I am writing this blog on my 20^th anniversary “get-away” weekend from beautiful Lake Tahoe, California so it will be short and sweet! The topic today is “what makes a good website?” As with most marketing questions, there are a lot of ways to answer this question. A couple of weeks ago, we blogged about the importance of being able to be found by local searches, and how you can get better at that. If you didn’t read that, check it out here. Clearly if we are asking what makes a good website, having it found is a good first step!

If you’ve just jumped into the world of internet marketing with both feet, you’re probably asking the question, why do I have to blog? You might be feeling like you are the least qualified person to take on the task and find yourself making excuses. I’d like to offer you a word (or about 600 since this is a blog) of encouragement. You’re not alone if you’re thinking any one (or all!) of these things.

Online Public Relations (Online PR) is faster, more effective, and drives online visibility for your press release to a stream of media websites and blogs. This new way of distributing leads to powerful links and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for your business. But before we talk about the true awesomeness of Online PR lets talk about what most people think about Public Relations.

1.  What are Landing Pages?

Let’s start with the basics. A landing page is exactly what it sounds like and plays a significant role in your internet marketing strategy. It’s a page that is used as a landing spot for a viewer coming from a PPC Ad, inbound link or call-to-action directing a viewer to a specific URL. Landing pages are used to help increase the number of people that fill out the form on the page, also knowns as "leads," which then allows you to begin building relationships with them.

You heard right, there are rumors that Facebook will be launching video ads in your news feed.

Facebook’s $20 Million Dollar Ad Oops!

Facebook has dabbled in sponsored content that gets sprinkled throughout users’ news feeds for some time. The first iteration, sponsored stories, gained attention from both creators and viewers of the ads. Don’t remember giving permission for these sponsored stories? That’s probably because you didn’t, and that's why Facebook was slapped with a lawsuit that cost Facebook $20 million.

I am actually laughing at myself, because as a mom, when my daughter tells me she wants to do something because everyone’s doing it, I tend to raise my eyebrows and ask, “Really? Everyone?”  To which she sheepishly smiles and says, “Well, not everyone, but…”

Page one of Google in a week! 1,000 new visitors to your site tomorrow! These are promises that some companies make about their SEO services. When you are asking about ways to increase your website presence you will hear the term SEO over and over again. SEO means Search Engine Optimization and it is big business out there. If you’re a big business then you have “people” to deal with this for you, but if you are not and you are looking for SEO services for small business, then you need some “people” of your own or you might feel pulled in a hundred different directions. What do you do as a small business to grow your online presence amidst a world of internet marketing options?

In case you forgot amidst the barrage of marketing that comes our way in May, Sunday is Mother’s Day. It’s the perfect opportunity to show Mom just how much she means to you; to apologize for all those times you gave her grief; and to maybe even tell her that you actually paid attention to what she taught you. There are some infamous Mom-isms that we’ve all heard, and believe it or not, they translate into internet marketing tips for your social media strategy.

If you are responsible for your company’s bottom line then you care about the marketing too, and in todays world that must include online marketing.  If that is the case then YOU NEED TO CARE about whether your website is ranking high for important terms or keyword phrases and consider if you are going to hire an Internet Marketing company for Link Building services.  If this term is new to you or your are trying to figure out this Internet marketing stuff then let me explain what it is and why is it important.

Looking for a way to increase your lead generation through internet marketing? Well, you might be able to find a lot of blogs that have good advice on this topic, but today we want to give you a little insight into the 7 worst lead generation techniques you should always avoid. Let’s get right into it.