Internet Marketing with Paul Carter ClickBasics

Double your internet marketing productivity without burning out

How to create a burnout-proof internet marketing checklist

Thrive OnlineI’m about to teach you a powerful stress reduction and burnout prevention technique. If you use this technique, it will dramatically reduce your stress and increase your internet marketing results. If you don’t use this technique you’re probably experiencing poor results and a lot of needless stress that is only going to increase and ultimately burn you out. So make sure you use what I’m going to show you, because it will help you lower your stress, avoid burnout, and get results faster.

OK, so let’s talk about stress and burnout

Stress, by and large, involves too much: too many pressures that demand too much of you physically and psychologically. Stressed people can still imagine, though, that if they can just get everything under control, they’ll feel better.

Burnout may be the result of unrelenting stress, but it isn’t the same as too much stress. Burnout is about not enough. Being burned out means feeling empty, devoid of motivation, and beyond caring. People experiencing burnout often don’t see any hope of positive change in their situations. If excessive stress is like drowning in responsibilities, burnout is being all dried up. While you’re usually aware of being under a lot of stress, you don’t always notice burnout when it happens.

  • A lack of zest in your comments and tweets
  • No innovative ideas
  • Tired, worn-out phases
  • A dull Facebook page
  • Seriously uninventive blog posts
  • Going back to the hard sell
  • Begging for comments and likes
  • A decrease in social activity
  • Talking nonsense
  • Getting your colleagues or anybody other than you to handle the activity

Now let’s talk about checklists

It appears that the first checklist was inspired by a tragic mishap on October 30, 1935. A Model 299 prototype for the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress crashed during takeoff at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio. The cause of crash was identified as a gust lock that was still engaged. After the mishap, a group of pilots looked for a way to prevent future pilot error mishaps. They came up with checklists for takeoff, flight, before landing and after landing. Boeing delivered 12 of the aircraft to the Air Corps, and they flew 1.8 million miles without a serious mishap.

In fields like aviation, building construction and medical services, the use of checklists has saved many lives. And in many other fields including internet marketing, it has helped people do things more efficiently, avoid costly mistakes, reduce stress, and avoid burnout.

The reason why checklists are good is simple: it’s easy for us to forget things. When you do something that involves multiple steps, it’s likely that you would forget one or two of them. Using checklists ensures that you won’t forget anything.

Internet marketing is full of multiple steps and repetitive processes. So, if you want to get it right every time, use a checklist, or even better, a checklist of checklists.

Besides helping you do your task correctly every time, here are some other benefits of using checklists:

  • You can save your brain power for more creative things

Since you don’t have to remember all the steps you need to take, you can use your brain power for something more creative.

  • You can save time

You don’t need to spend time remembering the steps, so you can devote the entire time on doing the task.

  • You can delegate more easily
    If you ever want to delegate the task (for example, through outsourcing), your checklist will make it easier for you to do it. By giving the checklist to the person you delegate to, you can describe exactly what you want.
  • You can reduce stress and avoid burnout!

Knowing that important things have been accounted for, and will happen automatically at the right time, you don’t have to worry or otherwise waste emotional energy. You can set it, and forget it.

Your checklist doesn’t have to take the form of a list. One checklist I use every day is my browser home page option settings. They contain the sites I want to visit daily. Every day, all I need to do is opening the browser, and it will automatically open all the sites I want. Simply by opening it, I can be sure that I won’t miss anything.

Let’s talk about internet marketing.

If you’re setting out on a journey, and the journey is far, and a very difficult path, it’s good to know that in advance. Because if you think the journey is easy and not far, you’re not likely to pack all the things you need, get into trouble, and have a lot of problems. We naturally follow the path of least resistance, do what immediately looks interesting, and sometimes jump around from task to task. It’s less natural to build a four lane superhighway that will in the long run get us faster to the success we really want.

In this case the journey we’re talking about is complex and often difficult. We’re interacting online with total strangers and trying to offer them something really valuable. So valuable that they are eager to give us their email address. So valuable, that they will pull out their credit card, send their money, and pay us for our product or service.

So it’s vital that we have the right idea of the journey. When we start with the idea that it’s harder to turn a prospect into a customer than we might think, we focus on making sure we have set realistic goals, understood our niche, created the right products and services, designed the right strategy, packed the right knowledge and skills, and have selected the best possible route to our destination.

It’s also vital that we enjoy the trip. If we’re to avoid stress and burnout, it’s important to know we’re making progress, and that we take enough rest stops.

After years of trial and error, I have developed the following four checklists that frees up 30 to 60 hours of my time per month for other things than thinking about, worrying about, trying to figure out what to do next, goofing around with it, and burning out.

Think of this checklist of checklists as a GPS that guides you through the phases of the journey.

  1. Where we’re going (goals checklist)
  2. Who we’re going with (niche checklist)
  3. How we’re getting there (strategy checklist)
  4. What to take along (knowledge, and skills checklist)
  5. What vehicle to take (tactics, and online tools set-up checklist)
  6. How we’re going to make it happen (daily, weekly, monthly routines).

How to create the “How we’re going to make it happen” checklist.

OK, so now armed with the why and the what.  How? To get your “How to make it happen” checklists going, try these steps right now.

Step 1: Open your calendar program, be it Google, Outlook, Thunderbird, ICal, whatever.

Step 2: Set up a one-hour, daily time slot for every day of your work week. Add to the description field:

  • Check email, blog comments, RSS feeds & social media – participate & leave comments. 1/2 hr.
  • Talk to a prospect or customer about challenges & desires. 1/2 hr.
  • Take 10 minutes out to do something completely different.

Step 3: Set up one four-hour weekly segment for every week. Add to the description field:

  • Focus on learning new knowledge & skills – 2 hrs.
  • Create, optimize, & publish one article or blog post. 2 hrs.

Step 4: Set up one 7 hour monthly time slot for the next three months, leaving space for your daily slot. Add to the description field:

  • Check web analytics, adjust strategy, set new benchmarks. 1 hr.
  • Prepare & schedule newsletters & auto-responders. 2 hrs.
  • Build inbounds links. 4 hrs.

Now, take a deep breath and notice how you feel now that that these check lists in place. Are you feeling less stress?

What’s next?

OK. So go and take what you learned here and do this in your real world. Some of the tasks above may not fit exactly into your world. But put something into action. Learn from the actions you take and the adjustments you make.

If you’d like to have me personally show you how to improve your website while reducing stress, send me an email with your name, organization and website address.

Welcome to Thrive Online

Thrive OnlineYou are about to learn some very powerful ideas and techniques to help you double your internet marketing productivity in 90 days without burning out.

This online training program starts and ends with the practical. Along the way, I’ll introduce some concepts that will help make sense of your experience. But the driving force here is you, your goals, and your daily practice of internet marketing.

Over the next 90 days, every Monday you’ll receive an email with a link to the next of your 13 weekly sessions. Dive in, and do the exercises to get the most out of your experience.

If you have any support question please go to the Contact tab on this site, and submit your questions there.

So let’s get started with:

Session 1:
How to create a burnout-proof internet marketing checklist

-Paul

How to set up your one-hour daily marketing success ritual

Here’s why you need a daily marketing success ritual.

ChecklistWe all think we’re smarter and more accurate than we really are, so we don’t test our assumptions about our customers in the real world. One hour invested in researching saves from 10 to 100 hours of wasted time. So start talking to prospects and customers today and every day about what they want, which needs they have that aren’t being met, and what to include in your products and services.

What is a marketing success ritual?

The rarest and most valuable form of action is intentional repetition. This technique will help you get the most from the effort you put into your internet marketing. Setting aside an uninterrupted hour each day for marketing will put you well on your way to doubling your productivity within 90 days.

If you don’t create this ritual, your marketing productivity will continue as is. Your competitors who are doing this ritual will now far more than you about their niche, and will adjust their products and marketing accordingly. In 90 days, they will leave you in the dust.

