Coldwell Banker Kansas City Loses the Online Buyer

Everywhere today there are signs of failure, countless articles on various ideas for motivation, reaching more customers or just staying in business. Along the same lines it is important to note where companies, marketers and salespeople have gone wrong even with the best intentions. Starting this online illustration off is a group of Coldwell Banker offices within a particular region who were sold the idea to 'turn off' all of their websites and individual online marketing to use only one website they could all share.

In terms of search engine marketing a website should be considered an online billboard where a single billboard is only capable of reaching a small target audience on a specific location of the road. If buyers drive home on the road your billboard happens to be located then you have the opportunity to present your message to those buyers. Anyone who drives home another way or lives in another part of town will never see the billboard nor will they ever have a chance to see your advertising. A website works much the same way in that a single website will never rank very well or be listed very high in a wide range of buyer search results.

Search Engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.) rank websites higher or lower based upon the content, traffic, number of links and related websites and even website locations. Thus a single website will never be 'everything to every search engine' and will never rank highly for more than a few specific search terms or keywords. With Coldwell Banker offices abandoning ten (10) individual websites for the local offices that previously contained specific information for each region or area to all share a single template website the local offices lost the ability to prospective reach home buyers, sellers and relocation customers on search engines. The intention may have been to share resources or lower marketing costs but the result was a loss of 90% of their potential online reach within all search engines.

One of the specific Coldwell Banker offices hosted the website at our website hosting facility with an average monthly Unique Users (unique visitors or prospective clients) of 4,400 and 882 active home buyers who had created accounts within the website to search for or save homes for sale in the local market. The monthly investment to maintain the website was $150 which equates to 3 cents per unique user (potential customer) per month before considering the 882 active buyers who created an account on the website.

The website was ranked # 1 on Google and Yahoo for specific search terms pertinent to the locations of offices such as 'Coldwell Banker Overland Park' or 'Coldwell Banker Kansas City' branding the company to thousands of home buyers and sellers every month (important to note there are several Coldwell Banker offices in the area but this website showed up #1). The website was turned off, all 882 active customers with home search accounts on the website were kicked off without notice and the website is no longer ranked on any search engine within the first two pages.

Somewhere along the way a salesperson from a website design company sold a local Coldwell Banker Relocation office on the idea that they should design a single website for all of the local offices to share. Maybe the idea was to save money, maybe they wanted to try and compete with Reece and Nichols who typically has 50% of the local market listings and uses one website or maybe it was just so the relocation company could get a fee for every single home sold by any local Coldwell Banker office. Whatever the reason was the local Coldwell Banker offices lost a tremendous opportunity to reach more customers through their individual websites (online billboards) and proved there is more than one way to lose business in a tough market.

Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson

Internet * Technology Expert

http://www.builderconsulting.com/

913-814-8844 Office

Does Social Networking Bring Business?

Several educational offerings about Social Networking were offered at the 2009 NAHB IBS in Las Vegas this month sharing a wide range of ideas. Many different options were shared with direct examples of builders, real estate professionals and companies marketing via social networking groups. Myspace.com, Ning.com, Facebook.com, Activerain.com, LinkedIn.com and dozens of others portrayed an endless list of options to share a message.

The difficult aspect of social networking in marketing is correlating any resulting leads or sales. Any additional opportunity to reach prospective customers or place an 'online billboard' is beneficial yet there seems to lack a single direct method of converting social browsers to buyers. Most social networking websites are provided free of charge so a return on investment only includes the time required to collect, publish and update the information on each of the portals.

Marketing is either targeted or not; social networking is the new hot marketing idea (even though it has been around for years) though it has not yet been refined to a targeted marketing tool. Anyone considering the launch of a social networking marketing campaign should first start with a Blog followed by one or two of the thousands of other social marketing portals to practice upon. Blogs have always been well liked by the search engines so they are an excellent proven opportunity.

Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson

BuilderConsulting.com

913-814-8844

Social Media Tools for Easy Online Marketing

Some of the best places to market today are FREE, more classified ads are placed daily on Craigslist.com than any other website except Ebay (who happened to buy Craigslist) while there are dozens of other similar websites used for online ads. Most users simply post an ad online using the basic ad creation tools built into each classified ad website causing the ads to blend in with others easily. A way to augment your online ads is to create a 'webpage' using HTML and external image hosting yet this requires some level of website design skill, the software and time to develop the ad; most people will not take the time to do this.

Another solution is to use the excellent online tools, What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) HTML Editors that create the webpage for you through a few basic steps. One such website is vFlyer www.vflyer.com enabling customized online ad creation for Real Estate, Rental/Leasing, Automotive/Cars and Marketing Companies. Setup of an account and basic flyers is FREE with a small paid subscription service available for those who post multiple ads each month.

Another online website with FREE social media marketing tools is Easy Auto Sales www.EasyAutoSales.com specifically setup for for automotive ad creation, classifieds and posting. The Easy Auto Sales website incorporates unique tools such as Facebook integration, history of buyer/seller ads, creation of custom HTML for posting the ad on other websites and direct feeds to many search engines showcasing any auto posted within the website to buyers on Yahoo and Google FREE of charge. Functionality includes online community forums of automotive questions, car clubs and vehicle research.

Last but not least is the Postlets Classified Ad Creation and Marketing website www.Postlets.com primarily focused on real estate ad creation while incorporating tools for cars and trucks as well. The unique feature of Postlets is that the ads created are marketed directly to all of the following top social media websites for FREE once the ad is completed:

	craigslist
	Facebook
	FrontDoor
	Google Base
	HotPads
	MySpace
	Oodle
	Trulia
	Twitter
	Vast
	Zillow

The basic Postlets account is FREE enabling full access to the website, ad creation and basic marketing tools. Enhanced options create a complete website for online ads with enhanced marketing for each of the individual posts at a nominal charge of $5 for one, $40 for 10 or $75 for 25 ads including the website and marketing. That equates to $3 per ad at the bulk rate which is much less expensive than newspapers or other online paid advertising websites.

To request additional information on other online marketing, social media or website development contact Builder Consulting www.BuilderConsulting.com

Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson

Internet & Technology Expert

Builder Consulting - Building Better Websites with Results Since 1995

913-814-8844

Back to the Basics...Sales & Marketing First

The past week has been spent speaking with marketing directors, sales managers and consultants about their Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, ActiveRain and other online social networking accounts. One sales manager shared and email from marketing firm outlining a several month long marketing campaign done by creating a fake person on Facebook intended on tricking buyers into coming to see homes for sale. The email shared that several people had agreed to be be Facebook friends with the fake person and even attended a party at a new urban condo unit. There was no information on how people reacted when they found out they had been tricked into visiting the community by a salesperson though the email did share say the marketing had lots of buzz until it was shut down by Facebook for violating terms of use and creating fake accounts. Are legitimate marketing professionals now Twittering for customers or spending months on fake online profiles creating fake people to trick buyers into viewing their products or location?

Would someone who was tricked into visiting a home by a fake person on a fake online account be the best prospective buyer? What ever happened to generating leads and sales through marketing? What happened to connecting with buyers through legitimate methods such as a well developed and search engine optimized website or effective targeted email marketing followed by personal calls to prospects to help generate interest. There are home buyers out there and the majority of buyers are using the Internet to search for homes, legitimate buyers are looking for a home for the best price not trying to be entertained or invited to a party. Multiple opportunities to reach buyers and share a message is good though quite a few marketing firms seem to be focusing efforts on random items online tools or Tweets while forgetting the basics of Sales and Marketing!

Build a better website, buy online advertising to put yourself in front of prospective buyers where they are looking then focus efforts on Twittering and creating online areas to chat with someone in hopes they may buy something. Back to the basics, the basics changed moving away from newspaper and print ads to the Internet Super Highway where you can reach more buyers and sell more...if the basics are done properly.

Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson

http://www.BuilderConsulting.com

913-814-8844 Offices

Almost everything from cars to homes to websites

After everything the economy, people and companies have been through it seems that everyone deserves a reward for making it through the challenges. Today, homes are being sold for pennies on the dollar, mortgage rates are low, a classic muscle car can be found for a few thousand dollars (watch Barrett Jackson Auctions sometime), Walmart has 'lower price' signs everywhere and you can buy a new car for almost nothing. Anyone who made it through the past two years without losing everything is in an incredible position to buy anything.

There are foreclosed homes for sale in the Kansas City market for as little as $10,000-50,000 without structural or major work required; other real estate professionals share it is the same in most places. Older areas of town have homes with mortgages where unfortunate people paid for 20 years then lost the home. This means the balance on the loan is only what remains from the purchase price 20 years ago after payments have been made for 20 years and the home appreciated. Hence a home valued at $50,000 in 1979 may have appreciated to a value of $75,000 with a remaining loan balance of $15,000 when the home was foreclosed so the bank can only sell it for the balance of the loan (foreclosing on homes is not to be for profit above the loan balance).

It is a great time to buy investment property, rental homes or even an extra home downtown for those nights the drive back from cocktail hour seems too far! Homes are not the only excellent deal, search on Ebay Motors or Craigslist anytime to find $80,000 supercharged Jaguar Luxury Sedans selling for $10,000 in perfect running condition. Less common vehicles such as Austin Martin Ultra-performance sports cars that sold for $144,000 a few years ago are selling for $25,000 when the people who blew their money on such luxury items now need the cash to pay bills. There is something very wrong and something very right about this transfer of assets though it did create opportunity.

Invest in yourself and your business, have a new website built to reach new customers, take advantage of social media and networking. Everything done today returns your investment in the future so get ahead of the competition now while business is slow, but increasing and consumer confidence is improving.

If you have the money stashed away or happen to be one of the well performing companies it is a great time to look for a new office building, a car, LCD TV or investment properties. The economy was hurt when consumers became scared to spend money, buy a home or invest but the time has come to correct this and get a great deal at the same time. Invest in real estate, buy a nice car, take someone out to dinner and help make things better while enjoying life in the process!

Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson

www.BuilderConsulting.com

913-814-8844 Office

Online Classifieds Usage Double Since 2005

According to the latest Pew Internet Research study nearly 50% of all Internet users are using online classifieds. Forty-nine percent of online adults surveyed said they have visited sites like Craigslist, Kijiji and Oodle, up from only 22% in 2005. The study says that 9% of Internet users visit these sites on any given day, compared with 4% four years ago.

Online classifieds are particularly popular with 25 to 44 year old Internet users, more than half of whom use Internet classifieds, while just under half of 18 to 24 year olds and 45 to 54 year olds 49% and 48%, respectively use online classifieds.

Those figures fall for users over 55 with 35% of 55 to 64 year olds using classified websites, while 26% of Internet users over 65 do.

Use of classified sites also increases with income and education, with online adults earning $50,000 or more, as well as college graduates, considerably more likely to have visited them. The Pew Research study highlights the growing importance of online classifieds to Internet users and reflects the changes in the audience for classified ads in terms of those who place them and those who make purchases using online classified websites which devastated a key revenue source for traditional newspapers.

Craigslist is by far the most used website in the United States. In March 2009 all classified websites averaged 53.8 million unique visitors, up 7% from February. Craigslist alone had 42.2 million unique visitors in the month of March (out of the total 53.8 million total users). Newspaper classified revenue fell from 17.4 Billion to $10 billion over the same period with real estate classifieds down 52% since their peak in 2006. Total Internet ads revanue for newspapers in 2008 was $3.1 billion according to the Newspaper Association of America.

Just as past studies of online users have shown, adults living in households with incomes of $50,000 or more a year are significantly more likely to visit and use classified ads sites than lower earners. More than half (56%) of higher income Internet users use sites like Craigslist, compared with 47% of those making $30,000-$49,999 and 42% of those making less than $30,000 a year. In addition, online adults making $50,000 or more are more than twice as likely as those earning less than $30,000 a year to use online classified ads on a typical day.

The Internet continues to be the strong point in business and live with the numbers clearly showing adaptation by the average user.

Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson
www.BuilderConsulting.com
913-814-8844 Office

Decision Search Engine

June 1st 2009 Microsoft launched the new 'Decision Search Engine' intent on improving the way search results are displayed. Commercials on national prime time TV show people speaking random words associated with what others asked them as a way to illustrate the frustration of search results on many search engines. Microsoft launched a YouTube channel with the new search engine to share advertisments www.YouTube.com/Bing An example of this includes a commercial where a wife asks about 'Hawaii' and the husband begins saying all types of words that have to do with Hawaii such as 'Hawaii 5-0', surf lingo and other items that would commonly come up on a search engine related to Hawaii.

The Bing.com search engine looks at the context of what users are searching for and then makes a decision on which search results make the most sense to display. With the launch of the new Bing.com search engine Microsoft overtook the # 2 position behind Google temporarily jumping ahead of Yahoo.com with 16.28% of the market share. Yahoo moved down to 10.22% of the market share with Google remaining at 71.47% of the search engine market share according to StatCounter reports June 4th.

Microsoft has launched several new cutting edge technologies in the past few months including Photosynth.net enabling users worldwide to combine images creating extremely detailed 'video like' 3D images online. What remains to be seen is if the Bing.com search engine will be a long term competitor with Yahoo.com or Google.com using intelligent search results and new technologies.

Robert 'Dot Com' Jackson

Internet & Technology Expert

BuilderConsulting.com - Building Better Websites & Online Solutions Since 1995

913-814-8844 Office

Article Marketing Made Simple

Article marketing. Can it really do what everyone says it can? Are you using article marketing as part of your overall marketing strategy? I've been a big fan of article marketing since 2004 when I launched my first marketing web sites.

In this brief video, I show you the effect of article marketing on my overall search engine rankings and traffic for my main web site as well as share my review of top article marketing software packages. If you want to save time and get significant results, than be sure to check out Culzee.com for free article marketing information.

A Case Study Of How One Company Is Using Twitter To Grow Their Business

On my never-ending quest to find individuals and companies succeeding with Social Media I hit a goldmine. In a single word, Shutterstock. In today's post I share how one company, in a VERY crowded space, is dominating the niche with Twitter!

Shutterstock is a microstock company, which means that photographers upload their photos to the site, which in turns sells them to graphic designers, news agencies, marketers, pretty much anyone who needs stock imagery. The photographers receive a commission every time one of their images is sold. Basically it's crowdsourcing, as Shutterstock outsources the task of taking stock photos to the general public.

There are several of these microstock companies aside from Shutterstock; other ones include iStockphoto, Dreamstime, Fotolia, Big Stock Xchang, etc. When Twitter started blowing up, around six months ago, all these companies tried to stake a presence on this glitzy new social media platform. So far, Shutterstock appears to have been the most successful. Why?

1. Right from the start, Shutterstock identified their audience and offered them exactly what they wanted: free, useful stuff. In this case, Shutterstock's audience was comprised mainly of graphic designers and photographers, so Shutterstock began to post free vectors and images every week on its Twitter account, as well as links to Shutterstock generated articles containing photography tips, Photoshop and Illustrator tutorials, etc.

2. Shutterstock began to actively engage people who mentioned their service in their Tweets; every week Shutterstock responded to @shutterstock comments, to either offer technical advice, voice appreciation or ameliorate concerns. Doing this, and doing this in a specific, casual tone, made Shutterstock's followers feel like they had a direct pipeline into the company.

3. Many bloggers use Shutterstock as an image source for their blogs, so Shutterstock began to Tweet each blog post by an influential blogger that featured a Shutterstock image. Since bloggers are really the rockstars of Twitter, with a devoted readership base, this helped channel new people to Shutterstock, and also demonstrated that respectable bloggers used the service. Basically, Shutterstock used Twitter to network with popular bloggers.

4. This one's important! Shutterstock went back through its site and embedded link buttons to Twitter and Facebook throughout all of the site's pages. This way, whenever anyone new signed up to the site, or uploaded an image or collected a payment, their was a little button that they could click on that automatically made them a Facebook fan/Twitter follower of Shutterstock.

