As I sit here, the day after Thanksgiving, enjoying a day off work, not out shopping at Black Friday Extravaganzas, I am thinking up ways to enjoy the plethora of leftovers in my refrigerator. (Yes, that means we go overboard in our house with holiday dinners).

Katniss Everdeen is the skilled archer and heroine of The Hunger Games. She practiced and perfected her craft, not for want of a hobby, but out of the need for survival. It provided for herself in the Arena, and for her family in District 12 - without the food it brought, her family would have perished.

So, in the midst of surviving in the world of small business, you are asking, Why Blog?

Launching a new website or updating an existing website has its road bumps. No doubt, since Oct 1^st you have heard about the problems with the new HealthCare.gov website going live. The topic was, and is still, all over the major networks, newspapers and blogs. There have been Congressional hearings and investigations into what went wrong. Although we may never have a perfect picture of what happened or didn’t happen with the Obamacare website, there are a few things small businesses can learn about what makes a good website from all of this.

So your boss wants to increase the business’ website traffic and get your brand out there for people who are searching for it. One of the ways to do this quickly is by paying for it with Pay-Per-Click ads or PPC, and you'll need to create the best landing pages to make the ads effective.

Tonight is the night you will undoubtedly hear “Trick or Treat!”

I was recently thinking about the phrases we use like “Trick or Treat?!” Who really ever expects to be “tricked” anymore on Halloween night? Most people expect to give out a “treat.” It’s these phrases we use without thinking that make me want to know where they originated. I am kind of a nerd that way. I love to know the history of things we humans do. So I dug a little deeper and this is what I found about Halloween. Then I'll do a trick of my own and relate it to being an email marketing consultant!

Psst...So, you have a website.

Psst...I heard you have increased traffic to your website over the course of the year. Awesome!

Hummmm....You have sales people with phones lined up to take all the calls that you anticipated, but the leads aren’t pouring in.

Well there are a few 'secrets' you can use to help increase website conversion and turn leads into customers...because isn’t that the end goal of a business website: to get you more customers?

Yes, social media has its place not only in your internet marketing, but in your big picture marketing strategy (brand messaging) as well!

If you are a small business or a local non-profit, promoting your brand, your small business services, or a local event is definitely where social media can help amplify your efforts and turn up the volume.

Here are 8 key elements that are important to include in your small business social media strategy:

So many people out there are looking for the quick, cheap and easy fix. Most small business owners understand that in their industry the quick, cheap fix doesn’t always end up as the easy fix. It usually means going back and doing the job again, purchasing better quality or even in the long run, losing business. In essence, the job takes longer, costs more money and is harder on everyone.

Yep, and here’s a few numbers to show it...

“If we could just get more customers, all our problems would be solved!”

Well...although most business owners understand more customers don’t solve all your problems, getting more customers for your business is what brings in the revenue, keeps your doors open, your people employed and your business growing.

So, what lead generation techniques are the most effective? 

Trying to generate new leads for your small business?

Want to be found on the internet for your local business?

Tired of feeling like you are competing with businesses across the globe or large corporations that seem to own the online marketing space?

Well, small local businesses, there is hope for you to be found on the internet and get new customers by learning how to add keywords to a website.