Here’s how to create your own marketing success ritual.

If you are using a tool like Google Calendar, your one-hour, daily marketing ritual might look something like this.

Daily marketing hour

Your time of day might be different from mine. I like to do it first thing, because it is my first priority.

So first thing, I open my calendar.

Browser home pageI make it easy for myself by including the calendar page in my browser home page options. It’s the first thing on the left when I open Firefox (my browser of choice).

Next, I double click on today’s marketing hour block,

where I have placed my tasks for the hour.

Daily marketing tasks

Next, I start the ritual.

Again, it’s critically important that your ritual be uninterrupted. Ignore the phone, emails, and other distractions. Set it up in advance that you have no visitors, or other interruptions.

 A. Check blog comments, RSS feeds & social media – participate. 1/2 hour

Blog commentsBlog comments: If you have a blog, check for comments. If you use WordPress, there will be a place within your administration home page, where you can check for new comments.

RSS feeds: If you subscribe to other blogs, discussion groups, or other online services, check them now.

Social Media: I use a program called HootSuite to both publish my social media updates and keep track of messages. I also track what’s going being said about me, my business, and keywords I’m interested in by using a tool called Social Mention.

You will be tempted to spend more than a half hour on these tasks, but be firm with your time. You will have another opportunity tomorrow. Right now, it’s important to get on to…

B.    Talk to a prospect or customer about challenges & desires. 1/2 hr.

Gmail contactsYou may need to spend the first 1/2 hour chunks getting together a list of people you want to talk to. If you use Gmail, you can use the contacts section to set up your list.

Set up the visit or phone call in a natural way. Remember, you’re not trying to sell anyone at this stage. You’re just gathering information. Frame your questions to get specific answers.

Download this Niche Interview Worksheet Template to help you prepare for and make the call.

Again, you will be tempted to spend more than a half hour on this task, and, again, be firm with your time. You will have another opportunity tomorrow. Right now, it’s important to get on to…

C.    Take 10 minutes out of every hour to do something completely different.

Get up and move around for a few minutes. This helps circulate the blood through your body. This simple exercise in self care will make you feel more alert and focused.

Roll your head around, from side to side and from front to back with your eyes closed. This technique helps to relieve neck tension, and increases blood flow to your brain. This is a natural and easy way to relax.

Give yourself a mini scalp massage. Run a pencil lightly through your hair, tickling your scalp for a bit of tingly relaxation.

Decompress your spine. Bend over at the waist with the knees slightly bent. Hang down loose like a rag doll for about 15 seconds. Then very slowly set yourself upright, stacking your vertebrae.

Meditate. Search on 10-minute meditations. Or check out these web pages.

Daily Meditation (Calming music and visuals)
Soothing meditation music (9 minutes, 16 seconds)
Guided meditation (various lengths)
Yoga Breaks (various lengths)

Practice progressive muscle relaxation. Begin tensing, then relaxing your body, starting at the top of your head and continuing down through the neck, shoulders, arms, hips, legs and feet.

So stick with your daily marketing ritual.

If you follow this practice and the other techniques I teach here, you will double your internet marketing productivity, guaranteed!

If you’d like to have me personally show you how to improve your internet marketing while reducing stress, send me an email with your name, organization and website address.

RSS Feed: What is it?

rss feedAn RSS feed is a feature you can add to your website, so that visitors who subscribe are notified every time your website is updated.  RSS, stands for Real Simple Syndication. You can recognize an RSS feed by the commonly used symbol to the right.

Why is an RSS feed a good thing?

  • Customer Bottom Line: Subscribing to feeds makes it possible for consumers to keep up with a large amount of online content in a very short time.
  • Website Owner Bottom Line: Feeds permit instant distribution of content and the ability to make it subscribable.

RSS is mainly used for blogs, because they are updated so often. Your visitors who are familiar with RSS will click on the RSS feed symbol and sign up to be notified every time you add a new post to your blog.

How do I get an RSS Feed?

