Charlie Cook's MArketing for Success Insider's Club

 

The Top Experts Reveal Small Business Marketing Strategies
That Get Results In This Economy

14 SEO Tools That Will Get You Better Rankings

By Charlie Cook   |   December 13, 2010

Keyword Optimization
What do marketing and advertising have in common? In the land of keyword optimization, absolutely nothing! If you don’t know what words your potential clients are using to search for your service, they can’t reach you. And if they can’t reach you…well you know what happens then. Absolutely nothing! Save yourself time and money by getting keyword optimization down and prevent your other initiatives from falling flat.
The Free Dictionary
www.thefreedictionary.com
I consider this to be one of the most valuable resources out there for keyword optimization. In addition to just showing you the meaning of a word, the dictionary also shows words of the same root and thesaurus entries. Use it to approach your keywords from more than one angle.
Google Trends
www.trends.google.com
Google tends to make software that is easy to use, extremely helpful and best of all, completely free! Their Google Trends service is no exception. It analyzes Google search data and shows you how popular that search is over a period of time. and while they don’t claim to be 100% accurate, having a general idea of the popularity of your search terms will help you whittle down your SEO terms.
Google Blog
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/
Add this blog to your regular blog roll now and thank me later!. These masters of SEO clearly know a thing or two about search. Learn tips, tricks and go behind the scenes with the geniuses behind the service that has taken the world by storm.
Keyword Discovery
www.keyworddiscovery.com
This service is on the expensive side, but has some decently priced plans. If you need help with optimizing meta tags, beating out the competition or maximizing your PPC campaigns, Keyword Discovery can help.
Keyword Mutation Detector
http://adlab.msn.com/Keyword-Mutation-Detection/Default.aspx
Did you know people often misspell San Francisco as San Fransisco, San Franscisco, and even San Francsico. Don’t miss out on results because of searchers’ spelling errors. Microsoft’s Ad Lab is a helpful tool that shows you the most common misspellings for search phrases by mining actual searches so you can boost your SEO practices even further.
Keyword Research FlowChart
http://www.seobook.com/keyword-research-strategy-flowchart
Ever wonder how to determine if your SEO efforts will pay off. Use this flow chart to help navigate the SEO waters with easy to follow instructions each step of the way. Larger version and downloadable PDF available on the site.
Keyword Typo Generator
http://www.selfseo.com/keyword_typo_generator.php
Enter your keyword of choice and then enter the type of error you want to search. Wrong key? Missed Characters? Double Characters? This keyword Typo Generator has them all covered.
Meta Glossary
www.metaglossary.com/
Stop searching for your dusty physical copy of the Dictionary and start using MetaGlossary. They scour the internet to provide you with current definitions for any word you can imagine.
Ranks
www.ranks.nl
From a company with 10 years of solid SEO experience, comes a great keyword density tool. Check to see what keywords your competitors are using and use the results to boost your business. This is a great resource!
SEO Workers Analysis Tool
www.seoworkers.com/tools/analyzer.html
Don’t know the ranking potential of your web page? This tool is a great one because it provides you with keywords, all urls located in the page, keywords found in anchor tags and more! And it analyzes not only meta tags but the same places internet spiders check as well to ensure all bases are covered.
SEO Tool Set
http://www.seotoolset.com/tools/free_tools.html
Multiple useful tools in one place make this site a go-to for anything SEM. From a SEM tool bar, a server checker (that lets you know if something in your server is erroneous) and competition research, you’ll find yourself using the resources on this site regularly.
Similpedia
http://similpedia.org/
As its name suggests, this site helps you find similar content on…you guessed it – Wikpedia. Just enter a URL or paragraph of 100 words and you’re given all of the wikipedia articles that are related to that content.
Tip of My Tongue
http://chir.ag/projects/tip-of-my-tongue/
What was that word? It starts with Q and has an I in it…and an R, I think… No more guessing! Tip of My Tongue  Enter partial words, letters or meanings to get that word off the tip of your tongue and into your keyword cache.
Traffic Travis
www.traffictravis.com
Besides the fact that Traffic Travis was highly rated by CNET (4.5 stars), this program combines a bunch of useful tools: keyword and competition searches, your site’s ranking amongst the top four search engines, and a point-and-click advertisement tracker. Add all this to the fact that the layout is simple and the program is easy to use and Traffic Travis is an online marketer’s dream come true.
WordTracker
www.wordtracker.com
Has a free keyword suggestion tool. Known as the Grandfather of SEO sites, but they also have linkbuilder and strategizer tools. Perfect if you need continuous (versus sporadic) access, high level details about a niche, and a few projects at a time.

