When it comes to promoting an event, Internet can be of great help. These are some of the ways you can leverage the Web to promote your events.

Eventful
I love this service because they send an email every week to people in your area with the events that are about to happen.

Yahoo! Upcoming
Yahoo! can send you a lot of very qualified traffic. Take advantage of it.

Windows Live Events
Although not as powerful as Yahoo! and Eventful, it can still give you a good deal of exposure.

CitySearch
This local search engine is here to stay. It’s getting very popular and can make your event visible to thousands of people.

MeetUp
Create your own MeetUp group or join other groups. Sometimes, if your event is really interesting, administrators of other groups will be happy to pass the word to their members.

MeetingWave
This is one of my favorite resources to promote events. Post yours for free and get ready for all the exposure that MeetingWave will give you.

LinkedIn
Let all your contacts know about your event. In addition to that, you can join dozens of business networking groups based out of your city and post your event to their discussion boards.

Facebook
Use Facebook to find groups and people in your area, and invite them to your event. You can also use Facebook Ads and deliver them to people in a certain location.

BizNik
BizNik has a great feature to promote events. Be active and invite people in your area. Make sure that you write individual and unique emails to each of the people you invite.

Plaxo
Join groups and use their forums to let people know about your event.

Xing
Another cool social network. Join groups and post your event.

Find People with Lists
Go after the influencers. I can guarantee that there are at least 100 people in your area that have email lists of other people in your area. Offer them an incentive –sometimes it’s not even necessary, and ask them to let people know about your event through a blog post, a short announcement in their newsletters or a simple email.

Do a Google Search
If you live in Seattle, search on Google for “Seattle Events”. There are hundreds of niche-websites that revolve around events in local area; they can give your event great exposure.

Contact the Press
Don’t be afraid to contact local newspapers and other publications to let them know about your event. In most cases, they will find this information useful and relevant, and they’ll be happy to share it with their readers.

If you liked this post, subscribe by RSS or email to receive our articles:

What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight; it’s the size of the fight in the dog. Dwight Eisenhower . On the Internet, you can definitely compete against the big fish. Provide a superior product and position yourself as the small company that will give your customers the personalized attention that big companies can’t offer. You are smaller; fight harder.

—
Well done is better than well said.
Benjamin Franklin

You can plan your business for years but nothing will happen until you get out there and do something about it.
—
The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
Author Unknown

Don’t think that your idea has to be completely innovative or else you won’t succeed. Most successful businesses get into the market offering what others are offering but in a better way. Have you ever found yourself saying “I wish there were a company that…”? Capitalize on those opportunities.
—
Comedy is tragedy plus time.
Carol Burnett

How many times have you screwed up and thought that there was no way out? You will make mistakes; it’s not a big deal. Learn from them and move on. In a few years, you’ll be laughing at your screw-ups.
—
90% of success is showing up.
Woody Allen

It’s very true! Work hard every day. You won’t see a significant improvement overnight, but keep working hard. In a year or two, you will be in a much better position. Keep showing up.
—
You can do anything, but not everything.
David Allen

This is probably the most common mistake I see among online entrepreneurs. They want to start 10 businesses at the same time. Focus, focus, focus.
—
Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

This is the piece of advice that you need to keep in mind when it comes to web design. Don’t clutter your pages with a bunch of useless information. Keep your site as clean as possible and remove all the things that aren’t completely necessary.
—
You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.
Wayne Gretzky

This is one of my favorite quotes. So many people are afraid to fail! But they don’t realize that even if they fail they’ll be better off failing that not trying it, because of the amazing deal of knowledge they’ll get from failing. And what if they actually make it? A wise man once told me that he wanted to live his life in a way that from his deathbed he didn’t have to use the words “I wish I would’ve…” It gives you a lot to think about.
—
Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.
Ambrose Redmoon

One of the most common misconceptions about entrepreneurs is that they are fearless. They are not; they just decide to act despite of their fear.
—
When hungry, eat your rice; when tired, close your eyes. Fools may laugh at me, but wise men will know what I mean.
Lin-Chi

