Trip Report and Recap of Small Business Marketing Unleashed in Columbus Ohio

Trip Report and Recap of Small Business Marketing Unleashed in Columbus Ohio

I’m freshly back from attending the 2nd Small Business Unleashed conference, this one held in Columbus Ohio where I served as one of four live-bloggers covering the sessions and workshops presented there. Like the first conference, this one proved to be an excellent time for learning, sharing and networking with small business owners from around the globe (one guy came from Australia). Out of all the conferences I attend, I have to say that this one is my favorite not only because of the quality, but the intimacy it provides seeing it is a much smaller conference than some of its larger counterparts.

Link Building Via Blog Comments

There is absolutely nothing wrong with earning a link from a blog post you decide to comment on. In fact, if you comment often on blogs, it is a good way to increase the amount of inbound links pointing to your site’s pages. However, there is a “right” way and a “wrong” way to go about accomplishing this.

New Quality Guidelines For Google Maps Listings

If you are a local business and want to be found on Google Maps, you will want to make sure you are listed first of all. Along with that, you might also want to pay close attention to some new guidelines Google has issued regarding their goal to keep Google Maps a great source of information for users and business owners alike.

Why Netflix Using Blogger for Blogging Platform Is So Wrong

When commenting on Netflix’s blog regarding the 15% credit they were to provide to their customers, I basically scolded them for using Blogger as their blogging platform. Sorry, but I can’t understand why a company such as Netflix, a leader in mail order DVD rentals as well as a business who has no brick and mortar locations but is an “online” business, would use a free service provided by Google to run a most important function to their customers.

Common Excuses Companies Use For Not Having a Blog

A recent study conducted by Burson-Marsteller revealed that ONLY 15% of Fortune 500 companies communicate with consumers via blogs. This number was quite lower than I expected, at least as far as Fortune 500 companies go. It is not surprising to me however with regards to businesses in general. While any business that has an online presence should be blogging, a large majority of them are not. Read on for some common excuses they come up with along with reasons why those excuses are invalid.

Has The BBB Outlived Their Usefulness?

I came across a story posted at Search Engine Land pointing out that Google has an “unsatisfactory” record with The Better Business Bureau. How can a company voted “top global brand” in 2008 at the same time have an unsatisfactory record with the BBB? Apparently because out of 331 complaints filed against the search giant over the past three years, 2 were listed as unresolved. that’s right – just 2! Despite this, Google continues to lead the way in search and nothing on the horizon seems to be able to change that.

How To Promote Yourself on Social Sites Without Actually “Promoting Yourself”

How To Promote Yourself on Social Sites Without Actually “Promoting Yourself”

I was recently asked the question, “How do you market your company on social news / bookmarking sites without appearing like a spammer?” This is a great question — one that has a pretty straightforward answer but which also requires a lot of work. Why? Because it is easy to sign up for a social bookmarking site and simply submit your own “stuff.” Submitting your own stuff does however not guarantee that your efforts will be successful. There is actually a lot more to it.

My Twitter Wish List

My Twitter Wish List

Besides just hoping that Twitter runs consistently without experiencing outages all the time, there are a few things I would love to see the micro-blogging service add that would make the Twitter even more useful than it already is. Even though it is several months till Christmas, I give you my Twitter wish list.

Pitfalls To a Successful SEO Strategy (Back To the Basics Series)

As a final installment to my “back to the basics” series, this post will discuss some of the pitfalls or obstacles you may come across when developing a SEO strategy. These may include duplicate content issues, potential problems with e-commerce sites and/or content management systems and obstacles that Flash and AJAX technologies may pose.

SMX Advanced Trip Wrap-Up and Shout Outs

SMX Advanced Trip Wrap-Up and Shout Outs

The 2nd installment of SMX Advanced has come and gone. I was glad to have been able to be a part of it having missed the first one. In two days I live blogged a total of 8 sessions and attended one additional one that I didn’t live blog. I met up with many old friends and even met some new people. It was also the first trip to Seattle for me although there was little time to actually enjoy the city. All in all, another great conference and a great trip.