually they aren't. Many times they supplement their other marketing efforts by purchasing leads from other lead sources.

6. 1st Tier Isn't the Only Way

Yes, Google is the best source of organic traffic. It is worth your time to try to make it up as high in Google as possible.

But when it comes to paid traffic, for the most part a click is a click. Although Google still may have the ability to drive the highest amounts of traffic even when it comes to paid methods, you may be able to find cheaper clicks on other search engines, especially 2nd and 3rd tier networks.

So when it comes to your PPC efforts, don't be afraid to think out of the box a little bit and explore other paid networks.

7. It's All About Time

Think you're too small of a fish in too big of a pond? Think again. It's not too late to get into any specific market or niche… if you are willing to put in the effort it takes. You see, it takes time to find success online. But the beauty behind that is, if you are willing to put in the time and effort, you have no limits! You can go into whatever industry you want, and find the success you want, as long as you are willing to put in the needed work.

Don't let the big fish who have come before you make you think that it is too late for you. It's not too late; you just have to get to work!

About the author: Nicole is a writer for the Internet marketing industry. She recommends www.aggregatur.com for a great lead generation company.

An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail. -Edwin Land

In the SEO world, we often get caught up with what’s going to happen with recent Google updates, rankings, errors, conversions, traffic, and a whole slew of other issues. But, in the midst of this hailstorm, we often forget that in the end, SEO is still marketing, and marketing is first and foremost a creative venture. It only has overtones of data being used, SEO white-hat practices, site-health, and so on.

There is no doubt that you should keep on top of good SEO practices for a website, but really, proper practices don’t outright attract customers. They may make the users experience better, and keep the Google Gods appeased with an immaculate site health, but marketing has been, and will always be more than that. Just because SEO is confined to the virtual world certainly does not mean you’re stuck in box with what you can do. Creativity sells, and if that’s the name of the game, we should be sure to use that thought when doing SEO.

SEO Is Still Marketing

The job of anyone doing SEO is primarily to attract potential customers, retain their attention, convince him or her that something is worth buying, and make the whole experience pleasant enough that they may be willing to do it again, or in the least, refer someone else to you.

There is so much focus elsewhere nowadays in the SEO world, you can sense the continuous anxiety of people scrambling to make sure they’re doing what Search Engines want them to do, and again, this is needed. But to spend so much time worrying rather than doing what is needed is counterproductive at best.

And what is needed, are those 4 points above:

Attraction, Retention, Convincing, and Pleasing.    

Attracting Through Creativity

Attracting through creativity is what first comes to mind when thinking of marketing and SEO. In order to gain the attention of anyone, you have to do something that is attracting to one of their many senses. For the virtual world, we are limited somewhat as touch, smell, and taste are all certainly excluded. But even those can be touched upon indirectly by imbuing imagery, or drawing on old memories, such as grandmas freshly baked cookies. 

But online, we are left with site and sound. With those two senses we need to conjure up the others, and for clarification there are more than 5 senses. They certainly become vague but are present nonetheless. For instance, our sense of time, humor, hunger, thirst, and the list goes on. But we can influence those other senses online through the only two we have access to; those again being site and sound. Imagery is powerful, and when combined with sound, you can conjure up all sorts of feelings in a person. I’m sure we all know this well enough.

Point being, that attracting customers through SEO does not confine you to a world of keywords and rankings, site traffic and bounce rates. Sure those things are present and important. But all the data and information in the world does not in itself draw more traffic or conversions to your business. You have to be creative with the data you have in order to be successful; you have to make something of it. You simply can’t read a few facts and say that needs to change, and it’s done. SEO is marketing, and as such, those that do SEO are marketeers… we should all start to act like that. 

Retaining Through Creativity

What better way to keep a person around than by impressing them with something humorous, clever, informational, topical, or simply put… awesome. You have to offer something appealing in order to keep the attention of someone you’ve worked hard to get. Again, this won’t come from the facts and data itself, such as women loving bracelets this fashion season, baseball waning in popularity, or the odd rise in popularity for parachute pants. That information means nothing on its own, but needs to be implemented in some fashion. 

This is where your awe-inspiring creativity comes in. If you managed to get a potential customer to enter your site through some clever ad, a well designed infographic, well written guest blog post, or even a simple referral, you then need to up the ante once they’ve entered your site. They went to your site due to something creative and clever prior, so you’re going to have to be equally if not more creative and clever once they’ve entered your site.

We all know that people love being sold an image for instance. If you buy this bar of soap, you’re gonna be as soft as that babies bottom. But once they enter the site, if there are no longer any visual clues to the soap being soft, and rather lets say the message being sold now is that you’ll smell good. Well that’s nice and all, but I was more concerned with being soft to the touch… not smelling of lavender.

The idea in the end is that the design of a website is more than just proper SEO practices. But a large portion of it is aesthetics as well as ergonomics. People should be pleased by what they see, read, and envision when they enter a website, and those things should fall in line with what is being sold to them outside of the website. It may sound a little difficult… but hey… just be creative.   

Convincing Through Creativity

This follows the same lines as before, where you can use imagery to place an idea into someone’s thoughts without them really knowing that it has taken place. A sad person wants to be happy, and notices a smiling woman driving in a convertible. An overweight person wants to lose a few extra pounds, and what do you know, there’s a story of a person who did just that. A bored person wants to be excited; a hungry person wants to feel full. All of these ideas, and any others, can be sold through the only two senses we have at our disposal online, site and sound. 

You can convince people that by purchasing your products, or visiting your website, they will have their hopes and dreams met. A lonely man wants to find a companion? Well sir… at our site we have Binders of Women given to us directly from Mitt Romney. Any type of woman you can imagine could be met. Pictures of people meeting for the first time, laughing and having fun on their first date, snuggling up next to a fire, even testimonials.

And oddly…. That pretty much sums up Match.com marketing strategy. They tried very hard to be as creative for convincing they can sell romance and relationships online, and they’ve done a pretty good job of that. Their customers… were certainly convinced that meeting the love of their life was possible, maybe not certain. But definitely possible. 

Pleasing Through Creativity

Finally, if after you’ve attracted a customer, retained their attention, and convinced them to buy your product or use your service, you are going to want to make sure that their experience as a whole was pleasing enough such that they would use you again or recommend you. Obviously if any of the first few stages failed, you wouldn’t have to worry over this one because it wouldn’t matter if they didn’t buy anything. But customer satisfaction is crucial, especially in a day and age where anything to be upset over could be seen and reviewed by potential customers down the road.

One of the worst practices in SEO is the deleting or drowning out of negative comments. Let’s not forget why those comments were made… if they were so unjust they themselves would be drowned out by the multitude of positive comments. So really it should signal for a business to get their act together and not take it to heart. Really, them voicing their opinion on what upset them should help you to do better business by avoiding it in the future. Follow up emails, or thank you notes, even dancing kitty emails, anything to show your gratitude for their service, and continued concern over their being a happy customer will go a very long way in ensuring your customers are pleased. And as such, willing to use your product or services again. 

The idea here is that those doing SEO should not forget the end goal in mind here. A banner ad does nothing if it doesn’t attract, a guest blog post does nothing if it puts someone to sleep, and an infographic is wasted if its showing information in a dull way, or information that no one really cares to know anyhow. We have to be creative still, even though we feel we are confined to a box designed by search engines and ourselves. And even if we were confined to a box, how would our creative minds break free of that? 

The author of this article is Damien S. Wilhelmi. If you enjoyed this piece you can follow me on Twitter @CustParadigm. If you are looking for an experienced and knowledgeable Colorado SEO Agency, be sure to visit CustomerParadigm.com

The perfect length for an article is something that is hotly debated among SEOs. Recently there has been quite a lot of talk about how longer articles are more effective and it seems that a lot of people think Google has a preference for articles that are 700 to 800 words and above.

This content of course will naturally catch a lot of long-tail keywords and it will communicate to Google that you have been thorough and that you are providing a lot of useful details. At the same time Google might conceivably have a preference for longer articles because it has been burned by shorter articles so much in the past. Content farms are something that Google really isn't a fan of these days and the content on those is traditionally around 400-500 words long.

Looking around the web it does seem to follow too that the more successful sites are more likely to have articles around that length. But then does that necessarily mean that you need to start putting articles that length on your site? What if the long, dense text starts putting people off of reading anything? What if you don't have that much to say on the matter?

Of course the answer to this problem is that you don't always have to write articles that are 800 words long and that you should instead be trying to write articles differently depending on the context. The most successful websites will feature a spread of different kinds of articles and these will help you to ensure that your site appeals to the widest number of visitors and that it can stand up to future changes to Google's policies.

Types of articles and how many words are best for SEO

So what kinds of articles are there for websites and how do you know which one is best for your particular needs?

1. Well, first of all you are of course going to have your standard informational article and this will be the sort of thing that just explains a topic or provides some basic discussion on a subject. These articles are your 'standard' articles, and are the ones that will benefit most from being a little longer.

These articles will benefit from being longer because it will allow you to go into more detail and to provide more information – but of course you need to use your judgement and you don't want to start forcing extra content into your article if it's just not there. If the topic you're describing can be briefly summarised, then discuss it from a few angles to bulk it out but stop before you start 'forcing' the issue.

2. For news stories on the other hand you may want to keep your content a little shorter as most people reading news want to get the gossip quickly then move on so don't deter them by making every article on your site super long. If you want to compromise, then provide short summaries that can be expanded on should people want.

3. Something like a review or a report from a particular event will benefit from being as long as possible. In such situations people are looking for in depth information and you can make yourself stand out by being the definitive source on that topic. Such an article will also benefit though from having a series of headings for quicker reference and so that people can see the direction of the article they are going to be committing so much time to.

About the author: Mike K is an internet marketing consultant at Wisdek. A specialist in search engine optimization, he often advises people on various aspects of this field on his blog. He also likes read up on the latest developments in the industry.

Who Needs Twitter? Businesses online are no doubt in need of a good following. There are lots of ways to make a simple website, and internet businesses online are pretty good at this. But that does not mean you are creating a following, or traffic to your webpage.

The best way to get a following online is to use Twitter. Twitter is a social media website that can also be used by businesses to release "tweets", or short status updates. These tweets are much shorter than blog posts, but come more frequently than blog posts and therefore convey the same amount of information as a blog. Having a following on Twitter is invaluable to your business. Think for a minute about how many customers are getting their information online. Here are 4 ways to grow a Twitter Following That Matters.

Follow Other Businesses

By following other businesses you are not only engaging in good networking skills, but you are also exposing yourself to that business's customers. That business will see your tweets, and may even retweet your posts for their own customers, this great way to get yourself seen on the web. Not online are you getting along well with other businesses, but you are exposing yourself to potential customers.

Follow Famous People

Chances are, your famous friends will not follow you back, but that's ok. Following famous people and organizations shows that you are interested in them. Their tweets will help you keep track of recent trends that could help your business to thrive as well. Also, if someone is following a famous person, they may look to see who else is following that famous person. Will they find your twitter? Possibly!

Use Zinzz

Zinzz helps your twitter account to find new followers. That way your customers have an easy time finding you on Twitter. This way they do not have to manually search and find the "real" Twitter for your business. Also, it gives those who would not otherwise look for your twitter the idea to follow your Twitter.

Write Exciting Tweets

This is a new brainer. Do not write boring tweets or irrelevant tweets because people will not continue to follow you. They will also not retweet your tweets. When someone retweets your tweet, everyone who follows that person can see the tweet. That means your tweet is extremely exposed, but don't write boring tweets or they won't get retweeted.

Twitter is a very valuable tool. People check their twitter multiple times a day. It is sometimes a better tool than even an email list. People will check their twitter for recent deals and trends etc. and find your deals and trends among the other tweets on their twitter feed.

Remember, the object is to have exciting tweets that get re-tweeted which will broadcast your tweet to, possibly, thousands of people. This could be very good for your business. Twitter is the next big thing in eCommerce and regular face to face business alike.

About the author: Meraz is the founder of Ethical SEO Consulting. He is obsessed with local search and everything about it. Follow him @caseymeraz.

The following list of bloggers have becomehighly influential as the go-to guys for the lowdown on what’s hot, what’s going on and what’s what.

Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post

Set up by author Arianna Huffington in 2005, the Huffington Post delivers news from all around the world and has just as much authority as any Broadsheet newspaper. In fact, in July 2012, the site was ranked first on the ‘15 Most Popular Political Sites’ by eBizMBA Rank.

The blog provides up-to-the-minute coverage on categories ranging from politics and lifestyle to celebrity culture and merges feature articles with columnist posts.

Some celebrities such as Robert Reich even have their own blogs on the Huffington Post. The Huffington Post has an active and ever-growing community of readers surpassing one million comments on the blog each month. It is the go-to news outlet.

Perez Hilton of Perez Hilton

Playing on the name of possibly the most infamous heiresses of our time, Perez Hilton is a blogging pseudonym synonymous with law suits and controversy. Ever hot on the heels of the hottest celebrities in Hollywood, Hilton controversially names and shames celebrities in tabloid-style posts, videos and images thereby acquiring quite a few A-list enemies.

However, Hilton also praises the success of stars particularly that of Paris Hilton who he is said to have a close bond with. At the time of setting up his blog, the internet was flooded with online journals and diaries. It was his passion for celebrity culture that stimulated a unique blog: “I wanted to talk about celebrities because they're far more entertaining.”

Let’s face it: Hilton is a star in his own right as he mingles with celebrities on the red carpet. Not bad for a tabloid blogger.

Michael Arrington of TechCrunch

Set up in 2005 by Michael Arrington, TechCrunch is the hottest news reporter for anything technical, providing in-depth reviews and explorative reports on anything from start ups to gadgets. Hot topics undoubtedly include the big boys in the technology world: Facebook and Apple.

The site lets readers know what’s going on in the internet world and the coolest gadgets and sites to keep their eye on. It has many side projects such as CrunchBase which is a Wiki-style site for readers to edit and contribute to.

Poppy Dinsey of What I Wore Today

It was a New Year’s Resolution from December 2009 that sparked off a challenge to wear a different outfit every day. Originally from Surrey, London-based blogger Poppy Dinsey posted a picture of herself every day, rocking quirky outfits to show off her passion for fashion.

Dinsey recorded her outfits on her blog and in no time, Dinsey acquired a host of admiring fashion followers, attracting thousands of visitors a month to her blog. What I Wore Today is now a social network for users to post their own outfits.

What started off as a humble photo blog has evolved into a fierce fashion network where users can share their own clothing choices.

Jon Ableson of AlterThePress.com

AlterThePress.com provides the latest news and reviews on both alternative and pop music with interviews and videos. Opened in 2008 by Jon Ableson, the blog is revered as one of the most reliable music publications online and celebrates bands both big and small.

So, those were (in my opinion) the top 5 most influential bloggers of all time. For many bloggers, what started off as a hobby has become a full-time job. If you’d like to try your hand at blogging, join a writing community.

What great blogs have you read recently?

About the author: Jennifer Leung is currently a student and freelance lifestyle blogger. She is interested in issues that concern everyday life and changing technology. Jennifer writes for the GKBC Academy.  

Kick start your marketing initiative with mass text marketing

In a world where more people have cell phones than running water, it pays to undertake SMS marketing.

Potential clients of all ages use their cell phones daily to communicate, access the internet and play games. Statistics don’t lie. There’s a huge untapped market waiting for your business to unlock.

Looking at the Numbers

According to CTIA–The Wireless Association, “The U.S. wireless industry is valued at $195.5 billion, which is larger than publishing, agriculture, hotels and lodging, air transportation, motion picture and recording and motor vehicle manufacturing industry segments. It rivals the computer system design service and oil and gas extraction industries.”

In the United States there are more cell phones in use than there are people. What are the business implications of this data? There are many, but perhaps the most important conclusion you can draw is that if you can reach these users, your business can reap the rewards of connecting with an enormous and largely underutilized market.