This is what business is all about: common sense. If your business needs more clients, do more and better marketing. If too many of your employees leave you, do something about it. If you have a cashflow problem, fix it.
—
To the man who only has a hammer, every problem he encounters begins to look like a nail.
Abraham Maslow

Never stop learning. Read books, go to seminars, find a mentor. The more tools you have, the more prepared you’ll be to overcome obstacles.
—
What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do.
John Ruskin

Again, action is the only thing that matters. Nothing happens until you do something.
—
Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for - in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it.
Ellen Goodman

If this quote doesn’t make you want to be an entrepreneur or get the job that will fulfill your dreams, nothing will.
—
When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it seems like two hours. That’s relativity.
Albert Einstein

And here comes the most important lesson: have fun! If you love what you do, you’ll add five days to your week for the rest of your life!

If you liked this post, subscribe by RSS or email to receive our articles:

If the product or service that you are offering is very specialized and you don’t face too much competition, chances are that you can be on the first page on Google for five keywords that you choose within a month. This works great for companies serving their local markets and companies offering very unique products. Let’s talk about the way this should be done.

Step 1: Find Keywords with 50+ Monthly Searches
Use the Google Keyword Tool to get variations of your main keyword. Try to find at least 20 keywords with 50 monthly searches or more.

Step 2: Filter Out Keywords with Too Much Competition
Do a Google search for “allintitle: your keyword”. You want to keep keywords with less than 200 competitors. In some markets, finding keywords with more than 50 monthly searches and less than 200 competitors could be a real challenge. If that’s the case, add modifiers to the keywords. For example, if you offer web design services you can try:

Web design in Seattle
Web design for real estate agents in Seattle
Web design for lawyers
Affordable website design services in Seattle

Step 3: Create a Landing Page for Each of Your Five Keywords
Put your keyword in the page title, meta description, meta keywords, H1, and in bold about 5-10 times throughout the text. Make sure that your landing page article has between 500 and 1,000 words.

This is the most important part of this short tutorial, so please pay attention: make sure that your landing pages offer excellent and useful content. Remember that your ultimate goal is having a great website, not manipulating search engine ranks.

Step 4: Link to Your Landing Pages from Your Home Page
Put a link to each of your landing pages in the footer or the side of your home page. If you can link to your landing pages from other pages on your site, it’s even better. Use the right anchor text to link to them.

Step 5: Build Links
Create accounts at some Web 2.0 social media sites, post excellent information and link to your landing pages using the right anchor texts. Create about 20 pages for each keyword.

Make sure that you don’t post the same article to several sites. Write different variations of the same article or write new articles completely from scratch.

Step 6: Speed Up the Process
Ping all the pages that you created, grab all the RSS feeds from all the pages where you posted your articles and submit them to RSS directories. Then ask your friends to social bookmark both your landing pages and the articles you published.

In most cases you should see the results overnight, but it could take up to a month for your website to rank. Sometimes, because you are posting your articles to sites that have a lot of authority, these articles will outrank your own website. That’s fine, because people will still find your article and if it’s useful and you give them a good reason to visit your site after reading the article, they will.
If you liked this post, subscribe by RSS or email to receive our articles:

Almost all the people that start to promote a business online make the same mistake. They think something like “There are hundreds of millions of Internet users. If I just put my link in as many websites as I can I will reach a lot of people and they will buy my products.” So they start spamming every website they go to, hoping that by reaching enough people, a small percentage of them will become paying customers. Let me tell you something, there is no worse approach than that one.

A few years ago I read an excellent book called The Art of the Start, by Guy Kawasaki. Kawasaki is a venture capitalist and he wrote about the most common mistakes that people make when they ask for venture capital. One of them is what Kawasaki called the China Myth. Several entrepreneurs pitch him about how big the Chinese market is and that they only need 0.1% of the market share to be successful. Now, 0.1% sounds easy, doesn’t it? But here’s what Kawasaki says. There are 1.6 billion people in China. A tenth of 1% of that is 1.6 million people. Do you have a realistic plan to sell your products to 1.6 million people?

