Last weekend was daylight savings time, which this time of year means we gain an extra hour of sleep – unless you have a year and half old daughter like I do, in which case, she got up at what she thought was her normal time, but an hour earlier for me. Oh well, either way we get an extra hour in the day which got me thinking, how can that extra hour be used to benefit your internet marketing strategy? 

1.  Blog at least twice a week

Why? Because blogging is good for business. 

Not infrequently I am reminded of how lawyers must feel. Jokes about their sleazy tactics and money grubbing ways degrade the entire profession. That lawyer who truly cares about his client and what is right and wrong must feel pretty discouraged and alone in the world.

The hit TV show The Walking Dead definitely knows a thing or two about why social media is an important aspect in your internet marketing strategy. They have created a revolution in television; engaging their viewers so that the show becomes more than a TV show – it’s a social activity. How have they done this, you ask?

Warning: This is one of those witty holiday blogs that mixes reality with unrealistic characters or story telling. Enjoy. 

I was sitting at my desk, coffee in hand, while "Son of a Preacher Man" by Dusty Springfield was playing on Pandora, when a random and spontaneous thought came to me. Why blog if you're a member of Ghostbusters? In the 1984 film, Bill Murray and his bumbling ghost detectives needed business, and luckily they stumbled upon a case. But that was just one or two cases, if they were a real business how would they get more customers? It’s not like ghost detective is a common profession and a widely sought service.

So I played this little scenario out in my head and devised a complete blogging plan that would have helped the Ghostbusters get even more business and help more people. Who knows, it might give you a few tips for your internet marketing strategy and help you answer the question, why blog?

Have you ever been asked the question, “what do you do?” only to begin answering and soon notice the person sitting across from you tuned out a long time ago? Judging from the slow, yet excessive head nods accompanied by one too many “uh-huhs” you realize you’ve lost them. You might be asking a similar yet more specific question like, “what does and inbound marketer actually DO?”

Every small business wants its website to be on the front page of Google.  Don’t you? 

The challenge is that the world of SEO (search engine optimization) has been changing a lot over the last two years and most of those changes are not even known by the general population. This means that as a business owner you need to beware of SEO services for small business and big business alike.  What you don’t know can really hurt you.

If you want to rank well in Google, and by that I mean you show up near the front page of Google, you need to understand at least 3 things when evaluating a company you want to work with for SEO services.

Have you ever tried to write a blog offering internet marketing tips when your head feels like a balloon, your ears feel like you have earmuffs on, and you’re so stuffed up you’re having to breathe through your mouth and make sure you know where the closest box of tissue is? That’s exactly how I feel today and writing is not coming easy. Which got me thinking about content curation - a phrase you might have heard or read about recently, and something we’ve been learning a lot about ourselves and will be adding into our internet marketing strategy. Starting today.

There is no one right strategy for marketing online.  Common sense will tell you that, even if you don’t know anything about the internet. But - and here it is - there are only a few small differences between most of the successful internet marketing strategies.  If you want to take advantage of the power and the cost effectiveness of internet marketing then you need a great strategy, and unless you’re one of the experts arguing over the little things then I will say this to you:

It comes as no surprise that Google has released yet another algorithm update. This time it’s named after a more dynamic species, the Hummingbird, and rightfully so, because its aim is to provide you, as the searcher, more dynamic results.