Web 2.0 SocialBookMarketing gets easier with Tagza

Regular readers of the Webs 4 Small Business blog will recall the story we told of an online mousetrap seller. One of the key components of finding customers for his product and spreading the word about his great products was social marketing.

One of the best ways to 'spread the word' today is by taking advantage of some of the new social bookmarking sites. These sites allow members to easily submit interesting and informative links. The links are then included with other submissions on the site and become part of a searchable directory. Also the links are often indexed by search engines like Google and Yahoo!. Remember the great 'content' the new internet marketer learned about? Well, think about all the interesting and informative links right on his website.

One of the social bookmarking sites we recently discovered is Tagza.com. Tagza allows registered users to easily submit links to a variety of topics. Among other cool features is that this web 2.o bookmarking site allows a great amount of customization in each submission. For instance you can add html tags to show emphasis or add videos like YouTube or Google Videos. Remember how the shiny objects attack potential customers?

Once the a new link and description are submitted to Tagza they immediately show up on the upcoming links page. This gives site viewers an opportunity to catch fresh posts. As space permits new links move to the front published links page. Again, another great opportunity to catch an interested visitor.

Another benefit of submiting links from your interesting content is that the link now becomes part of the Tagza website so there is a chance the link will be picked up by Google. A quick quick of Google found over 25,500 indexed Tagza pages.

So, jump over to Tagza, get registered and submit a few links. You'll be sure to find this a great way to find new mice killers.

Website Hosting Account - Selecting for Your Small Business Website

This is part one of a multi-part series exploring website hosting options for your Small Business website.

An Overview - What you'll need to consider

For any small business owner looking to start an online business one of the first decisions you’ll need to make is where to ‘host’ your website. There are countless hosting options and providers. While there are lots of options you’ll need to understand some basics about hosting before you make your decision.

Let’s start with a definition. A ‘host’ is a service that allows a domain owner, like you, to rent space on a ‘web server.’ The web server is where your website pages will reside. When a visitor types your domain (i.e. www.mysmallbusinessdomain.com) into a web browser the host accepts the request and displays your web pages. Hosting options come in many flavors ranging from free services, to shared services to dedicated solutions. The ‘right’ hosting solution for you will depend on the unique needs of your business website.

When looking for a hosting provider you’ll need to know a few things about your business needs and the services that you will need. The key things to consider are:

1. Website Design Tools. These tools allow you to create your website using online tools. These ‘wizards’ allow a novice to create a relatively sophisticated website with limited technical ability. Generally these online tools work best for small websites with limited complexity.
   
   
2. FTP Access. If you’ll be using a website designer to build or maintain your website or if you’re going to use desktop software like Front Page or Dream Weaver you’ll need the ability to add pages directly to your website. This is done through a process called, FTP.
   
   
3. Bandwidth. This is how much ‘stuff’ will you move from the web server to the visitor’s computer. Sites that are mainly text will likely have limited bandwidth needs, while very graphic sites may have larger needs. Also if you’re selling downloadable products online such as eBooks, software or hi-resolution graphics you may have very large bandwidth needs. Also, here you’ll need to consider how much traffic you anticipate having. A small niche website may have very few visitors, whereas a more general website might anticipate thousands of visitors a day.
   
   
4. Feature/Functionality. A website that simply provides information likely has very minimal functionality needs, whereas an ecommerce website may have extensive needs. For instance, you may need the ability to accept payments online, store information in a customized database or host interactive features like forums or feedback forms.
   
   
5. Branding Ability. If you’re building an online business you may have the need to build your ‘brand’ online. This may mean that you don’t want to have logos or information from other sites displayed on your website. Also, here you’ll need to consider your domain name. It may be important that your domain name is unique (i.e. www.mydomain.com) or you may be okay with a shared domain name. (i.e. mydomain.freehosting.com). Generally your internet marketing plan will determine your branding needs.
   
   
6. Budget. For most, if not all new small businesses, start-up resources are limited. You’ll need to understand how much you can spend on things like hosting fees, domain renewals and website design. Fortunately the internet offers a wide range of ‘free’ hosting options that may help you stretch out your limited budget.
   
   

While you may not know all the answers early in your business’ life, it is important that you at least take the time to understand your overall needs. Selecting the right hosting service the first time can save you time and money. In the upcoming sections of this series we’ll explore each topic in more detail and look at some of the specific hosting providers you may want to consider.

In the next part of this series we’ll look at each of the above considerations in more detail starting with website design tools. If you need help setting up your online business now, consider contacting Webs 4 Small Business. Whether you just need advice or you need help getting your online business running, we can provide services tailored to your needs. Visit us on the web at www.Webs4SMB.com or give us a call today for a free consultation at 1-877-468-6402.

WordPress Blog Training - Webs 4 Small Business Training Series

Welcome to the first Episode of the Webs 4 Small Business Training series.

In this episode you'll learn how to setup a WordPress blog account, customize your template and publish your first blog post.

Since this is our first training video we'd appreciate your comments and feedback. We'd also like to know of any topics you'd like to see covered in this series.

Please take a moment to leave a comment below this post or send us feedback by email to contactus@Webs4SMB.com.

Your feedback will help us make this training series valuable to you and other Small and Home Business Owners.

The Power of Keywords and Cheese

Ahhh... the Power of Cheese... er, Keywords....

If you're following along with this blog you realize that our tale of the online Mouse Trap seller is coming to a close. To wrap it all up we're going to review what we've learned and of course offer up a couple more shameless plugs. (hopefully subtly....).

During the course of our story, we've learned that even though the Internet offers some great advantages for small business owners, selling online is really not all that different from selling in the 'real' world. We haven't touched on them all here but the standard marketing pillars of product, price, promotion and placement all hold true, even on the internet.

