Should I Start a New Business and If So, How Do I Start?

 

 

 

Most people start with an idea and then ponder the question about what type of entity type should I start with for a new business? This post is more about when you decide to start a new business rather than “if” you should start anew business. We will reserve the tax implications to a CPA who can adequately provide advice about this subject, however, if you want to start small and grow big, use the Sole Proprietorship. Beyond that, the following links are available, mostly for free, to those who seek to advance their business in the digital space.

Sole Proprietorships can be constructed with minimum efforts and with very dollars, which should be better spent on marketing your business in order to make your first profitable dollar!

Texas Sole Proprietorships can follow these easy steps to start your business (most states follow a similar path to creating a business):

 

1.      You need a plan and financials, and a forecast to predict your success, and to measure it.

a.       www.sanantonio.score.com – see “Templates & Tools” templates

2.      Decide on a name.

a.       Simple, yet conveying your product or service idea

3.      Register the business name as sole proprietor:

a.       Sole proprietor – with your County Clerk of Courts

b.      Doing Business As (DBA) is filed to ascertain you can use your name

c.       Bexar County Clerk http://gov.bexar.org/dc/Locations.html

                                                               i.     
Paul Elizondo Tower
101 W Nueva Suite #217
San Antonio, TX 78205-3411
(210) 335-2113

                                                             ii.      $21 cash for filing, $6 Notary fee and you get a certified copy

4.      Register the business name with Texas Secretary of State:

a.       Limited Liability Corporation with SOS Direct

b.      www.sos.state.tx.us/corp/sosda/

c.       Doing Business As (DBA) is filed to ascertain you can use your name

5.      Request an IRS employer ID number.

a.       Establishes a separate Social Security account for your business

b.      Get your EIN online www.ein-gov.us

6.      Request a tax certificate for the Texas Comptroller.

a.       You need this to pay sales tax to the State

b.      http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/taxforms/01-forms.html#Resale

7.      Open a business checking account.

a.       You’ll need proof of identification

                                                               i.      Federal EIN

                                                             ii.      LLC Articles of Incorporation/Certificate of Formation

                                                            iii.      DBA Certificate

                                                           iv.      *Texas State certified Articles of Incorporation for corporate entities

8.      Get your business cards.

a.       Logos should be simple and convey your product or service

b.      http://www.vistaprint.com

9.      Insurance and bonding? Talk with your local Independent Insurance Agent

10.  Employees?

a.       Register with Texas Unemployment Commission

b.      You’ll need a process for payroll – software, bookkeeper or CPA

11.                       You’re ready to start selling! Good luck.

 

 There are many considerations for your marketing plan. Should you decide that it is prudent to market through the digital or Internet channel, and then we’ve included some ideas for you to increase the chances of your success.

 

STARTERS GUIDE TO SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

 

Demystifying social media just means that you’ll gain a little knowledge in areas you may not be familiar with yet. We hope this guide is helpful in getting you started with your efforts to integrate social media marketing into your existing ad campaigns and marketing platforms.

 

SOCIAL MEDIA SITES TO HELP YOU INCREASE YOUR REACH AND INTERNET AWARENESS

 

FACEBOOK – create an account: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

 

The idea is to create a Fan Page to help brand your company, expand your Internet reach, create awareness, engage potential customers, and convert them into clients. A client who recommends you and refers people is the ultimate cheap marketing acquisition!

 

If you want to go viral, and then add a Facebook advertisement within your budget to drive traffic to your websites for contact information, increase Likes on your Fan Page or drive traffic to a landing page for converting visitors into clients…

 

Add the Facebook LIKE or RECOMMEND button that you find on Facebook written in HTML, XML or iFrame language, and add it to website or Fan Page to encourage people who visit to recommend you. Your goal is to get your Facebook commenters to visit your website or Landing Page to convert them into clients.

 

Check out this easy, beginner guide to Facebook by Hubspot: http://www.hubspot.com/marketing-ebook/how-to-use-facebook-to-grow-your-business/?source=20111227-email-l-facebook-intro-guide-2011

 

Blogging or posting to Facebook should be done at least 10 – 20 times per month, and done at the beginning of the day or end of the day so more traffic can read your posts. The news cycle on FB posts is about 2 -3 hours.

 

TWITTER – create an account:  https://twitter.com/signup

 

If you’re able, align your Twitter Username to your business name, product or service. Twitter’s purpose is to utilize short posts or Tweets to promote your business, service or product.

 

Tweet (post) as often as you are comfortable with – 1x /day is ample. Tweets generally do best (think 15 seconds of fame and communication life cycle) during the business day in your time zone.

 

Your Tweets should achieve redirecting consumers and fellow Tweeters to your website and your Facebook Fan Page, or a Landing Page you have set up to receive Twitter seekers.

 

Reweet your Friend to increase awareness across this social site, and awareness for your company.

 

Of course everyone says make the topic relevant, so try to make it concise (140 characters) or less and meaningful to the readers. Including links to other sites is encouraged. The news cycle on Twitter posts is about 30 minutes.

 

Check out this easy guide to B2B Twittering by OPTIFY: http://www.optify.net/guides/twitter-for-business-the-ultimate-b2b-guide/?optify_r=EMAIL&optify_rd=T4B%20Guide

YOUTUBE – create an account:  www.youtube.com/create_account

   

Google owns YouTube, so this takes you to Google to create a YouTube account. When marketers speak about viral, the way to make it spread across the Internet is to use video, the most powerful conversation and buzz tool on the Internet.

