Software is listed by category and function. A direct link is also listed next to a brief description of each application.

NOTE: None are these links are affiliated, so I’m not making a dime in commissions on any of this stuff.

Developing a Online Marketing Hub – Your Website

Standard Web Design

1. Nvu – “pronounced N-view”-

WYSIWYG website author/editor software – http://net2.com/nvu/

“Nvu is a WYSIWYG HTML editor. It is a common WYSIWYG editor for Linux, Microsoft Windows and Macintosh, intended to be an open source equivalent to proprietary software like Adobe Dreamweaver”.

2. Coffee Cup

Website author/ editor – http://www.coffeecup.com/free-editor/ – - WYSIWYG editor only in paid version.

“The Coffee Cup Free HTML Editor is a full-featured web design system. With built-in FTP uploading, wizards for tables, frames, fonts, and more, support for HTML5 and CSS3, and 100% valid code output, it’s a great tool for anyone who wants to design their own website.”

Blogging Programs

3. Blogger.com

Blogging software platform with FREE hosting – https://www.blogger.com/signup.g -”Your blog is whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them, in all shapes and sizes, and there are no real rules.

In simple terms, a blog is a web site, where you write stuff on an ongoing basis. New stuff shows up at the top, so your visitors can read what’s new. Then they comment on it or link to it or email you. Or not.

Since Blogger was launched in 1999, blogs have reshaped the web, impacted politics, shaken up journalism, and enabled millions of people to have a voice and connect with others.”

4. WordPress.org

Free blogging software application without hosting – – not to be confused with WordPress.com- . http://wordpress.org/download/ – “WordPress is an open source Content Management System – CMS- , often used as a blog publishing application. It has many features including a plug-in architecture and a template system. Used by over 12% of the 1,000,000 biggest websites, WordPress is the most popular CMS in use today.”

5. WordPress.com

Blogging with FREE hosting – https://en.wordpress.com/signup/?ref=navigation

- The commercialized big brother of wordpress.org- – - “You can get a blog started in less time than it takes you to read this sentence. All you need is an email address….”

Keyword & SEO Research

6. Wordstream.com

SEO keyword and PPC research tool – https:// www.wordstream.com/keywords/

“The Free Keyword Tool is continuously updating a database of over a billion of the world’s most popular keywords, aggregating over a trillion unique keywords”

7. Google Keyword Tool

SEO keyword and PPC research tool for Google’s Adsense program

“Enter one keyword or phrase per line to see what related word searches your ad will show on”

Graphic Design

8. Irfanview

Easy Graphic Viewer & Editor with Basic Features – http://www.irfanview.com/

“Irfanview is a very fast, small, compact and innovative FREEWARE – for non-commercial use – graphic viewer for Windows 9x, ME, NT, 2000, XP, 2003 , 2008, Vista, Windows 7.”

9. GIMP – GNU Image Manipulation Program-

Graphic Editor/ Full Featured Alt to Adobe Photoshop – http://www.gimp.org/

“GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages.”

Connecting with People

Increase Visibility

10. Ezinearticles.com

Article Marketing – Increase Online Visibility – http://ezinearticles.com/

“EzineArticles.com is a matching service — bringing real-world experts and ezine – web- publishers together. Expert Authors & Writers are able to post their articles to be featured within the site.”

11. Articlebase.com

Article Marketing – Increase Online Visibility – http://www.articlesbase.com/

“At ArticlesBase.com you can submit an article and literally have thousands of readers worldwide, as your article is syndicated across the globe. Many people visit ArticlesBase.com to gather free articles to display on their websites.”

12. Squiddo.com

Free Blog Site – Social Media Marketing – http://www.squidoo.com/

“Squidoo is the popular publishing platform and community that makes it easy for you to create “lenses” online. Lenses are pages, kind of like flyers or signposts or overview articles that gather everything you know about your topic of interest–and snap it all into focus. Like the lens of a camera, your perspective on something.”

13. HubPages.com

Free Blog Site – Social Media Marketing – http://hubpages.com/

“HubPages is your online space to share your advice, reviews, useful tips, opinions and insights with hundreds of other authors. HubPages is completely free…”

Attract Attention

14. Facebook

Personal & Business Social Networking Site – Social Media Marketing – http://www.facebook.com/

“Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, …”

15. YouTube.com

Video Sharing Site – Social Media Marketing – http://www.youtube.com/

“YouTube is the world’s most popular online video community, allowing millions of people to discover watch and share originally-created videos. YouTube provides a forum for people to connect, inform, and inspire others across the globe and acts as a distribution platform for original content creators and advertisers large and small.

16. MySpace

Personal Social Networking Site – Social Media Marketing – http://www.myspace.com/

“Find friends & classmates, meet new people, listen to free music & build playlists, share photos.”

17. LinkedIn

Professional & Business Social Networking Site – http://www.linkedin.com/

“Over 80 million professionals use LinkedIn to exchange information, ideas and opportunities. Stay informed about your contacts and industry. Find the people & knowledge you need to achieve your goals. Control your professional identity online.”

18. Twitter

Microblogging & Networking Site – Social Media Marketing – http://twitter.com/

“Twitter is a real-time information network that connects you to the latest information about what you find interesting. Simply find the public streams you find most compelling and follow the conversations.”

19. Ning.com

Social Network Site – Social Media Marketing – http://www.ning.com/

“Create Your Own Social Network. Organize around your favorite cause. Build a hub for your online activity. Have a deeper conversation in a space all your own.” $2.99/mos

20. OnlyWire

Automated Submission to Social Media Sites – http://onlywire.com/

Free Acct – http://onlywire.com/signup_purchase?post_id=8&finalization_id=34

“Auto-submit your online content and social status to the top social media sites with one click.”

21. TweetDeck

Automated Submission to Twitter, Facebook, MySpace & LinkedIn – http://www.tweetdeck.com

“TweetDeck is your personal browser for staying in touch with what’s happening now, connecting you with your contacts across Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and more.”

Promote Your Business Site

22. Digg

Social Bookmarking Site – Increase Online Visibility  – http://digg.com/news

“Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. The best news, videos and pictures on the web as voted on by the Digg community.

23. StumbleUpon

Social Bookmarking Site – Increase Online Visibility – http://www.stumbleupon.com/

“A New Way to Explore. StumbleUpon is a discovery engine that finds the best of the web, recommended just for you. Discover photos, videos, and web pages recommended by friends and people sharing your interests. StumbleUpon learns what you like, so you only see what’s interesting to you from across the web.”

24. Reddit

Social Bookmarking Site – Increase Online Visibility-  http://www.reddit.com

“Reddit is a source for what’s new and popular on the web. Users like you provide all of the content and decide, through voting, what’s good and what’s junk. Links that receive community approval bubble up towards #1, so the front page is constantly in motion and (hopefully) filled with fresh, interesting links.”

25. Delicious

Social Bookmarking Site – Increase Online Visibility- http://www.delicious.com/

“Delicious is a Social Bookmarking service, which means you can save all your bookmarks online, share them with other people, and see what other people are bookmarking. It also means that we can show you the most popular bookmarks being saved right now across many areas of interest. Keep, share, and discover the best of the Web using Delicious, the world’s leading social bookmarking service.”

26. Clipmark

Social Bookmarking Site – Increase Online Visibility- http://clipmarks.com/

“On Clipmarks.com, you can see clips of text, images or video about all sorts of topics that people find while surfing the web. The idea is that through each other, we can learn, understand and enjoy more than we could alone. As you find people who post clips that interest you, make them a Guide.”

Keep Your Web Visitors Interested & Engaged

Content Creation

27. OpenOffice

Free and full featured alternative to MS Office – http://www.openoffice.org/ “OpenOffice 3 is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. Free to download and use.”

28. PrimoPDF

Free PDF creator – http://www.primopdf.com/index.aspx

“PrimoPDF can create PDF files from 300+ file types.  It can make PDF files for different uses, including online viewing, eBooks, office printing, and prepress.             Or append PDF files after they are converted. And can secure with passwords and add document information (title, author, etc.) during creation.”

29. FreeMind

Mind mapping for planning, outlining, screen capture videos –

http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

“FreeMind gives you the flexibility to organize thoughts on a page as they connect to each other and to the larger picture. After all, not all minds reason in subheadings and bullet points. You shape, place, and name that master idea (the root node), then create child or sibling spokes that relate to it.”

30. CamStudio

Video Capture Software for making movies on computer – http://camstudio.org/

“CamStudio…is a small, sturdy screencast app that faithfully records your PC in AVI and SWF (Flash) formats. There are many fine features in the intuitive, open source app to recommend it.

31. Windows Movie Maker

Video & audio file editing software (Windows Only) – http://www.microsoft.com/

“Windows Movie Maker 2 is an XP/Vista-only download that gives you the tools to create, edit, and share home movies. Compile and edit a movie from video clips with drag-and-drop functionality. Add special effects, music, and narration with ease. Share your movie over the Web or master it to DVD media”

32. Audacity

Audio editing software –  http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

“This editor can record and play sounds and import and export WAV, AIFF, MP3, and OGG files. Edit your sounds using cut, copy, and paste features (with unlimited undo functionality), mix tracks, or apply effects to your recordings.”

33. PicPick

Screen Capture & Image Editor – http://www.picpick.org

“PicPick is user friendly and full of features for creating your image, suitable for software developers, graphic designers and home users. It is an all-in-one program that provides full-featured screen capture tool, intuitive image editor, color picker, color palette, pixel ruler, protractor, crosshair and even whiteboard.”

Communications

34. MailChimp

Email Marketing Service (Free) – http://www.mailchimp.com/

“Free email marketing service from MailChimp. Design, send, and track HTML email campaigns with our simple tools. Get a fully functional free account.”

35. GetResponse

Free and Fee Email Marketing Service – http://www.getresponse.com/

“GetResponse is an easy email marketing software that delivers your email campaigns, online surveys, newsletters, follow-ups and autoresponders.”

36. Aweber

Email Marketing Service – http://www.aweber.com/

“Email marketing software that’s easy to use & only $1 to try. Send email newsletters & autoresponders. Top notch email deliverability with our tools.”

Converting Visitors into Paying Customers

Tracking Traffic, Leads & Conversions

37. AWStats

Website Analytics Reporting software (Alternative to Google Analytics) – http://awstats.sourceforge.net/

“AWStats is an open source Web analytics reporting tool, suitable for analyzing data from Internet services such as web, streaming media, email and FTP servers.”

NOTE: AWStats is commonly a component in the cPanel platform (a website control panel) that is offered by almost all major web hosting companies. If it is not pre-installed, you should ask your web host service to set it up.

38. Webalizer

Website Analytics reporting software – (Alternative to Google Analytics) –

http://www.webalizer.org/

“The Webalizer is a fast, free web server log file analysis program. It produces highly detailed, easily configurable usage reports in HTML format, for viewing with a standard web browser.”

NOTE: Webalizer is common a component in the cPanel platform (a website control panel) that is offered by almost all major web hosting companies. If it is not pre-installed, you should ask your web host service to set it up.

39. FreeCRM.com

Online Lead Management software – http://www.freecrm.com/

“Free CRM is a web based software solution for customer
relationship management and sales force automation. Free CRM is great
for contact and lead tracking, sales and contact management, sales
pipeline management and forecasting, customer service and business management.”

40. Crazy Egg

Website Analytics – Tracks clicks with visual “heat maps” – http://www.crazyegg.com/

“Discover exactly how visitors are using your website – then optimize it to increase your conversion rate. Discover the areas of your web pages that are most important to your visitors – and how they can be improved.”

41. Conversion Chicken

A/B split testing & Website Optimizer Software – http://www.conversionchicken.com/site/index.php?1

“The Conversion Chicken reports back results in real time, so you don’t have to wait for months to see if one font color works better than another, you can see results as they come in. It allows you to quickly and easily improve your website, by figuring out what your visitors like and giving it to them.”

Don’t get stuck using old communication channels – use the best technology to stay in touch with your customers.

Some companies get it and some companies don’t. A lot of business professionals don’t understand that connecting with customers is a great way to increase sales and grow their business.In a rush? Check out the video…

Communicating with customers using online tech seems a little too “geeky” or “nerdy” for many traditional entrepreneurs.

But in a world where people are constantly moving, changing jobs, and working put under tremendous stress; being able to reach out to a trusted adviser (from anywhere in the world) can be a great relief for many harried clients.

So how do you become a trusted advice-giver?

You can become a trusted adviser by talking to clients and listening to their problems, pains or frustrations. You can then offer to share with them some of your advice (at no-cost).

We all enjoy doing business with people, we like and who we feel understand us. And we all are happy to get “free” stuff that helps with a problem.

And the easiest and most affordable way to do this is to connect with clients using various forms of web technology.  This is how web technology increases your market reach and builds your online reputation.

Tips For Improving Your Customer Connections Using Technology

Use your blog to collect comments from visitors. Unless you are hit by a lot of spam or junk comments, always leave your blog posts open for your readers to interact with you.

Read over any comments you get carefully. Always respond to any comments that are made by legitimate readers, even if it appears to be a complaint or something that is negative. Always leave a follow-up comment of your own.

Even a negative comment can have a positive effect if you handle it in a responsible and professional manner.

I myself look for negative comments when looking over a blog, I am not familiar with just to see how the blogger handled the situation.

If the blogger handled it well, I am prone to feel that they are authentic, genuine and cool under fire.

Check your e-mails and respond to them quickly. Sometimes e-mails can be used (with permission of course) as examples of common customer problems, questions or issues.