CTIA says as of June 2012, U.S. wireless consumers sent and received at least 6 billion text messages each day. That’s nearly 70,000 text messages each second! And Cisco's Visual Networking Index projects wireless data traffic volumes for North America in 2016 will be more than 100 times that of 2009 volumes.

Market outreach has never before been so in-depth or complete. Every cell phone provider offers data, talk and text plans that can be scaled up or back to meet client’s budgetary restrictions. However, even the least expensive plans include texting options due to high demand. Even free cell phones given to the underprivileged can receive texts. This means your business is capable of reaching massive audiences that are nearly unreachable via any other marketing scheme.

How Your Business Can Use SMS Marketing

Many companies or organizations use these services to offer exclusive deals to followers, or alert consumers of upcoming sales. Political candidates, like President Obama, used SMS marketing to remind voters to vote, while non-profits can organize events on the fly. Other businesses simply use SMS to wish followers well on their birthday, creating a positive brand image.  

Unlike email, television, radio, telemarketing or social media marketing, SMS marketing provides the highest possible outreach. Cell phones are devices that all demographic groups possess and use. Those who are unreachable by phone, voice message, email or other marketing means are available through text. Messages remain in the phone’s inbox until they are read and/or discarded.

Demographic groups who are increasingly driving our economy are young, tech savvy and smart. If you want to connect with them, you have to keep your message short, direct, and catchy. Giving incentives can boost user participation, such as a special offer in exchange for filling out a brief survey. This can increase business while helping you better understand your customers.

If you have been thinking about text message marketing for your business, you’re not alone. Mobile internet advertising almost doubled between 2011 and 2012, meaning large corporations are finding business in SMS marketing, and you can, too!

About the author: Written by Julia, a freelance writer representing an SMS marketing service provider. She has written for numerous companies across a plethora of topics on business marketing and management.

"Everyone else has a blog.  We should too!"

It's the phrase heard in executive boardrooms around the country. A blog is a great way to market your business, but it's important for your blog to reflect your brand. Discover six ways to make sure your blog reflects your brand.

Design your blog – Although it should seem obvious, your blog should have the same look and feel as your website – the two should fit together seamlessly and flow from one area to the next. When you're designing your website, integrate your blog into the navigation, or add "latest posts" to your sidebar. Many content management systems, like WordPress, allow you to design static pages and blog post pages to fit together seamlessly. Make sure your readers can easily comment, share and subscribe, and make sure your font colors align with your brand.

Determine your niche – According to some studies, there are more than 164 million blogs in the United States alone, and more than 123 million people reading blogs. With more blogs than people reading them, your blog has to stand out among others in your industry.

Your first step is to think about what you'll write about – your niche. This is a main focus for your blog that can help you develop a more active audience, drive search engine traffic to your site and help strengthen your brand. This might be easy if you have a highly specialized business, but if your industry is more general – healthcare, finance and industry or sales – you'll have to use other elements to stand out. Determine how you're different, and use your blog content to showcase your differences.

Show your personality – Social media has forced organizations into being more transparent than ever. Companies have to have a personality that shows through in their marketing and communications efforts. A blog is a great way to transition your company personality from short advertisement copy or newsletters to regular two-way communication with your customers.

Be consistent – If you're planning to start a blog – or already have – consider the time investment you will have to make it successful. You must post high-quality content regularly to make an impact for your brand. Whether your blog is several small posts daily or an in-depth article once a week, set an editorial calendar and choose regular posting days. Your customers will learn to expect the frequency of your posts and are more likely to come back and read more. Consistency with your blog can also give you regular, fresh material to make social media fans happy as well as Google, who place a high priority on fresh, relevant content.

Create great content – Readers and consumers of your brand are much more likely to come back to your blog if you're sharing great, custom content. There are hundreds of sources, from event recaps to testimonials, link "roundups" from other industry blogs to news. If you don't' have time to write posts, think about hiring a freelance blogger to search for ideas and write your posts weekly. Integrate video and photos for a multimedia element. Use Google Adwords keyword analyzer to find hot topics in your industry or trending stories that you could tie into your own brand. Set up Google alerts for keywords, locations or other information that would make a great story. Set an editorial calendar with evergreen stories that can be used anytime – this way, you can write blog posts in advance and never have to write one at the last minute.

Cross promote – Guest posting is a great way to introduce your blog and brand to a new audience. Reach out to other companies in your industry who run blogs and ask if they have guest-posting spots available. Consider opening up your blog to them for cross promotion – they may be looking for new content on their blog, too.

Thomas writes for EnMast, a company that provides lots of great tools for small businesses.  He is very interested in how small businesses can use technology to succeed.

Just a quick note to let you know that DealGuardian.com has opened the doors one day earlier than planned for purchases from customers.

Customers can start buying, and sellers can start testing the sales process, and get an idea of what the DealGuardian customer experience will look like.

DealGuardian is still in beta, so at this moment don't expect hundreds of products or avalanches of sales flooding in. DealGuardian co-creator Mike Filsaime said earlier today: "We only launched on Social Media and an email to only some of my list. (…) We wanted a slow start with just vendors."

Another important piece of news is that they are accepting PayPal payments. Given the popularity of PayPal with customers that's an incredibly positive change, compared to the original plan to not offer PayPal.

One of the most difficult aspects of being a freelance writer is setting your rates. On the one hand, you could miss out on higher paying rates if you set your rates low and publicise them on your website as such. Alternatively, you could price yourself out of some great long-term gigs by not showing flexibility in your rates.

It’s a dilemma that has slipped up many a writer, but luckily there are ways to deal with the issue without getting too stressed out over it.

Be Honest with Yourself

First of all, it is really important to be honest with yourself when you are starting out. If you feel confident that your work could easily be published online, in a magazine or newspaper, then you should have no problem with setting your rates fairly high and asking for a good price for your services.

Having the confidence and experience to know what is a low paying gig and what is the level you feel you are at is integral to your career, so keep your eye on the market and the paying rates for the publications that you are looking to write for. This will give you an indication of how much you should be charging for your services. Just don’t price yourself out of the market!

Look at the Competition

You should always be reading up on other authorities in your niche. It keeps you informed and allows you to see what topics have been done before and which ones are popular. It will also allow for opportunities to see what other writers charge for their services. If you feel that you are doing as good a job as your competitors, you should be confident enough to charge the same or more for your services, knowing that you can back up those rates with the quality of your writing.

Be Employable and Sell Yourself

There are a lot of freelance writers in the world, and 90% of them could have just as much skill as a writer as you. That’s a simple fact. But the difference between you getting the gig and not the other 90% is how you come across in your exchanges with the employers. Are you employable? That is the question that they are going to be asking when they are inundated with offers from writers.

What should make you stand out from the crowd is your personality, how professional you are and the fact that you always reply to correspondence quickly. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, follow up on queries when you haven’t received a response and be engaging at all times. It could be the difference between you being forgotten and you getting the gig.

Stand Your Ground on Rates

When you have the confidence to say ‘this is what I am worth and I won’t take a penny less’ it is important for you to stand your ground and have the confidence to stand firm to those rates. If you start saying ‘oh go on then’ and lowering your rates it could really start to dent your finances, especially if you write for ten clients and five of them are on a lower rate than you should have them on.

At the end of the day, we all have to put food on the table, so a little flexibility here and there is fine, but not to the detriment of your long term finances. In most cases, a client will understand why you are not budging on the rates and accept them, but if they don’t, as yourself a simple question: What am I worth? The answer to that question will decide whether or not you take on that client or walk away.

Be Confident and Say No

It is fair to say that the word ‘confidence’ is key to the majority of freelance careers. The confidence to say ‘no’ is very important because it can make or break your career in the long run. Taking on too many low-paying clients because you’re too afraid to say no can lead to stress and exhaustion, and chances are you will burn out in no time at all.

It is hard to say no – especially at the beginning when you’re wet behind the ears and eager to please – but when you are in a better position because you have picked your shots and have fewer, higher-paying clients rather than the opposite, you will have a much broader smile on your face. Just make sure that when you do decline your services, you always do it professionally and politely.

Daley is a freelance writer who wants to help his fellow writers to get out there fully confident and armed with great writing. He can be found struggling with his own career at www.daleyjfrancis.com