 

You need a YouTube account to post video, preferably 3 minutes and less relating to topics for your business, products and services. Use your other social sites such as your company blog, Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter to link the conversation to the YouTube videos. The news cycle on YouTube video depends on the success of the video and your links to it.

 

LINKEDIN – create an account: https://www.linkedin.com/reg/join

 

This is the site to be on for business. This is where networking pays. If you think about it, the influence measured across all platforms and sites is about how many people you reach, and that react to your messaging. Be sure to link your website, blog, Twitter and Facebook on your complete Linkedin profile. 100% profiles will generate 100 – 200 visits per day based upon which keywords you use in defining your profile.

 

Besides your personal professional profile, have all employees do the same, and don’t forget to fill out your company profile on Linkedin in order to be found! Success from Linkedin posts means the news cycle is during business hours and lasts up to one business day.

 

 

AGGREGATION SITES TO HELP YOU MANAGE FEWER POSTS ACROSS THE INTERNET

 

HOOTSUITE:create an account: hootsuite.com

 

Gather your social sites together at Hootsuite and reduce the number of times you need to post. Helps you schedule messages for a fee.

 

Schedule your Facebook posts and Tweets easily with this software.

 

SEESMIC- create an account: https://seesmic.com

 

Updates social networks for free: Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Flickr, MySpace, Tumblr, Digg and the list goes on…

 

SOCIALMADESIMPLE – create an account with free trial (paid site): www.socialmadesimple.com

 

Aggregates your major sites and coordinates the posts through their site – this provides single-point management, however, you still have to create the content so you can hire someone, or have an employee do this as opposed to pay for aggregation.

 

MONITORING SITES TO HELP YOU MANAGE YOUR INTERNET PRESENCE

GOOGLE ALERTS – create an account: www.google.com/alerts

Alerts take the form of emails for news, blogs, and all your keywords. This will help you deal with any “negative press” you get from Internet testimonials, or other mentions on the Internet.

SOCIAL MENTION: create an account: www.socialmention.com/

Alerts and metric to help you understand what you’re providing by way of Internet content and how others react to it.

TWEETDECK – create an account: by Twitter www.tweetdeck.com/login

Instantly manages all your sites at a glance, if you don’t mind the second-by-second updates. You can schedule a post on Tweetdeck as well.

ANALYZING SITES TO HELP YOU MANAGE DATA, INSIGHTS & ANALYTICS

These companies will help you understand what the data means: Oracle, SAP, AnalyticBridge, Google Analytics, Predictionimpact, & Radian6

FREE WEBSITE GRADERS

1. UpCity SEO Report Card – Ever wonder why we’re so tool-obsessed? Well, we offer a couple of tools of our own that we happen to think are pretty sweet. Not to toot our own horn or anything, but our free SEO Report Card provides you with some in-depth details about how well your site performs compared to your competition. Get feedback on your rank, link building, on-site SEO and more. Give it a shot. We promise you won’t be disappointed!
2. UpCity Local Report Card – Yeah, we talk a lot about the importance of local SEO. But we’re doing more than just talking with our free Local Report Card, which gives you a critical overview of your local visibility, with a rank analysis and insight into your local directory listings. Combine this report with our SEO Report Card for a broad overview of your online search visibility.
3. HubSpot’s Marketing Grader – HubSpot’s Marketing Grader looks at your website, social media presence, blog activity, email marketing campaigns, analytics and even mobile responsiveness. Another worthy report for keeping tabs on your efforts and whether they’re paying off.
4. Open Site Explorer – This free tool from SEOmoz provides in-depth data on your inbound links, your domain authority, page authority, total links, total domains linking to your site and more.
5. The Reaction Engine – The Reaction Engine offers a free report analyzing your website’s URI against a specified key phrase. Get a content summary including keyword density and total word count for the various page elements, find out your ranking and how many pages you have indexed on Google and Bing/Yahoo, and much more.
6. Pear Analytics – Pear Analytics’ Website Analysis Tool analyzes your site to determine your Alexa Rank, whether you have a site map, meta description, PageRank, page load times and much more. The results are provided in lists of things you should fix immediately, things you can fix over time and things for which you’re in the clear.
7. Nibbler – Nibbler provides scores on accessibility, user experience, marketing and technology along with key takeaways and points for improvement.
8. CrawlerFX – This tool analyzes the on-page factors contributing to your search rankings, including your Google PageRank, Domain Authority, Page Authority, inbound links, social media mentions, external links, keyword page density and much more.
9. SEMrush – Get a free instant report analyzing your organic keywords, your biggest competitors are in organic search, search engine traffic, ad keywords and ad effectiveness and more. All of this is delivered in an easy-to-understand visual format—pretty impressive for a free tool.
10. WebSiteOptimization.com – WebSiteOptimization.com offers a free tool to monitor your page load speeds. Simply enter your URI to calculate page size, composition, and download time—and get free tips on how to make it faster.
11. SEO Workers Analysis Tool – This easy-to-use tool offers an analysis of the page elements which are important to SEO, such as meta descriptions, title tags and more. For each element, you’ll get info on why it’s important, whether it’s relevant and within range and useful alternatives for some of the more outdated page elements. You’ll even get an analysis of the most relevant keywords and key phrases for your page.
12. SiteReportCard – Check for meta tag usage, find misspelled words and broken links, find out where you’re ranked in the SERPs, check link popularity and keywords and more with SiteReportCard’s free analysis tool.
13. My Site Grader – Get a free, in-depth analysis of your website’s visibility and rankings, along with useful tips to improve both. You can also compare your site to up to three competitors using MySiteGrader.
14. Analytics Checkup by Loves Data – Analytics Checkup by Loves Data is a free tool designed to help you get more out of Google Analytics. The tool checks your Google AdWords tracking, accuracy, goal setup, Site Search setup, default index page and more.
15. WooRank – WooRank analyzes your site and provides a list of top recommendations, such as write more content, build more backlinks, use more consistent keywords and other tips that will improve your search rankings. The tool analyzes your visibility via traffic, social media, mobile optimization and on-site SEO elements, such as titles and descriptions.
16. SuperMedia – Simply enter your website URI for a free report analyzing whether you have all the important SEO factors in place, including a site map, Facebook fan page, site description, keywords and more. You’ll get an overall score between 0 and 100, and you can download the PDF report for easy reference later.
17. SEO Sorcerer – This report covers 19 core SEO test groups, more than 90 base metrics and hundreds of combinations for an in-depth summary and analysis of your site’s performance. You’ll get a search engine overview with data on where you’re ranked, a social interaction report analyzing your social media presence, HTML & CSS standards validation and much more.
18. SitemapDoc – Find out where you’re ranked for certain keywords quickly and easily with this free tool. Simply enter your URI and keywords for an instant report of the top 64 results and find out whether you’ve made the list.
19. eMarketing4us – This free website analysis gives your site an overall grade between A and F, along with recommendations on areas you need to focus on to improve your score.
20. ReviewMyWeb – Enter your own site along with up to three competitors for a comparative analysis. Get an idea of where you stand on Google, Yahoo, blogging, social news, PPC and more.
21. Impulse Creative – Find out if your site is search-engine friendly, what domains are linking to you and other on and off-site ranking factors that are affecting your visibility with this free analysis from Impulse Creative.
22. SEOptimer – Enter your URI for your home page or any subpage to get recommendations to improve SEO. Get a list of specific actionable items, an analysis of your text/HTML ratio, a breakdown of your heading tags and bold text, internal links and more.
23. Web SEO Analytics – Get some essential stats on your website with Web SEO Analytics’ free tool, which provides your Global Rank, PageRank, domain links, domain trust, number of backlinks from .gov and .edu sites, the number of pages you have indexed in Google and Bing and more.
24. Alexa – Alexa’s free audit tool lets you enter your site URL for an instant report with your Alexa rank and the total number of incoming links to your site. Click on the number for a list of the top 100 sites linking back to you and on your domain name for detailed traffic stats, including an audience snapshot with demographics and more.
25. W3C Markup Validator Service – Is your markup up-to-date? If you’re using outdated markup, you could be affecting your website’s usability, search-engine friendliness and even mobile compatibility. Check your markup validity in HTML, XHTML, SMIL and MathML, or use W3C’s other free tools to evaluate CSS markup and other coding languages.

 

 

OTHER SITES THAT MAY BE OF HELP TO YOU

SKYPE – http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/get-skype/, lets you communicate across the Internet for Free or for a fee, depending on users.

ANIMATO - http://animato.com, let’s you add photos to create a slide show, or video.

FOURSQUARE – https://foursquare/com/v/setup/, let’s you check-in at each location, and build a network of friends who frequent the same locations, or invite your friends to network.

USTREAM – http://www.ustream.tv, let’s you add video by category.

WORDPRESS – http://wordpress.com, let’s you create a free blog (link it to your website), create a website and they will host it as well.

CLIKRIX – www.clikbrix.com, to get QR codes to promote your product and services.

KLOUT – www.klout.com, scores your Internet social activity.

PEERINDEX – www.peerindex.net, scores your Internet social footprint.

SOCIALOOMPH – www.socialoomph.com, Twitter on steroids. This site can schedule, reuse, track keywords, views and mentions, auto-reply Twitter, and other cool stuff.

CREATE REACH – LIST YOUR BUSINESS WITH: Yelp, Yahoo, Google Places, MapQuest, CitySearch, YellowBot, Local.com, WhitePages, Superpages, Google+, Plaxo, MySpace, AOL, Dunn&Bradstreet, Manta, and others…

CREATE BUZZ – PUBLISH FREE NEWS RELEASES AT:www.prlog.com, or paid syndication at: www.prweb.com and www.articlesbase.com

STAY CONNECTED – create reach with news sites and discussion boards: StumbleUpon, Digg, Disqus, Quora, Ushi, and others….

A FEW MARKETING SERVICE AND CONTENT CHAMPIONS: Marketo and Hubspot are Internet service companies to help you, for a fee, with solutions to search engine management (SEM) and it’s marketing babies SEO and SMM.

A FEW INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER/EMAIL AUTOMATION CHAMPIONS: Constant Contact, Eloqua, 123Greetings, and Lyris are Internet Service Providers to help you with email capabilities if you need to send more than one at a time for prospecting, loyalty, nurturing and contact management.

A FEW CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT CHAMPIONS: Sugar, Salesforce, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics, Omniprise, BPMonoline, InfusionSoft, & ClaritySoft.

A FEW PAYMENT SYSTEM OPTIONS: hostmerchantservices.com, paysimple.com, heartlandpaymentsystems.com, intuit.com, Paypal.com, paymentonline.com, 2checkout.com, pcworld.com & securepaymentsystems.com.

A FEW COMPANY AND WEBSITE TRUST CHAMPIONS: Better Business Bureau, National Federation of Independent Businesses, truste, & Verisign.

A FEW COMPANIES TO HELP YOU FIND YOUR DOMAIN NAME, AND HOST YOUR CHOICE: Hostgator, GoDaddy, & InternetHosting.

A FEW SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO) SITES TO HELP YOU ENHANCE YOUR WEBSITE RANK AND AUTHORITY (Getting found on the Internet search):

1. FREE – Google’s Keyword Suggestion Tool: A great resource for exploring keyword possibilities. Make sure to understand the different between broad match and exact match and also consider that this is a PPC tool. The number of estimated  searches are those conducted for a phrase, not estimated unique searchers.
2. FREE – SEO Quake: A great free extension for Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari. Gives quick access to key factors such as PageRank, position, age, etc. for the site appearing on a search results page. When on a site, more information is available such as quick links to diagnose issues, a link for following links for quick recognition, etc.
3. $99/month – SEOmoz: A whole slough of professional-grade tools make this worth the price of admission. Tools cover everything from links to onsite to social media.
4. FREE – Copyscape: The free version lets you check a page on your site to see how often it’s been copied (and if you rank well it probably has been). Also good for testing upcoming copy for potential issues.
5. $99/month – RavenTools: A full suite of SEO, link building, social media and advertising tools. It doesn’t quite match the SEOmoz suite for pure function but the reporting abilities have some advantages.
6. FREE – SEO For Firefox: A free Firefox extension from SEO Book. Along the lines of SEO Quake but different data sources.
7. FREE – XML Sitemaps: A free XML sitemap generator.

A FEW LINK BUILDING TOOLS TO HELP YOU CREATE LINKS TO YOUR WEBSITE:

Overlap – SEOmoz and RavenTools are listed under SEO tools but much of their suites are dedicated to link building.

1. ~$50/month (there is free access but it’s not overly useful) – Majestic SEO: Offers some very useful tools for tearing apart your competitor backlinks. From comparing multiple competitors to finding niche link hubs to break down individual domains into very thorough data, this is one of my go-to tools when I’m researching competitor backlinks.
2. FREE – Blekko: We were all sad when Yahoo! retired their link counts. Blekko is a solid backup with the classic link: command.

A FEW DEVELOPER TOOLS FOR THE MORE SKILLED:

1. FREE – Web Developer Toolbar: This Firefox extension gives you quick access to a number of useful functions such as turning on and off aspects of a page (images, scripts, etc.) Quick access to website verification tools, ability to outline elements on a page such as table cells and much, much more.
2. FREE – Webmaster Tools: Find errors on your site, broken links (both internal and external) and so much more.
3. FREE – Firebug: This Firefox extension allows you to look at any page on the web as usual or select specific elements and see what code (including lines in style sheets) is responsible for the appearance of that element. As you select different areas on the web page, Firebug changes the code displayed. Great for isolating issues and reviewing competitor’s code.
4. FREE – CSS Validator: A free W3C tool that validated your CSS for compliance.
5. FREE – Markup Validator: A free W3C tool for the validation of your code.
6. FREE – WAI (Accesssibility) Validator: Easily the most difficult of the validations this tools helps make sure your site complies with accessibility standards. If nothing else, you’ll end up with virtually perfect code if you can pull this off.
7. FREE – Xenu: Run a crawler over your site and find all your broken links.
8. FREE – Redirect Checker: Check the status of a redirect and make sure it’s delivering the right response.
9. FREE – Page Speed Test: Test the speed of your page and get suggestions on how to improve it. You can also compare the results with another site.

A FEW CONVERSION TOOLS TO CONVERT VISITORS TO YOUR WEBSITE:

1. FREE – Google Website Optimizer: Run A/B tests free with this tool from Google.
2. FREE – Google Analytics: It’s not possible to get into all the details and features here save to say, it’s worth reading up on all that it can do and poke around and test all the functionality. Every time I do, I find fun new ways to look at visitor data.
3. $59/10 heatmaps – Attention Wizard: Gives an algorithm-generated heat map of your page. Good as a first stop when you’re looking at a redesign or A/B testing.
4. $9/month – Crazy Egg: Produces a heat map of your pages based on user behavior such as clicks, scrolling, etc. and can break it down by traffic source.
5. $99/month – ClickTale: Record visitors and watch how they interact with your site.
6. $39/visitor – User Testing: Send visitors through your site and listen to them interact. Visitors will record their visits following your directions and provide feedback on what they like and don’t like. A great tool during a redesign.
7. FREE – Wirify: A fun tool that turns any web page into a wireframe. For $6 more you can buy a credit that makes the wireframe editable.
8. FREE – Five Second Test: Visitors land at a snapshot of your site, view it for 5 seconds and then answer questions. With the free version you’ll have to earn tests by viewing the pages of others. They have paid services from $20/month.

