July 9, 2009 in Blog, Mobile by admin

Market Watch 7/8/09

Industry expert Herb Gordon gives his thoughts on the YP industry saying, “the Yellow Pages industry is very well positioned for the future. It has good Internet products. While print references have dipped, the effect is moderate compared to other traditional media. The print product still delivers cost-effective leads for advertisers. There is a strong local and national sales force. Publishers, CMRs and suppliers are willing to invest. I’m very optimistic about the future.” Link Here.

The year 2009 has been labeled by some as the year of “Location Based Services.” Great news for directional advertisers.  What does that mean? Link Here.  Internet searches are increasingly all about local, local, local. Why ? Some factors include:

• Ubiquity of GPS
• Phone are getting better; more powerful
• The IPhone has changed the mobile experience
• Applications on phones have exploded

Yellow Book launches their first ad based on internet products.  Link Here.

Merchant Circle offers coupons via Twitter.  Link Here.

Congress to start leveraging email marketing. Link Here.

Facebook users are getting older (similarly,  the internet demographic is getting older).  Link Here.

July 1, 2009 in Blog, Social Media by admin

Market Watch 7/1/09

One business use of Twitter – tweeting concierge requests to the front desk at hotels.  Link Here.

Huggies launches a social media campaign.  Link Here.

One site gives advice to SMB’s with their pay per click marketing. Link Here.

How to rank in the Google Local Map 10-pack.  Link Here.

Facebook may be gearing up to go public.  Link Here.

Your question answered – How does Google put a business on the map if the business has no website or has not claimed their listing on the Local Business Center?

Answer – Link Here.  Included is a good visual describing where Google pulls the information.  Here are the sources:

Local Business Center

Yellow Pages

Enhanced Contend

User Generate Content

June 25, 2009 in Blog, Search Engine Marketing by admin

Market Watch 6/25/09

The construction industry saw an unexpected gain of 1.2% in April.  Good news.  Link Here.

A look into local SEO offerings.  Small businesses should be skeptical of local SEO. Link Here.

Finally, an Iphone app with turn-by-turn navigation.  Link Here.

A keyword phrase creator for local SEM, similar to Google’s keyword tool.  Link Here. Very Useful.

Roger Federer passes the 2 million fan mark on Facebook.  Link Here.  He offers a good lesson on how to best use the site to market.

Mobile is the future.  Video is the future. What will happen when mobile and video combine?  Experts predict a 500% increase in mobile video by 2013.  Link Here.

The twitter cycle: Curiosity, Abandonment, then Addiction. Global Visitors Hit 37 Million. Link Here.

June 23, 2009 in Blog, Mobile by admin

Market Watch 6/23/09

Mobile marketing is slowly creeping into the mainstream. A “how to” on setting up a mobile Adwords campaign.  Link Here. ANOTHER advantage of Berry Websites – They are already mobile friendly and can be tweaked with a few “add-ons”.  The article gives the advice:

If you want to test mobile advertising, but do not want to pay for the development for a full mobile site until you are certain you wish to utilize mobile advertising, there is a very easy way to create a test site using WordPress. WordPress is an easy-to-install blogging platform. However, you do not have to use it as a blog. You can install the CMS and create a couple landing pages to test out for your mobile ads instead of starting a full blog. In addition, WordPress supports many plug-ins. One of these plug-ins makes WordPress mobile compatible. Therefore all you need to do to test out mobile advertising is:

• Install WordPress
• Install the mobile compatible plug-in
• Write a few pages for mobile users
• Send traffic to those pages via AdWords

Yahoo offers free ad display builders for SMB’s.  Link Here. The article mentions it might be difficult to get SMB’s to use it.

Users love the Iphone – even those that don’t have it.  Link Here

Facebook advertisers are battling click fraud, much like search advertisers.  Link Here.

Know your competition. Information on Merchant Circle including how to add a business, features, and their pricing model.  Link Here.

Comments on building your own personal brand and ranking for your name on Google.   Link Here. Great visual explaining what a comprehensive internet marketing social media campaign looks like.

The Social Media Campaign

June 22, 2009 in Blog, Social Media by admin

Market Watch 6/22/09

100 important people you can follow on Twitter. Link Here.

One blogger gives his opinion on SMB internet marketing and playing Google-opoly. Link Here. The jist:  companies need to acquire as many “properties” on the first page as possible, which is done by purchasing sponsored links, the Google 10-pack, organic websites and organic videos.

Wikipedia will have video soon.  Link Here

Microsoft is putting a heavy focus on growing Bing. Link Here. They might spend up to 10% of their operating budget on just search.

Nine reasons your website could have a high bounce rate. Link Here. Some are (which Berry Websites solve):

Web Design and Usability, Website Content, Website Navigation, Wrong Keyword Selection

5 ways negative reviews can be a good thing. Link Here. A couple: they help organic search, they create trust, and they provide an opportunity for improvement.

A timeline of how social media is playing a role in the current Iranian crisis.  Link Here.

January 16, 2009 in Blog, Search Engine Marketing by admin

Google Local Business Center Introduction

Google Local Business center is a great tool to get you in front of your customers on the biggest search engine around, and best of all, it’s FREE! To find out more about if Google Local Business center can help your business just check out the video included in this post for information: