1. Login to Facebook
2. Click http://www.facebook.com/username
3. Click the “Set a username” link
4. Choose the page that you wish to set a vanity URL for from the drop down (you must be an administrator of that page)
5. Type in the name you want and click the “Check Availability” button
6. If the name is available, you’ll get a pop-up asking for you to confirm, read it over and confirm if you ready
7. ??
8. Profit

Initial Setup

1. Determine which keywords you want to monitor. A good start would be your company name, the names of competitors and industry keywords.
2. Setup a Google Alert for the terms determined in step 1 with these settings:
   • Comprehensive
   • as-it-happens
   • up to 50 results
3. Create a filter in your email program for the email googlealerts-noreply@google.com to push the alerts to a designated folder.
4. Setup Google Feed Reader or your RSS reader of choice
   • Go to http://alp-uckan.net/free/monitorthis/
   • In the search box use the terms determined in step 1 and click “make monitor.opml”
   • Follow the instructions under “Usage:”
5. Use UserNameCheck.com and KnowEm.com to make sure you have control of your brand name across various networks.

The next step is to determine a review procedure.

Daily or at least Bi-Weekly

• Check email for Google alerts (the folder you created in step 3)
• Check your Feed Reader

Weekly

Note: Remove the []‘s below and replace with your specific information.

• Review Overall Internet Buzz: http://whostalkin.com/search?q=[your terms]
• Review Google Search: http://www.google.com/search?q=[your terms]
• Review Incoming Links: Type or paste “link:[yourdomain.com] -site:[yourdomain.com]” into a Google search bar (without the quotes)

How are you managing your online reputation?

You’ve likely heard the old phrase that permeates through online web marketing forums and message boards – Content is King. Why is this? In an online environment where videos are growing in popularity and the average visitor reads about 20% of a page, what makes high quality web content so necessary for success? Well, as you begin to explore the scope and value of content, you might find that there is no single more profitable investment that your online business or web site can make than high quality web content.

Search Engine Optimization

One of the more obvious reasons that high quality web content is necessary for success comes in the form of search engine optimization. Good content is written in a way that includes the main keywords that should be addressed on a specific web page. When the crawlers come to view your site from Google, they will be looking for how relevant your content is for a search term. Although there are other factors, you can generally expect that the more relevant a page of content is to a search term, the higher your web site will rank for that specific term.

However, there is another factor – one that high quality web content can also address. The ranking of a web site also depends on the amount of back links that are pointed at it. A back link is exactly how it sounds – a link back to your web site. However, you cannot secure back links without high quality web content. If the back links are pointing at a web site that is not sufficiently relevant to a topic, the crawlers will know.

Web Site Visitors

If you only need one reason to invest in high quality web content, this should be it. The better the quality of the content on your web site, the more likely a web site visitor will:

• Trust your opinions or statements
• Order your product or service
• Continue reading other information on your web site
• Recommend your web site to your friends
• Consider trading a link with you

This reason makes it apparent why it simply isn’t enough to draft content from an SEO standpoint. The robots may like your content but if the human visitors that you are relying on to pay your bills do not, your web site is worthless.

Consider an example:

Two physical stores are built directly across the street from one another. One store launches an aggressive advertising campaign, clearly states their name and service on the enormous sign and sells the exact same products as store B. However, once you enter the store, the shelves are a mess, the products are broken and there is no one available to assist you.

Now, store B has a simple sign that says only their name and service. Once you enter, the shelves are clearly organized and labeled, the products are in new condition and there are plenty of associates waiting to help you out.

Sure, store A likely had droves of visitors when they first opened. However, you can be almost certain that store B was ultimately successful. When you compare this example to content, the difference between high quality web content and poor content is clear. If you begin with high quality web content and work to improve your traffic as you improve your web site, you have a very good chance of being successful and seeing good results. Start a web site with poor content and you’ve already failed.

Corry Cummings owns a content creation company, called Content Customs. They provide a variety of different writing services for webmasters and small businesses. For more information on developing high quality content for your site you can also check out his blog over at Content Customs.

But what about the case where there is an email that is critical and you need to know when it arrives right away? Option 1 is to sit in front of your email hitting refresh every 30 seconds, option 2 is to use some sort of notification program that pops something up when you receive a new email. The problem with option 1 is obvious and option 2 is a bit more subtle. Every time you see that pop up or see a number next to your email client you will likely be distracted and break your workflow to check email, only to discover some non-important email.

So this post introduces option 3. Setup a special filter to redirect the email you are looking for to your phone via SMS. This tip assumes that your SMS is primary used for urgent matters. Following are the specific steps to do this in Gmail; however, you can adapt easily to any email client that provides forwarding functionality.

Step 1:

Click the “Create a filter” link.

Step 2:

Fill in the filter criteria to suite your needs. For example, you may choose to forward any email coming from a certain email address.

Step 3:

Click the “Forward it to:” checkbox, use one of the following formats to fill in the textbox and then click “create filter”.

• AT&T: number@txt.att.net
• Qwest: number@qwestmp.com
• T-Mobile: number@tmomail.net
• Verizon: number@vtext.com
• Sprint: number@messaging.sprintpcs.com or number@pm.sprint.com
• Virgin Mobile: number@vmobl.com
• Nextel: number@messaging.nextel.com
• Alltel: number@message.alltel.com
• Metro PCS: number@mymetropcs.com
• Powertel: number@ptel.com
• Suncom: number@tms.suncom.com
• U.S. Cellular: number@email.uscc.net

Step 4:

Perform a test by sending a test email to your phone to ensure that you can in fact receive a text message from an email. I tried this method with AT&T on my iPhone and it worked as advertised.

Source for email to text information.

Local search is becoming one of the most affordable and simple ways for local businesses to connect with prospects and get involved in their community. Did you know that 82 percent of local searches online result in further action: a phone call, site view, in store visit or immediate purchase?* With statistics like this, creating and optimizing your local presence is more important than ever.

The reality is, there are many facets to optimizing for local- including on-page factors such as title tags and meta data, and utilizing your geographic modifiers with your keywords as you optimize your content. While each component is important, one of the most critical pieces is off page: your local listing. For Google, these listings are often given prime placement- right at the top of the page. This placement is key, providing local businesses with visibility that was previously unattainable.

Here are 10 easy steps to help your listing get in to that coveted “7-Pack”.

1. Submit your listing. This step alone is the most important. Just submitting and verifying gives your listing a higher level of trust with the big G.
2. Include your city name and industry in your title. This is helpful not only for the search engines when aggregating results, but also for users as it reiterates your location and helps your listing to stand out.
3. Choose the categories for your listing wisely. Google local business center gives a plethora of choices for the categories for your listing. Make sure to thoroughly look through and pick those that best suit your products and services.
4. Be thorough in your description section. This is the most content you can provide about your business in your listing, so make it count! Be descriptive and give people a reason to choose you over your competitors.
5. Use a local phone number. Providing a local number helps the search engines ascertain that you are located where you say you are.
6. Ensure your listing is 100% complete. This is one of the simplest, and most effective steps to do. Include pictures, videos, coupons, etc. Google is all about the user experience and the more complete your listing, the more helpful it looks to them.
7. Be sure there is only one, optimized listing for your business. I have seen this make a huge difference in the position of a business listing. Make sure to research and find any existing listings, claim them and suspend or optimize where necessary.
8. Update your listing whenever you can. It can be as simple as adding a new coupon, but ensuring your content is current helps Google know that you are relevant and provide up-to-date information.
9. Reviews for your business are essential. In certain industries, the amount of reviews you have (positive or negative!) can mean the difference between first and second page for your listing. Try encouraging reviews from satisfied customers.
10. Make sure your information is accurate and submitted to other directories as well. Google actually aggregates information from other directories, along with the information you provide when you submit. It’s recommended to submit, standard information to as many other local directories as you can to ensure accuracy.

It’s really that simple to get started with your local listing. While there are no guarantees, optimizing can have an extremely positive impact on your listing position. Have any tips from your experience with local listings? We’d love to hear them!

*Source: TMP/comScore, October 2008

Emily Thompson is the Online Marketing Coordinator for Kutenda Internet Marketing Software. Kutenda offers software and services for small businesses to succeed in online marketing and grow their business.

We all know that it takes hard work to get the project going and continue. Managers need to be realistic about the expectations that they set forth in the beginning of a project. Overdelivering or scope creep on a scope of a project is common because there are a number of factors including how well people communicate within the internal and external project members. Yet, the 70 percent failure rate from their original scope. This is why creating a great relationship with your project members prior to starting the project is one of the most important aspects of the project.

This is where I want to focus my attention into what is called making “magic” amongst project managers and their stakeholders. By being open and share moments like going for a group dinner or playing a common sport outside of work hours, you bring a new personal bond to the work environment so to speak that increases communication and thereby increasing productivity and efficiency. Project managers (and many operations managers) fail to do this simple exercise because they do not see the relevance in making friends with their co-workers. But it has everything to do with gaining trust and respect with each other. Also, be sure to provide encouragement for each of them. Ultimately, this becomes the vehicle for buy-in to all stakeholders involved. Not only that, your work ethic will be remembered by each individual on the team. This often overlooked ability is what sticks in their minds and can be an asset when you’re looking for new opportunities.

For those working remotely, make the attempt to try and speak with your colleagues’ in their mother tongue. This shows them that you are open minded and are making extreme efforts to ensuring to connect with them. They will appreciate the fact that you respect them as people and they see you as being a globally open minded person. If you’re in the country and working remotely, incent them by rewarding them with sending them gift cards (Starbucks is a great gift all year round). That gives them the option to use it personally, or for themselves (often while working on your project). It becomes a win-win for all parties to keep team morale up and increases your chances of getting your deliverables accomplished.

Victor is the key consultant at Clarity Live Global.  He focuses on progressive management and development which connects everyone’s ideas and efforts within the workplace and the community be it online or off.  He’s worked at small startups and large conglomerates focusing on bringing about positive change.

1. TimeBridge – Getting the Meeting Together

The messiest and most mind-numbing part of any meeting happens before you even get there. Trying to organize an online meeting is a terrifying education in just how awkward and uncooperative a team of professionals can be while still getting paid. Part of the problem is psychological – tell the team to be in Conference Room A by 2 pm and they’ll likely show up. With virtual employees scattered all over the globe, though, that room would have to be the size of America. Going online, some staff see cyber-meetings the same as e-mail – something to be shuffled to whenever they feel like doing it.

A web project manager is not a secretary, and if you just laughed “Sometimes it feels like it!” then you are doing your job wrong. Your time is too valuable to waste chasing appointments and staring at schedules – live up to your job description and let the web do it for you. TimeBridge is an online application which sends out a mass mail to the attendees, collects possible times, then organizes the best window available. It’s automatic, it’s impartial, and it’s the perfect example of proper online task tools – you tell it to do something, and it comes back done.

2. Qtask – Getting Things Done

Once TimeBridge tells you when to meet, it’s time for some project management; use your Qtask Calendar to remember where and when you all have to get together. A single e-mail isn’t enough to ensure attendance, as even the most important meeting invite is invisible in a thousand-message-plus inbox. Uploading meeting information to Qtask means that everyone can always find out when it is and what it’s about, whether they’re checking at their desk or using mobile management systems to keep track. What’s more, Qtask automatically manages time zones so you don’t have designer in London logging into the meeting at 2 AM.

The convenient Qtask “Discussion” tab means that all the organizing is kept together in an easily searchable central location. No more digging through files and folders while others wait with idle connections, everything you need to know is in one always-accessible place.
You could have the best virtual meeting in the world, and if everyone alt-tabs out to FaceBook and sets “Thank god that’s over” statuses it was all for nothing. A productive online meeting sets strict time lines, tasks and who is responsible for completion, and those should be available online too. With Qtask there are no more “I didn’t get the e-mail!” excuses for urgent work – you can keep people accountable through this robust project management solution. After the fact everyone can see what’s expected of them, and when.

3. Skype Conference Call – Holding the Meeting

If you’re in online business at all you should already be Skypeing: a free telephone service between computers, and you can call almost any land line at local rates. We could explain how much money this saves, but we just wrote the word “free” back there and don’t want to insult your intelligence.

A few tips for Skype conference calls:

a) Stick to audio connections. Skype can handle video, but it doesn’t gain anything, we guarantee that people will waste time fiddling and testing it, somebody won’t have a camera anyway, and it will actually delay all your meetings. How? We don’t want to ruin the mystique of your elite global team of cyber-employees, but for some people coding the back-end of an SQL database is easy; shaving and wearing clothes is hard. They’ll connect to audio anytime, but try to get a video link and they’ll delay you by at least an hour.

b) Advise online employees to have a separate Skype account for business, or at least set a “Do not call” status message. The Saturday project report can take long enough to process without interruptions from fake_grrl15 halfway through. (is it fake_girl15?

4. DabbleBoard – Visually Collaborating During the Meeting

If the average person could truly and clearly express what they think in a few sentences, the only online managers would be those editing “Poetry of the Year: Volume XVIII”. A picture is worth a thousand words, and since those words are being paid for at wages per hour times the number of people at meeting, you want those pictures as fast and free as possible.

DabbleBoard is an easy online whiteboard which lets you scribble to your hearts content without ever even hearing the word “JPG”. It even recognizes basic shapes and cleans up the image, so your clever re-org proposal won’t be undermined by looking like a 5-year old got at the whiskey and crayons.

Protip: If using DabbleBoard, recommend that the attendees test the site before electronically arriving at the meeting. Many online employees customize their browsers, and web services like FlashBlock or AdBlock may interfere with the program. It only takes a minute to fix – but that minute right in the middle of a ten person meeting is approximately infinity hours long.

5. Your Thoughts

Because online meeting task tools can save you all the gas, tickets, phone bills and catering fees you want; the best way to save money is still to get things done on time. What are your best tips for holding effective meetings on a budget.

The structure of this guide is strategic, in that I look at each component of an Internet Marketing campaign from a high level. But included in each component are resources that will give you the necessary information and tools to execute, whether you want to do it yourself or hire help.

Please feel free to add to this guide in the comments section or at the public Social Media Marketing Wiki. In both cases, I will provide a do-follow link to your website in thanks.

Table of Contents

• Getting Started
• Web Site
• Opt-In (Permission) Email Marketing
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
• Social Media Marketing (SMM)
• Pay Per Click (PPC)
• Targeted Display Advertising
• Affiliate Programs
• Online Classifieds
• Conclusion

Getting Started

One of the best ways to avoid project failure is to spend the time up front to clearly define the goals and expected results. These goals should be defined with the following in mind:

• What specific results are expected and by when?
• Who is the target demographic and where do they hang out online?
• What keywords would be used by your target demographic to find what your are offering?
• Which competitors are going after your same results? How are they doing?
• What metrics are related to the desired results? How will you track those metrics?
• How and when will the metrics be reported on?

Be sure to schedule time to review the reports to adjust your strategy and tactics as necessary.

Once you have defined the above, create a first report that measures all of the metrics you will track.

Measurement Tools, Products and Services:

• SMMWiki.com – Measurement Tools
• ThemBid.com – Determining Your Websites Popularity Free
• Web-Strategist.com – Companies that Measure Social Media, Influence, and Brand
• TradeVibes.com – Marketing Analytics Products and Services

You should always consult your goals and results when executing any of the following suggestions.

Now it’s time to determine your strategy. I suggest that you spend time reviewing case studies that achieved the results you are looking for.

Spend time at Sphinn.com for the latest in strategy and tactics.

Web Site


Your web site is often the first impression of your company and you must make that impression count. I suggest that if it’s possible, you should design your website from the ground up for the purpose of achieving the goals and results you expect from your Internet Marketing efforts. Here are some questions and ideas to consider:

• Does your home page compel your visitor to want to complete some action that leads to the completion of a desired result?
• Do you have an easy way for your visitors to tell their friends about your website?
• Has your website been optimized for your target keywords?
• Do you have product or service specific landing paged designed for conversion? (see the landing page section under PPC below)
• Do you have a means to collect data from leads on your website?
• Is it easy for your users to get customer support from your website?

When choosing the design firm, you may want to hire two different firms. One person or firm to create the look and feel of the website (or you can run a contest) and the other to create the website. The latter should have verified experience with Internet Marketing and SEO.

Once the website is up and running, you will need to regularly adjust the design and SEO based on the analysis of the metrics defined earlier.

Opt-In (Permission) Email Marketing

Seth Godin popularized the concept of Permission Marketing. The main idea is that you can make a more efficient use of your resources by making offers only to those who are interested in your product. The primary way of doing that is to create a database of opt-in emails. Following are some great ideas on how to build your own e-mail database of opt-in subscribers:

• ClickZ.com – Building an Opt-In E-mail List
• SethGodin.TypePad.com – Permission Marketing
• MindScapeSolutions.com – How to Build a Killer Email Database
• EmailLabs.com – 28 Ways to Build Permission-Based Email Lists

Also, remember that customer service inquiries are a powerful way to not only strengthen relationships, but it’s an excellent opportunity to obtain referrals, whom should be directed to a special landing page where you should attempt to get them to opt-in to your email database.

Be sure to make sure that all of your e-mail correspondence conforms to the CAN-SPAM act.

Now that you have that valuable list of e-mails, you want to make sure that you take advantage while not causing too many people to opt-out.

Here are some ideas on how to maintain contact with your opt-in customers:

• TopTenReviews.com – Email Marketing Service Review
• DigitalPoint.com – 10 Newsletter Ideas to Write Articles for your Newsletter
• TheAdminZone.com – Contest Ideas
• CheapCheapCheap.com – Cheap Prizes for your Contests

Here is a 7 step process to help you create your next campaign:

1. Determine what you want the result of the campaign to be
2. Put measurements in place to track results
3. Determine the attributes of those who would be interested in the campaign
4. Trim your mailing list to those most likely to be interested
5. Craft copy that marries your objective with your customers needs
6. Make sure you make it very easy to take action
7. Analyze the results and apply to your next campaign

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)


Go to Google.com and type in some keywords that you think your customers would type in order to find your business. Whoa … that’s a long list of competitors! So how do you show up on that coveted Google front page? The general consensus is that one of the most important influencers is the number of quality links that link to your web site via the key words you desire. So how do you get people to link to your site?

• Search for web sites that have a Page Rank of above 4 that are related to your niche
• Submit your web site to directories
• Create value packed articles or blogs (posted on your own web site or on another site via guest blogging) and submit them to Social Media Bookmarking sites
• Create press releases and use online distribution services

Check out these resources to help you get started:

• SMMWiki.com – Do-Follow Social Bookmarking sites with a PR of 5 or Higher
• NakedPR.com – Big List of Free Press Release Distribution Sites
• BlogSimplified.com – Top Press Release Sites
• Article-Writing-Services.com – Free Article Distribution Sites
• SearchEngineWatch.com – List of Web Site Directories

The tips in the SMM section below will also be helpful for building quality links. Social Bookmarking sites are a great way to find popular blogs where you can ask to guest blog.

Social Media Marketing (SMM)


SMM has become the most popular Internet Marketing buzzword since “Multi-Media”. One way to get a crash course on the subject is to study successful social media marketing campaigns.

The main areas that you will want to work on are: Micro Blogging, Blogging, Social Networking, Social Bookmarking, Video Marketing (Webcasts) and Audio Marketing (Podcasts). Following are resources for each facet.

A Blog is a broad tool that can have a fantastic short and long term ROI. There are two aspects to using blogs for marketing. First, there is your company blog which is usually hosted at www.yourcompany.com/blog. Then, there is getting other bloggers to write about your company or guest blogging on blogs relevant to your target audience. It’s not always necessary that you guest blog on a blog specifically targeted to your market, as long as the Google Page Rank is good (greater than 3) and the content in the post relates to your product or service in some way.

Here are resources related to internal blog marketing (blogs posted on your company blog):

• WordPress.org – Introduction to Blogging
• Pingdom.com – The Blog Platforms of Choice Among the Top 100 Blogs
• TopWebHostingReviews.com – Blog Web Hosting
• ProBlogger.net – How to Promote Your Blog

Here are resources related to finding blogs to query for a guest blog post or to write about your company (use compete.com, Alexa.com and Google Page Rank to get a rough idea of the popularity of the blog):

• Google Search for “Guest Bloggers Wanted”
• Check out the popular content on the front page of Digg.com, Reddit.com, StumbleUpon.com, Propeller.com and Delicious.com.
• ProBlogger.net – How to Guest Post to Promote Your Blog

While you build confidence, I suggest you spend time commenting on the blogs of others. Most blogs allow you to leave behind a link to your web site. But be aware that most of these links within comments are tagged with “no-follow” so that you don’t get the SEO benefits of the link, although interested people may click through. You can use the “view source” feature of your browser to find out if the comments are “no-follow” tagged.

The following sections have more ideas on how to get people to read and pass your blog post along to others.

Micro Blogging has become popular because of Twitter. If you have not jumped on that band wagon, now is the time.

• Cnet.com – A Newbies Guide to Twitter
• SMMWiki.com – Twitter Tools
• SmartBloggerz.com – Top 5 Micro-Blogs for Blog Promotion
• PusangKalye.com – List of Micro Blogging Web Sites

Social Networking was popularized by MySpace, but now is dominated by FaceBook. For business purposes, you want to be active on FaceBook and LinkedIn at a minimum, then you can either join other niche social networking sites or create your own.

Use these resources to jump start your FaceBook and LinkedIn campaigns:

• InsideCRM.com – FaceBook Marketing ToolBox
• TechCrunch.com – Insider’s Guide to Viral Marketing
• GuyKawasaki.com – 10 Ways to Use LinkedIn
• NonLinearCreations.com – Effective Marketing on LinkedIn

Here are some resources to help you find niche Social Networks to participate in and engage your potential target market directly. Always remember the golden rule of social media “Give, Provide Value and Give some more”:

• ProBlogger.net – Use Niche Social Networking Sites to Gain Readers
• SocialMediaAnswers.com – A Large List of Categorized Niche Social Networking Sites

If you want to build your own niche Social Networking site, here are some of the more popular platforms:

• SocialMediaToday.com – 25 Enterprise Social Media Platforms/Companies To Be Aware Of
• WebHostMagazine.com – Web Hosting Reviews
• TechCrunch.com – 9 Ways to Build Your Own Social Networking Site (34 More Ways)
• SidSavara.com – Nurturing Your Network – not focused on social networking, but the principles can be applied.

Social Bookmarking (or Social News) sites are a great way to spread the word about your company through your blog or articles. I recommend you spend at least one month interacting with the community that you want to contribute to, before submitting content.

Here are some strategic and practical resources that will help you get started:

• WebStrategy.com – Understanding Social Bookmarking
• HubSpot.com – 10 Secrets to Marketing with Social News Sites

These are the websites and tools that will be useful for executing your strategy:

• DoshDosh.com – List of Social Media Websites
• TopRankBlog.com – Social Bookmarking Submission Tools

Forums & Chat Rooms may not be considered New Media, but they share most of the major attributes of Social Networks and are still effective marketing tools. Especially since these venues typically revolve around some sort of niche that may be applicable to your company.

• 10e20.com – The Ins and Outs of Forum Marketing
• ImproveTheWeb.com – Marketing Through Forums and Other Social Networks
• LaPlanteEnterprises.net – Chat Room Marketing

Video Marketing (or Webcasting) is becoming an increasingly vital marketing tool. You need to know how to create the video and then how to distribute it. For distribution you can use the same tools as for the blog (you can embed the video inside a blog post) but you have some additional tools at your disposal.

Here are some resources that will help you produce your own videos:

• PromotingYourVideo.com – An Example of a Business Videocast
• Apple.com – Creating Video Podcasts on Mac OS X and on Windows

These tools will help you distribute your videos and leverage your videos for SEO purposes:

• TubeMogul.com – Free Video Distribution Site
• WikiPedia.com – List of Video Sharing Websites – see the User Generated Video Sharing section

Podcasting is similar to video casting, but without the video part >:p

• Voices.com – Free Guide on How to Start Your Own Podcast
• About.com – How to Start Your Own Podcast – A Step by Step Guide
• ThinkingSerious.com – 9 Ways to Promote Your Audio/Video Podcast Online

Pay Per Click (PPC)


While you wait to dominate the search engine rankings, you can buy your way to the top. The big players are Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. It may also be worthwhile to target niche ad networks if you are willing to spend some time in research mode. You can also gain valuable data regarding which keywords lead to conversion using tools like Google Analytics.

Here are some resources to help you get started on your own:

• Google.com – Google Adwords Learning Center
• Yahoo.com – Sponsored Search
• Microsoft.com – Microsoft Search Advertising
• SEOBook.com – PPC Advertising & Marketing Tools, Coupons & Reviews
• iMediaConnection.com – 10 Traits to Look for in a PPC Provider
• IncomeZombie.com – List of PPC Networks
• StumbleUpon.com – PPC the Social Media Way

Now that you have traffic coming to your website, you must be sure to take full advantage. Here are some resources to help you with compelling landing pages:

• WikiPedia.com – Definition of a Landing Page
• CopyBlogger.com – Landing Page Tutorials and Case Studies
• ClickZ.com – Create Landing Pages that Convert

Targeted Display Advertising


Banner Ads are one of the earliest forms of Internet Marketing (don’t you remember all those flashing AOL ads?). There are three main components to display advertising; (1) creating the advertisement, (2) placing the ad and (3) measuring and analyzing results. The landing page tips from the PPC section apply here also.

For creating the banner advertisement graphics, you can either hire a graphics designer, use a template, or use a design contest site. I recommend a design contest since you will generally get a wider array of design choices.

Here are some resources to help you get started with a successful banner ad campaign (you may want to get your feet wet by using Google Adwords):

• HowStuffWorks.com – How Banner Ads Work
• GetElastic.com – FaceBook Ads Deconstructed: 11 Tips for Marketers
• BitBriefs.com – Banner Ad Best Practices

Research web sites where you think your target demographic hangs out, then ask that web site’s owner directly about advertising.

Affiliate Programs


You can either join an existing affiliate network like cj.com or you can create your own affiliate program. I suggest that you do both. Basically, you are providing a monetary incentive for people to virally spread your products and services.

Here are some resources to utilize existing affiliate networks:

• SelfSEO.com – The Top 10 List of the Best Affiliate Networks
• About.com – A-Z List of Ad Networks and Affiliate Programs
• AffiliateTips.com – The Ten Most Effective Affiliate Strategies for Small Businesses

These resources will help you build out your own custom affiliate network:

• HowStuffWorks.com – How Affiliate Programs Work
• AssociatePrograms.com – How to Start an Affiliate Network
• TamingTheBeast.net – Affiliate Software Services Review

Online Classifieds

Online classifieds like Craigslist to local online classifieds sections can be a valuable tool to spread the word about your product and/or service. The first thing to do is to understand the terms of use of whatever services you decide to use to avoid making avoidable mistakes that incur the wrath of the community.

Here are some classifieds sites you may want to consider:

• Craigslist.org – Local classifieds and forums for jobs, housing, for sale, personals, services, local community, and events.
• Kijiji.com – eBay’s entry into the online classifieds market.
• USFreeAds.com – free classifieds.
• BackPages.com – free classifieds with photos.
• Recycler.com – the online version of the popular print magazine.
• PennySaverUsa.com – another online version of a popular classifieds publication.

Here are some services and tools to help with execution:

• vFlyer.com – a cookie cutter service for doing a classifieds marketing promotion.
• Postlets.com – a free service that automatically distributes your ad among several classifieds and social media sites.

Don’t forget to check the local newspaper websites of your target demographic for localized advertising opportunities.

Conclusion


What did I miss or FUBAR? Please add your tips, tricks and advice in the comments or at the public Social Media Marketing Wiki and you will gain fame, fortune and good will (well maybe .. at least you’ll get a do-follow link to your site).

1. Remove your ego and personality. Picture yourself as a objective third party whose goal is to make sure all parties win.
2. Research thoroughly the company or person you will negotiate with.
3. Always listen to the other party’s interests and point of view first.
4. Remember that if you do not negotiate with your customers, someone else will.
5. The more options the other side believes you have, gives you more leverage when determining terms.
6. Do not skimp on your preliminary research of facts and information regarding the topic of negotiation. Think through options and alternatives.
7. Minimize risk for the other side to help move the negotiations further and faster.
8. Always ask for at least 100% of what you want up front.
9. Never make a proposal unless you understand what the other party wants and why.
10. Be willing to walk away.

What are your top negotiating tips?