A FEW CONVENIENCE TOOLS TO HELP YOU WHEN YOU HAVE MORE TIME AND EXPERIENCE:

1. FREE – FireFTP: It’s an FTP client built into the Firefox browser. Effective and very convenient.
2. $99/year – Advanced Web Ranking: A highly customizable ranking report generating software. I’ve tried many, this is my favorite.
3. FREE – Search Status: Gives access to PageRank on the fly but also, with the click of a button gives fast access to Google caches, Trends, related links and more.
4. $12.95/month – MetroFax: There are many Internet-based fax providers out there, I’m just listing the one I use. Far better than the typical fax scenario.
5. FREE – Domain Tools – Quick and easy access to domain information including registration, server details and location and some basic SEO information.
6. FREE – Character Count: When you’re crafting titles and descriptions you need to stick to the right lengths. I generally write them directly into the tool so I know as I go how many characters I have to “play with”.
7. FREE – Archive.org: View old copies of the web. Ever wonder what Google looked like back in 1998? Click here and wonder no more.
8. FREE – Fireform: Firefox form filler. Saves a ton of time.
9. $78.66/year – HMA: Not the perfect proxy solution but an extremely good one at the price. Great for seeing exactly how rankings appear from different locations on the fly or running systems as though they’re from another IP address in a different location.
10. FREE (single project) – Basecamp: A client management, communication and productivity tool. It’s one thing to do all the work, it’s another to report that you’ve done it and know that anyone from your company (or your clients) can find that information easily.

A FEW MORE CONVENIENCE TOOLS TO HELP YOU WHEN YOU HAVE MORE TIME:

Social Media Tools

1. FREE – Tweet Deck: A good piece of software for organizing your Twitter profiles.
2. FREE – Twellow: A directory of Twitter users to help you find people in related niches faster.
3. FREE – Twitter Feed: Used right, this service allows you to automate things like

 

Forums

1. SEO Chat: Always lots of folks around to help though it’s rankings in the SERPs, also add a lot of new people who may be less experience but still hazard a guess.
2. High Rankings: A great forum and Jill (Whalen) tends to hang out there a lot to weed out the crud.
3. Black Hat World: I’m not suggesting you join the dark side but these folks know a few tricks that you should probably know about too. Being aware of what others may use against you can be extremely valuable. They do also chat traditional, Google-sanctioned strategy as well.
4. Digital Point: This forum has been around for ages and has almost 50,000 active members. As always, you have to watch who you listen to but if you’ve got question, ask here and you’ll get answers.
5. Web Pro World: An active user base and large array of subjects being discussed.
6. Adobe: While this isn’t an SEO forum, pretty much all of us use one Adobe product or another. Questions get answered quickly here.

News and Blogs

1. Search Engine Watch: I’m not an employee of Search Engine Watch but I am a biased author. That said, it’s my first go-to when I’m looking to find out what’s going on in the search world.
2. Google’s Blog: The official blog of Google. Get news from the horse’s mouth.
3. Bing Blogs: Believe it or not, Google doesn’t have 100 percent market share. Bing’s blogs are a good read too.
4. Webmaster Radio: Too busy to read? Webmaster Radio plays live radio geared to webmasters and Internet marketers and the podcasts can be downloaded for convenient later listening.
5. Matt Cutts: The personal blog of Google’s Matt Cutts. While his opinions are rightfully tainted with a Googley spin, there’s always wisdom in them; even if you have to read between the lines.
6. Search Engine Land: Another good daily news source.
7. SEOmoz: Apparently they get a hat tip for tools as well as information. Rand Fishkin and the SEOmoz team do a solid job of giving good advice that’s easy to understand.
8. Search Engine Journal: Up-to-date news that crosses a lot of related territory.
9. SEO By The Sea: The search world from a more technical perspective. From patent analysis to viewing “what may be”, Bill Slawski does a bang-up job of summarizing the areas many of us get glassy-eyed thinking about.

Social Profiles

1. Google+ - Matt Cutts: Google’s Head Of Web Spam
2. Twitter – he’s on there too.
3. Google+ – Search Engine Watch: Their official G+ page.
4. Twitter – Search Engine Watch: SEW’s official Twitter profile.
5. Google+ – Search Engine Land: Their official G+ page.
6. Twitter – Danny Sullivan: Editor-in-Chief, Search Engine Land.
7. Twitter – Lee Odden: CEO of TopRank Online Marketing
8. Google+ – SEOmoz: their official G+ page.
9. Twitter – Rand Fishkin: CEO of SEOmoz.
10. Twitter – Andy Beal, CEO of Trackur
11. Twitter – Brian Eisenberg: Well-published author and conversion optimization guru.
12. Twitter – Ralph Tegmeier: A top notch black hat SEO better known as fantomaster.
13. Twitter – Mike Grehan: Global VP Content, Search Engine Watch, ClickZ, SES Conference and Expo.
14. Twitter – Barry Schwartz: CEO of RustyBrick, Executive Editor of Search Engine Roundtable.
15. Twitter – Dave Davies: CEO of Beanstalk SEO (I had to include myself somewhere in the list)
16. Twitter – Daron Babin: Co-founder of Webmaster Radio.
17. Twitter – Dave Naylor: Head of Search Marketing at Bronco.co.uk.
18. Twitter – Brent Tabke: Founder of WebmasterWorld.
19. Twitter – Ann Smarty: Seasoned SEO and owner of MyBlogGuest.com.
20. Twitter – Brent Payne: Owner of BaldSEO (aptly named).
21. Twitter – Jonathan Allan: Director of Search Engine Watch.
22. Twitter – Aaron Wall: Founder of SEOBook.
23. Twitter – Todd Mailcoat: SEO Consultant and all-round solid guy.

 

The list is based on web statistics gathered by Ranking.com.

1. YouTube (Video sharing)
2. MySpace (Social networking)
3. Facebook (Social networking)
4. Beebo (Video and social networking)
5. Black Planet (Black online community)
6. Tagged (Social networking)
7. Imeem (Social network for sharing music, video and photos)
8. Hi5 (Social networking)
9. Orkut (Social networking)
10. Digg (Sharing and discovering links)
11. LinkedIn (Professional networking)
12. Ning (Create your own social networking community)
13. Stumbleupon (Sharing and discovering links)
14. Friendster (Social networking)
15. Buzznet (Pop culture social networking)
16. Multiply (Media sharing)
17. Twitter (Microblogging)
18. Cyworld (Social networking)
19. Netlog (Blog based social networking)
20. Livejournal (Blog based social networking)

 

A FEW THOUGHTS FOR BUSINESS EVENT MARKETING:

Companies choose to participate in an event for various reasons. Small companies may want the

exposure that a live webinar can provide. A large, global company may need the face-to-face interaction that a tradeshow affords. Whether small or large, companies usually participate for one – or more – of four universally compelling reasons:

 

1. Branding and awareness

2. Generating leads

3. Engaging with prospects and existing customers

4. Educating attendees

 

Webinar Platforms

You can choose from numerous webinar platforms, and each offers unique value. Consider what you are looking for in a webinar provider (there is more about choosing a webinar vendor in a later section on online events)—whether it is price, ease of use, or customer service, do your research.

Citrix

Offers both GoToWebinar and GoToMeeting. GoToWebinar is for conducting online events with up to 1,000 attendees. You can use this web-based service to conduct webinars, trainings or any number of other online events delivered to participants anywhere around the globe, and tap into unlimited usage for a flat monthly fee. GoToMeeting is Citrix’s web conferencing software integrating web, audio, and HD video conferencing for meetings and collaborations of up to 25 people.

ReadyTalk

This audio and web conferencing tool can help you plan, implement and execute a smoothly run webinar. With flexible pricing options and features, you can choose a full-service package with operator assistance or a cost-effective self-service plan with unlimited web conferencing and broadcast audio. ReadyTalk is focused on keeping technology easy to use so you can focus on your event.

Adobe Connect

You can use this all-in-one platform and web conferencing software to develop and deliver any number of different interactive online events like webinars, events and virtual meetings. And you can host up to 1,500 participants. By collecting registration information and looking at behavior during the webinar itself, Adobe Connect helps you get a full picture of your attendees.

Webex

Webex allows you to collaborate with your colleagues through easy to use productivity tools. Webex offers a platform for online events, webinars, meetings, and you can also use it to deliver online training. Webex solutions can help you increase productivity and also provides a top rated mobile app for iPhone, Android, iPad, and Blackberry

 

Virtual Event Platforms

Virtual event platforms enable an interactive gathering on the web, allowing participants to be a part of a tradeshow, meeting, conference or any other event without ever leaving their office. They can be a combination of technology and service, but however it’s configured, it’s essential

that your chosen platform is intuitive for both you and your attendees, accessible from any device, and able to support the number of attendees you plan to target.

ON24

Offering leading webcasting technology, ON24 empowers you to deliver virtual events that can last hours or days, or that can live on for weeks or longer in an on-demand form. ON24 also has webinar functionality, making it a robust platform. ON24 even makes it possible to put on

a virtual 3-D trade show that makes attendees feel like they’re attending a live event from the comfort of their offices or homes. The vendor touts its support for everything from webcasting to virtual events and virtual environments, supported by robust reporting and analytics.

INXPO

Provides the ENGAGE product for virtual events, allowing you to deliver presentations, videos, and content – and allowing attendees to interact with your team live – all from a single spot. The

company promotes its award-winning VX platform, which monitors behavior and delivers insight into attendee response. The platform also helps bridge the gap between physical and virtual events, such as by making it possible to stream live content from your physical events into your virtual ones.

Unisfair/InterCall

InterCall provides many functionalities to increase collaboration in a virtual environment. Their virtual events platform provides easy to create branded and interactive environments that help

increase marketing pipeline through a more engaged audience. InterCall’s Virtual Engagement Center provides a full service platform that enables customizable solutions and metrics.

 

 

A FEW WEBSITE BUILDERS TO HELP YOU WHEN YOU NEED A PROFESSIONAL TO BUILD IT FOR YOU:

SentConcepts / 210-793-8643  Located in Helotes, Texas

We are a complete full-service marketing agency. This means we drive your business model for profit. This may include road maps, marketing plans, website custom design that increases traffic and ranks above competitors. Besides being great designers, we are also fanatical about Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Paid Search Management, and Custom Programming, all leading to converting more of your visitors into customers. We can assist with graphical support for logos, artwork etc. to enhance your business brand.

Redhead Labs / (918) 932-2882 / Contact Us
Located in OK, USA – View Website | View Design Portfolio

Selling online never looked so good! Redhead’s personable and responsive team of ecommerce experts build stunningly successful websites. Sleek, Fun, Elegant or Earthy – Redhead creates online ambiance. We offer full-service internet marketing solutions to complement your store design. Services include: custom template design, PSD implementation, custom navigation, store migration, SEO, marketing consulting, social media and SO much more! We welcome agency partnerships. Build your brand or create an entirely new brand with Redhead. Contact us today to discuss your ideas.

Coalition Technologies / (888) 800-9101 / Contact Us
Located in CA, USA – View Website | View Design Portfolio

Coalition Technologies specializes in building BigCommerce websites that are highly Search Engine Optimized. We provide ongoing web focused PR, conversion optimization & marketing campaigns that help your site achieve #1 rankings in Google and capture the customers, transactions and revenue that go with it. Our 14 years of design experience brings you smart, easy to use ecommerce websites that accomplish your goals. Our services include: Web Design, Custom Programming, SEO, Social Media Marketing and the most advanced marketing techniques available. Click on our portfolio link above and you’ll see we do superior work at reasonable prices.

Frooition / (310) 205-2539 / Contact Us
View Website | View Design Portfolio

With over 100,000 online retail customers world wide, we have the reputation of designing and delivering world-class designs. At Frooition, we know how to create highly engaging web designs that drive traffic and increase sales. We’ve also developed the markets best BigCommerce to eBay integration. With a Frooition eBay store design, you can export your entire product catalog directly
from BigCommerce to eBay.

Contact us today for a free consultation and to learn how you can dramatically increase your exposure on eBay and Sell More Online.

New Dynamx Partner Account / 516-605-1189 / Contact Us
Located in NY, USA – View Website | View Design Portfolio

New Dynamx specializes in designing and implementing strategic BigCommerce websites that consistently convert traffic into sales. Our customized packages and services allow clients to define their budget based on immediate needs, but also give them the flexibility to envision long-term goals. From product pages and customer newsletters to full-scale ecommerce platforms and social media campaigns, we provide BigCommerce-optimized tools that maximize results. Simply put, our websites deliver, quickly and effectively. Our expertise also includes SEO marketing, API development, social media campaigns, graphic design, corporate branding, and IT support. Check out our extensive portfolio, browse our BigCommerce packages, and call us today to discuss your project.

Merchant Corner / 1-800-701-8480 / Contact Us
Located in Quebec, CAN – View Website | View Design Portfolio

The web sites we make, make a lot of money. For established
businesses we offer a range of high-quality services that increase
your profitability immediately: SEO, Custom Design, Data Migration,
Order Fulfillment Optimization, Inventory Management and Personalized
Training. Read our case studies on our website to understand how we
do what we do.

Marketing Media / (855) 430-7491 / Contact Us
Located in Quebec, CAN – View Website | View Design Portfolio

Marketing Media is a creative team of entrepreneurs, designers and marketing specialists whose mission is to help promote your small to medium business and increase sales through web and interactive marketing strategies. We handle your e-commerce design and implementation from A to Z. Design, programming, social media integration, SEO, PPC campaigns and consulting. We provide high end custom designs only. Sorry, we do not work on existing templates.

Flair Consultancy Limited / +44 (0)121 644 1110 / Contact Us
Located in Wolverhampton, United Kingdom – View Website | View Design Portfolio

“Having over 20 years of combined experience in internet development, we understand how the web should work within your business model. From planning stages, through development, right up to how we market your website to new and existing customers, we make sure that we provide a suitable solution for our clients and their business.

We advise the correct solution for the right environment. We recognize that there is no such thing as a “one size fits all” solution, and as such, each project we undertake is meticulously planned and managed with our client in mind.

We specialize in branding and eCommerce.”

KPCommerce / 973-270-0336 / Contact Us
Located in NJ, USA – View Website | View Design Portfolio

KPCommerce.net is a family-owned, home-based professional provider of highly affordable BigCommerce design services. We help you get your business online fast and offer fantastic customer service with our professional web design, logo art, SEO/SEM and even offline marketing services. Whether you need a minor touch-up or a completely customized site, our designs are attractive, user-friendly, and most of all, something that you will be proud of as you continue to build a brand for your online business. Let us be your partner in this journey towards online success.

Above&Beyond / +61 1300307390 / Contact Us
Located in QLD, AUS – View Website | View Design Portfolio

Above&Beyond is an award winning web design agency based on the Sunshine Coast of Australia. We have over 10 years experience building custom designed websites and specialize in BigCommerce design. We have affordable solutions that cater to all budgets and can turn your design ideas into reality to make your store look exactly how you want it. Many of our clients love the honest, reliable and professional manner in which we dedicate ourselves to our work. We’ll deliver on time, within budget and above & beyond your expectations. Stop reading, contact us now to get started.

PIXEL PRODUCTIONS INC / 541 773 3351 / Contact Us
Located in OR, USA – View Website | View Design Portfolio

A Result Driven Website Design Company:
We are a full service Website Design and development company, which means we offer much more than simply a website. Our clients choose us because of our unique ability to blend creative graphic design and dynamic website functionality with effective website marketing strategies. Because of our unique ability to seamlessly integrate these services, we achieve amazing results for our clients.

Third Eye Graphic Solutions / 1-888-623-3160 / Contact Us
Located in IN, USA – View Website | View Design Portfolio

We are here for you! Our #1 goal is to help your business succeed. Specializing in Yahoo/other platform crossovers, we can recreate or redesign your current online presence. New to online sales? We have you covered too. In addition to E-Commerce, we also offer a wide range of web/graphic design services. SEO/Content, Social Marketing, Web Graphics and Print Media are just a sampling of the other services that we handle. BigCommerce and Third Eye Graphic Solutions, the sky is the limit!

EpicFlowers / (888) 498-5361 / Contact Us
Located in Or, USA – View Website | View Design Portfolio

We are a company dedicated to helping the online gift industry. We specialize in the floral industry but have built our knowledge and proprietary code around eCommerce sites whose purpose is to sell gifts online and offline.

Creative Media Farm / 786-245-5030 / Contact Us
Located in California, USA – View Website | View Design Portfolio

Our unique expertise of email and online marketing, web design and creative copy writing shapes us as the ideal business partner to take your online store to the next level. Our plans range from starter designs for one-man companies, to 18-months roadmaps that help your business increase revenue by getting the most of all BigCommerce’s outstanding integrations with additional services such as Mailchimp, Google Website Optimizer, Ebay, facebook and many more. Ask for a free consultation!

Scripti Labs / (512) 994-4237 / Contact Us
Located in TX, USA – View Website | View Design Portfolio

Need store design maintenance? We specialize in hourly custom work!
At Scripti Labs, we work with BigCommerce store owners everyday and are dedicated to providing the look and functionality your site needs for the lowest cost around. We provide hourly site tweaks, install third party templates on BigCommerce, and do full everything-included store designs. Call or email us today to get a quote on anything from a quick site tune-up to your new superstore.

Cart Designers / 1-888-480-CART / Contact Us
Located in TX, USA – View Website | View Design Portfolio

CartDesigners exists only as a specialized design firm built to scale with the needs of BigCommerce customers. We work closely with the sales and support teams to ensure our services and standards of quality meet what you would expect from a partner of a company like BigCommerce. Our services range from full scale design, design odd jobs, product import/population, social marketing strategies, web content layout & authoring, and merchant accounts. We have qualified staff who have years of specialized experience on all things cart-related.

E-CartCustoms / 1-832-582-7531 / Contact Us
Located in Texas, USA – View Website | View Design Portfolio

E-CartCustoms leads the pack as a design firm dedicated specifically to the needs of BigCommerce customers. In addition to top rated professional design we offer an array of services proven to help your business succeed. We have a reliable track record, maintaining client loyalty since the inception of BigCommerce. You can count on E-CartCustoms to provide you outstanding design, exceptional customer service and an unmatched dedication to the success of your online store.

Webtise Ltd / 0845 073 3331 / Contact Us
Located in Cheshire, GBR – View Website | View Design Portfolio

Webtise is a UK top eCommerce and eMarketing agency. Our focus is to generate the highest numbers of conversions, not just high levels of traffic.

We are behavioural marketeers who understand the buying process. How a potential customer starts their search, how they navigate sites and what they look for when they want to buy.

With 18 staff we have a great mix of designers, developers and eMarketeers.

We also own a portfolio of our own very successful eCommerce sites so feel free to call us up and discuss anything about creating you an online business.

Be A Part Of / 1-888-992-2761×701 / Contact Us
Located in On, CAN – View Website | View Design Portfolio

API Specialists, Affiliate & Loyalty Discount Programs, Custom Reports, Better E-Bay Posting, Automated Back-Ups, POS Integration and Customized Programming to suit! Be A Part Of is the experienced API company of choice and yet still designs, develops and promotes websites with our 10+ staffed mid size firm. Simply put, we have become “Team Possible” and will always find a solution for your requirements – just give us a call or shoot us an email and let’s discuss your unique situation. 1/2 Price API Integrations for the Month of April.

Search Placement Marketing / 1-888-275-5301 / Contact Us
Located in FL, USA – View Website | View Design Portfolio

Online marketing for Ecommerce storefronts is our primary focus. One of the most difficult parts of SEO is creating a search engine friendly design. We offer full service SEO or consulting to new and existing sites. With a proven track record of success in highly competitive industries, we have helped hundreds of businesses maximize sales via search engine optimization, Google Adwords management, and Social Media. Contact us for a free analysis of your industry, online competitors, & brand.

 

Sumall – Free real-time ecommerce analytics. MadNoodle – Traffic driving marketing engine. Get listed in the largest BigCommerce Gift Card marketplace. iContact – Easy email marketing software that integrates with BigCommerce. LegalZoom – Online legal documents to help start your new small business. oLark – Free live chat that integrates with BigCommerce. Visual Website Optimizer – Easy A/B testing that integrates with BigCommerce. Outright – Dead simple small business accounting. Kamplye – Collect feedback from your website visitors easily. Zopim Live Chat – See the products your visitors look at – in real time. Batchbook – The social CRM that helps you manage your contact network. SurveyGizmo – Create surveys and collect customer feedback easily. GoingUp! – The smarter way to manage your web analytics and SEO. Pixmac – Stock photos and for all your print advertising and website needs. KISSinsights – Give customers a way to tell you what they need. SwagLove – Promotional swag for online businesses. Reward customer loyalty. Moo – Design and print business cards and more. Bravenet – Free tools and plugins to improve your website.

 

Compliments of BLUE PLANET MARKETING™

Dave Howell (Score Chapter 0164 Mentor) (210) 618-6566 Cell

dave@bpmktg.com  bpmktg.com

 

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