It’s the same way online. Don’t spam a million websites hoping that 0.1% of the people that read your spammy messages will buy from you. Try something else instead. Ask yourself these three questions and I guarantee that you’ll be a lot closer to succeeding online:
1.    Who is my client?
2.    How can I reach her?
3.    What do people in my market base their buying decisions on?

Let’s say that you sell a back support product that you can put on your office chair or car seat and helps you to relax your back. The answers to the questions above would be:

1.    Who is my client?
People with back pain, office workers, and health care professionals.

2.    How can I reach her?
People with back pain: through back pain online forums, groups, and discussion boards.

Office workers: at online business communities like LinkedIn and business forums.

Health care professionals: doing profile searches on LinkedIn, through Facebook and LinkedIn groups, etc.

3.    What do people in my market base their buying decisions on?
People with back pain would buy your product if it makes their pain vanish.

Office workers will buy your product if you can prove them that a rested back will improve their productivity.

Health care professionals will recommend your product to their patients if you can prove them that it really works and the commission they receive makes sense to them.

The Conclusion
Find out who your client is, where you can find her and what motivates her to buy. Reach her with useful information and an effective message that pushes the right buttons (based on the reasons why she makes purchasing decisions for a product like yours).

If you liked this post, subscribe by RSS or email to receive our articles:

So you already have an account on LinkedIn or MySpace. But why put all of your eggs in one basket? With the vast number of social networking sites out there it is easy to get discouraged. Here’s a list of the social networking sites you should be concentrating your efforts on, if your goal is to establish a solid online presence and grow your business.

1. LinkedIn
It is THE business networking site. It is a network of about 19 million business people representing over 150 industries. It allows you to connect and keep in touch with past and present employers, employees, clients, suppliers, as well as use these to expand your network of business relationships.

2. Xing
It is LinkedIn’s main European competitor. Xing provides professional contact management tools not found on other sites, like the Business Accelerator application which allows you to find experts and market yourself and your business in a professional setting to ultimately reach new markets and potential clients across international borders.

3. Facebook
Facebook is now past its reputation as a social networking site for college kids. With the millions of users and its rapid growth, businesses have discovered it is wise to tap into this fountain of youth. Plus, Facebook offers services that are suitable to any business’s marketing plan, like its classifieds section or Facebook Ads.

4. Work.com
It differs from the others in that it is a site where users publish how-to guides on their areas of expertise. Each author has his/her own profile page, and this in turn can have links to a business website. Some articles get published in its companion website, Business.com.

5. Business Exchange
It’s run by Business Week and allows users to post content on a topic and network with others in your niche.

6. BizNik
It is yet another site that allows users to post articles and share content. The main advantage of sites like BizNik is that you get the chance to establish yourself as an expert in your industry, an authority, which of course, will help you reach those new clients you hope to get.

7. Entrepreneur Connect
This site was just recently launched in January 2009. It allows you to not only build the relationships you seek, but also make use of its classifieds section and join groups, among other features.

If you liked this post, subscribe by RSS or email to receive our articles:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) refers to doing a number of things to rank high on the search engines for the search terms that people are using to find the kind of services and products that you offer. Social Media Marketing (SMM) is a way for businesses to network with potential clients and build a positive reputation and position themselves as experts in their fields.

Although there are literally hundreds of ways to promote a business online, these two are the main ones, which makes our new clients ask us this question all the time, “What is better, SEO or SMM?” I am sure that most of you want to know the answer too, but first let me explain the difference between both.

What I love about SEO is that in most cases people find you when they are ready to buy what you have to sell. If you have a computer repair shop in Baltimore, MD, how would you like to be found by people that search for “computer repair shop in Baltimore”? Think about it. Their computer breaks, they need it fixed, they perform an online search and they find you. How likely to get their business are you? “Very” I’d say, assuming that your website is decent and you give them good reasons to choose you over the other computer repair shops in Baltimore.