5. On top of all this, Shutterstock designed a simple and imaginative application for their photo submitters could called Shuttertweet. This application sends out a Tweet from a Shutterstock photographer's Twitter account once a day announcing their sales and accepted images. Since many Shutterstock photographers are looking to promote their portfolios, this was an attractive service that many photographers signed up for. Now, with @shutterstock appearing in so many people's news feeds, Shutterstock is channeling more interest than ever.

At this stage of the Twitter craze, the number of followers of each of the major stock image services seem to tell the tale:

Shutterstock:11,194
Istock:2,198
Getty Images: 1,218
Dreamstime:754
Fotolia: 223
Big Stock Photo: 168
stockxchng: 137

Shutterstock has created a vibrant Twitter community that continues to experience an accelerated rate of growth. The only question now is to see how this will translate for the company's bottom line which will no doubt benefit from the added traffic, exposure, and social media success they are experiencing!

 

Web 3.0 Is Here. Do You Know About It?

If you’re wondering what’s in store for the World Wide Web in 2010, you don’t have to think too hard.  I’ve been hearing a lot lately about what’s next for the Internet and it’s simply stated as Web 3.0.  Not sure what Web 3.0 is all about?  Simply stated, the concept of Web 3.0, the next iteration after Web 2.0, is about the sophistication of the web and the experience it’s going to create for each of us.

Web 3.0, also referred to as the Semantic web, uses artificial intelligence to improve your online experience.  It’s personalization taken to the next level.  Today when you visit a web site or browse the Web data is being collected about you, browsing behavior, and the sites you visit.  Imagine if all of this information was collected, processed, and built into a personal profile that would customize your online experiences?  Well, that’s what Web 3.0 promises to do.

Since the new Web will take past behavior like online purchases, browsing behavior, searches, etc. into consideration when building your personal profile, your experience online will be customized to you.  There are already concepts like a recommendation engine and a retail recommender that are in use today on some leading web sites.

Long gone will be the days of receiving promotional emails for stuff you don’t want – when you don’t want it.  In fact, chances are that interactions online and off will seem freakishly accurate.

For example, let’s say I only buy jeans once a year (I admit it… it’s true).  And let’s also say that I always buy them around the same time from the same online store – the GAP maybe.  Okay, now enter Web 3.0.  My interaction with the GAP online and offline will work very differently than it does today.  Not a week goes by now where I receive some type of promotion from GAP in my email and even my physical address.  And yes, I throw these things out and delete all of the email because I’m don’t buy scarves!  

In the future, the GAP is only going to contact me once, maybe two times each year to remind me about my annual jean buying day and the communication, web pages I visit, and checkout experience will all be customized based on my previous activities.  In fact, the non-response to emails and post cards should also yield less junk mail.  As my behaviors are recorded and fed into the latest artificial intelligence, I’m going to see less of what I don’t want and more of what I do want.

The best part of Web 3.0 from my perspective is that it not only works from a user’s perspective but also from a web site or retailer perspective.  You won’t be getting communication in any form that doesn’t work for you and your online experiences will be customized for you and you alone.  Trying to sell me on the “best selling products” or “top recommendations” may work today but won’t be necessary in the future.  Give me my top recommendations based on my buying behavior and preferences – not what the masses think.

Concerned about privacy?  I’ve got news for you.  If you knew what web sites are tracking today and the wealth of knowledge out there on the Internet, you’d probably have a heart attack.  I do believe that users should still have to give permission for this type of tracking and data aggregation to occur but my feeling is that you’re better off embracing it that throwing the concept to the wind.  Besides, Internet security continues to advance as well so one would think that additional protections are going to come with advances in Web technology.

So here we are.  The signs of Web 3.0 are here.  Keep your eyes and ears open for the continued evolution of the web. As marketers, we need to decide how we are going to leverage this information, technology, and improve the overall user experience.  That's our job and will be our focus in the months and years to come!

Free Traffic Exists If You Know Where To Look!

Many web site owners spend a lot of time building the next great application, web portal, or informational web site only to discover that creating a great site is only the first step.  A fantastic web site that doesn’t have any visitors holds no value.  So how do you generate traffic to your web site?  There are a variety of ways to generate traffic but some of the best are free.

