300 Websites You Should Bookmark now

 http://smartbusinessrevolution.com/share

John Cocoran demonstrates a simple and easy way to build your online networks.

Read his blog post and check out this list of over 300 valuable websites for services, partners and marketing ideas.



George Torok Keynote Marketing Speaker Co-author of Secrets of Power Marketing Get your free copy of "50 Power Marketing Ideas" Power Marketing on FaceBook Marketing Zoo on Twitter

Want to run your own webinars?

George Torok Keynote Marketing Speaker Co-author of Secrets of Power Marketing Get your free copy of "50 Power Marketing Ideas" Power Marketing on FaceBook Marketing Zoo on Twitter

Promote your products on Linkedin webinar

Do you know how to best promote your products and services on LinkedIn
to top prospects who will actually welcome the pitch and not be soured
by a "free commercial"?

Are you tailoring your content on your Company Page according to who the
viewers of your profile are, so they know immediately that YOU are the
expert who can help them with THEIR problems?

Do you know how to help your Company Page come up high on Page 1 of
Google search, which boosts your credibility and encourages more people
will click through to your page?

If not, you're leaving money on the table. And my friend, Joan Stewart,
The Publicity Hound, is here to help. She is hosting her fifth webinar
with LinkedIn expert Wayne Breitbarth, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Eastern
Time on Wednesday, March 13.

You'll learn step-by-step tricks on how to create and use Company Pages
to attract followers, encourage them to subscribe to your updates, and
buy, buy, buy. Wayne will also be teaching you all about LinkedIn ads
and how to know if they're right for you. If done correctly, you can
use ads to target your message with amazing accuracy. If done incorrectly,
you can lose your shirt.

The two-hour session will give you time to ask LOTS of questions. Wayne
will go live on the Internet so you can see ***exactly*** what he's doing
and how he's doing it.

Register for "How to Use LinkedIn Company Pages and Ads to Attract an Audience, Promote Your Heart Out and Help Them Buy”

If the time is inconvenient, register anyway because Joan is recording it,
and she'll send you the links for the replay and the huge package of
bonuses, within 72 hours after the call, so you can review the material later.

P.S. I'm proud to be a compensated affiliate of The Publicity Hound, and I stand behind Joan's products and services. Register here and learn how to stomp your competitors, even if you're David and they're the Goliaths!


George Torok Keynote Marketing Speaker Co-author of Secrets of Power Marketing  
Get your free copy of "50 Power Marketing Ideas" Power Marketing on FaceBook Marketing Zoo on Twitter

56 Tips for Increasing Website Traffic - Carol Roth

This compilation on the Carol Roth Blog offers 56 tips for getting more traffic to your site.


Here is my contribution (number 35) to the list:


Funnel Travel Via YouTube


Optimize your videos on YouTube by putting your keywords in the title, description and tags. Put your website URL at the beginning of the video description. Place your keywords as captions in your video. Put your URL on a text page at the end of your video. 


Read the rest of the list here.

George Torok Keynote Marketing Speaker Co-author of Secrets of Power Marketing
Get your free copy of "50 Power Marketing Ideas" Power Marketing on FaceBook Marketing Zoo on Twitter

500 Posts

Hurray! We've reached 500 posts on this blog.

The first post was six years ago - March 2006. When I started this blog I had no idea where it would lead me nor how long I would stick with it.

This was my first blog and I entered the blogosphere as a marketing experiment. The question on my mind was, "How will this help my business? The second question was, "How will I measure that?"





I can't put a number on it, but I believe it has been worthwhile. Here are some of the benefits that I've realized from blogging:

• New clients, followers and connections
• Revenue from advertising and product sales
• 500 published pages of material
• SEO enhancement of my websites
• Posts that I can point clients and prospects to with specific examples
• Received encouragement, questions and insights from readers
• Media interviews because of my published opinions 
• Deeper understanding on issues because of the desire to write valuable content

Writing helps you explore topics deeper and clarify your thinking. Writing articles forces you to compose 500, 800 or 1,200 word essays. Blog writing allows you to post a thought in as few words as it takes. It could be 50, 150 or 300 words.

There are many times when a blog post has helped me deal with a client's business issue or unexpectantly supplied an example for a speech.

There were times when the frequency of posts slowed down and I wondered, "What's the point?" You might have noticed that in recent months I've attacked this blog with renewed vigour and purpose.