First you have to provide a product or service that will provide value. Whether it's a mouse trap, a cookbook, flowers or even affordable internet marketing services for small businesses (subtle enough?) it has to offer some type of real value to potential and actual buyers. The great advantage the Internet has is that the products can even be virtual. Ever see an ebook for sale in a Borders or Barnes and Noble bookstore?

We didn't really explore price during our time together, but we did see a priceless video about an exploding whale. (If you haven't seen this video yet what are you waiting for?) and a whole bunch of priceless mouse trap videos. Price on the Internet, just like in the real world, is about determining and matching market value and meeting business objectives. So you don't go away with questions about pricing here's a pretty good overview of internet pricing from another marketer. Just please make sure you come back here after you check this out and, oh yeah, tell a few friends about the wonderful blog you found at http://www.webs4smb.com/. (yeah, I know, not as subtle)

What we really talked about over the last few weeks were promotion and placement, although we called them Location, Location, Location and Shiny Objects and sort of jumbled them together. That's called taking literary license. For the internet seller, placement or distribution of your product and how you promote it will likely be very different than a local retailer.

(By the way, if you clicked the literary license link above you confirmed that I mostly write for my own amusement.)

While you can certainly 'localize' your internet business, it's most likely that you're going to sell, place, your product or service across the globe. That puts a whole new meaning on how your location is defined. As we saw with our mouse trap seller in town his customers likely lived in a close neighborhood with a mouse problem or they went shopping at the grocery store next door.

In our online hunt for the elusive mouse killers we found out that location means places like search engines, content websites and forums. The grocery store next door became the list of Google search results or the DiaryofaMouseKiller blog or the website with the catchy name of MouseKillerAnonymous.com. To locate near the mouse killers on Search Engines we learned that we have to optimize our website through Search Engine Optimization (SEO). We talked about how the words you use on your website and how you use them can increase how high links to your pages appear in SERPS.

Oh, yeah, why the 'power of keywords' title? To illustrate how the selection and consistent use of keywords can help you get into the right neighborhoods let me share some recent stats from this very website. Since I started the whole 'mouse trap' themed pages on January 15th, pages from http://www.webs4smb.com/ (which includes this blog) are now consistently ranking well for some interesting terms according to Google's webmaster tools. In January this website was ranking in the top 10 SERP spots (first page) for searches for 'mouse killers,' 'mice killer,' 'mouse killer,' and 'mice killers.' And don't forget, the first 'mouse trap' post was January 15th so these pages made the top 10 in less than 2 weeks. Too bad we're not selling mouse traps, right? (Fortunately, we're also getting top ranks for words that match services we actually do sell.)

We also learned that you need cheese to attract mouse killers (interesting that both mice and their killers like cheese). The cheese, or website content really becomes intertwined with your online promotion because its how you attract potential customers and make them stick around.

We even got a cold and sneezed all over the place. Of course, we were really talking about viral and social marketing. We learned that a great way to get the word out was to hang out where our potential customers hang out, like in social networking sites. Our goal in viral and social marketing is to let other mouse killers spread the word about our mouse traps, or cook books or small business pay per click management services. (hint: click the link and win a new car... okay, not true but you will find a great option for leveraging SEM).

Speaking of SEM, we also learned that, unlike in school, it really is okay to 'cheat' your way to the top of search engine results pages. We learned that search engine marketing is a great way for online sellers to quickly gain visibility for their products or services.

Whew, did we at least touch on everything we've learned? Hopefully what you've learned in the last weeks is that it is important remember that your online business is, well, a business. Just like any business you have to use sound business practices to get customers and keep them. Hopefully you've learned a little more about some of the unique ways you can use the internet to market you products and services.

What's next? We'd recommend that you spend some more time learning about the topics we've covered: Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, Viral and Social Marketing and quality content. There are lots and lots of quality free sources available online that can help you learn more on each of these topics.

Here are a couple of sources we provide (of course we'd start here):

• Webs 4 Small Business Blog (the one you're reading now) has a great series on blogging. Think of blogs as keyword rich content that has a great SEO benefit for your business website. Remember our 'mouse killer' 2 week SEO results.
• Small Business Internet Marketing is currently featuring a series on how to incorporate ebooks into your business website strategy.
• Internet Marketer Handbook has a great series on ways to build traffic for your business website.
• Free Affiliate Marketing Program delves into the world of affiliate marketing. Think of affilate marketing as selling someone else's mouse traps and getting a commission on each sale.

Here are a couple of resources provided by other marketers:

• Web Marketing Today offers a plethora of resources on internet marketing. Definitely check our the videos. We've featured some on our own sites. Also, definitely sign up for the newsletter as its one of the better ones out there.
• Business Internet Mastery covers the full gamot of internet business topics. Jay and Sterling's podcasts are great. I recommend loading them up on your iPod so you can listen to them while you're waiting in line or on the treadmill.

Well, that's it for the adventures of the mouse trap seller. I hope you've learned something and maybe even found it a little humorous. If nothing else I hope you checked out the video of the exploding whale.

We'd like your feedback. Was this series useful? Was it interesting? Did you print it out so you could save it forever? Maybe you hated every word of it? Did it offend your more sensitive side? Are you a member of PETA and are upset about the exploding whale? Whatever you feedback we'd appreciate your comments and we'll post the good and the bad.

Lastly, we'd like to know what topics you'd like to see here? If the topic appears to be generally applicable to small business website owners (or wannabes) we just may put some posts together about it.

Finally (that does come after lastly, right?) No Mice, or mouse killers, were harmed in the making of this series of post. And, the whale was already dead before it was blown up.

See you soon!

Webs 4 Small Business can assist you as you start or grow your small business. Contact us today for a free phone consultation.