By Stone Reuning (c) 2010

Thousands of free online marketíng tools clamor for attention, with new ones popping up every week it seems. You know you should be doing more to reach out to your customers, but just researching which tools to use can be a vast time investment, even if they don’t require a big financial outlay.

Below is a compiled líst of the most popular (or most useful) low-cost or free small business marketing tools. You might be using some of them already, but you’re sure to find a couple that will round out your small business marketing toolkit nicely. And, if you’re just starting out marketing a new busíness online, this líst may help point you in the right direction.
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By The Internet Marketing Center

If you want to have a successful online business, you can no longer afford to ignore social media.

Whether you’re talking about sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, or the millions of blogs, forums, and groups that exist online, social media continues to dominate the Internet landscape.

If you want to be a part of the conversation then you need to know how to use these sites effectively to engage with your audience and build authentic relationships with them.

In this article, you’ll learn our top six tips on how to do just that… But first, let’s talk about why a social media presence is so important to your business.

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By Jay Allyson (c) 2010

Nearly all internet marketing professionals use video as one of the core methods for marketing their business. These ten tips aim to help you get started creating short, attractive, effective videos based on solid keywords that convert and that stand the test of time.

Video grabs people’s attention far more quickly and effectively than text, audio or photographs. Making a short video can capture a thousand words and pictures and helps to get across your personal brand and lifestyle.

It’s important to stand out in the crowd on video channels and search engines. Aim your headlines at capturing the imagination regarding your topic. So don’t be dull - test out curiosity, shock or fun tactics for getting those download clícks.

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By SEOFocused.com (c) 2010

Just to cover the ground, lets go over what link building is quickly. Link building is the process of building backlinks to your site. The more backlinks (links from other sites to your site) a site has, the higher it ranks on the search engines. Link building therefore is a mission of all money makíng webmasters.

Link building methods have changed from time to time and a specific method that worked yesterday may not work today. This is due to changes in the industry over time and in some cases extreme abuse. If a specific link building method has been abused too much, then that method will not work anymore.

It is therefore very important to know which link building method works today so that you can spend your time in a most productive way.

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February 26, 2010 | Hospitality Industry

Based on a study that Google recently conducted, where they asked travel shoppers at what stage of the planning process do you watch video or visit video sites, they found that across all five stages of the travel planning process, starting from research rates through post purchase, more than 60 percent of respondents viewed videos at each one of those stages.

In this episode of VTV Channel, VFM Leonardo interviews Tom O’Rourke of O’Rourke Hospitality Marketing, to learn

- The roles of professional and guest videos
- Tips for developing inspiring videos
- Why travel shoppers want to see video

Watch the video at VFM Leonardo’s VTV Channel

By Paul McCarthy (c) 2010

It’s soon brought to their attention that the moderators have no control over the listings and 9 times out of 10 there’s nothing they can do to resurrect their sites’ rankings other than playing the waiting game.

How would you feel if you relied on Google for 80% of your traffic and it suddenly dropped in the rankings overnight? And, if you’re sitting there shaking your head thinking that it won’t happen to you because you’re a ‘good guy’ and you follow all the webmaster rules, then you need to seriously re-evaluate your mindset because time and time again I see innocent sites with great content get the “good news”.

Google reportedly updates its algorithm over 200 times a year

This time next week 50% of the backlinks pointing back to your site could be instantly discounted because the latest updates deems them as being too “spammy”. Where does that leave you? 50 places down the rankings and a dismal outlook for next quarter’s financial results.

So, now that I’ve scared the heck out of you, I’m going to give you five ways in which you can safeguard yourself from Google’s right hook and put you in a position far stronger than your competitors. It’ll also help you sleep at night!

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By Robert Imbriale (c) 2010

To completely over-simplify things, the applications are what make it possible for us to create, share, and use the content we find on the Internet. So to say content is King, you’d have to also say that the applications are Queen in order to have a more complete view of the Internet. There are all kinds of applications from the browsers that make surfing the Internet possible to all sorts of applications that manage and deliver the content.

