Click image to see 168 Business Directories

Even if your small business could afford a Super Bowl ad – at $3.5 million – there is another form of advertising that would benefit you more and consistently bring you far more business.

And the good news is you only have to pay to have it submitted ONCE to get free advertising on Google Places, Yahoo! Local, Bing, Superpages and hundreds of other local directories indefinitely*.

Completely Free Advertising

You can do it yourself manually, or create your own listings through Universal Business Listings (UBL – what I use), but there are MAJOR BENEFITS to having me do it for you including your not having to do anything except provide your business information. I will handle EVERYTHING for you.

What does it cost?
See Local Search Listings Frequently Asked Questions

DOES FREE LOCAL ADVERTISING WORK?

• See UBL Webcard examples of actual listings I have created and compare them to any other listing created on UBL. What you see in those examples is what YOUR business listing information will look like – listings that will be sent to hundreds of major sites including Google Places, Yahoo! Local, Bing, SuperPages, YellowPages, Yelp, Merchant Circle and sites about your location and industry.
• Local Search Case Study showing UBL listings generated 75 new visitors for every 100 visitors Google sent.
• Appliance store local listings generating 30 New Customers a Week.
• Enhanced local search listings generate new traffic of 81.32%

CLICK THIS LINK if YOU Want Your Free Advertising Now

* Note: Some databases and directories may remove your listing if you do not renew annually but most do not. There are other benefits to annual renewals – and they are fast and easy to do once you’re in UBL.

Do you hate spammers? Many bloggers at least believe they do.  Hate only hurts the person who feels that emotion and does nothing to the object of your hatred.

Image Credit: RedWritingHood.ca ~ Click image to read My Hate Button is Broken

What I realize that many don’t is that there are different kinds of spammers. While there are some who know they are stealing our time and energy, probably the greater number of people bloggers refer to as spammers do NOT know they are doing this all wrong.

ANYONE that comments regularly IS going to
end up being flagged by Akismet as a spammer.

If we just delete them they won’t ever know WHY or how to get better. It makes more sense to EDUCATE new commenters than to slam the door in their face. If I deleted YOUR comments are YOU going to come back?

When shopping we expect the door to be open to the store, right? If a business keeps their door locked and grills you on WHY you want in or asks for your ID or references would you still want to buy from them – or even get inside?

I would not. Deleting comments willy-nilly is telling your new readers you don’t trust them and you don’t want to even give them a chance to interact with you! Most bloggers are so focused on being anti-spam that they’ve forgotten how to be human!

Put yourself in the commenter’s shoes.
(And you ARE in that place if you EVER comment in other blogs.)
How would you feel if I mistook you for a spammer and deleted
your comment that you spent your valuable time writing?

UNINTENTIONAL SPAMMERS:

• Some are new bloggers trying to find their way who don’t know how to write high value comments – yet.
• Many have fallen for spammy syndication and link building plugins and strategies being taught by the get-rich-quick crowd.
• Small business owners struggling in a declining economy and being hurt badly by Google updates and desperate to save their businesses and keep food on the table are being sold ineffective SEO linkbuilding through comment spam solutions. They usually are NOT aware of what these supposed “experts” are doing.

All these people are NOT your enemy.

They are humans just like you or me trying to figure out how to survive in a faltering economy in perpetual decline.

Just today someone Skyped to me complaining about comments appearing in this blog. I delete far more comments than I approve, but I do approve many comments others bloggers would delete because I know what they don’t know:

Many of these comments are left by people I already have relationships
on social media so I KNOW they are not drive-by link builders!

Some of them are bloggers just like us who have blogs they are trying to use to generate an income, who work for SEO companies, or who accept client work.

Many of our favorite bloggers write great comments that we don’t think are spam even though there are doing the things many bloggers THINK are behind spam!

Bloggers are so tired of spam
that they are spam-trigger-happy.

What IS Blog Comment Spam?

To compound the problem, while most bloggers BELIEVE they know what spam is their definitions are all over the place. Here are some actual answers I have personally received from spammers regarding what spam is from most obvious to most surprising:

REAL COMMENT SPAM:

1. Spambot generated comments  ~ These are blocked by our GrowMap anti-spambot Akismet Alternative plugin which reduced by 96% the number of comments I had to moderate on this blog.
2. Obvious spam because the comment has nothing in it specific to the post and is either an advertisement or a bunch of links.
3. Trackback spam that looks like a comment but is auto-generated (Blocked by Simple Trackback Validation Plugin.)
4. Phony Trackback spam that looks like a real trackback and is auto-generated, but either has no real link to you, or a link hidden in source code but not visible on the other blog OR has nofollow links in a mouseover section.
5. Copied comment spam.
6. Duplicate comments copied and pasted into posts manually.
7. Manually written comments that have nothing to do with the post where they’re left.

COMMENT LINKS MANY BLOGGERS PROHIBIT, EDIT, or DELETE:

This section discusses links often prohibited, edited or deleted by bloggers and my position on what I allow or do not allow.

1. Comments linking to sites in bad neighborhoods. For example, I do not permit links to ga mbli.ng sites including bi–ngo and cards or ad-u–lt content or to ph .ar a cueti  cals. (The reason these words are in this post in that manner is to reduce the likelihood that my having mentioned any of those topics will trigger alerts and flood my blog with “related” spam. I avoid using those words in posts, in in comment replies and on social networks especially Twitter where using any of those words will generate auto-tweets and get you followed by spammers.)
2. Linking to sales letters. Some prohibit links to ALL sales letters; others allow links to products and services they feel are ethical.
3. Comments linking to anything promoting unethical get rich quick methods, or selling Twitter followers or Facebook friends. Because these can be difficult to evaluate many bloggers prohibit all sales letters.
4. Links to a legitimate business ~ Even if they’re not in your niche they could be very interested and regular readers of your blog in any other niche. Everyone has multiple interests and most businesses ARE interested in social media, online marketing, and business blogging.
5. Comments linking to blogs in other niches – While I encourage bloggers to primarily comment within their own niche, I do NOT consider comments linking to blogs in other niches spam.

COMMENTS THAT ARE NOT REALLY SPAM:

1. Weak comments written by real readers who are sincerely trying to participate in your blog. These are virtually impossible to tell from weak comments left by spammers.
2. Comments that are difficult to understand because the reader’s native language is not English because writing in a secondary language is very difficult and machine translations are often of very poor quality. Do you really want to discriminate against anyone who doesn’t speak English as their first language by deleting all their attempts to communicate with you?
3. Comments left by someone who took the time to read your post and write a relevant comment.
   

There is NO WAY to know whether a commenter found
your blog because they were working on linkbuilding
or left a comment with a link because they are a
new or regular reader of your blog and
were interested in what you wrote.

There is NO WAY to know which came first:
the interest or the comment with link.

Every time you delete a comment you are slamming the door on an attempt to communicate. While we DO want to discourage spammers it makes more sense to teach others how we want them to comment than to delete them. What can they learn from THAT?

Many bloggers are making snap judgements about comments being spam that are NOT spam. I know this because I know most of my readers on Twitter BEFORE they ever comment – and most of their first comments are JUST LIKE the comments spammers leave!!

Many bloggers delete ALL comments that link to businesses.
WHY are you doing that?

Real people just like us own those businesses.

They are the solution we need to more jobs,
a better economy and a higher standard of living!

What many bloggers are doing is slamming the door in the faces of a huge percentage of their real readers. If you use Akismet and don’t moderate everything it puts into spam THEY are slamming that door for you.

If you use Akismet, use GASP to block 96% of the spam Akisment misses that is spambot generated so you can FIND the real comments in your spam folder.

Many of our regular readers are consistently flagged as spammers
by Akismet because SOME bloggers flag almost ALL
the comments they ever receive from ANYONE as spam.

THESE ARE NOT SPAM!

Here is what bloggers have personally told me they flag as spam:

1. “Comments that link to ANY business.”
2. “Any comment from someone I don’t already know”.
3. “Any comment I don’t like.”

THAT is why Akismet can never work well. Read in their own words how Akismet works. They mention that hiring people to comment is ” exploiting low-paid workers” but that is NOT true.

We all need to get clear on who is exploiting whom.

Hiring people in other countries because the difference in the value of their money and yours or the difference in the cost of living allows people to live well on less money does NOT equal exploitation.

All people anywhere deserve to be paid
a living wage to do ethical work.

The solution to the declining standard of living is to support small businesses because money we spend with them stays in circulation.

SPENDING MONEY WITH SMALL BUSINESSES:

• Is almost immediately reinvested in the economy locally and in the economies of their suppliers.
• Pays their employees wages they can actually live on.
• Is spent to buy products they sell us – and if they are wise they buy from other small businesses.
• Pays taxes that support services communities need.

WHY I DO NOT BUY FROM CORPORATIONS or BIG BRANDS

None of what I wrote about small businesses is true for multi-national corporations – the big brands most people support. This holiday season and throughout the year I implore you to really understand how changing where you spend your money can save YOUR standard of living.

Big Brands pay far less in taxes. Some pay none – all pay less than almost anyone reading this or any small business. They squeeze their employees and suppliers dry and keep squeezing. They intentionally endanger their employees lives to maximize their incomes.

The profit from the money you spend with them is taken out of circulation, paid out in obscene bonuses to the already wealthy, and hoarded in overseas tax shelters. THAT is the reality.

The “illusion” we’re sold to justify all manner of green and
corruption is that we should all be striving to get rich, too.

Those who buy into that illusion defend horrendous behaviors like the Enron VIDEO employees bragging about how they stole money from little old ladies by intentionally causing unnecessary blackouts to increase their stock earnings.

The defenders of our current economic system claim this was an anomoly. I disagree – that is business as usual for most publicly traded companies. As Dr. Jeff Schweitzer , a recognized ethics expert writes:

Wall Street is a casino rigged against investors
sold false hope by unscrupulous companies
sanctioned by government to deceive and bilk customers.

It is time for those who still believe in the illusion of “The American Dream” to finally wake up to the fact that is IS only an illusion. I compile my proof for that claim in my post about Why Small Business Can Not Afford to Ignore the Occupy Movement.

It us up to US to stop supporting unethical activities.

We can start by not promoting Amazon who chose to have ambulances stand by to cart away their employees who get heat stroke – a totally unethical “solution” when they should have FIXED THE CAUSE! (Here is the alternative to Amazon I am supporting – and there are many others.)

The solution to finding what you need online is blogging communities – collaborations of bloggers who recognize and work with the other quality people in their niche and location.

We need to teach each other to create geo-targeted blog collaborations
and/or group blogs that work together and welcome local and
related small businesses into their blogging communities.

I provide free mentoring to bloggers and small businesses and share best practices and tips for those who prefer the do-it-yourself method. (I encourage even them to contact me for greatest benefit.