If you are using WordPress to run your site, you can see what’s known as your raw feed by typing into your browser the your website address followed by /feed. But you won’t be able to see how many subscribers you have as you can do by running it through Feedburner.

To sign up for Feedburner, you will need a Google Account. If you don’t have one, you can set up both a Google and a Feedburner account here:
https://accounts.google.com/NewAccount?service=feedburner

If you already have a Google Account, log in and create your Feedburner account at
https://accounts.google.com/Login?service=feedburner

You will be asked to create a title for your feed, and will end up with a Feedburner address like: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ManageYourWebsiteAndGrowYourBusiness.

How do I add Feedburner to my website?

You can use a WordPress plugin like
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/feedburner-setting/
and simply add your Feedburner address when you configure the plugin. The RSS symbol will now be visible on your website if you are displaying your blog posts, as it is here in the right sidebar. That’s it!

What happens when a visitor subscribes to my RSS feed?

When a visitor clicks on the RSS symbol, they will go to your feed, (for example: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ManageYourWebsiteAndGrowYourBusiness
where they can choose any number of options for being notified of your new content. One popular option is to use Google Reader. See more at http://reader.google.com.

Summary

So there you have it. With an RSS feed you can distribute your content to a larger constituency, and your visitors can keep up to date with your latest information. For help with the specifics of your business, see Coaching and Mentoring.

5 Basics of a Successful Internet Marketing Strategy

Buyer behaviorThe challenges to internet marketing success today are different from ten years ago. Why? Because buyer behavior has changed. People trust traditional marketing messages less, and are much more involved in the buying process than they used to be. For example, the average car buyer spends four hours or more researching cars on the internet before they even venture into a dealership.

The tactic to put up a website about the business and expect customers to buy no longer works. To succeed in this new environment requires an internet marketing strategy that takes into account how people’s buying habits have changed. Businesses must commit resources to learn more about what their customers want, provide the content that addresses customer’s concerns, make it easy for customers to get their needs met. And the strategy must allow the business to continuously improve its ability to do this.

Internet Marketing StrategyInternet Marketing Strategy

  1. Define Success – define specific online business objectives, and allocate resources to their achievement
  2. Find your niche – define ideal customers and understand their needs and wants
  3. Create compelling content – respond with compelling content and offers
  4. Invite participation – make it easy for prospects to find, engage, and buy.
  5. Continuously improve – measure and continuously improve online business performance.

Internet Marketing Strategy Commitment1. Define success

The first job of a successful internet marketing strategy is to define specific online business objectives, and to estimate what it will take to achieve them.

Business objectives

For example, the bottom line for a restaurant may be higher revenue as a result of people visiting and interacting with the website. This is a nice general objective, but is not specific enough in order to calculate how many website visitors it will take to make this happen. We can get specific about this by making the following assumptions for, say, Casey’s Pub.

  • The expected restaurant revenue for 2011 is $100,000.
  • Revenue expected in 2012 from web leads is an additional 5%.
  • Average sale is $50.00
  • Average web lead to sale conversion ratio is 10%.
  • Web visitor to lead conversion rate is 2%
  • The bounce rate is 25%

With these assumptions in hand, we can calculate that Casey’s Pub 2012 web traffic required to support these numbers will be 45,833 unique visitors (3,819 per month.) To calculate your own commitments, see Online Business Goals Worksheet.

Value of success

If revenue from the web increases by 5% in 2012, 7.5% in 2013, and 10% in 2014, the total three year online revenue from this strategy will be upwards of $27,500. This gives Casey some idea of how much is appropriate to invest for this return.

Given that the current website traffic is 10,200 (850 per month), where will Casey find these web visitors, and what resources will be required to attract them? The answer, of course, is online prospects and customers.

Internet Marketing Strategy Customers2. Find your niche

The second job of an effective internet marketing strategy is to clearly define where you have the best opportunity to find the online prospects and customers to achieve the marketing goals.

Unique Selling Proposition

Start with what’s called your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). In the case of our restaurant example:

Casey’s Pub has a long history in the town of Brownsville.  Since 1853 it has been the heart of a Brownsville dining experience, as well as a meeting place for people in and around Berkshire county. Additionally, its location right off the Turnpike makes it an ideal location for travelers staying in or passing through the area.

Identify Niches and Buyer Personas

The real opportunity for meeting Casey’s Pub website traffic goals is to identify niche online markets, understand what they care about, and offer content that will engage and convert them to visitors, leads, and customers.

For example:

Upscale Larry thinks he knows more about food, or anything for that matter, than people in the Brownsville area, solely because he is from the big city.  He’s probably a second homeowner, or guest at a local B&B.  This means he probably decided where to eat by asking the B&B owners or searching online.

Casey’s Pub website needs to be optimized for the keywords he and others in this market niche will use to search for restaurants in Brownsville.  To define your own niches and personas, see Ideal Customer Worksheet

To get found by ideal customers requires articles, blog posts, downloads and other web content that can be optimized for a specific keyword and found by prospects on search results pages.

Internet Marketing Strategy Content3. Create compelling content

Plan, create, and publish information that matches the intention of a person searching on a keyword. For example, persons searching on the term berkshire restaurants are probably looking for the range of restaurant choices before refining their search to something more specific.

Relevance for these searchers would be an article or blog post landing page that provides just that kind of information. See, for example the top search position for the Berkshire Visitor’s Bureau Page titled Berkshire Restaurants: http://www.berkshires.org/Eat/tabid/63/Default.aspx

One way to generate relevant content for your specific niches is to develop a list of popular questions and concerns of prospects and customers, and then publish articles, blog posts and landing pages optimized for popular keywords. The idea is to publish information that satisfies these conditions:

1. Pick a question customers ask
Example: What locally grown food can you recommend?

2. Choose a keyword and assess its popularity
berkshire grown  – 260 local monthly searches

3. Create an event, special, or something to write about
Berkshire grown special.

4. Write about it.
www.caseyspub.com/article/berkshire-food-special (not a real link)

5. Get a link from some relevant website
http://www.berkshiregrown.org

Having published relevant content that attracts visitors, the next step is to make it easy for them to convert from visitors to leads, and from leads to buyers.

 Internet Marketing Strategy Conversion4. Invite participation

A website designed well for conversion will have a page structure, navigation system, textual content, imagery, layout and landing pages that may convert as many as 10% of visitors to leads (requests for information) and customers (reservations, purchases…). It will also have a content management system, so that information can be easily kept current in-house.

Casey’s Pub existing website is limited in all these elements. The navigation system is not consistent throughout the site, the imagery and text are un-inspiring, and there are no clear calls to action. So it will need a re-design.

Re-design specification
The following is a preliminary specification for the re-design of the Casey’s Pub website.

1. Look and Feel: dark, elegant, understated, very good food at affordable prices in a comfortable, tavern atmosphere.

2. Primary navigation:

  • Menus
    • Lunch
    • Dinner
    • Wine List, etc.
  • Specials
  • About
  • Blog features Berkshire events and ways in which Casey’s Pub comes into play, i.e. Tanglewood picnic baskets, spiced cider in the tavern after snow shoeing, etc.
  • Contact Us online form with checkboxes for specific interests – dining, lodging, etc.

3. Additional features (top and/or sidebar)

  • Casey’s Pub logo
  • Phone number or Call today for reservations
  • Connect with us on Facebook, etc.

Having created a site that is likely to convert visitors to leads and customers, the next step is to keep track of what works, what doesn’t, and adjust to continuously improve results.

 Internet Marketing Strategy Continuous Improvement5. Continuously Improve

Too often businesses follow a launch and leave strategy. You, however, having committed to specific results and having invested in a solid strategy, will want to protect that investment with ongoing review of specific results. At a minimum you should consider

  • reviewing results monthly (Dashboard report)
  • and taking relevant action to improve results for the following month. (Action Plan)

Dashboard Report

Key performance information can be captured from programs like Google Analytics and displayed in chart form for monthly management sessions. For example monthly trends.