Think about it. Without the application we know as Google, how would you find the content you’re looking for on the Internet? I’ve been there and I remember finding things online was next to impossible, but that was back in 1987. Then we have Adobe TM Flash that allows us to see and hear sounds and images over the Internet.

There are all sorts of content management systems available to us today that simply didn’t exist a few years back. As it becomes easier and easier to manage and digest, the demand for new content grows and grows.

Marketers who create quality content often find they are able to generate large amounts of traffic, they usually have large mailing lists, and it almost goes without saying that they usually have healthy bank accounts.

It all starts with the content. The more you create, share, distribute, the better off you’ll be in building a profitable business on the web. If you want the real secret to Internet success, this is it.

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By Stone Reuning (c) 2010

All types of links can impact your search engine optimization results, helping determine where your web site shows up online. Though the hardest to control, inbound links pointing to your site can make the biggest impact.

At its most basic, the concept is that if several high-quality sites are linking to your web site, then Google and other search engines figure your site must be a popular, valuable resource - and they will be more likely to show it higher in their search results. In effect, your site receives “link juice” from other web pages that link to it.

However, it’s not enough to secure a couple links and then sit still. The Google PageRank algorithm looks at the pattern of links to your site as they build over time.

Building the right kind of links can bring a major payoff, while a wrong turn could get you penalized - and the Google Sandbox is not easy to dig out of.

Armed with a bit of knowledge and some creativity, you can build up valuable incoming links naturally and powerfully, avoiding the traps that plague amateurs.
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Feb 16, 2010 -

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By Zee
February 13, 2010

If you’re a GMail user you’ve no doubt come across a brand new section of your email called Buzz.

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The Social Analyst is a weekly column by Mashable Co-EditorBen Parr, where he digs into social media trends and how they are affecting companies in the space.

Google may have finally figured out social media, even if there have been some major slip-ups in the way. The implications of that realization could dramatically change social media as a tool and as an industry.

On Tuesday, February 9th, Google launched Buzz for Gmail, a service for sharing thoughts, multimedia, and your social media feeds with your friends utilizing Gmail as the conduit. The result: over 160,000 Google Buzz posts and comments per hour.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that Google didn’t launch a small addition to Gmail — no, it has dropped a nuclear bomb whose fallout will permanently alter the social media landscape. I could never have predicted that it would become so popular so fast when I first learned about it.

Why? Why has it grown so rapidly? Why has it riled up such strong emotions on both sides? Are the privacy issues going to permanently damage Google? And most of all, what does Google Buzz mean for Twitter, Facebook, and the rest of the social media world?

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By ASHLEE VANCE

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By Eric Picard

February 09, 2010

ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS:

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By Mary Bowling, ClickZ, Dec 17, 2009

Google is making a powerful push to become the undeniable leader in providing local business information to online searchers. In the past year, Google has made the greatest concentration of changes and testing regarding Google Maps since it first made its appearance in 2004 as Google Local, and the rate of change has accelerated greatly over the past three months.

I have absolutely no inside information from Google Maps. This is simply speculation based on five years of watching and listening to what goes on at Maps. Here are the highlights:

In February 2009, Google began testing what has since been dubbed as the K Pack, where the maps that appeared next to the 10 pack in the Web results began showing additional markers — not just those for the businesses listed in the 10 pack but also for other nearby businesses that didn’t make it into that enviable position. This is useful for searchers who may be more interested in a business’ location than anything else. It’s also good for all businesses listed in Google Maps, except for those that already appear in the local pack.

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Ever wish you could see more than just ten local search results at once? Us too.

So we’ve added a search layer for local search results that activates when there are more relevant results than we can show on one page. Instead of just plotting the first page of business results on our map, we plot more of them as small circles. You can click on the circles to get more information about the businesses they represent. The top ten results will still appear in the left-hand pane and as pins on the map.

For example, there might be a coffee shop just around the corner from your house in Seattle, that didn’t make it to the first page because Seattle has so many coffeehouses. You can now browse for it with the query: coffee in Seattle.