In this week’s video, I’ll show you how to generate free traffic to your web site using traffic exchanges.  Top exchanges like Traffic Swarm  and EasyHits4U are free to join and can easily generate thousands of targeted visitors to your website.

Traffic exchanges are exactly what the name infers.  You are essentially exchanging traffic.  Here’s how they work.  You sign up for an account and “visit” other web sites.  Each time you view a web site or squeeze page, you earn credits.  These credits can be used for traffic.  After you earn a certain number of credits, your web pages are shown throughout the traffic exchange network.  Each time these pages are viewed by other members, you are charged a certain number of credits.

It may sound a bit confusing but actually it’s quite simple.  You browse web pages and other members browse yours.  The most productive way to utilize traffic exchanges is with the help of high converting squeeze pages.  If all you want to do is drive traffic, then you can easily set your web sites home page as your main display URL.  If on the other hand you are looking to build a list, develop powerful squeeze pages with an offer that encourages individuals to click through or sign up.

Over time you can generate a significant number of views for your web site or web page. Set your browsing page as your start page each time you open your browser.  This takes less than a few seconds to set up and can generate additional credits for you.  Most exchanges, including Traffic Swarm provide benefits for specific actions like loading your start page.

Premium versions are also available on traffic exchanges, allowing you to earn credits even faster.  Once you’ve begun using traffic exchanges, and see the type of traffic they are delivering, consider premium options.  The quality of traffic you receive can vary greatly from exchange to exchange so make sure you’re tracking properly and focus not just on traffic but on conversions are well.

There are tons of additional tools to help generate traffic to your web site at little or no cost.  I’ll cover additional tactics in the future but suggest that you start using traffic exchanges today to get visitors to your website.

New Challenges to Becoming an Adwords Pro

If it is coming time for you to renew your Google Advertising Professionals Certification, you may want to stop by the Learning Center and polish up your knowledge. Google has recently announced they will be updating the Advertising Professionals certification exam to make it more difficult. Of course, they are not trying to make our lives harder, but rather to keep us up to date on always evolving best practices. With a wider range of knowledge available for being successful in pay per click, a wider range of knowledge will be required to pass the new exam.

Not only will the exam be more strategy focused and challenging, the passing grade will also be raised. Previously, a grade of 75% or higher was required to pass the exam. With the new exam, a whopping 85% will be required to achieve Professional status. Happy studying!

Motivating Your Butt to Succeed Online

Join Jim Kukral, of www.jimkukral.com, for Motivating Your Butt to Succeed Online. You have the ideas for an online empire. You have dreams of breathtaking success. Here's a sure-fire way to kick-start your plans and feed the momentum to finally make things happen.

You'll learn how to:

• Get over yourself! - Lose your ego to open yourself to make more money, faster than ever!

• Avoid self-sabotage - Learn the difference between "Failures" and "Losers" and know which one you are... and why it matters to your success!

• Move on to move forward - We all make mistakes. Find out how to overcome your mistakes and strategically use them to your advantage

• Feed the fire - How hot does that fire in your belly burn? Are you really pumped up for success? We'll help get you white-hot and motivated to "just do it" at last!

• "Fail" your way to success - Master the secrets of the most successful people in the history of the world, and discover how you can model them to surpass your goals!

The event will take place on Wednesday, December 23, 2009 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST. To register please visit: Motivating Your Butt to Succeed Online.

Why The Small Screen Gets BIG Results!

There will soon be more mobile phones than there are people on the planet. If you are like most people, that phone in your pocket has dramatically changed your behavior and the way you think about and access your information, communications and entertainment. For the younger generations, the mobile phone truly is the center of their universe and the hub for their social interactions. What better place for advertisers and marketers to reach a captive and attentive audience?

In this discussion we will review:

• Why Mobile? Another device vs. a personal accessory…

• Mobile Advertising vs. Mobile Marketing

• If Content is King, is mobile content Master of the Universe?

