Viral videos are one of the mysteries of social media marketing; most people assume “going viral” (getting people to share and view your video online, creating buzz) is pretty much luck or the domain of Fortune 500 companies with large ad agencies working for them. Steve Strauss’ article tries to present some concrete steps to help you plan and execute your own viral video.

Read it here: 7 Steps to Creating a Viral Video

If you have an online business, this article can help you kick-start the year with straightforward and affordable suggestions for getting your business, message and products out there in front of potential customers. I highly recommend it.

10 Things You Can Do to Make Your Online Business Money
by Susan L. Reid

So you have decided to do your own Search Engine Optimization. Then you have most likely come to the realization that it’s nowhere near as easy as you initially anticipated. You have also found that it is extremely hard, if not impossible, to cover the gamut of SEO without the help of some sort of tool or software. So today I’m going to go over some of the free SEO tools available online, that I have found to be extremely helpful over the early years of my SEO education. Some of these tools I still use even today, so take notice… and good luck on your endeavor.

1.    Google Webmaster Tools

Google Webmaster Tools is a great FREE SEO tool. Use it to research how Google crawls and indexes your web pages, and identify any problems that Googlebot encountered trying to access your site. Submit Sitemaps, specify your canonical settings for your URL, set your Geographical targeting preference, check top search queries, review links to your website and much more!

2.    Google Keyword Tool

The Google Keyword Tool is a must if you are serious about SEO. Use this tool to research keywords that are important to you and then find out which keywords and keyword phrases have the highest “Search Volume”. Find “Gems in the Rough”, or keywords that you didn’t even think of, or your competition, then tap into untargeted territory and reap the traffic that your competitors overlooked.

3.    Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a free online analytics tool. What I like most about this tool is that it gives me 2 things:

A. Something to compare my statistics from other stats programs to…

B. … and a firsthand look at how Google sees my website.

The best quality that Google Analytics offers you is it’s easy to understand interface. Google implements bar, pie, and line graphs so everyday people who don’t interpret statistics every day can better understand what is happening with their websites.

4.    SEOQuake (Firefox Add On)

SEOQuake offers a wealth of information at the touch of a button… or “link” I should say. This tool helps me track the progress of sites that I am monitoring. It tracks information such as Alexa Ranking, Google PR, Internal Links, External Links, DMOZ directory listings, Google, Yahoo, and Bing index listings, domain name age, Whois record, canonical listings and much more.

5.    SenSEO (Firefox Add On)

SenSEO is a great tool to use when optimizing each individual page of you website. What most people don’t realize is that you should not try and target more than one main keyword or keyword phrase per page. This tool makes it easy for you to go page by page through your website and grades you on how you optimized each page for a single keyword or phrase. Use this info to make changes and increase your grade. Track your SERPs afterwards and make changes accordingly.

6.    SpyFu (Free Version)

SpyFu has a free trial, but if you want to get the full experience then you’ll have to pay for a subscription. The good news is that they do have monthly subscriptions, so if you’re just looking to try it out… shell out a couple dollars and test drive it for a month. As for me, I find this tool extremely helpful for getting a head start when I am starting to assemble a PPC campaign for a client and I need to know what is working for their competition. I also use it during my initial keyword research for a new website client. This tool can help save hours of time researching your competitors’ websites, and helps you “hit the ground running” when you are ready to have your website visited by the public.

7.    SEMRush.com

SEMRush is another great tool for competitor research, or even to review your own website. My only real qualm with it is that it’s more expensive. They do offer some lower priced plans, but they don’t offer much more than the free trial does. Because of this I say use the free trial for what it’s worth, and when your web venture starts to make a substantial profit… then spend a few dollars and invest in the “Pro (+ Adwords)” plan (this will cost you $249.95 every 6 months… this price is correct as of the date of this article 10/30/2009).

8.    Rank Checker by SEOmoz.org

If you sign up for a free SEOmoz account, “Rank Checker” will allow you to check your rankings for 5 keywords a day. It will also keep an archive of them for you. The reason that I mention this tool here is because it will show you the power of comparing your targeted terms on a daily basis without you having to log them by hand. The problem is that you are only allowed 5 terms so if you want more you’ll have to pay for it, but at the very least you’ll be able to get a good idea of the power it gives you. Great tool if you can afford it.

9.    InSpyder SERPSpy

Same thing as Rank Checker, but it isn’t nearly as expensive. The main difference between the free and paid versions here is that you won’t be able to save your projects with the free version, and you can’t export the results. This means that every time you run a project it will be like the first time all over again, and you won’t have any previous ranking numbers to compare the new one to unless you record them by hand in Excel. I find this tool very helpful and reasonably priced if you’re ready to upgrade from the free version.

10.    XML-Sitemaps.com

Most free sitemap creators out there either limit you to the number of pages that you can include or have a confusing interface that makes it hard to execute. XML-Sitemaps.com is simple and offers up to 500 pages indexed for free. Use this tool to generate a sitemap and then submit it with Google Webmaster Tools. This ensures that Google knows about all of your pages and offers the best opportunity to have them all indexed (or at least a good number of them).

Here is a very useful article by Kunur Patel at AdAge.com that presents what works and doesn’t work in banner ads – along with some tips to improve your campaigns.  Among the highlights: prominent logo placement, compelling and bold call-to-action, and the use of people are more important factors in online success than expensive targeting or high-profile placement.

http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=139795

I just learned about a great new website that recently launched but already has a wealth of collected expert knowledge – http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/.  Social Media Examiner is a free online magazine with articles and videos to help businesses take advantage of social media tools to generate sales and leads.

Enjoy! And feel free to comment below and add links to specific articles there that you find helpful.

This is an excellent article from a magazine I recieve – Business Solutions. The article below is from the Sept 2005 edition, p 14

Stop Selling Products And Services
Business Solutions, September 2005
Written by Megan Burns

One of the things I love about my job is talking with VARs and integrators, learning what successful resellers are doing, and sharing that wisdom with our readers. Some VARs have developed a niche in helping local governments obtain government financing, others are thriving in the education market, and still others are developing custom software to address a market need. The common thread is these companies don’t simply sell a product or service. I’m serious – they don’t. The successful VARs and integrators I speak with every week are selling solutions to customer problems.

Sometimes, your customer may not even know what his true problem is. In this case, investing some extra effort up front can pay off with a bigger sale. We recently featured an installation review of an integrator whose customer wanted to deploy wireless notebooks to all of its field technicians. The integrator, instead of taking the easy route and selling the company the notebooks it thought it wanted, asked a few pointed questions and spent some time riding around with the field technicians, observing how they performed their daily tasks. The integrator learned that the company not only didn’t need wireless notebooks, but its network infrastructure couldn’t support the desktops and applications it was already running. The integrator proposed upgrading the network, adding some uninterruptible power supplies and battery packs, improving the software applications, and then – in phase five of the project – deploying wireless tablets.

Understand Your Customer’s Problem Better Than He Does
This integrator turned what could have been a decent sale into a high-margin implementation encompassing multiple technologies and a long-term relationship with the customer. What are the secrets to this kind of success? First, do your homework. Instead of taking your customer’s word for it, spend the time to find out what he really needs. Second, explain to the customer that, to prepare the best solution for his organization, you need to talk with people in his organization. Talk with end users who have influence on the project and who can provide operational insight. Understand their goals for the project and their ideas for a solution. This is where you are going to build consensus for your solution. Third, examine the customer’s costs and the consequences of the problem so you can present the total cost of the problem you are going to solve.

When you finally present your proposed solution, discuss the results of your evaluation, thoroughly describe the total cost of the customer’s problem, and don’t forget to also cover the cost of implementing your solution (i.e. process changes, adding or eliminating employees, or training costs). This process is much more effective than focusing on the features and benefits of the solution and downplaying the changes or impact it will have on the customer. Plus, you will avoid having customers that feel misled or frustrated when the solution falls short of their expectations.

An open, interactive process creates trust and transparency and gives the customer confidence to purchase. By adopting this kind of approach, your customers will stop seeing you as simply a seller of products and services and will instead see you as a trusted partner.