I've made it to 500. I'll keep going.

Do you write a blog? How is it working for you?


George Torok Keynote Marketing Speaker Co-author of Secrets of Power Marketing
Get your free copy of "50 Power Marketing Ideas" Power Marketing on FaceBook Marketing Zoo on Twitter
 

Google Your Key Words and Phrases

Google is King of search on the Internet. If you want to be found you better be found in Google. That includes both pay for click and search engine optimization.

At least once a year and perhaps every quarter you should Google all the words and phrases that might be important to your business.

For example those words might include:

Your name (person and business)
Your product names
The generic name for your product
The pain or problem that your product fixes
Your trade marks
Your slogan
Your competitors’ names
Your competitor’s product names
Your competitors’ trade marks
Misspellings of the above
Your industry + the word “expert”
Your industry + the name of your city or geographic area of business
The names of your best clients
The names of your key suppliers

Study the results and look for patterns, insights and opportunities.

Google is the King of Internet Search – but Google is also a servant King. Ask the right questions and it will answer. But you need to ask and listen.



George Torok

Marketing Expert

Marketing Speaker

Canadian Business Speaker

Don't send Christmas cards unless

My advice to business owners is “Don’t send Christmas cards unless your Christmas card is Sham Wow different.”

Why?

Sending Christmas cards to clients and associates is a marketing activity. Thus it should pass the marketing activity test.

All marketing activities should do at least one of the following things well. And it should do it better than the competition. Your competition is more than just your competitors. Your competition is anyone or anything that competes for the attention, time and money of your prospects and clients. At Christmas time you have a lot of competition.

Your marketing criteria:

Grab Attention
Demonstrate value
Build relationships

That’s what your marketing should do – at least one of those things better than your competition.

If you are thinking of sending Christmas cards then what will you do to out Sham Wow the competition?

The other important criterion is return on investment – ROI. If you spend $1 then you should expect to receive at least $2 in return.

I just received a Christmas card from Tom Beakbane, president of Beakbane Retail Connections, a marketing firm that specializes in helping retail firms sell more.

Why am I excited by this Christmas card?

Because it’s different, creative and playful – all words that fit with the style and service of Beakbane.

This Christmas card was delivered by email (which I’m not a fan of). However it’s different because the webpage is a Christmas tree with several links that lead to seasonal interests. For example: Roast a perfect turkey, Sinful chocolate recipes, Show shoveling tips to save your back, Top ten cocktails to put you in the festive mood, and several more.

Look at the Beakbane Christmas card.

And best of all, the ROI is strong because the cost of creating the webpage and distributing the link by email is minimal.

I’m impressed and not surprised by Tom Beakbane and Beakbane Retail Connections.

Don't send Christmas cards unless...

George Torok
Marketing Speaker
Marketing Expert & Author


PS: Tom Beakbane was a recent guest on my radio show, Business in Motion.

25 Ideas to Write Your Article

If you write articles to promote your business, (I think that you should), here are 25 ideas to help kickstart your brain.

Top 25 Article Topic Ideas
by Steve Shaw

Are you stumped for what to write about?

Don’t fret–We all are at some time or another.

No matter how long you’ve been writing there are always times when the creative well is just bone dry, and you need a little jump start.

Well, here it comes:

I’ve assembled 25 of my favourite and most effective article topic ideas and article topic idea stimulators. I hope these are helpful to you!

Let’s get started…

1) Use one of our free article writing templates (that’s actually several article topic ideas right there!)

2) Adapt content from your blog to create articles.

3) Write for newbies and more advanced readers–you can cover the same topic in two different articles geared towards groups with different knowledge levels.

4) Use customer frequently asked questions as the basis for an article.

Read the rest of this article at Creative Article Marketing blog
------------------

George Torok
Marketing Speaker
Marketing Articles by George Torok

Marketing Sherpa Case Study: Homepage Redesign

Homepage Redesign Puts Target Sectors Front and Center: 5 Steps to 100% Lift in Key Metrics


SUMMARY:

The most relevant marketing content speaks directly to your prospects’ needs. But does your website give target industries an instant connection to the content that matters to them? See how an IT consulting firm redesigned its homepage to give special attention to their top target industries. They used big buttons to lure clicks from key prospects, and drove traffic with a vertical-focused direct mail campaign. As a result, they’ve seen a huge jump in Web metrics, such as a 100%+ increases in time on site and pageviews per visit, and are arranging sales meetings at a faster rate.


CHALLENGE

Zaphyr Technologies provides IT consulting and services for the small-medium business sector. But that horizontal focus made it difficult for Shawn Butt, CEO, and his team to create marketing campaigns that resonated with specific types of businesses. “When you say ‘We’re a one-stop shop that does it all,’ it doesn’t connect with people in a certain vertical or industry,” says Butt. “We realized we had to start to define which verticals we are interested in, and which we have expertise in.”The team embarked on a process to identify its top industry targets, and then refine their marketing strategy to immediately connect with the needs of prospects in those industries.

Read the rest of this case study here.
Acess is open until May 14, 2009.

----------------------

RESULTS

The vertical focus of the team’s new website has caught the attention of their target audiences.After the redesign:o Unique visitors increased 125%o Average time on site increased 106%o Average page views per visit increased 153%o Average monthly email newsletter signups increased 117%

Stupid email marketing

Stupid email marketing

There's a lot of stupid email flying around. I realize that everyone has a learning curve - but why make stupid mistakes when there is so much helpful information on how to use email effectively?

One of the ways to improve your own learning is to notice and learn from the mistakes of others. For that reason I have included the following email that I received.

I usually delete these emails quickly - but this is such a good example of really bad email marketing that I want you to learn from it - and avoid the same mistakes.

As you read this email, consider the following:

• I don't know this person or company,
• can you figure out what they are selling?
• what is the benefit?
• why should anyone call?
• what does any of this have to do with the headline - golf shoes?

Read and don't make the same mistakes.

--------------------------
To: info
Subject: Golf shoes - please read. (2/19/2009)


Hello,

I represent a company called Star Position Search & Navigation Solutions, a company that does what's known as advanced search engine placement. We reach a Network of over 33 million people who are predominantly US based. Our Network is entirely opt-in, and the users on our Network allow us to present them with a preferred choice whenever they are looking for anything on the top sixteen search engines. (GOOGLE, YAHOO, MSN and thirteen others.)

I seek one source to send the users on our Network, from the major search engines, for different types of golf shoes.

Please contact me at your earliest convenience. I am in the office daily from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM Pacific time.

Best regards,

Kathleen Daigle
Sales Manager,
Star Position Search & Navigation Solutions
Phone: 800.481.2979, ext 2003

-----------------


Did you also notice that the email was addressed to "info"? Very impersonal.

Did you notice that as vague as the email is - it is all about them - not about me or how they could help me?

Did you feel compelled to call - or delete?

I replied to this email and asked her what is she selling. I'll let you know what I learn.

Oops - I forgot to thank her for the good example of a stupid email.


George Torok
Marketing Expert
Executive Marketing Briefing

Who's Talkin - search tool

Whostalkin.com is a neat free tool for searching for who's talking about you on the social media. You can also use it to search for any other topic.

I used it to search my name and found my name and material quoted in places that I wasn't aware of - even though I already use Google Alerts.

Give it a try and add it to your list of social media search tools.

Whostalkin.com

If it looks like SPAM it is SPAM

If it looks like SPAM it is SPAM

Below is an excerpt from an unwanted email that got through my SPAM blocker and filters. The sender manually authorized their email address to get through.

Notice that the opening line boldly stated that "This is not SPAM." And they they gave a lame excuse.

There are legal definitions of SPAM And those vary by country. Generally SPAM is massive emailings to lists of names that have not asked for the email. This email wrongly claimed to have a right to send me their "information". There was no link to allow me to unsubscribe from their list. They falsely claimed to be an organization that doesn't exist but might sound official. No snail mail address was given.

If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck...
----------------------
Attention! This is not SPAM and this letter is delivered according to the legislation since the e-mail address is in open access


The Canadian Drugs Medical Association

blah, blah, blah .... The selling text and links to their site have been removed.


Respectfully, The Canadian Drugs Medical Association
---------------------

The links went to a Google Groups page that was selling the usual drugs.

I use the SPAM blocker called SPAM Arrest which works very well.

Best Subject lines for email newsletters

Best Subject Lines for Email Newsletters

If you want to get more of your email opened then read this study from Marketing Sherpa.

-------------------
MarketingSherpa recently pored over a year’s worth of data on our weekly newsletter subject lines. We learned a lot about what we’ve been doing right, and what could use some improvement. We wanted to share our findings with you – our faithful readers. Check out the four big takeaways and take advantage of our subject-line ‘Aha!’ moment.
-------------------
The year long study indentified the four best ways to improve readership of emails. Here is an excerpt on the first tip.
-------------

Takeaway #1. Show value in the first two words

Sherpa’s top subject-line performers showed that pushing the value of a particular newsletter in the first two words was optimal. Meinhart recommends having your subject line writer focus on what *exactly* those first two words should be.

To illustrate the importance of those initial words, here are the 10 top-performing subject lines in the 12-month time period:

1. Top 12 Email Newsletter Mistakes
2. Simple Email Link Change Lifts Clicks
3. CAN-SPAM - Must-Know Updates
4. Best Time to Send Email: Test Results
5. 6 Actions to Lift Clickthroughs: New Data
6. Your Copy of Annual Email Study Results Enclosed
7. HTML vs Text: Which Works Better?
8. Newsletter Design Exclusive Data
9. Email Audit PDF: How-to & Checklist
10. How to Conduct Email Surveys

----------------------

Read the rest of this study at Marketing Sherpa.

Free acess to this report is open until Decemeber 2, 2008.


George Torok
Co-author of Secrets of Power Marketing
Business Speaker

Keep your blog out of a courtroom

How to Keep Your Blog Out of a Courtroom - Advice from Legal Pro on Providing, Creating Content

Informative article from Marketing Sherpa. Access to this article is open until November 18. If you have a blog you should read this article. The Internet is not the wild wild west. There are laws that you should know and follow to stay out of legal trouble.



SUMMARY: A company blog can be great for marketing. But inappropriate content and troublesome comments can also expose you to lawsuits.Here's advice from a 30-year business attorney with extensive knowledge of the laws on blogging and user-generated content. Includes tips to avoid turning a blog post into "exhibit A."

Click to continue
(Open access until November 18th)

Check your name availability

Check your name availability

Would you like to know if your name is still available?

Use this free tool to check over 60 web services in seconds for the availability of your name.

http://usernamecheck.com/

If you are venturing into the use of the interent social media you might want to use the same user name on several services. Perhaps you just want to reserve your name while you have a chance.

http://usernamecheck.com/


George Torok

Website Grader

Website Grader

Here's a neat free tool to check your website and those of your competition for search effectiveness.

It takes a few seconds to give you a fairly comprehensive report of how your site is performing along with suggestions on how to improve. You get a grade out of 100.

Website Grader

Plus

There is a Twitter Grader

There is a Press Release Grader


George Torok

Questions about CAN-SPAM

PDF: Dozen Key Questions Answered on Latest CAN-SPAM Provisions

SUMMARY: Three email pros answered 12 questions during a recent webinar on what marketers need to know about the latest provisions for CAN-SPAM. Here is a transcript of that session.

Hope Hopkins, Membership Content Manager, MarketingSherpa, realized that many Sherpa members still had questions about the new CAN-SPAM provisions. She organized an event with a trio of authorities who discussed what the recent changes mean by responding to a dozen questions.The webinar served to put a bow on this issue for many members who were seeking more clarification on new CAN-SPAM provisions.We share a transcript of that session with you.

Click to continue(Open access=permanent)
This will open a pdf document.

-------------------

If you want to know what is and isn't SPAM - read this panel interview.

Get First Page on Google

Get First Page on Google Searches

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Basics and Tips
By Jim Estill

Do you want to get first page on Google? If you have a web page or blog, you likely already are first page for some searches. With a bit of SEO, you can gain first page on more searches. And its simple.

The first and most obvious step is think about what words or phrases you want to be first page on.

Once you have that list, determine how many people are searching for those terms. To check how popular a search is you will need a tool. I use Wordtracker (there is a free online version). The higher the number, the more popular the search. No point in trying to optimize for a word or phrase that is rarely searched.

There is also no point in trying to optimize for a word that is too popular because getting a high ranking there will be almost impossible.

Think about "long tail"

Think about how people will search. People often search with a question. EG where do I find X? Or where do I find Y in Canada. The longer the string, the less competition you will have for it so the easier you will get ranked.

So make the list of phrases you want to "own" and ones that are realistic to "own".