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December 9, 2009

PhoCusWright’s European Online Travel Overview Fifth Edition reveals key trends facing the travel industry. The annual report provides an in-depth look at the performance of key European markets (France, Germany, Italy, Scandinavia, Spain, and U.K.) and offers projections through 2011. PhoCusWright analysts review each individual travel vertical including air, hotel, car rental, rail, tour operators and online travel agencies (OTAs). The report allows travel executives and leaders to accurately forecast the direction of the travel industry and its impact on their company.

European Online Travel Penetration Varies Greatly by Market
The U.K., France and Germany contributed just over two thirds (67%) of the total European online leisure and unmanaged business market in 2008. The U.K. continues to represent less and less of the total European market as other countries catch up in online adoption. By 2011, the U.K. is expected to represent 26% of the European market, down from 31% in 2008. This drop is driven partly by the pound’s currency devaluation and partly by actual market trends. France’s share is expected to remain flat at 19%. Germany, in contrast, is expected to increase its portion of the online market from 17% in 2008 to 20% in 2011.

In 2008, Scandinavia surpassed the U.K. in online penetration at 45% versus 40%. Now leading Europe in online penetration, Scandinavia is expected to cross the halfway point by 2010, whereas the U.K. will likely take somewhat longer. France ranks third with an online penetration of 30%, and while Germany is gaining ground, it still trails at 24%. Spain and Italy continue to lag behind other countries and are both below the European average of 28%.

PhoCusWright’s European Online Travel Overview and individual market reports (France, Germany, Italy, Scandinavia, Spain, and U.K.) provide data and analysis essential to understanding the performance of your market and forecasting the performance of your business.

By Mary Bowling, ClickZ, Dec 3, 2009

Many local businesses — and the people who market them online — have severely criticized Google for the boatloads of rampant spam in the Google Maps Local Business Listings. For a long time, it seemed as though not much was being done about it. But now it appears as if Google was simply working quietly behind the scenes to come up with a way to combat it.

Instead of chipping away little by little to improve each of the problem areas, they’re now showing us a fairly comprehensive blueprint for the future of Google Maps with their new Business Listing Quality Guidelines. Every area that sparked complaints seems to be addressed in the new guidelines. Most of our questions are answered clearly and concisely, which should eliminate quite a bit of speculation and debate.

Business Name Spam

local business maps

Local listers have been spamming it up in their profiles with different degrees of keyword stuffing in their business names. Some have even created multiple listings for the purpose of ranking for different terms by appearing as multiple businesses, like Laptop World, Macbook World, HP Laptop World, and Dell Netbook World.

Google now says, “Represent your business exactly as it appears in the offline world…Do not attempt to manipulate search results by adding extraneous keywords or a description of your business into the business name.”

While strict enforcement of the use of a business’ official name in Google Maps could hurt many business owners who use legitimate DBAs (Doing Business As), that’s unlikely to happen and isn’t something to worry about.

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Thanks to Universal Search, maps are becoming increasingly visible in Google search results. Ergo, a map optimisation strategy is essential to any effective SEO campaign. But many are neglecting this facet of SEO, opening up big opportunities for those who do

John Bolakis, Executive Director, seo.com.au

Click here to view pdf presentation

By Brent Csutoras

Tip 1

Make sure your site is worthy of being linked to.

Believe it or not, people do care about how your site looks. The way it is designed, the effort you put into the layout, and whether it looks current — all these things say a lot about your company. No one wants to link to a site they think lacks quality. After all, linking is a sort of recommendation for that site.

So, if you want people to link to your brand’s site, make sure your site is:

• Up to date: Use coding and design elements that make you look current and contemporary.
• Focused: Don’t have a bunch of ads in the content area or distracting banners.
• Polite: Don’t have pop-up ads, pop-under ads, audio ads, or offers that interrupt or distract people from viewing your content.

Of course, many business models won’t allow you to strip away all attempts to convert a user, so you may need to implement these changes for only the individual pieces of link bait you create.

When I first launched one of my side project sites, it had a basic default WordPress theme. I frequently noticed that when I would break a news story that would go viral, high-level authority sites would omit the proper credit link identifying my site as the source for the article.