Internet Marketing Strategy DashboardAction Plan
Based on these trends, trouble spots and/or opportunities can be identified early and effective decisions can be made to improve results over time.

Summary

While the specifics of your internet marketing strategy will certainly vary widely from the example given here,  accounting for each of these 5 basics within your strategy will position you to grow your business online. For help with the specifics of your business, see Coaching and Mentoring.

 

5 Internet Marketing Basics to Engage Today’s Buyers

internet marketing buyerThe internet has changed how we buy.

It has changed how we as consumers use our time, what we give our attention to, who we trust, and the number of purchasing choices available. Here’s what you can do about it.

5 internet marketing basics for today

1. Get Centered

With all the hype about internet marketing technologies, it’s very easy to get distracted from our core personal and/or business values and tasks. Whether we’re considering a website, or Facebook, or Twitter, or any of the other bright shiny internet tools, these technologies are only just tools and not ends. They can be used effectively or not depending on the needs of the business and our market niche. One very simple, yet rigorous way of thinking this through is Forrester’s POST process, People, Objectives, Strategy, Technology. While developed for Social Media, it applies equally well to all internet marketing. More here.

2. Listen

The single most unique and powerful attribute of the Internet is its two-way vs. one way communication.  Yet, the traditional, one-way marketing model is still deeply entrenched among internet marketers. Old marketing habits are extremely hard to break, and they causes a huge number of internet marketing efforts to fail. Google colleagues call these habits the HiPPO syndrome, i.e. developing websites and content based on the Highest Paid Person’s Opinion.

These days, to be present on the web means to make internet marketing decisions based not so much on opinions within the organization. Being present means first listening to the needs of prospects, customers, online visitors, and leads. Because of its two-way nature, the internet is well suited for listening. More here.

3. Develop content that solves problems

Having centered on our core values, and having listened to our niche,we are now in a position to generate content that our niche will now really want to find and read. And developing a web presence in this way is not a one time effort. It is a continuous process of listening, and developing fresh content that our niche cares about. It’s about offering content that builds trust and the desire to buy, because it solves a real problem or felt need.

4. Choose, develop, and optimize the appropriate technologies.

At this point, technologies will often just fall into place. Whether the choice be a website and or email campaign, or social media tools, we focus on and allocate resources to what is important. We gain the confidence to ignore the hype about all the other technologies in which people say we should be investing. More on allocating internet marketing resources.

5. Measure what works and take effective action.

Again, because of the two-way nature of the web we no longer need to drive down the street with our eyes shut  Tools like Google Analytics can provide continuous and valuable feedback on how people are responding to our web presence in real time. When properly configured and with simplified reporting web analytics can focus our attention on key business performance indicators, Good web analysis and reporting then becomes grist for HiPPOS to making more effective strategic decisions to continuously improve customer satisfaction and the business bottom line. More on web analytics.

Once you have each of these five basics in place, you need the machine capable of continuously engaging your niche with remarkable content and converting them to leads and customers. Don’t let any sales person pushing Yellow Pages ads, SEO, email marketing, websites, TV spots, or magazine advertising tell you otherwise. As stand-alone tactics, these marketing vehicles don’t deliver. But as carefully planned parts of a well orchestrated, integrated strategy, they are capable of delivering business results.

Take a look at where you are in the marketing process and consider next steps with a free website evaluation.

Top 10 Marketing Tools for your Online Business Website

Does your website really mean business? Are you getting the traffic you want? Does it send you qualified leads? How is your percentage of online sales growing?

Tools for online business websitesHow do you choose among the vast and ever growing array of online marketing tools to give your online business website a boost? Here is the top 10 list of tools I recommend for the participants in my internet marketing workshops. If you set these up, and use them effectively, you will be far ahead of the game.

  1. Hardware

    Even if you are not the workshop type, pay attention to your hardware. I’m amazed at the amount of frustration people tolerate with outdated equipment.

    This may seem like stating the obvious, but if you attend one of ClickBasics Internet Marketing Workshops,  you will need a reasonably up-to-date portable computer with wireless card, charger, and power supply.

  2. Firefox Web Browser

    While it’s possible to use any modern browser for internet marketing, I strongly recommend Firefox, because some tools do not yet work with Internet Explorer. If you are not already using it, download the latest version at http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/new/. If you are already using Firefox, check that you have the latest version. In your Firefox browser click on Check for Updates from the Help menu.

  3. SEO Toolbar

    While you’re attending to Firefox, and add the SEOMoz toolbar. Think of this as your internet marketing Swiss Army Knife. Adding this to your toolbar will give you instant feedback on how your site stacks up against other sites in the eyes of Google and other search engines. Download SEOMoz toolbar at http://www.seomoz.org/seo-toolbar

  4. Spreadsheet Program

    If you want to build your business on the web, you will get nowhere without setting business goals, marketing goals, and measuring progress. Spreadsheets are simple and effective ways to do this. Check that your laptop has a spreadsheet program like Word. If not, you can get free office software including a spreadsheet program at:

  5. Word Processing Program

    Don’t laugh. Getting found and doing business on the web is not about fancy tools, magic bullets, and over designed websites. It’s about generating original content that people want, will search to find, and will link to.

    While most modern websites have a content management system, to create really compelling articles, you will need a good word processing program like Word. You may need to you’re your work as a text file before uploading it to your website, but a good word processing program will help you in the planning and writing stags. Again, you can get free office software including a word processing program at the above website addresses.

  6. Google Account

    If you don’t already have a Google account, sign up for one. You will be using some of their free internet marketing tools. If you don’t have a Google account, sign up for one at https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount. For help signing up, go to http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/answer.py?answer=27441

    Sign into your Google account at https://www.google.com/accounts/ManageAccount

    Scroll down the page to My Products and set up the following:

  7. Google Adwords keyword research tool

    Think of Google Adwords as your marketing research tool. You may not be ready to place ads. But, you can still use their free keyword research tool. Create an Adwords account at http://www.google.com/adwords

  8. Google Analytics

    Think of Google Analytics as your internet marketing GPS. Properly configured, it allows you to get data to plug into your spreadsheet to see where you are in relation to your internet marketing goals.

    It’s best to set up Google Analytics linked to your Google Adwords account. Do this by logging into your Adwords account, and select Google Analytics from the Reporting and Tools drop-down menu. Follow the prompts and use your existing account information.

  9. Google Webmaster Tools

    Think of Google Webmaster Tools as a stethoscope to help you check your visibility on Google. Sign up at: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/

  10. XML Sitemap Generator

    A quality sitemap is important to get your pages indexed by search engines. I recommend XML Sitemap Generator. Get yours at http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/

There are many more internet marketing tools I could recommend. But these, in my opinion, are the ones to seriously improve your online business website performance.

Search Engine Optimization – Web Directories

After optimizing your web page, so it is easily found by search engines, you still need to do another part of search engine optimization to demonstrate that others aside from you think your page is important. You want your page to have page authority, so search engines will rank your page higher in their search results. And you get that authority in the eyes of Google and an other Search Engines when other websites relevant to your subject area link to your website giving you domain authority. There are several ways of getting these links. Here we talk about…

Web Directories

Like search engines, web directories are sites that attempt to make it easy for searchers to find what they are looking for. But they are different in that links to websites are organized into categories, and human beings decide what sites go into what categories.

There are many services out there that offer to automatically submit your site to hundreds of web directories, and guarantee that your site will “Get to the top of Google.” Run, don’t walk, away from these scams! Every directory has different categories, and different rules for submission. If you try one of these automated submission tools, your results will not be nearly as effective as submitting your site by hand. Many web directories will not accept, delete, and possibly ban your listing if you submit to the wrong, or irrelevant, or to no category.

Bite the bullet, and submit by hand.

Examples of Web Directories

Not all directories will work well for you. You may, for example, run across one that will require you to add a link to a page like eczema.

How to prepare for hand submission

Hand submission takes time. An experienced online marketer can do one submission in about seven minutes. However, many directories require more time.

You can make life easier for yourself and create quality directory submissions if you provide consistent information to all directories. For example, my information is:

  • Website name: Online Marketing with Paul Carter, ClickBasics
  • Website URL: http://www.clickbasics.com
  • Email: paulc@clickbasics.com
  • Your name: Paul Carter
  • Password: XXXXyyy111 (whatever)
  • Site category: marketing/internet marketing/search engine optimization
  • Site description: Consulting and service, specializing in search engine optimization, lead generation, and online sales conversion business strategies.
  • Keywords: seo, search engine optimization, internet marketing, online marketing, internet marketing consultancy, online consultancy, Paul Carter, Paul Calhoun Carter.

Are Directory Submissions really usefull for SEO?

Web directories used to be more important than they are now in providing you with page authority. A search engine’s job is to offer quality results to it’s users. If you acquire a few quality links based on providing great content, and meeting the needs of your users, you will increase your domain and page authority, and separate yourself from other sites.

However, we are still seeing good results from directories. Local Business Directory listings are crucial for success in high Google Map rankings. So submit not only to general directories. Each month rotate to different kinds of link building. It is good to have many different type of links – social bookmarks or article submission and the like. The more quality, relevant links the better.

The proof is in the results. You’re in good hands if keyword ranking reports show improvement.

For more more information, contact us!

How to SEO in the Berkshires or any other local area

seo berkshiresWant to get found by people interested in your local area?  I happen to live in the town of Lenox in Berkshire County of Western Massachusetts, USA. I love this area, and enjoy working here. So I like to have Berkshire businesses find me. Many of my clients want to be found by out-of-state people who want to visit or otherwise do business in this area.

If you serve local customers, or want to attract visitors considering visiting your area, you can shape your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy accordingly. That’s called optimizing for local search.

What is local search?

You can read more than you will ever want to know about local search, as it is rapidly developing and changing. Let’s just look at some of the basics.

More and more people are adding geographical terms to their searches. For example, you may have found this page by searching on the terms seo berkshires. No surprise here, because I have used that term in my page content and have taken care of other general search engine basics that make my page more easily found by whoever wants to know about the topic. Here’s some tips to help you do that for your own web pages to get you found locally.

How to get found by local search

Localize your content

Don’t be afraid to mention your location on your Web site, like seo berkshires. Allow it to work into your content naturally. For example

When looking for SEO, Berkshires businesses will find it at their doorstep.

That’s information that both search engines and prospects will want to know. Who do you cater to? What area(s) do you serve? When are you open? How can people can find you? Tell them.

  • Home page: While you’re telling people what you’re about, mention where you’re located. Show customers you really exist. And bring the search engines into your local loop.
  • About page: Tell people not only who you are, but also where you’re located. Visitors will trust you more, and it tips off the search engines.
  • Contact page: Include your location, a map, your cities served, hours, email address, fax number, phone number, directions and other any information you have that establishes your location.

Claim your business listings

Go on over to https://www.google.com/local/add/login and
http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/local/business.php
Check out Google’s comprehensive user’s guide.

SuperPages, CitySearch, InfoUSA, YellowPages, Localeze, Insider Pages, Open List and Yelp all offer businesses the opportunity to create accurate listings in their indexes.
https://my.superpages.com/spweb/products/business-listing
https://selfenroll.citysearch.com/
http://list.infousa.com/dbupdate.htm
http://www.yellowpages.com/sp/advertise/
http://www.insiderpages.com/advertiser/find_business
http://webapp.localeze.com/bizreg/add.aspx
http://www.openlist.com/update/
http://www.yelp.com/

Don’t forget Best of the Web Local and GetListed.org

Build local citations

Citations are “mentions” of your business name and address on other webpages, even if there is no link to your website. It can be a local chamber of commerce, or a local business association where your business information can be found. Citations help search engines confirm that businesses “are who we thought they were!”

Build local content

Continue to build compelling content that appeals to your local niche. If you engage them and make it easy to find, they will come.