By using excerpts from e-mails appropriately in blog posts, you will be able to write articles that answer issues that your customers may be feeling but don’t talk about often.

Utilize the latest in web technology like live online chat. You can improve customer connections by using the technology that lets customers call you via VOIP (voice over IP) directly from your site.

With VOIP customers are able to call your business in real time from your website! Both any online chat system and real-time phone messaging are both affordable and fairly easy to install.

These are just a few of the ways that you can use your blog to connect and build relationships with both current and prospective customers.

If you want better leads & more sales from your business website & are sick of wasting money on advertising that isn’t working, then I invite you to check out my latest product: Web Marketing Made Simple!.

Running a small business takes a lot of hours. Even if it’s a labor of love or a pursuit of passion, if you are in business for profit then you need have customers. And the more customers you have the faster your business can grow.

Still it’s a universal truth that customers will buy things when they are ready to buy them NOT when you’re ready to sell them something.

So the only option you have is be prepared to throw your selling process into high gear when someone expresses interest in buying from you.

This is because studies have shown that 87% of all inquiries resulted in a buyer purchasing the exact product they looked at or one similar within the next 12 months.

In other words, when people are looking for specific solutions, they’re trying to make a decision as to whether or not they will buy from you or buy from your competitors.

Your website is open year-round, 24/7. Customers can learn about your company, products or services at their convenience. This is one of the main advantages of online business marketing.

So how can you leverage your online presence for maximum customer awareness?

Attraction Step One — E-Mail Marketing. E-mail is a fantastic way to keep in contact with prospective buyers as well as current customers.

By sending out a series of messages or a newsletter, you can offer people additional products and services without incurring direct mail costs. And since you are in control of how or when you email, you can send out offers as needed.

WARNING – the reason why spam is so pervasive is due email’s easy delivery systems. Do not use methods that your customers could confuse with junk mail or spamming.

Attraction Step Two — Online Press Releases. This is a new twist on the old PR game. Online press releases have wonderful side effects that many small businesses are unaware of.

Online press releases are frequently published directly to private websites and blogs as well as being picked up by legitimate news agencies. This increases both the reach and range in comparison with traditional press releases.

Attraction Step Three — Blogging. Blogging can be used by a variety of businesses to maintain contact and increase communication between themselves and their clients.

However blogs while inexpensive can become time-consuming because they require a constant source of fresh articles or multimedia content such as videos or audio, every week.

Attraction Step Four — Social Networking. Using online promotional tools such as Twitter, Facebook or professional networks such as Linked In, allow small companies to level the playing field between themselves and larger competitors.

Using these four formats allows a small company to successfully stay in front of their local marketplace as well as effectively target a larger online niche.

If you want better leads & more sales from your business website & are sick of wasting money on advertising that isn’t working, then I invite you to check out my latest product: Web Marketing Made Simple!.

Are You Too Old School for the Internet?

Like many small business owners, you may have been in your profession for many years. As you may well know by now, that traditional advertising methods may no longer be as effective as they once were.

Online marketing for small business may seem overwhelming and confusing for someone who’s used a more conventional approach.

But don’t let your previous training or the fear of technology prevent you from using this powerful tool to market your business.

Lots of folks think that they have to be young “web geeks” in order to run a profitable website. This is not so.

With the growing popularity of content management systems such as blogging almost anyone who’s familiar with the Web can build an online presence that can increase their business leads, sales and get them new clients.

What are the steps an old school business professional can use to keep ahead of the game?

Read Niche Blogs — Constantly search online for professional blogs, forums and discussion groups that relate to your industry or field of interest.

Not only will you be updated on the latest news and tricks of the trade, you will quickly become comfortable with how these systems operate and function.

Sign up for a free blog – Use free blog sites such as Blogger.com or WordPress.com and others to get started using these content or blog systems without incurring any costs.

In fact depending on how popular your WordPress.com or Blogger.com site becomes you may never need any other type of blogging platform or website.

Read a book — there is a world of published books, training manuals and online documents that are affordable, which make online technology easy to understand.

Many people are surprised at the number of books available for them to learn from either online or off. Your local bookstore, library or Amazon.com make wonderful starting places.

Take a course - Taking an online course is not the same as going back to school. You don’t have to go back to school or take a formal course in order to learn how to use common Web technologies are applications.

Many local SCORE offices in the US offer affordable seminars and workshops.

Watch Videos -YouTube.com is a terrific place for you to start searching for free and effective online training. Although many videos are made by amateurs, they are still very good ways to get started in learning a new program or system.

Now that you have a few ideas on how to get started don’t worry about your age or your skill level — everything you need to know you can pick up by reading and practice.

If you want better leads & more sales from your business website & are sick of wasting money on advertising that isn’t working, then I invite you to check out my latest product: Web Marketing Made Simple!.

If you are like many small business people you may have wondered what all the fuss is about with blogging.

Blogging has become extremely popular over the last few years. This is because unlike regular webpages, which are coded in HTML/CSS, they require no special programming skills to update or modify.

A blog once it is installed can be easily maintained by the average small business owner. This cuts down on web maintenance fees and website update headaches.

Along with their cost-saving advantages, blogs are also a profitable way for a small business to increase sales, and build a strong connection to their customers.

But in order to have a blog that does this it must first attract the attention of both search engines, for traffic, and readers for quality content.

Below are the 4 keys to a profit-making blog…

Key One — Consistently Update Your Content.

This key centers on creating fresh content. By fresh content, I mean regular uploads of new posts, photographs or other content like audio or video files.

Fresh content served several functions. Number one is that the readers of your blog can quickly become disinterested in your site, if they keep returning to the same a old stuff time after time.

The second function that fresh content serves is the process of optimizing your site for the search engines. All search engines such as Google, use bits of software called “spiders” to search pages and index them for databases.

Spiders have the capacity to recognize related words and terms and then using a secret formula determines what is the central topic on a particular webpage or blog.

The more content you add to your site the more your readers will return and the better the search engines will understand what topic or subject matter, you are trying to communicate.

Key Two — A Popular Blog Has Interactivity.
People frequently come to blogs to participate with like-minded people or communities.

By allowing your readers to comment, offer opinions in polls and answer questions from your or other readers, you are creating responsive readers.

And responsive readers make very good customers. Once people are comfortable with you from reading your blog posts, they will also be more willing to trust your recommendations on various products and services.

Key Three — Know Who Your Readers Are.
By knowing who your online audience is you will be better able to write posts that interests them.

A good post in turn makes people want to spread the word about your blog to their friends and associates.

A quick way to find out more about your audience is to conduct a simple survey.

Often people will respond to requests for surveys from e-mails or from blog posts faster then they will from on-screen survey pop-ups that interrupt their reading.

There are several free services online, which make producing a survey fairly painless.

Or instead of a true, formal survey you can simply request your readers to comment on 3-5 questions you ask them in a blog post concerning their interests, backgrounds, and why they like reading your blog.

Key Four — Using Keywords.
Keywords are simply the words that people type into search engines such as Google, Bing, and others.

In order to sell advertising, search engines turn around and take these search terms and use them as “keywords”. Keywords are sold to the highest bidder in advertising networks such as Google’s Adwords.

It is this use of keywords that allow advertisers to place the appropriate and relevant ads on search page results or on related websites.

In turn if you place these same keywords in the title or body of your blog posts, you are auto-magically, telling both your readers and the search engines about the core concepts inside the post.

So how do you find keywords?

Most blogs or websites offer statistics or “stats” application that let you see what keywords people used to find your blog via a search engine. Look at your more popular or most viewed posts and re-use any common keywords you might find.

On the other hand, Google offers a free keyword tool to the public. By searching this keyword tool, you can determine what words your readers (i.e. customers) are search for online.

While these four keys may seem simple, they are not easy. It requires a good bit of work, in order to make any website or blog profitable. But now that you have these tips you are closer to that goal than ever before.

If you want better leads & more sales from your business website & are sick of wasting money on advertising that isn’t working, then I invite you to check out my latest product: Web Marketing Made Simple!.

Is perfectionism poisoning your business blog posts?

If you are like me growing up in America, you quickly learned that the way to an English teacher’s heart was by using correct punctuation, grammar and spelling. This was fine, during your school days, of course.

However, perfectionism can have a detrimental effect when we are writing for business.

Perfectionism creates a sense of formality or even a sort of superiority that people unfortunately can read into business documents such as company blog posts.

In our attempt to create proper punctuation and grammatically correct writing, we force ourselves into using stilted language that makes us seem stiff and unappealing.

The problem with this perfectionism is that we include jargon and other specialized terms and words that may be unfamiliar with our readers or listening audience.

Formal writing creates a barrier between us and other people. This can have a disastrous effect, since as small business people we are attempting to connect and interact with our customers on a friendly and helpful basis.

Remember, clients enjoy buying from or working with other people that they know, like, or trust.

Most of us unfortunately use formal language when we are trying to have other people take us seriously. This frequently happens when we want to make a good impression on someone in an uncomfortable or unknown business situation.

However that does not mean that there is no place for correct punctuation grammar or spelling online.

I understand that you may have gotten the impression that I don’t approve of being careful when you are writing for the public.

That’s not true.  Good grammar and punctuation along with accurate spelling are the traffic cops and roadways of our language.

These rules are important because without them, we would be unable to accurately and consistently communicate our thoughts and emotions to one another using written word or speech.

This is especially important online, when we are easily distracted by the bells and whistles of the Internet and can miss the subtle nuances that make a world of difference in what we are attempting to say.

However, being a perfectionist can put distance between you and your readers that is unnecessary. Here’s what you can do to fix this issue.

Step One — Always Attempt To Write In A Conversational Tone. Writing in a conversational tone assures your readers that you understand them and are willing to be helpful.

Writing in a “business casual” manner is not seen by your readers as a form of unprofessionally but as you being real or authentic – which is increasingly important online.

Step Two — Eliminate Jargon Or Other Industry Buzzwords. As a specialist and expert in your industry or field it is natural for you to use the language that is common inside that profession.

But your readers or audience does not have the advantage of your training or education, so they are frequently confused or plain put off by the use of jargon, buzzwords and unusual expressions or terminology.

Step Three — Talk As You Write. This may sound unusual but an effective way to improve your writing and ensure that you use a plain spoken tone is to speak out loud while you type.

I know this may seem odd at first, but remember you were taught to speak many years before you were taught to write! So by talking out loud as you write, you force yourself to communicate in a more natural tone of voice and use words that are both familiar and common to almost everyone.

No matter what your style of writing turns out to be, you should strive to connect with as many people as possible. This is why you shouldn’t be “perfect” in all that you write.  Still this does not mean you should not use your common sense when it comes to using correct spelling, punctuation or grammar.

If you want better leads & more sales from your business website & are sick of wasting money on advertising that isn’t working, then I invite you to check out my latest product: Web Marketing Made Simple!.

A Better Mouse Trap

Are You a Victim of the Better Built Mousetrap Syndrome?

Making a profitable website or blog for a small business, isn’t as quick as you might think. You see almost every business has some kind of website online by now…

You do don’t you?

Yes?  Good — Had me worried there

But as I was saying, by the time most folks have gone through the hassles of getting their website or blog designed, uploaded and live online they are DONE!

They don’t want to hear anything else about the Internet especially something about online selling or marketing — they just want their very expensive site to start making money – right now.

This is what you could call the Better Built Mousetrap Syndrome.

American writer, Ralph Waldo Emerson has credited (or cursed) with having created the phrase, “Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door…”

And first-time website or blog owners embrace this remark with a passion, especially if it has taken several weeks, or a couple of months or even years (yes, I said years) to get a site completed to their liking.

So once a site is online, they feel with all the trouble and strife that they have gone through, they can take a rest… and like good old Ralph Waldo said, they are waiting for the world to beat feet to their storefronts or office front doors …

And they are still waiting.

The first problem with this syndrome is unless, you are offering something truly unique to your marketplace or industry, you are probably are not really selling a “better” mousetrap.

You are more than likely offering something most people can easily find down the street or can have shipped to them in a matter of days.

And even if you did have the “better” item, in 2005 alone, some 156,000 new products were introduced into the world market — with most of they were bombing within 6 months.

Now the second problem with this syndrome is the “beating a path to your door” bit. Online there are billions of small business sites — the Web is pretty cluttered and overall your “path” is virtually invisible the average web surfer.

The chances of people finding your site without the proper online promotions are the same as if you asked someone to drive to your new county house — when the driver is from out-of-town, has no maps, and is traveling on a winding country road (in the dark) looking for the half-mile long, private dirt road that leads to your new house!

Hmm… not to be a jerk, but you see what I mean, it ain’t gonna happen.

No one is coming to your site unless they know the exact spelling or your domain name or URL and type it directly into Google or you email them personally and ask them to.

SIDEBAR: Psst! Even then your website won’t even appear in search engines unless you do the basics of a web directory registration.

So websites or blogs require marketing effort after they go live online. You must apply constant and consistent promotional efforts to site for it to become  profitable or popular.

NOTE: Your site doesn’t not have to “popular” (i.e. rank in top 20 listings in search engines like Google) in order to be profitable or make money.

But if you are attempting to raise awareness on an issue or build a personal brand or create a reputation as an “expert” then ranking high in Google is very important.

In either case websites or blogs require lot of quality content in order to attract the attention of interested web surfers and keep them engaged and coming back for more.

In the anecdote of the lost car driver, if you create and publish content online it’s the equivalent of handing out hundreds of free road maps and tourist guides (with your home address circled in red),  putting up dozens of directional signs and then installing a huge bright light at the end of your driveway to “mark the spot”.

When you publish free quality content online you automatically lead the way back to your website.

When I mean quality content  — I mean writing a lot of articles (i.e. blog posts), special reports, white papers, fact sheets, downloadable documents (.PDFs), or sharing multimedia files such as images, videos or audio files.

How Much Content Do You Need?

As near as I can tell from research and professional experience, that it takes anywhere from 100 to 400 articles being published on a site before it reaches a “tipping point” and becomes self sustaining.

This means the site itself has become a recognized “authority” among the search engines and pulls in web traffic without extensive promotional efforts on the part of its owners anymore.

NOTE: Authority sites are websites or blogs that offer a ton of free, useful or interesting and relevant information to its visitors. Search engines LOVE authority sites.

While the search engines will not publicly admit to it, once a site becomes an authority in its niche, it habitability remains in the top 10 rankings, despite massive efforts to move them.

So in order to have “people beat a path to your door” you are going to have to go and leave them articles, blog posts, online press releases, guest posts on other blogs, email newsletters, videos or downloadable free PDFs – whatever you can think of.

Now that you understand why you can’t leave your website lost and alone in wilderness of commercial cyberspace, you can start writing or producing videos or audio files… You and I have our work cut out for us.

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You Don’t Have to Be “Big” Online  — You Just Have to Have a Site That Works For You!

“They know who I am, they just need to know how to find me on the Internet!” From one of my clients who is a construction contractor.

Web designers and Internet marketers alike often pooh-pooh so called “brochure” or mini websites or blogs because they are usually very simple designed without a lot of bells or whistles.

Basically these types of sites are online versions of a small business’s printed tri-fold brochure.  I believe that a simple yet affordable “brochure” website or blog may be the smart choice for a small company on an extremely tight budget.

It doesn’t matter if your small business is home-based or just a start-up being run from a cubby-hole in downtown office building, a beautifully designed brochure site can help put your products or services on the map.

While it’s true not every small business has products and services that can readily be sold via the Web, they can provide prospective customers valuable information.

As more and more people use the Internet to gather information, find solutions and make buying decisions  a company website is vital to a business’s offline or real world success.

Almost any small company can host a basic site where potential clients can view photos of products for sale or get more detailed information on the  services being offered.

And with a blog a small business person can display their expertise, build rapport and gain the trust of their visitors by sharing their knowledge of their industry or field .

For example, a chiropractor can publish helpful and free articles on her site teaching simple bodywork techniques her clients can do on their own to relief painful spasms — along with advice on when to come in for an appointment.

She could also supply visitors with detailed information and her expert opinion on various topical ointments or natural supplements that she offers via an online affiliate commission network.

A local plumber can offer a map of his service area, provide a Q&A contact form, offer preset “package” pricing for minor jobs or even sell DIY kits for some customers.

A small site doesn’t have to be a useless one — a nice looking and well designed website or blog might be all you need to be “found” by your prospective clients or customers.

However if you need to maximize your website (big or small) and want to put the power of online marketing towards building your business, then I invite you to check out my latest product: Web Marketing Made Simple!.

But most small business website owners don’t own or use blogs regularly. Usually only a handful of brick and mortar companies in a local niche market truly embrace internet marketing and use it to its maximum potential when it comes to blogs.

Still I can understand many people’s reluctance. While blogs are great ways for an individual or even an entire company to establish rapport and build relationships with their prospective customers; many business people think of blogs being too personal.

Business Blogs – Not just for Bragging Anymore

Blogs started off as being interactive platforms that enabled anyone to express their opinions and views on just about everything from pimples to politics. And that is still true. But it’s this authenticity and openness, which make blogs so popular with both consumers and search engines alike.

And as we all know, the more the search engines such as Google “like” your website the higher you search page ranking will be and the more traffic will redirected your way and the more visitors you will have.

Still few channels can beat a blog when it comes to using multimedia (text, video and audio) when it comes to communicating with your customers about your products or business.

Plus with blogging you can reach a targeted market or zero in on a specific type of client or customer. This is why blogging can be more effective in some situations than commercial television when it comes to personal branding.

No Blog? No Worries – Guest Blogging Works!

But what if you currently don’t have a blog or don’t really want to go through the trouble of installing or running one either.

Well, you can always use a free blogging site such as Blogger.com or WordPress.com in order to tip your toe in the waters, so to speak.

With a free blog, you don’t have the responsibilities of maintaining the site of course; but you still must produce new and original content in order for it to be successful.