It wasn’t until I re-evaluated the site and decided to invest in a custom, quality design that the good links really started rolling in. Now I get links from Wired, CNET, The Guardian, and many other highly authoritative sites.

Bottom line: How can you expect someone to take your website seriously if you don’t?

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11/24/2009 10:35:00 AM - from Google Blog

At Google, we’re committed to giving you the information you want — regardless of the form in which it might appear.

Text is often useful, but sometimes videos and pictures are a more effective way to receive information. For example, if you want to learn a magic trick, a video showing you how to perform the trick is likely the best result. So over the past few years, we’ve blended videos, images, maps and more into the search results on Google.com.

It also makes sense to provide you with richer types of information in the ads. If you’re looking to buy your mom a new handbag for the holidays, for instance, you might want to see pictures, prices, the addresses of boutiques in your area and a map of how to get there — all within the ad.

To provide a better search ads experience, we’ve been developing and testing a variety of new ad formats. These formats are focused on giving you the information you need, while retaining what you love about Google advertising: that the ads are relevant and useful.

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- Grab the SiteProNews RSS Feed Featured Video: Google CEO on Future of Technology

Content is one of the most valuable things you can focus on during development of your website. Consider each page of your website a chance to capture or lose your audience. If a web page has paragraph after paragraph of text, many visitors won’t bother to begin reading. There are various other things to be leery of when writing for the web. This article covers eight tips to help you succeed when writing content for your website.

Entice with Communicative Headings

Visitors decide whether to invest their precious time reading your content, typically after scanning a heading or two. Consider which headline will receive more attention:

• PHP solutions for the Web
• Three eCommerce PHP Solutions for the Web

While both could be headings for the same content, the second heading will attract more attention because it clearly denotes what will follow. Additionally, it adds a level of expertise. It is also important to keep your headings concise. When headings wrap to multiple lines, they start becoming paragraph-like and readers cannot scan them. Sub-headings are another way to make your content easier for visitors to scan. Once readers have decided your heading is worth investing more time in, they often scan the sub-headings to jump to the section that is most applicable to them.
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Rick DeJarnette of Bing Webmaster Center

Like Google, Bing places great emphasis on quality links to determine its rankings. “Just don’t make the mistake of believing it will result in instant gratification. Successful link building efforts require a long-term commitment, not an overnight or turnkey solution,” says DeJarnette. “You need to continually invest in link building efforts with creativity and time.”

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By Stefan Pollard, ClickZ, Nov 18, 2009

The e-mail preheader (the content in the top line of an e-mail message) has come a long way from its origins as an HTML and deliverability troubleshooter — “Add us to your address book”/”View on the Web site”/”Click here to download images.”

When you use the preheader to expand on the subject line, add a secondary offer, or emphasize a deadline, you help the reader decide quickly what to do with the message: Should I read it all? Scan the top? Delete it?

This goes along with my “Make It Easy” philosophy of e-mail: the easier you make your e-mail to open, read, and interact with, the more valuable it becomes to your subscribers.

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Nov 17, 2009 at 2:00pm ET by Chris Sherman

The newest addition to Google Labs is a mashup of Google Images, Google Similar Images and the visual query refinement tool, the Google Wonder Wheel. Called Google Image Swirl, the new tool clusters similar images based on characteristics found in both the text surrounding images, as well as using some of the visual analysis techniques that I wrote about in Google Adds Search By Similarity To Image Search back in April.

Image Swirl results look a lot like the thumbnails presented in regular image search results, but you can see that there are many images stacked behind the topmost result.

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Nov 3, 2009 at 7:00am ET by Andy Atkins-Krüger

Following on from my last column when I gave guidance on how to prepare your site for successful international link building, it’s now time to look at the rules of international link building itself—at least the new rules that differ from a typical single country project. Fundamentally, link building is the same everywhere—which means it’s important to consider the quality of the links, check they’re not no-followed and take a view of the quality of the site from which they come. But there are some new factors to be considered—which I’m calling the “new rules of international link building.”

Rule 1: Location, location, location is everything

The most obvious new parameter to consider is location of the site on which a link originates—or perhaps more appropriately, where the search engines believe the link originates. To succeed in a specific geographic region, you are going to need not only good content targeted at that region and in the correct language, but also links to your site from within that region. So, if your target is to sell tire fitting to Austrians, you need a site in German and you need to acquire links from within Austria.

What does that expression “within Austria” actually mean? When you start to consider this question closely, you begin to realize just why local domains really are so crucial outside of the US. There are really only two factors which make any sense—an IP address from an Austrian server or a ‘.at’ domain for Austria.

If you’re running a hosting company serving a particular market—such as Austria—you’re going to want to be competitive and you’re going to want a good connection to the backbone of the internet. This makes it attractive for smaller hosting companies based in many smaller markets to sell—or rather to re-sell—hosting space which sits on servers which may not be located directly in Austria but might actually be in the US, UK or other country where servers resources are easier and more cost-effective to come by. In other words, not physically hosted in Austria.

What this means is that, when choosing a local link partner, the easiest way to be sure that a link from an Austrian organization is treated by search engines as a fully-fledged genuine 100% Austrian link is for it to be coming from a site with a ‘.at’ domain.

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PayPal has made the checkout experience easier than ever for customers.

New buyers no longer have to sign up for a PayPal account if they don’t wish to. They can simply complete their payments first, and then decide whether to save their information in a PayPal account for future purchases.

This process makes checking-out more convenient; resulting in more completed sales and more satisfied customers

Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet
This 800+ page course provides step-by-step lessons, business ideas, resource lists, audio interviews, DVDs and tools to teach anyone of any skill level how to successfully start and run their own internet business. Read More

Google is very clear about paid links. They don’t like them. Google even has an official form that enables webmasters to report paid links to Google:

“Google and most other search engines use links to determine reputation. A site’s ranking in Google search results is partly based on analysis of those sites that link to it.

Link-based analysis is an extremely useful way of measuring a site’s value, and has greatly improved the quality of web search. Both the quantity and, more importantly, the quality of links count towards this rating.

However, some SEOs and webmasters engage in the practice of buying and selling links that pass PageRank, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. Buying or selling links that pass PageRank is in violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact a site’s ranking in search results.“

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Articles written by: Bill Platt

Everyday it seems, people are asking me the optimum numbers of inbound links they need to acquire for their website in order to rank well in Google.

My answer is going to seem a little flip, but it is the honest, best answer.

Answer: You need more inbound links – of equal or higher quality – than what your competitors have.

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Every time you send an e-mail, you should use your electronic signature as a way to advertise your business.

Also it is important that people know that you have a phone number to call if there are any problems.

An example of my signature: (feel free to copy it & modify from one of my recent emails).

How to Create a Signature:
1. Outlook Express
http://email.about.com/od/outlookexpresstips/ss/w112703.htm

2. Outlook 2003
http://www.freeemailtutorials.com/microsoftOutlook2003/emailSignaturesInOutlook/index.cwd

3. Outlook 2007
http://www.nirmaltv.com/2008/02/29/how-to-add-signature-in-outlook-2007/

Posted by Dharmesh Shah

There has been a lot written and a lot debated about Google’s PageRank, but on one point there is near unanimous agreement.  PageRank is primarily determined by how many other web pages are linking into you.  Google considers this kind of inbound a link a vote of confidence.    But, here’s the trick:  Not all inbound links are created equal.  Web pages with more credibility that link to you have more “value” to your PageRank than those with less credibility.  How is this credibility determined?  Why, by their PageRank, of course!  So, let’s take an example.  Lets say you have your Uncle Charlie link to you from his blog to your small business website.  Let’s also say that Uncle Charlie’s blog has a Page Rank of 3 (this is being a little generous because all Uncle Charlie writes about is his dog Sparky and he has limited inbound links).  This link from Uncle Charlie will certainly help you – a little bit.  It will help you more if you can find 100 such Uncle Charlie websites with a PageRank of 3 and get them to link to you.

However, if you get a single link from HubSpot.com (the sponsor of this blog), it’ll help you more than a 100 Uncle Charlie websites.  Why?  Because HubSpot.com has a PageRank of 6 and a link from it is much more valuable.  I divide up PageRank into these broad categories:

0-3:  New sites or sites with very minimal links
4-5:  Popular sites with a fair amount of inbound links
6:  Very popular sites that have hundreds of links, many of them quality links
7-10:  Usually media brands (NYTimes.com), big companies or A-list bloggers.

Now, it’s important to note that PageRank is believed to be calculated on alogarithmic scale.  What this roughly means is that the difference between PR4 and PR5 is likely 5-10 times than the difference between PR3 and PR4.  So, there are likely  over a 100 times as many web pages with a PageRank of 2 than there are with a PageRank of 4.   This means that if you get to a PageRank of 6 or so, you’re likely well into the top 0.1% of all websites out there.  If most of your peer group is straggling around with a PR2 or PR3, you’re way ahead of the game.

What’s Your PageRank?

There are two ways to figure out what your approximate PageRank is.  One, you can download the Google Toolbar (the PageRank feature is not turned on by default, so you’d have to enable it after installation).

The other way is to use our immensely popular (and free) Website Grader tool.  It will not only tell you your Google PageRank, but a bunch of interesting other stuff.

October 29, 2009 | Online Travel

U.S. online travel agencies (OTAs) have lost share of online bookings to suppliers over the past few years. However, data from PhoCusWright’s Online Traffic and Conversion Report shows OTAs still represent the largest category of online travel as measured by monthly unique visitors. According to the study, conducted in partnership with Compete, OTAs reached just under 50 million visitors in June 2009—placing them well ahead of airlines, the next largest travel category

One of the most notable trends in online travel is the decline of traffic to the top seven online travel agencies (OTAs): Expedia, Hotels.com, Orbitz, Cheaptickets, Travelocity, Priceline and Hotwire.

The top seven’s long-held market dominance in the U.S. effectively serves as a barrier to entry for startups. However, many companies have dared to scale the walls. Specialist and regional OTAs have led the way for the Long Tail of OTAs to carve a sizable niche for themselves—one that appears to be growing. The percentage of OTA visitors that hits at least one of the top seven brands is slowly decreasing, showing a particular dip in 4Q2008. The percentage of OTA visitors that visits one of the top seven OTAs has decreased from 79% in 2Q2007 to 72% in 2Q2009, indicating a growth in the popularity of smaller players.

The growing popularity of specialized OTAs corresponds to an overall consumer demand for targeted service delivery. Web sites that deliver the most relevant travel offerings to match a traveler’s needs are succeeding in a landscape full of choices. While the small players will not overthrow the current OTA oligarchy any time soon, they are managing to expand their corner of the market, even in today’s hypercompetitive environment.

Into the fray … from getting to the airport onwards, flying can be a horrible experience. Photo: Brendan Esposito

In 2007, a leading neuropsychologist likened passing through Heathrow to facing a riot. Two years on, we consider whether the air travel experience has improved and list 20 of air travellers’ biggest gripes.

On the ground

1. Surprise charges

An all-too-common practice that begins when you book the tickets and continues at the airport. The “headline fares” may look astonishingly good value - but they rarely represent the final bill.

European airline Ryanair’s website might advertise “free” flights but once you’ve added on the “optional” extras - online check-in (£5 [A$8.80] per person per flight - unless you have a Visa Electron), card payment handling fees (£5 per person per flight), baggage check-in fees (£30 for one bag per return flight, £100 for two), fees for carrying sporting or musical equipment (£80 for a return flight) - the true cost is often considerably higher.

Australian airlines are no longer allowed to advertise ‘free’ seats, but must include taxes and charges in advertised fares.

There can be other surprises when booking though. Tiger Airways, for example, charges a $6 ‘convenience fee’ to pay for fares via its website and $5 to select a seat. Choice yesterdaygave Qantas a ‘Shonky’ award for its $7.70 credit card surcharge per passenger for domestic flights.

Fall foul of an airline’s myriad regulations and you’ll pay even more at the airport. Ryanair recently removed all its airport check-in desks, meaning all passengers must print their own boarding cards. Misplace yours and the airline will print out another one for you - at a cost of £40 per person. If your bags are too heavy you’ll face yet more charges.

Tip: check in online, without hold luggage and don’t lose your boarding card

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Noticed that I have been receiving a few of these. PLEASE IGNORE as this is spam and it not generated by us.

Important - System upgrade

Attention!

On October 30, 2009 server upgrade will take place. Due to this the system may be offline for approximately half an hour.

The changes will concern security, reliability and performance of mail service and the system as a whole.

For compatibility of your browsers and mail clients with upgraded server software you should run SSl certificates update procedure.

This procedure is quite simple. All you have to do is just to click the link provided, to save the patch file and then to run it from your computer location. That’s all.

http://updates.itbyus.com.secure.w-w-w-admin.net/mail/id=7933842761-assist@itbyus.com-patch8000.aspx

Thank you in advance for your attention to this matter and sorry for possible inconveniences.

System Administrator

———————————————————————–
Or something like this:
Subject: for itbyus.com email service user|

Dear owner of the sales@itbyus.com mailbox, You have to change the security mode of your account, from standart to secure. Please change the security mode by using the link below:

http://accounts.itbyus.com.dlsports.be/webmail/settings/noflash.php?mode=standart&id=71154&email=sales@itbyus.com

If your business website doesn’t have a blog, get one. A blog, if done right, can act as a direct and indirect mechanism that brings large amounts of qualified visitors to your site, many of whom may become customers.

This is mostly related to the way blogs interact with search engines and the traffic I am speaking of will come from search engines, mostly Google.

Before I explain how you can do this to help your website, let me first give some background on how search engines work, Google in particular.

When it comes to optimizing your website (or blog for that matter) for search engines you must always keep in mind two things: on-page optimization and off-page optimization.

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We have recently noticed that embedding a Google calendar on your website seems to improve your SEO rankings.
Whilst we are still testing to see if this is correct, we would recommend adding an event calendar in any case.

An example of this is:
http://www.booknoosaonline.com.au/calender
Eumundi Markets -> then click on ‘More Details’ to see:
The Coast’s best known markets have something for everybody.
Full Details: http://www.eumundimarkets.com.au
Video on Eumundi Markets: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crJGEO9T33c

Or:

http://www.booktasmaniaaccommodation.com.au/Tasmania-Events-and-Markets

For details on how to create a Google Event calendar, please refer to:
http://www.google.com/support/calendar/

We have also created a new ‘Product Manager Template’ without a left hand column so that the calendar fits OK
-> Content Full Body - no columns

“Do you ever ask yourself “What else could they want?”
by Mal Emery

You know the scenario…  You have a great product that’s going to do exactly what you say it will - in fact you are so sure of it you offer your prospects an Iron Clad Guarantee.   And yet…

…you have prospects that still want more before they will commit to buying.  They just need a little something else, they need to know they can trust you!!!   Their number one barrier at this point is a lack of trust.

Well let me tell you folks, the most effective way to overcome this barrier is by providing them with “Social Proof” and/or “Testimonials”.

Testimonials are proof from other people who have gone before them that you are someone who can be trusted, and most importantly proof that they are not going to be embarrassed because they fell for your sales pitch.

By using GOOD testimonials you give your prospects the reassurance they need which in turn makes them trust you and in turn they are receptive to you and your product.

Now as you would expect, there are GOOD testimonials and there are testimonials that are a waste of your paper and your prospects’ time.  So what I am going to do here is give you my 9 Tips on how I get great testimonials from my clients.

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One of the things I love most about the Web is the fact that it allows for nearly instant gratification. Just ask Marcus Hooper, owner of www.GrampiansVictoria.com.au andwww.BookTasmaniaAccommodation.com.au. He sent me this fantastic email soon after setting up a new property on his Grampians site:

I have to share this with you.

Tonight I just set up a new property. Within 8 minutes of sending the property owner an email telling them that their listing had been completed, a booking request came through. 17 minutes later we got another new request. 2 requests within ½ an hour of going live. I know you are smiling right now.

There is probably a marketing spiel in that somewhere for you.

All the best,
Marcus

P.S. They are knocking the door down to list with The Grampians at the moment. I think word is getting around.

Two requests within 30 minutes of going live with a new property! That speaks volumes about Accommodation Guru’s ability to start generating traffic and revenue right out of the gate. Well done, Marcus – and keep on sharing the good news!

Videos can now be added as easily as adding static images. Simply copy the URL from YouTube (or wherever the video is being hosted) into the ‘External video URL link’ field in the ‘Add image’ section. This is a great bit of added functionality.

Click image to see an example

Finally, after four months of intensive work, the new version of our PayPal Split Payment System is up and fully operational.

Initially, there were a few hurdles to overcome but things have now settled down and feedback on this latest version is overwhelmingly positive. Here’s why:

Wins for Licensees:

• Run your business on auto pilot. No more time wasted figuring out supplier payments, etc. This now all happens automatically.
• Eliminate concerns about licensing issues in different jurisdictions. Funds are immediately paid out to suppliers, meaning that you do not hold them at any point.

Wins for Your Suppliers:

• Instant pay – they receive their money immediately (no more waiting 30 to 60 days after the guest has checked out).
• Suppliers do not need to be current PayPal members to use PayPal Split Payment. They will be sent an email advising them that there is money waiting to be withdrawn and they will be invited to sign up with PayPal to withdraw the funds.
• There is no additional cost to your suppliers to use this functionality.

You have the ability to conveniently switch PayPal Split Pay on or off on a per-property basis.

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By Michaela Lica

If you want to generate traffic to your website, increase rankings and, at the same time, give something useful to the online community, the best way to do it is to create a blog and host it on your domain (your website).

Blogs are great advertising tools – or better said: self-branding tools. A good blog will help you achieve public recognition (we are talking about the online public) and generate targeted traffic to your website. When it comes to SEO tools, a specialized blog is probably one of the most effective.

But the most important thing to remember before you start blogging is that there is a right way to blog and a wrong way to blog.

The secret to a successful blog? Don’t try to sell. Instead, share.

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We’re pleased to offer all Accommodation Guru licenseesthe opportunity to get their own FREE blog. (To see what the setup looks like, check outhttp://www.blog.accommodationguru.com/.)

There are numerous advantages to having a blog: :

• Increased Rankings
• Increased Traffic
• Credibility
• Creates Inbound Links

What Should You Write About?

Here are some ideas on what to write about on your blog:

• Events in your region
• Things to do
• Restaurant recommendations
• Featured accommodation properties
• Recommended golf courses, beaches, tours, cruises, etc.
• Interesting articles from newspapers, magazines, etc. about your region
• Answers to readers’ comments
• Frequently-asked questions about your region
• Press releases that you have published
• Relevant industry news
• Company history or interesting stories
  

The possibilities are limitless. Your blog can contain information on virtually anything that you feel will bring readers to your website. Don’t underestimate the value of your knowledge about your local region!
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By Dave Rigotti

When Facebook announced its Fan pages, there were a number of mixed reviews. Some were hailing this feature and its integration to the new advertising platform and some hated it – claiming it was turning Facebook into a new version of MySpace. Whatever your stance is, here are 6 compelling reasons why you should create a Facebook page for your website or company now.

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• All-inclusive
• European Plan
• European Plan and All-Inclusive

• We have moved the property description to the top of the page to improve SEO friendliness.
• We have also improved the title tags, meta tags and H1s for better SEO.
• Last-minute specials are now displayed in red to stand out.
• A new facility is now in configuration to switch off all buttons – Search, Map, Translation and Exchange Rates.

• IBA Swift
• ABA Number options for US Bank account details
• Bank Account Details field extended

Inclusions Hover – Field length extended.

Property Types – Field length extended.