What do marketing and advertising have in common? In the land of keyword optimization, absolutely nothing! If you don’t know what words your potential clients are using to search for your service, they can’t find you. And if they can’t find you… Read More »

How Remaining Positive In A Crisis Can Lead You To Small Business Success

By Eric Garner   |   December 10, 2010

“Hopes and Alibis”
A couple of weeks back, the top 20 world nations, economically-speaking, met to sort out the problems that are still affecting the world’s top economies in the wake of what we are told has been the worst financial crisis for 50 years. Just a few weeks on, few of us are likely to remember what the meeting agreed, decided, or achieved.
Not so long ago, we heard about two other responses to the financial crisis at a more mundane but more connectable level.
The first was the news of an early morning attack on the home of former Royal Bank of Scotland boss, Sir Fred Goodwin, in which missiles were thrown at his house and Mercedes car.
The other piece of news was the result of a survey into the business crisis by the UK Chartered Management Institute.
In the survey, 1118 senior managers were asked how they were responding to the downturn. To the surprise of many, a majority of respondents said they were refusing to let the gloomy news dampen their enthusiasm. Unlike the recession of the 1990’s, in which most businesses reacted by cutting costs, today’s business leaders said they remained positive.
And they are doing this by concentrating on two particular areas.
The first is an increase in training for their core staff. The second is a focus on the twin skills of management and leadership to see them through.
In a choice of attacking bankers or investing in the people in your business, it’s not hard to see which route makes most sense.
For just as uncertainty, fear and a lack of self-belief led us into this situation, so positivity, confidence, and self-belief will lead us out.
I hope at future world summits, the world leaders will follow the lead of those UK managers who are enthusiastically investing in their people.
I hope too that they will pause to remember the words of the greatest business enthusiast the world has ever seen, car maker Henry Ford, who said: “You can do anything if you have enthusiasm. It is the yeast that makes our hopes rise to the stars. With it, there is accomplishment. Without it, there are only alibis.”

A couple of weeks back, the top 20 world nations, economically-speaking, met to sort out the problems that are still affecting the world’s top economies in the wake of what we are told has been the worst financial crisis for 50 years.

Just a few weeks on, few of us are likely to remember what the meeting agreed, decided, or achieved.

Read More »

7 Secrets to Internet Marketing Success

By Susan Rice Lincoln   |   December 9, 2010

The Seven Secrets to Successful Online Marketing
Almost every single day I have conversations with small business owners who honestly don’t know which way to turn.   What tools should they use?  How well is their website working?  Should they concentrate on email marketing? Or SEO? Or social media?  Or NOTHING?
To answer these questions, I drew up what I consider to be my top Seven Secrets for successful online marketing.  Implement these and you will start to see some major transformations both on and offline.
1. Remember that marketing online is marketing.  The same old rules apply.  Make sure before you do ANYTHING online that you are crystal clear about your products and services and the true benefit they bring your customers.  Define clearly your ideal client.  (Hint: ‘everyone’ is never the right answer.) Be clear. Be specific. Meet a pressing need.
2. Make sure to walk before you run.  A simple, streamlined approach is always better than being scattered, seduced by every new shiny object.  In this ADD world of ours, less is still more.
3. To benefit fully from the power of the New Net, tap into what I call the ‘Golden Triangle’: search engine optimization, social media and email/website marketing.  Each are strong in and of themselves.  But put them together and you have a powerful package which will propel your business into another orbit.
4. SEO optimize.  In simple English, make sure that when your prospective client goes to Google and types in your market and your geographic area that it is YOUR company (not your competitors’!) that shows up on the top of the page.  Remember if you are not on the first page (or actually one of the first three); you are simply not a player.  Make sure that the website you have invested time and money in is being shown in the best light in the search engines. (Oh, and by the way, the person who designed your site is not necessarily the one who can help you get it ranked high in Google.)
5. Tap into the power of social media. Social media brings many things to the party: one-on-one contact with clients and prospects, increased traffic to your site, SEO benefits and authority.  Social media’s power grows exponentially when used alongside your SEO efforts and email marketing.
6. Go back to basics.  Email is still a powerhouse.  Put an opt-in box on the upper right hand side of every page of your website.  In exchange for their email, give away something of real value (a written report, a video, an audio tape).
Why do this?  What is the point of driving traffic to your site if you have no way of ‘capturing’ interested prospects?  And once you have these names, begin a dialogue with them through emails and/or an e-newsletter.   Without a simple opt-in box, you will have hundreds coming to your site-only to lose them forever.  Ouch.
7. The best secret I’ve kept for last.  Because if all of the above just got you more confused (or discouraged), the good news is you don’t have to do ANY of it yourself.  Find a great partner to work with you on your online marketing.  They do exist (although there are a lot of charlatans too so make sure you select wisely).  You are simply too busy and I am assuming your goal in life is not to become an online marketing expert.
Stick with what you do best.  Outsource your online marketing to a knowledgeable expert.  And then concentrate on handling all the new business that will inevitably come your way.

Almost every single day I have conversations with small business owners who honestly don’t know which way to turn.   What tools should they use?  How well is their website working?  Should they concentrate on email marketing? Or SEO? Or social media?  Or NOTHING?

To answer these questions…

Read More »

The Key To Making Money Off Of Google Maps

By Charlie Cook   |   December 8, 2010

If your business is a local brick & mortar shop, you should pay attention to this.

There’s a finite window of opportunity right now for getting free organic listings – absolutely premium real estate on Google Maps.?? This listing is actually superior to a regular #1 organic listing. Or an AdWords ad, for that matter.

At this point in time, these are fairly straightforward to get if you follow… Read More »

How To Double Your Profits Without Spending A Dime On Advertising

By Paul Martinez   |   December 8, 2010

If you’re like most small business owners I know, I have some good news and bad news for you.

The bad news is that even if your current marketing is doing “OK”, you can probably agree to one or more of the following:

Read More »

How To Close More Sales Today

By Charlie Cook   |   December 7, 2010


“I desperately need to close more sales before the end of the year and I’ve only got a few weeks left. What can I do? – Bill from Kansas City, KS

As year-end closes in I get this question more and more often. What’s the simple answer?

Read More »

7 Real-Time SEO Links That Will Boost Your Web Traffic

By Charlie Cook   |   December 6, 2010

Real time searches are becoming increasingly popular – you’ve got Twitter feeds showing up in Google searches seconds after they’re posted.

With real-time feeds from Twitter and Facebook and other social media platforms showing up in search results, every link and mention of your website or blog is directing people to your site so utilize these to the fullest!

Read More »

Did You Read This Book Too?

By Charlie Cook   |   December 3, 2010

What was the most influential book on marketing you ever read?
For me, it was the book, Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson. Back in 1984, Jay coined the term “Guerrilla marketing” referring to what was then unconventional marketing.
Since then Jay has coined a little big of change himself.
He’s sold over 21 million copies of what is arguably the most popular and influential small business marketing book in the history of the world.
From day one, I’ve been a fan of Jay’s ideas.
And Jay has just released a series of videos, put together by Michael Tasner, on how you can immediately grow your bottom line.
So, please watch this >>
To your success,
Charlie Cook
MarketingForSuccess
P.S. After you watch the videos, let me know which are the key concepts of “Guerrilla Marketing” I use at MarketingForSuccess.

What was the most influential book on marketing you’ve ever read?

Back in 1984, Jay Conrad Levinson wrote a book that changed my life. This book also coined a term that referred to what was then unconventional marketing. Read More »

What Honey The Money Dog Can Teach You About PR

By Joan Stewart   |   December 3, 2010

Filling up your gas tank doesn’t get more fun than this.

When Don Rogers picked up a Cocker Spaniel named honey six years ago at the dog pound, he could never have guessed… Read More »

7 Email Broadcast Systems Used By Top Internet Marketers

By Charlie Cook   |   December 1, 2010

Which email broadcast system should you use to grow your business?

The answer depends on the volume of email you send. For example Aweber gives you the basic information on open rates and can track clickthroughs and it’s so easy to use that anyone can master it in a few hours. Read More »

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