Now it is simple. Just put these words and phrases in your titles, picture descriptions, videos and in your text. The titles are the most important. That is why a blog called "Shrimp Fish Soup Recipes" will get good Google juice on all 4 words. So searching "Shrimp soup" will get first page. Or "fish soup recipes" or "Shrimp recipes" etc.

Yes you want to repeat your words and phrases often in the text. This said - write naturally. Never let SEO be a substitute for good content.

So you do this and you still are not first page. That is because you do not have enough credibility with Google. You need another free tool to check this. I use a free Firefox plugin called searchstatus. It gives me both the PageRank and the Alexa rating of any web page. Higher PageRank numbers are better. High credibility is your ultimate goal as that is what gets you ranked first and Alexa tells you traffic (a lower number is better)

How do you increase your PageRank?

It is all about quality inbound links. You want people with a high credibility (PageRank 4+) to link to you - eg Wall St Journal would be great. More is better and link rank is almost logarithmic so a PageRank of 6 is worth 10 times one of 5 etc.

This said, for you to get a link from an 8 rated site like pornstars.com would not increase your rank in the business genre. Sites are ranked for relevance.

The best inbound links are contextual. So someone blogging and saying I heard time management guru John Doe speak and hot linking from "Time management guru" is great for John Doe. Second best, hot link from "John Doe". Third is just having a link on a blogroll without any context.

You get a higher rank if you update your content regularly. That is why having a blog on your site is a good way to increase your ranking.

Moderate cross linking within your own material will also increase your rank and clarify for google what it is that you do.

3 ways to get links to your site:

1 - Ask politely. You might not always get a link but it never hurts to ask.

2 - Comment on other relevant blogs (and have your PageRank on so you ignore low PageRank and high alexa). Note that most comments in themselves do not constitute a link. But being out there gets people to look at you. You need people to look at your stuff for them to be inspired to link to it.

3 - Have good material. People link to quality. But of course they have to see it so promote your content:

Have your URL on all your print material, cards, letterhead, email sig file etc
Write guest articles and blogs in the right (high traffic) places (check the Alexa).
PR - get written about
Contribute to other sites. EG write reviews on Amazon, join the conversations.

And a word of warning. Never play games (like buying links).

In the end it is about having good quality material. And being out there so people look at your material. People link to quality without you asking as long as they know about it.

Jim Estill is the CEO of SYNNEX Canada, a $2 Billion distributor of computers.

To learn more about his successful business strategies, visit his blog at http://www.jimestill.com

Jim Estill's CEO blog at http://www.jimestill.com also has information on ordering his audio book and ebook, Time Leadership.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jim_Estill
http://EzineArticles.com/?Get-First-Page-on-Google-Searches---SEO-(Search-Engine-Optimization)-Basics-and-Tips&id=1555230

Link to me

Link to me

Lately, I have received several requests to trade links.

Nothing wrong with that. Links to your website boost it in the search engines. And I am happy to exhange good links.

However, many of the requests to link seem to come from gmail or other free email addresses - not from legitimate email address. What does that say about the person requesting the link? Why are they hidding?

So I agreed to trade some links. And after I linked to them and asked for a response - no response.

We should learn from our mistakes.

This is my response to future resquests for trading links - "You go first".


George Torok
Marketing Speaker & Author
Business Speaker

Website Marketing: One way links

Website marketing: One way links

Links to your website help people find your site from the site that linked to you and more importantly improve your status in the search engines.

The thinking is that if other websites link to your website, the other websites must think that you are an authority on your topic.

However, the reality is far more selective. All links are not equal. Some links are more valuable than others.

These things make the link to your site more valuable:
The site that links to your site is on a related topic.
The site that links to your site is a higher Google page rank.
The site that links to your site only links to other sites of related topics.
The page that links to your site has a reasonable number of links. Somewhere less than 100.
That site is linking to you without you linking back to them - called one way links.

That last factor - one way links - is tough to get. Yet it is valuable because the search engines thinking is - if you have inbound links without outbound links to that other site it must be because they really love you. It's preceived to be more that a dirty trade of favors.

Too many "web marketers" email you asking to trade links with you. There's little value if the topics are unrelated, their link page has hundreds of links, those other links are unrelated and their link page can't be found from their home page.

I tend to ignore those requests.

One Way Links
Here is a website that specializes in helping you get one way links. Haven't tried it yet - but it looks interesting. I will check it out.

One Way Link Building


George Torok
Marketing Speaker
Marketing Expert & Author