The only disadvantage that SEO has and I can think of is that it takes time. Unless the keywords you want to rank for are ridiculously easy, it will take you anywhere from a few months to a few years. Doing proper keyword research is the most important part of SEO. Otherwise, you will be working really hard to rank for keywords that are almost impossible or that don’t have enough searches to make the whole process worthwhile.

Now, let’s talk about SMM. The idea behind SMM is to network. Although it’s a new concept, it works just like the old face-to-face networking. The same rules apply. You need to be generous, help others, and avoid self-promotion. Build trust first. Think about it. In real life you don’t approach a group of strangers and the first thing you say is “my products are the best and my prices are awesome”. If you don’t do it in real life, don’t do it in SMM.

SMM takes time, too. You don’t build great relationships and trust overnight. The worst mistake you can make in SMM is to give it a shot for a month or two and if it doesn’t make you money, you drop it. It’s important that you start in SMM with realistic expectations. It might take you anywhere from 6 months to a couple of years to make it worthwhile. Remember that you are there to build relationships. When those people need your services –or their friends do, they will give you a call. But don’t be pushy.

SMM is a marathon, not a sprint. Don’t get into it and spend six hours a day hoping to start making money from your efforts right away. Invest 15 minutes a day to build your network. Create a Facebook group, a LinkedIn group, open a Twitter account, start a blog, post to it a few times a week, contact two or three people a day and ask them how you can help them, and publish your articles on several sites related to your industry. I can guarantee that if you provide useful content and spend 15 minutes a day in SMM, in a year you will have a network of an amazing quality.

I know what you are thinking. “So? Which one is better? SEO or SMM?” My opinion is that, in most cases, SEO is by far the best way to promote a business online. We have over 60 clients and we have plenty of evidence to support my statement. There’s nothing like being first on Google for the keywords people use to search for your kind of business. SMM is great for consultants and people that profit from the specialized knowledge they have. It is also great for B2B companies. If you own a B2C company, you might want to look into Facebook and MySpace instead of LinkedIn and the like.

Although nothing beats SEO, don’t forget my advice. “Work on building your network 15 minutes a day.”

If you liked this post, subscribe by RSS or email to receive our articles:

Believe it or not, MySpace is not only for teens and twenty-somethings. There are plenty of businesses that are now tapping into the vast marketing potential offered by MySpace. To fully exploit this potential you must first overcome your reluctance to use Web 2.0 social networking sites. If others are using it (including your competitors) you’ll be missing out on a great opportunity for free marketing, which, during a recession, is something you can’t afford to do. Plus, why would you willingly give your rivals the competitive edge? Here’s a step-by-step guide to get you started on MySpace.

1. Define Your Business Goal
If you’re willing to dedicate time and effort to your MySpace account, you must first define your business goals, what you hope to accomplish with this account, so you won’t be tempted to stray off your path. Do you want to reach new clients? Or do you wish to network with colleagues in your field? If you’re a newbie, maybe you want get in touch with experts, benefit from their skills, knowledge, and advice.

2. Sign up for an Account
Go to www.myspace.com and follow the easy step-by-step sign-up process. You’ll be requested to confirm your email address before you can continue. Do upload a photo. You could use your company logo, but a nice, friendly smile is worth a thousand words. You could skip this step, as well as others, like adding a school, which is information that is not relevant to what you hope to accomplish. Once you’ve completed the basics, you’ll be directed to your MySpace page.

3. Create the Optimum Profile
There are lots of things you can do with your profile, too many to explore in detail here. But there is one thing you should do first before you do anything else. MySpace gives you the option to pick you URL, so make the most of it. You can either use your brand name or choose one of your main competitive keywords. Then, check out the “Profile” tab to see all the things you can edit and change. Make your profile page compelling and engaging, but don’t over stuff it with extra fluff.

4. Start Adding Friends
Use the “Friends” tab to explore your options. Find other businesses in your niche and add them as friends. Email your friends, family, and business contacts and invite them to check out your new MySpace profile. Try to add new friends on a daily basis.

5. Make Use of the Blog
Write regular posts about what your business is up to, new products you’re launching, innovative techniques, software, technological resources, and so on. This is a great place to promote your products and services, but also share your expertise and establish yourself as an authority in your field.

6. Use the Classifieds
The classifieds section on MySpace is great for marketing and promoting your products and services. You’d be nuts not to take full advantage of it.

7. Participate in Groups and Forums
You can either join a group of businesses and individuals in your field, or start one yourself. A group allows you to interact and network with others in your industry. Make sure you also actively participate in the forums, a great place to share your knowledge and experience, and earn the respect of the community.

Mastering all of the tools and applications on MySpace can be a daunting task, indeed. So, don’t set out to master it all, but rather take a few minutes every day to explore, add friends, learn a little bit more about a new app, and in no time you’ll be a MySpace pro. In time, you’ll see the pay off from all the work and dedication you’ve put into it.

If you liked this post, subscribe by RSS or email to receive our articles:

The Internet has changed us forever. It has changed the way we buy, the way we research before we buy, and how much we are willing to pay for a product. From a consumer’s standpoint, this is great news. From a business owner’s standpoint, it could be great news or terrible news, depending on what he is doing to promote his business online.

You’ve heard this myth over and over again, “build it and they will come”. “Yeah, right” I say. The problem is that most people don’t have a clue about online marketing, and when they want to learn, they realize that there is so much information available that it is often overwhelming.

For that reason I’ve decided to share my favorite online marketing resources, so you can stop wasting time reading boring and useless blogs and focus on the ones that will teach you great lessons. I’ve been an Internet marketer for over 9 years but I still get great gems from these sites.

SEOmoz Blog

Without a doubt, the best SEO blog out there. They offer very practical tips, that you can start using right away.

Search Engine Watch

Another great blog around search engine marketing.

Britopian

Awesome online marketing blog by Michael Brito. He covers a lot of Social Media Marketing topics.

Search Engine Land

The best way to stay updated on search engine marketing trends.

Techipedia

Don’t miss the post on the best Internet Marketing articles of 2008.

Search Engine Journal

One of the most popular Internet marketing blogs.

Search Engine Guide

Great information for advanced marketers.

Click Newz

Very cool online marketing blog that talks about a lot of different tactics to promote your business online.

Top Rank Blog

Lee Odden does a great job giving away practical tips to promote a company on the Internet.

Ask the Experts

This is a new feature we just launched. You can go to this site and ask any question you want about online marketing, websites, and Internet promotion. Our team of experts and I will answer your questions for you.

Some Useful Tips

• Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed. Learn one thing at a time.

• The best way to learn something is by doing it. Test, test, and test.

• Measure results. The only way to know whether or not something is working is by measuring it.

• Don’t give up too soon. If something doesn’t work the first day, don’t assume that it will never work. Maybe you need to try a different approach. The best way to fail online –and offline for that matter, is to try something new every day.

• Do give up when you have to. If you’ve been trying something for a few months and it’s not working for you, drop it. Not all the online marketing tactics work for all the businesses.

• Find the winning formula and stick to it. Contrary to the popular belief, marketing is not a numbers game. Annoying thousands of people is never as offering your products to a handful of highly-qualified prospects. Use a rifle, not a shotgun. Most businesses use two or three marketing tactics and they execute them brilliantly. Do only a few things and do them very well.

If you liked this post, subscribe by RSS or email to receive our articles:

I’m proud to announce a new feature that we’ve been working on for the last couple of weeks. It’s called Ask the Experts and it’s a Questions & Answers plattform where business owners and entrepreneurs can ask their Internet Marketing questions and our team of experts will answer them.

We have Internet Marketing experts , usability specialists, professional graphic designers, SEOs, and Pay per Click campaign managers with 189 years of experience combined. Believe us when we tell you that we know what we talk about. And now we are here to help you and answer your questions, so… ASK!

Blogging is all the rage right now. There can be any number of reasons to have a blog. Some truly enjoy writing, and a blog is the perfect creative outlet, since no one but you has a say in what gets posted or what gets scrapped. Others prefer to hire ghost bloggers simply because they want to have a blog but lack the writing skills or inspiration. Whether you have a personal blog or a business blog where your goal is to let others know about what you’re doing in your field, surely you want your blog to be read; if not, what’s the point? Having a successful blog takes time and effort. It takes, most of all, commitment. You must be committed to it and stick to it. Here are some of the things the most successful bloggers would recommend.

1. Make a Contribution
Consider any successful, popular blog, and you’ll see it contributes valuable knowledge to the community. Consider your niche or area of expertise, and think about which questions people would like answered. Are there any topics that haven’t been covered by other bloggers or experts? Take advantage of the questions readers ask in their comments or feedback and address these issues. Find out what others are saying about something. Maybe you have a different point of view or insightful ideas to add. If you really want to have a successful blog with, say, hundreds of subscribers, you have to give them something they can apply or something they can learn.

2. Stand Out
After you realize that you have a contribution, and you get all fired up about all the valuable things you can teach, comes the realization that there are others (possibly hundreds of others) out there with the same expertise, sharing their knowledge. If you want to get noticed, you have to offer something the others don’t. This could take some work. You could do research into little known aspects of the biz. Or you could experiment. Give your blog an edge that others don’t have. Don’t be so serious and straightforward. Include a humorous cartoon or graphic here and there. Walk the fine line between what is acceptable and appropriate, and what is witty but scandalous. Look for a different angle. If you’re repeating or summarizing what others are already saying, you won’t have a blog; you’ll have a blah. Give the readers something unique.

3. Follow the Basic Rules of Good Writing
Naturally, this goes for spelling and grammar mistakes. So you’re not exactly the best speller. It doesn’t hurt to run a spell check; that’s what it’s for! And this is why spelling mistakes are inexcusable. Organize each individual post. You know the basics: introduction, 2 or 3 supporting paragraphs, and conclusion. Make your headline and opening paragraph very compelling. It’s what will make the reader go on reading. Also, since most readers scan or skim texts, it’s better to have many short paragraphs with individual headings, than a few long paragraphs.

4. Plan Your Posts
The success of your blog depends not only on the quality of your content, but also how often you post new content. It is essential that you have a schedule or some kind of weekly/monthly plan. Try to have plenty of posts planned ahead or already written and on stand-by. This way, all you have to do is post them on a regular basis.

5. Respond to Feedback
It is very important that you interact with your readers and respond to their questions or comments. But you must know when and how. You are by no means expected to slave over each individual comment. It’s time-consuming and pointless. Sometimes all you need to do is give a nod or thank them for their comments; let the reader know you appreciate their advice. Sometimes you need to address a question. And sometimes you’ll need to respond to negative feedback. If someone is insulting, don’t sink to their level. Politely thank them for their comment and say you disagree.

6. Create Relationships with Other Bloggers
Even if you’re an expert in your field with over 20 years of experience, you can always benefit from the fresh, new outlook a newbie can provide. And if you happen to be the newbie, you can benefit from the old-timer’s invaluable expertise. Don’t be shy. Never fear rejection. You have nothing to lose. If you want to share a relevant, quality post, someone’s bound to pick it up. And if you ask an expert for a guest post on your blog, surely you can find someone who will be happy to oblige.

7. Create a Design that Works
If your blog is cluttered with either ads, lists of irrelevant links, or graphics, it won’t be taken seriously. Make sure it’s easy to read, easy to navigate. Make sure everything is in the right place, from the site map to the related posts. Your goal should be to make people want to stay, not run away! Display your best work where it is easy to find.

When all is said and done, if you want your blog to be read by thousands of people, there are no set rules. Here, I’ve provided some ideas as to what has worked for many successful bloggers, but feel free to experiment and do what comes naturally. If you try to do something that simply is not really you, people will notice and your blog will never take off.

If you liked this post, subscribe by RSS or email to receive our articles: