Business, Social Media
& Online Marketing

I can admit it – when I started out in a career in sales, I was that cheesy guy using every hard close in the book. There I was, 17 years old working at Future Shop, peddling cell phones and fax machines. I was using sales techniques with names like the columbo or the puppy dog close. What’s worse is that  because I was selling low priced goods, my techniques were mildly successful. This only fed my ego and further convinced me that I was on the right path, …

SaaS – Software as a service makes it brilliantly easy to run a cost-effective business, while still having sophisticated tools at your fingertips. Online billing systems are one great example. I’ve selected five options that will enable you to manage your billing, track time and expenses, process online payment and much more. I’m starting with my online billing system of choice – FreshBooks.
FreshBooks offers a feature-rich application that allows you to create, send and manage invoices, track your company’s time and expenses, and receive online payment through a host of different …

Cloud computing is the future of technology. Most techies would say the present. It’s the shift from running software applications locally on your computer to online applications that run “in the cloud” – the cloud being the internet. You pay a monthly service fee to use these “software as a service” or “SaaS” applications and they are accessible anywhere you are connected to the internet.
This type of business model also makes it easy for smaller companies to use sophisticated software cost-effectively. Most SaaS companies have scalable step functions in their …

Writing content that is unique and relevant to your target audience should always be your main goal when creating a new blog post. Never sacrifice the quality of your message just to improve your search engine optimization. Fortunately, many of the things that make your content Google friendly also make your content better.
Use these guidelines to write Google Friendly Content

One Page/One Topic: Remember that Google likes . As long as your content includes relevant highly ranked keywords, you give your page a good chance to be indexed highly by Google.
Include …

When it comes to affiliate marketing, choose wisely. There are some great offers out there with which you can make a considerable amount of money. But, there are others that can be both a waste of time and money. It’s also important to target campaigns that fit in with the content of your site.

Find your niche:
Since there is no shortage of options, find ones that are in line with your interests. By promoting  products & services in a field that fascinates you, you’ll be able to market them with passion. …

Keywords are an important part of any Search Engine Marketing (SEM) program. As keywords are an integral part of Google Adwords, they need to be thoroughly researched in order to get the maximum return on your investment. In this article I’ll explain how to research keywords using Google’s Keyword tool.
Getting Started
The first step in creating a keyword list for your website is to simply brainstorm potential keywords and phrases. Put yourself in the shoes of your target audience and ask yourself what terms they might use to find your site’s …

If you’re  looking to increase your online popularity and drive more traffic to your site, you aren’t alone. With stiff competition out there, building a good blog with well written content may not be enough to accomplish your goals.
Guest writing articles on other sites with similar topics as yours is an efficient way to further your company or personal brand. It also works as an effective method of search engine optimization by creating relevant backlinks to your website.
Where can you find opportunities to guest write?
Start by searching Google or looking …

If you’ve ever tried to add a stylish e-mail signature to your Gmail or Hotmail account, you probably weren’t successful. That’s because you can’t add html to many web based e-mail programs. That is, until now!
I recently found an extremely useful free Firefox plugin called Wisestamp. With it, you can create e-mail signatures like these in seconds.

Wisestamp lets you add all kinds of goodies to your e-mail signature such as your company logo, social media profiles,  Instant messaging usernames and even a RSS feed option that lets you post a …

Building your company brand has been in practice for years.  But, the Internet has drastically changed the way that your brand should be managed today. Successful companies and people understand that their target audience needs to identify with their brand. Social networking sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook allow you to communicate with your audience in real time and establish a personal connection . It also provides you with a great tool to monitor what others are saying about your brand.
How can you build your brand using social media …