BLOGGING RESOURCES:

• Blogging Ethics: Time to Choose
• WHY you should start including local content on your blog.
• Blogging Collaborations Best Practices
• Twitter for Business: How to Geo Target Twitter for Local Small Businesses

HOW TO SUPPORT SMALL BUSINESSES:

Use these to help your favorite local and online small businesses to STAY in business and to share with your customers so they can help YOUR business stay alive.

• How and Where to Write Business Reviews for Your Favorite Small Businesses
• Why sharing our favorite small businesses through word of mouth improves our standard of living
• CommentLuv Your Way to Business Prosperity

Yesterday I offered a Make YOUR Business Memorable Memorial Day Giveaway Marathon DO IT NOW Session so that one fortunate small business could benefit from everything in my Small Business Internet Marketing Starter Package and then some.

The other benefit:

Their business will be featured in
multiple Case Studies and
receive links from other blogs
I publish on showing
before and after results.

I should have known a fellow blogger like Kelli would be the most enthusiastic when it came to what I offer because she is much further along in understanding how to promote yourself online.

ANNOUNCEMENT: I’ve decided to do TWO giveaways because…

By working with Kelli to promote her new best deals blog (Follow her new Twitter account @Deals3BD) I can demonstrate to bloggers how they can collaborate with two to four bloggers in their niche and push ALL their blogs to the top. Some very interesting Case Studies and before and after stats will come from that project.

While I am excited about that too, my intention was to show small businesses how much getting their free advertising in Local Search Directories, having them featured in blog posts, and teaching them how to effectively grow and use Twitter can benefit them.

WANTED: At least one small business to feature in Case Studies!

I would love to write a compelling story here about why what I do works – but the problem is that every business owner is starting from a different level of experience. It is simply not possible to explain what I do and while I’m happy to teach them if the want to know – success does NOT require understanding 99% of what I can do for them.

Instead of me teaching them how…
…how about me just getting it done!

How much research and how many ebooks, courses, blog posts have we all seen? Have we implemented everything we’ve read? NO! Why? Either we don’t know how and really have no interest in learning how OR we don’t have the time. I have come to realize for many things I do not want someone to teach me how, or to take a course – no matter how good it is. I just want what is important DONE already.

And I want it done by the best – optimized and effective.
Yesterday – or at least TODAY – not next week, month or year.

So let’s get TUIT. If you’re a small business that wants to see results and is ready to get started immediately, leave a comment. Since I know news doesn’t spread as fast in small business circles there is no deadline. I’ll pick one business by next Monday, but if you have a great business and are enthusiastic about making this happen I might pick you too!  What do you have to lose?

If you know of a small business that is not sure what the most effective way to use the Internet to market their products and services please share this post with them.

Although I have previously shared what the most important Small Business Internet Marketing Priorities are, most business owners could use assistance in effective Internet Marketing.

After years of testing it is obvious to me what businesses need and to make it super simple I am making this special offer of a complete Internet Marketing package at a price any business can afford:

Only $570 total one time expense.
Provides an online profile of your business.
PLUS online advertising across major sites.
No recurring fees – no ad costs.

I have detailed below precisely what is included but you do NOT need to understand any of this for it to benefit you and your business. 

First and most important, you need to choose and register a domain name YOU control so that every link pointing at you online is YOURS and all the time and effort put into promoting your business is preserved indefinitely. (Don’t worry if you don’t know how – we can do it for you.)

Your domain name can be pointed to any page or site on the Internet and changed to any other page or site whenever you choose. By having a copy of everything created for you, you can restore it at any time.

If your Facebook page goes away or a blog owner stops updating
YOU have full control of your creative content
AND the very important incoming links!

The reason this is called a STARTER PACKAGE is because YOU do not have to KNOW or DO anything by yourself. All of this is included:

1. Send you an interview to complete so that we can create a Featured Business page complete with photos on GrowMap (or another established site that best fits your business). This featured page will be almost instantly indexed in the search engines to serve as your landing page on the Internet. If you already have a Web site, we will write a featured blog post linking to your site for the phrase you most want to be found for in the search engines – this is your best anchor text phrase.
2. Do keyword research to determine what search keywords your business can most benefit from writing about on your business page and including in your local search listings. Determine your best categories for directory listings.
3. List your business in Local Search Directories.
4. Claim and upgrade your business listings on Google Places and the other Ten Most Important Local Search Directories.
5. Set up your Twitter account, write your bio, add an Avatar and start following Twitter users who will be most interested in what you have to offer.
6. Identify high quality blogs in your niche and feed related blogs into your Twitter account so you have interesting reasons those who might buy from you will follow you and so others in your niche will retweet and recommend you.
7. Teach you or your employee or consultant Twitterquette and Twitter Best Practices on how to interact successfully on Twitter.

This is a complete basic action plan
that is doable for any small business.

What YOU Would Need to Do Yourself:

The only things you really have to do yourself are:

1. Brainstorm ideas for the best domain name. If you wish we can provide a list of choices to make that easier – all you have to do is pick one (or more if you like).
2. Complete a survey with basic information about your business such as name, address, phone number, business hours, products and services.
3. Be willing to answer questions and provide additional information about your business so your listings can be as complete as possible.
4. Provide digital photos to use in your profile and listings. Someone you already know will have a digital camera or cell phone with a camera built in and know how to email photos to me.
5. Have someone available to answer the phone to claim your Google Places and other business listings.
6. Be willing to learn how to send simple tweets on Twitter.

EVERYTHING else will be done for you!
There is no reason your business can not succeed
at having a basic online presence,
building a following at Twitter,
being far easier to locate online and in cell phone,
other handheld devices that can access the Internet
and GPS systems commonly found in new cars.

All for $570
A one-time investment that keeps working indefinitely.

Yes, there are many more things you can do to promote your business on the Internet, but this covers the minimum and most powerful methods for getting more new business and retaining existing customers. Once you get comfortable with this you can expand to Facebook or LinkedIn or using any other method – but start here first and do this well.

This WILL work for you – even if you don’t even have an email address. (We can help you with that, too.)

Know a business that doesn’t even USE the Internet?
Do them a HUGE favor: Print out this page and HAND IT TO THEM!

What if you can’t even afford the $570? Maybe the economy is killing your business and you’re already hurting. I have four options for you:

1. While it would be best to get all these things done immediately, you could pay for each of the 7 steps above as you can afford them at $81.43 each.
2. We might be able to trade what you do for these services, especially if you are in the Dallas area and do anything related to home improvement or repairs.
3. If you can afford to donate $77 to a food bank or similar good cause of your choosing, I will give you an hour of my time to determine what you can do yourself and how I can assist you.
4. If even that is out of reach and you really need assistance, contact me. While I can not help everyone, I will assist as many as I can.

Click Image to Learn about the Benefits of Collaborative Consumption

Thank you, Danny Iny (@DannyIny on Twitter), for linking to my blog so I would see your guest post on Danny Brown’s excellent Social Marketing blog about Commenting Communities. (Follow @DannyBrown on Twitter.) Danny Iny offers a Marketing Training program on his Firepole Marketing Blog.

I look at every incoming link and when they are of high quality – and especially when they are on a blog I read regularly – I will usually want to contribute to the discussion and share that post across social networks.

What those of us who love CommentLuv and regularly comment on each others’ blogs (at least when we can make the time) do and what this post suggests are vastly different. We do not “require” anyone to comment anywhere. We simply have blogs we regularly read and share and when we have something to contribute we comment.

What we have are informal COLLABORATING communities.

When I talk of collaborating what I mean is that bloggers should be aware of other quality bloggers in their own niche, join in discussions that are pertinent to their experience, and then share those posts and discussions with those they interact with on social media.

I do NOT recommend any contrived systems
that mandate who has to comment where and how often.

When we comment or link it should be because
we have something relevant to contribute.

I do not believe we need to create fire-walled communities. I DO believe niche blogging communities are growing in importance. I encourage bloggers to read what people such as Heather Stephens (@StephensHeather on Twitter) who has extensive experience to share regarding commenting tribes.

The primary difference between what we do and what most tribes and groups require is the REQUIRING part. We do what we can do as much as we can when we can and we don’t worry about whether others are or are not “doing their fair share”. I understand the desire to make sure others are contributing; I just do not feel a need to control what others are doing.

Do you REALLY want to kick out your best collaborators because they are too busy to ALWAYS do x, y or z but when the are more available they are wonderful? Life gets in the way. Many are dealing with health issues and emergencies – their own and others – and the frequency of those is going to continue to escalate.

All we need is for bloggers to do is this:

Identify the blogs that are most related to your own
Focus most of your time reading, commenting
and sharing those specific blogs.

Up until now, most bloggers’ audiences have been other bloggers and they have written about how to blog, how to use social media, how to monetize your blog, affiliate marketing strategies and so on.

Now what bloggers need to do is take the skills they have collectively learned and apply those to creating a better world. IMHO, the best way to do that is to create a group blog for a specific geographic area that targets a specific very large niche but does not exclude other topics.

I particularly like the home improvement or home and garden niche
because it is so large, is a regular part of most people’s lives
and encompasses so many small businesses.

For example:

• Dallas Fort Worth Home Improvement (one I am creating here on GrowMap – and if anyone else is doing the same please connect with me)
• Los Angeles Home and Garden
• Chicago Home Improvement – a Chicago paper had a great blog on this but today even after multiple searches I can not find it. I’ll add it when I do.
• Florida

Note that bloggers can select the geographic area that best fits their local area. Texas is a good example, because we have different areas based on how far it is to a major city:

• Austin, Texas Metro
• Waco / Temple / Killeen (and surrounding rural areas)
• DFW (Dallas Fort Worth and surrounding counties)
• Florida – you pick the area that fits
• New York State or New York City or New York Metro – only someone in New York will know what you call the greater New York area

Bloggers need to be aware of how people find what they need to buy.

Those who live in small towns buy some things local and generally travel to the closest large city to buy other things. The target audience of small businesses around you is NOT just the people in that large city – it is all the people for whom that is the closest place to physically shop.

I am also encouraging bloggers to create blogs for their communities
such as this one I am starting for Kaufman, Texas.

I chose that specific city because they are one of the few
still thriving small towns.

We need to find and promote the survival of small communities
and create new ones wherever we are.

They will be key to improving the quality of life and ensuring adequate healthy food is available for those who live in each area. I want to leave you with this infographic that clearly illustrates a point I’ve been trying to get across to everyone I interact with: When you buy local you keep money and prosperity circulating for everyone versus having that money hoarded by the few offshore.

Why Buy Local? To Keep Your Local Economy Circulating and Increase Economic Stability Where You Live - Click the Image to go to the Original Post and See Full Size Image

As you can see from the infographic:

Buying locally keeps $73 of every $100 in circulation
versus only $43 of dollars spent in non-locally owned stores
which includes corporate big box stores.

As we strengthen our local communities and encourage small businesses to source more of what they sell closer to home even more prosperity will stay and support local giving and public services – making your city and county one of the few not having a fiscal meltdown.

Bloggers are called to make a difference by taking their knowledge, internalizing it as wisdom, and then facilitating the spread of what needs to be done across large areas. I am here to assist any blogger, business, organization or community who asks regardless of ability to pay. (In other words, do not allow not having money to spend or a current budget to keep you from contacting me.)

Read more about how creating Group Geo-Targeted Niche Blogs positions your blog where the money is so that by supporting your local businesses and communities you can also make an income you can live on.

Are you a local business? Find out how GrowMap can assist you.

Click Image to read Twitter for Business: How to Geo Target Twitter for Small Business Local Social Media

Several weeks ago I tweeted about the importance of bloggers becoming active on BizSugar and offering small business advice. One of my regular followers asked WHY is it important.

(I would have linked him here, but alas Twitter search does not go back that far and I can not recall who asked. If you let me know I will link to you.)

Up until now, bloggers have primarily been writing about how to blog, how to use social media, and how to make money online. The most active readers, commentators, and distributors of blog content are other bloggers.

Now is the time for us to take what we learned and
apply that to creating a better world for everyone.

One thing that has become readily apparent over the past several years I’ve been blogging is that blogging is complicated. Only those who either have technical skills or the resources to hire them should install their own blogs. Once the blog is up and running, WordPress (or any other blogging platform) must be kept up to date, plugins need to be managed, and whenever one is updated it can cause technical difficulties with others.

Beyond the blog itself, there is even more to know and do from link building to developing social media best practices to growing communities of readers, followers and collaborators. All of this takes time, knowledge and especially wisdom, but unless you do it all well bloggers are highly unlikely to earn a living wage UNLESS they can reach a specific audience.

Reaching a specific niche geo-targeted
audience is the logical next step for bloggers.

WHY is focusing on growing a geo-targeted niche blog important?

Let me count the reasons:

1. Because shopping locally is the solution to global economic decline, reducing environmental damage, and creating a better standard of living for all involved.
2. Shopping locally requires being able to find the best small businesses locally – and they are primarily operating off-line and are not particularly Internet savvy.
3. Those businesses need to be found soon or they won’t exist, but it is not logical for them to carry the overhead or acquire the expertise needed to have their own blogs.
4. Bloggers who are interested in sustainable living are interested in and need to find those businesses anyway – so why not offer them your much-needed services and share what you find?
5. Since you’re going to be sharing those local businesses, it just makes sense to grow a local, niche audience for your blog.
6. If your [existing or new] blog is heading in that direction and reaching your local, niche audience it is the perfect place for the Web presence of those small businesses to “live”.
7. You could go it alone, but aren’t we all starting to publish and contribute more guest posts anyway? When a group is involved there can be more content and more promotion so you can grow more efficiently.

IMPORTANT: You need to get involved in BLOG COLLABORATIONS
See Blogging Collaboration Best Practices for details.

I’m going to kick this idea off by adding a BizMeme section here at GrowMap with a Dallas Metro page (Dallas Ft. Worth and surrounding cities, counties and communities).  Within that section I will create pages for specific areas starting with the City of Kaufman because they still have a thriving small town thanks to Wal-Mart not yet coming to their town.

If you are in the Dallas Metro area
please follow me on Twitter @DallasMetro.

If you are in Kaufman, TX
please follow me on Twitter @KaufmanTx.
And check out the new Kaufman, Texas page.

Everyone can assist me in spreading the word. We are going to find out how much reach a geo-targeted Twitter account can provide and see just how viable a business idea being the go-to blogger for your location and niche is.

If you have a blog or business that is related to the entire DFW Metro or Kaufman contact me to discuss collaborating.

Here is the bottom line:

1. Bloggers need to earn a living – ideally for most from blogging and social media.
2. Small businesses need to reach their local audience.
3. If the blogger can reach that audience, it makes sense for related small businesses to have bloggers provide them services from advertising to blog outreach to social media.

Most small businesses do NOT need to install their own blogs. What they need is a presence on ours. If they’re so inclined they could write their own posts, but most of them are more likely to need bloggers to do that for them. They could also use assistance setting up social media accounts and learning to use them.

There is a reason we have learned all that we have learned and have the reach and influence we have. Isn’t it about time we put it to good use?

Twitter for Business: How to Geo Target Twitter
for Small Business Local Social Media #smallbusiness

This is a guest post by Doug Bond,  the online marketing director for Andy’s Web Tools.

As a small business owner, launching a new website can seem overwhelming. Many questions need to be asked, and it’s difficult to know if you’re ready to begin the building process. But with the proper preparation building a new website can be easy, inexpensive and fun.

Here are 10 questions to help guide you through the thought process – knowing the answers to these questions will help make sure you’re prepared to begin your Web project.

1. What is the goal of your website?

You should build your website with a goal in mind. Are you trying to generate leads? Increase awareness of your services? Provide general information? Whatever your goal is your website should reflect your mission and help you achieve it.

2. Who is your target audience?

Your website cannot be everything to everyone. Determine your target audience, and frame your content and design around meeting their needs.

3. What information are your target customers seeking?

Determine what your customers are seeking and then make this information easy to find on the site. Choosing the right layout is crucial for the user experience.

4. What content will you need to create? What can you reuse from current marketing materials?

Think about the questions customers ask most often and consider how you can make this information visually appealing on the site. Remember, your content is what will make people linger on your site and make return visits. Make sure your information informs and engages.

5. What will your site look like? What photos do you need?

The design of your site should reflect the mission, vision and culture of your company. If you operate a kid-friendly restaurant, use design, colors and language that would appeal to a family. Make sure the site’s look and feel will attract its intended audience. As for photos, consider signing up with an inexpensive stock photo company such as istockphoto.com or fotolia.com. You only need to purchase them at 72 dpi and can often find them for $1 each!

6. How frequently do you plan to update the site?

Make sure you have your site set up in way that is easy for you to manage. If you do not want to make regular updates, do not use language that implies you will be.

7. How would you like your visitors to contact you?

Make it is easy for visitors to get in touch with you. Whether you want to be contacted by e-mail, telephone or an online submission form, visitors need be able to clearly identify the next step in the communication process.

8. What will your domain name be?

Your domain name is important. Potential customers need to be able to easily and instinctively locate your site. Do some research to see what is available, and then ask around to see what type of name your friends and colleagues are most likely to remember.

9. Will your customers be able to make purchases online?

Use a service that offers a shopping cart application. Having a shopping cart on the website gives customers the opportunity to purchase multiple items simultaneously without having to experience the frustration of clicking through to checkout multiple times.

10. How will your promote your site?

It’s fantastic that you are thinking about building a website, but you cannot build it and then expect people to intuitively know that it exists. Consider using social networks to create brand awareness, and make sure your website is listed on all marketing collateral.

If you can answer these 10 questions you are in a great position to start building. Andy’s Web Tools is here to help you through the entire process, including free webinars and great customer service. You will be amazed at how quick and easy it is to build a website.

About the Author

RELATED POSTS:

• Small Business Internet Marketing: Where to Start (growmap)
• Free Business Listings in Local Search Directories: How to Get Yours (growmap)

Businesses and consumers alike must learn to use discernment in evaluating the validity and accuracy of the reviews they read online.  When I read the comments in blogs, forums and on Social Networking sites it is apparent to me that many have never heard this old saying:

“Don’t believe everything you read”.

For reviews to benefit us as consumers to know which businesses and products we can trust, more people who can write accurately and honestly need to be contributing their opinions. The more individual reviews there are the more likely we are to find the truth.

Click the Image to see stats from EZLocal on where Google pulls reviews

Valid reviews benefit us all. They allow us to avoid businesses that offer horrible service, save us from losing money buying bad products, and discover small businesses that really care about us.

We must hold business communities like Merchant Circle and Yelp accountable for their actions and not allow them to charge businesses protection fees or encourage them to allow merchants to manipulate real reviews.

At the same time we do not want to allow any individual to use the threat of bad reviews to hold businesses hostage or businesses to sue over bad reviews. Although we have no control of what others do, the bad behavior of some who claim to be online reviewers reflects poorly on us all.

Do your favorite small businesses, friends and neighbors a favor and write reviews of their businesses and services and add product reviews after you use what you buy.  To make that easier for you see the section under the bold heading Where to Write Reviews in our post about Supporting Small Businesses.

Related articles

• Top 10 Local Search Directories By Importance (growmap.com)

This is a guest post about one of the sponsors of the FamousBloggers CommentLuv $3550 CASH PRIZES Blogging Contest by Donna Fontenot (aka DazzlinDonna) who says about herself, “I’m a near-dinosaur in the SEO world, but I don’t really consider myself an SEO. I’m an online entrepreneur, affiliate marketer, and ebusiness coach among other things. Mainly, I’m a geek making a living online.”.

If you’ve ever wanted to dip your toes into selling retail products but you weren’t sure if you should risk buying huge amounts of inventory, you may want to start with a company that allows you to buy in whatever quantities you choose. One such wholesaler is Olympiceyewear, which sells wholesale designer sunglasses and sports goggles by the dozen. Sunglasses are great products to sell because they are items that everyone needs, and they also come built in with a “cool factor”. Everyone knows that the right shades immediately embodies the wearer with a touch of “cool”.

Olympiceyewear has over 1000 attractive styles to choose from, and everything you see on their site is in stock, available for order and prompt delivery. To ensure that you get exactly what you want, you can choose from:

• Assorted Dozen (1 model of sunglasses in assorted colors)
• Single Color Dozen (1 model of sunglasses in single color)
• Assorted Models Dozen (assorted models of sunglasses in assorted colors)< ?li>

As a customer, you can use the images of the sunglasses you sell, and Olympiceyewear will replace the Olympic Eyewear water mark with your company logo or name. This gives you the ability to hide the source of your distributor from competitor’s eyes, and gives your business extra credibility.

Suggested retail price of the sunglasses you’ll sell is $10-$15 each, and at that price you should be able to do well, especially if you set up in a location with high foot traffic. Many of the styles I looked at were priced at wholesale for less than $20 per DOZEN, and of course, the more you buy, the bigger discount you receive. That ends up coming out to a pretty decent profit margin.

Two of the questions I would usually ask are actually answered on their FAQ.

Are your sunglasses legal to sell? Can they cause vision problems?

All sunglasses offered by this web site are absolutely legal to sell and to own. They do not violate any copyrights or registered trademarks. Moreover, we guarantee our sunglasses to be certified and to comply with or exceed USA and European Standards for Eyewear.

• CE passed
• ISO9001 passed
• EN1863:1997 passed

Complies with US and European UV400 Lens Standard

Sunglasses at Olympiceyewear are of the same high level of UV protection as the sunglasses sold by expensive designer boutiques for $200-$400.

If you’ve been thinking of selling your own products, but were afraid to jump in too deep, this could be a good way to start while you acquire the knowledge and experience to swim in the deep end of the retail sales business pool.

Now that you’ve got the itch for selling sunglasses, why not scratch the itch to make a comment on my contest post, 5 Steps To Impressing A Longtime Jaded Blogger With Your Comments or tweet a link to it. We’ll all be glad you did.

Great Depression Soup Line

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Even if the economy is not directly impacting you or your family, it will do so indirectly.

Each person who reduces their spending for any reason will cause the businesses you use regularly to have lower sales.

Declining sales may cause these businesses to lay off employees. As more people are laid off the ripple affect could cause even exceptional businesses you love to fail.

Are you visiting your favorite restaurants, shops and service providers as often and spending as much as you once did? Are they still thriving?

There are simple actions each of us can do to support your favorite businesses. One easy way to thank them and send them new customers is to add a review for them on the sites below.

WHERE TO WRITE REVIEWS:

• Yahoo! Local – If you have a Yahoo ID simply enter a location and the name of a business and click Write a Review
• Google Maps – If you have a Google Account simply enter the name of a business and where they are and click Write a Review
• MyLocalLookup – Simply search for any business and click Rate It. You don’t even need an account. Businesses can get a free MyLocalLookup listing.
• Yelp is a community oriented around specific locations. It is a great way to find out which businesses others in your geographic area prefer. Sign up for a Yelp account to read and leave reviews of local businesses and receive discounts and coupons. Businesses should strongly consider getting a Free Yelp business account and reviewing other businesses they use.
• Merchant Circle is another geo-targeted community where neighbors share their opinions of the businesses they use, see special offers, discounts and coupons. Businesses can get a free MerchantCircle listing and consumers can save time and money using the new MerchantCircle Neighbors and Q&A programs.

Every business should have a listing in each of these sites. The easy way is to use the Universal Business Local Search Listing service.

If you are willing to write a review for any business and can not find them on the above sites share this information and link with them. You may be instrumental in keeping them in business. Encourage them to either use that service or at least manually add their business to the above five sites so you can review them and they can be found online.

If you are a business planning to review other businesses be sure to read How to Write a Review and How NOT to Write a Review. While those posts were specifically about Merchant Circle, the advice they contain applies to any site that accepts reviews. Note that some sites prohibit soliciting or incentivizing reviews so be sure to read their Terms of Service carefully.

Many traditional offline businesses will not understand the importance of being easy to find in digital local directories.

Even people who have no computer are looking for you online and you really need to be easy to locate. Let me share a couple examples of why this is so very important.

• Your loyal customer with a GPS (standard in many cars today and popular as a handheld device) decides to call to see how late you are open or whether you take a particular credit card. They can’t find you so they don’t know if you will be closed – but they DO find a coupon for a competitor they never knew about before. You may have just lost a customer.
• Most of your customers have cell phones now. Did you know they can use a cell phone to look for you from anywhere? When is the last time you saw a pay phone booth with a printed copy of the yellow pages anywhere? If they can’t find your phone number they WILL find other special offers from other businesses. How many more customers can you afford to lose and stay in business?

Tamar's StumbleUpon Avatar

If you use Social Networking sites like Twitter, FriendFeed,StumbleUpon, Facebook, Reddit or any others you can recommend your favorite businesses online.

I highly recommend first reading Tamar Weinberg’s Social Media Handbook.

Business Owners should read her book The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web.

Facebook is the most challenging to figure out of all the Social Networking sites so I would not even think of using it without first reading Jesse Stay’s and Jason Alba’s I’m on Facebook; Now What? How to Get Business and Professional Value From Facebook.

Wondering how you can Promote Blogs and Businesses Online?

Review their content, Tweet about them, go out of your way to share when others ask for recommendations – each of these actions may seem small but can make all the difference.

Do only share what you believe in and what others will find interesting.

I am a huge proponent for small businesses and in this economy many can really use our help. I am asking that bloggers join me in a new Meme.

I propose that we each blog about our favorite small businesses and give them linkluv with the best possible anchor text to make them easy to find.

We can publish each others’ efforts and even organize them by niche and make more comprehensive posts available as guest posts. Don’t worry about all that for now.

Do your favorite businesses a favor – publish a post about them.

Downturns in the housing industry, residential and commercial construction, and real estate have been particularly severe so remember any friends, family or businesses you work with that operate in those areas.

As spending is reduced, businesses must become more visible and attract leads and sales from a larger geographic area.

Good Millwork Avatar

Good Millwork is an excellent role model for traditional businesses for how to use the Internet and Social Media to expand their market.

They installed two SEO optimized WordPress blogs using the Thesis Theme that are highly interactive blogs with threaded comments.

Both of their blogs are 100% dofollow and have CommentLuv and KeywordLuv installed which allows other businesses and bloggers to benefit from reading and commenting in them.

KeywordLuv allows you to select what keyword phrase is linked to your site. Many consider this the most important factor in getting better search engine positions. Where your site ranks in the search engines determines how much traffic your site receives.

By supporting high quality small businesses like Good Millwork you can benefit your own business and make you both easy to find online. Visit their sites. Blog about them and be sure to link the words that are most beneficial.

Here are some examples so you understand the concept.

• Architects would  want to know that they can use the architectural molding search tool to choose from over 10,000 molding profiles and approved 3D downloadable CAD drawings which can be downloaded absolutely free for architectural drawings.
• Contractors, Real Estate and Home Improvement sites might be interested to know they manufacture architectural moldings including crown molding, baseboards, chair rail and cabinet moldings from over 200 types of wood including real mahogany and deadhead sinker cypress. They are one of the few mills with access to genuine mahogany manufacturing mahogany moldings.
• Green builders and those interested in the environment could feature their ecofriendly TimberSIL products including exterior shutters and fire-rated wood siding. TimberSIL qualifies for up to 14 LEED credits. They also custom mill reclaimed lumber and customer supplied lumber.
• If you love do it yourself projects look for their how-to posts such as How to Install Crown Molding Like a Pro.

I included these examples so you could clearly see what proper anchor text usage looks like.

Notice that I did NOT link to the names of their blogs.

If you are searching for the name you already know about their site. We want to help Internet users who don’t know the name of his or your business find them.

Notice that I DID link to the best keyword phrases for each product or the phrase someone seeking specific information would type into a search engine.

I even shortened the link to How to Install Crown Molding Like a Pro to include only the strongest part of that phrase.

I also hope to encourage other bloggers to add some or all of these links to your site to benefit this fine business.

Why would a blogger want to do that for a business they don’t know? I have introduced you so now you do know them. Here are some reasons why I believe collaborating with Good Millwork and Good Moldings will benefit your blog or business:

1. They are providing you a way to leave comments that benefit your blog, or any business that wants to interact with them, or even to allow Search Engine Marketing companies to benefit their client’s businesses. (We recognize that not all business owners have the time to manage their own commenting and Social Networking.)
2. Good Millwork and Good Moldings are very active on Social Networks including Twitter (GoodMillwork, Moldings, CrownMoldings, MoldingDesign, ReclaimedWood), StumbleUpon, FriendFeed, Facebook and Delicious.

I’ve even made it easy by making each paragraph and this entire post easy to reblog using the Zemanta browser plugin. If you don’t use Zemanta contact me or @GrowMap at Twitter and I can email the html for the entire post or any particular section.

I will even work for free one-on-one with anyone who needs assistance with keyword research, using anchor text or reblogging.

Like this blog, Good Millwork and Good Moldings believe in paying it forward. We are all happy to publish guest posts and add links for deserving businesses, blogs and non-profits to posts we write.

If you include any links for Good Millwork on your site or share content for them on Social Networks, please leave a comment in this post or contact us on Twitter, FriendFeed or StumbleUpon or use our contact form to let us know. We WILL go out of our way to return the favor.

GUEST POSTS:

• List your blog and find blogs in your niche using MyBlogGuest created by SEOSmarty SEO Consulting Services Blog – (Twitter)
• Use Unique Article Wizard (UAW) to generate and distribute unique articles to hundreds of article directories and blogs. See the trackbacks on this Crown Molding post to evaluate the quality.
• Automatically generate a unique version of that Crown Molding related article. (Click the link, then copy and paste a unique version of that article.)

We will be writing posts about MyBlogGuest and UAW with more information on these exceptional finds. They are both fairly new and their instructions are not always clear. The UAW system will become easier to use as they continue to improve it, but still complex because it is so powerful. Help spread the word by Tweeting This Post!

Help spread the word – Tweet This Post!

Use This TweepML link to easily follow Twitter accounts mentioned in this post

Want to participate but need something easier? See the BizLuv MEME template.

• My Why Marketing is Not Evil post provides even more details on why we simply MUST stop supporting multi-national corporations who have already transferred half of all the wealth to an elite few and use the rest to take advantage of the poor everywhere. Please do read it.
  

USD DECLINING

These posts show proof that the USD has been in decline for a long time. This is extremely serious for all Americans.

• Why is the Dollar Losing Value and What Does That Mean for U.S. Citizens?
• 1999 and 2010 Similarities in USD Value (Mar 4, 2010)
• What the Greek Bailout Means for the EuroZone and the USD (May 4, 2010)
• Forex Trading: Greek Debt Concerns Take Heavy Toll on EUR (May 5, 2010)
• How the Crisis in Greece may bring USD up to parity with the Euro (May 5, 2010)

REAL ESTATE ECONOMIC STATUS:

Posts indicating how seriously the U.S. real estate has declined. Do not be fooled by temporary recovers in certain areas – the overall economy will keep declining. The sliding value of the U.S. dollar will attract buyers who have stronger currencies so that is one bright spot you could use.

• StreetWise - (Twitter) – The Real Estate Industry Should Not Get Too Excited About 4Q09 GDP Growth (Jan 31, 2010)
• YourHome.CA (Canada) – Real Estate Marketing Gurus See ‘Cautious Optimism’ for 2010 (Jan 30, 2010)
• REJournals – (Twitter) – U.S. to Follow Asia, Europe in Commercial Real Estate Recovery (Jan 19, 2010)
• U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Announces $2 Billion in Recovery Act Grants (Jan 14, 2010)
• Real Estate Industry News – (Twitter) – Commerical / Multifamily Real Estate Market Continues to Feel Effects of Economic Downturn (Jan 6, 2010)
• Tampa Florida Real Estate – (Twitter) – Tampa Market Update Jan 2010, Tampa to Receive HUD Economic Recovery Act Grant Money
• Alabama Real Estate – (Twitter) – Alabama Real Estate Sales in October 2009 show first positive year over year results since July 2007
• National Real Estate Investor – (Twitter) – Real Estate Downturn of the Early ’90s Differs From Today’s Crash in Important Ways (Nov 2, 2009)

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