Is Social Media Right for All Businesses?

According to statistics, more and more small businesses are beginning to use social media as a way to promote their business.  While I agree that social media has become the 800 pound gorilla in the room, I’m not quite sure whether it’s effective enough to justify the amount of time invested.  Before I go further, [...]

Email Marketing Done Right

 
What not to do. Buy a list and email blast everyone and their mom.
Email blasts have become all the rage when it comes to marketing. They’re cheap, they’re quick, but you’ll also be surprised to find out that they’re not as effective as you would’ve hoped.  For starters, email blasts are easily blocked out, very [...]

Small Business and Outsourcing SEO

In today’s economy, it’s not easy for small businesses to find a good SEO or Internet Marketer.  There are many hurdles to overcome when choosing to outsource some of your work.  Here are some of them:

finding a provider within your budget
finding a provider who is skilled enough
finding a provider who is meticulous
finding a provider who cares about [...]

Class Action Lawsuits are Bogus…Well Most of Them

I just read about a class action lawsuit from Rust Consulting in which they propose a settlement against Yahoo search marketing.  The lawsuit alleges that “Yahoo breached its contract with its customers by allowing Yahoo ads to be displayed in spyware, domain name parking sites (bulk registration sites), pop-ups, pop-unders and typosquatting sites.”  Here’s the [...]

Pay Per Post is Killing the SEO Industry

I believe companies like PayPerPost and Text-Link-Ads are killing the SEO industry.  Why do I think this?  Because they openly advertise their services to the world. 
Google has always been opposed to paid links.  But now, with these paid linking services out in the mainstream, it would only be natural for search engines to react with stricter guidelines on passing link juice.
I’m sure [...]

22 Free Open Source eCommerce Software

Here’s a list of 22 open source ecommerce solutions.  Most of them use PHP coding and MySQL database.
CartStore.com
ChromiumCart.com
CubeCart.com
DantoCart.com
DashCommerce.org
DigiStore.co.nz
eClime.com
FishCart.org
Joomla.org (need plugin)
MagentoCommerce.com
NopCommerce.com
OpenCart.com
OpenFreeway.org
OsCommerce.com
OsCss.org
PrestaShop.com
TomatoCart.com
UberCart.org
VirtueMart.net
WordPress.org (need plugin)
X-Cart.com
Zen-Cart.com
Good luck, and may your business prosper!

Progressive Girl vs. Verizon Guy

I’ll be honest…I’m not too crazy about either of them (as characters).  But if I had to choose one, I think the Verizon guy wins hands down.  Not that he is so incredibly entertaining, but mainly because the Progressive girl is so creepy.

What was Verizon thinking when they decided to introduce this “Flo” character as their [...]

Silence TechDirt.com for $100,000,000

This is the weirdest, yet interesting offer I’ve ever seen by an authority website.  Techdirt.com is willing to shut up for 1 year for $100,000,000.  I wonder if this means that they’ll shut down their website for an entire year, or if they’ll simply stop publishing new articles for a year.  I’m assuming an offer like this is probably targeted towards it’s [...]

What are Advertorials?

You can think of advertorials as a cross between an informative article and a sales copy. Advertorials usually start off by presenting a problem, and ends with a solution of some kind.  The solution they offer is typically a sales pitch to subtly persuade the reader into buying something.
To give you a better picture of [...]

Insane Deal of the Week at Smart Levels

Here’s a great offer from my favorite print shop.  By the way, I do not get paid to endorse this company.  I offer them free publicity for a few reasons:

Low prices.
Quality products.
Friendly service.
Eco-friendly company.
Last but not least, my readers also benefit.

Starting 08/05/09 and for 3 days only, all orders of 250 will be upgraded to [...]