Remember the old saying, “publish or perish”. That phrase is especially true for business bloggers – the more content you create, the more popular your blog will become and the higher your “money” numbers such as leads or sales will be too!

It doesn’t matter if your blog content is articles (i.e. posts), special reports, shareable .PDF documents or images (pictures or graphics), podcasts (audio “talk shows” or music files) or videos – good content is the lifeblood of any small business blog.

However, the same problems I just mentioned (constant content creation) can actually be used to your advantage if you don’t have a blog yet. Think on it a moment – if you are reluctant to take on the daunting task of producing content all the time, other small time publishers are also in the same bind!

This is where guest blogging can help you solve both your marketing problems. A guest blogger is a writer who volunteers to write blog posts for a blog publisher in a related or similar field or industry, in exchange for a web link back to the guest writer’s website.

By being a guest blogger, you can easily write articles that showcase your business or products in a favorable light without all the headaches and hassles of running a blog of your own.

The more you write guest blog posts, over time you will start seeing increasing streams of web visitors from those guest posts back to your website.

Plus all those backlinks signal the search engines to pay more attention to your site since it has so many links pointing to it. Not to mention all the business relationships you are building with your “publishing partners” as well.

Boosting Your Business with Guest Blogging

This section below will explain some easy to follow tips on how to start guest blogging.

Guest Blogging Tip # 1 – Find Relevant Blogs. The first step you have to do locate blogs that have or are accepting articles from guest post writers. The best way to do this is to open up your web browser and type in some simple search terms like these:

• “guest post was written by”
• “Guest post by”

By using the double quote marks you automatically focus your search results to only websites that contain these exact words or phrases. This means the site or blog has a history of using guest writers (at least once).

You can also narrow down your add in other related words to your search terms that directly pertain to your particular field or industry. For example, you can search by using a term like this “guest post by” “small business”.

Now you have a list of sites that hopefully contain both guest written articles and have topics concerning small business issues. If you are using Google, you can also use their new sidebar filter

Guest Blogging Tip # 2 – Study Your List of Blogs. Now instead of just jumping in with both feet, take some time and read over the blogs you have found. Use your list to pick out at least 2 or 3 blogs that you like the best and read over each of their archives carefully, especially any guest articles or posts.

You are looking to see not only what kind of topics would be of interest to that blogger but also what style of writing is done. Is the writing done in a conversational tone or more a formal fashion?

Does the blog get a lot of comments and if so, what topics got people’s juices flowing? Try and get a feel of how a blog publisher deals with their audience and what grabs their attention.

Guest Blogging Tip # 3 – Write Your Guest Post. Now that you understand a bit more about who makes up particular blog’s audience and what might interest them, start writing your article. Create a quick outline that centers around 3 or so points and start writing – filling in the blanks as you go.

Write only one article per blog. Don’t attempt to create a one-topic-fits-all piece, even if the blogs are similar. Make each guest post unique to that blog. And don’t sound like an advertisement or anything! Use this platform to create value for any prospective customers and for your blogging partners.

Once you have your guest post completed, you can send an introductory email to the blog editor or publisher, asking is they would be interested in seeing your article. If yes then forward them your post.

Don’t be discouraged if they say no. Not every blogger wants to use guest posts. But also just don’t give up if you haven’t heard back from a blogger. Send out a “reminder” email since many people have a lot of junk mail and might have missed your first message.

While a writing guest blog post isn’t for everyone nor for every industry, you might be surprised as how receptive some bloggers are to having well written and interesting articles offered to them for free!

If you want better leads & more sales from your business website & are sick of wasting money on advertising that isn’t working, then I invite you to check out my latest product: Web Marketing Made Simple!.

While I have not had the time to take Yaro’s Blog Mastermind course yet, I have taken his introductory “Become a Blogger” course that his runs with his business partner Gideon Shalwick. And as part of that former student network, I got a preview of Yaro’s revised mastermind program.

And I can truthfully say, I am ticked that I won’t be able to participate…

If you enroll in the program, you will see that each lesson has a introductory video and audio file (which you can download to your desktop) along with a very detailed article. Each article is written in plain English, so no matter what technology is involved, you will come away with a good understanding.

Yaro writes in a friendly and personable style. And he writes in depth on each topic and includes specifics or background info that will help you put what you learn to effective use on your blog and in your online business.

Unlike other so-called gurus, Yaro is something very rare: an excellent and caring teacher along with being an experienced online business person. Yaro started his first web company right after college.

If you are serious about taking your business blog to the next level and have the time to commit to this course, you really can’t do any better than Yaro Starak’s Blog Mastermind program.