• Is there really an App for that? How should marketers leverage the current “app” craze

Jeff Sass is the VP of Business Development for leading Mobile Entertainment site, Myxer. With more than 28 million users, Myxer delivers over 70 million mobile downloads per month and is a pioneer in ad-supported mobile content. A former entertainment and game industry exec, Jeff Sass has more than 10 years experience in Mobile and was co-founder and CEO of early mobile commerce player, BarPoint.com.

This webinar will take place on Wednesday, December 30, 2009 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST. To register please visit: Why The Small Screen Gets BIG Results!

Today& Marketing Topic: PR

That's right, today we're talking about public relations. It's amazing to me how little marketing professionals and small business owners know about PR. In fact, PR is largely becoming one of the most ignored marketing disciplines. When speaking about PR to one of my marketing buddies he said, "no one reads anymore.. so PR is basically dead!"

Honestly, I pretty much laughed in his face. "Dead! PR? You've got to be kidding!" I said. The reality is that today's news, social media, and email are all a forms of PR. Sure, I agree that the traditional practice of "getting ink" is old school, but the concept of pushing out a message or creating interest in what you have to offer is just GOOD MARKETING.

Using PR Today

I recently listened to a talk from Tim Ferris, the author of the popular book "The 4-Hour Work Week". Tim went from being unknown to one of today's most recognized authors in a very short time. How did he do it? You guessed it, PR. However, Tim's public relations approach was slightly different than the norm.

He contacted influencers within his area of expertise and let them know about his book. Even a slight mention from market leaders like, ".. taking a trip. Picked up a copy of 'The 4-hour Work Week'.." had a ripple effect that has grown into a phenomenon. In about a week, Tim's book went form nowhere to the New York Times best seller list.

If You Think PR Is Dead, Think Again

So if you're not Tim Ferris and you're not well connected, can PR still work for you? My answer is still yes, you just need to think about it differently. Whether your are targeting bloggers, Tweeters with a huge Twitter list, or other social media, public relations is about distributing your message for others to hear.

If you've done a Google search lately you'll notice the press releases are gaining exposure in search results. This is one of the ways that a well distributed message can appear before prospects and buyers. The next time you do a search check out your results list. You'll notice quite a few listing from PR and other media outlets.

Don't Lose Sight Of Public Relations

Whether you have a robust PR program or are just starting out, learn what you can about public relations. Anytime you want others talking about your product, services, or brand, think PR. Begin with media releases, talking to bloggers, and even reaching out to traditional media outlets.

Think new media too. Video and image are integrated into more and more PR efforts than ever before. Use everything at your disposal to communicate effectively with your audience. PR is far from dead!!!

Start Off the New Year By Getting Better Acquainted with Facebook

A great resource on Facebook that surfaced this week is brought to you by Mashable.com. The Facebook Guide Book is a great resource to bookmark for anything Facebook related. Whether it is learning the basics, to learning how to use Facebook for business, this guide will help you get started.

Towards the bottom of the guide, feature Facebook posts by the Mashable team, such as popular Facebook lists and most recent Facebook news. If you want to start the new year learning about Facebook, I think this is a great place to start.

Presents Ten Strategies for SEO

Start 2010 off right with the core strategies and advanced tactics you'll need to optimize your website to be found in Google and the other search engines!

Join Jay Berkowitz, Author of "The Ten Golden Rules of Online Marketing" for an interactive Webinar where you will learn:

1. How to determine how Google and the other search engines evaluate your website and how many search results you have today

2. How to read the minds of your customers and prospects. What are they searching for? What keyword phrases do they use? Which search engine do they favor?

3. Optimal website build techniques for SEO

4. Keyword research and content development

5. Critical link building

6. Meta Tags, File Names, Hyperlinks and AltTags

This webinar will take place on Wednesday, January 6, 2010 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST. To register please visit: Ten Strategies for SEO

Google Chrome Gaining Market Share in Browser Race

Up until around midway through December of 2009, Google Chrome had been unsuccessful in breaking into the top three most utilized web browsers worldwide. Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari have held on tight to the top three spots respectively throughout most of 2009. With a new year, however, comes a new spot for Chrome in the browser wars as it was able to overtake Safari for the coveted third position.

Not likely a coincidence, the increase in market share of Chrome came about just as a beta version of the browser for Mac and Linux computers was released. Google still has a long way to go if they intend to surpass the market share of Firefox and IE, but they are moving in the right direction.

Some Updates on MoneyMakerInfo.BlogSpot.com

I have been getting emails from web publishers and bloggers regularly asking for link exchange. Sorry, I was actually stopped doing link exchange for this blog for some time. The reason I'm not doing link exchange anymore is that I want to stop the increase of outbound links on this blog. As you can find in this blog, there were already a lot of outbound links on the sidebars and footers of the homepage. I'm getting worry if the increase of outbound links will against Google webmaster guideline. So, I'm not adding anymore outbound links.

If you want to get a link from my blog, I have a better arrangement for you. I was all the while accepting guest posts. The authors who published guest post on my blog will get two permanent anchor text links to their site and also gain targeted traffic. So, you may consider publishing a guest post on this blog. I prefer informative guest posts that are helpful to my visitors and readers. If you want to submit a post, visit the below link to get the full details about how to submit a guest post:

http://basic4business.blogspot.com/

Another thing is that the recent update and change of Google have increased the traffic of http://moneymakerinfo.blogspot.com. My stat counter, Site Meter show that the daily unique visitors have gone up to about 1,800. That was about 28% increase from the average 1,400 daily unique visitors I used to get. I thank Google a lot.

The advertisers who have advertised or renewed an ad on this blog might have received a satisfying amount of targeted traffic. If you are an advertiser of this blog, hope you have enjoying getting the targeted traffic of this blog.

The 28% increase of targeted traffic to this blog doesn't come easy. For the past couple of months, I have worked hard on link building for this blog. And also I spent time on content creation. Like the recent long article (over 3,500 words) titled 'The Top Ten Free Ways to Get Money Online' which has published on this blog, I took days of time to research and write this article with the goal to provide really useful information to the visitors, searchers and readers of this blog so that they can start making money on the Internet. I'm thinking to write a few more long articles like this in future.

Why Blogging?

Why start a blog? If you haven't noticed, blogs have taken the internet by storm. Bloggers are being created by the thousands each and every day. It's a fantastic way to interact with people about information, ideas, and opinions. It can be personal and intriguing.

Blog is the internet version for the term 'web log'. From opinions to random thoughts, it's a way to share information with the whole internet online world. Some blogs are general in nature, while others are specifically targeted to certain topics and readers. They can be used for advertising. You can promote products, services, or affiliate programs. They can be very lucrative when done correctly.

The power of the blog has been recognized by big companies. Anyone with a website of any kind can benefit from starting their own blog. There are many reasons for this power, and some of them are here:

Blogs enable you to stay in touch with your readers or subscribers. It keeps the lines of communication open for feedback and new ideas. It helps you to build a relationship of trust between you and your readers, so that they value the information you have, and will buy the products you push.

They're interactive, allowing your customers and readers to take an active role in the conversation. Other people can be a great source of insight into the theme of your blog. You should always try to have interesting and fresh information for your readers to take in so they'll continue to keep stopping by to visit your blog.

Blogs are also very simple in their make-up. You don't have to know any technical computer stuff to throw up and maintain a blog. The templates and editors are basically very simple and easy to use for the average person.

Another good benefit of a blog, is that you have total control over it. You can use it for reviews, or for information articles, or to push some product or service. Whatever your need is, a blog can supply you with a powerful way to reach many people.

When it comes to the search engines, they love blogs. They eat them up. A blog is one of the best ways to get high rankings in the search engines. If you update your content regularly, you'll find that the search engines pick you up much better than if you're slack on fresh content.

As far as advertising, blogs are one of the best ways proven for advertising most anything. If you have a lot of followers, and they find out about your product, then it won't be long before all the people they know are also in the know about it. And it snowballs from there. This is extremely powerful for selling. Blogging can be a very lucrative occupation, and many have quit their regular jobs to blog full time. So give it a shot, who knows, you may do very well.